Lori

TW is putting some serious effort into SportsNet. Had a chance to chat with Steve Arvan at the Joyce Symposium last Tuesday, and came away really impressed with the guy. I also tried to talk him into putting some of their programming online, but he's dead set against doing that, and I have to agree with his logic. He feels that his responsibility is to TWC subscribers, and why should they give that valuable content away for free? (A lesson that newspapers learned far too late, or not at all, unfortunately ...) Makes sense for them, but too bad for us. BTW -- Bob Brinson, or Jim?

Never can have too many DBs ... http://www.nfl.com/draft/2009/profiles/cary-harris?id=80646

Actually, I believe the unofficial TBD Stylebook cites "Friggin' Lonnie Johnson" as the correct usage. Think either Harv (albany, n.y.) or Petrino came up with that one ... but damn, that was a long time ago.

How do you know we don't have a good scheme for TEs, when we haven't had one worth a damn in close to 20 years? (Sorry, Rearsmegma [cq]. You weren't THAT good.)

Hah. True enough ...

If Peters is happy and motivated, sure, but I don't think the Bills believed they were ever going to see that player again. I won't get into assigning blame; Lord knows we've already beaten that topic so far into the ground that we're halfway to China. But for me, the trade is easier to accept knowing that they seem to have done all right with the picks they received.

Not the entire column, no. ESPN has a lot more money to hire lawyers than we do. But if there's a reasonable excerpt (say, a couple of paragraphs), that's fine. Add: that works for me, Sphere.

That's a heck of a story. Makes you want to root for the kid.

True ... but hopefully they'll all be in training camp, and the coaching staff can settle on a lineup early enough to get them a lot of work together. Still not sure I'm looking forward to Opening Day in Foxborough with this line, but at least there appears to be some talent to work with. Stop that.

http://www.nfl.com/draft/2009/profiles/nic-harris?id=71323 6-2, 234 -- enough size for a Tampa-2 weakside 'backer.

So ... how's Peters for Wood and Shawn Nelson sound?

Exactly.

Guess you'll have to ask the three people who graded it as an F in the poll bouncing around here. (Shrugs shoulders.) No, I wasn't one of them. To each their own, I guess ...

Pick 28? You had a problem with the Wood selection?

From Sully: "Jairus Byrd, the second-round pick, will be given a shot at the starting free safety job. That means Donte Whitner stays at strong safety. They're high on Byrd's ballhawking skills."

Get used to hearing, "No. 66 is reporting as an eligible receiver"?

Yup. Still need at least one more starting-quality LB, in my opinion. (Maybin isn't it unless they go to a hybrid 3-4, and I don't see that happening.)

Well, those plans may have just changed. Guess we'll see.

So, basically, we have Wood, Levitre, and next year's conditional pick in return for trading Peters. That's not bad, either.

I said a little mockery, but fair enough. Can't expect us to totally drop the first-day-DB wisecracks, though ...

So the Bills WEREN'T permanently banned from drafting o-linemen on the first day after the Mike Williams fiasco? Who knew? B from me, with room to move in either direction if a.) Maybin doesn't live up to the hype or b.) Byrd becomes a solid starter at S. The draft is still a crapshoot, of course -- but right now, there's not much to dislike about the Wood or Levitre selections.

http://www.nfl.com/combine/profiles/andy-levitre?id=71363 I know you were really stoked about this guy, Bill. Three out of four picks on the lines? McKinney might not make it out of training camp.

I like Maybin a lot, but even I thought he should have stayed in school for another year. (Obviously, since he went in the top half of Round 1, he's probably glad he didn't listen to people like me.)

Who's panicking? Wood at G (where he played in the Senior Bowl) might end up being the right call. Another first-day DB, on the other hand ... unless he ends up being the next Ed Reed, that one's worth a little mockery.