Get the best player in the 11-20 bracket and possibly a top 10 player that slipped because someone else bungled their draft. Of course, we could bungle ours and take a guy from the 21-30 bracket on a misguided reach.
I'm guessing the "significantly worse" was intended in statistical terms. Whitner plays the same position in the same defensive system as Bob Sanders and makes no plays. He had 1 PD in 08 -- 6 fewer than Ryan Denney. He accumulates tackles, but those are on a steep downward trend (Simpson and Scott both had more tackles than Whitner in 08). He's a non-factor on special teams. Leonhard, as a backup SS, had more tackles, 6 times as many PDs, a pick 6, a sack, and contributed to special teams on a team that went to the AFC Championship game. Leonhard had more PD, INT, and FF in 3 playoff games than Whitner had in the 16 game regular season.
The building? Are you serious? It's not the worst thing going, but it isn't in the same league as the newer palaces around the league. By the way, Kirwan meant the rest of the organization in "the building" -- the secretaries, water boy, groundskeepers, etc.
That there is little consensus forming is sort of a buzz kill, since it may be an indication that this team is not "just a player away." I've seen suggestions for DE, TE, C, T, DT, LB, WR, G, QB, and S as needs in skimming the board.
Vernon Gholston had bust tattooed on his forehead going into the draft. Many posters here were when the Jets took him. He was a Mike Mamula combine superstar. That he didn't pan out so far, yawn, is hardly anything to write home about.
http://www.stadiumwall.com/index.php?s=&am...t&p=1017876
With Fowler starting at C the Bills were 4-1 and averaged 25.2 ppg. With Preston starting at C the Bills went 3-8 and averaged 19.1 ppg. Actually, ignoring the romp over the Chiefs, they were 2-8 and averaged only 15.6 ppg. That's a 10 point swing and a total flip from winning 80% to losing 80%.
What would really suck is to pass over Raji (yeah, Ngata didn't fit our scheme either ) and then have him drafted by another AFC East team and watch him totally obliterate Duke Preston twice a year. (Of course, I'm assuming Raji is not just hype ... and, I don't think he is. Passing over a kid that looks like Cortez Kennedy because he doesn't "fit the system." :lol:)
I realize this may be a really bizarre concept to a few, but why not draft the very best talent and mold the systems around what they do best? Then you have great players playing in systems they excel in instead of the alternative of settling for overachiever and average talent that work hard at trying to make a go of it in their coach's favorite system.