Draft Guys TV – Profile video on Xavier Omon
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Category: Draft
The 2008 NFL Draft is “in the books” and the Bills came away with 10 new players to add to their ranks. Some fantastic picks, but a bit shocking that there were no trades at all. The Bills didn’t move up, down, sideways, or anyways. Most Bills fans (this writer included) expected to see some sort of deal done with such a surplus of picks. But in the end, the Bills added five new offensive players, and five new defensive players.
Among them are the best CB in the draft, the perfect WR for the Bills, a Corner named Corner, a Division II “Superman”, and the son of Karl Malone! Quite an interesting bunch!
Let’s take a quick glance at the draftees. (click their photos for an in-depth bio from BuffaloBills.com!)
1 – CB Leodis McKelvin – Troy
The Bills chose to stay put at the #11 pick and got arguably the best CB in the draft. The only knock on this guy is that he doesn’t have “great hands”. That seems like something he can learn with time, since the rest of his athletic package is apparently top notch. Fast, great vertical, powerful hitter, quick in change of direction, and he’s a great return man to boot. He compared himself to Devin Hester. (We’ll see if he can actually back that up…)
Some might question the Bills drafting a guy who is apparently very similar to Terrence McGee, but McKelvin was rated by most scouts and other experts as the best CB in the draft, and CB was a position of need for the Bills, so I really like the pick. It will be interesting to see how the return skills are used with McGee and Parrish being two of the better return guys in the NFL. The return game could be pretty exciting in 2008!
2 – WR James Hardy – Indiana
Bills fans (myself included) were thrilled when their team landed Hardy with their second round pick. 6’6″, 220 pounds, 36 TDs, around a 37″ vertical… he is just what the Bills needed to (hopefully) solve their several-season Red Zone drought. Of all the WRs in the draft, Hardy seemed to best fit what the Bills were looking for. There may have been a few names that would make a bigger splash, but Hardy will likely add a half-dozen or more TDs for the Bills this season, and that’s much better than a big-name splash!
3 – DE Chris Ellis – Virginia Tech
Selecting a defensive end from Virginia Tech worked quite well for the Bills a couple decades ago. Of course, he was the number one overall selection in the 1985 draft – which third round pick, Chris Ellis was clearly not – but still Ellis does have that going for him.
There were a number of game changing DEs in the 2008 draft. One of them went to our division rivals, the NY Jets (Gholston). I actually projected the Bills might take DE Derrick Harvey out of the University of Florida in the first round, but they went with McKelvin instead. (Harvey was already gone… Jags took him at #8. So maybe they were going to?)
Ellis is smallish at only 220 pounds, but the Bills touted his run-stopping ability as well as his pass rushing, and ability to avoid being blocked (good hands). I think Ellis may be the sleeper in this draft (if a third rounder can be a “sleeper”) for the Bills, and could bolster what was a pretty pathetic pass rush in 2007.
4 – CB Reggie Corner – Akron
It’s quite obvious by pick #4 that the Bills had targeted the cornerback position as one of their top needs. With the first and fourth selection of the draft, their need at that position was addressed. The best part about this cornerback is that he will be wearing the name “Corner” on his back. 😉
When I was looking up information on Corner, I came across some game photos and recaps of Akron games, and his name was all over them. He was definitely a star at Akron, and it seems the Bills believe he can carry that over to the NFL level. He is in the same mold as our other corners – which is a bit surprising – and also offers some return abilities as well. The line from the Bills staff that stuck out to me was, “Honestly, there aren’t many negatives.” They also commented that he “plays bigger than his size.”
5 – TE Derek Fine – Kansas
The Bills finally grabbed a tight end with their second pick of the fourth round. He’s not what most Bills fans were hoping for – a game-breaking, pass-catching TE – but the Bills say he was “the most complete” tight end in this year’s draft.
Fine also was a special teams star at Kansas, which likely was one of the biggest reasons the Bills selected him to fill their need at TE. Having lost so many players to free agency, or just releasing them, the Bills were also looking to draft players who had experience playing special teams.
Fine joins a TE corp that includes another TE named Derek (Schouman), Robert Royal, Courtney Anderson (picked up from Atlanta via free agency) and a few more. (Including Kevin Everett, actually.) Will be interesting to see who emerges from that group to help stretch the field for Lynch in 2008.
6 – OLB Alvin Bowen – Iowa State
The Bills focused on defense again with their 5th round selection. This guy seems like a great pick for the middle of the draft. The Bills were looking for a bit of depth at the LB position, but what stands out from Bowen’s college career is his special teams contributions. He led the nation in special teams tackles with 155 during his junior year. He’s an exciting player, whom we’ll likely see a lot of on special teams this coming season.
7 – RB Xavier Omon – NW Missouri State
NFL.com was showing the Bills positional needs as: WR, TE, CB, and RB. That they would say we needed a RB with Marshawn Lynch, Fred Jackson, and Dwayne Wright was surprising to me. Even more surprising was the Bills using their 6th round pick on an “unknown” Division II running back. He does have a cool name, though.
Little did I know that this little man from NW MO State was a Division II “Superman”! He is the only player in collegiate athletics history to record over 1500 rushing yards in each of his four seasons as a student. He finished his career with 7073 rushing yards, 92 rushing TDs, and 6 more receiving TDs on 90 receptions. He amassed 2,337 yards and 37 TDs in his senior year alone. Quite literally a “man among boys at his level,” as the Bills staff described him.
Omon is excited to contribute wherever he can with the Bills, but this is a fantastic selection if he can produce at the NFL level. He is a Maurice Jones-Drew-like RB with power, and great breakaway speed. Great late-round pick up by the Bills.
8 – OT Demetrius Bell – Northwestern State (LA)
With the first of three seventh-round picks, the Bills bolstered their offensive line by selecting the 6’5″ 300-pounder from Terrence McGee’s alma mater. Bell’s other “claim to fame” is that he is the son of baskteball great, Karl Malone.
Most Bills fans anticipated the team adding a center through the draft, but the Bills liked Bell’s size and athleticism. Definitely a late-round “project”, but always good to add beef to the offensive line.
9 – WR Steve Johnson – Kentucky
Wide receiver (especially a tall wide receiver) was certainly a position of need going into this weekend’s draft. So, with their second to last selection, the Bills chose Kentucky WR, Steve Johnson. Johnson had over 1,000 yards receiving his senior year, and has good size as well at 6’2″ 210 pounds. As you would expect, a seventh round pick is most likely a “project”, but it was good to see the Bills add another tall receiver. Also of note is that he and Bills’ RB Marshawn Lynch are friends from the Bay area, where they are both from originally.
10 – CB Kennard Cox – Pittsburgh
With the second-to-last selection of the entire 2008 draft (and their third and final selection of the seventh round) the Bills selected their third cornerback of the draft, Kennard Cox of Pitt. Cox is a bigger CB at 6’0″ 192 pounds. Some scouts had him projected to play safety in the NFL, but the Bills want to keep him at CB. This is an interesting pick up for many reasons. First, there is now quite a lot of competition at the CB spot for the Bills. Second, his size does make a difference. The rest of the DBs are all quite short, which against tall WRs like Randy Moss, just makes life more difficult. Likely a project as the second-to-last selection in the draft, but a good addition to a very promising draft class for the Buffalo Bills.
As I mentioned last week, the Bills have drafted quite well recently, with a potentially outstanding draft class in 2007. This year’s group – on paper – matches that recent trend, and also seems to perfectly meet most of the needs the Bills had entering the draft. We got two tall WRs, and an excellent CB, and some great special teamers. We may have gotten a bonus star in Omon as well.
It’s a couple months before the season begins in earnest, but Bills fans can be excited about the product their team is preparing to field in 2008. Young players with a year or two under their belt, and a few rookies who will likely contribute right away, as well as veterans hoping to finally experience post-season play as a Buffalo Bill.
This could finally be the year!
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Success
With the NFL draft less than a week away, I was contemplating what would make this draft “successful” for the Buffalo Bills. The past two have been pretty great, actually. Names like Donte Whitner, Ko Simpson, John McCargo, Kyle Williams, have all been contributers. Trent Edwards, Marshawn Lynch, and Paul Posluszny could be franchise players. (And all from one draft!) Even Keith Ellison, Ashton Youboty, Brad Butler, Dwayne Wright, John Wendling, and Derek Schouman have already seen some success at the NFL level.
The Bills certainly draft well.
But part of the success of the past two drafts has been the needs at all of the positions those guys filled. This team has not made the playoffs in nine years, and was in need of a major overhaul – which has pretty much been accomplished. This team does not look anything like the team Marv Levy took over – along with new head coach Dick Jauron – in 2006.
So what would deem this upcoming draft a success? Better yet, what would qualify the upcoming season as a “success”?
I believe that in the eyes of Bills fans, the draft is quite secondary to the accomplishment of returning to the playoffs. Anything short of this is neither a success, nor perhaps even acceptable.
Dick Jauron has assembled his team. He has assembled his coaching staff. (Which hopefully will be markedly improved with the departure of the much-maligned Steve Fairchild.) He had a “successful” 2007 campaign when measured against the incredibly bad fortune his team faced, losing 17 players to season-ending injuries.
They even have a “softer” schedule in 2008 (based on teams’ 2007 records).
This season, the Bills will be successful if they make the playoffs. Anything short of that, while it may be fun and exciting along the way – with a few minor successes – would seem to fall very short of “success”. And, it may cost Jauron his job.
A few very solid moves in the free agency period have put the Bills in a better position heading into the draft. Marcus Stroud and Spencer Johnson add thickness to the Bills’ interior defensive line. Kawika Mitchell brings his athleticism and experience to a young LB core, as well as the experience of winning the most recent Super Bowl.
All good moves to solidify the Bills defense.
Most speculate that the Bills biggest remaining holes – presumably to be filled in the draft – are a second wide receiver, a game-breaking tight end, and cornerback. Opinions vary, of course, but from what I have read, there are not really great options (on the surface) at any of those positions. Many expect the Bills – who possess 10 draft picks in the 2008 draft – to wheel and deal to land some veteran talent via trades on draft weekend.
Whatever the Bills end up doing, whoever they end up adding to their team on Draft Weekend, the 2008 draft – and the 2008 season – will only be a success if the Bills can finally return to post-season play.
In the eyes of this Bills fan, anything short of that will be a failure.
With the draft quickly approaching, NFL.com has the “Greatest Draft Class” videos up, and the 1985 Buffalo Bills were #9 on their list. Some fun highlights of Bruce Smith, Andre Reed & Frank Reich. Spotlight on Bill Polian as well, who kind of came out of nowhere to become one of the greatest GMs in football! (Building the 1990 Buffalo Bills, then the Carolina Panthers, and the Indianapolis Colts.)
We don’t have Polian, but I really like our past two drafts, and expect more of the same from this one. Might we say some day that the draft of 2007 was one of the top draft classes? (Marshawn Lynch, Paul Pozluszny, and Trent Edwards?)
Again, can’t embed, so… here ya go!
And, just because it’s out there… a little Marshawn Lynch highlight reel… 🙂
And, here is a similar video… this one featuring our 2nd round pick, “Poz”. He looks great. Can’t wait for BILLS FOOTBALL!
I heard that this guy was “freakishly athletic” and that there was a video out there to prove it… well, leave it to YouTube to provide that video evidence! Pretty crazy! Sounds like he was a good sixth round find!
Categories
An Overview of The Draft
(Published to BBR @ BuffaloBills.com.)
My first reaction on Saturday was SHOCK. Seriously. I had said on our pre-draft show last week that the only thing I was certain of is that we wouldn’t have any idea who the #1 pick was, or why in the world the Bills chose him. So, what happened? The Bills picked the #2 RB in the draft… which is what people thought they might do! The “experts” are never right about the Bills!!!
AND THEN…
The Bills Brain Trust wheeled and dealed (or is that dealt?) to get the second pick in the second round and we took “Poz” – ANOTHER player whom the Bills were “expected” to draft, and who has “name recognition”.
“Are these really my Bills??” I thought.
Indeed they are. Quite a draft for Tom, Dick & Marvy this weekend. We got the top two players we were targeting (Of course, Peterson and Willis would have been nice, too) and we got some quality, intelligent, hard-working, character guys. Just like we always do.
Character, you say? I thought Marshawn Lynch has some “character issues”? Well, apparently not. I know that’s the #1 thing for Marv at least, and I think Jauron as well. And if he says they looked into it and found nothing… then I think we can be sure that we don’t have another “Willis” on our hands.
Phew! 🙂
Now what about football? Can these guys play? Why in the world did we draft a QB??? And TWO RBs???
Let’s take a quick glance at the draftees. (click their photos for an awesome in-depth bio from BuffaloBills.com!)
1 – RB Marshawn Lynch – California
This guy sounds great. You could tell before the draft that the Big Guys were pretty high on Lynch. Comparing him to Marshall Faulk and LT? (Well, at least Faulk… I think Lynch might have mentioned LT…)
If Fairchild, who worked with Faulk in St. Louis, can get similar production out of Lynch, this will be a fantastic pick up for the Bills. He’s strong, quick, makes people miss, and he’s got great hands… Jauron spoke very highly of him.
No, I don’t think we’re going to miss Willis at all… 🙂
2 – LB Paul Posluszny – Penn State
“Poz”, as he is referred to (for good reason, since I still have to check the spelling of his name every time I type it here…) was a GREAT acquisition by the Bills in round 2. I’d imagine that he was in their sights at pick #12, but Lynch was rated higher, so they grabbed him. When Poz kept slipping further down, Levy said they were trying to trade up even earlier than the second pick in round two.
He’s a heady, gutsy, hard-working, intelligent kid… compares to Shane Conland of his Alma Mater… and just seems like a great fit in Buffalo, and in our current defense. Fast, good tackler, all around great. He’s a fantastic pick-up for the Bills.
Just based on picks one and two in the 2007 draft, the Bills had a successful draft! But, let’s go on…
3 – QB Trent Edwards – Stanford
This pick surprised me in a couple ways. First, I had heard Edwards’ name as a “sleeper” pick for a team looking for a QB. He was rated pretty high as a “second tier” QB. But, then, I didn’t think the Bills were serious enough about getting a QB that they would spend a third round pick on him. What Jauron said was that he was so far above anyone else on the board at their pick they had to take him.
It’s a good pick. We do need a backup QB, and apparently, Edwards will compete with Nall for that position. If nothing else, we could have a really good backup that could benefit us in a trade (Matt Schaub?) later on. Good pick by the Bills!
4 – RB Dwayne Wright – Fresno State
I have to admit… after the first two picks, I was expecting the Bills draft to go a bit more along the “Yeah, I thought they might do that” route. But… this pick was another “Huh?” pick.
After landing Lynch, I figured the Bills would concentrate the rest of their picks on perhaps a CB or two. Maybe another LB for depth. But apparently, they felt they were better off getting some depth at RB in the draft. With pick #4, the Bills selected another West Coast player – RB Dwayne Wright. Both Wright and Lynch are excited to be together in the Buffalo Bills backfield, looking forward to being an effective 1-2 punch. Lynch likes what he has seen of Wright, and vice versa.
The Bills weren’t done bolstering their backfield, as we’ll see in round seven below…
6 – FS John Wendling – Wyoming
Bills’ Blogger, wyORbilZfan posted an article today about John Wendling – who comes from her own back yard – that tells a lot about this pick. He’s smart, the essential Levy-esque quality – and he’s hard working… very talented. The Bills spoke very highly of not only his character and work ethic, but his athletic ability too. Apparently, he’s quite a find at round six.
This was our only DB pick in the draft. That was a bit of a surprise to me, and he’s not a corner, either. Levy said that means that the guys we have are going to have to step up and fill in. We’ll see if Youboty and Greer and Co. are up to the challenge…
Read wyO’s article for lots more about Wendling. Great stuff!
7 – FB Derek Schouman – Boise State
What is the deal with all these west coast guys?? 🙂 And, this was the third back taken by the Bills in this draft. Not to mention, he’s a fullback, which the Bills seemed to say they had no use for in their offensive scheme. So what gives?
Apparently, this guy is very much in the mould of our current TEs, Cieslak and Neufeld. They can play multiple positions. They can catch passes from the TE spot, or line up and block in the backfield. They can even carry the ball if needed, but that will not be their main focus by any means.
This guy seems to fit the bill for a Buffalo Bill draft choice. Good athlete, hard worker, very intelligent… definitely paid off for us in the later rounds last year (Keith Ellison, Terrance Pennington, et al). I imagine we’ll see the same thing from our late-rounders this year too.
7 – DE C.J. Ah You – Oklahoma
Ah Who? This guy wins the “strange name” award hands down! Even with a guy who we have to call “Poz” in that list! Wow!
Turns out that Marv has some connections with CJ’s uncle (they worked together in the past, I believe Marv coached a team he was on in Canada. Marv said he was the Canadian Bruce Smith) and they happened to run into each other somewhere, and that may have helped this selection happen. Not saying this is a nepotism thing… just that Ah You might have been more on the radar with Marv knowing a bit aobut his genes. (He mentioned that in his press conference too.)
Ah You seems to be no different than all the Bills’ draft picks. Intelligent, hard-worker. There were some “character issues” … but Marv said (similarly to the Lynch situation) that when they looked into it, they found nothing.
There might be some question about his knees as he has had some injury trouble, but the Bills medical staff cleared him, and Marv seemed happy with that. A healthy Ah You adds depth to a pretty solid position for the Bills: DE.
Overall, I love this draft. I think that’s a good thing. 🙂 I mean last year I wasn’t really thrilled with the draft the day after, but the Bills staff were, and so I learned to love it. And then when they started playing, how can you argue with EVERY pick making the team and most everyone having some contribution, including several starters?
This year, I think the biggest thing is those top two picks. I’m sure we’ll find some gems from the lower round picks, but you gotta love the way we landed two starters from the top two picks. Both Lynch and Poz should have an impact on the 2007 Buffalo Bills for sure.
There will likely be some more players added to the fold, but the 2007 Bills are pretty much assembled… now it’s time for the off-season workouts and mini camps and all that… and we’re only a few months away from Training Camp here in my back yard… I’m getting pretty excited!
I love the young group that Tom, Dick and Marvy have assembled, and can’t wait to see them on the field! No coaching or front office changes, no scheme changes… they can just go out and do what they did last year… better.
Look out NFL… here come the BUFFALO BILLS!