 |
| ESPN.com |
Tavon Austin and Jarvis Jones make interesting amounts of sense for Buffalo at #8, and the Bills have not been reluctant in recent years to take players noticeably earlier than where the "experts" slotted them. That includes hits with Stephon Gilmore and C.J. Spiller, but a miss with Donte Whitner. Buffalo's deficient at all three LB positions, and their wide receiver contingent is almost as unimposing as the Rams'.
But we have seen the future in Buffalo if they don't do something about their offensive line: the Rams' 15-12 win there last December. The Rams blitzed a ton and got a ton of heat up the middle, repeatedly stuffing the Buffalo running game, putting Fred Jackson out for the season, turning C.J. Spiller into a non-threatening blitz pickup back, and burying Ryan Fitzpatrick on key downs. It's true the Bills didn't give up a lot of sacks in 2012, but because they ran well and Fitzpatrick got the ball out quickly. I don't expect the are-you-kidding-me QB combo of Tarvaris Jackson and Kevin Kolb to be near as good as Fitz with the quick passing game, and while Buffalo had the #6 rushing offense, that's threatened by the state of their line, which suffered a crushing blow in free agency when Andy Levitre signed with the Titans. The Bills' present roster doesn't have an answer for that.
But when you hear Chance Warmack described as the next John Hannah, and there's a guard from North Carolina who RamView thinks is even better, that's a move I can't pass up. Jonathan Cooper is lights out. He was the outstanding guard at the Combine, not Warmack. I'll just (arrogantly) cut-and-paste from my heretofore-unpublished Combine o-line notes:
Cooper had a perfect day. Smooth and quick in
change of direction with perfect balance. Explosive getting into his
pull blocks. One of the few who stayed textbook-low during
combination blocking. Though a guard, he looked like a tackle
in the kick-slide drill. Outstanding, quick, economical footwork,
takes excellent angles and beat his man to the spot to protect the
backside. He was also very good in the mirror drill, sinking his
hips, keeping his feet moving and showing he can overcome getting
overextended. Is he really “just” a guard? Because he showed a
ton of tackle-level skills. Top that off with 35 bench presses, and
if Cooper wasn’t the star of the whole group, he was darn close.
Closing out my Cooper gushing, he can certainly play guard, he can play center, and I say he could even contribute at tackle if you need him to. Buffalo doesn't need a center, but they have to get guard help. They're young and unproven all over that offensive line - it's practically all players with two years' experience or less, and you could say they just need time to mature and avoid drafting o-line altogether. Except Cooper's the best player on the board, competitive with Fisher, Joeckel and Warmack for best lineman honors, a deep blue-chipper well ahead of anyone else they'd consider, and he fills a direct need.
So watch Buffalo take Geno Smith.
-$-
No comments:
Post a Comment