OldTimer1960

Why don't we wait to see how EJ and Kolb play in a few preseason games before calling for Kolb to start. I am as optimistic about some of the young WRs and EJ as anyone, but with all of that youth expect a lot of growing pains. I kind of hope that Kolb plays well enough to start at least the first part of the season. I'd rather not put too much pressure on EJ too soon. Let him learn at a reasonable pace - he isn't Andrew Luck or RG3. He is going to need some time to be ready to start.

I don't understand the motivation angle - I can't imagine that two career backups/fringe players like Brown and Ligursky (sp?) are not trying with everything that they have to earn a starting spot. I think it is far more likely that those two just aren't talented enough to make the coaches comfortable with them starting.

As far as I know, there is no rule on TBD that requires you to get jboyst62's approval. I definitely agree with your opinion on Sullivan. He should be embarrassed to take a pay check for the hate mongering gossip - err "opinion" columns that he writes. Regarding his crusade against Mario Williams, I think it is very unwarranted. Yes, Williams makes more money than he (or anyone) can live up to. Yes, he has had some nagging injuries - so did Bruce Smith - Smith was always missing training camp time for something, but he was in great shape - as is Williams.

I think the Patriots do this every year and they are pretty good.

Well, I think that they have clearly said that he is still being evaluated and they are waiting for the Doctor's report. Did you not hear that in the interview?

Thank you, I could not have said it better myself. Sullivan should be arrested for stealing from the News. He writes the same negative drivel repeatedly changing only to target the Bills or the Sabres at his whim. "Reporters" like him pass off their lack of knowledge and their incredible disregard for being remotely polite in any situation as "hard reporting" - "if they can't stand the heat, they shouldn't be pro athletes", but really absolutely NOTHING qualifies Sullivan to have any better opinion than any person who watches football on TV. What was the purpose of this pathetic article? Manny Lawson is a professional athlete that is working hard on maintaining his career to the best of his ability. The Bills signed him to a reasonable contract offer for a guy who has a chance to compete for a starting position. They did not pay him $8M/year. I don't read many of Sullivan's articles and when he is on WGR, I almost always change the station after 1 minute and scream at the radio "Shut the F**k up A**hole!"

This case and the Browns rookie being arrested for attempted murder should reinforce that it is important to consider behavioral red-flags when evaluating draft prospects. I am not saying any college player ever arrested for drinking, drugs or disturbing the peace is off-limits, just that teams really need to look at the risk-reward balance when evaluating these players. Clearly, not every player is "just an immature kid who will outgrow his problems".

What are you basing the claim that Jets FA defenders avoided Buffalo? Do you even know if Buffalo was interested in any of them? Didn't the Bills sign a FA LB/special teamer from the Jets?

Boy, I am already tired of this BS. Trade him for whatever you can get at this point. He is very good, not great. He isn't worth $7M+ per season as a safety (IMHO).

I think that E.J. Manuel has a LOT of potential and I am encouraged by his reported work-ethic and apptitude. However, I think that these "lists" are bogus. With the Bills' extreme youth at WR and a mediocre TE in Scott Chandler returning from a serious injury, I'd MUCH prefer to see Kevin Kolb or Tarvaris Jackson start at QB for (at least) the first half of this year. My rationale is below: 1. A rookie QB has a BIG job just knowing where his receivers will be. The Bills have a number of likely prime contributors at WR who will be very young (Woods, TJ Graham, Marquise Goodwin). 2. It will be understandable if Bills' fans express their frustration over the last decade if the Bills start slowly. Given the youth at the WR position, where it usually takes 2-3 years to "get it", I expect the offense to struggle. I'd rather see a "sacrificial lamb" in Kolb or Jackson take the fans' heat rather than the high-potential E.J. Manuel. Let Manuel come in later in the season as the "saviour" and when the WRs have some idea of where to be.

But he ignored QB from January until March when his organization signed Kevin Kolb and then again until April when they drafted EJ Manuel! Further, any schmo with even a minor in analytics could have told them that they could have waited until exactly pick 29 to take manuel and could also have told them exactly what to trade to the team with pick 28 to get him at the last possible pick!

??? Why would you take Mario Williams off the field on passing downs? I know that he makes more $ than many think he is worth, but he is still one of the best pass rushers in this league.

I agree completely.

While a healthy dose of skepticism is warranted regarding the chances of Troup and Easley contributing, I don't understand the need for so many to make snide comments about these two. These guys are not slackers, they have worked very hard. In both cases, they have been injured/ill and that is out of their control.

What talent "all around him" might that be? The backup to average starting TE Scott Chandler? Rookie WR Woods and Goodwin? 2nd year WR TJ Graham? Never caught a pass Marcus Easley? I am not saying that none of the WRs will ever pan out, but it takes (often) WRs 2-3 years to become really productive in the NFL.

None of them have ANY trade value right now until they show that they can play at the NFL level - and then you want to keep them.

My opinion is: 1. Give Manuel a lot of work in training camp and pre-season games, while having Kolb as the starter. 2. Do not put Manuel in a regular season game unless/until the coaching staff is very sure that he has a strong grasp of the offense. My reasoning: 1. Manuel has a lot of attributes that suggest that he could become a longterm good starting QB and I would not want to see his confidence ruined by playing before he is ready. 1a. After years of losing, the fan base has little patience and could turn on him quickly 2. I like Robert Woods and hold out hope that TJ Graham can become a decent contributor, but it often takes WRs 2-3 years to really become productive in the NFL and, aside from Stevie Johnson, all of their WR options are very young and inexperienced. Couple that with a big question mark at TE and you have a bad situation to put a rookie QB into.

If the Bills were going to take a chance on a QB in this draft, then I think Manuel was a very good option. Things we know about Manuel: 1. Big 2. Fast 3. Strong arm 4. Intelligent (graduated in Dec 2011 while playing D1 college ball is quite an accomplishment; has started his Masters degree) Things reported about Manuel: 1. He was a good leader at FSU 2. He "gets it", has a very good attitude & work ethic Things we don't know: 1. Will he be able to process what he sees and make the very quick decisions that he will need to in order to have success in the NFL? 2. Can he improve his mechanics and accuracy? (He hit a high percentage of his passes, but was reportedly a little wild when he didn't set up properly). Seems to me, that he has a lot of the right skills. Regarding the "things we don't know", almost all QBs entering the NFL from college have the same question as #1.

It also has to do with the level of competition. Roethlisberger and Flacco didn't play against stellar competition, so you can't just judge based on whether their WRs were drafted or not. Luck had Coby Fleener (TE #34 overall), Zach Ertz (TE #35 overall), Levine Toiolo (TE 4th round) to throw to. I am not sure if he had any highly thought of WRs, but he also had Stephon Taylor (RB) who was drafted this year, too. RG III had Terrance Williams (WR round 3 in 2013) and Kendall Wright (#20 overall in 2012) to throw to. I don't know if any of FSU's young WRs will be drafted early next year or in 2015, but they sure aren't household names now. I do agree with the general premise that a QB can make their WRs better (to some extent) - see Tom Brady. However, I also believe that great WRs can make their QB look good.

So, what exactly do you believe "analytics" to be? Do you think that it is something akin to "gee, players with fast 40 yd. dash times are good"? I am confident that it is more about which positions are most important and which positions are worth paying very high salaries for. I think that they exercised "pre-analytics" logic when they determined that they could not justify paying Levitre (an OG) $8MM/yr. Yes, I do think that it might also include things like: QBs with hand size greater than X have a higher probability of success in the NFL, if they play in the Northeast.... None of this "analytics" is going to be hard and fast rules. It is based on tendencies, trends, rules of thumb. Even with analytics, you still have humans evaluating humans with uneven experience levels. It will never be perfect.

Means absolutely nothing. FWIW, I like Kiper as he was the first of the "draft gurus" that I followed and I bought his book for many years. I just don't think he (or even the NFL teams) know everything. For instance, he certainly hasn't met with many of the players or talked with their college coaches to get the "deep scoop". He does have asccess to many of their game tapes - and I believe that he does study those, but that does not necessarily mean that his evaluations are definitive.

No OL - IMHO means that they drafted into the strength of what was left available after the early run on OL. Because of the early OL run, they were able to pick the QB that they preferred and still got a very high-end prospect at WR in round 2. As a bonus, they were able to nab an athletic LB who may give them coverage ability downfield against some of the top TEs in the league. Goodwin certainly has the physical talent to warrant his selection in round 3. Even if he develops into a solid kick returner and a dangerous niche player on offense, the pick was worth it. He may have a lot of upside given his world-class athletic ability and the fact that he never benefitted from NCAA spring practices due to his track commitments.

Let's not get ahead of ourselves here. I really like the Robert Woods pick. He is, by many accounts, NFL-ready and I believe that he'll have a good rookie year. Don't confuse that with his best year, as most rookie WRs require a year or two to learn the NFL game. I am warming up to the Marquise Goodwin pick. At first, I was put-off by his less-than-impressive production in college, but now that I realize that he missed every very important Spring practice in college to run track, I think that there is some significant upside. I think he has the ability to make an impact with his speed on end-around runs and screens with some medium range receptions also. I still have high-hopes for TJ Graham (at least I haven't written him off), so I think the two of these guys will split time and hopefully contribute, with Graham likely to play a bigger role this year. Da'Rick Rogers certainly has physical talent. He performed at a high-level in the SEC before being booted from the Tennessee team. Before we get too giddy, please consider how much of a f***up he had to be (with his talent level) to get kicked off the Tennessee team. I think that he was very well workth the UDFA signing, given his physical talent, but there are reasons (probably several) that NO team selected him in the draft, despite his size, speed, production against SEC competition... If they can get Stevie some help from Graham, Woods and Goodwin, then any contributions from Rogers is a bonus.

Russ Lande's view: http://www.nationalfootballpost.com/college_player_scouting_report.html&player=38468 ProFootballWeekly also had good things to say about him. Hey, he's a 7th round pick. He lacks size, but his redeeming quality is speed. Perhaps the Bills got lucky that he was injured last year - without the injury he might've gone higher. As with all late picks, more suspect than prospect.

One of the PAC-10 coaches (think he is the Stanford coach) is on NFLN now and he really was very positive on the Bills' draft. He was very high on Robert Woods and Kiko Alonso. He thinks that Alonso could be a Pro Bowler and that Woods will make big plays regardless of his lack of dynamic speed.