FrankReichComeback

I read this great article from Leo Roth below where he stated that you really can't "grade" a draft until three years after the final pick has been made. http://rocnow.com/article/leo-roth/2012304280038 He made me think....what grade would past years Bills drafts get? I am sticking to his suggestion and waiting until three years after the draft to grade. We'll start in 2005 Year: 2005 General Manager: Tom Donahoe Round Pick # Player Position College 2 5 Roscoe Parrish Wide Receiver Miami (Fla.) 3 86 Kevin Everett Tight End Miami (Fla.) 4 122 Duke Preston Center Illinois 5 156 Eric King Cornerback Wake Forest 6 197 Justin Geisinger Offensive Guard Vanterbilt 7 236 Lionel Gates Running Back Louisville Assessment: Buffalo was without a first round pick due to acquiring Drew Bledsoe the season before. Regardless this was an extremely poor draft. Parrish was knocked for under-sized out of college and never could stay healthy long enough to be a productive player. Everett got a few bad breaks injury wise (especially a career ending neck injury) and we never got to see what he could really do on offense. Preston was a serviceable depth player for Buffalo. Nothing above average came out of this year's group. Overall Grade: D- Year: 2006 General Manager: Marv Levy Round Pick # Player Position College 1 8 Donte Whitner Safety Ohio State 1 26 (from Chicago Bears) John McCargo Defensive Tackle North Carolina State 3 70 Ashton Youboty Cornerback Ohio State 4 105 Ko Simpson Safety South Carolina 5 134 Kyle Williams[3] Defensive Tackle LSU 5 143 Brad Butler Offensive Tackle Virginia 6 178 Keith Ellison Linebacker Oregon State 7 216 Terrance Pennington Offensive Tackle New Mexico 7 248 Aaron Merz Guard California Marv Levy's first draft. Levy was able to find a few starters but baffled many when he "reached" for Whitner in round 1. Whitner turned out to be a very average player on several poor Bills defenses and never seemed to justify being a Top 10 selection. HUGE miss on McCargo. Youbody, Simpson, Ellison, Pennington, and Merz saw action on the field but none proved to be anything special. The brightest spot in this draft was the home run selection of Kyle Williams in Round 5 who turned out to be a Pro Bowl player and one of the best player at his position when healthy. Butler was a nice surprise but had many health issues which led to his retirement. Overall Grade: B (A for williams, D for the rest) Year: 2007 General Manager: Marv Levy 1 12 Marshawn Lynch[4] Running Back California 2 34 Paul Posluzny Linebacker Penn State 3 92 Trent Edwards Quarterback Stanford 4 111 Dwayne Wright Running Back Fresno State 6 184 John Wendling Safety Wyoming 7 222 Derek Schouman Tight End Boise State 7 239 C. J. Ah You Defensive End Oklahoma Lynch, Posluzny, and Edwards all became starters quick but one would be hard pressed to say their play was anything above average. Lynch showed flashed but never seemed to be as motivated as he was after being traded to Seattle. Posluzny was a very average player in the Bills 4-3 defensive package and was not the difference maker they had envisioned. Edward had some good moments with Buffalo but more BAD. The rest of the picks did little to nothing with the team. Five years later none of the picks are on this team. Overall Grade: F Year: 2008 General Manager: Marv Levy 1 11 Leodis McKelvin Safety Troy 2 41 James Hardy Wide Receiver Indiana 3 72 Chris Ellis Defensive End Virginia Tech 4 114 Reggie Corner Cornerback Akron 4 132Supplemental Derek Fine Tight End Kansas 5 147 Alvin Bowen Linebacker Iowa State 6 179 Xavier Omon Running Back NW Missouri State 7 219 Demetrius Bell Offensive Tackle Northwestern State 7 224 Stevie Johnson Wide Receiver Kentucky 7 251Supplemental Kennard Cox Cornerback Pittsburgh Marv and company WHIFFED big time on McKelvin. He proved to be a corner that could get position but had pathetic ball skills. James Hardy was a BUST of colossal proportions. A very ill-advised pick given the fact that they drafted a raw "project" player at a time when they needed to draft a starter. The bright spots in this draft come from Rounds 7 where Marv got very luck with Stevie Johnson. Demetrius Bell eventually became a starter but injuries and inconsistent play plagued him. Overal Grade: B+ Year: 2008 General Manager: NO ONE! Draft by Tom Modrak and Dick Jauron 1 11 Aaron Maybin Defensive End Penn State 1 28 Eric Wood Center Louisville 2 42 Jairus Byrd[2] Safety Oregon 2 51 Andy Levitre Guard Oregon State 4 121 Shawn Nelson Tight End Southern Miss 5 147 Nic Harris Safety Oklahoma 6 183 Cary Harris Cornerback USC 7 220 Ellis Lankster Cornerback West Virginia Once again Buffalo WHIFFED in the first round on Maybin - drafting an undersized situational pass rusher when they needed a 4 down starter. Very very bad pick - that can't be understated more. HOWEVER the middle of the round brought three solid starters in Byrd, Levitre, and Wood. The rest of this draft is pure crap! Overal Grade: B/B+ Let's hear your thoughts of this assessment!

Agreed Brandon...if we're talking drafting this guy toward the middle to end of the draft, that makes sense. In the second or third round would be dumb.

I can't get over how you used the word "craw" LOL

Great can he catch passes from Fitz or take care of his "blind side?"

Our offense looked really dreadful at times and some of the blame can be placed on the two positions that we need the most -- OT and WR. I am very concerned that we have not really addressed these positions in the offseason. Sorry but I don't think Donald Jones or Chris Hairston are really starting caliber players. They can be good role players, but we need starters that play at a higher level. I'm hoping got Floyd here

Is it just me or did Urbik look pretty decent last year. THink he gives up good depth

Be careful....Donahoe thought JP was a "10-15" year guy too

Does anyone want players that we actually need? I would take Kuechly or Floyd or maybe Reiff. Sorry but no CB in round 1.

I have heard a lot about Buffalo being interested in trading for Dre Kirkpatrick out of Alabama. Some experts have tagged him as Buffalo's first round draft pick. My question is, does it really make sense to take him? Of course, our CB situation could definitely be improved, but I think there are more pressing issues at OT, WR, and OLB that need to be addressed before we make this pick.

Anyone have the numbers that Stevie rang up on Revis this year? I remember the game in NY was one his best all season (minus "the drop" of course)

So it says that registration has been suspended on BuffaloBills.com. Why can't I just register?

Jerry has no ties to Buffalo....maybe we could coax Andre Reed into coming back to play WR for us. OR maybe Don Beebe would consider.

Buddy Boyz

Pretend that you get to be GM of the Bills and a scenario allowed you to only keep one running back on your team as a starter. Your torn between Fred Jackson (who has been a proven player on this team for several seasons) or CJ Spiller (a RB who has shown great potential). There's pluses and minues to both players. Who do you keep and why?

Honestly I was never impressed with choice. He was a very overrated talent coming out of college. As a 3rd string RB, I'm ok with the Bills resigning him.

Reading some NFL rumors and it appears that Visanthe Shiancoe is available and talking with NFL teams. It looks like he visited Seattle but I think Buffalo would be wise to bring him in to compliment Chandler. The guy was a pretty good TE and I think he could really help pick up the slack for what we lack at WR.

Roscoe was on his way to becoming a good contributor to the offense in 2010-2011. 33 receptions for 400 yards and he made some CLUTCH first downs. THEN....he got hurt. The knock on Roscoe is not his knowledge of the playbook. It's the fact that he's so small and can't stay healthy for an entire season

"If you want to crown their ass then CROWN them!" Who is to say that this move is going to end in a championship? Indy had way more talented teams that Denver that went down early in the playoffs

I listened to an interview Buddy did with Mike Florio he said "We have 9 WR's on this team, so we are probably not in the WR business." OUCH that's not a good sign. I agree that all of the WR"s on our team are not capable #2 guys and Fitz is not good enough to make our average WR's stars. I have a lot of concern here and I'm hoping we do something different here

Some of the free agents they signed will eventually end up getting chopped

Yes sir...I hope Buddy pulls the trigger. This would be low cost-high reward type investment. He's a backup...not starter

He did beat the Steelers

Brad Smith is basically a WR...hasn't played much QB in the NFL. Tebow went 8-5 and won a playoff game against the #1 defense. Big difference pal

It sounds like we will trade down and take on the left tackles expected to go toward the bottom of the first. I really do think we could use the extra to address some of the needs on this team - OLB, CB and WR

Since Denver basically snagged the rug from under Tim Tebow, it appears that they are going to try to trade Tebow. Of course, everyone says Jacksonville but they just signed Chad Henne to a big deal and have Blaine Gabbert waiting in the wings. I don't think it makes much sense to bring Tebow on board unless they are planning to cut ties with Gabbert. Some have speculated Miami. While I don't this would be a bad move for the Fins, I am doubting that Jeff Ireland has the intelligence to pull this move off. I'm assuming they will sign Alex Smith to a huge deal and get the Alex Smith of 2009. So...why not have Buffalo sign the guy as a backup to Fitz. He can't be any worse than Tyler Thigpen. Plus Tebow is a gimmick player. Chan could find some awesome packages to get him involved, just like he did with Kordell Stewart back in the day. Really I would love to have a positive influence like Tebow on board. Tebowmania should come to Buffalo baby