Brock Osweiler seemed to have good pro day

[Kelly the Dog]

A couple big hits and jawing with players and suddenly hes an intense emotional leader that sets the tone for the whole defense. Duh. Just ignore the rest of the film, I saw like a 2 minute highlight clip with like 6 plays repeated 4 times each and there's that one time he was pointing and yelling at the guy pre-snap. Penalties, heavy feet, poor form, and bad decision making only showed up in like 1-2 of the plays in my extensive YouTube scouting. Plus there was cool music- maybe we can have someone follow him around playing cool music to make him more exciting.

If you or anyone watches youtubes of him playing as a junior, you would see this almost worthless player.

If you or anyone watches youtubes of him playing as a freshman and sophomore, there is a decent to good chance you would say, wow, this guy is a killer.

If you or anyone watches youtubes of him just in his highlights, they are not always the best of his plays and they were often just freak plays that some fans like because they were exciting. Again, not even all that good of an indication of him.

 

It's impossible to do, but to me, the only way to evaluate Vontaze Burfict was to watch several full games of him as a sophomore, and then debate whether he has the skills, speed, agility, awareness, football sense and smarts, technique, etc, to become a good or even star player in the NFL. I happen to like him, but I have friends who watch a lot of football and saw him like I did and they don't think he made enough good plays with all that talent. That is very arguable, and I may be wrong.

 

I saw Mayock, who I really like talk about him for a minute or so, and say he may not even get drafted at all after watching the game film. My question would be, however, did he watch this year's If he did, I would agree with him. Burfict was terrible for most of the season. But I think that if Mayock watched game film from last year, it would be a different evaluation. Maybe he did and still came to that conclusion, or, watched both, and saw him regress, and then came to the conclusion.

 

Last year the world fell apart for the kid and he did not respond well. He hasn't responded all that well since either, but seems to be getting back in shape by the looks of it.

 

I'd take a flyer on him in the 6th or 7th round. he surely, IMO, has as good a chance at making the team and being a successful NFL player as any other 6th or 7th rounder, which is slight.

[John from Riverside]

been saying this for years. spot on.

 

OK.....well do you think this is this is the year for that?

 

I dont but thats just my opinion.....the draft appears to be strong in certain areas and i think we should pluck players from them.....time to get rid of the fringe WR's we plan on the practice squad and bring up.....lets get guys who could actually stop in and say....hey that guy looks like Stevie Johnson out there. Sanu....Jeffrey.....those guys look like studs....and the 2nd round is where you normally pick up that "developmental backup guy" for QBs there is nobody past luck and RGIII I would even consider in the 1st round

[Kelly the Dog]

OK.....well do you think this is this is the year for that?

 

I dont but thats just my opinion.....the draft appears to be strong in certain areas and i think we should pluck players from them.....time to get rid of the fringe WR's we plan on the practice squad and bring up.....lets get guys who could actually stop in and say....hey that guy looks like Stevie Johnson out there. Sanu....Jeffrey.....those guys look like studs....and the 2nd round is where you normally pick up that "developmental backup guy" for QBs there is nobody past luck and RGIII I would even consider in the 1st round

Except Stevie Johnson was exactly the kind of developmental player you want to avoid, in order to get a player like Stevie Johnson.

[Reed83HOF]

There are three separate kinds of back-ups in the NFL. Some of them can be two of those kinds, but they are fairly difficult to find. There are not a lot of great back-ups around the league, and even guys that do well at first, like, say, TJ Yates, may not be all that good.

 

Teams need a back-up that can come in mid-game and still have a good chance to win that game, or to come in and be a stopgap so your season is not lost if your starter goes down for a game or two.

 

Teams need a back-up that can be your starting QB for the entire season and still give you a chance if your starter goes down for the entire year.

 

Teams need a developmental QB prospect who is young that they can wait 1-3 years to see if he improves enough to become a solid back-up like the ones above or an eventual starter.

 

#1 and #2 above are not always the same guy and not the same thing. The Bills may or may not have either of them, depending on what you think of Thigpen. I think 90% of Bills fans think that Thigpen can't do either of those things. But I also think that Chan Gailey thinks Thigpen is a very solid option at both.

 

The Bills really don't have a #3 developmental guy either, depending on what they think of Brad Smith as a QB. Last year, Gailey said he was surprised at how good a thrower Smith was in practice, and the decided to drop Levi as their #3 and developmental guy to let Smith have that position and those (few) practice reps. With Smith having to play WR in all the practices, he missed out on half a year of playing QB in practice. Again, what fans think of him, and what my impression of what Gailey thinks of him from what I have heard Chan and Smith himself say, is mutually exclusive.

 

The Bills are clearly, however, looking to upgrade their back-up, self-evident by bringing in Cousins and Osweiler. Perhaps Gailey has lost some confidence in Thigpen after a year. I tend to doubt it. Perhaps they just decided that Smith was not a safe enough option as a developmental guy as they had hoped, because of Thigpen as well as Fitz's injury, so now they want a more conventional grooming QB to be #3 for a year and then #2 next year.

 

It's hard to even predict what they are thinking, and impossible to know. If I had to guess, I think they are strongly looking at drafting a QB prospect they can groom, but if other players they like at other positions are still available when guys like Cousins and Osweiler may be picked, they won't take the QB. And may not draft one til the 5-7th.

 

Can't argue with or dispute any of this, you are spot on Kelly regarding the roles of a backup and where our team most likely is.

 

Where my opinion falls on this is, well the Eagles are a perfect example as they always seem to have the hot backup QB. Kolb for instance, they draft the guy in the second round in 07, he is a 3rd stringer behind McNabb and Feeley (who they eventually traded). He works his way up to second stringer the next season, McNabb gets benched, starts a couple games, they sign Vick, gets hurt, Vick plays and never goes back to the bench and they end up trading Kolb for a 2nd rounder and DRC.

 

So for all of that he was drafted in the 2nd round in 2007 and traded after the 2011 for a second rounder and DRC. All Kolb did was get them DRC and waste 4 years worth of growth from a second round pick player they could have had in 2007. Feeley was drafted in the 5th round in 2001, and traded for a second rounder in 2005. Again another 4 year wasted period between drafting and trading. We found Kyle Williams in the 5th round, I'm sure that type of player would have really helped the Eagles during those 4 years and beyond. The Eagles are a team that takes time to draft and develop QBs, only to (hopefully) trade them for picks years later. In some instances with other teams, they get drafted, they flop and gets cut (Brian Brohm). This is one big reason why the Eagles can never get over the hump. They leave talent on the board that they really need.

 

Just to use a more recent example is Matt Flynn, a 7th rounder drafted in 2008. The Packers invested a lot of time and energy in developing Flynn only to have him leave as an FA this year, for no compensation (except an eventual compensatory pick). What did the Packers get out if it, a capable back-up for Aaron Rodgers for a couple seasons. For the couple games he missed, with the talent the Packers had, I think even Rex Grossman could have looked spectacular our there.

 

Backup QBs with potential will never resign with the team that developed them. There will always be a market for the top backup to become a starter and make bank on a QB needy team. The days of hiding Frank Reich on your team are over.

 

jmo of course.