Sun Tzu says: "If you know others and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles". Admittedly he didn't say it exactly like that, as he was living in the Spring and Autumn Period (722-481 BC) of China and English was almost two millenia away from taking its current modern form. You get the idea though. We know the Green Bay Packers. They have an explosive West Coast offense run by one of the best young quarterbacks in the league, and a big play defense centered around LB Clay Matthews and CB Charles Woodson. We also know the Bills. We have, perhaps, an above average defense which camouflages its weak pass rush with good coverage and pressure packages, and we have a below average offense, which camouflages its weaknesses with...well, it doesn't. So how would a mediocre rebuilding club like the Bills topple a chic pick to make the Super Bowl like the Packers? The answer is simple: wacky National Lampoon-esque hijinks.

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Good golly folks, the draft is almost upon us. Like all of you I've been diligently reading through any draft and/or Bills related information I can in preparation, and I almost feel overloaded with the amount of information and opinions you all throw out there. We've endlessly debated Tebow vs. Clausen, and whether or not Bulaga can play LT in the pros, but we haven't discussed many of those folks who will really have to fight to make the roster. Some of these guys will become contributors, some may even become stars. In tribute to those guys (and to get some discussion going about them) I present my first annual (maybe) Day 3 Mock Draft. I will only be mocking rounds 4-7, with commentary for each pick.

Now I understand that what happens on days 1 and 2 will affect what we do on day 3, but I feel that most picks in the later rounds are likely to be value picks, and whether or not I think we selected a QB, OT or NT early on has no bearing on my selections here. Just picking guys I like, at picks I would like to get them at. Feel free to add your own choices in the comments section and feel free to add an info about and/or criticisms of my choices.

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I've seen a lot of mock drafts on this site, and they almost never include trades. Now I understand the rationale- it's extremely difficult project trades, but for me, it's always been the most enjoyable part of making mock drafts. In that spirit I'm reveling in ambition and making my first mock for this site complete with trades. This mock is almost certainly 90% (or more) wrong, but I definitely enjoyed tinkering around with it. Feel free to comment away.

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We all have indulged fantasies about trading Roscoe Parrish or Chris Kelsay for a worthwhile draft pick, or some moderately talented depth player, but the more I mull over the current state of the roster, the more I'm convinced that Kyle Williams is the only realizable asset we have.

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It's been a while since I posted, but I finally have a day off and an inclination to write. A couple of things first though:

1. I actually think that Van Pelt has done a pretty decent job with this offense this year. He's broken us out of a lot of tendencies that we've had (by, for example, calling fewer than ten of those quick base runs out of the shotgun set every game) and diversified the attack. Considering his lack of experience and the extenuating circumstances (injuries, youth on the offensive line, poor QB play), I wouldn't mind giving him a chance to develop. That said, I find it very unlikely he stays unless Coach Fewell is given the big chair long term (On a side note: Is it interesting to anyone else that Van Pelt is still listed as QB Coach on the official website?).

2. This is the purest speculation, designed simply to get some discussion going and throw out a few names. Its probably likely that none of the names on this list will be calling plays for Buffalo next year. I'm also not going to include anyone who currently holds an equal or superior position but may be released after the season (no Gary Kubiak for instance).

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As you all know, in the last few weeks we've really started to get the draft talk in full swing. We've had a few discussions about how to draft, the quality of our front office's talent evaluation, etc..., and its got me thinking about how good teams draft. Are there patterns? Do they spend a lot of picks at one position? Are they able to find talent consistently in the later rounds? So I decided to break down the 2004-2006 drafts of consistently good teams, and compare them to ours. I chose 2004-2006, because I consider these players to be the core of your team. You should know by season 5 or 6 that you have an elite player, and after 3 you should know that you have at least a starter/quality player.

I seperated the players into two categories: 1. Elite players, and 2. Starters/Quality contributors. Here's where the extremely unscientific part comes in: Its mostly based on my own judgment. I think it safe to say however, that as a starter on a consistently exceptional team, you definitely have something to offer any club. For example, I included Nick Kaczur for the Patriots. I consider him to be a marginal starter at best, but he would be an exceptional player in a reserve role. I will leave out a few players that technically are stil on the rosters, but I buried in the depth chart. Also note that this does not take into account undrafted FAs. I don't really have time to factor them all in, but it should be noted that some of these find a lot of talent on the rookie FA wire (the Colts for example, are exceptional at this).

I also threw in some percentages regarding quality picks (only picks that are still on the team) per draft and overall.

Anyways, enough of my yapping-

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I've never done my own FanPost (I feel like I should add a little "trademarked" symbol after that), but I got to workter getting jerked around by the NYC subway for an hour, and felt I needed to spread some positivity to myself and others. I was going to put this all on MARVelous's recent "3 Things" post, but I found I actually had a lot more positive things to say then I assumed I would. So in no particular order...

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