JDG

Given Clements' play last year, I actually peg it at a lot less than 50-50. Additionally, the franchise tag prices are all going up next year. If Marv has already concluded that based on Clement's play last year and in the previous years that there is little chance that we would use the franchise tag at 2007 prices on Clements, then we have gotten something for nothing year - Clements into minicamp for installation of the new defense, without promising anything that we weren't going to do anyways. Also, given the way the Players' Association took the League to the cleaners in the last negotitions, I wonder if there aren't some new restrictions on being able to "tag and trade" ala Peerless Price. At the very least, we now know that we could only use the tag on Clements for a max of two years, so its not like we could have tagged him forever.... JDG

Are you *sure* that getting Clements into minicamp for installation of the new defense wasn't it?

I think that Thomas gets a significant number of carries for us. For one, he has ties to Jauron, and I think that Jauron likes him. Secondly, based on our draft, other offseason moves, and Jauron's history I think that we are building (rather than paying lip-service to) a conservative, physical, defensive-minded team. Thus, I think that Jauron wants to bring in a physical change-of-pace back to spell McGahee, rather than the finesse guy in Shaud Williams. So, I see us running McGahee as the feature back, and then bringing in Thomas to keep up the physical pressure on defenses when we need a change of pace. JDG

Bill - You asked me if I was surprised that two of our next three picks were used on DB's. Those picks were a #1, a #3, and a #4. My point is simply that by the time you are in the 3rd and 4th rounds the nature of the "needs" you are drafting for changes quite a bit. Your response above, however, is the answer to a separate question - "What could we have done besides drafting Whitner?" Your answer to that question is not disingenious. I do believe, however, that it is perhaps not completely serious to suggest that we should be surprised by the position on which a 4th Round Pick is being used. My point is that the Bills had an immediate need at OT. Ultimately, due to the lack of top-end talent at OT in this draft, and due to our much greater need at DT, we were not able to draft a player who could immediately compete with Gandy on the first day. By the second day of the draft, you begin looking much more at next year's needs than this year's needs. In this case, replacing an aging Vincent at FS is arguably comparable to replacing Gandy. In other words, I like the chances of Ko Simpson getting quality playing time for us much moreso than the chances of the pride of Bloomsburg State University playing for us.... JDG

Before the draft, I noted that Marv Levy seemed to have really played the free agency process well - landing a likely starter in Tutan Reyes and a backup who will likely receive significant playing time for us this year in Anthony Thomas in the week before the draft. That's a pretty nice move if you can pull it..... almost any veteran wants to be signed before the draft, and just based on the timing of the signings it is clear that the Bills had all the leverage in the world in negotiating whatever contracts Reyes and Thomas signed. Even though we had interviewed them earlier, we wanted until the terms were right for us. All I'm saying is that Levy isn't afraid to play poker, and so if he made his move on Whitner and McCargo a little early, I'm inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt....

That's very disingenious, as the likelihood of projecting to an eventual starter drops off dramatically round-by-round. We'll have to see how Yobouty's career plays out in comparison to Jason Spitz and Rashad Butler - but those are the only two other offensive linemen taken in the third round. In the 4th round, you're looking at guys like Joe "Holy" Toledo who played TE in college, Chris Whimper who went very late in the round, and Jahri Evans from that football factory of Bloomsburg State University. I think Ko Simpson's future in the League looks better than any of those three. I don't know about you, but I'd rather draft a guy who is going to play this year, and projects to be an eventual starter in 1-2 years than draft the next Marques Sullivan or Jamie Nails simply because we *had* to get another warm body on the offensive line. JDG

Actually it is simply an accurate statement of how bad Teague and Anderson were last year... ;-)

Uh... doesn't it make it *less* likely, since if one of them gets taken you can still hope to get the other?

But if the Bills couldn't find a team interested in giving up a first day pick to move up, what do we do then? The players who went after us were: LB Ernie Sims QB Matt Leinart QB Jay Cutler DT Haloti Ngata DE Kamerion Wimbley DT Broderick Bunkley CB Tye Hill CB Jason Allen LB Chad Greenway Are any of those players any clearly better than Whitner? (Other than Leinart? ;-) Are any of those players more clearly an upgrade than Whitner over Bowen or McCargo of Anderson? I find it hard to see how.... JDG

But Dawgg - you're thinking Buffalo-centric here. If picks 7-17 were of relatively equal value, why would any team give up a 2nd or 3rd round pick in order to move up to #8? If you were a fan of one of those teams, would you have been happy if your team gave up a first-round pick to go to #8? The truth of the matter is that with both Leinart and Cutler on the board, any team that liked Leinart a lot had to decide if Leinart was really a surer bet than Cutler + a first day pick. Ditto with both Ngata and Bunkley on the Board. So, with few, if any, trade partners available, the Bills went with the top pick on their board.... at least we didn't make a truly bad reach by picking Winston Justice. JDG

The Bills taking Kelly Jennings instead of John McCargo. In other words, we needed an instant starter at safety. In the 3rd round, it is perfectly reasonable to take a Nickel CB (less so in the first or second rounds), and in the 4th round it is definitely great to draft a guy who projects to being a solid starter in 1-2 years. JDG

Well, before the draft, my opinion was that the just about the only position of non-need on the Bills was a punter. Obviously, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but its pretty close to the truth - especially once you get out of the 1st round, and you're no longer expecting to draft instant starters. Now, I will say that I did absolutely think that Nickel CB was a glaring need for this team, as I firmly believe that the Nickel CB should be treated as a "starter" in this League. The great thing about the Yobouty pick is that he could instantly take that job away from King and Greer - and based on the second Miami game, that can only be a good thing. There weren't any offensive or defensive linemen in that round who could get as much playing time as Yobouty will. And given the way Clements played last year, I think that we might all have highly underrated our needs at the CB position. As for Ko Simpson, he was definitely a mild surprise, but only mildly because in the 4th round you aren't necessarily drafting for this year. Given Vincent's age, drafting a future Free Safety is a very reasonable proposition. Moreover, Simpson was clearly the very top player on the Bills' board at the time, by a long shot, and so they did the right thing and took the best player. And its not like they drafted a guy who can't ever hope for any playing time. He'll be able to spell Vincent this year, and as Vincent approaches retirement, he provides security at the position as well.... JDG

Fans seem to have this deluded perception that the #8 pick in the draft should produce a surefire Hall of Famer. But here's some recent picks at that level: #9 - Reggie Williams, WR #8 - David Terrell, WR #10 - Jamal Reynolds, DE #7 - Thomas Jones, RB #10 - Travis Taylor, WR #9 - Chris Claiborne, LB #9 - Tom Knight, DB I think there will be some reason to be happy about Whitner if he just simply performs better than that illustrious group.... JDG

But Bill, our depth chart at Safety was Vincent - Bowen - Wire - Baker. Can there really be any argument that Safety was a key need for this team - a team that had an unbelievably putrid defense last year? If you go by the theory that you use a Top 10 pick on either a QB of the future of an instant starter, then the vacancies for "instant starter" in Buffalo were at SS, OLB, and DT. Winston Justice wasn't going to displace either Gandy or Peters as a rookie, and the Bills don't seem crazy about either Ngata or Bunkley. It seems to me that Whitner was the best pick, based on the players available in the draft. JDG

Answer: Pray. I hope to all heck that I am dead wrong about Losman, and that he defies history by being one of the worst-performing second-year QB's ever to go on to a successful NFL career. Step 2 will be to evaluate Nall vs. Losman in training camp. Give Losman every chance to earn the job, but ultimate go with whomever is better - QB contrversy be damned, draf status be damned. I believe that you have to try to win games in the NFL, no matter the circumstances, and that Losman has used up his "trial by fire" status. If Losman is going to trot out under center again for the Bills it has to be because he has a better chance than Nall to lead us to victory on that Sunday. JDG

Its also because Peyton Manning's rookie stat line overall isn't that bad, and his second year stat line are actually pretty darn good. JDG

Completely disagree - I think that players like Carson Palmer benefited greatly from a year on the bench. Heck, Losman played *more* as a rookie than Palmer did. The fact that he was only a fraction as good as Kelly Holcomb with the same O-line, coaching, and defense speaks for itself, I think. JDG

You do not understand me correctly. All three of the above players made their first seven starts as rookies. JP Losman made his starts as a second-year player. The bar is higher for him. Again, JP Losman threw more passes as a rookie than Carson Palmer or Daunte Culpepper did - you can't just write off his rookie year like it never happened. JP Losman was a second-year player, not a rookie. And before you go comparing Losman to Peyton Manning - Peyton Manning's first seven games: 55% completion percentage, 228ypg, 9 TD, 14 INT, 1-6 record. JP Losman's first seven starts: 49% completion percentage, 172ypg, 6 TD, 8 INT, 2-5 record. JDG

I think I disagree. Nickel CB virtually a starting position in this League, and anybody who watched the second Miami game last year has to think that Nickel CB was an area of need. I think Yerbouty instantly pushes King and Greer for serious playing time at Nickel Back. Indeed, I think this draft is very interesting in that both Whitner and McCargo could be opening day starters, and sooner rather than later Yerbouty could have serious playing time as the nickel CB. Kyle Williams will also receive playing time as our fourth Tackle, and if Vincent goes down for any length of time, Simpson will be in the game.... So by my book, we got five players in this draft who will be active on game days and playing in games for us. JDG

Great theory John. The only problem is - JP Losman WAS NOT A ROOKIE! In fact, JP Losman threw more passes as a rookie than either Carson Palmer or Daunte Culpepper. He also had more game appearances than Drew Brees. The truth of the matter is that JP Losman was a second-year player, and his performance last year is particularly disconcerting for that reason. JDG

Here's what I would have done: #8 - Matt Leinart (I have him rated as a Top 3 player, just too good to pass up. Of course, this would be contingent on determining that he would be excited about playing in Buffalo.) #26 - John McCargo (At least one major mock draft had him going in exactly this spot, so I don't buy the "reach" argument, and he fills our most glaringly obvious need. I suspect that the Bills may even have had him rated ahead of Bunkley and Ngata. Thus, I agree with the trade.) #70 - Leonard Pope (It seems like we've been looking for a pass-catching TE for forever. Everett looks like he can't stay healthy, and Euhus hasn't shown me anything yet.)

The Bills' pick of Donte Whitner leads me to believe that Michael Huff was definitely our guy. Clearly, the Bills were not happy with Vincent, Bowen, Wire, and Baker as our safeties - and who could be? Moreover, its hard to believe that the Bills had Whitner rated ahead of Huff. So, Oakland takes our guy Huff - that hurts. What's even worse is that Oakland leaves both QB's on the board - but we're not interested in either of them, and moreover, with two QB's on the board, there's little incentive for someone to trade up with us to get one. Moreover, both DT's (Ngata and Bunkley) are still on the board - we're clearly not interested in either of those (it sounds like we had McCargo as our top-rated DT), and again with both DT's on the board, there's no incentive for Philadelphia or Baltimore or anyone else to trade up and get one of them. Unfortunately, the Bills seem to have gotten stuck with the #8 pick in a draft with a consensus Top 8 players. (Bush, Williams, Young, Leinart, Ferguson, Davis, and Hawk), and unfortunately we just didn't want the one of those players who fell to us. JDG

I disagree for two reasons. First, the uncertainty around Clements' contract is also directly related, I think, to the simple fact that he was pretty bad last year. Yobouty might be Clements' eventual replacement as much for performance reasons as for monetary reasons. Secondly, you need three DB's in the NFL. The third round is an ideal spot to get your nickel CB in a League where many teams are consistently lining up in 3WR sets. JDG

I'm going to try to be excited by Whitner - he seems like a great player to root for, but I do have to say that it is very unusual for a safety, particularly of his size, to be drafted in the Top 8. JDG

Well, Losman is over half-way to matching McNown's career starts total. I'll admit that Losman is less than half-way to matching Klingler's start total, but Losman is also only a game or two behind matching Andre Ware. So, the question is - was Andre Ware improperly judged? JDG