GrudginglyPessimistic

Butler is generally said to be a smart guy but he does have a history of going off half-cocked as well as the Bills actually got him with a fairly late pick compared to his talent because he was suspended after blatantly stepping on a down player in a game and getting caught on camera doing it, The fact that he pulled a Sarah Palin and cut and ran to "serve" his country rather than meet an obligation to serve his teammates is not surprising at all from this apparent politician.

Do you really think this area's media and a small but loud group of fans who seem addicted to finding one football savior would be willing to let a 1st round drafted QB sit for a year (as he likely would have to no matter who you drafted) and learn the game. Perhaps more accurately do think that Mr. Ralph and what passes as a Bills braintrust would be able to withstand the whinings of these fans and local media that this first rounder needs to produce and produce now. If so, then you simply have a lot more faith in the local media, the whiny fans and ultimately the Bills braintrust with head unknowledgable fan Mr. Ralph actually pulling the strings. This crew in the a seemingly unending dedication to finding a savior have: 1. Mr. Ralph personally made a bad football judgment in concluding Jimbo would last to have another contract when he made a handshake deal to violate the cap an reward Jimbo in the future (which never occurred and Mr. Ralph gave him a million dollars walking away money. 2, The braintrust screwed up even before this deal and failed to either draft in '94 or pickup a vet to replace Jimbo. Instead the team over-reached to nab Collings with a 2nd in 95 and then rushed him into a starters role when he still had happy feet when Jimbo exited on the golf cart 3. The team welched on a deal with Flutie when they promised him at least an in field shot and then though they did "only" pay market value for RJ, they foolishly gave him a contract which welched on their deal with Flutie. Further, though the pcik-up was a forgivable error, they made a stupid contractual error in guarantteeing RJ starter pay when he obviously was injury prone and then when Flutie did what we wanted an hit his incentives it simply put us into an untenable cap position which forced us to overpay the going rate for a QB starter. 4. Picking up Bledsoe actually was not a bad idea, but giving him an extension was simply dumb and a predictable disaster seemingly prompted by our single QB savior addiction. 5. Again rushing JP to start (even he admitted he was not ready) was another case of the same impatience which I think simply means this team must not get a QB with the first. Getting Bradford or Claussen and having them sit like almost all first rounders actually do (the conventional wisdom that a 1st round pick must start by the end of his rookie year is simply not correct for roughly 40% or more of 1st round picks from what I have seen) is the smart football thing to do but I have no confidence (as you seem to) that the WGRs, Sullys and Mr. Ralphs of the world would allow this to happen. I hope if we end up with a QB that your faith is justified.

I think you are right that this team needs a franchise QB if it wants to win and this is a priority. The thing I disagree with though is if anyone insists that the best way to get a franchise QB is the draft since the simple fact of the case is that franchise QBs and even the first rounder you crave have a far higher record of being acquired by teams in the host of other methods such as FA, trade, late round draft picks, and even UDFAs. Actually the very recent success of Peyton Manning and RoboQB have been by far the general exception to the rule as one needs to go back to the 'Boys drafting Aikman to find a QB whom a team drafted in the first leading his team to an SB win. This team simply has too many holes to fill than to forgo more likely stud players who drop to them at #9 than risk putting all their hopes on the recently twice injured Bradford who will be forced to play behind an OL which did not devote ots 1st to reinforcing the OL or forcing the new QB to be productive as our new 3-4 already running short at OLB talent (the current depth chart shows two good back-ups at best starting for us at OLB. Definiitely get a franchise QB but drafting any of the likely 1st rounders likely to go in the first would probably mean condemninf this team to at least a losing 10 and even worse if we have to trade up to give away even more assets to get him while we have so many holes.

I think folks seem to be reacting virtually across the board to the initial post that yes Cromartie at CB would likely be an upgrade (on the field), but this is a solution looking for a problem when we have lots of other problems on units a lot weaker than our CBs, The problems ou describe are predicated on several other negatives which may not even happen 1. Yes, McGee is likely to be hurt and miss some PT but this simply happens a lot in the NFL It is more cost-effective (even ignoring for the moment Cromartie sounds like an idiot with a Cadillac body and a Yugo brain) to buy a good back-up for McGee than to buy a new #1 for the strongest unit on this team, 2. No I think you are wrong if you assume McKelvin will not to develop in a better player. I think there is no question he is young and improved from his rookie year to his second year and actually as far as player development goes, CBs are players who actually can profit alot from downtime as they get to sit and watch the plays develop and analyze how a receiver works to break down an opposing corner. It is a good sign that one of the coaches Gailey brought back was the DBs coach since if he was a good trainer he used McKelvin's injury as a good chance to force him to think about doing good coverage rather than simply react as his great athletic skills have allowed him to do in the past, Further, my big problem with McKelvin's play was not his pass coverage (not only did he do well in the glitzy overemphasized INT category prior to his injury but more importantly the team was racking up good pass coverage results holding down opponents prior to his injury) but his brain as he fumbled a punt return s smarter athlete simply would have fair caught. Sitting should improve his game simply from him maturing. Its still too early to declare a 2nd year player a bust and on the contrary there is every reason to hope that McKelvin's play improves at least marginally and if his coach was good enough to be re-hired then it more likely will improve a lot than him become a bust. 3. If Florence played like the best CB on the team last year because he knew his last big contract depended on it, then just wait to see what he does as a contract motivated player in his FA year. If he turns out to be so great a player we would hate to lose him then by all means pay him a huge contract around games 7-9 and extend him. Signing Cromartie is a solution which may be a good one but it is searching for a problem that may well not occur but if it does it seems more easily and cheaply solved by other solutions than young good player (who happens to also be a mental midget). Even worse, the solution suggested now creates a whole new problem for us as we now have to find another RB. Sure you can find them lots of places but this still involves acquiring the right FA or late round draft oick. Trading for Cromartie seems really problematic,

If he is still there at #9 then why do you think he dropped down to us? Likely red-flag is his twice injured left shoulder despite having a huge OL in front of him. The Bills OL (particularly after they spend their firat on a QB) is not gonna be very good). Drafting Bradford sounds pretty much like the hail Marys we kept throwing at QB for the next Jim Kelly. It would seem even if we get lucky and he survives the pummeling he likly would get here that at best a Bradford choice condemns us to another couple of seasons without the playoffs and at worse 5 years until his contract ends or he gets run out of town by the immature Bills media and a small but loud group of fans with QB on their mind all the time.

It is exactly the reasoning you lay out here which is why I hope to gosh that they do not go chasing rainbows by drafting Bradford, Clausen) or gosh forbid Tebow in a likely vain attempt to find the next Jim Kelly. Sure one of these talented youngsters MIGHT turn out to be the next Peyton Manning. However, he easily and more likely (particularly at #9) turnout to be the next Ryan Leaf. Even if he is Peyton, this best QB ever hurtled Indy from 3-13 up to a 3-13 record where the next year they added Edgerrin to still be not good enough. It is a QB league for sure, but as demonstrated yet again by Drew Brees, the answer to finding the QB that a team definitely needs can be found as reasonably (and actually perhaps more reasonably looking again at the real world examples of folks like Favre, Warner, et al) through FA or trade as through drafting a #1 QB. The irony here is that folks argue interminably (but often interestingly) about particular individuals when in reality it is not about picking any specific individual but in the end the TEAM is the thing. The Bills need to focus on building a solid TEAM as best they can and then hope for dumb luck to occur and like the Saints this year, or the Gints with Eli saw dumb luck allow us to beat much better teams at key points (the seemingly flawless Pats in the NYG case and the only flawed when they choose to be Indy team). As always the key is the "simple" task of not simply building a team but to instead build a TEAM!

I think the answers to those questions are actually pretty much agreed by most fans as being: 1. Current likely roster- No likely solid starter quality player on current roster at QB, but almost certainly a quality back-up or two are already here. Specifically: Fitzy- Was in fact our best choice as starter at the end of last season, but not a talented enough athlete to likely lead the team to the playoffs. A good choice to be our #2 as he likely could play the Frank Reich role of being a credible starter for 3 games or so but pretty unlikely to lead a team to the playoffs unless it was a situation like Trent Dilfer had with the Ravens when they won the SB. Needs to be in a more productive O and maybe he can do more and a player who likely will not make mistakes unless you ask him to win games for you but that is why he likely is not the long-term answer at starter. Brohm- Perhaps the highest upside of the prospects based on his college stats, but he failed miserably in a bad situation in GB and in the end they let him go rather than make him even their #2. In his sole outing for us he really only had a short time here to practice which may explain his mediocre at best showing. Maybe a reasonable #2 but likely a #3 at best. Edwards- Nice start here and impressive against bad competition early last year. However, reasonably can be labeled as injury prone given that he has missed gametime 3 times in 2 years to different types of injuries and got knocked out of the line-up in college as well. A pretty talented guy actually who was likely victimized by poor development and the ineffective Buffalo offensive scheme. It is probably not cost-effective to declare him a bust right now particularly without another alternative for the roster in camp. Overall- We want a real candidate to be our starter for the future here and likely the best we can do with this roster is have a reasonable #2. Maybe (and even this is a big MAYBE) if the 3-4 revolutionizes into an effective D (which would take something like getting a stud FA DL player AND drafting an ILB like McCLAIN AND successfully shifting Pos to the OLB position he played well in college AND finding another OLB by converting Maybin) this D might be good enough to carry a non-mistake making Fitzy as your starter but this multi-rail billiard play is a long shot. 2. The Draft- Not a good probability at all for a long term starter and virtually no chance for quality QB play in 2010. 3 likely first rounders in this crew but all have significant enough flaws as to make them to high stakes gambles for the Bills to opt for one of them over instead building the OL (likely Buluga will still be there) or solidifying the D an deal with the switch to the 3-4 putting additional LB talent as a critical need (a reasonable chance McClain drops to us and we then switch Pos outside) Specifically: Bradford- Probably the most talented of the three who has shown the ability to make all the necessary passes and to be a canny player. However, he also may be the most likely to drop to us at #9 as he has twice injured his shoulder and the same fear that may make other teams not pick him should count double for us, as if we take him and stall reinforcing the OL til the later rounds he likely is gonna take a pounding learning for us. A high risk idea that obviously appeals to some but picking him likely condemns this team for sure to 11 years without the playoffs as Bradford runs for his life and tries to learn the NFL game at the same time. Claussen- Also a talented player though I like Bradford's play more as I think Claussen likely could have used another year of good college ball but given that it was questionable whether another year at ND would be good, I think he got out while the getting was good rather than stepping up because it was undeniably time. Even worse, you might have to trade up to get the first QB in this draft and the disaster of making a rookie learn the game without a 1st to augment the line might even push getting OL reinforcements to the second day if we have to trade our 2nd choice to move up. Tebow- A likely first round choice due to a great story and the hype but again a serious commitment to waiting a year (or more for QB development without the benefit of spending the 1st rounder on the OL. Drafting a QB in the first is likely a strategy for us where we continue to miss the playoffs as we chase after the next Jim Kelly. Some folks seem to think the FACT this is a QB oriented league means we must take a QB in the first, but folks need to realize that franchise QBs in the real world have been acquired though methods such as FA and trades which allowed folks like NO to get Brees, the Vikes to get Farve, AZ to get Warner and even later round picks like Brady. For every Manning there is a Ryan Leaf. And even though one can make bad tackle choices like Mike Williams this is actually less likely than results like the choice of Harrington before Williams. Drafting a QB in the first may work but almost certainly will not an likely is a bad idea for the Bills. 3. FA- The two best answers here are for QBs who pretty undeniably failed for the teams which drafted them but with solid development and a change of scenery might be a long term answer (which actually speaks to why one should look elsewhere than the 1st round of the draft to find your franchise QB). Jason Campbell out of the Skins and Kyle Orton from Denver look like the two best questionable options. Particularly if one is not going to reinforce the OL then you almost certainly need to go for a vet to play behind this learning OL. There is also the potential to get a cheap vet who can make good judgments but does not have the physical tools like a Pennington (but if this is your strategy you already have Fitzy so why bother looking for another vet without the tools to be a consistent #1 4. Trade It takes two to tango so who knows for sure. Overall- I think you see if you like a QB prospect you can pick up on the second day and develop into your eventual starter. I do not think that the WNY media or a small but vocal group of fans who have their panties all up in a wad and desperately want a savior QB in the first will allow a young athlete with immediate expectations of production to actually develop. I'd go with Fitzy as a not mistake prone limp along choice and try to rev up the D to carry him, Campbell if he can be had cheaply but doubt he can be. I like Brohm as a project but Edwards gets a chance to duel with him for the #2 slot unless I like a second day of the draft QB choice in which case I likely say good bye to Edwards.

Sounds very good from what I can tell. Nothing dramatic but fairly solid reasoning. I have relatively low expectations for Gailey as my sense is the true limiting factor for this team is the owner using his capitalistic right to meddle and this proving consistently toxic in relationships with his GMs and HCs. My expectations are that Mr. Ralph has made another non-inspiring choice at KC but ironically this may be the saving grace for this team if the HC and GM do not go rolling off into foolish attempts to force square JP, RJ. and Bledsoe pegs into a round hole left by the Mr. Ralph mis-read years ago about how much time Jimbo had left. If this team runs off chasing rainbows and likely blows its first round pick on Bradford or trading resources away to step up a few notches and get Claussen this team is likely to be mired in loser land another ten years. Slow and steady is unlikely to get the job done but probably is the only way to get the job done with Mr. Ralph having the ultimate call.

Actually some of the biggest snowfalls in Buffalo are lake effect events which since Lake Erie is now frozen over the chances are reduced. We have gotten pretty significant storms after January 1st but often these are related to a late lake freeze (the January blizzard of a few years ago came after the first recorded snowfall on Xmas Eve. Oddly the famous Buffalo blizzard of the 60s actually had little new snowfall as winds simply drove snow already fallen on the lake inland. We appear to have done some things to change our weather patterns from the historic norms so who knows what will happen for sure, but all it would take is one more nor'easter to sock DC and though many no-nothings in Congress will argue in favor of global warming there will certainly be anecdotal evidence of global climate change.

I guess we will see whether this turns into a version of Detroit on Halloween but actually the crime reports from the massive parties in the Big Easy the night before the SB were that despite a pretty massive amount of public drunkiness there were actually few if any arrests reported that night. My guess is that this was a combination of even the criminal element not wanting to risk 24 hours in jail when there was an SB to watch the next day and the NO police having little desire to imprison or watch folks during SB Sunday. However, my sense is a part of this is that folks in NO have seen some bad times during Katrina and that the SB does represent a significant societal turning point for these Louisianas. My guess is that there will like be a significant # of arrests which go with large alcohol use. However, folks generally will be in a great mood and the violence reaction will be pretty rare amongst most folks. Please keep an eye on the crime reports if you really believe in this prediction and comeback and tell us if it turns out to be true or false.

The big difference between the time when Art Modell skipped town for the $ and now is that the correct question is no longer addresses to the individual owner like a Modell but to the NFL as a corporate effort at profit-making. As every new owner team will have to be approved by 3/4 of the current owners, the NFL as an effective veto on who is an individual owner and under what circumstances he will agree contractually and in advance of this person taking ownership. Jerry Jones knows flat out that he can maximize his individual take from the team by taking a variety of mercenary actions. However, he also realizes flat out that his take will be lessened by a lot unless he subordinates his individual interests to the needs and desires of the NFL as a whole. Jones and almost the whole rest of the NFL ownership (minus Mr. Ralph and Cincy) voted to take the current CBA which gives them a clear minority take in total league revenues for one reason. They made more $ by taking the deal than they would by sticking to their guns. 39.5% of a ton of $ was a lot more than 60 or 70% of a ton less $. The era of the individual owner died right there.

Its like the old story Walter Payton used to tell about him going camping with plodding Bears fullback Matt Suhey. Payton said how Suhey awakened him from slumber in his sleeping bag to inform him a real Bear had invaded their camp site and was inspecting things looking for grub and was closing in their tent. Payton then began to stuggle into his tennis shoes and Suhey "Sweetness (Payton's nickname) don't get me wrong you are an incredibly fast runner, but in a sprint you cannot physically outrun a bear over the short distance of a chase. Payton replied, "I do not need to outrun the bear, I just need to outrun you." Likewise with the Jax franchise vs. Buffalo, if Jax gets bought it simply takes the most financially healthy bid which might be made for the Bills out of the picture. Its a definite advantage for the Bills to have Jax and in trouble and a more likely target than Buffalo for the potential owner groups out there even though it proves nothing in regard to Buffalo being a viable NFL market.

Misstatement on my part as the age issue factors in not that he it too old, but that by the age of 27 one likely generally experience or at least begin to see some signs of dominance from a player who is gonna be your leading Olinemen for the remaining significant number of years he has til he is forced to retire. Hamgartner has demonstrated so far that he is a reliable back-up and maybe a starter on a solid team. However, by his young age (for a normal person) he should be at least showing some signs of dominance if he ever is gonna do so. He is a good plan B for us if Wood, Incognito, or Levitre turn out not to be the answer, but I do not think anyone seriously expects him to be the leader we want on our OL.

And perhaps most important given the immaturity Incognito has shown in his career we do seem to have semi-viable plan Bs to go with at these interior line positions if Incognito has personality meltdowns as he did in his college career and as a young pro. The Levitre/Wood/Incognito trio seems like a gritty, young, and talented trio which MAY prove to have the production and chemistry to build around. However, the horrific injury suffered by Wood and Incognito's false starts at Nebraska and which made him available as an FA to the Bills simply leave questions about their long term viability which can only be answered by them on the field. However, the presence of Hamgartner and Butler give the Bills former reasonable starters in the past at these positions who while not folks one would bank on as long terms answers (Hamgartner due to age and Butler due to injury history) they are pretty good plan Bs if Wood comes back slowly, Levitre does not continue to develop and improve or Incognito goes off the rails personally again. I like where we are in regard to the interior line and is one place where I am pretty sure the Bills can keep all of these players contractually if they choose but it means someone is gonna sit who actually probably deserves to play.

The fact actually is that neither the players or the owners are getting hurt by this in total. Both are making far more money under the current CBA than they did back in the mid-80s when after the owners totally kicked the NFLPA's but in the lockout dispute that year. This thrashing was a necessary thing as it finally forced the players away from the old AFL-CIO method of fighting and negotiating with the owners as opponents and instead threaten to decertify the NFLPA as their bargaining agent. Such a surrender would have denied the individual owners their collaborator in the conspiracy to restrain individual player rights through things like the draft. Once longer term labor peace was established and the networks felt secure enough in provision of a product for a longer term they rolled their armored car up to the teams and unloaded tons of cash, The current CBA definitely cuts the owners off from the hegemony they had over the players demonstrated in the mid 80s lockout and their setting up a designated gross receipts catch to the initial new CBA. However, though the owners gave up old rights big time they voted to do this because the current CBA delivers them more cash than they could have imagined coming from ownership of an NFL team 20 years ago. No body got raped as this is a forced sex act. This clearly is consensual sex which even if gets a little rough everybody involved should be enjoying it. Neither the players nor the owners deserve any sympathy. Nor does either deserve any loyalty from anyone their not sharing a check with.

I think the thing that you may want to change in your thinking is that the important thing here is not simply the outcome (like you I agree that it is extremely unlikely that Congress would actually have a Senate that voted to curtail the limited exemption) but the key factor to the thing that the NFL cares about (aka the money) is likely very much influenced by not only the outcome of legislating (again I agree a negative outcome for the limited exemption is unlikely) but the thing that will make a difference is merely the uncertainty caused by consideration of the idea. The suits at the networks manage to put up billions of dollars for the NFL based on the virtual guarantee of labor peace and a lack of threats to the basic market. The NFL is not worried that politicians will actually change the exemption. However, the NFL would be stupid not to worry about what the suits at the networks worry about. The networks are committing billions of dollars on the NFL continuing to deliver a viable product which actually depends right now on the NFL being able to use the antitrust exemption to collaborate with their alleged competitor teams to restrain the rights of the individual player to sell his services whatever price he can get to the highest bidder. Quite frankly the current NFL model is pretty unAmerican in the way it stops an American citizen from offering his god-given football playing talent on a free market to the highest bidder, Instead, the government not only says it is legal for these allegedly competing businesses to restrain individual rights by divying up ownership in the draft, but itgives fukk legal force to a set of workers to conspire with these owners in the CBA to control individual trade. Even double double worse these conspirators have taken this legalized abridgement of individual rights and unlike baseball, hockey, tennis, the X-Games or whatever and made it illegal for a team to purchase the rights of an adult before his college year of his birth graduates, Outside of the fact that the non-capitalistic system works, delivers a better product as a whole and actually makes far more money for the owners than the a true capitalist system would the socialist compact called the NFL is just a wrong cutting of individual rights.

Even a quick search revealed articles as recent as a Wall Street Journal piece from October 2009 which cited a Congressional threat of exploring eliminating the antitrust exemption as a key to forcing the NFL to turn over medical records in regard to concussions, Also tell Chuck Schumer that this is nonsense since he rattled this Sabre to force his way into the NFL Bills location debate in the early 00s and he has been there ever since. Tell this to fans of the Cleveland Browns at one of their home games when this was a cudgel they used to force the NFL to give them back their franchise after Art Modell skipped town. Agreed this likely would never happen but the threat is the thing since if it gets into play it becomes a little uncertain what would happen and the networks who are the market because they are the real money get a bit nervous about shipping billions to the NFL. The threat is something which cannot be ignored and believe if the only team which plays in NYS decides to leave one of the biggest Congressional delegations of any state will suddenly get very interested in this issue and Senators like Schumer and Gillebrand who give WNY far more leverage than its small population merits because NYC and it richer suburbs can cancel each other out will be swinging the antitrust ax for all they are worth. And actually since the NFL and the NFL conspire to not only limit employment options for all players with the NFL draft, but unlike all other sports flat out ban the ability of adults to follow the good old American capitalistic way of selling their services to the highest bidder, though eliminating the antitrust exemption is unlikely it is a serious threat to offer and arguably the right way to treat an adult.

It is the failure of most people to understand this that leads in part to them not understanding that the market which Ralph and the NFL needs to satisfy is not the specific audience of ticket buyers but the market which provides the most money which is the eyeballs watching the networks. The arena market is significant as a source of income but plays a poor second fiddle in terms of $ delivered to an owner which is the TV market. The Bills have far higher value to the league as an original AFL team than they do as a source of any transfer fee paid split 31 ways by a new owner if he chose to move the team. In the end, the NFL goes where the money is. Between the bird in the hand of the existing Bills ticket base, the potential threat to the antitrust exemption Schumer and others can mount, and the ability to sell membership in the old NFL to new franchises which is where the real money is for the networks and thus the owners, keeping the Bills in Buffalo looks like the deal that brings the individual owner the most money.

Mr. Ralph demonstrated that with is lonely vote (he had Cincy with him) that he seems to believe in an old model of ownership where the individual owner was a pretend gunslinger pretending that the NFL was a collection of individual capitalists. The players union forced an end to this fiction by threatening to decertify itself after the 80s lockout. The NFL owners ran kicking and screaming to the social compact of the CBA rather than have actual capitalistic competition, The individual owner simply made more money as a socialist so they admitted the players were in fact a partner. In the latest CBA, the NFLPA dictated that the players receive 60+% of the total gross receipts and arguably was not just a partner but the majority partner. Mr. Ralph voted against a deal that paid him more money and for the illusion of old ownership. My guess is that his feelings on this one will not be motivated by a simple judgment about what is the best fiscal deal. However, how he feels does not matter in the new world.

So far this season Lindy Ruff has shown himself to be not only very good at the individual game tactical stuff, but as a great HC must be a master at the psychology of TEAM building and working with 20 or so very tough but often suprisingly fragile individual player psyches. Sitting down Montador and Lydman after some horrid play by them and still having the team respond with a couple of tough victories after a long road trip seemed pretty masterful on his part. However, you win the Cup one game at a time (particularly once the playoffs start and in the later part of the season when teams begin serious jockeying for spots or even to get in) It really is all about what have you done for me lately and whats the next challenge. This loss offers Ruff several opportunities/ The team will be disappointed and questioning itself to be able to play with the league stars like Crosby (and rightly so because this team has proved nothing yet). However, if Ruff can turn their attention away from questioning themselves or feeling sorry for themselves (or worse blaming their teammates) and instead use this to teach: A. When you get a two goal lead do not assume the game is over. Do not go into a shell and try to nurse the lead nor do not go crazy and take chances to put a fork in them but leave yourself open to odd man rushes. Just play the game that got you the two goal lead and illegitimi non carborundum. C. Do not count on Ryan Miller to save your bacon all the time. Miller needs to stand up and save their bacon all the time but the team should not demand that he do this or count on it that he will. If Ruff stays in their heads the right way, this unfortunate loss can end up being a big win for this team.

Actually it is quite difficult and has proven impossible in the past but, one of the cute things about HOF membership is that it is afterall the Hall of FAME and not the Hall of STATS. The big problem that punters have is that they are not famous as far as teams go. Punting virtually defines the necessary but thankless job in the NFL (unfortunately this is true for all ST guys and one needs to be a special player like Tasker who really revolutionized thinking about the position and did things like force a rule change with his tactics to deal with an effort by him that only he was smart enough and quick enough to do). Ray Guy was probably the best shot a punter had at making it into the HOF as his monstrous leg and talent forced a rule change. The fact he played for the bad boy Raiders also did not hurt him in terms of generating some FAME. My guess is that it will take not only such an extraordinary convergence of game changing activity by an ST player or punter, but also overcoming some outside of the lines tragedy which will draw attention and sympathy in terms of getting in. For example, I really doubt Jimbo would have made it in so quickly (or possibly at all given his amazing accomplishment of QBing 4 SB losses) if it was not for the tragedy of Hunter Kelly neutralizing the fact that he was such a juvenile idiot as a player (reports of his various run-ins with women at bars and persistent reports of at least one of his SB losses happening because he partied so hard the night before the big game) or made it in if not for the outstanding off field work he did with Hunter's Hope. However, great play, a good publicist and a little personal tragedy gives me the sense that even a punter getting in is doable under the right circumstances. It would probably be as a vet though.

I do not know if anyone who gets paid to spend the time it would take to figure this out (or some other charitable or fanatic soul who will volunteer the time to figure this out) I am curious what the distribution is among teams as to how many players they have on this list. Looking at it off-hand, no surprisingly a team like Indy has multiple players (Manning, Harrison and Freeney for starters with a quick look) and NE has multiple players (Brady, Vinatieri, Seymour leap out) it would not surprise me if numerous teams (did Detroit luck into representation at all) have no representation be in punters or drive-bys like TO. This does give us one rare thing to say about the FO, kudos to TD for identifying Moorman to pick him up and for having the smart to lock him up with a long term extension. It is also interesting to me to consider who almost made this list but lost out to some other stud. There is to some degree an arbitrary nature to all all-decade team since if one stacked up your notable performances with half coming from 95-00 and half coming from 00-05 then a olayer might miss out on being a player of the decade in the 00s (and the 90s) as well. My guess is that Ruben Brown is likely an all-decade guard in the 90s for kudos he received as reflected in multiple Pro Bowl berths (many of them undeserved in the eyes of many Bills fans) but I think he got plaudits in the 00s as well that brought him up short but likely got him considered for this list. Lindell is also an interesting case, I agree with the picks of Vinatieri hands down at kicker. However, despite some initial problems here in crunch time and also Jauron being a short field goal playcalling type guy, it would not surprise me at all if there is a very good statistical case to be made for Lindell being the #2 choice for kicker of the decade. Particularly when one takes into account the difficult wind conditions he dealth with here (in fact less margin for error than even Moorman) and how he excelled as a part of Bobby April kick-off unit and also did a very nice job on some notable onsides, I think there is a strong case to be made for Lindell as the ALMOST player of the decade at kicker.

Ironically the Bills horrendous record of non-accomplishment factors in here. Perhaps I might look at this situation differently if TD had chosen McKinnie there is some (in fact any) likelihood that the Bills would have been successful or simply made the playoffs in any particular year with McKinnie at LT instead of Williams occupying the spot (at least on the depth chart though he was non-existent for much of his career. Actually, I am pretty sure that is not the case. The Bills have been so bad and so poorly managed in so many aspects of the game that replacing Williams with McKinnie really smacks of rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Even if one tried to make the case that if we had McKinnie we would have set the tone for or triggered a different set of decisions and/or play that woulda/coulda made for a different reality. Actually with is first year half season holdout before signing, his relatively slow start his first full year, and the fairly consistent record of being a public sex fiend jerk though no one knows for sure what would have happened if things were different (maybe London Fletcher would have adopted him it he had been a Bill and convinced him to have a personality transplant by becoming a god squader) the likelihood given McKinnie is what he is that he at best would have had the same ups and downs in his play as a Bill. My GUESS is that the UDFA Peters would have shown the same skills which saw him rocket to LT prominence and if McKinnie was the same jerk here he proved to be in MN that it may have been him rather than Williams who became a bust st LT. The simple fact is that it seems McKinnie would have at best held onto the LT slot while the Bills mismanaged the QB, WR, and various D positions in about the same way. Do you really think McKinnie would have made the difference for this team making the playoffs any year he had been here instead of Williams. Even for those who choose to focus on the reality of on field play the question really is one of whether you would have preffered to lose witn Williams slow-waltzing his way out of town or you would have preffered to lose with McKinnie holding out initially and acting a sex fool in general. I have to say I do prefer for this one decision TD having led the team to losing with his bad choice rather than losing with McKinnie being McKinnie. Winning would have been preferable overall but you likely would have needed a new owner to see that happen the last 10-15 years.

The bottomline is that yes TD led the Bills braintrust in picking a bust in Williams. However, this in no way proves that TD should have picked McKinnie instead as both these players are losers from the standpoint of Bills fans. I no our desperation levels are driven even higher by an 0 for the decade playoff performance, but for this fan my desperation is not so high that it would be tolerable to me to have to root for a player who has exhibited the public actions of McKinnie (the holdout, the booze cruise, this Pro Bowl stunt). I am not talking about McKinnie's body language being bad or some trumped idiocy spouted by hair trigger fans and Sully about IO (the underserved complaints about his actions beginning with a stupid rant he was a cancer when he missed some voluntary workouts. He simply is no player even a semi-intelligent fan would want to root for. Williams was a loser and a bad choice but for this fan I think he has proved to be a better bad choice than McKinnie and Hutchinson's comments demonstrate why.

Actually I think its pretty clear from this loser of a draft which also a QB bust Harrington advocated by many on TSW being taken the pick before Williams that the smart move in this draft would have been to trade down rather than get Harrington, Williams or McKinnie who despite his Pro Bowl nod this year would have been a bad pick by TD if he had taken him.