Buddo

This sort of stuff doesn't happen overnight, unless you are prepared to tank for a couple of seasons. It happens when you have actually built a successful team in the first instance. There are far too many contradictions within the argument for it to hold any true weight. A good example is the Ducasse one. No depth on the O-Line for this year., to get a low 3rd round pick next year, that you have to use on the O-Line, in the hope of finding a better player than one you already have on the roster, who is then likely to take a couple of years to actually become any good, if he doesn't decide to eat his way out of the league. Did I also mention that it completely screws with how you have to set up your draft board, as well? As you then pretty much are drafting for need, above anything else. A Wilson or Prescott in the 3rd round? Sorry, can't take a chance there, as we really need to use that pick on a backup guard, even if he's no good, because that year the guards aren't. Imho, outside of the first two rounds, the relative value of draft picks is way overstated. Not because you can't get good players, but because you often don't get to keep them, once you've made them into good players, due to the CBA limiting the length of contracts. The first thing you have to do every season, is put a team on the field. We can currently barely do that, and have just 6 draft picks. When circumstances allow, it's certainly worth keeping in mind the availability of comp picks, but as a strategy to build a whole roster, it's somewhat lacking, to say the least.

He's not as bad a run blocker, as he is in pass pro. Fills a 'hole', albeit not especially well. Having continuity is also likely to help a bit, even if the scheme changes. And there's still time and room, to find a better solution. At the end of the day, we currently will have a returning O-Line in place, and a returning D-Line, with Alexander re-signed also. Neither of which were the major problems within the team last season. Foundations are laid, in effect. May not look too inspiring atm, but you won't build the rest of the team without them.

Good to hear. Played his socks off all year, including on Special Teams. Looked like there were a couple of occasions where not only did he make the play on D to force a punt, but he then made the STs tackle, to prevent the return.

The Patsies have been doing the same thing for years. They have a far greater measure of freedom to do so, due to having their 'franchise' QB in Brady. Something you have to admire about Belichick, is the simple fact that when it comes to putting a team together, he knows his own weaknesses. He will still draft a WR from time to time, but they hardly ever amount to anything, yet he sees guys he likes, for what he wants to do, around the league, and gets them. Probably starting with Welker, and has continued through the years. It would appear that CB, is also an area he likes to get a proven guy in, these days, hence the Revis, and now Gilmore moves. Tbh, I don't think that they actually draft any better than most teams, although they tend to get their boots licked regularly for it, but they do make an effort to have a stack of picks, regularly, so as to give them the freedom to make whatever moves they might want to do. Note that those moves, often will involve trades at the start of FA, with picks being used then, not just at the draft. I would also say that they don't treat picks as the be all end all, many seem to believe they are, and simply use them as they see fit, in attempting to put together the best team they can. From a situation in the Bills past, I bet Belichick would've used a 2nd round pick on Michael Turner, in a trade, rather than a first rounder on Marshawn Lynch.

I think so too. Would have plugged a hole at WR, and bolstered the STs play.Looks to be a guy who once he gets opportunities, takes them. And it seems as though he's just looking for opportunities, as much as anything, as I think the Bucs would have kept him, but he'd be down the depth chart after they signed Jackson.

Classic case of 'double standards' coming up here. 'Regular' folks who did something similar, would be ripped to high heaven and back again, but it's ok because it's the NFL. Rules and regulations about drugs are made for a reason, particularly in respect of prescription medication. Letting someone who is uncredited dispense stuff, deliberately, or simply through turning the traditional 'blind eye', is a recipe for disaster, potentially in both the short and long term. By the sounds of it, there has been systematic abuse of this for years. If it were me, I'd just get the DEA to pull the licenses that enable NFL teams to dispense drugs, as they obviously cannot be trusted to do so correctly.

It's not quite so much that it's gone, as it was definitely fraught with problems, from poor servers/software/hardware to lazy posters who didn't understand there was more than one page of threads, but the manner in which it was done. It very much seemed like a 'we don't give a flying !~*? about you lot' approach, and you get the sense that the only reason Chris Brown posted anything about it, was to stop a deluge of emails that he was probably getting. They only had to give a day's notice, to be seen to be treating the people who frequented that board, with some respect. Even without doing that, they also could have got people redirected to a notice about the boards being shut, and the Bills wanting people to interact with them on 'vapid media'. They did none of this. Thing is, it wasn't just a few irascible old folks and their dogs who used it. At busy times, i.e. the start of FA and the Draft, there literally were thousands on at any one time. I know for a fact that the number exceeded 2,000 on a few occasions, and I may actually be underestimating it. Seems as though they don't actually pay much attention to the details, after all, except perhaps via lip service. Still, nice to see that the new PR guy, is just as inept as the old PR guy. As much as things change, they still stay the same, with the possible exception of new caulking stopping the 'leaks'. Right, after about my third rant on the subject, I think it's time to 'let go' Good to see that refugees are still welcome in some parts of the USA.

I like the fact that people who start threads on subjects already covered, or being covered, are getting slapped about for it. There was way too much of the 'I've seen an article posted about the Bills, I must immediately start a thread on the BBMB about it', approach. Even when said article, was referenced by a thread already, often on the first page. I get that there will be small time differences when something first crops up, but these would be hours, or sometimes days between, and the poster just couldn't be bothered to check. And then whined when it (eventually) got merged. Kindly keep smacking posters upside the head whenever they do this lazy garbage. Oh, and the language filters are obviously far better set up. Tbh, it never ceased to amaze me, how badly set up the boards were, particularly when you are talking about being 'official'. Whoever was actually 'running' them, with software versions, hardware etc., pretty much wasn't very good. For those who remember, the last 'General Bills Discussion' forum, was actually previously the 'Rumours and Speculation' one, that they shanghaied over, after one of the game day crashes, as they completely lost the old one. People who complain about the merging of everything into the 'Gameday' thread, seem to conveniently forget, that it was as much a function of 'crash protection', as it was about stopping repetitive 'so and so sucks, or so and so is awesome' threads being started.

From articles I've read in the past, it seems as though the very worst part of the combine, for the guys involved, is all the medical assessments, which apparently do take pretty much most of the day to complete, including large amounts of time, spent waiting to be seen, by the next person who is going to poke and prod you about. It's probably more of a surprise that something like this hasn't occurred before, in some respects. That isn't to condone it, merely to put some perspective on it. I find it somewhat amusing tbh, as it could be said that it's a salutary lesson, in what life could be like in the big, wide world, where not everybody gives a darn if you can play football, or not. While I know nothing about the kid, he is probably going to end up being a stud in the NFL, from all accounts, but you are going to have to get some serious psycho-evaluations done on him, to decide if, or how, you need to handle him. Might just be a classic case of getting to a TC, and a vet sticks him on his butt, with a 'welcome to the NFL' sticker attached, or he might be a Burfict type nutter.

I've already done so on facebook, but I'm not sure I actually do follow them on twitter. It would be good if a slew of fans did 'un-follow' them, just as a protest, as you can always go back to it at a later date. Tbh, there's nothing that I can think of that you can't get from the Bills main site, that you would get from facebook, or twitter for that matter. So I seriously doubt I will be 'liking' or 'following' them in any form of social media, anytime soon. The world at large, just doesn't seem to understand that just because something is newer and more shiny, it doesn't make it better. You want a discussion about something, then a message board is simply the best way to have it. Heck, even bad old usenet, has more scope for discussion than facebook or twitter.

Thanks for the heads up. I've been a member here for a while, yet lost a bunch of bookmarks when 'upgrading' my PC, and never came back until yesterday. Tbh, I'm rather surprised I remembered my password. Good to see plenty of decent posters have made it over, hopefully a few more will do so eventually. I'm utterly disgusted at the manner in which the MB was summarily shut down. While there might have been a lot of bitching and moaning about it, a simple days notice would have sufficed. 'Social Media' is a joke when it comes to trying to have a sensible discussion about, well, just about anything. While it can certainly be argued that sensible discussions were becoming fewer and farther between, nonetheless, they still existed, and it's what any message board is all about. It's very strange, but the notion of getting people to 'engage', just seems like a load of garbage. Killing the MB off like that, left me feeling totally disengaged.

I'd be curious to know how many GM's around the league don't have to report to their owner. I'd be surprised if it was many at all, especially about a decision as to who will be the next HC. I think there's a large element of 'myth' about the degree of interference Ralph runs. Until he canned him, he pretty much didn't interfere with Jauron at all. Same with Levy. If you own an NFL franchise for 50 years, there will be occasions when you are going to have to 'step in', but hoiw many of those were either unwarranted, or reliably reported? Wilson's problem, has been in making poor choices, rather than in 'interference'.

As far as the Bills go, his record is pretty abysmal. I'd treat anything he says about the Bills with a large amount of scepticism, as I don't think he's got any contacts there at all. I can't even remember the last time the guy actually 'broke' a story tbh. There aren't too many people out there in the national mainstream media, who actually know their stuff in respect of the Bills. Schefter is worth listening to, as he has serious contacts all over the place. Vic Carucci from NFL.com also 'knows' people from his time in Buffalo, and is a generally decent source. The Buffalo News (Mark Gaughan) isn't bad, and if Jay Glazer from Fox posts something, he almost certainly has had solid info to go on.

Cowher is refusing any interviews until after the season. That doesn't mean to say he will refuse an interview then. There's typical 'spin' being put on this, to make it sound worse than it is. It's one of those 'out of respect for CBS, his current employers' he will not take any interviews until after the season has ended. These 'reports' are getting plenty of 'airplay' in various Bills forums, and they are commonly being misinterpreted. Imho, the good thing, is that the Bills have actually made some contact with him. Until such time as a new GM, Coach, is actually named, or Cowher formally rules himself out, I wouldn't be in too much of a hurry to write him off completely.

The problem with that, is that it is likely to be as much on the HC's wishes, regarding picks, as anything else. The thing that is more bothersome about it to me, is that with the addition of Sanders as a line coach, the play of Kelsay etc. has been elevated to the extent that Maybin is hardly getting on the field. While hindsight is 20/20, it made far more sense to select a tackle, when you were totally dismantling the o-line, especially when there was a good one available. No disrespect to Maybin, but how much better would the Bills draft (and play) look, if Oher had been taken instead of Maybin, and the rest of the draft for the Bills, as is? So far, 3 out of the 4 top picks the Bills had, are starters. Nelson will be one, sooner rather than later, I feel. If Oher had been the pick @ 11, the Bills would have got 5 starters, from their picks. While it's easy to criticise Modrak for previous failures, more recently, it would appear he's getting more right than wrong. If you want someone's head from the FO personnel wise, I think where you should be aiming is at Guy. For all he's had some recent success with Stroud, and this year Florence, I would think his hits/misses ratio is way too skewed on the 'misses' side.

There's a lot of truth in the fact that the AFC generally, was a fair bit weaker than the NFC at that time. That no doubt helped the Bills to keep returning to the SB. There's also a good deal of truth in the fact that the Bills were a great team of that era, as evidenced by the fact that in regular season games, they mostly beat NFC opposition, including every team that they lost to in a SB (not necessarily in the same season). Imho, the '90's Bills were a truly great team, who fell just short of becoming a true 'Dynasty', through not actually winning any of the SBs they got to.

The win in Denver wasn't pointless to the Broncos or Chargers.