MRW

Perhaps the people arguing that Evans isn't worth his contract aren't the same people who are against trading him now. If people actually are contradicting themselves then you have a good point but I don't see it.

Just don't read the comments under that article. I have no idea why I started reading them.

Pretty interesting... Can't comment on the specifics at all (obviously), but it's past time that a replacement was found for QB rating. Here's a list of QBs for 2010 with the new stat. Based on my non-statistical impressions of what QBs actually contribute to their team, the top 10 seems quite reasonable (not 100% sure on Eli Manning, but hard to argue that the other QBs in there are rated too high). Fitzpatrick is middle of the pack - again, not surprising or outlandish.

I bet you're not even a real captain, either.

Because another team signed him.

Which is fine as far as it goes, but it really doesn't match up with "But one might argue, maybe Ralph should cease promoting anyone until this team achieves a winning record..." at all.

Not all that clear on what you're advocating. As executives in this underperforming organization are fired or retire or get hit by a bus is your desired approach to: 1. Leave the position unfilled ii. Bring in someone brand new from outside the organization c. Outsource management decisions to message board posters Four. Other (please specify)

Well, we are talking about trying to pick up a backup QB in a league starved for good QB play. It seems unlikely to me that you're going to find anyone available with impressive stats. But when I've seen Gradkowski I've gotten the impression of a guy who knows how to run a pro-level offense, unlike, say, Brohm or Edwards. That's crucial for a backup QB, who's will probably need to come in cold in a game situation that already saw one QB taken out. That's completely subjective, of course. I haven't seen enough of Moore to say if he has that quality. I think Gradkowski does, and I don't think Wallace does. On the other hand, Holmgren thought enough of Wallace to have him as backup on two different teams.

It's really not a question of who he had in front of him. Given the injuries last year, if he had showed anything in practice he would've been out on the field. I'd like his chances of developing into an actual player a lot better if he had actually earned playing time. But based on his career thus far, it wouldn't surprise me to see him gone with the first wave of cuts.

Hey, his thread title is completely accurate, he just left out the bolding on one word.

I'll grant that this guy is small, but I have to question your objectivity if you're saying that Williams and Searcy are undersized.

Maybe the idea was to try to build a really solid unit on one side of the ball and try to establish a team identity a la Pittsburgh or Baltimore. Fitz has shown the elusiveness and improvisation necessary to stay alive/make the occasional play on offense, and with stronger defensive play should see more opportunities even though the offense will be inconsistent at best. I can't say I'm all that unhappy with that thought, if the D with these new players and Wannstedt can come out strong. A lot of "if"s in this approach, but I'm hoping this team will actually field a unit that we can say is a strength.

Bottom line is I think you can't look to 7th-round picks to fill needs. If you get someone who can play right out of the gate (e.g. Colston in NO) it's a huge bonus. But to fill immediate needs we have to hope Nix is more active and more successful in finding journeyman players in FA than he was last year Right now the big issues I see remaining are RT, TE, OL and LB depth. Of course, that's assuming there is a FA period at all.

I knew the Bills FO would come up with a plan to counter the Pats taking Mallet!

Or Clint Howard. Wow, glad we did not get him then.

On the DL, don't forget FA Edwards. Throw him in the mix and I like the look of that line.

Twice, depending on what you think of Cassell.

You are severely overestimating Stroud. The Stroud that played for the Bills last year was not the Stroud of 5 years ago.

If you don't think Dareus is going to lead to a major improvement in the defense I'm not sure why you think picking up another D-lineman in the fourth would make a difference anyway.

I don't think Mallet has the maturity to step in and be a leader on the field at this point, and I doubt he will in a year either, so in the scenario you describe I wouldn't want the Bills counting on him. Maybe he'll grow up in a few years in NE, but while they can afford to take the gamble I'm glad the Bills didn't.

Why would that hurt my case? I didn't say word one about Peters, and for the record I've never disagreed with you about the stupid way Brandon & co. handled that. But I'm not going to hang it around Nix's neck, either. There was a reason I started my count of picks in 2009. I think that, in fact, we have a picture emerging of the kind of player Nix wants, and if you'd let go of what happened before he was in charge, I think you'd see it's markedly different than the Levy/Brandon/Jauron strategy. I hope the Spiller pick pans out. I would've been very happy to see them trade down from that spot and look at picking up a tackle (Bulaga?). But who knows what kind of offers were out there. If they weren't getting fair value for the pick, I can live with a BPA approach - and everything I've read indicates that Spiller was regarded by most analysts as BPA by far at that point. Not gonna defend it too much though, because I'm not sold that it was the best choice in that spot.

Tackle remains a glaring need, I'll give you that. If I wanted to extend my argument I could bring in the 2009 draft with 2 OL picked in the first 3 rounds. But then I'd have to include Maybin and Byrd as well, so would that strengthen or hurt my case?

Bill, out of 6 picks the Bills have made in rounds 1-3 of the draft the last 2 years, they have selected 3 DL, 1 RB, 1 DB, and 1 LB. Honestly I'm beginning to wonder if you think the Bills should make any investment into the secondary at all.

Wondering that myself. And Mallet doesn't seem to fit the mold for their offense in any way.

Uh-oh, the crowd unhappy with this pick isn't gonna like this comment from Nix: