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Message: [QUOTE="NateW, post: 987845, member: 4210"] They tried to get the "hometown" discount from Byrd but he was never going to bite. I'm not happy that he's gone. He certainly is a pro-bowl talent and the best ball hawk we've had at safety for as long as I can remember but he's not worth that contract he got from NO and he didn't want to be in Buffalo so... IMO we should have franchised and traded him but you don't know how those conversations went so I won't kill the front office too much on that. Aaron Williams is a hard hitting, trash talking, fast safety. He played multiple games at corner last year too. He's versatile and a great locker room guy. Loved that the front office got him inked to a long term deal the day after we didn't franchise Byrd. He's a budding star. It'll be interesting to see what management does at safety in the draft; Whaley has said that Byrd's replacement is on the roster. D. Williams and Meeks barley played last year so I don't really have an opinion on them but if we don't go safety early in the draft I'll take that as a good sign. Searcy has some talent but seems to be more of a situational guy although he really played his butt off last year and made some true impact plays for the defense. We couldn't stop the run last year. Biggest reason? LBs. Add Spikes and Rivers to Kiko and Lawson and you got yourself a solid foursome. And Spikes grades out as [B]the[/B] best run stopping LBs in the league. Would love for Mack to fall to us just to make LB a huge strength of the team but I do not see him falling that far. Heck, Kiper had him as the first pick the other day. With Graham you got the hometown boy, special teams pro-bowler who wants to be here. He adds great depth and will push Gilmore, McKelvin, Robey, and Brooks to up their game. That's a talented 5-deep CB rotation right there. Dixon is another special teams guy who gives you another short-yardage, goal line guy besides Freddy. Anything we can do to keep the tread on his tires a little bit longer is huge IMO. I wish Freddy could play forever. The guard Williams didn't seem to grade out well nor did the talking heads think much of him but he's a former first rounder and from most accounts a hard working, smart guy. Hopefully Marrone & Co will get the most out of him. Onto the draft... where do we go? our needs IMO go like this in order of necessity: TE, OT, WR, S, OG. Aside from those needs you certainly could draft a RB, DL in a best player available type situation. DE is a little thin, as Nirvana hinted at, and with Spillers contract year plus Freddy getting older drafting a RB might not be a bad idea if its the right guy at the right time in the draft. All in all management did a great job signing some mid level guys + Spikes that really fills out the roster and will keep them from having to reach for need positions in the draft and just stick to their board. I'm happy with it so far but then again off-season is always our best season. [/QUOTE]

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