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chris heff

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Posts posted by chris heff

  1. As someone who has not sipped the Kool Aid and has been highly critical of the brain trust at 1 Bills Drive over the last decade. I find your carbon copied critique of this years Bills draft amusing if not redundant.

     

    While we will not know the success or failings of EJ Manuel for a few years, the Bills seem to have gotten their guy. Look at the truths, the Bills have not taken a QB, as their first draft selection since the old AFL days when they selected as their regional pick a QB from Penn State in, I think, 1964. Yes there have been two other QB's selected in the first round of the draft, one not so good and the other a Hall of Fame pick. The Hall of Fame pick, Jim Kelly, was selected with their second pick of the first round after they had earlier selected TE Tony Hunter from Notre Dame. The other was JP Losseman, who they traded up for to get a second bite at the first round. With that said, their failings over the last decade are too numerous to mention and go well beyond the work they do the third week in April. It seems pretty clear that the Bills have never put a whole lot of thought into selecting as their first pick, a QB, and it has shown in the record books.

     

    Now fast forward to 2013, the Bills traded back to get an additional pick in the second round and, as mentioned earlier they also got their QB. Would he have been available in the second? Based on the results of the draft, possibly, but the Bills wanted this guy and it seems reasonable to me that they would select him at 16 after getting that additional pick. Again truths, beyond the workouts at 1 Bills Drive of all of the "top Flight" QB's, the Bills new Head Coach Doug Marone had probably more game experience with three of most mentioned QB's available in this years draft. First Nassib, by all accounts this was the dream set up for the Bills, but apparently not the dream of coach Marone, do you think if he honestly felt "his" QB was the best, he would not have selected him? He knew Geno Smith pretty well too, "his" QB beat Mr. Smith 3 times and based on what we are hearing about that guy, well, congratulations J-E-T-S! Now Matt Barkley, a kid I thought would have been a nice pick for the Bills, as I think his final season was not a fair representation of his entire body of work at USC. But Coach Marone saw him in action too, and while Barkley and his USC team beat Mr. Marone's Orange last fall, he was clearly outplayed by Nassib.

     

    Now I think your primary point was they took him too early, again fair, and if they took him at 8 I would be singing with you, but to get the additional second round pick, to get the QB you wanted, and to keep West Virginia Wide Receiver Tavon Austin out of hands of the NY Jets proved to show something the Bills have not shown in very long time, smarts!

     

    Thanks for your concern about the Bills, now maybe, just maybe I will go pour myself a tall glass of Kool Aid, it has been a very long time.

    I've been wanting to write exactly this for a week. If there is a QB you want and need mid to later in the first round is the place. You don't over pay and you have the option for a fifth year.

  2. Funny...I keep seeing the "experts" give the Bills low marks for their draft, overall, and in their analysis the criticize the Manuel pick at #16. But then, you read the same guys breaking down each pick, and they have mostly positive things to say about him. USA Today Sports Weekly comes to mind. I haven't purchased that thing in a few years, but grabbed it this moring at 7-11 when I was getting coffee...EJ was on the cover of their post-draft issue, holding up his Bills jersey...inside they give the Bills draft their lowest grade (a D, no other team lower than C-),saying that the EJ pick was a reach for a "project", and also mentioned Marquise Goodwin and Jonathan Meeks as weak picks. (Also say that Kiko Alonso is fast side to side, but not very strong, and weak against the run...high risk pick they dub him).

     

    Yet, underneath, where they break down each pick individually, they gush about EJ's "cannon arm", size, great mobility and leadership skills! Uh..what do they want? They loved the Robert Woods pick (as well as Duke Williams incidentally), so why is it I get the feeling they would all be cool if Robert Woods went to the Bills at #16, and EJ at #41? WTF is the difference?

     

    To me, it all just continues to reek of the Bills going outside the conventional QB rankings in the draft, and making them all wrong in their upteenth million mock drafts.

     

    I think this is the first draft in a lwhile that I feel pretty happy about. I love that they added a ton of speed, and agressiveness...things that have been lacking, outside of Spiller.

     

    The second paragraph made me laugh out loud (I know I'm not suppose to spell that out, but typing LOL makes me feel twelve). You are absolutely right if those two picks are reversed the Bills are geniuses.

  3. They are night and day as far as Manuel and Ponder. The reason why Manuel and Geno's stats are skewed is the number of attempts, offense and overall team. FSU had a dominating defense/WVU was a siv. they were always coming from behind. We had deep talent at RB/ you would be hard pressed to name the WVU RB, oh thats right Tavon Austin. Manuel has all the athletic gifts you look for in a franchise QB. in my opinion and Ramius may be able to attest to this is that Jimbo stunted his growth with his offense and how vanilla they were at times. The rumors are true that he was a half the field read QB, but has the athletic ability to scramble and is as strong as an Ox, think Cam Newton in this aspect but not an arrogant twit.

    Love your avatar.

  4. While I'm optimistic about the future, there's a very strong chance we'll be a very bad team. The only appeal is a rookie QB and the new coaching staff. However, it wouldn't be smart for the organization to put that much pressure on such a young group. Bad idea.

    "optimistic" " very bad"? I wrote this in another thread, but I'll do it again. How did this team get worse? Last year was one of the worst coaching jobs I have ever seen.

  5. I know this is a Kiper bash and I'm all for that, but I didn't watch ESPN. I watched the NFL Network and when the Bills took Alonso Mayock says " good pick position of need, after all Nick Barnett is 32 years old". Okay, just let that sink in.

     

    Yeah, these guys are the experts.

  6. I don't know if Doug Marrone and his staff are going to be good, but I know they will be better than last years staff. In fifty some odd years of watching football I have never seen more inexplicable decision than that staff made last year. Do you need to be reminded? Seriously, stop and think about it for a second. As idiotic and inept as they were they still managed six wins. How could this staff do worse?

     

    Do you think the personnel is worse? Why because we lost a guard? Who other than Levitre could possibly be missed? Is anyone going to miss Fitzpatrick? Kolb or Manuel have to be better. Nelson and Jones vs. all these new guys? New guys can't be worse. Do you find yourself longing for Barnett and Wilson?

     

    Their record will be better than last year. They will at the very least be fun to watch, instead of painful.

  7. Once again, I rarely start threads, but I like this approach to evaluating our drafts. People like to toss out letter grades, but I find these are usually based on one or two picks that they love/hate. I'm interested in your opinions, pick by pick.

     

    1. E.J. Manuel - My take on EJ was interesting prior to the draft. I started low on him because I had heard "inconsistency" was an issue. I then became very high on him after watching footage, eventually placing him at the top of my list. In the ten days prior to the draft, I moved Barkley ahead because of his (perceived) NFL readiness. There is no doubt that as far as physical ability, no one comes close to EJ in this draft, and that goes for Geno as well. He is also one of the few prospects that can legitimately impress you with his his interviews, though they're not usually indicative of on field performance. Also, his bad games aren't as atrocious as some would leave you to believe. His good games are spectacular. That being said, my feelings boil down to this: He has a good head on his shoulders and is a legitimate physical specimen. If he pans out, he has the potential to "take us to the dance" as Buddy put it. If you're going to gamble on a QB, this is a smart gamble. It's impossible not to like him as a person. Maybe I've already had too much kool-aid, but I like his odds to succeed. I like the pick a lot.

     

    2a. Robert Woods - Would have loved to take Ertz here, but he wasn't on the board. As such, this was the perfect pick. Does anyone not love this pick? He is one of the few receivers in the past few years who I think could start and produce immediately. That's not the case for the vast majority of receivers in my opinion.

     

    2b. Kiko Alonso - When they announced it, I wasn't sure who it was. Within 10 seconds of watching some footage, you better believe I remembered who he was. You cannot have watched the PAC12 (I'm a Stanford fan) and not seen him stand out when Oregon played. He's a beast and another day 1 starter in my opinion. I honestly expect him to become a star.

     

    3. Marquise Goodwin - As I expect is the case for many people, this was the first pick that left me wanting. At this point in the draft, we appeared to be going down our needs list, and many thought a TE, CB, or OG was the direction to go. That being said, I'm not necessarily "upset" with the pick. World class speed and I hope he can produce. What sticks out to me is my general ambivalence about this pick. It would be great if he works out, and I had several friends from Texas text their congratulations at our selection, but I can't say I'm expecting a ton of production in the near future. He does have the "high ceiling" factor though.

     

    4. Duke Williams - Like the attitude, and I watch a bit of the Wolfpack so I wasn't as in the dark as many. I hope he keeps cool (to a degree) at the next level. I wouldn't want flags for "vicious" tackling in this new NFL. At this point I was thinking of another position, but Safety was a reasonable choice. I expect he will eventually compete for a good amount of playing time, and has the potential to eventually challenge for a starting role. The experts on TV appeared pleased with this choice, though they're often wildly inaccurate so this really has no relevance.

     

    5. Jonathan Meeks - I predict (unless you hate EJ as a prospect) that this is just about everyone's least favorite selection. It is mine as well. Was he in a scheme that hid his talents? Sure, I'll buy it. Hell, he might turn out to be a good player. But I couldn't help feeling like we reached, and that we should have gone for a CB or OG. I'm big on OLines though.

     

    6. Dustin Hopkins - I actually called this pick about 30 minutes before to my girlfriend. I said "I wonder if we'll take Hopkins from FSU. I hope we do." She of course had no idea who or what I was talking about, but it happened. I think this is a fabulous pick, and he's the best kicking prospect out there. While Lindell seems like a good guy, everyone knows his leg (which was never a cannon) is diminishing, or at the very least he didn't have the last regime's total confidence. Hopkins has the potential to make us as confident in our kicking as we were with Christie. I see him starting immediately.

     

    7. Chris Gragg - It's the 7th round. I'd love to get excited about this pick, and their are real reasons to do so, but I am going to try to stay more reasonable here. I like that we took a TE, especially one that would have gone about 4 rounds earlier if he had not had an injury, but we all have our late round "guy" that we'd like to see the Bills take. Chase Thomas or a big bruiser of an OG would have made me (probably unreasonably) happy, but I have no problem with this pick.

     

    Overall, it's pretty clear we got who we wanted (in the early rounds at least), and that the new FO thinks our starting LG is on our roster. I know FA is out there, but from what they've said and the complete ignoring of OLine in the draft, I think we'll see someone who was buried behind Levitre and Rinehardt end up starting on opening day.

    I agree with pretty much everything you wrote. I always thought EJ was the top of this QB class.

  8. Every franchise in the NFL expects their 1st round draft pick to "start" and contribute from day one... EJ will start for sure... We are not the Patriots or Packers or Falcons who are set with their franchise QB... Of course Buddy and Coach Marrone will not just hand EJ the job and will say stuff like, "It's a competition", but we all know the fans want and will pay to see EJ start... At the end of the day it's a business and the best business decision they can make, is to start EJ... Talk done...

    That and he better than anyone else.

     

    Is better

    Forgot the is

  9.  

     

    I'll go one step farther, Kelly -- it's completely illogical to argue with what they did. This front office did more work evaluating QBs than probably any team in the league. They did their homework. To be able to maneuver like they did, picking up a couple of extra picks, and still get their guy is something very few Bills fans thought this front office was capable of.

     

    Debate the specific pick (Manuel) all you want -- you absolutely can't criticize the Bills' process and execution.

    I agree, the maneuvering was brilliant. If you are taking a QB high in the draft the best place to take him is first round out of the top ten. Based on the rookie compensation structure once your out of the top ten you are not over paying and you get an option for a fifth year if the guy turns out to be great.

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