Utah John

A team with a winning culture and a good chance to go to the SB every year is like a bonfire. Throw another log on, and it will burn. The Bills had that in the early 90s and did everything they could think of to ruin things. Firing coaches, firing brilliant GMs, having a game each year in Toronto to make some extra cash. Keeping Littman and the rest of Ralph's inner circle in control of operations. Horrible waste of a great situation. A team with a losing reputation, that's not going anywhere that year or next year, is like a pile of wet logs with some kindling mixed in. You'll get a little heat but mostly smoke. Players want rings. They want endorsements and glamour. The reason Watkins and Darby were traded was they would never have re-signed here, and it was better to get something for the future than watch them leave like Gilmore, Gillislee, and Hogan. Who all went straight to the biggest bonfire they could find when they had the chance. At least we don't have Brady passing to Watkins to worry about. Since the rules are different now than when Polian built the 90s Bills, the only way to get the fire going is to bring in a lot of young, good players at once, before the guys here now reach the end of their rookie contracts and walk away. So stockpile a lot of picks and hope most of them work out. In two or three years, these guys are strong veterans and the team is winning consistently. The approach the Bills are taking is the ONLY way out of this mess. There's no guarantee they're going to succeed and considering how badly they usually draft success is a long shot. But it's the only shot we've got.

That's not called for. Taylor isn't the guy for the future because he has consistently failed to move the offense. He never throws receivers open. Since Watkins left, he can't hit a deep pass. He has this pride thing going where he insists he'll be a pocket passer when that's not what he does best. Taylor has God-given abilities no other QB does, but he insists on trying to be a square peg in a round hole. He needs to use his strengths and overcome his weaknesses as a passer. He's just on the wrong track.

He had two wrong answers to choose from, and picked a wrong answer.

These are interesting ideas that won't go anywhere in the hidebound NFL, unless the league's masters at CBS and Fox tell them to do this. My point is that you can usually tell when Bills fans recognize another year has slipped away, when their focus turns from the Bills to other topics like this one. Not blaming anyone or criticizing, but this seems to happen every year.

We all expected a crap team this year, going in. So much talent traded away or lost to FA, and no reason to think the replacements would be good. We had a pleasant surprise as they showed the "on any given Sunday" theory still applies, but now we're back to the team we expected in the first place. Would you be "done" if they had been playing like this from the start of the season, as we expected, and maybe now at this point started to play better? I really like the posts from K-9 and vorpma. Hang on and let things get better in time. There's no magic pill that leads to overnight success.

As true as that is, you'll go crazy playing that game. Instead of drafting Torrell Troup, they could have taken Rob Gronkowski. Every QB the Bills have had since would have suddently become much better, and the Pats wouldn't have had the same range of weapons. OTOH, this year they traded down in the first round, picked up the Chief's first rounder next year, and still got the CB they wanted. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. We just lost too many. Out of all the first and second rounders the Bills have ever drafted, only six remain on the Bills roster, and three of them are from this year. THAT'S where the problem is. Too many poor picks, too many picks useful only for a coach who isn't here anymore (Ragland for Wrecks), too many good players who left as FAs. THAT'S why the defense is so thin, why the DL is so weak, why the OL is floundering, why we have no WRs that demand special attention. And as far as we know, that great QB we need is still not here.

Want to know where our horses are? Check the barn door. Here are all of the players the Bills took in the first or second round, who are still on the Bills roster: TreDavious White Zay Jones Dion Dawkins Shaq Lawson Cordy Glenn Eric Wood That's it. Three from this year and three from past years. The first two rounds are where your stars are supposed to come from. It's no wonder the Bills can't compete, or that their D line went from lions to pussycats, or that their O line is old or hurt or not very good, etc etc etc. They didn't draft well, they made mostly bad trades, and they didn't keep the right players from leaving as FAs.

I just KNEW there was something like that going on.

The player the Jags have looks like the player the Bills had, but he's not really the same guy. The guy who was here was lazy, pampered, self-entitled, and arrogant. The guy the Jags have is motivated, just like he was when he was here in his contract year. Dareus has all the talent in the world. He might turn out to be HOF player in time. He wasn't going to get any better while he was here. And the guy we traded wasn't the player who was in his contract year, trying to impress. He's the fat dumb and happy guy who had his millions and thought the struggle was over.

I'm pretty sure one of the Bills was wearing 666. It's the only valid explanation.

I think they were worried that Darby would follow Gilmore out the door in free agency, and we'd get nothing in return. Also he did have a less good year last year compared to his rookie year. He's playing OK for Philly but keep in mind he's playing behind a much better, more aggressive D line that puts a lot more pressure on QBs. I don't know what kind of influence he was in the locker room. Could be he simply wasn't committed to Buffalo and may have let out that he'd be leaving when he could. As to the overall team, they're pretty bad, but this is exactly the team that we thought we'd have at the start of the year. It's only because they played over their heads and got some lucky breaks that we started thinking playoffs this year. That was never the expected outcome for the year. It was fun while the mirage lasted, but that's all it was, a mirage. The Bills are being built to win in 2019 -- get through this year, draft a ton of good rookies and pick up FAs next near, and have a good team ready to win in 2019. It isn't wait until next year, it's wait until the year after that.

The Bills simply don't have enough great players. They have exactly one, McCoy. Possibly Haushka. All their draft picks that should be paying off now, are gone. Watkins plus the guy we didn't draft in order to get Watkins. Dareus. Gilmore (although I never thought he was really that good). Darby. Woods. Hogan. Gillislee. Karlos Williams (not the Bills fault there). Manuel. So many busts or guys who lacked the professionalism to strive to win. So where are we? The O line good players got old this year, and the bad players aren't improving. The WRs strike no fear, so the box gets loaded and the running attack can't get past the first wave. (OK, McCoy got a couple of holes today and showed he still has it.) The D line that was so outstanding a couple of years ago, which was so deep it could roll two complete starter-quality D lines out there, is down to an aging Kyle Williams, a double teamed Jerry Hughes, a wannabe Shaq Lawson, and some guys none of us can name. None of the LBs seems to have the ability to understand what gap they're supposed to fill and to stay there, or to defend against passes over the middle. The DBs were playing above their talent level but apparently the other teams have figured out what our safeties are doing, and they're running routes to expose them. 6-10 or 7-9. Take your pick. The difference is where we draft. The only game we really should win is next week against KC, to hurt their record and improve the position of our extra first round pick. After that, tanks for the memories, 5-2. The good news is we got to November before blowing up. The bad news is we've done that before and never made a step forward the following year.

There are four reasons the rushing attack has fallen apart. First, lack of credible receivers lets defenses put another player or two in the box. Second, Taylor was not running as much as he used to, and his yards made a big difference in the rushing rankings. (Who's fault is it that Taylor isn't running? His, or the coaches? I don't know.) Third, the O line is not as good. I fear that both Wood and Incognito are falling off the age cliff, before our eyes. Glenn is still hurt a lot, and the right side is still a disaster. A lot of the problem could be traced to Castillo, the O line coach, or could be due to age an injuries. Either way, the O line is not as good as it was. Fourth, coaching. Dennison simply didn't want to carry forward what was working before. In his defense, he could have noticed the first three reasons I mentioned and realized it wasn't going to be good enough to keep doing the same thing. One other reason -- Tolbert is just not as good as Gillislee.

Rob Johnson looked great in his first start too, leading the Bills to trade for him. The point is, it takes a while to evaluate what a QB can do. It's good the Bills are taking a look now.

Lots of draft picks coming up next year, and the guys cast off by other teams are probably feeling like rent-a-guys who will be replaced with more talented younger players next year. Still, you'd think players in that situation would at least be playing hard to try to get held on next year.

My wife took one look at the Seahawks unis and said they have Gumby on their team now.

Every team has a crap game at least once a season. This is a wake-up call that they need to keep making the effort the did before, and take the breaks when they're delivered on a silver platter between the 2 and the 4. These guys are professionals and will get what passes for their A game back. New Orleans at Orchard Park -- a home game against a strong opponent. I think they'll have no trouble getting up for this one.

There is no way it makes sense to cut multiple players on a playoff-bound team for a draft pick NEXT YEAR. Create holes NOW on a tight-knit team, eliminate depth we'll probably need later in the season, "reward" players who have been making good contributions by cutting them -- you've got to be kidding.

About trading Watkins and trading for Benjamin -- There are some secondary considerations that make this a win. 1. We got a second and a good player for Watkins, and gave up a third and a seventh for Benjamin. Win. 2. Watkins is in the last year of his rookie contract and was not going to re-sign in Buffalo. He'll be a FA after this year (and probably a Patriot next year). Benjamin's option year is picked up so we keep him next year too. Win. 3. Watkins was not a good influence in the locker room. Beane and McDermott know Benjamin and they wouldn't be bringing him in if they didn't think he'd be part of the process. Presumed win. 4. Watkins little, Benjamin big. Probable win. 5. I don't know if it's possible to have too many draft picks in one year, but the Bills might have found out. They had too many in 2018, to be able to absorb so many rookies into a tight knit veteran team. Look for the Bills to package more picks to move up on remaining picks.

What the Bills are doing is sometimes called addition by subtraction. Get rid of certain people and end up with more than you started with. What they're doing is establishing a core of team-first players. They will bring in a boatload of rookies next year who will find out what it NOW means to be a Buffalo Bill. When Dareus, Watkins, Gilmore and others found when they got here was a group of guys, not a team. The purge is now complete, I think. The Bills are doing much better than I expected considering that the purge also cost them a lot of their top talent. Their success is really important because it validates what McDermott is doing. He could have done the very same things, but if a couple of the games had gone the other way, there would be terrible grumbling. As it is, this is an exciting, tough team to play and I haven't had this much fun watching them for years.

The Bills are an imperfect team in a league of imperfect teams. For once they have their heads on straight, they're working together, playing football good enough to win most of the time. They did addition by subtraction, building the team's interconnectedness by getting rid of the prima donas. But, they also got rid of some real talent. So they're winning by putting good not great players out there who are devoted to each other. That formula will work most of the time. But our offense is just not reliable enough. I do not blame Taylor, I blame thinning out of talent at WR, TE, and O line. The Bengals tried hard to give us that game and we couldn't accept. The Raiders gave us four turnovers and except for Milano (on defense) we didn't do much with them. There will be games where the O just can't get it done. They will probably lose a couple of games they should win, the rest of the way. 9-7 is within reach, and 10-6 is manageable. If they beat the Jets (NO guarantee about that) they'll be 6-2 and just need to split their remaining games to get to 10. They're halfway to the magic threshold of 10 wins. They beat the Broncos, a likely wild card competitor, which is very good. But they have to play two good AFC West teams on the road, and the head to heads with the Dolphins will be opportunities for the fish to derail the Bills. I don't know if they hate us as much as we hate them, but those will be tough games. And Brady. He and Grouch are watching all the Bills tapes, taking notes on how to carve up that defense with quick passes. Their offense is really good. There are some tough games ahead and the Bills will lose some of them. They've moved up to the top third of the league but they'll have to keep struggling to stay there. One caution: The Bills are one Shady hamstring or one TT anything from disaster. Chicken counting is hazardous.

The biggest lesson I am taking from this season, so far, is that character and heart are far more important than people have been thinking. Most teams and fans focus on the measurable factors (speed, time in agility drills, weight lifting, jumping, etc) and no one pays attention to the intangibles. Whaley drafted some real locker room cancers. Young kids coming in at 21 thinking they're God's gift and just entitled to show up and get rich. Some of them outgrow this, learn to take their craft seriously, take care of their bodies, and work hard every day to improve. Some don't do this. The guys who work hard must shake their heads or throw up in their mouths at how much the lazy slackers make. The guys who have the intelligence to figure out how plays really work or don't work, must have the same reaction about the dotards. I look at guys like Hyde, Poyer, TT, Kyle Williams, and Eric Wood as examples for how players should approach the game. Not all of these guys are the most talented at their position in the NFL, but they are all strivers. I look at Jerry Hughes and I see a guy who's grown up and become one of the leaders. I look at Marcel Dareus and I see a tremendously disappointing, highly talented but lazy prima dona. Hughes and Dareus are buddies, so why did one guy turn around his game and the other guy just piss away his chance? Put aside for a moment all of Watkins' injuries, which clearly affected his performance. He was just a bad guy to have in the locker room. Why didn't Whaley find out about that? Why on earth did he give up so much to get him, without finding out what kind of man he is? Whaley spent a pick on Karlos Williams, probably the most egregious waste of talent I can think of. So he had a good rookie year, big deal, he couldn't act like a professional, take care of his body, stay in shape. Gone. Chris Hogan would fit in great with this year's team. So would Gillislee. The fact that they're not here is a major failure of Whaley. The "loss" of Gilmore is an example of addition by subtraction. The Bills are simply better off without him, and it's just great that NE is paying so much for his services. McDermott and Beane are clearly much more in tune with what kind of person a player is. Also McDermott's style of leadership is helping the players become leaders themselves, and when that happens in any organization, the whole place gets better results.

How was it that Lynch was beaten out by Freddie Jackson in Buffalo? Jackson has far more heart and determination, but Lynch had more physical talent. If he had used it while in Buffalo who knows how things would have shaken out. I say all that as a fan of Jackson -- one of my all-time favorite Bills. But I don't think other teams game-planned to stop him, where the Seahawks opponents probably did game plan Lynch.

Whoever it was who replaced Humber against the Bengals managed to play while invisible. I don't think I ever heard his name called or saw him make an impact. Humber please come back as soon as you can.

I thought it was interesting that on all the replays of Crabtree's catch, they started well after he pushed the DB away. There's no indication from those replays about the obvious foul Crabtree committed. You can't blame the players or the teams. They want to win and they have to play in the environment that exists. WRs and TEs will push off all game, catch a lot of balls and are willing to take an occasional OPI call like it was a tax they have to pay. If they didn't do that, they'd catch fewer balls and be benched or cut. Teams could teach WRs not to play like that but why would they? The NFL is on a steep, slippery slope toward WWF standards. No one will take it seriously, and the fans of actual sports will move on.