Ozymandius

I don't see why it's even a question. If Hardy busts, then we're in trouble and we have to try to find another big WR. It's the same thing that would happen with any other team that has a bust at a position of need. You experience the consequences, and then you try again. Ashton Youboty busts, so you draft Leodis McKelvin.

I would expect McKelvin to be an eventual Pro Bowler, just like I would expect Branden Albert to be one. I also would expect the o-line to provide a good running game for Edwards because if the o-line is again mediocre at running the ball, then I'll feel like they should've drafted Albert. We have a young QB we're trying to groom, and in my mind, we should do as much as possible to make his development as easy as possible. Even if that means making another sizeable investment in the line to go with Dockery/Walker from last offseason. You can never have enough good linemen, and moving Butler to a backup role would've provided instant depth for a team that's perilously thin on the o-line.

Omon is probably the favorite in the Omon/Wright "big back" battle just by the very mere fact that Omon was drafted by the Bills at all. If the Bills were completely happy with Wright, I'm not sure Omon gets drafted.

Well, they did take Fine in the fourth. There's no reason to believe Rucker or Finley are any better.

Well, his hands, for one thing. But yes, he appears to be a good CB prospect if the selection had to be a corner. BTW, zone teams don't zone necessarily because they have bad corners; they zone because they have zone corners, guys who are good in zone and keep the play in front of them, read the QB's eyes, make plays on the ball and deliver hard hits. McKelvin will probably be fine in a zone scheme and I think they'll stick with zone. The 2006 compromise was because it was the first year in the system, I think. If the coaches were that flexible, McGee and Greer would probably have been playing man last season since they seem more suited for that.

The Giants also had dominant lines... Again, it just depends on how you feel about the Bills lines as currently constituted. If you think the lines are outstanding, then yeah, draft whatever.

I don't think anybody said it would be wise to only draft linemen. I even praised the Corner pick in Rnd 4 and many of the other picks, especially Ellis obviously. I just don't believe in first round corners for this franchise with limited resources and a zone scheme, especially a corner that doesn't get INTs.

That's true. But as for "who knows what will happen," I would say it's very unlikely that McKelvin will be re-signed given our previous decisions when a top Bills CB went to the open market (assuming he pans out into a top CB). And that's the problem with your Dallas/SF examples. Those teams were big spenders who had great all-around teams; their lines were superb as well. For a smaller market team like the Bills with limited resources, we almost certainly won't field a team that's dominant across the board, so we have to pick and choose which areas of the team we want to be dominant in. If anyone thinks the Bills o-line and d-line as currently constituted will dominate, then that's fine; go ahead and draft whatever. I happen to think they're only middle of the pack right now (which is still better than the awful that they were), so I wanted to see them continue adding a major piece or two to the lines until they dominate.

Okay, but my guess is historically, there are more playoff teams that have average DBs/secondary but good lines than there are playoff teams with average lines and good DBs/secondary. Your Super Bowl champion Giants are now a classic example of the former. It's all moot anyway. The team that will be enjoying McKelvin's prime years in the league won't be the Bills. If everything goes right, he'll take two years to develop, three years to round into a gamechanger, including one Pro Bowl appearance, and just as he's ready to peak in his prime and become a perennial Pro-Bowler, he'll bolt via free agency. That's if everything goes right and he doesn't bust.

About Omon, I also subscribe to the theory that if a player has a long youtube video, he must have some talent.

I gave it a B. Some of the picks people have an issue with, I actually like. - I like Chris Ellis, as I thought we needed to add a passrush prospect. - Even though Fine is white, he has some upside as he performed well at the combine in quickness drills. He was a team captain and good intangibles guy. - I like Corner because our zone scheme could use some guys with good hands and ball skills. I think Cover 2 teams should use mid-round picks like this for their corners, and I would've been okay even if he were the only corner we drafted. - Omon could be a steal. I like getting players who thoroughly dominated and might be underrated because of weak competition.

Football fans love their white guys with attitude.

Actually, an effective situational pass rusher would be well worth a 3rd round pick. Want to get off the field on 3rd downs? Get a good pass rush. In actuality, Ellis played the run well enough in college (especially backside pursuit) to at least hope that he could one day be a starter even. Except that the Bills picture him as a TE. http://www.buffalobills.com/blog/index.jsp?post_id=3384

Why is everyone saying that we have replenished special teams? Just because you haven't heard of a player or because a pick doesn't make sense to you doesn't mean that the player in question is a great special teams player. I expect slippage in special teams play this year with the FAs we lost. Until proven otherwise, I'm not expecting these late round picks to play just as well as Aiken, Stamer and company.

Most teams keep 3 or 4 tailbacks. Why couldn't he make the team as RB3 or RB4?

STFU. What a stupid thread. I'm going to venture a guess that you probably hold political opinions even though you've never served a day in a public office in your life. If your friends and family have to endure your undoubtedly stupid thoughts on politics, then you can endure people's opinions on the NFL draft here. Oh, and why should only the people who dislike the draft post their qualifications? Technically, anyone who holds ANY opinion on the draft -- positive or negative -- isn't "qualified" to do so.

He was probably BPA on the Bills board and he fits the zone scheme well. Hey, remember when Levy went on the radio last season and told Bills fans that the team was actually getting BETTER corner play last season than in 2006 when we had Nate Clements? That clearly was a bald-faced LIE.

Best pick of the weekend, so far. Ellis can get after the QB -- Matt Ryan can tell you something about that, as he was harassed by Ellis all night long when BC played VT.

I doubt he'll be BPA but even if he were, he does nothing to help Edwards develop and he does nothing to bolster the lines. Everyone is making this more complicated than it really is. The most important task for this organization right now is what? Developing Trent Edwards. You may like Edwards, you may not (I personally am very iffy about him), but it's clear that the Bills like him and that he is the current QB of the future. So it would be good if we can get him some receiving targets to work with so his development will be smoother. A good TE, a #2 WR, both, whatever. Besides the QB position, the two most important units on a football team are o-line and d-line. The LB corps pales in comparison. If you want to win the Super Bowl, you will want to be dominant on the lines. The Bills may have improved from sh-tfest lines to average lines over the past couple of offseasons but that shouldn't be the end goal. Keep building the lines until you can destroy opponents at the point of attack.

Ultimately, the salaries of drafted players are slotted. It's not the rookie contract that will be tough with Rosenhaus. It's the second contract. But if Thomas turns out to be a stud, making negotiations for the second contract tough, then I think we can live with that.

I'll be surprised if the Patriots or Ravens take him and I wouldn't want him for the Bills. McKelvin only had 4 INTs in his college career and even if he can cover, usually you want your top 15 CB picks to have the ability to create turnovers. NFL rules are very slanted towards offense and especially the passing game, so even a good coverage corner will get beat, especially if you don't have a dominant pass rush, which the Bills lack. You want your corners to be able to punch back occasionally with INTs to make up for the times they get beat. And a rookie corner will probably get beat routinely for at least two years.

Uh huh. And some statisticians predict that the city of Baltimore will be one of the nation's leaders in murders this year. So much for murder being "bad." Or perhaps the "experts" are only predicting Thomas at 11 because they know the Bills are willing to reach for a WR, same as they know that Baltimore is a dangerous city? (My point isn't that Thomas is a reach, btw, just that your examples prove nothing).

Both Va Tech players, CB Flowers and DE Ellis will be good players in the league. If available in the second and third round to the Bills, these two should be picked.

Trade or no trade, the Bills first round pick will be Devin Thomas.

LOL