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Best "Young Talent" team in the NFL

DrDawkinstein
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MaineMoxie RFA

MaineMoxie

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Can't find any fault in that.

 

I can. Saying Lynch hadn't developed "whatsoever" seems to miss the fact that he went over 1000 yards rushing his first two seasons.

 

And as for the injury prone guys, while some of it was legitimately bad luck, some of it also had to have been Dick's horrible conditioning program.

 

Plus, say all you want about the horrible front office at OBD, but they do have a pretty good track record over the past decade of finding "unplucked gems" (apologies to The Hip) like Fred Jackson, George Wilson, etc. (Incidentally, whoever was responsible for these practice squad developments ought to have been promoted a long time ago.)

Gabe Northern RFA

Gabe Northern

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I can. Saying Lynch hadn't developed "whatsoever" seems to miss the fact that he went over 1000 yards rushing his first two seasons.

 

And as for the injury prone guys, while some of it was legitimately bad luck, some of it also had to have been Dick's horrible conditioning program.

 

Plus, say all you want about the horrible front office at OBD, but they do have a pretty good track record over the past decade of finding "unplucked gems" (apologies to The Hip) like Fred Jackson, George Wilson, etc. (Incidentally, whoever was responsible for these practice squad developments ought to have been promoted a long time ago.)

 

He was super talented, that's why he was an 11 overall selection.

 

"Developed" means he improved from that already lofty status.

Mr. WEO Hall of Famer

Mr. WEO

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When every position is one of need come draft day after draft day, you get a lot of starters on your roster who are 25 or under. Not sure how that has has helped us over the past 5 years.

MaineMoxie RFA

MaineMoxie

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Posted
He was super talented, that's why he was an 11 overall selection.

 

"Developed" means he improved from that already lofty status.

 

Yeah, but it implied he was a waste of a pick which I disagree with. If Adrian Peterson hadn't come into the league the same year, Lynch could have made a run at rookie-of-the-year. He was arguably the second-best rookie that year. His production tailed off last year partly because he's a bonehead, partly because Fred Jackson proved his worth, and partly because the entire offense was a complete and utter mess last year.

SRQ_BillsFan RFA

SRQ_BillsFan

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They have a complex way to determine "team rankings".

 

"Instead of limiting our analysis to players who have yet to emerge in the NFL, these rankings consider all players who will be 25 or younger as of September 1, 2010 -- regardless of where they were drafted or how many games they've started. After compiling a list of eligible players for each team, we compared the groups on a variety of factors. We weighed issues like upside versus established production, quantity versus quality, and current staff versus historical ability to develop rookies when it comes to evaluating the talent available to each NFL franchise.

 

In the end, we put together these rankings with help from the rest of the crew at Football Outsiders. The capsules represent a synopsis of thoughts as to why the team is ranked where they are and who the important young players are for the franchise. However, we should point out that talent under the age of 25 does not equal talent overall. In the NFL, a couple bounces of the ball can turn an average team into a wild-card contender -- but it takes real time to build a team that can challenge for a Super Bowl title. Some of the teams near the top of our list are still a couple of years away from that point, and their rank is more about promise for the future than promise for this upcoming campaign."

 

Initially I would have expected us to be ranked higher as well, at least initially. Then I realized the "young players" probably stand out more in Buffalo because we all expect them to be key in turning this franchise around. The way things are going they certainly need to be large part of the equation, luck comes in at a strong #2, after that I couldn't even speculate what the formula would be.

 

To make things worse this guy really doesn't have much good to sat about the young Bills. So unless you were expecting to see young players, that have not shown much while backing up average starters, suddenly predicted to have pro bowl futures this probably makes sense. I do think that I need more time to digest this before agreeing or disagreeing. But in the end my opinion doesn't mean S#!^.

 

But I did figured I would post the ranking for anyone interested.

 

22. Buffalo Bills

The Bills have a lot of young players on offense; unfortunately, none of them appear to be any good. Okay, C.J. Spiller should be the exception, but we don't know anything about what he'll do in the NFL. He has potential, but so did Marshawn Lynch, who failed to develop whatsoever. Buffalo has nearly a dozen qualifying players at wide receiver and tight end, but the best of the group might be 2008 second-rounder James Hardy, who's caught 10 passes in two seasons and showed up to OTAs overweight. Promising guard Eric Wood broke his leg last year and may never be 100 percent again. There is hope on the defense, though, where safety Jairus Byrd tied for the league lead in interceptions as a rookie and cornerback Leodis McKelvin appears to be the next one up in the assembly line of great Bills corners. Unfortunately, those corners all seem to leave. Linebacker Paul Posluszny is a supreme talent, but he struggles to stay healthy, and health is a skill.

Thurman#1 Hall of Famer

Thurman#1

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Posted
Thanks SRQ, unfortunately yours will probably get taken down like the previous posting.

 

Who was #1?

 

 

Oh, that's what happened. I thought I was going blind.

 

22nd? That's fair. That's the neighborhood I would place us in. Could go higher or lower depending on the season. If Levitre, Wood, Maybin, Byrd, Hardy, S. Johnson, Bell, Brohm, Langster, McKelvin, Meredith, Shawn Nelson, Whitner, Youboty and, crucially, Ed Wang - he's going to be a real tipping point if he becomes a solid LT - and maybe a few other rookies continue to develop, we could look pretty terrific a year or two down the road. Generally, though, not everyone does develop. A certain percentage become really good, a larger number become decent and a number never do anything.

 

The good drafting teams, the teams with good scouting networks and good decision makers at the top get higher percentages becoming really good and lower percentages bombing. We haven't been a good drafting team in a long time, though there is some evidence that is changing. Too early to say, though. That's the single most important factor in predicting our success ... is Nix really as good a drafter as we all hope, and if he is, will Whaley continue at the same high level when Nix steps down?

 

If I were writing that article, I would give a higher rating to teams that: 1) have shown a historical ability to draft a high number of successes, teams like Pittsburgh, the Pats*, the Colts, the Chargers, and so on. I'd also give a higher rating to 2) teams that successfully draft guys that fit into their systems, like the Colts who have succeeded so well with smaller faster defenders, and 3) teams with historically successful systems that put players in the best possible situation to develop in.

 

The usual suspects, the teams that are consistently good, have all three. The Bills haven't proven any of these things. We think they might be headed in the right direction, but right now it's only a hope.

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