Pyrite Gal

Actually you are correct in terms of last season where quite frankly the entire O was underused because they were so ineffective they were not on the field alot abd I was wrong to talk about him as being overused last year.. However, my sense of him being overused was developed during our winning streak the year before where we pounded the ball because we were ahead and ran WM over 30 times in several games as we burned clock. it was neat to watch as we were winning but it was during this streak I began to lament the lack of a reasonable #2 RB, Shaud did little last season to build on the 1 at nea 100 yard game he had as a riookie. In someways the sitting of WM on 3rd down occured because the best part of Shauds game was as a third down back. I liked Shaud in 3rd don but you can't be saying what your post implies that 12 yards per carry was anywhere neat the norm for Shaud

As far as LDEs go i think we are going to depend on either Kelsay or Denney being the prime guy. I simply do not see the Bills re-signing Denney to a new deal unless they plan to use him. He lined up a number of times for the Bills as a tackle in out zone blitz and actually proved to be more of a run stopper than a sackmaster. He really gave a horrendous first impression to Bills fans when he apparently had a problem playing low enough that he was easily neutralized by opposing blockers when he was a rookie and could not even suit up until late his first season. However, you only get one chance to make a first impression and even though I think he has developed well into an adequate player who reasonably deserved extension he is ragged on by many Bills fans. Kelsay is the interesting one. I think he also has achieved adequacy though nothing more. However. he has shown signs of development and 2006 could prov to be a breakput year for him an double digit sack numbers are possible for him in an effective D. I know it is the conventional wisdom to feel we are inadequate at RDE, but i think this is mere fan pessimism because these two are adequate professionals. The problem here is that our safties will get continually tested and eventually toasted in the Cover 2 unless there is effective pressure from the DL. There are certainly no guarantees that the existing roster can do it (even though Schobel has good sack numbers I think a lot of these are due to his high motor and are late sacks due to persistence rather than the pressure and solid first moves that are more critical to a working Cover 2). I see no guarantees they are good enough but also no need to panic that they won't be. We'll see.

He may not get a signifcant number of carries if we overuse WM as we done the past two years. However, I think he is likely a better runner than Shaud Williams even having lost a step from his 1000 yard days. If this turns out to be the case (which i think it will unless Shaud has improved a lot which can happen with a youngster) then we will go to Thomas as our primary #2. Do you have a lot of faith in Shaud Williams?

Upon seeing you started a new thread I figured uh oh he must have done something new. Upon reading the following posts I gather nothing has changed in terms of his actions and that we should do exactly what were doing. Tag and continue to negotiate with him for a long-term deal that is helpful to us, but since the lowered top 5 salaries for CBs has gone down while the total cap # has gone up we should be fairly tough about negotiating cause we are in the drivers seat. Ironically, if you personally think NC is a spoiled brat or jerk we are probably in a more secure position if in fact plays under the tag. This will be a contract year for him and particularly given his disappointing year last year he will need to be productive to get the biggest bucks. In fact he is in such a weak position coming off a year of play which diminished from his Pro Bowl performance the year before, that it would hurt him financially a lot to throw a hissy-fit which got him a rep as a bad teammate. He strikes me as not being an equivalent to TO at all, because TO is a jerk but he is a jerk that is one of the best WRs in the NFL. Clements has done nothing TO like such as going on TV to trash his QB and he is no where near seen as gamebreaking a player as TO is. We are in very good shape in the NC situation and I am surprised people would be so cheesed about it without something new happening.

In general, I would say NO, Butler does not owe anybody an explanation over the low blow he delivered in a game to a fellow player. He sinned, he was punished (unfortunately the ref did not see it so he was not tossed from the game as he should have been, but UVA stepped up to the plate and suspended him for not representing the school in a sportsmanlike manner) and unless some other officiial sanction is merited by the NCAA it strikes me as the end of the story as far as any explanation from Butler. (Though if he does something unsportmanslike again I think this would be a second transgression and should be dealt with more harshly than a first offense by this individual). However, though I think Butler owes the sports work little, I actually think it would be good business for the Bills to pro-actively say something about Butler's hit which was clearly caught on video by the camera and has been reposted in a couple of TSW threads. The Bills braintrust set the standard for how their customers should view this team by repeatedly saying they would be picking only high character guys. Make whatever excuses you want for Butler's act, but I do not think anyone is saying that tackle of an opponent at his knees after the play was done was a high-character move. Though Butler was punished for this act with a suspension and given our forgining society and afterall this is only a game (a fact which Butler seemed to have forgot for a moment) it strikes me he should be forgiven and do not let this happen again. However, it was the Bills themselves that set the standard for high character. Given that they chose a player who may well be a good player for us but he clearly performed a low character action, I think the Bills should provide the fanbase with some explanation of their thinking. They can easily ignore this if they want and will not come back to bite them unless there is some second potential act on Butler's part. Hpwever, it strikes me as both the right thing to do (given they set the standard as part of a presentation to their customers) and actually the smart thing to do for business purposes to say something about this. My guess is that if the Bills say they were aware of this, considered this, and talked to this fine young man (using Butler-speak) and felt assured ths was a one time incident inspired by the heat of a football game which they believe will never happen again, I think they get ahead of any potential stories.

A little high in my view as we don't need the bad press associated with the pundits claiming the draft was so bad and that the Golden Boys have Alzheimers. However, even reaching for folks clearly upgrades our team in positions of need (you prefer Bown/Wire over Whitmer) and the non reality of draft and fantasy league pundits will easily be overwhelmed by reality so in the end, Whitmer and McCargo simply need to do what they always planned to do and be good players.

My guess is no also that contract talks will not be made much easier by them getting picked earlier than expected. First, expectations and predictions are for draftniks and fantasy leagues and we are into reality now. These expectations are not the main driver in negotiations. These players were picked in the first round and the over-arching reality of the CBA creating slotting will drive things. Second, the slotting is really unclear right now as there is a new CBA and the salry cap # is way up. Things will likely go slow while the market figures out what the new slotted amounts are. Someone may well sign quick which will determine the slotted amounts, but if Whitner or McCargo does this it is simply at their own and their family's risk so it likely will not happen fast. Third, the general method for the slots being laid out is pretty clearly the late picks sign first and then team work their way up the draft picks with first rounders often signing on the eve of pre-season and the occaisional uidiot like McKinnie holding out and wasting his rookie year. It is easy to see how this may happen with the two Bills picks as the alleged "reach" for them complicates their slot. However, the lead on this would be either the Bills being idiots and low-balling these two or the players being idiots and demanding a high figure. There is no sign of either occurence.

Sure Marv's coaching style influences that of his buddy and the guy who works for him Jauron. In general, this is a good thing because this influence is in the HOF because of his HC work and the fact is he HC'ed the Bills to 4 straight SB appearances. I hope to heck he is influenced by him! The question actually is whether he is influenced by Levy in the right ways so he draws the lessons from the past which apply to the present. Given that Levy is already on record as saying the words which appear above that he knows it is a much different NFL in regard to whether rookies start under the CBA than it was when he joined Polian, Butler, et al. in building a successful Bills team at least Marv rhetorically understands things must be done differently if one hopws to win. My guess is that Marv has already learned the lessons that change and growth are keys to winning in the NFL after his failed experiments trying to run ther single wing. Jauron also should be aware that change is essential after he had success as Coach of the Year but followed that up with failure and getting canned as HC running the same system. I see no reason whatsoever yet to think that Marv will force Jauron to stick with approaches which do not apply anymore. We'll see.

Easterbrook is not dead wrong at all. However, he only tells part of the story as a big part of the Bills not drafting OL studs since 1990 is: 1. In the early part of the 90s they did not have to as a great OL led by Kent Hull had things firmly in place on the OL. You gotta reload if you want to keep a unit strong (even in the old days prior to the workers gaining more equal control with the team owners as reflected in the CBAs and there was far less player movement) but these Bills teams were drafting not to build or sustainably maintain the franchise, but to find the one or so missing pieces that would theoretically give them the one missing player to give them the SB win they fell just short of four times in a row. 2. The OL foul-up story of the early 2000s is much more defined by hiring an HC with no OL feel whatsoever and who made two straight massive OC hiring miscues the fired whatever his name was he first hired and then 'upgrading' to Kevin Killdrive. To make matters worse for the O and OL, GW hired his nor ready to OL coach buddy Vinky and then replaced him with the equally inexperienced Ruel. These non-OL idiots oversaw the selection of MW and the non-training of this man who may not have even been saved by good training. One should expect a more complete and accurate picture of the situation from a sports journalist. However, Easterbrook is clearly for entertainment purposes only when he writes and should not be taken seriously by anyone looking for good football analysis.

If Kiwi is going after the family jewels during a play or right after the play then he is defending his honor. However, as this act occurs when and how it does it strikes me more as retaliation than defending oneself. This makes a difference to me in terms of what semantics we use to descibe the event. Both self-defense and retaliation can be justified, but it seems to me easier to justify outrageous action (which I think Butler's hit was) if it is done in self-defense (its the heat of the moment and an iminent threat so demanding that a Butler effectively moderate his response is hoped for but not fully demanded). However, the play was over and even though mere moments had passed this strikes me as retaliation. Even the slight removal in time and the lack of imenency of the threat ratchets up the requirement on Butler that he moderate his behavior and he did not do that. Perhaps, there was some attack on him and his family jewels which does demand some response. However, the play ending an even a small amount of time occuring so there is no iminent threat to his family jewels means that Butler's act was a cheap shot which is difficult to justify. I can see why he was suspended by UVA because there was no real punishment leveled on him like a deserved expulsion from the game and even worse a teammate of Kiwi who did come to his defense after the cheap shot was in fact expelled. If one attempts to justify Butler's hit on Kiwi after the fact, then Kiwi;s teammate's attempts to get in the face of Butler which he was expelled for are probably justifiable as well, and you need not go far down this road of activity and reaction until it devolves into going to a fight and hoping a football game breaks out.

I also think the ragging on Fletcher is overblown. Perhaps you have memories of him playing lousy pass defense. Well, memories of all the Bills D is one of them stinking last year and I would not point to a particular player being more horrid that the others at some aspect of defending as this was a group failure both of the coaches and the players. However, I do remember Fletcher having the same high motor that the Bills loved to actually being doing pass coverage way down the field and taking on WRs that most LBs could not even stay in the same zipcode with much less even try to cover them. If one tries to look for stats on this issue its tough as the passes defense stat seems fairly random as best as I can tell and not a good indicator of skill in pass coverage however, Fletch generated some output that shows him to be a ballhawk. He mot only did register an INT last year but returned it 20 yards so it wasn't one he stumbled into. In addition, he tied Vincent for the team lead in fumble recovery (a paltry two but it led the team) an is an indicator he is aware of the ball and around it. Fletch's use as a KR the last several years as a Bill are also an indicator that he handles the ball well and is trusted by his coaches to track and field airborne balls. Actually, pass coverage was not his main job as seen by him leading the entire NFL in tackles credited to him over the past five years. The entire NFL. His use as a run stopper does not not stop him fom impacting the passing game as he registered two sacks last year in the endzone for safeties. As far as next year, he has played the cover 2 before in St. Louis and actually his rep and play indicates that he will be just the man if we decide to use a form of th Cover 2 known as the Tampa 2. In essence it is a cover 3 with the safeies having the outer thirds of the field rather than dividing it in half. It is the MLB he takes the central third of the field from the LOS to the endzone. His long career does present us with the danger that as he moves into the backside of his work his wheels will give out. However, je easily led the Bills horrible D in tackles credited last year and there is no sign he is giving it up yet. As the D captain, i have been impressed a number of times that when the refs missed a call, it was Fletch immediately in the face of the proper ref because he had already diagnosed the situation on the field. This football intellect will be central to this MLB correctly dianosing whether a play is a run or a pass and he should play centerfielder or support the run. Bills fans are a demanding sort and it is one of the good things about us. However, the complaints against Fletcher making first contact with runners 5 yards down the field as though this were bad play on his part, ignored the fact that in his first year as he was being credited with tackles at Chris Spielman like levels, behind our lousy DL with starters like Sean Moran (great back-up lousy starter) and having to play behind talents like Chidi Ahanatou, of course Fletch got to these players late because he had top fight through an OL blocker assigned to the MLB because all our DL plauers couldbr single teamed. The facts of letch's record is one of consistent achievement for the Bills in his time here and a proven record of handling the ball extremely well for a D player and showing a demonstrated ability to track and catch balls in flight. If someone has a case beyond fact-free opinion that Fletch is a lousy pass protector please make it as I an other are all eyes.

I really really doubt this. A bit of nastiness is a great feature in an OL player and is almost essential for someone duking it out in the trenches. However, even if you want to see this as totally necessary it in no way is sufficent to make a player worthy of a starting job from day one on an NFL team. Particularly when your claim is that he is gonna take over the position of a 10+ year vet like Villarial (who I think unfortunately is well into the backside of his career and by the end of the season will run out of gas) or a talent like Peters who has been so highly regarded by the position coach who will lead these decisions. it ain't gonna happen.

I was reading this post and my initial reaction was total disbelief. Are you kidding I thought, TD deserves total blame for Williams. It was this decision by TD to bring him on which totallty killed the Bills and totally demolished some very good work by him in other areas. It wouldn't be so bad but he clearly had other alternatives and those other alternatives have a proven track record of success. TD deserves total blame for a bad choice in going with Williams and this choice wa a disaster for the Bills. Even worse he seemed to make it due to his own fears. Then I realized,, ohh you mean Mike Williams and not Greg Williams. As Emily Latella would say... never mind.

This is where hsving a strong pass rush plays a role. Its going to take a little time for the big TE who even if he is the modern NBA style power forward athlete to get through the line, down into safety land and catch the pass. Id the DL has rushers that can pressure or sack the QB, this weakness is lessened.

In this scenario if you do not get Whitner after you trade down you may get Hall, Greenway or Lawson, but you are still left with Bown/Wire as your startig SS. It appears that even under the best scenario you end up with Allen (the 3rd safety taken) who is rehabbing after a major injury. The basic deciain to stretch for Whitmer was made when the two safeties the Bills assessed as comfortably being able to start immediately dropped to one when OAK at 7 took Huff. One could suggest: 1. We should have risked losing Whitmer by trading down, If you argue this then how far down would you trade and what do you think we get in return for the risk and what do you think we could have gotten for this return. 2. We should have pursued some other strategy of team building that did not place such a premium on the draft producing immediate replacements for Milloy and Adams. If you argue this then what is that other strategy. 3. Something else. What is something else. Without some detail on these issues complaints are little more than mere whining.

The timing appears (who knows for sure unless you are in a lot of dfferent heads but this seems to be the case IMHO based on looking at the events) to have been caused by the OAK decosoion in position #7 to take Micheal Huff. OAK has needs all over the place so the move is not a surprise though some thought they would go QB so their lack of interest after Vince Young was gone in either the plummeting Linart or Cutler sealed th Bills fate. Once OAK took one of the two safeties that most (and apparently the Bills) felt could start immediately at SS, they were put into a situation where they either reached for Whitner at 8 or do what you or others are suggesting and trade down and get more first day resources but risk losing Whitner. I think not only would this be a gamble, but actually would have been foolish for the Bills to do if they wanted Whitner or a relatively good chance at replacing Milloy through the draft. Detroit was thought to be the one to take Huff at #9 so they had a safety need. There was also talk of Cleveland looking safety at 12, Whitner was ranked on many pundit charts as the 21st best player, yet Miami drafting 15 took the third safety taken the recovering from serious injury Allen. It is quite unlikely that Whitner would have lasted to where his value was judged as being by the experts and possible he might have gone on the very next pick depending on how Detroit ranked Whitner versus Sims. If the Bills wanted a safety from the draft to replace Milloy and specifically if they wanted Whitner, the Bills needed to pick him and #8 and not trade down. Even I, one ofthe bigger advocates of trading down can see this. 2. Again regarding McCargo, my first superficial reaction was to feel they over-reached tremendously trading up to get McCargo. Actually the argument that convinced me to take a more reasoned look at this pick was on TSW where someone argued that the fact that no DT was chosen until the 3rd round was "proof" the Bills foolishly overreached. Maybe they did draft him too high, but actually this person;s argument actually argues that the Bills did the right thing by making sure they got McCargo. If you believe in the wisdom of every team in the NFL making the same football judgement then actually this fact indicates that there was no DT out there who was of high enough quality to merit a 2nd round pick given the fact that the 3 DTs (Ngata, Bunkley and McCargo) were off the board. The Bills had a clear need for a DT after they cut Adams and Edwards. If they had mcCargo on their board as even the 3rd best DT and only as one of three with a legitimate chance to contribute on the field immediately or at least quickly as a rookie then they did not reach to get him (this immediate contribution is a reasonable expectation for any 1st round draftee). In fact, as there was no other DT on any of the boards in the entire NFL whom folks judged to be worthy of even a second round pick, if the Bills assessed McCargo to be a 1st year contributor and in fact the only one at DT left on the board, then they had a clear duty to go get him. We will find out pretty quickly whether these picks were in fact bad choices by th Bills. If Whitner fails to make or deserves to be in the opening day line-up (unless by the vagaries of injury he is held back) then this was a reach. If McCargo is not a contributor to the Bills immediately (whether he starts is another question as we do not have a Bills 06 D scheme yet) and at least heavily in the rotation then he was a bad reach. However, I disagree totally with those folks whose tea leaves indicate to them that this draft was clear proof of senile Marv being out of control. On the contrary, it makes farmore sense to interpret Sunday's actions as a sign the Bills have a clear delineation of purpose (get one of the two safeties capable of starting immediately and get one of the 3 (at most) DTs capabled of contributing in a large way immediately. The Lions pick created a situation where in order to do this, we had to trade away one of ourthird round choices. However, given the bad (though forseeable but not predictable) bad break of OAK taking Huff I'm impressed that the braintrust was disciplined enough to get the two players they wanted

It was a tough draft which did not go our way as best as I can tell from what happened, but actually it appears the Bills had a specific plan and got the players they ranked highest on their board. It could be that the explanation which has these moves make sense is simply me trying to find a logical explanation for an Alzheimeresqye plan. However, my sense of the logic surrounding their actions which seemed quite odd with a first superficial glance would mean that the have conjured up an explanation which just happens to conform to what they hinted at before the draft, explains the seemingly bizarre acts in the draft and then got all the bodies at OBD to say the same general things which are consistent with their cover stury. What seems far more likely to me than all this happenstance and then coordination by a bunch of bufoons is that this is really how it went down. 1. Like other NFL teams there was a lot of disinformation being enitted by OBD prior to the draft. In retrospect with the reality of Bills actions in the draf to check against these words, rather than being ham ganded and reflectind Marv and the crew stumbling through this, their disinformation was there but never som ham-handed as a clear case can be made of them simply flatout lying to their customers or publicly to other teams. One facoid which Marv offered just prior to the draft which fits the facts of their interest was that they were most interested in a player who was actually probably pretty late in the draft on other boards. The fan consesus at the time was that this meant Winston Justice. As it turned out this a good description of Whitmer. 2. I think the Bills stretched in drafting Whitmer at #8 when most boards had him going about #18. However, if this is who Marv was referring to prior to the draft he was well aware and correct as to assessing Whitmer;s draft position. However, the wild card no one expected on draft day was that OAK took Huff at #7. This to me was the killer for us and why the Bills stretched to take Whitmer at #8. There had been talk of Detriot at #9 wanting Huff. If the Bills accepted am offer from a team like Philly or the Rams to trade down to 14 or 15, though this was still above the #18 slot where Whitmer was exoected to go, if Detroit took Whitmer as the best safety available they would lose him. Rather than risk trading down because apparently Whitmer and Huff were the only two safeties they were sure of stepping in for Milloy immedistely they stretched and picked him early. My guess is this was a smart move becaise as it turned out Miami took a safery Allen at #16 prior to the #18 prediction for Whitmer 3 safeties were taken even though some questioned whether a safety merited a 1st round choice at all. Afterwards, the Bills seemed not only pleased to get the guy they wanted (teams fake pleasure about their choice all the time( but uniformly they seem to know lots about him and folks like Jauron had clearly thought about how to use him. It was clearly a draft stretch to take Whitmer at 8 but seemed to be a good team building move to get the guy they wanted when if they had traded down they probably would have lost him to Detroit, maybe to Cleveland if he was still around or even to the hated fish if they went to #18 where the draft pundits said they should go. I actually have enough doubts abou the recovery from injury of the third safety taken Allen that I am glad we have Whitmer rather than Allen. 2. The trade up for Mccargo raised even more eyebrows. Again though having taken the second safety they passed on both Ngata and Bunkley. McCargo was ranked a 2nd rounder on many boards, but the key for the Bills who cleary were drafting for need as they are committed to winning now while Ralph is alive rather than embarking on another 3 year plan was to make sure they got the at least the third best DT. I do not know where they had Bunkley and Ngata, but straght character issues has been raised about Bunkley and inconsistency and going on vacation on the field issues had been raised about Ngata. While it seemed reasonable to me that the Bills might dismiss these concerns upon interviewing either player, they also could embrace these concerns after meeting them as well. it is conceivable that McCargo was already first DT on their board. They certainly had no need to take him at #8, so a plan to trade down for a choice in the early 10d, let Detroit or whomever take Huff and then use the resources gained from trading down to pick mcCargo early in the second or late in the first using the new resources gained from trading down made sense. However, OAK surprisingly took Huff, the Bills were forced to stretch and take Whitmer at 8 or risk losing him and the new crisis was how do they assure getting the third best DT (maybe #1 DT on their board). They did this by throwing in their second 3rd rounder with their 2nd and moving up into the first and getting McCargo. The end product was that the Bills likely got both the SS they had first on their board and the DT they had first on their board to fill their two big needs. The downside of all this is that they gave away resources which might have been used to reinforce the OL by drafting the plummeting Justice who went to phillu in the 2nd. Given the character issues surrounding Justice and the Iggles track record of choosing idiots like TO I'm not so sure about being enamored with their draft. The interesting this though is the Bills last first day pick. On the board when they chose were both Eric Winston who slipped to the top of the fourth round and the F Spencer who also slipped to the top of the 4th. Both had been talked about as first day choices. Instead the Bills passed on these two an made a BAP choice for Yobouty in the third round. He also had been talked about as a potential 1st rounder who slipped down. Though CB is not a need for us as NC got tagged and McGee extended, and we have a competiton between rookie King and Greer for the nickel, by getting Yobouty we legitimately increase the competition at nickel and also increase even further the leverage we have on NC from tagging him. The OL reamins an issue (quite frankly one I do not see being solved by second day draft picks this year anyway (but I actually think a far more llikely opyion for ssolving this is to sign a couple of vets as back-ups to the 5 mran we seem firm on starting. After the failure of draft choices like MW, Jennings, Pacillo and Sullivan i think we are better off getting vets anyway. At any rate it appears more likely to me that the Bills braintrust actually showed good focus and discipline sticking to the plan and getting the two players they likely (wrongly or not( had ranked 1st on their board at SS and DT. Rather than stumbling they kept their eye on the prize that the key here was not to win the drafting sweepstakes by having Mort of Kiper say you got the guys you wanted for good draft value but instead to make sure you got the guys you wanted. If in fact Whitner and NcCargo were first DT and SS on their boards then as George Bush would say Mission Accomplished.

Well then what does this say about our OL since none (nada zip) of the likely starters (Gandy, Reyes, Fowler, Villarial, Peters) were acquired through the draft. Back-up Preston might break through making one draftee starter but this is doubtful. I still do not see how folks think Jennings was decent when in 4 tears here he never started every game and even in hi final season he not only failed to start 2 games but failed to finish two others missing significant giving him injury issues in a quarter of our games. It really surprised me when SF gsvre him so much money and I was not surprised to see him quickly end up on IR with yet a different injury than the several which cost him time here. He is so injury prone he makes RJ look downright healthy. It amazes me that some folks think the draft is the thing when a lot of the way things have happened in real life simply support it as being merely one way (and usually a wau of lesser import to a team( of building a winner.

Actually the last couple of years saw several UDFAs like Peters make our team and eventually even start. I believe Baker was the bif success story as he signed as a UDFA and eventually started. Leonhard did not start but also was (I think) a UDFA who made the team. We were developing a rep as a good place for a UDFA to go among agents but I am not sure how much that rep survived the death of MM as HC.

Obviously there are good OL players like a Pace who are highly regarded in college, drafted and stick with their teams for most of or all of their careers. There are also folks who had questions when they were drafted but played well and also stuck basically with the same team. However, these players are increasingly a rarity in an NFL with more movement and market practices and the draft while an important part of developing thOL or a team is simply one tool, generally not the lead the tool and often is subordinate to other methods of team and OL development. It really depends upon timing, cap room, broader needs and a bunch of other factors to determine how this balance is going to be struck. I did not look at this draft as much of a tool for building the OL or the team overall. As far as timing goes, while the Bills are not a player a way from the SB that normally would make a draft more of a NEED draft than a Best Available Olayer draft. Due to a number of factors such as their 90s history of winning for the fans and the owner, the recent failure under TD to even make the playoffs, the econo,ics of the Bills being in play with the recent CBA negotiation and Ralph;s recent actions, and Ralph's age and desire to win while he is alive, this team is actually listing more heavily toward need than is prudent for a losing team to rebuild. For the OL in particular, there is such a sharp recent history of attempting to build the OL through the draft which failed utterly with the selection of mW, the injury prone JJ and a supporting cast of lower picks like Sully and Pacillo augmenting FA pick-ups like Teague and Villarial, the Bills need to win now and the draft is simply a lesser tool for building the OL. With the acquisition of the experienced JMac to replace the inexperienced Vinky who oversaw the draft based OL debacle, the Bills have taken a path where the draft will play a role in OL development but a pretty minor one. In this draft the team focused pretty clearly on using it to meet primary needs at SS and DT. These were such a priproty that they would not risk losing Whitner to trade down and then not having gotten more picks they used a 3rd to move up to get McCargo. My GUESS is that reinforcing the OL with a first day choice (which is the only way we could use the draft to have much of a chance of improving the OL this year) was the opportunity which went out the window with our need to use existing draft choices to move up and satisfy the more important determined draft need at DT. Perhaps if Oak had taken a QB an created further need for teams to trade up as they tried to get Linart or Cutler the Bills could have moved down a couple of slots and still gotten Witner allowed us to not have to spend existing resources to move up to get McCargo and then we could have gone after a potential first day OL starter like Winston, Spencer or risk Justice. However, this did not happen and this draft only filled OL need as BAP allowed and was not a major factor for immediate team building on the OL. Our current OL starters appear to be an FA acquisition at LT, FA at LG, FA at C, DA at RG and UDFA at RT. Preston appears to be the lone draftee with a credible chance at starting. This team needs back-ups as folks like Villarial are on the backside of their career and more prone to miss games from a nick. Folks like Peters and Folwer may not produce consistently, we will need plan Bs for them + However, it is doubtful that any second day draft choice is going to contributr much to the 06 team anyway. Once OAK drafted Huff any hopes of getting major OL help from this draft ended/ We had other items deemed of greater import to drafting to be done (BAPs like Youbouty and Simpson). Our OL needs alot of help, but the FA starters, led by the guidance of JMac who has made it clear he is no miraclle worker but we need a miracle here, and some FA pick-ups as back-ups from the likes of washed up players like Backus, Neal, Raymer and others seem to be the method we are goint to use. I doubt it will work but the fact JMac pulled this off with the Jints led by talents of the level of Glenn Parker (about Gandy levels) and Dusty Ziegler (a little worse than Fowler levels) actually provides some hope. This looks like the best we can do since if instead we were depended on secomd day draft choices who need a year of practice merely to tell their arse from their elbow generally would have IMHO produced a worse result and forced us to forgo some interesting BAP picks like Youboty or Simpson who I think do a lot more to help this team than a Jenings, Sully or Pacillo.

I give it a B-. I down grade it a bit because our apparent plan did not work out and the answers we had for these events ended up with Buffalo getting a bunch of bad press and the Golden Boys senility being questioned which does not help. In general, it appears our plan was to take one of the two safeties we thought could start this year (Whitner was probably always the target though I think we liked Huff as well). We likely wanted to trade down a few spots likely with the Rams maybe with the Iggles and nab Whitner. We would then use an early second pick to take Mccargo or package with one of our picks to move up into the first/ OAL screwed us by taking Huff at 7 and we had to stretch to take Whitner at #8 rather than risk Detroit taking the one remaining safety we though could start at SS immediately. As Bunkley and Nagata were taken we were forced to use our own resources to move up into the firstand assure we got the one remaining DT we thought could start for us fast. The main cost of this is not a disaster as we seemed to get the two players we had targeted along to meet our two primary position needs. However, by having to use our own resources to move up we had no opportunitu to reinforce our OL by taking a potential first year starter like Winston or take a risk going for the plummeting Justice. Yhe draft would have been adequate at best getting the two players we targeted if not for us doing a good job getting BAPs from the third round on. Rather than looking to meet the Ol reinforcement need by going for a player such as Spencer in with our third, we instead took the BAP as Youbouty was viewed by some as a first round prospect and we got him at great value in the third. Getting 3 folks talked about as first rounders is pretty cool. The fourth round pick also went BAP rather than need as Simpson appears to be a very ralented guy who though a higher round athlete came out to early. If we can successfully train him in the accelerated cauldron of pro ball perhaps he will contribute as a position player late this season or next. The remaining players seem to fit the model of young athletic types where if this kiddie corps is well trained in football by our coaches and are well trained in being a good teammate by players such as Vincent, Fletcher and Holcomb it bodes well for us. I do not see any of the second day group as starters at any point this year and most of their conribution to the 06 yrsm would be on ST and competing in practice but this is about as much as any draft can produce. So I think it is legit to penalize the final grade for things not working out well and us not being very artful in dealing with this, but having a good draft and building a good team are intensely related but rea;;y two different things. I'm tempted to esnder into the Cs. but I am intrigued enough by add-ons lke the impact of acquisition of Youbouty on negos with NC (he already was at a huge disadvantage with us tagging him and it just got worse for hm). I'd grade it as a B-.

I think it is yet another sigh of the draft psychosis which has been intensified by ESPN wal to wall coverage and by fantasy leagues that folks simply place too much importance on he draft as a team building tool. Do not get me wrong because it is important. Good players have to come from somewhere and good players get drafted. However, as far as team building goes, the draft is primarily a restraint of trade mechanism developed by the owners and agreed to by the vets as a means of avoiding a free market which would result in tons of vets getting cut. The draft is simply one means of player acqusition which along with FA signings, UDFAs, trades and any other contractual mechanisms must all be used and balanced appropriately to build a team.. I mean on the face of it, trades and compensation causing some additional picks, teams are now like never before quite capable of turning the team around in a year and actually moving from the toilet to going deep in the playoffs in a couple of years like never before. The draft provides most teams with 7-8 players as a % of a 45=40 man operating roster. Even after two years it is less than a 1/3 of the team and as players begin to get cut big time after the third year on the team the draft even further diminishes as a team building tool. This teamtried to build an OL through the draft and ended up with failures like MW, the injury prone Jennings and camp fodder like Sullivan and Pacillo. Through the acquistion of cut rate FAs like Reyes and Fowler, UDFAs like Peters, amd FAs Villarial and Gandy I would not be suprised to finally see some better results. LMac strikes me as havimg a better or at least comparable set of starters as a crew he already fashioned into a group which like it or not as far as folks theories go did make it to the SB. My recollection of the demise of the Jints from their moment of achievement is not clear. I became famiiliar with some of it because thanks to Larry Felser there was word of JMac coming here well before he left the Jints. My recollection is that the meltdown there was not simply OL focused but Fassel losing control of the entire team. The O problems were not ladeled unto JMAcs plate but Fassel took the unusual step of relieving Sean Peyton the OC of all play calling duties this indicates to me broader issues than just the OL. Also part of the OL problem and running game problems were not the blocking scheme but Tiki having a bad habit of laying the ball on the carpet fpr a season oe so umto; someone worked with him to adjust his arm angle and the problem was solved. Felser kept pointing out the limited experience which fisr Vinklarek and then Ruel brought to the team as OL position coaches and comparing that to the double digit experience of the OL coaches of the last umpteen SB winners. He pointed out consistently that JMac had 25 years of experience, SB berths and thousand yard rushers with the Bengals and Jints and suggested that perhaps he could be gotten since his parents were old and lived in JMacs hometown of Kenmore when his contract emded with the Jints in a year or so. Overall, my sense was that JMac was out the door on his own and though obviously involved with NYGs (you cannot recognize his successes without also at least explaining the failures and vice versa) demise his work and the OL play were not the lead cause of this.

Actually since Peters has not played a full season yet as a tackle of any type, rather than learning the fine points of LT he is still working on the broad points of being a T anywhere. JMac is high on his athleticism and he demonstrated last year that with a stable old hand like Villarial on one shoulder and with a TE on his other shoulder he is an adequate player. However, merely this accomplishment was an enormous jump. Is he ready right now to take another enormous leap and be the player on an island who can take on some of the best rushers in the world on-on-one? I doubt he is there yet and needs some more time learning the fine points of OL play before likely we send him out with the responsibility to guard the QBs blindside (JP/Hol/Nall can all probably be heard breathing a sigh of relief if this is JMac'x choice). My guess is that the BB.com web site lists him on the deoth chart at RT for a reason.

If you were any good at QB (if you are worthwhile multiple teams are chasing you) why om fiscal earth wold you choose to go to a team which has three vets on the roster any of whom might start (and thus all of whom might stay and at least two will due to contractual ties as we put big ucks into JP and Nall even if we cut them) and that also has two QBs assigned to NFL Europe who will fight you for the development squad. No QB worth anything is likely to come to this situation.

There are however, some leftover agreements negotiated into contracts which give roster bonuses to players prior to camp beginning or prior to the season beginning and some of these roster bonuses occuring post draft may well result in some cuts. June 1 is nothing like it used to be, but there will be some players who are suddenly on the market in the manner Lawyer Milloy became available at the final hour.