BillsPhan

...I'll play Captain Hindsight: I wanted just about anybody else other then the players the Bills drafted. As proof, check out the article from the Rochester D&C this morning, where one enterprising person with too much time on his hands ranked the Bills dead last in drafting over the past 5 years. Oh it wasn't a "bad pick"...it was a monumentally stupid, arrogant, luxury draft choice, but certainly not a bad pick. Wow. Were all these guys available when the Bills drafted? Could the Bills have been this much better then they are? They could have had Ngata, Mangold, Timmons, Orakpo and Bulaga on the team being locked out as I write this? Un-freakin' believable. What on earth does Tom Modrak have he's holding over Ralph?

It's hard to believe Nix and Gailey have had any kind of humorous or funny "banter" about who they might draft this year. With the stupid choice of C.J. Spiller as his first pick of his Bills' career as GM, Buddy Nix has now "successfully" joined the GM's of the past 12 years who have drafted the Bills into last place of the AFC East and playoff - less for this century, in my humble opinion. I won't forgive Nix for that Spiller pick until he sits firm and just drafts one of the pre-draft rated impact players at the number 3 pick. Even some of those guys end up being busts, so Nix still has to hope for good luck with any player he chooses for the Bills after all these bad drafts. But if he trades down out of the number 3 to "gain more picks" with all the talent that seems to be at the top of this draft, this year, I will really start to hate the guy.

The drafting of Wood is the best OL draft choice the Bills have made since they drafted Reuben Brown in 1995. However, they should have inserted him as their starting center from day one of his first practice as a rookie. His two years spent at guard were wasted - of course he will be their starting center beginning this season and hopefully for the next 10 after that. Look at Pouncey last year for the Steelers. They drafted him because he was the best center on their board coming out of college, they started him at center as a rookie, and all he did was make the Pro Bowl for them. Levitre should also have a serious look at starting at RT this season, if they ever start it up. He was a RT his entire career at college, and the Bills have a need there, so now that they have played him out of position for two seasons, perhaps it's time to try him out back at his original position?? Just sayin'.

The first reason I won't read your link is because it has the name "CNN" within it. Secondly, just like with anything else in life, there are just as many examples of former football players living long lives after retiring from the game as there are of ex-players having major health problems after retiring from the game. The biggest way all players could protect themselves from serious head injuries and head trauma later in life is to keep their heads up when hitting other players and try not to lead with their facemasks. As far back as 1975 I can remember my high school footall coaches drilling us on tackling with our shoulders first, heads up and to try not hit the offensive player with the ball with our face masks first. I distinctlty remember that year because the year before, during my sophomore season, we did the exact same tackling drills using our face masks to lead aiming directly for between the ball carriers numbers but always keeping our heads up. They changed the rules just before my junior season in high school. I played the rest of my football career through some college seasons always trying not to hit with my face mask first. Now that's over 36 years since we first changed our hitting styles way back in high school. It absolutely disgusts me to continue to watch major college and NFL defensive players and special teams players still today leading with their face mask first, but much worse then that, since it is difficult to always turn your head to the side just before hammering the ball carrier, much worse then that is how many still continue to lower their heads and try to lead with the top of their helmets when tackling! It seems to me all these many years later, the football coaches need to go back to the basics of safer hitting lessons!

You are right. Addai didn't start one single game his rookie year of 2006. Darn it, you really got me there. Polian obviously wasted that pick because he didn't need the kid at all, right? I mean, rushing for 1,081 yards for a 4.8 YPC average and scoring 7 TD's despite not starting any games his rookie season were stats that the Colts certainly didn't need, right Mr. Wizard? Answer one question for me will you? Did C.J. even rush for 7 freakin' first downs last year during his rookie season???

I can't, obviously. But on the other hand, Nix drafted Spiller when I would have wagered anything that he was going to draft the best interior OT or DT on his board at that pick. Of all positions to draft, he took a running back when the Bills already had two good ones worthy of starting for any other NFL teams. He just fell right into the Bills sorry recent history of drafting for "show" or "wow factor" or "luxury" when I really thought old Buddy Nix would just draft for logical need. What does he have up his sleeve this year? Who knows. If he only trades down later in the top 10, I say awesome, draft one of the top 10 guys and gain an extra pick on top of it. I'll have to wait and see him do at least that much first. In my opinion, after watching NFL football as a fan for over 40 years, he should stay at #3 and draft a great football player. After drafting Spiller last year, I still think he will try something outside the box and end up with his first pick being down in the 20's. Again, I hope I'm way wrong.

+1 to a moron calling me a "self hating" Bills fan? Wow, great post - you certainly have added something to the discussion here. I don't hate myself, and I certainly don't hate the Buffalo Bills. I do however hate the way they've drafted overall for the past 10 years, and I started this thread to point out that maybe we should all be just a tad wary of that pathetic history as we feel so confident in all these great players the Bills have to choose from at the #3 pick. Nix disapointed me last year drafting C.J. Spiller. Mr. "I'm not the smartest guy in the room" really tried to be smarter then everyone else in the draft with that luxury pick. And it back fired on him big time for the 2010 season. Maybe Spiller will have figured out how to follow NFL blockers this past off season and become the great player Nix envisioned if and when they ever start playing football this season. But if he doesn't, what a stupid way to start his career as the GM of the Bills, as the third different GM to pick a questionable running back with his first pick in the draft since 2003! And every one of those draft picks could have and should have been used for offensive or defensive interior linemen. So "+1" all you want, if Nix actually drafts one of the top 10 rated players with his #3 pick, I will come back out here and apologize for bringing this subject up. And if he drafts Newton or Gabbert, I will be the happiest Bills fan on this message board. Just don't be "shocked" if he stupidly trades down all the way into the 20's and passes on all of those possible impact players while telling us he's just and ol' country football guy.

How ironic! You use Bill Polian, the man I admire most for how he built the Buffalo Bills back in the day, to prove me wrong about how stupid the Bills drafts have been the past 10 years without him?? OK, then fine. Buddy Nix was super smart to draft his opinion of the "best player on his board" and grab C.J. Spiller. I am bringing up Buddy Nix because by the way, HE'S THE GM I'M BASHING, NOT FREAKIN' BILL POLIAN! But I digress. So Buddy fell in love with C.J. and like the Pats and Colts, drafted him despite the fact he already had two NFL caliber starting running backs on his roster. Sure. The Pats and Colts do that every year, right? Um, well no - they don't actually. I've never heard of either team drafting the best running back available on their boards unless they really did have a specific need at running back, like when Polian drafted Edgerrin James after Faulk left, and like when Belicheck drafted Lawrence Maroney when he had no starting RB coming back. Oh yeah, and like when Polian drafted Joseph Adia after James left. Funny thing, Bill "I only draft the best players available" Polian sure does draft guys he needs during a specific draft, doesn't he? Here's the big difference. Polian is better at it then Buddy Nix was his first season here in Buffalo.

There may be zero history of the Bills ever trading out of a top 5 pick, and that was not exactly my point here. My point is that this past decade the Bills have always tried to "out-think" themselves with their first picks of the draft, be it a 1st rounder or lower if they had no 1st rounder, and last year was no exception. This year there are so many great players the Bills seem to have to choose from at #3, that the only way they could screw this up is if they trade down into the 20's for an extra pick. And that's why I predict Nix to do just that! Take a look for yourself if you have such a hard time "getting the post". 2010: C.J. Spiller #9 Overall. Two picks later, the 49ers chose OT Anthony Davis who started all 16 games for them. They needed a tackle, they drafted a good one, and now he starts. Wow, real rocket science there, eh? Well, not Buddy - oh no - Spiller was the "best athlete on his board" so while C.J. spent the year trying to figure out how to follow NFL blockers on a simple off tackle running play, the Bills once again sucked at offensive right tackle! 2009: Aaron Maybin #11 overall. Go ahead and defend that pick. While you are at it, check out Brian Orakpo's stats - chosen 2 picks after Maybin by the Redskins. 2008: Leodis McKelvin #11 overall. He' still working on becoming a good starter in the NFL, but Ryan Clady, drafted one spot lower, has been a starting OT for the Broncos since his first game as a rookie and once again, the Bills still suck at RT to this day. 2007: Marshawn Lynch #12 overall - there are so many great players taken after Lynch in that draft it makes me sick to even waste my time writing them down. 2006: Donte Whitner #8 overall. Why? 2006: John McGargo #22 overall. Words cannot express how bad this pick was. 2005: Roscoe Parrish #55 overall. (No 1st round pick). Not a terrible pick for a late 2nd rounder, too bad they didn't take Vincent Jackson taken after Parrish instead though. 2004: Lee Evans #13 overall. Good pick. 2004: J.P. Lost-man #22 overall. Really really really bad pick. 2003: Willis McGahee #23 overall. Comical waste of a 1st round draft pick. 2002: Mike Williams #4 overall. The biggest bust of all? 2001: Nate Clements #21 overall. Good pick. Summation; TWO good picks in 10 years of 1st round drafting. That's why I "have my doubts."

Every time the Bills draft a player who makes most of us scratch our heads, people like you rush out to defend the choices. Who cares if Spiller was the clear #1 choice at his position last season, the Bills did not need him. By the way, perhaps Troup and Carrington will become impact players on the D-Line this season or next, but did you have them high on your list of 2nd and 3rd round players the Bills could have drafted? Of course not, nobody did. That's what the Bills love to do - always make the "out of the box" draft choice. Of course there are nine perfectly reasonable choices everyone from the ex GM's to we casual fans think Nix should / could draft and make all of us feel good. That's exactly why I think he won't draft any of them, and try to do something classic Bills' "out of the box" - ish like trade down with the pick. Again, I hope I'm wrong, because I want him to draft either Newton or Gabbert and get our QB of the future drafted with this high of a pick!

Last year at this time Buddy Nix was here to bring sanity to the Buffalo Bills draft. Instead, he went out and drafted C.J. Spiller, widely recognized as the best running back in the draft, but certainly not on the vast majority of most mock drafts for the Bills #1 pick. This year it's even easier to fall into the "logical" thing Nix,Modrak and Gailey should or even "will" do. Of course they will come together and draft one of these 8 best players rated on anybody's mock draft for Buffalo, right?: Cam Newton, Von Miller, Marcell Dareus, A.J. Green, Patrick Peterson, Nick Fairley, Blaine Gabbert or Da'Quan Bowers. Even A,J. Green, who might be considered this years' "Spiller type luxury" pick at #3 for the Bills, would in my opinion be a better choice then Spiller was last year. The other 7 kids would be considered outstanding choices with the #3 pick by just about any fan or "draft guru" or even any other GM out there. With that said, and knowing the Buffalo Bills draft history, we should all expect Nix to trade out of the number 3 pick altogether, and in return give another team the chance to draft one of those outstanding athletes while the Bills draft lower in the 20's in the first round and feel all warm and fuzzy to have an extra 2nd or 3rd round pick to add "depth". Hey I hope I'm wrong, but history is certainly not in our favor for Nix just sticking with #3 and drafting an impact player. I don't know if it's Modrak's authority for the past 10 years, but time after time it seems like Buffalo is always trying to draft that unknown "sleeper" or that player just out of the experts eyes, instead of doing the obvious smart thing and picking the obvious need player.

Well, they could do a number of things if Newton is not there at #3. They could take Gabbert if he's available, or if he's not, they could always trade down and pick up an extra draft pick or two. Or, they could just draft the best player on their board. It seems to be with just 2 players off the board when Buddy Nix make his pick, it would be almost impossible to pick a "bust". Tom Donahoe would argue that point I'm sure as visions of Mike Williams continue to dance in his head all these years later, after he drafted Williams with the 4th overall pick in the 2002 draft! Here's my hope. That Modrak and his team of "needles in the haystack finders" scouts don't convince Nix to be "the smartest guy in the room" (pun intended), and Nix ends up picking a player way off the radar at number 3. I just hope he drafts a kid we all have heard of and is one of the best players expecting to be called early. I know even some of those guys don't make it. But the future Pro Bowlers for the most part are the players we've all heard hyped up before the draft! And secondly, I hope Nix does draft a QB in the first 3 rounds, too.

This from the ever trusted sports writer; "Ben.", of that world famous sports media giant's web site; "Fansided". In Ben's blog....er...."article", he mentions; "...While a timetable cannot be released at this time," Oh really? Gee, could that be because Ralph Wilson is still alive??? Either people think that Ralph Wilson is the world's biggest liar, or they don't understand the english language. Ralph used english because I don't understand any other languages when he told everyone that he would not sell the Buffalo Bills while he was living. So, after hearing that, I understood this: that Ralph Wilson would not sell the Bills himself, personally, to any group or individual. Because, as I continued to reason this out, he would be dead before the team would even go up for sale. Ralph said it, I understood it, and I believe him. But I digress. Ben the pro blogger from Fansided goes on to say Pagula has started the ball rolling towards buying the Bills. What is Terry doing, putting out a contract to whack Ralph? Because if the Bills are not for sale, and Wilson won't sell them until he's dead, why would he bring Terry Pagula or anyone else in for meetings to "get the ball rolling" on anything? I'm sure Ralph's heirs and team management will have all the financial info ready to roll out after Wilson passes. None of them want to own the team then anyway. How would it benefit Wilson to bring anyone in now, while he's alive and still the owner, to start showing "prospective" buyers inside information about the financials of the team ahead of time? It would not benefit him or his family one single bit. Until Wilson announces that he has changed his mind and is indeed willing to sell the Bills while he's still on this side of the grass, Ben the blogger and anyone else who says someone is "getting the ball rolling" on buying the Buffalo Bills are the liars!

Great! If it's that easy to see, then why don't you grab a seat next to Buddy, Chan & Tom in the war room that Thursday evening next month and remind them how easy it is to see. Tom Brady was the best player in the AFC East going into last year's draft, yet Buddy grabbed C.J. Spiller with his first pick, followed up by two small school defensive lineman, and those 3 collectively had very little impact against New England twice last year. First of all, I don't agree that the Bills "must" draft defense with the number 3 pick in the entire draft anyway. I think they would be crazy not to draft either Gabbert or Newton with such a high pick. Top 5 picks only come around once every 5 to 10 years for teams that are even as annually bad as the Bills, and that's where you draft the franchise QB's - in the top 5, in most cases. But, even if you're right and Buddy and the boys do draft defense, you have no idea what player he will draft, or if he will even use the pick at all. He may just trade down and get an extra pick or two out of it. Always remember with the Buffalo Bills on draft day, there is no player obsure enough and no college small enough to escape the trained eyes of Bills' scouts. Bottom line? There is nothing about the draft that the Bills find "easy to see". I would not be surprised if they pick a player that none of us see coming!

How great. Florence, Johnson and Fitzy are practicing, while they and their fellow NFL players are all suing Ralph Wilson and his fellow owners for the right to destroy the NFL as we know it. What character! What great guys. To me, there is no "debate" here. The players are allowed to become rich because the owners spend the money to run the National Football League. End of story. The fans pay to watch the players, but the owners put the teams in the fans' cities, and that trumps it for me. Now, former players and player unions have done a good job making sure the owners have paid the players more then their fair share, and I respected those players and unions for fighting the good fight in 1982 & 1987. I also respected the players and union of today for making sure they get more then their fair share of the insane 9 Billion dollars a year the NFL now earns. But this "union de-certification" crap the players pulled first in 1989, and now today, is inexcusable. It is disrespectful, hypocritical, and makes a mockery of every bit of good any union has ever done for it's members in any other walk of life. Peyton Manning, on the threshold of being paid about $25 Million dollars a year for the rest of his career, has filed suite against Jim Irsay, the owner in Indy who is ready and willing to sign that check?? Forcing the NFL and the owners to waste tax dollars in front of a federal judge for God knows how long, defending the very anti-trust exemption that has allowed Peyton Manning and his wealthy buddies to become rich in the first place, is arrogance run amok. What if the judge rules that the NFL can no longer exist as it has? No draft. No trades. Nothing but total across the board one year free agent contracts allowed from now on. Do the idiot players even realize this can happen? Do the idiot players hope this will happen? Can they be that stupid? Yes, I believe they can be, and are that stupid.

Of all the times Congressmen and Senators "threatened" the NFL to attack their anti trust exemption over the years over player safety, teams leaving cities, players getting too crazy off the field and various other times, how ironic that the NFL's biggest attack will be coming from their own players! Shame on the players and the owners, to allow it to come down to a court room deciding how to divide up their billions. How pathetically greedy and selfish of all of them.

A few questions on your post: 1) Is "Buffalo Rumblings" the authority on mock drafts? 2) Why do you think he will "bust"? 3) I heard on ESPN radio that Nix only "took Newton to dinner." I heard nothing about a "meeting with Newton and his agents." 4) How do you know the Bills "went after Tebow hard" last year? Besides, if they wanted Tebow so badly, they should have simply drafted him instead of Spiller! Tebow was drafted later in the first round anyway. Look, I know Nix and Gailey have only had one draft with the Bills so far, but Modrak is coming into his 10th with the Bills. After drafting luxury pick Spiller with their first round pick last year, and then following that pick up in the 2nd and 3rd round by drafting two D-Lineman from small colleges, Nix and Gailey fit right in with Modrak's "strange" drafting. I don't care if Nix went to dinner with Cam Newton yesterday. Watching the Buffalo Bills draft these past 11 years, I have absolutely no idea who they may draft at #3, or if they will trade down out of the #3. And, either do you. So don't be "upset" thinking Newton is a Buffalo Bill 5-6 weeks before the draft even happens. There are no colleges small enough for Modrak and his team to "shock" the NFL experts at any round of any draft. Chill out and enjoy the evening when it arrives. With the Bills, it is never boring.

Yes, it is. Doug Williams out-threw the great and white John Elway as the Redskins blew out the Broncos back in the 1987 or '88 Super Bowl. I think Williams was SB MVP too, if I'm not mistaken. Even if he wasn't the guy threw for well over 300 yards and many TD's in that game of his life. Too bad the great and white Jim Kelly never played that well in any of his 4 Super Bowl games, and Jim Kelly is my all time favorite Buffalo Bill. (Of course he would still be my all time favorite Buffalo Bill even if he had been....gasp....black!) So let's see, out of over 8,0000 blah blah black NFL players there are only a few blah blah starting QB's and blah blah blah. Hey here's a better racist question for you: "are black players better power forwards in the NBA?" Or here's an even better racist question for you; "are white players better centers in the NHL?" Oh wait I've got another one, "Are Hispanics better first basemen in MLB?" Who cares "how many more of one race there are in any position of any sport then another race?" Oh I know who cares, racists do. Congratulations Mr. "Elephant in the Room", nothing like showing off your ignorance. By the way, 25 years before Lebron and Carmello, Larry Bird battled the very best NBA player in history, Michael Jordan. Were you around to watch that white guy Bird go head to head against the black guy Jordon for years? I doubt that you were. Grant Fuhr won 4 or 5 Stanley Cups as the black goalie for Wayne Gretzky's Edmonton Oilers - wow, there's a shocker, huh? You think anyone in Edmonton cared as to why so many more white players played goalie in the NHL in those days?? No matter how many players of one race "gravitate" to certain positions of certain sports, there will always be great examples of other races playing those positions and sports, no matter how "few" end up doing it. Funny, that seems to be one of the things that makes America so great - the freedom of anyone of any race to decide to excel at anything he or she wants to!

The TV networks should be the ones setting the deadline on this "negotiation" between the billionaires and the millionaires. All the networks have to do is tell both sides that if this thing does not get settled within one more week, in time for UFA deals to take place before the draft, that they will not pay the NFL another dime for the next 3 years. Force the NFL itself use it's own half assed NFL Network to televise all of it's games every week for a few years. See how "easy" the negotiations for their billions of dollars would be with the cable owners and satellite providers! Without the billions from CBS, Fox and ESPN the NFL goes down without a whimper. In this economy, the networks would live on without the NFL, (they claim to lose money with the costs involved televising the games anyway) but the NFL would never survive without those networks. The league has gotten fat beyond reason because of the unholy money the networks keep paying them. Check out the Bucky Gleason article in the Buff News today. He sites the fact that the the average salary in the NFL last season was $1.8 million. The average salary for an NFL player 30 years ago was $90,000. A man making $90,000 in 1981 would have the buying power today of a man making only $218,000. Now that tells you the owners have allowed the player salaries to escalate thousands of times higher then just the "cost of living index" has risen since 1981. And why? The network money the owners get paid, of course. It defies logic, and the networks should remind both parties they can walk away and leave them all "billion-less" if they don't end this stupid impasse immediately.

If Alyssa Milano comes with it, I would prefer the "tear-away" version.

Very nice memory, but you are dating yourself! Joe Cribbs was great his rookie year, but Dennis Shaw was voted Rookie of The Year way back in....1970 I think? Man, I've been watching the Bills way too long to remember #16 throwing those bombs to Marlin Briscoe and Haven Moses! Too bad the Bills defense was hardly a shell of those great mid 60's teams and Shaw lost way too many games from '70 to '72, and then rookie Joe Ferguson replaced him in 1973. Talk about 1 year wonders, Dennis Shaw never had another season close to his rookie one with the Bills as he made his way to St. Louis for a few more years on the bench behind Jim Hart. How about Jim Kelly's rookie year of 1986? He only led the Bills to 4 wins that first season, but no rookie ever made an impact like he did when he came riding in from Houston of the old USFL in that limo from the airport to Orchard Park!

3. J.P. Lost-man - 2004 1st Round pick PLUS Bills traded for the rights to draft him. Absolutely zero pocket presence and horrible accuracy. 2. Trent Edwards - Bills only wasted a 3rd round pick on him, plus he had more good games then Lost-man had. Also zero pocket presence and no guts to hang in there and throw it down field. 1. Rob Johnson - Bills traded their 1998 1st round pick (ended up being 9 overall) for him. At least he lasted 4 years battling it out with Flutie for playing time. Biggest reason I rate him the best of the worst is because he made a nice comeback in the playoff game against the Titans that led to a Christie field goal with only 16 seconds left and the lead. Who knows how well or bad he may have played the following week in the Divisional playoffs if not for the "Music City Miraculous Forward Lateral" during those last 16 seconds!? Here's a Quick List of all the QB's who were "starters" the past 25 years (1986-2010 seasons) 1986-1996: Jim Kelly (Hall of Fame, played his entire career in the NFL for the Bills.) 1997: Todd Collins 1998-2000: Rob Johnson & Doug Flutie 2001: Rob Johnson & Kelly Holcomb 2002-2004: Drew Bledsoe 2005-2007: J.P. Lost-man & Trent Edwards 2008: Trent Edwards 2009-2010: Trent Edwards & Ryan Fitzpatrick 2011: Ryan Fitzpatrick & ??? (Newton, Gabbert, Mallett, or Locker - I hope?)

Very true, we only have to watch Lindsey Lohan and Charlie Sheen make asses of themselves over and over to prove your point. But speaking of proving points, where is the proof that Mallett indeed does have a drug problem? And if he does, how on earth would the NFL scouts not know every single detail about it, considering they invest millions of dollars to find out every single thing about these guys before they invest 10's to 100's of million dollars into them??

Here's a theory on Mallett being so cocky and defensive; the drug rumors were all lies and he let his numbers speak for themselves overall for his entire college career. Wow, what a crazy concept, huh? Everyone demands these young guys to be squeaky clean and be perfectly respectful and stand up to the same possibly un-true or at the very least un-fair inane questions from the 24 hour tweeting, blogging, texting media of today. Just because Mallett doesn't want to answer questions automatically means he's going to "Ryan Leaf" after he's drafed? Why? Leaf acted wonderful to the media first, and then broke down later when the pressure got to him. Mallett on the other hand has a defiant nature to him, and I think that could be a good thing when it comes to dealing with today's media insanity.

Well said, sir! Since Jimbo retired, this is only the 2nd time the Bills have had a top 5 draft pick. I think they would be crazy not to use the #3 pick on Newton or Gabbert, whichever one they have rated higher on their draft board. By the time any rookies sign their contracts from this year's draft, there will be a new collective bargaining agreement, so the Bills will not have to risk over paying either one. And they still have the number 3 pick in the following 6 rounds to beef up their weaknesses on defense and tight end and the O-line.