colin

i think our best game on D was against carolina, we got run on a bit but managed to frustrate them with a sort of cover 2 look (very vanilla with LBs underneath on the WRs). with a bump in our front 7 (crowell after 1 full year, SPIKES, and our new DTs) i think our new super fast secondary (particularly in nickle) might end up making us a VERY good top 10 D. a top 10 D does a whole lot towards making us a winning team, coupled with special teams and some luck we might just be one this season.

i don't get these draft guys. sometimes they rate teams highly for filling in needs, but most of the time they just buy into hype. how does zona get such high grades for building on a strength (passing) and ignoring every other need on their team? A+ for a back up QB who might end up being very good (or a total bust, he slipped for a reason) a TE who will be a small addition to a stacked still position team, and a big fat slow short armed guard who doesn't fit their o which is full of big fat slow linemen. i'm not saying zona did bad, but these people seem to have no solid consistent way of marking, just throwing stuff against the wall, hoping some sticks.

how many of these clowns had leinart as the top qb, young as a potential falling rock. eric winston and winston justice in the high first round, and mario williams falling as far as 5th? how many had cramartie and all the other marginal CBs going as high as they did, and how many has Ernie Sims going before leinart? i don't even look at people's boards, just at the player breakdowns. we got 3 quality football players and i think marv is about right that whitner wouldn't have gotten past Detroit and St Lou/Balt.

i understand that these are all exciting big name players, but arizona had a massive passing O last year. they have a crap D all over the place and a suspect O line. the one OG might be a nice fit, but they will get very little next year from this draft

if we took eric winston in the 2nd, bunk in the 1st, and gilles and watson in the 3rd everone (including me) would have thought we got great value and solid guys but would have been wrong by a country mile. for this reason, i don't freak out over our picks, but just try to learn more about them. what i have found is that all 3 are impact players, not workout guys who shot up, potential guys who MIGHT become great, or big program guys with character problems who would be great if the just straightned out. i'll take who marv levy thinks is a good football player all day

they sure solved their WR, QB, RB, DE problems didn't they? Mangold and d'brick are going to open holes for .... and keep pass rushers away from...... on second thought it looks like they only addressed some of their problems, kind of like us

top linebackers, a super fast aggressive young secondary, a quality pass rusher, two fast DTs who can get after the passer and disrupt. i've said it before, we only lost a couple guys and went from the best d to one of the worst, i think a couple players can put us back up there and we might have them right here.

where did espn have leinart, ngata, etc. if you look at the player profiles you'll notice people talked about his speed and explosion, if all you go by is the analysis you'll see he was thought of highly. you can't just look at a draft board, you have to look at what they actually say. this guy grades as a hyper active 3 technique DT, i think that's exactly what we were looking for and didn't think bunkley was worth what he would cost.

ok, another surprise, but the guy is a highly rated super quick DT, the bunkley our team really wanted

great minds think alike AND SO DO WE!!

i think justice or winston will go to the bills here. i also think they traded their 2nd and one of their 3rds. very outside chance they like MANGOLD but justice is prolly more likely. i could go for another buckeye

BILLS TRADE INTO 1ST!!! 26

this is just silly. the bills AND detriot didn't bother to trade down to pick up a 3rd, arizona prolly thought they didn't need to trade up (as cutler OR matt would have gone to them). so the bills were looking at trading down to 14-18 and getting a 3rd rounder? we have 2 as it is, we wanted the biggest impact guy we could get in the 1st. we had a shot at either QB, ngata, bunk, justice, and so on but decided on this guy. i think the bills thought this guy is worth more than anyone named above plus a 3rd, otherwise they could have taken any one of them.

i was shocked, but remember dwight freeny, levi jones, edge james? everyone thought they went too high and were not even that great at their position, but they were all fundamentally sound. this guy is too

WE HAVE THE HAMMER FOR THE QBS!@!!!!!! PAY US YOU QB WANTING FREAKS WE WANT 10-15TH PICK 2ND 3RD AND MORE

we might pick up 3 picks for leinart when he falls to us

nfl network is a heck of a lot better than espn. now that the top 3 are set in stone there is a solid chance we go 4 leinart 5 hawk 6 vern davis 7 cutler 8 d'brick of course huff could get mixed in there, but if d'brick falls past the jests there is a SOLID chance he falls to us. if leinart falls past the jests there is a chance he falls to us, we might get a kings ransom for him!

i agree that we need to draft some stud young Gs and hope they work out (my personal best case is we trade down 1 or 2 times and just shotgun at all the best bigmen prospects. some HAVE to workout, and each one that does gives us something we haven't had in years). i think this thread is putting too much emphasis on starting linemen, you need AT LEAST 8 guys who can play, and one or two of you studs will be riding pine for at least a few games. i think it might be a mistake to have stars on your line at the expense of having more quality guys. orlando pace alone can't help the back up RG who can't see the blitz, new england philly GB for years and pitts all have depth and quality. a REALLY good draft might help us with that this year. i like this signing because this guy is a top 8 lineman on most NFL teams and we need a whole bunch of guys

if hawk fell that far i'd expect that we'd trade out of the position for a few picks. i think there is a chance young goes there (slim but possible) and we flip the pick for a ton.

there are nfl teams that draft and retain/sign players well on a consistent basis. i think baltimore might be the best. they use traditional formal methods of looking at the measurables, temperment, game film, etc. (there was a great article with ozzie newsome before last year's draft in a paper i got at an airport). they make SOME mistakes, but most of the guys they take are good for them. i think TD didn't have the skills to use these techniques and therefore shot from the hip a few times too many. i'm pretty optimistic that marv and dick will put in the right work and figure out who to draft where.

having bigger teams pay more to other teams is bullsh!t. they should have it just they way they did before, X% (perhaps a bigger chunk than before) of shared revenues, with teams keeping their own extras. the skins can afford more for coaching, but they CANNOT afford more for bonuses because they are under the same cap as everyone else. the bills since 1989 were in the top 3 for paying bonus money out for a long long time and when the cap came in they were miles over it. the cap still isn't so high that teams can't to pay it all.

i have to disagree, i think this is pretty far from the truth. there are huge differences in how these guys can throw they ball, read the D, find open people, take a hit, and how the act under pressure. some guys have it and some guys just don't.

i like this a lot. i'd rather take justice if he is there at 17 (obviously not too likely) and failing that i think an impact D lineman will be there at 17. if we grab D in round 1, i think there might be an OT at 41/42, and then we can grab an S, DT, OG over the next few picks. if we have a hot pick fall to us at 8 (i think vince would be the hottest one, followed by davis) we could end up with 7 or 8 day 1 picks. I think we need 2 DT 3 OL and 1 S and whatever with the other pick(s) in terms of long term quality it all comes down to marv making the right choices. in terms of day one impact, a D guy early, an S who can run, and interior O linemen will give us the biggest boost. i don't think an OT that falls to us will be better year 1 than what we have, but i think we can upgrade the middle of both our lines and get 2 or 3 new starters.

if you have a quality pass catching TE you are better off than a blocker. the best thing a blocker can do is pin a guy off to one side, if a good pass catcher runs 10 yards deep the guy covering him will be out the picture anyhow. also, if they cover the TE with a safety or CB, it is an easier block for the TE to make so he doesn't have to be a great blocker. if they put an LB on him, the LB will get burned on passing plays. it gives the O an advantage, and threat TEs are rare.

i think gandy is a better LT than jonas jennings (particularly since jonas can't block well from the IR). seeing that jonas got a 13 buck bonus and about 6 per, if we want a real improvement over gandy we will prolly have to spend a top 10 pick AND be lucky, or drop 40+ bucks on a tackle and hope he stays healthy. i think getting the best value guys (trading down and grabbing 2 or 3 top interior guys on day one for example) and getting depth is the best chance we have at a good line and can be done in the draft. if peters is ready to move to LT (or will be in a year) drafting a solid RT and some interior guys might be the best idea.