tennesseeboy

I'm more and more in favor of a trade down and don't like "luxury" picks, but Newton would be a pretty ambitious and risky pick at 3. Trading down and fixing our problems in the trenches would be the better choice. Picture us getting a very good OT at mid round one, and a DT and good linebacker in round two and a DE and possible OLB or TE in round 3. That would go a long way toward fixing some of our major problems.

Just for kicks look at a draft with a trade down with Cleveland. I submit that these additions would probably help us greatly in the next season. 8 Buff from Clev Marcel Dareus LB Texas A&M 35 Buffalo Cameron Heyward DE Ohio State 37 B from C Gabe Carimi OT Wisconsin 68 Buffalo Drake Nevis DT LSU 70 B from C Marvin Austin DT North Carolina Somehow I would like to get Luke Stocker TE from Tennessee into the mix though.

I honestly believe the Bills could win 7 to 9 games this coming year if they draft right. Throw in a wise trade and active free agency, re-signing our own talent, and we might even be better than that. What depresses me is the failure last year to do the obvious with the offensive line, the "luxury pick" when we had critical needs, the premature 3-4 move on defense without appropriate talent. Others have done turnarounds and we can do it as well. I think we have to have more of the Buddy Ryan attitude that we will win and go to the playoffs NOW. I'm not a Buddy Ryan fan in many ways but believe your had better set stretch goals if you are ever going to reach them.

I like the idea of going for defensive players and putting together a very strong d as the priority of this off season. There is a need to address the offensive tackle positions which might be dealt with in free agency or trade. I'm still liking Luke Stocker the tight end from Tennessee if he falls to the late second or early third round, but other than that the picks you suggest sound pretty darn good.

I kind of saw us going a D lineman or an OT, but don't think there will be an OT worthy of a 3 pick. D line is shaping up as the way to go with our 3, although a trade down is looking better all the time.

There are remarkably good players in the middle of round one to the middle of round two that would help us immediately. A lot of these are mentioned in this thread, which leads me to think that trading down based on what is available at three (AJ Green and a trade to Cleveland for instance) would be a good idea. We could get a fine midrounder and two seconds pluss a high pick next year. I just think we should be aware and ready to take advantage of this opportunity if it should arise.

I would love to get their first round next year, but their second and fourth this year would be terrific and let us get some real talent in here to rebuild on. If Fairley goes number one and someone other than Green goes number two Cleveland will have a very tempting couple of minutes to make something happen. Hopefully we will be ready if the phbone call comes. Let's see... Robert Quinn or better DE Anthony Costanzo Luke Stocker before we get to round 3...sounds good to me...

seems Cleveland might be hot for the chance to get AJ Green...perhaps worth pursuing a trade down option? http://www.cleveland.com/dsn/index.ssf/2011/01/the_browns_need_to_go_green_in_2011.html#incart_mce

I would like to see that meanness in the coaching staff and front office. I think it would be better having that meanness come out of the veterans. We dumped Incognito and TO and Lynch, so I'm suspicious that this may just not be a "mean" team mindset. A mean rookie is not going to inspire anyone. A talented rookie is what we should get. I do think we should draft for a mean "position" though. Defensive ends who sack qb's can be "mean" or not as long as the qb is on his ass. I think Tom Day, a great buffalo defensive lineman was famous for picking up quarterbacks he knocked down. Mean is beating the opponent 35-0. Mean is hard hitting practices, no excuses, hate losing language and planning to win every next game. Bad mouth Rex Ryan all you want..but he took a bad team and made it good enough to get deep in the playoffs being mean.

If Green is all that good and is available at 3 (some have him as the number one overall pick), we might get great value from Cleveland or the Rams for the pick. Getting a serious round one defensive lineman with the number 5 or 14 overall and an extra second round pick for an OT and a TE/QB/OLB in the first two rounds might be a good move.

looks like a pretty realistic draft, but I could see us trading down to Cleveland or the Rams to allow them to get AJ Green and us ending up with those three plus an extra second round (Luke Stocker?) and perhaps an extra fourth.

I don't see Bell as all that wonderful. Gaither to Left Tackle. I think I might look up my Colon Pitt for a FART too!!!

Just for fun since most of us don't have a dog in the hunt...who do you think will win and why. I'm going Packers 27 Steelers 17 and the reason for the pack is the Pittsburgh offensive line. It is the weakest area on the team and if the Packers can take advantage of it with their strong front seven... particularly with Pouncey out...I gotta go with the Pack. Any other predictions?

That is a terrific cast of characters and right on point to fix areas of need. I have "favorites" that I might go with but your group provides the real deal as to what we need overall. I think we would be quite happy picking from the players you named.

If we are giving the grades the only thing we have to go on is this year. And this year the bills regressed with the players on board, and most of our draft class didn't even break into the starting lineup, let alone stand out. Will they be great next year? I don't know nor does anyone else. They are what they are...Grade D.

For the bills the strategy the best approach might be this... Are we a playoff team....no Where are we bad...defense mostly, average offense. What positions are good kickers, Kyle Williams, some D-backs, What positions don't actually suck? Running back, D-backs, receivers, qb What sucks and dooms our team on the field on sunday? Inability to stop the run, no pass rush and poor pass blocking. How can we get better in the areas where we suck through the draft? Draft a killer pass rusher. Draft a run stopper Draft a great and aggressive Outside linebacker This should help with the pass rush and stopping the run. Getting the d-backs into position to make interceptions and get the offense on the field. Will AJ Green do any of these things? NO Offense...Get two tackles through free agency or draft. Get a good tight end who can block and catch passes (Luke Stocker?). Can AJ Green pass block? NO Can AJ Green play tight end? NO. hmmmm....under this strategy AJ is pretty much a pass or a possible trade down to get three or four of the players we really need. St. Louis would DIE for AJ Green. Evebn at a minimum of a trade with St. Louis at 14 for a first, second and a second next year would be kind of interesting. That would give us possibly Costanza or Von Miller as a first choice, Luke Stocker as our secone pick, and a very good Defensive End, OLB or OT prospect with St. Louis second pick.

The question was specifically to the weakest position. We have a number of weak positions but looking at the entire season the weakest position is offensive tackle. Now we have a number of weak positions in the front seven of a 3-4 defense...partly because of a change in strategy, partly because of the retirement of Schobel, but the problem there is not a "weak positions" but the weakness in a number of positions (OLB, DE and DT) I would recruit to fix this "weakness of POSITIONS" first but that doesn't change our weakest position...offensive tackle.

The future is now, as George Allen used to say. You want to get to the playoffs and superbowl your "eye to the future" better be the first game of the regular season and who is going to be most effective in helping you win that game. I suspect that person is a linebacker, Defensive lineman or Offensive Tackle. Drafting anyone else is drafting with an eye toward chaos.

D sounds like the most appropriate grade. Some draft choices made a minimal contribution to a team with limited talent to start with and the top draft choice couldn't even break into the starting lineup. I'd be hard pressed to find a team deserving a worse grade.

I'm stilly hoping we get a blue chipper at our position of need. OLB/OT/DE or trade down. Ideal draft would be trading down and fillint three areas of need in the first two rounds. Costanza, Von Miller, Luke Stocker and any number of other playters will be populating the later first and the second round and could improve us immediately. AJ Green fighting for time with Johnson, Evans and Parrish sounds like a receipe for disaster and or mediocrity. Evans and Parrish would probably want out and we won't be in much better shape than we are now...maybe worse.

I'm against going for him in principle...we have receivers but don't have linebackers offensive tackles or defensive linemen. If I had confidence that the administrative types could or will address these needs through trades and/or free agency and by concentrating the other picks of the draft on them I'd say to really look this guy over and MAYBE consider drafting him. I would want it very clear that he is a "head and shoulders" class first round pick. I'm not sure he is that, yet.

We would have to improve greatly. However I am not hearing the superbowl or superbowl plans coming from the Bills organization.

here is a nice but exotic kind of theory on how to get a better football team... Identify the spots where you are good and make sure you keep those players. Identify the areas where your really suck...like offensive line, defensive line, linebacker, tight end. Get better in those areas. That means not drafting a running back when you have two pretty good ones and no offensive tackle. More important for the present situation don't draft a WR when you have Johnson, Evans, Parrish etc. d

Bills philosophy: Draft the best player available whether he can help the bills win or not. Let anyone with talent enough to be attractive to other teams leave in free agency Hire coaches who have proven they can't win.

We have three good FA defensive backs. SIGN THEM. We have very real needs on the defensive front seven that have to be addressed. I would consider signing Peterson or Green an absolutely BIZARRE choice.