I just finished my first FF draft of the year with the guys I tailgate with.  Thought I’d throw an update of it here for those that have never done a FF league, as well as for those who would like to laugh at my picks..

I drew the number 6 spot (in a ten team league), and it should be pretty easy to tell who I picked first – Mr. Jackson from the Rams.  If that no good, $#%$^#& Parker doesn’t get him into camp  (along with Jason Peters) I’ll, I’ll….…I’ll do nothing but rant more and more about how I hate agents, specifically Parker, who did cost me the services of Emmitt for two weeks back in 93.  For the record, Lynch went number 7.  I may end up regretting the fact that I wasn’t a homer for once.  I thought I was going to get either the first QB (Brady) or the first WR (Moss), but both went before me, as did LT, Peterson, and Westbrook.

I followed this up with a WR–RB–WR run: Wayne, Turner (a bit of a reach), and Evans.  By this time the run on QBs was about to start (Brady, Manning, and Romo were long gone, and Brees and Palmer just got picked), and so I nabbed Big Ben.  I was going to then start to think TE and D/ST, but couldn’t help taking Willie Parker (in case Jackson continues the holdout), and then Roy Williams (who I was very surprised was still there). 

I ended up getting the Jax D/STs and Kevin Boss, who was kind of a reach considering what was left on the board.  The rest of the day was left to filling out the roster – Bills, Patrick Crayton, Kenny Watson, and Scheffler.

For the rooks – here’s two pieces of advice.  First, don’t bother taking a K until your last two rounds.  I waited until then and got Dawson and Reed.  And, here’s the most important piece of advice – pay attention to the bye week.  Nothing is worse than realizing you just picked up your back-up QB who indeed has the same bye week as your first QB.  Ha ha.  Jake Delhomme has the same weekend off as does Big Ben, as an FYI to all of you….

Looking back, I’m happy with the day (how many of us aren’t?).  I maybe should have handcuffed Parker with Mendenhall (who wasn’t drafted), but choose to go with the gut feeling that Rudi Johnson may be on his way out in Cincy.  That was a beer influenced decision. 

No other Bills were chosen aside from the three I mentioned.  Does that surprise anyone?  Guys who went untouched (aside from Mendenhall) included Russell, Rodgers, Berrian, Campbell, Leinhart, Kevin Jones, and Roddy White.

     I really didn’t get a chance to watch the game the way I would’ve liked to.  But you all provided such a detailed commentary, I feel like I actually participated in the game itself.  I thought the draft was cool.  It looks like the real season here will be a doozy…

     So I’d like to add my comments from what I saw and what I read here (forgive me if any of the following has already been mentioned or beaten to death):

     I might take back some things I’ve said on Youboty.  I might go so far to say I think he made the team, provided he keeps up the good decent work, in games, as well as in camp.  Also, does he have the longest neck since Merton Hanks?

     Did McCargo seem to get pushed around some? 

     Spencer Johnson looks bigger to me than he is listed.

     I hope I’m wrong, but I slightly fear that Dwayne Wright is turning into a fourth round bust.  If the time machine in the garage worked, I wonder who else we could have taken in his place.

     I don’t think I read too many posts here with reference to Peters.  Am I wrong on that?  I imagine it’ll be on the front burner again though.

     Did anyone have a good read on Chris Ellis?  That was one guy I was hoping to see play.  I know he was in on the sack with Digi, and I thought I saw a few other good plays, but I’m not sure. 

     Kudos to Ron on all of the blocking analysis.  How is it possible, I ask, that any WR (or any player for that matter) can get away with not blocking throughout the whole play?  Makes me wish I could see Jauron pull a “Russell/Brooks Miracle after the Norway game skate.”  Again.  Again.  Again.  Again.

     Are the captains for the season picked already?  If not, when does that happen?  And I forget – is it a player or coach vote?

     I think it might be considered blasphemous to mention this guys’ name with a bad play, But I thought Poz got run over by CP on the TD.  To me (and like I said – I didn’t really see the game as I would’ve liked), it seemed like he was making plays far away from the line of scrimmage, ala London Fletcher from two years ago. 

     Who in the hell is Bruce Hall?

     When is the first round of cuts, and what does the roster have to be down to when the cuts happen?  You have to think John Guy is watching every team now.  [On a side note, I had some nice conversations with him a few years back.  Nice guy.  Knows he’s smart.  Did not have very pleasant things to say about Gregg Williams.]

     I’m with Brian on this comment – “It’s only the first preseason game.”  And, I expect them to come out flat on Thursday too.  It’s hard enough in mid season form to coordinate a Sunday to Thursday game, much more so with a training camp roster.  After that game, I’ll reiterate, “It’s only the second preseason game.”  If need be, I’ll start to worry after the third game.

     I thought Kyle Williams looked fat.

     Really should extend Fred Jackson now.  I’ve said before, you’ll never get him cheaper than now.

In Chris Brown’s latest blog entry, he posted the following:

“Fourth-round pick Reggie Corner has been the most impressive performer of the draft class to date. He probably gets more reps than most playing both cornerback and in the nickel package, but he's around the ball a lot and is leading the team in interceptions with three.”

I’m not sure how I feel about this.  Does this mean Corner was/is a steal, or that the top three picks aren’t exactly glowing so far? 

WalterFootball had this to say about Corner:

“Who is Reggie Corner? Sounds like a made-up person the Madden franchise mode comes up with. I doubt Corner would have been drafted at all, so taking him at pick No. 114 was a major reach.”

NFL.com was a little nicer: http://www.nfl.com/draft/profiles/reggie-corner?id=4451#player-profile-tab-set-1:player-profile-tab-analysis

I’d be thrilled if Corner turns out to be the real deal.  It’s great for your organization when you can find quality guys on the second day of the draft.  But how is he seemingly beating out McKelvin thus far?

And, does this take him out of the threeway battle with James and Youboty?  Is it safe to say he's got the lead for the 4th spot?  Is he the eventual replacement for McKee McGee or Greer?

As far as Hardy goes, I’m going to cut him some slack for the time being, but not much more.  Ellis however, really needs to step it up from what I read/heard.  I really haven't read/heard one good thing about him thus far.

I remember back during Super Bowl week, how much I couldn’t wait for the next season to start.  And every day, it seemed so far away.  Now, I catch myself scrambling, wondering “how am I gonna catch this game Saturday?  I’m not going to be around a TV.  I have to tape the game.”  Yeah – you can laugh; I’m still using a VCR to tape games.  Anyway, now I feel football is finally here…

Am I the only one who thinks the Bills’ dark blue practice jerseys should be the teams’ official uni?  I can’t stand the unis that the Donahoe era installed.  To loosely paraphrase Gregg Easterbrook, “Why move away from the most successful color scheme in the history of the world?”  I love the simplicity of this jersey; it’s Penn State like.  Pair it with the “Standing Buffalo Helmet,” and you have an improvement in my world. 

I’m wondering if Fred Jackson should have his contract extended.  He’ll never come cheaper than now.

Am I silly for thinking I might like Bell and Johnson?  Then again, I liked rooks like Tony Driver, Dominique Stevenson, and Lionel Gates…

Who would have figured Schouman would end up being the starter at TE?  I know they haven’t announced it yet, but I’ll bet a buck says it happens.  Provided of course….

That this Peters “thing” is resolved.  Without him, I don’t think they can afford to play a lighter guy at the spot. 

Rule changes – I say the new “force out” rule does change the game.  I for one am in favor of it.  I think it’ll force some changes in offensive philosophy.  Not at first, but eventually.  It’ll definitely come into play though when teams are coming from behind. 

Why do I keep hearing Hardy will make a difference in the end zone offense?  From what I hear/read, he’s not having an easy go of it, as far as picking up the offense goes.  Again, why is Turk intent on running such a complicated offense, especially when his skill guys are so young?

And why would Hardy and his contributions be limited to the red zone?  If you ask me, I think his greatest chance to help the team is in the areas between the red zones.  Let him run some simple routes that keep the chains moving; let him learn the pro game slowly.  Putting pressure on him to be the team’s savior inside the twenties is a mistake, in my opinion…

Should Crowell’s injury issues be a concern?  They have limited depth, at best.  But it you’re Crowell, would you ever be inclined to “gut it out” during the season knowing you don’t have a contract the next year?

I’ve bashed Lee Evans on this site before.  I still have some reservations on him.  But, I do give him props for how he’s handling his possible contract extension.  In my book now, he’s ok…

Loved the things I’ve heard about Mitchell.  I have a feeling though he might not be the best FA pickup.  I’m looking at Spencer Johnson to play a lot more than any of us had previously thought.  You don’t spend that much loot on a guy and not feature him.  A message to Mr. McCargo – its fight or flight time.

Whatever happened to Tyrone Robertson?

     Jason Peters is one of the hot topics around here as of late.  I for one am on the fence.  On one hand, I will readily admit that Peters is one of the few pro athletes who indeed have outplayed their contract, and at less than halfway through the contract for that matter.  On the other hand, I would like to see the Bills play hardball to an extent.  For me, it’s six of one, half dozen of the other.

     Shouldn’t our beef be with Eugene Parker?  He has a history of holding out big time players, all the way back to Deion and Emmitt (who hurt me in the first two weeks of his holdout in my first FF league).  The contract he got for Fitzgerald is going to hurt the Bills bottom line when it comes to getting Lee Evans resigned. 

     Guys like Parker, Rosehaus, and Condon have done nothing for the game of football.  I seriously ask – what contributions have they made to the game itself?  All they have done, in my opinion of course, is to help drive up the cost of attending a game.  Now, you have suits in suites.  I promise you this – Rich Stadium was a lot louder, and had a better “game” experience back when it was an 80,000 seater  than it does now with seventy something and a whole bunch of luxury boxes.

     This may be Utopian, but would it be really all that hard to eliminate these guys altogether?  I like the NBA rookie scale, unlike Gene Upshaw.   Institute that for the first contract of an NFLer.  Make the second contract along the lines of a performance based scale.  Bring in arbitrators to rule on intangibles.  Get rid of the 3% agent fees, and distribute that money back to the players.  Three percent may not sound like much, but when you’re talking about a multi-billion dollar business, it sure is. 

     Maybe even some of that money can go to retired players.  Again, Upshaw wouldn’t like that either.  They’re not dues paying members of the NFLPA, even though they built it.  Set aside money to guys who just couldn’t make it, and help them transition to the real world.  Give scholarships to the kids of guys who can’t work because their knees are gone, and can’t afford anything but the local community college.  Has anyone ever heard of a story where an agent helped out an old client down on his luck?  I can’t recall one. 

     Agents have robbed us over the years.  Why do we allow them to exist? 

     Back when Whitner was drafted, I, like many of you, screamed to the high heavens, wondering why Ngata wasn’t the pick.  My way of building a team is and has been to build through the lines.  At the time, I truly felt Ngata would’ve helped Buffalo immensely, even if he didn’t fit the traditional specs of a Cover 2 DT.

     Over the last two years, I really wasn’t overly impressed with the play of #20.  Sure he was solid, but he didn’t make the big plays associated with a guy drafted in his spot.  Maybe it was unfair to expect much, considering the talent he was surrounded with.  Anyway…

     Is this guy quickly becoming “the” leader of the Bills?  I’m only going on a couple of puff pieces by CB at the teams’ home page.  But, the way he has seemingly taken both McKelvin and Hardy under his wing certainly should be lauded.  Maybe it wasn’t reported, but I can’t think of another vet, young or old, who has taken the time to show the younger guys the ropes.  Personally, I think this speaks very well of Whitner.  Maybe Levy & Co really did know something about him that none of us did, Mel Kiper included.

     With an assumed increase in the talent level surrounding Whitner, maybe this is the year he breaks out.  He seems to be a pro’s pro, and the type of guy you want to root for.  If I would have known this two years and three months ago, I definitely wouldn’t have “bashed” the pick; I would have applauded it.

     Now please intercept and sack Tom Brady....