With wide receiver a glaring need for the Bills COO Russ Brandon and Vice President of College Scouting Tom Modrak was asked several questions about this year's class of wideouts in the draft. And though the Bills are viewed as a team that needs reinforcements at the position, Buffalo's brass was not about to play their hand with a little over a week before the draft.
"I think it's part of the overall process," said Brandon when asked if receiver still a need the team is pursuing. "We're always looking to better this team. That was something that we obviously did look at during the free agency period. We felt we addressed some situations in free agency that made this ball club better and we'll continue to look at that. We're always going to look at ways to improve, be it wide receiver or any other position where we feel we have a need."
Still, Brandon and Modrak did offer some professional opinions on the class as a whole.
"It's good," said Modrak. "I think they come in all shapes and sizes, and that's part of it. Some guys play big, some guys play slot. There is good depth and there is quality depth, but there are people that fit certain roles better."
After Bills head coach Dick Jauron stated on a couple of occasions that he'd like to have a big wide receiver for his offense, the names of prospects like Devin Thomas and Malcolm Kelly, James Hardy and Jordy Nelson surged to the forefront among the media when it came to possible fits for Buffalo.
"Devin Thomas, he's an excellent vertical and an excellent runner after the catch," said Modrak. "They used him a lot on bubble screens, those kind of things. He runs very well. He's strong and he's tough. He ran great on the clock, 4.4's, that kind of thing."
As for Hardy, Modrak believes he will be a quality red zone target in the league.
"He gives you opportunities that a quarterback doesn't always have because of the height," Modrak said. "And he really is a good athlete. He bends better than what you would anticipate from a 6-5 guy, which is unusual for a receiver that's a 6-4 plus guy. But he gives you that mismatch possibility."
Kansas State's Jordy Nelson is not expected to go as high as Thomas, Kelly and Hardy, but he has the size many believe Buffalo's offense needs.
"Excellent catcher who played in the slot primarily," said Modrak. "Probably going to have to make the conversion to an outside receiver. Somebody could use him in the slot, but I'm thinking he's going to make the conversion. That will mean a little bit of an adjustment for him. But he's a tough, competitive guy who's deceptively fast. He's not in that Thomas class as far as speed on the clock, however, he manages to get by people. He's a big guy whose game is excellent catcher routes, underneath, mid distance, run after the catch kind of thing."
Meanwhile Kelly had a rough week last week after his disappointing 40-times at his pro day, but Modrak insists that his pro day workout is only a small portion of Kelly's complete body of work, which over the past three years at Oklahoma has been pretty impressive.
"Him running that 40 time didn't alter where we put him on the board," said Modrak. "We thought he was going to run on the clock much differently - a little bit better than that. We figured he was a 4.5, 4.6 guy. Those guys can play. We don't think everybody needs to be 4.3, 4.4. Michael Irvin didn't run 4.4s, and he's a 6-foot-4 guy who's 230, that does make a difference obviously. Just that alone did not change it for us. It's a part of it, it's a piece of it and we'll mix it in."
As for Kelly's comments after his workout in which he partially blamed the University of Oklahoma for his subpar performance, Modrak admits it was unfortunate.
"That's something you have to digest really, because that was unexpected," Modrak said. "Does one thing alone make the difference? Typically not. We try to build a body of work, and we've talked about this before, it's a long process. You can't knee-jerk in and out of things. A fast 40 time shouldn't knee-jerk you into something. It's certainly part of the process, it was unexpected. I think he's tried to come back and recover from that a bit. It was a bit unusual for what we knew about him, but it did happen. You put yourself in his place. He was expecting to do something he didn't do. He was startled for lack of a better word about it. But probably the conversations after it, he probably would want to take it back."
Still Kelly's body of work is considered strong and that figures to carry the day for NFL teams when they determine where to slot him on their respective boards.
Thomas on the other hand doesn't have the same body of work as Kelly and has been called a "one year wonder" by some after 2,590 all-purpose yards last season and little to that prior. Modrak, however, sees it differently.
"There was a change of staff there," said Modrak of Michigan State. "There was a different system put into place. That was his first year on campus, on the job there. How much does that impact it? Sometimes you come away saying that's a big reason, and sometimes you come away saying that was not a good enough reason. But, yeah, you try to weigh what happened."
Despite the bounty of tall wideouts in the draft there seems to be a general consensus outside of NFL draft rooms that there is not a single receiver worthy of a pick as high as that of the Bills at 11, prompting many observers to think that cornerback will be a better value pick for Buffalo. History also says that first-round cornerbacks tend to pan out more than first-round receivers. But Modrak believes a team's draft strategy is the ultimate factor in such arguments.
"We've done our studies and history has said that over time," said Modrak. "All of us have broken ranks on those things. Part of it is picking 11th, a point where there's enough guys coming off the board that it's not slam dunk wherever you're going. There is consideration what you can pick up next time around and not be isolated, and ask, 'What's better for us now and what's better for us in a little while?'"
And though the Bills draft board at this point isn't complete, they will have a definitive course of action with just a few candidates pegged for number 11.
"In reality, our pick is pretty well established in that we have the tight shot circle of the people we're looking at," said Modrak. "If they all came off the board then you're into a little bit more of discussion."
Whether a big receiver is part of the discussion at 11 is the big question.
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Originally Posted by Emo
Emo..It's not fine Thomas doesn't hold a 
to Hardy.
