Bill from NYC

John, I must stop you right there. Dialogue with you is actually great, and I will take responsibility that I am unble to get my point across. It must be true. I was accused of crusading by a few idiots on my last :Thoughts" post for what I DIDN'T SAY about Spiller. That didn't bother me. What DID was that a few good posters joined with them. Now, let me make this clear: 1) I DO NOT blame Spiller for the shape of this franchise. 2) i have NO ISSUES with Spiller as a player or a person. I DID admittedly have issues such as these with Whitner. In 2011, you and I coveted different qbs. You liked Dalton; I liked Mallett. Nix skipped over them and Kaep to draft Aaron Williams. THIS is where I place bame. Levy/Jauron in 2006 actually gave up an early 3rd round pick to draft 4 players who sucked and 3 of them were defensive backs.THIS TOO is where I place the blame. As much as you blast Nix, I really think that you are giving him undeserved credit for drafting Spiller. The team has been doing the same thing over and over, and losing games. Spiller is very good. The question remains whether or not he was a good pick. Meanwhile, the Bills W/L record sucks.

John, for the sake of arguement, let's pretend that Spiller was responsible for each and every Bills win since the day he was drafted, ok? What my friend, is their record? When a team wastes it's best resources on RBs and DBs, said team will lose football games. Teams need QBs, pass rushing DEs an LTs. This is how football teams win football games. And wasting top draft choices is the primary reason why the Bills lose football games. Even though Spiller is "good."

John, I am going to make a loose analogy.....McKelvin is the the JP Losman of cornerbacks. It isn't a strict analogy because of LM's ability on returns. I have watched games and saw McKelvin all over his man. The coverage was SO good, I would be expecting a pick, no problem. In a flash, this smothered receiver would catch the football. Please, do admit that you have witnessed this identical scenario time and again. Just like JP in that sense. I saw him hit Evans in full stride from 50 yards away, with little air under the ball. Then, he would have an open receiver 5 yards out and throw either a ground ball, or put it 6 feet or more over his head. McKelvin is one of the fastest players I have ever seen. I cannot think of a wideout who can just smoke him. But even on returns (and he is a fantastic punt returner), it looks as if he misses holes at times. If LM had football instincts, he could be better than even Mel Gray, or perhaps anybody who ever played imo. You can't catch that guy when he gets through a hole. The question becomes, can you count on guys like this? I wouldn't mind the signing and don't care what they pay him. The problem I have is that Levitre is a player who is talented AND can be counted on. He plays hurt, and even switches to other spots on the line when called upon. They shoud have signed Levitre, and THEN worried about Leodis.

The scenario above is probably true, and most definitely scary.

Or at least it would be if he was a good corner.

Absolutely correct.

You are correct (other than a typo, the 13 should be a 23), and I see that you started in 2002. Of those 10 selections, we drafted one RT, one DE, one WR, and one DT. The other 6 first round picks consisted of 3 running backs and 3 defensive backs. Yes, a whopping 60% of our last 10 first round picks were wasted on dbs and rbs. Btw it gets worse. If you go back 5 years before you started (2002) the Bills had 4 first round selections. One was defensive end Eric Flowers. The other 3 consisted of a running back and 2 corners. So by my math, no less than 9 of our last 14 number 1 draft choices have been either running backs or defensive backs. I won't even get into the early second round dbs. Yet, there are people who would actually be happy if we drafted Milliner, or even a safety at #8. Go figure.

The bolded is quite true. The problem is that most of the time, the receiver he is "right with" catches the football. Picking him at #11 was yet another disaster by Jauron. McKevin is an average to below average corner. That said, I hope that we keep him, if only to lessen the real possibility of the Bills wasting yet another early pick on a corner.

Nah. The Bills are awful, but the Raiders are even worse, And they are in cap hell this, and probably next season. That said, in a way we are in worse shape than the Raiders in terms of being tormented, We have cap space and are about to watch one of our only good players walk away. But seriously, how many Bills Fans are surprised by this?

I like Tyler Bray more than the kids that you mentioned. And he probably won't be ready to step in as a rookie. Either way, I am just floating ideas around.

You could be right. Some players are willing to take the risk of injury to be ufas Clements was a perfect example of this. He wanted out of Buffalo. I heard him say it on Sirius. Looking back, it wasn't THE worst move to let Clements walk. Teams should never devote a ton of cap space to corners. If you don't believe me, ask the jets, raiders or eagles.

trade down in the draft, and get extra draft picks? I am guessing that Moore could be had for approx. 3 years/18 million. In this scenario, they could acquire more picks, fill holes, and go after a qb next year. I suppose the question is whether or not Bills management thinks that he is better than Fitz. I lean towards thinking that he is. Opinions?

As they say, let's agree to disagree. And I am a fan of Wood. He is a bruiser, and he has a great work ethic. But Levitre would be harder to replace imo. He is a great pass protector and gets good angles on running plays. It would be awful to lose him.

Absolutely! As you know, I am a life long Alabama Fan. I can tell you point blank that if Fluker stays healthy, he will be a much better RT than Andre Smith. Fluker is as strong as an ox and doesn't get winded late in the game. Imo, he has a chance to be Bob Brown great. Andre has proven that he will let himself get out of shape. 9 mil is too much for Levitre, but nobody will give him that much. But the truth is, the Bills need to make him a freaking offer.

Agreed and as I recall, they traded up to draft Levitre. Before that draft I knew nothing about Wood, and was hoping that they would take Levitre in round 1. The Bills have ample cap space to solve many problems. As you said, this free agency period will be a buyer's market. But sadly, nothing dumb that they do on draft day would suprise me, and there is no reason to be surprised. I can honestly see them drafting Milliner or a wide receiver (a position they can fill in free agency). Even if Milliner is already grabbed by the Lions, they might draft the second ranked corner. It happened at safety in 2006. Thankfully, there are no sure fire RBs in this draft. Badol, please tell me about Matt Moore. Is he clearly superior to Fitz? Also, how do you rate Tyler Bray? Imo, he is the most talented qb in this draft, but I don't consider myself to be an expert at rating qbs.

Wood is constantly injured. One must wonder if his body is equipped to play in the NFL. How surprised would anyone be if he suffers yet another major injury? Odds say that it's a matter of time. Brown is WAY better than most think imo.

I like this post, but I'm not sure that I am in full agreement with it. Allow me to preface my response by admitting that I was pulled, kicking and seaming, into the reality that the rule changes have made the NFL into a passing, qb driven league. But, I have arrived. Now, as far as the bolded above, I am not so sure. Dalton is a kid. He, imo, has the potential to be in the same class as Schuab. Is Schuab good enough to win it all? This season tells us that he might be. The following is a list of QBs who did not reach the Superbowl this season: 1) Big Ben 2) Drew Brees 3) Peyton Manning 4) Tom Brady 5) Eli Manning Now, is Flacco, contract and all, an "elite" QB? I am not so sure. He has a cannon but I swear, I think he was lucky in the SB, particularly in the early part of the game. As Badol pointed out in another thread, the 49ers pass rush was weakened, and their secondary was exposed. And Kaep, with all of his amazing talent, is also a kid. He may soon be, but is not at the moment a QB that I personally would consider to be elite. I think that n the near future, intelligence and the ability to run will be huge factors in QB success. It's ironic, but Fitz is a genius, and actually, despite his frame, is a better than average runner for a qb imo. He just doesn't have the passing skills. It really is a shame. I don't know much about Dalton in terms of his IQ or wonderlic scores. Do you? What I DO know is that I would MUCH rather have Dalton, Kaep, or even Mallet on this team than lousy players such as Sheppard and A. Williams.

I totally disagree. Terrible is Langston Walker, Jerry Ostroski, Marcus Spriggs and Terrance Pennington. Greg Jerman was way beyond terrible. Pears, imo, is average vs. the pass, and above average on runs. Hairston, who admittedly did not improve this season, is strong, and has enough balance to fill in on the left side. Teams need a backup swing tackle.

Probably so, along with safety.

Your point is taken, but otoh, AW has absolutely nothing good to point at in terms of his entire body of work. There really is nothing. He was consistently beat by virtually every receiver he attempted to cover. What is WAY worse (and not his fault at all) is the fact that we passed on quarterbacks who can play in order to draft him. Icing on the ugly cake is that Nix said that he had offers to trade down in every round in that draft. Imo, Williams is symbolic of almost all of what is wrong with this franchise. He's a modern day Whitner.

The following, in the same format as my weekly "Thoughts," is not intended to be expert opinion. Through the years, I have been wrong as many times as I have been right wrt qbs, QB is not a position at which I claim any real expertise. I am a better judge of blockers, For instance, I knew how good Hasselback would be coming out of college. I also thought that RJ would be a superb quarterbck. That said, here goes..... 1) In terms of free agents, I like Matt Moore a lot more than Alex Smith. Neither is a franchise qb imo. In fact, this is pretty obvious. But Moore is better than Fitz (or so I think), and I see no upside in Smith. 2) The draft? My favorite qb is Tyler Bray. He coud very well be a head case, but his talent makes him worth the risk imo. And, Marrone is fresh out of college. If he is worth a damn, he should be able to handle a young buck such as Bray. 3) I am not high on Tyler Wilson. Why not? Because he isn't a pimple on Ryan Mallet's ass. I hope this is clear. 4) Geno Smith? He will probably be good. But imho he will need a few years to be comparable to Matt Schuab, who I tend to liken him to, at very best, and consider this to be his ceiling. 5) Barkley? Unimpressed. Lots of air under his passes. But, he might be a Brady type. I for one don't see it. So there you have it. Old timers like me on this site have not been afraid to be "wrong." Does it really matter? In a perfect world, we coukd trade down just a few spots and draft Bray, but do we take a chance? This is a very strange draft imo. I hope to see other opinions and have some fun with this thread.

Great choice Astro.Remember, he didn't get a ton of chances due to the unbelieveable talent around him. Saban likes to run, and he had both Lacey and Yeldon in the backfield, not to mention the freshman wideout, and every other great player on the Tide. Williams get open, and has very soft hands. It would be interesting to see how many reps he can do with 225.

Why not? I feel like we have done the same while chasing RBs and of course defensive backs.

Not to worry. Even if he is hurt and the Bills don't draft him, it might not change much. In 2006, Whitner was taken at #8, and he was the second safety drafted. Just last season, they took Gilmore at 10, and he was actually the 3rd defensive back taken in round 1. So you just might get your wish. It won't win us games, and will hurt the franchise yet again, but your prediction could come true.

Great idea. Maybe we should even trade up to get Milliner if need be. We must leave no stone unturned to continue wasting resources and to lose football games.