What could've, err, should've been ...

by fami1y_first on Dec 17, 2009 3:18 AM EST Comment 30 comments

The season isn't over yet, but I would say that the season has proven at least one thing: except for Jairus Byrd, last year's draft was a catastrophe! Here is what I would've done if I was in charge of the Buffalo Bills.

1 (11) Brian Orakpo / DE / 6'3" 263lbs. / Texas / 4.70 / 31 (Redskins)

1 (28) Rey Maualuga / MLB / 6'2" 249lbs. / USC / 4.91 / 23 (Bengals)

2 (42) Jairus Byrd / CB / 5'10" 207lbs. / Oregon / N/A / N/A (Bills)

2 (51) Phil Loadholt / OT / 6'8" 332lbs. / Oklahoma / 5.53 / 24 (Vikings)

4 (121) James Casey / TE / 6'3" 246lbs. / Rice / 4.66 / 28 (Texans)

5 (147) Duke Robinson / OG / 6'5" 329lbs. / Oklahoma / 5.33 / N/A (Panthers)

6 (183) Brandon Underwood / CB / 6'1" 198lbs. / Cincinnati / 4.48 / 16 (Packers)

7 (220) Zack Follett / OLB / 6'2" 236lbs. / California / 4.75 / N/A (Lions)

Everyone knows what Orakpo has done this year: 11 sacks, enough said. Def. ROY candidate

Maualuga starts for the Bengals and brings hard hitting and toughness to their defense. Teamed with Dhani Jones & Keith Rivers, the Bengals have one of the best LB corps in the NFL. It would be nice to have him in the middle with Poz playing OLB right about now; our defense against the run would be much improved. Season Totals: 55 tackles, 1 sack, 3 forced fumbles.

Jairus Byrd ... a surprise pick so early in the draft, but whoever made that call for the Bills last year should get to stick around, unless of course it was Jauron. 9 INT's, enough said. Def. ROY candidate

Loadholt starts at RT for the Vikings and has done a helluva job in pass protection looking out for Brett Favre, and is a good run blocker for Adrian Peterson.

Casey is controversial here. People in Buffalo seem to love Shawn Nelson. Nelson is a hair faster than Casey, and 3" taller, but Casey has better leaping ability, is a whole lot stronger, a better blocker, has great hands, and is a good special teams player. The Texans have also been giving him reps at DE. I view Nelson as a project TE, I think Casey will be better in the long run, but Nelson isn't a huge disappointment.

Robinson is biding his time for the Panthers as a reserve, but he would start for the lowly Bills O-line. Loadholt and Robinson together on one side of the Bills O-line would have been a nice difference this season over the mess we've had to endure.

Underwood is the best CB left this late in the draft. He's a reserve for the Packers and is currently Charles Woodson's understudy.

Follett would've filled the HUGE void at LB for the Bills this year. He's been a standout special teams player this year for the Lions.

I just want to add that I think Eric Wood and Andy Levitre are great players and I'm glad they are Bills, but they weren't the right players at the right time in the draft. This draft would've had 5 immediate starters for the Bills (Orakpo, Maualuga, Byrd, Loadholt, Robinson), 2 eventual starters (Casey, Follett), and 1 promising reserve (Underwood). And surprise, surprise! It is very similar to some of the mock drafts I did last year.

For the upcoming draft we have desperate needs at QB and LB. The only real decision to make is between McCoy and Bradford for the QB selection, no one else is worthy and Tebow will suck in the NFL. I lean towards McCoy but only because of Bradford's injury. If Bradford can come back and have ZERO ill effects from the injury, then I would lean Bradford. There are no great LB's coming out and Suh and Gerald McCoy will probably be gone by the time the Bills pick. That means there is only one other real option to consider, the second coming of Ronnie Lott in the NFL: Taylor Mays from USC.

Just imagine Byrd at FS and Mays at SS for the Bills secondary next year and the years to come! I shudder at how good they could be playing together.

Poll

Who should be the Bills' first pick in the 2010 draft?

Colt McCoy, QB / Texas

4 votes

Sam Bradford, QB / Oklahoma

11 votes

Some other QB

10 votes

Taylor Mays, FS / USC

3 votes

Anything but the above options!

53 votes

81 votes | Poll has closed

Just another great fan opinion shared on the pages of BuffaloRumblings.com.

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Comments

We could have taken Orakpo/Maualuga 1-2 like you suggest, and people STILL would have been pissed about the Byrd selection.

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by Brian Galliford on Dec 17, 2009 5:11 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

Bingo

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by TheAfghanTwilight on Dec 17, 2009 10:08 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Orakpo doesn’t play DE.

Stop comparing him to Maybin until they play the same position. Or should I start calling
Malcolm Jenkins an awful pick for the Saints since he plays CB and so did Byrd!

Bills fan? In Colorado? It's more likely than you think.

by UZ on Dec 17, 2009 8:08 AM EST reply actions 1 recs

Thank you.

Official ledge-talker-offer of the Buffalo Bills.

by WhyBillsWhy on Dec 17, 2009 9:20 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

the draft is a gamble at best

im happy with what we got a stud playmaker in the secondary IMO in Byrd….Levitre was the best guard on most peoples board and he’ll be alright given time…the wood pick was the right pick and his freak accident/injury is heartbreaking and i think shawn nelson could be a jermichael finely or martelus bennett type player …so thats one stud and two starters and one player lost to injury all in all not bad

lets look at the bengals draft

andre smith no impact at alll
rey maualuga solid player
michael johnson 15 tackles 2 sacks
chase coofman inactive all year
and some later round picks too but nothing great

thats just a cross section of most teams drafts not stellar but some impact from their rookies lets faces it u never know and people graded the bills high on thier picks becuz they thought they would produce immediately just hasnt happened

"The only yardstick for success our society has is being a champion. No one remembers anything else." John Madden

by BRIANMULHALL on Dec 17, 2009 8:16 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

will Taylor Mays cure the Bills pourous run defense? picking another DB in the first round of the draft will cause many a fan to commit violent crimes!! will Taylor Mays throw for more than 86 yards in a game? look at the Bills pass defense and you’ll find one that is actually very good. this team needs a QB, at least 1 LB, DT, LT as a priority. SS is not a priority at this point.

by gatornation on Dec 17, 2009 9:17 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

I think Roscoe Parrish could throw for more than 86 yards in a game.

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by TheAfghanTwilight on Dec 17, 2009 10:09 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

look at the Bills pass defense and you’ll find one that is actually very good.

No, Buffalo’s pass defense isn’t very good. Just plain good might be a bit of an overstatement. It looks better on paper than it is primarily because the run defense is so terrible. The pass defense is nothing special and the run defense is so awful for pretty much the same reason—Buffalo needs serious help at LB. The LBs aren’t capable of stuffing the run and they also aren’t fast/skilled/good enough to get back into coverage to effectively shut down a passing attack.

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by Ron From NM on Dec 17, 2009 8:01 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Catastrophe?

I think that is a little harsh. I actually think it was one of the better Bills drafts in recent memory. At the very least, Wood, Levitre and Byrd should be solid pieces of this team going forward. If one of Nelson, Maybin or Harris turn into a solid starter I think it’ll look pretty good a few years down the road.

by masterkembo on Dec 17, 2009 9:58 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

I really don’t like the Casey vs Nelson comparison. Nelson had a TD in week 1. He’s shown an amazing ability to catch the tough ones and he’s not afraid to go up to make a play.

Casey’s seeing action because Owen Daniels is on IR. I would have been really upset if the Bills drafted a TE and chose to play him as a DE, especially if they had drafted Maybin.

Nelson has it, and he deserves some time to mature into the league.

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by TheAfghanTwilight on Dec 17, 2009 10:12 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

Need to look on bright side

I’m a glass half full kind of guy…after reading this article I was encouraged. We still got a top 10 rookie talent in our defensive backfield, two potential o-lineman starters, a tight end weapon, and an athletic linebacker. Comparing this draft to the past, I say we didn’t do too shabby. Am I being too optimistic here? And Maybin still has potential after he gets a steady diet of 20 or 30 pounds.

by BillieverSince89 on Dec 17, 2009 10:25 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

Maybin doesn’t need to add pounds to improve. He needs to add technique.

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by TheAfghanTwilight on Dec 17, 2009 10:51 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

He needs both.

by Macktruck on Dec 17, 2009 11:06 AM EST up reply actions 1 recs

Yeah I’ll give it to you that there are d-ends that can play at this weight (i.e. Strahan), but isn’t Maybin’s problem also being blown off the line, or is it simply always running himself out of the play? I need more input before declaring just weight, just technique, or both.

by BillieverSince89 on Dec 17, 2009 12:02 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Especially

The stick your arm under the outside blockers arm from where you are rushing, and use it as leverage to turn the corner.

That is the move he doesn’t have.

There's not a wide receiver who is fast enough, that J.P. Losman can't overthrow him on a fly pattern.

by The Buffalo Kid on Dec 18, 2009 4:11 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Everyone knows what Orakpo has done this year: 11 sacks, enough said.

And everyone KNOWS he’d be putting up the same stats here. He’d be getting the same amount of playing time, playing the same position and be lining up behind the same players (3 should be Pro Bowlers.)

All your tshirt needs.

by twoeightnine on Dec 17, 2009 11:38 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

News flash

Our OFFENSE NEEDS THE MOST HELP!!!!

Why pick a DEF guy early? Our Def is the only reason we have a chance to win games this year dispite the eye popping ground yards allowed.

7 games and counting!!!

by Rudy916 on Dec 17, 2009 4:02 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Because a fantastic big-play defense can bail out a struggling offense. It might be smart to have a dominant unit on the team.

I’m not saying we should necessarily pick a guy on D. I would assume that when a new regime comes in, they’re going to tear some things apart and we’ll be back to scratch on both sides of the ball. That’s not always bad, but it also doesn’t bode well for quick success.

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by WhyBillsWhy on Dec 18, 2009 8:45 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Why stop there?

In 2006, Buffalo could have drafted:

Ngata instead of Whitner
Maurice Jones-Drew instead of trading up for McCargo
Owen Daniels instead of Youboty
Brandon Marshall with one of the picks they used to trade up
Elvis Dumervil instead of Ko Simpson
Kyle Williams
Brad Butler
Cortland Finnegan instead of Ellison
Marques Colston instead of Terrance Pennington
Miles Austin instead of Aaron Merz

And then they’d be the best team ever! It’s so, so, so easy to look back and pick out who the best players were. It’s even pretty easy to say which were bad picks and who you’d rather have and get some of those right too. I’ve done a mock offseason a couple years in a row and made some moves that make the Bills look like complete idiots (drafting Michael Oher in the first round, i liked DRC more than McKelvin and took Jeremy Zuttah in the 3rd instead of Ellis), but what also happens is that I make moves where you’d think I didn’t even know the rules of football. This year, I left myself with either Kirk Chambers, Duke Robinson or Sean Mahan as a starting guard before my other starter, Brad Butler went down for the season. I took a WR and OT in the 7th round just like Buffalo did in 2008 and the two guys I took were Brandon Keith and Adrian Arrington. The Bills drafted Byrd …. I took Jarron Gilbert (just like you mocked to Buffalo a bunch of times with the 28th or 42nd pick). So while it’s really easy to talk up how that would have been a better plan or you were right about this, remember that there are a lot of times when we criticize the team and are dead wrong.

And I post this in every response to a fanpost like this, but I’m doing another real time mock offseason this year. I’d happily put my salary estimations for the current roster on the blog here and I’d love for some people to play along with me. It gives you a whole new perspective on the offseason when you can’t preplan a mock offseason or go back and look at what could have been done after the fact.

And with one final thought, I’m officially positive that Buffalo could have a perfect draft and still people would poke holes in it. The Bills drafted two starting guards who have played much better than your average rookie guard does, a FS who has 9 INTs and there’s still a lot of potential with Maybin, Nelson and some of the other rookies. Teams don’t draft better than Buffalo’s 2009 draft.

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by kaisertown on Dec 17, 2009 4:04 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Dude

Tom Brady’s our QB!

All your tshirt needs.

by twoeightnine on Dec 17, 2009 5:33 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Please don't remind us again of the 2006 draft

It was painful enough back then and you just made me puke in my mouth.
Yuck!

"A failure becomes just one time at bat if you refuse to let it defeat you." Marv Levy.

by SERGEANT MAJOR THOR on Dec 17, 2009 8:44 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

haha, outside of McCargo, I actually liked the 2006 draft. I didn’t like Whitner at first (wanted Bunkley, or Ngata like everybody else), but came around in a hurry. The more I read about Whitner, the more I didn’t like the pick. I always thought McCargo was a huge reach and Buffalo could have grabbed him with their 2nd round pick. I absolutely loved Youboty and Simpson and was pretty indifferent about the end of the draft because I didn’t know the players all that well that year. I just picked 06 randomly. I could have done it with any draft.

by kaisertown on Dec 17, 2009 11:35 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Most wanted Ngata

Whitner was a rookie reach by Marv.

Would you argue that?

There's not a wide receiver who is fast enough, that J.P. Losman can't overthrow him on a fly pattern.

by The Buffalo Kid on Dec 18, 2009 4:21 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Absolutely not, I wouldn’t agrue that at all.

by kaisertown on Dec 18, 2009 10:16 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

You should explain how that works in a fan post

I’d happily put my salary estimations for the current roster on the blog here and I’d love for some people to play along with me.

I might be interested in playing along :-)

"The Bills have no playoff aspirations" – Dan Dierdorf

by Joe P. on Dec 17, 2009 10:00 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

I’ll do a quick explanation here. I combine rotoworld’s salary info with USA today’s info on team salaries and what players have already been paid. And that gives me a solid number on what Buffalo has spent on players in their cash to cap system and what players on the roster would make next year in real cash to cap money. It’s slightly time consuming, but pretty simple to do.

And then I’ve got a cap in place that should be pretty close to the bills’ self imposed cap and salary numbers for all the players. I resign the guys I want first. Then make a list of all my FA targets and figure out what I’d pay those guys, make some signings as players sign in real life and then some more signings as guys unexpectedly last in FA or sign for cheaper than I expected.

After that I do the live draft which is easily the craziest part. It’s really tough to do a live draft and try to fill needs while sticking to a best available philosophy. After the draft I grab a couple top notch undrafted guys and a bunch of random no names hoping to get lucky. And then I fill out the rest of the roster with crappy FAs who are still available.

I do the roster cut downs with the rest of the NFL too and end up with a 53 man roster and practice squad going into the season. It’s a fun, yet humbling experiment.

by kaisertown on Dec 17, 2009 11:33 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

so how would the "play along" part work?

would it be like a FF situation, or more like a “team” effort with you being the GM?

"The Bills have no playoff aspirations" – Dan Dierdorf

by Joe P. on Dec 18, 2009 11:15 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Basically, for anyone who wants to do a real time mock offseason, I’ll handle all the prep work.

We would all do our own thing and then compare to see who did best and how we’re all idiots. I just think it’s a good exercise for those who are used to rocking out offseasons on Madden. You really appreciate how hard it is when you actually do an offseason one step at a time without being able to look ahead and predict who will be available and without being able to look back and change things. It’s easy to put a mock together because you’re determining who is available. And it’s easy to look back and see what would have worked best, but to do it in real time is a worthy challenge for draft and roster geeks like me.

by kaisertown on Dec 18, 2009 11:57 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs