My Friends Call Me Tebucky

Williams is a good player, but it makes him out be Warren Sapp in his prime. The season he had reminded me of Le'Roi Glover when he played in a 3-4. You have to wonder why he never was consistently exceptional getting into the backfield when they played a 4-3 (and ill grant that he was often playing the "space eater" role in that scheme).

The reason the Patriots do so well is because they don't have a defined plan, like you seem to think. Sometimes they trade up, sometimes they trade down. They've wasted picks on skill position players, as you noted. They're not afraid to cut or trade aging players like Moss, McGinnest, Seymour, Milloy, Vrabel, etc. They're not afraid to acquire aging players that other teams are down on- Moss, Harrison, Dillon, Seau, Branch. They've made big splashes in free agency like Colvin. The way they handle their personnel defies any bland "formula," and to suggest otherwise is foolish. They're great because they have the best coach, got lucky on a great QB, and seem to evaluate existing NFL talent better than any other team in the league. That last one isn't luck. But they don't have a predetermined formula, they go case by case, as any smart team should.

Other than being white, Walter and Welker are about as opposite as imaginable as WRs

Not going to sift through 7 pages of this. It's pretty clear that Schopp generally just doesn't like the NFL, and gets annoyed at how the Bills make decisions. He's not taking a shot at Buffalo or the Western New York area there, he's just relaying a pessimistic sentiment that he's entitled to have.

People get so enamored with skill position talent. It's going to take time for the offensive line to gel. Not a single player is going to be lining up next to the same guy he played next to last year. Butler and Walker will probably be playing new positions, we don't know much about Hangartner, and Wood and Levitre are not only rookies, but rookies playing new positions. Even if both of the draft picks pan out, it's not going to come together overnight. Their line as a whole isn't automatically better just because they dumped Dockery and traded Peters. I would think, for a while anyway, the opposite will be true.

I think the speed and athleticism of tight ends compared to 15, 20 years ago has a lot to do with it.

Pretty good in terms of depth players, but overall so far I don't see how you can give them anything better than a C. In the first two rounds, where you hope to find impact players, they've grabbed a couple of solid (average) NFL starters in Poz and Whitner (at #8 overall-ugh), a running back that is good but hasn't proven to be great at a position where players are almost dime a dozen these days, and a likely bust at defensive tackle.

Good points and you're probably right. What's McKinney's contract status? I can't imagine he costs them much. My thinking is somewhat based on the fact that they have two guys that can play center now. I think Preston was only on the team the last couple of years because they were nervous about Fowler. They've really improved their versatility up front (and McKinney is part of that for sure). I'm pretty comfortable with Chambers almost anywhere on the line. Walker can play either tackle. Butler can play guard or tackle, as can Levitre. Obviously Hangartner and Wood can play anywhere on the interior. That's not really a luxury they had last year, because Duke Preston was horrible anywhere he played. But he could snap the ball, so he was kept around. I just think that the versatility and flexibility up front might prompt them to devote one less roster spot to the line.

The thing that concerns me the most isn't the stuff listed. Their biggest problem on offense last year, basically, was having an incompetent backup QB. Obviously if Edwards plays every game it's not going to be a factor. But they had one of the league's worst backup QBs, and some managed to come out of the offseason with a different name at the position, but still a guy that is horrible. On defense, it was the pass rush that killed them. I guess it remains to be seen if that's been fixed. We can't expect Maybin to step in and set the world on fire like Dwight Freeney, but if he and Ellis can manage to combine for about 10 sacks in situational roles, and Schobel can bounce back to 8 or 9 sacks, we'll have a lot less of a problem in that regard. If all that happens and they get the 2006 Chris Kelsay, our DE rotation could actually be a strength. It's a lot to ask for though. By the way- no way in hell Langston Walker is an upgrade over Peters.

You can't grade it yet, obviously. But BillsDaily giving them a C- is no less ridiculous than people on here or anywhere else giving them a B+. Without grading it per se, I'm very concerned about two things in particular- the number of "tweeners" they picked (Maybin, Byrd, Nic Harris), and the number of players that are going to be asked to play different positions than they did in college (Byrd, Nic Harris, Levitre, and Wood). There's an awful lot of risk there. I'm no scout and I won't pretend to be. But if people really think the first 5 guys they drafted are all going to be successful NFL starters, you're ignoring the draft history of the league. And, obviously ignoring the mediocre drafting history of the Bills this decade. Can we temper the expectations just a little bit? If they can get 3 solid starters (maybe 1 of them being a Pro Bowler) and a couple of decent reserves, it's a good draft. But there's no way all 5 of their first picks are going to pan out. It just doesn't work that way.

I don't think McKinney makes the team now. Justin Jenkins is gonna be in trouble unless they move Parrish or put Hardy on P-U-P. Either Ko Simpson or George Wilson will be gone too, it seems.

I think they took them hoping one or both of them would pan out in case they can't re-sign McGee, yes. Youboty is injury prone, but he had finally turned the corner last season before he went down. I don't remember Corner getting hurt. Florence is a capable #3 or #4 that probably won't make the roster now. I understand the Bills draft players for their special teams ability. But you can't have 45 players covering kickoffs. Good special teams performers can be found as UDFAs, too. You don't have to devote 2 to 4 draft picks to that cause every friggin' year. I never said we were set at DB. And in the grand scheme of things, it's a very minor thing to B word about (the taking two CBs with the last two picks), but it's questionable nonetheless.

I'm OK with the draft as a whole, but I still think it's valid to B word about about taking TWO corners late. It's not about them refusing to fill holes, it's that they just resign themselves to the fact that they'll have problems at corner next offseason. They could have signed Greer. They could extend McGee and or Youboty. Instead, they just seem content to let good players walk away and replace them with draft picks that are a crapshoot.

I was pretty content with their picks. But using that as your reference is a little strange. They take Maybin at 11, he's ranked 10. They take Wood at 28, he's ranked 37. They take Byrd at 42, he's ranked 43. They take Levitre at 51, he's ranked 45. Add it all up and they took the 4 guys at a combined 3 spots BEFORE where PFW had them ranked. I don't put much stock into those rankings, but apparently you do. Either way, I would guess by PFW's standards they did very AVERAGE drafting. It was a good day because they had 4 picks in the top 51. And they're probably going to get good grade from the publications. Because they had 4 picks in the top 51, not because they unearthed a bunch of steals.

Referencing a college player's stats is pretty useless. How many passes did Antonio Gates catch in college? Did he even play college football? Would he have been worthy of a 2nd round pick, in hindsight? I know it's a rare case, speaking about Gates. But you don't draft a "blocking" tight end in the 2nd round. Some TE's made good careers for themselves as blockers that were taken high (Bruener, Brady), but they weren't drafted that high for their blocking that's for sure. As far as Scheffler goes, something has to be up there. Graham is a good player, and the old regime at least really liked Nate Jackson too. I believe he started over Scheffler for a couple of games early in the season. So I'm sure he gets moved. He would be a really nice pickup for the Bills...I just hope they don't overpay. The guy is a really good deep threat for a tight end and could do a lot of good things in Buffalo.