Bills may target Kelly....

[gr8slayer]

Democrat and Chronicle (http://www.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080215/SPORTS03/80215004/1021)


The Bills are targeting a big receiver to complement Lee Evans and may be interested in Malcolm Kelly with the No. 11 pick in the draft. The team had a glaring need for a second wide receiver even before they released Peerless Price. The early entrant Kelly boasts great size and strong hands, but he may be a reach early in the first round.

[ddaryl]

Democrat and Chronicle (http://www.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080215/SPORTS03/80215004/1021)

I'd be cool with this pick at this point

I'd prefer some D help in the 1st, but we need to take the best player on the board that fills any one of our most pressing needs of DL, LB, TE or WR.

The best DL will be gone probably, and there aren't any TE rated this high I do believe

but we really need to wait until after the combine to get a better idea where many of these players will be rated to go, and who moves up and who slips back

[Night Train]

Anyone else immediately close the link when they saw it was written by Bob Matthews ?

[patmoran2006]

If he's the top WR on the board I dont think he's a reach at all.

[gr8slayer]

Yeah, it's likely that the best value we'll be able to attain at 11 will be a WR since we're set at QB and RB.

[gr8slayer]

If he's the top WR on the board I dont think he's a reach at all.
Who the number one WR in this years draft is debatable. I say Sweed and Kelly with Sweed having a small advantage.

Anyone else immediately close the link when they saw it was written by Bob Matthews ?Who's Bob Matthews?

[kernowboy]

I think we need to trade down.

If we trade with Brohm, the value suggests we can get pick 20, plus their 3rd and 4th .... thats if we cannot get a 2nd rounder from someone who might move up for a QB like Brohm. Either way we could move back in the 2nd round and pick up a big WR

Kelly, Sweed, Hardy, Bowman .... there's not a great deal between them so we should maximise the value of this pick and maybe look to grab a DT like Sims and/or Moore, or LBs like Connor, Alibi, or Henderson

[patmoran2006]

Unless its a team looking for a QB like Brohm that may be there at 11, I dont see many teams wanting to trade UP to the 11th spot.

IF, and obviously we dont know how the Bills feel about him.. But if the Bills really like Kelly, they should stand pat and select him at 11. Dont take a chance he'll be there further down the board.

[gr8slayer]

Unless its a team looking for a QB like Brohm that may be there at 11, I dont see many teams wanting to trade UP to the 11th spot.

IF, and obviously we dont know how the Bills feel about him.. But if the Bills really like Kelly, they should stand pat and select him at 11. Dont take a chance he'll be there further down the board.
I posted an article earlier in the week that listed the Bucs as a potential trade partner because they want to draft a QB for the future.

[kernowboy]

The Bears and the Vikings are potential candidates as well and may wish to move up just in case

[Philagape]

Kelly at 11 would be good

[blackonyx89]

Kelly at 11 would be good

Here are highlights. Worth the pick!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9W7nTi4JFQ

:dance:

[DraftBoy]

I posted an article earlier in the week that listed the Bucs as a potential trade partner because they want to draft a QB for the future.


Hence the reason the "You be the GM" thread used TB as the team offering to move up

[DraftBoy]

Interesting note from Draft Daddy.com;

The Buffalo Bills could take Oklahoma wide receiver Malcolm Kelly with their first draft pick.

DD.comment: No one needs to run better at the Combine than Malcolm Kelly. While most net sites have projected him as a sure-fire first round pick, he got a 2nd round projection from N.F.L. scouts a few weeks ago and the coaching staff at Oklahoma advised him to stay in school, because they felt he was a Potential Fourth Round Pick....So there is an obvious difference between what folks inside the football world think of Malcolm Kelly going into the draft process and what mainstream media and fan sites think.

[YardRat]

The combine is worthless.

Any NFL front office guy who significantly upgrades a player over the ream of info they already have on him playing the actual game should stick to being a bean-counter.

[DraftBoy]

The combine is worthless.

Any NFL front office guy who significantly upgrades a player over the ream of info they already have on him playing the actual game should stick to being a bean-counter.


Not true at all


His official weight, and height are extremely important along with cone time, 10 yd dash, and how they do in interviews and position drills. It also helps to dispel some myths like TE Dustin Keller from Purdue having a 40 time of 4.85 even though his fans say he is much faster. Just because the media over hypes it does not mean its worthless.

[gr8slayer]

The combine is worthless.

Any NFL front office guy who significantly upgrades a player over the ream of info they already have on him playing the actual game should stick to being a bean-counter.
I can see where you're coming from to a point but it sure is nice to get official measurements from NFL guys and not from whatever their coaches in college want them to be. Guys like Brennan who were listed at 6'3 by some people's accounts are a good example, the guy is 6'0 at best (I'd still take him :ill:)

[Night Train]

Interesting note from Draft Daddy.com;

The Buffalo Bills could take Oklahoma wide receiver Malcolm Kelly with their first draft pick.

DD.comment: No one needs to run better at the Combine than Malcolm Kelly. While most net sites have projected him as a sure-fire first round pick, he got a 2nd round projection from N.F.L. scouts a few weeks ago and the coaching staff at Oklahoma advised him to stay in school, because they felt he was a Potential Fourth Round Pick....So there is an obvious difference between what folks inside the football world think of Malcolm Kelly going into the draft process and what mainstream media and fan sites think.

Blasphemy ! How can worthless internet mock drafts be wrong ! They know more than NFL scouts !

[gr8slayer]

Blasphemy ! How can worthless internet mock drafts be wrong ! They know more than NFL scouts !
Some of them do.

[TigerJ]

If Kelly were to run a sub 4,5 40, I think a lot of reservations about drafting him that high would disappear. I know a good 40 time would ease my concerns about Keller or Davis.

[elltrain22]

I would love Malcolm Kelly. Great size, great speed, & can find the endzone. Plus, he has a history of playing well in big games.

[Mr. Miyagi]

If Kelly were to run a sub 4,5 40, I think a lot of reservations about drafting him that high would disappear. I know a good 40 time would ease my concerns about Keller or Davis.
To me, his 40 time means nothing. We don't need a fast WR, we already have Evans and Parrish. We need a big target with great hands, and does well catching in heavy traffic and over people.

Have you guys seen his video? After doing some research on him, I'm really starting to like him, same way I did with Marshawn last season.

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[Akhippo]

Exactly, I dont need him to be a burner. Thats what lee and Roscoe are for. I need him for what he was showing in the video. Loose hips, being tall and stiff arent a good combo. And those high catches along the sideline are exactly what we need.
Those were the same catches Braylon was killing us with in the snow game. The same catches that would have flown over our receivers head.

[jamze132]

I do think the combine is a bit over rated. I know it's important to know exactly how much someone weighs and how tall they are and how fast they are but the combine can't tell if a player "has" it.

I also think most of the so-called draft experts are idiots and that most of their research is done behind a computer instead o actually watching a player play in a live game.

[LifetimeBillsFan]

I think we need to trade down....

....Kelly, Sweed, Hardy, Bowman .... there's not a great deal between them so we should maximise the value of this pick and maybe look to grab a DT like Sims and/or Moore, or LBs like Connor, Alibi, or Henderson

While I agree with you that we should seriously look to trade down if possible, I think that you are dead wrong about the WRs, etc.

There's a HUGE difference between Kelly and Sweed and Hardy and Bowman: if you watch them play it is immediately evident that, while they may be physically even more gifted than Kelly and Sweed, Hardy and Bowman are RAW and are going to have to do a lot more, in terms of developing, if they are going to become big-time contributors in the NFL (and I am not saying that they are not). Sweed and Kelly are much smoother.

Two of the biggest problems that tall, fast, WRs have coming out of college come from the fact that taller guys tend to have longer strides and, as a result, they tend to "round off" their routes have problems getting off the line of scrimmage and into their routes. Consequently, when they get to the NFL, they have to learn the proper footwork that will allow them to get in and out of their routes before they can start to even learn to run the routes. Now, learning the proper footwork doesn't seem like it would be a big problem for a pro, but it can be because it requires re-training the mind and the legs to move in a way that may be very different from how the receiver has moved all of his life to that point. For some guys, doing this is actually uncomfortable and they never are able to quite master it the way that the coaches feel that they should (one must assume that if a person moves in a certain manner it is because that is the most comfortable way for his body to move and that moving in a different way would be less natural for him and could even be uncomfortable). Andre Davis and Sam Aiken are two guys who just haven't been able to do this: Davis may be one of the fastest WRs in the NFL, but, for all of his straight-ahead speed, he has never become a star because he doesn't get in and out of his routes well, especially the short and medium ones.

Now, look at Hardy and Bowman. How smooth are they when they run? ZHow well do they get in and out of their shorter routes? Don't look at a chart that lists their size and speed, look at them running their routes. And, if you do, I think you will agree that they both have more to learn at the NFL level than Kelly or Sweed. And, the question that will separate these receivers on NFL draft boards is going to be whether and how quickly they will be able to learn what they still need to learn.

Now, don't get me wrong: when I look at Hardy and Bowman, I see guys with the potential to be absolute monsters in the NFL. But, I've also seen some things that you won't see on any highlight films of them that really concern me: I've seen both of them get pretty much shut down at times because they struggled to get open on occasion. I've also seen Bowman being used a lot in the slot at Oklahoma St.--which makes me wonder if this was because Okla. St. doing this to try to confuse the defense or because Bowman has trouble getting off the line of scrimmage against aggressive press coverage, which is not something that you want to see in a guy as big and athletic as he is.

An additional problem with Bowman is going to be his hands: he does drop a few and could hardly catch anything in practice at the Senior Bowl. Can that be corrected or is that going to be something that will plague him in the NFL as well? To me, that's another question-mark that I have about him.

When I look at Sweed, on the other hand, I see a guy with the potential to be another Roy Williams--he's big, he's strong, he's fast, he has gotten over the problem that he had early on where he would make the tough catch and drop an easy one, and he loks pretty smooth running his routes. The problem is that Sweed missed most of this past season with a wrist injury and had to leave the Senior Bowl practices when the problem flared up again. That could be a VERY serious problem: if that injury is the type that is slow to heal or will recurr, it could mean that he could miss significant playing time down the road and that would make investing a high draft pick on him a huge risk.

Now, I think I know what the problem is with Kelly (and there are at least two of them): if you look at him, Kelly is a bit of a "bean-pole"--he doesn't look terribly strong and that could be a big problem in the NFL if he stays that way. Because he is so thin and has missed some playing time due to injuries, I think that there have to be some questions about his durability. No doubt, Kelly will need to "fill-out" some to maximize his potential. But, can he do that without losing speed? And, how much speed does he really have? That seems to be a big question for a lot of people. When I see him regularly running past coverage and getting open deep, though, I think he has enough "game-speed" to be a big-time WR in the NFL, if he is willing and able to learn the things that he needs to learn to make it in the league. I've seen enough guys "fill-out" on the NFL level and still be able to move fast enough to be very effective (TO is not the fastest WR on his own team, let alone in the NFL, but he is VERY effective regardless of his personality).

The other big concern with Kelly is the fact that he is known to "round off" his routes. From what I have been able to gather, this is more a case of him being a "lazy route runner" who needs to learn to be more precise rather than being something that he has a problem with physically. That could be a sign that he is mentally "lazy" or that he isn't very coachable--which would be a serious "red flag"--but someone recently posted an article on the BZ forum, when Kelly initially talked about staying in school another year, where Kelly acknowledge that he still has a lot to learn and talked about having to work on a number of things that were still weaknesses. That article convinced me that Kelly understands that he still has a long way to go and that he will be willing to work hard to get better on the next level--which is the key to success in the NFL.

I like Sweed a lot--if his wrist is going to be healthy enough to hold up. And, I think Bowman and especially Hardy have the potential to develop into tremendous WRs in the NFL IF they are willing and able to master what they need to learn. But, knowing only what we know right now, if the draft were today, I would have to go with Kelly.

With guys like Bryant and Laws likely to be available later in the draft, I think it would be a mistake to "reach" for Sims or Moore at # 11 or even in the mid-to-late first round. I like Adibi or Henderson (or Highsmith) as possible second round picks, but, again, those are players that the Bills could look at in Round 2 (or a Jordan Dizon, from Colorado, a tackling-machine who led the NCAA in tackles in 2007 in Round 3). But, IMHO, what the Bills need most is a big, preferably fast, WR that they can put on the field opposite Lee Evans who is at least close enough to being NFL-ready to force NFL defenses to at least respect him next season. And, right now, the player that I see as being closest to being ready to do that is Malcolm Kelly.

Of course, I could be very wrong about this. And, there are some things that could come out of The Combine and pro days--or happen off-the-field between now and Draft Day--that could change my mind, but that's how I see it right now.

[colin]

imo sweed and kelly are straight out studs. although you rank players it is better to look at their over all rating. you might have a very small margin between the 6th overall and the 12th overall player, in which case taking one at a certain pick over another isn't really a true reach.

i think we go either wr or dt/de at 11, unless one of the OLB or CBs looks like a pro bowler from day one.

[Michael82]

I would have no problem taking Kelly at #11, or trading down a bit. He's going to be a stud and would be really nice alongside Lee Evans. :drool:

[gr8slayer]

I would have no problem taking Kelly at #11, or trading down a bit. He's going to be a stud and would be really nice alongside Lee Evans. :drool:
Sweed will be the better NFL WR.