starrymessenger

I don't think it was a fluke. I think Whaley will do a very good job getting Marrone the talent he needs. I firmly believe the nightmare drafts are a thing of the past.

You are right. He called better games with Tuel and Lewis under center. It's not because he thought they were more limited. It's because they decided to mollycoddle EJ and not take chances. As to why they did that...well that's a whole other discussion. It will be interesting to see what happens when, as surely they must, they open up the playbook for EJ this year. I think he may turn into a turnover machine. That would be my concern.

Re 1) I doubt he's worth the time you would have to spend to figure out if he could play, meaning he's a bust IMO 2) Agree 3) I can think of players who might be (reasonably) safe to draft in the first, but I don't know of any positions, as such, that are. I think Matthews and Robinson are good risks and would be delighted with either.

God is a relentless road grader who punishes people for no better reason than his own amusement. Unfortunately for us that is a good and sufficient reason. There is no getting away from him. He's too good. You can't beat him. So just draft him at 9 already.

I'm pretty sure Doug Marrone also likes great O-line play so hopefully we will get there one way or another.

He's a good player fo sho but he will get a big payday from someone, probably more than he is worth. IMO the Bills will draft a wideout in May (to replace TJ) and it would be criminally stupid not to given the quality and depth of this years class. If Watkins is there at # 9 he will be hard to pass up (but not impossible if either of the two top OTs are also there). More likely he is gone in which case the Bills target a big receiver in the mid-rounds IMO.

I think Minny could very well draft D Carr. If 4 QBs come off the board before we pick there is an excellent chance that Matthews and/or Robinson is there at # 9 and if so OT should be the pick, and I would be delighted with either. If in addition you can sign one of the Chiefs FA guards next month and land the Iowa TE in the 4th you will have the makings of an elite O-line.

I think you really do have to ask yourself whether you would want Asamoah over Schwartz. Schwartz is looking for a multi-year deal after two one year deals. Either guy would likely give us what we need at LG and I would expect that they are both on Whaley's radar. I don't know that either will be available though. Fisher improved a lot towards the end of last year and might be ready to take over at LT, meaning the Chiefs will not be willing to go long term with Albert for the big bucks he will surely command.

When he goes camping the bears hide their food.

I don't see the Bills and Marrone using a first round pick on any TE who cannot block and I think they will prioritize the O-line in May. So I would not be surprised if they drafted Greg Robinson if he is still on the board. If they wanted to further strengthen the line while at the same time securing a TE who is a good red zone target and can legitimately contribute in the passing game (especially if Chandler is not signed) then the Hawkeye Fiedorowicz would be a good choice in the third. Find a good young guard with lots of playing experience in FA (Jon Asamoah) and you have the makings of one of the best young O-lines in the NFL. Marrone is an O-line guy who likes big bad people so I think he would like that line.

Jimmy Clausen was 28 and 4 his senior year at ND. Bridge water will be a better pro tho, much better IMO.

Contrary to what TB said, the Pats are not especially gracious losers. They seem pretty sour about it IMO. But you have to give them a lot of credit for what they accomplished this year. After all they have been through to compete for the AFC title is a truly remarkable achievement. And to do it by reinventing themselves as a running team and actually taking the ball out of TBs hands is especially surprising. So although TB may have been the main piece all along it is clear that the whole organization top to bottom is one of the very best in the game. Good ownership and great coaching has had a lot to do with their success. And on a personal level I can easily understand TBs disappointment. If he had gone to and, heaven forbid, actually won the Super Bowl, his legacy, as good as it is already, would have been much enhanced. It might even have placed him in the driver's seat in the discussion surrounding the greatest ever QB. Now if Peyton is able to beat that great Seahawks secondary with Welker and those big receivers he's got to throw to, the fact that TB will still have more hardware might well be negated by Peyton's second ring and better in season production during the years TB was winning those championships, as well as the fact that TB benefitted from an elite D that Peyton did not have. Their performance this year proves once again that it is unwise to ever sell NE short . They could be back with a vengeance in 2014. But time is running out on TB. His bad throw to Welker in 2012 cost them a championship. He missed Edelman twice against Denver this year that could have been game changers. His skillset is just not as complete as it used to be. He's still a master of the short passing game featuring crossing patterns underneath, and he still displays incredible accuracy and good pace on the ball with intermediate throws over the middle. But he doesn't hit the deep ball nearly as much as in the past, go routes and deep outs whether to the opposite hash or not. In fact he is increasingly badly misses those difficult, lower percentage passes. And I don't expect things to get better for him as far as his individual skillset is concerned. Quite the contrary, though he may be surrounded by a better supporting cast in 2014 and therefore his team may fare better.

Thanks. Will check these out.

All I've seen we're his throws vs N Illinois but I had a similar impression. Compact motion and lightning quick release but looks like a dart thrower. Maybe that's what having a quick release does. Apparently he used to have a baseball windup, which is the exact opposite of what he does now, so he may be coachable. Seems to have plenty of arm strength so his footwork, weight transfer must be good. Overall his accuracy was good, subject to a few bad misses. Also looks like a one read guy from what little I saw but apparently he had 5 receiver sets and could go thru his progressions (though I sure didn't see it). He also threw into coverage so he's got a lot of work to do to avoid being a turnover machine in the pros. Bear in mind that his O-line looked pretty good and his receivers seemed to run good patterns, so he didn't do it all by himself.

Nope. Even if they land Sammy Watkins DR should probably be on the roster anyway because there are 2 or 3 guys who have no business being there. No question DR is a very raw prospect and there is no guarantee he will amount to anything. But it is also clear that he is loaded with talent and that he is trying to make a go of it. When he cut him Marrone acknowledged DRs talent but said he was looking for immediate production and not down the road. We'll he didn't get that production from CJ, Easley, Hogan and Kauffman (who was let go after DR). I guess we are just not in the business of developing raw talent (tho I thought that's what coaches are supposed to do). Oh wait! EJ is as raw as they come. While DR prolly had late first or early second round talent, EJ would almost certainly go third or later if he was in this years draft. But EJ aced the interview process. He's a good boy and we like him. Ok, but that does not win many football games. One may wonder why so lengthy a thread is dedicated to a raw prospect and a head case. The reason is that it has little to do with DR, who is gone for good. It had to do with Marrone who is still here.

Certainly a minority opinion re Geno, at least around here...but one that could very well prove true IMO.

Unfortunately you can bet that Bill B won't be taking the Bills for granted and that he will be making that crystal clear to his team all week. This is pretty much a must win game for the Pats if they want to have a decent playoff run. Having to play an extra game and losing home field advantage is a luxury this Pats team cannot afford. Brady already echoed those sentiments in his press conference immediately following the Ravens debacle. He referenced the Bills D and how they had just beaten the Fins so he's ahead of the curve. Pats will come to play and that's a good thing. If the Bills win or are at least very competitive it will be a good sign - so an important game for both teams.

Greg Robinson if he declares. Perfect bookend to CG.

Even allowing for him being a rookie HC, I would grade his effort this year as a C or maybe even C-. You sort of get the impression that the OBD politicos that were hiring for the job took a guy who would be easier to control and less threatening to the way they have chosen to manage the team and the business than a highly respected veteran coach like Lovie. The hype at the time was that we bagged the guy everybody was after etc...but maybe we just took the local boy because it was the easiest and most expedient thing to do. A new HC normally surrounds himself with guys that he knows, but you wonder whether his OC and ST coaches were chosen because they would be more manageable and less threatening to him. I also get the impression that maybe his insecurity translates into a hard line "my way or the highway" attitude. Maybe that works in college but with grown men who are making many times what you are earning it doesn't work. Good NFL coaches cater to their best players to get the buy in they want and to get the most out of them - all without sacrificing the player to coach respect that they need to have and maintain at all times. Like EJ we will know a lot more about DM a year from now. I hope they both succeed.

I'm 35% confident that EJ will develop into a bona fide quality starter at this level. To me he is likely never going to make the tight throws in narrow windows that good NFL QBs make. He has never done that and the probability therefore is that he never will. If the problems affecting his accuracy, or lack thereof, were such as to be corrected they would have been coached out of him a long time ago. If to the contrary his accuracy can go from bad to good, my 35% estimate goes immediately to 70%, with staying healthy the only significant concern. EJ is a fantastic athlete. All the physical tools that anyone could want are there in spades. But the so called QB specific "power cords" that permit access to those impressive physical attributes while playing the position, sensing pressure in the pocket almost intuitively, going through progressions, field vision and anticipation, throwing receivers open, naturally having good throwing mechanics and footwork so that passing is second nature, etc... and all of that happening with split second timing, are palpably absent IMO. And I tend to doubt that those things can be learned. A clearly superior athlete can be very successful playing future doctors and lawyers in college. All of that changes in the pros. If you are going to be a good QB in the NFL you pretty much have to be born to play the position, you have to be a natural. Regrettably I don't see those qualities in EJ. Not at all. Of course I'm not qualified to evaluate football talent so could be very wrong. And I certainly hope I am.

It's quite possible that they are sceptical about EJ's chances of developing into a reliable starter. They probably knew full well what his problems were and had to acknowledge that they might not be correctable- in other words that they knew they would again soon be in the market. So why did they draft EJ high? They maybe thought that they should cater to a fanbase that was justifiably outraged at how the team had neglected the most important position for a decade. Drafting a first round QB is always a good marketing decision, at least in the short run. With the rookie wage scale as it is now, not only can more QBs get drafted earlier and see the field sooner, but maybe a team can also move towards another option more than in the past when the financial commitment was much greater. The Bills are probably not going to draft a QB early if at all in 2014 even if they doubt EJ is the guy. They have other holes to fill and they probably think they can ride the wave of enthusiasm that inevitably accompanies a highly drafted QB, at least for another year (or part thereof). But if EJ does not show significant improvement during the first half of next season they will IMO start reviewing their options for the 2015 draft, when they can ride the wave of goodwill again with what may very well be a better prospect. So the Bills investment in EJ is not that great and despite the hype might never have been. If they were so sure of EJ why would they have looked to add another big, young and athletic QB with something of an NFL track record the very year they drafted EJ? If Josh Freeman had been signed and if he had played well, which presumably they would want, wouldn't that have generated a QB controversy and what would that have done for EJs chances? Maybe the right thing, because EJ was probably best served by holding a clipboard for a couple of years.

You may be right about that, but I really do want him to succeed. Generally I like to see people succeed, and whether they play for the Bills or another team. What do I know about evaluating players. Probably precious little. So I certainly could be wrong. And I do certainly hope I am wrong. He looks to be a great kid and I would like for nothing more than to see him succeed.

That's because he usually only does it when they are five yards away. He is inherently inaccurate. He can make routine throws at times. Occasionally he makes even routine throws look more difficult than they are. He cannot make difficult throws at all, let alone consistently. He is a sloppy QB. Execution at that position in the NFL needs to be demonstrably, reliably and consistently crisp. An NFL QB needs to look like he was born to throw a football. EJ has never looked like that to me and odds are he never will because you cannot "learn" to throw a football. You either have that or you don't. It's a lot like Tebow actually, though probably not as bad. Still, not good enuf I'm afraid. And I actually really do hope I'm 100% wrong.

So who needs a veteran backup anyway? Oh wait...

It was a great catch, but as soon as I got over my Jeffries man rush I realized that I had just seen a throw (almost) as perfect as Big Ben to Holmes. McCown's ball placement and timing with his receivers has been unbelievable. I really had no idea he could play this well.