Ozymandius

It's not like they didn't franchise him at all. While character is good, I don't see how that comes into play here unless you're saying that Nate is a person of low character. Bottom line is do you like first round draft picks or not? If Nate doesn't re-sign AND we don't get a high 2007 pick out of it, then this will have been a huge mistake. We're just throwing away talent at this point.

I'm not even going to hold out hope that Clements will be signed. He has all the leverage now. Oh well. Youboty-Whitner-Simpson-McGee, King (slot/nickel), 2007 draft pick (dime) is our secondary for 2007.

I agree. This sucks. The Bills have apparently decided that getting Nate into camp two months early for the 2006 season is more valuable than a first or second round draft pick in the 2007 draft. Once again, I have to question whether this administration understands the VALUE (there's that hated word again) of extra draft picks.

Well, here's the thing. There are no good free agents left to sign (and there hasn't been for awhile) so we're going to end up with excess cap space anyway. There's no reason for us to cut Posey because there's no reason for us to create cap space until next season.

That'd be fine by me if he can be a good LT that eliminates speed rushers without help. If we don't move Peters to LT, then eventually we'd have to pay Mike Gandy LT money. Good players get paid eventually and it's better to have them and pay them than to not have them at all.

Why do people get so worked up by a sportswriter's opinion? Happy Cinco de Mayo.

I agree there. In this offseason, the Bills signed a right tackle in Gibson and drafted two right tackle prospects in Butler and Pennington. Hmmm.

Belichick didn't really say anything profound, I think. He just said that during a draft, a team should achieve a balance between where a player is rated on the board and how he fills a need. The Giants may have already had LT and Van Pelt, but you play with three linebackers on the field, not two, so Banks filled a semi-need as well and is worth taking over another player that is significantly lower rated but fills a more obvious need. That's all he's saying, and I think we all knew that already.

I agree. What's strange is that McNally clearly likes or at least doesn't mind the fat drive-blocking type (Bennie, Gibson, Merz) but his likely starting lineup will be filled only with seal/position types.

True, Jersey is scary. Not all that impressed with the Hurricanes though.

Looking at the teams remaining in the playoffs, this series is arguably the real Stanley Cup Finals.

Besides height and weight, I think you have to take into account leg strength, previous experience, and player type/mentality. Kyle Williams owns the squat record at LSU and can probably anchor better than McCargo, he played more of the 1 in college while Wroten played the 3, and he is a high motor, slapfest guy that would enjoy taking on double teams. That's why he's more of a 1 than McCargo, who is more the type that likes to shoot gaps. I don't doubt that McCargo COULD play the 1 if Anderson or Kyle get injured, but the Bills clearly want to stick to a defensive rotation and, at least at this point in time, they have targetted McCargo for the 3 behind Trips and Kyle/Timmay at the 1. That could change once they get into training camp and the coaches get a closer look...

For a good defense / bad offense team like the Bears, punting from the opponent's 40 yard line is actually the better option because odds are, they'll get the ball right back in good field position, and you have to weigh the fact that the Bears offense likely won't convert the 4th down. It all depends on what kind of team you have. A great offense / bad defense team should go for it more often than not.

Those 8-8 predictions are completely unrealistic. People either don't understand that we're rebuilding, or they don't understand how long rebuilding takes. Guys, the new regime opted to blow things up and start over. They weren't trying to build off of what TD and MM had left behind at all. They got rid of guys like Adams and Milloy and Moulds in favor of their own hand-picked youngsters, and it will take time for these guys to get up to speed. Consider that Tony Dungy was one of the pioneers of the Cover 2, no? And yet it took him forever to build the Colts defense up to a respectable level. Now all of a sudden when we're building a defense, the pupil of the pupil of his pupil is going to have an effective Cover 2 defense in place after a summer of work? Please. One thing Marv and Jauron and the rest won't tell you is how much we're going to suck this year. They can't tell us that but they know. They have to know. It's up to us to figure these things out on our own and cut them some slack when we do go 4-12 or maybe worse. What's funny about this whole situation is while I'm ripping the draft now, during the season I'm going to end up defending our rookies and Marv and Dick from the rantings of you "positive" fans who will end up placing unrealistic expecations on this team and then turning on them when those expectations aren't met. These guys are just rookies. They're going to bad their first year. We're installing a new offense and defense. The team is going to be bad this first year. The sooner you people understand that, the less of a backlash there will be during the season. We're going to be 4-12 this year, 6-10 the next, and if Marv and company draft and manage personnel well, then we'll make the leap to 9-7/10-6 in 2008 and hopefully begin a new period of consistently fielding winners.

Thanks, I had known he was an immigrant but didn't know how long ago he came over.

Martin Nance and Ryan Neill will both likely make the team. Nance because he's talented and Neill because we're quite deficient at DE and because he can long-snap. If we pick up one of the better UDFA RBs, he can make it as well.

I think both Whitner and Youboty are well-spoken kids. For some reason I pictured Youboty with an African accent but that couldn't further from the truth.

She's arguably a butterface. I know some guys dig it but I think she's ugly in the face. She has skills though and is a good download.

Yeah, I heard Scott Hamilton and Richard Simmons told her to take a hike as well.

"Ashley" is the kind of player that Tom Brady likes to turn around...

I want to hear from Aaron Merz

There's nobody left to add and that was true weeks ago... We'll see what pops out June 1, but it's likely nothing as well

Agreed. I like Fowler. I don't know about that. No matter what, one thing MW could do was driveblock. Reyes needs to show that he can be useful in the running game. I bet Thomas gets cut if we signed either UDFA Mike Bell or Derrick Ross, two players we showed a lot of interest in pre-draft.

Not to mention the Giants taking McCargo is more hearsay along the lines of the Ravens taking Whitner... I don't think McCargo was a reach, though. Any team that prefers small and quick along their defensive line probably had McCargo as a first round prospect.

If Peter King is right... here's an alternative draft for the Bills... 1. Donte Whitner 1. John McCargo 2. Charles Spencer / Claude Wroten / Darryl Tapp (take your pick with Denver's 2nd) 3. Ashton Youboty 4. Ko Simpson 4. Kyle Williams / Anthony Montgomery (Denver's 4th is just a few picks before 5th round... personally I would've taken Montgomery over Kyle b/c of higher upside, but Kyle has that leadership quality and character that we respect, and the Bills need one high motor white guy in every draft...) 5. Ryan O'Callaghan (gets push in the running game instead of low upside, cheapshot Butler) 5. Mark Anderson (need pass rushing prospect) 6. Keith Ellison 7. Rodrique Wright / Erik Meyer (seventh rounder is used for taking flyers on high upside) 7. Charlton Keith (need a pass rushing prospect, high upside) This would be an A+ draft. If Peter King is right, we should've taken that trade with Denver.