2003Contenders
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From what I've heard, he loves what he's doing and doesn't want to be a HC.
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You may laugh -- but take a look at Dave Wannstedt's record during his years with Miami... I think they only had one losing season, last year when everything went south for them. I'm not advocating that we try to get him, but I'd take him over MM or GW.
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Willis strikes me as being the laid back type. Some people misread that to mean that he has no passion or doesn't care. I think all of the points that Fake-Fat points out pretty well dispute this.
What it does point out is that Willis is content to take care of what he has in his power to take care of -- and shrugs his shoulders at the things that he has no control over. Simply put, we all know that the the root cause of practically everything that ails the offense is the inferior OL. Willis can't do anything about that... All that he can do is work to keep himself in shape and make the most of his opportunities when given the ball.
The only negative to draw from this is that laid back players like Willis are usually not the source for leadership in the locker room. The hope is that the OL gets a major overhaul in the off-season and Willis becomes a leader ON THE FIELD.
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Since when is a Day 2 draft pick labeled a "bust"?
Indeed, there are far more players taken in the 4th and 5th round of the NFL draft that never become much more than reserves than there are players that become starters.
Preston could turn out to be a diamond in the rough, so I mean no disrepect toward him. But the very fact that we are talking about this guy, a rookie drafted on Day 2, with the possibility that he could be a starter as the year winds down, actually tells us more about the lack of quality with our existing lineup -- and the serious lack of depth as well.
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My personal opinion -- TD is banking on Capers getting fired so that he can bring him in to replace MM. Remember that Capers is the guy TD wanted from the get-go. The question is whether he's been able to sell Ralph on this insanity...
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Poor Ralph was placed in an almost impossible position here, which is why he'd have been better off not getting involved -- and just backing whatever decison that MM and TD made, which is what it sounds like he wound up doing anyway.
If he really felt that EM was in the right, he didn't have to fine him a game's check.
Of course, we don't know what parameters he was working with. Was MM asking for a 4-game suspension -- and the 1-game net-out was actually a compromise?
Pardon me, if I am still confused by all of this. Moulds claims that he took himself out of the game on Sunday because of an Achilles problem. He also said that he DID meet with MM. If all of that is true then he certainly has grounds for appeal. And, since MM and TD aren't talking, we have no way of knowing for sure. Maybe the Achilles thing was a spin after the fact that EM and his agent came up with -- and maybe the Monday meeting took place only AFTER MM hunted EM down when he was a no-show.
This is all becomming very silly and embarrassing -- and something tells me that we haven't heard the last of this.
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I could be wrong... but remind me of an instance when TO took himself out of a game -- and then refused to go back in, when no injury was involved?
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Funny thing is I just added a comment on one of the endless Moulds posts saying this exact thing. If what we are hearing is true that Moulds took himself out of the game on Sunday (assuming no injury), refused to go back in, and then missed a mandatory meeting with MM Monday, then de DESERVES to be suspended, regardless of what mistakes MM may or not have made himself.
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Giving MM the benefit of the doubt for just a minute, let's analyze the following scenario:
1. What if Moulds did indeed take himself out of the game because he was not being used to his satisfaction?
2. What if Moulds REFUSED to go back into the game when asked to do so?
3. What if Moulds did fail to show up to a mandatory meeting with Mularkey to hash all of this out?
I'm not saying that any or all of these things did happen, since I don't know. But it is a possibility. And if it is true, then I have no problem whatsoever with Moulds being suspended. In fact, this behavior may even trump anything that TO ever did. TO's biggest sin was running his mouth and bad-mouthing his teammates, but I can't recall him ever becomming a problem on gameday and refusing to step on the field.
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Is there any coincidence to the timing of this suspension request? That is, the maximum number of games the team can suspend Moulds is 4 games -- and there are just 4 games left.
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This all smells of yet another hatchet job coming from TD and his cronies. We all know that Moulds won't be back next year due to his cap liability. Rather than trying to get the most we can out of him in this final year, in true Travelgate fashion, TD and co. are doing their best to villify him before kicking him to the curb.
It's similar to what happened last year with Big Pat and Jonas. TD made them out be be greedy bastards -- so that we wouldn't complain too much when they signed elsewhere. In JJ's case, I don't think it mattered because we were not going to be able to pay near what SF offerred up. However, in Big Pat's case, I really do think that we could have come to terms with him if we had wanted to, as he didn't necessarily get much more from Minny than our front office reportedly offered.
Maybe EM is being a bit of a prima donna, but good coaches and managers know how to motivate these guys. Clearly that isn't happening here.
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At roughly this time last year, I seem to recall Mularkey's Bills traveling to Cinci and handing it to Lewis and the Bengals. I mean REALLY handing it to them. At that point, Lewis' tenure with the Bengals was roughly at the same point that Mularkey's is with the Bills now. I can't believe that there were many Bills fans wishing to trade places with the Bengals then.
It's funny what can happen just a short season later. Maybe MM has made some bad decisions, but I also think as far as our decline this year goes, the PLAYERS have something to do with that.
We are essentially a year behind the Bengals on the curve. Recall that in Lewis' first season, he was hailed a savior because he got the Bengals all the way to .500 in his first season. He didn't look so smart when he elected to take his lumps in year 2 with Carson Palmer. Now Palmer is being hailed as one of the top 5 QBs in the NFL -- and the Bengals are a hot commodity. Maybe we'll be saying the same thing about JP and the Bills next year if the axiom holds true.
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Yea, I think Nate is taking SOME unnecessary heat for the loss. It is true that he got burned on some of those pass plays, but certainly not all of them and definitely not the game deciding plays at the end of the game. And, in Greer's defense, he had pretty good coverage on Chambers. It's just that Chambers outleaped him and managed to come down with a very tough catch.
As someone said, the real death-blow was the 57-yard reception on 3rd down that set the Dolphins up inside the 20. That one (to me) was on Lawyer Milloy for even allowing Chambers to get behind him. With all the outrage I see aimed at Nate, who has been admittedly inconsistent, I'd be more inclined to bring him back (if the price is right) than either the over-priced and over-aged Milloy or Troy Vincent. Did Vincent make a single play Sunday? He should have been out there playing centerfield in the 4th quarter.
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Well, thanks to the Bills he will have at least this one game on which he can hang his hat, tell his grandkids about, etc.
We have seen it happen several time this season already where a backup QB comes in and leads the team to victory. Ryan Fitzpatrick did it last week, and our own JP did it a number of weeks ago as well. What happens is these guys come in off the bench with no pressure on them whatsoever -- and face a defense that hasn't prepared for them.
The more I look back at it, it really is insane that Rosenfels passed for nearly 300 yards in just a little over a quarter. Clearly he was locked in... but our defense basically sat back and let him do whatever he wanted to do. There was so little pressure applied that you or I probably could have sat back there and at least completed a pass or two.
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Maybe I should re-word my post. Instead of saying "No lead is ever safe", I think my point was more that you NEVER take your foot off your opponents' throat.
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I remember us losing to the Chiefs in KC a couple of years ago -- a game in which a punt was blocked through the endzone. I also remember losing to the Rams (another horrible melt-down) back in 1998 after Big Ted destroyed their RB for a safety.
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It came from Norv Turner, when MM challenged him for running up the score against us in Oakland a few weeks back. Recall that with just seconds left to go, the Raiders pounded it in for another TD, rather than just taking the knee.
MM didn't get it then, and he clearly didn't get it yesterday that no lead is safe in the NFL, and it is NEVER a crime to run up the score. I wonder if he understands now.
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In terms of the timing, I wonder if it has to do with MM's formal announcement that he's sticking with JP for the remainder of the year?
We all know that Moulds was one of the driving forces behind JP's benching. Note also that, as ch19079 pointed out, Moulds is our leader on offense. However, the leader SHOULD be our QB. And maybe the thought is to place JP in a sitaution where he is the unquestioned starter and leader of the offense next season.
Obviously JP needs to do what he can over the next several weeks to command the leadership role with his on-field play. This past week he looked Moulds' way more than he has any game in the past. So maybe the two of them will form a connection that will prevent Moulds from becomming a distraction again -- and place Moulds in the situation where he wants to stay put and is willing to take a pay cut to do so.
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The notion that Jammer "fell" was because everyone was sure that the Lions would take him at #3. He filled a huge need for them, and the Lions didn't seem to be in the market for a QB, as they still wanted to see what Mike McMahon had to offer. That didn't necessarily mean that Jammer carried with him a rating of a player worthy of going #3 overall.
Indeed, even at the time of the draft, most pundits agreed that this class looked weak. Peppers was the only genuine blue chip prospect, and he went #2 because the expansion Texans wanted to draft their franchise QB right off the bat.
It is also a myth that teams were interested in trading up for Harrington. His stock had risen rather quickly and late in the game, but at the end of the college season he was viewed as a late first rounder. The Bills were one team that was NOT interseted in him, as they had concerns about his arm strength in adverse weather conditions. Matt Millen REALLY tried to pimp that #3 pick even moreso that TD did, and he also had trouble finding a suitor.
There was no consensus selection when we picked #4. I even recall Chris Berman being at a loss for who the team was going to take -- and he essentially made a guess that it would be an OT, but didn't say which one. We all know that the team has for years told him ahead of time who they were going to take in return for a promise that he'd keep it close to the vest until the final moment. That tells me that TD was not sure who he was taking with that pick either. In fact, he was hoping that a deal would be made to move down. A similar thing happened the following year, when it was actually Mort who reported the possibility of our drafting Willis. That was clearly news to Berman at the time.
Recall also that MW wasn't even the consensus pick at the time within the organization. There were reports that Gregg REALLY wanted Roy Williams to the point where he was affectionately referring to him as his son, since they shared the same surname. (Does anyone ever remember the same references to Big Mike?)
As I've said before, there is enough stuff for which to blame TD, where I wouldn't necessarily point the finger at him for the Mike Williams bust. I find it funny that many of the same people that want to villify TD for not paying enough attention to our OL, are the same ones that are so upset about the MW pick. Imagine how much better off our OL would be now if MW had turned out to be the perrenial All Pro RT that he was projected to be!
We were picking in a bad spot, where there wasn't much in the way of value. Hind-sight is always 20-20, but we would have been much better off with John Henderson, Roy Williams, or Dwight Freeney. Henderson came with injury concerns -- and the other guys would have been considered reaches. The Colts were mocked for taking Freeney about 7-10 spots too soon. And the Cowboys actually traded down a couple spots to get RW.
Maybe the lesson to be learned here is screw "draft value". Identify the guys you want at a specific position that you think will best fit your team and take them before you think someone else will. That's what Dungy did with Freeney -- and it's what the Pats have been doing for years.
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Actually that may not be such a bad thing this week, as I fully expect Miami to try to run the ball down our throat -- something they didn't do enough of (fortunately) when we played them last time. As awful as Wire is in pass coverage, he's pretty good in run support.
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Granted the MW selection has turned out to be a bust of huge proportions. But blaming TD for this particular pick is pure revisionism.
Think back...
1. That was an especially weak draft with no consensus #4 pick. It was our bad luck to have finished as lousy as 3-13 the previous year, and pick as late as #4. The Chargers, for example, had the luxury of picking #1 overall and getting Eli Manning in 2004 after coming off a 4-12 campaign. Peppers was the hands down top-rated player, but he went #2 because the Texans wanted to draft their franchise QB right away -- and that's what they did with David Carr. The Lions bungled even worse than we did by taking Joey Harrington one pick before us. The word was that Marty Morningweg wanted to take Quentin Jammer, but Millen insisted on Harrington. Millen's decision first cost Marty M his job -- and now the Mooch as well. There were rumblings that we were interested in taking Harrington if he got past the Lions, but I'm not so sure. Our scouts were supposedly concerned that Harrington didn't have the arm strength to throw the ball in the messier conditions in Orchard Park. At the very least we know that TD tried in vain to trade down -- but found no interested trading partners.
2. Freeney was considered a big reach when the Colts took him. In fact, Dungy and Polian were roundly curiticized fro taking him so early at the time, as most pundits had him going in the middle or late part of the first round.
3. Recall that Bryant McKinney had dominated Freeney in a college game earlier that year, which placed a bit of a damper on Freeney, as many experts thought that this represented a good example of how he would do against quality NFL-caliber OL.
4. I think from the outset, we were interested in McKinney. However, he did not impress the coaches and front office with his attitude, when he came in for a visit. Big Mike seemed to have the better "character" and was deemed much more mature. Recall that McKinney was, in fact, a holdout for the Vikings -- and signed just in time (prior to Week 10) to avoid going back into the next year's draft. Meanwhile, Big Mike played for us as a rookie, and was an integral part of an offense that wasn't the reason for our not making it to the playoffs that year. Of course, things have dramatically changed since then with McKinney being described as the best young OT in the game -- and Big Mike labeled a bust and losing his job to an undrafted free agent.
5. Considering the need for OL help, especially with the pending Bledose trade in the works, TD and staff elected to go the OL route, rather than get first dibs at the top DT in the class. After all, there was no consensus there either. Henderson was the top rated, but he had experienced severe back problems that alarmed scouts. Sims and Haynesworth were rated neck and neck as well. Shaun Rogers fell all the way to the end of the 2nd round because of concerns about his ability to walk -- let alone anchor a defensive line. Then there was Rien Long, who had been the top pass-rushing DT in college and was judged by many as a high 1st rounder. Somehow he lasted until day 2.
There is ample enough criticism for TD and that draft that I can't see beating him up too bad for the MW miscalculation. Personally, I am more annoyed with the moving up to get Denney (really just to spite the Steelers), when Rogers and Long were still on the board.
Oh, well...
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I am tired of hearing about how the Panthers are going to thrash us because they will be highly motivated coming off their loss to the Bears... We should be even MORE motivated after being embarrassed in San Diego last week!
This is OUR house -- not theirs. And it is high time that the team hears the rally call and comes ready to play. I just have a feeling that this is the week that the offense finally comes together. JP will be in the friendly confines of the Ralph, and I see Roscoe being heavily used in the gameplan. A couple quick hits to him should open things up down the field for Evans and Moulds, which should in turn open things up for the running game. Defensively, I am not too worried about the running game. And I look for Nate to shake off last week's slump (which was really team-wide) and rise to the occasion against the league's top WR in Steve Smith.
I'm also tired of hearing about how the season is over. We have 3 more games at home. They are all tough, but we are 4-1 there this year. If we win those games that puts us at 7-9. Of the remaining road games, we get a crack at Miami and the Jets. Yes, I know it is always hard beating division opponents on the road, but we are better that either the Jets or Phins -- and should beat them. That puts us at 9-7, and anything can happen from there.
I know I am getting ahead of myself... but it all starts tomorrow -- and we need to start seeing the kind of intensity we saw out of this team in the final weeks last year.
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Maybe they use him the way the Steelers used to use Kordell in certain plays, when O'Donnell was still there.
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I didn't notice any penalties or plays in which he was obviously beaten. Did anyone watch closely to see how well he performed? I will have to say that up until the very end, KH had decent protection and Willis was able to get his. Could this be a permanent home for Peters with Williams moved over to the left side (I'm actually thinking LG, as Anderson has actually been more odious than Gandy).
Another HC Name To Consider
in The Stadium Wall Archives
Posted
Hmmm. Isn't that what MM tried to do last week with Moulds and was ridiculed for it?