Matt in KC

I don't think he can see your question...

That was so clever! If I thought they had been systematically oppressed and nearly eradicated I might pay attention. Would anyone argue that native americans were not treated deplorably by the US goverment over the centuries? I think the least we should do it err on the side of sensitivity at this point.

At this point Troupe has been like four draft picks for us. That has to be one of the best draft values of all time! You both argue against a true 34 NT and explain why thy are so valuable. While we have other glaring holes, of course we could use a player that could play that role. I think we can cover up by changing our defensive fronts and schemes a lot, but adding that tool would give us even more flexibility. (sidenote: We haven't even acquired a new NT, and I'm already calling him a tool!)

What on Earth makes you think no one has been offended until now? In general, do you think not oppressing people or avoiding racial epithets is utter PC garbage? Why do you think it's important to use the name if many people are offended by it?

$5 Million per year sounds too high for what I've seen from Mckelvin so far. But, I'm replying to "TheZone78" because he's exactly right, a tweet of $20M over 4 years doesn't tell us enough... and may not be accurate at all. Everyone seems to agree McKelvin has the "tools"; now I'm intersted to see if he can master the mental part of the game, including looking for the ball at the right times. I'd be fine with him getting $3M first year, then $3.5M, $4.5M, $6.5M with a $2M signing bonus, and some of that salary tied to playing time.

What smells is the Raiders organization. I watched him play a bit last year and he looks like a real "gamer" to me. I'd love to have him on the team.

They were just waiting for the "Bills not really interested in Levitre" article to come out to send a message to the rest of the league that maybe he isn't as good as they might think. Now they can make a reasonable offer and maybe other teams won't offer as much.

I'm not sure how anyone could give Levitre less than "Good" given it's the top rating. I might have had to think about it if it had gone up to "top 5" or "worthy of pro bowl". It will be very interesting to see how our o-line looks this year with a new offense and coaches. While I really want Levitre to stay because of his talent, continuity etc., I also would love to see how all the same players perform in a different scheme to evaluate the coaches.

That's what we need in Buffalo, a QB we still like watching when we're down by 20 points! I think you just nailed Russ Brandon's input to the drafting process...

That was an athletic move avoiding knocking over the tripod. They should consider adding a drill like that for anyone who will be rushing a punter....

FWIW - At this point I find this much more interesting than reading, or trying to to articulate, just how stupid DaQuan Bowers was....

I'd recommend multi-tasking!

They moved up into the end of the first round and picked up Nick Mangold! ...er..oh wait, no, that was what I was thinking, not the Bills.... <Edited because I am Losing my mind...!>

I agree. I think it's a sliding scale: There is such a steep drop off of talent near the top of the draft you have to grab the best talent, mostly ignoring need. Top 10 is not a place to take a big risk or grab a second round player. (Though of course figuring out who is really a first or second round talent is a challenge.) For your last picks, of course you want talent, but it's more about finding anyone that can, or might, make a position stronger on your team, this year or next. Why would you pick a 5th RB you rate a 45 instead of a safety you have rated a 44 that could play some ST and keep you from needing to find a FA safety to back up reasonable starters?

So, your plan is to find the most any team would pay, then hope that team (or another) would give up that much plus a first round pick? I don't think that's going to happen. playing along, the only way I see something like that happening is if a contender loses its starting LG after the draft when they can't adequately fix the problem another way (and neither can we). As I've posted before in the long Levitre thread, I'd be fine overpaying Levitre to ensure Glenn and our new young QB develops appropriately. Those two positions, and the associates time and $$, are too much to risk. But ultimately it's up to AL to choose his new team, and my piont only holds if the coaches aren't already looking to upend our O-line (more likely through style of play than personnel).

Ah! Thanks for responding. I don't remember that at all!

I also expect around a 4 win season this year. A new (and probably young) QB, new coaches and new defense are going to be hard to get performing smoothly until the second hald of the season. I always seem to get swept up in draft optimism and training camp hype and raise my expectations by a game or two. So I bet I'll land at a 5-6 win expectation going into the season. Frankly, I'd be fine with this if it reflects us gettng comfortable and starting to click on O and D by the end of the year. Losing can be hard to diagnose, but winning isn't. To win consistently, everything needs to be working: all levels of coaching, preparation, player performance. I'm not sure where we'll break down, but don't think it's realistic to think we'll have everything worked out and running at a level that can compete with established winning teams until going through several game cycles.

Was Ryan Neufeld considered at TE? I think taking up a roster spot for five years and only recording 13 catches deserves some recognition. (He started 7 games over three different years.) Euhus had 14 catches, but only took up a roster spot for two years.

Okay, after searching awhile, I found it at NFL.com: McGee's kick return starts at the :40 mark:http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-game-highlights/09000d5d8003b705/Saints-19-Bills-7 Sadly, this play is a decent microcosm of his time with the bills. (I can't remember if he got hurt at the end of the play.)

McGee is my favorite Bill since the Super Bowl years. What a class act and dynamic playmaker. I wish him the best. (TM, set up an annuity and get a financial planner you trust!) Second best Bills 4th round pick of all time (behind Reed)?

Great piece!

I originally put (sic) after that, but removed it because I thought it diminished the humor of my last sentence.

Ha! You're right. I have no idea how my brain pulled out desolate! Unlike others on here, I don't mind being corrected, and actually would like to use proper grammar and speeling. I only mind when the conversation about the conversation derails the actual conversation, whether it's by focusing on spelling, trying to guess the ex-player that purposely wasn't named etc.. My posts are almost always edited right after I submit them because I regularly..something obvious, like spaces between words....

I think Dockery earns a special mention. This thread was set up like we were trying to field the worst possible team of players that qualified, ignoring the money. Dockery is one of the worst values we've ever had on the team. Its' hard to be more critical of a UDFA who started a single game when the team was desperate for a lineman than DD with how he screwed up our salary cap and added little to the play of the line. He really had no lateral movement!

Thanks. This looks like at least part of it, and many others popped up on Google: http://www.nfl.com/videos/a-football-life/09000d5d822469c5/A-Football-Life-Meet-Bill-Belichick