A Few Thoughts About The Game, in no particular order.....

[Orton's Arm]

Agree with every Bill and good post. However, I get the feeling Gilmore is going to be your new Spiller and Whitner (looks pretty good on the 49ers, doesn't he?). The guy looks as confident as any rookie cb I have seen with the Bills. He needs to get some more game turning plays, but the guy has Revis potential IMO.

 

There's a difference between the Gilmore and Spiller picks on the one hand, and the Whitner pick on the other. Several mock drafts I saw didn't have Whitner going until the second round. Vic Carucci didn't have Whitner rated as a first round talent. Once Whitner's time with the Bills ended, the relative lack of interest in him among NFL GMs, and the relatively small size of the contract he ultimately signed with San Francisco, indicated that NFL GMs around the league didn't think he was good enough to justify the kind of contract a first round pick, in the prime of his career, performing at or above expectations, can typically expect to receive. By comparison, the Vikings made Antoine Winfield one of the highest paid defenders in the league when they signed him away from us.

 

Shortly after Whitner was picked, Marv explained the selection by saying that the pick shouldn't have been looked at in isolation. Instead, you had to look at the combination of SS and DT the Bills received in the first round. He said they got a better SS + DT pair than would have been the case, had they gone DT first and SS second. The problem with this line of thinking is that Marv ignored much better players at other positions in order to add an SS and a DT.

 

Unlike Marv--who squandered his first round picks on players like Whitner, Lynch, and McCargo--Nix has typically taken a more disciplined approach to the first round. Pre-draft, Spiller was felt to be one of the two or three most talented players available. Taking him at 9th overall represented the opposite of a reach. At least according to pre-draft analysis, Gilmore was the best available player when the Bills picked at 11th overall. Both were justifiable on the basis of best player available, and Gilmore also filled a high value position of very legitimate need. The one time Nix failed to take the best available player with his first round pick was when he took Dareus instead of A.J. Green. That decision looks sub-optimal in hindsight; just as his decisions to take Spiller and Gilmore look very good.

 

The argument has been made that the Bills should eschew RBs and DBs in the first round. RBs, because our first and second round RBs have typically been replaced every 3 - 4 years. DBs, because over the last 15 years the Bills have typically let their best DBs go first-contract-and-out. Over the last 15 years, first round RBs and DBs have almost invariably been short-term value propositions. A rebuilding team like the Bills should never squander its first round picks on short-term-only value propositions. But Nix is not Butler or Donahoe or Marv: there's nothing to indicate that Nix will allow Gilmore to go first-contract-and-out. As for Spiller: even if you have a moderately strong anti-RB bias--as I do--Spiller is a better enough player than the others available to fully justify the pick.

Edited December 3, 2012 by Edwards' Arm

[San Jose Bills Fan]

The joy I felt today was due to having yet another recent game where the Defense seemed much improved from earlier in the season......and the fact that the game progression suggested that when we focus on the running game, utilizing our first class RBs, we look like we have something that potentially will see us be a legitimate playoff team in the future.

 

I'm feeling really good about this defense. In the 5 games since the bye, the team has given up just 86 yards per game rushing and less than 3.4 yards per rush.

 

The pass rush has improved too.

 

Mostly several of the younger players are looking very good including Carrington, Moore, Gilmore, and Searcy. Sheppard still looks terrible though, IMO.

 

I didn't see much difference in the defense from the pathetic efforts we've had all season.

 

Okay.