ax4782

The O-Line needs more help, but I don't think it has anything to do with the fact that there aren't currently any first or second rounders. Peters wasn't even drafted, and he's arguably a top 5 OL. Butler has also been a solid performer and Bell is apparently progressing in leaps and bounds if what we are hearing is to be believed. That being said, I think the Bills should shore up their biggest need, DE first, though I don't like Everette Brown. I would rather us sign a true 4-3 end than a tweener. That whole Vernon Gholston thing just didn't work out and these guys arguably don't have his talent. That being said, I agree that the majority of our first five picks should be on both lines. I would love for us to get Pettigrew though. Plus, he is one of the best blocking TEs available in the draft.

I meant other than the obvious. Good call though.

Agreed as to the first statement. As for the second statement, if we could move up from 28 by throwing in our first fourth round pick to get a good player that we really need, I'm all right with that. We won't have lost anything that we didn't have before and we move up to get a player that can really help us.

That may have been due to a lack of effective blocking at three out of the five offensive line positions. Do you watch football? Oh, and as for needing a QB, first, clearly not correct, and second, neither of the remaining two available QBs in the draft will be better than Edwards is right now. Drafting a QB would be yet another step backwards. Please hope this doesn't happen. That being said, I really hope your initial post and responses have been an ongoing joke. We have a lot of other needs on this team that are far above those at QB and RB.

Our receivers are in very good shape for right now. Why waste picks on a position where we don't have a need. Tom Donahoe is that you?

Tim, Any chance the Bills will trade their newly minted 4th Round pick for Henderson on draft day? This seems like a better option than hoping Raji falls to 11 and Henderson would really help out the DL in the middle, and a Fourth Rounder really wouldn't be a heavy price. Thanks.

That works when your team has an OL that can block for your RB. We have three good RBs on the roster right now, but no idea who's going to block for them. We need to draft OL for sure. Probably two of our first four picks should be OL. And we have had no pass rush the past couple of seasons. We need to draft a difference maker on the DL who can either rush the passer from the DE position, or demand more attention in the middle, freeing up our current DEs to make more one on one plays.

This was believable until you said Sanchez. No chance in hell Buffalo drafts a QB in round one. The first two were clearly targets, but this seems like just another BS rumor thread to get people going. There's enough of those already. If you want to speculate on who the Bills might take, just speculate, don't call it a rumor.

If only it were true. The haters are ever-present on this board and that's not going to change. Assuming they are wrong, and the Bills go 11-5, which even I have to admit would take a small miracle given their schedule, the Jauron-haters will say that this was a fluke season, like when he went 13-3 with the Bears. Buffalo could have three or four winning seasons and they would still say they were flukes. Like all coaches, Jauron has his faults and has made some poor game day decisions. A lot of coaches make mistakes. Winning covers the blemishes, losing makes them stand out even more. Keeping in mind as well, that Jauron has little control on draft day. The "Inner Circle" is much more responsible for those choices than Jauron. But of course, when you have a person in your sights, they're the only one acting wrongly. After all, weren't you aware that Jauron not only coaches, but plays all 22 positions each and every game. Don't mind the names on the backs of the players. It's really Dick Jauron out there playing when passes are dropped and blockers miss their assignments.

First, which Smith? Jason or Andre? Second, whether or not people are getting "excited" about any of the DE's in this draft, we have other giant needs to fill if none of them seem to suit our needs. Say, Offensive Line, TE, DT, OLB. Any of those should be addressed before we take a WR, CB or S. If we want a WR so bad, we should trade our #42 for Boldin and be done with it. This draft should focus heavily on the DL and OL, and not much else. The game is won and lost in the trenches, and for the last three years, we've been losing that battle. We got better on D last year, but we still need a lot of help on both lines. This BPA stuff is just silly. TD did that for years here, and where did that get us?

True. Hopefully, though, we do address at least three of those needs in the first two rounds. Buffalo has no business taking skill players in this draft before the fifth round. We have needed changes to the OL and DL for a couple of years now, but they are a glaring problem right now. Buffalo should get a DE/OT with their first two picks, and get whichever of Mack and Unger are still available with their second rounder, then get a OG or OLB with their third and whichever they don't get in the third with their first pick in the fourth. Several of the top rated guard prospects should be there as late as the third or fourth round and getting one of them would be awesome.

Yes, because living in a world where there is nothing to be positive about is so much fun. I love to prejudge everything about the Bills, including how horrible they will be every season, BEFORE THE TEAM EVEN HAS ALL OF ITS PLAYERS FOR NEXT YEAR! Considering I'm a psychic, I'm in a position to know exactly what moves the Bills are going to make and can see that in the future we're only going to win seven games this year. And besides, who ever thought that the NFL had to schedule games to be played every year. I never realized that the winners and losers were predestined before the Draft each year, and certainly before training camp gets started. Oh, wait, that's not reality.

Casserly's "opinions" were so good they led to the Texans having all those losing seasons. I think his opinion counts as much as Matt Millen's.

I'd rather they threw in Kelsay to walk the paper work to them. Denney at least seems to not get completely misdirected on most of the plays he's involved in.

If not Mack, why Eric Wood over Max Unger. Not saying he is better, but the concensus seems to be that Unger is the better player, and would likely be available there as well. Either way, I'm happy with this draft. We haven't focused on the lines in a long time with this many picks, and that is something we would nteed to do to build the future of this team. Also, if we don't trade up to get Pettigrew, and he is gone, who do we take at 28?

Last I checked, this season hasn't even started yet. Either way, you are right about one thing. Some changes in the FO are really overdue. That being said, people were saying this about the Cardinals last year and they really surprised people. Not say we're going to do that, just pointing out that there's a reason they play the games. Let's see where we are at the bye week before we get all pessimistic and "bottomed out."

It doesn't take a genius to figure out that the Bills are going to draft a DE and an OLB. The real question is where are they going to use those picks. Personally, I think Buffalo will use their two first rounders to take a DE and an OT in that order. Round two is likely to be C/G or a TE and the third round either a G/TE, depending on what happens in round two. Buffalo has some solid young guys in the LB corps, including Bowen who have a lot of potential. I don't see the Bills taking an OLB early, unless somehow Curry were to fall to #11. Then I think we have to pull the trigger and take the kid. He's too good to pass up.

Completely agree with the original post. I responded to a know-nothing post earlier that said Hardy was so obviously a bust that the Bills ought to trade him for a fourth rounder and write it off as an even deal. The guy actually looked pretty good in the limited time he was out there, and did cause serious match-up issues in the endzone. The TD catch he made early in the season was pretty spectacular. He's got a lot of potential. Plus, did any of the rookie WRs really have sensational first seasons last year? None that I recall. Another year or two and I think his potential will really have come to fruition and he will be one of the better receivers in the NFL.

Having a winning team is the best marketing ploy and Ralph knows that. Every team knows that. You're either in a Big Market and just have great marketing by virtue of that fact, or you win games. Take NE for example. You think they had a huge following in the early 90s when they were losing all of those games. You think the Detroit Lions have a huge following of fans and merchandise sales? People in Detroit are embarrassed to root for the Lions, let alone people living outside of Detroit. Anytime you bring in someone who can help the team win, it's a marketing ploy. The two facts don't have to be mutually exclusive or have one be the bigger purpose. They want to do both. As for Dockery and Peters being two of our best three linemen, I disagree. Butler and Walker played much better through the course of last season than either of them did. The statistics show it. We ran better to the right side last year. The right side gave up far fewer sacks than the left side of the line after week one when Peters was back at LT. Dockery consistently got blown up by smaller DL players and simply could not get it together in the running game. Considering that Preston and Fowler were so bad that whichever one of them played they would be the fifth best lineman on the team, by default either Peters or Dockery were our third best starters on the line. But that doesn't say much. We've gotten better at C with the signing of Hangartner and I don't think the Bills are done in FA. I strongly believe that we will sign Kendall Simmons at G and draft a very good LT prospect with the #11 pick. There are a lot of solid DE prospects that are likely to be available with the #28 pick, such as Ayers and Johnson, so Buffalo is probably going to be able to fill a lot of these voids. I also wouldn't count out Buffalo trying to move up in the first round from #28 if a player they want is available as the first round progresses. Let's try to keep the pessimism to a minimum until we see what the team looks like in training camp and the preseason.

Just an observation, but Hangartner started 15 games at C in 2006 for Carolina and has started 12 games over the last 2 seasons at LG. Carolina's line, statistically, was actually better during the games in which he started than when Travelle Wharton was starting at G. Saying he was not a starter for Carolina is not actually the case. He is a solid signing, a young guy who is going to be much better from day one than either Fowler or Preston.

Agreed. I think the Bills will focus on both lines with their four of their first five picks, which really is a good thing. I could see the Bills take an OT or a DE at #11 and then the other of the two at #28. I see something like what follows below. Also, though, Buffalo has done some things on the OL already. The right side of the line is solid. Butler was probably our best OL last year, and Walker was a close second. That right side is solid. If they move Walker to left tackle, where he looked solid against a good pass rushing D in the Seattle game, then Bell could take over at RT, which would be a better fit for a physically gifted rookie. Hangartner is a very good C and was a starter for 15 games at the position with a solid Carolina OL. McKinney is a solid reserver, as is Kirk Chambers for the tackle positions. If Buffalo could draft a solid LT at #11, say Oher or Smith, and get either Alex Mack or Duke Robinson I think the OL would be in very good shape, particularly if we could then sign Kendall Simmons after the draft. I see Buffalo using their first four picks in one of two ways: 1a: Michael Oher/Andre Smith OT 1b: Robert Ayers/Michael Johnson DE 2: Duke Robinson/Alex Mack OG/C 3: Chase Coffman TE OR 1a: Everette Brown/Aaron Maybin DE 1b: Eben Britton/Williams Beatty OT 2: Duke Robinson/Alex Mack OG/C 3: Chase Coffman TE Either way we get very good players at the position where we have the most need. Our Starting OL would then look like this, depending on the draft scenarios. 1=Oher/Smith-Robinson/Mack/Hangartner-Hangartner/Mack-Butler-Walker 2=Walker-Robinson/Mack-Hangartner-Butler-Britton/Bell Neither one is bad, and both might be better than the one we had last year.

Was it ESPN fiction too then? I believe that was where the report came from that the Bills had offered him 9.75 mil per season. Regardless, if they did offer him that, it was only .25 mil from what he received from Philly. Do you think that perhaps Peters wanted to leave Buffalo by saying they wanted to start negotiating at 11.5mil with the Bills, and then go off and sign a six year deal for 1.5mil less? Buffalo has shown they are willing to pay to keep solid talent, but they want to see something in return. They told Peters last year they would negotiate a new contract with him after the season, but he needed to show up and play. He showed up, but whether he "played" or not is debatable. Either way, the Bills then did what they said they were going to do. They began negotiating with him, and his absurdly high demands. Buffalo told him they wanted him to show some good faith if they were going to invest in him by coming to the OTAs. He refused and started working on another hold out. Sorry, I just don't think the guy wanted to play here, even after we were the only team that was willing to take a chance on him and make him what he is. This one is not on Russ. This one is on Peters and his agent wanting to go elsewhere, to any team that was willing to "Show him the money."

TO is a better receiver than Housh. Hands down. Housh has always been a #2 guy and Seattle is going to find out the hard way that they wasted a ton of money. Housh is good, but not TO good. Even now. The TO move was one that most people seem to feel will actually help the team talent wise. As for Peters being the best tackle in football, we'll see. His stats don't bear that out and anyone who watched him play last season saw that he was not as good as he had been. He could turn out to be a great investment for the Eagles, or he could bust. Contract negotiations are still ongoing with Freddy. I personally think that the team is going to give him a better contract after they get all of their draft picks signed and see how much money there is left to play with. Rhodes was an insurance signing considering that Lynch is likely to be out for three games and they needed to sign someone to the roster who was better than Xavier Oman who has proven to be a waste of a draft pick. Freddy will be the starter on opening day, and will have a contract comparable to that of other backup RBs.

Hardy is a lost cause after playing in three games? That's just crazy. You can't expect a rookie WR to come in and play lights out his first season. They never do. Time is needed for WRs to get acclimated to the NFL and actually do well at the position. Hardy showed a lot of flashes in the little time he played last season until he injured his knee. I think by the middle of this season he'll be getting more time at the #4, and in goal line situations and will make a lot of plays for us. I also think that Steve Johnson will be an excellent receiver. He played very well at the end of last season. Still, let's not just toss out a rookie in Hardy who has a ton of raw talent just because he didn't light it up in his rookie season.

Just because some team is willing to pay him that much money doesn't mean he's actually worth it. Teams overpay for talent all of the time. The fact is, had the Bills paid Peters what he was demanding to be paid, he would have accounted for almost a tenth of their entire salary cap. Now, considering that we have a lot of players over the next two years that we are going to want to resign, i.e. Lynch and Edwards, who are going to demand more money than they are making now, this move didn't make sense. We just gave Lee Evans a 9 mil a year deal, but he's proven to be worth it. No, he doesn't have a ton of pro bowls, but that's not the only measure. He's consistently been the only threat at WR and most people consider him a top ten WR. Peters had one great season and it's been all down hill from there. Also, he was demanding 11.5mil from the Bills per season. Philly landed him for 10mil. The Bills had offered him somewhere between 9.35 mil and 9.7mil per season according to some of the chatter on ESPN. There was a link to these figures on another post, but I don't feel like digging for them this early in the morning. The fact is, Buffalo wasn't too far off from what he ended up getting anyway. Do you think that maybe it had more to do with Peters not wanting to play here and Buffalo getting the best value they could for him? That makes more sense, particularly given his poor performance last year.