LABills08

Harvin and Maclin will not crack the top 20. Maclin might not go until the 2nd round, even if he runs a 4.3, because of how poor his hands and route running are. Plus, there is a chance Crabtree will be on the board at 11 after this foot injury.

I doubt Lynch will be suspended for the entire season, possibly a 3-4 game suspension...

Yea I give Bradford and Mays credit. Both could have easily gotten top 10 money and if Bradford tore up the combine he could have been # 1 overall. Remember Brohm was supposed to be the consensus number 1 QB until Matt Ryan showed him up.

Obviously, I like the plan. If it were realistic. I don't think we have a chance in hell to sign Dansby unfortunately. He and Adrian Wilson are the sole reason the Cardinals defense has held up. He will expect big money and probably will get it. No way Ralph throws that kind of money into him (though I wish he would). I like the draft as I actually am a little more impressed w/ Hardy than Orakpo, though I admit I have not seen either play enough. Hardy is an athlete and if you can grab him in the back of the 1st round I would be content. That being said, if Curry, Maualuga, Brown, Maybin fall to the Bills at 11, they can't trade out. Brown might be a better fit for a 3-4, but you take the best player. Note: This draft is going to be filled with 1st round talent DE's. From Hardy, to Johnson, to Maybin, to Brown, to Orakpo, to Selvie, etc. Someone will fall to the 2nd round. If we fail to sign a DE in the offseason and we draft a linebacker in the 1st, a decent DE should be available in the 2nd. Plus, there will be the inevitable rise and fall of some of these guys after the combine and pro-days. I bet Maybin/Brown will be top DE's and Orakpo will be the top 4-3 DE. I think Hardy will be taken near the end of the 1st and Selvie/Johnson will fall to the 2nd. Just my thoughts.

Not really an accurate draft, especially because they have Taylor Mays declaring and not Aaron Maybin. I don't like Orakpo that much, I'd rather have Brown/Maybin. If we were to pass on Aaron Curry I would be amazed.

A perfect example of how fans are not always right and youtube clips should not be justification for a 1st round pick. As hard as I ride our FO, they seem to have made the right pick at least in the 1st round. After that, who knows.

The first thing Polian would do, is sign the best player on the team to a long term deal. The last thing he would do is trade him. Yes, I am talking about Jason Peters.

My mistake. I thought they had one or two of their good years in the ACC.

They say the same thing regarding what? They still have him listed as 1 and Coffman listed as 4.

Hey, I would be more than happy with Coffman. I am just saying, if you have the choice, the other guys are the better players. Hell, some draft sites even have Gresham in the top 15 overall. Coffman isn't Kellen Winslow,Tony Gonzalez or Jeremy Shockey (in terms of their relative sizes compared to Coffmans'). If he can add 15-20 pounds to his frame and still maintain his speed and athleticism, I totally see your point. But, right now he is a blocking liability. I frankly don't care, I would rather have a TE that can catch a pass than a TE that can block, but if you look at how Gates and Witten block, you can see what is desired. I enjoy Walter Football, but I often doubt their accuracy.

Gresham is the more talented TE. After him, probably comes Pettigrew. Just because Coffman has sick looking Youtube clips does not mean he will translate all that well to the NFL. He doesn't have the size you look for in a TE. I would love to have him, I am just saying you take the other two guys if you have the option. Quick Edit: Everyone will say that Coffman is only listed as roughly 20 pounds less than the other two guys, but I think that 245 is a generous listing after looking at the guy on film. Even so, unless you are Jeremy Shockey (250), 245 might not be enough to convince coaches to take him over the other 2 guys, regardless of who has better hands. Unless Coffman is a disgustingly good blocker, 245 is on the light side.

Unless the Bills fill the massive holes on their D and O-line's via FA, you just can't take a DB in the first round, even if Mays is on the board. If he falls out that far, his talent will be enticing enough for numerous teams to trade up for, but the Bills just can't pull the trigger on him. They will be tempted to and god knows Jauron will want to, but I really hope they hold off. I'm not saying Mays wouldn't fill a hole, he definitely would, I am just saying that you can have two great safeties and still not have a dominant defense. If you can't get to the QB and your linebackers are undersized, the only thing your safeties will be doing is making tackles downfield or playing in the box. Neither of those two things maximize the talent of Mays. I wish we had the luxury of picking an awesome safety like Mays, but we need to rebuild our D-Line/O-Line and find a TE in this draft. Not taking into consideration free agent signings, if we don't come away with a defensive lineman (I'll even take a DT since Stroud/Williams do not impress me for the long term), a Center/Guard and a TE in the first three rounds I will consider this draft a failure. Even if we reach for Coffman or Unger, it still is worth it. By the way, the only reason our D-Line held up this year was because of Stroud. And that guy is a huge injury liabilitiy, especially at his age. If he somehow goes down next year and only plays 7-8 games, we will have a huge issue plugging up the middle because neither Johnson nor Williams are starters.

Exactly. Please help me drill this message home. If you have a great D-Line, O-Line and an average QB you can be a great team in this league with average to below average talent around the rest of the field. I can't stress enough how this is the main reason the Titans, Giants and Patriots are having good seasons. Hell, the Patriots have been able to sustain greatness for so long because they have done a great job in drafting talent for their lines. The Bills need to do this, I don't care if it means passing up on the Mays.

how did Johnson play? I saw he had a sack early on, but he looks like he takes some plays off.

In fact, I think Unger will go in the 2nd and I think Coffman will go in the third.

Say whatever you want about the validity of the quote. If you don't think this is the general sentiment around the NFL, you are crazy. It is pretty embarrassing for an organization that built a strong reputation on talent evaluation.

I think you have a solid argument based on the numbers. But, it is important to note that just bc Schobel had 9 more tackles, does not mean those tackles were meaningful. Tackles are always a dubious statistic too and never tell the full story. I think you are right in saying that Schobel is a better player than most of us give him credit for. However, I think you are wrong in thinking that Schobel extensively disrupts an opposing offense's gameplan. He is a finesse DE, end of story. He is good in his own right, but he doesn't make anyone around him a better player. He is not a physical specimen that can completely run over the OT he faces. He is an above average defensive end on a below average defense. He is a hard worker and never gives up. I give him all the credit in the world for those things. But he is not the defensive presence on the field that the Bills desperately need. I'm not saying we should get rid of him at all, I am just saying we need more at DE. If you feel confident with a Schobel/Kelsay/Denney rotation you are one of the few. If you do not feel confident about that rotation, it either says really bad things about Kelsay and Denney, or it says Schobel's play does not impress you as much as his statistics do.

Good point. I understand why Roscoe was kept. You can't blame the coaches for being optimistic about his potential. I mean the guy has natural talent, he just isn't that bright and doesn't know how to shake defenders. He is small, but there is no reason to think he couldn't play well if we got him the ball in the open field. Plus, his talent on special teams can't be overlooked. Kelsay and Williams are just terrible. I still can't understand those moves.

So by your logic you are concluding that Schobel is as good if not better than Peppers. Correct? I mean you make a good point. Though Schobel has one year on Peppers, they have roughly the same career sack numbers. A lot of complaints on Schobel revolve around his inability to get sacks when it "counts". But Peppers has far more sacks when behind than he does when ahead (40 to Schobel's 30). But your logic would conclude that Schobel has the same impact as Peppers. I just don't think that is true.

That might be so regarding his respect around the league. And I agree stats don't tell the full story. My point is solely this. In my opinion, he is a great Defensive End that gets dragged down by the poor talent of his teammates and thus the extra attention he gets makes him less effective. WHAT I WANT, is an EVEN BETTER Defensive End, that is good enough to make everyone around him better because of how effective he can be, even when he is given the extra attention. I don't buy this, "well everyone else is around him sucks so his talent is negated", great players always beat out the extra attention they get. This is especially true of players on the Defensive Line. I will say, to the credit of Schobel, the play of the Bills went down drastically without him in the game.

I promise you that Schobel would get 8-10 sacks a year if we had a pro-bowl DE on the other side of him. But, he is not good enough to be the best Defensive End on a good team. He would be a great partner to a good Defensive End as he clearly has talent, but he cannot take over a game like the best DE's in the league can.

I disagree. I don't think K Williams/Butler/Ellison are diamonds. Maybe....efficient picks? None of them would be starting on the top teams in the league. Williams and Ellison are way undersized for their positions and they get outplayed by good competition. Ellison would be a great back up as a 6th round pick and he had a great rookie season filling in when Takeo went down. But he is not a diamond. Butler was a good pick, but he also would most likely be a backup for the top 5 teams in the league. Same for Williams, who at times just gets MAN HANDELED by opposing centers and guards. Reed was a 2nd round pick who was actually projected for the 1st round, so I wouldn't call him a diamond in the rough. Crowell I'll give you, though he was 94th pick overall. McGee was a true diamond in the rough and is probably one of Modrak's top draft choices. Jason Peters was signed when Donahue was running the show, so I'm not sure who gets the credit. I think Poz was a great choice, Youboty could turn out to be a Crowell-esq pick as well (someone drafted in the 3rd round who performs like a day 1 draft choice). Preston I think has been given a verdict as a draft pick and he clearly was a failure. I'm just saying, I would argue that Modrak has done a fairly C+ job at evaluating talent.

I said earlier that there is no way the Bills select Alex Mack with their 1st round pick (knowing it will be a top 15 pick, maybe even a top 10 pick). I received a lot of flack for that, and I will retract my statement a tiny bit. I still think that if the Bills sit at their draft spot, they will not take him and rather take the best DE/OLB available. But, if they think they can trade down to 16-20 and get him, it is probably worth it. So long as they pick up a 2nd and 3rd/4th round pick for the trade it would make sense. However, we have to remember that there is no way the Bills can put the same DE rotation on the field next year and there is no way Ellison and Royal will be starters. Consequently, either Ralph opens up his pocket or we are once agian using the draft to fill a lot of important starting roles. I think in terms of draft impact, you have to go with fixing either of the lines. I think that Alex Mack is a top talent, but Luigs will most likely be there for us in the 2nd round at pick 32-42 and he will also be a huge upgrade over Preston. There will not be the impact DE/OLB available at that spot. If we take Mack late in the 1st we will fix one hole and the result will be fixing the DE/OLB and TE positions with lesser talents. By the way, no offense to Modrak, but he has recently done a pretty terrible job of finding 2nd-6th round talent aside from Edwards. I can't stress enough how not having a legitimate pass rusher is the major problem facing this team. TE is a luxury upgrade in my opinion. Center is a necessary upgrade as well, but it can be found in the 2nd round or late in the 1st. Our offense looked like the major culprit this year and it most certainly was. But, when you look at the Ravens, Steelers and last year's Giants, you realize that defense wins games. And the one thing all of those teams have in common is that they are physical and they get to the QB. Our defense can't get off the field and we stay in games through the good play of our DB's and Marcus Stroud's ability to take a few O-lineman out of the play for just long enough so that Mitchell, Poz and Whitner can make a play. But, I would argue that the rotation of Denney, Schobel and Kelsay is one of the worst Defensive End rotations in the league and if it is not addressed via FA it needs to be addressed through the draft.

Not sure if anyone else has checked this out yet, but we are in the running for a top 10 draft spot. I think that is a pretty terrible thing considering our start and how easy our schedule was. And Jauron still might have been extended? Gross. Anyways, right now we are penciled in at 11. Obviously that can change and because of our schedule, it might be hard for us to crack the top 10. But, most would bet against us winning one of the next 2 games, so 6-10 might be push us into the 10 spot. That being said, the Bills have a reputation for playing pretty well when it does not matter in the least bit. So I could see us winning one of the next 2 and sitting at 11 or 12. By the way, why is that the Bills only play well in garbage time or garbage games?

Coffman looks pretty great, can he block?