IronyAbounds

Cruise: I just want the truth!!! Nicholson: You want the truth!!! You can't handle the truth!!!!!!!!!!

Note to Board Administrators: There can never be too many fire Hackett threads. I don't care if the entire front page is various fire Hackett threads, there can never ever be to many, so please do not lock any of them down, not one of them.

sigh, why do I punish myself for ever having hopes about the Bills' making the playoffs

Watkins isn't close to healthy, and given the list of rookie receivers they showed earlier, Bills clearly made a bad trade

F*** it, Marrone has to go along with his butt boy Hackett. This team has playoff talent and little league coaching.

With Hackett as the OC, I'd say yes. No TDs, wash, rinse repeat

It's really quite simple. If the Bills would have screwed up the pick they had in 2014 and the pick they would have had in 2015, its a good trade. If they are competent drafters, it is very unlikely that Watkins, no matter how good, would contribute more to the team than two mid-level first round picks and a fourth round pick. Given their history with the draft, they probably would have blown one or both of the first round picks, so getting one relatively sure thing is probably the best, although as long as the Bills have mediocre at best talent at QB and O-Line Watkins' value at best will be maybe 2 wins a year, which doesn't get the Bills the playoffs. On the other hand two quality 1st rounders in 2014 and 2015, along with a decent player in the 4th round almost certainly gets you more wins down the road. Football isn't basketball where one player can completely change a team's prospects, there are lots of positions to fill. Megatron is the best there is, and the Lions have made the playoffs exactly once while he has been there (and while they are 5-2 thus far this year, he has been a non-factor). The Bills need to hope AJ Green is a better example, although the Bengals have a better situation at QB and O-Line than the Bills do, and even so they haven't made it out of the WC round.

Ummm, that can be said about most Bills' draft picks.

Crappy O-Line, Crappy Team - that's a given in the NFL

It is not clear at all that EJ was the best QB in that draft class, and even if he were/is, at best that is saying someone is the tallest midget. It was a terrible draft for QBs and definitely not the one to waste a first round pick on a QB. Another huge Nix blunder.

Yeah, give Bortles at least 5 years of incredible sucking before comparing to Sanchez.

I think the only squad Bradford is starting for is the Mayo Clinic city league team. And wow, I had forgotten that Tebow was a 1st round pick. Boy, what a dumb pick that was.

You lost me when you said Orton had to learn a new NFL offense. A new Hackett offense, yes, a new NFL offense? Very debatable. In any event, if this weren't the Bills I would argue that the coach would never put Orton in unless he saw good things in practice. However, this is the Bills, so who knows.

The NFL is a win now league, but even more importantly, you have to minimize your mistakes with personnel decisions, and the Bills have had a plethora of questionable personnel decisions for quite some time. Look at their No. 1 picks from recent years: Manuel (jury out, but to date CLEARLY not a 1st round caliber QB), Gilmore (jury out to some extent, but again, CLEARLY not a 1st round CB), Dareus (probably the best 1st round pick in a long time, but I don't think he has played to the level of the 3rd pick of the draft), Spiller (flashes of great talent, but CLEARLY has not provided 1st round results for the Bills), Maybin (OMFG, what could they have been smoking before that pick), McKelvin (a very serviceable player for the Bills, but again, CLEARLY not a 1st round CB), and Wood (a decent 1st round pick at #28, not great but certainly not a bust). When you consider that the Bills for the most part have drafted in the upper third of the draft, you'd expect better results if the front office had a clue. It was good for the Bills to trade down in 2013, but the benefits of doing that are kinda lost if you trade down and take a player you could have gotten at a minimum one round later and perhaps even 2 rounds later. One constant problem with the Bills is the OL, so it is rather startling that the Bills haven't used their first pick in the draft for an offensive lineman since Mike Williams in 2002. I guess they were so traumatized by that crapfest they choose not to repeat it.

Yes, it was a horrible no call, but for purposes of evaluation EJ, look at the throw. It was intercepted by the guy covering Mike Williams. Bad throw and even more so, a horrible play call by whomever called it because it allowed Williams' defender to cover both Williams and Woods. If not interfered with, Woods would likely been closer to the ball but Williams' defender would likely have broken it up if not intercepted. Again, that doesn't absolve the refs for an obvious blown call, but it does highlight the weaknesses of both EJ and Hackett (assuming he drew up and called that play). It was not the place to throw the ball, so EJ isn't left off the hook.

It might not be the best idea to throw Orton to the Lions in his first game. EJ's confidence is already shot, so let him take his lumps against Detroit and have Orton start, and hopefully beat, the Pats at home.

You are right on about that play. Keep in mind it wasn't the guy covering Woods that intercepted. Even if Woods hadn't been interfered with (and it was a clear penalty), the guy who intercepted would have been right there since the guy he was covering was in the same area. Most likely result would have been an incomplete pass. Hackett is inept, EJ is a scared puppy playing in a sport that destroys timidity, and I think Marrone is simply not HC material. Add in a series of questionable 1st round picks and you have what you have, a mediocre at best Bills team.

Those thinking Orton is some sort of savior seem to be forget that saviors are rarely found in QBs who never established themselves as quality NFL starters. For better or for worse, either EJ pans out or year 15 without playoffs will be here rather quickly. The Bills missed their chances by passing on Wilson, Foles (with the Bills' receivers this year Foles would a perfect fit, and his lack of mobility is not that much different than EJ's since EJ is clearly afraid to run) and perhaps Cousins, and then screwed up by wasting a first round pick on a project QB in a draft that had nothing but mediocre pro prospects. I am still of the opinion, and it is only my opinion, that EJ looks the part more than he plays the part of a big time QB, and nothing he does stands out as remarkable. It is hard to get excited about a QB whose upper limit is very likely that of a competent game manager and average QB. They can take you to the playoffs, but it just means you have to find a lot more pieces of the puzzle than if you have an above average QB, and the Bills have had trouble finding many pieces to even the simplest of puzzles.

The guy is right about this week's game against the Texans. The winner will move on in the over-achieving team of the year sweepstakes while the loser will make their team's 2-0 start look like fool's gold. I think this is particularly true for the Bills. A loss against the Texans and the Bills are looking at 2-3 with a game against NE in a game where a loss really would end any reasonable hopes for the playoffs. Going into that game at 3-2 will let the team play much looser IMO, and even if they lose they hit the softest part of their schedule at 3-3.

In many peoples' minds, apologist means someone who tries to deflect blame from someone or make excuses for that person. Obviously that isn't the correct use of the word. Be that as it may, one thing has remained constant, when EJ has a good game, the EJ is the man apologists use that game as proof he is worth the 1 round pick he cost. When he has a bad game, the EJ sucks apologists use that game as proof he's a bust. All I know is that today the Bills lost a winnable HOME game, never ever a good thing and given their schedule, they really could have used a win today. I also think it is becoming clearer that the question of whether EJ is or is not the man is becoming increasingly less clear, which is not a good thing. The lack of any consistency in downfield throws coupled with a general lack of accuracy is very disturbing however, and the longer those problems remain unresolved, the less likely they will ever be resolved.

It really can't be said the Bills are getting no respect. Moving up 11 spots in ESPN's power rankings shows some degree of respect. Beating the Chargers would likely move then into the top 10, which ain't exactly disrepect.

Ding Ding Ding Ding Ding - We have a winner!

Your story is exactly why I want the Bills to start winning NOW. My daughter has no attachment to Buffalo, has visited it just once, and can pick any team to root for she chooses, and yet despite all the Bills' screwups, and despite having a roommate who is a super Brady/Pats fan, she is a Bills fan because she knows I am. I am just afraid that her patience will wear thin with more losing seasons. A couple of playoff games in the near future could well hook her for life (or until the Bills move to whereever).

Your situation is obviously different than mine, since you didn't have a team growing up. That seems to be entirely different than being a fan of a team for a long time and then deciding to find another team to root for.

How does an adult go about choosing a team to become of fan of? Do you call the team's front office and ask them to interview for you? Provide brochures? I'm a Bills' fan because I was born in Buffalo and went to several games at War Memorial, including the '63 playoff game against the Pats, when my hatred of the then Boston Patriots was born. I was a fan of Jim Brown and the Cleveland Browns growing up as they were my team in the NFL. I became a Yankee fan (Mickey Mantle fan) and a Celtics' fan (Russell Havlichek fan) as a kid. I became a fan of my university teams when I went to college. I have never changed my allegiances despite some very difficult times for all of those teams. I may be negative about the current state of the Bills, but I can't imagine just picking some other team to root for. As an adult, how the hell do you magically obtain any sort of emotional investment in a team with whom you have no history? I live in Arizona, but never for a second thought about becoming a Cardinal fan (I actually liked them better when they were in St. Louis), and I have hated the D'Backs from day 1. I liked the Suns, but never thought about actually jumping ship and in '76 I rooted for the Celtics to win. Oh well, everyone's mileage may vary I guess.