Over/Under on Youboty moving from Nickel to CB

[Pyrite Gal]

I am easily amongst the many who are in the over column on this. Some oddly are in a camp that has continually ragged on Youbouty even though he does not deserve it (in his 2 seasons he actually has had some good accomplishments as he started in a gamewinner against NYJ as a rookie in which he had a lot of PT against a cagey ragarmed QB and he has made a couple of very nice hits as a gunner on the ST unit.

 

His first two seasons have been disappointing for a first day draft pick (though not unusual since most fans seemed to have an inflated sense of the value of the draft (is important though not the sole way to acquire talent and conventional wisdom such as 1st round picks must start as rookies happens a lot but is not true in many many cases and is far from a death knell for a player's career.

 

Analyzing his first two years, a reasonable and football intelligent person would simply see that there was a real world effect on his play and training from being the only adult kid of a single Mom who died and that he has not been able to play consistently due to injuries last year.

 

One could simply categorize these reasons as excuses but doing this I think is poor analysis because your Mom dying and a person being forced to lead and take responsibility for his brothers and sisters is simply a real deal. Youbouty did a great job his rookie season simply by being able to start 1 game IMHO.

 

The recurring injury though could more reasonably labeled an excuse rather than a reason if the problem persists and ultimately he proves to injury prone to start, However, one season of injury problems is too early to declare a player injury prone, so I am willing (as meaningless as what I am willing to do is) to let this one go for a year and watch his play this year before drawing any conclusions.

 

The Bills will happily not have him start this year as I think even as the nickel Youbouty will see plenty of playing time this season. Add to that him being used as a gunner on ST the Bills will have no need to rush Youbouty in at starting CB as he will get tons of chances to make plays for us as a nickel.

[BillsWatch]

Maybe he means compensation picks in the draft?!? It's kind of sad that many assume that if a player has a good year in Buffalo, he's as good as gone.

 

I do not believe you get compensation picks for UDFAs no matter how much work a team does to develop player.

 

And teams should not overpay for ANY player, even a Mickey Mouse move with a player with a three year contract remaining and has not been seen in camp to see if fully recovered from season ending surgery.

[Pyrite Gal]

I do not believe you get compensation picks for UDFAs no matter how much work a team does to develop player.

 

And teams should not overpay for ANY player, even a Mickey Mouse move with a player with a three year contract remaining and has not been seen in camp to see if fully recovered from season ending surgery.

The obvious question is how much is overpay? I think everyone agrees with you that the Bills should not overpay any player.

 

However, while some would feel any extension to a player who refuses to honor his existing contract would be an overpayment, there are those that feel that if you want to win the sport the key is to put the best team possible on the field.

 

In this view what we have here is a failure to communicate on both the part of Peters and the Bills. If Peters did the right thing he would have showed up in camp and just as the Bills undeservedly seem to give up the store to extend Kelsay and in Schobel's case extended him well before his contract was up so to would they have opened the vault for Peters.

 

However, in this view it also appears true that while Peters did the wrong thing the Bills also have not performed adequately in participating in what appears to be some weird macho flameout where things have degraded to a level where both parties are simply holding their breath and hoping the other side passes out first.

 

This whole thing is stupid and while anyone can have a legitimate preference over who was stupid first, I think that the facts on the ground which have produced no conversation leaves ample room to blame both parties for being idiots regardless who was an idiot first.

 

The simple fact is that if one operates with a basic rule of an eye for an eye, very soon both parties end up blind to the benefit of neither.

[NewEra]

I thought Greer had some tremendous games last year...every time I remember seeing him, he was in the receivers back pocket. Some of those throws were completed, but still...the guy is like glue on his man

 

werd. i love greer

[NewEra]

How does that help us? If he plays well and starts all year, his value goes up, making it more likely that we won't be able to afford to keep him. And we certainly won't franchise him.

 

Greer wont be a bill next year. We're gonna have to pay Evans, Peters (maybe) and will probably lock up Edwards IF he doesnt get too banged up this year. While I like Trent, I hate injury riddled QBs and would rather get rid of him if he's gonna get hurt every year

[d_wag]

i think the time has arrived to make the move

 

he has been all over the field the first two games, showing great tackling ability and making some key plays on 3rd downs

 

now greer isn't playing bad and he does leave it all on the field, but i think it's reached the point where the bills just need to get youboty as many snaps as possible given the way he's raised his game.......as peter king said, he's playing at a probowl level - those kinds of guys start

 

and thank god once again that people from this board aren't running the bills, or else youboty would have been cut long ago by many!

[Captain Hindsight]

I just dont understand why people are trying to create scenarios that UNMAKES Greer a starter......

 

They guy has been our BEST cover corner in many games........

 

In many ways it makes the McKelvin pick still a shaky one for me.......I can see he is a phenominal return guy.......but you dont draft that return guys that high.......I REALLY expected McKelvin to be at the very least our 3rd corner.....and he is not.

 

IMO we should leave Ashton where he is and not push him to starting corner.....let him and McKelvin push each other for that spot and PRAY that Leotis wins that battle.

Its not even that hes inst our 3rd best. The nickel CB position is so different from the outside. Youboty is the number one there, Mcgee and Greer are 1 and 2 on the outside and Mckelvin is 3 on the outside and 2 in the slot

[JinWPB]

I think Youboty stays where he's at. His play is like having a LB on the field for Tackling even in the Pass D.

[The Dean]

I predicted that Youboty would break the starting line up LAST year, and of course, I was wrong. I still think he is going to be a hell of a corner in the NFL. With that said, why would you want to disturb the DB situation now? Unless the secondary suffers some injuries that require reshuffling of responsibilities, or Greer or McGee suddenly start playing crappy ball, I wouldn't change a thing, right now. Besides, I think the nickel position, allows Fewell to use Youboty a little more aggressively (almost like another safety).

 

For now, and the near future, I say keep Youboty where he is. I consider the nickle back a "starter", anyway.

[Mark Long Beach]

I predicted that Youboty would break the starting line up LAST year, and of course, I was wrong. I still think he is going to be a hell of a corner in the NFL. With that said, why would you want to disturb the DB situation now? Unless the secondary suffers some injuries that require reshuffling of responsibilities, or Greer or McGee suddenly start playing crappy ball, I wouldn't change a thing, right now. Besides, I think the nickel position, allows Fewell to use Youboty a little more aggressively (almost like another safety).

 

For now, and the near future, I say keep Youboty where he is. I consider the nickle back a "starter", anyway.

 

Agree, Youboty is playing strong in the nickel. He's doing a great job of aggressive tackling which means we're not losing as much by pulling a linebacker and replacing him with a db. Greer is a good outside db, he's not as good as an inside guy. I'd rather have a young veteran (Greer) who plays well out there than a rookie (McKelvin) still getting used to the NFL.

[TheLynchTrain]

For advice on both Youboty and McKelvin look no further than the San Diego Chargers and their handling of Antonio Cromartie.

 

Cromartie was a first round pick (16th) in 2006, a player that was a freak of an athlete, was young and had GREAT potential. Tye Hill out of Clemson went two spots above him because they thought he could come in immediately and compete - he was also 2 years older than Cromartie. Tye Hill won the Rams Rookie of the Year award while starting most of the season; Cromartie did little more than special teams in his first year in San Diego - I don't think he even started a game. When he did play on the field, he showed flashes of brilliance mixed in with a lot of inexperience.

 

We all know what happened to Cromartie last year - the dude had 10 picks, returned the field goal against the Vikings - and HE DIDN'T EVEN START UNTIL NOVEMBER 24! And suprise suprise, he made the pro bowl. I know Peter King said Youboty's playing like a pro bowler, but Cromartie goes to show you don't necessarily need to start at CB to be a pro bowler. Give him time - more than 2 games.

 

It's also worth to note that Peter King is such an idiot/incompetent that he probably thinks Youboty's started the last two weeks. King could probably name only 5 guys on the bills if he was on the hot seat...I don't think he's alone in that category (See the entire staff of ESPN).

 

So wrapping up, Cromartie shows that a player with ridiculous potential can ride the bench and look real inexperienced his rookie year and show up to play in year 2 or 3. I think so far Youboty (to a lesser degree) is proving the same point. We also can't declare McKelvin a bust yet, but in the same light, we can't call Youboy a star (like Peter King) after two games.

 

I'm sure Youboty was an afterthought on film to a lot of teams, but you can be sure Defensive Coordinators will definitely be breaking down Youboty's technique to find weaknesses in the next few weeks. I think we're gonna be set with both player's for quite a while.

 

GO BILLS!