Dibs

I guess we'll see with Greer....it'd be wonderful if he(& the pass D) improve this season & we can lock him up for a reasonable price. I think you are not looking at history in perspective. Since 2006(after TD) we have replaced 17 of the 22 starting players. We didn't have the luxury of being able to replace them all in 2006.....that year we were replacing SS, FS, DT, RG & attempted CB, TE & DT......finding LF replacement that year(the year before he left) was well down the list of priorities. We spent 1st & 2nd round picks to replace WM & LF in 2007.....we needed those players to pan out since again, we didn't have the luxury for them to fail. Entering this draft(2008) we only realistically had 7 positions(FS, CB, C, RG, #2WR, TE, FB) which we were not locked into at starter(due to either ability, contract or potential). We used 1st on CB & 2nd on #2WR leaving IMO C & TE being the only obvious weakness. We didn't have to draft a nickel back.....but what are the options in the 4th round? It's a 4th round pick.....not likely to become a starter let alone a good one. I assume that we went for the best talent on our board so as to maximize the chances that we end up with a player who can play. Again I ask....."Who would we pick instead.....and what could we realistically expect from them?" All this fuss over a 4th round pick most likely destined either way to be a backup at best. Re: Crowell.....hopefully we will re-sign him. Looks like I did It all comes back to either trust.....or distrust. Just because things seem a to be a certain way does not actually mean that they are. In the 2006 draft we(as fans who knew everything about this team) were desperate to draft an OT. We not only didn't draft one in the 1st round but had to wait till the 7th(IIRC) for us to get one. "What was the FO doing???" Well....strangely they had better knowledge of their players than we did & 2 seasons later we have a pro-bowl LT. My point is that until this FO show that they have actually made a mistake it is simply unfair to assume that they have. Honestly, is it likely that a 4th round OLman instead of a CB is that much more obvious and important that one can say that picking the CB(who one has no real idea of how his, nor his OL counterparts were rated) was the 'only logical choice'?

Nicely saved. You now are predicting your prediction will not come true.....that means that that prediction is bound to not come true....so your original prediction is now bound to come true.

I honestly think you have misinterpreted many posters here Bill. I think that most(if not all) who disagree with your views do not believe in nor promote the opposite to them......they simply do not agree with them. 1)I don't believe this.....but I do not believe the opposite to be true either. 2)I don't believe this.....but I do not believe the opposite to be true either. 3)I don't believe this.....but I do not believe the opposite to be true either. 4)I don't believe this.....but I do not believe the opposite to be true either. 5)I don't believe this.....but I do not believe the opposite to be true either.

It is quite unlikely that Greer will be a Bill past this season. IIRC he is in the last year of his contract which means.....if he plays well this year & improves he will warrant a contract which I'd imagine our FO will not want to pay....or if he regresses we probably will not want to re-sign him anyway. James is signed up for 2 seasons for relatively low money.....he is a true stopgap pickup. Unless he shows himself to be a consistent performer he will likely be gone after 2 years. Youboty.....just my opinion but he is as good as gone after this season. Must show great improvement to stay. Overall we have a bunch of guys who might end up being good enough for the #3 job longterm. And who might that have been? Corner was chosen at #114...the next OLman was picked at #130(Tony Hills) a full half a round later. To be penciled in as a starter we would have been looking for someone who can play C or maybe RG. Hills is a pure OT. The only player who could possibly have had the chance of that was Josh Sitton(#135, last pick in 4th round). Even if there was a legitimate C/OG pick when we chose Corner....there would only have been a 1 in 5 chance that he would eventually become a legit starter(obviously less chance he could start immediately). Assuming that the FO had Corner rated quite a deal higher than any OLman(which seems to be the case with all teams)....it would have been remiss of them to pass on him. Depth at CB is probably more important than depth on the OL. Apart from CBs get injured more often, there is a regular need for 3(if not 4) of them to be on the field at one time. What Corner can do for this team is become the long term #3(or #4) CB for several years.....and if he does become good enough can replace McGee down the road. I disagree with the 1st round grade on Youboty. Just because the media rated him that highly pre-draft does not mean he was a 1st round talent.....if he was, why did he drop to the 3rd? Obviously every team did not have him rated as that or he would surely been chosen in the 2nd. Youboty most likely will not pan out.....and with the inevitable loss of Greer after 1 season....and James the season after, there is a good chance that Corner was drafted to potentially be the #3 guy. To me, if one was wanting to improve the OL in any real way it makes more sense to argue that we should have passed on McKelvin and drafted Albert instead.......but then maybe the potential dropoff from Albert to Butler was assessed as less than the dropoff from McKelvin to Greer(James,Youboty). On top of that, one has to consider what grades the FO has our current OL backups as....most likely they grade them higher than most fans do.

Ah, this old chestnut again......this assumption of yours remains incorrect & it matters not how many times you put it forward it will always remain incorrect. The Pats & Eagles support it.....but the Colts & Steelers disprove it. Over the past 6 seasons the top 10 teams(based upon wins) are.....Pats & Colts being obviously the best over that span. NE 75 IND 73 PHI 61 PIT 60 DEN 59 S.D. 58 SEA 58 GB 57 DAL 52 TEN 52 If we count skills players as DB/WR/RB......and you are obviously comparing them to Linemen......the percentage of Skills players to Linemen over the past 10 years of 1st rounders is as follows.....Bills being 70%..... NE 29% IND 83% PHI 29% PIT 72% DEN 50% S.D. 86% SEA 40% GB 60% DAL 50% TEN 80%

I have no idea but surely he would consider himself a Bill.....regardless of his final contract situation. Bills: 15 years, 11 probowls Skins: 4 years, 0 probowls

Not everyone comes from the USA where the English language was invented. I have consciously changed my spelling from defence to defense since it is such a common word in an American Football forum. Be !@#$ if I'm going to change how I spell colour, honour etc though.

I agree that JPL was handled badly.....and that the injury as a rookie would have hurt him as well......but there are extremely few QBs who pan out from being drafted in the 'non-upper echelon' 1st round slots. The average is pathetic. IMO the trade to grab JPL was a terrible move......it showed both desperation & arrogance.

Lynch had 2 runs of 56 yards......both to the right. Stats were.... Left sideline....19-55-2.9ave Left side....99-359-3.6ave Middle....59-179-3.0ave Right side....83-420-5.1ave Right sideline....20-102-5.1ave Total Left....118-414-3.5ave Total Right....103-522-5.1ave Even if you remove both 56 yard runs from the right side stats you get..... 101-410-4.1ave I'm not putting forward any reasons for it but Lynch's production towards the right side of the line last season was dramatically better than the left.

I love the show too though I find that sometimes(on some topics) they put forward opposing views which are just as slanted in bias as the ones they are trying to counter.......i.e. it leaves me feeling that they are just as bad as 'nuts' they are bashing. Good show though.

From memory......and it was probably all BS anyway......but the word at the time was that Bilicheat was sorely tempted to start Brady over Bledsoe at the start of the season(2001). I always figured that Belicheat was too scared to bench his 'star' QB and got lucky with the Bledsoe injury in week 2 which made the tough decision for him. Huard was gameday backup till week 9 with Bledsoe coming back in as gameday backup from week 10 onwards. AD was right.....Bledsoe played one more game that season.....the conference final against the Steelers where he came onto the ground just before the end of the 1st half(Brady Injury).

As I see it the 2008 D could be miles ahead of the 2007 D. We have potentially improved(dramatically) at 6 of the 11 starting positions(with better depth all round). Much hope indeed!

That's a little harsh Nanker. I'm sure the people you are thinking of root for the Bills big time......despite every single thing in the organization from Owner all the way down to Waterboy being totally mismanaged/unplanned/unskilled/outdated/cheap/screwed.

Who's saying this? Seems to me that people who are not convinced that DJ is a dud of a coach are simply defending their views ......not promoting him as the next 'great' coach at all.

Very nice post Kelly......though I don't agree with every aspect the crux of it is IMO spot on. The jury should be still out regarding DJ.

Thanks cantstopbeastmode......I really enjoy this kind of post. BTW.....and in honour of LSI..... Welcome

The only sport I follow is NFL so my list is limited...... Hate Dolphins Cowboys Raiders Dislike Patriots Giants Redskins

Now this I agree with..... If MW had worked out at RT we wouldn't have needed to bring in Walker. If Preston had worked out a OG we wouldn't have needed to bring in Dockery. It would have been advisable(IMO) over the years to have spent 2-3 times what we did on high round OLmen. The thing is though that we have 3 solid starters on the OL now & maybe Butler will show himself to be a keeper. Unless we suffer a career threatening injury we will not be in any form of 'panic' mode for a good 5 years now. This is a good thing. Maybe the FO wants to see what we've got in terms of an OL unit(improved cohesion, improved QB & RB & WR, improved play from Butler) before investing in a high pick(Albert....he was the only real option wasn't he?).....The FO did this in 06 & came out not squandering a 1st round pick on LT. Maybe the FO has determined that they want an upgrade at C but the 08 draft didn't provide them with a suitable candidate. Rather than draft a C who they project to be of a bit better than Fowler level they want to wait for someone better. I have no idea but perhaps there are more/better prospects coming up in the 09 draft. Maybe the FO have the incumbent backups rated at a higher level than the actual fans do. Maybe the FO decided to place a greater importance on 'completing' one side of the ball(defense) over depth for the OL. Maybe the contract situations for the secondary(primarily Greer) compared to the OL made things a little more pressing since a team does need 3 quality CBs & assuming Greer leaves then we only would have had McGee left. Simply......maybe the FO know what they are doing & even though there are always many different strategies one can implement, it invariably is the situation where there is no 'correct' strategy. If we had gone OL in the 1st & 4th I guarantee there would be a large number of fans crying out that we have no 'good' starter at CB.....that our depth is porous.....that our pass D was terrible & we've done nothing to fix it. I would have ended up saying the same things to them......"Until the current FO shows that they have no plan they have earned the right to expect some sort of trust from the fans."

Your dead right.......some teams do have a better track record at drafting players that pan out(or don't bust). There are probably about 3 or 4 of them in recent times. Apart from those very few successful teams(who may 'hit' often due to great overall talent/coaching) the rest of the league is clearly hit & miss. In fact, if you look at odds of 50-50, there should be one team that achieves 5 'hits' in 5 years & one team that has 5 'busts' in 5 years. Overall one can say that nobody knows which players will shine & which will bust. Every team(every single one of them) will usually jump at the 'top 6-7' prospects in the draft.....and 50% of them bust. The draft is hyped & is a natural homer magnet for fans. "Of course our 1st rounder(& 2nd & 3rd) will be good players......they were drafted early in the draft." The reality is that most 2nd rounders & a large majority of 3rd rounders do not pan out. We all want the holes to be filled by the early drafted players......but the reality is that it most likely will not be the case. Honestly(& one poster got lambasted for raising this), we should be more upset at the FO for......considering we had absolutely nobody at #2WR.......ending up having to rely on a 2nd round draft pick to perform as a rookie, rather than ignoring the OL depth. There is far more chance that Hardy does not perform in '08 than there is of Peters getting injured for a chunk of the season.

Perhaps the Bills got the player they wanted in the 2nd round as it was.

Actually obie is sort of correct......but misleading. Good CBs & WRs for some reason hit the FA market(or trade) at a greater frequency than any other position. The problem is that in order to obtain one you generally need to fork out top dollar(as you pointed out with NC above)......which defeats the concept of spending your major resources on the lines(which the Bills have done over the past 3 off-seasons). It's a silly argument really......spend big money on a #2 WR via FA(which there wasn't many available this off-season anyway)(& hope he pans out).....and use the 2nd round pick on an OLman who will 60%-65% chance be a bust & most likely not help the team much for 2 seasons. Mind you.....there's just as much chance Hardy will be a bust & not help much for 2 seasons also. Perhaps there is no 'correct' way to go. Maybe the most important aspect is that whichever way you go......don't stuff up the picks/acquisitions.

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