colin

nfl network is a heck of a lot better than espn. now that the top 3 are set in stone there is a solid chance we go 4 leinart 5 hawk 6 vern davis 7 cutler 8 d'brick of course huff could get mixed in there, but if d'brick falls past the jests there is a SOLID chance he falls to us. if leinart falls past the jests there is a chance he falls to us, we might get a kings ransom for him!

i agree that we need to draft some stud young Gs and hope they work out (my personal best case is we trade down 1 or 2 times and just shotgun at all the best bigmen prospects. some HAVE to workout, and each one that does gives us something we haven't had in years). i think this thread is putting too much emphasis on starting linemen, you need AT LEAST 8 guys who can play, and one or two of you studs will be riding pine for at least a few games. i think it might be a mistake to have stars on your line at the expense of having more quality guys. orlando pace alone can't help the back up RG who can't see the blitz, new england philly GB for years and pitts all have depth and quality. a REALLY good draft might help us with that this year. i like this signing because this guy is a top 8 lineman on most NFL teams and we need a whole bunch of guys

if hawk fell that far i'd expect that we'd trade out of the position for a few picks. i think there is a chance young goes there (slim but possible) and we flip the pick for a ton.

there are nfl teams that draft and retain/sign players well on a consistent basis. i think baltimore might be the best. they use traditional formal methods of looking at the measurables, temperment, game film, etc. (there was a great article with ozzie newsome before last year's draft in a paper i got at an airport). they make SOME mistakes, but most of the guys they take are good for them. i think TD didn't have the skills to use these techniques and therefore shot from the hip a few times too many. i'm pretty optimistic that marv and dick will put in the right work and figure out who to draft where.

having bigger teams pay more to other teams is bullsh!t. they should have it just they way they did before, X% (perhaps a bigger chunk than before) of shared revenues, with teams keeping their own extras. the skins can afford more for coaching, but they CANNOT afford more for bonuses because they are under the same cap as everyone else. the bills since 1989 were in the top 3 for paying bonus money out for a long long time and when the cap came in they were miles over it. the cap still isn't so high that teams can't to pay it all.

i have to disagree, i think this is pretty far from the truth. there are huge differences in how these guys can throw they ball, read the D, find open people, take a hit, and how the act under pressure. some guys have it and some guys just don't.

i like this a lot. i'd rather take justice if he is there at 17 (obviously not too likely) and failing that i think an impact D lineman will be there at 17. if we grab D in round 1, i think there might be an OT at 41/42, and then we can grab an S, DT, OG over the next few picks. if we have a hot pick fall to us at 8 (i think vince would be the hottest one, followed by davis) we could end up with 7 or 8 day 1 picks. I think we need 2 DT 3 OL and 1 S and whatever with the other pick(s) in terms of long term quality it all comes down to marv making the right choices. in terms of day one impact, a D guy early, an S who can run, and interior O linemen will give us the biggest boost. i don't think an OT that falls to us will be better year 1 than what we have, but i think we can upgrade the middle of both our lines and get 2 or 3 new starters.

if you have a quality pass catching TE you are better off than a blocker. the best thing a blocker can do is pin a guy off to one side, if a good pass catcher runs 10 yards deep the guy covering him will be out the picture anyhow. also, if they cover the TE with a safety or CB, it is an easier block for the TE to make so he doesn't have to be a great blocker. if they put an LB on him, the LB will get burned on passing plays. it gives the O an advantage, and threat TEs are rare.

i think gandy is a better LT than jonas jennings (particularly since jonas can't block well from the IR). seeing that jonas got a 13 buck bonus and about 6 per, if we want a real improvement over gandy we will prolly have to spend a top 10 pick AND be lucky, or drop 40+ bucks on a tackle and hope he stays healthy. i think getting the best value guys (trading down and grabbing 2 or 3 top interior guys on day one for example) and getting depth is the best chance we have at a good line and can be done in the draft. if peters is ready to move to LT (or will be in a year) drafting a solid RT and some interior guys might be the best idea.

if he reacts to a huge chunk of adversity like his mom dying by working harder and being focussed, he might just be the anti mike williams. i am worried he is a giant fatbody, but pat williams and ted washington had similiar knocks against them and they gave the bills a run of some of the best DTs an NFL team has seen.

i'm not at all sold on losman, but smith is REALLY bad looking right now. if the bills want to ditch or trade losman they can do so now or next year with little trouble, smith is locked up with the 49ers with HUGE cap costs if he goes. the 49ers have chased out a young QB and 2 quality linebackers with their new coach. they might become the new bungles. smith has a weak arm and small hands too. he isn't even equipped to play in the NFL.

speed on O might keep the D spread allowing willis to run. i expect us to use 2 TEs and Hbacks instead of fullbacks in our O. more speed = better

2 quality interior linemen will make our O line solid (say drafting 2 high round guards, or signing one and drafting one). 2 DTs who can play will make our D line solid. we aren't very good, but most teams in the NFL including a lot of playoff teams have bad lines (TB and washington have bad Olines, seattle has tiny D line of not very highly rated guys, carolina had a HORRIBLE O line that is now middle of the pack, and so on). the only way we are going to win as many games as we lose this year (even if we pump up the lines) is if we have very solid QB play. either JP turns into what many posters here think he can be, nall ends up being the steal of the year, or we draft someone and that someone tears it up.

i like what you've done there, but i'd take more DTs higher in an ideal world. if we like justice, i'd see us trading down and getting mcneal or eric winston AND a 2nd pick+ and perhaps grabbing mcneal max jean gilles gabe watson watkins dvorak (his name as far as i am concerned) wich IMO is better value. at least 1 QB and perhaps davis will be there at 8. i'd take davis if he is as good as he looks, but a QB or davis would command some solid trade value.

the thing to me is that the nfl provides the value to the franchises, not the other way around. in my business you see this kind of thinking all the time. someone gets put in a good seat, so they get a bunch of P&L by their name, and they think they are the schit. they start to think they should get paid a ton more and that someone else building a business and earning less P&L is not important. the thing is anyone can sit in that seat facing valuable clients and make that fat P&L, it is the totallity of the business effort that brings value to that seat, which was once an up and coming struggling seat as well. the dallas and washington and so on teams are worth more than buffalo and clevland, but that is because they are the big market guys in the NFL and the NFL requires all the smaller market teams to keep the value in the big market teams. any single owner could just as easily sell their team, borrow some cash, and own one of the big market teams. snyder and jones are just as replacable as anyone else is. in my view, the current potential downfall of the NFL is because of the idiot owners who signed the agreement without understanding it. that said, this is all just potential, if the NFL keeps on rolling and total revenue keeps on growning the salary cap will be easy to pay by all the owners including ralph.

our D getting healthy and a breakout year for our O, particularly at QB, will get us a 10 win + season. it certainly isn't likely, but if nall is the answer or if jp losman pulls a drew brees and suddenly get it, then we certainly have a shot. if we grab some impact guys in the draft (vernon davis would be the best fit for this scenario) then we migth all of a sudden score points and win games our secondary can still be solid, if tko comes back we have strong quality LBs, our D line won't be great but i could be a bit above average with a DT pick up, and our speacial teams are great and our coaching has improved a bunch. if willis pumps out 16 quality games, lee evans continues to break out (he could well drop in 12+ TDs) roscoe, our new WR, royal, everette, reed all improve and conribute AND our QB looks decent we have all it takes to be decent on O. although it isn't exactly a sure thing, we have a good chance of improvement. our coaches and GM last year all sucked balls, and our OC got canned and replaced by a chump meathead. if all that happens is our coaches know what the hell they are doing then we will be a better team, but a decent season will come down to QB play and i don't think JP is gonna get it done.

i think the best shot of us trading down will come if we have a QB sitting there at the 8th

x-actly if justice has a good shot at being a 10 year nfl starter then him at 8 is no reach at all. we could have justice/peters gandy whoever/preston villarial/preston peters/justice as our line, much better in at least 3 places from the start of last year. we could also call them the justice league

i'd be happy with a solid OT and OG in round 1, or perhaps DT and OG, or whatever (assuming a trade down) there are about 4 Gs, 2 Cs, 3-5 OTs, 6 DEs, and 2-5 DTs worth taking at some point in the first 50 picks or so. if we trade down and get more picks i'll be happy. we don't have to get bunkley and whoever, but if we get a quality guy with each i'd be thrilled

we are enamoured with the ppl who we are familiar with, but no matter who it is i like the idea of trading down and getting the best bigman available with each pick in the 1st round. we could grap Safety/LB as well as more big men in the 2nd and 3rd too.

huff would be graded as high or higher than taylor. huff is the highest rated DB in the draft, he can be a corner or safety in the NFL. 8 is in no way a reach for the top DB. i'd rather we trade down and pick up bunk, a top rated interior Dlineman, an o tackle, etc.

they still have staff held over from the old regime and have access to all the tape they need. modrak will have a well formed opinion of JP. they may well have seen something in nall to think he is a better prospect than losman. marv and jouron might be new in their current roles, but plenty of other people have been around for a while will tell marv and co all they need. gms and scouts can watch ncaa players on tape and project their quality with great accuracy (sure there are busts, but there not many 5th round guys who are of the quality of 1st round guys and teams can see this). just because we as fans think we might not have seen concrete evidence to say that jp will never be good does not mean that he ever will be good, or that there aren't other players who are better prospects as the bills QB. jp losman is also somewhat frail for an NFL QB and has been hurt several times (school, last year, 2 years ago). all he has going for him is his speed, 2 or 3 good quarters and hope.

the point that this post and many other posts that espouse "we can't cut jp because WE don't know if he is good or not" misses is that while WE the fans might not know, it is very possible that team managment does know. if he is sloppy in practice, doesn't understand the plays, has filled is teamates with doubt, shows no signs of learning, or just doesn't show a strong enough interest in improving the things he isn't good at then the management knows all they need to about him. it might take a while to really determin if a QB is good, and that means lots of games, it can be determined if he isn't good much much faster. a few starts and 2 years in the organization is plenty of time to pull the plug on a guy.

TKO SPIKES = COMEBACK PLAYER OF THE YEAR 2006

no no, they did. the put a bit of a wrinkle in by keeping an LB over smith which worked very well (check the stat line, the bills might have done the best job on smoith all year). came down to the wire and that is who gave up the go ahead TD