why did ralph tell everyone we will draft a franchise qb?

[Cru Jones]

granted, right after he said it fitzpatrick started to play better. but why let the whole world know your intentions? i really hope the bills do not stand by ralph's promise. fitzp can be our trent dilfer, let's fill the rest of the holes on the roster and not reach for a qb just because ralph said the franchise qb would be taken in this draft

He didnt lie, there just wasnt a franchise QB in this draft.

[Guest three3]

anyone else thinking pat devlin in the 6th or 7th round? slim pickings at this point

[Slack_in_MA]

Not a Chan guy, not a Belichick guy, not a Rex guy...and so on for all 32 teams. Ouch.

 

Apparently IS a Belicheck guy. Pats are figuring if they can get him in the "Patriots Bubble", they can overcome the character issues, ala the Corey Dillon, Randy Moss, etc experiments. Plus I'm hearing Belicheck relates to him as a guy who just loves the game, comes from a football family like himself.

[tonyjustbcuz]

I'm not claiming to have the best memory on Twobillsdrive, but it seems to me that Ralph made a promise that he was going to immediately send scouts in the field to focus solely on evaluating the QB talent at the college level. That was early during the season when many didn't realize that Fitzpatrick was a servicable to decent QB.

 

I'm not bashing Ryan Fitzpatrick either as I like and root for him as much as I root for the team. I also know that the majority of Bills players on the roster like and support Fitzpatrick.

 

Buddy Nix has said repeatedly during the pre draft process that if you wait to get a QB until you need one it's usually too late! I agree with that mindset which makes me wonder what are we waiting for. The Bills only have Fitzpatrick and Levi Brown on their roster as of now, and obviousl they are not that enthusiastic about Brown's ability seeing that they did release him prior to releasing Brohm.

 

Buddy said that they will have 4 QB's on the roster for training camp, and there is no guarantee that freeagency will have a QB (or two) that they desire...if there is freeagency at all? Who knows if a season as we know it will exist if at all? Who knows if freeagency will occur as we know it or at all?

 

The most prudent thing would have been to get a QB either in the 2nd or 3rd round. I love Dareus...like the 2nd rounder..and I'm okay with the third rounder overall! But, how interesting and the potential that would have existed if we would have drafted Ryan Mallett in the third round. Yes, he has some baggage, and needs to be coached up and peer pressured into staying away from other questionable issues he may have.

 

The scary thing is that we will always have to live with the fact that Ryan Mallett went one pick after us to the New England Patriots. The Patriots are superb talent evaluators and looked more at Mallett's potential rather than focusing on his current detractors. They did okay with the slow-footed Blesdoe didn't they? Peyton Manning was a questionable pick as many thought Ryan Leaf was the right pick. Peyton is a little slower on the foot than many QB's as well, but he has great arm strength and accuracy and Mallett possesses these qualities as well. More on the arm strength than accuracy, but he has the tools!

 

The interesting fact is that if you take the great teams....Indy, N.Eng, Phil, Pitt, S.Diego etc...they can identify QB's...Is it that Gailey gets too much credit for QB's? He can develop them, but he doesn't draft them! He has input, but the bottom line is Modrak, Nix, Ralph, all supercede Gailey's input. 1983 was the last time that we drafted a QB that was close to a sure fire solution. Flutie was okay, not great! Johnson was good occasionally but overall he was lousy! Lossman was a miss! Edwards was a miss! Fitz is an excellent backup or fair starter.

 

Now was the time, and it likely passed! The Bills will probably be just good enought to avoid the Andrew Luck sweepstakes, but bad enough to put to sleep in my reclining chair! The last potential QB that has any potential to me is Ricky Stanzi, Iowa and he is 2 yrs away from being a NFL starter if that ever occurs.

 

So what do you all think we should do as the draft will not likely net us a future franchise QB? If we get to freeagency, who do you think will be available? Carson Palmer? Kevin Kolb, Donovan McNabb? lol... Brett Favre???..lol...had to add that as stranger things have happened! (a couple of times at least!) Hope this post is worthy and I look forward to your ideas....