PDaDdy

Yes you are missing something. A probowl LT does not a great QB make. A LT's job is to protect the blind side of a right handed QB to allow them to be the best they can be. If your QB sucks, your QB sucks no matter how much time he has. They are COMPLETELY separate issues in that respect. The point being the QB can't do his job effectively if the line doesn't do their's. People in favor of the QB first keep pointing out RARE exceptions like Manning and Brees who are MULTI year veteran, few times in a generation, QBs. As I have said before...find me a rookie in the draft that can play like that day 1 and I'll agree with the "get a better QB to make the line better with same personnel" crowd. YOU KNOW THAT GUY DOESN'T EXIST! Secondly if you can point to ONE GUY in this draft that you GUARANTEE will play like Peyton Manning and Drew Brees by their 3rd or 4th year....draft that guy!... YOU KNOW THAT GUY DOESN'T EXIST! Sooooo...the sane thing to do with little risk is to draft a LT. Fix the line to allow whoever you have at QB AND your RBs to be the best that they can be! Hopefully that clears it up.

FIXED!!!!

You could be right. It was almost unfathomable to me how we chose Maybin the 3/4 year wonder over O-sack-po. If he dropped in the draft due to people making snap judgments based on what school he came from this is EXACTLY the danger that we face dismissing Bulaga because he is from Iowa.

We have no choice but to give him more than one season. I hear ya. My point basically was that at first blush it appears that we made not just a bad choice but an INCREDIBLY bad choice. If Orakpo doesn't get any better and just does what he did his rookie year for the rest of his career he will be a sure fire hall of famer and be considered one of the best ever at his position. That being said I hope and expect Maybin will become a contributor this year. I even have his rookie jersey. I also speculated early last season that perhaps we got Maybin in the draft with full expectation that we would be moving to a 3-4 in 2010. Brilliant insight or lucky guess? It doesn't matter. We will get our best chance to see what it is that Maybin can offer the Bills this year. I hope the kid becomes a star!

You bring up a good point. You should definitely look at the system a guy played in, the talent he was surrounded by and the level of competition that he played against. That being said I just think it is a cop out to use the school name. Coaches changes, supporting cast talent changes and level of competition changes. Those need to be evaluated on a year to year basis not just the old...."this guy came from school XYZ so he will suck".

GOD NO!... As I have said repeatedly there are MANY FA or RFA QBs that along with a great rookie LT at #9 could come in here and make us light years better than what we have been the last 2.5 years. Any of these guys could develop into the franchise guy OR while our o-line strives to become competent, keep the seat warm for the guy we eventually get who will be the franchise.

Absolutely. It's that kind of thinking that caused Drew Brees to be drafted in the 2nd round and traded to New Olreans in favor of Phillip Rivers who has the more prototypical size.

Please point me to the next Peyton Manning or Drew Brees we can get in this draft. If you can do that I'm on your band wagon assuming they are invulnerable and won't shatter when the RDE blows by our turn style LT and creams our new rookie QB who will be as effective as Peyton Manning in his 14th NFL season.

I don't remember Rick Mirer setting the world on fire any year but double digit sacks for a rookie DE/LB vs our guy who never started a game....really no comparison what so ever. Hey, I hope Maybin gets on the field and sets the world on fire but so far it looks like we TOTALLY screwed that choice up.

QUOTE (PDaDdy @ Feb 17 2010, 10:24 AM) * Short arms? Hadn't heard that one. How freakin' short can your arms be when you are 6' freakin 6"??!?!?!?!? *sheesh* LOL. Good one. If we were considering drafting an extinct reptile I would be worried.

Sadly I think some people are. Consider yourself part of the lucky few

I won't bother to go back and read them all but totally my bad. I made an incorrect assumption.

Two things If he already plays in cold weather and does it well doesn't that prove that he is ALREADY tough enough to play in Buffalo? This isn't rocket science. If he is already aclimated that is a plus for him vs an unkown who may never adapt. Please do your home work. I see that crap statement all the time....players from school XYZ suck, are maxed out, don't make good NFL prospects, etc. Don't be lazy. Do your homework. Judge prospects on their individual talents. Don't take the easy way out and just make snap judgments based on the school they went to.

We kind of went through this last year. The supposed knock on Brian Orakpo was that he was maxed out. Then we picked Maybin who had more upside

WOW ...the all out DarthICE blitz campaign rolls on. We have gone from: 1) Diminishing the need for an LT vs a QB to 2) Bradford is god to 3) I found a hidden gem future star at LT in blah blah to 4) Next years crop of QBs sucks so we should get one this year. Do you work in public relations ICE?

That is pretty much my point. 1st overall and a hidden gem in the 2nd round. What does that tell us?.....absolutely nothing. ROFLOL. It's basically the same argument about LTs but scaled up for QB. I gathered this info for another post. Most of the "good" QBs in this league fall into two categories. Guys that were drafted #1 overall or basically in the top 5 to maybe 7. The larger group of the rest, are all over the place like Brees who was a 2nd round pick. ICE is just campaigning SO hard for a QB at #9 across multiple threads that it is comical. I'll give him this though he does hit it from all angles. This is the latest trying to talk up some 6th round hidden gem at LT that can come in and be a star. ICE's argument is that you don't need to spend a high draft pick on a LT to make a super bowl. My argument is you don't have to spend a high pick on a QB to make a superbowl. Even if you DO spend a high pick on a QB, like #1 overall, it's no guarantee that you will get to and win the super bowl. The NFL landscape is littered with first round and #1 over all QBs who sucked horribly and doomed their team to mediocrity for years. Comparatively there are quite a bit fewer high draft pick LTs that have busted and left their teams screwed over for a few years. We got REALLY unlucky drafting Mike Williams. I still can't believe we took him over Bryan McKinney who never gave up a sack in college!!!!!! Are you kidding me???? We suck SO bad!!!! That being said it doesn't matter where a player is drafted it matters what they do once they get on an NFL team.

Name for me the pick that the QBs for the two SUPERBOWL teams were drafted at and where are they from college wise.

Well he HAS to identify a NON #9 pick LT that is a star so he can advocate the drafting of Bradford, the object of his man crush, at #9.

QUOTE (DarthICE @ Feb 17 2010, 01:23 PM) * LOL yeah only if we want to be winners. But Fans like you have become so used to sucking for so long I think you like it. Without a stud QB no matter what Defense, O Line or whatever, this team isn't going anywhere. I'll see your Trent Dilfer and raise you Brad Johnson, Jeff Hostetler (super bowl winners) and throw in rookie sensations of the last 2 years, Matt Ryan, Joe Flacco and Mark Sanchez

Hate to say it but if we didn't scuttle the o-line this past year and try to find another water boy at LT I would be all for getting a QB. Unfortunately our line needs a LOT of work and a top LT draft pick. We could go the veteran LT route but it doesn't seem to jive with the youth movement on the o-line or anywhere else on the team for that matter.

From where we were and what we needed it was one of the worst picks I have ever seen!!!!! I almost broke a TV that day and as is usually the case after our first round pick I threatened to stop being a Bills fan. The only pick worse was probably Whitner over Ngata....OUCH ...sorry to bring that up again.

That being said I also looked at some video of Claussen. He has a bigger arm, can play under center in a pro offense and he is light years beyond in mobility even with that turf toe or whatever he had. To me Claussen looks like a better option than Bradford. I'm just going on what I see and screw all of the this guys this, this guys that, attitude, cocky blah blah came from this school whatever. I could care less. Doesn't look like either of these guys would be a bad one to pick up but neither "rookie" would live long behind out line.

I did some more looking and found a prodraftparty youtube video of him. I still won't say his arm is strong but it looks good enough. I would put this guy somewhere near the strength of Tom Brady. Not BIG but certainly big enough. If it weren't for his durability and our terrible o-line I would say go for the kid. Right now those two things are just too bad of a mix to put together.

ROFLOL! DUDE he has serious man love for a QB. We need one but we need to get a "competent" o-line first. If our line was at least competent I would probably agree with him that QB was our top priority in the draft.

Plenty of college QBs have NFL arms. Buffalo needs a QB with a "strong" NFL arm. There is a difference here. Is it a coincidence that the QBs that have had success in Buffalo have had strong arms? NO it is not. YPA includes RAC as you well know. I want to know how far this guy throws IN THE AIR. You and ICE keep saying that he makes those throws but nobody can find any tape of them. Sounds fishy to me.