Brandon

Someone might also want to tell him that Steven Jackson is listed at 231 by the Rams, not 250.

That may be true, but I would have to ask: according to who? I do know of one draft site that questions his hands, but pretty much everything else indicates that the opposite is true.

While I'd somewhat rather select Lynch at 12, I also think Willis would be an excellent choice at that spot if available. I think he'll go 11th to the 49ers. I have no interest whatsoever in seeing the Bills draft Michael Bush. I have a general disdain (hatred?) of oversized RBs. Toss in his broken leg and I'll definitely pass. If they choose to wait until R2 or 3, there are many other RBs I would rather have. Can't comment on Durant. Hughes will probably turn out to be a pretty good 2nd or 3rd, but I think he'll slip to the 2nd day based on a particularly poor performance at the combine. Still, I would not be upset if he were picked at 93.

I don't think Patrick Willis is even going to be available for the Bills to pick at 12. He's very likely going to go 11th to San Francisco. The 49ers have a need at ILB and should have the chance to select the best MLB prospect in the draft. But there's also another factor to consider. The 49ers coaching staff is in a position to know more about Patrick Willis than any other staff in the NFL. Why? They coached him for a week at the Senior Bowl and his position coach was none other than Mike Singletary, one of the best MLBs in NFL history. They should know better than anyone what kind of player he is. If they believe he's worth a pick in the top half of R1, I'd be very suprised if they pass over him. Of course, it should perhaps raise a few questions if they pass over him at that slot as well.

They are calculated based upon contract values, postseason player awards, and most importantly, net gain/loss of FAs. I don't think we will recieve any, as the signings of Walker and Dockery offset our losses. No one knows the exact formula used except the NFL itself.

And to think, on draft weekend 2004, there were people complaining because we took the smurf amongst all of those tall WRs who were supposedly going to be great.

Evans did have a knee injury in his past, but much like Thurman Thomas, he played another full season of football in college after the injury. The Bills had an entire senior year of game tapes to determine if Evans had recovered or not.

Yeah, but that other guy had actually played some football between the time of his injury and the time the Bills selected him. Huge difference. The Bills knew what they were getting. With McGahee, no one knew what kind of player he'd be after his recovery.

The lesson is to never, never, never draft a RB with a blown knee with the 23rd overall pick or with a 1400 yard back already on the roster.

He was running on a couple of minor ankle sprains this past year. I doubt its anything more than the typical minor injuries RBs inevitably sustain over the course of a season. To my knowledge, he has no history of major injuries. His injury history is detailed here: http://www.nfl.com/draft/profiles/2007/lynch_marshawn

If he was never charged, never arrested, and the prosecutor (a specialist in domestic violence cases, I might add) cited 'grave inconsistencies' in the story of the accuser, can Lynch fairly be accused of having character issues over this? At least in this case, it appears Marshawn Lynch is guilty until he proves himself innocent.

On average, Marshawn Lynch ran against the 53rd ranked run defense in Division 1 last year, with the average Pac-10 team ranked 47th. That doesn't sound too great at first, but by comparison, Tony Hunt, in that great defensive conference known as the Big 10, on average faced a defense ranked 64th last year, with the average Big 10 D he faced ranked 57th against the run. The Pac-10s run D seems to be bad only by reputation.

Lynch's character 'issues' keep coming up because people are parroting what they've read on a draft site without doing any research.

As good as he is, I think 3 picks would be too much to give up for him. I'd rather take Brandon Siler or David Harris in the 2nd and still have the ability to add two more good prospects in the 3rd.

Strictly on an immediate needs basis, I agree completely. I think you can get by with an '06 type draft once every few years, but you can run into trouble if you do it even a couple of years in a row. With the average career of an NFL player being only four or five years, plus the possibility of FA and injuries, you need to constantly be cycling new talent onto both sides of the roster. If not, it can come back to bite you a few years down the road. That's one big reason why we had to sign Dockery and Walker. The Bills made practically no investment of mid-round picks in their OL over the years. We're also now suffering from a lack of mid-round draft investment at RB and to a lesser extent, LB.

This is just my opinion, but Willis McGahee always reminded me of a slightly better version of Antowain Smith.

The suprise won't be the particular position, but that Marv will draft more heavily on the offensive side of the ball than expected. They used 6 of their first 7 picks defensively a year ago, including all of their first 5. There seem to be a lot of fans who expect a similar approach this year, but I don't see that happening. I think we will see the Bills utilize a much more balanced draft strategy this year.

Most: Jim Kelly Least: Doug Flutie

Anthony Thomas is 30 years old and was barely hanging onto an NFL career when the Bills knocked on his door a year ago. There's no hurry to re-sign him as there is quite likely little to no demand for him. The odds are very good that he'll be available should the Bills run out of better options and have to re-sign him. In the meantime, they're better off attempting to find better replacements.

Teams usually shy away from players with a long injury history in the top half of round 1. With his injury history, I think its certainly possible that he could fall to the Bills at 12, though I still consider it unlikely. Still, if the right teams (mainly Houston and Cleveland) feel that he represents too great of an injury risk, he could easily fall out of the top 10 in this draft.

Actually, Peterson did play in seven games last year, including Oklahoma's Bowl game and rushed for 1,012 yards and 12 TDs on the season.

The MLB is probably the single most important player in a Tampa 2 defense. That player has to not only be capable of the traditional MLB role of aggressively taking on blockers and attacking the run from sideline to sideline, but must also be capable of dropping into the deep middle third of the field like a safety on passing plays. If the MLB is deficient in either area, the Tampa 2 will be vulnerable to runs or passes over the middle.

His stats really don't tell me anything. Consider that Kenneth Davis rushed for over 600 yards in both 1991 and 1992. I'll willingly concede that he could be an excellent RB who just needs a chance to start. However, I wonder just how much he benefits from Tomlinson and the Chargers OL kicking the crap out of the opposing defense on 400 plays a season.

Its close, but I would go with Lynch based upon versatility and durability.

While the Bills have a stated interest in using a RB by committee approach, those types of situations usually do have a lead RB that gets the majority of the carries. My guess is that Dillon wants to be that lead RB and the Bills intend to draft a RB to take over that role sooner rather than later.