Buffalo Bills 2012 NFL Draft Positional Needs

The Buffalo Bills started the season on fire in 2011, but screeched to a halt with a few injuries. This team has too few stars, and lacks depth all over the field. So the biggest need is to add talent and depth at every position, but what are their five biggest needs?

In descending order.

Franchise QB and Impact Players

Ryan Fitzpatrick is not the franchise Quarterback. This is a position that will not be addressed this off-season. I won’t even count this as one of the top five needs.

I say impact players because really who on the Bills is an impact player. Imagine you had to take the 22 best players between the Bills and the Superbowl Champion New York Giants.

At what position would the Bills player be better?

QB? No.

RB? A healthy Fred Jackson, sure

WR? No

TE? About the same

OL? maybe the interior OL

You get the point. The team lacks impact players. The Giants have some major weaknesses on their team, but they also have Eli Manning, Justin Tuck, Osi Umeinyora, Jason Pierre Paul, Nicks, and Cruz. These are players that every team accounts for every single game. The Bills have Kyle Williams, Fred Jackson, Stevie Johnson and arguably Marcel Dareus. They need impact players.

The only position the Bills don’ thave to upgrade is DT for next year with Dareus and Williams dominating the middle. That’s a great start, now come on Nix let’s add some more.

The Bills might have their LT of the future with Demetrius Bell, but if he is the LT they still have to resign him. He’s flashed at times and it’s no coincedence that at the beginning of the year offense was better with Bell healthy and in their lineup than it was during the middle of the year. The Bills have already made it clear that they have put a priority on the Tackle positions this off-season.

Pass Rusher

The Bills are giving up on their quest to run a 34 after two years, but it doesn’t matter. The Bills still have the same issue they had when they were running a 34 defense the past two years. They do not have a player who can consistently challenge the passer from the edge. Kyle Williams in the middle is a terrific player, but it’s difficult to consistently pressure the passer from the interior of the defensive line. Is that player Shane Merriman? Can he rush the passer with his hand on the ground? They must figure this problem out. It is really holding back their defense.This would ideally be a 43 RDE, they have some good candidates to play the 43 LDE which is traditionally more of a run-stopping DE who also rushers the passer.

Wide Receiver

Brad Andrews over at Buffalowdown (the most entertaining Bills blog on the web) and I had this debate before the season began. I still think the Bills need another guy who can consistently win over the top. This is a much bigger need now that Stevie Johnson is a free agent. Even if the Bills bring Johnson back into the fold, they lack play makers at the position. They don’t have a great Slot WR and they don’t have a good number two wide receiver. If they are not going to go out and find a franchise QB they should at least give their average quarterback better weapons.

OLB

Specifically strongside linebacker. With the move to a 43 defense the Bills will plug Sheppard into the middle and move Barnett to the outside. Barnett has the speed to chase sideline to sideline and take on more coverage abilities, but they don’t have the guy to take win consistently in run support and also rush the passer a little bit, which is what the 43 SAM linebacker generally does.

Tight End

Again more than Tight End, what the Bills need is talent and depth everywhere. Chandler is a suitable Tight End. You can win a lot of games with a Tight End like Scott Chandler provided the rest of the team is good. But the rest of the Bills team isn’t that good. I thought about secondary here, but McKelvin and Williams are young and talented. Byrd is a good player and George Wilson was terrific at times last year. Secondary is not a huge need, though depth is also likely. The Bills might be in line to take on a mis match TE like Orson Charles in the second round.

What do you think Bills fans?

I’m tired of seeing my wife depressed at 4 o’clock on Sunday every football weekend so hopefully the Bills will take a step in the right direction this off-season.

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