GunnerBill
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Posts posted by GunnerBill
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I was going to say that BillsFan-4-Ever.
The fact is that to win in the NFL you need good coaching, a good Quarterback and good solid depth elsewhere. Every year we see teams with two of those 3 fail. People who want to say it's all coaching, or it's all Brady are mistaken. It's the combination of all 3.
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I was saying Barr throughout the draft build up, but I really like the fit for him at the Vikings. I think Zimmer gets major production out of him. I still would not have wanted Buffalo to draft him mind you.
I vote Greg Robinson. I'm really not sold on him as a pass protector.
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I'm not sure Tom Brady did play at an elite level last year. Everyone goes on about his receiving corps and don't get me wrong there was a lack of talent there - but I saw him miss plays late in games that he would have made in the past and so much so that by the business end of the season they had pretty much turned into a running team with LaGarrette Blount being their key offensive weapon.
Now don't get me wrong Brady was still playing at a level you can win 10 games with - but his regular season play would not, I would submit, have had him in the top 3 Quarterbacks in the AFC last season - and when was the last time you could say that?
Having said all that I don't expect this descent to be rapid. I think you will see him play at a similar level the next 2-3 years at least... and he might even, having got healthy and got a level of comfort with some of those young receivers, get back to an elite level this season. But I think a lot of people look at the Patriots record last year and just say "yea Brady was elite" when you dig a bit deeper I'm just not sure that is true.
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I don't know how anyone arguing that winning one in SB in 2014 is all that matters could then argue for taking Peyton Manning in answer to that question. Manning has won one Superbowl and whilst you can put some of that on other parts of his team his ability to make key mistakes at key moments in the post-season shouldn't be overlooked.
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I think Eli is actually pretty likely. His play was horrible last year, there are questions about his injury issues and Tom Coughlin will be retiring if the Giants slump this season. A new Head Coach might want a shiny new toy, especially if they are picking in the top 5 or 6 next April / May.
Bradford I don't want to touch - I'd prefer to ride EJ for another year. Alex Smith is a steady game managing veteran who I think KC probably get the contract done with, but if they don't I'd only consider him if I really felt it was just the QB that was missing from a play-off team. He isn't the kind of QB who can hide your other deficienies.
Brady, Dalton, Stafford and Romo will all still be on their teams in 2015 I have little doubt and as for your 8, 9 & 10? No thanks.
EDIT: And let me say first I hope and honestly believe EJ will show improvement sufficient to render the question null and void.
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CJ Spiller was once considered the most dynamic player in the draft. I think Watkins is a very very very good player. But that doesn't make it a good trade. The old regime would have sat tight at 9 and reached for a player with a late first round grade (see: Donte Whitner). The new regime actually knows how to draft well, which is all the more reason why I think this trade was reckless.
You have to consider where the franchise is when making the trade. 3 straight 6-10 seasons. "Potential" franchise QB, yet unproven. Questionable depth. This makes it a high risk trade because the probability of another subpar season is by no means insignificant. Under these circumstances, do you surrender next year's first rounder to move up 5 spots? I don't think so and nor would most top front offices.
I think you have described the trade in two different ways here. I don't agree with your first description, I do however, agree with your second description. Reckless means careless and rash, it implies a lack of calculation. I don't believe that is a fair interpretation. The Bills had clearly been calculating this move for a number of weeks if not longer. Had they traded up successfully for Carlos Hyde in the second giving up their 3 and 4 I think that would have been somewhat reckless. It was an "oh crap here goes the run on running backs let's do it now" type decision. The fact that they were originally offering their 3rd and 5th and got more desperate to the point that they were offering their 3rd and 4th demonstrates that to an extent.
However, whilst Watkins I believe was high risk.... but a calculated high risk. The Bills had done their planning and their homework properly, they knew what they thought the consequences of the trade would be and had reconciled themselves with them (as you state maybe easier to do that when you think you might not be around to face the music).
It's worth saying that like C.Biscuit I had doubts about the trade up as a strategy and I also share some of the doubts about Watkins game translating (or at least doing so quickly). My take on the whole thing is that it's nice to see a young GM willing to show the courage of his convictions.
We might simply be having a linguistic debate about the meaning of reckless here, but I think that is a step further than high risk and it's a step I can't quite get to on this trade.
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Such a focus on a player's physical limitations reminds me of the Bum Phillips quote that Wade re-told in London last week about Earl Campbell stepping out ofm a pre-season mile run: "That's ok... if it's 4th and mile we won't give him the ball."
Some players rely on their physical gifts, some on their football brain and most a combination of the two. So any analysis which focuses on one at the expense of another is flawed.
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Pears I think will go if Hariston and or Henderson show themselves reliable in camp and early pre-season. The other that I think might be a surprise is Manny Lawson. They want to use him at defensive end and at this moment I think all outcomes are on the table from that perspective. He could well end up our starter opposite Mario, he could well end up as a depth guy or he could well end up cut.
With CJ Spiller I think there is an outside possibility of a trade right before the deadline in October.
The likes of TJ Graham, Nigel Bradham, Doug Legursky and Ron Brooks are all possible cut casualties as well, but I don't know that any of them are big enough names to qualify.
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Brandon was the guy talking to the Jags because he has a personal relationship with their GM. You use any "in" you have in that situation. I think the Jags were more secretive about their first round intentions than almost any other team. I know that when my mates are playing things close to their chest I usually have a pretty good feel for what is going on because I know them as people and I know their personlities. If Russ asked him "are you going Quarterback?" he was probably in a better place to judge whether the stonewalling he received was a "yes" or a "no" because he knows the guy and how he acts and responds in certain situations. It just makes sense to me.
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I think they will use Freddie as more of a 3rd down specialist back this year in terms of actually giving him the ball. He is also still by far the best pass protector of the three. What has frustrated me for two years is the lack of plays where Freddie and CJ are both on the field. Gailey did it a little bit 3 years ago, but with CJ in the slot pretty much as a receiver. Then he hardly did it in his final year and Hackett tried it on like 2 snaps all season last year.
I'm a believer in getting your best skill players on the field. Sean Payton often ran plays with two running backs back there when one of them was Sproles. It's not as iff CJ and Fred are the same, they offer different threats. I'm not suggesting you do it as your base offense, but surely it's a nice change up option to keep the defense guessing? Brown, Jackson and Spiller all seem offer different things it would be nice if we could use some imagination to get the best out of all three.
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I want to see how camp and the pre-season goes before too many bold predictions. I do worry a bit about DE opposite Mario. Branch, Lawson and Hughes all bring different qualities as potential solutions in that position, but I'm not 100% sold on any of them as yet. Likewise at safety, where I think Duke Williams might prove to be a find and if he isn't maybe Graham or Cockrell can go and play back there but again too many uncertainties for me yet. I think we have passable players at tight end that can do the job well enough for now.
Obviously the question is whether EJ steps up, but I think the roster is in a position where we don't need EJ to carry this team, we just need him to be efficient and make plays at big times in games.
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So anyone who disagrees with you is making insane posts?
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Cockrell was rated the 4th best corner going in to day 3 on one site I saw and I think we took him as the 3rd corner to be selected on the day. Hardly a huge reach.
Kouandjio has a long standing knee complaint, that much is true, and his play was up and down - that much is also true. But you talk about where players featured on boards in relation to Cockrell - well Kouandjio was a first round pick on a lot of the draftnicks boards right up to Thursday night. So you are picking and choosing which argument to use depending on the pick.
And for the record I don't love either pick, there were guys in both of those positions that I'd have rather taken at that spot, but then I'm not a GM with access to the amount of coaches film and scouting reports that Whaley had. I value his opinion more highly than my own.
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I watched the presser in St Louis on NFL Network when I got home a little drunk in the early hours of this morning. Les Snead said he'd had hundreds of texts from people involved in pretty much all capacities in the NFL, not one of them negative. I do understand why this is a story, I thought the raw emotion on show when he was drafted and the kiss with his boyfriend was a human interest moment, but now I think the media need to move on. Michael Sam wants to be Michael Sam the football player. People in the NFL seem ready to embrace him as that.... the media (in the US and abroad - because it made the morning sports bulletins here in the UK too) need to allow that to be the case.
I hope he makes the St Louis roster because he seems a genuine guy and I think he has been courageous in taking the decision to be honest. But I want him to make the roster on talent, which is exactly how I'm sure he wants to make it. I wish him luck.
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I don't think Buddy was in over his head, it was just he was following the old team transformation template. The days when you started drafting solid players and 4-5 years down the line you started winning are gone really. Teams turn around much faster these days and Whaley knows he has this year and maybe next year at best to get this team winning. He is going to make moves.
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I'd have preferred McGill, but I'm good with Cockrell. I like the pick.
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they drafted the two safeties last year who didn't amount to much.
They didn't play much. Meeks was on IR for a fair chunk of the year. They still seem pretty high on Duke Williams.... I suppose we will find out in pre-season a bit more about what we have in those two guys. Just because 4th and 5th round guys don't start in year 1 does not necessarily mean that they won't amount to much.
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Wow Keith McGill is still there. I hadn't realised. I really, really like this kid. He was my sleeper pick pre-Combine and then with his performance there everyone was thinking he doesn't make it out of the second round, but he has. A 6ft3 corner who ran 4.53 at the combine... I'd find him very hard to pass up to be honest. I had been thinking they'd go CB with one of the 5th rounders, but I'd love them to grab McGill. He will be a starter in this league very soon I have no doubt.
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For your viewing pleasure. He's #2, weird # for a LBer. For some reason the vid skips to 6:24 after about 5 seconds, you'll just have to click back to the beginning.
Thanks! He looks stout against the run, good anticipation, gets downhill pretty fast. I love the special teams play half way through that video and I'm sure they will look to have him involved on special teams this year. A bit raw in coverage skills I think it's fair to say, but he doesn't give up on plays even when he looks beat and he chases backs down a couple of times in that video when he has maybe been a little out of position to start with.
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The Bills also had the 29th Run Defense last year. Unless and until that gets fixed, they will continue to be the AFC East Doormat.
I agree, but I'm hopeful that they have gone some way to fixing it with Spikes. The other way of fixing it is by being in the lead in games. Green Bay's run defense last season averaged just 84 yards a game given up through the first 7 games whilst Rodgers was fit. It then gave up an average of 156 yards per game in the remaining 9 games (I know Rodgers returned for the last one). So helping the offense should help the run D as well.
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I don't know enough about Preston Brown really to comment and I'm not going to pretend I do for the sake of having something to say, but if he can play the run well in there as Mayock suggest then that will do for me. Spikes is going to want a big deal next year I suspect so drafting a potential replacement now makes some sense to me, although I won't lie I was gutted Crichton went the pick before us (whether the FO ever liked him is another matter).
I think they will go RB next, but I'd still like a DE somewhere at least for depth and I missed the last 10 picks last night (it was quarter to 4 in the morning UK time when I went to bed) I presume Walt Aikens is still there? I think they really like him either in the 4th or the 5th.
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I'm sad that he has gone but not surprised. I liked Stevie Johnson but I do think getting a team to take on that big contract for a guy who you no longer see as indispensable is probably a good idea. I'm also kinda pleased for him that he might get a play-off shot or two there (although at the moment the 9ers are my "surprise play-off miss" for next season).
In terms of what it means for the Bills going forward my guess is that Watkins, Woods, Williams and Goodwin are roster locks and then they will go with one of the big bodied guys (Elliot maybe, or Barden) and Easley for his special teams prowess. I think the freeing up some of the Stevie money also makes it MORE likely that the Bills renew Spiller. I think he will have seen the slow RB market this summer and if the Bills put a decent offer on the table I see him staying.
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Not quite a lawyer but close enough. Tell your wife I appreciate her concern though.
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Whether the Browns have had a good draft really comes down to the age old question that we've been asking on this board for months... Will Johnny Manziel succeed in the NFL? If he does then this will be looked back on as the draft that turned Cleveland around. If he doesn't then this draft will be filed alongside the drafts that brought them Tim Couch, Brady Quinn and Brandon Wheedon. No question that the loss of Josh Gordon for a year hurts them. If Manziel ends up a bust and Watkins ends up a star in the league then this Browns front office and coach won't last too long.
Joe B.: 5 Bills that could be in danger of being cut
in The Stadium Wall Archives
Posted
I think Bradham should be on that list too. They have Rivers, Spikes, Alonso, Brown, and then I think they really like Ty Powell (Whaley has mentioned him a number of times in interviews) and they have Randell Johnson who they picked in the 7th round. If those guys both make the team my guess is Bradham doesn't.
I also think that if they don't see him fitting at DE then Manny Lawson could be in trouble. They are going to try him at DE but there is no guarentee that it works. I actually think he has a chance to work in Schwartz's system he sets the edge pretty well in the run game, but if he struggles in training camp at DE then I wouldn't be amazed if he is cut.