Cash

Good post.

It was just one game, but Brohm's arm strength didn't impress me against Atlanta. His out passes were absolute ducks.

There might be something to what you're saying, but I think the economy in general is a huge factor. Tampa's bottom line probably looked a lot worse than they're used to over the last year or two, which is one of the reasons they hired Morris in the first place (way too inexperienced = cheap), and why they're keeping him now.

What worries people is that Bradford hurt his throwing shoulder, then re-injured it right after he came back. Now it's been operated on, and until anyone sees him throw, there will continue to be legitimate red flags. If he throws really well before the draft, all will be forgiven. As it is, I'd guess that he goes to either Washington or Cleveland. Didn't know about the concussion, but that's another concern. More likely to suffer repeat concussions.

As the game continues to unfold, I'm fairly impressed by LeFevour's touch and decision-making. His line is way overmatched in this game (sound familiar), but LeFevour looks very poised and in control in the face of the heavy rush. He's able to buy himself time to make throws downfield, and seems to generally make pretty good decisions with his throws. I didn't see the interception, but I did see two key throws he missed on pretty badly: 1.) A deep bomb that was miraculously caught, but probably should've been batted away given the poor throw; a good throw would've gone for a TD. 2.) A would-have-been 20+ yard gain to a wide-open receiver on a wheel route on 3rd-and-4. LeFevour just missed the throw. But generally, he's been pretty accurate, with very nice touch on his throws. He had a great screen pass where he really suckered the D in before turning to the other side and lofting a perfectly soft pass to the RB. As for his arm, I'm not the best judge, but it seems to me that LeFevour has an NFL arm. Not a very good NFL arm, but good enough. If he makes it, he'll probably be a lot more of a Chad Pennington type than a John Elway. LeFevour completed a pretty nice deep out that had enough zip on it. But he had an earlier deep out broken up because it hung in the air too long.

That bomb on the last drive was woefully underthrown. His receiver had like 3 steps on the DB, but had to wait so long that the DB had as much chance to make a play on the ball as the WR did.

Agreed. Orakpo is really more of a true DE than Maybin, but Washington wanted him on the field as much as possible, so he plays LB on 1st and 2nd down. Maybin is more of a rush linebacker in terms of his body type. I guess the holdout had something to do with it, but doesn't it seem like he could play the same role as Orakpo? LB in the base 4-3, DE in the nickel & dime? Having said that, Maybin generally looked horrible even in clear passing situations, and I only recall one QB pressure from him all year, so we don't have a lot of reasons to be encouraged at this point.

Ideally, I'd like to draft Clausen at #9, then make LT the new top priority. But I doubt Clausen (or Bradford) will be available. In any case, we need to both find a real QB and improve the o-line. Keep in mind that there are no good free agent QBs, and even the rookies that pan out usually take time to develop. I don't think it's a winning strategy to first get everything around the QB in shape, then start looking for a QB to plug in. Good QBs are really hard to find. QBs drafted in the first 2 rounds bust about two-thirds of the time. QBs drafted later bust about 95% of the time. Those numbers aren't likely to be any different by the time our line is in good shape, which is why it's so important to worry about QB now. The odds are that it'll take several tries to find a franchise QB. That needs to be priority #1.

So we have to wait around watching awful QBs for 2 more years before we can get a decent one? Count me out.

Is this what these people really think? That if we draft a QB at #9 we'll then forfeit the rest of our draft picks and sign no free agents? I can assure you, that's not how it works. In today's NFL, QB is by far the most important position. If you don't have a QB, then finding one needs to be your top priority. Brohm isn't guaranteed to fail, but so far, he's shown nothing to suggest that he'll succeed. Hope is not a plan. Rolling the dice with Brohm and no other options would be a colossal error. That doesn't mean we have to draft a QB with our first pick, but finding a QB needs to be our top priority.

Must have hit pretty close to home to get him that riled up.

Nah, the outright firing never made a ton of sense. Everyone was under contract for 1 more year, which you still have to pay when you fire them. But if anyone is retained by the new coach, they'll need a new multi-year deal, so you'll wind up double-paying them. Maybe not fully double, unless their agent is really good, but the point is that you don't actually execute the firing until you're sure the new coach doesn't want them.

This is why reports like this need to be read carefully, and the messenger has to be considered. Schefter didn't report on this at all. Glazer broke the story and got the gist right, but missed on the details, which doesn't surprise me. As near as I could tell, every other media outlet that repeated the story was just passing along Glazer's incorrect report, not doing their own reporting based on their own sources.

Patriots are the #4 seed, I think. Probably just a typo on nfl.com's page.

Has anyone seen a report NOT stemming from Jay Glazer yet? I'm not saying it's definitely false, but Glazer is a hack & I won't believe any story if he's the only one reporting it. ESPN & ProFootballTalk are just passing along Glazer/FoxSports.com's report. Adam Schefter hasn't mentioned anything about it on his twitter feed yet. I'll believe it for sure when someone more reputable confirms it. At the very least, Glazer may have gotten the details wrong, and not everyone was fired. We shall see.

Kid looks like Billy Zabka. Makes it easy for me to figure out which side I'm on. Bring Leach to Buffalo!

Not all free agents. Under the current system, players with under 4 years of experience are restricted in some fashion. If there's no new CBA next year, that number will rise to 6 years. Most rookie deals are for 4-6 years, so most of the guys who would've been UFAs will instead be RFAs. But anyone on his second contract, or who signed an extension to his rookie deal that is now expiring, will be an UFA.

Bushrod also got abused by Schobel when they played us. People need to realize that Brees makes that line look way better than it actually is.

I still like Derrick Johnson from the Chiefs. High draft pick (17 overall, maybe?) who was benched because he doesn't fit their new scheme. But he *does* fit our scheme. I can't imagine KC wanting to retain him, and since he's spending this year on the bench, his price should be pretty reasonable. Low risk, high upside kind of guy.

A real offense guided by a real QB.

Our highest realistic draft position is 6th. If we win either of our last 2 games, it's probably more like 10th. The 5 teams we're not going to catch are: St. Louis (needs a QB) Detroit (no chance of drafting a QB) Tampa (no chance of drafting a QB) KC (very little chance of drafting a QB) Cleveland (strong chance of drafting a QB) Plus, we probably won't catch Washington either, and it's fairly likely that they might go QB in round 1. Of course, a lot will depend on how free agency goes, so this is all quite premature. But it wouldn't surprise me if both Clausen and Bradford are off the board when our pick arrives. I don't know if there'll be anyone else at that point who can justify a top 10-ish pick.

Orakpo plays LB (in a 4-3) on running downs and DE on passing downs. He's spent more time at DE lately due to injuries on the D-line. I'm guessing around half his sacks have come from the DE position. English plays OLB in a 3-4, so there's no real comparison to Maybin there. Jackson and Hood play end in 3-4s, and are completely irrelevant to the Maybin discussion. Honestly, if Maybin was anything approaching an NFL player at this point, he'd be in the same role as Orakpo. Starting at OLB in run situations, switching to DE in pass situations. Instead, he's nothing but the 4th DE on the field, and usually looks terrible when he is on the field. It illustrates the incompetence of the Bills front office, because this is exactly what they planned when they drafted him. At #11 overall, and full of vital team needs, you can't take a part-time player. Everyone knew Rey Maualuga would be solid, but he fell to the 2nd round because he's only a two-down player. Maybin is a one-down player who isn't very good. That's not to say that Maybin can't ever be good. We know how young he is and how inexperienced he is and that he missed most of training camp. Got it. Thanks. But thus far, it's been an atrocious and indefensible pick. Maybe that will turn around at some point in the future, but there's no evidence to suggest that it will just yet.

Pittsburgh's O-line is also horrible, and was just as bad last year when they won the Super Bowl. That's not to say that the Bills should in any way ignore their offensive line, but QB needs to be the #1 priority. Unless Brohm shows something, in which case QB could move down to #2.

On the bright side, at least Maybin finally got to show us how explosive his first step is.

I always love those rumors. Reminds me of 1999 when people kept talking about the Bears drafting McNabb at #8, because McNabb's originally from Chicago. Except that McNabb went #2 overall, and Clausen will go no later than #3 overall. Unless Weis goes to the Rams in some capacity, those rumors will be ridiculous.