Tommy Kelly
Over the past couple of days, we’ve been taking a look at how the Buffalo Bills can best address the defensive tackle position despite this year’s free agent class at the position leaving much to be desired. We’ve looked at alternatives, Plan B free agents, and perhaps most importantly, the rookies. The verdict? With so little available via free agency, the Bills will almost certainly be exploring the trade and draft routes to fill the need at the position.
There is still one free agent name, however, that’s mentioned frequently in Bills fan circles that needs to be discussed. That man is Oakland’s Tommy Kelly. Coming off of a torn ACL that ended his 2007 season, Kelly is scheduled to hit free agency when it begins late next week. Though there has been some indication that he’ll re-up in Oakland, Kelly remains the best free agent tackle currently on the open market.
Silver and Black Pride’s Take
Most of us on the East Coast rarely get to see the Raiders, and by extension Kelly, play. Saint, head blogger at Silver and Black Pride, clearly has seen much more of Kelly than us - and as a Raider fan, he knows exactly what Kelly brings to the table. He was kind enough to field some questions about Kelly; here’s what he had to say:
It is really difficult to deem anyone on the defensive line for Oakland as “tout” against the run. If anyone truly were, then the Raiders would not be the laughing stock of all run defenses for the last 24 months.
Kelly is an effective gap filler who can get after the quarterback, but is more of a “tweener” (DE or DT) than anything else. Last season was supposed to be his breakout year and it was cut short by his injury. The jury is still out on just how good he will be.
Kelly’s injury puts him in a very precarious position if he wants to remain a Raider. After signing Terdell Sands to a long term deal last season, with the emergence of Jay Richardson, and with the jury still out on re-signing Gerard Warren, Kelly may hit the free agent market.
His strength is taking up space and freeing up his teammates. He doesn’t really have a weakness and would be one helluva addition to any defensive line that was already deep. He can be a penetrating tackle or edge sealing DE in the right system.
If Gerard Warren is not signed, then I expect Kelly to be kept. Either one would be perfect for the Bills’ D-Line… Now, can we bring Marshawn back to Oakland?!
Nope. We’ll just take your players, if that’s alright, Saint - but Marshawn stays. Speaking of taking your players, I’m left intrigued about Kelly. At 6′6″ and 300 pounds, Kelly clearly is a bit bigger than some of Buffalo’s defensive tackles, and he has a slightly different skill set than our current tackles do as well. To me, from Saint’s interview, Kelly would best fit as a run-down DE in a 3-4 scheme; I do believe, however, that Kelly could play the same run-down DT position in Buffalo’s Cover-2. Kelly clearly wouldn’t be an every down player in this scheme, so he’d need to be paid accordingly; from what it sounds like, however, Kelly could fit the bill at the right price. He’s certainly worth a look.
Thoughts on Kelly or the DT position in general are welcome in the comments section. Programming Note: Today is the first day of player workouts at the NFL Combine. For those of you who have a life and don’t have the NFL Network, I’ll be providing a full recap of what I see later on tonight.
Tags: kelly, tommy
she had a torso. you lie.
I didn’t say it wasn’t possible, I just insinuated it would be very difficult. even if you didnt sever the tendon the amount of pain and blood caused but slicing your arm up the road (not emo across the street) would make it very difficult to give the other arm a lethal incision. It would also be a bit pointless as once you have one arm done your pretty much as good as dead.Wouldnt it be a good explaination is somebody cut both his wrists, realised it looked dodgy and then tried to dump the body in the woods?Surely he could have checked himself into somewhere warm or just taken the car somewhere far away and gas himself with the exahust?Slicing both wrists in the middle of a field is a little suspect, imo.
tommy chong smoked noone. this was an exchange between 2 clueless imbeciles. both trying to trot out their personal favorite fallacies as indicators of their perspective’s correctness.
Bullshit? I have BEEN on a psych ward under suicide watch and I have talked to and met people who have gotten very close to finishing the deed. They all mention the sheer pain as complete agony and it has knocked some of them out before they could finish just one wrist, let alone two. Some people do manage both but they are in the minority and also tend to use painkillers/be high when they do it. I didnt hear about Kelly being on any meds.I have also attempted suicide the up to road and not across the street way and even on alcohol its absolute agony. You have MUCh further to cut than the across the street method so I am not surprised that many people try it that way, but I was worried about not finishing it properly so I went whole hog. I gave up and went to the car to gas myself at which point the police (called in by my flatmates, who from then on refused to ever talk to me again) and I spent the night in a cell.It hurt my arms so bad they had to take my cuffs off my wrists as I was screaming all the way to the station and bleeding all over the cuffs.So I am sorry, but I belive it is suspect BOTH arms were slashed in such a clinical manner. I am not saying he was snuffed by the goverment but I am saying it is very, very suspicious and needs a serious investigation. A whitewash/public inquiry will not do.
Unless he was a morphine I doubt they would have worked entirely. Cutting your arms open is different to a headache. Considerably so.Perhaps that ananolgy is not a good one, but Dr. Kelly did say he might be killed if iraq was invaded and he did end up dead.It was in the woods somewhere? My point was it was outside. Far away from home, in the cold. Why not hire out a hotel room miles away or take the car out? Who would want to make the misery of suicide even worse by exposing themselves to the elements as they did it? Kelly would have known cold makes the veins harder to cut so he would have tryed to cut them in the warm, if he indeed did cut them.All I am saying is this is very suspicious.
I feel as if I’ve fallen through a rip in the fabric of space-time.
Hmmm… that may be sarcasm, but assuming it’s not, riddle me this. One person provides evidence and references for an argument, the other resorts to name calling only.Who is more likely the politician or the idiot in this scenario?