OldTimer1960

I concur that Nawrocki does a great job. I've been a huge fan of Pro Football Weekly's coverage going back more than a decade. The late Joel Buschbaum (Nawrocki's predecessor) was fantastic. He had a good blend of doing his own extensive evaluations and lots of contacts in the NFL who annonymously shared opinions with him. Nawrocki has done a good job as a replacement. However, I see red-flags all over Anthony Davis. I would avoid him like the plague. Frankly, I'd rather take my chances with the athletic but extremely raw Demetrius Bell than waste a #1 pick on Davis. Bulaga, Okung, maybe Trent Williams OK, but not Davis. I REALLY like Iupati, but he really isn't a LT and maybe isn't a RT, either. So, what would the Bills do with him? Maybe the could move Wood to C and play Iupati and Levitre at G, but that doesn't solve the OT problems that they have.

I generally agree that if there is a very good LT available, they should take him. I DO NOT like Davis from Rutgers - too fat and lazy to take that high. I don't think Iupati is a LT candidate, but I like everything I've read about him, problem is, if you take him and he can't play LT, then what? Maybe he can play RT, but he is really more of a OG and I think the Bills are already pretty solid there with Levitre, Wood and Ingonito. Bulaga might be an OK pick, but #9 might be a little high for him. I think Okung and Williams will be gone. On the QB side, I don't know if I am sold on any of them. I think Bradford will be gone and I don't think Clausen is worth that pick. I don't think Tebow should go before rnd 3 and I wouldn't take Pike or any other QB in the first.

I think Denney, Lynch Whitner, Edwards and Youboty will all still be around. Denney is really not bad and while Whitner and Lynch haven't lived up to their draft status, they are still pretty good players. Edwards and Youboty are cheap so will be given a shot to make the team.

But, if the first 3 picks go to a QB and LT, where is the help for the weak defense? I suppose that maybe some help for the D could come in FA, but the Bills' D was LAST in the league against the run. I think that they do have plenty of talent in the secondary, but both DL and LB must be upgraded significantly.

My problem with this is that there isn't a QB in the whole draft that is worth taking in round 1, let alone trading up for. Sam Bradford is the concensus #1 QB, but he is not big/strong enough to take the pounding he'd receive behind the Bills' OL. Clausen is a mirage. Pike and Lefeavre are projects.

Are you sure that Troy Smith was a 1st round pick? I think it was more like the 5th round, but I could be wrong.

Are you talking about Dwight Adams? I used to love it when he would be interviewed on the radio!

Levitre is not really a viable candidate at LT. He isn't tall enough, nor does he have a long enough reach. If the buzz is that Iupati can't play LT, then the Bills should not draft him. They are reasonably set at OL other than the gaping hole at LT.

Not all scouts are high on Rolando McClain. Sporting News War Room isn't sure he is even a 1st round pick.

I wasn't a big fan of the Maybin pick, either, but you can't declare him a bust after one year. The Bills knew, or should have known, that Maybin would be a project. He was only a true-sophomore and was very under-weight (yeah, I know he bulked up quickly, but you had to figure he wouldn't hold weight gained that quickly). He's also only 20 y.o. and his body may fill-out, especially with more weight training. Now, I don't know if he will ever come around or not. I also don't think it was a positive sign that he got so little playing time. But at least in all the interviews I've seen with him, he seems to have the attitude and work ethic to try to make a go of it. I am as frustrated with the pick and lack of production as most, but he does still have a high ceiling and his slow-development wasn't unexpected. I think (hope?) that he'll show improvement this year and by 2011 (if they don't have a lockout) he might be a very good player.

I must be missing the lines above that qualify him to be a good defensive coordinator.

Oh, I am horribly sorry for misspelling a players name. I am humbled that you took your precious time to point out this terrible error. You know what? After 20+ years of following the draft very closely, sometimes I don't feel like running off to another website to confirm a player name spelling. Now, if you have all night to be on the web checking spellings and admonishing others, then good for you. I have other things to do.

Davis is an over-weight underachieving player whom I wouldn't want to invest the 9th overall pick in and then give him $10M+ and HOPE that he decides to get in shape and try hard. Buluga, by all accounts I've read is not reallty a talented enough player (at this point after his Jr year) to pick that high. From what I've read Campbell would be worth the pick, but likely not available at 9. My opinion, at this time, is to avoid reaching for a LT or QB and take the best impact defensive lineman of LB available. If the Bills can build the Defense into a very good one and can improve the OL a bit in FA and the draft, then they can be competitive most of the time next year.

IMHO, the ONLY big need on the OL is for a very good LT. There are not 5 very good LTs in the draft. I also don't believe that there are more than 3 LTs worth a top 15 selection. Given the premium on the position, I'd guess that the good ones will be gone leaving the Bills to reach for a non-first round caliber LT or a non-first-round calidber QB. I'd much much rather that they get a good value and strengthen another area of the team - particularly the defense. Just drafting a LT or a QB at 9 does not make that player worthy of the pick, nor does it necessarily solve a problem at LT or QB. If the guy is much better than D. Bell or Fitz/Edwards , then OK, but just throwing a pick at a position doesn't make it a good move.

He is so out of shape that I'd hope the Bills wouldn't waste even their 2nd pick on him. Guys like that most often don't have the drive to get themselves into shape and therefore never reach their potential in the NFL. Not saying he couldn't get it together, just that it is unlikely. Bruce Smith is an example of someone who was fat coming out of college who "got fitness religion" and was tremendous - BUT there are really few guys like that.

New coaches do not generally have their staffs lined up before they are hired. The only way that they could possibly do that would be to have lined up other unemployed assistants. They can't legally contact coaches on other staffs and. even if they could, who would quit a secured job to join the staff of some head coach who didn't have a job at that point?

Lynch is not going to fetch anything significant in trade, especially not Merriman. Lynch is a backup running back/ marginal starter with off-the-field problems and one mis-step away from another suspension.

Agreed, but the Bills don't have any edge rushers (at least at LB), either. Further, all of their LBs except Mitchell are very very undersized to play a 3-4.

Right On! This might be the best post that I've seen in a while here. Very insightful. Add to this that the Bills current defenders don't fit a 3-4 well at all and you'd have to turn over most of your DL and LBs just to make the conversion. Very hard to do when many other teams are now competing for the very same players that you'd need. The 4-3 will work fine if you have good players. The Bills clearly need at least one, maybe 2 more starting LBs and need more pass rush from their DEs. I suspect that the Bills will end up having to trade Schobel to a contender othewise he will likely retire, so that will make a pass rusher even more important. No doubt, the Bills have big needs on offense including LT and QB, but I would rather see them get an outstanding DE, LB or DT than to reach for whatever is left at LT or QB at #9. Bolster the D (4-3) and fix the OL and then fill in the skill positions next year.

Not anymore than all the Bills' defensive FAs will follow Fewell to NY. FAs mostly go where the money is.

They do throw the ball a little in Az with Warner, Fitzgerald, Bolden and Breaston. That 28th ranking could have been partially because they throw much more than they run because they have so much talent in the passing game. Kinda like The Bills' relatively high ranking in pass defense was to some extent just a reflection of how putrid they were against the run.

I disagree that it is abnormal for a head coach to be hired and then take some time to put together a staff. He surely has some ideas who he wants on his staff, but job interviews and checking out other candidates than the ones you already know requires some time. Also, it is *possible* that he might want someone from one of the playoff teams so he might need to wait for that. Still, pickings are slim with so few teams having let their coaching staffs go this offseason. He will either have to get people who were not coaching last year or he'll have to convince people from other's staffs to come here for a promotion (eg LB coach to DC). One of my biggest concerns with how long it took to hire the HC was that there would be few coaches available to fill out his staff.

I don't think that you can really tell anything from Reich working with Manning. I am pretty sure that Manning would still be great if I was his QB coach. On the flip side, that doesn't mean that Reich isn't any good. I think that Reich's career as an intelligent dedicated under-talented QB whose main contributions were as a sounding board for Jim Kelly *might* be a good background for being a QB coach and maybe OC someday. I would think that hiring Reich would be an interesting and exciting thing for a team desperately in need of some excitement.

Why would you advocate spending a 2nd round pick this year on a QB if you plan to spend another high draft pick on a QB next year? As a stop-gap starter a rookie is a very poor idea. I'd rather watch Fitzgerald, Edwards and Brohm fight it out than a rookie start -UNLESS the Bills are very sure that the rookie is their long-term answer.

I understand the sentiment that the Blls have been bad for a very long time and therefore it must be Tom Modrak's fault. However, I've been a draft fanatic for 20+ years and that has allowed me to gain the perspective that: 1. it isn''t always the scouts problem. 2. the team's needs often dictate reaching for players 3. the coaches, who haven't scouted the players often get final say 4. THE DRAFT IS A CRAPSHOOT ANYWAY. Many many picks that look great on draft day go in the crapper. Modrak's draft record is actually pretty good. Now, they haven't addressed the OL until last year. Do you think that is because Modrak didn't scout any OLmen? They didn't hit on JP Losman - do you think no other team would have taken him at about the same spot? And, do you think that his flameout had nothing to do with the coaching he received and the talent (or lack of) around him? Just my opinion, but Modrak has a pretty decent record drafoting and you can't blame him for all of the choices. Given the reality that there are always a lot of draft busts, I think he's done fine.