Cash

Hmm, Cody to Baltimore... vote of no-confidence in Ngata? I guess we were right to pass on him after all!

I'll actually defend the Bills a little bit here. As important as getting to the QB is in any defense, the 3-4 starts and ends at the NT position. It's the absolute keystone of the D and should be the #1 priority when assembling said D. A lot like QB on offense. And personally, none of the pass rushers this year impress me. Law of averages says at least 1 will pan out nicely, just because there's so many candidates, but I don't think any one individually is more than 50% likely to be a hit.

Troup needs to be better than Joseph, Cody, Cam Thomas, Charles Brown, and Jimmy Clausen to for it to be a great pick. He just needs to beat out the first 3 for it to be a good/decent pick.

My bad, I didn't realize posting on this board was invite-only. Out of curiosity, who did get asked? And by whom?

Very true. Erik Flowers followed up by Travares Tillman? Yikes. That's really the benchmark for an atrocious draft at this point. At the time, both of those picks were very questionable, but most of us gave the Bills the benefit of the doubt because of their then-strong track record as a front office. Since then, the track record has done a complete 180, hence the current skepticism. But yeah, there's basically no way to match the incompetence of that draft. I definitely buy the hypothesis that Butler knew he was out the door and purposefully tanked the draft so as not to load up a future competitor.

Well, we'll see how all of this pans out. I wouldn't be surprised to see the Bills trade up at this point (a la Levitre last year), but even if they don't, they're basically saying that Troup is the #2 NT in the draft, and significantly better than Cody, Linval Joseph, or Cam Thomas. We'll see if they're right or not, but they defied the conventional wisdom. When you stick with conventional wisdom, you look smart at the time, and don't get much blame if things don't work out. When you go against it, you raise eyebrows at the time, and if it doesn't work out, you look like a fool. The Bills have been great at making themselves look foolish in recent years. I'm still holding out hope that they make a move for Charles Brown, which would be awesome.

Worst LT situation in the NFL? Better get some help.

Some of you sound like Raiders fans defending their crazy picks last year. "Oh, you'll see! You'll be eating crow soon enough!" Whatever. When your franchise is a joke, you don't get the benefit of the doubt on questionable decisions. You have to earn that respect by making the playoffs more than never. Just keep thinking that a 40-carry per game offense with Trent Edwards and Demetrius Bell starting is going to lead us to the promised land. I'll take you guys seriously the first time you're ever right. And FWIW, I hope you are right. That would make my Sundays much more enjoyable.

I had already resigned myself to the fact that they hate Clausen (fine, we'll stink so bad next year that maybe Gailey will get fired and a real coach will draft Locker #1 overall), but how do you pass on Charles Brown there? Dude is gonna be a solid Day 1 starter at LT, if you ask me. Not a great run-blocker, but a great technician in the passing game, and he has those super-long arms everyone's infatuated with these days. It just really bothers me how little the Bills seem to care about the two most important positions in football.

We couldn't have traded down with NE? You can't tell me anyone was burning to get Troup.

Since when have the Bills shown that they're better at drafting than the conventional wisdom/consensus? Since John Butler was there, that's when. The Bills need to earn the benefit of the doubt by having some of these reaches pan out. Drafting a NT with a 3rd-round grade when there's higher-rated (by consensus) players available at QB, LT, and NT? You'd better be right. The last decade of history suggests the Bills will be wrong again. You can't hope to defend them until they prove us wrong, because we've been right for years now.

Matt Williamson: They are just a horrible franchise. Lose more and more faith in Buffalo every day.

Desperately hoping someone trades up to "steal" McCoy from us here. Don't trust the Bills to be smart enough to avoid an undersized warm-weather spread QB with no arm. FYI, Brees had a vastly better arm coming out of Purdue.

Looks like both Clausen & McCoy will be available at 41. Clausen pick redeems the Bills, McCoy pick damns them forever. Yeah hyperbole.

Well played. I'm stealing that one.

Anyone + Edwards = losing season

But you forget, Spiller is also a kick returner, which is a major need, since we only have McKelvin & Parrish... oh wait, never mind.

The QBs on the roster are not question marks. They are known to suck. Maybe Brohm is still a question mark, the other two are very established commodities. A question mark is a big upgrade at this point. And I respectfully disagree with your assertion that drafting a RB will address the deficiencies at QB. Chris Johnson had arguably the best RB season in NFL history last year, but it didn't make Kerry Collins look any better.

Those are the three rock-solid first-round grades left on my board. Campbell and Cody are marginal 1st-rounders (Campbell's the ultimate LT prospect on paper, but hasn't done it on the field, and Cody has concerns about weight, stamina, and being a 2-down player. I mean, if he's this fat when he's 21/22, how fat will he be at 28?). I usually hate trading up, but if we could get one of those top 3 guys without giving up much (4th or 5th rounder), I'd be in favor of it. I've pretty much given up hope on the Bills taking Clausen at this point. It's pretty clear that they don't think he'll fit their horrible offense. But they can't be so stupid that they think Demetrius Bell is a viable Option A at this point, can they? Once Brown or Saffold goes, they've got to move up for the other. Although I wouldn't necessarily be upset if they stay put and manage to get either Campbell or Cody. Colt McCoy is the nightmare scenario.

Watch the rest of the Saints team against the Cards. If we had that kind of team, or even anything remotely approaching it on either side of the ball, the Spiller pick might make some sense.

Getting excited about checkdowns? It's sad how far we've fallen as a fanbase.

Based on what the Bills are doing, it also seems like the NFL is moving to a no-QB, no OL scheme.

Agreed. I thought it was fairly telling when Nix was asked about trading down and said: “It would be a consideration for sure,” Nix said of trading down from pick nine. ”Now the only thing about that is you’ve got to have a partner to move down. Somebody has got to want to trade. The second thing is when you see the spot you’re going to move to you have to know who you think you’re going to be able to get at that point. Just having an extra pick or two extra picks, if you don’t get somebody that can help you, there’s no reason to move." As soon as I saw that quote, I thought it was very bizarre. If you trade down from 9 to somewhere in the 20s, which is about as big a drop-down as ever happens, then you're still drafting a guy in the 20s. How could there be no one available at #25 (or whatever) who can help you? You're not going to forfeit your 2nd or 3rd round picks, are you? Presumably there's more than 1 player per round that can help your team. For all the talk of a new regime, I have yet to see any evidence that the Bills' fundamental draft mentality has changed. They still lock in on 1-2 guys (in this case, Spiller & Tebow), seemingly ignore all offers to trade down, have little to no understanding of positional value, and are big on trading back into the latter part of Round 1 after making an early pick, generally overpaying to do so. It's no coincidence that the Bills are always picking at the top of the draft, and until things change in a major way (and no, drafting a "PLAYMAKER" isn't a major change), they will continue to draft in the top 11 or 12 every year. The combined love for Spiller & Tebow just shows how devoid of any kind of coherent plan the Bills are. Trying to add both an instant-impact, short shelf-life RB and a massive project QB to a 6-10 team is schizophrenic. Either go for all instant-impact, ready to play guys and try to get to mediocrity or barely scrape into the playoffs (which I don't like, but at least it's internally consistent), or go for high-upside project types, knowing that you'll stink next year and be able to load up with additional high picks. And to the pollyannas who constantly leap to the Bills' defense: you have no counter-argument. Not until the Bills start winning. And a 4-0 or 5-1 start doesn't count as winning. Once the Bills win 10 games (in one season) or make the playoffs, then you have something to say. Until then, your fantasy opinions are just wishful thinking.

Dude, it's been 10 years without a playoff appearance. The sky fell some time ago. And now a 70-year-old rookie GM has decided to all but eschew free agency in favor of building through the draft, and does so by drafting a part-time player (who will not start) at #9 overall. A player who plays at the strongest position the team has on offense (and 3rd strongest overall). Which is also the position with the shortest shelf-life in the NFL. And said GM also passed on comparably-rated players at 3 positions of both much greater need and much greater importance. I think that criticism is pretty well justified at this point. Should a time come when the Bills make the playoffs, you're welcome to jump in with "I told you so" left and right. Until then, maybe lay off the complainers a bit. We're the ones whose comments match up with reality.

C.J. Spiller Tim Tebow Anthony Davis (guaranteed bust at #9, possible stud if he goes much later) Any defensive player except Dan Williams Colt McCoy (in any round)