Brandon

I'm glad that they don't. This FA TE pool looks like crap. If I had to guess, they're all but certain to take one early in the draft. They desperately need an upgrade to their passing attack and offense in general, and barring a surprise pick at WR, its unlikely that they're going to get it any other way.

You're right, but that's been the case since probably 2002. The defense needs some help, but a piss poor offense has been the achilles heel that has prevented them from being competitive for the last several seasons. They've finished no better than 25th in total offense in the last six seasons and it would not surprise me if they were dead last in the league during that time period in TD passes and passing yardage. Unfortunately, the Bills front office is too stupid to figure this one out.

I don't know that he actually is washed up. He rushed for 1,200 yards in 2007 and averaged 5.4 yards per carry that year. Plus, he had four runs of over 50 yards, including one that went for 80. I'm sure he's starting to slow down, but I doubt he's lost that much in such a short time.

I'll believe it when I see it. Most likely, it'll be another round of 2nd and 3rd tier bums like they signed a few years ago.

He should have been cut about two years ago, but better late than never...IF it happens.

After giving that huge contract to Dockery, I have my doubts as to whether Ralph will open up his pocket books on the OL again. Honestly, I expect a return of the Corbin Lacina/Mike Pucillo strategy on the OL.

Moves like this one are a big reason why the Bills never improve. They have to waste time and resources replacing too many competent (if overpaid) players that they dump for various reasons. You can only plug so many holes in one offseason. They were already going to be pressed to fill all of their needs, and now, the Bills have all but guaranteed that yet one more won't be adequately addressed.

I guess I'm not surprised. In the last half of the year, the Bills running game was working well. I realize that he was overpaid, but it seems they can always find some way to f*** up what works well. And we all saw how well this OL played in the middle of the season when Butler went down; the reserve guards on the roster are just outstanding. Now, we have two gaping holes in our OL, not just one. Joy.

Definitely. I'd prefer that they stay away from the DE position in R1 altogether. In the last several years, its become one of the most difficult positions for teams to draft effectively, and more often than not, even the 1st rounders have been ordinary or even flops. If one of these guys had been a dominant collegiate player for even two years, it might make it easier, but instead, even the best of the bunch, Orakpo, took until his 5th year at Texas to put it all together. With every single one of them, I really worry that they're just one-year wonders. I'm not dead set against a DE at 11, but realistically, its not going to help much in '09 and there's a higher than usual probability that a DE will be a bust in the long run.

I can see the Chiefs taking Orakpo. You think the Bills pass rush was bad? The Chiefs posted 10 sacks total for the year. I guess trading Jared Allen wasn't such a bright idea after all. Otherwise, yeah, I agree, that mock kinda sucks.

If the guy can't keep it together for four months leading up to the biggest payday of his life, with tens of millions of dollars at stake, why should a GM have any confidence that he can do so for the next ten years? Not interested.

I'd have to pass on him for another round. He's a great athlete, sure, but watching him play, that's the only positive I can mark in his column. He'd probably be worth the risk in the 3rd depending upon who else was available, but I think there's a high probability that he's out of the league in two or three years.

He wouldn't be my first choice, but it does make sense. They got their RDE prospect last year. Now, they need a LDE. I'm not so sure about the pass rushing aspect of his game, but he'd be an upgrade against the run and could potentially shift inside on passing downs. They might even consider him as a full-time DT, which would make me barf (please, no more undersized DTs), but its a possibility.

If the guy plays on all downs, I don't have a problem with it, so if he's playing some at OLB and DE, that's fine. That said, I think drafting Maybin as an OLB is an even bigger mistake, given that he has no experience in coverage. I see him strictly as a DE in a 4-3, and if the Bills draft him, he'll likely be a situational pass rusher for a couple of years at the very least. Realistically, I doubt he'd post more than 6-8 sacks per year in that role in the best case scenario. The way I see it, its like this: the Bills passing attack sucks, so why not draft Percy Harvin to be the Bills' 3rd WR? If he catches 6 TD passes a year, its worth it, right, even if he only plays is 40% of the time? Of course not and neither is Maybin if he only plays 15-20 snaps per game.

The official number on Maybin appears to be a 4.89. I've also seen that unofficial 4.78 on another site. It'll be interesting to see where his agility drill numbers fall so that we have a little more indication of how much this weight gain is affecting him. http://www.steelersdepot.com/2009combine/2...ne-results.html Everything else matches, so I'm going to assume that 40 for Maybin is correct.

I'm not watching it, but the numbers I'm seeing online have Maybin at 4.89 in the 40.

I'm sure Fewell would be fine with getting a new toy on defense, but I'm not so sure that the front office would want to burn the 11th overall pick on a part time player. For my part, I have reservations about it even in rounds 2 and 3. One Corey Moore is enough.

With Hardy's injury and their continued struggles in the passing game, I'd expect them to add a WR in the the mid rounds. Robiskie would seem to be one of the better choices likely available early in that range. I think he'll probably go in the third and would be a good addition for the Bills. His size suggests that he's a possession receiver, but he plays fast enough that I think he can be a problem downfield for the average NFL corner as well.

Although they may have used him a little in that role, as far as I know, he was always a TE in college.

I disagree. GMs earn their paychecks in R2-7. The first round pick is just one pick. You've got six more. The reason that the Bills are in their current predicament isn't so much that they've made mistakes in R1, but that they've been unable to turn up much talent in the rest of the draft for most of the decade. Their track record after the first two rounds is abysmal. Those are the rounds where good teams are built and the rounds where the Bills scouting department has truly been lacking. We'll have to see how the current groups from the last couple of drafts turn out, but aside from McGee, Crowell and Jonas Jennings, you have to go back to R7 in 1996 for the last time the Bills found a decent, medium/long-term starter in R3 or later. That was Jay Riemersma.

He certainly didn't help himself today with a poor workout at the combine. That said, John Carlson ran a 4.88 last year and all he did was catch 55 passes for the Seahawks as a rookie, so I wouldn't totally write Pettigrew off, but that's a worrisome 40 time.

The Bills allowed right at 2,000 rushing yards, 4.3 yards per carry and 18 rushing TDs this season. As bad as that was, it was their best season against the run in the last four years. That's not all the fault of these DTs, but a DT is going to have more impact on their run defense than any other position. Besides, assuming that they dump McCargo at some point this offseason, they'll have only three DTs on the roster. They need to add at least one DT this offseason, if not two. Granted, they don't have to draft one in the first round, but its something that should be considered depending upon the available players. The need is definitely there.

Its true to an extent. The Bills do have a bad habit of trying to get by with guys who are just 'good enough' instead of actually being 'good'. That's been something they've done all too frequently over the last decade, particularly on offense and their offensive line. I think there's certainly a place on the team for guys like Kyle Williams and Keith Ellison, but they should not be starting and are best suited to be backups. The Bills can probably get by with one or two of those types starting on one side of the ball, but not four or five as we've seen at times in the last decade. Guys like that don't really embarass themselves, but they don't make plays, either. If you have a team full of them, that team is probably going to be worse than you think it looks on paper. Of course, that describes the Bills perfectly. And I disagree strongly on Brad Butler. I think he's a good, if not very good RG and the downturn in our running game this past season while he was injured should make his contribution clear. Nor does it bother me to hold a roster spot for arguably the best punt returner in the league. Parrish's salary is too high for what he contributes, but the Bills are well under the cap, so that's not really an issue right now and otherwise, I wouldn't mess up one of the few things this team does well.

Its a good signing. He's not a starter, but he's a dependable backup that isn't going to embarass himself if he has to play. They could do a lot worse and in fact, they've got a few starters in other positions who routinely embarass themselves with their play on the field.

He might well sneak into the last couple of picks of R1, no question about it. He has a few things working against him in that regard, however. The first is the tendency for centers to be undervalued on draft day. The second is the fact that this is a pretty good year if you need a center from the draft and that could easily serve to devalue them all a bit. Finally, there doesn't seem to be much separation between Mack, Unger and Wood. I could just as easily see him being picked third of that group as first, depending upon what a team such as the Steelers, for example, are looking for out of a center.