Brandon

I have no idea how accurate this is, but its somewhat interesting at the very least: http://www.newerascouting.com/index.php?c=33&a=103

Thurman also played his entire senior year following the injury. They had game tapes to evaluate his level of post-injury play. Its a completely different situation.

I've never been a fan of them at all, but yes, the ridiculous pre-draft hyping of Ron Dayne is where I jumped off the bandwagon, never to return.

My unofficial 1st round prediction? The Bills will select Lynch at 12. They will then repeat last year's trade up from same 43rd position in R2 into the late 1st. There, they will select either Posluszny or one of the CBs.

I agree on Irons and Pittman. I also like Brandon Jackson and Lorenzo Booker, but I don't think any of them are worth more than a 3rd. In fact, I wouldn't draft a RB after Lynch before R3. Not at all interested in seeing the Bills pick Michael Bush. The injury scares me, but in general, I do not like oversized RBs. They usually just end up being big targets for the defense to tackle.

I can't imagine that he'll be the lead runner, even in a RB by committee approach. While I think its a good re-signing, their interest in Rhodes, Dillon and Brown kind of makes it obvious that he was not their first choice for a veteran RB.

Nope. I'd rather take Lynch at 12 and then trade up from 43 into the late 1st to select a CB or LB, similar to what they did last year.

Someone might also want to tell him that Steven Jackson is listed at 231 by the Rams, not 250.

That may be true, but I would have to ask: according to who? I do know of one draft site that questions his hands, but pretty much everything else indicates that the opposite is true.

While I'd somewhat rather select Lynch at 12, I also think Willis would be an excellent choice at that spot if available. I think he'll go 11th to the 49ers. I have no interest whatsoever in seeing the Bills draft Michael Bush. I have a general disdain (hatred?) of oversized RBs. Toss in his broken leg and I'll definitely pass. If they choose to wait until R2 or 3, there are many other RBs I would rather have. Can't comment on Durant. Hughes will probably turn out to be a pretty good 2nd or 3rd, but I think he'll slip to the 2nd day based on a particularly poor performance at the combine. Still, I would not be upset if he were picked at 93.

I don't think Patrick Willis is even going to be available for the Bills to pick at 12. He's very likely going to go 11th to San Francisco. The 49ers have a need at ILB and should have the chance to select the best MLB prospect in the draft. But there's also another factor to consider. The 49ers coaching staff is in a position to know more about Patrick Willis than any other staff in the NFL. Why? They coached him for a week at the Senior Bowl and his position coach was none other than Mike Singletary, one of the best MLBs in NFL history. They should know better than anyone what kind of player he is. If they believe he's worth a pick in the top half of R1, I'd be very suprised if they pass over him. Of course, it should perhaps raise a few questions if they pass over him at that slot as well.

They are calculated based upon contract values, postseason player awards, and most importantly, net gain/loss of FAs. I don't think we will recieve any, as the signings of Walker and Dockery offset our losses. No one knows the exact formula used except the NFL itself.

And to think, on draft weekend 2004, there were people complaining because we took the smurf amongst all of those tall WRs who were supposedly going to be great.

Evans did have a knee injury in his past, but much like Thurman Thomas, he played another full season of football in college after the injury. The Bills had an entire senior year of game tapes to determine if Evans had recovered or not.

Yeah, but that other guy had actually played some football between the time of his injury and the time the Bills selected him. Huge difference. The Bills knew what they were getting. With McGahee, no one knew what kind of player he'd be after his recovery.

The lesson is to never, never, never draft a RB with a blown knee with the 23rd overall pick or with a 1400 yard back already on the roster.

He was running on a couple of minor ankle sprains this past year. I doubt its anything more than the typical minor injuries RBs inevitably sustain over the course of a season. To my knowledge, he has no history of major injuries. His injury history is detailed here: http://www.nfl.com/draft/profiles/2007/lynch_marshawn

If he was never charged, never arrested, and the prosecutor (a specialist in domestic violence cases, I might add) cited 'grave inconsistencies' in the story of the accuser, can Lynch fairly be accused of having character issues over this? At least in this case, it appears Marshawn Lynch is guilty until he proves himself innocent.

On average, Marshawn Lynch ran against the 53rd ranked run defense in Division 1 last year, with the average Pac-10 team ranked 47th. That doesn't sound too great at first, but by comparison, Tony Hunt, in that great defensive conference known as the Big 10, on average faced a defense ranked 64th last year, with the average Big 10 D he faced ranked 57th against the run. The Pac-10s run D seems to be bad only by reputation.

Lynch's character 'issues' keep coming up because people are parroting what they've read on a draft site without doing any research.

As good as he is, I think 3 picks would be too much to give up for him. I'd rather take Brandon Siler or David Harris in the 2nd and still have the ability to add two more good prospects in the 3rd.

Strictly on an immediate needs basis, I agree completely. I think you can get by with an '06 type draft once every few years, but you can run into trouble if you do it even a couple of years in a row. With the average career of an NFL player being only four or five years, plus the possibility of FA and injuries, you need to constantly be cycling new talent onto both sides of the roster. If not, it can come back to bite you a few years down the road. That's one big reason why we had to sign Dockery and Walker. The Bills made practically no investment of mid-round picks in their OL over the years. We're also now suffering from a lack of mid-round draft investment at RB and to a lesser extent, LB.

This is just my opinion, but Willis McGahee always reminded me of a slightly better version of Antowain Smith.

The suprise won't be the particular position, but that Marv will draft more heavily on the offensive side of the ball than expected. They used 6 of their first 7 picks defensively a year ago, including all of their first 5. There seem to be a lot of fans who expect a similar approach this year, but I don't see that happening. I think we will see the Bills utilize a much more balanced draft strategy this year.

Most: Jim Kelly Least: Doug Flutie