Leonidas

Are you insane?? A #2 and a #5 for a 33 year old TE that says he has "one, maybe two years left"??? We have gaping holes at LG, OLB, and DE too, should we fill those with hope and delusion??

Draft tickets are free, but the seating is "extremely limited," meaning plan to camp out overnight (I believe you can get there as early as 10:00pm the night before. Don't forget, the Draft starts at 4:00pm now because that ass-clown Goddell wants better ratings.

Oh God, not this argument again. Who was the moron who said the 40 is completely irrelevant for defensive lineman?? Yes, the 10 yard portion of it is most important. No, the entire result should not be completely disregarded. That guy (not you) was a complete !@#$ing moron...

I want to be wrong on this, I really do. But I don't think I am. Speed rushers die early. Once their speed is gone it's all over. Look at Simeon Rice. He went from being one of the best DE's in the league to not being able to make an NFL roster in what, two years? Over the last two seasons Schobel's had 7.5 sacks in 21 games which is terrible. His 14 sack season was in 2006. We're entering 2009. Will the Lisfranc injury speed him up? I highly doubt it. Schobel is 31. Rice 'died' at 32. I think this pipe dream of "wait until Schobel gets back" is just that - a pipe dream. He'll start in '09, but my money says he's a cap casualty at the end of the year.

Here's my problem with Brown. He is so small that to succeed he would need to have tremendous speed to compensate and become Freeney-ish. But he doesn't have that speed. Freeney ran the 40 in 4.38. He uses every bit of that speed and quickness to compensate for only being 6'1" 268 lbs. Brown is listed at 15 lbs. lighter than Freeney, and according to everyone else is not much taller. That combined with him running only a 4.74 at the Combine doesn't really seem to make him a threat at DE in the 4-3. The more I think about it, the more I think Oher would be a good pick at #11 (assuming Peters is gone), then grabbing either an Ayers (who at least went up against the best in the SEC) with the next first round pick or grabbing Pettigrew and then getting a Barwin/Sidbury/M. Johnson (although the highlights I've seen of him don't impress me at all) in the second. We'd still need an OLB and a LG, but I still think those should be attacked in free agency to bolster what will probably be second day picks. Thoughts?

Are you two dating???

That's all pretty interesting, thanks for the insight. Here's a few questions I have: how is it that Sidbury is a 2nd round pick now? He was projected at the 4th-6th round prior to the Combine. Did his 40 time alone propel him that high? He was good at Richmond, but he wasn't T-Suggs good. will Oher go top 10? I haven't seen any mocks that have that. Is he a legit tackle prospect? I am terrified of Andre Smith and don't want the Bills to touch him. By your calculations Orapko or Raji should be there at #11. If it's one of them or Oher, what do you think (assuming Peters is gone)? I've seen mocks with Beatty going in the first round, but even being a UConn alum I've never seen him. Is he not worth the pick? With Barwin's stock so high from a great Combine/pro day performance, it almost seems like he's a lock to go in the second round. A reach? People are calling him a Vrabel clone, but even Vrabel didn't do all that much early in his career.

I would love to know them. All I know is what I've seen on youtube, brief snippets on ESPN and NFL.com, and his stats from the Combine. Please share.

I'm having a small draft party at my house. It might be the last thing I do there...

I've been wondering the same thing. Did he really do that well at the Senior Bowl??? Hmm...what are you hearing? I haven't heard anything about Orakpo falling out of the top 10 (although I'd love it). What about Connor Barwin in the second round? He had 10 sacks in one season at DE and lit up the combine. I understand Cincinnatti didn't play anybody all that good but running a sub-4.5 40 at his pro day is impressive. Next to Sidbury he's the fastest DE out there, and beat Sid in the 20 yard shuttle. Would he be worth a look in the second round? His level of competition and lack of strength (21 reps) lead me to believe he's more of a 3-4 OLB (just what we need more of in this draft). I have this terrible feeling that this is one of those situations where this is no right answer, as in every DE available to us at that point (Brown, Maybin, Ayers, Johnson, Sidbury, Barwin) will be a bust. Talk about a crapshoot, though. Period? What if the next tackle won't go for fifteen picks? What if the three top OT's are gone (even if Andre Smith falls to us I don't want him, but that's another discussion altogether) and the next one will be available to us at our traded down spot (let's say, #21). Still take one at #11? I don't think so.

That's the joke - W/L records for a pitcher is terrible in baseball. Hence the John Kruk joke. ERA is where it's at. W/L's depend on the batters' performances; ERA does not.

Oh...oh God...

Like who? Leftwich has a career record of below .500, and what would Garcia teach him? To run around and make ill-advised plays that somehow work out? If 2005 Vinny Testaverde was around I'd be all for it, but he wasn't.

I would take Gaines Adams over any Bills DE including Schobel. Hands down. Dwight Freeney is 6'1".

Why not? John Kruk said wins were more important than ERA when Clemens had a 1.8 ERA but the Astros couldn't hit worth a damn and he was something like 16-11. (note the heavy sarcasm)

Thank you. Why? Can he throw? That I'd be interested in seeing.

For what it's worth, Dante Hall was a force until he hit 30 and seems to be more or less dead. He was traded from KC to St. Louis for a 5th round pick when he was 28. He had one solid season returning and then one poor season. He was talked about as a serious MVP candidate early in '03 (25 years old) when he had four touchdowns after four games. With that extra pick the Chiefs took RB Kolby Smith (who?). Parrish, by contrast is 26, in his prime. Assuming 30 is the wall when KR's/PR's die, he's still got four great years left. Trading that for a Kolby Smith sounds absurd to me.

Well, when the local news refers to you as Drops Reed you have to do something about it...

Umm...he signed a 6-year/$23.5M contract in '05.

You quoted the wrong post. The 'Canton' comment was aimed at the Dean. But Reed is probably the worst WR to try on an end around (maybe Hardy - he seems to just lumber out there for a guy who ran a 4.49). Reed ran the 40 in 4.54 back in '02. Do you think he's gotten any faster? He is probably our slowest WR and you want to try him out on a play that is predicated on speed and quickness? Because he's 'gutsy'?? Everyone's gutsy. They're professional football players.

Oh totally. The funny thing is, I rent! My landlord is going to be so pissed off on draft day...

Not sure if I agree with that. I don't think Reed has - or has ever had - the speed to be that kind of scat back guy who can carry it and be dangerous catching the ball. He also doesn't have the bulk at RB at 5'10" 200 lbs. I like Reed for what he does well, but I'm not sure that our offensive scheme is what's keeping him from Canton.

I will bet my house that Pettigrew isn't there for us in round 2. And I'll mow the lawn beforehand...

A possession WR with average speed on end arounds? Doing major damage? Are you serious??

If we get to the point where Josh Reed is in the backfield we've got problems. He should be an absolute last resort. Behind Omon. Behind McIntyre. Behind Franco Harris.