Whitner

[BuckeyeBill]

Give the kid a break. He's only 21

[KD in CA]

There's a solid defense and there's a star-lit defense.

 

Our team is based on TEAM, not playmaker, playmaker, playmaker, and supporters.

 

Marv's philosophy is to make a solid, swarming team.

 

Plus, who gives two effs about the first round draft picks?

 

Ellison, Williams, and Pennington all came out of that draft and look, they're starters!

 

 

Bills fans of all people should understand the limitations of a star-lit defense.

[bbb]

I took one look at Ngata in the Holiday Bowl last year and said that is the guy we need to draft, and he was on the sidelines hurt at that time, and I had never heard of him............I think my assessment was right and that they overthink these things!

[CFLstyle]

The first day of the 06 draft appears to be a disaster, but it IS admittedly too early to tell.

 

Consider this if you will....we could have traded the pick, drafted Mangold, AND had an extra 2nd and more. We had 4 first day picks and came away with a seemingly decent safety, an injured DT and a corner who sat on the bench. We did very well on day 2, or so it would seem.

If Marv continues to chase defensive backs next year on day 1 (a strong possibility), there is probably little hope for this team. We are already too small and too weak up the middle.

so pretty much all you're doing is second guessing. It's easy to say what could have happened and what we could of done, it wasn't so easy at the time though. We didn't know Mangold was going to become probably the best centre in the league and had Fowler so taking a centre wouldn't have filled our needs.

 

Also, I think it's a little early for people to say that Whitner won't amount to anything, you can't expect him to be a big playmaker in his first year, he's just adjusting to the NFL, give him another year, if he doesn't turn out to be a superstar he'll atleast be a solid SS and will be capable of holding the position for a long time.

Safety in football is similar to defenseman in hockey. For some players, the less you hear their name, the better they are. Tallinder for the Sabres is a great example.

 

One reason we didn't see Whitner making an impact is that teams just weren't throwing in his direction. Part of that had to be because the Bills run defense was so poor they didn't have to, but some of it had to be that Whitner was doing his job pretty well. It's the same thing as people bitching that Clements sucked the first half of this season. Teams weren't throwing towards him; they were busy abusing McGee.

 

With the number of tackles Whitner made, he definitely has a nose for the ball. And please remember than an entire NFL season is MUCH more grueling than a college season. In college you play less games and they're more spread out and if you're a great school like Ohio State, you don't play teams as good as you very often. In the NFL you play 16 games with one bye week and almost every team is comparable in talent. Asking a rookie to come in and be great right away is a bit much.

 

And WTF cares about 8th overall? The draft is over, let Mel Kiper worry about who drafted where. Whitner is a rookie football player. Let's just judge him that way. He has nothing to do with where he was drafted. I'm happy with the draft based on the players we got. If we'd drafted the exact same players but in completely different order, it's still a good draft.

Great post.

 

Defensemen also take a long time to develop, perhaps another similarity?

[Bill from NYC]

so pretty much all you're doing is second guessing. It's easy to say what could have happened and what we could of done, it wasn't so easy at the time though. We didn't know Mangold was going to become probably the best centre in the league and had Fowler so taking a centre wouldn't have filled our needs.

 

You got me there. Second guessing is one of the things that people do on football message boards. Another is to offer blind support for any moves that front office people make; in this case Levy.

 

I think that the late day picks appeared to have saved this draft. On day 1, we got a cb who couldn't crack the lineup even though McGee struggled just a bit, a DT with a history of foot injury, and a safety (at #8) who looks like he will be a good player; this with 4 picks and a slew of other important needs.

 

In any event, this is over. In 07, the need is ever so critical for the Bills to draft/sign big guys who play in the middle. Scrap heap castoffs such as Reyes and Gandy are not going to cut it. Imo there are rookies who can step in and play as well as Gandy and Preston, and at least they could bring some upside to the table.

 

At LB, it is hard not to be thrilled by Patrick Willis. Of our best LBs, one is old, the other a UFA. If Levy can pry himself away from the secondary, I think that the Bills are close to being a serious contender. We can only hope that Ralph sees this as well, and opens his wallet.