JohnC

WEO, Would orthopedics be involved in amputations or is that strictly a trauma doctors domain? I was thinking about the mounting casualties that needed to be treated in Boston. Are those intertwined fields or are they trained separately?

I'm sure that Tyler Wilson is on the Bills' radar. But I don't see them taking him at the 8 spot. He would be a good fall back pick in the second round. I get the sense that if Nix's favored qb prospect is there when he picks in the first round then he is not going to risk losing him by waiting for the next round. For those agruing that they should trade up to get back into the first round that doesn't make sense for a GM such as Nix who covets his picks, even lower round picks. My guess is that Barkley is their man. He should be there when we make our pick. Nix has been burned by waiting to draft a qb. I don't think he wants to take the risk of losing a qb he really wants. My preference is that if Nix and his staff have a conviction on a qb then go ahead and take him with their pick and then move on to addressing other needs.

The issue with Barkley comes down to arm strength. Is he closer to a Brees type accurate and diagnostic type player or a Pennington type player, someone who is also smart but with physical limitations. I'm not taking a postion here because I simply don't know. The reviews on him have been very contradictory. A couple of years ago prior to his injury he was considered a top fiver player in the draft. Last year he played on a team that was undergoing a lot of issues both on and off the field and in addition he suffered a knockout shoulder injury. When Tom Brady first entered the league he was not known for his arm strength. That arm weakness seemed to improve as the seasons passed by. Can Barkley improve his arm strength? I'm not sure? A couple of years ago I watched a USC vs Stanford game. Luck was superb in that game. Barkley matched him. At the time with the realization that Luck would not be available for us when the draft came around I would have been more than happy (ecstatic) with the possibility of being able to draft Barkley.

Buddy is not the type of person who when listening to you should be too concerned with what he was precisely saying. With him it is more important to give credence to the the general thought. I like Tyler Wilson a lot. He had a very challenging year at Arkansas. His scoundrel HC who does wonders in tutoring qbs was chased off the campus. His play was hindered by the fact that he had a new set of receivers and had to play behind a porous OL. He has a decent arm (not great), good pocket presense and can throw on the run. He is not what you would consider to be a special talent but he is a good talent who is capable of being a legitimae franchise qb.

Put your money on Tyler Wilson being on his three man list. Wilson is a southern boy and played in the SEC, played four years and had a stellar junior year. He fits Nix's profile. If Buddy took him in the second round I would be more than pleased.

There is a bigger and more troubling issue than over-emphasizing particular positions. It is the organization's ability to in general evaluate players. Buddy believes in staying true to his board regardless of position. But without a doubt Nix's board isn't nearly as accurate as Ozzie Newsome's board is in Baltimore, who is also a believer in player rankings. Nix is simply out of his depth when compared to a GM such as Newsome who has a feel and talent for evaluating prospects. Nix has the advantage of drafting ahead of Newsome. Yet Newsome and other astute GMs always out produce this sluggish country GM. Nix passed on Russell Wilson (who he spent a lot of time evaluating) for TJ Graham, a track receiver. He even did what he normally doesn't do, move up the draft to select his "guy". In hindsight it was a ludicrous evaluation. He drafted Aaron Williams instead of Kaepernick. It turns out that Williams is too stiff to be a CB. He is better suited as a safety. Sheppard was a MLB drafted out of LSU. One of the most important traits that a MLB has to possess is football instincts. Sheppard has little apptitude for that position. From a physical standpoint he filts the mold but his physical abilities are neutralized because he is playing a position that requires "instincts". A trait that he lacks. Go back and review Nix's drafts. How many lower round selections have turned out to be contributors? If you can hit on a few of those longshot picks then you are bolstering the roster with value selections. It rarely happens with Nix and his draft staff. One of the most deceiving ways to evaluate your draft selections is how many of those players make the roster and start? The problem with that methodology is that below par picks can make the roster on your already poor roster when the reality is if they were competing with roster spots on a quality team they probably wouldn't even make the team or at least earn meaningful playing time. The truest way to compare players is how do they stack up against one another when they are competing against one another. Nix's record is 16-32. His team during his three year stint rarely beats a team that has a winning record. That is the ultimate judge of talent: i.e. the record.

What if you had an Iraqui or Afgan War Vet brother who had mental health and adjustment issues and he lived on the street? How would you feel if others exhibited the behavior and attitude toward him that you stated in your post?

I usually say no to panhandlers asking for money because I don't know if the money is going to be used for alcohol or drugs. It is natural to have a tinge of guilt refusing people who are in such difficult situations. What I do instead is regularly contribute money to reputable organizations that run homeless shelters and tend to that segment of society. In that way I know that the money I am donating is going directly for the purpose it was intended.

You certainly don't have to be a complete failure to be ineffectual at your job. His team's record during his stint as a GM is 16-32 with a very limited ability to beat teams with a winning record. As a GM Nix is in the lower 25% range, and I'm trying to be generous to this nice man. When an argument is made on behalf of a person that he doesn't always make the wrong decision then that is not a reflection of a high level of shrewdness. I don't bloody care how thick his southern accent is or how slowing he walks or talks. On the basis of his team's cumulative record and the current shallowness of the roster he has assembled he has demonstrated a level of mediocrity that has for a very long time plagued this bumbling franchise.

You need to learn how to read. I'm not advocating for any particular qb because I simply don't know which qb is best suited for this team. The conflicting evaluations have left me undecided. The position I have repeatedly made on the qb issue is that there are plenty of good quality qb prospects in this year's draft and it would be irresponsible not to draft one in the early rounds. If you favor a particular qb then good for you. I can't criticize your judgment because I have no firm position on who is the best qb. If you are confident that you know for sure who is going to be the best qb in the draft then you are very naive. The so-called experts who spend a lot of time following college football don't really know who is going to turn out to be a good pro. If you think your judgment is better than the pro scouts then more power to you and your delusion.

The reality is when an odd duck owner hires incompetent people such as Levy/Brandon/Nix to run the football operation the results are very predictable. A generation worth of excuses is not acceptable. No one is saying that acquiring a quality franchise qb is easy, but if it can't be done in a generation then something is systemically wrong.

I have little quarrel with the moves the Bills made this offseason. They are basically culling the roster, a process all teams go through in the offseason. The Levitre departure was inevitable and a product of the cap system that all teams have to deal with. The team I have watched this offseason and am most impressed with is Baltimore. They were forced to severely adjust their roster with the high priced signing of Flacco yet were able to rebound with a smart pick ups such as Dumerville and Huff Ozzie Newsome is simply one of the best GMs in the game. He understands the system and knows how to smartly work it. He doesn't panic and he doesn't reach. He simply is one of the best GMs in the game.

We are basically agreeing. This qb issue drives me nuts. How does even a clownish franchise such as the Bills not find a legitmate franchise qb since the retirement of Jim Kelly, twenty years ago? The level of incompetence is stupifying! I'm simply making the poiint that there are good quality qb prospects in this draft. It appears now that the sluggish GM is belatedly making a concerted effort to find a quality qb prospect in this draft. Do any of the qbs in this draft have a greater upside than a Pennington type qb? I believe so. The only way you can really find out is to take the plunge and find out for yourself. If you find out that your qb prospect is a Pennington type qb and you prefer an upgrade then go out and draft or find another qb. Drafting a qb that you find out to be limited doesn't mean that you are stuck in an ever lasting marriage with that player. If you find yourself in that unsatisfactory situation then find another qb. It's not easy but it happens all the time. Flacco repalced Boller, a former first round qb pick. The Packers drafted Rodgers when they already had Favre. The Skins mortgaged a good chunk of their future to select RGIII. The Giants gave up a lot to get Eli from the Chargers. You do it by taking action, not waiting for the perfect situation that rarely happens. I understand why our country GM decided to go with Fitz; at the time he had few options. But not getting a decent prospect in the pipeline during his three year tenure made absolutely no sense. He let sterling prospects pass because he focused on the flaws instead of the assets. A Pennington type qb might have a weak arm but at least he could hit the broad side of the barn while standing in front of the barn. That is certainly a dramatic upgrade over the generously paid qb we let go this offseason.

The odds of being in a position to draft an elite qb such as Luck or RGIII may be less than 1%. If you are not in that position for twenty years what do you do? Nothing? That is the Buddy Nix school of drafting qbs i.e. perfection to be the enemy of the good. It takes some moxie to draft a Kaepernick, Wilson or Brees at a draft position not close to the top. Yet those players were very impactful qbs. Aaron Rodgers and Flacco weren't drafted at the top of their respective draft classes, yet they were significant players. If you are not in position to draft a Peyton Manning then there are other avenues to take such as taking a chance on a wounded Brees or vagabound qb such as Warner who can catapult an irrelevant franchise into relevancy. My point is that being passive and waiting for something to happen that is unlikely to happen is a mindset that has crippled this lackluster franchise. Making a transaction that fails is not worse than not making a transaction out of a fear of failure.

There are many, if not most, evaluators who believe that Barkley doesn't have enough arm strength. Then there are many evaluators who believe that he has more than enough arm strength. It goes back to the many conflicting evaluatons that I spoke to. With respect to qb foot speed I don't think that it is too meaningful of an attribute. Brady, both Mannings, Brees, Warner were not by a long shot cheetahs. All these qbs are good candidates for the HOF. What is more important than foot speed is how you react and slide in the pocket. Many people have Gino Smith ranked as the top qb in this draft. There is a good chance that the Bills will be in position to take him. Will they? I don't know how they rate him compared to the other prospects. Again, the evaluations are all over the place. I believe that he has the best overall tools in this draft class. But that doesn't necessarily mean that he will be the best pro. With respect to Barkley outperforming Nassib in head to head competition means little. It is one superior team beating an inferior team. Rating individual players is all together a different endeavor. The point that I have been emphasizing in my posts is that there is a number of good qb prospects in this draft. It is the job of this front office to find the best prospect for this team. There are very good qb prospects who don't have a first round grade attached to them. That doesn't mean that those qbs can't be very good qbs. Kaepernick and Russell Wilson reflect that point. It comes down to the front office getting the job done or not.

One evaluator who I have a high regard for is Greg Cosell (nephew of Howard Cosell) from NFL Films. He ranks Nassib at the top of the class. Cosell has little regard for Barkley due to his lack of arm strength. He diminishes Geno Smith because he believes that he is too slow in making defensive reads. Cossel also believes that Glennon has a high upside. Because there are so many conflicting evaluations of this qb crop I have less than a firm view as to who is the best qb for us. What I do strongly believe is that there are very good prospects in this draft class and that it would be a miscalculation if we don't draft a qb in the first or second round. http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap1000000152748/article/ryan-nassib-is-top-qb-in-nfl-draft-greg-cosell-says The following is an example of the various qb opinions. http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap1000000154944/article/2013-nfl-draft-who-will-be-the-second-quarterback-taken

There is a two sided coin to not drafting qbs that makes this issue infuriating. The people that Nix drafted instead of taking a risk on a qb prospect have (up to now) proven to be duds. The draft year Kaepernick and Dalton were available Nix drafted Aaron Williams. The year Nix drafted Sheppard, a MLB with no instincts, they could have taken a chance on Mallett. Last year Nix moved up to take the track receiver, T.J. Graham, instead of taking a chance on Russell Wilson. The cumulative misses on draft picks is crushing this exhausted franchise. It's like walking up a down escalator when the escalator is moving at a faster rate than you are. If Nix didn't draft a qb (which he hasn't except for Levi Brown) but was regularly hitting on his drafts picks at least the team would be in a stronger position to move up the ranks when they eventually did acquire a legitimate franchise qb. The Bills are entering this draft with major holes on both sides of the ball. It is going to .take another few years to get this roster to the point beyond being a shallow roster. The reality is that the Bills are in another one of their continuous cycles of rebuilding. It is very tiresome.

The Nix regime has been a disaster from a variety of standpoints. A lot of attention is given to the qb issue but that is only a small segment of his failings. Nix's record in giving out smart contracts relative to talent is very poor. Kelsay's contract far outstripped his contribution on the field. Having Fitz as a stop gap qb was a reasonable move. What turned it into an egregiously bad move is giving him a contract that was beyond his abilities. He didn't have to give him that rich contract. What other GM in the league would have brought him in for a similar contract? No one else would have been so foolish to pay this so called gunslinger who shot mostly blanks. The Titans signing him as a backup and paying him accordingly is what smart GMs do, far from what Nix did. As WEO has pointed out in a number of postings the GM has many responsibilites with finding a HC and a franchise qb being at the top of the list. He has failed on both counts. Nix is a meat and potatoes type person who seems to be incapable of thinking in strategic terms. He bragged how he ran up to the podium in the Spiller draft without using up the remaining time to accept calls from GMs who were willing to make generous offers to move up into our draft spot. Not even considering trade offers for a team that has multiple needs is foolish. What is even more goofy is bragging about it. You know things are bad when the majority of the thinking fanbase are hoping that the current GM has less influence in decision making than more. That certainly isn't an endorsement of his three year work product.

The top tier GMs in the game are smart enough to realize that if you want to compete for the ultimate prize, the SB, you need a top shelf qb. The qbs on the roster during Nix's stint are Fitz, Jackson, Edwards, Thigpin and Levi Brown. He has passed on talented qb prospects for players who are less than mediocre. The moving up to secure TJ. Graham was simply odd. If he and his scouts think that Graham was a hot commodity then they need to go back to scouting class 101. Buddy Nix is a decent fellow who is overmatched by the complexity of his job. He is now belatedly in a frenzied search for a qb in this draft, or at least we are led to believe so. My question is: Where the hell has he been? He acts as if something that has been going on for almost twenty years (passing emphasis) is a new revelation to him. Teams don't only compete, so do organizations. Buddy Nix is competing with sophisticated and talented GMs such as Thompson from Green Bay, Colbert from Pittsburgh, Ozzie Newsome from Baltimore, Bilechick from New England and Jerry Reese from the Giants. How do you think he stacks up with any of these suprerlative GMs who not only know how to find their franchise qb but have an immensely better understanding in how to build a roster? I go back to my original point that the Bills main problem is not really about evaluating qbs so much as it is about evaluating prospects in general. There is enough body of work over the past three years to recognize the mediocrity that pervades this organization.

There is a bigger issue with this franchise other than finding a qb. It is that our scouting departiment has for a very long time been mediocre. We had a full decade of the Modrak era that overlapped with the Donahoe/Levy/Brandon and part of the Nix regime. The overall drafts were less than inspiring. A generation of bad drafts has taken its toll on this battered franchise. Nix eventually dispatched Modrak with little resulting upgrade.I have little problem with Nix's first round selections. What is upsetting is considering who he could have taken in the second and third rounds (Kaepernick, Dalton, Wilson and Mallett) and instead took struggling players (Willams, Troup and Graham). The moving up for Graham still has me scratching my head. Have any of Nix's lower round picks turned out to be meaningful selections? Teams that consistently draft well win. The draft is the bloodline for a franchise. This organization is simply below par in this most critical endeavor that is necessary for a successful franchise. The crux of the problem of this struggling franchise is not so much that they are bad in evaluating qb prospects but they are bad in evaluating players in general. There are a number of high quality qb prospects in this draft. They can also be had at a lower draft position from where we first start and can be had in the second and even the third round. The issue is are they competent enough to do it?

The notion that if a qb doesn't work out it is a fatal blow to your franchise is wrong. The Ravens selected Kyle Boller a number of years ago with their first round selection. He had the strongest arm in the draft. He played at least three years or so without much success and improvement. He simply was a failure. The franchsie didn't crumble. The Ravens then a few years later maneuvered back into the first round to select Flacco. He wasn't an instant star but he seemed to get better every year. Is he an elite qb? I consider him to be a very good qb and a very clutch qb. But I wouldn't rank him as an elite qb. My central point is unless you get your qb prospect on board and allow your designated franchise qb the time to develop you will never know if you have your long term qb on the roster. What I know for sure is not drafting highly rated qb prospects and instead taking wild swings at picks such as Levi Brown will get you a ticket to nowhere. Kaepernick was not considered an elite prospect in his draft year. He was a raw prospect with potential. How has that worked out? Russell Wilson was not considered a top tier prospect in the year he was drafted in the third round. How has that worked out? Mallett didn't get drafted until the lower third round by the Patriots. He has not gotten much playing time because he is playing behind a HOF qb. Maybe if he played with the Bills he could have turned out to be franchise qb? With a GM who has a proclivity of passivity with the most important position on a team you will never know if the Bills could have had their qb position resolved so it can go ahead and address so many other positions of need. The same urgency that our southern talking GM appears to be showing this offseason should have been exhibited when he first took over. If that was the case just maybe this franchise would be on an upward trajectory instead of every year repeating the same cycle of futility. It's stupid, simply stupid!

At this point can the bone heal completely without the plate?

s I don't understand the wait until next year qb argument. Does anyone know for sure that the Bills will be in position to draft one of the so called elite prospects next year? We scratched out six wins last season and are now drafting in the 8 spot. I believe that there are a lot of quality prospects in this draft. Some have more upside than others. As with most young qbs it will take some time to develop. How does anyone know that Glennon or Wilson or Bray might ultimately be the best of the qb crop. What I do know for sure if Buddy Nix continues with his passive approach to finding a qb prospect in the draft the team will not only continue to lose but it will continue to be an irrelevant franchise. Making a qb draft selection and not having it work out is not worse than not making a selection at all out of fear of making a mistake.

For some reason the wikepedia link can't be copied in its entirety. I will double check the source. But it is not a big deal.Google Mike Williams offensive lineman and see if you can come up with something different. I often make mistakes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Williams_(offensive_lineman)#Professional_career You are understandably mixing up the two Mike Williams. The Mike Williams you are mixing up going to Tampa was a highly drafted receiver who bounced around the league. The team that the offensive lineman signed with after his Buffalo fiasco was with Jacksonville. After being out of the game for a couple of years his weight ballooned up to 410 lbs. He worked hard to lose 70 lbs and made the Redskin roster, playing a couple of years for them. He was forced to end his very unfulfilled career when it was discovered that he had blood cluts. Mike Williams is not a bad guy. He simply wasn't committed to a brutal sport that he had little interest in.