Byzantium's Shores: chronicling the misadventures of an overalls-clad hippie

WHAT??!!

OK, let me try to understand this. You're the Buffalo Bills. You had a decent year in 2002, bounding from a 3-13 year in 2001 to 8-8, with a new quarterback and a new offensive line. Your running back, in his second year, has a Pro-Bowl season, gaining more than 1400 yards behind this youthful, inexperienced O-line that had its share of problems but everyone agrees is just going to get better and better. And in the offseason, you signed one of the better blocking backs in the league (Sam Gash, who had an earlier and very successful tour-of-duty with the Bills a few years back) and a talented back to be his backup (Olandis Gary, who had an excellent year as a rookie with Denver and has played well in a second-string position there lately).

But you defense was another story: the line generated few sacks, your linebackers were overmatched (except for London Fletcher), and your talented secondary was overwhelmed because of the incredible lack of front-seven pressure. Opposing teams ran though your defense like a hot knife through warm butter, and you twice gave up more than 200 yards to the opposing running back. So you signed a few defensive lineman, and in a draft that is very deep on defensive linemen, you traded a bit of offensive firepower in one of your two excellent receivers to get a first-round pick, which you didn't previously have. So obviously you're going to use that pick to get another young defensive lineman – if not an outright starter, at least someone who can help in pass-rush situations and grow into a starting role. Maybe you're not going to get a Bruce Smith, but you can at least try to pick up another Dana Stubblefield or a Marcellus Wiley, a guy who can help out now and get really good later on.

That's obvious, isn't it? I mean, you're set at running back, right? So the last thing you'd do is use that precious first-round pick on Willis McGahee, a running back who in his last college game, the Orange Bowl, suffered a horrid knee injury that it's unclear he'll recover from; that if he does recover from it, it'll take a while – perhaps not until the 2003 season; that if he does recover from it, playing his home games in a cold-weather, artificial turf stadium isn't going to help keep it healed; and a guy who plays a position that's not a need right now.

You sure wouldn't do that. That would be silly.

I hope Tom Donahoe, the Bills' GM, has some idea as to what he's doing. Because I sure don't.

(EDIT: I wrote this yesterday and saved it for posting today, just to see what some other folks make of this who probably know more about football than I do. ESPN's John Clayton thinks highly enough of what the Bills did yesterday to call them a "winner" in the draft, on the basis that they were lucky enough to still be able to pick a defensive lineman with the second-round pick whom many thought would go in the first round. According to Clayton, with McGahee's injury making him damaged goods, the Bills may make out financially by being able to basically give both players second-round money at contract time. Or something like that.

But two of the guys on ESPN's "Veterans' Roundtable" are as nonplused as I about the McGahee pick: running back is a position at which the Bills seem to have no needs whatsoever, and they have a lot of pressing needs elsewhere, so why use the first round pick for one?

Maybe Donahoe is thinking back to his tenure with the Steelers, when that team was a free-agency revolving door, losing good players every year. That required Donahoe to get really good at drafting, since he was constantly having to reload. And Donahoe's a pretty crafty guy, so maybe there's some trade or something cooking in his mind. I just don't know. I'm simply not understanding this pick.)