KeisterHollow

Yeah - I don't know anything about Chibane - but, its safe to say Marrone and Hackett do. They wouldn't of brought him in if they didn't think he could add something to their NFL offense. He was brought in before Moore was. I'd say G, TE, and CB are the weakest places, until we see how our OLB'ers do this year. CB has guys like Rogers, Brooks, McKelvin - all who have flashed promise and talent. We'll see if in Pettine's defensive schemes they're good enough. TE is obviously the place lacking the most in playmaker ability. We have Chandler - himself virtually an unknown before he came to Buffalo - and a bunch of unknowns. If no one comes out of that group shining this year, I think its safe to say we'll invest in that spot more next year. But, between those 3 places, lets not forget there will still be cuts, and there are still guys out there that could change the complexion of those spots by season's beginning.

My expectations are high - until I'm proven otherwise. I don't mind being optimistic right now. You know, we have a college coach coming in - we have a staff thats familiar with their skill-set and abilities, we have the whole group that is new to the scheme, so the rookies might not have that much of a uphill battle compared to the vets, and we have a league where the offenses are looking to imitate the college ranks a bit more - and, as evidenced by rookies like Luck, Griffin, Wilson, Dalton, Newton, Tannehill - rookies can be successful in this league, and young wideouts can, too. So - sure, there'll be some bumps and I don't expect us to be flawless. But, I do expect us to be new - new to our opposition, new and energized, excited, AND FAST. Plus, whoever is at QB, we have 2 good backs and a good O-line. AND - I don't think I'm being naive about the Defense. I think Pettine will have these guys playing good - at least not bad - so we should be able to hang with people even if our offense struggles at times. My point is simply this - now we have talent - top talent in places where we're used to having (a seventh round QB), and a bunch of undrafted WR's - to now a 1st round QB, and top talent WR's in Woods and Rogers. So, I think it'll be fun and I think we'll be able to compete this year. Lets look at it this way - I think we're quite a bit better than last year on both sides, and we managed 6 wins last year. Why is it so hard to see us winning 3 or 4 more games this year?

If EJ Manuel were to play decent this year, there's no reason now to think we can't make the playoffs as a wild-card. Our offense is still lacking an elite TE, but if we get the LG situation settled, Manuel has a bunch of weapons with which to work. Our offense could be considered - and might finish - a top 10 offense! We have two excellent RB's, now we have a group of WR's with a bunch of talent, and our O-line is good. Couple that with a defense that now has a solid group of LB'ers (and we still might add Dansby), and a secondary with a lot of potential. Sure - there might prove to be weak spots / places worth upgrading - but, after the draft and UDFA our team is looking a LOT more competitive, and it has a LOT FEWER holes than many of us anticipated. Nix and Whaley have really put on a terrific draft!

WOW - if this turns out to be true, Buffalo went from having perhaps the worst WR group in the NFL to having one of the best - and its YOUNG. Stevie Johnson, Wood, Rogers, T.J. Graham, Goodwin, and Easley! Thats a tremendous group! I recall about a month ago I mentioned how Marrone and Hackett would want to put together a group of WR's like they had in New Orleans when they were winning the Super Bowl. The whole point was to have a bunch of guys with similar size, speed, ability, so that opposing defenses would not be able to just focus on one guy - rather, they'd have to account for everyone on every play. Well - there's going to be some tremendous 3 and 4 WR sets happening now!

I like the looks of Kaufman - now that we have speed to burn, a big guy with good hands doesn't necessarily have to be a burner, too. Hey, can't hurt. I was hoping we'd bring in Lemon, though - I really like how he plays.

Great point! This is a thought I've had for years in regards to the draft: Instead of a team going into draft weekend and hoping certain guys fall to them, or just taking whichever player is available to you that's BPA, why not go through your roster pre-draft, look at all the holes and look at all the incoming rookies. Decide on a series of tiers that the college guys are going to be rated at, and isolate players that you could plug into your holes. Then, come draft day, instead of hoping your guys will be there, over draft your guys by like a half a round. EJ Manuel is a perfect example of this. I call it a sort of aggressive drafting, instead of passive drafting. Had the Bills waited until RD 2 for EJ Manuel, no one would have balked at them taking him. That half a round, however, might have forced their hand to another QB, if some team took him ahead of them. Likewise with Kiko - the idea of a guy being a good pick at 3, but not at 2, is very misleading. The idea is to get STARTERS - and that those starters are hopefully playmakers.

Yeah, this draft was a good one for us (although, there were a lot of teams that had good drafts this year). I noticed another thing, too, that was a bit unusual. Since Fitz was cut, and Gailey / Wannstedt fired, or since Marrone and Pettine were brought in - it just seems like when the announcers were referencing Buffalo, or when the Bills were being talked about, there was no longer that sort of - chuckling-behind-the-scenes, "they're a joke" type treatment. It felt as if Buffalo was being talked about like a team that has a chance, and as a destination that is something other than "a wasteland".

Yes - I LOVE!!!! that we have intelligent guys as our Coordinators now! Wannstedt was so frustrating - he was so stubborn, and I have to conclude also ignorant, unless he was getting paid to lose. Pettine is innovative. He's results oriented. Instead of resisting change, he incorporates it. It's awesome that we have guys like A. Williams who can be used as a 3rd CB OR Safety - and guys like Scott who can be a LB OR Safety, and Mario - an OLB OR DE. Heck, even Dareus, Williams, Branch, and Carrington can be DT's or DE's. A creative minded coach should be able to really conceal plays with our alignments; I've been thinking, as much as I didn't like it, our flip flopping from 3-4 to 4-3 and back these past few years might have left us with a very good roster for Pettine's designs.

I don't think any of us (except for Astro) could have mocked a much better draft! We got 3-4 starters out of this draft, and all of the picks look like they'll be used, whereas in past years it seemed like a lot of the later picks came in and left before we even got their names down. I came away from the draft with a little more insight into our Coordinators thoughts on the roster, too. Pettine must have been a lot higher on the LB corps than I would have thought - and a lot less thrilled with the Safety group. And, they must truly think McKelvin or Brooks is capable of being a good starter, unless Pettine thinks the Safeties will be far more important than the CB's. Either way - if he was worried about the LB'ers or CB's we would have seen a draft that reflected that. That is comforting to know. I was a little worried that Pettine would feel he needed to add a player or two to both the D-line and the CB positions. As much as I like the potential of our offense, and even though it was the better unit last year, I think the defense is going to be the strength of this team this year. And I'm really psyched to see what Hackett and Marrone have in mind for this offense! With the speed we have, and a QB who - as Nix pointed out - has a cannon for an arm, we should really put defenses in a tough spot. AGHHH - I've drank the Kool Aid, again!

Interesting stuff to chew on here. Before the draft we had, for offensive weapons, Stevie Johnson, Graham, Easley, Chandler, Dickerson, Spiller and Jackson. With our draft we added a player who is almost a copy of Graham (though Goodwin is more solid than I thought), and now Gragg, who is almost a copy of Dickerson. You hear a lot about how Pettine wants to run a hybrid, multiple type defense - well, it looks like Marrone and Hackett want to have a lot of interchangability on offense, too. It's pretty cool that our slowest skill man on offense is Stevie Johnson. That could bode really well for us. Now it's just about a certainty that on every offensive play - regardless of what formation we're using - we'll have at least one player, maybe up to 3 or 4, who 4.4 or better. I'd say we should be able to take advantage of a lot of linebackers this year. However it pans out, it is obvious now that Hackett and Marrone have a definite plan of attack, and the overall philosophy just has me excited. With a Pettine defense we shouldn't have to score 30 points a game to win. I believe we'll be in the thick of things come December, for a change.

I've seen him interviewed and he sounds like TROUBLE. Definitely attitude is not right. That was my impression from just watching brief interviews - so it must be worse than I thought for him to have fallen like this.

There's been a lot of positive feedback for this draft, and a lot of negative, too. I said, leading up to the draft, that we were a starting QB, WR, TE, G, ILB, and maybe CB away from being a really competitive team, and that a truly good GM could come out of this draft with 3 or 4 starters (because it is admittedy a deep draft class) and between the draft, UDFA, and FA, a good GM could fill all our holes - leaving us capable of competing for a Wild Card spot, at worst. Now, of those 6 holes / needs, QB is no doubt the hardest to find. In fact, I'd say coming out of a draft with a franchise QB makes that draft a success, regardless of the rest of the picks. Well, we hit on QB with our first pick - and since we had the pick of all of them, he had better pan out. For the sake of optimism, lets consider that one a hit (I like him; I love Cam Newton, so if he can play close to that, we're in luck). We definitely got WR taken care of, adding both an instant starter - and a player who now validates our WR corps - and another burner who happens to be multi-dimensional (between the two, our WR corps has a new look, and the complexion of our offense has changed for the better). At ILB we got a starter - and another guy who is so flexible we'll be able to use him in different alignments, and on all 3 downs. After that - the safeties - we'll have to see; I imagine one of them will eventually get starter time. The kicker will probably be a starter, too - although I didn't count that as a weakness/hole, so I won't include that in my assessment. So, before round 7 we come away with a Franchise QB (hopefully), a starter at WR and LB, and potentially 3 more starters. That's a good draft by anyone's standards. Sure, other GM's might have had "better" drafts - but they didn't have the same needs Buffalo did. As for the players later in the draft we overlooked, I'm assuming the Coordinators had a lot of input on the later round selections, and if we're passing on TE and CB, it must be because they're either satisfied with what we have, or didn't like the value. As of right now, if Chandler comes back healthy and if McKelvin or Brooks are decent starters - and if we sign, say, Moore for Tackle help - our team should be solid enough to compete for a playoff spot. For first year coaches, and for the tone of everything at OneBillsDrive, I'll be happy with that. In the end, though, this draft and Nix's whole time here in Buffalo is going to be measured by the success of Manuel - he alone will make or break it all.

He kicked a 60 yard FG in the spring of last year. His MO is he's got a strong leg. Ranked by WalterFootball as 2nd best kicker - although they said they wouldn't be surprised if he were the first taken, on account of his STRONG leg and touchback potential. Sounds like a good pick, yet again. (Doubt they would've taken him had other kickers not come off the board already - must be they were prioritizing getting a replacement in for Lindell, as was evidenced by last year's attempt)

Plus Okafor, Jones, Patton - I hope we trade up and get a couple of these guys who could end up being starters for us - a team like ours, with questionable talent in places, should value these guys a lot more than a team like San Fran, say, who has such high level talent already on their roster - and when there's still a concentrated pool of talent that could just as well have gone in the 2nd or 3rd round - like Okafor, Williams, Barkley - we should spend the later round picks necessary to trade up and plug some more holes, if not add depth! For once, bring the damn draft to you instead of "letting it come to you"!

I second that - Williams would be great. So would Shararko. Barkley would be fantastic - I only wonder if the Bills are averse to bringing in another QB who might actually play better in the beginning than EJ, and perhaps screw with his confidence? Still, there will definitely be guys in the 4th who could push for a starting spot. That is what is so great about this draft - we can still land a starter in the 4th! And, I'd bet we could get another WR in the 5th to challenge for a spot on the team, if not a Guard or TE.

Word out of the first camps this past month was Graham was the best player of all the WR's - making a lot of plays. I just watched a few videos of Goodwin. I was expecting a little Roscoe Parrish looking kid, but he's actually thicker than I thought he'd be, and looks more durable than his weight might indicate. There's a lot of instances of him breaking tackles. If Hackett and Marrone can use these guys I don't see why they can't make a few plays a game for us, at the least; also in special teams. This theme of speed - I know I've mentioned it before, but I just keep remembering when the Rams came out of nowhere. Until now we didn't have a QB who could utilize a lot of speed. But now we have a very strong armed QB. I could see Graham and Goodwin on the outside, Wood and Johnson in the middle / underneath, with Spiller in the backfield. That could be a tough formation to defend - so long as the QB can get it deep... And, remember, Dickerson runs a 4.4, Easley runs a sub 4.4, and Spiller - that IS A LOT OF SPEED. And, our QB can run!

He looks perfect for Pettine's "hybrid" defense. Man, Lawson, Bradham, Alonso - they're virtually interchangeable - sure, Bradham is a little shorter, but they're all fast, good coverage LB'ers who can tackle. If Alonso is capable of lining up on either the inside or outside, it'll make it that much more easy for Pettine to mix things up. As far as I'm concerned, we're a nice TE and CB away from having talent lined up everywhere - some of it young, no doubt, but I couldn't be more pleased with the picks they've made. Granted - I was really, really high on Tank Carradine and Ertz in the second, but when they were off the board, considering who was available, I think Buffalo has done an outstanding job of filling holes.

In regards to those people suggesting we take another QB if Barkley or Nassib falls to, say, the 3rd: I wonder, though, if taking another Qb with a similar grade would only work against Manuel's development? I could see it potentially having a negative effect on him, if he were to struggle at first picking up the offense, and the other didn't? I'd bet it's because of that - and not overspending picks on one position - that we do not take another QB like Washington did. The difference between their situation and ours - Griffin III was not going to be surplanted on that roster, no matter what. EJ, as good as he is, did not have that type of separation, ranking-wise.

I know I'll get criticized here for this - BUT - there's a certain prospect I'm really hoping Buffalo is forward-thinking enough to take a shot on with their 7th round pick. Lawrence Okoye is his name. He's a British Olympic shot-put brute. The guy is like like 6' 5", 290 lbs, and all muscle. I know he had a try-out at the national try outs for the players who weren't in the combine, and he was told he had enough physical talent to try - more than enough. His problem is he's never played football, I think. Sure, he'd be a project for a year or two, but this guy has the physical skill set to be a MONSTER as a 3-4 DE. Why not develop someone like that? Some team is going to give him a shot. I guess if there's a player at our 7th pick who stands a legitimate chance of immediately making our roster, I could see the reason to pass on him. But, if we're just looking at camp fodder at that point, I would really like to get this guy on our practice squad.

That draft you have Buffalo taking would be INSANE! Talk about filling needs - I'd be elated, and I think just about everyone would have to re-evaluate Nix's job. In that scenario he'd have taken maybe one year longer, two coaches instead of one, but he'd of finally gotten Buffalo ready to compete, and for the forseeable future. We can only hope!

I don't care what the people in Florida are saying about Manuel. He played pretty good in the senior bowl, when the playing field was certainly leveled. I've seen enough good things about his game to be excited about him as a prospect. I'll say it again - and I said it before the draft - although he wasn't my first choice, I trust our coaches to make a better decision that I am capable of, since, you know, they're professionals, they are the ones running the offense (you'd think they'd know better than anyone what type of QB they'll need), and they investigated, in person, all the candidates. After listening to more interviews with Manuel, something I didn't do before the draft (I only watched game video) I come away quite impressed with this kid's demeanor. I think he'll fit in quite nicely in a locker room. AND, now we can start day-dreaming about what he'll be able to do behind a decent O-line, with Spiller and Jackson in the backfield, with Stevie Johnson and HOPEFULLY another electric WR, maybe two good TE's... it's happening again... Buffalo Bills enthusiasm!

That's the beauty of what Buffalo did. If you only look at one pick - our first rounder - then some might say, purely on a pre-draft ranking, that we took a QB too early, or lost value with that pick. BUT, if you factor in our first AND second round picks, and present Manuel, and lets say Hunter and Minter, then all of a sudden those 3 picks - as opposed to, say, Milliner and Wilson, for instance, had we gone CB in rd 1 instead of trading down - our decision to take a QB and move on looks smart, and I'm thrilled with it. I couldn't have mocked us a better situation! Another Beautiful thing with our 2nd round position - there's so many ways to go that would be great, and those two would be AWESOME, too!

Now thats a great way to put it!

Yeah - there were lots of ways things could've panned out, but without trading back in the first, AND THEN GETTING OUR QB OF CHOICE! - we never would've been set to actually fill most of our starting needs. These two second round picks should be just as much starters as our 1st rounder was. And, if we play our cards right, our 3rd round pick should be a starter, too! If we go with Manuel, Hunter, and Ertz / McDonald (a trio I'd be THRILLED with also!) with our first 2 rounds, that leaves rounds 3-7 and UDFA to fill ILB, CB, and G - the biggest remaining holes. As far as I'm concerned, add in FA and we should have NO PROBLEM finding promising players for those roles. AND, if that is the case - there's NO REASON WE CAN'T BE COMPETING FOR THE PLAYOFFS come December!!!! So far, so good.

As far as I'm concerned we're now playing with house money! We've got the most difficult position to get, and we still have as many picks left in the first 3 rounds as we started with! I think, when you take away QB, our most glaring holes are WR, TE, LB, and CB. So, IMO, when our picks come up, we take the best of those positions available. By the end of round 3 there's no reason to think we can't have a new #2 WR, perhaps a starting TE to go nicely with Chandler for 2 TE sets, and a valuable defensive starter! BTW - because this draft is so heavy in WR talent, if we can manage to get Ertz with our first 2nd round pick I think we'd be doing our team a great service. TE's are a QB's best friend, at times, and to be able to run that 2TE offense with Stevie, Spiller, Manuel, and Graham (speedster) or a rookie WR like Hunter or Dobson - it could be really dangerous. Anyway, I think we could still land a great WR with our 2nd 2nd round pick, or even with our 3rd rounder. The Bills have really opened things up!