San Jose Bills Fan

The linked article quoted Brandon as saying that analytics will apply mostly to "salary cap management." To that subject the article states, The San Francisco 49ers and Seattle Seahawks currently boast two of the NFL's strongest rosters. That's no coincidence. Those two bold, unconventional franchises realize that no player is more undervalued in today's NFL than a premium quarterback on a rookie contract.

^^^^^^^^ Those commercials make me laugh.

The post you were replying to and pretty much every post I make about my player opinions is often qualified/prefaced with mention that I watch a lot of video and don't read too many "scouting reports." I base my opinions on my own impressions, not by reading other people's. Lately people have been deifying Greg Cosell. Cosell does a good job but he said Sharrif Floyd would be a top 3 pick and might even go first overall. I watched Floyd and said that he could easily slide out of the top 20. He was taken at #23. So I don't repeat things I might have read. As I've mentioned numerous times, my impressions on Barkley are based on watching 11 condensed games from his great 2011 season when his arm was healthy and when he put up huge numbers. As I've mentioned numerous times, I didn't bother watching any of his 2012 games because I didn't want to evaluate him based on him playing with a bum shoulder. So to the bolded above, no. The opinion is my own. Barkley's lack of arm strength is glaring, IMO.

And often at the same time. Or so I've heard.

Thanks KOK. Also the scouts ultimately agreed with both of us on EJ Manuel and Matt Barkley. And while I'm tooting, there was my prediction last year that Bruce Irvin would be taken in the first round, a position that I was ridiculed for on this board by people whose names I could recite. Most "experts" had Irvin as a 3rd rounder but the Seahawks took him at #15. Rex Ryan told Pete Carroll that if Seattle hadn't taken Irvin that the Jets would have at #16. Sorry to boast but I need to prop myself up around here. There've been attacks made to my character lately so damn the freaking torpedos and full freaking steam ahead!

Not that it absolves Nix because it doesn't. But in fairness it should be re-mentioned that the Bills coaching staff fell in love with Sheppard at the Senior Bowl and probably played a large role in he being drafted. The larger point being that to varying degrees like all teams, the coaching staff has input into player selections.

Really interesting piece on Tebow by Jason Cole. http://sports.yahoo.com/news/nfl--jets--release-of-tim-tebow-could-be-blessing-in-disguise-of-qb-is-willing-to-take-stock-145252244.html I didn't realize Tebow was dyslexic. In the 2011 NFL playoffs, Tebow played one of the most memorable games in league history, beating the defending AFC champion Pittsburgh Steelers in seemingly miraculous fashion, passing for 316 yards and putting an exclamation mark on the moment. The blitzing, hyper-aggressive Steelers (who were playing with an inexperienced backup safety) played right into Tebow's greatest strength – the ability to look good in chaotic situations. A week later, the Broncos played against the New England Patriots, a team that was almost comically bad on defense at the time. Instead, the Patriots made Tebow look like he needed to go back to Nease High in Jacksonville for remedial work. The Patriots played the simplest two-deep zone that you could imagine, refusing to blitz him until he broke the pocket. The result was a 9-of-26, 136-yard passing performance along with only 13 yards rushing on five carries. This was the kind of game where even an average NFL quarterback would have thrown for 300 yards, as one AFC coach said a month later. Granted, that quarterback still would have lost to the Patriots and Tom Brady, but that's not the point. This was yet another illustration that Tebow isn't ready to play conventional NFL football and he's not quick enough to play read-option all the time. Tebow can't read defenses. He can't explain the differences between two-deep, three-deep and zero coverage, much less see them. He was never trained to do that at Florida by Urban Meyer (not that it was Meyer's responsibility to teach him; it was Meyer's responsibility to win). Blame that reality on whatever you want. It could be the fact that Tebow is dyslexic. Coaches and players who were with him in Denver say that Tebow would get to the line and immediately lose track of the play call from the huddle in the jumble of what he was told and what he saw across the line. It could be that he played in funky offenses in high school and college that didn't teach him. He was almost never under center at either level and his high school offense featured him lining up almost in punt formation on each play, giving him an unreal amount of time to read the defense.

So did Charley Casserly. And so are a lot of uninformed people who just parrot what they hear on TV.

Lovin' it!

They're within a half inch of each other (Goodwin is taller) but Goodwin is 9 pounds heavier and appears much larger than Austin. As mentioned before Goodwin's vertical jump was 10 inches higher and his broad jump was 12 inches greater. That's a very significant difference. Another significant difference is that Austin went at #8 while Goodwin went 70 picks later, at #78. I'm loving this pick. Agreed.

Does Kent Hull count? Jabari Greer gets honorable mention.

From all the video I've watched on Manuel, I don't think he struggled with pocket awareness. I thought he was very aware, knew where the rush was coming from and how much time he had, was never jittery, rarely bailed prematurely, climbed the ladder well, dipped his shoulder and got small when he had to and chose his run opportunities well. Now we can engage in dueling scouting reports and I'm sure that for every report you cite, I can find a contradicting one. It's a pointless polemic. We might as well argue about global warming. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

While one could dismiss that as rhetoric, I think Marrone is a real straight shooter so I definitely take him at his word. And I think we can all agree that Gailey didn't give a second thought to the defense so it's refreshing to have a coach who will meet ALL of his responsibilities.

Believe it or not, the Bills tentatively plan to use the 6'7" Colin Brown and the 6'8" Sam Young as guards. It's not impossible but it's not the preferred body type for the position.

Absolutely right. I'm not a big Te'o fan but Alabama made pretty much everyone look bad. I watched the Bama-Georgia game and the Tide destroyed Ogletree, Jones, John Jenkins, and the other four guys on that defense who were drafted last week. They went down to Baton Rouge and handled an LSU defense which had 8 players drafted last week. It's not fair to judge Te'o based on the Bama game. Yep. You changed your handle? And e-ball changed his avatar? What is this world coming to? Good job, NS.

The bolded is the best point made in this topic. The special teams coach can only play the players that the head coach allows him to play. The special teams coach can only practice as much as the head coach allows him to practice. The special teams coach can only make special teams as much of a priority as the head coach allows him to make it. There are probably lots of good special teams coaches that were set up for failure by their head coach (Wade Phillips anyone?).

I expect Tank Carradine to be the best pass rushing pure defensive end in this draft. Werner is great and I think Carradine is even better. I cannot believe how cheaply the Niners got him. edit: And Carradine is also a Seminole… that was my original point.

Thanks for posting. This is an idea that is gaining some supporters. The first person I recall writing about it is KC Joyner aka The Football Scientist who wrote the 2008 book, "Blindsided, Why the Left Tackle is Overrated and other Contrarian Football Thoughts." http://www.amazon.com/Blindsided-Overrated-Contrarian-Football-Thoughts/dp/0470124091 Our own Mr Weo has supported this notion from time to time.

I have a buddy who's a hard core Browns fan and he is heartbroken at this pick. Every day he tries talking himself into liking it and he always ends up talking about Jarvis Jones going to the Steelers at #17. Luckily for Mingo, he has Paul Kruger, Cliff Avril, Phil Taylor, Ahtyba Rubin, Jabaal Sheard, D'Qwell Jackson, Joe Haden and a ton of other great D players along with Ray Horton as the coordinator. Cleveland will have a very strong D and Mingo doesn't have to carry the load. As part of an ensemble he could be a very effective piece. But yeah, he seems like a talented but very soft player.

So Floyd ended up being drafted at #23. TOOT TOOT!!! (Yes… I am)

Not to worry. I'm not an idiot. I watch condensed versions of complete games on Draft Breakdown, a site I've been linking to and propping up for the last 4 months. Actually for the last 16 months. It's been documented that the Bills knew the Jets wanted Tavon Austin at #9. Why would they not know that the Jets were high on Manuel? For one thing Manuel said it himself before the draft and as Manish Mehta has shown, the Jets are a very leaky, loose-lipped organization. They have a mole (or two) inside who constantly give away news before it happens. Nothing the Jets do is a surprise and none of the Jets opinions are secrets. All you have to do is read the sports stories from New York to know what the Jets are about to do so I have to disagree with you Turbo. Gotcha. Sorry. I'll disagree on Barkley though. The two things I harped on repeatedly before the draft was that EJ Manuel was the best quarterback prospect in the draft and that Matt Barkley's epically weak arm makes him nearly undraftable. This was an opinion that came after watching every single game Barkley played in his great season of 2011. There were reports that some teams actually took Barkley off of their boards. I'll stand firmly by my opinions on both players.

To me, this is really the discussion. With an all new coaching staff there will be less of a tendency to keep guys that the former staff had an allegiance to. They've already shown they're not shy about changing personnel and I don't think they're done yet either. Dear God I hope so. Choice is the embodiment of mediocrity. Give me someone who actually has a discernible strength to his game.

Some of the funniest 12 seconds in movie history:

Certainly if our visit was long enough we'd eventually have burgers. After all, no one food item defines America more than the hamburger. The hot dog is a very distant second. I'm thinking we'll only be down there for two days though.

Yes, in the overall rank of transgressors, you do have to love them. Even more than those who start new topics without reading what's already out there.