l< j Posted November 22, 2010 Share Posted November 22, 2010 (edited) Keying the win were contributions from unlikely players, or unlikely based on their draft/acquisition history (the first half of this borrows from and builds on Jerry Sullivan's column): Start with Fitzbeard, 300 yds, 4 TDs, and the shortest memory in the game: acquired as an unwanted free agent to be a backup Fred Jackson, 116 yds, 2 Tds, also has a big head: resume includes Coe College, Indoor football, and NFL Europe Steve Johnson, 130+ yds, 3 TDs (hat size unknown, but sizable sense of humor): 7th round pick Donald Jones, TD and 70 yds: undrafted out of Youngstown St Craig Urbik, filled in capably at guard: waiver wire pickup Wrotto: 3rd starter at RT, waived and mid-season acquisition D Bell: 7th rounder Quinton Gainther and Jehuu Caulcrick both had key gains in limited time, and both were mid-season additions to the roster Reggie Torbor: Miami castoff and late acquisition George Wilson: undrafted, orig. signed by the Lions and let go before being signed to our practice squad. (Thanks, Bill from NYC.) Who am I missing from the above list? On the other side of that coin, yesterday's inactives included: CJ Spiller, injured 1st round pick John McCargo, 1st round pick Aaron Maybin, 1st round pick Shawne Merriman, 1st round pick of the Chargers and running out of time to prove that he has gotten past the 'roid hangover Interesting contrast. kj Edited November 22, 2010 by l< j Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BuffaloBill Posted November 22, 2010 Share Posted November 22, 2010 Point(s) made. I still believe Spiller has the tools to be a very special role player. It is likley to be as a return man, occasional wide-out and change of pace back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill from NYC Posted November 22, 2010 Share Posted November 22, 2010 Keying the win were contributions from unlikely players, or unlikely based on their draft/acquisition history (the first half of this borrows from and builds on Jerry Sullivan's column): Start with Fitzbeard, 300 yds, 4 TDs, and the shortest memory in the game: acquired as an unwanted free agent to be a backup Fred Jackson, 116 yds, 2 Tds, also has a big head: resume includes Coe College, Indoor football, and NFL Europe Steve Johnson, 130+ yds, 3 TDs (hat size unknown, but sizable sense of humor): 7th round pick Donald Jones, TD and 70 yds: undrafted out of Youngstown St Craig Urbik, filled in capably at guard: waiver wire pickup Wrotto: 3rd starter at RT, waived and mid-season acquisition D Bell: 7th rounder Quinton Gainther and Jehuu Caulcrick both had key gains in limited time, and both were mid-season additions to the roster Reggie Torbor: Miami castoff and late acquisition Who am I missing from the above list? On the other side of that coin, yesterday's inactives included: CJ Spiller, injured 1st round pick John McCargo, 1st round pick Aaron Maybin, 1st round pick Shawne Merriman, 1st round pick of the Chargers and running out of time to prove that he has gotten past the 'roid hangover Interesting contrast. kj George Wilson. Go ahead and edit your post! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dorkington Posted November 22, 2010 Share Posted November 22, 2010 Just shows how adept we are at wasting money on the wrong players. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PromoTheRobot Posted November 22, 2010 Share Posted November 22, 2010 (edited) I think its silly to cite players who are injured. As for the other non-contributors, it may be case of different people making the high and low picks. Top picks by RW, Levy or Jauron...low picks by scouting staff. We do seem to find better players as low picks and UDFAs. PTR Edited November 22, 2010 by PromoTheRobot Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dorkington Posted November 22, 2010 Share Posted November 22, 2010 The depressing thing is... our low draft pick players who are performing well, will leave the team to go elsewhere for bigger contracts, and we will draft more busts, and sign more expensive FA's that don't do anything. Circle of life. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coach Tuesday Posted November 22, 2010 Share Posted November 22, 2010 Good points. But Whitner had a key pass breakup yesterday - I mean, it was a CRITICAL play. Troup and Carrington finally got extended playing time and helped shut down the Bengals in the second half. Florence had a great game - he's a former first-round pick. Kelsay was generating pressure all day, he's a second-rounder. Poz was a stud too (2nd round). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
l< j Posted November 22, 2010 Author Share Posted November 22, 2010 It's not silly to mention CJ. I noted he was out b/c of injury. Should have said the same about Merriman. It's a list. I didn't call him a deadbeat or suggest he belongs on any other list that McCargo and Maybin should be on. I just pointed out that we won that game with no on-field contributions from 4 1st round picks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnC Posted November 22, 2010 Share Posted November 22, 2010 (edited) George Wilson. Go ahead and edit your post! Add Dave Nelson to the unglamorous list. Hardy gets drafted in the second round and it is obvious that Nelson, a free agent draftee, is immensely better. Antonio Coleman was another free agent draftee and he is a better and more productive than Maybin. Edited November 22, 2010 by JohnC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill from NYC Posted November 22, 2010 Share Posted November 22, 2010 Add Dave Nelson to the unglamorous list. Hardy gets drafted in the second round and it is obvious that Nelson, a free agent draftee, is immensely better. Antonio Coleman was another free agent draftee and he is a better and more productive than Maybin. Very true! Hangartner played very well also imo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
K Gun Special Posted November 22, 2010 Share Posted November 22, 2010 Keying the win were contributions from unlikely players, or unlikely based on their draft/acquisition history (the first half of this borrows from and builds on Jerry Sullivan's column): Start with Fitzbeard, 300 yds, 4 TDs, and the shortest memory in the game: acquired as an unwanted free agent to be a backup Fred Jackson, 116 yds, 2 Tds, also has a big head: resume includes Coe College, Indoor football, and NFL Europe Steve Johnson, 130+ yds, 3 TDs (hat size unknown, but sizable sense of humor): 7th round pick Donald Jones, TD and 70 yds: undrafted out of Youngstown St Craig Urbik, filled in capably at guard: waiver wire pickup Wrotto: 3rd starter at RT, waived and mid-season acquisition D Bell: 7th rounder Quinton Gainther and Jehuu Caulcrick both had key gains in limited time, and both were mid-season additions to the roster Reggie Torbor: Miami castoff and late acquisition George Wilson: undrafted, orig. signed by the Lions and let go before being signed to our practice squad. (Thanks, Bill from NYC.) Who am I missing from the above list? On the other side of that coin, yesterday's inactives included: CJ Spiller, injured 1st round pick John McCargo, 1st round pick Aaron Maybin, 1st round pick Shawne Merriman, 1st round pick of the Chargers and running out of time to prove that he has gotten past the 'roid hangover Interesting contrast. kj Interesting contrast. But this roster of castoffs and late round picks has only 2 wins and against awful teams. They do need more talent and more often that not that talent is in the first and second rounds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnC Posted November 22, 2010 Share Posted November 22, 2010 (edited) Very true! Hangartner played very well also imo. Where I have a respectful disagreement with you is that I STRONGLY believe that Spiller is going to be an impact player for us. He is one of the few players on offense who is capable of making the big play. Jackson is a grinder type runner. Adding Spiller to the mix will give the running game and offense a greater dimension. The Spiller pick to me represents a change in the mentality of a very staid organization. Instead of picking less talented players to fill a need Nix took the approach that he was going after the best talent. You can't always carry out that approach to the maximum level but successful teams follow that strategy while losing teams are usually trying to fill the hole. In the long run, favoring the quality of players over the position of players works out best. Edited November 22, 2010 by JohnC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KRT88 Posted November 22, 2010 Share Posted November 22, 2010 The Bills simply need to start working the draft better. Trade down and aquire lots of 3rd/4th and 5th round picks. They seem to do well here and fail with thearly round, expensive picks. I still say that drafting Spiller was a mistake because someone behind the Bills had to want him and think of the picks you could have aquired. Look at NE, they have 2 1st's, 2 2nd's and 2 3rd's this year! We need to work down the board and collect picks as we need to grab 3 LB, 2 DL, 2 OL and you always need to draft DB's. A QB we can groom wouldn't be a bad idea for a late 1st or mid 2nd round pick. Volume, I'd like to see 10/12 draft picks in 2011! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
K Gun Special Posted November 22, 2010 Share Posted November 22, 2010 The Bills simply need to start working the draft better. Trade down and aquire lots of 3rd/4th and 5th round picks. They seem to do well here and fail with thearly round, expensive picks. I still say that drafting Spiller was a mistake because someone behind the Bills had to want him and think of the picks you could have aquired. Look at NE, they have 2 1st's, 2 2nd's and 2 3rd's this year! We need to work down the board and collect picks as we need to grab 3 LB, 2 DL, 2 OL and you always need to draft DB's. A QB we can groom wouldn't be a bad idea for a late 1st or mid 2nd round pick. Volume, I'd like to see 10/12 draft picks in 2011! Its not easy to trade down. Teams value picks, and arent willing to trade them to move a few spots. Thats why you dont see madden like deals on draft day. Its not that easy. The bills will likely pick in the top 10 and will pick the best player available. they arent going to reach to fill a hole. Thats not how successful franchises are run. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McD Posted November 22, 2010 Share Posted November 22, 2010 The contrast is good, but you can also see how horrible our talent evaluation has been in the early rounds. Now what if we grabbed Matthews, Oher, Ngata instead of some of the turds we got in round 1?? We had a shot at all of them and had we selected wisely, this team would be looking much different than 2-8. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill from NYC Posted November 22, 2010 Share Posted November 22, 2010 Where I have a respectful disagreement with you is that I STRONGLY believe that Spiller is going to be an impact player for us. He is one of the few players on offense who is capable of making the big play. Jackson is a grinder type runner. Adding Spiller to the mix will give the running game and offense a greater dimension. The Spiller pick to me represents a change in the mentality of a very staid organization. Instead of picking less talented players to fill a need Nix took the approach that he was going after the best talent. You can't always carry out that approach to the maximum level but successful teams follow that strategy while losing teams are usually trying to fill the hole. In the long run, favoring the quality of players over the position of players works out best. I respect your opinion, but I make the case that a player can be "good," or even very good, but said player might not meet the needs of a particular team, let alone make them better. For instance, Revis is probably the best corner in the NFL. Oher is a very good blocker. Which one do you think would result in more wins for the Bills? We shall see if Spiller can win football games for the Bills. Maybe he can, but we were already strong at RB, and I personally think that McKelvin is a better kickoff returner. This is partially why I think the selection was quite suspect. Jmo, and thanks for the dialogue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewHampshireBillsFan Posted November 22, 2010 Share Posted November 22, 2010 Where I have a respectful disagreement with you is that I STRONGLY believe that Spiller is going to be an impact player for us. He is one of the few players on offense who is capable of making the big play. Jackson is a grinder type runner. Adding Spiller to the mix will give the running game and offense a greater dimension. The Spiller pick to me represents a change in the mentality of a very staid organization. Instead of picking less talented players to fill a need Nix took the approach that he was going after the best talent. You can't always carry out that approach to the maximum level but successful teams follow that strategy while losing teams are usually trying to fill the hole. In the long run, favoring the quality of players over the position of players works out best. I'm worried that Spiller will be an injury prone player because he is not that big. Look at Roscoe Parrish. He was performing great this year finally with good coaching, but he gets injured again. He had a wrist injury previously also in his time with us. I guess at this point it would be great to have a big OL, DL, or LB instead of Spiller and still have Lynch backing up Jackson. If Spiller turns out to be one of the best RBs in the league in the next few years then I'll be glad of the pick, but right now I don't see it that way. He'll be good, but not fantastic, and he may get injured fairly often. Just a hunch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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