like you said, Mckelvin, Hardy, and Ellis should be able to make an impact this year snd even if they don’t there future does look bright. The other picks, as I mentioned in another thread, will provide S.T. with players that were lost to free agency. And they also bring some sort of depth, even though it might not be lights out depth.

Question, would you want D. Wright backing up Fred Jackson if Lynch goes down? Not me, not no how. Thas why I really like the Omon pick because it gives us another option and he does have some upside to him.

Not sure what to make of Bell. I think finding O-line that far into the draft is worthless. Odds are Preston is probably better, but thats just a guess, Im not basing it on any form of stats.

The three cornerback picks really make me sick. There had to have been better value elsewhere. Three corners picked is just as bad as the colts picking three centers. I really dont understand that. I BILLieve someone did say that the last CB pick could play Saftey and if thats true and the Bills convert him to saftey it was a smart pick in my eyes because the depth there is thin.

You’re correct on some of the issues here. Fans get caught up in mock drafts and perceived value of players because they’re avid football fans and for three months (or four if you’re a Bills fans) each year, the draft fills the void of the football season’s end. Now that the draft’s over, does it matter that Reggie Corner and Derek Fine were not predicted to be anything more than 7th round/ street free agent types by the draft guru business? Not at all. They are fourth round picks forever more; it’s in the history books. It’s also true that Buffalo doesn’t draft in the late rounds to fill needs at positions and I get that. They go best player available late, as does every team. So we shouldn’t get bent out of shape if certain pet project players we liked over this three month hobby of ours were passed over by the Bills in the draft for nondescript names that we didn’t research beforehand. None of the predraft “grades” or projections mean a thing once the draft begins so really, fans need to calm down about the discrepancy between where players are perceived to go compared to where they are actually taken.

But here’s the rub: Buffalo doesn’t get off the hook here for the offseason and roster management as a whole- Not in the least bit. As avid Bills fans, we may not be draft experts whoses guesses based on limited research deserve any credence, but we sure have the background to look at our team objectively and see where they have failed this offseason as a whole. As we’ve all read a million times, the Bills scored 20 offensive TDs last season in a 16 game schedule and our starting QB, Trent Edwards, led the team to at least one touchdown drive in only 4 of his 9 starts last season. These are mind-blowing stats. It’s management’s job to seriously address such ineptitude and I think it’s obvious that they failed to do so this offseason. You can’t spend your free agency dollars on four defensive acquistions (Stroud, Johnson, James, Mitchell) and pick defense three out of your top 4 draft picks and tell me you’re addressing the ineptitude on offense. If you do, you’re Chris Brown, a public relations lackey who doesn’t deserve any credence from a serious fan of this team. Seriously, what did Jauron do to address this offense this offseason? He promoted Turk Schonert, a failure throughout his career as a QBs coach, to the role of offensive coordinator without interviewing anyone else, and drafted a wide receiver in the 2nd round with serious character concerns whose talents are evident, yet questionable as to whether or not they’ll translate to the NFL.

With the draft’s conclusion, I don’t think you can defend how Buffalo went about fixing this offense this offseason and come across as anything but delusional. If you’re attached to Melvin Fowler, Josh Reed, Trent Edwards, and Robert Royal (all players who deserved to be pushed for their jobs and probably released in all cases where youth was no longer on their side), you’re not alone- Jauron appears to be stubborn with these players who failed so miserably last season as well. But, based on Dick Jauron’s track record with offense and winning, should we trust him? The numbers say no, so I’ll trust my eyes in projecting the Bills fortunes after following this team fervently for 21 seasons and counting- adding the very raw (athletically and personally) James Hardy and promoting Turk Schonert are not enough of a solution for the disaster we witnessed on offense last season (and this entire decade for that matter). Go ahead and make excuses about the draft class, the free agents available, the trade markets, the economy, whatever. Just remember- they’re excuses. It’s Buffalo’s job to find solutions and PR guys like Chris Brown’s to make excuses. As fans, we don’t have a job, we’re just observers and what we have to observe is a coach and front office that just don’t get it.

While I was a little upset with the Bills at first, the more I thought about it the more it made sense. This was a draft designed to rebuild the ST’s. Would you rather have young, talented players under your control for the next few years or overpay for basically the same guys. I loved Coy and Josh, but they never did anything outside of ST’s. Now we have Wending and Alvin Bowen to do the same thing only they come cheaper and have more upside and a chance to provide impact. Sam Aiken never did anything here, why not give Steve Johnson a chance?

There will be a ton of competition this summer and the CB position in particular, will be very interesting to watch.

Maybe it’s because I was in a smaller minority than I originally thought when I was advocating McKelvin as being the best corner in the draft (I know others liked DRC and Cason) but I find it very very interesting that there has been limited to no discussion about what a great player we got at #11. All the talk is about Hardy and beyond, are people not happy about getting who appears to have been most teams consensus number 1 corner in the draft? I know that if teams scouts and managers come to the conclusion that McKelvin was the best at his position that is good enough for me. Remember if he’s as good as expected he should own a starting position as soon as Week 6 if not sooner. I’m really excited about getting such a lockdown defender and I know Hardy is the only impact offensive player we acquired this year but we are already a considerably better team than last year and have a potentially feared defensive unit. With Stroud, Mitchell, and the pick of McKelvin we have upgraded every single unit on our D. That should be enough to make us a much better unit and I think Hardy will make our offensive unit generate more first downs than last year. I guess all I’m trying to say is that McKelvin is a huge pickup and im a little surprised to see such a lack of discussion about him. Where the draft did let me down was following the Ellis pick. I know that we’ve had a strategy of BPA but I would have liked an impact TE and FB both of which could still be had rds 3-6 and we just never went for it. I would have wanted a draft either similar to the Redskins, who got Devin Thomas, Fred Davis, and Malcolm Kelly with their first three picks or our strategy with the same first three picks but at least drafting for need with the later rounds, especially in this deep draft class.

I read an article

http://www.swtimes.com/articles/2008/04/28/sports/sports02.txt

where TE Derek Fine said there was interest in him in the 4th round – so maybe there were others like the Bills who didn’t read the ESPN mock draft scouting reports and thought this kid was pretty good. I think most people don’t like the pick because
a) nobody talked about him prior to draft – he wasn’t one of the top 5 in anybody’s minds
b) they thought the Bills reached.

Hey – he addressed a need, he can play Special Teams, we need to give him (and all the other draft picks) a break and see what they can do in the system before we shuffle them off to the CFL.

problem with the draft .Steve justice didn’t go until late 6th rd,we couldn’t have used are 6th on him.I know OBD is ok with fowler,but most sites had justice one of top three centers .I thought the value was there and I also uderstand that we need SP Teams players .I’m sure out of the 20 free agents we can find 1 or 2 guys for teams.

would have made sense in the 6th or seventh IMO.

Did anyone else notice that McKelvin took A-Train’s number and Hardy took Price’s? Let’s hope that if they call the team after getting no offers anywhere else the Bills tell them that, sorry, their numbers have been taken.

My only problem with this draft came in Day 2. I live about 30mins from Troy, Alabama, so trust me…the McKelvin pickup will turn out to be a GREAT pick.

NOW….as for the rest of the draft…Hardy and Ellis were good picks…but using your draft to restock your special teams seems to be somewhat of a waste. In MY opinion, these needs could have been addressed with undrafted free agents.

Was Adarius a free agent signing? i dont remeber seeing his name called any where through out the draft, there is now way he’s still available, and i know he lacks speed and is not the most fluid athlete, but if still available should the Bills take a closer look, he has the size to be decent receiver. what do you guys think? Like most fans, othere than the first 3 picks i did not understand the last 5, but then realizing the losses incurred in the special teams unit, it now seems like the most logical picks, in the BILLS i trust

P.S. on the NFL network, you can viem highlight clips of all the top players from every position, and they said James Hardy could turn out to be the next Randy Moss, not so much in those words, but that what it sounded like, it said if teams drafted based on potential, Hardy would have probably been the #1 pick, again thiss all comming from the position highlight clips on NFL network, so there is obviously a lot of hype behind this guy at OBD.
Lets go Buffalo

Can you believe this clown gave the Bills draft a C+. As far as I’m concerned he gets a C+ in his grading of players and need to go to the Mike Mayock school of player evaluation.