BillsPhan

After watching how Brady took advantage of TWO rookie tight ends last year, I'm completely in favor of the Bills drafting Rudolph with the 34. Since the Pats have 33, they obviously won't draft him unless they trade out of it and the other team takes him. However, I can't imagine a team trading up into that pick to draft a TE. So it looks like Rudolph will be there for the taking and I hope the Bills do!

Easley got hurt, players get hurt every year. Troup started coming into his own towards the end of the year, and he was very productive when compared to the DT's drafted above and below him, including the ones drafted by teams that were not considered "reaches", as the drafting of Troup in the 2nd round was. Carrington? Well, very few stars run into the starting lineup in the NFL directly from the 3rd round. Carrington will be judged more during this his second season. And Arthur Moats can turn out to be the steal of last year's draft if he improves on the rookie season he had - the kid is a player. Drafting C.J. Spiller was stupid in my opinion. But even with him, it's even more stupid for a sports writer to waste time "judging" a team's draft one year later!!

There's always a chance one of the lesser rated QB's in this draft could jump up and become great ones in the NFL. There was Joe Montana drafted #82 (third round) by the Niners in 1979. There was of course Tom Brady drafted #199 (6th round) by the Pats in 2000. Those two QB's are always in the discussion for the best QB in NFL history, so it almost always seems worth it to draft one in the later rounds, doesn't it? That said, recent history suggests that other then Brady, your top teams in the playoffs year in and year out have QB's drafted in ROUND ONE. After being out of the playoffs for 11 years and counting, after not having a winning season for 6 years and counting, and after not being able to find the next Jim Kelly for 14 years and counting, if I'm Buddy Nix, I'm rolling the dice on Newton or Gabbert with the #3 pick, and taking the more traveled road towards recent NFL success. I'll be happy to allow the other teams to try and find that needle in the haystack QB in the later rounds! Fitzy is the starter, and he might rise up and surprise everyone by becoming a franchise QB after all, he's only 27 and this is his first chance of being the starter heading into a season. Yeah, and the odds of that happening are about as good as finding the next Tom Brady in the 6th round of this draft, too! However, even if that miracle happened, what a great trading tool the Bills would have with Newton or Gabbert as the back up! Realistically, Fitzy will man the ship just above average with his limited skill set, and take the Bills to the 8-8-0 or even 9-7-0 level while Newton or Gabbert learn behind him. Then, it will be the perfect time to hand over the keys to either one, since I am convinced they both will be great NFL quarterbacks someday in the near future in the NFL.

This "troll" is an admin!

The whole problem with Newton and Gabbert this year is that they are not Andrew Luck and Matt Ryan. They have some "red flags" and that means that they will never make it as starting QB's in the NFL, say most of the posters out here on our passionate board. But your thread question is extremely valid! I'm at age where I was lucky enough to watch every snap Joe Ferguson took and of course every snap Jim Kelly took in their Bills' careers. (Yeah I know, I'm an old guy.) Fergy was a very lucky 3rd round pick way back in '73. Not that Joe didn't have his problems, and he was never considered one of the best in the NFL during his playing days, he certainly did a great job for a 3rd round draft choice! Jimbo was the #14 pick of the first round in 1983. Although he spent three years in the forgettable USFL, when he came to Buffalo to start his career here in '86, he was still the Bills' 1st round pick from the '83 draft. Do you know that the only QB's the Bills have drafted within the first 3 rounds since 1983, are Todd Collins in '95, J.P. Lost-man in '04, and Trent Edwards in '07. And Jim Kelly has been retired now since the end of the 1996 season! Yes, experts who hate the idea of Nix using the #3 pick on Newton or Gabbert, when even you know damn well they will be long gone before the Bills pick again at #34, just exactly when do you think the Bills should draft their next franchise QB? Forget one of the lesser guys in Rounds 3 or lower. Nix should draft Newton or Gabbert this year, and build the rest of the defense and other needs beginning with the 34th pick. Both will end up being good to great starters in the NFL for some teams, in my humble opinion, and it might as well be the Bills.

Great, I agree, Miller seems to excite Gailey more then Newton and Gabbert. So what? Buddy Nix makes the final call and Tom Modrak is his number one "advisor", and although I'm sure Nix values Chan's opinion highly, it is simply not Gailey's call. Anyone remember how badly Gregg Williams said was hoping Donahoe would have drafted Drew Brees instead of Nate Clements way back when??? A lot of good that did Williams. (And had Donahoe listend to Williams then, maybe he would still be head coaching today!)

A.J. Green would not be my first choice after Newton or Gabbert, but if Nix did pass up first the franchise QB, and then the glut of great defensive players to draft Green, I would say at least this guy would be a better choice for his offense then Spiller was for it last year. Hey, if this ends up being the "Modrak-led Reach" for 2011, fine. At least he's rated as the best BIG WR coming out of college, and not just he best "scat-back" type RB coming out of college. All of that said, I can't imagine Nix drafting Green anyway, so I think this thread is a waste of your time.

If Buddy passes on Newton or Gabbert, then Patrick Peterson would be a terrific choice at #3 in my humble opinion. Look at what Revis did for the Jets before his injury! A lock down corner can be a game changer, and he can allow the D to do riskier things blitz-wise. And obviously, the Bills don't have a true lock down corner on the roster now, so I say yes to that possibility. Although I still hope it's Newton or Gabbert, of course!

There certainly would be no chance of that happening if Nix simply takes Newton or Gabbert number 3, would there? And I certainly hope he does.

Cam Newton and Blaine Gabbert would not be "reaches" with the number 3 overall pick. Nix has the 2nd or 3rd highest pick of every round, so he will still find great value in this draft. How "for the love of all that is holy", can you and the majority of the posters out here be so sure that both Newton and Gabbert will be busts???? Again, I give you Joe Flacco as my favorite example. If the Ravens had the number 3 pick instead of the number 18 pick they did use in the 1st round to draft Flacco, and they had drafted Flacco with that number 3 pick instead, I suppose all of their "knowledgeable" fans would have screamed and yelled and stomped their feet in anger right??? Well Flacco sure seems to be working out just fine right about now only a fews years into his career, and not a single one of those fans would think he was a reach at 3 now, would they??? The way that kid has taken over as a leader and starting QB of a team that quite honestly never had a "franchise" QB since they moved to Baltimore in 1995, I don't think you would find one Ravens fan that would still be saying they should not have drafted him as high as 3rd overall, if they would have! So now we have kind of the opposite situation with Newton, Gabbert and the Bills with the number 3 pick. If the Bills drafted let's say, Von Miller with the number 3, and then traded back up into the 1st round to draft Gabbert or Newton at 18 in the 1st round, then that would be OK, right?? Sorry folks, this is not Flacco coming out of Delaware we are talking about. Neither one of the best two QB's in this year's draft will be sitting around at 18 waiting to be drafted this year. Yet, I am convinced, in my humble opinion, that both of these kids, Newton and Gabbert, will certainly become at least as good as Flacco has become for the Ravens. Hey maybe not right away, but within a year or two they will, for whoever drafts them. Just my opinion, I know, most of you think both of them will just end up being Akili Smith - Ryan Leaf type major busts, I know I know. But Gabbert is not Ryan Leaf, and Newton is certainly not Akili Smith. I think these two young guys are just as good as advertised, and given a year or two to come into a system and learn, they both will have outstanding NFL careers. And with Fitzy running the show and helping one of them learn for that year or two, this is the perfect time to draft one of them right now for the Buffalo Bills.

At the risk of missing your sarcasm and just in case you are serious, Fitzy threw 23 TD's last year.

Wow, you got me on that one. Nice catch. Two points about that '87 draft run by Bill Polian: He got the linebacker he wanted still within the top 10 in Conlan (and if Nix traded down with this top heavy talent rich group within the top 10, that will be fine with me and I don't think he will do it based on saving money only!). Secondly, later on that season, Polian convinced Ralph Wilson to pay an unheard of million dollar signing bonus to Cornelius Bennett, the linebacker he really coveted in the draft that year in an amazing trade he worked with the Colts who could not sign Bennett. Certainly Ralph was not worried about saving money to sign that rookie!

I absolutely disagree. Ralph Wilson has never "traded down" out of a top 5 pick and I can't imagine him doing it now at 93 freakin' years old. The man is still alive last I heard, he still knows what is going on last I heard, and he is still the owner, last I heard. I don't see Nix trading down - I see him choosing the best player on his board at number 3 to help the Bills improve as much as possible. Period.

Or...how about if "we" take that pick in the 22-28 range, and trade down again for and extra 3rd rounder, then, take that pick, and trade down for an extra 4th rounder, then, take that pick and trade it down for an extra 5th rounder, etc. etc. so finally, in the end, we have 14 7th round picks! Think of all the money "we" would save in such a "deep" draft, huh??? Sorry, but when there is draft with so many top heavy excellent players (mostly on defense) to choose from, wouldn't the best decision be just to pick one of the 3 very best of all of them??? STOP ALL OF THIS TRADING DOWN TALK!!

I hope you're right!! It's been way too long since the Bills have had a draft like your describe.