My thoughts on the Draft and Offseason as a whole

[Turn Down For Watkins]

This draft just seems to be one of the weaker ones that I can remember over the years, especially at the positions of need for the Bills. Obviously many will agree that the top need for this team to address is the pass rush, but looking at the draft each of the top pass rushers coming out seem to have their fair share of question marks. Here are my thoughts on a few of them.

 

Courtney Upshaw- Well, he certainly has the college routes on his side coming out of Alabama and playing his college ball this past season on one of the best defenses ever in college football. However if you look at him, does he really fit into what Dave Wannstedt is trying to do? He would come in and most likely play opposite of Kelsay at DE, but his sill set just seems oh so very similiar to that of Mr. Kelsay. One of the reasons why Im not sure if he should be the pick at 10 is this.. does he really address our pass rush issue? Also one of most important things for a DE to be able to do is bat down balls at the line of scrimmage, and only being 6-2 I kind of question whether he could do this as well as we would like.

 

Quinton Coples- he certainly has the size and experience on his side coming out as a Senior from UNC.. and in my opinion fits a little better into our 4-3 than Upshaw does. However,

whenever I watched him this past season he just really didnt stick out to me and you could definitly see that he took some plays off. This alone makes me pass on him at number 10.

 

Whitney Mercilus- Mercilus may have the most potential out of all the projected first rounders coming out this year. He had a heck of a year this past season with Illinois and also has the size that would allow him to come right in and fit well into our 4-3. The thing thats worries me about him is the fact that he has only had 1 good year of production in college, and you have to wonder what you would be getting out of him if you took him at ten. Because it could really range anywheres from being the next JPP to the next Aaron Maybin. In general I would say stay away from one year wonders, especially if you have a top 10 pick.

 

Melvin Ingram- When looking at this man you can clearly see he is a heck of an athlete. How many d-lineman can you honestly say you've seen play on the hands team for onside kicks in college? Not many thats for sure. But standing at only 6-2 his height and size also worries me.. now im sure people will say that its crazy to criticize someone because of their height.. but if your the Bills dont you want to make sure you absolutely nail this pick? Also what seperates him from the other players coming out at his position? In general all of the players listed above including Ingram seem very iffy when it comes to whether they can address our pass rush concerns.

 

My thoughts on pick number 10: If I were the Bills I would go all out in free agency to try and land one of the top rushers availabale.. whether that be Mario Williams, Robert Mathis, Jeremey Mincey, John Abraham, or even Mark Anderson because myself personally would not want to risk a top 10 draft pick on one of the pass rushers I talked about earlier. This way in the 1st we can look at maybe giving Fitz another top wideout in either Michael Floyd or Kendall Wright or depending on what happens in free agnecy maybe someone who can protect his blindside in either Riley Reiff or Jonathan Martin. Than in the second round one guy that I really like is Ronnell Lewis the LB out of Oklahoma.. this would address our OLB postion and fill another large need on our football team. Any thoughts or opinions are welcome. Go Bills!