BillsPhan

2 41 Torell Troup DT Central Florida 3 72 Alex Carrington DE Arkansas State 6 178 Arthur Moats OLB James Madison Anybody out here remember those guys? Sure, the Bills have the #3 pick this year and there are some awesome defensive players to choose from. But Troup sure seemed to be coming into his own towards the last 4 games last year, and Carrington hasn't even scratched the surface of his potential yet. Both those kids came out of smaller colleges so they need more time to acclimate, but they are still both high draft picks just entering into their second years. And then there's Arthur. If this kid picks up where he left off last year, Nix will end up with the absolute steal of the 2010 draft from last year's 6th round. Of course I would love to see the Bills pick Von Miller if they don't go for one of the two top QB's at 3. But who knows if Moats won't end up being even better then Miller by the time they both retire years from now?? And of course, Dave Wandstadt, former Super Bowl winning DC (over our beloved Bills ironically), has joined Chan to help the Bills rebuild. With him on board to help utilize Troup, Carrington and Moats better, choosing Newton or Gabbert at 3 (as I hope he does) becomes less of a tradgedy passing on Miller or one of the other great defensive prospects.

Here's an "interesting" footnote about that amazingly bad draft. Leif Larson, the big, slow, talent-less Euro-trash linemen the Bills drafted in the 6th round, was taken 2 picks before Tom Brady was taken by the Pats! Unbelievable, huh? The Bills were going into their 3rd season of "Johnson vs. Flute", and neither one had proven capable of being a long term viable option for the Bills. If only Butler had taken the flyer on Brady at that late round pick, thinking he might be a good guy to "throw into the mix" next training camp, especially if he was going to move Flutie out due to his age soon! And oh by the way, as far as wondering about Wilson's input during the great 90's drafts compared to the terrible 2000's drafts? Bill Polian and John Butler ran the drafts in the 90's, and Ralph never "told them" who to draft. Tom Donahoe, Tom Modrak, Marv Levy, Russ Brandon and Buddy Nix have run the drafts in the 2000's, and Ralph has never "told them" who to draft either, in my humble opinion. I can't believe Wilson has had any impact on exactly who the Bills have drafted since the day Polian took over in late 1985.

That is certainly one valid way to go. But it would really suck if both Newton and Gabbert, or either one of them, were passed up by the Bills at 3, and then they both go on to become Pro Bowl QB's for other teams while Fitzy never takes the Bills as far as some believe he can during those same years! Of course the Bills can luck out with another QB in this draft, and he may turn out just as good or even better then Newton or Gabbert down the line. But it still worries me that the Bills will probably pass up on one of the two best rated QB's in a draft where they pick high enough to draft one of them. Certainly, none of us think they will or want them to finish bad enough to be drafting this high again anytime soon! It has been 15 years since their last franchise QB retired, and it seems that there are few of us left on this board, that remember how much Jimbo meant to the team during his Hall of Fame career!

I am absolutely with you on Gabbert at number 3. I'll take Newton there if the Panthers decide to go with Gabbert at 1. Plus, I agree that both Clausen and Tebow deserve more time to see if they can become the franchise QB's of their teams.

I want Newton or Gabbert if either one is there at 3, so of course I would want Ponder or Dalton at 34, based on your exact choices. Isn't he a tall WR?? I didn't think he was anywhere near big enough weight-wise, to convert to a TE, unless you have heard that the coaches have been trying to bulk him up during his rehab from his season ending injury last year??

J.P. Lost-man was the 4th QB drafted in 2004, and it was a desperate move by Donahoe to trade back into the first round to get him. I believe Donahoe got caught up in the fact Manning, Rivers, and Roethlisberger were all drafted before his pick at #13, and he felt he needed to draft a QB for the Bills to learn behind Bledsoe. Especially since the Steelers drafted Big Ben one or two picks before Donahoe settled on Evans. Now, if Donahoe would have just drafted Lost-man with the #13 pick he used on Evans, then you would have an excellent point - that he wasted his high round pick on a bust of a QB. Instead, he didn't draft Lost-man until somewhere in the early 20's range. But this year is completely different from 2004. If Donahoe had held the #3 pick that year, Big Ben may have been playing for the Bills since then, if not Rivers! Nix has the #3 pick and has a chance to draft one of the two best rated QB's in the entire draft this year. Nobody ever thought Lost-man was any better then the 4th best QB in '04, and some experts didn't think he was that good!

Wait a minute here. Are you disagreeing with this wonderful thread?? How dare you express your own opinion here? This thread is for agreeing with the fact that Ryan Fitzpatrick will be leading the Bills to a victory in the SB next February because he has invited all those wonderful players on his offense to his beautiful spread in Arizona to work out! You are a very bad person, to say that Fitzy is not good enough to be the Bills SB winning QB on this thread!!! Go Bills!! (After all of this union desertification / lock-out crap finally ends!)

I like any of your scenarios. Maybe not the trade down one as much as the others, because there seems to be so much talent at the top of the draft this year. But I like the idea of Nix drafting a QB like Dalton later on. And certainly, if Nix thinks he can add good players with the extra 2nd round pick that will add up to a better choice then taking a top 3 guy, fine. Trade down. But really, the Bills need to grab one of these young guns to groom as the replacement for Jim Kelly, I thought the 3 top guys from last year were worth it.....this year there are about 6 or 7 QB's at least that good to draft!

Last year at this time I wanted Buddy to draft a QB with his first pick - the number 9 overall. I was rooting for Clausen, Tebow or McCoy. I took plenty of grief out here, to say the least. I won't waste time slamming the Spiller pick, been there done that. If not a QB, I absolutely thought Nix would draft the best OT or DT on his board at #9. Instead, take a look at the three QB's I hoped the Bills would have drafted. Sure, none of them became instant stars or even starters as rookies. They all struggled to get on the field, and then struggled once they got out there. But Colt McCoy is listed as the starter for the Browns heading into this season. Tim Tebow started the last couple of games for the Broncos and will be in the mix under new coach John Fox this season. And even Jimmy Clausen, who had one heck of a tough rookie year for the bad Panthers, still led them in all passing categories and gained one valuable season of NFL experience. I wonder, if you really think about this, if the Bills would not be better off with one of these young guys heading into his second season after playing and learning behind Fitzy last year, then they are with the enigma C.J. Spiller and wondering once again exactly how to use him this year?? Now, flash forward to draft time this year a week from Thursday. Just about every QB the Bills could draft seems to be rated better then any of those three from last year. Even if Nix does not decide to draft Gabbert or Newton if either of them are still available at number 3, the Bills would be crazy not to draft one of the other QB's later on to add a real possible QB of the future to play behind Fitzy!

Gee, wasn't Matt Ryan the number one pick in the draft by Atlanta a couple years ago? Why yes, I believe he was. He seems to be working out just fine these days, doesn't he? Yet all the "experts" out here are totally convinced that neither Newton nor Gabbert is worth the number 3 choice for the Bills this year. I don't get it. Ryan seemed to have so many qualities that pointed to him being a success in the NFL, and obviously the experts were right. But he played at Boston College and never came close to leading them to a National Championship, shouldn't that be worth some credit for Newton above and beyond him just being a great "physical speciman"? And how about the level of competition Blaine Gabbert had to face week in and week out playing in the Big 12? Certainly it rated better then the ACC, and doesn't Gabbert deserve some credit for that point as well?? OK, the experts were right about Ryan, and none of them are trying to convince the fans that Newton or Gabbert will be as successful right away. So what? Both Newton and Gabbert have outstanding bodies of work coming into this draft, and if either one is still on the board at number 3, I still think Nix should take the risk!

Great - you and many other fans out here buy the fact they would be satisfied with an "average" NFL quarterback while passing on the chance to draft a new franchise type kid this year. All I can say is that if Nix feels as strongly about not drafting Newton or Gabbert as most of the fans on TSW do, then Von Miller or whoever he drafts with that number 3 pick had better turn out to be at least as good as Newton and Gabbert end up being as pros in the NFL.

I would like to see the Bills starting QB be capable of better numbers then that. The 3,500 yards would be fine, although I would love to see him throw for 4,000 now and then, wouldn't you?? But 15 ints is too many if you expect Fitzy to carry the Bills into the playoffs. If Fitz is the man for the next 5 years or so for the Buffalo Bills, he needs to be able to throw for at least 25 and preferably 30 TD passes per season, and keep his ints. down around 8 - 12, in my humble opinion. Now, if any of you think that's expecting too much from Ryan Fitzpatrick - GOOD! Then that is more proof that the Bills need to use the number 3 pick on a franchise QB, if the Bills feel strongly enough that Newton or Gabbert is their man.

Thank you. I'm a buzzkill creep. I can live with that. Sorry to ruin your "little love fest" over a bunch of millionaires actually getting off their lazy spoiled butts and doing some work together. Sure they are being locked out by the owners, but it was the "players union" that decided not to accept any offers the owners tried to make leading up to the deadline. Then, it was the players who decided to "dissolve" their union and sue the NFL owners first, thus prompting the owners to go ahead and lock them out. Sorry, but I will always blame the players more then the owners. So any thread "praising" them for working out on their own, is a prime target for me.

How can you possibly know that Gabbert is not worth the number 3 pick in the NFL draft, "no matter what the experts say"??? The draft is always nothing more then a big gamble / crap shoot. So many of you think that Blaine Gabbert will simply be a total bust, and not even have a career in the NFL?? What did you think of Joe Flacco a couple years ago? From little Delaware, nice height but never played against top notch competition. He's been the starting QB for the Ravens since day 1, and is getting better every game he plays. The Ravens took him with their first round pick, although not a top 5 pick. But what if the Ravens had the number 3 pick that year, and still drafted Flacco with it? Oh my gosh, the anger and hand wringing from the Ravens fans and the ripping from the "experts" about the Ravens "reaching" so far for that kid from Delaware.....right??? And yet, there he is, the franchise QB of the Baltimore Ravens despite the fact they didn't draft him until their turn at around #17 or so. Hey, for all I know, many Ravens fans may still have been angry Baltimore drafted him that high. They may have complained that he would still have been on the board in the second round....right?? In my humble opinion, if an NFL team thinks it is worth the risk to draft a QB in the first round, then they had better draft him no matter where they pick in that first round! The Jets traded up to get their hands on Sanchez as the number 5 pick a few years ago. He has not become a super star yet, but the kid has led the Jets to nice playoff runs in both of his two seasons as the starter. So fans out here may hate the idea of Nix drafting Gabbert or Newton with the #3 pick. Neither one is "worth" it that high, right?? Sorry, they absolutely are worth it if Nix and company feel they will become the man at QB for the Bills, end of story. There was only one "Tom Brady" - 6th round after thought draft pick by the Pats in the history of the NFL draft. Nobody seriously expects a QB to ever slip through the draft that far to become as good as Brady has. So these days, if you think you can replace a Fitzy with a young franchise QB and he's there on the board when you draft, I say you draft him.

I'm "hating" on these players? So this thread doesn't allow for any constructive criticism flavored with a little healthy sarcasm? That's funny, it seems like every other thread has some. Sorry to hurt your "good" feelings. Oh by the way, why would it excite me that Stevie Johnson thinks Fitz's home is like a big amusement park, and that he would rather stay there then "ever go back to work"? Exactly how hard is Stevie "working" out there, do you think? You hope Fitz ends up being the Bills' "Tom Brady"? Sure, no problem. All he needs is another 3 or 4 inches of height, twice the accuracy in his throws and more arm strength. Not to mention better pocket awareness and the ability to read a defense and cut it to shreds. Any other hopes you'd like to share with us? Maybe you "hope" that Chris Kelsay will end up breaking Bruce Smith's all time Bills' sack record of around 185 or so. Wouldn't that be great, too??

If anyone ever doubted that the NFL is king of all sports, those doubts are shattered now. Thursday evening, April 28th, in prime evening time, the NFL is televising the 1st or 1st and 2nd rounds of the draft. (I'm not even sure if they are including round 2 that Thursday night.) Even here in tiny small market Buffalo, a Thursday evening in late April is filled with sports choices....not to mention all the choices there are in the bigger sports markets! The Sabres could be starting Round 2 of the playoffs that very evening if they ended up beating the Flyers in 7 games! Plus there will most likely be an NBA playoff lineup, other NHL playoff games to watch even if the Sabres get knocked out or are not scheduled to play that night, and plenty of baseball games including the Yankees that could very well be on to watch that night. And yet, now we have the big bad NFL so full of itself and it's self importance, they could care less about any of that competition and are having their draft show knowing that they will most likely out draw all of those other events anyway! To me, this is amazing. 30 years ago there was no television for the draft, and today it's a 3 day prime time "event". And it defies logic. All the networks' annually whine about losing money on televising NFL games, yet they out-bid each other every contract year because they are convinced that they still come out ahead with all the promotion of their own other shows they do. The economy is tanked, and yet the owners and players still refuse to compromise on how to split up billions of dollars a year. Cities, counties and states are all collectively or individually broke, yet they are desperate to keep their NFL teams or to get a new NFL team. There is no money for new football stadiums, yet every NFL team has a new stadium built within the past 10 years, or one that has been re-modeled within the past 10-15 years at least. It seems that no matter what, the NFL continues to do whatever it wants. Talk about being arrogant, and getting away with it! Of course, unless the Sabres do have a playoff game that night, I will be watching the draft myself!

Yeah, good to hear they are working out at MJ's Neverland Ranch minus "the kids." It's really nice to know that they care enough to keep in shape while they refuse to go back to work where they are paid only about 5 thousand times what they could earn in "real life." And it's good to see the owners are refusing to compromise with the players they use to earn them their easy millions to hundreds of millions of dollars owning sports franchises that allow them to act like old rock stars and be revered and loved by hundreds of thousands of fans because they allow their cities to pay them kings' ransoms to keep the teams playing their. Yeah, it's all "good to see.", isn't it?

I have no idea where you found that link with that action figure, but if that were the new home uni's, it would be fine by me. Come on, the Bills' colors are red, white and blue. You cannot screw up a uniform with that traditional all American theme unless you do what the players forced the Bills to allow them to do a few years ago, and that is to wear the dark jerseys with the dark pants. If the Bills allow the players to "punk out" the same way with any type of new uni's, then it won't matter - they will look stupid. But hey, if they are going to allow the players to ruin the new uni's by wearing dark on dark anyway, they should at least make the stripes match up from jersey to pants, unlike the current horrible uniforms, in which the stripes on the jerseys are not even close to being the same width as the stripes on the pants!

Although I would prefer Gabbert or Newton first, Von Miller or Dareus would be fine choices by me. I would however like to see them grab one of the QB's in the second round.

Good job adding in the third choice. It has been proven that almost any starting QB can win a SB with a team that has a dominating defense. It would also help if that team has a dominating running game too. "Hall of Nothing" members such as Jeff Hostetler, Brad Johnson and Trent Dilfer have won SB's with teams that featured great to awesome defenses, and certainly Fitzy could join that meager group if Nix and Wanny could put together such a defense here over the next couple of seasons.

Yeah, and the site also has a pinkish red tone over on the right hand side, wouldn't that be wonderful for the helmets? hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm... I just played it backwards, and I heard the words, "Ralph is the walrus."

Why does the Bills porous run D have to be priority #1? Their porous QB play, TE play and OT play is just as important to try and address in this draft as well. Plus, you are forgetting the fact that Nix invested his second round and third round picks in last year's draft on the defensive line, and, he hired Wanny to help straighten that mess out too! Walter Football's mock above represents a type of draft that most of the posters out here defend with their lives: taking the best athlete available on your board, regardless of position. If Nix thinks Gabbert, Rudolph and Carpenter are the "best players on his board" when he goes to draft them, then nobody should get upset that he passed on Von Miller and the defensive guys........RIGHT??

Of course you are 100% right. However, how many individuals or even groups do you know personally that can afford to own an NFL franchise? I mean someone or at least someone who is part of the group of an NFL team, that you know on a first name basis? I would venture to guess.....NONE, right? Yeah, me either. And out of an average Bills sell out of 73,000 fans not sitting in luxury suites, I would wager that not a single one of those regular fans knows one on a first name basis either! Secondly, there must be at least 5,000 or more college football players every year eligible to be drafted into the NFL. Out of that number, about 270 get drafted, and perhaps another 75 to 100 get signed as un-drafted rookie free agents. Out of that number of rookies on NFL rosters, perhaps 100 of them actually play the average 4 years in the NFL....perhaps even less then that? These people you refer to as needing reality checks really don't need them. They are in the half of one half of one percent of the rest of us out here, and they know it. You can never change their way of looking at their lives. The only thing we fans can do to change this insanity is to stop attending the games, and even more importantly, stop purchasing the products the TV networks advertise during the NFL games, allowing them to pay the owners billions of dollars. And since that's never going to happen, I suggest chill out and don't worry about it. The billionaires and millionaires will take the golden goose out of the oven before they kill it completely. Even they are not that stupid!

If I was Buddy, I would not trade down to get more picks, unless the team I trade with is in the top 10. If that were to happen, I would draft one of the best quarterbacks still on my board no later then the 3rd round, because I still don't think Fitz is my answer long term. If no team in the top 10 wanted to trade up with me, then I would draft either Newton or Gabbert #3, and fill in the rest of my many needs from rounds 2 - 7. As far as my assessment of the team? Well basically it's a 4-12-0 football team that still sucks, so if and when free agency ever starts up this season, I would supplement my draft picks with good solid free agents for my biggest weaknesses right up to the salary cap, less the money we set aside for injuries and other unforeseeable circumstances. As far as getting specific about personnel on the team now and what type of offense and defense the Bills run, I would let Gailey take care of that department, and hopefully supply him with more talent by the time training camp starts....if it does this season at all. Remember, if I'm Buddy Nix I'm in my 70's and I'm using the more tried and true long term 3 - 5 year plan of rebuilding the team. I'm not thinking in terms of trying to go from last place to first place in the division in one season, as a few teams do every year. With my plan, I build mostly through the draft, so my Bills won't be adding the most high profile free agents out there.

The Bills are most likely going to pick ?????? After the past 12 years of drafting since John Butler and A.J. Smith left for San Diego, trying to figure out who this franchise "most likely will pick" in any round of any draft is a complete joke. Now, who I would like them to draft at #3 is either Gabbert or Newton, but I would be thrilled if they drafted any of those top defensive players being predicted in mock drafts they may take: Von Miller, Marcel Dareus, DaQuan Bowers, etc etc.