off topic Buffalo Bills 2015

[Ghost of Dwight Drane]

Yeah...."mid-atlantic" is a close call on a couple.

 

I think no matter what line you use, the difference in a 5 year period and 45 picks per team coming in at Bills 7%, the top 6, 40%......something is different.

 

Really, if you are looking at FSU so hard, Ohio St and Mich St. have the same sort of recruiting patterns on many players.

 

I don't have much in common with Whaley when looking at the draft. He talks about drawing a line where a group of players is worth trading for or trading down from. I just don't see it like that. Each draft is it's own monster and you have to think on the fly and see what is going on. Even one of us goofballs in a fantasy league can tell you that. The type of player he looks for at certain positions, especially O-line, does not impress me at all. He has hit on some FA's and young pros so he is not horrible.

[Hoss]

that's just a load of crap.

that is laughable.

Third, its stupid.

It sounds so silly.

Sheesh you sound like me. Only different is freeman hasn't pounced on you... Yet. :p

[SwampD]

Sheesh you sound like me. Only different is freeman hasn't pounced on you... Yet. :p

I'm actually heartened by this "bad draft" news. I want to go back and see how many of our previous drafts have been deemed realy good. It seems like it has been a lot of them, yet here we sit with no playoffs this millennia.

[WildCard]

I'm actually heartened by this "bad draft" news. I want to go back and see how many of our previous drafts have been deemed realy good. It seems like it has been a lot of them, yet here we sit with no playoffs this millennia.

Kiper is an idiot

 

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/gameon/post/2010/05/jamarcus-russell-reminded-mel-kiper-jr-of-john-elway/1#.VUa57Ib3bCQ

 

He also graded Seattle's 2012 draft, where they got Wilson, Wagner, and Irvin, a D.

Kiper gives the Bills the worst draft ranking in the league, and below is the reasoning

 

"I gave the Bills a hard time in the draft grades last year because I thought they paid far too steep a price to move up for Sammy Watkins, given how many good WRs were in that draft. Watkins is going to be just fine, but Mike Evans and Odell Beckham, Jr. could have both been taken without moving up, and that move up now factors into the grade this year, when the Bills didn't have a first-rounder and simply couldn't add the same amount of talent as other teams. I thought Ronald Darby was a reach in Round 2 at No. 50. There's a lot of natural ability with him, but I didn't have CB as nearly the biggest need, and I don't think he was the best player available, either. I'm a lot higher on the third-round selection of John Miller, a physical force in the run game, which they need to succeed to take some pressure off whoever is taking the QB snaps. (There's some buzz that Tyrod Taylor could be really pushing for that role, by the way.) Karlos Williams provides some depth at running back, but I'm not sure how much they needed it, and I might have looked at one of a number of values to be had at linebacker in that range. That said, if Rex said he needed it on defense, my guess is they would have made the move. Nick O'Leary can stick because the competes like heck and can catch the ball. I also think Buffalo got one of the bigger steals in the draft in Dez Lewis, a big-bodied speedster out of Central Arkansas who doesn't look the least bit out of place from a physical and workout standpoint next to the first-round types. The Bills didn't need an amazing draft, thanks to good roster-building outside of QB. That's a good thing."

http://espn.go.com/blog/buffalo-bills/post/_/id/18654/mel-kiper-grades-bills-draft-as-nfls-worst

[Marvelo]

they picked up criminals and low-lifes, approved by Emperor Pegula. I can see the Bills tanking like the Sabres under his leadership. Whaley is a bum.

[Johnny DangerFace]

Sheesh you sound like me. Only different is freeman hasn't pounced on you... Yet. :P

 

haha none of it is at you, I hate draft grades so much.  I know you said they are dumb ( think you said that).  I just think they are ridiculous and make no sense.  It's literally someone rating how an nfl team with their needs and schemes did compared to their big board

Edited May 4, 2015 by Vlad Dangerslakov

[nfreeman]

Sheesh you sound like me. Only different is freeman hasn't pounced on you... Yet. :p

In fact I did notice this post and thought it was pretty obnoxious (Vlad's that is).

they picked up criminals and low-lifes, approved by Emperor Pegula. I can see the Bills tanking like the Sabres under his leadership. Whaley is a bum.

Please -- don't sugarcoat it.

Injuries are part of the player. Their size, toughness, etc. You have to take that into account when taking guys.

 

Considering Whaley has no clue on the O-Line and we will be starting Matt Cassel at QB, the trade is a burnout right now.

 

You could have had Torry Smith or Andre Johnson for free this year. You could have used your 1st this year to get a vet QB on the market...Bradford,Cutler, Foles. You could have used the 4th last year on John Urschel at guard. #OneBuffalo!!! You then could have used the #9 last year to trade down or take Zach Martin, Beckham, or Donald....all taken within 5 picks and in the Pro Bowl.

 

It's not fair to compare to Beckham, so.....Watkins......or Sam Bradford, Zack Martin, John Urschel, and Torry Smith?

 

This is realistic, and before anyone wants to flame me, feel free to check out my rankings of players in the 2014 draft thread, who I thought we could take, and my begging to trade down.

 

 

 

And makes 6x the amount of money he did as a scout.........

Good stuff here sir.

[shrader]

Looking back at that Kiper comment on the Maybin draft class, it actually doesn't sound all that bad to me if you can get beyond Maybin.  I realize that's a big condition, throwing away your first overall pick, but in any given year if we could get three players out of a draft at the level of Wood, Levitre, and Byrd, I think we'd be happy with that.

[LGR4GM]

I just want to say my problem with any draft grading that gets done is mentioned in the Kiper grade above... He looks unfavorably on the Bills' draft from the start because they don't have a first rounder.  You should be grading them based on how well they did with the picks they had.  It's like when a team with 2 firsts and 2 seconds gets an A+ rating because of it.... Idk, draft grades don't mean anything.

 

That said the hell is goin on with drafting everyone from FSU? Are Whaley and Jimbo in a secret relationship or something?  I guess at least we didn't draft Petty although, another year goes by and the Bills don't do what they should which is add a QB in the later rounds.  They have drafted something like 3 QB's since Jim Kelly left... history, repeating, something something, 

[Johnny DangerFace]

They literally look like someone tossed 32 letters at a page

[Taro T]

I just want to say my problem with any draft grading that gets done is mentioned in the Kiper grade above... He looks unfavorably on the Bills' draft from the start because they don't have a first rounder.  You should be grading them based on how well they did with the picks they had.  It's like when a team with 2 firsts and 2 seconds gets an A+ rating because of it.... Idk, draft grades don't mean anything.

 

That said the hell is goin on with drafting everyone from FSU? Are Whaley and Jimbo in a secret relationship or something?  I guess at least we didn't draft Petty although, another year goes by and the Bills don't do what they should which is add a QB in the later rounds.  They have drafted something like 3 QB's since Jim Kelly left... history, repeating, something something,

If they'd only brought in 1 FA QB, I'd be more unhappy w/ no QB's taken. But if everybody available to them is a project, why bother w/ bringing in a project? They've got the 3 they want to look at and nobody picked in the "late rounds" is going to supplant 1 of them this year.

 

See what's around after cuts are made and grab your PS project QB off someone else's scrap heap. Anybody they'd grab in round 5 or later is practice squad bound anyhow in all reasonable scenarios. The team only had 6 picks as it is. Next year's class is much different deeper. Grab somebody next year.

 

Ottomh, since Kelly, they've drafted Collins (while Jimbo was still here), Levi Brown, Trent Edwards, JP Losman, & EJ Manuel. (Probably forgetting some other late round guys.) They also traded away 1sts for Drew Bledsoe and Rob Johnson and signed free agents such as Doug Flutie, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Jeff Tuel, Kyle Orton, Matt Cassel, & Tyrod Taylor.

 

They've tried to address QB, just not even remotely successfully in the last 12 or so years.

[LGR4GM]

I do not disagree with you Taro, but I don't think they will bring in another QB.  They have tried to address it but failing the way they have tells us something I think, somewhere at 1 bills drive there is a fundamental flaw in how they evaluate, draft, acquire, develop, QB's.  

[TrueBlueGED]

I do not disagree with you Taro, but I don't think they will bring in another QB.  They have tried to address it but failing the way they have tells us something I think, somewhere at 1 bills drive there is a fundamental flaw in how they evaluate, draft, acquire, develop, QB's.  

 

If the Bills have a fundamental flaw with QBs, so does every other team in the league. Think about it, are there any QB factories in the NFL? If any team legitimately had a consistent way to evaluate good NFL QBs they'd do it frequently and flip those excess QBs into quality assets. But it doesn't happen.

[LGR4GM]

So qb's are the NHL equivalent of goaltenders.

[Hoss]

I have a feeling we're going to be making the type of "mortgage your future" move in next year's draft to pick up a QB. There's three legitimate top half of the first round type of guys right now. If we're at 19 again or in that ballpark we can't afford to sit and wait. Identify which guy you want and see what it will take to get there.

 

Washington, NYJ, Cleveland, Houston, Denver, Philly, Chicago, Arizona and St. Louis all could be looking for QBs. There's a big free agent class that we could dip into and that will knock off some of those teams, but then it'll open up some other spots.

If Manuel doesn't miraculously turn into a competent QB (he'll need to be even more than that) then I want next offseason to be all about taking care of our own and finding a QB. I'm all for a Washington-type trade for a high-end QB prospect. I do not care about the risk.

 

Christian Hackenberg, Connor Cook and Cardale Jones. Those are the three big names going into next year. CBS's Dane Brugler, who had the best mock draft of any expert by a long shot, actually has Cal's Jared Goff as the first QB in his way too early 2016 mock draft. Goff, Cody Kessler (USC), Gunner Kiel (Cincy) and Dak Prescott (Texas A&M) make next year an amazingly deep QB draft early. As opposed to WR I don't think QB is a position you say "it's deep so let's just wait on who falls." I think you've got to ID the one or two guys you want and do whatever it takes to get up and get them.

Let's go out there and make the playoffs this year and then get our QB next offseason. Let's do this.

[LGR4GM]

Cardale Jones might not even be the starter on his own college team.  If I were looking at Ohio State guys I am taking Miller or Barrett.

[Hoss]

Cardale Jones might not even be the starter on his own college team. If I were looking at Ohio State guys I am taking Miller or Barrett.

Miller is a likely transfer. It's Cardale Jones vs JT Barrett but the assumption is that it'll be Jones. Most experts state it as though it's going to happen. He had three incredible games on the way to a championship. Looks like a Ben Roethlisberger. Obvious small sample size but if he starts for a full year and looks good he's a first-round lock.

 

This isn't discounting the incredible year Barrett had. Jones was just incredible and won a championship.

Edited May 4, 2015 by Hoss

[LGR4GM]

Miller is a likely transfer. It's Cardale Jones vs JT Barrett but the assumption is that it'll be Jones. Most experts state it as though it's going to happen. He had three incredible games on the way to a championship. Looks like a Ben Roethlisberger. Obvious small sample size but if he starts for a full year and looks good he's a first-round lock.

 

This isn't discounting the incredible year Barrett had. Jones was just incredible and won a championship.

According to Meyer, Braxton is staying put.

http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2015/04/urban_meyer_no_indication_brax.html

 

Barrett is a better QB than Cardale. Depending on injuries going into the fall (both Barrett and Miller are expected to be healthy) there is a good chance Cardale is not the starter.  Urban Meyer had him 3rd on the depth chart, I hate Meyer but I'd trust him to tell me which QB is best.

1 thing to consider about Cardale, is there was no tape on him going into the playoffs.  Now there is 3 games worth plus whatever he does this year. It will be difficult for him to surprise teams.  We have seen athletic players come in and shine for short periods of times before but only good players are able to adjust to the adjustments teams make to counteract them. 

[TrueBlueGED]

So qb's are the NHL equivalent of goaltenders.

 

That's basically how I see it. Just another reason to always take a flyer on a guy...have to throw the darts to even have a shot at a bullseye. For whatever it's worth, I think the Bills view Taylor as their late-round/UDFA flyer for this year.

[shrader]

Is Tyrod Taylor eligible for the practice squad?

[TrueBlueGED]

Is Tyrod Taylor eligible for the practice squad?

 

99% certain he's not. 

[Brawndo]

Alex Carrington former Bills DE visiting with Bills today

[Brawndo]

And he is signing

 

@RapSheet: The #Bills will sign versatile DL Alex Carrington to a one-year deal, source said. He’s visiting today, played there from 2010-2013.

[K-9]

And he is signing

 

@RapSheet: The #Bills will sign versatile DL Alex Carrington to a one-year deal, source said. He’s visiting today, played there from 2010-2013.

Good signing. He's versatile and Ryan can play him inside as part of the rotation, too. 

 

GO BILLS!!!

[Hoss]

According to Meyer, Braxton is staying put.

http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2015/04/urban_meyer_no_indication_brax.html

 

Barrett is a better QB than Cardale. Depending on injuries going into the fall (both Barrett and Miller are expected to be healthy) there is a good chance Cardale is not the starter. Urban Meyer had him 3rd on the depth chart, I hate Meyer but I'd trust him to tell me which QB is best.

 

1 thing to consider about Cardale, is there was no tape on him going into the playoffs. Now there is 3 games worth plus whatever he does this year. It will be difficult for him to surprise teams. We have seen athletic players come in and shine for short periods of times before but only good players are able to adjust to the adjustments teams make to counteract them.

Barrett and Miller (miller still doesn't factor into this in my mind) don't have the arm that Cardale does. He can bomb it with accuracy. He's the perfect QB. Barrett is more of the college-style QB, but I still think Cardale has the edge (as do most people). I also don't think there's any chance Cardale went back to school without some sort of guarantee. He would've been a 2nd or 3rd round. Maybe even first (yes, I'm sure somebody would've bet big on those three games).