RK_BillsFan

These were 2 mock drafts that I did tonight but this will all change as we sign and get rid of people. Draftek Big Board 19: R1P19 ILB REGGIE RAGLAND ALABAMA 49: R2P18 DT ANDREW BILLINGS BAYLOR 80: R3P17 OT JOE HAEG NORTH DAKOTA ST 114: R4P19 OLB NOAH SPENCE E KENTUCKY 144: R5P17 TE TYLER HIGBEE WESTERN KENTUCKY 174: R6P17 S JUSTIN SIMMONS BOSTON COLLEGE ----------------------------------------------- CBS Big Board 19: R1P19 DT ROBERT NKEMDICHE OLE MISS 49: R2P18 WR MICHAEL THOMAS OHIO STATE 80: R3P17 OT KYLE MURPHY STANFORD 114: R4P19 OLB DEION JONES LSU 144: R5P17 TE TYLER HIGBEE WESTERN KENTUCKY 174: R6P17 DE DEVONTE FIELDS LOUISVILLE

Look lets just all agree on a few things here: 1) Tyrod is doing OK. Not fantastic, not terrible. OK - He sure as hell can throw it better (maybe not as accurately) than anyone we've had. 2) Our O-line sucks..... 3) Running game is inconsistent. See #2 3) Where the !@#$ is the plays designed to use Clay who we paid out the ass for. I feel like he's a forgotten man. 4) The regression of our D has really really been noticeable is NOT acceptable. 5) Combining #1 and 3 - Does it feel like Woods is almost invisible and Hogan seems almost passable as a WR 3? We need a True #2.

I have to say, the year has been up and down for me. Lots of different feelings. Overall though, last year and this year have been, upgrades. When I sit back and really look at it though, this is the thought that keeps me positive: Brady and Belichick will eventually retire. I firmly believe that if that if they had retired and it was a new Coach and new QB, we'd be #1 in our division. Remember, not every team has to deal with having one of the greatest coaches and QBs in their division for over a decade and a half.

I was pretty pissed at this as well. what a massive waste of time over something that should have been routine. They should have at least put the time back on the clock.... why are we penalized for the refs arguing about ball placement, which is there job.

I disagree. Poor play calling, McKelvin, and a missed Tackle before the end of the half lost us this game, more specifically, McKelvin and the Missed Tackle. Missed Tackle saves us 4 points and McKelvin's Butter Fingers would have saved us another 3 ( who knows if we would have actually gone anywhere on our drive). There is your 7 point difference. Throw in some better play calling, maybe some play action passes to the TE that we paid all that money for? Maybe we don't run the ball even though we have our big man package on 3rd and 1/2 and use a screen play? Who knows. Overall neither team did well and it was a depressing night of watching two teams show pretty good D schemes against one another. If we ever want to be taken serious we have to win this type of game.

The play calling in general was pretty terrible and extremely predictable. Awful waste from a pretty good D performance.

I did not think it was possible for me to hate him more than i previously did. I was wrong. The Darby pick is simply looking better and better....... but sweet lord...... he needs to be gone. How is it possible to lose us 2 different games, to the same team, both on Monday night. Don't get me wrong, we did not have a strong game, but i'll be dammed if the Pats didn't look spectacular with the minor exception of perhaps 1 drive. I think we Hit brady on something like 20 of his passes. Minus the crap at the end of the half, and Pats doing what they do best with momentum, the Bills D game plan was superb and completely wasted by this waste of a roster spot.

Ok so i'm a bit torn on this. Because there are just so many factors to consider. Normally I would sit down, look at all of them and probably agree with you. We are just outside of playoff caliber football. 1) Lots of Injuries to some important people 2) New Coaches, new players, new schemes 3) O-line is NOT doing well 4) Patriots are still beasts, and the Fitz reunited with Chan is pretty amazing. Won't like, having Geno get his jaw broken might have been worse since i'm pretty sure Fitz at this point is a better option with Chan. But...... then there is that stuff about any given sunday, and every year is a new year. MAN is the AFC weak...... and really !@#$ing banged up. i mean look at the Bal, Pitt, Mia, SD, KC, Hou, and Indy...... it's been a rough season. If ever there was a season we could squeak our way into the playoffs with sub par play and getting used to what we have as a team, this has got to be it. In all honesty, our season might come down entirely to how well we do against the Jets and the NFC East. If we cut back on penalties and can get a little healthier with some better oline play, we should at least make the playoffs. I don't think there are that many teams in the AFC that are truly flat out better than us. the AFC East is probably the best division in the AFC.

Man this thread is ridiculous. Let all be honest here. After yesterdays game, we all slept way better because suddenly QB Purgatory is somewhere we might not stuck in. I've been watching the games and highlights to the best of my ability and there is so much to take away from them. I know a lot of ppl here don't like EJ, and don't get me wrong i wasn't high on him and was hoping MC and TT would win the job. Watching the games though, EJ's progression as a player is absurdly obvious, almost unreal.I don't want to say that it's due to the new OC and play calling, but it certainly does seem to help (and not just for him but the entire offence). Something that has been pretty evident watching the games has been the improvement of our O-line. Perhaps that extra second is what our QBs needed to be effective. At this point this is what I believe: EJ is vastly improved and while I would say he did not truly get the fairest of shots at the starting gig, the man did everything in his power to not only remain in contention but also should be considered highly for the starting spot.His play this preseason has proven that he was a project QB that needed time and now 3 years later with time under his belt he is really coming into his own. That TD to Clay...... if I had seen that live I would have expected it to have fallen short or been greatly overthrown. TT does really remind me of Vick, less polished, and a little less jittery in the pocket. What more could we ask for from a guy that was the back up for years suddenly given a shot at the starting job. MC - Good lord is this man uninspiring. I could fall asleep watching him. It's like Orton and that was painful last season. Please let them start Ej or TT for the season. I have a hard time picking between them, just please, please god let it not be MC.

I agree. having at least 1 x a 4th round pick this year could have been amazing. Was not a fan of the Bryce Brown trade. Could have used it to draft Jay Ajayi. The Only benefit to the trade, was the fact that we did happen to have 2 other rbs on the team when Fjax and Cj went down last year.

I think you hit the nail on the head here. Really hated the pick initially mainly because of all the talk regarding Duke Williams seeming to be the new favorite for the second Safety Position and with Graham working so well in both a the safety and cb spots. I also think that with McKelvin showing such massive improvement last year, it felt like a luxury pick we didn't have. I'm starting to come around on this pick, but i'm still concerned on why both our picks have been ranked so differently by such a large range of draft graders.

There were so many other players we could have grabbed here. Honestly, I can't see this being a good pick for us. Was this the first pick for us that wasn't a pre draft visit (with our first draft pick of the year) since 2002?

Honestly, I looked back at the Jets teams that made it to the AFC Championships twice in a row. I got to tell you, we look completely stacked in comparison. Maybe, you could say they had a better O-line. but honestly, I think with REAL coaches and a scheme built around what we have not what a coach just happens to want to run, we'll see a positive change for the year. I am doing everything I can to curb my enthusiasm and optimism for the year, because I have HATED the Rex Ryan persona forever.

I understand the difference between salary and cap hit. I'm not referring to actual salary, but actual cap hits. Mario is sitting at 19.4m this year and 19.9m next year Dareus is 8m this year and currently 0 next year. As I said I gave you a even wash for Dareus in terms of cap hit based on a Mario Restructuring. Based on what Whaley has said this is going to happen and just a matter of time and numbers. The phins COULD have matched the Clay deal. It would have been extremely stupid. Honestly, we could have structured that deal better, but it was laid out specifically to target the extremely tight cap the phins have in 2016. Like i said this is for 2016, not this year, Cassel isn't on the books, nor do I know if he would be on the team if we got Rivers. Who do we want as back up? Not sure what it would cost us in possible dead cap space to drop EJ but keep Cassel if we were to land Rivers. Gilmore and Bradham numbers were anticipated cap hits, which leads into the next part about bonuses with rolling over money. Bonuses being rolled over is great, so long as the player stays for the full duration of the contract. I feel that both of these guys will be here for the duration of any contract we give them. I'm sure you know that anytime you have a contract where a signing bonus is spread over years and the player leaves, the team is then forced to pay out the remainder that year and it becomes dead cap space. Gilmore at 8m a year with idk, lets say a 18m signing bonus spread over 6 years (broken down as we see fit since it does not have to be the same outside of it being guaranteed) could be a realistic cap hit (8m) for the 2016 cap As for Bradham. He did great last year, and i'm curious to know if it we Schwartz D or if he just came into his own and rededicated himself to the game he loves. There was an article related to it. I think his price will be dependent on how well he fits rex's scheme. I just looked up some LB contracts, and honestly, 5m a year sounds pretty spot on. I didn't mean that all of them were worth 1 million, but some of them certainly are worth more...... which if you take some being worth less, the average contract value of 600k was a nice way of not spending time playing with those numbers. I also choose players that again I know saw meaningful playing time and have shown value to the time. If the cap raises to 160....... This isn't even a question, I'd pull the trigger, I understand your last point about watching the pats cycle their roster around their franchise QB. There is a difference though. Rivers is good, a top 10 QB in the league for sure. My only complaint with him is he can often try to shoulder the burden of winning and can be prone to mistakes. He's like a less frustrating version of Cutler. Don't get me wrong, I would love to have him on the roster, and i fully agree we would be SB contenders in reality and everyone's eyes if he was here. I'm not able to see what Rex will keep on the D and what he will want to bring in. Realistically we could use another Safety, or rather a better second one. We could also use a better Corner in our reserves. We have an oddity in Corey Graham who is able to play both positions at a high level. Would he be better served playing in 1 position? Does he make it possible to carry 1 less low tier S and CB? We are also thin at LB on paper, but then again Mario Williams and Jerry Hughes will be in some DE/LB hybrid possibly. We are PAINFULLY thin at TE. I'm not saying there would be a gutting of the team, but there would be sacrifices (assuming 150 million cap). We are already sitting at 125 million spent. I took away 5 million for rookies. What magic are you proposing we pull for that 20 million. If possible, it would help me see a better view if you could give me your anticipated break down of contracts. Lets keep it simple, if you could show me how to you would restructure or sign the following or who you would let go (just so I can get a better hold of your view since my math in my head says it would be difficult to find room): Mario Williams Marcell Dareus Cordy Glenn Stephone Gilmore Nigel Bradham And again if we are talking of bringing in Rivers, why don't we consider Brees and Eli.

You're right I'm speculating based on what all the news outlets are saying regarding his interest to stay in the south regarding his desire to come to the bills. How the hell are you going to open $12 million in cap space on a mario restructure? Regardless, Mario's Restructure is going to cover our resigning of Dareus, sooooooo thats a wash. Just like what I'm going to say the C.Williams contract going to Rich Incognito. Also hate to tell you, but Cassel isn't on our 2016 payroll. so that 4.75 you saved..... you didn't. Lets not forget the following players who will be off rookie contracts : Gilmore, Glenn, and Bradham and god forbid Percy Harvin is worth a dam..... theres another contract that should we option to pick it up, is 6 million that isn't even counted on our 2016 salary yet. If you're going to call me out for speculating Rivers desire to play outside of the south from what I've been reading in the news, you can at least look at our cap numbers and compare/project based on performance likely contract numbers for players we need to pay in 2016. Lets assume Dareus is completely covered by the Mario Restructure (imo not a realistic assumption he's going to get something in the range of 16 million a year) Gilmore: Looking at 5-8 million a year Glenn: Looking at 4-6 million a year Bradham: at least 3 million a year Assuming we can get their yearly cap numbers to be the low end, that's 12 of our 20 million open cap space. But wait... lets talk about back up players that aren't being counted towards this: Ron Brooks Nickell Robey Bacarri Rambo Stefan Charles MarQueis Gray Chris Hogan Corbin Bryant Note: I didn't list everyone who's contracts are up, I purposely choose these 7 players because they see/will see meaningful playing time during a season. Lets just assume that these guys are looking at 600k a person for contracts, thats over 4 Million dollars but we'll round down. However thats being insulting to some of these players. With the exception of Gray and Rambo who rae completely untested in terms of actual team value, each of those names are worth at least 1 million in the market and rightfully so. That leaves us with 4 million in spending money next season if we resign these guys are the low end of what I've put up there. We can use those low ends and assume that the players all receive signing bonuses and the bonus is deferred over the full length of their contracts. None of the Clay contract bull crap where we load the bonus into a specific year of the contract just to spite another team. So where are you pulling the, and I'll be kind 15 million a year to pay for RIvers? At what point do you not just throw in Brees to the conversation, as well as Eli? Both contracts are up, Brees seems to be pretty pissed off and has refused to renegotiate his contract to help the Saints escape contract hell. He may not want to resign there and the Saints may not be willing to pay a kings ransom again for his services. Eli's contract is up and while I could not see the Giants just letting him go, they are letting him play out his contract. Why not throw money at the guy that won two rings? Eli with a running game and a punishing D got it done twice.

Ya.... 1 of those people would possibly be our starting LT...... lets make another hole on the OL. GOOD CALL COACH. I don't know if you can note my sarcasm. Rivers is good, but I would not trade him for losing 2 of the following: Marcell Dareus Stephon Gilmore Nigel Bradham Cordy Glenn Robert Woods Leodis McKelvin This doesn't even cover the fact that I'm not mentioning people who playing this year for the starting job or important backups and if they become key cogs to the team we end up with more issues: Percy Harvin Richie Incognito Anthony Dixon Jarius Wynn Ron Brooks Duke Williams Johnathan Meeks Nickell Robey Bacarri Rambo Stefan Charles Chris Hogan Corbin Bryant Tell me again how much cap room we have. I didn't even bother listing 2/3rd of our TE's who also have to be paid over the next two years. Assuming a raise of the cap to 150 million, and only 5 million being spent on draft picks (really low amount it here but makes my math easier) We have 20 Million to work with . So you would go get Rivers, and possibly let go of 2 starting Oline men and possibly more? Looking at at best case scenarios, Incognito takes C.Williams contract and that becomes a wash. Mario Williams restructures and the money saved allows us to maintain Dareus. The hate on this board for McKelvin is built rightfully so, however last year he made an amazing leap forward in terms of ability and play level. If he keeps it up this year, It would be hard to say oh just drop him, considering our mixed bag of depth at CB/S. I would love Rivers, but 1) we can't truly afford him 2) he doesn't want to come up here it would cost us even more money to convince him to and at his age, and the options he has, he would have no reason to take more money to go somewhere he doesn't want too.

Who the heck is saying we have Cap space next year? Don't get me wrong, I would LOVE Rivers, but we would have to let at least 1 key player walk next year to snag him. And i don't mean someone who's been just holding down the fort, but is constantly playing at a high level.

I would take PJ Williams in a heart beat if he actually falls that far. He won't though.Seattle will pick him up if he falls that far or STL in the early second. But i would go batshit for him. Also as i'm sure a large portion of the board agrees, Ali Marpet is like the perfect player for the Bills team. Why do we need to stop at having 1 Athletic TE? Why can't we have two.....I mean, did the beating the patriots put on us with Gronk/Hernandez hurt so bad you blocked it out completely? I don't think we need a safety honestly. We have so many on the team. CB i'm willing to draft, as well as LB and DT otherwise we need to shore up the Offense, just complete it (minus QB, although i do like Kap 2.0 as our 7th or even 6th)

Because we have other positions that are of equal or greater need and I find it impossible for you to tell me that there won't be a TE or LB significantly higher rated than linemen at 50 AND 81. We have 8 Linemen already on the team (12 but the other 4 seem like camp bodies) We have 3 TE's........ number 2 is MarQueis Gray and number 3 is Chris Gragg...... thats not exactly a stellar amount of depth. We have 3 TRUE Linebackers and 2 of them are strictly back ups. Yes Mario Williams, Jerry Hughes and Manny Lawson will be hybrid LB/DE's but i'm sure they would like an upgrade over Ty Powell and Randell Johnson. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Why did I post the info about contract info? Because you can't just look at needs you have this year. You have to look at needs next year and the year after. You need to look at positions you know for a fact will either be open or will need to be sacrificed. We are going to draft at least 1 linemen this draft (I do not think we take 2 with the first 2 picks). That gives us 10. Chris Williams IMO is gone after this year, thats down to 9. The year after we let Urbrik go/retire, thats down to 8. IMO Kouandjio was a terrible pick and made me furious last year the second we took him. IMO we draft someone better in 2016/2017 and he's replaced. The Bills are looking for immediate starters with their first 2 picks. We do not have 2 spots on the O-line and with such limited picks, spending both of our first two picks attempting to fiddle with te O-line is a luxury we do NOT and can NOT afford. If we had a first, and a 4th this year, I would have no problem with the double linemen draft to start things off. But we NEED to hit on 50 and 81.

I still just can't see there not being another person at another position available with our first two picks. There is going to be a lot of talent to be found in rounds 2 and 3, and with such a deep WR draft class, and D line, some of the stuff we need is going to fall to us.

I would be upset, only in the fact that I do not believe picking 2 OL is A) Needed/Warranted with the 2nd and 3rd round picks B)would give us instant contributors to a team that needs individuals to come in and play in specific roles. I put this together for you guys to look at quickly, courtesy of Spotrac: I apologize for the long lists, I'll leave markers to make it easier to jump ahead to the point of this post: Key players contracts coming up in 2016: Marcell Dareus Matt Cassel Percy Harvin Stephon Gilmore Fred Jackson Nigel Bradham Cordy Glenn Rich Incognito Ron Brooks Bryce Brown Marcus Thigpen Nick Robey Stefan Charles Ty Powell MarQueis Gray Bacarri Rambo Chris Hogan Corbin Bryant Kenny Ladler Key Players contracts ending in 2017: Leodis McKelvin Manny Lawson EJ Manuel Kraig Urbrik Robert Woods Anthony Dixon Jarius Wynn Marquise Goodwin Duke Williams Johnathan Meeks Chris Gragg Jeff Tuel ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Players in my mind playing for their jobs the for the following seasons: (2016) Ron Brooks Bryce Brown Marcus Thigpen Nick Robey Stefan Charles Ty Powell MarQueis Gray Bacarri Rambo Chris Hogan Corbin Bryant Kenny Ladler (2017) Manny Lawson EJ Manuel Kraig Urbrik Jarius Wynn Marquise Goodwin Duke Williams Johnathan Meeks Chris Gragg Jeff Tuel ----------------------------------------------------- Looking ahead, I would say with pretty good certainty that we will be sorting out our Safety, CB, and TE position in the next year or two. We have several players that are essentially trying to hold down their shots of being on the roster when their contracts come up. In terms of OL and this Draft. I would be ELATED to grab Ali Marpet in the 3rd if he is there for us to take. Other than that there are a few OT/G that I think would be worth the second/third round selection. I just think there will be a player of better value at other positions when we draft 50th overall. We are PAINFULLY thin at TE, and on paper we appear equally thin at LB although Mario Williams and Jerry Hughes will probably play some sort of LB hybrid position. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Contract wise, the players I think that are done as far as being on the team a year from now: Lets start with the retirement of Fred Jackson, I love the man, but I think his time has come Bryce Brown and Marcus Thigpen: Brown is fumble prone and could easily be replaced with a new young RB in the 2016 draft especially if FJAX is let go(I would be more inclined to keep FJAX on a 1-2 yr contract to groom his replacement that would be drafted). Marcus Thigpen, I love the guy as a return man, but I could see us letting him go, mainly in an attempt to keep Harvin and give those duties to him. Kenny Ladler and Bacarri Rambo: One of these 2 is gone imo. Rambo might have been the hero in the game against the Packers, but i'm sure I don't have to point out how lucky he was on 1 of his picks that Rodgers didn't Nelson taking the top off our D. Kenny has not done anything to wow me. Ron Brooks and Nick Robey: 1 of these two is also gone. I know that Rex loves his CBs like Parcells loved his LBs, but sometimes you gotta sift through the dirt and decide when to dig a new patch. IMO Ron Brooks goes, Robey has done amazing when given the chance, even with the limitation of his size. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Contracts that we will be watching unfold: BTW current Active Contracts for 2016 is 125 million and anticipated Cap will be 150+ million (need roughly 5 million for rookies) Mario Williams: Restructures to gain a long term contract, and save us money for........ (lets say 16 million so we can drop the active amount to 121 million) Marcell Dareus: Gets a 16 million a year contract eased by the restructuring mentioned above. Matt Cassel: New deal, who knows when this gets done, but we need a Vet - maybe we replace him with someone else. Percy Harvin: IMO does well enough to get the second and third years of his contract: That's currently 6 Million (or we could let him walk) Stephon Gilmore: 6-8 Million a year, bonus money upfront to ease the following years Fred Jackson: Gone (broken hearts forever) Nigel Bradham: 3-5 Million a Year Cordy Glenn: 4-7 Million a Year Pending Performance Rich Incognito: 3.5 Million a year - we drop Chris Williams contract and give it to Richie (we end up with a wash moneywise here) We are going to have to be really creative with our contracts, because I see us needing to come up with about 10 million that we don't have in 2016 unless we drop some contracts and restructure some other ones.

Clemson, I agree I don't think maxx will be there for us at 50 but would be ecstatic if he was. Also Ali in the second round would be great. I honestly don't think we really need another corner or safety considering how many we have already, although Rex loves having lots of them. I do think we need a lb in the draft although not as big a need since at times Mario Williams and Jerry Hughes will probably line up that way. I do however really feel that we need a dt to add as depth and as a possible heir to kyle Williams.

Where the heck is all the mock draft stuff? I know last year I posted one a bit early, but I mean it feels like theres no posts this year. Used Fanspeaks draft simulator, and using their rankings I had some really hard choices to make. Came out with this and while I would have loved to pick up another corner/safety or possible OT as we swing someone inside to guard, since I am no where near skilled enough to make those kind of deductions on current player skills for the team I was pretty happy with this outcome. Let me know what you guys think (Also Maxx Williams goes to use as the second TE off the board which I feel is completely unreasonable but I'll take it on draft day every day of the week) 50: R2P18 TE MAXX WILLIAMS MINNESOTA 81: R3P17 G JEREMIAH POUTASI UTAH 155: R5P19 TE TYLER KROFT RUTGERS 188: R6P12 ILB BRYCE HAGER BAYLOR 194: R6P18 DT TYELER DAVISON FRESNO STATE 234: R7P17 QB CODY FAJARDONEVADA So would love feed back, maybe we can get a player ranking going for who we would realistically take in each pick. Personally I love the idea of replacing Tool Time with Kap 2.0

Jamarcus Russell is my vote that.,...... or Farve

Not going to lie. First thought that popped in my head was: Wow that's totally how i would have envisioned our 5th Superbowl lose. That play literally reminded me of the last 15 years of being a BIlls fan. The only good thing was that it wasn't us....... but the Pats won...........