Wheel And Deal. Wheel And Deal!!

[35Pete]

Follow the Jimmy Johnson method and trade like crazy. Top 15 "studs" are a crap shoot. History shows that if you wheel and deal you can still get great picks because the odds increase with the numbers.

From JJ's drafts look at these players (remember these were 12 round drafts so anything above around 250 or so would be a FA nowadays)


Emmitt (#17)
Dixon Edwards (#37)
Godfrey Miles (#62)
Erik Williams (#70)
Leon Lett (#173)
Larry Brown (#320)
Robert Jones (#24)
Darren Woodson (#37)
Brock Marion (#196)
Larry Allen (#46)

Granted they had a blockbuster trade for picks with Herschel Walker but look at the value picks of these players.

Now look at how the SB Bills were built.


Jim Kelly (#14)
Darrell Talley (#39)
Jim Ritcher (#16)
Derrick Burroughs (#14)
Frank Reich (#57)
Andre Reed (#86)
Mark Pike (#178)
Will Wolford (#20)
Nate Odoms (#29)
Jaimie Mueller (#78)
Leon Seals (#109)
Keith McKeller (#227)
Howard Ballard (#283)
Thruman Thomas (#40)
Jeff Wright (#213)
Carlton Bailey (#235)
Don Beebe (#82)


The point being is that a lot of these players, had the league known that they were going to be this good, would have gone A HELL OF A LOT HIGHER than they did. And with these 12 round drafts these teams stockpiled their rosters with picks. Most washed out. But a lot were like striking gold.

I say that this year we just trade and trade and trade away.

[35Pete]

Question for coastal, Merk, and Admarc.

Would you trade and trade? If so and if you could how would you do it and who would you target?

[bcw]

I'm a big believer in trading down when the right offer is made and we can still land the player that we are targeting.

With this Bills team we have now we already have a lot of young players and we need veterans that know how to win. Too much youth can be a problem and with all of the cap space that we have next year I don't expect every draft pick to make the team next time around.

[TRIPLE P]

I would trade down for sure....


At this point I'd much rather have two 2's than a middle 1

[bcw]

A lot depends on who is available when we pick. Second round picks are far from sure things and take time to develop, as do many 1st round picks. Look at ours recently(Peerless, Reed, Kelsey, Denney, Parrish). Sure they are decent but none are knocking on the door to the pro bowl.

With our cap space we'll fill a number of holes on this team with FA's. If we have a shot at an immediate starter in the 1st round who has the potential to be a star I say pull the trigger. If we can get that guy later, trade down, but I want stars on this team at this point, not role players. We have enough of them.

[Merk]

9 times out of time I am a big fan of trading down. The only exception is when a real game changer like C.Johnson drops to w/in striking distance than I would be for the move up


The other 9 times I am all about trading down but only when we are on the clock and never before the draft. You have to wait to see who falls first.


My basic feelings are that the more picks you have the more likely you are to hit on a player. Plus it gives you flexibility and what position you can choose and where.


Right now the Bills will land somewhere between 12-18 for their pick and that is a great place to trade down. Its out of the top 10 so teams will be more willing to deal up b/c the cost of signing the player and the cost of moving up is much cheaper. This is also the slots were a player or 2 who was projected as a top 10 pick tend to fall to


The tough part is that during the draft there are about 27 teams that want to move down as opposed to the 5 that want to move up. Remember someone has to want move up. Trading down in the draft is becoming harder each year b/c of the growing value that teams put on draft picks these days. W/ the money being handed out in FA'cy the draft is the only way to keep your cap in line. Plus the more you move up in say the first round the more of a monetary investment it is in a the player



My strategy this year if I was the Bills would to be stay where we are in the first and pick the best available player. Then try and make moves down in the 2nd and the 3rd to regain the 5th we lost for Hargrove and add some second dayers or maybe a first dayer in 2008

[IlluminatusUIUC]

Rather than picking someone too high, I say we just refuse to pick like Minnesota did a few years ago. Let a few picks go by (each one cutting down the bonus we owe to the guy we sign) and then draft a lineman.