Tortured Soul

A great GM, Bill Polian, used his first pick on Manning.

How many games like that do we play a year? One? Two?

If we win our last two, we won't have a shot at Clausen anyway.

from the same chat: Scott (Fayetteville, AR) Ryan Mallett submitted his NFL Evaluation Papers this week...What are they going to tell him? If he comes out, where does he get drafted? Mel Kiper (1:11 PM) The advisory board is a great thing to have, but it tends to be ultra conservative with their ratings. Ultimately, they would like to see these kids go back and they don't want to see a kid go lower than where they said he would go because they would throw it back in their face. People jump on me, Todd and other analysts, but the advisory board has been wrong at times too. It's not perfect. It's a nice tool to have for the players, but it's not perfect. Jake Locker went back, perhaps because they didn't tell him he was going to be a first round pick. He would have been a top 10 pick. Mallett needs another year, just like Locker, for his football development. But both are too good to overlook in the first round. Mallett, with his size and arm, he would be in the discussion about being in the top 10. I think he would have been in the early to mid first round. He has all of those sophomore WRs. His main RB returns. He has a lot of talent around him coming back. We'll have to wait and see on his decision. With Locker going back, if Mallett goes back, they'll be competing for the No. 1 overall pick in the draft next year.

Bust implies there was some investment. He's just a guy plucked off a practice squad a few weeks ago. He's nothing more, despite what some on the board think.

http://espn.go.com/sportsnation/chat/_/id/...-guru-mel-kiper Can Buffalo's struggles at finding a long term answer at QB be related to them consistently drafting QBs who have played for warm weather schools? Mel Kiper (1:45 PM) Not really. Jim Kelly played at Miami and he went to the Hall of Fame. He almost won them multiple Super Bowls. Should have won at least one. Trent Edwards showed flashes at times. Losman was there, but now he's in Oakland after playing in the USFL. Bernie Kosar came out of Miami and had an excellent career in Cleveland. I made a comment when the Bears drafted Cade McNown that he didn't have the arm strength to play in the wind and cold. There are times when it's valid. But Trent Edwards has a great arm. If a QB has a very average arm, then you have to worry about it. J (Milwaukee) To piggy back that last question, can Bradford, McCoy, or Claussen sling in the winds and cold of Buffalo? Mel Kiper (1:48 PM) People keep making this comment that Clausen doesn't have a good arm, he does. They keep saying he doesn't have an Elway arm, but who does? Elway and Burt Jones have the best arms I've seen. Clausen doesn't have the Elway arm, but his arm is very strong. He can make any throw you need him to make. When he had to stick it in there to a smaller receiver in Golden Tate, he did just that. Tate told me a couple of weeks ago that he can't remember a throw that wasn't precisely thrown and hit him in stride. Clausen played through adversity, the turf toe. He's the best QB in the draft. Sam Bradford is right there. Does he get a good bill of health at the combine? If he does, he's right there. The shoulder's the key thing for him. Mel Kiper (1:49 PM) After that, Colt McCoy has the biggest game in any of the bowl games. He struggled against Oklahoma's defense in October and he struggled against Nebraska. This is a great Alabama defense with Nick Saban. If he does well, he's a second round pick, maybe first. If he doesn't, he's a third rounder. Tony Pike from Cincinnati, it will be interesting to see how he plays against that Florida defense. Mel Kiper (1:51 PM) You don't always want to look at one specific game that a QB has. On the heels of Oklahoma and Nebraska, this will be the third game against a top flight defense in Alabama for McCoy. If it were one game, it wouldn't matter. This will be the third game that he'll face and in the previous two, he struggled. It's important because if he wants to go into the process with momentum, he needs to play well here.

Did you compare Brandon to Hitler?

Good stuff. I'm going to have to look at that site more. Loadholt still grades out well in pass blocking. Here are some rankings breakdowns for you: 1st Round OTs: 14 (Oher), 33 (J Smith), 56 (Monroe) 2nd Round OTs: 4 (Vollmer), 49 (Britton), 55 (Loadhot) Bills OTs: 41 (Chambers), 58 (Scott), 74 (Bell)

When you have a hole at QB, it's a priority.

I appreciate that you looked for those guys, but I'd rather take shots at younger players that haven't gotten their shot yet, rather than vets that their teams don't want to keep.

So you want to sign: A starting then-33-year-old defensive tackle to be our backup? An injured then-36-year-old injured nose tackle to play the one? A then-32 year old linebacker with 4 sacks to move to DE as a pass rushing specialist? If we're going to free agency, I'd rather look for more guys like Spencer Johnson, who I think we should keep.

Totally wrong. In 2008, the Steelers won the Superbowl with Tomlin in his second season. In 2005, the Steelers won the Superbowl with Big Ben in his second season. In 2002, the Bucs won the Superbowl with Gruden in his first season. In 2001, the Pats won the Superbowl with Brady and Belichick both in their second season. In 2000, the Ravens won the Superbowl with Billick in his second sesaon and Dilfer in his first season. In 1999, the Rams won the Superbowl with Kurt Warner in his first season.

I think this is right. If we have a smart personnel guy making the call, and he has Bradford graded pretty close to equal with McCoy, McClain or Williams, I think you have to go with Bradford.

And they're playing QBs drafted 1st overall, high in the second, and 3rd overall. Bills have barely used any picks on the Oline at all. We started correcting that last year, and I think continuing with 2nd and 4th round players is the right move.

Pick up your LT in the second round. Look at the success of Vollmer and Loadholt (and to a lesser extent, Beatty and Britton) this year. If Wood and Butler are healthy, then get veteran backups and a 4th-5th rounder, and that is your line.

I would go Bradford. Best QB in the draft. BTW, I think Okung and Davis are better OTs, so I assume they're off the board, right?

Any currently unemployed scout who wants to work in the NFL will keep himself "in shape" so that he'll be ready if a team calls. Just like a player would. As for scouts for other teams, they are generally assigned to regions and not positions, but to the extent that they are scouting people for positions, the new regime will be able to factor that in when hiring them.

Welcome back, Kzoo. We missed you around these parts. Hate: RichRod

Isn't deadline in March? Then it would be crazy if they don't have a HC yet.

That is brilliant! Now, go tell Ralph!

That seems to have stalled, hasn't it?

I don't know what the speculation was in Carolina, but that was a pretty impressive performance. Do they need one more win (remaining games against the Giants and Saints)? And where does that leave Cowher? How many openings will there be around the league? Cable has the Raiders playing well. Wade's fate will come down to whether he can win a playoff game. Even Mangini picked up a second-straight win. Speculation out of Chicago is Lovie is safe, despite the team's statement today. So other than Zorn, are there any other bet-the-farm firings?

Bradford has my endorsement, as long as the doctors sign off on his shoulder. Here' a write-up by Nawrocki on the QB class. It was written in October, and I think the consensus would be Pike, Clausen and especially Locker have only improved their ranking since then. He haw very favorable things to say about Bradford, too. I think where the overhyped part comes in is for Tebow and McCoy. http://www.profootballweekly.com/2009/10/3...rhyped-qb-class Back to your original post, if top-flight QBs are necessary, why do you think scraping the barrel for Garcia, Collins or Bulger is the answer? I think the best choices available are the draft or Jason Campbell, if he comes available. Otherwise, you're left to luck into a Warner or Brady.

I started reading up on him. Very interesting that Parcells brought him in to run his 3-4 without any prior experience running one. His defensive tackles are smaller than ours, but he makes up for it by having significantly larger linebackers (his son is also the LB coach in New Orleans and may be a candidate to be brought in as DC). His defense also benefits from having two shutdown, former first-round CBs, something I think we have, too, when McKelvin is healthy. But overall, it looks like he could be the best guy to immediately improve our woeful run D - the Bengals are 3rd in the league - while still enabling us to use our draft on offense. I think it would be a good hire, depending on who he brings in to run the offense.

I don't watch enough college football to really give an educated answer to that. I know Kiper has two QBs in his top 5 (and that's after Locker's announcement), so that's as close to franchise as you get. No QB has ever come out of college without any question marks, so just because there are negatives to Clausen and Bradford doesn't mean they aren't worthy of top-10 picks. We can wait until guys like Mayock and Nawrocki put out their lists, but I trust Kiper more than the rest of the board seems to. If we draft 10th, I would agree that we don't have a great shot at either without trading up. But if we lose out, and that's a very real possibility, then we could realistically be drafting as high as 5th. And that changes a lot of the math. Then you have to ask questions like, would StL pass on Suh for a QB? Are the Browns done with Quinn? I think it would be much more realistic.