It's time to prepare for the next really big thing.  Not the start of the Major League Baseball season, March Madness, the Stanley or the Calder Cup hockey playoffs, although these are really great events.  It's the NFL Draft.
 
It is a particularly interesting year for the Buffalo Bills.  Owning the ninth overall pick thanks to another unspectacular season, they choose high, but not so high as to guarantee them anything.  And thanks to Trent Edwards' regression in 2009, they need a quarterback.
 
Of course needing and actually finding that quarterback are separate issues.  Looking over ten recent mock drafts, only two had Notre Dame's Jimmy Clausen falling to the nine slot and Buffalo's pick.  The Bills took him in both.
 
In seven of the eight other instances Buffalo was seen taking an offensive lineman, either Anthony Davis of Rutgers or Bryan Bulaga of Iowa.  One had the Bills take linebacker Rolando McClain out of Alabama.  These three are fine football players and should have long NFL careers.  But they won't sell seats.
 
When your top two players are an undrafted running back from Coe College and a punter, you have a big identity problem.  Identity translates into ticket sales and in a small market especially this is a critical issue.  It is a mirror held to the fan base.  Suck it up, pay the money to support the team that performs poorly, or risk helping to make the case to move the team to Los Angeles (if the Jaguars don't beat you to it).  A classic Catch 22.
 
That's why it is critical that the Bills draft Clausen, even if it takes some creativity to get it done.  Standing in their way are the Rams, Redskins and Seahawks who will consider taking quarterbacks.
 
Clausen is a professionally ready to play quarterback out of Notre Dame.  Considered the second best passing prospect in the draft behind Oklahoma's Sam Bradford, Clausen improved steadily at college while under the South Bend microscope.  He is considered a good leader, confident to the point of being brash, along the lines of say, Jim Kelly.  That can't be bad.

If there are actually more pressing needs along the offensive and defensive lines, they're just going to have to wait.  The Bills need someone to put on the cover of their program.  They need an identity.  They need someone for their most loyal and tolerant fans in the league to care about.
 
The Buffalo Bills need Jimmy Clausen.