Very interesting article (warning: long)

[Sweetness_34 0]

http://www.billszone.com/mtlog/archives/20...ising_draft.php

 

GIves you some interesting perspective. And convinces me more that the Lions could easily have picked Whitner with the 9th pick, independent of what Millen tells me.

[lechuza 0]

good read

[miket7 0]

It comes down to this:

With all of the talent available this weekend, the Bills basically sold the first day of the draft for TWO players they absolutely had to have.

 

 

You can criticize the "draft gurus" all you want, but there was a strong chance that Whitner would have been available for the Bills at five or six spots down.

There is an even stronger chance that McCargo would have been there in the second, without them moving up.

 

 

As it turns out, the Bills had a very solid second half of the draft.

I just believe they could have had a GREAT day overall, if they had done things a little different.

[pollardposse 0]

I'm not Mel Kiper, but from what I know of their draft, it will be looked back upon as a success in about 3 years.

Whitner was rapidly moving up the draft charts. Dallas had every intention (per sporting news radio) of taking him with their first selection.

The McCargo pick was still a reach, but the rest of their draft was very solid.

Youboty will be a good nickel corner and may even be a starter in a year or so. He was rated highly in the first mock drafts.

Remember, when Levy drafted Thurman Thomas in the second round, he was highly criticized for taking a seriously injured player. Thomas had knee surgery while in college. He turned out to be ok....... He built a team through the draft once before.

I think we are learning that these old school coaches know how to draft and win.

 

I am not a Bills fan. If I were, I would be happy with Whitner and Youboty. I give them a 'B' now, and an 'A' if McCargo does anything at all. Watch the "experts" eat crow on this one.

[swamp dog 0]

http://www.billszone.com/mtlog/archives/20...ising_draft.php

 

GIves you some interesting perspective. And convinces me more that the Lions could easily have picked Whitner with the 9th pick, independent of what Millen tells me.

 

no chance but thanks for playing. we've got some lovely parting gifts for you!

 

tom k (who was right about everything concerning the lions draft) broke the story friday, 24 hours before the draft, that the lions draft board was hawk, sims, and huff. in that order. millen actually made a draft day call to the packers about their pick but it was quickly dismissed.

 

the data doesn't support this article's claim. furthermore, detroit media mentioned this particular angle sunday (that buff was deathly afraid the lions coveted whitner) and joked about how stupid that assertion was. not even close.

[Sweetness_34 0]

no chance but thanks for playing. we've got some lovely parting gifts for you!

 

tom k (who was right about everything concerning the lions draft) broke the story friday, 24 hours before the draft, that the lions draft board was hawk, sims, and huff. in that order. millen actually made a draft day call to the packers about their pick but it was quickly dismissed.

 

the data doesn't support this article's claim. furthermore, detroit media mentioned this particular angle sunday (that buff was deathly afraid the lions coveted whitner) and joked about how stupid that assertion was. not even close.

 

You may be right swamp, but even you have to agree that there was a possibility the Lions would have taken Whitner. Both Lions and Bills play the cover 2. Both are in their 1st year of playing it. Both do not have the safety needed to play cover 2. It was well known the Lions wanted Huff. Lions did take a safety with their next pick (Bullocks). These are all facts. Everything else is conjecture based off that, and it may be wrong. BUT it does explain why the Bills did what they did. You can rip the Bills if these players are busts 3 years from now (only then we will really know), but for now, at least respect that they had a strategy/logic to their actions. I hate the "expert" hacks who think anyone who is selected where they did not project them made a bad pick. That is freaking nonsense. These experts never interview any players, have no clue about the offensive or defensive systems that the teams run, do not have privy information on injury status etc of the draftees and the players on the teams rosters etc. These same experts had Youboty as a 1st rounder, Leonard Pope as a late 1st rounder/early 2nd rounder, Winston Justice as a mid 1st rounder (to the Eagles) etc etc

 

What is realy funny in all of this Bills (and any other team) bashing is that if the Bills had selected Justice with their 8th spot, I bet all of these experts would have given them an A grade. Guess what, Justice fell how many spots from their high to mid 1st round projections?????? Just goes to show you they are freaking clueless.

[swamp dog 0]

You may be right swamp, but even you have to agree that there was a possibility the Lions would have taken Whitner. Both Lions and Bills play the cover 2. Both are in their 1st year of playing it. Both do not have the safety needed to play cover 2. It was well known the Lions wanted Huff. Lions did take a safety with their next pick (Bullocks). These are all facts. Everything else is conjecture based off that, and it may be wrong. BUT it does explain why the Bills did what they did. You can rip the Bills if these players are busts 3 years from now (only then we will really know), but for now, at least respect that they had a strategy/logic to their actions. I hate the "expert" hacks who think anyone who is selected where they did not project them made a bad pick. That is freaking nonsense. These experts never interview any players, have no clue about the offensive or defensive systems that the teams run, do not have privy information on injury status etc of the draftees and the players on the teams rosters etc. These same experts had Youboty as a 1st rounder, Leonard Pope as a late 1st rounder/early 2nd rounder, Winston Justice as a mid 1st rounder (to the Eagles) etc etc

 

What is realy funny in all of this Bills (and any other team) bashing is that if the Bills had selected Justice with their 8th spot, I bet all of these experts would have given them an A grade. Guess what, Justice fell how many spots from their high to mid 1st round projections?????? Just goes to show you they are freaking clueless.

 

for whatever reason, accurate information slipped out of the lions warroom about their draft board before the draft (and that part of it is curious and worthy of potential inquiry and criticism). there was never ever any mention of whitner's name in lion circles. that doesn't mean they weren't interested in him, only that where they were drafting precluded them from being interested.

 

i don't know their overall safety draft board and where bullocks fit in relation to whitner. i do think marinelli viewed linebacker and safety as equal needs.

[Sweetness_34 0]

for whatever reason, accurate information slipped out of the lions warroom about their draft board before the draft (and that part of it is curious and worthy of potential inquiry and criticism). there was never ever any mention of whitner's name in lion circles. that doesn't mean they weren't interested in him, only that where they were drafting precluded them from being interested.

 

i don't know their overall safety draft board and where bullocks fit in relation to whitner. i do think marinelli viewed linebacker and safety as equal needs.

 

And considering how much dis-information gets spread around during draft time, isn't it fair then to assume that the Bills had a right to be worried about Whitner going to Detroit or someone like Miami or Dallas trading up for him?

 

That is my point. Only the Lions know if they would have picked Whitner over Simms or not. The information that the reporter reported could easily be wrong. Teams love to use reporters to spread wrong info during draft time all the time.

 

I would not be shocked if Jerry A intentionally kept talking about TEs before the draft, when his intent all along was to pick one only on the 2nd day.

[swamp dog 0]

And considering how much dis-information gets spread around during draft time, isn't it fair then to assume that the Bills had a right to be worried about Whitner going to Detroit or someone like Miami or Dallas trading up for him?

 

That is my point. Only the Lions know if they would have picked Whitner over Simms or not. The information that the reporter reported could easily be wrong. Teams love to use reporters to spread wrong info during draft time all the time.

 

I would not be shocked if Jerry A intentionally kept talking about TEs before the draft, when his intent all along was to pick one only on the 2nd day.

 

here's another angle: i think agents create chatter in order to elevate their clients stock. not saying it happened in this particular case, but it would easy to see how an agent (and even a player) would say (if asked) "yeah, the __________brought him/me in for a workout--they were really, really interested." teams, conversely, could also us the agents and players to spread disinformation by acting all interested in a player when they really might not be.

 

i'd assume that kind of stuff happens all the time.

[Sweetness_34 0]

The worst is when these know-it-all hacks (Kiper, Gosselin etc) say they talked to teams and 20 out of the 32 teams had Player A or Player B pegged at this point on their board.

 

Yeah, idiots, teams will definitely tell you the truth about the draft.

 

For Example:

 

Mike Shanahan told Peter King that except himself, NO ONE in the organization knew that he wanted to draft Jay Cutler.....NO ONE....not even Jay himself or his agent (Shanny had never spoken to Jay even once during the pre draft process). He was worried about a leak and hence he kept it to himself.

[Grigs Allmoon 0]

Mike Shanahan told Peter King that except himself, NO ONE in the organization knew that he wanted to draft Jay Cutler.....NO ONE....not even Jay himself or his agent (Shanny had never spoken to Jay even once during the pre draft process). He was worried about a leak and hence he kept it to himself.

 

That's a great point. You can't put any stock whatsoever into the "We didn't even want so-and-so, the guy we got was #1 on our board." comments. Or, the pre-draft "We like this guy, we don't like that guy."

 

One thing we can be sure of right now is the Bills got who they wanted.

[swamp dog 0]

this relates to my previous post about disinformation:

 

"Did the Kitna and McCown signings paint Millen into a corner, so he couldn't draft Matt Leinart? Kowalski says no way. They had no interest in Leinart at all, but they did like Cutler better. "The Lions did call Vince Young before he was drafted by the Titans and told him that they were trying to move up to get him. It was complete B.S. The Lions had no interest in Vince Young, but what they were trying to do was get word through the league, get the buzz going, that they woudl take a quarterback." They were trying to ensure that they'd have enough teams beliving it just in case Hawk, Huff, and Sims were gone by No. 9. Someone then would trade with them thinking they'd snap up a QB. Millen is still saying today that they were considering taking a QB, but it's still B.S."--tom kowalski