nodnarb

If the Bills give them a 1st I'll gag on my own tongue. If they give up a 2nd I'll be pissed. If they give up a 3rd for him I'll be pretty fuggin happy. Especially if it's just next year's 3b. Wouldn't be surprised to see them willing to give up both 3rds acquired for Willis, though. And I think that's a bit steep. AJ's going to want to get something for him before he gets nothing for him next year, and if the Bills wait and wait until late in the first day, a 3rd and a 7th might just do it.

what's the big deal about what he said in that article? Todd and I met Kelly the year he signed with us and he said the exact same thing to us, almost verbatim. "I'm just happy to be a part of an organization that has a chance to win." It's template stuff, folks. Kelly's a good guy.

Well if there was any doubt that these 'analysts' aren't professional enough to get their heads out of their own biases, this oughta do it. This is just more lazy journalism. When the Bills signed Holcomb nobody out there used the word coup. ESPN and the rest of them all yawned. Now it's years later and Holcomb got beaten out by a guy 10 years younger (ish) and NOW it's a coup? Ridiculous. And these guys get paid.

any suggestion that darwin walker is of questionable character would have to come from a fan still bitter about their season who is just out there throwing around character questions. darwin walker is a total Marv guy. Very respected off the field, has his own construction company, is very bright, and will be a good influence on the younger guys.

Every year they get an erection for the player of the moment and he never pans out. It must really suck to be a Skins fan on draft day.

But that's exactly it. Spikes was a warrior and a great person and a very good player but even in his healthy prime he never took any games over himself. He was a very good player, and I hope he continues to be in Philly. He deserves the respect he gets and I hope he's happy there. But again, it's about SYSTEMS. And We just got Darwin Walker for a guy who simply was not a good fit in the T2. Had the Bills waited, they'd have had to deal him for much less.

lol

the things said on espn are as fleeting as a fart in the wind. This board keeps their commentary alive longer than the natural shelf life of an ESPN comment. The Bills got the better end of this trade. It's about SYSTEMS. Holcomb isn't well suited for this offense, and Spikes isn't a good fit for the T2. He's also expensive for the risk involved in handing him the starting spot, and the number of players who have returned to their original form after an Achilles injury can be counted on one hand. That's in NFL history, by the way.

After this trade, I highly doubt that Branch or even Okoye will be the pick at 12. If I was forced to guess I'd guess Marv'll trade down.

Sometimes I get the feeling that some fans react to moves based on the jerseys they've bought. Spikes was ordinary last year, and for his salary, age, and likelihood that he'll return to his 2005 form no better than 50%, I think this was a beautiful move. Fuggin GREAT. Besides, Spikes wasn't a great fit in the Tampa-2 system. It's the system, folks. Wash, rinse, repeat. And I think this offseason has been tremendous so far. We just got Darwin Walker for a QB we were probably going to cut anyway, and an expensive LB whose best days are most likely behind him. Sounds like a great deal to me.

Something to consider, and I'd be willing to bet the farm on it: Spikes wants to play for a large market team. He wants his shot at bigger ad contracts, greater exposure, the big time. Consider the fact that a few weeks ago, when asked about Willis, Jauron never once stated that Willis didn't want to play for Buffalo anymore. Not until after the trade went down did Jauron let on to this by taking the high road, as usual, when he simply told the media that the question of 'did he want to play here' should be directed to Willis. That answered the question well enough. And now we know from the Baltimore news article that Willis was barking behind the scenes the whole time. We are so much better without Willis McGahee. He has NEVER impressed me, on or off the field. He's an average back, period. Donahoe was wrong. Personally, I wonder if the same is true of a post-injury Spikes; that they reviewed the film on him, estimated his speed next year will not be optimal *for the Tampa-2*, and decided that that fact plus his desire to move on makes for an easy choice. I don't think you'll see Spikes traded to a small, Buffalo-type market. Spikes was never *consistently* great, but he was a very good player. But last year, the only impact play he made was the first snap of the season. After that he disappeared, was late to tackles, was out of position often, freelanced and got caught, and was not a factor in coverage, which is the #1 reason why I believe his days as a Bill are over. This has a lot to do with scheme changes, and that's something that a lot of posters seem to forget.

Um, LSI, we just took 6 of 8 points in a 4 game road trip. There isn't a hockey team on earth that doesn't think that's a damn good road haul. Yea, they lost 3 straight at home. With 5 Amerks in the lineup. And yea, every NHL team goes through ups and downs. It's part of the game. You can't win them all. Right now, all that matters in Lindy's mind is getting his team to start playing their best hockey right when it matters most. Other teams will peder out, some teams will surprise. It's all about momentum, and the Sabres are just beginning to get theirs.

Willis is a great player but guys, remember we run a Tampa-2 defense, and Willis simply is not that kind of linebacker. I'd be *shocked* if we picked Willis; it wouldn't make any sense...unless there's an aspect to tampa-2 that I don't get, which is certainly possible. Yes, we need a MLB, but we need a guy who can change direction and cover down field. The Bills will be looking for the same kind of guys you see manning the middle for teams like the Colts and Tampa Bay. They'll be looking at smaller guys who can intercept passes and attack the line instead of holding their ground with their bulk and strength. Two names that come to mind who might be 3rd to 5th round picks for us at MLB are Justin Durant and Quincy Black. And that's where I'm betting we're going to get our LB depth from this draft. Like the COlts every year, we'll probably hear the names of a few new Bills who haven't shown up high on the player rankings you find online, namely because T-2 linebackers aren't in demand by everybody, so they tend to drop to the teams that need them. Few of us had ever heard of Keith Ellison, but that kid is going to be an OLB for us for a long time. He showed me an awful lot and fit right in. For this team, you're not going to see the bigger, more imposing LBs. T-2 linebackers are more like big safeties. Scheme is the only reason they extended Wire to play LB, and I believe he'll still be only depth and our ST gunner.

Man, your reading comprehension is even worse than I thought. RE: "my formula": If you think 1 point for every correctly rounded player is a "formula", then I'll bet your 8th grade math teacher has some terrible memories. Kiper's "highly sought after" blue book is indeed a pretty good seller (in the small market of draft rags that is). The question is, who seeks it? Fans. Why? Cuz he's a well-known name. He's on ESPN. People there call him a genius 46 times per draft presentation. You won't find any NFL scouting staffs using his blue book to make decisions, that's for sure. Don't get me wrong. I like watching the ESPN draft broadcast and I even enjoy listening to Kiper. But I don't hold his analysis in very high regard. If you do, hey, fine. Fine if you like ham sandwiches, too. This all started because of the implicit creedence you gave to his comments about the Whitner pick, which were ridiculous then and remain so. Just like his claim that Bunkley was the right pick for the Bills and if not him, then Winston Justice. Whaddya know, Bunkley could barely get on the field, is already in the Eagles doghouse, and Justice fell to the 2nd round. I guess he was dead on about his Whitner comments though.

why would they spend a first round pick and the millions for that pick when they just spent 25 million on a right tackle and have already locked up their LT for the long term? I'll betcha anything you like that if Levi Brown is on the board when the Bills pick, they pass on him.

I wonder how you fared on the reading comprehension portion of the SAT. First, that post took me a whole 3 minutes to write, and it's not my own point system...that data on relative pundit scores is on the Web. Find it! And besides, it doesn't matter whose point system it is. It's *a measure*. What other measure would you use but 1 point for correctly identifying a first round pick? Got a special formula for us? An analysis of all 7 rounds WOULD be time consuming, and I'm not interested. But I'm sure it would only prove further that Kiper is no better than an average of any ten armchair Web scouts. And let me repeat this part since you obviously have trouble understanding the written word: Compare ANY year's first Kiper mock with his final mock. I've been in to mocks for years and his always changes the most. He does his scouting closer to his first mock than his last. It's widely known that Kiper talks to hundreds of scouts leading up to the draft. So, you decide, smart guy: What causes all the ups and downs and changes to his original scouting mock? CONVERSATIONS. And yes, it is amusing. It's amusing that you think he's really a scout when he's really just a compiler of information from other sources. That's his job. To compile and talk well enough to keep people from changing the channel. I'm on no high horse. At this time of year, I can't resist the urge to knock others off theirs. If you'd read any posts you might see that.

I wasn't going to waste any more time trying to help you understand this, but what the hell. Yes, Kiper does his own scouting. He's just a mediocre scout, that's all. That's why EVERY YEAR you see his earliest mock draft, the one ostensibly based on his scouting, looks nothing like his final mock in the days before the draft. Why? Because his "players on the move", either up or down, are based on CONVERSATIONS he has, not further research or game tape. Kiper was hired by ESPN to make the draft an entertainment piece. Not because he was a "genius" at college scouting. The guy is respected for the job he has done to make the draft a more palatable piece of television, not for his scouting acumen. Fact, "bro". Here are a few more facts for ya: Score 1 point for each player correctly identified as a first round pick, and 2 points for each player correctly matched to the team that drafts him. Where does Kiper score? No better than part-time draftnicks who are NOT scouts. Using the 2006 draft as an example, writers Rick Gosselin of the Dallas News and Nolan of PFW score first. 1. Gosselin 57pts 2. Nolan Nawrocki of PFW 57pts 3. DJ Boyer, draftstock.com: 53pts 4. Rob McCartney, Rob's Scouting (armchair tape watching): 46pts 5. Rob Rang of NFL Draft Scout 46 pts 6. Mike McCollom, Football.com 46pts 7. Pete Prisco, CBS Sportsline 46pts 8. Patrick Wrede of "Draft World" 45pts 9. Dr. Z 42 pts 10. Mel Kiper 40pts Scoring just the 1st rounders without doubling credit for tying the right teams to the players, and his score is worse relative to this field of (mostly) amateurs.

And that just serves to reinforce the point I was making. Yes, it's a fact that many pundits on ESPN were surprised by the Whitner pick, and that just further proves the widely known fact that the "homework" those guys do to prepare their draft commentary is template and program-driven and nowhere near deep enough to serve as an enlightening tool for fans. The FACT is, these guys know a fraction about the players when compared to the scouting staff of any of the 32 teams. Another FACT of pre-draft punditry is that scouts feed guys like Kiper misinformation because they know he'll take that information and spread it around. Nobody is *used* more than Mel Kiper in the weeks leading up to the draft. And of course, he's also fed good info just to make it difficult for him to parse what's real and what's not. All Kiper really has is a decent memory. Again, I'll take any bet that nobody will lament the Whitner pick 2-3 years from now when he's widely regarded as one of the best, perhaps *the best* SS *for the Tampa-2*. Reactions to draftees on draft day or even a year later is a complete waste of time.

Good grief. "donte was a surprising pick that warranted initial criticism" why did it "warrant" initial criticism? Because it was surprising? Does anyone here really think that guys like Mel Kiper and Sean Salisbury are allowed to see a team's draft board? Many teams had Whitner as their #1 safety. If the Bills weren't moving to a Tampa-2, they probably wouldn't have picked Donte. But the guy is custom made to play in that defense, and it's a critical cog in the wheel of the Tampa-2. The pick was "warranted" on that alone. The Bills haven't made the post season in over a decade for many reasons, not just their scouting. Coaching, continuity, an overbearing GM, a megalomaniacal head coach (GW), pro personnel that didn't work out, a few bad calls, (heh), etc. And it works both ways. The Patriots have been the best team in the league in the past 5 years but their drafts haven't been the best. Look at their 2004 draft, for example. No picks, starting with their 3rd rounder all the way through their 7th, were on the team this past season. Think Bill would want those picks back?

This is the kind of childish, premature reaction that has made me not want to participate in any discussion of the draft, even though I'm biting my tongue trying not to. To say that the whitner pick was 'okay' after ONE FUGGIN season is beyond ridiculous. Do we REALLY need to make a list of all the impact players in the NFL who had average to merely above average rookie seasons? Who the hell are any of us to declare that we have better insight into who the right players are for this offensive/defensive system, the chemistry of the team, and the time-to-impact category that's so critical to scouting? Who the hell are any of us to say that because we read a few Websites written by armchair draftnicks or worse, paid draftnicks like Mel "Bandwagon" Kiper, that we know better than MOdrak and his scouts, with decades of experience in the business...? I'll take any bet that there will come a day, not too far off, when anyone who questioned the Whitner pick will hope that they're not remembered as a guy who questioned the Whitner pick. Provided he stays healthy. I think last year's draft is shaping up to be one of the best the Bills have had in years. Probably since 2001, only potentially better, considering the entire second day of that draft was a total bust-out loss. If the Bills don't take a guy that you think you like because Mel Kiper or Pete Prisco wrote something sexy about them and you fell in love with your own imaginings of wearing that guy's jersey, then maybe it's time to stop reading all the draft sites and instead pick up some books on college scouting, ask some of the Bills scouts for tips on how to educate yourself, and start watching a ton of tape. I'll continue to believe that guys like Modrak and Levy will do a better job than I could. Or you could.

Baaahb has a knack for *almost* making a point. Levy said that the extra pick gives them added flexibility. An obvious fact. For him to say "But the Patriots this and the Jets that..." is entirely irrelevant to Levy's statement. The Bills have added flexibility on the first day. They can even use the 2008 pick as currency if necessary. The Patriots have even more flexibility. The Jets still more. There is no "but..." and there is no point in making the comparison, Baaahb.

glad to hear this. I was hoping we'd keep him on board. He did well when given a start. Did anyone really miss Willis when didn't play in those 3 games (in which we won two and lost by a point to the colts)?

I've never been impressed by Chris Brown. But I haven't watched many Titans games. If we sign him, fine. But if there's any truth to that contract, then I'll probably start joining the chorus on the other side of the tracks. That would be *preposterous*.

sweet. I'd rather have Dillon than Rhodes or Brown. He's got some fight left. McGahee for a 2nd would be a nice ending for that goofball.

it should have nothing to do with his stupid toronto comment and everything to do with his lack of preparation, inability to get tough short down and distance yards that are critical to sustaining drives, his ordinary vision, his complete lack of a lateral bounce, and his general goofiness.