By PFW staff
July 23, 2008

The Bills agreed to terms with rookie OLB Alvin Bowen on Wednesday, just one day before the players are due to report to St. John Fisher College for training camp. Bowen, a fifth-round selection, is the sixth of the club’s 10 draftees to sign.

A classic overachiever who earned first-team All-Big 12 honors in 2006 and ’07 at Iowa State, the 6-1, 223-pound Bowen will find it difficult to carve out a niche on a Bills defense that fortified itself considerably with a host of offseason acquisitions. Nevertheless, he compares favorably to current Bill Keith Ellison, who started at weak-side linebacker last season.

In PFW’s 2008 Draft Preview book, PFW draft analyst Nolan Nawrocki writes that Bowen is “a small man in a big man’s game. He’s a leaky tackler who lacks the athleticism to compensate for missteps and mistakes. Throw his impressive tackle numbers out the window (a nation-leading 155 in ’06, 99 in ’07). He must get stronger and play with more discipline to earn a job.”