BobChalmers

Of course they can - and then sign a slightly lower rated guard for 3 or 4 $M instead - it's hard to imagine the "football analytics" that could justify putting your big money into an OG. I love having him on the team and all, but that doesn't mean paying a forture for him is smart. Byrd and Levitre (if they get there) are just FA's like a bunch of other players. Once you have the cash from letting these guys go, what's the significance of resigning your own guys as opposed to spending the same cash on other positions where the difference between having the best and having OK is more impactful to wins and losses? Put it another way - would you trade Levitre for Dwayne Bowe? I think I'd rather have Bowe and Rheinhart as starters then Levitre and Easely(or Jones/Nelson before they were let loose) - wouldn't you?

The leadership is going to come from Pettine's hand-picked guys they are going to bring in FA - isn't that obvious? Not only has the recent group of "leaders" produced a horrible result on the field - they aren't part of the culture they are trying to change to.

I think trading UP for any QB in this particular draft would be very foolish and I welcome the JESTS to pull such a bone-headed move. Agreed - but more than what I think, I just don't think the little hints OBD has been slipping point to Smith at all. It's hard to picture the QB OBD talks about as "winning the big/clutch games" would be the same guy Marone beat twice in bowl games.

I would also bet your life on it. Seriously - no way he's worth even KC's 2nd.

I'm really not opposed to giving McKelvin another shot at starting CB. His cover skills have been good - he just struggled competing for balls in the air - don't know how trainable/learnable that is, but it seems like it might be enough to give him that shot. Obviously he has the speed and agility to play the position and then some.

Cripes dude - your "The smartest man in the room" tag suits you - in that it lets us all know up front that you are full of yourself as well as full of a bit more. I've said it before and noone rose to it so I'll say it again. The Alabama game wasn't "one game" it was THE BIGGEST GAME OF T'EO's LIFE (to date). He stunk. In addition to the praise and hype, there were already a lot of questions about both Manti and ND in general going into that game - because their strength of schedule had a lof of people doubting them. Turns out there was cause for doubt. Now we can still try to guess it was "just one bad game" but that still says either he's not physically up to NFL level competition OR he didn't have himself at his best after a month off. The former is damning, the latter isn't much better though - if this guy is a top-10 MLB/ILB where are the leadership and mental toughness to step up and/or prepare for THE BIGGEST GAME OF HIS LIFE? He was slotted at #8 or higher two months ago. That went out the window with one of his multiple failed tackle attempts on Lacy. I am certain the imaginary dead girlfriend (although it distratced the media and publc from this BCS collapse) isn't by itself too destructive, but it does put into the mind of a lot of GM's that he's got the potential to be grief and bad publicity they don't need. He needed to look good at the combine to stay in the first round - he didn't. Both the poor 40-time and his height not being as was reported do not help.

This. The weirdness with his "dead" imaginary "girlfriend" isn't great (shows some shaky mental skills?) but he should have fallen like a stone in any draft board after he totally crapped the bed in the BIGGEST GAME OF HIS LIFE! He needs to look GOOD in these workouts. 4.8 ain't it. It's just more evidence that he may be a solid leader, etc., but he's not an elite athlete - and at #8 how do you even dream of taking an ILB who isn't elite?? I seriously wonder if the release of the whole "girlfriend" fiasco wasn't intentional to distract everyone from his horrible onfield performance. Only thing he was disrupting in the BIGGEST GAME OF HIS LIFE was the underside of Alabama cleats as they stomped all over him.

Well for sure Thigpen is gone - he was definitely on the list of "Chan's guys we couldn't otherwise explain", right?

Seriously - I took it for a quesiton about gay dating options in Eastern PA...

Beat me to it!!

GET 'ER DONE (If only Wang could have stuck on the OL with Wood and Levitre... ) Speaking of Fitz, I loved the Tom Landry reference: "Tom Landry used to be of the opinion that accuracy couldn't be fixed; a quarterback who entered the NFL with accuracy issues wasn't likely to get any better,..." Even when you bring in a mechanics-focused QB coach, apparently...

Is he? I would instead characterize Brad Smith as a mediocre player who only has significant NFL value because he can play so many positions. For example, I don't think a year or two playing full-time WR is going to have Smith playing so well that anyone will be thinking we don't need a serious WR upgrade opposite Stevie.

I don't propose cutting Fred, but your assessment of Fred vs. CJ is at least a year out of date. CJ > Fred period. Fred is strictly a backup now.

Yeah - except they haven't picked a LB higher than round 3 since Poz, and LB's are the core of a defense, especially the run defense, sooooo... Also I think we've heard enough slip out between the lines that Pettine and the rest of the NFL were basically lauighing at what a lousy job Wannstadt was doing with his "simple" defense. Every other comment has hinted that the talent on defense was poorly utilized and talking about how you have to confuse the good QB's with disguised defenses. E.J. Manuel RD2/3-----Rodney Smith RD5, Fla. State I'm going with this assuming they get Smith or even Matt Moore and draft the best available LB in RD1. I don't love breaking the draft trying to grab a "maybe-type" QB this year, much as the current situation pains me. Manuel has a huge upside - I'd rather take my gamble in round 2 (no way he makes it to round 3 though).

Yeah - that's been bugging me too - I hate to say this but are people assuming he's a running QB just because he's black?? He's a pocket QB guys.

So now we are hallucinating that Geno Smith is in even remotely the same class as RG3 much less Luck???

This. Admittedly he has a rather nondescript name, but I still remember who David Harris is. Big athletic ILB from either Michigan or Michigan State - I forget which and too lazy to look it up!

The better Barnett played a two or more years ago. The current one needs to retire. Barnett's play already represented a gaping hole in the defense. Keeping or releasing him had no impact on the size of the hole, but releasing him did give them more options and money to fill it with.

NFLN's poor talent and brain-dead productions/analysis really are an oddity. They seem determined to dumb down as much of their coverage as they can and play to the lowest common denominator in their audience. I wouldn't be as bothered by it if they mixed it up with some deeper stuff, but they really just batter you with dumb and dumber in one show after another. "A Football Life" is a good series - produced by NFL Films, of course, not NFLN.

I'm more like, I have nice feelings about Mike Mayock, and I will probably watch a lot as I have the chance, but not every minute and not worrying that much about which positions are up... ...although obviously this year I will watch as much fo the QB's as I can.

Double-UGH

Thank you. He's not big, not fast, and doesn't have great hands. Other than that, he's an awesome NFL WR. I think I've learned one thng from this: Now I know that the incriminating photos Jones was using to be a starter on this team were of Gailey and not Nix.

Yeah - the best news in this statement is that Clayton is rarely right, so I am hopeful the Bills aren't really that stupid.

That works for me OR Take a stud ILB/MLB at #8 and trade back up to get Manuel/(or Wilson ?) then grab the other guy in the 4th still sounds right.

This is irony, right? They said that about Brady, which is why he was a SIXTH ROUNDER. Why in hell would you draft a guy like that #8, given that it's impossible to identify a Brady?? I'd be pretty happy with Kiper's draft - get the LB they're desperate for and no QB's taken so lots of opportunity to trade back up or grab one in the second.