WhitewalkerInPhilly

... i'm sorry, i don't know if this is serious or not.

I still keep hearing a lot of draftniks talking about sliding cordy over to rt. ignoring that, even with horrible play next to him the man showed a statistical improvement. hopefully with rivers things will look better.

That's my reaction too. Thad might, maybe, beat out EJ in an open contest last season. With an offseason of watching tape instead of prepping for the combine and having a QB coach who doesn't also have to split duties gameplanning for the entire offense, I have a feeling EJ pulls ahead. That said, I like Thad as a backup. I don't think that he's going to win games for you, but I also think that he isn't going to lose them for by throwing a pick 6 on the opponent's goal line *cough*Tuel*cough*.

To be honest, the reason why I want an upgrade at Tight End is because it's a position where it has recently helped young QBs. It's nice to have a big target over the middle of the field that can take the ball an extra 3-5 yards. It's the reason why the Colts drafted Coby Fleener to help with Andrew Luck. Notably, it really, really helped in the system most like what the Bills tried to run last year: Chip Kelly's offense for the Eagles. People can't seem to shut up about how Zack Ertz really helped the team and how excited they are to see him develop. Right now we have Chandler, who doesn't seem to have great chemistry with EJ and gets stopped pretty much exactly where he catches the ball and Moeaki, where we have no idea what we have yet. It would be nice to have some insurance.

i would love to see niklas at 41. great size, a nice, big open field target for ej who is going to help with the blocking from last year. i might even prefer him over ebron, since ebron isn't a great blocker, and it would mean that the bills got some great talent earlier on.

I'm living in Philly right now. A consensus that I was hearing in the days before Desean was released that that the Eagles had released all the veteran players that tended to help keep Desean in line (Vick and Jason Avaunt). When the Eagles picked up Darren Sproles, they gained someone who can function in a very similar role. For the record, pretty much every fan I have heard in Philly has called in to defend Desean, and says that losing him for nothing has weakened the team overall. If they wanted him gone, they wanted a 1st or 2nd round pick for him and are screaming that the Eagles let him go for nothing. Sound familiar?

Fixed. Point still stands.

I agree, it is a significant difference between saying "Brandon Spikes wants someone to choke an opposing player" and "Brandon spikes wants the opposing player to have the same treatment he gave his now wife inflicted upon him". But hey, some people are into choking, maybe he'll like it.

I think it's because there are some very nice options available at TE that are expected to drop into round 2, when the Falcons (again) pick early. No rookie is a lock as a future HOPer, but Jace Amaro,Austin-Severin Jenkinks and Troy Niklas all look like very promising Day 2 options. If you are in the top 10, you take the best pick available. The way I see it, there are 5 top non-QB players I would sprint to the podium for if they dropped to 9 (Clowney, Watkins, Robinson, Matthews and Mack). I'm expecting at least one QB taken by then, so Atlanta has a strong chance to grab some potent talent. Going back to the OP, the Bills would probably love Mack at 9, but I highly doubt that is going to happen.

i get the feeling that the eagles office heard the offer and said, 'we think that what you have is more than reasonable. but if you can find someone who is willing to take your salary, increase it annnnnd give us a draft pick in the process then go with god my son.' since they've been at it a few weeks, i'm getting the feeling that the list of people who are willing to do that is not very long.

i'm living in the philly area, and i hear their sportscasters. according to them, mathis has been shopped by his agent because he wants a raise from his 5.2 million salary at 32.

it seems like goddell is resistant to it, but i like the idea and not just because it gives the bills a better chance of getting in again. every year there seems to be a very good team which gets left out of the playoffs because winning the division is a lock to get in. you see teams that go 10-6 not make the playoffs like the cardinals last year while a few years ago seattle made the playoffs with a losing record because they won the worst division that year.

Does this mean we can short sell on players we think are going to bust?

To your point, I think there is a case to be made that it's more like: "We don't know quite what 4-3 Schwartz wants to run with his personnel" You can do some riffs off the base. In particular, we have a record of Schwartz using the "Wide 9". There is a really good article here back before FA that talks about how the defense would fit: http://forgedinbuffa...wide-9-defense/ The crux of the article is this: even not running a pure Wide 9, we have players to make it work. http://forgedinbuffa...ase-Front-1.jpg Mario and Kyle Williams look like they would be lining up like a standard 4-3. It's pretty much exactly what they were doing last year: Kyle hitting the 3-technique (the gap between guard and tackle) while Mario lines up the edge of the LT. For the RDE, you bring a speed rusher by running around the TE (or extra wide on the RT, and thus drawing him out of position on the line.)Dareus has the flexibility to play one or two gaps, and I can see them adjusting where he hits based on the play at hand. Of course, this has the big weakness in that you need a MLB who is just amazing at defending the run. Coverage is the lowest priority, because he is charging the line on every play to plug in two gaps the running back might hit. To me, that sounds exactly like Brandon Spikes. The point being, you can find ways to criticize the decision by showing the research on possible schemes, critique whether a player is a good fit and engage in interesting debate OR, you can simply B word and moan while dismissing people's points out of hand and not bothering to pay attention to what they say.

That's the problem: at a one year, $5 M deal that is reportedly incentive heavy, that is potential starter contract. That changes the dynamic past a simple backup. In Philly last year, that certainly seemed to be the case. I watched a few games, and he definitely looked like he had lost a step. It's not necessarily a horrible move...Vick does have some talent, and his aggressive style looks good in preseason. Of course, once you start playing an entire game that changes things. Vick was 2-4 when he started for the Eagles last season, and one of those wins came after he went out due to injury and Foles was subbed in. When he wasn't the starter, the Eagles went 8-2, so it's not as if there wasn't some nice talent he had to work with. Sacks, fumbles, poorly thrown balls, injuries mixed in with times of electrifying play sounds like Geno 2.0, only about a decade older.

If there is one thing that I can count on for the offseason, it's that the Jets' front office knows how to crank the schadenfreude up to eleven. Look, I'm not going to rule out Vick entirely. He did win out the starting job for the Eagles at the start of last season. When he gets hot, he gets hot. Right now I'm living in the South NJ/Philly area, so I'm going to expect quite a few commentators to chime in, but the honest truth is that Vick got flat beat by Nick Foles. The Eagles looked like a joke at the midseason point, and Nick Foles made them a playoff team. Vick looks like a possible future for Geno. Both get knocks for the same things: immature attitude, holds the ball for too long, and accuracy issues. I don't see how bringing in someone with almost identical skill sets, only a decade older, helps you in the long run. It creates a QB controversy which is going to piss off the younger player and likely cause him to regress. I could be wrong, but it looks like the circus is back in town.

This is nice to hear. While I'm apprehensive, I don't know if the Bills need Williams to be an absolute stud when he is between . I would be very happy if he winds up being "pretty good" and would be content if he was average after seeing Brown/Legursky last year.

I was going to do a big writeup, but this pretty much sums it up. I think it would be entirely possible to do Mike Evans in round 1 and Austin Severin-Jenkings/Troy Niklas in round 2 and then find a starter at RT in round 3 and competition at LG in round 4. My only variation would be if a top 5 player (Mack, Robinson or Matthews) takes a sudden drop, which would require four teams taking QB in the first eight picks. I doubt that's likely.

pretty much every report i've seen says that williams can barely hack it at guard. i'm being glass half full when i think that a year between two very good players and a coach which seems to like him could give williams the chance to be average. it's something else entirely if he's the one protecting ej's blind side @FearTheLosing i do think it would be a good idea to look at someone who could be a center in the draft. interior players tend to go later, so i would be all for getting someone who might step in/compete for lg and possibly slide over if wood gets hurt.

simple question to ask: If, God forbid, cordy gets hurt, what do the bills do? if the answer is 'we hope that hairston is healthy or try pears', does that inspire any confidence? i say, bpa. if matthews, once considered a top 3 pick, falls to nine that would be fantastic. if not, evans or ebron would be alright.

Consolidated Post

Honestly, part of me wants for them to keep him now. Keeping him means that they have tied up 11 million in salary cap in the final year of his contract. Very few people come back and have great seasons coming off ACL surgery. In my mind, it is unlikely that they keep him long after the draft, but having him on the Patriots as such a huge question mark is more valuable in my mind than the Bills getting him, even on the cheap.

because the jets have been such a model of consistent quarterback play of late...

plus 1. i am worried about branch, but if you cyle branch, lawson and hughes i think we will be fine.

Nice. I heard whaley in an interview talking about how he personally attended a north carolina game, and the announcers looked up the stats and noted that ebron tore it up that game.