OldTimer1960

I understand that it can take a while for draftees to find their footing in the NFL, but it has to be a concern that a first round pick who was specifically drafted to replace Dane Jackson, is struggling to win that job. Now, I know that Jackson isn’t horrible, but they clearly wanted to upgrade from him and that hasn’t worked out so far. To the 2nd question, if Jackson and Benford beat Elam out, then sure I’d be comfortable trading him. Yes, I saw Elam play last year and I thought he played reasonably well, but it doesn’t seem that the coaches are confident in him.

I was looking at it from the perspective of keeping a first round pick who has been a disappointment. Also, can’t imagine that his trade value would go anywhere but down as a backup to a guy he was picked to replace.

I’m still hoping that the light comes on for Elam, but If he can’t win the starting job convincingly, he should be considered as a trade candidate. Question is, what could you get in return for him?

I think Epenesa showed that he can be a good rotational DE last year. He isn’t going to be a star, but he can be a good player to have on a team. I was, too. I’m disappointed that he hasn’t shown more. I think he is just a tweener between DT and DE.

Injury to Milano or rest breaks for Milano. This is a very good team with few starting spots available for rookies.

He is a rookie from not a big time program. They don’t want to overload him by having him learn 2 positions- and a rookie at MLB calling defense in the huddle is risky. Too early to panic on a rookie late 3rd round pick.

I hope you are right, but compare Bernard to The rookie Dorian Williams who is listed at 228ish. Williams looks quite a lot more muscular than does Bernard. Now, I know speed, instincts and intelligence to know assignments also matter, so maybe Bernard makes it up there? Again, I WANT to be wrong about Bernard.

I understand that today’s LBs are smaller, but faster than in the past, but a difference of 6’1” 236 vs Bernard’s 6’1” 220 is pretty substantial when you consider that is roughly 16 pounds of muscle.

I have never seen why they would have drafted Bernard before very late in the draft and it was extremely disappointing to me that Bernard doesn’t appear to be any bigger/stronger after an offseason NFL strength and conditioning program. I see him as a candidate to be traded for a late round pick before final cuts. I HOPE that Bernard proves me wrong, but I don’t see it.

This is exactly it for me as well. He just looks weak and like he doesn’t belong in a NFL LB room.

True, but you need a decent batting average on early round picks. I have been a staunch defender of Bills’ drafts, but there have been a lot of early round disappointments. Hopefully, Elam isn’t one of them.

I know it is early yet, but LB is a pretty big concern for me. I don’t know that there is any good option as a starting LB at the NFL level among Dodson, Bernard , Klein and Spector. I am also somewhat disappointed that Elam hasn’t yet claimed the top CB spot opposite White. The competition that he must beat out in Jackson and Benford were both late round draftees for a reason and it doesn’t look good that Elam isn’t clearly a better player than either of them. Now, I’m not saying that Elam should get the job if he doesn’t win it, but it would be another early round draft miss if he doesn’t.

This is a pretty depressing position all around except for Milano.

I think there may be a lot of dime defense with Milano being the only LB.

I hope they are right about the candidates they have in-house… I WANT to be wrong about Bernard, but man he looks tiny out there and going with former UDFA Tyrell Dodson would seem desperate. Now, maybe one or both can really play, I sure hope so.

True, but I think they might have whiffed hoping that Terrel Bernard could replicate Milano’s success. I think we might see the Bills try to swing a trade before the regular season to find someone who can reasonably play along with Milano.

Can’t contemplate trading him due to cap hit .

What is your definition of production? I think Oliver was a better investment than Edmunds would have been and I liked Edmunds. I am not defending the contract as I don’t pay that much attention because positional value changes quickly, but I think Oliver has been disruptive on several occasions.

I don’t think that Brown has any kind of problem with “want to” or effort. I think he mainly needs to be healthy and be able to train during the offseason and not have to miss much of training camp and preseason. For all the negativity on this board over Brown, I think it is pretty amazing that he played at all last season after what he went through in the offseason. I can’t imagine that he was able to do much weight training after back surgery - imagine playing OT in the NFL without an offseason of strength training.

I always try to give young players the benefit of the doubt, but I am having a very difficult time seeing how Bernard can be a NFL LB with his small stature. I was hopeful that he would bulk up this offseason like Matt Milano did over his first offseason, but photos from OTAs still suggest that he is very small compared to the other backers on the roster.

Different eras for sure. I’m no Steelers fan, but Lynn Swan was great.

Thurman Thomas would have been great in this offense with his receiving ability.

Barry Sanders is the greatest RB I have seen. OJ Simpson was tremendous, Earl Campbell, too. But to my eyes Sanders was basically unstoppable.

Where is the Ernie D. love? He was such a great passer.

All of the discussions leading up to and during the draft were great fun. My sincere thanks to Gunner and others who clearly put in a great deal of time and effort not only in researching the prospects, but actually evaluating them as well. That takes a lot of time and no small amount of expertise that they have built over the years. I enjoy watching the actual game tapes for some of the prospects, but I don’t have the time (presently, but retirement isn’t far off!) nor the expertise beyond 50+ years of fandom to do what they do. Looking forward to offseason training notes and camp for more discussions. The conference and the AFC East are Uber-competitive. I can’t remember ever seeing so many really talented teams in one division and one conference. There will be some outstanding teams who miss the playoffs in the AFC this year.