Punch

An Inconvenient Truth

If there were any suitable replacements waiting in the wings I'm sure they would cut Cornell Green amongst others. Unfortunately, there are no suitable replacements waiting in the wings at any position, including Ownership.

I believe it just comes down to utter ineptitude and nothing more. Wilson listens to these guys when no other competent people are around with a strong steady voice. As for Mort... what is this, high school? Because that's what he sounds like with this crap. Donahoe was his buddy and while Tom was in charge Mort was at the forefront leading the cheers every week on how great the Bills were. "Ooooh, I can't say. If you only knew what I knew..." There's no boogie man, just a bunch of morons.

I thought Kelsay was extended for his lockerrom presence and leadership???? Actually, if his lockerrom presence is so great, next week at gametime he should do us all a favor and stay in the lockerrom.

Not that I advocate some of Tom Donahoe's less desirable excesses, but if he were GM this upcoming offseason I would be reasonably confident the Bills would attempt to sign ILB David Harris of the Jets and OLB Lamarr Woodley from the Steelers. They're both being asked to wait until the offseason to get extended and are more or less disgruntled as they watch teammates get paid while they sit on rookie contracts. They're also two of the best young 3-4 'backers in the NFL. In the case of Woodley, I read an article from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that gave credit to Doug Whaley for scouting and recommending him to the Steelers' brass. Those 2 guys alone would change the defense immeasurably. Not that I think this will ever happen in a billion years. I'd also pray to Semos that Andrew Luck declared, the Bills pick him and then trade their 2012 1st and whatever else to get back into the high 1st in 2011 and take Gabe Carimi. Also not likely to happen (also, not that the Bills trading back into the 1st round this past decade has spelled anything but imminent doom).

How deluded can someone be that they use fantasy points to determine whether or not a player is worthy of a starting role or contract extension? And what the !@#$ kind of fantasy league rates Chris Kelsay higher than Mario Williams? I wouldn't rate Kelsay ahead of Mario Cantone at this point. Fantasy land, indeed.

It's especially crazy considering the 2 richest Bills of that era (when Kelsay was first extended to an exorbitant) were Derrick Dockery and Langston Walker... race had nothing to do with handing out ginormous contracts to inept players. And of course there's Evans getting approximately $500,000 per catch for 2010.

It was 2006 (I only know because I had to look it up) which was the first year with Marv. In my opinion, all roster moves should be made in concert with (at the very least) the Head Coach, but sometimes GMs do act on their own. That's why Parcells wanted to "shop for the groceries" if he was expected to "cook the dinner", or whatever he said all those years ago with the Jets. That whole era with Marv at the helm was a disaster, so it wouldn't surprise me if they were just bumbling into one another like the Keystone Kops--- kind of like how the team was doing on the field, come to think of it.

I can't imagine this is less entertaining than discussing the merits of Chris Kelsay dropping into coverage vs. executing a run blitz. It may in fact be relevant, in some way.

Aside from the game at (oddly enough) New England, every game so far this season I've felt that sinking hopelessness ordinarily reserved solely for New England, each year for the past 10 years. There were always points during any given year where I'd feel progress was made--- until we played the Pats and then realized how far away we truly were from being a competitive team. Now, every team makes me feel that we're miles and miles away from being average. Having said that, I'm confident Gailey and Nix are a capable of moving this franchise in the right direction, and I truly believe a front office "up and comer" like Doug Whaley would never leave stability and a bright future in Pittsburgh unless he saw more than a sinking ship in Buffalo. I believe you're right in your assessment that Jauron's approach was akin to plugging holes in a leaky rowboat with fingers, a la Bugs Bunny. But these men seem to understand there is a problem and are not afraid to say it in public. No more "it's hard to win in the NFL" white flag nonsense. I also think beating the Jets at the Meadowlands last year was an illusion--- a rookie Sanchez throwing 5 picks (and then getting a 6th later) and the Bills still needed to get to OT to win it. They were likely just as far away last year as this year, using some smoke and mirrors, as you suggest.

I agree with this general sentiment, but I wonder about this one detail. I first heard about Overdorf releasing Vincent and upsetting Ralph in the process recently from WGR's Paul Hamilton, and I thought this was a totally insane thing to do. But it occurred to me that this happened during the Marv-elous era when the team was operating under a GM-by-committee: Levy, Brandon, Overdorf, and possibly Littman all had a say in Front Office matters. Is it possible that, in this instance, Overdorf was not acting out of turn? Still, someone on the board had recently posted that quote about the definition of insanity is when you keep performing the same actions over and over again, expecting different results... if Ralph has been listening to Overdorf and Littman for the past 16 or so years since Polian left, maybe he should consider committing himself before the legions of remaining Bills' fans check themselves in, instead.

Yes, the corners are not the problem; but by re-signing Greer and/or Winfield how many draft picks, including 1st rounders, could have been used on other positions of need? The last 10 years' worth of drafts have been like a game of musical chairs. Of course, even when they have drafted DL and LB they've missed by a country mile.

We got him from Philadelphia, then we sent him to Chicago when we couldn't sign him: Darwin Walker. Of course, the point remains... and he wasn't even worth the trouble!

I'm pretty sure he would restructure his contract if a team with a shot at the postseason was interested. Is it so obscene that it's essentially "unstructureable"?

It's incredibly tough, which is I why I had to admit I wouldn't even want all the players on my list as starters, necessarily (thinking of Poz). Sad, sad state.

(stands up, slow claps)

Spiller, Jackson, Wood, Levitre, and David Nelson. Posluzsny, Dwan Edwards, Terrence McGee, George Wilson, Jairus Byrd I'm not suggesting these are all starters, but they are as good as we have for various reasons. I like Kyle Williams but I'm afraid he doesn't quite fit in as a 3-4 T.

You made some good points regarding the contract not being quite as scary as it appears, though. That's worth something... unlike Kelsay.

Hey, jackass... when I mentioned the 50+ yard catch stat in the shoutbox I was being sarcastic. That's why I also mentioned he leads the league in "dollars made per meaningful catch" over the same period. Get your head out of your ass and learn some reading comprehension.

Singletary's coaching staff has been a disaster behind the scenes and even during games. Ex-OC Jimmy Raye being fired probably won't fix much aside from getting the offensive plays into the huddle quicker, and most reports out of San Fran indicate the players no longer respect Mike as a competent leader. That's not to say the ship can't be righted, but it's not looking too good at the moment despite the near upset in Atlanta.

The Flyers are playing their scrubs tonight, all guys that'll be sent down once the regular season begins... like the Bills did today.

Why can't they overpay for David Harris or Lamarr Woodley this coming offseason? Now that they overpaid for a "try hard guy" they can't overpay for a "play great guy". I'm sick of all the "trying hard" and would like to see them actually put together a roster of legitimate NFL talent.

That's why Jeff Littman has a lifetime contract with the Bills and also why Polian is long gone.

Only Tom Donahoe ever blamed the fans for the Bills' failures.

They shouldn't have drafted McKelvin in the first place with Greer due an extension and willing to return to Buffalo. Also, Florence was signed after Greer left for New Orleans--- 2009 was his first with the Bills. I don't think it was about money, only another poor personnel decision leading to another wasted draft pick.