Building the Bills Board

[DraftBoy]

Part 1 - Need Evaluation

http://www.buffalobillsdraft.com/2012/04/building-the-bills-board-part-1-needs-evaluation/

With the draft only 8 days away we wanted to do everything we could to get you prepped and ready for who the Bills could take, who we think they’ll take, and who might be left available after the draft is over. Today we start that process by doing what every NFL team is either currently doing or has just finished up and that’s building the draft board.

If you missed it last week we released new positional rankings along with a new Top 750 Big Board but that was all based on general rankings and scouting, it didn’t include a Bills centric focus. This series of articles will take you through every stop, thought, and detail of how we will build the Buffalo Bills draft board. We want to encourage you to please comment and give us your input as we go along.

[Extremebillsfan247]

Re: Building the Bills Board

Good luck with that. Anyone who has that figured out before the Bills do, I tip my hat to you. lol They won't even have theirs finalized until next Wednesday. In other words, even the Bills aren't sure who they are taking yet. I'm sure they have some idea about who will be there and who won't. What they are probably figuring out is who they actually want to roll the dice on. JMO

[Buddo]

Re: Building the Bills Board

Not completely worked through the whole thing, but I believe you have misplaced Spencer Johnson. You have him as a DE, whereas I think he is just as likely to be used at DT, as he was when he was with the Vikes.
He does have some versatility, and I can see him being used as a DE on obvious running downs, but I'd say he could easily be a first up backup when either Dareus or Williams needs a blow.

[YardRat]

Re: Building the Bills Board

The draft board is already built...

http://www.buffalobillsdraft.com/2012-top-100-prospects/

[The Jokeman]

Re: Building the Bills Board

The draft board is already built...

http://www.buffalobillsdraft.com/201...100-prospects/

That more of a general consensus board. While it's nice to think we could use something like to relate to the Bills we can't. Case in point by most accounts Kendall Wright tanks as the 3rd best WR on most boards. I think on a Bills specific board he wouldn't rank so high if the Bills are focused on bringing in a guy with size which means we could favor a guy like Ruben Randle as the 3rd best WR on our board.

[DraftBoy]

Re: Building the Bills Board

Not completely worked through the whole thing, but I believe you have misplaced Spencer Johnson. You have him as a DE, whereas I think he is just as likely to be used at DT, as he was when he was with the Vikes.
He does have some versatility, and I can see him being used as a DE on obvious running downs, but I'd say he could easily be a first up backup when either Dareus or Williams needs a blow.

Per Buffalo Bills official website he's a DE.

[YardRat]

Re: Building the Bills Board

That more of a general consensus board. While it's nice to think we could use something like to relate to the Bills we can't. Case in point by most accounts Kendall Wright tanks as the 3rd best WR on most boards. I think on a Bills specific board he wouldn't rank so high if the Bills are focused on bringing in a guy with size which means we could favor a guy like Ruben Randle as the 3rd best WR on our board.

Just IMO, but if a front office is re-ranking specific positions based on desire and need they are making a huge mistake. If you determine somebody is the third best receiver in the draft, than that's what they are. Now, using your examples, if the big board has Wright and Randle ranked very closely on the big board (3 and 3.5 or 4) then maybe measurables come into play.

[DraftBoy]

Re: Building the Bills Board

Just IMO, but if a front office is re-ranking specific positions based on desire and need they are making a huge mistake. If you determine somebody is the third best receiver in the draft, than that's what they are. Now, using your examples, if the big board has Wright and Randle ranked very closely on the big board (3 and 3.5 or 4) then maybe measurables come into play.

While I think its a good point that was made, rather for me its about valuing certain positions over others. For instance my Big Board on BBD has Richardson over Kalil, but I dont think the Bills would. Do you?

[YardRat]

Re: Building the Bills Board

While I think its a good point that was made, rather for me its about valuing certain positions over others. For instance my Big Board on BBD has Richardson over Kalil, but I dont think the Bills would. Do you?

I think if the Bills used your board, the pick would be Kalil.

They are close enough (3 and 4 overall, not just by position) where need would become a factor, and (I hope) they would go for the #1 LT and #4 overall over the #1 RB and #3 overall.

But, what if at #10, and using your board, Richardson and Massie are available instead of Kalil. Do you take your #3 ranked player or #15?

To return to Joke's example of Wright vs Randle, according to the rankings...

22. WR Kendall Wright-Baylor
23. DT Dontari Poe-Memphis
24. CB Janoris Jenkins-North Alabama
25. DE Andre Branch-Clemson
26. OC Peter Konz-Wisconsin
27. CB Casey Hayward-Vanderbilt
28. WR Reuben Randle-LSU

...is the difference in grading #22 vs #28 overall (or #3 vs #4 receiver) close enough to factor in measurables? What if the top two WR's available were Wright and Quick, Jeffery or Sanu. Do you skip over #22 in favor of #36, #41 or #48?

[DraftBoy]

Re: Building the Bills Board

I think if the Bills used your board, the pick would be Kalil.

They are close enough (3 and 4 overall, not just by position) where need would become a factor, and (I hope) they would go for the #1 LT and #4 overall over the #1 RB and #3 overall.

But, what if at #10, and using your board, Richardson and Massie are available instead of Kalil. Do you take your #3 ranked player or #15?

To return to Joke's example of Wright vs Randle, according to the rankings...

22. WR Kendall Wright-Baylor
23. DT Dontari Poe-Memphis
24. CB Janoris Jenkins-North Alabama
25. DE Andre Branch-Clemson
26. OC Peter Konz-Wisconsin
27. CB Casey Hayward-Vanderbilt
28. WR Reuben Randle-LSU

...is the difference in grading #22 vs #28 overall (or #3 vs #4 receiver) close enough to factor in measurables? What if the top two WR's available were Wright and Quick, Jeffery or Sanu. Do you skip over #22 in favor of #36, #41 or #48?

All good questions but I won't have Wright that high in my Bills board, at least no above Jenkins and Branch.

[DraftBoy]

Re: Building the Bills Board

Part 2 - Who We've Seen

http://www.buffalobillsdraft.com/2012/04/building-the-bills-board-part-2-who-weve-seen/

Below is a listing of every game, player interview, and pro day that we could find Bills scouts at confirmed. This list contains the names of 100’s of players and over 50 events. The correlations that may be drawn between whether the Bills saw a player live, brought him in for a workout, or attended his pro day are for you to take in and decide on your own.

[DraftBoy]

Re: Building the Bills Board

FWIW Part 2 contains every game the Bills scouted that I could confirm, all the prospects from my Top 750 in those game,s all the pro days, all the combine visits, all the official visits, and two private workouts.

Phew...

[k-oneputt]

Re: Building the Bills Board

How do you not see the best team in the country which has approx. a dozen players who could play in the NFL ?

Does that even make sense ?

[DraftBoy]

Re: Building the Bills Board

How do you not see the best team in the country which has approx. a dozen players who could play in the NFL ?

Does that even make sense ?

1. Those were only the games we could confirm
2. The Bills are members of BLESTO
3. The Bills extensively scouted Alabama last year when they took Dareus
4. The scout easily could of scouted Alabama off tape as opposed to being at the game

[DraftBoy]

Re: Building the Bills Board

Part 3 - Top Ten Big Board

http://www.buffalobillsdraft.com/2012/04/building-the-bills-board-part-3-top-10-big-board/

Finally we have now gone through what we know we need and what players we have already seen now it’s finally time to start putting together the draft board. We’ll start with the top 10 picks since we pick #10 overall. This will be a board of who and why we are placing each player in what positions. The idea is that how matter how the draft falls on Thursday night we will end up with one of these ten players.