San Jose Bills Fan

It's important to note however that '87 was a 12 round draft as were all the drafts until 1992. Definitely an excellent draft.

Not to hijack the thread but here's the irony of California Sports: It's often derided for the fervor of its sports fans. As the criticism goes, there are too many things to do in California for people to feel that passionately about sports. Compared to the only other place I've lived, Buffalo, I would say this is true. There are suddenly more Niners fans at this moment than there ever were in the previous 10+ years that we've lived here. On the other hand, California is a factory of athletes. I recently completed a job at the Serra High School athletic complex in San Mateo. This is the school which produced Barry Bonds, Tom Brady, Lynn Swann and many other elite athletes. Nearly 25% of the 2012 US Summer Olympic Team is from California. More than 13% of MLB players are from California. More than 11% of NFL players are from California. More than 12% of NBA players are from California and the state has more NBA players than any other state with 44 followed by Illinois with 33. New York has 25 NBA players. This is a particularly high number considering the number of foreign players. California in spite of being a warm weather state has the 8th most NHL players and that percentage is growing. Part of this of course is due to population as California is the most populous U.S. state with 12% of the U.S. population. But California dominates in other sports like track and field, swimming, golf, tennis, etc. and is generally overrepresented in all sports relative to its population.

Yes, perhaps I'm stupid but this data is not useable to me. It's too hard to differentiate the colors. Besides that, the map isn't interactive. It would be nice if you could click on a team logo and you saw only that teams fans along with numerical data. Thanks for posting WEO. I wish I was capable of understanding it better.

Also Metz, to springboard off an observation made earlier in the thread (or maybe it was a different one), there are numerous draft picks in Bills history where you just knew it was a questionable pick at best. I can remember very few instances where these questionable picks ended up working out; where the Bills were right and the general public was wrong. I'm trying to think of just one and I can't. Many times, I tried getting on board with the picks and tried talking myself into liking them. But it seems every time my skepticism was borne out.

Also, why go to the liquor store when you can send the intern?

To me the thing about Moss is that with his talent, he should have been the best wide receiver ever, by far. But because of his questionable attitude, he's only in the discussion for best ever. His diva-esque character cheated both the fans and himself. If I was a HOF voter I wouldn't vote for him as a first ballot guy just out of principle. Lollygaggers don't deserve to be first balloters, IMO.

It was mentioned:

Didn't you know he was a 3 sport letterman in high school and was named one of Massachussetts' Top 10 high school athletes of all time? We're just having a little sport at Jauron's expense. Why do you have to spoil our fun? Oh, that's right. You're the Fun Police. Never mind officer.

I thought we agreed in the other thread that we were gonna draft Manziel this year. The theory is that the NFL always lets the first cheater get away with it before punishing the second cheater. So we're gonna cheat by drafting Manziel. I'd salute you for your humor except my hand is stuck in my waistcoat.

Russell was 265 at the combine. If he was able to get back down to that weight I think teams would start to take him seriously.

But, it's this year. Yeah, a pretty kookie post. Alex Smith is roundly considered an ultimate team guy. One can be honest answering questions (as he was) without upstaging his team. On a different discussion, like most of the other Bay Area people who've weighed in on this topic, I believe that Alex Smith is a better player than most people here are giving him credit for.

To further your point, how many safeties have had great careers on bad teams? Off the top of my head I can think of one: Larry Wilson.

“We’ve gotten pretty used to Jerry always being around during team meetings or postgame showers,” said quarterback Tony Romo, who twice was helped up off the ground by a congratulatory Jones. “But I have to say, having him stand next to me, talking my ear off, when I was back in the shotgun waiting for the snap was definitely a new one.” “It’s his team, though,” Romo added. “He can do what he wants.” Jones then reportedly became increasingly involved in the course of play, pointing out potential blitzers, calling an audible for the Cowboys’ offense, and discussing a contract extension with running back DeMarco Murray during a three-yard rush up the middle. “None of us really knew how to respond, but he was being really annoying,” rookie Cowboys defensive back Morris Claiborne said. “He kept trying to show me the ‘correct’ way to bump receivers and was constantly telling guys on defense to fake injuries when he needed a rest.”

As with Randy and Bandit I believe that teams generally target individual QBs, not groups of QBs. This is not fantasy football. The guy has to fit your scheme and be tailored to your system and your coaching staff. I don't think it matters to the NFL teams if a group of QBs are more or less equal in overall talent and they can just grab one at a certain point in the draft. More likely their evaluations are very specific for fit.

Hold onto the #8 pick and use the full allotted 10 minutes before using it, hoping that another team makes you a trade offer so good you can't refuse. If that offer doesn't materialize, pick the best player available regardless of position. In the second round look for a quarterback and if the guy they've targeted is available within 10 picks, try to trade up to assure getting him as long as you don't pay too high a price. IMO none of these QBs are worth paying a premium for. Don't make moves out of desparation because none of the prospects are worth making aggressive moves for. Let the draft come to you (in the form of trade offers).

Seven posts upthread of yours. The meeting seemingly happened in the first week of January, about 3 weeks ago. It's just that news of this meeting just got out.

Agree with most of this. Whitner was maligned because the Bills overdrafted him and because a combination of not producing, his off the field incident, and an occasional quote which rubbed us the wrong way. That said he's a good run defender and an average to poor pass defender. He's a better player than George Wilson IMO but only by a bit and quite a bit more expensive. I do believe that Searcy is an equivalent talent and hope that he will prove so this year.

Yes. The 2007 draft was pretty good. In addition to Lynch and Poz both of whom we miss, Trent was the best QB of that draft as you pointed out and Wendling will be entering his 7th season in the NFL as one of the league's top special teams players. It was only bad from the standpoint that the players who made a mark in the NFL are no longer with the Bills. I'm not sure most people would recognize a good draft (myself included) as it seems that generally we expect a higher success rate than what is usually the case.

Nevertheless at this moment, the aggressive trade up for RGIII and the selection of another QB in the same draft are looking like good moves and are not supportive of your arguments. That might change but right now Shanny's looking good on the personnel moves.

It's a slow day at work.

BTW, that was a John Butler draft.

LOL The photo is definitely worth the effort to click the link. "At press time, the NFL fined Jerry Jones $40,000 for a vicious blindside block on Eagles cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha."

Actually the Cousins pick looks good because he played well every chance he got. You're confusing two separate issues and your example of Washington as a reason not to draft two quarterbacks doesn't support your argument. Both of Washington's QBs played well. The fact that Shanny showed a gross lack of judgement in playing RGIII when he was seriously injured doesn't change the fact that the aggressive trade to draft him and the drafting of Cousins were both good decisions.

It's possible that he could redeem himself as a coach. As a person, Greg(g)'s irredeemable IMO.

Some people here are really dismissing Flacco. He's a very interesting player in that he (like Eli Manning) becomes a significantly better player in the playoffs. I've seen Flacco look terrible in regular season games many times. But come playoff time, he's a different guy altogether.