hondo in seattle

Good research. The Nawrocki comments deserved a response.

6 picks with positive grades. 6 with negative grades. The rest received a neutral grade. Seems like the success rate of the FO is mediocre - not great, not terrible.

We started the year with nada. Then we signed two of the better, most experienced FA QBs available (not wasting draft picks in a bad trade). Presumably we'll now draft one of the better college QBs available. When it's all said and done, we still may have nothing. But at least OBD is making a concerted effort. I voted "yes."

At one point earlier this year we had ZERO QBs under contract. That was scary. Now we have two former NFL starters as well as Aaron Corp. Jackson was signed for one year and Kolb for two. Clearly Buddy is looking for band aids to get us through the next year or so while he searches for a franchise QB in the draft. Kolb and Jackson are not great but none of our options were. Altogether, I'm much happier with our QB situation than I was a couple months ago. Kolb + Jackson + Rookie... it could have been much worse. Arguably, it was worse last year.

+1 Starting the season with Jackson and Corp would be frightening. Adding a rookie to the mix is still very concerning. Bringing Kolb in to battle it out with TJax in case the rookie is slow to adapt to the NFL (if he ever does) makes sense to me. Seattle last year signed Flynn but still drafted Wilson. When you are in dire need of a QB, you look high and low.

Great post: intelligently speculative rather than screamingly idiotically dogmatic. It would be interesting to hang out with Pettine and his assistants to see how they're planning to use Scott, Andersen, Williams, etc. He has some tweeners and versatile players he can move around. Not knowing his plans - but expecting he'll do a better job of putting guys in a position to make plays than Wanny - I'm also not convinced we're as weak at LB as some others. Time will tell.

According to NFL.com, a former NFL scout named Daniel Jeremiah tweeted this: "Here are the QB matches I hear most often from NFL sources: Bills-Geno, AZ-Glennon, JAX-Nassib, PHI-Manuel…for what it's worth. Jeremiah also said he'd be "surprised" if Matt Scott escapes the third round. Several teams are buzzing around the Arizona prospect." http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap1000000154843/article/jeremiah-eagles-focused-on-florida-qb-ej-manuel?campaign=Twitter_atl

We as fans will always second guess our GMs and coaches. It's part of the fun of being of being a fan. But the idea that we have posters who could be better GMs than Buddy is amusingly ridiculous. Lots & lots of jobs appear easy when looking in from the outside. But even guys who devote countless hours to this stuff like Kiper and McShay are not being offered GM jobs. Matt Millen, who seemed to know a lot about football, was a far worse GM than Nix. If the average fan was made GM, chaos would ensue. Scouts and other staff would quit because they'd rather go work for someone competent. Draft boards would be a joke. Other GMs would be calling to make poor-value offers to see if we were gullible enough to make the deal. And sometimes we would. I'm not a Buddy apologist. I see no evidence so far to suggest that Buddy is above-average NFL GM. But I think some people here are overestimating their own abilities or underestimating the professional expertize involved in the NFL personnel field. If we fired Nix to replace him with a better GM, I'd be thrilled. If we fired Nix to replace him with someone on this board, I'd be suicidally despondent. I'm sure we're all good in our own fields of expertise. Football personnel is Buddy's field of professional expertise, not ours. He's not an idiot. He's just not as smart as many other NFL GMs.

There isn't any guarantees that the QB we hypothetically take at #8 will be an NFL star either. But where are the odds better? At the QB position or some other? First round QBs only become good starters about half the time. Other positions are safer bets in the first round. It's easier to project how a guard, for example, will play in the NFL than a QB. Making this draft more problematic for the Bills, it's widely considered to be a weak QB class. Maybe none of the top QBs deserve to go in the 1 round (though some will). And maybe none of these QBs turn out to be solid starters. While I understand the sense of urgency many feel regarding the QB position, I'm not convinced it's a good move to roll the dice with a QB at #8. I understand why the OP suggest that it might be better to wait for our 2nd pick. The QBs available there might be as likely to succeed in the NFL as any available at #8.

Nix is definitely not an idiot, nor are our regional scouts. Any personnel man at OBD knows far, far more about player evaluation than 99.99% of the people posting here. Saying "Nix is an idiot" might make the ego feel good. But the truth is that the people making such assertions are more idiotic about the NFL than Nix. Nix, Whaley and our scouts are experts at their jobs. However, the issue isn't whether Nix is an idiot or not. The real issue is whether or not he's more competent than 31 other GM's. Or even better than half of them. And, so far, there are valid reasons to questions this. Let's see if better coaching makes our draft picks and FA acquisitions look better.

Even 1st round QBs have a fairly low probability of success in the NFL - in the neighborhood of 50%. I'm all in favor of tilting the odds in our favor by taking two.

Meaningless article. As fans, we only have to learn a few new names each year. Marrone has to learn literally hundreds: all the players, everyone else that works on OBD, not to mention all the college kids the scouts are talking about. I'm sure this isn't the first time he screwed up a name. Means nothing.

Any good prospects in the LFL?

I remember Peter King criticizing us for hiring Nix as GM when there were some sharp, young, up-and-coming personnel guys like Whaley who better deserved the opportunity. Then we hired Whaley and ended up with the best of both worlds (young & old). Apparently, King likes and respects Whaley. And that's about the sum total I know about Whaley. I don't how we fans can evaluate a #2 guy. We don't know which decisions are his and which were made against his recommendations.

Incidentally, NFL.com has Geno Smith as the only QB rated higher than Dysert. He's not flying under everyone's radar. http://www.nfl.com/d...sition-input:qb Though CBS Sports has probably a more mainstream view of him, projecting him to go in the 5th with this assessment: STRENGTHS: Looks the part of an NFL quarterback. Possesses broad-shoulders and a strong frame, overall. Possesses an efficient, over-the-top release and good accuracy on in-cutting routes. Generally steps into his throws and flashes impressive accuracy when throwing on the move (typically rolls to his right). Good touch, especially on intermediate and deeper passes. Stands strong in the pocket to exhaust his throwing options. Is a good overall athlete who isn't afraid to take off and run with the ball. While not particularly elusive or fast, Dysert is more athletic than he looks and is a determined runner who knows where he has to go to keep the chains moving. Good intangibles for the position. Didn't seem fazed by hostile environments (Ohio State, Boise State) and is the first three-time captain in Miami history. WEAKNESSES: Played out of a shotgun-heavy offense in 2012 that simplified his reads and made the vast majority of his throws underneath tosses that simply don't translate to the NFL. Rarely asked to drive the ball down the field and may not possess the velocity to slip balls through tight windows. Highly inconsistent accuracy on the move, often forcing his receivers to adjust their routes. COMPARES TO: Josh McCown, QB, Chicago Bears -- Just like McCown, Dysert possesses enough natural talent to potentially warrant a top 100 selection, but he's a work in progress who has shown just average accuracy on the types of throws he'll be asked to make in the NFL. http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/draft/players/1631626/zac-dysert

Maybe my standards have lowered after all these years of losing but if we picked Barkley and he was only great for us, I'd be okay with that.

Our options for who will line up under center this season. TJax Aaron Corp Rookie we haven't drafted yet. Matt Hasselbeck Despite the anomaly of last year, rookie QBs - even highly regarded ones - often perform miserably in the NFL. Given that - and given our options - I wouldn't mind signing Hasselback to see in training camp what he might have left.

I have a higher opinion of DJ as a coach than many others. With Perry Fewell as DC and Bobby April as ST coach, the Bills had a good coaching staff mostly. They just needed an OC. That and some players with talent. I judge a HC not by his W-L record but what he did with the talent he did have. I can't honestly say DJ's teams played over their heads, but they didn't under-perform either. He just didn't have enough to work with. That roster looked like a 7-9 roster. Chan Gailey certainly couldn't do anything more with those players than DJ did. I think DJ had a good rapport with his team and was solid with X's and O's. Then again, I agree with all those who criticize his it's-hard-to-win-in-the-NFL attitude and couldn't complain when he was finally fired.

I live in Seattle and some Seahawks fans tell me that Jackson played credibly well in his one year here given that he was injured (shoulder, ribs). One used the word "courageous." They say his stats would have been better if he had been healthy. Even so, Seattle fans are obviously happy they ended up with Wilson under center rather than TJax. TJax isn't the answer but he might be a serviceable caretaker until we find a franchise QB.

I think they went after Manny Lawson fast & early because they thought he was by far the best fit for Pettine's defense. I'm guessing that at other positions, they don't feel like there's a huge difference between their #1, #2 and #3 choices. So they'll wait to the market cools off and then look for players at reasonable prices.

Pettine likes to creative on defense. He might have a role for a tweener like Scott.

I went to the bottom of the TBD home page and selected "Last" and was surprised by how far back it went. Some of the headlines on that oldest page read like they come from some manuscript just discovered in an archaeological ruin: Hobert hopes to change luck [1:12 PM] AP reports: "Hobert, a journeyman who was with Oakland and Buffalo, was cut by the Bills when he admitted after a loss that he hadn't studied the playbook." But some things never change... Area business leaders will keep backing Bills [1:08 PM] D & C reports: "A year ago, a committee of influential Buffalo businessmen teamed up to help keep the Buffalo Bills in Western New York." Both stories are from June 17, 1999. Nothing earth-shaking here but I was amused and thought others might be too.

The franchise tag is expected, but welcome, news. The Bills already lost McGee, Kelsay, Wilson and Barnett. Whatever we thought of these guys, they played a lot of snaps because they were better than the next guy down the depth chart. I like Pettine as DC but I don't know he has enough to work with. It would have sucked to lose both our starting safeties and 3 of 4 of our starting defensive backfield.

So let me try to understand... You actually think a Bills coach who does this work professionally and full-time knows more about NFL personnel than we TBD posters? Hmm. That's a difficult concept for me to digest.

When did the Bills ever announce that they were turning the keys over to Whaley after the draft??? This has been assumed by some. It may have even been hinted at. But it has never been stated officially and definitively. In fact, Nix says he's staying around for a while yet more. I'm glad Whaley isn't getting so impatient that he's looking at other opportunities.