silvermike

You know what? I've seen scantily clad women before, and I'll see them again - and SI isn't the only place to do it. I'll take the public humiliation of Tom Brady on the SI Cover any day.

Well, of course not, but that's true of everyone else as well. And besides - it's 2002. Ray Lewis isn't there to draft. Neither is Kelly Gregg, Haloti Ngata, etc. You've got the guys on the board. I think you're better off with Ed Reed working behind a less-stellar front seven then drafting mid-range talent up front and hoping that it works out. That's how teams burn top picks on Wendall Bryant or Ryan Sims.

If you redid the 2002 draft, which five players would you take over Reed? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_NFL_Draft Peppers, McKinnie, Freeney?

Gray survived one houseclearing in Buffalo - Mularkey kept him; Gregg hired him. I do miss Fewell, but nobody's been interested in Gray as a coordinator since we ditched him. He's a college DBs coach now, not even a coordinator!

Ha - I didn't actually look up his draft class. But in general, I think Barry would be worth the #1 pick most years - there are, at least, RBs who would have been worth a lofty draft position. OJ, say, was well worth the #1pick even if there were very good linemen out there (Mean Joe Greene, say.)

Troy Polamalu would have been worth a top-5 pick. He's the extremely rare safety who disrupts an offense as much as a bigtime passrusher. But I think identifying a player of that caliber is so rare, as a practical matter, drafting safeties that high is not a good idea. Several other positions fall into this category - RBs aren't worth top picks usually, but of course Barry Sanders should have gone #1 overall, etc. ANd of course, it depends who you have already, and who else is on the board. This year is a pretty dry draft for OTs and QBs. That opens up options at WR or CB that aren't normally there.

Look at how many players go bankrupt without a lockout going on. Missing game checks is going to be too much for too many players to bear, and they'll settle. I think their only real shot is decertifying the union and seeing what they can get in court.

The Bills need guys who run good routes, get open over the middle, and hold on the ball reliably - whether they're WRs or TEs doesn't really concern me much. The problem is - hopefully was - that the team kept going after small, speedy guys who could only catch JP Losman's bombs.

I'm aboard on Clabo. I"ll have to see him this weekend, but if he lives up to reputation, he could be a big-money deal. Maybe cut Stroud if necessary.

For some reason, this strikes me as hilarious

I think there could be a large-scale QB slide in the first round. However, that might set us up in strong position to trade away #34 once somebody drops out of the first round. Glancing at last year's draft trades, if we're willing to slide 10 picks or so, we could net an extra third round pick there. Arizona (38), Tennessee (39), Washington (41) and Minnesota (43) might be interested in that pick to leap frog one another to go after a slipping Mallet, or Locker, or however it plays out, if they all remained too gunshy to bite in the first round.

It's early for Wang, and Brad Butler worked out pretty well as a late-round pick, until he decided he was done.

This year, it's definitely going to be tough to trade out of #3. But I think it's hard to believe that the Bills have had no willing trade partners, for any of their picks, for ten years. You can trade down in the 2nd and 3rd rounds too, you know. Or later. Take a look at the trades in just last year's draft: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_NFL_Draft#Trades Over 150 picks traded hands, including several picks traded more than once. Granted, some of these were for players, but the Bills still are entirely absent from that market before the 6th round.

He's done okay as a coordinator before, but I don't know if he's ever really been thought of as a great one. It won't be an exciting pick for the Browns, but he could probably get them to be a top-third defense at some points of his tenure. Nothing remarkable should be expected.

Eh - Roy Williams is Lee Evans will less performance and more baggage. I'd rather see the Bills either bring in a likely superstar like AJ Green or preferably, continue to develop David Nelson.

I'm never sure, but I think our best front there would be Williams-Troup-Fairley. It'd be an aggressive front, with neither end really playing 5 technique and instead shooting gaps. You'd need an LB on the strong side willing to close off a rushing lane - probably a job for Kelsay. Probably a job for someone better than Kelsay. Merriman could blitz. That'd be an excellent four man rush, though you'd really need Poz to show some ability to cover tight ends.

Fox was a botched kickoff away from knocking off the Pats and getting a ring, plus he nearly took the team back to the Super Bowl in 2005. This year was a disaster, but he's been a successful coach up to this point. I wish we had had his track record in Carolina up to this point. He did more than Shannahan/McDaniels in the same time frame.

Quinn

I don't think that he would have made the trip to Buffalo in January if he wasn't at least willing to consider working on the staff with George Edwards still aboard. I can't imagine Chan misled him; they're friends.

Also, drafting a bust QB with the #3 pick sets your team back 5 years. Drafting a bust QB in the second round is just a disappointment.

Getting a 22-year old Drew Bledsoe in the second round is a steal. He was frustrating as an old man in Buffalo, but in New England, he won two AFC championship games, and otherwise had a very good career. 3 4000 yard seasons is nothing to sneeze at. 2nd round QBs are usually much, MUCH worse than ol' Drew: Brian Brohm, Chad Henne, Pat White, etc.

Autism-vaccines is totally wrong, but at least it sort of resembles science. I have no idea why people believe it despite the complete lack of evidence and the mounting piles refuting it, but I mean, "there is a chemical that makes you sick in this product" is at least the kind of thing that exists in other contexts. Homeopathy is the stupidest crock of crap in the world, and I've watched the Bills roster management for 20 years. You're supposed to take your 'medicine' and then dilute it to one part in 100, 30 times. So, that's 1:100^30, or 1 part in 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. Or, if you'd like, one molecule in a volume of water 1,000,000,000,000,000 times the size of all the world's oceans.

There's a middle ground between statue QBs and running QBs that many great dropback passers occupy - Brady and Manning especially. They won't spring for 12 yards, but they have a great ability to feel pressure and take the step forward or to the side in the pocket that buys them just enough time to make a throw. Bledsoe never had that ability. I don't know if it's in the legs or in the brains, but I think it's necessary to any QB who we draft.

The Bills belong in the playoffs when they can beat the Patriots. It's not an impossible task - a whole lot of teams have done it since the Bills last did, including the Jets and Dolphins multiple times, the Browns, etc. It's time.

Note that Gailey was Wanny's offensive coordinator for a little while in Miami. He was Miami's defensive coordinator for one season, 1999, when the team was 5th in yards but 19th in points. While he was their head coach, their defense was in the top 10 every year in both categories (except one season when they were 11th). His tenure in Dallas was fairly middle-of-the-road, except for one season in the top 5.