Right…a guy that hasn’t put on the pads yet and only has a few practices in shorts under his belt is looking like a wasted pick.

Whitner was going to play some FS all along. With him and Bryan Scott starting, and Scott being only able to play SS, it makes sense. Byrd will be the third safety initially, and could move into the starting lineup depending on how he plays and how the other two perform sooner rather than later.

Byrd still is the future at the position, so I have no idea why you’d think otherwise based on some video.

We’ve discussed the need for a DE enough. No need to dredge that back up now!

Do you think every draft pick has to start on day one or he’s a bust??? Give Bryan Scott a little credit. He played good enough ball to stay ahead of a rookie changing positions. I don’t care who plays what position in camp or even opening week. Football is a game of injuries. Once the injuries start happening, we’ll find out how good some of the rookies are. In this game, if you make the roster, you will get your chance to prove yourself.

Bryan Scott, let’s face it the guy is a stop gap starter and a serviceable backup. I give Scott credit he stepped in when needed and has done his job. But he’s not going to be the Bills answer for a game changer in the secondary. Throw in the fact (if I’m not mistaken) that he is a free agent after this year and the Bills were put in postion where they had to draft a player for the future of the safety postion as a whole. Will Byrd get significant playing time this year, maybe but by 2010 he’ll definatley be needed.

have to stay in school until exams were complete a week or two ago? How much time has he actually seen the field in Buffalo since draft day in April? Gimme a break…

How many players have been stars right from the get-go out of college? Not too many. Buffalo simply needs time to see what Byrd brings to the table. They haven’t had that yet.

i wonder why no one has mentioned Ko Simpson at FS yet.
He might be a bit of a tit but he has not been cut yet and has significant starting experience so it is also a little early to start ignoring him totally yet.
The time to start ignoring him is about around the end of training camp when he is cut and he can start shouting

“I used to be with the Bills”

if we had a better coaching staff or coach for that matter, I think you would have seen our younger players coming along much quicker. Simply put, look at the Cardinals and what Whisenhunt did last year with a very young team. A HUGE part of the young players development stems from coaching.

From what I have seen the players must start stepping up and making plays or it is time to see a fresh set of coaches – good ones.

how much pressure Bills fans are feeling heading into the season by the amount of anger in the responses. Is csc right in calling the Byrd pick a wasted pick in the off-season? Of course not. But let’s look at the main gist of the post and see what we have. Csc seems upset by the fact that we used a very high 2nd round pick on a FS but is now reading that Donte Whitner is making the move to the position. Does it mean that Byrd won’t be starting at some point? No, but it also means some other things. We’re a team trying to make a playoff push now, with a pick that high in the second there were opportunities to fill Ellison’s position at OLB, a vacancy at LT and at LG, or grabbed more pass rushing help for a starting lineup at DE that has 3 major cogs over 30 instead of a grabbing more safety help for a position manned by 23 year old Whitner and 28 year old Scott.

I think the easiest way to attack this post is to say its preposterous to call Byrd a wasted pick, because it obviously is and because you can never call a player a wasted pick until that players career is over (there are plenty of guys who turn it on late in their careers). I’d like to see how everyone would respond to csc’s other main statement: Whitner’s move to FS would indicate that a coaching staff and team core whose jobs are on the line likely picked a guy who will contribute less than they could have with that pick.

Bryd looks like another wasted pick!

I assumed this meant the Bills FO was drunk when they drafted him……well, I suppose that could still be the case :-)

OBD’s story all along was that Whitner will start at FS. What’s the big deal? Drafting Byrd doesn’t change this. Now, starting means what? you’re the first guy on the field in the game. BIG WHOOP. Whitner and Scott will be the FS and SS, respectively, on run downs and Byrd will probably come in on pass downs and Whitner will shift to SS. I’d like to see Byrd out there during the Pats MNF game for a couple of snaps to see how he holds up.

The Bills safety depth could not be called a strength last year. We know what we have in Whitner, but he still could have some upside if put in the right situation. Scott is a good big SS with decent cover skills. He’s an asset but as others have said, he’s in the last year of his contract. Simpson is a waste of pads and a uniform. Throughout his career, he’s been routinely burned. There are Special Teams players better than him. George Wilson is average but great on ST and an unspectacular but solid reserve. We know what to expect from each player. Really, without Byrd, if you say you’re comfortable with our safety depth, you’re a liar. I’ll be surprised that, with Byrd’s addition, Simpson makes the team. Is it the help we need most? Maybe not. But at the areas mentioned, there are players that haven’t really been given their fair shake and I’ll judge them when the pads go on. The DE depth is deep but not stellar, that we know. Yet, Chris Ellis could have come around and taken some strides. Copeland Bryan as well. Same goes for the DTs, we’ll see where McCargo is. I don’t consider him McBusto yet. LBs that we haven’t seen, Bowen, Harris.

I assume that Byrd will see more snaps as we go through the season. The beauty of the situation is that with a player like Byrd, teams might think twice about tossing a ball up. Was that the case last year?

With Whitner and Scott as our present safeties it was obvious that Byrd wouldn’t be a starter this year, but that doesn’t make him a wasted pick. He has very obvious ball hawking skills that are GREATLY needed in our secondary. Give it time, Byrd will prove his worth.