Brandon

If they had wanted to sign him before the trade, they could have done so. The Bills were still well under the salary cap before trading Spikes and Holcomb. Its also unlikely that Brown will receive a large contract at this point in the offseason, either.

Drafting Peterson/Lynch at 12 would likely be a hell of a lot easier on Ralph's bank account as well. Last year's 12th pick, Haloti Ngata, signed for $11.9M over 5 years. And compared to a 2nd round pick, its no contest at all financially.

That's the problem with this deal. It isn't cheap. Its incredibly expensive. Not only would it cost the Bills a 2nd round pick (possibly more, depending on how creative the trade is), the Bills will also have to sign him to a contract extension. At his age (25), its likely the last contract he will ever sign and you know he's going to want to cash in with a contract similar to those signed by other top Rbs this offseason. At anywhere from $4-6 million per year, the deal doesn't look so good anymore.

I agree, its just speculation.

I'm not as big of a Posluszny fan as many of the others on this board, but I also think he's a better player than you're giving him credit for. I see him much like DeMeco Ryans a year ago, where everyone gets a little too nitpicky about his height/weight/speed measurables and ignore that he's just a really good player on the field. He may not be a gamechanger, but I think he'll be a good pro and would make a nice addition in the mid 20s and could play either OLB position, perhaps even in the middle.

Any number of LBs in this draft could also be effective players in the Bills' Tampa 2 defense. In the end, his scenario of a RB at 12 and a trade back up into R1 for a LB would not suprise me at all and in many ways, gives the Bills the best possible combination of players at the two positions.

I believe it increases the odds. A major need has been filled, the defense somewhat improved, and it only cost the Bills depth that can be replaced on the 2nd day of the draft.

I don't expect the Bills to sign him. They already had the cap room to do so if they'd wanted to.

I would say that the draft priorities are: 1) RB/MLB 2) CB 3) WR/RG/C/OLB 4) Everything else The order in which the Bills choose to address those needs is anyone's guess. My expectation is that their draft will look something like this: 1) RB or WR 2) MLB 3) RB or WR; whichever wasn't selected in R1 3) CB 4) OLB

After all the speculation about the Bills possibly selecting Lynch or Willis, they'll probably both be on the board and the Bills will select someone else.

I'm really not that familiar with Harris beyond what I've read, and the Senior Bowl game is pretty much all I have as a first hand accounting and unfortunately, the South's total ineptitude offensively meant he was rarely on the field. Watching him, he does seem to play well in short zone coverage and will aggressively take on blockers in the running game. I also liked his awareness of screen plays. He stuffed one for a 6 yard loss and seemed to have what appeared to be another screen play read that ultimately didn't develop and the QB tossed to the TE. On the downside, there's no question that he's not as athletic as Willis and whether he can play in a Tampa 2, I don't know. Based just on 40 times, unreliable as they are, I tend to give him the benefit of the doubt. I definitely do like what I've read and seen of him, however, and I think he'd make a good 2nd round alternative to Willis.

I'm sure they will and their opinions are the only ones that matter. That's why they get paid and you and I don't.

After watching the Senior Bowl again a couple of time in the last two days, I'm actually convinced that he WON'T be their pick. I think he's the deluxe version of London Fletcher. He's an excellent athlete and that allows him to make plays all over the field, but he is not a particularly strong between-the-tackles run defender. He is not all that physical when taking on blocks and seems to prefer to allow the RB to come to him, hesitating instead of attacking. He certainly is an excellent tackler once the RB gets there. Unfortunately, if he gets blocked before that happens, he usually can't fight off that blocker and will be driven out of the play. He also looked more than a bit lost in zone coverage, especially dropping far too deep early in the game with no one threatening his zone, allowing RBs to release underneath over the middle uncontested, though this should be correctable. IMO, he's a pursuit type LB who will make a lot of plays at the edge of the field and will eventually become a very good coverage LB once he gets some coaching. But I don't think he'll ever be more than an average between-the-tackles run stuffer at the MLB position. Of course, that's just my opinion.

He'd be a very good mid-round selection as a strong short yardage runner. He has had major injury problems in the past and probably would not have a long shelf life as a starter.

The Bills don't *need* any position in R1. One can come up with a list of very effective list of players at any position that were taken in R2-7. The comparison is, however, very unfair. There are on average about 3 RBs taken in R1 every year. There are usually about 20 taken in R2-7. In order to get that roughly 50-50 split in 1,000 yard rushers, how many R2-7 guys DON'T make it? An awful lot.

While the Bills have a few quality players offensively, the offense as a team was arguably the worst in the NFL last year, finishing in the bottom quarter of the league in almost every conceivable way. A quick overview: Total Offensive Plays: 32nd Total Yards per Game: 29th First Downs per Game: 32nd 3rd Down Conversion%: 31st Time of Possession: 30th Rushing Yards per Game: 27th Rushing Yards per Carry: 25th Rushing First Downs: 29th Carries of 20+ Yards: 29th Rushing Touchdowns: 23rd Passing Yards Per Game: 28th Sacks Allowed: 26th Passing Touchdowns: 18th To say that these rankings suck would be a compliment. The two offensive linemen the Bills signed will help certainly help matters, but considering how terrible the unit was as a whole, there should be no doubt that this offense is still in dire need of additional upgrades. None of this is to say that the Bills shouldn't upgrade their defense. I'm merely saying that the offense is at least an equal priority to the defense in terms of need for upgrade.

Its was also on ESPN last year.

I wouldn't expect any help from the June 1st cuts. There's never more than a handful of players released and the ones that are usually can't play anymore.

BTW, after actually seeing those numbers (I knew it was bad, just not THAT bad), I now fully expect that this draft will be much more offense-oriented than most people expect.

I agree, the high play count against the defense is largely the result of an inept offense being unable to sustain drives. The Bills ran 898 plays last year, which was DEAD LAST in the NFL. San Francisco was next at 918. They were 31st in 3rd down conversion percentage at a measly 31.7%. They were 30th in time of possession, better than only Tennessee and Detroit. They were also dead last in first downs per game at 14.6 (NFL.com sorts them at 30th for some reason, but they were last), and Brian Moorman had the 4th most punts in the NFL at 92 (98 was the highest). Defensively, they weren't much better, allowing 1029 plays against, which was 26th in the league. Much better on third down than you'd think, though, at 13th in the NFL (36.6%). They were also a halfway-respectable 17th in first downs allowed per game.

Anything is possible, but its extremely unlikely. The biggest reason that the Bills are unloading Takeo Spikes is for financial reasons. If they trade for Turner, they'll probably have to sign him to contract extension and based on what we've seen this offseason, he could very well get $10M or more up front and a larger overall contract than Spikes originally signed.

Don't give Marv any ideas

Not true. A move from 12 to 20 should presumably net a 2nd round draft pick. I'm using the real-world example of the Bills trade from 14 to 21 as an example. A second trade down from 20 to 30, which is where San Diego picks, would probably net at least a 3rd, if not another 2nd. You would end up with the 30th pick, plus an additional 2nd and 3rd by making the equivalent trades down. This is how swapping the 12 for Turner and the 30th costs the equivalent value of a 2nd and 3rd.

I would think that was a very, very bad idea. Such a trade down is worth at least the equivalent of a 2nd AND a 3rd. No thanks.

The Rams had several well-known players in 1999. Marshall Faulk, Torry Holt, and Isaac Bruce all played major roles in their Super Bowl season. Az-Zahir Hakim and Ricky Proehl also played on that team and have had long, successful careers as #3 WR, though both left the Rams a few years ago. The only one that really never made his mark in the NFL was TE Roland Williams.