BarleyNY

I'm sorry about your son's medical issues. I hope the Clinic helps him get well soon. They are a fantastic hospital. My son was born there. My daughter was born in their network too. Draft day is not a great movie. It was okay, but one viewing is plenty. Well known trivia alert!: The only reason it is about the Browns and not the Bills is that Cleveland gave the movie studio a better deal than Buffalo did. The original script had the Bills as the team. Just don't make fun of Cleveland or the Browns and you'll have a good time. Lots of good places to go and there should be plenty of parties on draft weekend. Pretty much every bar should have it on. The big Browns sponsored event is free and not far from you at all. http://www.cleveland.com/browns/index.ssf/2017/03/browns_will_host_2017_nfl_draf.html

Thanks. You posed a great question. BB seems like a guy that would willingly take a regular season loss (or even two) to help get himself a playoff win. I was thinking about Bountygate in NO or how the Ravens played for years. It really wouldn't be a much different situation than those: Dial up defenses to hit Brady, tell your players to do it every chance they got and not to worry about flags. If it's close, hit him.

I doubt he'd blitz Brady in order to win that game. Brady is at his best when defenses make decisions easy. He'd pick that apart. BB would lay off of him in a single game and try to control the clock on offense. But if he got to play against Brady a couple of times during the season and again in the playoffs I'd bet he'd punish him. Without Brady the Patriots aren't going anywhere in the playoffs, so he'd do his best to knock him out for that - and he'd even severely "bend" the rules to do it. BB plays the long game when he can.

That's about exactly how I feel. The more intriguing aspect of the situation is what the Bills should be doing to make him successful enough that he earns the deal he wants and sticks around here.

Picking up his 5th year option would not preclude him signing a LTD. He is eligible to sign a LTD now. Players have to complete their 3rd league year before doing so and he's done that. Also of note: the option is guaranteed for injury only and may be rescinded up until the first day of the league year of the option. That's a day in early March 2018 for Watkins. No reason not to pick it up now. As I mentioned earlier, it doesn't make sense to do a LTD for him yet though.

Something wrong with the other Cardale thread?

Don't forget that the troll factor is present here and would've been there too. That doesn't account for the whole 12%, but it's part of it.

Unlike the Jest, I advocate trying to draft a non-Shidty QB prospect. After all, what is the other option? To not even try? That would be idiotic.

To be fair, there's really not much dissent here. "No" votes are under 12%.

I gotta step in with my 2¢. I love the potential of Watkins. It is a no brainer to pick up his option for that reason alone. But it is extraordinarily dangerous to focus on a single stat like yards/target. His success in that regard is notable, but the Bills offense is made for very high yards/target. There's a reason we are discussing whether or not to pick up Watkins' option and not how big of a long term contract to offer him. His total production doesn't match his talent. Injuries - including those he's played through, but was hampered by - are certainly a big part of that. So is scheme. What happens if and when he's targeted more? His body will be asked to deal with more strain and punishment. What then? The one issue that has been my biggest concern with him may be his saving grace, however. His injuries haven't been contact related. Man, that bothers me, but at least he hasn't had issues with hits. Julio Jones had similar foot and soft tissue issues and was able to get right physically. He's been a stud since. If Sammy can do that, then we're in business. If not or, God forbid, he doesn't until after he moves on to another team, then.......well, I think we all know how those stories go. I just don't like how this story is tracking right now. Watkins needs PRODUCTION to get the Bills to give him the big contract he surely wants. Let's game this out, assuming his option is picked up: 2017: - Highly productive, like the 1500 yard seasons JJ & AB each had in one of their 1st four seasons. That gets him a big contract from the Bills before he plays out his option year. - Good season or worse, say 1k yards again or injury plagued. This gets him to his option year. 2018 after the latter: - Highly productive. Gets him franchised, which would lead to a LTD, trade or his departure after 2019. - Good or worse. He's a FA. Outside possibility of tag if he had two good seasons in 2017 and 2018. Watkins will want his money, of course. But he also will want his stats, which would lead to more money. Is he going to get that in Buffalo with the current scheme and QB? That's a tough sell. He's not staying here of his own free will if the next two seasons look like the last two. An excellent 2017 season for him would go a long way toward him staying here, so a lot is riding on that. That's why I'm holding my breath.

Of course I'd pick it up. He certainly possesses talent, but that talent exceeds his production thus far. I'd like to keep him around and find out if he can stay healthy and bring his production into line with his talent. At this time there's no way I'd give him a long term deal, so picking up his option seems the best course of action.

One is assuming that it's a defensive push to get her away and not one that deliberately puts her in harms way. Accidents could, of course, happen in such cases, but every person has the right to defend themselves. Even a woman can do damage to a large man. What if she'd caught him across the cornea with her nail? What if she'd had a small weapon, like a knife? A push that gets her away from him certainly would be reasonable IMO.

I agree. How different would Mixon's life be if he had pushed that girl away and left rather than dropping her with a right and fracturing 4 bones in her face before leaving?

Thanks for posting. Excellent article.

I was born and raised in Cleveland. Lived in Cleveland and Columbus for over 40 years before moving to Buffalo almost 5 years ago. I root for the Browns and the Bills.

I'm embarrassed for you.

So is the Ole Miss offense that had to be simplified for him going to be more or less complex than any NFL offense he will be required to run? I never said he doesn't have any talent. I have acknowledged (in both threads) that he does. It's just that he has a ton of problem areas as well and I've spelled them out pretty clearly. Many of them, individually, would prevent a QB from being successful in the NFL. If he had just one of them he might be able to fix it, but he has a slew of problems and has yet to show the work ethic to improve. Sorry, but he doesn't get to play college teams anymore. Now he gets to go up against the likes of New England, Pittsburgh and Baltimore. You think he'll ever be up to that? I sure don't. And having a segment of Bills fans that think he will because of gaudy college numbers and his family connection clamoring for him to start won't help the team either.

Nooooobody thinks he's a top 10 pick. I wouldn't use a high second on him, but what if he's sitting there in the third? At that point I'm intrigued.

Not a chance. Even without considering his serious medical concerns - or his even more serious character concerns - he's got a lot of issues. His positives are excellent anticipation and a strong arm. His negatives (aside from medical and character) are that he: - had problems learning a college offense that were bad enough that it had to be simplified for him - has poor pocket awareness - has terrible footwork - has poor weight distribution on his throws - is shorter than preferred He'd definitely be draftable if not for the medical and character issues, though. He probably would have been a mid round pick. I pray the Bills don't even take him on as an UDFA though. No way would I want that distraction or ensuing controversy. Can you imagine how some fans and media would clamor for him to see him start/play if he was on the team?

The NFL knows that the 49ers are on the clock. MG to Cleveland is a done deal barring him being run over by a bus or getting caught up in a kiddie porn sting in the next couple weeks.

I can't even imagine how insufferable it would be around here if the Bills somehow acquired Choad Kelly. Inviting the most senselessly heated QB controversy since Tim Tebow was in the league would be grounds for firing Whaley with cause.

My comment was in jest. Those of us who said before last season what everyone is now saying about Rex got hammered for being "negative". That sort of thing doesn't always come across in print though.

Agreed. I could see the Bills jumping up into the bottom of the 1st for him. With QB needy teams at the top of the second round and some teams with aging QBs at the bottom of the first, that'd make sense - with the caveat that they think they could improve his velocity and/or accuracy. I also agree that the Bills aren't really a great fit. Both the weather here and the kind of offense being run. If we are willing to tailor the offense to him and run more of a WCO with him, then that might be a different story. I just don't see him doing well in a vertical offense.

I agree with you in that a QB's ball velocity isn't the be-all-end-all stat. But i disagree on how you're applying that to Watson. His game velocity raises questions IMO. It didn't look like a 49, but it did look marginal for the NFL. Brees is an odd comp to make to say Watson should be a first rounder because he was a second round pick. Also I don't see it as a slight to a QB to say you think he's a top of the second round player. Brees fell to 33 because he was short, lacked velocity and had an injury plagued senior season. I had a young coworker who had just finished at Purdue and came to work with us. His gf was still there for her senior year. She was one of the team's trainers. His back was messed up that season. That certainly affected his throwing his senior season. So how does that compare with Watson? Well, first I'd look at differences. Watson is taller and far more athletic than Brees. But Brees is much, much more accurate. Accuracy would be a concern of mine with Watson even if his velocity was sitting at 55, but combined those two are a killer. The weaker a QB's arm, the more accurate he must be and Watson hasn't shown that he has that accuracy. I'll throw in a caveat to some of this, however. What if Watson isn't quite right physically or there is a correctable mechanical flaw that could be fixed that would improve his velocity and/or accuracy? That's what I don't know. It would probably change my opinion that he's a prospect that deserves to go at the top of the second round though. But from what I've seen so far and what I know, that's where he belongs.

That's not true. QBs time under 55 regularly. Of the 8 that were timed at the Combine this year, 3 were under 55. Kaaya and Peterman were clocked at 53. Watson's low velocity of 49 is rarely seen though. That's the rarity you're thinking of. There have been some players you've never heard of clock lower, but the last notable QBs that threw at 49 were Mike Glennon and AJ McCarron. Notably, AJ wasn't timed at the Combine and it was adjusted to 53 though I'm not sure why. Here's a link to a spreadsheet that includes this data: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1_-SienfT3umX0HKxRyQqyXM9BqHrotdcQA6W-V_pDiY/htmlview?pli=1#