In researching the fourth part of my "Picking Last" series (you can find part three here)  that at least some of you have been reading (thanks!), I compiled this interesting tidbit. 

With the release of Chris Ellis to make room for the return of Shawn Nelson, the following can be stated about the Buffalo draftees in the last 10 years. 

• No one from the 2001 or 2002 draft is on the team (So long, Aaron Schobel)
• Since the 2003 draft, Buffalo has drafted a total of 63 players
• 29 30 of those players started on the 2010 team this year in the off-season
• Five Four of those players (Edwards, Lynch, Hardy, Calloway and Ellis) are already gone this year. 
• Levi Brown was also gone, but is now back.
• John McCargo, by all rights, should have been gone.  He was traded away only to be returned from the Colts as damaged goods.
• Of the remaining 22 23 players, 11 of them were drafted in 2009 or 2010. (Maybin, Wood, Byrd, Levitre, S. Nelson, C. Harris, Spiller, Troup, Wang, Moats, Easley-Not counting Brown again)
  
• This leaves a whopping 11 12 players from 2003-2008 who were drafted and are still on the team (Kelsay, McGee, Evans, Parrish, Whitner, Youboty, Poz, McKelvin, Corner, Bell, S. Johnson, and Kyle Williams-not counting McCargo again). 

Of those eleven guys there is exactly one pro bowl experience.  Only three of them are first round picks.  So from 01-08 only first round picks are still here, one solid (Evans), one arguably under-performs at low impact position (Whitner) and one has the book still out on him by most accounts (McKelvin). 

The three other first round picks (Maybin, Wood and Spiller) have one certain bust among them, and two players who look good so far in their young career. 

Of the 25 drafted players on the team (now including McCargo and Brown) how many of them contribute in any meaningful way?  How many are here because they just haven't brought in a better player yet?  How many do you think are on Chix's chopping block?  

Color me unimpressed. One of the larger themes coming out of this project is just how few people work out-and even those few that do, because of how we draft, inevitably get moved out of the way for cheaper younger talent.  Even if "drafting a QB" is now our priority, it's hard to believe that the investment will be treated properly, or that it won't be erased three years from now by a new Head Coach/Front Office.

(Part IV, btw, will be up later this week).