MTBill Posted May 11, 2014 Posted May 11, 2014 Regarding the trade up for Sammy - you have to factor in that Whaley knew he was trading Stevie. Has anyone researched historical moves up? Giving up next years first stings, but 9 is just not a great spot to be in. OBD is all in for '14. I think they did a decent job in the Draft. Time will tell of course, but count me in the 'Like' category. The OP is setting goals too high to state Watkins HAS to be an all-pro if not HOF player for it to be a success. If he is a part of a team resurgence, that's enough for me.
ChevyVanMiller Posted May 11, 2014 Posted May 11, 2014 I give it an A+, even if it doesn't pan out in the long run. For years, the team has taken the safe road while the playoffs became a thing of myth in these parts. Whaley is playing for keeps right now and I applaud him for it!
Kipers Hair Posted May 11, 2014 Posted May 11, 2014 If everything pans out, it's an A+ draft....Going in, for a team with a poor record, we did not have a ton of holes to fill and where they endevored to fill the holes, they swung for the fences - nice change from the past decade. As with anyone swinging for the fences, I expect some bad misses, but if we hit on Sammy (good bet), Cyrus, Cyril, and Mike Williams - it's an A+ going away. The position not taken, DE, in my opinion, is not one immediately critical, but something where an insurance policy would have felt good. By the way, don't be surprised to see them give the DB from Duke a crack at the FS role somewhere down the line - good smarts, ball skills and athleticism...sounds like a recently departed Pro Bowl FS... Of course, it's all hinging upon EJ playing a full year and progressing from last year. Hahahaha, the absolute highest grade they will get anywhere is a C-, from people in the know, and they will mostly get a Ds. I have already seen a couple of B's...
Reed83HOF Posted May 11, 2014 Posted May 11, 2014 Regarding the trade up for Sammy - you have to factor in that Whaley knew he was trading Stevie. Has anyone researched historical moves up? Giving up next years first stings, but 9 is just not a great spot to be in. OBD is all in for '14. I think they did a decent job in the Draft. Time will tell of course, but count me in the 'Like' category. The OP is setting goals too high to state Watkins HAS to be an all-pro if not HOF player for it to be a success. If he is a part of a team resurgence, that's enough for me. I think it was in the Watkins thread, but someone posted a MMQB article from January talking about the high rate of undergrads this year and that umber has been increasing dramatically due to the 5th year option and wage scale in the CBA. Agents and players are seeing that if they declare early, who cares they can get to the second contract sooner and make more money than being drafted in round 1 like the past. Les Snead even commented stating that he feels many teams will look at the following year's draft talent and figure after the first half of round 2 the talent drop off is big enough that teams will trade away those future picks this year.... As far as the players they drafted in the the rounds they were drafted in - Watkins was one of the top 3 or 4 players in this draft; he was tied with Clowney on top of our board, Cyrus is a first round talent (lots of peeps thought the Phins would grab him in round 1), Preston meh (but he was the starting mlb on the best D in CFB), Ross (love his strengths and his weaknesses are strength - great value pick with something that is easily correctable), Cyril great value, Seantral - why not take the flyer on this player, better to draft this kind of talent in rd 7 than let him be a UDFA. On value alone it is an A/B+. The potential is there we shall see in the next 2-3 years how this turns out...
machine gun kelly Posted May 11, 2014 Posted May 11, 2014 A+ Us Kelly's have to stick together. Agreed. A+. We filled areas with nice quality players. There is risk with any draft and the lower the round, the more you can find wrong in a person. We actually might have a 7th round starter. Tell him to put the bong down and he can make millions. I'd take that gamble. If our line really improved then we picked up a beast for a WR, and if you ad free agency, this has been an excellent off season, with money left in the cap to resign other players before next year like Spiller.
Hplarrm Posted May 11, 2014 Posted May 11, 2014 it's a pretty foolhardy exercise to compare the market value of one year's draft versus market value in another year's draft as in essence they are different markets. Further, even within a draft, a specific trade may be a stupid trade for one team, but the same deal basically may be a smart trade for another team which is in a different position. The NFL draft is actually fun because of the many variables. In essence, trading away next year's first rounder (or even most of next year's draft)to get the one player which you believe will deliver you an SB this year would be a deal most teams would make. Is a third round pick worth more than a 1st round pick? Obviously not. However, woulkd you rather have third round pick Joe Montana or 1st round pick Mike Williams? I would take the third rounder all day and twice on Sunday. If EJ and Watkins click (and EJ avoids the seeming random occurrence of injury) then I simply do not care who trades which pick for which or whom next year. If next years 1's a top 10 pick they gave up too much for Watkins, if the pick is 20 or lower it is steal. Liked the Cyrus and Cyrill picks, should shore up the line for years. others are good depth or special teams and if they can keep Seantrel straight t will be even better
LOVEMESOMEBILLS Posted May 11, 2014 Posted May 11, 2014 A+ This is two days in a row, there's two questions I have. Who are you? And what did you do with Kellyto83TD ? As for the draft, I loved it A+.
Sumin Posted May 11, 2014 Posted May 11, 2014 I wish the Bills had kept their additional pick in the 5th and selected a quarterback. Other than that, this draft was pretty solid. We addressed most of our weaknesses and were aggressive. I hope this draft class will be the factor that pushes us into the playoffs.
SoFFacet Posted May 11, 2014 Posted May 11, 2014 I think the draft reflected their WIN NOW strategy. Trading away our first next year to get a player this year that can get us over the hump and into the playoffs as well as getting a player in the second round whose knees are bad and might not make it until year 4 of his rookie contract. They made some gutsy picks that might not rank well with draft insiders but they made us a better team so I would say mission accomplished. B+ I don't think it's necessarily win-now. It's perfectly possible that we are better off in several years with Watkins than we would be with say, Ebron + 2015 1st. It just depends on whether or not the scouting that underpinned the trade in the first place is correct.
swnybillsfan Posted May 11, 2014 Posted May 11, 2014 i just love the fact that whaley seems to be bombarding certain positions with talent. a lot of this talent has a certain amount of risk attatched to it. But if only half of these guys pan out, i think we'll be in really good shape. i also really liked the fact that whaley really seemed to be dictating his way through the draft rather than letting the draft "come to him". very aggressive, and whether it works or not, i am happy with enthusiasm in which he attacked this draft.
bobobonators Posted May 11, 2014 Posted May 11, 2014 From A+ to F Id have to objectively give them an A. We snagged the best WR in the draft without having to give anything up this year. We lacked true playmakers at WR. We improved the OL, which was also a weakness. We added some depth at ILB which is also key having older veterans play that spot right now. Great draft.
bowery4 Posted May 11, 2014 Posted May 11, 2014 Solid B with a chance of turning into an A, is the draft over yet?
Chilly Posted May 11, 2014 Posted May 11, 2014 A+. We haven't had an explosive wide receiver like Sammy Watkins in forever. He alone is awesome.
Beerball Posted May 11, 2014 Posted May 11, 2014 Impossible to rate, but..."all in" seems to be the phrase of the week. High risk with possible high reward is how I would characterize the draft.
Sherrif John Brown Posted May 11, 2014 Posted May 11, 2014 This draft was all about the trenches. 3 OL and 2 LB... Added a hopefully elite WR and then via trade a RB with spiller speed that has more size, runs inside, north and south. A DB never hurts... Throw on top of that Spikes Chris Williams Mike Williams Rivers Graham Dixson They literally attacked WR LB RB OL And bought in multiple options in case something fails to pan out. They also bought insurance for injury and contract expiration at the weak positions. Ok FS is the one position where they may have taken a hit. But overall the net talent took another big step forward. +1 I really love what Whaley & Brandon are trying to do....win!. Everything might not pan out exactly, but they are sure as hell trying & I love it!!
KOKBILLS Posted May 11, 2014 Posted May 11, 2014 I think based solely on the talent and where they Drafted them I would give it a B+...Watkins is a stud and arguably the best player in this Draft...Definitely one of the Top 5...Kouandjio was a 1st round talent and would have gone MUCH higher if other teams agreed with the Bills doctors...Brown was a solid pick and will contribute...Cockrell was a great value in the 4th, he's going to surprise I think...Richardson and Henderson have BIG upsides and if they were clean off the field (Richardson with weight and Henderson with...well...a few things) they would have been 2nd-4th round picks...And Johnson has some very nice athletic ability, measurables, and production for a 7th round pick...Plus they pick up Brown and Williams who are already good, solid NFL players... Hard to put too many holes in this Draft...Sure they would have liked to get a 4-3 DE, and maybe a Safety...But this Draft, for all it's depth, was weakest in those two areas...So the Bills did the smart thing and took the more talented football players...I honestly think that with this off season almost in the books this is the deepest roster we have seen in Buffalo in the last 15 years or so...There's just not a lot of holes anymore...Which puts the pressure squarely on the QB position to simply execute, and not lose games for us...I'm very excited about this coming season...More than I have been in years...
Bob in STL Posted May 11, 2014 Posted May 11, 2014 Grades mean nothing at this time, lets see in how these players it looks in 2017. I think the front did a great job in free agency and in the draft. You can see movements in place too improve the team on al fronts. So far I am impressed with Whaley. Much more action than Donahoe/Williams/Mularky, Levy/Brandon/Jauron, Nix/Gailey. Whaley atttempts to address all areas with proactive moves. The others settled for what they had at times. How the Bills do in 2014-15 will depend on two things: 1. EJ 2. Will the veterans rally for their coach and come up big when needed
BuffaninATL Posted May 11, 2014 Posted May 11, 2014 Hahahaha, the absolute highest grade they will get anywhere is a C-, from people in the know, and they will mostly get a Ds. look again negative Nancy, they got a B from cnnsi.com ........
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