Another odd draft from the Bills

[jahnyc]

Some thoughts below.

 

1. I think this draft was weaker than many of us realized. The top ten in the first were not significantly better than the players picked at the bottom of the first. Many of the analysts were commenting on the overall weakness of this draft. Not a bad idea to trade up into the second under those circumstances.

 

2. Not sure I understand taking a guard in the first and in the second. I thought Butler was decent. Will they move him to RT? Is there a message here? Weird since Butler was extended last year.

 

3. Not to state the obvious, but Maybin is the key to this draft. This will be a great opportunity to evaluate the acumen of our talent evaluators since there were a number of similarly ranked defensive ends available when we picked Maybin (i.e., Ayers, Brown and Orakpo). I am concerned about his boom/bust potential. With the 11th pick in the first round (and with all of the money that he will be paid), I would want to draft as much of a sure thing as possible. Maybin, only starting one year at approximately 226 pounds, seems like a project and anything but a sure thing.

 

4. Are the Bills sending Whitner a message? Clearly, if Byrd can play and start at FS, Whitner will be back at SS. I can't imagine he can be happy about this, paritcularly since I thought there was concern that Whitner was getting too beat up at SS. I think the reality is that the Bills did not think they were getting enough plays from the FS position (i.e., interceptions), including when Whitner played at that position.

 

5. Interesting that none of Edwards, Boldin, Schefler were traded this weekend. It is hard to trade players when teams know that they are being shopped. I think trading Peters was terrible, but at least the Bills were able to get something in return (not enough, of course).

 

6. How can the Bills go into the season with Walker at LT and Bell/Chambers at RT? Maybe there will be another answer (i.e., Jones), but this seems like a disaster waiting to happen. It was weird to draft a second guard that may not get any playing time instead of a tackle.

 

7. Will Ellison be the starter again? This seems like a another problem area that still needs to be addressed. Our DT tackle situation is poor as well after Stroud. Johnson was something of a bust and McCargo has done nothing. No DTs drafted?