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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Tomorrow we're going to see the top 3 DE's on the board (Brown, Orakpo, Maybin) show their stuff, both at DE and LB. Chances are that one of those three will be on the board for us at 11. Theres no indication that I've seen (except for the pleas from this board) to cut Kelsay or Denney, so presumedly they will here next year. How would you feel about drafting one of those top 3 to play Sam LB?

Advantages:

1. We significantly upgrade our size and athleticism at the Sam position.

2. We add a player who could theoretically be extremely dangerous as a blitzer from a two point stance.

3. We can drop said player to the line on obvious passing downs.

4. It would compensate for the major perceived weakness of each of these players (i.e. size).

Obviously this is based on a whole lot of suppositions. It would require these folks to show both the athletic ability and the ability to transition to a brand new position, but it has been done.

Thoughts?

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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We've talked about this on the a few seperate threads, but I feel we needed a post just focusing on it. In the interest of full disclosure let me say that I thought the it was a ridiculous play call. There have been some folks who have defended the call (if not the execution) expertly enough that I felt we should take a closer look at our opinions. Maybe this is just setting up a brand new pointless argument, but I hope we'll all at least feel better. I want to examine the possible outcomes that could be reasonably expected and weigh the costs and benefits.

Here goes nothing...

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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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