The Buffalo Bills shored up their inept defense by picking Marcell Dareus, the massive 320 lb. defensive lineman from Alabama, in the First Round. The Bills then improved their secondary by choosing Aaron Williams, the corner back from Texas, with their Second Round pick. In the Third Round, the Bills picked Kelvin Sheppard, linebacker from LSU. The Bills have many needs: quarterback, offensive lineman, tight end, linebackers, etc. But with this Draft, the Bills need to start to take steps toward respectability. It’s been 11 long years since the Bills have been in the NFL playoffs. Most of the damage has been self-inflicted: terrible draft picks, staggeringly bad trades, incompetent coaches, and a culture of mediocrity. Coach Chan Gailey and GM Buddy Nix have a plan to make the Buffalo Bills competitive again. But it starts (and ends) with acquiring good players and coaching them to excellence.
Most of the damage has been self-inflicted: terrible draft picks, staggeringly bad trades, incompetent coaches, and a culture of mediocrity.
But other than that…
Maybe the Bills fans are welcoming the lockout….
Buffalo Bills fans are fanatical, Jeff. They want football as much as any other NFL fan. Hope springs eternal that the Bills will return to the Glory Days.
I don’t think any other team has made it to four Super Bowls in a row. Granted, they lost all four… it’s no surprise Goodell was booed at the draft.
The fans don’t care about labor issues, Jeff. The Commish was just the lightning rod for fan displeasure at the prospect of no football in September.
Things have come to a pretty pass when, in the midst of NBA & NHL playoffs, while major league baseball is humming along, everything shuts down for mind-numbing hours of the NFL draft.
Mel Kiper Jr. has a lot to answer for.
You’re right about Mel Kiper, Jr., Deb. Who knew that 27 years ago, he’d have ESPN running three days of NFL Draft coverage! But, I believe Kiper is a sincerely geeky Draft nut.
Dareus seems like a decent pick. I had thought the Broncos would take him, but they went for Von Miller instead.
I kind of like Ryan Fitzpatrick.
Ryan Fitzpatrick is one of the smartest QBs in the NFL, Drongo. I think he’s the only Harvard QB in the League. Von Miller would have been the Bills pick if Denver had gone for Dareus.
Now that I live in a non-NFL city (but wait, L.A> is also a non-NFL city…) with the Seattle Seahawks, a team I’ve long liked anyway, that’s who I’ll be following. I gave up on the Chargers a few years back when they fired the coach who got them to the playoffs year after year but couldn’t beat New England. Bah.
I’ve long believed that you build an NFL team this way:
1. Offensive line
2. Defensive line & linebackers
3. Defensive secondary
4. Blocking backs and tight ends
when those are in place, get the running back and the quarterback, the two positions that last the shortest time in terms of starting years. With solid defense and offensive line, even a mediocre backfield can win games if you hold the other team to low scores. Seems like Buffalo is on the right track with this draft.
I totally agree with your team-building approach, Rick! The Bills’ first four picks were defensive players this year. Then they took an offensive tackle and a running back. Three more picks to go…
Also, there was absolutely no mention of the Draft in the newspaper here until this morning, (after I’d missed the first 2 days) when they ran a two paragraph spot (page 4) on the Seahawks picks. Bah.
There are plenty of web sites that will give you indepth Draft analysis, Rick. ESPN.com, of course. I like PROFOOTBALLWEEKLY.com, too.
We walked past Radio City on Wednesday and they already had all the buses and equipment lined up down the block in anticipation of the draft. I guess the theater at Madison Square Garden just wasn’t big enough any more.
The NFL Draft keeps growing and growing, Jeff. I’m astonished at the number of fans who attend in their grease paint and team gear. I have nowhere near that kind of passion for football, especially under the current Lockout conditions.
Sorry, Deb but I have to disagree with you on this one – there are a TON of baseball games still to play, the NBA playoffs were on another channel to watch if you liked and for pro football fans the draft is about all there is between the S-Bowl and (usually kinda limp) pre-season games. With the lockout and strike activities, this was a particularly interesting time, and they moved the draft back off the weekend this year, until late rounds that many people, like yourself, could easily ignore fro hockey, baseball, and basketball, none of which I personally give a hoot about, and talk about mind-numbing, there is soccer…
The NHL Playoffs have been outstanding this year, Rick. Although the Buffalo Sabres were eliminated, the games were close and exciting. I’m astonished at the number of draftniks who watch every moment of the ESPN Draft coverage. ESPN gets boffo ratings each year they televise the Draft!