DanInUticaTampa

I honestly wouldn't be surprised if he was cut in August

I find it hard to believe the cards would take Barkley over smith.... but if they do, hell, i'll take Geno over any of the others.

Well, that is a given whenever there is a scenario that involves the bills

I am concerned/confused by the whole situation. They haven't said one way or another about what they want to do with him, yet reguarding several other players, these players were told one way or another pretty early. My only thought is that there must be some kind of disagreement among the front office folk about it. Because if they were in agreement they wanted him, they would have at very least made an offer. And if they were in agreement to get rid of him, they would have told him they are going to let him go to another team. Or they could be just waiting for the last minute. Either way, I don't like it. I would like them to at least have some open dialogue. I thought it might be tough to re-sign him, but I would have thought the bills would have made him an offer by now, even a lowball offer.

Is merriman still signed or is he gone too? wouldn't might having him there for depth. He isn't what he used to, but he has a spark left in him still

That might really be the best solution for the offense if there is no geno smith at 8. With that offensive line and spiller/jackson, we should be able to do the ground and pound that worked well for the 49ers and the jests (when they went to the 2 afc championship games). I wouldn't rule out an OT at 8 if one of them falls to us. I cant imagine fisher falling, but then again, this draft is so hard to predict, it is quite possible. I don't know where they go with the first pick. But if the first pick isn't QB, I am pretty sure our second pick will be.

Playoffs!

Even though I am bothered that Levitire might walk, this is one of the few times I am willing to give the front office the benefit of the doubt. They have been pretty good about re-signing our good players the past couple years, some at the very last moment. If they don't re-sign levitre, it isn't going to kill us, but we are a better football team with him.

Next big one will probably be Matt Ryan, unless the team just completly crumbles or his play ends up sucking.

I just don't see Geno falling to us. If eagles pass on him, Cards will take him. If he does fall to us, I'd take him in a heartbeat. Even with the Jeckle/hyde senior year he had.

highest paid player in nfl history.

I honestly think that if thomas or jpp were on our defense in the last three years, this coaching staff would find a way to screw it up still. They would probably put up nice stats, but we would still be terrible on defense. But Thomas and Byrd on the same team? man, that would be amazing to have with a decent coaching staff.

I agree with this. But I think Hairston is above average depth. And at this point, I think Cordy Glenn is just average. He really looked below average, but showed some promise. and since it was only his first year, I would just say that the potential he has would make me say average right now. I need to see another season of him before I make a better answer. But I expect a healthy pears to be much better like he was in 2011.

He has definently added/kept talent on this team. But the results are horrible. I think nix has made two major mistakes that ruin the good things he has done: 1) hired a HC that hired 2 terrible DCs that could not use all the talent that was on that side of the ball. granted they are short linebackers, but lots of other good things on that D they should have been able to overcome. 2) Using so many resources on defense and ignoring offense. Pretty much all the talent Nix has brought in has been on defense. Best thing he brought to the offense was a couple of ok tackles. Chandler, and Spiller. Really needed to put some more resources into QB or Receiver. Nix has done a lot of good things, things that we have wanted the bills do for awhile. But the two above mistakes really take away all the good things he has done and resulted in 3 losing seasons. And it wasn't like they lost, and came "close." They lost in ways you just cannot defend.

Nix Has also said that you can never have enough corners. And for a receiver, he has said that he wants a guy that even when he is not open, he is open.

Henderson makes a lot of sense, and I would actually like that signing.

Graham actually doesn't look half bad.... not worthy of being a number 2 receiver, but definently not bad to have on the roster. They def need 3 receivers though, whether through the draft or free agency. If patterson falls to us, it is looking more and more like that is who the bills are going to be picking at 8.

it isn't that we have too many holes, it is just that we have holes at key positions. If we upgraded MLB, QB, and WR (all important positions), this team would be a world better. That is assuming we keep byrd. If we lose byrd, then that would create a huge hole. But I am just assuming we keep him even if it is a franchise tag. Corner I am not too worried about. I think brooks showed a lot of promise. I wouldn't be surprised if he becomes a solid starter for us this year. Hard to tell though how we look on bother sides of the ball with the new coaching staff. If Fitz stays our QB, I would expect similar production out of the offense.... defense, I am just hoping that all the resources we dumped on that side finally pay off.

Really should be keeping neslon. With chandler's condition up in the air, they have who to catch the ball? Stevie, TJ, and Brad Smith? Even if you add a rookie WR in there, that is spelling trouble. Personally, if it were me, I would retain nelson, cut Smith, sign a solid vet, draft a good prospect, and draft another in the later rounds.

Contract talks with agents is the business side, not the football side. Buddy/whaley don't sit there and talk contracts with agents. That is Russ and jim doing all that. those two are the business side, hence the people that handle business transactions, like player contracts.

These threads come up way too often. As it has been stated, he isn't there to evaluate players, he is there to talk with agents in hopes of making progress on re-signing the players we need to keep. That is the best thing to do. Do you want scouts and buddy to be handleing contract talks or scouting players? Sure, you can have buddy and the scouts talk with the agents about contracts, but logic would say the football guys would be better off evalutating football talent rather than negotiating how much guarenteed money a player should get. This process worked out really well for us last year (we re-signed the guys we wanted to keep before free agency hit), and I see no problem with them sticking with what actually seems to work for them.

All of the QBs in this draft class seem to have the "inconsistent" label attached to them. When they take a QB, they have to take one they feel they can actually get more consistent. Nassib does seem to have better footwork and a stronger arm than fitz, but the inconsistent performance can't be denied. I do feel Nassib would be an upgrade, but it would be nice to get something that is better than just an "upgrade" and a QB that will be a real difference maker.

This is going to be a tough year to predict how the top ten will unfold. I keep thinking the bills have the most unpredictable pick, but really, a lot of them are hard to predict, including number 1. If they can get a game changer at LB or WR at number 1, and a dececent QB prospect in round 2 or later, that would be dandy. But hard to tell who or what is going to happen. It would probably be best to draft down, but there is no way that is going to happen in this draft unless there is a sucker GM out there. lots of depth, but not much at the very top.

I would hope so. If jordan drops to us and we don't draft him, I am pretty sure he goes to the jests. that would pretty much suck.

But what you are "against" has nothing to do with what Whaley says teams should do are very different. The fact that you are shocked by what he said, which is pretty much boring/repetative talk that every team has been saying, is just silly. You pretty much quoted him saying there is no QB that has it all in this draft, and argued "How dare they use a high pick on these QBS!" I mean, that is a huge stretch of what was said. I don't want them to use a 1st rounder on any of these guys either. I don't know if they will or not, but what Whaley has said in your post doesn't imply anything about how high they will draft a QB. With this regime, I wouldn't be surprised if they wait until the 5th round to draft somebody.