Hplarrm

The best most thorough review of this team I have seen in the media. As with any review one can disagree with particular points but one would be making a big mistake to reject this entire piece due to particular issue disagreements. I am very impressed.

I tend to reserve hatred for things and people that are important. Jerry Jones comes off to me as a sideshow. A very rich and powerful within the NFL context persona, but in the big picture really little more than a sideshow. I dislike him rather than hate him.

This is certainly an outrage and a tragedy. One hopes that there is some recourse for this fool making off with taxpayer dollars that both gets money back and sends him to jail. Its doubtful though given the examples we see in the private sector where folks have walked out the door with multi-million dollar bonuses at private sector operations like AIG, CitiCorps etc with taxpayer money after Sec of Treasury Paulson under Bush began to pay bailouts and Obama decided to continue this practice. They are reminders that we all need to be diligent and despite the clear examples of this behavior by GOP and Dems one hopes it is the exception rather than the rule. Again though getting back to football again it is a demonstration how smart lawyers can do all sorts of stuff with the law. If Mr. Ralph is at all on his game there should be no way that the estate tax should force him to do anything he does not want to do. In the end the key her is gonna be whether preserving the interest of Bills fans is something he wants to do, Even then whatever Mr. Ralph tries to do through his will, my sense is that the final outcome will be determined by the Golden Rule (he who had the Gold Rules). In the end the biggest bucks here and the most lawyers will belong to the NFL. With Mr. Ralph having contractually agreed that the team can only be sold to a qualified buyer and the determination of qualified will be by a cote of 75% of the owners, this team will simply not be sold to the highest bidder but only to the highest qualified bidder (the courts would be reluctant to force the NFL to sell to a bidder whom the NFL dubs to be against the business interests of the NFL- If the high bidder is Osama Bin Laden or Rush Limbaugh and the NFL does not want to sell to this owner because it would hurt the NFL's business model then it does not matter whether this person is the highest bidder, there will be no sale).

Sorry, even though this line of thinking lends itself to good political slogans like the death tax. 110 % remains physically impossible. Even if the estate tax were a virtually confiscatory 75% (which it neither is numerically or practically since one would have to be a legal fool not to avoid even the numeric level hit of the estate tax but still retain controlling influence on the residual) this is a tax on the amount left in the will. The next tax assessment comes with the earnings from that total. The additional taxes you name are triggered by additional profit making or additional acts of purchase and consumption. Is this double, triple or whatever dipping. Sure. However, this comes as a cost of being part of fiscal system where there is at least some semblance of agreement to a set of rules which are simply essential to an economic system existing at all. its in for a penny and thus in for a pound. It is simply fatuous for one to whine about the part you do not like but to think that the system would exist as a whole if you simply took out the parts you do not like. The system works because everyone is allowed to complain and even to make some marginal changes around the edges in how funds are allocated, but a if those who champion elimination of the things they call politically a death tax were to win, it would merely cause the squeezed balloon to require some other type of input or eventually the whole thing deflates. The thing that amazes me about the estate tax is that some many people whine about it as though it is some fundamental strike at the individual when actually if it were eliminated (and not replaced with something else which then the bleaters would whine about) the system would collapse. I really prefer to point of view of folks like Warren Buffet who are ardent supporter of the death tax because they know they can avoid it and still direct their resources any way they want them. This includes leaving a chunk of change to their heirs that makes sure those heirs are not reduced to nothing, but still maintain that sense of personal achievement need that made Warren Buffet the economic wizard he is. As far as the Bills go, I do not think Mr. Ralph is anyone's fool and he and his high-priced lawyers have set this up to take care of who he wants to take care of. I simply hope that Bills fans are amongst those (if not pre-eminent) among those who chooses to take care of.

This points out that the foolish thing about the argument in this thread is that it is based upon an assessment of Clausen as an individual players built on the illusion that this individual would perform the same way on every team that he is on. This is simply false as one of the best things about the NFL is that in many ways it is the ultimate team game. A team can have the best QB ever (arguably Manning is), a great GM, (Polian is judged by most), one of the best PKs ever, etc etc etc and they still need the perfect HC for this squad (defensive wizard Dungy) and then and only then they win one SB. The problem with Clausen as a Bills picks is not Clausen it is the Bills. They do not have the team which could allow Clausen to develop the skills he needs to be truly considered NFL ready and even worse following in the legacy of Jimbo and the hapless record amassed by the Bills as they flailed around with bad QB choice after bad QB choice, Rotoworld would need to make a credible case that the Bills would do right by Clausen before they best themselves up for not picking him.

The thing I disagree with most in the Rotoworld argument is the statement that Clausen is "pro-ready". Correct me if I am wrong but the general thought from the pundits was that yes, Clausen is a game extraordinaire who is a proven producer playing for high level college teams. However, he did not go as high a Bradford or several other QBs, and in fact every team in the NFL passed on him twice specifically because the consensus judgment was that his delivery needed a bit of work to reach NFL standards for a franchise QB. He simply is not judged by everyone who matters (the 30+ teams which passed on him at least twice) as specifically not being pro-ready. One could try to make the case that in particular the Buffalo Bills given the talent deficit at QB would have maximized our profit by getting a talented QB and specifically one who is such a winner and gamer that he on his own could make the improvements quickly in his game to develop and adequate pro release. One could make that case, but it is hard to make a good one on this without ignoring the fact that he would be doing his practicing and learning behind a questionable OL, with a huge gap at #2 WR, and the advantages and disadvantages of new O being put in place. If I am Clausen I am a gamer and wherever they draft me I am gonna go there and do the best I can do. However, in my heart of hearts I am rooting for the Bills not to take me as if this is the challenge I am confronted with there is a better chance than other teams that this is gonna be a bad move for my career. I hope the Bills truly wish Clausen well and hope that he does well against every opponent he plays against besides the Bills. However. both the Bills and Clausen should be thankful they did not take him because our situation would have likely in my view been a disaster for both the team and for Clausen as the media and some fans forced him to chase the ghost of Jim Kelly.

Ageed. The questions are what are the options we have at QB, #2 WR, and LT? To me they are: QB- Edwards- I make him first on my pecking order not because I think he is the likely Bills future franchise QB (I do not think he is not because he lacks talent0 DarthIce says he doesn't but Bill Walsh said he did and even though Bill Walsh is dead, I would take him over the Darthman as my HC 7 days a week and twice on Sunday- however, TE has demonstrated himself to be injury prone in his short career by my objective standard). However, my sense is one of the primary mistakes of the Bills braintrust is that they have given the starter QB job to a series of QBs in an illusory search for the next Jimbo and that this tactic of not letting the QB take the job by the neck with his play and not let it go. I think the primary value to this team TE can have is for him to get the job back he lost to injury and have the new QB perform on the field in preseason to take the job. Brohm- Potential simply means to me you haven't done anything yet. Brohm has the real potential to be at least a solid starter and in this pre-season he must be challenged to take the job from Edwards. He MIGHT do this. Firzy- I think being Frank Reuch is a possible level of achievement for him but I think that is it. Brown- PS LT- Bell- Great athletic talent and form according to the coaches. However, part I think of talking him up is to challenge him to step up and demonstrate he has gotten the lineage of a top athlete from his Dad, Karl Malone (we will see. Malone does have pretty good genes having passed them on to a daughter who turned out to be a world class B-ball player though she used her Dad ignoring her lineage until she got too good to ignore). Bell has shone great athleticism but demonstrated lousy work habits so far, We'll see how this works (I think it MIGHT if our goal is to win next year but doubt it will if our goal is to win now). Meredith- he demonstrated he can be semi-OK but not really an adequate starter last year. Might improve if he outcompetes Bell to win the job but my guess he remain adequate at best. Wang- Give hope to the fantasy that a second day draftee is gonna be an adequate starter. OTA injury demonstrates that him being a starter as a rookie is almost certainly a fantasy and I hope he can survive to be on the PS and can spend the year learning and bulking up. WR- A problem and gap at #2 as Johnson regressed statisitcally last year, Hardy is coming off a season lost to injury after a disappointing rookie year, I think Parrish is a gamer with proven talents on PR buy he is a smurf who would be doing a lpt simply to become our #3 WR, and Easkey looks like a steal in the 4th round but it looks like an impossible jump to expect him to start at #2 WR. Moving Spiller as our #2 is also a stretch but it is one I like in '10!

The hard to believe part to me is that if this really is a decision about whether it is Jackson or Lynch who sits on the bench while the other gets the vast lionshare of the carries on their way to 300, then where in this configuration is the PT or touches likely to be had by Spiller whom the the braintrust spent a #1 on?

I agree for the most part. While Graham's article does not guarantee that he is gonna pick 1 RB and run him into the ground (those who insist the past determines the future are the same folks who are running foreign policy based on fighting the last war rather than winning the new war) it does provide a reasonable indicator of what he tends to do. I doubt he goes the RB by committee route if he has Jackson/Spiller/Lynch because not only is that not his past tendency but on the face of it this type of committee approach is harder to do well than simply go with a stud (if you got a Emmit Smith then run him) or even divvy things up between two players playing the same position. Developing a feel for injury status, getting a player/team in a groove, and simply keeping everyone happy is a near impossible task when 3 players are sharing one position. This is a big part of why I not only endorse your division of roles but in fact will not be surprised if Gailey tries to fit the talented Spiller peg into the huge WR hole we have at #2 WR as a base O. The depth chart certainly does not reflect this now, will not reflect this for quite a while even if this is what we are doing (and well may not ever reflect this as Gailey is a master of misdirection.

Also, who and what do you advocate as the answer to the #2 WR question (or alternately you can instead of answering make yourself happier).

Now let me get this straight. You're not happy to be alive? I think this is a problem which can be solved!

Again this begs the broader question of who is going to be our #2 WR (we have to have one so the question is who). The depth chart candidates are: Johnson- On the plus side subjectively looks to be a great route runner and pass catcher who had a great rookie campaign that made talk of him and his good size as an eventual #2 reasonable. On the negative side he simply regressed last year by real world measures of receptions, yards, and getting playing time though there clearly were openings for a good player to force the coaches to play him. Could he become an adequate starter at #2? Sure it is possible but even this achievement would be a stretch to achieve. Hardy- On the plus side great demographics (its tough to teach height and he has got it) and he showed some skills in his first game with a nice TD on a fade pattern. On the negative side he is coming off an injury which basically cost him a season and since his great start he has produced nothing in the real world. Could he become an adequate starter at #2? Sure it is possible but even this achievement would be a stretch to achieve. Parrish- On the plus side he has proved he can be a productive open field runner as a punt returner. When used properly as a WR (just a few times we have been able to isolate him using motion and when he is hit in stride with a pass he has turned this relay race with a DB into a couple of TDs but the Bills O has never made consistent use of this threat for some reason only Schonert and AVP know the answer too), he has actually shown good grittiness and and a willingness and ability to catch the ball in traffic over the middle making him a reasonable choice for #3 slot receiver duty (but his immediate injury as a rookie and small body still leaves a question about depending on this as a constant. Definitely as earned the dismay of the Bills faithful with a couple of critical PR fumbles. but hope still springs eternal as no matter what Don Beebe says you can't really teach speed. Could he become an adequate starter at #2? Sure it is possible but even this achievement would be a stretch to achieve. Easley- On the plus side it is generally felt that the Bills may have gotten a steal in getting Easley in the 4th. The pundits say he has a big frame and surprising speed for his size and put up some nice #s his final year. However, this was just one year which cost him the first day and he did have a few bad drops, catches with his body rather than his hands too much (all this according to pundits), and needs some work on his route running. Could he become an adequate starter at #2? Sure it is possible but even this achievement would be a stretch to achieve (and really this is a big stretch for a 2nd day drafted rookie to step in as a quality starter). Again what all of this adds up to for me is that we have a huge gap at #2 WR which is even more critical for our O as the previously successful technique of neutralizing our hoped to be franchise #1 Evans is to simply double team him over and under and having a #2 which makes opponents pay for this is critical to making Evans be all he can be and also allow our QB )whomever that may be) dictate the game rather than chase it. My GUESS as to what the answer is going to be is that even though the depth chart does not reflect it now (and actually may never given the cagey O genius Gailey) is that I suspect in reality our #2 WR is going to be Spiller. Gailey was pleased as punch to get him and the big issue for him is how to get him more touches when there are two other candidates for the RB job (including the Bills proven O leader last year and a former pro bowler). At the very least we are gonna see Spiller in a lot of motion sets which have him go out wide to catch the swing pass (it is to be hoped against some hapless LB whom he will be able to make look like the Bills Robinson looked trying to tackle that speedster Jets QB a few years back). In addition to motion, the skinny on Spiller is that he actually is a pretty good route runner for an RB and it is hard for me to see how a trickster like Gailey does not simply line him up wide at a few times a game (his inventiveness is another reason I suspect we actually may not see Spiller lining up at WR much or at all in the pre-season. However, it is the huge gap and the importance of it we have at #2 WR which makes me think that Gailey may be practicing Spiller a lot at #2 WR behind closed doors. IF (and again its an IF) Spiller were to have the chops to play #2 WR it would be very beneficial to our O game: 1. It allows Spiller and Jackson (and even Lynch since we do not have much of a commitment to the FB spot in terms of players under contract) all on the field at the same time all the time. 2. It created huge match-up problems for the DC as quite frankly both Evans and Spiller would demand a dt or if you are gonna single cover either you are demanding flawless coverage against a top flight player. 3. Some make a big deal out of Spiller not being a pro level WR due to his lack of collegiate WR experience. True. However, even collegiate WR experience is far from a guarantee of a player proving to be capable of pro WR play. There is simply an intangible quality which allows a player from a Boldin to an Andre Reed to become an immediate force as a pro WR. Does Spiller have that? I do not know but we expect the Bills O braintrust to be able to make that judgment and I hope they have Spiller pegged as having that talent. He certainly has the raw speed and an exciting playmaking ability even us armchair experts can see. He has the rep as a good route runner for an RB. Given the huge need we have at #2 WR and that at best it will be a stretch to have any of the other candidates we have for #2 to take this critical job, I like the idea of having the stretch that works be Spiller at #2 WR. The depth chart will not say this for a while (if ever) but if this turns out to be reality it will solve a number of key problems we have and make out offense formidable almost immediately.

The only accurate prediction one can make for the Bills passing game is that they go into this year having lost their receiving leader for catches and yards/ There cam be a credible prediction that the guy who finished #2 among WRs Evans in these categories for the Bills can reasonably be expected to be the #1. However, this leaves the Bills without anywhere near an NFL proven #2 as the candidates are: 1. Steven Jackson- subjectively the best candidate as he is a good route runner who has demonstrated good hands sporadically in his brief career. However, it is a simple fact that he regressed in actual accomplishments virtually across the board last year (catches, yards. PT and starts) and a demand that he step up to legit #2 is gonna be a load at best. 2. James Hardy- Coming off an injury and has never produced anything to justify his lofty draft position 3. Roscoe Parrish- Just as easily (if perhaps more easily) could be out of town based on his past accomplishments. 4. Marcus Easley- highly regarded rookie but still second day choice and like any rookie it is gonna be a reach for him to even start much less star as a #2. It simply is not an unreasonable prediction at all that the Bills will miss TOs real world output (be it an outlier or whatever) without regard to his personality this year. The difficult thing is that we really have no credible plan A to replace that output or the immediate impacts that we have a hole at #2 WR. What this leads me to is the bad idea that Spiller is the best candidate we have for the #2 WR spot. Yes it is a bad idea. However, yes, I think the alternatives are worse. I think we would ironically be likely better off resigning a cutrate TO to be our #2 rather than simply going with what we got. The bad idea of seeing Spiller eventually occupy the #2 WR slot (whether it is formally recognized on the depth chart or not) strikes me as our best option.

Given the global fiscal implosion described in the Eliott Wave which appears to be the assumption of the economic state for this report I would be quite surprised if the NFL did so well that they only lost 2 to 4 teams. If merely a majority of the predictions mentioned come true then I suspect that our entire economic structure would implode and little things like national plane connections would be difficult to do and the schedule would be defined by how far a team could reasonably travel by bus. This would force a working model to be based on divisional play leading to a small group of victors then making the playoffs to winnow things down to as few teams as possible to large travel to playoff. Even this model assumes things about televising and advertising which are impossible to predict. Perhaps the answer would be to turn the NFL into a more true gladatorial sport where the penalty for losing is the death penalty depending on whether the Emperor (or Emperess) gives a thumbs or thumbs down. The report seems based on a future where it really is quite impossible to predict downstream outcomes essential to determining the result. In order to make a prediction that remotely makes sense and has at least some reasonable chance of occurring (the prediction certainly COULD happen but the chances it WILL happen are small and the impact of being wrong so large to the point of being easily ignored for planning purposes). Its a nice read but a pretty worthless exercise for action.

My sense is that from what I have seen Edwards is actually a pretty talented NFL QB who like other athletes trying to be the franchise QB with the right scheme, the right training, an adequate supporting cast of fellow athletes and a healthy dose of dumb luck he can do the job. From what I (and more important the judgment of Bill Walsh whom no sane person can simply dismiss as is reasonable with all our fan opinions) all those who simply declare Edwards sucks can actually fairly easily be ignored. In my view, when he burst onto the NFL Edwards did demonstrate very good accuracy, a quick release, a surprising (to me at least) fleetness afoot that he correctly gave folks hope that he might be what we were looking for in a franchise QB. HOWEVER, despite this glowing endorsement of Edwards I think I can confidently agree with you that Edwards is not the answer for the Bills at QB. I do disagree flat out with the arguments of you and others who claim he simply sucks. I do not think he does and both his record as a Bill and the views of this subjective observer line up with those of ganesh and other longtime Bills observers that Edwards has demonstrated time and again that he can be something special. Yet, though I feel this way I am pretty convinced the Bills need to look elsewhere to find their starting QB for two reasons: 1. By my objective standards confirmed by my subjective observations Edwards is too injury prone to be given the starter job. I consider a player deserving of the label of being injury prone if after being given the consistent starter job he loses significant PT 3 times in 2 years of play to injuries to different parts of his body. RJ is the classic example of an injury prone player as he went down multiple times to multiple different injuries which gave Flutie the chance to take his job. Like it or not with losing PT to a wrist injury as a rookie, losing time again to an undefined injury in pre-season which cost him valuable game practice time in pre-season (but which the braintrust made clear it was not the same wrist) and then losing PT to a concussion, I think it is pretty clear that given a hard hit he is prone to be injured. When one adds to this his college career getting cut short by injuries behind a porous Stanford line it is questionable whether one wants to rely upon him staying healthy. 2. He was handled incredibly poorly by Jauron in terms of training him and part of the task the Bills will confront with him as their starter is the need to rebuild his confidence. I think he is a good enough player that given that the Bills have at best unproven other options in Fitzy and Brohm simply throwing Edwards under the bus seems foolish. In fact anyone who advocates Edwards be rejected should simply be rejected themselves unless the call comes with a full throated endorsement of either Fitzy or Brohm. Designating one of these two as the new savior is even more foolish than designating Edwards inappropriately as the new wunderkind. In fact Brohn backer should be quite happy with Edwards as first in the pecking order as one of Brohm's big issues is confidence and actually beating out Edwards would be tangible proof that he has won the job rather than foolishly habving it handed to him we had not done enough on the field to earn the job. Simply giving the job to Brohm right now would actually miss a great development opportunity for Brohm rooters.

The "good" news as far as all of this IMHO is that the thing Gailey seems to be doing differently from the failure of past Bill regimes (and way too many fans on TSW) is that he seems to be setting this up NOT to simply give the QB job to some braintrust or fan designated savior, but instead is developing a system and requiring the athlete to take the job. My since of this is that it is in essence a multi-variable equation which is not going to be solved by any one player (even though us human beans with our little brains seem to must have one person who gets too much of the credit for wins and unfortunately too much of the blame for the losses. We want, desire, and demand a savior. We are gonna have one and that usually is the QB in the game we love. We demand this despite the fact that the best Bills teams on the early 90s did have Jimbo as the designated savior, but one would have to simply be silly to try to ignore or minimize the essential roles that a host of players (and fellow HOFers like) like Bruce, Thurman, Tasker, Reed, Marv, Polian, et al played in our success. There is the repetitive negative examples of JP, Bledsoe, TC, Hobert (and even AVP for some) being deemed our starter when they did not have or were not given a framework where they could actually perform adequately. There is the big object lesson of the the whole RJ/DF broohaha which without regard to whether one was a RJ or a DF guys one has to agree that the starting QB was given the job when he did not have the tools necessary to do the job and the alternative (whichever you choose) was not adequately given credit/blame for his successes/failures. I personally have my doubt about whether Edwards can avoid the injury prone history which he has demonstrated (I objectively define this as missing significant PT 3 times in 2 seasons) so that he can become our starting QB, Fitz's talents (he has demonstrated to me he is a gamer and a good enough talent to play the Frank Reich role for us but is destined to produce like AVP if given the fulltime savior role). IMHO Brohm actually has potential. However, he defines potential as simply meaning you have proved to be successful anywhere yet as a pro. The key to this in terms of winning football is that the eventual franchise QB needs to win the job on the field in order to really gain the faith of his teammates, the braintrust, the fanbase and at least be able to credibly defend himself from the media which will attack him anyway because they make their nickels from controversy either real or imagined. Life is uncertain (which is part of why its interesting) so we will see, but I like the case that Gailey may be handling an issue like Brohm seeming to have lost confidence in himself by creating a situation where Nrohm will need to take the job from Edwards if he really is as good as we hope he is. The old Bills way practiced by Jauron who deemed Edwards the savior after JP had been deemed the savior by TD (even JP said he would do his best but had not won the job the right way) who had stupidly extended Bledsoe who was the designated savior after the DF/RJ debacle who came in after the Hobert/TC debacle (I may have messed up the order or ordinations here). It all goes back to Mr. Ralph making a wrong football judgment that Jimbo had more left than he had as a QB when he flagrantly flaunted the salary cap by making a handshake deal with Jimbo to reward him in his next contract which unfortunately never happened. I like the competition and am not displeased that if Brohn is the man for the job he will need to pry it out of Edwards cold dead hands. Someone must be the starter in the pecking order and making that man Edwards is fine by me.

The whole estate tax issue is overly complex by design to allow folks who can hire lawyers to skirt it and to create work opportunities for the legal profession. I have few doubts that with the time Mr. Ralph has had to prepare for this situation and the financial ability to get the bestest legal help around that he has set things up to fulfill his goals as best as possible beyond the grave. The death tax phrase is a politically useful way to talk about this (it stands in contrast to the Warren Buffet approach which has not pithy description but is based on the idea that one's heirs should have significant resources but not have so much they can refuse to work for a living) but really is not an accurate way to describe the situation. In the end, like the rest of the world after he dies Mr. Ralph will be dead and this will put a serious crimp in whether this plays out exactly the way he would choose now. However, the wildcard here is what he wants to do with the resources he leaves. I have few doubts that to a pretty good degree (large immediately and getting smaller as time goes on in terms of his influence) he will take action to accomplish his goals whatever they may be. The current estate laws will define how he goes about accomplishing his goals but his goals will get accomplished almost completely in the first go round with his will under any political format be it death tax or personal responsibility emphasis for his heirs.

Its tougher these days for the media consumer as opinion as generally replaced facts in various media outlets that though everyone is entitled to their own opinions we sometimes end up seeing people believing they are entitled to their own facts. The spin chosen ultimately says more about the media outlet than it does about the subject being covered.

The flat out answer to this question mark is NO. Spiller gives few if any signs of planning "on' holding out. However, if only in observing due diligence he is planning "for" a holdout if it comes to that. His words seem prudent at worst as they are also the right thing to say if you are planning "on" signing as presenting at least some credible threat of exercising your right not to sign (this often called a holdout though it is quite different from a holdout where a player under contract violates that contract by missing mandatory sessions). My sense is both Spiller and the Bills will pursue prudent due diligence by waiting until the last moment to sign a deal to provide a chance for the other party to panic and give a few more dollars or other benefits than mandated by the contracts signed by the picks above or below them. In reality both the Bills and Spiller have significant outside prods for getting the deal done (the potential for a rookie salary cap in the future for Spiller and the need to get rookies into camp as quickly as possible to allow Gailey to install a new offense- and also IMHO to give Spiller some significant work in private workouts at WR as I do not see the Bills with anywhere near a proven pro #2 WR yet. I see nothing in the Spiller quotes to raise any real concern that he is planning on holding out. Planning for this possibility if occurs yes, but planning on holding out? Nah.

I certainly have no argument with the fact statement that the Marv as pseudo GM actions did not work. The most correct judgment he made in the end was to put a short time limit on the time he would act as a placeholder. The thing I would disagree with though is an assertion that this mistake was some grand new sign that the wheels had come off the Bills bandwagon and if only they made some other decision after the initially clearly toxic in retrospect and actually fairly observable at the time series of bad moves which rest clearly on the doorstep of the team owner. If you want to identify clear first signs it was the toxic relationship which only the owner and the GM have clear responsibility for between Mr. Ralph and John Butler when the wheels started to come off. TD was not a bad save to address this horrible situation (I mean your GM who has stalled you publicly on even discussing signing up jumps ship relatively quickly when the public negotiation period is now legal and leaves you with an immediate need to rebuild with you also HC less and armed with a suspiciously bad last draft). TD was actually one of the few guys with a credible resume who had used his previous free year of Pitts pay to travel and meet/see players contacts and it made great sense to have him hit the ground running. TD was a great football employee in my view. However, like any employee he needed management and like any human being he was not perfect. Mr. Ralph deserves great praise for keeping the Bills here when if he was an Art Modell or Georgia Frontierre he could have taken a big bid and won and SB to boot. However, Mr. Ralph deserves praise for the reality he stuck it out here. However, reality also demands we acknowledge that the football wheels began to detectably fall off when he fired the football guy Polian that substantially built the winning Bills. Any fool then (like me) actually could see the wheels off when Butler screwed the Bills by playing Mr. Ralph and jumping ship. I think while one might forgive Mr. Ralph for getting fooled once, unfortunately reality points to his firing of Polian, his exercising poor football judgment in ignoring the cap in regard to Jimbo, leading the fruitless vesting in finding a new alleged QB savior, and a host of other bad judgments which he either drove or should have been a part of and any indictment really needs to start (and can pretty much stop giving TD, Marn, JP or whomever a dispensation because it all comes back to Mr. Ralph. I think TD and Marv have a lot more in common as failed attempts by Mr. Ralph than trying to point to either as the cause of the problem.

The hiring of Marv strikes me as far more a symptom than a cause of the problems as I think quite clearly it was not the first wheel falling off but the third or perhaps fourth wheel, I think there can be a fairly straight line traced to: A. Its tough to label Marv's hiring as being the first wheel to come off as this would mean either not labeling the hiring of TD as a previous bad move or somehow endorsing the firing of TD as a correct move but Marv as a poor replacement. B. Actually, I thought the hire of TD was actually a pretty astute move because the wheels actually were clearly falling off in the miserable relationship and reading of his Butler's desires which Mr. Ralph did all on his own as the owner. C. The mishandling of the Butler employment by Mr. Ralph really only came to fruition after Mr. Ralph exercised his right as an owner and meddled in the decision to make a handshake deal only he could make as the owner to reward Jimbo in his next contract which never happened. Mr. Ralph totally blew the football judgment of how much Jimbo had left and also totally abused the concept of the salary cap (I think this is why some voters delayed his entry in to the HOF). The QB debacles began right here and Mr. Ralph seemed to have his hands all over a series of failed decisions from stretching to draft and start TC, trading and signing Hobert, signing RJ before he showed his injury proneness, and the overall mismangement of this position. D. Actually if one wants to identify a true "first" cause it was likely decision by Mr. Ralph to can Polian who to a great degree built the winning Bills. I did not find Marv's performance disappointing at all as I really had few expectations that this octogenarian was gonna be anything but a placeholder after several wheels has already fallen off mostly with Mr. Ralph's handprints all over them. Did you really have some high expectations of Marv and do you disagree that there were a series of clear grievous mistakes made before Marv was even hired?