Mikie2times

Not disagreeing with any of your comments, but this is more about 2007 vs 2008. Sure we still have some major shortcomings as a team, but I see us improving in these areas vs 2007, which was a fringe playoff year (luckily or not). Anything can happen that debunks some of these, like another rash of injuries etc.

Let them hammer away, I will happily beat them down one by one. All I said was he should improve from his play in 2007. That doesn't mean he will be great, or even good in 2008, just improved. I see no logic behind a rookie QB regressing with additional experience from year 1 to year 2. Maybe increased film on that player, but to me that hurts runners more then pocket guys, and I just don't see it effecting Trent.

In no particular order 1. Trent Edwards- Who knows if he will be dud or stud, but it doesn’t take much to believe he should be better next season. One more year of study, learning from experiences, more time to get comfortable with the WR core. If he turns out to be substantially better look out, this team would have no limitations. 2. Defensive depth- KC Joyner said this is the deepest defense in football. While I disagree on that front, I do agree we have incredible depth because of our injuries last season. We go two to three deep at several positions with young players who have starting experience. We have several situational players who will allow our starters to play at top speed all game. Look at the Colts 2006 super bowl run to see how important that is for the cover 2. 3. Continuity on the offensive line- The line is made up of 5 individuals who must work as one. Every year for as long as I can remember we’ve been switching out one or two starters per year. For the first time in a long time, we return our group of 5. It will pay huge dividends early in the year, a time in which we’ve started slow for several years in a row. 4. Audibles- Who knows how good Turk will be, but as an NFL team, it’s inexcusable to not allow your QB to audible out of a bad play. We will be incorporating that this season, and that alone is enough to make a substantial improvement in our predictability and offense. 5. Thunder and lightning- Rookie running backs almost universally improve from year one to year two. We didn’t even discover what Jackson could do until it was too late. Lynch and Jackson were never utilized in the passing game. All these failures and scenarios of 2007 should play out to our advantage in 2008. 6. Injured players returning- You can’t overstate the massive depletion of this defense last season. It’s incredible they played as well as they did with so many players missing action. Those guys will be back, and we will notice that impact from the beginning. 7. Young team matures- We have one of the youngest, if not the youngest group of starters in football. Players progress in time, do the math. 8. Addition without subtraction- We won’t lose any major contributors, while we added some guys that will contribute from the start. Stroud is a big player in this equation; Mitchell should support and strengthen the run defense. The draft will certainly yield more offensive options. We could stand to improve substantially because of this. 9. Speed matters- The cover 2 is all about speed. Speed is not only dependent on physical ability but reaction time. In our third year in the cover 2 our reaction times will certainly improve as players get even more comfortable with the system. 10. Pressure- We don’t have overly physical ends, but they are good of the edge, especially Schobel. We had no interior push last year to force the QB to the edge. Johnson, Stroud, and an improved McCargo should be able to provide that forcing QB’s into more quick throws (increased turnovers, sacks, decreased YAC)

Good for JP that he showed up. Honestly, it takes some character to do that, no matter that he makes millions. That said this debate with Trent and JP is making me puke. I'm sick of it beyond the level in which I vomit in my own mouth. Most of us don't have jobs in which excuses are relevant, justified or not. He had his chances, he didn't take advantage of them to the point he needed to. We have a new QB who may or may not work out, who certainly will have an entire fan base waiting to say I told you so if he doesn't. Can we just drop this BS and support our team, no matter who our QB is?

On the positive a young Tom Brady On the negative an old Kelly Holcomb

At least somebody understands marketing principles.

Bet you watched a lot of him at ND huh? You couldn't ask for a better receiving threat.

Each year he's coached he's had substantially more defensive talent then offensive talent. While many view him as a conservative coach he may just be a coach devising the best formula to win and cover up his teams shortcomings. You can't say this for sure, but you can't say it's not true either. He needs a team with more offensive talent to really tell why his teams play the way they do.

Well then its useful for that. I would still like to see one thread for this information so we can at least keep it in one spot.

I've seen a bit from Henry and Wheelwright. I like Henry, Wheelwright not as much.

I was hoping we could get a thread started, pin it, and keep updating it as the draft approaches. The purpose of the thread would be to post any links, articles, etc that indicate Buffalo taking an in depth look at a player. It would be neat to see how much of these snippets we can gather, and if any ring true come draft day. Please post anything you come across so we don't lose the information (as I did with Barber). Devin Thomas WR Michigan State http://www.nfldraftscout.com/ratings/profile.php?pyid=67905 Kellen Davis TE Michigan State (from another thread) "WR Devin Thomas was one of 14 players from the 2007 squad to work out Wednesday in front of 39 scouts representing 27 NFL teams...also in attendance were prospects from Grand Valley State...Thomas stood on his 40 time from the Combine, but recorded a 33 inch vertical and did 16 reps at 225...Thomas was also very impressive in the receiver drills...Thomas and TE Kellen Davis will travel to Buffalo for individual workouts later in the week, and Thomas has a workout scheduled with Minnesota as well..." --East Coast Sports News Dominique Barber FS Minnesota Read somewhere that Buffalo was putting him threw several interviews, couldn't locate link anymore.

Agree totally, but will we be able to get an elite pass rush out of our DL? I just don't think we can generate it, even with Stroud. Schobel is a great DE, but he's not a headliner DE for an elite cover 2 front. Kelsey/Denney don't qualify as that either. We have a lot of $ already locked into our ends, and now our DT's, so I can't see us spending that much more on the front 4. In an ideal world the upgrade at DT will solve most our problems, it's just hard to tell if our DE's will respond enough to make this work conventionally. I hate this defense because it places such a high value in areas that are very hard to find good players in. In our situation the quickest path to recovery might be an elite CB in a hybrid cover 2 system. Obviously a better pass rush is ideal, I just question our ability to GW (execute) it, and lets face it, without that rush if you play conventional cover 2 your screwed.

Wow I've been way on the Kelly bandwagon but if his health is that bad I would stay the hell away.

We have a few posters consistently devalue CB's because we play the zone based cover 2. The theory is why waste resources at CB when we don't lock up in man situations. While the theory seems logical, I don't feel like it applies to our situation. No cover 2 teams play both corners up, two safeties deep, and drop the mike LB every play. Having said that I do recognize we play cover 2 on a good percentage of downs, and when the system is played as intended it would devalue an elite CB. This situation actually played out in Detroit, as they switched over from man to zone, and Dre Bly (an obvious man corner) got frustrated and demanded a trade. If you recall the same situation was also playing itself out in Buffalo before the 2006 bye week.. In 2006 over the first 7 games Buffalo gave up an average of 221 yards passing, with 10TD's/5 INT's. Nate was getting frustrated he couldn't show off his talents in a contract year, and McGee struggled without the additional help he was used to. It was clear to many our CB's were playing in a system that under utilized our talents. After the bye week Jauron decided to abandon the original game plan and revert back to more man coverage. The result over the final 9 games was an average of 193 passing yards per game, with 8TD/8INT. In terms of yardage we actually finished 7th in pass defense in the 2006 season, and 3rd in DVOA vs a teams #1 WR according to footballoutsiders.com. In 2007 we suffered threw a lot of injuries to our secondary, but it was clear from the outset our pass defense was going to struggle. When it was all said and done we finished 27th in yards per game, and 12th vs #1 WR’s (keep in mind we ranked 30th against #2's, which makes you wonder how often we doubled the #1’s). Irregardless our pass defense dropped off dramatically from 06 to 07. Jauron showed us he is willing to adapt to a hybrid cover 2 if the talent warrants it. The drop off in production from 06 to 07 suggests we would benefit from such a talent. To further the case we face Randy Moss twice a year now, and he's just not a guy you can release to a SS or FS deep (see George Wilson). Sure we need to keep improving the pass rush, but that’s not always an option, and if a true #1 CB is an option I don’t expect us to shy away from it just because we play this style of defense.

Why assume people are willing to trade down? Who the hell wants to pay out the arse for an unproven commodity? Teams just don't like to trade down anymore. Bill Polian actually wrote an article about that on NFL.com just recently. In his opinion, with the new cap structure, a high pick is actually less beneficial as a miss can set a team back years. As for the rest of the WR's all being the same I have to wonder how much of the rest of the receivers you've actually saw. I mean the main point of the thread was to discuss Kelly, and you say you only saw his highlight real. If you actually watch Hardy and Sweed they have speed, they just don't have football speed. They have long legs, good straight ahead speed, good 40 times. When it comes to accelerating and breaking in and out of cuts they fall short. If you watch Kelly you would know he's the only big receiver in this class who has football speed. You see him adjust, accelerate in and out of breaks, possess great leaping ability and body control. This isn't a long legged stride guy who can run fast straight , he actually can be a guy that beats you with route running. He can also beat you by being physical, making the tough catch in traffic. We could debate if he's worth the 11th pick but we could do that with anybody who "should" be available. If we do end up with Kelly I don't see any reason to not be happy.

Sept. 9 DENVER BRONCOS L Sept. 16 @ Pittsburgh Steelers L Sept. 23 @ New England Patriots W Sept. 30 NEW YORK JETS W Oct. 8 DALLAS COWBOYS W Oct. 21 BALTIMORE RAVENS W Oct. 28 @ New York Jets W Nov. 4 CINCINNATI BENGALS L Nov. 11 @ Miami Dolphins L Nov. 18 NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS L Nov. 25 @ Jacksonville Jaguars L Dec. 2 @ Washington Redskins W Dec. 9 MIAMI DOLPHINS W Dec. 16 @ Cleveland Browns W Dec. 23 NEW YORK GIANTS W Dec. 30 @ Philadelphia Eagles L

(12) Swap First rounders with the Chargers for Michael Turner. Turner is a very talented runner, and this would address RB while keeping a first round pick. (30) Chris Houston CB Arkansas- We need to add a high caliber CB to our secondary and at this spot Houston would be great. Ross is another player to target if he makes it this far. (43) David Harris ILB Michigan- Crowell could be a good fit at MLB but I like him more on the strong side. We need to upgrade our run support more then anything and next to Willis, Harris is the best to do that. (2nd Round) Manuel Ramirez OG Texas Tech- Trade 2007 3rd round, 2008 3rd round, to get back to the middle of the second round. Duke Preston could prove to be a good G/C back up but he really needs to step up if he wants to start. (92) Jacoby Jones WR Lane- Evans is going to be a great #1, Parrish should be a very good #3. I think a bigger target and legit prospect for our #2 spot would help. With other areas addressed we can afford this luxury pick.

Any reasonable man would say he has no fuggin clue who we will draft. People have talked about guys like Lynch, Willis, Okoye, and Peterson for months and for all we know the Bills could be targeting an unknown like Whitner. This thread is for people to call out that long shot pick. To start it off I have the Bills swapping firsts with the Chargers for Michael Turner and hopefully a 3rd or 4th. At the bottom of the first I can see us targeting a guy like Justin Durant at OLB. I'm thinking Buffalo is high on this kid and also freaked out Tampa will take him before Buffalo picks in the second.

1 (31) Via SD: Marcus McCauley-CB-Fresno State (Bills acquire Michael Turner and SD 3rd Round pick) 2 (43) David Harris-ILB-Michigan 3 (74) Justin Durant-OLB- Hampton 3 (92) Dameion Hughes-CB-California 3 (93) Jacoby Jones -WR-Lane

With the same variables at work for both RB's you would think the numbers would be an accurate indication of skill difference. The biggest issues I see are sample size, and long runs altering the sample. Turners busted off two runs over 70 yards in 2006 and 2005. Remove those single runs and his 2006 average is down to 5.43, with 2005 down to 4.5. Remove his 30-yard run in 2004 and his average goes from 5.2 to 4.07. Those are still very healthy averages but he's playing against a defense that’s chased LT all game. Past the numbers I've been watching him since N.Illinois and can confidently say he's a very talented runner. IMO more talented then anybody we can get outside of round 1. His dimensions make him difficult to bring down and his straight-line speed is good enough to hit the home run. The only major issue I see is diversity in catching the ball out of the backfield. Fairchild seems to value that type of RB, and that’s one thing Turner is not.

He’s obviously impressive, but the injury history is scary. He could be the next great back or the next great bust.

Its one or the other, IE Peterson or Lynch. Bush or Pittman or Irons etc. I wish the poll would have worked.

The way you answer this question seems like one of the largest variables of the draft. I think a good case could be made for most these options, but my hope is he comes from group 2 or 3. Tried having a poll, no luck. My groups had 1. Peterson-Lynch 2. Bush, Pittman, Irons 3. Hunt- Jackson, Walker 4. Smith-Henry-Wright

That’s viable strategy, especially being so thin at RB. Lynch is more of a "sure" thing, but my biggest question is does he have the character Marv looks for? To me that’s the only consistent quality that we seem to view as a necessity. I don't know of any incidents myself but I've crossed several bios that said Lynch has some character questions. My thoughts on drafting a RB that high aren't exactly positive either. I just see to much value in the later rounds with Bush, Hunt, Jackson, or Walker. I really think if we don't add a real NT, we must grab a bigger more powerful MLB. Willis just makes so much sense with our first pick.

Thats what I'm scared of.