Ozymandius

Well, I think that signing Reyes would only eliminate the need to draft a second guard in the later rounds of the draft. Drafting a guard in the second round is almost a no-brainer, imo, and Reyes doesn't change that because he's quite ordinary and doesn't runblock well. Reyes is worth a sixth rounder to me.

Gosselin's mock is going to be very accurate, as always, BUT he will miss on the Bills Pick. Because New Orleans is not drafting Leinart. It just doesn't make sense.

I hear ya... if the price is right, sure, why not... sign him up... and I agree that regardless of whether the Bills sign a guard in FA, they should draft one because whoever they sign is probably going to be mediocre.

Reyes really isn't that good. I would still take Davin Joseph or Charles Spencer over him in a heartbeat.

I like what Denver did because this is definitely a "stockpile" draft. Hell, most of the players I really like in this draft will go in the second and third round.

Simon, Sapp, and McFarland all play or played their best at around 300 lbs...

---"I hope you are right that Nall is going to be great. However, I think there is no logical reason which the rest of us can see to assume or even give him much of a chance of being our QB of the future." I never said that Nall is going to be great. I think he'll suck,actually. But I don't consider him a longshot for the job because my reading of things is that he's the hand-picked chosen one of the braintrust. If the race is close, Nall will get the nod. That's all I'm saying. ---"Actually, Cover-2 is all about the coordination between...blah blah" Yes, for any defense, you would like to be solid in all areas. I'm not saying focus on the D-line at the exclusion of other areas. But in Cover 2, the one absolute necessity is getting pressure with your defensive linemen. We need a LDE. ---"I only think this will be true if they make the judgment that he will end the childish inconsistency he showed in college (I think there is actually a good chance of this given he is entering the adult" That's a valid interpretation but I don't see it that way. I don't view inconsistent effort as a product of childish maturity but rather a lack of passion. Some people just aren't passionate about causing full speed collisions of their bodies into other bodies on play after play after play of a football game. And if it's a matter of passion, then it's a HUGE question mark because if you're not going to give it your all every play for your college friends, for your school, then when ARE you going to give it your all? When you've received millions of dollars up front as a top 10 pick? Professional work doesn't typically make kids more passionate, it wears on them. ---"I think there is also the nagging injury issue and I dubt that the doctor's report will allow us to ignore this, however, there is the possibility. Believe me, we have seen a huge difference in the physical condition and injury impacts of players when they move from college to pro. There is simply a world of difference between... blah blah" I'll buy that. Good point. ---"We have seen this time after time in the more obvious situation of recovery from traumatic college injury like WM and Thurman and also conditioning and weight control of someone like Bruce Smith." Those are different situations from the "nagging injury" one. Recovery from a traumatic injury definitely requires a doctor's attention to ensure that ligament or bone that was destroyed has healed properly. Weight control is obviously a different issue as well. But when a player is constantly bothered and slowed by nicks and sprains, then it's a worrisome issue. Like I said, I'll buy that improved nutrition/facilities/strength & conditioning coaches can POSSIBLY help with that. I'm not sure whether it's likely that it will help, though. Some people just have naturally injury prone bodies.

I think the two premier guards in this draft are Davin Joseph and Charles Spencer. Deuce and Jean-Gilles are on the next tier.

Deuce reminds me a bit too much of Fonoti and I'd consider him more a third or fourth round prospect. He's a mauler but not a dancing bear type with very good feet like Charles Spencer. Just my 2 cents.

This is a tough question to answer. I USUALLY would expect contending within three years, but I have such low expectations for this regime, I pretty much already expect them to fail and for everything to be blown up again in five years. Then, if the regime that replaces them is competent, I would go back to my expectation of contending within three years. Therefore, 8 years, to answer your question.

Don't kid yourself. LG is a huge priority. Bennie is fat and stupid. He can maul at the point of attack but he's so bad at everything else it doesn't matter. RG is a priority as well. We can maybe squeeze one more season out of Villarial. Maybe. Guards, guards, guards - not at all "low priority" I can buy that TE is low priority but the reasoning isn't that we have adequate players there. It's more that we have signed a glut of receivers, indicating 4-wide sets, typical for the Rams offense, and a small role for the TE in the passing game. I hardly consider Nall an interesting longshot to start. I think he's actually the favorite and the one the braintrust wants to win the job. JMO. Cover 2 is all about rushing the passer with your 4-man front. DE is a first day priority because Kelsay/Denney are good against the run but not natural pass rushers. It's actually King that will be pushed by Greer. King is our nickelback. He's an excellent cover corner in the slot. Who is Hill? Ugh. Hawk steps right in and is a huge improvement over Posey, who could get cut and might save us money depending on his cap situation. What makes you think Marv has this "face to face, look him in the eye, gobbledygook" trick up his sleeve? How do you know Donahoe didn't employ the same skill in assessing Mike Williams? Is Marv just better at "looking someone in the eye" than Donahoe? What is this about judgements based on his college play being worthless? You said earlier in this post that Ngata had Pro Bowl potential - exactly how did you come to that conclusion if it wasn't his game film? Come again? When a player has a bunch of nagging injuries in college, the odds are pretty good that he'll have a bunch of nagging injuries in the pros, or at least the odds are greater than with a player with a clean history of health. That's not a freaking medical issue, it's common sense. A doctor can't prod and poke at a player to rule out nagging injuries occurring in the future. Doctors don't really come into play here on this durability issue unless they think Ngata is a good candidate to be custom-fit with bionic implants that make him more durable.

I would try to drop down again to the end of the first round and get either another second rounder or multiple picks back. To me, picks 8 to 30 are roughly the same in this draft. It's either you get one of the top 7 guys, or you trade down.

Fair enough. I've seen him play, too, and remain unimpressed. Especially in the last game of his career against Oklahoma where he didn't really do anything before leaving the game due to injury.

Actually, it's the internet scouting reports that are Ngata's best friends. It's why you and everyone else think he's the best DT in the draft because almost every internet scouting report has him as the best DT on the board. You should like scouting reports.

Good point. I agree. I figure they had him mid first round but after the combine, he became a top 7 guy.

I love these two parts: - There are scouts, in fact, who insist he is the most physically talented of the prospects who comprise a fairly impressive class of tackles in the 2006 draft. - "To me," Wroten said, "I'm the best defensive tackle in the draft. That's not bragging -- honest, it's just how I feel. I can't even imagine not being able to play at the next level. So I'm ready to do whatever it takes, on and off the field. People in the NFL have made it clear to me there's no place in the league for [marijuana]. That means if I'm using the stuff, there's no place for me. And I'm not going to let that happen." I have a complete hard-on for this kid. Claude, you're right, you ARE the best DT in this draft. Don't worry about the pot, I'm sure half the league smokes, too. That's what the offseason is for.

Davis was a dominant player in college, though. Nobody could tackle him and he plucked balls in traffic all the time. I contend he only really rose on the internet draft boards. The real scouts already knew about him.

...... Wroten apparently was not only a good listener but also an even better talker, scouts agree. At the combine, Wroten began most interviews by conceding to scouts that, while the incident never went public and didn't draw a suspension, he tested positive for marijuana during his junior season. Then, even more painfully, Wroten, a country kid from Bastrop, La., with zero pretense about him, detailed the events of Jan. 4. That's when Wroten was pulled over for speeding near Sterlington, La., and police discovered a cache of marijuana and $4,000 in his car. Arrested and charged with possession of marijuana and intent to distribute, Wroten spent several hours in the Ouachita Correctional Center before making bail. A month later, prosecutors decided not to pursue the charges because of a lack of evidence and some questions over the legality of the search. The technicalities aside, though, Wroten knew he had the marijuana, although he says it was for personal consumption, and he knew how close he came to having his football career go up in smoke. "You see the red lights [from the police car] in your [rearview] mirror and it's a sickening feeling," recalled Wroten, clocked at 77 mph in a 65 mph zone. "And then you remember the marijuana and it's like, 'Oh, no, man, this is bad.' You know how people say there are times they can see their whole lives flashing in front of them? Well, that's how it was. But I saw the future, too, not just the past. And I knew that the future could be disappearing for me. It's something I'll never forget. [it's] scary, way too scary to ever have happen again." And so Wroten, a two-year starter at LSU after transferring into the Tigers program from Mississippi Delta Community College, has vowed to himself it won't ever happen again. And he's made the same promise to scouts and coaches who have interviewed him. Whether they buy into his story remains to be seen. What has clearly aided his cause, though, is that it's a story Wroten volunteers to repeat every time he meets with a team official. A prototype three-technique tackle, a quick defender who can get through the gaps and penetrate and who uses his hands extremely well, Wroten is an intriguing prospect. There are scouts, in fact, who insist he is the most physically talented of the prospects who comprise a fairly impressive class of tackles in the 2006 draft. They mention him in the same elite subset as Haloti Ngata (Oregon), Brodrick Bunkley (Florida State), John McCargo (North Carolina State), Orien Harris (Miami), Gabe Watson (Michigan) and Rodrique Wright (Texas). With good reason, too, because Wroten possesses undeniable tools and seems to have the kind of natural feel for the game -- including the ability to disengage and narrow his shoulders to allow him to penetrate into the backfield -- that can't be coached. At 295 pounds, he isn't as big as some of the wide-body run stuffers a few teams prefer, but he is stout enough against the run and plays with an attacking attitude when motivated. Right now, with his dreams so close to reality that he said last week he feels like he can "reach out and grab them," Wroten is motivated. He desperately wants a career in the NFL and is moved enough to want to make one more impression on general managers and personnel directors -- and thus, the letter, just to remind them one last time of his resolve. In a league that has the toughest drug-testing program of any pro sport, Wroten figures he's going to be under scrutiny. But he also insisted he's kicked his marijuana habit and is now ready to kick some butt. "To me," Wroten said, "I'm the best defensive tackle in the draft. That's not bragging -- honest, it's just how I feel. I can't even imagine not being able to play at the next level. So I'm ready to do whatever it takes, on and off the field. People in the NFL have made it clear to me there's no place in the league for [marijuana]. That means if I'm using the stuff, there's no place for me. And I'm not going to let that happen."

Since it's an Insider article, let me provide some excerpts. Written by LSU defensive tackle Claude Wroten, the letter arrived in the personnel offices of all 32 NFL teams last week with purposely impeccable timing, as general managers and scouts were about to convene for the final round of evaluation sessions that would help determine the shape of their draft boards. Filled with sincerity and simple, declarative sentences, it is a missive with a message, authored by a young man with concerns for his future and contrition over some elements of his past. And it represented one final visit to the confessional by a highly regarded draft prospect for whom the past two months have principally been an exercise in full disclosure. "My approach has been to put all the cards on the table, spill my guts, just give them all of the details," Wroten said of his past problems with marijuana. "Hide nothing, you know? The whole truth and nothing but the truth, or however they say it. I bring the stuff up before scouts even have a chance to ask about it. I look them right in the eye and tell them everything that happened." The truth may set some people free and it will, on occasion, send many others into a perilous free fall. The honesty of Wroten, it seems, has helped the former LSU star avoid the latter situation. While there remains a chance Wroten will slide out of the first round, depending on how some of the other tackles come off the board in the early stages of the draft, his candor helped guarantee he will not spiral out of the first day. That isn't the case with every draft prospect whose résumé includes character-related issues.

Thanks for the link. Here's basically the same article for Claude Wroten, except instead of laziness, Wroten's problem was pot: http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/draft06/colu..._len&id=2411170 It's an Insider article

I don't think that quote is referring to any of those guys mentioned because none of them is a "bad player". They're talking about some mid round or late round guy who can really run well.

Ralph, Marv, and Dick are old. They're the Golden Boys, like the Golden Girls. In Fake Fat Sunny being the opposite of Real Slim Shady fashion, the technical word opposite of Golden Boys could be considered Pyrite Gal.

Mario, for sure. If DaBrick could dominate in the running, I'd choose him.

It's a good approach. Let me try my hand at it. QB - Middle round - Erik Meyer. He's the only QB I would consider drafting. I consider him to be the second best QB prospect in this draft behind Leinart, and Leinart would obviously require a trade up and ignoring the lines so that's out of the question. I've said before that a middle or late round QB is still a possibility b/c I believe none of the triumvirate of Losman/Nall/Holcomb would be happy as third string, and I believe it's a possibility that we trade the one that will be third string for a 2007 draft pick midway thru training camp to a team that needs a backup or possibly even a starter due to injury. Meyer can then assume the third string role--as a rookie, it'd be a more natural fit. RB - Middle-round guys like Mike Bell (whom the Bills have contacted for a private workout), Jerome Harrison, Leon Washington, Taurean Henderson. Need to be able to catch the ball. But ONLY if we trade down to get more picks. This is a luxury. WR - None TE - Davis (#8), Mercedes Lewis (extra second round pick), or none. Honestly, though, our crazy binge on WRs leads me to believe that TE really isn't going to be featured very much in our passing game. We're going to go 4 WR a lot on passing downs. OT - Ferguson, obviously, if he slips. Justice after a small trade down. I love Daryn Colledge as an LT prospect, late first, early second. OG - 2nd round. Spencer is my favorite. Joseph next. Middle round, I like Tony Palmer a lot, very underrated. C - Mangold, although I believe we think we already have a starter that we signed in FA. DT - I prefer not to draft one early. 2nd round - Love Wroten. McCargo 3rd round - Mahelona, Lewis. Late round - Anthony Montgomery, highly recruited out of high school, underachieved during college, a player Jimmy Johnson would take a change on, boom or bust. DE - 2nd round (if we acquire another one via tradedown) - Mark Anderson, Parys Harlson, natural passrushers. Middle round - love James Wyche as well as the LDE prospect. LB - Nothing until late. S - Middle-round - Danieal Manning, Pat Watkins CB - Nothing until late.

True, but I'm not exactly dying to take that chance at #8 overall, or even after a small trade down. Go ahead and look through the other DT profiles from that website you linked to start this thread. Notice how John McCargo and Jonathan Lewis were given the same grades as Bunkley, with Mahelona not far behind. Wroten is up there as well. See, that's my whole point. I don't want to take an injury risk at #8 overall when this DT class is deep.