“During the lockout, Spiller dedicated himself to watching each play that he was involved in, and it didn’t take long for the ninth pick of the 2010 draft to notice something.

‘I wasn’t being as patient as I normally had,’ Spiller said.  ‘I was sometimes over-running the holes and wasn’t using my ability to my advantage once I got into open field and that’s something I tried to work on this off-season.’”

http://www.13wham.com/content/sports/local/story/spiller-bills/F6I-pg_PgECtVQydyMnt_Q.cspx

Of all of the encouraging nuggets of information included in today’s morning links from MRW, this anecdote and quote stood out. I am fired up.

CJ Spiller was an absolutely electrifying collegiate running back. The kind of guy you would watch and get goose bumps when he ripped off a big run. In his first professional season, he was a non-factor. Beyond that, there weren’t too many flashes of potential. Having been down the road of draft day busts many times before, I reacted like a normal Bills fan and pushed him out of my thoughts entirely (it’s best to compartmentalize certain draft day decisions) and lowered my expectations significantly.

To be honest, I hadn’t given him too much thought during the off-season. I was (and am) optimistic about the offense regardless of how CJ performs. But…

The reality is that he was a rookie playing a position that generally is not too kind to rookies. He was playing behind a line that can be called patch-work at best, but could be more often described as poor. He missed a chunk of practices and had to learn a new system. On top of all of that, he had to adjust to the speed of an NFL game.

The net result was him bouncing off of the backs of the o-line and then running horizontally for a short gain/loss.

But the quote above tells me everything I want to hear – he recognized his mistakes and spent the off-season working on them. The guy still has the same physical tools that made him a beast in college. He has that first season under his belt of game-day experience and learning the playbook.

If he can get it figured out (and yes I know that’s still a big if), this guy is going to transform the offense. Maybe I am the only one who was sleeping on him this year, but it sure seems like most of the chatter and focus has been on the defensive side of the ball.

I really think that CJ has as good of chances of anyone on the team as being the Bills’ MVP this year.

God forbid our bills go winless this year and god forbid there is a lockout next year, what happens with the draft? Logically I know we wouldn't get consecutive number 1 picks, but is there any precedent? It at least seems plausible... This could be the one scenario where I might be okay with no football. In the immortal words of the greatest film of our times... So you're saying there's a chance.

I am sure it's all in good fun (well mostly good fun), but I love the attitude Drayton Florence has. He called out Mike Sims Walker and Ochocinco to the tune of $1,000 a catch this season. Per his twitter account:

@OGOchoCinco if u have any catches on me I'll donate 1000$ per catch to any charity u choose and bubble screens don't count #realtalk

@MIKESIMSWALKER same for u pie walker 1000$ donation to ur charity of choice for every catch #realtalk

Here's hoping he can back it up this season...

"We would like to fill the need, but if we can't, we want to make sure we don't compound the problem by putting another one in that position that can't play... If we can't get the guy that we know we can fill that need than we're going to try to develop what we've got or there is still the chance that we can try to fill that need after the draft." - Buddy Nix at the Bills Draft Luncheon two weeks before the draft

There are a lot of reasons I like Buddy Nix. First and foremost is his awesome twang and the previous experience at winning organizations is also nice (ours included). But the biggest one, at least from my perspective as a fan, is the no nonsense approach he takes with the media and the seeming honesty that he employs when talking about his plan for the franchise.

The quote above, taken two weeks before the draft, quite accurately describes how the Bills approached the draft and will likely describe the next 2-3 years (and hopefully many more) of Front Office moves in Buffalo.

The Bills are a young team going through a schematic transition. From a personnel perspective, that presents two challenges. One: a new scheme requires different types of players. Two: young players oftentimes require development, which means you don't always know exactly what they are going to offer.

Given this as a background, I thought the Bills took a very sensible approach to the draft. The Bills knew exactly what they have at RB - Freddy and Marshawn are known quantities - and upgraded that position with Spiller. Some people will rightfully argue that there are more glaring needs on the roster, but I don't think nearly as many people would dispute that Spiller represents a known injection of skills to the position that are currently absent on the roster.

With picks two and three, Buffalo added players that will immediately fill some of the needs created by the transition to a 3-4. In fact, throughout the offseason, the Bills consistently added players that upgraded their defensive unit as a whole. As Buddy said yesterday, "now we won't get blown off the line for five yards on every rushing play".

Despite all of the hyperbole out there, no one really knows how good the players are we have at QB/LT. Bell/Meredith and Brohm/Edwards/Brown/Fitzpatrick might actually be decent players once they fully develop or are given a consistent scheme. Also true is that you could say the same thing about all of the offensive lineman outside of the top 6 picks (eg, Okung and Williams) and just about every QB in the draft (there is a reason they fell that far). If you threw those guys into the mix, yes they might win out in a position battle, but you might have also just blown a spot to upgrade your team and then we have another year of little progress.

So rather than compound the problem by using our top picks on guys who are just going to get lumped into the mess we have at those positions, Nix and Co. picked up guys who improve the team immediately. Then with later rounds, the team added depth/developmental players to OL/QB/WR to increase the likelihood that we have an answer for these positions on our roster if the current guys don't work out.

That's what I love about this draft and our overall approach. There is no doubt in my mind we have a better football team today than we did on Wednesday. Do we still have holes? Yes, we very likely do. Could we have filled those holes in the draft? Maybe... Maybe not.

Buddy Nix has said from Day 1 that he is a proponent of building through the draft, but the Bills have shown that they are more than willing to test free agency to try to plug a couple of holes. There is an awfully big one at left tackle. Jason La Canfora is reporting that the Ravens may be shopping Gaither for a high-second round pick (http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2010/03/29/gaither-could-be-available-for-less-than-first-round-pick/). Do you think the Bills should pounce on it? It might mean missing out an awfully popular quarterback...

My two cents is that the Bills go for it, if he is actually available at that price. He automatically would get plugged into the starting left tackle and perform more than adequately. He has consistently been graded out well and still has room for improvement. Clearly there are some red flags that the Ravens are willing to part with him, but we have seen first hand that sometimes guys want a change of scenery and there isn't a lot that can be done to change that.

Pick up a DT in the first, swap the second for a LT and now two of the three biggest need areas are covered. Yes, it likely means that the Bills go another year without a franchise QB, but "fixing" or at least significantly upgrading both sides of the line in one offseason would be a hell of an accomplishment.

When you think about the 2009 Buffalo Bills, the phrase "enviable depth" probably is not the first thing that comes to mind. With the offensive line in tatters and more than a handful of key players on injured reserve, the team is thin in depth nearly across the board. These circumstances only underscore the how lucky the Bills are to have two legitimate starters in the backfield. Marshawn Lynch and Fred Jackson have both shown they can lead an offense - so the question is what should we do with them?

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Is winning football games really as easy winning the turnover and penalty battle? For the Bills, the answer is a pretty easy yes.

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Let's go above and beyond and show Leodis, the Bills Organization, and the country that we are a classy organization and classy fan base. One action is not representative of the bunch.

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