San Jose Bills Fan

Gilmore's definitely a bit too "touchy and feely" for my tastes too. Players like Ty Law and Charles Woodson play(ed) a similar style but you can play that style with impunity after you've got an established reputation. Also I get that a player has to "play his game" but here's what I don't get: Gilmore ran a sub 4.4 forty at the combine. With that kind of speed, why does he need to grab so much? I can remember off the top of my head 4 TDs that Leodis has had called back due to penalties. Two of them were interceptions and there was the kickoff return against San Francisco last year. Bills fans might have had a slightly different perception of the player had some of those TDs stood up. Amazing that former DB Coach George Catavolos was hired by Jauron and then retained by Gailey. A cornerback who struggles tracking the ball practicing tracking the ball. What a concept.

That's exactly the question. At what point does he start contributing. Wide receiver is typically one of the positions which has a longer learning curve. Rookies at this position struggle more than rookies at most other positions. We Bills fans are fairly impatient, with good reason. When you look at some of the top receivers of recent years, you understand that there are a few exceptions who excel as rookies (AJ Green, Julio Jones) but most of them, even the elite, take two years (Blackmon, Jeffry) to become above average players. Some take even longer (Demaryius Thomas, Dez Bryant). Stephen Hill is looking like a bust right now and Michael Floyd is only starting to make an impact. If we draft a wide receiver high we might have to wait a while to see the pick bear fruit.

The same Todd McShay that liked Aaron Maybin both before and after the Bills drafted him? And I'm not really convinced that Clements lived up to that contract. In 2007 he became the highest paid defensive player in NFL history. He played 3 years under the 8 year, $80 million contract ($22 million guaranteed). In that time he never made All Pro or played in the Pro Bowl. In this case it was good thing the Bills let him go. In my book Clements was a very good corner who could have been a HOF safety. Incidentally Aaron Williams has always reminded me a lot of Clements. Great versatility, very physical, playmaking ability in a sturdy player. Nice blend of force and finesse.

I haven't started doing any video evaluating yet but the one Evans highlight video I saw raised a few concerns. The thing that was really weird is that he always lined up on the wide right of the formation and constantly ran the same patterns. So that's two concerns. A third concern is that it looks like A&M's offense is extremely simplistic. The video did not show a well-rounded, versatile receiver IMO. The guy is a freak athlete but he looks to be very green also.

Your link isn't live because of the comma instead of the period. But it's alright, peterpan linked it below: I make it a point to read as little as possible about the prospects so I can form an unbiased and independent opinion. I read just enough to know who the names are. Once I know the names, I start watching the videos, usually in February after the Super Bowl. There's a real herd mentality that develops among the draftnick/draft prognosticator community which causes many of the same players to be overrated and underrated. For instance last year, several draftnicks thought Sharif Floyd would be a Top 5 pick but it was pretty obvious if you watched enough video that that evaluation was very incorrect. The year before, it was obvious that Bruce Irvin was a first round talent but almost every writeup on him had him going in the 3rd or 4th rounds. So I recommend that you watch the videos and read less. The best one-stop shopping for videos on the top prospects is this one: http://draftbreakdown.com/'>http://draftbreakdown.com/ As the draft approaches they really populate the site with lots of videos which ARE NOT highlight films but rather, condensed games. Thus, if you want to watch one player, they'll typically have several games with each game having maybe 30-60 plays by that player, depending on what position he plays (they typically won't show a QB handing off the ball for instance). They'll typically highlight the player right before the play starts. You can easily end up watching 100s of snaps of all of the top players and spare yourself the poorly produced highlight videos replete with horrible editing and worse music. The less you read and the more you form your own opinions, the better you'll get in evaluating talent. Doing your own video scouting is great for me because I generally don't watch college football games so this is a great way to get lots of video on prospects without sitting and watching a 3 hour game. On top of that you'll get lots of condensed games where there 4-5 top prospects all on the field at the same time. You'll see top pass rushers going head-to-head with top pass blockers. It's the only way to prepare for the draft IMO. Again: http://draftbreakdown.com/ For a sample here is the entry for University of Buffalo's highly ranked pass rusher, Khalil Mack. It has 3 videos of games from this season: http://draftbreakdown.com/?s=khalil+mack

Was it 3? I remember a Roughriders and a Rough Riders. Ottawa maybe?

I appreciate you moderating Bill. I paused to consider if Badol knew John and touched on this. Reading from the exchange it wasn't clear to me that they knew each other and that this could be a case of friends kidding around. Thus my defense of John who always seems like a very nice person. That being the case, I apologize to Badol. Sorry Badol, and thanks again Bill.

Your insult to John was unprovoked by anything he said. I don't have to point out that your obtuse swipe at his manhood does not reflect well on you in spite of your lengthy rationalizations. And "having fun and jerking chains" is fun for who exactly? The people you're insulting? I wasn't aware of some great camaraderie that you and John share that you could play at this level. Your self-proclamation that you're "used to being right" and your emoticon-driven jocularity aside, no one is outraged by your antics. You once again give yourself too much credit. It's not outrage, it's what most people would call annoyance.

This is called context. Again, it's pretty clear that most of the people on this board don't have the ability to recognize a good rookie quarterback. Remember all the "well he's taken his team to the AFC Championship game" talk surrounding Mark Sanchez? And people here who seriously can't see the difference between EJ Manuel and JP Losman?

To the bolded, how exactly does that reconcile with your "credo" that one should never say something to someone on a message board that you wouldn't say to their face? You're lucky that John's a good sport. BTW, you're getting drunk with your own pomposity. Quoting Gannon saying that EJ was playing slow? Did Gannon happen to say how slow EJ was playing compared to other rookie quarterbacks? Did Gannon happen to mention that things were moving too quickly for Gannon in his first 12 seasons? Did Gannon say that EJ was destined to play slowly for the rest of his career? Perhaps your self-proclaimed "rightness" (bolded) would be more credible if you exercised some honest context once in awhile. You're being hypocritical. A loss is a loss is a loss? What then is a win? Oh that's right. According to you (earlier) in this thread, a win against Jacksonville doesn't really count. I love how you "objective" Bills fans bottom line losses but denigrate wins.

Not sure who Rodriquez is but that's interesting. I'm also thinking that Wingo will probably take over some of The Tank's duties on special teams.

Speaking of cassoulet, some of the new Hamburger Helper products are quite excellent.

Yes Florio's take is quite solid even though he's just an observer of this situation: If it’s true, Shanahan shouldn’t be surprised. Snyder has a habit of striking friendships with players, including for example former running back Clinton Portis, who (as we heard it a few years back) openly disrespected former coach Jim Zorn, without consequence. While the online version of the latest report points out that Redskins spokesman Tony Wyllie terms the report “ridiculous,” the on-air summary of it by Adam Schefter and Chris Mortensen contained no such caveat. ESPN’s Tom Jackson later noted that Shanahan simply declined comment — which potentially implies plenty. Also implying plenty is the fact that Schefter once wrote a book with Shanahan. If the report were indeed ridiculous (and/or if Shanahan didn’t want the report to surface), Shanahan could have/should have/would have contacted Schefter to say so, and to ask that the story be killed — or at least to ask that the team’s position be prominently disclosed when the report is discussed on the air. The fact that such a big story was reported by Graziano, who is identified at ESPN.com as the reporter who covers the New York Giants (who doesn’t have to deal with the Redskins going forward), invites even more speculation regarding how this all came to light, and regarding whether there was an effort to keep Schefter’s fingerprints (and in turn Shanahan’s) off of it. Regardless of how the dots connect as to the latest report out of Washington, here’s how the dots connect going forward. Snyder is going to fire Shanahan. We wouldn’t be surprised if it happens later today, if the Redskins lose to the Chiefs.

My take on the Hackett/Marrone/EJ thing is that they've generally done a pretty good job of developing him. I think it's a very fine line and hard to do perfectly. That said, the offensive production for a rookie QB has been pretty good but I agree with you that the Bills have tended to be a bit overly conservative on offense. The first drive after the 2nd half kickoff last week was an example of this. The offense had been playing very well and they came out run, run, pass, punt. I really didn't like the playcalling on that opening drive. Interesting CB. Summers being inactive means what? More passing and less running? Summers is a big cog in the special teams too so it's pretty interesting. Also, Moeaki being inactive lends further creedence to the idea that his addition is more of a long term project than a short term fix.

Hey Rubes. I don't start watching the college video until February. It's become a hobby for me, something to do after the NFL season is over and during the buildup to the draft. We'll revisit this for sure as it seems like the Bills need to upgrade OLB over Moats/Bradham.

No one seems to want to talk about it so it's not known how true the report is: http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap2000000286339/article/rgiii-asked-redskins-not-to-show-his-bad-plays "Inside the building, we talked to people familiar with the situation, they perceive RGIII as kind of insecure, specifically about Kirk Cousins, which may be one reason he (RGIII) was so eager to rush back. At Baylor (University), they didn't put RGIII's bad plays up on the board in the meeting rooms. Sources familiar with the situation say he has asked theRedskins to do the same. They have refused to up to this point."

There was a recent report that at Baylor, the coaches wouldn't show RG3s bad plays during video review of games and that the RG3 camp made a similar request of the Washington coaching staff. If true, you don't get any more psychologically coddled than that.

The Great Jay Clocker? But I thought… Anyways here's a good article on the "5th year club option" for 1st rounders: http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/draft/nfl-draft-scout/22037047/nfl-draft-yearfive-option-makes-qbs-more-valuable

In a season which wasn't going anywhere anyways. David has quickly established himself as one of the best LBs in the NFL. He was my favorite all-around LB coming out of the 2012 draft and I thought (and wrote) that he'd be a great value in the 2nd round. I didn't want the Bills to take Keuchly and as it turns out, Keuchly wasn't available when we picked. I actually wanted the Bills to take Cordy Glenn or Bruce Irvin in the first round and was hoping for David in the 2nd round. If you watched videotape of him at Nebraska, you could see what a great athlete he was and how intelligent and instinctive he was. David is very similar to future Bucs Hall of Famer Derrick Brooks. He never misses assignments and has big play ability. He defeats blockers using guile, quickness and intelligence and is the poster boy for the fact that linebacking is about the head, not the body. Imagine if former-board favorite Rey Maualuga had David's head for the game. People love "take on" LBs but size is of much lesser importance than football smarts. Just compare Kiko and Kelvin Sheppard if you don't agree. Also, David's teammate, Mason Foster is an outstanding player for the exact same reason. I thought Foster was the most instinctive LB coming out of the 2011 draft. Tampa Bay now has both players playing behind a star-studded defensive line.

Let me clarify: It's not hard to believe that Shanny would be disillusioned by the situation, it's hard to believe that he'd walk away from $14 million.

And the irony (and pain) is greater when you consider that Russell Wilson threw to TJ Graham at NC State and it's possible that the Bills overvalued TJ because Russell Wilson made him look better than he was.

It is a bit hard to believe. In 2010 Shanny signed a 5 year, $35 million contract. According to standard practice regarding NFL Head Coaching contracts, if he resigns he's not entitled to any of that money. If he gets fired, he's entitled to all of it.

He's not "throwing it like a girl." He's shooting it like a flat free throw in basketball. I wonder how he did after getting sighted-in?

I see there's another Bullough playing for the Spartans.

Thanks Kiko. My apologies to Nisher. I didn't see the part about moving Lewan to right tackle. My spaciness might have to do with having only 3 days off in the last 5 weeks (today is the 4th), and battling the flu. Sorry again Nisher. Thanks again Kiko for moderating. I'd better take a nap. It would probably help.