hondo in seattle

Kelly, if you were actually smarter than Kiper, you'd be making multi millions working for the media. Kiper is correct on about half of his predictions of the first half of the first round. His success rate falls precipitously after that. This doesn't sound great but predicting what 32 GMs will do is difficult and most media draft gurus are right even more infrequently than Kipe.

I mostly agree... and will add that the Bills Offensive Line usually didn't get much of a push on 3rd and short situations. It was concerning. And now we've lost Levitre.

So how to pass effectively? Give your QB time to throw. How to stop the opponent from passing effectively? Don't give him time to throw. The trenches still matter. It took me a long time to acknowledge Brady was a great QB because every time I watched the Pats play, Brady had all freaking day to throw the ball. Almost any NFL QB will look good when he has enough time to crochet a sweater back there.

I think analytics do account for most of these qualities to a certain extent. A QB's stats wouldn't be as good if he wasn't good at these. But, to support your argument, metrics can't measure leadership. Nor do they fully account for how much the QB's stats benefit from the coach's scheme.

I tend to agree with the OP. To exaggerate the choice we face a little bit, I'd rather have a HOF lineman than a long-shot QB. We fans tend to believe that games are won by the strong arms of their QBs. And certainly there are some stats to back up this argument. And since we haven't had a good QB in a such a long time, we want to see the Bills draft the best QB available this year. But there's also a lot of truth still in the old adage that games are won in the trenches. A good OL makes both your RBs and QBs more productive, not to mention improving the likelihood your QB will last an entire season. We should have picked a QB in the first round last year. I don't know about this year. When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. This year life is giving us Big Uglies.

Thanks for the post. Realistically, I'm not expecting much from the Bills this year. But it's Spring and time to dream! It's good here some optimism from camp.

Some intel on Brown http://www.ninersnation.com/2012/6/1/3057213/49ers-udfas-kourtnei-browns-physique-resembles-aldon-smith

This is a fair argument. Nix hired Gailey. Gailey hired Wanny. The leader owns all the accountability. Let's see if Nix redeems himself by hiring Marrone who in turn hired Pettine.

I remember when some here wanted Brohm to be our starting quarterback. Let's see if he can beat out Burris for the job in Hamilton.

waiting for Easley = waiting for Godot

I spent all of last season moaning over Wanny's ineptitude and wondering "What if...?" We'll find out the "What if" this season, though with a slightly different cast of characters. So far, we've lost more defensive players than we've gained. If Pettine gets more from this D than Wanny - and I expect he will - we'll know Wanny deserves the expletives cast his way.

I wore my Bills gear to a Bills-Dolphins game in Miami - the Bills last playoff win. There were 10,000 or more Bills fans there and we were heckled and booed and flipped off a lot. Great fun! I also wore Bills gear to a couple 49er games where I was mostly ignored. We won one of those games handily and as 49er fans left in disgust in the 4th quarter, I could proudly see more blue in the stands than red.

Mostly agree. Trading down might make sense to the Bills but trading up needs to make sense to someone else. Most draft gurus seem to think the top of the draft class just isn't that special this year. So, generally speaking, teams won't offer a lot to trade up. We need to hope some GM has his heart set on someone still available at #8.

I don't necessarily disagree but here's what scares me. Even first round QBs only have maybe a 50-50 probability of becoming franchise QBs. The odds for QBs - as all positions - fall as you go deeper in the draft. Normally, your best starters are found in the first 3 rounds. We'll take a QB with one of those picks and more than likely pick the wrong one. So one of our top 3 picks will be wasted, leaving us with only two solid (hopefully) picks in the first three rounds. We have more than 2 needs to fill in the draft and the later picks just aren't likely to give us much.

I get where you're coming from, but completing less than a quarter of his 15+ yard passes is scary.

We already got better on D by firing Wanny and hiring Pettine.

At #8, we ought to find a future HOFer or near HOFer. I'd rather get a HOF guard than swing and miss at a QB. I'd rather go with probabilities than position.

+1 Rankings go up and down a lot among the sports media folks as they talk to more scouts and watch more game tape.

Good article for me because I didn't watch a lot of games after seeing the first five. Losing is painful to watch so I started spending most Fall Sundays with the family instead of glued to the TV in anguish. Nice to know Gilmore came on like that.

From Peter King's Monday Morning Quarterback... THIS SAYS IT ALL. "Quick comment about Nassib. In Hindi language - Nassib means Luck. Do I need to say more ?" -- Ram, Delhi, India KING: Bills fans, take note. Read More: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/nfl/news/20130409/brian-banks-atlanta-falcons/#ixzz2Q4l8CCV6

If I was a NFL QB, I'd rather have two short, fast, sneaky WRs who got open than tall WRs who I could 'throw open.' I get why people say we need a big WR who can go get the ball but if we focus on that, we end up picking guys like James Hardy and passing over guys like DeSean Jackson.

Yeah, I agree. What did we get for Lynch? A 4th or 5th rounder? At his age, Freddy would bring even less. And there aren't many 7th rounders who would mean as much to this club as Freddy does.

Forgetting about Walker and the AFC Blog... 3 million guaranteed for Kolb this year plus another 2.5 mil for TJax... Given the possibility of success each of them brings (both at times seemed to flash potential of being better than their historical numbers), the relatively low cost of these guys is a reasonable expense. We can't depend on the draft to produce our starter. If Kolb earns the starting job and is actually productive, he'll make more than the base of 3 mill and that won't be a bad thing. This is a bad year to need a QB. I think OBD did about the best they could do so far. Now let's see who they draft.

I saw on the Howard University Athletics Facebook site that someone posted something like "We need to stop using the Buffalo Bills logo" but that doesn't prove anything either. I couldn't find a Howard Charging Bison photo prior to 2002 but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. I suppose there's the possibility that Howard U and Stevens Wright both independently came up with similar logos. But they are so similar, that would be hard to believe. So for now I believe Ralph purchased a design that originated from the hand of Stevens Wright. What Wright's inspiration was, we may never know. Sorry Beerball.

Because it's not true.