GrudginglyPessimistic

Fplks would be crazy to have confidence (or even great hope the Bills are good enough (even if you believe in Fewell motivation). However, one also is crazy if you do not realize: 1. This is by far the worst Pats team since they started their SB winning ways. The Moss meltdown is a clear sign that was used to be a TEAM is now clearly at best a team and if the Moss meltdown continues to go bad or becomes a cancer that divides the locker room, then not only are they quite capable of losing any given Sunday, but on the road playing against a team with nothing to lose might easily be a trap game for them. Probably mot, but then again who said us fans are supposed to be sane. 2. The Falcs are a sub .500 team just as the Bills are. Do you really have such faith in the Falcs? 3. Indy is a far much far, did I say far yet better team than the Bills. However, one bone jarring hit or injury to a Colt and they shut their game down even if they are undefeated going in (which they well may not be since they are clearly fighting the temptation to shut it down right now with two left to play before they face the Bills. We all know these Bills are mediocre or worst than that. However, why do you have such faith in the troubled Pats, the also inadequate Falcs, and a Colts team which likely will have a bunch of reasons to shut it down if the going gets hard.

I doubt the fans and followers of this team are likely to be any where near mature enough to deal with the impacts of spending a #1 on a QB be it Clausen or whoever. In particular I know that the local media led by WGR and Jerry Sullivan will in no way allow an athlete the time to develop that even the best QBs take to develop. Even the best I have seen at the position Peyton Manning took his team from logging 3-13 to draft him was to fast forward to be 3-13 the next year. This put them in a position to then draft Edgerrin James, and with another first rounder Marvin Harrison they finally became a potent offense. Yet, despite all this star powers it took the best GM out there constantly doing his waiver wire and negotiation magic to still have to go off the salary cap books and get one of the best D minded HCs in the league to finally win the SB. After an 0 for the decade playoff run there is no way I can see that this team and it followers will be able to maintain in any sustainable way a team which depends on a young first rounder to be the new "savior". My sense is this team is going to need to go with a vet QB who can deal with the idiocy of a media who will be champing at the bit to create a new QB controversy. If we take Clausen he is going to need to be part of a winning team immediately and this team does not even have a Ray Lewis to allow a Flacco time to develop that a young QB will need. I think taking Clausen is a non-starter for this team where it is right now.

I am not saying at all that he did or should do this. I only offer this up as an opposite extreme example of what one can do that parallels the other extreme statement that there is nothing whatsoever that Mr. Ralph can do to escape the dreaded death tax. The simple fact of the matter as it seems to be is that there is an entire world of possibilities out there in terms of what Ralph can do. The extreme I propose could easily result in illegal activity which one would be a risky fool (not normally what a businessman would do unless he headed up Goldman Sachs or Bear Stearns and you figured the guvmint would be there to bail you out so you do go ahead and do stupid things) to do. However, as ridiculous as this risky behavior would be, the line trotted out there by folks who claim there is no escape from the estate tax is at least just as silly a position to take. With a running start to prepare for the reality that you will die, and with the flexibility that you do not have a direct descendant who wants to run the team, but you want to transfer some significant assets to your heirs, it is quite doable to figure out some mechanisms where one can essentially avoid the estate tax. No one knows what Mr. Ralph is gonna do. However, as he has ample cash to buy smart lawyers and there is no apparent long-haired snot nose kid running around the Bills camp pretending to be an athlete (like Larry Quinn used to do when he insultingly skated with the players and old-timers sometimes) things look pretty set for the estate tax to need a lot of management work but to quite likely be pretty much a non-issue as far as determining the future of the Bills.

The entire very which trusts and estates legal profession would likely beg to differ with you. You really have to be a total idiot who does not take advantage of easily accessible legal advice to leave yourself in a position to have your heirs tagged flat out with an estate tax that confiscates all or even a majority of this gift of an estate that the individual did nothing to earn. Definitely different approaches would mean some costs (for example if you left your entire estate in an irrevocable trust to an IRS code 501c3 not for profit, all estate taxes on the asset can be escaped- to do this Ralph's heirs would lose traditional ownership rights to the Bills. However, it would be a relatively straifgtforward matter to set up a 501c3 which was essentially operated by Mr. Ralph's designated heirs and even assign them a salary generated by the team which would be quite lucrative. The whole "death tax" idea is a political construct which does what it is designed to do in terms of rallying segments of the public behind this GOP perspective, but it can reasonanbly avoided with simple due diligence as shown by the actions of moguls like Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. Both are already hiding billions of dollars in plain site to do actions they are determining now while they are still alive and can be carried out by their designees with rich financial reward to their designees without the feds getting a hold of the vast and utter vast majority of this wealth. Buffett in fact flat out says that a huge fiscal gift to his offspring that they did nothing to earn except having one of Buffetts sperm cells win a race to an egg would be counter-productive to society if he could simply will them a gift of billions.

The rate limiting factor on this team which has determined its perpetual mediocre outcomes (7-9 three seasons in a row and with some luck sneaking out 2 wins against NE at homr, a decrepit like us Falc squad on the road and then a potentially getting set for the playoffs Indy team for the same inadequate record if we are lucky) is not the HC but an FO that overall has not built a winner. The HC makes a difference in that he working for Mr. Ralph and a GM less FO worked together to create idiocy like the belated firing of Schonert. If you want to consider Fewell from the start, the rewind the start to a fantasy world prior to the horrible OC management and try to guess what role Fewell would have had. My guess is that who is HC makes little difference with such dysfunction above.

It would be a great accomplishment but the above .500 record as an interim HC and a couple of marquee wins to show for it is quite likely to be a great accomplishment by Fewell which will get acknowledged by him being a hot candidate for an HC slot with a different team UNLESS he hits off with the new GM we better hire or we are likely condemned to a continuing string of non-playoff seasons. The Bills are unlikely to be a winner until Mr. Ralph is smart enough to hire a quality GM who builds a team to win rather than builds a team where the HC he hired will not be able to run the GM out of town (I think this was the prime problem with the TD reign of error). If Fewell leads this team to a winning record with the marquee wins mentioned, I would be overjoyed to have him hit it off with the new GM who then would almost certainly have to hire a new OC to come in and rebuild the Bills O scheme. If however, Fewell does not fit well with the new GM to truly allow a TEAM to be built then I wish him well in his new job.

I for one was disappointed when he gained (and fed with his flapping celebration) the obvious moniker of Birdman from fans and the media. I was hopping he would get dubbed TD being short for Tip Drill which describes a lot of his INTs. Overall, I think it is fairly silly for folks to find fault with him for his run coverage. HE IS A ROOKIE afterall, and the likelihood is that he will learn the game even more with experience. The most freakish thing about his INTs is that his league leading total of 9 were amassed in only 10 starts since he missed some early game starts due to injury and coaches decisions. Has Byrd been lucky to get a number of his INT? Yep. However, players make themselves lucky with good positioning as they close in to make a tackle and by being more heads up than the normal player or simply good at reading the QBs eyes and reading his mistakes. As as Byrd who knows for sure what the future holds but in this case the future is so bright he has to wear shades.

The biggest reason Marv failed was because he was wiping up the horrible mess Mr. Ralph left with his mismanagement of the franchise actually dating back to when Marv was around and Polian was canned, then Mr. Ralph mismanaged his relationship with his next GM Butler, and after Butler left this team twisting in the wind, Mr. Ralph mismanaged his relationship with TD. The main reason Marv continued the sorry record of playoff making failure that happened under Mr. Ralph's leadership and far exceeds Marv's and even exceeds DJs reign of error is that he did what Mr. Ralph instructed him to do.

His legacy is that he is in the HOF. I do not see his failures as a Geriatric GM leading to the hiring of a bunch of fellows to go into the HOF and either kidnap or chip away at his bust. If anything, this will add to the stories told fondly about him as the footnote will be that he was a loyal character to the end. Sure, one can easily give Marv an F for his work, but this is on an absolute scale which measures whether he built a winning team. It is pretty clear he failed at that in that his teams while he was here and even the year after he left were 7-9. A rational person (and who said we fans have to be rational cause we are not) would seriously need to take into account that he took over a team which was 5-11 and quickly in his tenure and even for the year after he left he improved them to 7-9. This is still a failing grade in the schools I went to where making the playoffs is essential to someone securing a C avg. Marv actually probably gets a D for his work as one has to admit he improved the team over the disaster which TD amassed. However, I am quite comfortable in moving this to an F given what occurred a couple of years after he left. He would get a C if the team he built made the playoffs after he was gone but one can comfortably give him a Gentleman's D for the time he was here that lapsed into an F for looking at the results of the waste he left. However, you have to be nuts to feel this tarnishes his legacy. If anyone gets indicted here it is Mr. Ralph. If you want to blame Marv it is tough to hold him (or Jauron as well) for the majority of the 0 for a decade playoff record. Max you blame Jauron for 4 years of it and Marv as well if you want to do a legacy indictment but all the crap flows downhill to Mr. Ralph. As far as Marv's legacy he comes off as a stand-up guy who rescued his fellow Golden Boy from the disaster he created with mismanaging his relationship with Butler so he ran to TD an mismanaged the relationship with TD so he ran to Marv. Marv moved the team from disaster to mediocre in his time her and then it lapsed back to disaster after he left.

Exactly. I am one who often whines about how wrong the conventional wisdom can be compared to reality (like the expectation a first round pick should start immediately or at least soon in his rookie year- in reality a 1st rounder is a little over 50% likely to first on the depth chart at his position his second year- and that is simply the reality). However, one piece of conventional wisdom I think is true that its legit to claim one must wait until after a player's 3rd season to draw a reasonable conclusion as to whether he is a real bust or a real hit. Too many players end up with a career track shown most starkly by Brett Favre and Steve Young who were both so stinky as young Tampa Bay players they got traded and became among the best ever in the game. Brad Johnson is another example of a player judged a loser worth letting walk not once but twice. However, in the right gig with more experience he QB'ed a team to an SB win. Lest anyone think this phenomena is just QBs then look close to home with Eric Moulds simply sucking his first two years before breaking out in his third year becoming a pernenial Pro Bowler. GB though also that a young Bryce Paup was worth something but when it came down to dollars they let him walk to the Bills as an FA and he became and HFL player of the year for the Bills. Maybin disappointed this year big time, but to write him off right now as a stupid pick may prove to be true in a couple of years but is simply premature right now.

Yes in the eyes of most casual fans, but not based on the reality of situation. Based on way too many years of watching NFL football (and a somewhat in depth analysis of one year which confirmed my feelings but is too small of a sample to stand up to statistical rigor) while many expect any player drafted in the first round to be an immediate starter, in real life only a little more than half of first rounders start in their first year. It simply takes time for most athletes to develop mentally and physically in some cases to be legit starters in the NFL. Your 15# seems to be one simply chosen to include Maybin and many Bills early picks under the mediocre 7-9 Jauron leadership. Rather than picking a basically arbitrary # at 15, the actual arbitrary # used to identify first year starters is top 10 picks. Even in this case the tendency of top 10 selected players to be immediate starters is likely more due to the teams that picked them generally being pretty bad to get an early pick so their 1st year picks start, Being a top 10 pick is certainly no guarantee of being a quality player and one need only remember a series of QB names like Harrington, Akilis Smith and Ryan Leaf to see the expectation of a top 15 pick being a guaranteed starter ls misplaced (lest you think this in only true of QBs then remember names like Mandarich and Williams to also see top pick busts. The other side of the equation is that late 1st round picks like Clements or much later in the draft picks like Tom Brady have become notable performers. If you want to criticize Marv Levy for stepping up to pick a loser like McCargo in the first then the voice that says this needs to just as loudly praise him for picking Kyle Williams on the backside of the same draft. The bottom line is that yes the draft is important jf only because good players tend to be drafted. However, all in all it is a crapshoot overall. Its way too early to declare Maybin a bust anyway. For just about every great no brainer pick there is also a player who eveyone rejects multiple times like Jason Peters who is a lardass in many haters minds but like it or not he made the Peo Bowl twice to show that even if you draft well or make up for it with scouting of UDFAs your FO can still fail to develop a two time Pro Bowler well.

As part of the list of stupid things add that it is stupid to give up a home game by playing one in Toronto, particularly when Rogers sets a ticket price and also goes for weekday evening games that make travel by many Bills fans in Buffalo prohibitive.

In order for it to be a true two way street, it cannot be that one side goes out of its way at one point and the other side is then indebted forever. The Bills relationship with Peters initially did feature such a give and take with the Bills. It started out pretty even steven with the Bills rescuing him from being a UDFA but Peters doing the Bills a return favor as well as he picked them over several offers he apparently attracted when surprisingly to many observers he was not drafted. There proceeded after that a series of on field achievements by Peters which the Bills rewarded by giving him a bigger role and eventually a huge contract extension when he won the RT job. However, its my sense that Peters may an extensive step up in terms of onfield achievement in that he not only proved to be good enough to be awarded the LT job when we signed him at an RT wage. Peters not only won the RT job but proved to be good enough to take the key cover the QBs blindside and often be paired against the opponents best sacker. Arguably the Bills might have simply skated by without giving him an additional award because he won the LT job, a little rude not to pay for his key play but its a business. However, when he not only won the LT job but was honored as one of the best in the NFL with a Pro Bowl berth, it strikes me as not only fair if the Bills had given him a big raise in a reworked deal but rewarded this extraordinary achievement with another extension. In the end it is true that Peters became a malcontent, but IMHO the Bills started this toxic affair.

What amazes me is how folks argue as though their two views cannot happen at the same time at all. My sense is that it certainly seems true that Peters despite his two Pro Bowl berths with the Bills actually is not an elite LT that always shows up and can do no wrong as a player. He simply is not and did not even appear to deserve his second Pro Bowl berth he was given. It is no surprise at all that he is not an elite LT as the fact is he does not have the long-term complete schooling as an LT since he was a TE in college who only found his way to the OL when his talent became clear to Mouse McNally and it became clear this was the best (if not the only) way for him to have a useful NFL career. When one adds onto his misplaced start, that he then really took a season + off in his development as a player as he and the Bills went to war, it is no surprise that his deficits as an OL are showing. Yet, despite all of this being true the folks who simply want to call him a fat tub of goo and a lardass are simply ignoring the reality that even with his failings he is head and shoulders better than the treadmill of journeymen which we trotted out at LT this year. Again the simple fact is that the OL was pretty much the weakest unit on this team (which is saying a lot for a 4-8 squad, Hate Peters all you want but the fact is that this would almost certainly be a better team if this fat tub of lardass was manning the LT slot for us. Both views are true as far as reality.

You are right that there is no doubt that Clements is not worth the cap hit associated with the backloaded contract and I am glad you see that. However, I disagree with you that Clements is worth even the $9 million per year you claim he is actually getting. Clements commanded the big salary he got from the market because of his alleged ability to be a playmaker. The facts proved to be that this was simply hype. The sense it was just hype as indicated by his low INT numbers with SF and by his actually laying the ball on the carpet in a key situation when he was still returning punts for the Bills. The simple fact is that one could replace his skills as a first string corner not with new acquisitions but with Terrence McGee who was already on the roster at about a third of the cap hit which the market gave NC. If the Bills had ponied up big bucks to him while he was still on the roster and would have had to have risked the potential of injury, the Bills might have gotten him for far less than the 3x stud CB contract he collected, but the simple case is that we had a player already on the roster who could supply the same level play at half the cost even if we got a bargain basement 2x CB stud deal for Clements. Add to this that his extra value as a playmaker was proving to be a dud with his critical PR mistakes and again the Bills had a player already on the roster in Parrish who was ready to assume the playmaker role Clements had. True Parrish after a tremendous start as one of the best PR guys in the NFL ended up being a dud. However, the Bills choice was to pay NC the biggest contract ever given to a defender in order to leave the ball on the carpet just like Parrish making sumb decisions to try to return balls he should have let go. The additional help the Bills went for in the draft in McKelvin was not to just replace NC after we let him walk, but actually was to replace Parrish and Mcgee on return duty after they failed to be able to take on these tasks after Clements had already demonstrated we had better options already on our roster. Peters is not playing well but it seems pretty clear that even poor play by Peters would have been better than the often horrible play by Meredith and the cast of journeymen we have used as LTs. On the other hand, Clements not only is not playing well in his new gig, but what we had left on this roster at CB and at PR seems to be at least as good as NC offers but at at most half the price.

A player who does not elevate the Bills from the 6 wins they likely at most will achieve this year to a .500 record or better next year is actually not gonna be a good fit for this team. The supporting cast is too weak that even if the 1st round drafted QB is the next Peyton Manning he likely does exactly what the rookie Manning did for Indy, Started 16 games and led the team to the same sorry record which put them in position to draft Edgerrin James. Perhaps if this team had great vets on the D and in the backfield like Pitts they could afford to take a RoboQB type like they did to lead them to the SB in his rookie year. Perhaps if we had a Ray Lewis we could go for the next Flacco. However, the supporting cast on this team is not strong enough for us to look for a franchise QB in the draft next year.

The question is what do you mean by resolve (I am trying to resist us getting into a dispute like one where it depends on what we mean by a word like "is"). I simply see no way that acquisition of a QB unproven in the pro ranks (the definition of any draftee) is going to resolve Bills issues at QB. Let's say that we somehow end up with a QB of Peyton Manning level of play (a fantasy which will not happen). The Colts racked up a record of something like 3-13 which put them in a position to draft Manning. He led them to a record of 3-13 in his rookie year which ended up giving them the same lofty draft position so they could then draft Edgerrin James. The coverage and fury surrounding fan and media scrutiny of the QB has only intensified since Manning was chosen. If the Bills were to pick a QB in the draft who somehow immediately stepped up to win the starting role but then was the starting QB on a team which logged the same 6 or so wins we are likely to log this season I really doubt anyone will call our QB situation resolved. My guesstimate is that as far as QB, the likely outcome that the Bills will shoot for in 2010 is to "resolve" the QB situation by finding a starter who can lead this team to at least an improvement over the 6 wins we seem likely to register with a solid rest of 2009. I think the main criteria for our new QB will be: 1. Produce some more Ws and in a very good world lead this team to be at least competitive for (though I doubt we will make it in the rebuilding mode we are gonna enter again next season). I simply doubt that any rookie will be good enough to lead this team as a rookie to even the Flacco like levels achieved by the Ravens last year or the SB levels achieved with a rookie QB by the Steelers with RoboQB. These teams achieved what they did because they had tried and true vets leading the team at other positions (folks like Ray Lewis or whatshisname who was a likely HOF performer for the Steelers at RB. The Steelers had a host of other talents ranging from the best in the game at safety in Polamalu or even third string RBs who proved better than many starters for other teams. How on earth folks see us committing the top 10 choice we are likely to get in this draft to the next savior at QB when we lack top of the NFL talent at any position on D and our best players on O are simply woulda/coulda/shoulda prospects like Lee Evans and Lynch? Fuggaboutit. My sense is that we try to deal with the QB issue by first getting a GM who Mr. Ralph clearly gives the keys to the cars to who then lays out the chance of developing and implementing a winning vision pretty darn quickly. At QB, we pick up a vet in FA who actually has some real doubts he can lead the team to an SB berth (not to mention victory) but credibly presents a shot at more Ws and even a playoff appearance pretty darn soon. This QB comes in and competes with Fitzy (with the loser of this battle being a credible plan B but the winner simply sucks it up and deals with alleged QB battle with the second stringer which WGR and The Buff Snooze will be happy to create to sell ads whether there is really a battle or not. Even better for the Bills would be if contractual and media reality were to allow a 3 way competition between Fitzy ( a credible #2 in my book to play the Frank Reich role but not good enough to be a consistent winner as a starter in the NFL), Edwards (under contract so we got him if we want him but likely too injury prone to count on as your #1, and the third would be some cutrate talent who may have some potential to play the game (I shudder to say that if we got Dungy as our HC, then Michael Vick fits the description of a talented athlete who could be had cheaply who is not good enough even on his best year to get you too the SB, but might be good enough to get you to the playoffs. Perhaps Campbell, Plummer or even Brad Johnson might be the failed QB with interesting potential one could get to have a 3 way competition (though unfortunately I doubt the local media is adult enough to deal with this prospect. At any rate it will be a tough offseason at QB, particularly if we spend our top 10 choice on some alleged QB savior who on this team would likely only produce a winner in 2011 or more likely 2012 at the earliest. FA and a 2 or three way competition at QB is our best bet.

What I am saying is that rebuilding this team should start at the top by getting the best GM (one whp was integrally involved in building a past SB winner is likely a good candidate). I then have that GM pick an HC that reflects his team building strategy and 3. he then takes the best and leaves the rest not only of the players but of the coaching staff and FO of the Bills. I will provide my cut on who is a best (or developmental best) we should keep and whom we should let go.

I think the clear correct answer is NEITHER. Don't get me wrong. I think it is a question worth asking and even answering as it is an interesting question since the answers do reveal something about team building philosophy. However, it is the clear recognition that this is a TEAM game and the winners are separated from the losers by their ability to actually build and keep together a team which picks up for each other (unless the QB you pick happens to be more than a mere mortal which they all were last time I checked even Joe Montana who is probably the best I ever saw). The great TEAMs are separated from the good teams because they in fact were TEAMs that somehow developed an elevated level of consistent play which made them better than the rest for a significant period of time. Those who want to claim it is simply a great QB that is the essential element need look no further than their non-example of Peyton Manning (who is a non-example because if your strategy depends on being able to pick him then fuggaboutit since a QB of this quality comes along once in a decade or so). Manning was simply incapable of delivering an SB win to his team until Indy put the team over the top with the completion of the puzzle by getting a D-minded motivational wizard like Dungy. Even merely was the missing puzzle piece to build upon having a great GM, outstanding running from Edggerin and a host of fill-ins, the acquisition of Sanders to make the Cover 2 work, an outstanding kicker in Vanderjagt, and a zillion other puzzle pieces that proved essential to get this team an SB just once. Likewise looking at one of the other best ever QBs Brady, does your team building strategy really depend upon somehow scarfing up a QB of his quality after you and every other team in the league passed on him 6 or so times. Does it depend on the essential element of your stud QB who contractually could not be benched for a couple of years even by Bellichek and Weis getting a collapsed lung. Most of all does it depend upon this stud but young QB finding his way onto a true TEAM which was introduced together at the SB (they lucked into with a bizarre ref call) who picked up for each other when the young QB was clearly talented beyond all expectations but was an incomplete player no matter how good you want to claim he was. IMHO, the key is actually having a winning owner (which the Bills do not consistently have and this is our prime problem as he miscalculated badly with his QB assessment leading to a handshake deal only he could make with Jimbo- the prime thing which has killed this team in its 0 for a decade playoff-less streak is that Ralph has exercised his ownership right to meddle and supercede his football experts in a fruitless search for the next Jimbo which has led to team killing mistakes on rushing TC, the Billy Joe Hobert disaster, over-committing to RJ, under-commiting (and then over paying DF), not quitting when we had a wash of one very good and one very bad season with Bledsoe and then mismanaging the development of JP. Yes Virginia QB is important but it is far more likely to be important by producing a singular disaster (we have done this in a number of ways and witnessed the Harrington and other single handed team killing disasters that a singlular focus on QB usually brings). I think the rule is that the answer to the question of which is more important OL or QB is that the clear answer is that it is neither as the best teams need an OL and QB who compliment each other (great QBs make a merely adequate and maybe even a sub-adequate OL very good and a very good OL can make an adequate and sometimes a sub-adequate QB good enough). However, the general rule is that the great QB comes along once in a Manning/Brady/(RoboQB maybe) while and the false great QBs come along with far more Harrington/Leaf/Losman like frequency to make banking on getting a great QB a pretty silly strategy for team building. This team needs to do something and pick somebody though and this I think is the most reasonable order based on reality: 1. Get a GM with proven talent and give him the reins- There are numerous candidates out there who were central as GM or HC to actually winning the SB and we appear to be trying to get one (this is good). Mr. Ralph actually has shown a willingness to give the car keys to a GM (TD) and actually his fault there was not doing even the fairly obvious checking and balancing TD needed. 2. Let the GM hire the HC of his choice. One of the big pieces of foolishness of Bills fans has recently been stupidly blaming the bad Jauron for our problems. Yes he was bad but he was not responsible for the majority of the 0 for the decade failure and merely replacing him is simply rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. 3. One needs to do only 1 thing first so the QB vs. OL question is real. However, the simple reality is that this team and the entire league has a pretty clear record of doing fatal damage to a team with the QB focus and actually SB winning QBs can be found later in the draft. it really depends not on the individual but on the mix if you want to be real about this question. Myself I like the trenches.

One role TO plays is saving Fitzy's neck behind our inexperienced and often over-matched OL. As seen in the two long downfeild TDs to TO since the O was liberated, opposing teams single cover TO with great risk. This fatal D play forces opponents to DT either with with two DBs or over and under having the OL use an LB underneath and leaving the LBs to skip the pass rush. If Reed, Hardy or Johnson is the other WR look for a player who would have DT'ed TO to instead rush the QB.

I disagree about extending or cutting him now. My general sense is that TO is gone for next year. However, he has shown with his episodes of outstanding play in a couple of games since the demise of Jauron that he still has something left. If the Bills have a potent O next year (which to me is most dependent on improving the OL, in theory TO and Evans represent a potent team of WRs. However, the concept of bringing him back is a huge IF. I think the wailing of some fans about him being a cancer this year is quite frankly just stupid and says a lot more about these fans and observers than it says about TO. Those who claimed right from the start that TOs past actions made it clear he would be a cancer for the Bills simply misread the past as yes TO had a clear record of warring with the QB in SF with Garcia, in Philly with McNabb and in Dallas with Romo were just wrong in ignoring the fact thst TO was a great teammate his first year before being a divisive figure in his later years. The Bills actually had almost no worry that TO was gonna be a cancer his first year as historically he has to build a fallowing his teamamtes before he became divisive. Sure he is a volatile personality but it was a virtual certainty he was going to be cool this year. As far as next year, I want to see how he finishes out this season in terms of more skills (unless he reaels in a couple of more TDs he is not resigning for an FA salary anywhere near his current salary. His play over the last few games and attitude expressed after the season will tell us valuable things for the future if we do not cut him.

To unload them would be yet another public admission of a failed season which might have ramifications on whether the players can psyche themselves up with the fiction that we will fight for a playoff spot until mathematically eliminated. To chop more key personnel now might feel good to fans salivating to gloat over the dead professional carci of Modrak and Guy but it really would be the FO version of a few years back when the Bills were still mathematically able to make the playoffs (but had no realistic shot but Wade-O publicly declared with three games left we had no shot and the players unable to lie to themselves effectively anymore began to play for next season and not to get hurt this season. Ironically, a Jim Mora HCed team with the exactly the same record as us defied reality made the playoffs. There is no way we should fire Guy, Modrak or anyone else who actually is blameworthy for the abortion called the 09 Bills (and the 0 for the decade playoff performance it represents) because right now the game is for us to try out current players to see who we should keep. Chopping a few of the idiots who Mr. Ralph has hired might make you the irate fan feel good but it would bad for the team in terms of wanting players to put out the maximum effort so we can decide who to keep.

Not waiting for reality is a pretty stupid thing here. We are gonna have real world results which will mean a lot regarding whether he is a good choice, a bad choice or a so-so choice (which to me means we coulda done better as I think there are several former SB winners who will be available. This is really one where the only correct answer is to wait and see what happens on the field.

Pats v. Saints showed the Pats DB vulnerability due to injury. This will be the Bills real tryout for Fitzy and TOs tryout for FA for the NFL. Any given Sunday.

100% chance WGR gives him grief for not being able to swim.