Koufax

Hmmm...top half of first round rusher who ran for 1000+ his first two years, including tough hard yards for a bad team with a bad line and weak passing game, and then had one down year after a suspension for a disaster offense? No value? I definitely see some teams seeing good value and talent and wanting to add him. Not sure what that amounts to as a draft pick, but is he really more damaged goods than Willis when we got two thirds for him?

No Chance. This isn't the 80s, and he isn't Adrian Peterson. maybe 20 CJ, Fred, but probably a more even balance initially. Both fresh and dynamic. I agree he shouldn't be one of three, but I see him in the slot sometimes with Freddie in the backfield, and on the sidelines too at times, and I see him more impactful. Let's hope we find a better use for him than Reggie Bush who has been under used and hasn't fit in, but I think he is a better between the tackles runner than Bush and easier to fit in.

I have to agree. If this is YOUR guy, he is your guy because he represents the best value you can get with that pick. Any prospective deal could offer you more value. Give the other teams the full 10 minutes to see if someone gets desperate and makes a mistake and offers you too much. Then pick Spiller with one minute left. I don't know why giving the other teams 8 more minutes to make a desperate mistake and then picking Spiller isn't a better idea. I actually really like the pick, and the way some of the other guys fell makes me feel that my lower impression of these guys might have been warranted (Bulaga, I'm talking about you). Let's see how these guys do tomorrow and if they can make some tactical decisions and not just talent decisions.

Awesome! We weren't going to pass against them anyway. We don't throw to receivers, and two of our rivals picked CBs. Go Bills!

Bulaga goes to GB to be their RT. I am happy we didn't take him at #9 for LT, but is a good RT at #23.

Bulaga, Clausen, and Dan Williams now all fall to the 20s...good pick on Spiller, and great to not reach on any of those three needs who are available later if we want to trade up and would have been a reach at #9.

So Bulaga, Dan Williams, and Clausen are all still there at #18. One of them will necessarily fall into the 20s. Some room for trading up, but the other teams seem to be agreeing that those guys weren't top 10 picks either.

No, 2018 was my sarcastic response to the post I was quoting saying 3-5 years before competing and another 3 before contending. I think that you draft top talent for their overall contribution over the next five years (including the first and second year), and Spiller is a great pick for that. You can't look out as far as the person I was quoting keeps insisting. I like spiller over the next five years a lot and think he has a legitimate argument for BPA which is always my first choice.

Been a tough decade (or two) as a Bills fan. I understand your depression and lack of optimism or excitement. I cannot blame you. But I am glad you are not running the show. Thinking about the big picture and not the need is great, but planning to be bad for 3-5 years and planning on who you need 6-8 years out (3-5 + 3) is pretty funny. If you are thinking that far out then you take BPA at EVERY pick EVERY time. Who do you have graded higher than Spiller? Again not my favorite pick, but I think in 2015 when you are starting to turn your TV back on we will be pretty happy with it and glad we have him and not Bulaga. And if we are looking that far out, we can pick QB next year, sit him another year, and let him play in 2012 and still have six years to mature into your 2018 champion you are drafting for.

Hmmm...while the Demetrius Bell stock is down, he is still a talented project who will now have another year under him (but I don't think will be our starter). I kinda like Wood-Hangartner-Leivitre-Meredith. Remember our injuries, and remember that LT is huge in pass protection, but the other four guys count in the run blocking. Getting a special player is nice. We will see how it works out.

LOL!!!! I usually am a BPA guy and focusing on the top 5 year contribution, but I think you have to think about what's going on here prior to 2018. If we are really worried about 8 years out then maybe the Maybin pick will be a home run. I am concerned at NT and QB and LT, but I don't see Claussen as a home run here and I don't see either Davis or Bulaga as so much better than Demetrius Bell. I would rather have had Dan Williams, but it is hard to argue with BPA impact player.

This guy is a better football player than Clausen or Bulaga. Not sure on Anthony Davis. We get all NEED-y here in the peanut gallery, but maybe we could start taking the best football players, and be happy with it. I would rather have had Dan Williams I think and some other guys, but this is not a Whitner over Ngata no brainer, and I think we got a great football player. Let's see what we can get for Marshawn and hope CJ is a Thurman, Faulk type player and we will all be happy. Draft for needs and you end up keeping needs. We need the best five year production and talent out of this spot, and I'm not sure we didn't get it.

I would check my caller ID, and verify that it was the Patriots of the NFL, and not the New England Revolution or some other second round pick. I have no trouble trading him within the division. The other 14 games count too, and we have to get better. I hope he has a good season for us, but if we can get better by trading him that is cool too.

I would be a little disappointed, but overall not too unhappy. I just don't see us really addressing O-Line or QB with a pro bowl free agent, which is what Jamal is, so he could be our BIG signing, and then sign role players and draft well. Of course if we could have a big money spree and land ourselves O-Linemen the caliber of Dockery and L. Walker all our problems could be solved

No cap in 2010, but I agree it is a financial decision as AJ Smith tries to continue to turn over his roster, which he usually does pretty proactively and occasionally a year or two too soon. I don't know what kind of 2012 Jamal will have, but I have no reason to doubt his ability to perform in 2010. Remember also, in terms of the wear and tear, he came into last season in better shape and a little lighter than usual, and last season he took the whole season off for a freak injury to the triceps that should not be affected by his size/weight. So his body got a full season off from the hits and wear and tear and everything other than his triceps (which the physical would check out pretty aggressively) I would expect would be BETTER than at the start of 2009 when he was a recent pro bowler penciled in as a key part of the D for everybody's Super Bowl darling. If we lose Jamal because another team is more appealing to him, nothing we can do about that. But I don't see any reason we would not be one of the most interested teams or have performance/usefulness questions about him.

This would be a tremendous signing. As a San Diego resident who has to sit through local news reports, all the Chargers talk and Chargers games (okay, I don't mind the games) year round, I can tell you he is a top performer, and San Diego was really disappointed and worried when he hurt his arm last year to end his season. Triceps strikes me as just about the least worrisome injury to recover from, and he has already had lots of time. I am also not worried that SD is letting him go means he is done. They let a guy named Brees go, and that worked out, they just let a guy named Tomlinson go, and I think he might have some gas in his tank. Some Seau guy played a few snaps after he was done in SD. My worry here is that he will get interest from more appealing teams and not be willing to sign with us. With our move to a 3-4, he would be my top priority, even though we obviously need to address a lot of other areas, notably O-Line.

If you can get a Peyton Manning then there is some value to 1-15. But here is my math: 7-9 team + #11 pick is more likely to make the playoffs than 5-11 team + #5 pick or 3-13 team + #3 pick I also don't see anybody who we need to have to compete, I don't see a Manning here. I would rather find our Haynesworth (15), Freeny (11), Ed Reed (24), Polamalu (16), Dallas Clark (24), Wolfork (21), DeMarcus Ware (11), Merriman (12) than lose to get our sure thing franchise qb Alex Smith, Carr, Herrington... And no matter how much house cleaning is done by the new coach, 30+ guys will be back next year from this roster, and I would rather have them learn how to win than be doormats. I am definitely rooting for the teams close to us to win games to help our draft position, but rooting for the Bills to lose and thinking it will help seems dumb. So Go Raiders! Go Panther! Go Redskins! Go Seahawks! Go Bears! But also GO BILLS!

Hmmm...while I am disappointed with Maybin's 2009 contributions and he would not have been my pick, he was considered the better prospect compared to Orakpo by many, and more importantly, in judging any player you have to look at their 5 year contribution, not their rookie year. Which is also why drafting inferior players to fill needs will keep you inferior because they might not be your need in year 3 or 4 or 5, but they won't be as good as the better player. Don't get me wrong, year 1 counts among what their 5 year contribution is, but it is usually the smallest and not ever what I think a draft should be about. I know it is a different position, but Carson Palmer, Philip Rivers, and others sat their entire first year. I would love to have some more Orakpo and Patrick Willis, etc. from our first round picks, and don't defend at all our front office's handing of things, but I am quicker to judge the drafts from previous years than decide whether Maybin was a mistake 12 games in. If you continuously have smart football guys (we don't) making decisions about which players they think will contribute the most over their first five years draft after draft after draft, everything works its way out, and you fill in needs with free agency.

I think no news other than the passing "back in buffalo" is good news at this point. The only news in the next six months would be regular boring progress (which I would love to hear) or bad news. He has a long way to go before anything specifically encouraging would come out (other than the absence of complications and setbacks). I think we still have the full range of possibilities from back for training camp to misses 2010 to career over, and nothing will come out this week or next week that will be able to shed any real light on it. I'm most interested to hear about things to know how he is holding up and how he is handling the adversity than for how his actual leg bones are doing.

I was rooting for us to lose games for the purpose of getting rid of Jauron, not for draft position, and I think this is valuable. Had we won 6-3 against Cleveland and beaten Tennessee, he would still be our coach and we would risk not getting the talented coach we need because Ralph wouldn't make a move. So those losses really did help our team. But, as I have said many times and many others have said as well: The experience of winning one of your 16 regular season football games for the 35+ players who will return the following season is more valuable than the positions gained in the crap shoot draft with an additional loss. I am certainly rooting for other 3 and 4 win teams to pick up some extra wins so that our winning doesn't hurt us too much, but there have been so many impact players taken in the teen picks and so many busts in the top 10 (plus the money issue) that I don't think there is as much value as is perceived in being higher in the draft order. But there is definitely value to teams pulling out victories and working together and feeling good about things. So while some 1-15s lead to getting an Aikman or a Manning and righting the ship and winning a super bowl, many lead nowhere. Tonight's quarterbacks Brees and Brady were taken lower then the UFL champion we used to follow. As long as Ralph doesn't decide Perry is better than Shanny because of a strong finish, winning will help this team's future much more than losing would.

I think this is fun. But first of all. We will NOT make the playoffs, and my participation in this thread in no way implies that I think we will make the playoffs. What is exciting is that with an emotional win at least a small group of fans has gone from "who do we take with the #1 pick in the draft?" to "maybe playoffs?". Even if this team effectively has no real shot at the playoffs, it is more interesting and valuable to our players to be thinking about that chance still being alive one week at a time and not who has to win a game for us to get the #1 pick. I think Shanahan would rather have us at 8-8 with the #13 pick than 3-13 with the #5. The main reason I thought losing was ever good was to finally get rid of DJ, and now that that has happened my one concern is as others have stated a strong finish being enough to think Perry is a valid head coaching candidate. I think he earns respect, goes back to being the DC and we live happily ever after. I am certainly rooting for the 3 and 4 win teams to win games and help our draft order, but still thinking winning football games is more valuable than a couple positions in the draft, and you can fail from 1 to 10 and you can succeed from 11 to 20 and I care much more about who is making draft decisions than which pick he has. So let's see if a Thursday win can keep this hope alive one more week. Tennessee turned it around quickly and is keeping hope alive, and even though I think both Buffalo and Tennessee will fall short, knowing you have something to play for (another week of hope) is cool enough. Go Bills.

Slightly off topic, but what makes Ralph tick? I don't quite understand how he values different things and makes his decisions. His franchise is worth hundreds of millions and he has more money than he and his entire family could spend in many generations. More power to him, but why is the highest bidder and estate taxes among his key considerations? Why does saving a couple million on an inferior head coach make sense to him? I'm just wondering where the total lack of Jerry Jones / George Steinbrenner / Mark Cuban / Art Moreno comes from. I guess he has made himself a small market advocate and that probably is a source of joy for him more than winning or competing each year would be...

Yes, to be perfectly clear, the City of Industry is in LA as much as just about any other place considered, and it is like talking about an Orchard Park stadium vs. a downtown stadium. A little background for those who have not been following, Industry is a weird place with a tiny electorate which has complete control and is able to shape things in terms of taxes, etc. without dealing with any Los Angeles politics, and they have been aggressively trying to get a team, with a lot of interest and coverage relating to the Chargers. They are serious as a bidder and a stadium builder / tax incentives / etc. and are a legitimate candidate for a team and to bring football back to LA. It will remain to be seen if they will be the TOP candidate when a team is ready to move, but at the moment they are very organized and prominent. I don't buy the rumor as a whole, and I don't think the LA Bills or the Toronto Bills is an inevitable thing, but certainly the unfortunate possibility floating out there for after Ralphie runs out of borrowed time.

I'm not paying too much attention to next year's draft yet, but I don't know that being #1 is a huge benefit. Getting top five would be nice. 2007 Top 5: Russell, Calvin Johnson, Joe Thomas, Gaines Adams, Levi Brown 2007 Not top 5: Adrian Peterson #7, Patrick Willis #11 2006 Top 5: Mario Williams, Reggie Bush, Vince Young, D'Brick, AJ Hawk 2006 Not top 5: Cutler, Ngata 2005 Top 5: Alex Smith, Ronnie Brown, Braylon Edwards, Cedric Benson, Cadillac Wiliams 2005 Not top 5: Pacman, Aaron Rodgers, Luis Castillo 2004 Top 5: Eli Manning, Robert Gally, Fitzgerald, Rivers, Sean Taylor 2004 Not top 5: Kellen Winslow, Roy Williams, De Angelo Hall, Roethlisberger 2003 Top 5: Palmer, Charles Rogers, Andre Johnson, Dewayne Robertson, Terence Newman 2003 Not top 5: Terrell Suggs, Polamalu, Larry Johnson So consistently there is someone in the top 5 who is not worth it, and often the #1 isn't the best player, and there area always stars available after the top 5. In my heart of hearts I would love to see us get a top 5 pick, but this year is setting up to make that not necessarily that likely with some teams really struggling. But I would love to hand our new high paid Head Coach/GM some good picks to rebuild this crapfest. I think healthy we have more talent than it seems, and with a new coach, some high draft picks, and players hurt right now getting healty things could turn around pretty fast. I know it is never the right thing to do, but right now I'm hoping for 2-14 instead of 7-9. We have zero shot of making the playoffs now, especially with the injuries piling up, and a fresh start will be better than overachieving and finding a way to 6-10 or 5-11.

Games are not won or lost in the interview room. I'm not so concerned about what Edwards or Owens are saying, I am interested in how they play on the field on Sunday.