thebandit27

That's my guy right there.

Basically this...I think the anticipation of "which QB will we get?" has driven some folks mad. They have 6 picks in the top 100 of this draft; giving up 4 of them to put themselves in the top 5 (say, 12/22/53/65 just as an example) would still leave them with a pick in each of rounds 2-6 (plus the aforementioned top-5 pick). Somehow that qualifies as "mortgaging the future" to some folks. Taking it a step further: the team currently has 9 picks in 2019 and will have around $70M in cap space; to think that giving up one of those picks (even, gasp, their 1st rounder) will somehow prevent them from vastly improving the team is misguided. You nailed it Wayne, it's de facto hyperbole.

Giving up a single draft pick in a year where the team currently has 9 of them and $70M in cap space amounts to mortgaging the future? Hardly. But perhaps you're correct that continuing the "let's see who nobody else wants and take that guy" strategy the team has employed over the last half century will finally work out for a second time.

I'd say yes on both accounts. not going to be elite in either phase, but plenty capable in both I think he's going to struggle a bit against the run. He gets caught in the trash when moving laterally and scraping to the boundary from off-ball alignment

Earlier today, you replied to me that you'd consider taking Allen in the 3rd or 4th round; do you really mean to tell me that you'd consider taking a "terrible" football player in the middle rounds? That's utterly insane. Or perhaps you're once again overstating things to try to make a point, which I can only figure comes from a place where you don't believe in what you're saying as strongly as you outwardly profess.

In. A. Heartbeat.

Who said that they'd be without 1st and 2nd round picks? That's my exact point: they won't. At worst they have one pick in each of the first 6 rounds this year, 8 picks across rounds 2-7 next year, and a full slate in 2020. Why you insist on misrepresenting the impact on future drafts is quite confusing

So the team will not have ample opportunity to improve next offseason if they make this trade? Well, suffice to say that I thoroughly disagree, and I don't see how trading assets when you have assets to trade qualifies as giving up the future. It's much different because you aren't leaving the first round for the following 2 years and leaving yourself with a single pick in the top 70 in the current draft. Washington left itself in a position where they had severely limited ability to improve their roster via draft and via FA for 2 consecutive offseasons. Buffalo won't be limited in this draft year at all, and will offset missing a 1st rounder next year by having 2 additional picks in rounds 2-7 and a ton of cap space. As for good luck building through FA, Cleveland has been an utter disaster, and they've had zero difficulty signing FAs And as I said before, my issue isn't that you don't want to move up for Allen. The issue is that you are categorizing it as mortgaging the future when it's nothing of the sort.

That's fine if you think that the guy isn't worth the trade, but again I humbly request that you not exaggerate to make your point. Trading 3 picks this year (when they have 6 picks in the top 100) and a pick next year is not 'trading the future' in any sense of the phrase. Trading the future is what the Redskins did to get RG3; they left themselves out of the first round for 2 straight years. Even if Buffalo gave up both 1sts, a 2nd, their highest 3rd, and next year's 1st, they'd still have a pick in rounds 1-6 this year and picks in rounds 2-7 next year (plus an extra 4 from KC and an extra 7 from Carolina) plus $70M in cap space to improve the roster. There's no practical chance that they mortgage the future.

I'm not going to go back around the Allen loop with you, but I have to ask: what exactly does 'trade our future' mean? At worst, they'd trade multiple picks this year and maybe a 1st next year (when they're likely to have at least $70M in cap space). That's nothing even close to trading the future.

There's a bunch of those guys in this year's draft. McIntosh and Rasheem Green are the early guys that fit that mold, but there are others like Bunmi Rotimi, John Franklin-Myers, Kentavius Street, and Andrew Brown that will be around on Day 3 IMO

Could be...I have him on the border of days 2/3. I think he'll eventually be a solid interior pass rusher and also be adequate against the run. Great athlete too...reminds me a bit of Jihad Ward when he came out Illinois. Very athletic and tons of potential, but not quite where you'd like him to be as a football player.

They're actually returning 3 LBs that started a fair number of games for them in 2017--Milano, Humber, and LorAx. They also have Vallejo, Stanford, and Lacy backing them up. Now, those aren't exactly household names, and I definitely would like an upgrade, but with improvements in the front 7, it's conceivable to think that they could get by with that group in an ever-increasingly-pass-happy league. As for CB, they're returning Tre White. Aside from him, you're looking at a guy that's been largely hurt the last two years in Davis, a guy that fell to 5th on his previous team's depth charge in Phillip Gaines, and Lafayette Pitts...also, both Davis and Gaines are UFAs after 2018.

Yeah...truth is that they need both. I may end up wrong, but I've almost completely written off Shaq.

I think DT is a bigger need at this point. Between Hughes, Murhpy, LorAx, Yarbrough, and the group of darts they brought in like Odighizuwa and Fede, I feel like they can put together a decent EDGE rush. Kyle is a year older and losing his ability to impact the run game, Star is fine as a run-stopper but so-so as an interior rusher, and after that you've got Adolphus and something named Ricky Hatley. Not good.

He's the 2018 version of Brandon Tate: a guy that can be a full-time kick returner and play some snaps at WR in the event of injury Next question please.

I have Nwosu graded as an off-ball 'backer moreso than an EDGE guy. He'd be a nice fit for this defense

Nope. I'm saying that first-round QBs should be limited to guys that you believe has the potential to be a long-term franchise QB. If you don't think he's got that, then you don't draft him in the first. Guys on day 2 should be those that you think you can win with if the rest of your team is excellent; those aren't franchise guys. Day 3 guys are long-term backups. If you don't think a guy can ever become an NFL QB, then you shouldn't be drafting him.

Add Austin Howard to your list of OTs and Brian Schwenke to your list of OGs

You're moving the goalposts to support your stance on the "elite college QB" issue. Ryan had 1 good season as a SR, not elite by any stretch. If we want to give him credit for carrying a mediocre team, then what shall we say about Allen, who took over a 2-win team and took them to consecutive bowl games, including a bowl game win as a SR against one of the top-20 pass defenses in college football? The point is that you are using hindsight to cherry-pick examples that fit your narrative. Again I say that I'm fine with being of the opinion that Allen won't be successful, but keep in in the fairway; there's no reason to overstate your case. Again, nobody is saying that Allen is definitely going to; many of us, however, are railing against those who say he's definitely not going to, which is just as silly.

Actually, it depends upon how you define "successful". Ryan Tannehill has been a 6-year stater for Miami and taken them to the playoffs, and he wasn't elite in college. Joe Flacco lost his job at Pitt to Tyler Palko, and wasn't anything approaching elite at Delaware (he had a good Senior year and that was it), and he has carved out a 10-year career with a Super Bowl championship. Matt Ryan threw for less than 3k yards as a JR with a YPA below 7.0; he then threw for 4,500 yards with a sub-60% completion rate and a YPA below 7.0 as a SR. Not elite at all. I could keep going, but your assertion is not exactly supported here. I explained my thought process: "You seem to confuse draft value with the potential for a QB to succeed. QBs should, IMO, always get pushed up the board due to positional value. If you get it right on a QB, he's going to be at least twice as valuable as any other position you might get right on draft day. On that fact alone, any QB that has a shot to be a long-term franchise guy should be a first-round pick. Absent that, a QB that has a shot to be a short-term answer that leads to a potential playoff run should be a day 2 guy. What's left--the potential long-term backups--are day 3 guys."

Hey, whose team would know better about that type of behavior than yours?

Gee, ya think? You seem to confuse draft value with the potential for a QB to succeed. QBs should, IMO, always get pushed up the board due to positional value. If you get it right on a QB, he's going to be at least twice as valuable as any other position you might get right on draft day. On that fact alone, any QB that has a shot to be a long-term franchise guy should be a first-round pick. Absent that, a QB that has a shot to be a short-term answer that leads to a potential playoff run should be a day 2 guy. What's left--the potential long-term backups--are day 3 guys. I don't think that's true. Would you say that guys like Manziel and RG3 were good QBs? They both utterly dominated college football--at least as much as guys like Jared Goff and Andrew Luck. Every QB is a risk. You don't know how well they're going to pick up an NFL offense, how hard they're going to work once they've been paid a life-changing amount of money, how well they're going to bounce back from both minor and major injuries, how well they're going to mesh with your locker room and coaches, etc. etc. etc.

So basically you're never wrong? Good to know. As for the bold, if that's what you think I am saying about Allen, then you've confirmed my suspicion that you haven't been paying attention

Indeed...just like everyone and their brother apparently had Russell Wilson as not only a 1st round pick, but the guy that should've been taken #1 overall over Andrew Luck