Bills Should Take Dareus or Miller Tonight
By Brad Andrews
I don’t know about you, but I am insanely excited for tonight’s draft. One reason is that I don’t really think the Bills can make a pick that I would immediately dislike. There are five guys that Buffalo could conceivably take tonight: Cam Newton, Blaine Gabbert, Patrick Peterson, Von Miller, and Marcell Dareus. Frankly, I’d be excited about any of the five.
However, the BEST picks for the Bills tonight would be Miller or Dareus. Why? Read on.
Why not Gabbert or Newton? Taking a quarterback at the top of the draft is a risky thing. Draft history is littered with horrific quarterback draft busts. We all know the names: JaMarcus Russell, Joey Harrington, Akili Smith, Ryan Leaf, etc. None of the those franchises were competitive for YEARS after those picks. Scary.
I don’t think Gabbert or Newton will bust that badly. But neither seems like a guaranteed star to me. Newton scares the heck out of me. Could he be a mega-star? Sure. But the character issues are huge question marks. I don’t really care about the “he’s phony” thing. But he DID steal that laptop. He DID cheat at Florida. And how he is going to deal with Buffalo? Buffalo’s a very different kind of city than Newton would be used to. Granted, lots of players make that transition, but it’d be more challenging for a franchise quarterback.
Gabbert just doesn’t strike me as a top-3 pick. Even if he’s better than the other quarterbacks in the draft this year, does that mean Buffalo should reach for him so early? I don’t know. I just don’t know if he’s really so much better than the Locker-Ponder-Kaepernick-Dalton-Mallett group, at least a couple of whom will certainly be available at #34.
Peterson is great. No doubt. But a corner at 3? Especially since the Bills are actually not terrible at corner? The other selling point of Peterson is his great return ability. That’s nice, but the Bills also have pretty decent returners already (Spiller, McKelvin, Parrish). The Bills just don’t need Peterson as badly as they need Miller or Dareus.
Miller or Dareus would be HUGE upgrades to the weakest defensive seven in the league. What was the team’s biggest weakness last year? No doubt it was stopping the run and rushing the passer. Miller or Dareus would provide immediate help in both areas.
I’d love to see either guy in a Buffalo uniform. Who would I take with both available? Gun to my head, Dareus. If the Bills D-line rotation was this: Dareus, Kyle Williams, Dwan Edwards, Torell Troup, Alex Carrington, Spencer Johnson…I’d say that’s not terrible if Carrington and/or Troup develop at all.