AKC

Congratulations are in order for Oakie Duke, Editor of the WDR, for bringing digital publishing to my hometown on the banks of the Genny.

How about we set up a steamtable that includes Ramius gems like "There'll be lots of WRs taken in the first round of the 2008 draft" and we can sell the whole thing as a buffet!

Parker's name Googled with "holdout" includes everything from an "expected long holdout" for Saints #1 pick Sedrik Ellis to Hines Ward, Richard Seymour, Cedric Benson's rookie contract, Walter Jones, Corey Simon, Shawn Springs, Peter Boulware, Chris Perry, and the list goes on and on. One blog reports that between 1995 and 2005, Parker led all agents in 1st-round rookie contract holdouts with 13 (a tie with Tom Condon). I'd say if all those are accurate, there pattern is well established as Scribo suggests. You'll even find some tactical similarities here in the Benson Holdout if the author is to be believed-Eugene Parker: Agent Holdout

We'll have to wait and see if you're right about that- I guess it could be the bad news side to the above camp reports, but who cares? All that matters is offense! Don't forget that they're the guys with the ball- and it's very, very difficult to score without the ball!

No pressure of any kind on our starting QBs being reported, and not a single sack except the one Shana Nua got his with the third string running a stunt with Bowser. Sounds like our OLine has really improved in the offseason- at one point even holding off the vaunted surge from two of our newest D Free Agent signings playing side by side on the #1 DLine. And all this at a time of year when the "D is way ahead of the O"! Sure sounds like it could be an exciting year with this OLine juggernaut keeping pressure off our backfield; a real chance for us to see all that talent at WR we've been accruing in the draft.

Not a single mention of our newly "remodeled" DT rotation- I wonder if it's a sign that Melvin Fowler is going to have a huge year for us?

We get it. You don't mind lying about other posters here when they expose you for what you are. You should stick to your Football Know Nothing Club where post counts are the gold standard over content and context. I know in your mind that's probably the easy way to cover up your insistence about all the 1st round WRs we'd see in the past draft, and why we should burn the 11 pick on Limas Sweed.

If we had a QB, RB or WR play the season at Peter's level in 2007, make the Hawaii roster and miss day one of Training Camp over a contract issue, there would be scant posts on any other subject on TSW today, the mods wouldn't have any chance of keeping up with the duplicate subject posts, and the news around the league would lead off all day with the talk about the penny-wise and pound-foolish Ralph Wilson.

I'd guess that it would be dependent upon whether the state in which the "interim" team was located had any employment law restrictions on "non-compete" types of clauses. My understanding of the law here in California is that a clause that didn't allow Favre to be shopped to any other team would be invalid and his new "employer" would be free to send him where they wished. That wouldn't necessarily keep Green Bay from filing and possibly even winning a judgment against the CA team for violating the original deal, but all the same Green Bay would be able to do nothing to stop Favre from signing on in Minnesota.

The fellatio he performs on Robert Kraft* is even worse than the Jerry Jones lick-off. God forbid we had an owner like either of 'em. Kraft, Jones and any of 20 other owners would have packed us up and left Buff long ago.

2. Dallas Cowboys – Jerry Jones (Stephen Jones): Given what the Joneses are in the process of accomplishing in Texas – building the greatest stadium since the Roman Colosseum – it’s difficult not ranking them No. 1. A fourth Super Bowl ring in two decades of ownership might put them over the top, and with all the talent they’re hording on the Cowboys’ current roster, they just may get one come February. I'll have to guess he had a little better support staff over at SI who would cover for his difficulty with our language.

Thanks for the pick-me-up!

It is the kind of place where his shenanigans won't necessarily be a problem, but the lifestyle might also over time consume a kid with his addictive personality. It's a town where much is overlooked and forgiven, but it also has a much deeper dark side than any other U.S. city hosting an NFL team. Out of the chute, at least for this season, I think Lori has it exactly right. When you give the best QB in the game a dangerous TE to hang on his weapon belt, you're only looking to your defense to play you into contention. They were at 13 against the run last year and added the big key to improve their pass defense; the best interior rusher in the 2008 draft. In addition they took a top CB with their 2nd pick. They deserve to be confident about their prospects in their division.

Williams just doesn't look like a 3. He's (up to this time) too small to be a 0 but he fills the 1 role well in the second wave. My best guess is that they think they're playing a positive Depth Chart head game right now with McCargo to charge him up to "gain" the starting spot opposite MS. So the answer to the question is that I figure the opening day starters will be Stroud and McCargo, and the staff knows it but they're hoping JM earns it versus it being given to him. The trick to a traditional Cover 2 line with two 3 technique players is leaving the offense at 2nd and 12, a tough change-of-pagce for most West Coast style offenses who are designed to chip for 4 yards and take any surplus. And I have to say that I think we play the worst D for Kyle William's skillset- in some ways it's a shame he signed on with us for so long because in a traditional 4-3 with gap responsibilities he'd be playing a lot more downs in another team's defense. He's more of an asset than many creidt him for- but there are some big handicaps with the D the way we've been playing it up to this time. Maybe there'll be some wrinkles this year that let him drill the other line- and that would change the whole way we play D-Ball. This kid has one of the best low games I've seen in our uni and he just hasn't been allowed to use that; in fact he's been discouraged in the way we've played the scheme so far.

On Rome, one thing I can say is that it's the first place I ever saw a vending machine selling nightcrawlers, and I have to admit I was impressed. Not that with a flashlight and little rain that would be necessary but.... On Stroud- we will hope that he somehow finds some of the magic of his best season in 2003. The consistent decline in his performance though makes it very difficult to be logically optimistic- the bottom line is that the front office was very aware we were possibly the worst interior in football against the run last year. Without any ideal options, they selected bringing in a declining player who never took the primary run stopping role on the Jags after John Henderson arrived in Stroud's second season- a job held down very effectively by John Henderson. Stroud was an effective 3 technique DT as recently as 2004, but 2008 is a long way away. The questions are whether we will play him as a 3 or insist he revert back to the 0/1 technique role of his rookie year, (when he had no sacks) where the Jags were using Seth Payne and Renaldo Wynn part-time as the 3 technique Under Tackle in their scheme. To be fair to Stroud, he did a very good job playing the NT that year, but the Jags wanted to upsize and drafted Henderson to play the stopper and give Marcus a chance to bust gaps. Will it work in Buffalo? Part of it is how he's utilized, and maybe just as big a factor will be how much he's forced to play. If we end up with Marcus Stroud playing 2/3rds of of our defensive downs, I believe we're going to suffer as a team and as fans. If we can limit him to maybe 55% of our defensive downs, it will mean he's getting the job done on running downs and we're able to put players like Spencer Johnson out there to give him the time on the bench he'll need to last the season.

Nope, never said I didn't advocate big fat run stoppers. According the scheme you play in the NFL today, you might require one. What I do believe, and have made reference to it in this thread, is that to be effective against short passing games you need guys who can split the gaps when the time comes to rush the passer, which is the handicap of the big fat run stoppers. They don't have the wheels to pull it off. The key in that cae is to penetrate, not sit on your big fat heels and let the opposing QB throw without threat of you disrupting the middle lanes or hitting him in the face. And if your reference is to Haloti Ngata being a big fat run stopper, I will tell you that he is anything but. Ngata is big but has exceptional feet, and he works the line horizontally as well as he moves upfield vertically when he intends to. He is a force for the Ravens and would be for any team he played on in this league. He's an every down run stopper because he has the ability to pressure the pocket. John McCargo has yet to establish he's even a pass rusher, let along a run stopper or every down DT. God knows we'll all celebrate if he reaches half the level of play that Ngata is already bringing on Sundays.

McCargo is athletic but he plays too high. Since that won't interfere with his getting into the opponent's backfield, he should end up with some pretty stats and some Sportscenter plays during the season on passing downs. But that high center of gravity will forever hamper him against the run. He just strikes me as too much of a mixed bag, and I don't want to say a DT who doesn't hold up against the run can't become dominant in the NFL, but a DT who doesn't hold up against the run can't become dominant in the NFL- IMO. The key this season is to move our opponent to passing situations early, otherwise we'll be seeing too much gasping from Stroud/Poluszny/Whitner to bode well for the team overall. I'll guess right now that the best sign that we're getting our 1st and 2nd dwon defense in order will be seeing Johnson getting lots of the 3rd down reps. If Johnson is not getting time in the "Justin Tuck" role, I have to assume it'll be because we're seeing too many 3rd and 1 or 2. Among the options at RB were to simply have retained McGahee. But outside of that, Jamal Lewis was cut by the Ravens and ended up signing with Cleveland, where he had a top 5 finish. Plus the McGahee trade wasn't the only one involving a high profile vet RB. Outside of kicker, RB seems to be the most universal position in the game these days, and among the easiest to simply "move the pieces" around. RJ- as to the Ravens- I'll guess you'd take the Ravens play and results, and by adoption their approach, through the past 8 seasons over our Bills during the same period ;-)

I think John McCargo is the perfect example of our team failure to recognize the power of great talent in the middle. Remember he was the excuse given for passing up on Ngata. Ngata is now featured dominating the middle of the Baltimore Raven defense while John McCargo is hoping to finally break into our starting lineup. There's not enough of the great talent in the defensive interior to go around. The best teams know it, and hence they make it a top priority. We end up passing over the best talent to take guys on the second tier, and that so far has not been a very effective strategy. It's time to start emulating the winners.

Your sarcastic remark from earlier in the string identifies your opinion that "picking the right players is what's important in the draft, not picking the right positions." I've consistently said there's plenty of evidence that both scouting grade and position are among the considerations made by the best teams before making their selection. If you don't like your original position, now might be a good time to modify it.

There's not always a clear 1st round talent at DT when we pick, like this past season. But there was a clear 1st round DT when we passed over Tommy Harris, and there was a clear first round DT when we passed over Ngata. Either player IMO would have improved this team substantially- IMO you can't seriously say that about the players we ended up favoring. I won't hold my nose and suggest Wilfork, just because he has always been a scumbag- but he is another who would have made us a better football team on the field. I like Poz a lot. LB is among the safest positions to get quality from at the top of the draft. As far as Lynch, there were other ways to address the RB spot last year, as there are every year. I think the truth is that unless you have a can't miss RB like McFadden this past draft, there are better ways to be competitive at the position. You can't really say that about DT. The days of behemeths playing at 400 pounds well into their 30s are being replaced- rapidly- with more young athletic big interior guys with the burst to take the short passing game away from the West Coast influenced offenses around the league. It's not the old guys busting through those gaps- it's younger guys with a great set of first steps.

On a Message Board? How dare you! I think I can make a very good case for the idea that some teams apply a higher premium to some positions early in the draft- The fact is that we already know, because it's been publicly acknowledged, that some of the best personnel people DISCOUNT positions like WR high in the draft because history has proven the bust rates/payoffs make other positions safer to take. So knowing that some personnel people drop the value of some positions high up in the draft, it's logical to assume there is an opposite effect on positions they deem to be lower bust/better early values. We also know that there are more dynamics that go into the decision of that first round pick, and it's possible marquee value is one as you point out. We know again for a fact from statements made by teams that they also consider things like fit in the community, and we've seen guys who were picked specifically for their signability over other players who were rated higher. That's plenty of evidence proving the falsehood of the "good teams draft the highest rated player regardelss of position" argument that Bluefire and a few others promote. So knowing that teams use means of grading a pick other than "highest rated regardless of position", knowing that some good teams reduce the value of some specific positions and seeing the equity trends among the best teams differing fairly substantially from the way the Bills and Lions have been drafting, it seems like we might want to begin to pay closer attention to the trends of those better football teams with our early picks.

Only in your static model where the 71st pick has the same value as the 1st pick would that be true. In an equity model, a quantification of each pick allows a study by position based upon whatever each team ended up with ragardless of any of the factors that determined their position in each draft. re no other dymnamic, no other influence, no other information used to make the pick than a monolithic "next player at X position down the board". You seem to have the capacity to recognize the concept of multiple variables influencing the final pick, and as I mentioned previously OF COURSE good scouting is part of it, and OF COURSE other intagibles are part of it, but the pattern is defined enough between the best teams who are more likely to use that high equity on DL and TE versus the bottom-feeders like Buffalo and Detroit who are RB/WR oriented. Again, the study is exploring one aspect of the decisionmaking process to see if it's possible to bring to light the types of differences that make the winners the winners and the Bills the Bills- I've never suggested as you insist that this is the "only" factor considered when our number comes up on draft day. I'm suggesting that there's enough evidence to suggest there are "premiums" attached to positions and that the winner's formula varies substantially from the losers. I think you have to ignore way to much evidence to the contrary to adopt the "it's only scouting that every draft decision is made upon". There are multiple considerations the best front offices make when that first pick comes up- including team needs, character, signability. There are quotes from personnel guys in the NFL who talk about discounting "first round WRs", for example, to think this same type of general rule doesn't play the other way in the upgrading of other positions. There are far too many facts that must be ignored in order to settle on your simplistic "it's only good scouting" theory.

You make a good point about my word choice there- "stockpile" is too easily associated with a numercial quantity versus a "volume" quantity, which has been my position regarding draft equity all along. I'll retract the word to clarify the discussion. I'll limit the use of "stockpile" to situations like the Pats* use of 3 out of their last 8 #1 picks on DT. I'll assume we're in agreement that "stockpile" is the appropriate word to use in their case.

One of the most promising qualities about Poz is his ability to absorb a mistake and stay clear of making it again. You can see it on film where he gets dusted, comes back and the next time the play is run at him he blows it up. The kid stays healthy and our DL doesn't get him killed, he could become a very, very good football player.

That's been one of the great mysteries of this off-season- all the talk in the media about the Bills DLine gaining size, and some in our fan base insisting we're going to be better against the run? I'm having a hard time seeing how Spencer Johnson at 275 pounds is going to help out our interior run defense, among the worst in the NFL not that many months ago.