Brandon

I'd offer them a 4th this year. No more. The Chargers would never accept it, of course, but considering his contract status and the fact that the Bills have an alternative to Turner in the form of the upcoming draft, they shouldn't offer any more. I'd probably wait until after the first day of the draft to make this trade, anyway. By doing so, the Bills could add a 2nd or 3rd round RB on the first day (as will the other teams needing RBs), reducing the Chargers' bargaining power if the Bills still wished to pursue the trade.

Not quite. Adrian Peterson has had some injuries the past couple of years, but he has still managed to rush for 2,120 yards and 26 TDs the last two seasons.

This is excellent news. I now fully expect Turner to sign with the Titans instead.

No, I don't agree that it neglects a thin defense. The draft is seven rounds long and the Bills have five of the first 110 picks. There will be plenty of opportunities to make significant long-term improvements to the Bills defense in rounds 2-4 if they were to select an offensive player at 12. The same is also true of the offense if a defender is selected at 12. It isn't an all-or-nothing situation. For the record, I see the Bills as being quite weak both offensively and defensively. I would prefer that they select an offensive player in R1, but I don't think they can go wrong selecting a top tier player at any moderate-to-major need position at 12.

LOL, I really don't care if his shuttle time 'stunk'. Post their *official* combine performances in the 40 (including 10 and 20 yard intervals), vertical jumps, broad jumps and their times in the three cone drill. You can find that information at NFLdraftscout.com under 'NFL combine'. From there, you can jump between several years. Both players had full combine workouts. For what little combine performances are worth, Lynch beat Turner in every one of the categories I mentioned above.

Is our offense that bad? Here are some statistical rankings from a year ago for this Bills offense: Total Offense per Game 266.9 29th 1st Downs per Game 14.6 32nd 3rd Down Conversions 31.1% 31st Time of Possession 28:04 30th Rushing Average 3.7 25th Tie Rushing Yards per Game 97 27th Rushing First Downs 82 29th Tie Carries of 20+ Yards 4 29th Tie Rushing Touchdowns 9 23rd Tie Total Plays 898 32nd Number of Punts 92 4th most in the NFL Passing Yards Per Game 169.9 28th Sacks 47 26th I wouldn't call that bad. I would call it pretty damn terrible. The stats basically reflect what we all know is true: this offense can basically be summed up as 'throw the ball to Lee Evans'. But what about the other 800 plays per year? The OL additions will help, but still, adding one good OL and another that is questionable isn't going to suddenly turn the above mess around to any great degree. I still think that this is, at best, a bottom 3rd offense in most of the above categories.

I'm not necessarily going to disagree with you and I certainly would not argue that they can't be successful. But from a draft value standpoint, its virtually certain that they're all going to be rated lower due to their size and perceived inability to be full-time RBs.

The negatives also basically say that coming into the league, he ran poor routes, had questionable hands despite 43 collegiate receptions, and didn't seem too keen on blocking. Those are definitely aspects of his game three years later that the Bills will have to evaluate as well if they want him. With only 7 catches in his NFL career, it does make one wonder whether the Chargers viewed him as anything more than a one-dimensional player.

He's also a junior this upcoming season. That's the problem with next year's draft class. Practically all of the quality prospects will be juniors and while it seems to be a good bet that many of them will declare, its still a major risk to take.

Slaton, Rice and Hart are all about 5'9 195lbs. Its highly unlikely that any of them will be considered every down RBs in the NFL. Slaton is only a junior and I think Rice is as well, I'd have to check. Felix Jones will also be a junior this upcoming season and considering his status as a backup to McFadden, I don't see him leaving early. Darren McFadden, also a junior, is the only sure-fire 1st round, franchise RB prospect on the list and even if he does declare himself eligible for the draft, the Bills will probably have to go 3-13 to have a shot at him.

You and me both. For the first day pick and $30-40 million over the next five or six years, I could really do without this potential deal.

1) RB Marshawn Lynch, California 2) MLB David Harris, Michigan 3) WR Aundrae Allison, East Carolina 3) CB Michael Coe, Alabama State 4) OLB Antwan Barnes, Florida International I cheated a little by picking Harris at 43. He goes 66th here otherwise, but I think he's the 2nd best MLB in the draft and a mid R2 pick. Michael Coe wasn't a choice, either, but he was their pick at 92 for the Bills. Works for me.

I disagree. Last year's #12 pick, Haloti Ngata, signed a 5 year contract worth a total of between $11.9 and $14 million depending upon certain conditions. I'm going to guess that Turner will want, at the very least 5 years, $25 million, with probably $8-10 million up front.

You guys talking about draft picks are getting way ahead of yourselves. The Bills have to sign him to a contract first. He's a (restricted) free agent. That's not a minor consideration in an offseason where Ralph Wilson has already paid out close to $30 million in signing bonuses. Turner would likely cost them another $8-10 million up front, plus another $2-5 million for draft pick signing bonuses, depending on what the Chargers require for compensation. I'll be very, very suprised if it happens.

It doesn't suprise me to hear that. Patrick Willis has always been known to be a 'high character' player.

The Bears actually drafted quite heavily on offense under Dick Jauron. They drafted 11 players offensively on the first day in his 5 years in Chicago. Four were first round selections. By contrast, they selected 8 defensive players, and just two of those were 1st round selections.

Its true that they didn't bring in Whitner for a pre-draft visit a year ago, but we really have no idea if that's going to prove to be a trend or not. They've only done it once.

Its not likely. Meachem is considered the 2nd WR on the board by many at this point and is expected to go in the middle half of R1. Its possible that the Bills could be eyeing him as a target if they trade up from 43 into the latter half of R1, but I think that its highly unlikely they'd do so for a WR.

It could be, but I think the 2nd meeting is more likely to indicate that the Bills do have some degree of interest in him.

The Bills also conducted a private meeting with Meachem at Tennessee's Pro Day earlier this month. I could post a direct link to the article, but it requires registration. Enter the following into a google search: buffalo bills meeting robert meachem march 21 It will be the first story and you can view it without registering by going into the Google cache link below the article.

It really shouldn't be a suprise. The Bills offense was pathetic on third downs last year and a physical, reliable possession receiver would probably work wonders. The fact that Meachem has great speed is a bonus. I think he'd be a great pick.

Its something that the Bills' management has to consider. If you know that a player is going to be miserable with the team, you're probably better off passing on him. But at the same time, we as fans have so little knowledge of the actual personalities of these players that its a waste of time for us to speculate on a particular player's willingness to play for the team.

I posted a much more thorough (and critical) review of him within another thread here a few days ago. I was beginning to believe I was the only one who saw it. I do think he's going to be a very good overall player, but just not that guy who can shut down another team's interior running game. Seems fairly ordinary in that regard.

After re-watching the Senior Bowl a couple of times a few days ago and concentrating on Willis, I think he is going to be a very good overall player and is likely worthy of a top 20 pick. I see him as being a better version of London Fletcher, who will be really, really good at plays against the run outside the tackles and eventually in pass coverage. On interior running plays, I'm not sure he's the destroyer that many believe. He's not particularly physical when taking on blockers, and while he did make a couple of nice tackles inside, he also let the RB come to him a few times instead of attacking and dropping him for a loss. I'll readily admit that it may have been a function of playing in that particular game and I'm hoping I can find my recording of the Ole Miss-Arkansas game to verify. I did, however, notice a major difference in the way he and Buster Davis played the interior run in that game, with Davis seemingly much more aggressive. That's not to say Davis is necessarily better at it, just an interesting observation.

OLB Sam Olajubutu, Arkansas He'll probably never be given the chance to start due to his size at 5'9 225, but Olajubutu is a tackling machine and among the two or three best LBs in the SEC the last four years. He'll be a terror on some team's special teams squad for a long time. I think he'll be a 6th or 7th rounder.