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Thank you! Sometimes I have to remind myself that this board is mostly older white guys. Sometimes the board does the reminding for me. People will buy merch for their favorite team because it is their favorite team. There are many more than 5 people that care about this issue and it could well be the majority of people. You finding "everyone getting butt hurt about everything ridiculous" is fair. Except that it is your personal feeling that this is ridiculous. To some people this is a big deal. As C. Biscuit said, how would feel if they were the Washington N**gers? What about the Washing K*ikes? Would your feeling change then? You are apathetic towards this movement and it is well within your rights to be so. However when your argument is more anti-movement than apathetic to it. Something like public opinion? This is a much bigger deal than it was 15 years ago.

Are we sure either of those guys are him and it isn't something he just posted? Or should I get the torches out and sharpen the pitchforks?

You have to lay the groundwork EARLY. I told my wife before getting married that there were 2 things I wouldn't negotiate on; playing cards once a week and watching football on Sunday. I get together with a few of my friends for the game and her and their wives usually go shopping. Now there are kids involved so it will be interesting to see what happens (2 of my friends have them - my wife and I are expecting in November). She hasn't ever really pushed the issue either. When she brings it up I remind her that I "warned" her about my love affair with football. If it is a waste of a day to her tell her to go do something that she would enjoy more. Her life doesn't have to revolve around football and the schedule but unfortunately ours does .

Care to make a wager? Put your money where your mouth is?

Can we please stop it with the mortgaging the future nonsense. They gave up 1 first round pick! This is nowhere near the RGIII trade.

You gotta be careful man! I had a roommate in college from Glens Falls. He used the word bud after every sentence. It was a replacement for dude etc... Well when we met him it went from mildly annoying to kinda funny. We then started picking on him (good natured - he was a good guy) and saying bud after every sentence ourselves. It was pretty funny for a while (it was college cut me some slack) then one day I noticed it had made it into all of our lexicon. We used it regularly and no longer ironically. You are going to find your self one Sunday this year celebrating some play Chris Hogan makes a little too hard. Heck it might even be in a preseason game. Then you are going to look around and be relieved nobody saw it. The thing is, even you don't tell anyone, you will know. You will know and come to realize that the little 7-11 bastard has worked his way into your heart. That all this time you were just reacting this way because a little part of you always liked him. You just didn't want to admit it. Or you know you'll probably waaaayyyyyy overreact to one catch Da'Rick makes and tell us all how he is a sure fire H.O.F.

I wonder what the narrative would be if any other team had made this trade. Watkins went from being the most dynamite offensive prospect to oh he's on the Bills? He won't be very good.

%inonthegroundfloor

It appears though from the tenor of this post you already have made up your mind that this wasn't a good trade. It doesn't appear to be a desperation move to me at all. They saw a guy they wanted and got him. Whether they make the playoffs doesn't make the difference on whether or not it was a good trade. Sammy Watkins being a difference maker and how good he is will determine that. If he is a guy who is a stud and everything he is supposed to be then the trade will have been a good one. There are too many moving parts on a football team and season to pin the entirety of it on one player. Also the trade of next years pick allowed the team to get better this year. By keeping the 2nd rounder the Bills were able to fix a glaring hole (rt) to make the team stronger for this upcoming year. It is a pick your poison here of either trading away a chance at being better this year or giving up a higher pick for next year. They chose (for once) to make strides to get better this year. One first round draft pick isn't mortgaging anything anyway. Than getting hit by a train yes of course. It is just as plausible that Manuel will have a good season and take steps forward (and even more so imo) that he will suck terribly. He didn't even suck last year. His numbers were very in line with what should be expected of a rookie qb. Add in the fact that he has been given many more tools (stud wr, o-line help, revamping of lb crew, dedicated qb coach, etc..) and I think he will progress this year. As for the 2015 first round qb selection I would like to say that the last 2 years were supposed to be very strong qb drafts when viewed a year out. Neither turned out to be that way. There is no guarantee that next year will either. Right now it looks like Hundley, Winston, and Mariota are the guys. If they are as good as advertised they wouldn't be available to the Bills save for a trade up or a severe bottoming out for the team. If they aren't they may be available at the bottom of the first where the Bills can trade back up and get them if they decide to go that course. It seems like most people against the trade are already convinced that Manuel isn't the guy. The team isn't.

%soclose

Well if it happened I would pick my 5 back up. The drive would be so much more manageable. This move would certainly open the Syracuse market which has no current allegiance to an NFL team. This would be a great "get" for the Bills in terms of regionalization. Indeed. I live in Auburn and used to travel myself for 5 years. It got to be too much but a move to Batavia and I am back in. I agree that is far fetched but so to me is NF. I know aesthetically it would be great but for many of the reasons stated here I don't think it is a great idea. With all of the developing that would have to happen the new owner could wait until the 7th year and pay less than 30 million or go all 10 years and get out of it for free. The new owner is going to have the County by the b**ls in the next negotiation.

This is so true!

While I don't disagree with the bolded I don't agree either. 2009 - no current starting qbs drafted after the Bills first pick 2010 - no current starting qbs drafted after the Bills first pick As a matter of fact the only 2 qbs still starting from either of these years are Bradford and Stafford the #1 overalls. 2011 - Andy Dalton and Colin Kaepernick drafted after the Bills first pick. You may have a case here although Dalton is 50/50 on whether it is him or the team that drives the Bengals success 2012 - Russel Wilson and Nick Foles in the 3rd round. Apparently the Bills were very high on Wilson in the 4th and sb winning is super bowl winning but he is another player that I don't think is as good as the team around him. Look at his last 6 regular season games. Still I will give you both of these guys. So in his tenure he missed out on 4 available bonafide NFL players at the QB position. You know what though? So did every other team at least once. None of these guys were highly regarded. So yes he missed out on the qb of the future but it wasn't as glaring of an omission as you are making it out to be.

Seriously. I didn't even have to read the article to know what his answer was.

Will Mike Rodak ever be positive about anything the Bills do? That is the real question.

Lb crew has been completely revamped!

http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/draft/players/1664125/preston-brown

http://www.nfl.com/draft/2014/profiles/preston-brown?id=2543814

Choo choo me too!

I'm going to pile on... Please mods pretty please?

I'd be very happy with (at 9): Evans, Matthews What I'm rooting for? If neither of those 2 are there then I want a trade down. Perhaps even multiple trade downs. I am not a big fan of the idea of trading up but to get Evans I think the Bills have to move to 6 at least. He is almost a lock to go to TB. If they do that and get him I won't be all that upset as he will fill 2 needs with one pick. He will be that #1 receiver (hopefully) as well as that huge target. He is like a better Ebron in my book. What don't I want at 9? Ebron, any DB, Martin, are the names recently mocked to the Bills that I wouldn't be thrilled with.

Maybe but I'll join you. I think Lewis did very well in spot duty last year. He is great as a backup; he knows the system, is incredibly intelligent, is a similar player to EJ athletically, and performed well considering his circumstances. I thought the trade for him was a throwaway of 2 guys that would get cut but I was more than pleasantly surprised by him.

I think you should start a thread to apologize for this!

Players the bills have drafted in the 2nd recently: Kiko Robert woods Cordy Glenn Aaron Williams Andy levitre Jairus Byrd Torell troup That is the last 5 drafts in the second round. 1 miss out of 7 picks. I'm not even against trading up but the Bills have done very well in the second round recently and that makes me prefer a trade down. Either way I trust this front office because they have done well recently. Don't bash the bills for their second round picks though they have done very well recently.

Off the top of my head? Welker last year ended up taking less money from Denver, how about the Broncos cutting Dumervil last year? Or the Cowboys cutting Ware this year? Those 2 moves were with the players under contract! It isn't a fact that he wasn't committed to what the Bills were doing. He did go on record about all of the changes, having to learn all new defenses each year, and not liking it. We don't know now if the team was upgraded but a run stuffing lb, a better og, and a proven vet receiver were all holes that were able to be filled with the money that would have been tied up in Byrd. Whether or not they work out is unknown yet. It isn't a fact that holding him hostage would have caused problems in the locker room that is why I said it could. Not that he would. I thought it was a farily accepted fact that he wanted to go to a winner AND get paid. He knew Buffalo would pay him but if he could get the best of both worlds, can we blame him for wanting that? I'm not saying Byrd didn't want to resign. What I am saying is he didn't want to resign for what they offered without testing the market first. He didn't want the deal they offered him at the time they offered him it. I know this because he didn't sign. I don't know if he would have signed it if things hadn't of worked out but they did so we won't know. Bottom line to all of this is IMO losing Byrd sucked but I'm not a fan of the "they should have gotten something for him" crowd. Many players walk for nothing in the NFL. It happens every year and to every single team. On the heels of Levitre it sucks but I am very glad they didn't drop that kind of money of Levitre.