This is not an exercise designed to assign any draft “grades” for this 2013 Buffalo Bills class. I learned a valuable lesson to never do that back in 2006, when 24 hours after the Bills completed their draft I marked them with an “A”, citing this class of Donte Whitner, John McCargo, Ashton Youboty and Ko Simpson would take their defense to heights they hadn’t seen in years. No one should ever assign a grade for a crop of prospects before they even take the field and since ’06 I haven’t either.

Instead I have a series of thoughts on this latest Buffalo draft I’d like to share. Overall I was pleased with this draft, thinking the team had a plan set in stone and stuck to it.  A lot of Buffalo’s hope came to fruition because of the rise of Tavon Austin, who became a player the St. Louis Rams had to have.  I saw two reports that said Austin was at the very top of the Bills draft board and maybe he was, but I don’t think Buffalo would’ve drafted him.  Much to the credit of Buddy Nix the Bills were able to leverage the Rams interest in Austin and their fear the Jets would take him with the next pick to swing a deal and pick up an extra draft pick in the top half of the second round.

It continues to amaze me how forthcoming Nix is with the media during draft season.  Nix may tell a little white lie here and there but once again, he was truthful with almost everything he said and there weren’t many secrets.  Nix said the team needed to get a franchise quarterback and going by them taking the best on their board, maybe they did.  He said the team needed wide receivers and they took two within the first three rounds.

Nix even said the team wasn’t likely to spend a high draft pick on a guard despite Andy Levitre leaving and not only did that happen, but the Bills didn’t take a guard at all.

Continue reading ‘Final Thoughts On Bills 2013 Draft Class’

Courtesy of the Buffalo Bills media relations department, here’s the transcript of fifth-round rookie Jonathan Meeks’ conference call with the media following his selection in the fourth round of the NFL draft this Saturday. One item I definitely didn’t know—he’s friends with Stephon Gilmore.

Q: Talk about growing up in Rock Hill (South Carolina) and are you familiar with Stephon (Gilmore) at all?

A: Yeah that’s one of my real good friends. We grew up competing against each other throughout high school and college and we kept our relationship even when he went to the NFL. I will be honored to play with him.

Q: Has he texted you yet?

A: I’m not sure; I haven’t checked my text messages yet. I’m pretty sure that he has.

Q: You made a pre-draft visit to Buffalo, Talk a little bit about the contact with the Bills during this process.

Continue reading ‘Transcript: Jonathan Meeks Conference Call’

Courtesy of the Buffalo Bills media relations department, here’s the transcript of fourth-round rookie Duke Wiliams’ conference call with the media following his selection in the fourth round of the NFL draft this Saturday.

Q: Where would you say your coaching staff had you lining up most, free or strong (safety)?

A: We had interchangeable safeties and mostly strong safety though. I played about…it was like 50-50. I lined up towards the line of scrimmage a little bit more than other safeties did.

Q: Can you speak to how competitive it is at Nevada?

A: It’s real competitive. These last couple years we’ve had some great football players come out, make an impact and contribute in the next level. These last couple years we had (Colin) Kaepernick , a lot of guys know him, we had James-Michael Johnson come in and make an impact. We have a lot of talent up there in Nevada.

Continue reading ‘Transcript: Duke Williams Conference Call’

Why the heck not.

Refusing to learn a lesson after last night’s ridiculously crazy round one of the NFL draft, I’ll take a stab at a mock draft for rounds two and three this evening with an emphasis, of course on what the Buffalo Bills may do with their three slated picks.

Before proceeding I’d like to take a minute and give some props to two guys that really nailed down yesterday’s first round for Buffalo.  Chris Brown over at the Bills official website completely nailed down the selection of E.J. Manuel.  Granted he had Manuel going eight and Buffalo ultimately was able to get him after trading down, but clearly Brown was onto something locally before anyone else.

Credit should also go to WGR’s Joe Buscaglia, who put some of the early Thursday clues together and by late afternoon produced his final mock draft that had the Bills selecting Manuel in a trade-down with the St. Louis Rams. It was a change from Wednesday when he had the Bills taking Ryan Nassib, but for me Joe deserves mucho credit because he had the Rams trade for Buffalo’s eighth pick pegged in a previous mock as well. Clearly Joe was on top of his game and I think he’s a rising star in this business.

For the record, I did have the Bills tabbed as trading down and taking a quarterback in my mock draft, but I had the deal with Minnesota and Buffalo ending up with Matt Barkley. I’ll have to revisit this draft in a few years to determine if I’m happy to be wrong.

If there was a lesson to be learned with mock drafts, Bills fans, it’s in future years you should start paying a lot more attention to those reporters locally than the jokers like Mel Kiper and Todd McShay. I teetered between humor and embarrassment for McShay; having to listen to him second guess countless picks and bash the Bills selection of Manuel on ESPN after the draft.  Oh well.

But I digress.  Here’s a quick second-round mock draft and the third round as well up until the Bills make their pick.  (One last note—I don’t have the Bills taking a linebacker on the premise they’ll get a deal done with Karlos Dansby after the draft is over.)

Continue reading ‘NFL Mock Draft- Rounds 2 & 3′

Picks that surprised me: I wish E.J. Manuel well, but Bills need to be patient with him. Needs major work with mechanics.

— Adam Caplan (@caplannfl) April 26, 2013

I had to sleep overnight on the Buffalo Bills taking E.J. Manuel in the first round last night because frankly, I was a bit too stunned to collect my thoughts.  That’s not in any way criticism towards Manuel.  I actually love the pick, especially after a trade down.  I simply couldn’t believe Buddy Nix pulled the trigger on him over Ryan Nassib, Matt Barkley or Geno Smith.

Manuel becomes the first quarterback in the entire history of the franchise to be selected with the team’s first pick in any draft year.  That includes Jim Kelly, Jack Kemp, Joe Ferguson and anyone else.  That’s pretty amazing, if you ask me.

I’ve spent several hours reading fan and media reaction from the pick and feelings over the pick vary wider than the Pacific ocean.  That baffles me.  Most fans and media, myself included came into Thursday night wanting the Bills to make a splash—and boy did they ever.  If you ask me the Bills did exactly what they should’ve set out to do. They spent countless hours, days and resources on identifying their top quarterback prospect and with the way things played out, there’s no denying Manuel was the top graded quarterback on the board.

How can he not be? I love that he was the first quarterback taken.  We don’t have to hear any coach talk from Nix or Doug Marrone saying he’s the guy they wanted all along, not knowing if that’s really truly if Nassib, Barkley, Smith or someone else was off the board.

Best of all, they acquired an extra second round pick while accomplishing what they came into the draft primarily looking to do. It was a God send to the Bills that Tavon Austin was on the board at eight.  Sure, it would’ve been exciting to simply take Austin and grab one of the other quarterbacks today, but now the Bills already have who was obviously their top guy and they can use two good picks today on a wide receiver, cornerback, linebacker, safety or tight end.

Continue reading ‘Thoughts On E.J. Manuel’

Courtesy of the Buffalo Bills media relations department, here is the complete transcript of E.J. Manuel’s conference call with the media following his first-round selection in the NFL draft Thursday night.

Q: What is it like? To be the first quarterback of the board and coming to Buffalo—the challenge and the excitement that you face here?

A: Yes sir. I am just so excited. I am so proud to be a Buffalo Bill. I am just proud of family, all of my teammates at Florida St. and my coaches who helped me get to this point. I am just extremely proud and happy right now.

Q: Can you just speak to your relationship with Bruce Smith? I know he and your dad are pretty tight. Just his influence on you.

A: Most definitely. Bruce (Smith) gave me a lot of advice moving forward from high school to college. Now that I am a Buffalo Bill…he actually called me about Buffalo. Not saying I was going to go there, but just giving me some facts and some background on the team before I went up and met with those guys. I know Bruce is extremely excited and he sounded just as excited as I am.

Continue reading ‘Transcript: Manuel’s Conference Call With Media’

Courtesy of the Buffalo Bills media relations department, here’s the full transcript of last night’s press conference with head coach Doug Marrone, general manager Buddy Nix and the media following the first-round selection of E.J. Manuel in the NFL draft last night.

Q: What do you like about QB E.J. Manuel and why is he the guy?

Buddy Nix: As you know we did a lot of work on these guys. We felt like we knew them about as well as you could from a distance. This guy to us has got the upside to be whatever you want him to be. All these quarterbacks had good qualities. We said that from the start. This is a guy that can do both. We are not talking about…how Coach Marrone and his staff use him is his business. It is up to him now. The guy is capable of doing both.

Q: You draft a quarterback in the first round. You like him to have a chance to be one of the five or six best quarterbacks in the league if everything goes right. Did you feel that this guy had the best chance to do that?

BN: Obviously we did. We, again, we liked some things about all of these guys. We think this guy has a chance. We researched him every way you can and we just feel good about the upside.

Continue reading ‘Transcript: Nix & Marrone On E.J. Manuel’

Tonight, finally is the NFL draft. Thank God, because I can’t take the million smokescreens flying around the internet, radio and television screens daily anymore.

My personal opinions on how tonight should play out for the Buffalo Bills may mean nothing, but that’s not going to prevent me from venting in this allotted blog space.

Here are five scenarios that could play out tonight, and how I feel about each of them.

My best case scenario: The Bills trade down with either St. Louis or Minnesota, who quite possibly move up for Tavon Austin.  Buffalo would pick up an extra early draft choice, and still get one of the two quarterbacks I think long-term would be best served for this franchise— Matt Barkley or E.J. Manuel. They can get also get the best receiver and either cornerback, linebacker or tight end with the extra draft pick.

Continue reading ‘NFL Draft: Five Bills Scenarios’

ESPN’s Chris Mortensen created a lot of watercooler talk this morning with his overnight tweet surrounding the Buffalo Bills and their eighth overall pick.

The Bills’ 8th slot may be generating most pre-draft buzz: Tavon Austin or QB? Or trade back & pick between Nassib & Barkley? @espnnfl

— Chris Mortensen (@mortreport) April 25, 2013

Granted I’m no Mort, but I’ve heard the same exact thing from a source. Enough in fact, that I had the Bills trading all the way down to Minnesota in my final mock draft published two days ago. In that scenario, I got Buffalo moving down and taking Barkley at pick 23 with wide receiver Robert Woods at 25.

I truly think Tavon Austin being available is the key piece to the Bills being able to move down.  The Vikings and definitely the St. Louis Rams would love to take him, but know the New York Jets with the ninth pick (and 13) are legitimate threats to beat them to the punch.

If you’re going by the often-used NFL draft value chart, St. Louis moving up from 16 to 8 would net the Bills the Rams second-round pick (46), giving the team picks at 16, 41 and 46 over the first two rounds.  The probable cost of Minnesota moving all the way up to eight would net Buffalo both of Minnesota’s first-rounders (23 and 25) with the Bills throwing their fourth (105) back to the Vikings.

Austin being available promotes a deal that makes plenty of sense for both sides, whether it’s St. Louis, Minnesota or someone else.  There’s no way a talent like Austin is falling into their laps and for the things he does, there’s no one else comparable to him in this draft.

Assuming Buffalo truly is taking a quarterback early, it’s a also a logical move for the organization.  At 16 or 23 they should have at least one quarterback between Geno Smith, Ryan Nasisb, Matt Barkley and E.J. Manuel available to them, and quite possibly more than one.

Or the Bills could simply keep their pick and take Austin themselves. I just can’t see them going quarterback at eight and letting a trade down option die on the table.

Again, Austin being on the board at eight could be the key to Buffalo’s evening.

There’s already been a million NFL mock drafts posted on the internet.  There’s now a million plus one, but that one comes from Mike Mayock.  Thus, we all pay attention.

Mayock is arguably the business’s most respected draft analyst and perhaps more importantly, puts out just one mock draft per year.

Mayock doesn’t do trades in his mock and has the Bills staying put and passing on a quarterback.  Instead he has Buffalo tabbing West Virginia wide receiver Tavon Austin.

“The more I thought of Austin and the hole the Bills have at receiver — with nobody but Stevie Johnson — the more I said, ‘They’ve got to generate some touches for an explosive playmaker,’ and that’s who Austin is. Forget 173 pounds. It doesn’t matter.” Mayock wrote.

Continue reading ‘Mayock Gives Bills Austin In Mock Draft’

Sadly, one of the all-time icons in the Buffalo sports journalism field has passed away.  Reports circulated late this afternoon that legendary columnist Larry Felser has died at the age of 80.

According to the Buffalo News, Felser passed away in the Beechwood Continuing Care facility in Amherst after a brief illness.

Buffalo-born, Felser was a stalwart who made a name for himself writing for the Courier Express for 12 years before joining the Buffalo News. He covered the Buffalo Bills from their inaugural season in 1960 all the way until his retirement in 2001.

He continued to write a weekly Sunday column for the Buffalo News until 2012.

Felser’s accomplishments and accolades are too many to list, but the News laid out a few in their report today.

From the News:

“Felser was inducted into the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame in 2000. In 1984 he received the Dick McCann Memorial Award for distinguished reporting of professional football. The award is presented by the Pro Football Writers of America. Felser had served as the youngest president in that group’s history.”

On a personal level and I’m not just saying this, Felser is the best columnist I’ve ever read.  As a youth growing up in Buffalo I looked forward to reading and digesting his work as much as possible. I’m pretty stoked to say I literally grew up wanting to be the next Larry Felser and while I failed miserably, it wasn’t from a lack of having the right idol to want to emulate.

Felser will be missed by many colleagues at the Buffalo News, long-time national media members and scores of former Bills players. I’m sure we’ll hear some of their stories and accounts, and I look forward to sharing a few in the coming days and weeks.

Rest in peace, sir… you were truly a legend.

I’ve refrained from critiquing or even offering much thought on anyone else’s opinion regarding how the NFL draft plays out tomorrow night, particularly when it comes to the Buffalo Bills. I realize my observations and opinions, just like anyone else not sitting in a NFL “war room” is simply guesswork.

But the rumors floating all over the net on draft eve today is driving me crazy, and forcing me to break my silence.  ESPN’s Sal Paolantonio is reporting that the Buffalo Bills are worried that the New York Jets or Jacksonville Jaguars will “poach” Ryan Nassib from them if the team passes on him with the eighth pick or trades down Thursday evening.

Report: Bills worried Jets will poach Nassib dlvr.it/3H46fg

— Rotoworld Football (@Rotoworld_FB) April 24, 2013

I’m not going to rehash Nassib’s credentials and debate if he should or shouldn’t be the Bills choice when they’re on the clock. It’s been done ad nauseam everywhere, including this blog.

But let’s make this really, really simple, folks.  If the Bills are in love with Ryan Nassib they will take him with the eighth pick and not worry about what critics will say. If they elect to draft another player or move down to pick up additional picks, I’m confident Buddy Nix and Doug Whaley are keenly aware of potential consequences and therefore, aren’t “worried” about losing him to another team, as multiple reports so eloquently are putting it.

In fact, if the Bills truly love Nassib and he’s their guy, they’re probably more worried about a team leapfrogging them at eight to snag him…. as opposed to what happens after passing on him with their first pick to begin with, comprende?

Thank God this process is nearly over.