Ed_Formerly_of_Roch

I can't say I don't agree with almost everything he suggests. I'd be trilled if Whaley just reads this column and follows it exactly, I like the Mike Evens 1st round selection too as he's the big physical receiver as opposed to Sammy Watkins. Only bit of a concern is may still be lacking a 3rd down MLB

Sorry you can't have it both way! People have been praising the Bills, and rightfully so for some of the other moves they made this past year, Drafting Kiko and Woods, signing Robey, Branch, and Hughes, the trade for Lawson. Those all worked out. Colin Brown didn't work out nearly as well as they had hoped based on their evaluations I'm sure Then the other guy Legelsky getting hurt further complicated things. Bottom line is the Bill's had one of their better off seasons in terms of moves working out with the exception of this one. No team get them all right.

From what I know the Bills can drop the tag at any point up until Byrd signs the tag. Once it's signed, then the Bills are on the hook. Does it still count from day 1 against he cap, not sure either way on that part. So whats the down side of Byrd signing immediately, once he signs it then he is contractually obligated to show up and participate in all off-season events, training camp, etc. So the Bills could keep Byrd dangling till say late June, then pull back the tag after all the other teams have already used up a large chunk of their off season $$ and off seaos ncamps are complete so a team may be more reluctant to give him huge $$.

OK I understand the ILF part. but whats MAC stand for?

As soon as you flip Glenn to RT, it another two years or so when his contract is up, he will bolt. He's proven he can play LT so will want to be paid as one. So unless you're willing to pay Glenn LT money to play RT, he will leave, I promise you that, he's not stupid. So then we'll be having another discussion on drafting a someone to play RT. Any likely someone will suggest moving the current LT to RT!

signing Carpenter is going to require paying a signing bonus, os to sign him then havea compition and potentially cut him seems liek a waste. I'd let him test FA, see what teams offer im, try and match the offer if the Bill's want, if not move on to Hopkins. The other option could be to tag him assuming we don't use the tag on Byrd, but then you'd end up paying him big $$ anyway.

I would tend to agree with the Flutie comparison, though Fluties arm was likely weaker, but I'd only consider Flutie as a successful CFL player. He had one very good year in the NFL until defenses figured him out, may him throw outside and don't let him run. Think the same may happen here, but don't think Manzeil is a smart as Flutie and will take hits and get killed.

So to play the what if game some more, what if both Mack, Watkins, and Evens are all there at #9? Which one do you take? Watkins has been labeled the best WR, but Evens has the freakish size that our other WR's all lack. Mack to me does have a bit of question as to how his game projects to the NFL so d oyou go wit hthe WR, then which one, the guy who everyone says is the best, or the big WR??

Not certain I follow your point?? Are you saying only Glenn thinks he's a LT, or they shouldn't draft a player who's been labeled a LT and then move him to RT?? Either way, whichever guy gets moved to the right side isn't going to be happy and will bolt at the first chance he gets. Or the other option is maybe in the 2nd round or so, or trade down and with a late 1st round pick draft a guy to play RT, but with a lower draft choice less likely to hurt anyone's feelings.

That's the problem around here, too many posters think they are playing Strat-O-Matic Football where things like this will work great!

What this would very likely mean iin two years or whenever Glenn's contract is up, he will be gone. In two years that he's already been here, he's played well enough to prove he can play LT AND more importantly be paid as a LT. So unless Buffalo want's to pay him LT money to play RT, he's gone. That's the problem I see with all these "draft a tackle at nine" threads, you're not drafting a RT at nine and as soone as you move Glenn, you'll lose him.

I agree, which all the more shocks me that Pettine got the Cleveland job. But sounds like Cleveland was pretty desperate at that point.

Unless you can get Watkins. Mcshay has him dropping to nine, another mock a couple weeks back also had him falling to us. You got three QB's who are wild cards, they could go as high as picks one thru three, or drop out of the first round. QB's are often taken earlier than expected particularly now with low $$ involved. So add in three QB's two LB, Clowney,and there are two tackles projected real high. IMO the worst thing for the bills' would be all of the above are gone by #9 except the tackles. Then I'd try and trade down.

I think you'd need to get alot more that that. From what I've read anytime you trade a pick from the following year, take one round value off of it is what the "experts" say. So if you wre to pick up a teams 2015 1st round, lets assume it ends up being pick #12, the 12th pick in the first round is wort h1200 points, but if it's the 2015 12th pick assign it the value of the 12th pick in the 2nd round which is only worth 460 points. Even three second rounders doesn't seem to quite balance out, but trades always favor in point value the team who is NOT asking for the trade. The old supply and demand rule prevails

According to this article about Eric Decker: His family, of course, includes his young wife and country singer Jessie James, who is pregnant with the couple first child. So he has a wife and has something going on with Jessie James, wow the life of an NFL star!! Kind of reminds me of a little story I read about the importance of placing capitalization in the correct location as the following sentence can point out. "Capitalization is the difference between helping your Uncle Jack off a horse and helping your uncle jack off a horse." Guess proof reading is no more!

As has been pointed out, his salary is in line with CEO's of top companies. You're probably talking about a company with 5000 or so employees, do you honestly believe if you were to look at other companies you wouldn't find similar results. Not to sound racist here but add on top of that that what do you think the statistics of other companies would be if they did most of their hiring through halfway houses or worse. For many of these players take away their athletic ability, they'd likely been in jail before they ever made it to 18. And maybe I'm overstating the number, it might only be 10%, but that's still more than the number of players that are in trouble.

So Downing coached EJ at the senior bowl, plus last season Hackert, so they have both been defacto QB coaches and have/will coach EJ that's two, not sure who the third is. Hostler and Hackert have both been OC, those are the two coordinators he's referring to. So just not sure whom the thirs person he's referring to who was a QB coach and coached EJ? But the rest makes sense.

Reading the headline of this thread wit hall the Michale Sam stuff, I thought this was bout some other player who admitted he was gay! Sounded like it was someone who was long rumored to be gay.

Anyone figure out the code as to what the square or cirle around some mean??

I'd prefer taking Watkins, Mack, Evens or the other LB that is highly rated, don't recal lthe name. If they are all gone by #9, then I'd try to trade down, but you need someone to give you good value to make the trade. If no one wants to move up, then may be best to take the BPA rather than worrying about filling a spot. The wild card i nthe draft is QB, there a number of teams that all need QB's so the number taken early could be high. Higher than some are valued at but you tend to take more of a risk with a QB as there as good ones are so few and far behind. If that happens then some of these more elite players may stil lbe available at #9. I saw one draft board having Watkins there yet at 9. Or there could be enough flaws in all of them that they all fall then all these other players are long gone by #9 That's the part no one will know until draft day

You're right, but I also think the way NFL teams adjust to it is by not drafting him high. Then you'll have Kyper talking for two hours straight how he doesn't understand why no team has picked Mack yet or others in similar situations.

He's a scary pick, he might be great, but you have to figure out he'd project playing against top level talent all the time which he didn't face in the MAC.

Who exactly has done that?? And how?? The problem I see with that concept is backup QB's get around five snaps a week with the first team, so how does a rookie develop in that role? Even EJ if they were to draft a QB with the #1, say Bridgewater drops to #9 and we pick him. And assume early in camp he looks better than EJ so he becomes the starter, how's EJ now going to develop with five snaps a week? A year from now you'll have two #1 picks invested in QB's and still have no idea if EJ is going to be any good as he hasn't played. Yeah you could take a QB with maybe a #3 pick, but is that guy likely going to look any better than Lewis or Tuell, I'd doubt it. Seattle drafted Wilson as a backup and quickly realized they made a mistake on Flynn so they went to Wilson. But thta was a different situation in that Flynn was experienced so if he doesn't look good right away, it's not due to lack of playing time, but due to him just not being any good. I'm not at all against bringing in someone as an experienced backup who could fill in better than Lewis is EJ either gets hurt again or looks terrible. But at this point having a QB competition with another rookie, they both lose.

I don't see picking a RT or a guard at #9 is a good move. If one of those two elite WR or LB's are still there, I'd go with one of them. With all the QB's supposedly going early likely one of them still will be there, if not would trade down.

The other advantage I see in having an average type QB is he doesn't eat up such a huge chunk of cap space. You have money to sign better starters and backups in the less glamorous high paid positions. Looking at your list all the wins by Brady came in the early years when he wasn't eating up a huge chunk of cap space, Even Big Ben the first win was still making less $$. You do need better than average play from the QB position, but do agree you don't need elite.