| Carl Setterlund. 20th April, 2006 - 10:44 pm
 2005-06 Record: 5-11
Draft Position: 8th
Picks
1st Round: 8
2nd Round: 42
3rd Round: 70, 73
4th Round: 105
5th Round: 143
6th Round: 178
7th Round: 216, 248
Team needs: After free agency, things don’t look as bright as they could for the storied Bills franchise. Sure, old coach Marv Levy is back in the spotlight replacing Tom Donahoe as GM, but has it led to anything good? It’s questionable at this point. Larry Triplett is a nice pickup, but with the losses of Sam Adams, Ron Edwards and Justin Bannan there’s still some work to be done at defensive tackle. The offensive line frankly is unimpressive; in fact, it looks like a major weakness. With a below average quarterback tandem there should be special attention paid to giving them good protection. Maybe with the losses of Eric Moulds (trade) and Mark Campbell there should be some work done at the receiving positions? It’s hard to say really. Roscoe Parrish is sitting in the wings and Lee Evans continues to emerge but there isn’t much there behind them. Peerless Price? Josh Reed? Robert Royal? Andre Davis? This group is average at best. Also, Buffalo is one of those 4 or 5 teams that prides itself on perennially having a powerhouse defense. Don’t be surprised if they invest a middle round pick or two on building some depth in the defensive backfield. There’s just simply nothing behind Nate Clements and Terrence McGee at cornerback. Then there’s Coy Wire. You’ve never heard of him either? Starting strong safety folks.
First round breakdown: You know I’m going to go out on a limb here. I said in a previous article that I thought the Bills would go with Haloti Ngata at #8, the massive defensive tackle out of Oregon. I’m going to change my prediction though. Winston Justice would be a huge upgrade over everyone else on the offensive line, but he’s probably too much of a risk for Buffalo to commit to him here. I really think that the depth of this draft is going to allow the Bills to take the best player available. In the second and third round there are still going to be plenty of competent defensive tackles and offensive linemen left who have starter potential. So here I go, I have the Buffalo Bills taking safety Michael Huff. With Lawyer Milloy out the door they just have to do something big with the secondary and this makes too much sense for it not to happen. This is exactly the kind of big splash that Marv Levy needs to make. Huff is reliable, solid and nobody hits harder. He’s got that big play potential without the risk of making mistakes that usually comes along with players like that. I truly think Huff is almost a lock to make a Pro-bowl in the future and I don’t think anything would look nicer to head coach Dick Jauron than having the best secondary in the league, especially when you know you’re going to be playing against Tom Brady and Daunte Culpepper a combined four times a year. Too many people when predicting the draft try to make everything fit. That’s a mistake because things never turn out that way. Does it fit together better if the Bills take a DT and hand the Detroit Lions the rights to Huff? Yeah of course it does, but this is the one guy with overwhelming star potential that I think is left on the board at #8 and I just don’t see Buffalo passing up on him.
Predicted selection – Michael Huff, Safety, Texas
Overall outlook: If you’ve been reading my previous draft breakdowns then you know I have a lot of winners coming out of this draft and really that’s because the depth this year is unparalleled to any other in recent memory. There are more than 40 first round talents out there this year and this just gives teams a ton of options. Buffalo should benefit. You’ve seen I have them taking Huff at #8, but in the second round there are still going to be nice pickups. You look at pick number 42 and offensive linemen like guard Davin Joseph from Oklahoma, colossal tackle Marcus McNeill of the Auburn Tigers and guard Deuce Lutui out of USC, each might be available. Big names at defensive tackle should be there in the second and third round. Gabe Watson, Claude Wroten, Rodrique Wright, John McCargo, these are all possibilities. There are going to be a lot of names out there for the Bills to choose from and two picks in the top half of the third round should only help things. Being a small market franchise isn’t always easy and the offseason has been a little hard on the Bills so far. Don’t worry because this draft is stocked with guy after guy who would fit in well on the Bills team. A guy like Anwar Phillips from that great Penn State team could be a nice fit in the fourth round. Maybe Buffalo takes a late round flyer on a backup QB like DJ Shockley. There are just so many options out there for Buffalo and I can’t stress enough that this is real good thing for Bills fans. |
