Leonidas

He's not spinning here. A lot of people questioned the Stroud trade. I loved it when I heard it, but it wasn't a home run by any means. We were still ranked 22nd in run defense last year. Stroud had a reasonably mild season - 45 tackles, 2½ sacks, 7 passes defensed. Sure better than McCargo, though.

If we can get Scheffler for a 3rd rounder, sign June/Keiaho/Peterson (I guess Poz would move to OLB if Peterson signs?), and sign Simmons/trade late pick for Waters, we'd still have our top two picks with fewer needs to fill. We can get the DE we need and then trade for value, depth, and best available players.

I would suggest the internet.

Excellent point. He's not worth the tag, you're right. I'd still love to sign him long-term before the season begins. He brings added value as a kick returner too. And I love the idea of having the option of franchising T.O. if he has a great season.

Amen.

I'm getting ahead of myself, but it's forward thinking that makes a team successful. It's time to re-sign McGee to a long term (4-5 years) contract. Then, if T.O. has a monster year and tries to leave for "greener" pastures we have the option of using the franchise tag on him. Agreed?

Who the hell cares about his speeches and locker room leadership?? Go get the friggin' quarterback! Chris Kelsay is great in the locker room, but he's terrible on the football field. You lead by example!

Leftwich looked good in Pitt this year. I'd offer him a contract with him knowing he was the backup. If he takes it, great. If not, no harm, no foul. I sincerely doubt Garcia would come here, especially with T.O. Remember when T.O. called him gay? Yeah. And he'll want to start, he's running out of time. My money says we see Garcia twice a year wearing green and white. Of course, my money also had T.O. going to Washington or Oakland, so I'm not very rich these days...

haha, nope!

That was my thinking as well. I love it: "T.O. Go get him" That's awesome. He knew the pressure would mount on him with T.O. here and he invited it. I was never huge on Losman (on the field; off the field he was great for Buffalo); but I really like what I see in Edwards when he is healthy and not skittish post-concussion. The whole thing hinges on TE and the line now...

Not that I disagree with anything you guys have said...but it seems a little over-the-top mean.

Yeah, I just read that about half an hour ago. I like hearing that from my franchise quarterback.

Thank you. You forgot to mention in your response that Maybin is not good at 11. We don't need a C first day. We will not draft Mack any more than we'll draft Crabtree or Jenkins. Wait until the 2nd round to draft TE but not the third; it's not THAT deep, not if you want a day 1 starter.

Well, one thing that the team definitely needs is depth. It doesn't sound like he's commanding a huge salary. Sign him to a 3-year deal. If he doesn't pan out, meh, cut him next year. We only have two TE's on the roster, we can sign him and draft another if we want and let them duke it out. I'm not disputing that LJ may not have developed into the player people thought he would, but I'm not sold on a slow 4th round TE from Kansas. I still think we should draft a TE with our second pick.

I haven't seen anything promising from any of our TE's and I'm not sure why there's been so much positivity directed towards Fine; he seems like nothing more than a nice blocking TE to me. Smith has been hurt on and off the last two years so his stats aren't great, but the two years prior he had 50+ catches for 600+ yards each year. He would definitely be an upgrade...but only worth it at the right price (6th rounder?).

Unless he was covering Fitzgerald AND Steve Breaston he only gave up two. And yes, he gave up two TD's to Larry Fitzgerald on the goalline. Fitzgerald sucks. I definitely see your point here. Oh, and Randy Moss was traded for a 4th rounder. What was your point again? Look, I hope I'm wrong here. If he flops in Jersey I'll be the first to admit it. But teams were pretty high on Lito. Nobody thought he could replace Troy Vincent and he did.

We need to draft for need AND for value. No TE is worth the #11 pick. Orakpo or E. Brown should be the targets. Maybin will be a bust. I don't know much about this Raji guy, but if he's really a force and a steal at #11 (assuming he's available - the mock drafts I've seen have him going in the top 10) then I guess we could take him. I assume McCargo is gone soon anyway. Would you start him and Stroud, platooning in Johnson and K. Williams?? I didn't realize our rushing defense was 22nd in the league last year - that's not going to cut it.

I'm not sure what you're disagreeing with. But to those who think Lito Sheppard isn't any good, you can brush up a little on the history between him and the Eagles: http://www.sportingnews.com/yourturn/viewtopic.php?t=523727

Schobel will never get 10 sacks in a season again. Sorry. Maybin will be a bust. He screams it. Listen to thewildrabbit. I want nothing to do with this guy. He can't be a 4-3 DE in the NFL.

Because he's "past his prime"? Yeah, right. You have no idea what you're talking about. Two years ago Sheppard and Brown were considered the best young CB tandem in the game. No one knew who these two were coming in and trying to replace Bobby Taylor and Troy Vincent - one of the best CB tandems in the game for years - but these two were more than adequate. Sheppard didn't fall out of favor because of lack of talent; he fell out of favor because he bitched about his contract and Philly doesn't put up with that bull sh--. He would have played somewhere else but Philly couldn't get their asking price and could afford his cap number for one more year. But thanks for "refuting" my point. You literally have no idea what you're talking about. Richard Seymour is a 3-4 DE. 3-4 DE's don't generally rack up large amounts of sacks. That being said, he tied his career high last year with 8 sacks. Adalius Thomas is a monster, and still has every bit of speed and versatility. His stats are harder to measure because they move him from WLB to SLB to MLB at will, depending on injury or the scheme.

If Lito Sheppard sucks then he sucks. But he can't be past his prime at 27. For the record, I don't think he sucks, and I think you're going to see that this year. He lost his starting job because he bitched and moaned about getting a new contract, Philly said no (as they always do), and brought in Asante. Then they couldn't off-load Sheppard, so they had him play the nickel. Joselio Hanson was playing so well he beat out Lito down the stretch (they also knew Lito wouldn't be back next year and were looking forward), and they rewarded Hanson with a nice contract to boot.

Langston Walker played guard in Oakland. I wouldn't be opposed to bringing in Pace, moving him or Peters to RT, moving Walker to LG. We would obviously have to re-work Pace's contract (same with Peters'), but we'd have a damn good offensive line.

hahaha... Forget Hamdan. There's plenty of room on the practice squad for a project. I'd rather have Garcia (or even Losman) in case Trent can't cut it. The time to win is now.

It doesn't matter. NE's front 7 continue to get pressure making the job of the DB's easy. That's why it doesn't matter who we have in our secondary since we can never mount a pass rush. Not sure how they're getting "older" - I mean, everyone ages. Seymour is 29, Warren is 28, Wilfork is 27, Thomas is 31, Mayo is 23. They'll replace the 34 year old Vrabel with a guy in his 20's (barring the signing of Jason Taylor). Bruschi (35) maybe plays for one more year. The secondary - aside from Shawn Springs - is very young (Hobbs is 25, Meriweather is 24, Sanders is 25, Wilhite is 24). If anything they're getting younger. Lito Sheppard is 27. How is he past his "prime," exactly?? The Jets defense - led by Rex Ryan - might be sick next year. Revis and Sheppard might be the best CB tandem in the league (outside of Philly), and Rhodes is very, very good. Leonhard has proven he's a serviceable starting SS too.

In that case, here's mine: Tim, I've been wrestling with this all day, but in all honesty I love the move. The Bills have some potentially very good WR's in J. Hardy and S. Johnson, but they are entering their second year (and Hardy is still recovering from ACL surgery). Buffalo needed a big, strong possession receiver to compliment the speedy Evans. Galloway and Holt didn't really fit that mold. Coles sort of did (even though he is only 5'11") with his playing style, but he was absurdly overpaid by the Bungles. Owens is a future hall of famer, no doubt, and was obtained at a relative bargain. It should also be noted that his first year with every team (SF, Philly, Dallas) he's been a veritable angel. It's also a smart move for Buffalo because it makes them instantly attractive from a national standpoint and will sell tickets as well as attract primetime television coverage. The risk is that he breaks Edwards' mind but Edwards hasn't proven he's an NFL QB yet so so be it. Hopefully this works out for Buffalo. Hopefully Hardy makes a full recovery and him and/or Johnson are ready to be a legit #2 in 2010. But now Buffalo has the playmakers to be a contender in the AFC. Hopefully the coaching staff will be up to the task.