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With the Bills signing William James, it is probably very unlikely that the Bills will use the # 11 pick in the draft on D. Rogers-Cromartie or any other CB. James' signing also increases the likelihood that the Bills will use their first two picks in the draft to select a WR and a TE to fill their two biggest remaining needs.
With James, T.McGee and J.Greer, the Bills have three CBs who have played reasonably well as starters in the NFL. Ashton Youboty showed some signs of starting to develop into a NFL-caliber CB late last season, giving the Bills 4 CBs that they can be reasonably confident in putting on the field against 4 WR sets.
The Bills will still need to add at least one and perhaps 2 CBs before training camp, but they can now afford to wait until the 3rd or even 4th round before selecting a CB now, rather than having to perhaps take a chance on losing out on the WR and TE prospects that they feel will be most able to help the team this season because they had to use one of their first two picks on a CB. With James in the fold, they can give a 3rd or 4th round pick time to develop without seriously jeopardizing their ability to defend the pass this season.
As much as I like Rogers-Cromartie's athleticism and was impressed by McKelvin's knack for defensing passes, my big concern with taking a top CB prospect and developing him into a "shutdown" CB is that, when you do that, you are virtually guaranteed to lose that player as so as he becomes eligible for free agency at the prices that such CBs can now command on the open market. One of the reasons for using a Tampa 2 defense is that it does not require a team to have a Top 10 caliber "shutdown" CB in order to be effective. With James joining McGee and Greer and an improved pass rush, the Bills can be more effective on defense this season without having to use their top pick on a CB.
And, that will allow the Bills to use their top two picks in this draft to address their two weakest positions, the two positions that they were not able to adequately address in free agency: WR and TE.
A DE still remains an outside possibility at this point as well, but, given the amount of money that they already have invested in Schobel and Kelsay, it is more likely that the team will try to address their need for a situational pass rusher either in free agency or in the middle rounds of the draft (where they may be able to pick up an under-sized pure pass rusher who they can use on passing downs and try to develop into a 3-down player as he gets bigger and stronger with time and experience).
But, at this point I think it is pretty fair to say that the Bills are unlikely to use their first round pick in the draft on a CB now that they have signed Will James.
With James, T.McGee and J.Greer, the Bills have three CBs who have played reasonably well as starters in the NFL. Ashton Youboty showed some signs of starting to develop into a NFL-caliber CB late last season, giving the Bills 4 CBs that they can be reasonably confident in putting on the field against 4 WR sets.
The Bills will still need to add at least one and perhaps 2 CBs before training camp, but they can now afford to wait until the 3rd or even 4th round before selecting a CB now, rather than having to perhaps take a chance on losing out on the WR and TE prospects that they feel will be most able to help the team this season because they had to use one of their first two picks on a CB. With James in the fold, they can give a 3rd or 4th round pick time to develop without seriously jeopardizing their ability to defend the pass this season.
As much as I like Rogers-Cromartie's athleticism and was impressed by McKelvin's knack for defensing passes, my big concern with taking a top CB prospect and developing him into a "shutdown" CB is that, when you do that, you are virtually guaranteed to lose that player as so as he becomes eligible for free agency at the prices that such CBs can now command on the open market. One of the reasons for using a Tampa 2 defense is that it does not require a team to have a Top 10 caliber "shutdown" CB in order to be effective. With James joining McGee and Greer and an improved pass rush, the Bills can be more effective on defense this season without having to use their top pick on a CB.
And, that will allow the Bills to use their top two picks in this draft to address their two weakest positions, the two positions that they were not able to adequately address in free agency: WR and TE.
A DE still remains an outside possibility at this point as well, but, given the amount of money that they already have invested in Schobel and Kelsay, it is more likely that the team will try to address their need for a situational pass rusher either in free agency or in the middle rounds of the draft (where they may be able to pick up an under-sized pure pass rusher who they can use on passing downs and try to develop into a 3-down player as he gets bigger and stronger with time and experience).
But, at this point I think it is pretty fair to say that the Bills are unlikely to use their first round pick in the draft on a CB now that they have signed Will James.
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