GrudginglyPessimistic

If only they had given him an LBs # instead of a DEs #. Perhaps WGR can cover an argument about how much Maybin should pay (or be paid to switch it does not matter for GR purposes as long as there is an argument to cover).

One of the couterintuitive things a Pro athlete (particularly a QB) must learn is that is what is good for the team is that you should only give up your body only on rare occasions. From time to time a QB should put his body on the line to throw a TD scoring lead block, but in general that even the back-ups and role players are faster more deadly hitters than college starters. When to slide or throw the ball way OB is often the best thing to be done.

My guess is that there is interest not so much because folks care about JP, but because his demise here is treated by some as a declaration that he is a bad player, when actually I think he is a good athlete who was incredibly poorly developed by the Bills coaches and braintrust. I think folks are missing the point when they try to indict the Bills leaders for spending a 1st round choice on JP (maybe so but maybe not- if it took a first round pick to guarantee landing him because other teams would take him high in the second or jump ahead of the Bills if they acquired a high #2 then so be it for getting a #1 to get him). To me the most relevant question was whether there was another QB obviously better that we could obtain with the picks we had or could get. I think it was pretty clear at the time that JP was a cut below the top 3 QBs in that draft (Brees, RoboQB, and one other I cannot remember who offhand) and that JP would likely have been the 1st QB taken the next year if he stayed in. As it was the Bills needed a QB pretty desperately (TD made the foolish mistake of not simply declaring victory and letting Bledsoe walk after one very good and one very bad season) and all the QBs the next year looked pretty bad. In 20/20 hinsight my sense is that the Bills should have gone FA for a new QB that year and maybe you do jump up and take JP because the draft pool of QBs looked pretty bad for a year or two with him moving up. Draft him but the plan should have been to sit him and have him learn the pro game rather than running for his life and improvising as he did at Tulane. If you take JP then the commitment even for us stupid outsiders is that you are commiting to as many as 3 years with him mostly on the bench learning. Rushing him to start when we realized how dumb the Bledsoe extension was the mistake.

I do not think this demonstrates that JP is NFL material at all. The UFL is simply a large step down in competition level and on a player to perform. It provides a POSSIBILITY that a player with some solid future development MIGHT be NFL adequate, but that is a hard thing to do and this performance though a very good one on this minor league stage is little more than a positive step in progress and proves nothing about the player. However, what it does show and potentially of even greater relevance to us is that it is a pretty good demonstration that the Bills O braintrust (TD on down to HC, OC and QB coaches) did a pretty bad job of managing JPs development. JP showed with this winning performance in a minor league that he does have some talents though he never consistently showed them in the NFL. My guess is that given a proven level of incompetent employee management/development by TD, offensive productivity by GW, and even ability to produce a consistently sound offense by the OCs hired by GW that it may well be the case that JP utterly failed here not simply because he had no talent (on the contrary had has some talents as shown at Tulane, in several starting stints with the Bills and now in the minor league UFL) but because the Bill braintrust was so bad they really mismanaged his development. Is JP a flawed player? Yep. Is he such a flawed player he has nothing to offer? Nope. Could the Bills with some good development work and not rushing JP into a starting role when he was not ready (even JP admitted this) have gotten more out of him? Quite likely yes. I doubt even this would have been enough for the JP haters out there, but to this football fan the shame of this is that I think JP has some talents and I simply wish the Bills had been intelligent enough to nurture them rather than depend on them. The boy needed some work before he became a man as an athlete. Maybe he is getting in the UFL. Doubtful as the clock is ticking and the timeline is short for today's athlete (unless you are Brett Favre). I think JP actually has a shot at making it (like two time loser QB Brad Johnson until he won an SB in the right circumstances( in the NFL. Incredibly doubtful he gets the luck to accompany players like Sapp et al. that won an SB with Johnson. However, with a solid OL that made him a little calmer and using his outstanding escapability from time to time rather than depending on it I think he still could be a consistent winning NFL QB. Like it or not he is a pretty talented player, just not good enough that he is going to lead a team to the promised land without some serious help. As this is true of even the most accomplished NFL QBs (Manning in NYG and RoboQb in Pitts) it amuses me that some folks still refuse to acknowledge the talents that won him a merited 1st round pick, a starting job and some legit dashed hopes with the Bills and now a UFL championship. He is a minor leaguer so far, but I blame the Bills offensive braintrust far more than I blame him as a player right now.

Not surprising since he pretty clearly demonstrated he was not up to NFL level OC work with the Bills. Him getting at least a lateral transfer (if not promotion) to college HC seemed kinda weird. For Bills fans just further evidence that one has to wonder what GW was thinking when he gave the O car keys to Kragthorpe who was so ineffective, GW had to can him when he had contract left (a situation which Mr. Ralph tends to avoid like the plague). In the end it looked like it was bizarrely mission accomplished for TD who seemed to hire a DC wunderkind as HC with the goals of not simply winning but making sure an HC he hired did no run him out of town like Cohwer did in Pitts. TD seemed to set GW up to fail by allowing him to hire a bunch of not ready for PT offensive guys when this was clearly GW's big weakness. TD never managed his HC to win and Mr. Ralph never managed his GM to balance his failings.

Thanks for citing a specific quote. This in itself is far better than the often fact-free opinions which seem to make up a majority of this thread (folks are certainly entitled to think whatever they want, its just that those thoughts tend to be eminently ignorable without having a quote from one or more of the parties involved in the particular dispute. This leads me ask a further question about whether Peters was in fact a cancer. Did Marv go any further with his comments to describe that Peters had divided the team. Though I doubt he would have named names is their any hint who the factions were that made Peters a cancer. This is what I doubt and have seen not even a bit of subjective evidence to support such a claim. From what I know of the situation, Marv was in fact being honest when he said Peters had an effect in the locker room which Marv did not like as a GM. This effect though was not one where Peters was a disease which caused the team to eat itself alive with warring factions as happened when TO was a cancer in Philly. The locker room effect that got Marv's goat was likely that Peters refused to play in voluntary workouts and then subjected himself to the fines for missing exhibition games because he felt he was not being paid at the market rate for a Pro Bowl LT but instead as a starting RT level. Rather than being a cancer, from all I have heard, Peters actually united the vast majority of the team as they wanted to see a key player receive fair market value so they would too when they signed a contract based upon one situation (in Peters case it was RT starter money, it could be ST money or back-up player money, that when your surprise (in fact downright shock when you prove to be not just simply competent at another role but in fact you make the Pro Bowl. One can truthfully argue that Peters signed the contract and caveat emptor he has to wait until he hits FA to get whatever his market value is. However, the Bills had set the tone for how to deal with them in contractual disputes when Schobek sae out during voluntary workouts and the Bills FO caved to him before regular season. The Bills had every right under the contract to never extend a deal before it was done. However, this generally is not the practice in the NFL for players moving from UDFA to Pro Bowl levels and when a player can be cut and any money not guarnteed is lost. The Bills FO had the right to do what they did but on the face of it did not do the right thing and players like Dockery whome the Bills allegedly hired to lead the OL publicly stated they agreed with Peters.\ If anyone was divided on the team it FO and the players and Peters was not a cancer setting one part of the players against the others.

I really do not have any sense of hm being a locker room cancer. What links or quotes do you have that show him dividing the team. As best I can tell the players would have been happy to have the Bills show him the money as we had a lot of cap room and them paying Peters at the value he obtained in real life from the market would have set a nice precedent for the players of the Bills paying market value. Clearly some fans see his contract as a failure by the Bills to pay market value for OL players while other fans declare him a fat tub of goo. However, I simply saw little or no evidence of him being a cancer in the locker room dividing the team. With TO in Philly you has TO folks and McNabb folks. To some extent in Dallas you had TO folks and Romo folks (though much of this tempest was in the media and among some fans and not in locker room. How was Peters a locker room cancer for the Bills and who were these two locker room factions?

I hope this is right and even if it isn't, my guess is that a pro athlete who has demonstrated the fire, leadership, and moxie Wood has that if there is even the least little bit of small medical chance I can some back then that is the goal I set for myself and try to achieve. If I do come back its becauae of my hard work and commitment. The naysayers may be chattering some version of reality but quite frankly are not even welcome in my world as I have enough challenges negativity is not helpful. If I come back these people are just idiots. If I do not come 100% back then 75%, 50% or 25% is great also and my shooting for 100% is part of how I achieved 50 instead of 49. Again in this case the naysayers are idiots. Perhaps later if I am struggling out onto the field and risking more damage by playing hobbled or I am avoiding going back to school for an achievable higher degree for an unachievable pro career there is legitimate room for debate. However, at this point thoae who declare my career over are simply dumb and heartless.

But... but... but... It was stated earlier in this thread that: 2) There has never ever been the slightest hint of a smidgeon of proof that lack of contact in practice causes injuries. Not one bit. Deal with that too. There is no way to prove exactly what is the cause of a specific group of injuries to one football team. But when that team is consistently injured more than other teams, there is a reason, and knowing that is enough. Get a new strength and conditioning coach in here. Someone said it so it must be true.

I for one do not believe stats can PROVE anything. I think it was Mark Twain who said there are three kinds of untruths in this world: lies, damn lies and statistics. I think this is a pretty accurate representation of things. Most stats can be altered by the conditions within they are considered to support any preconceived case. This being said, while I do not think the stats prove anything beyond any doubt, they are a necessity to consider when trying to understand what context to consider them within. The stats are that the Bills ended up with about 17 players place on IR last year which I believe is pretty close to a record for us. Thus year just past the halfway point I think with Ellison we are now up to about 12. There would have seemed to have been an inordinate # of these at LB (Mitchell, Buggs, Ellison), add to that Pos going down with his fracture a bunch of games, and also a number of knee problems. This sounds like it MAY be a big issue to me. In order to DEAL with it I am just trying to get a real sense of the problem and how it compares to other times and also pre-Rusty firing. I would prefer to DEAL with it rationally (which TSW has been a great resource over the years for getting this type of info from other psychotic Bills fans) rather than simply whine and get my panties all up in a wad over fact-free opinions (which TSW and WGR tend to have a lot of as well. Are their any statistical INDICATIONS (since the mere stats do not prove anything IMHO) that it is true that we are suffering an inordinate # of injuries the last years as you state or is this unsubstantiated blather which we might agree with but simply because we are fans and there is no supporting evidence?

This certainly seems to this outside observer that it may be true. However, I am simply well aware that I know far more about the details of whines and complaints from highly paid Bills than I do about other teams. Injuries to our boys also draw more attention and negative feelings than hearing the same thing about about opponents when I do happen to hear them. Is there any statistical evidence out there which highlights the Bills having more injuries than the norm or with even more detail links that increase to Rusty Jones leaving? Inquiring minds would love to see this or are we just gonna go with fact-free opinion here.

The logic chain presented here evokes a reaction from of. "yeah there may be some connection between Jones departure and the Bills changing dieting, stretching and workout regimens, but a perceived increase in knee injuries falls way short of establishing a connection between Jones departure and an inordinate increase in knee injuries." Among the items where a statistical correlation might be found and needs to be presented for anyone to even take this conclusion seriously are: 1. Are the Bills actually suffering an inordinate number of knee injuries compared to the rest of the NFL. I also perceive an increase in the number of injuries and IR declarations since Rusty got canned, but in a game which the players are well paid in part due to a significant of injuries, I have not seen word 1 of info that would indicate that the Bills level of injuries are drastically higher consistently than the rest of the NFL. 2. Further, is any perceived or actual increase in injuries of the type (joint and connective injuries which may be associated with stretching or a lack thereof, traumatic injuries which come from increased contact, or perhaps lack of preparation that heavy contact may be coming which is associated to a lot of padless workouts etc. 3. What changes have actually happened in terms of diet, strectching, physical preparation, rehab, etc that correlates to some number. 4. What other major changes have happened (like someone saying above there has been a significant playing surface change) which might explain part of an injury increase (if one is actually happening). 5. Is there any organized or consistent blowback in terms of player comments that the Bills diet, prep, stretching, etc has changed since Rusty left that they theorize may be causing changes in injury rates, types, levels, etc. 6. Do you see a significant number of individual Bills using their substantial personal wealth to hire their own trainers, dieticians, or getting their own doctors second opinions now that Rusty has left? This whole thing is incredibly complicated, but there should be some concentrated significant signs of disenchantment with the Bills conditioning prep post Jones that even we outsiders can begin to see. There seems to me to be a fairly clear larger number of Bills going to the IR which has been reflected in statistical correlations such as the Bills ending up with record numbers of players on IR a couple of the last 10 seasons or since Rusty was summarily and stupidly (in most fan's views as what he was doing seemed to work) dismissed by Mularkey. However, there does not appear to be anywhere near even a statistical correlation between a consistent increased number of knee injuries and a correlation between an alleged change in Bills strength and conditioning regimen post Jones. Traumatic injuries like Pos breaking his arm twice or Kevin Everett needing life-saving spinal treatment intervention are true facts. However, the connection between this increased number of literal bad breaks and a Jones linked change in strength and conditioning simply has not even been remotely established or even hinted at by the statistical events. This is an issue worth exploring as there is a perceived change in outcomes and definite changes in input. The surmise offered in these posts is pretty unsubstantiated however.

I actually think many posters have the situation in Indy vis a vis Dungy, Manning etc. lookes at backwards, It is one way to accurately look at this to see that this team as primarily a Manning team and O team and this rather than Dungy is where the credit goes. First it is a team game and they all deserve significant credit. But the fact is try as he might as good as he is Manning was not good enough to get the job done. It is actually Dungy that put Manning and Indy over the top rather than simply trying to claim this was all Manning and not any significant Dungy. The fact is that Dungy has played a significant role in two SB worthy teams. Would he be an upgrade for the Bill? For sure this is not a hard thing to do.

Even with this logic you may be right or you may be wrong. If it turns out that Rich Kotite is one of Ralph's old buddies and that is who are next HC is, I am sorry it is subtraction from the horrible Jauron record. We would go from unacceptably mediocre to unacceptably horrible. Simon is totally right that firing Jauron without a plan is simply stupid. However, he is also probably right that us outsiders really have no clue what the plan is if there is one. Nor do we know what the future holds and we could stumble into the right moves. Firing Jauron without a plan is stupid (well duh). However, indicting the future without having a clue whether there is a plan or seeing whether we stumble into a good outcome is pretty stupid as well.

I really doubt we keep 4 QBs. Fitz starts so that leaves two candidates to walk the plank. I simply do not see how you cut Edwards since as bad as he has played it was to some extent it was in the Jauron tactics throw in AVP Nonfense O. He meets my definition of injury prone (misses three games in two years with different injuries) and he is high drafted youngster so you do not give up on him at this point. Hamden on the other hand has played well in practice and is apparently well-respected by his teammates. But you have already sent the message that no one is immune to lack of production by demoting Edwards and Fewell separates himself from the recent O by cutting Hamden. I think he is gone.

The Hamdam fan club on TSW won't like it, but it would not surprise me if this was a deliberate message to the Bills roster along the lines of Fewell demanding more toughness by going to the pads for workouts. By the accounts I hear Hamdan is a popular guy on the team. He also apparently played a role as a confidant of Edwards. Fewell has taken steps with putting in Fitz as his starter as separating HIS team from the approach taken by Jauron. Maybe getting a replacement for Hamdan is part of the signal that knowing the old Bills Nonffense has no value and being a good guy is not what makes it on this team its whether you help the schemes on the field. It makes little sense to cut Edwards as a recent NFL starter and a youngster he has value despite being injury prone and simply bad in the Jauron Noffense. If you want to send the message no one is safe unless they perform on the field and Edwards should not be cut as you may get something for him so why give him away, then letting Hamdan go makes a lot of sense.

Brohm is guaranteed a roster spot since the Bills recruited him off the GB PS. I think the interesting question is whether you cut Edwards to clear the roster spot (I doubt it since he likely has trade value even if it is merely for a draft pick). mu guess is that fan favorite of many Hamdan is gonna be gone soon.

He actually left GB from their practice squad rather than GB giving up on him. He was projected as their back-up when he was drafted but fellow draftee Flynn beat him out in pre-season with at least one stellar exhib game performance. Nrohm was the third string inactive disaster QB all last season and this season. Though the Pack clearly passed him over for Flynn, it seems a bit strong to say they gave up on him since he is off their roster since he got an offer to leave. Folks on TSW do not seem to be vocalizing it, but as Brohm must go onto the roster if he is signed of a PS, my guess would be that it is Hamdan who is gone.

I think it would actually be quite interesting and potentially quite potent to develop a Rams style offense here in the snowy east. Certainly, the Greatest Show on Earth sty;e game does not transfer exactly here in an outdoor stadium in a windy Ralph. However, the key to this style was not throwing away the run to pass but in throwing away the TE as a checkdowm target in place of downfield passing to the WR. The Bills actually have the talent at WR right now to do this and also RBs with enough pass catching ability to be a cutrate Marshall Faulk in this style which did use Faulk effectively in the run attack at its best.

Fewell is counting his blessings and laughing all the way to the bank at how this had turned out, I take his word for it that he is honestly bummed that the guy who gave him a co-ordinator job was canned mid-season. However, by being named the interim and the D generally keeping us in games until they would get overrun after being on the field too much with the Bills Nonffense, Fewell has just escaped blame for this sorry team. At worst, this team will continue to look bad under him and he rightly is judged not capable of getting players to at least play like men when the going gets bad. However, though he is clearly not HC material he actually enhances his value as a DC who has HC'ed before. If the team is OK but not great he adds to hia HC potential resume. If he is great maybe he stays but likely goes into the market as a hot commodity. Add to that he probably will bank at least a cool million in new money for doing the interim job. Fewell comes out of this carnage in a virtual no lose situation and likely enhances his value a lot. Not bad for getting dissed by the Bills even id that is what is happening here.

It is a very good post: The update of it IMHO is: 1. First point- Jauron -GONE- case closed time to think of this only as impacts moving forward! 2. This post was correct that starting QB is fragile and back-up is inadequate. A clear need for this team and a first round draft pick is incredibly unlikely to meet our needs in 2010. You definitely draft a prospect in the next draft but FA is by far the most likely way we get an adequate QB for 2010 and likely 2011. 3. Right on target that the OL was in deep doo-doo with Langston Walker as its best player when this post was written and he got flushed. The OL has proven to be one of the worst in the NFL so far in 2009, but the good news is they are so bad because they are too young but the youth gives them possibilities for the future with some judicious competition, cuts and probably at least one solid vet FA acquisition. Hamgartner has actually done quite well as the only non-first year starter, but despite the OL doing the best it can despite being way too inexperienced with no solid QB direction, offensive scheme or HC offensive leadership no one mistakes Hamgartner for Kent Hull. This unit still needs serious help but likely can get it with 1. An offensive ball competent HC, 2. An OC with a vision and a plan (maybe AVP but probably not as the past needs to be out of here as much as possible but a competent OC would be a step up and is achievable), 3. An a least adequate OL position coach 4, A vet OL pick-up to at least augment Hamgartner and actually replace him as the Kent Hullesque leader if we can find such a guy. 4. The DL needs serious revamping. Stroud is good but old, Schobel is good but old and injured, Denny is a good back-up with occasional flashes of near brilliance once a season but generally is overmatched as a starter. Kelsay is an OK player who somehow has a stars contract, he ain't no star player. Johnson is a youngster with some potential to one day be a good back-up. Maybin and Ellis are projects who may well end up as busts (but still to early to tell). Kyle Williams is a solid back-up doing his best to be a starter but please. McCargo should likely be gone. Stuff to work with here but likely nothing to build around. TO - Not his fault team is bad but see ya. LB is a definite need where folks like Draft and even Scott are not unreasonable plan Cs. What about plan A and plan B first though? We have a couple of OK starters who are not stars (Mitchell, Poz) and Ellison who as OK back-ups who play well on occasion, several good plan V LBs and maybe Maybin (who I think is probably an LB who needs to prove he can pass cover, but we could use a stud here. The secondary buoyed by the likely future Pro Bowl Byrdman a first rounders yet to prove themselves McKelvin and Whitmer, the reliable McGee and non-starter but underrated Wilson and Scott with depth Corner, Wendling, Florence and Lankster I like this unit.

Agreed we should be looking for a proven commodity to run this team, but the problem is that a Shanahan, Homlgren, Gruden, Cowher (take your pick of the proven past winners who are not HCs anywhere right now) does not appear likely to want to come to a team with an owner with a proven track record of exercising his owners right to force bad football decisions (the handshake deal with Jimbo is a pretty proven bad football judgment that only Mr. Ralph could have done and there is a list of bad football moves after that which if Mr. Ralph did not initiate them he certainly had to check-off on the move). I doubt a proven winner will come here without assurances that the owner will not exercise his right to meddle and given Mr. Ralph's failed relationships with Polian, Butler, Wade, MM. GW TD and now his firing of Wade. Fewell has all the makings of re-arranging the deck chairs but barring a proven winner being willing to sign up now I am willing to let reality during the last 7 games determine how I feel about Fewell. I doubt he can turn it around with this Jauron/Mr. Ralph built team but I am quite happy to let reality inform me about how the team works with him in a new role. i doubt he can do anything to change my mind and i doubt a proven winner can be had now but barring some great opportunity i see no reason not to let reality inform my opinions rather than to simply jump to a conclusion right now.

Shanahan for GM and he can bring in any HC he wants if he really directs the vision for building a team. Its most important to me that in order to win mr. Ralph simply signs the checks and gets out of the way. As far as HC it is most important to me that Shanahan and he get along rather than we get a talent who would then possibly war with him.

Marty would be a clear step-up here, but the problem is that after going 0 for about a decade being a step-up here does not mean that your team wins playoff games (much less the holy grail of an SB win). Marty would almost certainly be a step-up here but he simply does not have the proven track record of winning consistently in playoff games or winning (or even making it to) the SB. The issues I see are: 1. Folks who have led teams to SB wins are potentially out there (Shanahan, Holmgren, Gruden, and Cowher all have won the SB and are not HCs right now). There are legitimate questions as to whether Buffalo could attract one of them even in an employers market which given the few NFL HC gigs available is usually the case. But we are talking possibilities even remote ones the day after the canning. 2. Talk is that Marty loves the Buffalo area but that he does not like Mr. Ralphn. Given that our owner has routinely exercised his economic right to meddle and has done so with disastrous football outcomes, it would seem reasonable to ask for some sort of showing Marty would come here from those who advocate his hiring.

The neat thing for a team owner about HC jobs is that there are so few of them and the $ are so good in the market that a team is never really dead unless it chooses to be. On of the problems for the Bills which has led to their 0 for about a decade playoff performance is that we have simply chosen to be dead for a large part of the market. Mr. Ralph has continually set a tone for penny-pinching for the HC job which has not allowed the Bills to compete for the most successful HCs. Proven HC winners like Holmgren to Sea or Parcells to MI have shown a willingness to go to very bad losing teams in exchange for big bucks and great control. Mr. Ralph has not only tended toward marginal bucks but exercises his right to be an active owner despite the fact his hands were all over some very bad football judgments (for example only he could make a handshake deal with Jimbo which totally violated the letter and the intent of the salary cap to reward Jimbo in his next contract. Not only was Mr. Ralph totally wrong in this football judgment about how much Jimbo had left, but this proved to be a real enough off the books deal that Mr. Ralph gave Jimbo a million bucks just to simply walk away). Mr. Ralph also tilting at windmills in an ill-fated effort to gyp Wade out of a years worth of $ when he got deservedly canned and also him likely setting up a situation within which MM simply walked away from millions he was owed are other examples of Mr. Ralph exercising his right to meddle. Mr. Ralph has demonstrated he will let a GM have his way in the TD case without exercising his owner's ability to meddle even if he is making bad football judgments. Yet, ironically he then completely failed to exert even reasonable checks and balances on TD who simply went made trying to do stuff to make sure he never got run out of town by a coach he hired. Mr. Ralph was then left with his only choice being to fire TD. He then unfortunately listed to far in the other direction as he crawled back to old reliable Marv and they penny-pinched again hiring Jauron for much less than the top of the market rate. This situation got even worse when Mr. Ralph emboldened by two consecutive improved over the TD/MM product 7-9 record (still mediocre in the real world though) made the football judgment that the 4-0 initial record called for extending DJ. Ironically again, this judgment of how things would happen on the football field was wrong wrong wrong and DJ got fired this year with likely over 7 million still on his contract. You are right that this is likely a great time to hire an HC as past proven winners like Shanahan, Holmgren, Gruden, and even Cowher are likely in the market place. If Mr. Ralph is willing to demonstrate to these HCs likely to be in demand that he will not meddle and force stupid judgments (in addition to mr. Ralph having his hands all over the incorrect Jimbo call, there are suspicions he had a significant role in fostering the RJ/DF fiasco fight, the rush to start Losman, and though there is no clear indication of blame he at least had to check-off on incorrect judgments to guarantee RJ a big payoff without proof of durability, Bledsoe getting extended despite the Bills being able to simply call it a wash and cut him after his goshawful bad season in his second year to balance a very good first year, and then the decision to cut Bledsoe and rush JP into the starting job. If Mr. Ralph is willing to pay the market rate for an HC who has won it all before and he is able to make reasonable guarantees of not exercising his right to force stupid football moves on his HC/GM then we should be able to hire someone who has demonstrated he can lead a team to win it all. The Bills are a bad team, but clearly being awful is not a disqualifier for the most accomplished talent, In fact, it is desirable to the extent that it is even easier to improve the team. Whomever takes over as HC of the Bills will not have to make the playoffs in 2010 to show improvement over DJs Bills. Simply getting a winning record or even going 8-8 in 2010 will be a clear step forward for next year's Bills.