OldTimer1960

Oops, meant Melvin Gordon. I don't know where I got Bennett from.

Denver just signed Bennett and they also have Lindsey. The league always evolves it went to more pass prevalent offenses and defenses had to adjust by finding quicker and lighter players. It wouldn't be the worst thing to have an offense that is very good at running to attack those lighter defenses. I love what Singletary showed last season, but he isn't built to handle 20 touches per game for 16 games - really not many guys are. I think it would be a good idea to pair Singletary with another good RB. If there isn't good value at OT (don't think there will be), DE (don't think there will be) or CB (I think there will be some good value there), then why not a RB like Akers or Edwards-Helaire in round 2? Splitting 25-30 touches per game between two good backs helps the offense and takes pressure off of Allen. I think most of us agree with this point. There may be groups of players at same and different positions that a team has graded closely.

Disclaimer: long time fan, long time follower of the draft, I don’t profess to have scouting experience or expertise. I think the Bills are in the market for a young DE in the draft so I watched multiple full games of several DE prospects and my observations/opinions follow. I didn’t include the top prospects Young, Epenesa, Gross-Matos and Davidson as I don’t expect them to be available by pick 54, but I think any of them would be nice picks if still there. Players are not listed in any specific order. Comments and discussion welcomed! Defensive Ends Bradley Anae - Watched vs Texas, Oregon and USC. High effort player who looks like he gives up a lot of size against OTs. Showed ability to beat OT inside with counter and a nice spin move, but showed little ability to beat OT around the edge. Maybe it was the scheme and him playing his backside responsibilities, but looked like he often got stuck to the blocker. Disappointing combine numbers and shorter than ideal arms don’t help his draft status. Was productive in college and super effective at Senior Bowl posting 3 sacks and PFF rates his pass rush skills highly - maybe I saw some dud games. Alton Robinson - LDE Syracuse. Plays with good knee bend and lateral agility- looks athletic. Hustles and plays to the whistle. Showed a bit of quickness to beat RT wide and to inside. Good combine numbers including 25 reps on bench, impressive 4.69 40 and 35” vertical. Interesting prospect. Watched Pitt and Notre Dame. Jonathan Greenard - (watched vs. Miami, Florida St) - plays mostly as down DE, but also as stand-up LB with some drops into coverage. Moves like an athlete with knees bent and smooth change of direction. Generated pressure and sacks in games that I saw. Hustles, did not see him take any plays off. Has quite long arms and uses them effectively. Greenard’s 4.87 40 and 30.5” vertical were underwhelming. Curtis Weaver - (watched vs. Florida State, Colorado State)- played almost exclusively in a 2-point stance. Dropped into coverage on occasion, though doesn’t look to have the speed to do that in NFL. Pretty smooth mover, though not as smooth as Greenard, in my opinion. Can generate pressure and sacks inside on counter moves. Can rush wide, but doesn’t show great burst. Sometimes moves inside to DT on passing down. Overall, looked to be an effective rusher in the games that I watched, but wonder how effective he can be in NFL with little experience playing from a 3 or 4 point stance. Did not run or lift at the combine - doesn’t look to have much speed based on the games I watched. Julian Okwara - watched vs Virginia & Georgia. Good size. Plays from both 3-point and 2-point stance. Shows some power and acceleration on pass rush. Showed ability to generate pass rush on inside and outside moves. Not strong against the run, but has the frame to get bigger. I was pleasantly surprised at his play - interesting potential. Did not participate at combine except for the bench press where he showed well. Khalid Kareem - watched vs. Georgia & Michigan. Athletic build with long arms, reasonably easy movement. Seems to play the run well. Didn’t show many pass rush moves and doesn’t show much burst or explosiveness to be much of a pass rusher. Sack production in college was modest. Did not participate much at combine due to injury. Josh Uche - watched vs. Penn State, Illinois. Undersized DE and OLB and plays mostly from a 2-point stance. Shows some speed/burst. Drops into coverage a lot. While he has speed, he didn’t show a broad repertoire of pass rush moves and doesn’t have the strength to rush with power. Did have 8.5 sacks in 2019. At 6’ 1” and 245 may be better at LB than DE. Did not participate at combine. Terrell Lewis - watched vs. LSU, Auburn. - Plays DE and LB. Athletic enough to drop into coverage. Shows acceleration to beat OT to inside. Seems like he should be more effective beating OT wide. Did not make any impactful plays in either game that I watched. Good size and arm length, but looks quite lean on video. I’ve read that he missed considerable time with injuries so that need to be evaluated by team doctors. Seems like there is upside on this player. Alex Highsmith - watched vs. Buffalo & Clemson - plays with very good effort on every play. Against Buffalo, he overmatched UB OT #67 beating him with power and quickness generating good pass rush consistently. Note, don’t know how good UB OT was. Clemson game was a major blowout, but he generated some pressure early against Clemson’s 1st team and collected a sack vs their 2nd team. Reportedly is a leader and high effort athlete. Undersized at 248 lbs, but showed well athletically at combine. Derrek Tuszka - watched vs Illinois State. Hustler, shows some pop to stand up OT on run plays and an effective bull rush at FCS level. Ran well at the combine, but will be downgraded as a DE for much shorter than ideal arms. Didn’t show exceptional speed and flexibility to overcome lack of ideal stature. Chance due effort.

Has anyone seen an article about if/how Bills players are continuing their offseason strength and conditioning training? I think most/all team facilities are shut down and it probably isn't prudent for players to be hitting the local public gyms during the pandemic. I imagine that a few players have some sort of gym at home, but a lot of these guys are fairly young and probably don't even own houses where they can set up a gym. I would guess that the teams that have the most players that stay in shape through this time will have an advantage if there is a season in 2020. Given the type of players that the Bills favor, I'll bet that many of them will do the best that they can to be in shape.

Agree that DE and CB are more important positions and harder to fill than RB, but I think DE won’t be close to BPA at 54. There are *maybe* a couple of guys like Greenard and Anae to think about there, but I’m willing to bet that there will be CB, and especially RB higher on most boards available at 54 than the DEs there, I’m not an expert, but it seems more like you’ll have to talk yourself into really liking any of the DEs vs actually liking prospects at other positions.

You have to ask why his college coaches at Memphis didn’t bother to get him the ball more than 77 times total in 2 seasons. I think that is a big red flag. 5th round or later, sure, but don’t get sucked in by the size/speed trap before that.

While I'm not against drafting another WR, I would not trade up to do so unless it is a small move up using no more than their 5th. I would rather keep the 3rd, 4th and 5th and possibly move up from their current pick in round 3 or their current pick in round 4. I would be very surprised if they took a WR in the 2nd after acquiring Diggs. That would essentially be using their 1st and 2nd round picks on WR and I think that is too much. Depends on players available at other positions in round 2 - particularly DE, CB, OT and RB.

Trading up that high will be burning the vast majority of their valuable picks, so I don't think that they'll do that. It would cost their 2nd and 3rd to get near pick 10 of the 2nd round.

Man, I can remember thinking that Treadwell with his size, strength and multi-year high volume collegiate production would be really something in the NFL. In his case, his poor athletic testing results (40 and vert) were a red flag that should have been heeded.

While Antonio Gibson's size and speed is certainly intriguing he only had a career total of 33 rushing attempts at D1. He also caught only 44 passes for his career. There MUST be a reason that Memphis didn't try to get the ball more to such a big, fast athlete. i think teams need to try to figure out why Memphis didn't give him the ball much more often and then maybe you consider him starting in round 5, unless there is a very good explanation for why he got SO few touches at Memphis.

I don't think that the Bills' 2nd and 3rd gets them any higher than pick 10 in round 2. I also don't expect them to be willing to give up their 3rd to move up. I could possibly see them trade their 4th to move up in the 3rd (would get them from 22 to about 11 in round 3) or trading up in round 4 giving up their 5th to get from pick 22 to about pick 7 in round 4.

I think Singletary and Dillon sharing 25-30 touches/game would be a really nice combination with Yeldon as a receiving option. With the mileage on Dillon, I think he likely lasts into the 3rd.

Disclaimer: long time fan, long time follower of the draft, I don’t profess to have scouting experience or expertise. I think the Bills are interested in a RB to share carries with Devin Singletary, so I watched multiple full games of several RB prospects and my observations/opinions follow. I didn’t include the top 4 backs (Swift, Taylor, Dobbins, Edwards-Helaire) as I don’t expect them to be available by pick 54, but I think any of them would be nice picks if still there. Players are not listed in any specific order. Comments and discussion welcomed! Overall, I really liked Cam Akers and think he or A.J. Dillon would be really nice sharing carries with Devin Singletary. RBs Zach Moss - runs with power, decent agility for a power runner but not his calling card. Reasonably good hands out of backfield. Speed is a negative and isn’t terribly elusive. Running style could lead to short career unless he shares carries with another back. Darrynton Evans - watched vs North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia Southern. Speed is evident. Quick decisive cuts. Wasn’t used heavily as a receiver. Not a power runner, but will show effort after contact. Anthony McFarland - Watched vs Temple, Purdue and Syracuse. Very quick acceleration and good top end speed. Quick cutter, but not especially elusive. Runs hard, but smaller stature means he isn’t going to run NFL defenders over. Not much experience catching passes - I wonder why as getting him in space on swing passes would seem ideal. Cam Akers - Viewed NC State, Miami. Compact, powerful and shows good speed. Really breaks tackles and finishes runs strong. Took fair number of snaps in wildcat and throws a half decent ball. Really enjoyed watching his games. AJ Dillon - (watched Norte Dame, Clemson, Fla State) BIG back with excellent speed for his size. Can get through a hole and also can pick his way through interior traffic. Takes multiple players to bring him down. Not super nifty, but fairly nimble for size. Has carried the ball a LOT. Not used much as a receiver. Given wear and tear from college, may be best splitting carries with another back to prolong career. LaMical Perine - (watched vs LSU, Auburn). Enough quickness to avoid an initial tackle, but not especially nifty nor fast. Runs pretty hard. Good receiver out of backfield. Looks competent as a pass blocker. Reportedly high character and good special teamer. Joshua Kelley - (watched vs Ariz, Utah, USC). Ok size, pretty decisive as a runner who finds holes. Shows pretty good acceleration to get through holes quickly. Combine 40 time was good. His story of perseverance after being lightly recruited is a nice one, but I don’t think he will be more than a competent backup in NFL.

He was very good!

He was cut by Miami prior to joining the Bills. Sometimes players don’t work out at their first stop and come along elsewhere. Witness Jerry Hughes. Also Ted Washington, one of Bills’ best ever DL, had been a disappointment with his previous team. Lorenzo Alexander had been primarily a special teams player prior to joining Bills.

I think that is a little overstated. He isn’t great, but he is a competent #3 or #4 NFL WR.

Ultimately, I think his age slowed him down, but I also think play selection got very predictable when he was on the field. It seemed like they felt obligated to get him a number of snaps per game in deference to his career stature and leadership. When he was on the field they almost always gave him the ball. Since he had slowed down, those handoffs were pretty much always between the tackles.

I don't know what CBs are left in FA, but I think I would rather they sign a reinforcement there and look to the draft for a RB in 2nd or maybe 3rd. If the FA RBs are better than the CBs, then I guess I could understand signing a FA RB. Improving the receiving weapons, as they've done with the Diggs trade, should help open up running room for whomever is carrying the ball. If they think they can significantly upgrade the OL, I think that would help the run game as well,.

There is a glaring lack of depth at CB right now. Unless they sign a FA before the draft, I’d expect a CB in either the 2nd or 3rd in the draft. Given the situation at CB and DE, I would almost think that those almost have to be the 2nd and 3rd round picks unless there is no value there or if an unbelievable value is left at another position. I would love to have the flexibility to take one of the top RBs if available, but I think that may have to be put off till later.

You are right about that! Many on this board love having a few whipping boys to heap hate on. FWIW, I’m in no hurry to push Murphy out the door. The team’s DEs are: Mario Addison, Jerry Hughes, Trent Murphy and 7th rounder Daryl Johnson. Johnson has some interesting physical tools if he can get stronger and learn pro pass rush moves, but do you really want to go into the draft with Johnson as your #3 DE (if they release Murphy)?

When Fournette came out of college I very much expected him to be great. He is not anything special at the NFL level. I would not be interested in giving up much of anything to trade for him.

Thanks! Do you like him better than any of the CB or RB that are likely to be available at 54?

Hi Gunner, I respect your scouting and evaluations. What do you see in Anae? I watched him vs Texas, Oregon and USC and he looked like he tried hard, but got stuck to the OT on pass rush frequently. I know that he really showed well at the Senior Bowl. He looks like ha plays with a real hard-nosed attitude, which would be welcomed, but he isn’t very fast or big and doesn’t have long arms. Interested in your view.

I’d just as soon pass on Hyde. He will be 30 years old at season’s start. RB is a position where I question the true need for a “veteran in the room”. I understood why they wanted Frank Gore last season - he is a perfect model of how the team wants their players to train and act and he had the resume to command that respect. Hyde doesn’t have that kind of resume and while he has had an OK career, what can you really expect from him at 30? If the money is close, use it to re-sign CB Kevin Johnson and then take a RB in 2nd or 3rd this year.

I wouldn't say WR is completof off the table in round 2, but I'd be very surprised if they took one there after acquiring Diggs. I think it would have to be someone that is left that they rate significantly higher than any of the available DE, CB, OT or even RB left. I'm starting to think that CB could be the position with BPA left, but DE is still certainly a need if there is a good player left there. i could imagine, though, that the above scenario could happen in round 3 - there could still be a WR that just stands out so much on their board that they take him.