Wayne Cubed

And why is Anderson automatically penciled in as a starter? If Merriman has a better camp than Anderson(who's best sack season was last season)and is healthy enough, Merriman starts at end and Anderson comes in. Going from a 3-4 pass rushing OLB to a 4-3 WILL/SAM isn't as simple as flipping a switch. The two roles are very very different. As WILL/SAM linebacker if they are playing Zone, he will be required to drop into his zone coverage or in Man to Man he will be responsible for RBs and TE's. It isn't always a "hey shawne get in there and rush the pasher from OLB." Shawne played DE for Maryland. And if you read what I wrote. The Bills and Shawne himself have said he will play DE. Exactly

Sorry but I have been saying this ad naseum. Merriman is NOT going to be a LB in the 4-3. He's said it. The Bills have said it. Hell even buffalobills.com has him listed as DE. He will be a DE. Rushing OLB in a 3-4 generally will be a DE in a 4-3 and vice versa.

Not to nit pick, but New Orleans didn't get their QB through draft and either did Houston... so thats 10 out of 12. And sorry but a 1 year sampling does not an argument make. In 2010: 5 teams out of 12 had a QB they didn't draft In 2009: 5 teams out of 12 had a QB they didn't draft

Its funny but JoeB didn't even hear the Bills were interested in Barron from the Bills. "The way I understand things, a league source says the Bills are said to be very high on both Barron and Gilmore" So basically JoeB heard from someone who heard from someone... sounds pretty reliable to me. FWIW, Walker on ESPN says this has smokescreen written all over.

Last season he played at 305 and was able to handle the weight perfectly fine. It allows the the ends to be Williams, Kelsay, Anderson and Merriman, and gives the Bills an option to draft possibly one more for depth. IMO, moving in side helps A LOT with depth inside. It also allows us to possibly get rid of Dwan Edwards, who may not work out in a 4-3. So the insides would be Dareus, Williams, Johnson, Heard, Carrington and Troup. Their is multiple options with these guys to effectively stop the run or pass and not see too much of a drop off in production.

My take on him is this: I'm sure the Bills and Buddy Nix genuinley like Barron and think he is a great player. But this whole situation SCREAMS of smoke screen. Why with their being 4-5 can't miss prospects, unlike last year when their was like 8-9, would he tip his hand about who he is going to pick or what direction they are going. All the comments about them wanting a "scat back" came from Gailey, not Nix, and they were said in February of that year. With all these recent claims about San Diego and Dallas really liking Barron a statement like this really plays into them. Although it was thought that Dalls really liked Poe, so their interest in Barron could be a smoke screen as well. At this point its very much a game of cat and mouse, so everything said or release by the Bills HAS to be taken with a grain of salt.

For the iPhone and in no particular order: StarWalk: Allows you to view the night sky and identify stars/constellations FastBalance: Keeps me up to date on my HSBC bank account Urbanspoon: Allows me to find, review and rate resturants where ever I am Tune in Radio: Allows me to listen to American radio WhatsApp: Allows me to text people back in the States who don't have iMessage Game of the moment DrawSomething: Like pictionary between friends who have the app

Thats good, because he's slated to play DE.

And again... does that at all take into account badly thrown balls? My guess is no... The catch rate statistic is subjective, as is drops. Who's fault is it when a ball is poorly thrown and the WR drops it? Are they suppose to catch everything within a specific radious of their hands even if its a poorly thrown ball? Edit: I'm not trying to just defend SJ. And I'm also not throwing Fitz under the bus, because I love him as the Bills QB. But I believe a little perspective is important. The offense as a whole failed.

I didn't mind your post until you just had to rant about Stevie Johnson. I mean c'mon dude, "Tons" of balls? Thats like saying Fitz is inaccurate "Tons" of the time. Which btw, you act as though Fitz isn't ever inaccurate, like he can do no wrong. Yes, we get it, you don't like Johnson or other "scrubs" in the WR corp and they aren't worthy of catching Fitz's spirals. Riddle me this, if SJ drops "tons" of Fitz's super-amazingly-tight-accurate-spirals, why isn't he in the top 20 in the league of dropped passes? I realize that stat isn't official, but being that all receivers are on that list and are arguably getting rated the same way, why doesn't he make the top 20 if he drops a "ton"? Even if we give the people who create the stat an error of +/- 2 drops, he still isn't in the top 10. You know its funny, posters like yourself, rag on the Bills reveivers when they drop a ball. Yet you don't applaud them when they make adjustments to terribly inaccurately thrown balls. Which there isn't a stat far, but surely makes the QBs(Fitz) completion stats look better. How many of Fitz's lame ducks did WR's have to make adjusments too(of which he has thrown many)? In the end Fitz, Stevie and the rest of the offense make errors that contribute to poor performances and losses. Hell, I've seen Fred have a ball hit him in the hands that he dropped. But it is certainly not the WR corps fault we lost all the games we did last year as you imply. It was a combination of things, which include Fitz. /rant

Seeing as you are using the Bears as an example, why is it we know that they shouldn't have taken him higher than round 5? I know you keep using Urlacher as an example and thats all well and good but why couldnt the Bears have taken Brady in Round 3 instead of Dez White? It may have looked like a reach to draft pundits at the time, but in hindsight they would have looked like genius's drafting a hall of fame lock QB in round 3. Instead they drafted a WR who was off their team in 3 years and out of the league in 5. Thats the thing about hindsight... In the end, I agree with you when you say it comes down to the other 31 teams and where they have players rated. The problem I have is the teams never release where they have a player ranked on their boards, and for good reason. So in the end, we as fans, have no idea and can only speculate about the true "value" of a player in terms of where they were drafted.

Strength of schedule, before a down of football has been played this year, based on last years results.

First, excellent response and analysis. Second, I think when people say draft value is stupid or a lousy concept, they mean unless you know all 32 teams boards and compare them, how can you say a player is a reach or a value pick. People like Todd McShay and Mel Kiper give their opinions and values to players which in turn get used by average joe fan. Which in the end means nothing because they aren't NFL GM's or masterful evaluators of talent. If they were, then they would be GM's themselves or be involved with a team. Every year these draft pundits over value and under value players. It happens quite a bit. But if a team believes they got their player at the right time and round then words like reach and value get thrown out the window. Teams don't ever know what each others boards look like, so they don't know if in comparison its a reach or value. And I'm sure they don't go to these "experts" for advice. The teams opinions are the real experts. So in the end, these arbitrary words get tossed around, like reach or value, by people who have absolutely nothing to do with the teams, besides maybe being a fan. So who's to say whether one team got a great value in comparison to what other teams have them rated. They don't ask other teams about each others drafts, so in the end us fans have no idea if any one team reached or got value.

I'm torn on this pick if its CB... -On one hand, its a passing league, so I understand that having a shut down type CB is important. Takes pressure off the line. -On the other hand... Look at the Giants CB's, they proved with a good pass rush(which we might potentially have now), your CB's can look much better. And in fact Williams, Flo, McKelvin and McGee could end up looking A LOT better. Add to that J. Rodgers could develop and it makes me think why waste such a high pick.

@buffalobills: Nix: 'We feel Chris Hairston can play LT for us. But we have 3 tackles on the roster. That's not enough. We need to pick-up someone' Makes me think LT might not be first pick... @buffalobills: Nix: 'We have some speed guys (at WR) but they're unproven. We want another guy & we think it'll help Stevie Johnson's production a lot.'

Cmon, the guy got a DWI. It's not like he is Vontaze Burfict. Its college, people drink... a lot. His senior season he moved back on campus and was a model citizen. He made a poor decision, lets not crufify him over it.

Browns fans are fine. We don't play in the AFC North so it'll be alright atmosphere. Not to mention the years Cleveland didn't have a team I remember seeing Cleveland fans in Buffalo to see games.

Or maybe they saw everything they needed to see on film and at the combine... And could still pick him.

Cleveland game, flying in from England, meeting a friend who's a Browns fan.. Wish I was in LA still, I would've like to go to Arizona again and SF

1: Ryan Tannehill QB: Miami Dolphins 2: Michael Floyd WR: Buffalo Bills 3: Courtney Upshaw OLB: New York Jets 4: David DeCastro G: Cinncinati Bengals 5: Luke Kuechly LB: KC Chiefs

Yea I guess one year off after 3 in a row is nice treat

Ouch back to back west coast trips.... Week 5: @SF Week 6: @Arizona

And as a sign of absolutely nothing happening in the football world in the offseason ESPN writes an ENTIRE article about this nothingness.... Jesus can the season start already

They played in the coliseum for 34 years before that. So yea that excuse is valid. It was severely outdated, being built in 1922, and hard to sell out(100,000). Something the Raiders learned when they moved their in 82, when the NFL wasn't nearly as popular,, especially with the new black out rule. Have you ever seen a game at the coliseum? It's brutal. In 20 years will people be blaming the fans or lack of fans in Minnesota for leaving even though it would've been because of the crap stadium they were playin in? Yea, but, but they won't support the NFL cause there is so much more entertainment and other sports... :wallbash:

I lived in LA for many years and I never got when people on this board talk like LA can't support a team. Do people not understand that the Raiders and Rams left because a new stadium couldn't be built. Both teams just didn't want to play in the coliseum anymore, which wasn't built to hold NFL teams. It had almost little to do with fan support. There is tons of fan support for the NFL in LA. LA ISa viable NFL city.