2003Contenders

Not really. That 2002 draft was actually pretty weak. In fact, the only player out of the top 5 selections to merit such a pick was Julius Peppers -- and everyone tabbed him as a can't miss prospect. 1. David Carr (TBD) 2. J Peppers (Great pick) 3. J Harrington (Bust) 4. M Williams (Bust) 5. Q Jammer (Bust) So, yes, TD crapped the bed on that draft -- but then again, so did many other teams.

True. It's amazing how lousy of a coach you appear to be when you lose guys like TKO and Pat Williams. Yes, I know coaches like Belichick have managed to get their teams to play well despite injuries to some of their star players. But maybe that says something more about the overall depth of the football team than the coaching involved. Yet another reason to blame TD.

It's pretty clear that the Bills will have to Franchise him, as he wants to play for the highest bidder. That $5.9 M cap hit isn't the end of the world and it is a reasonable salary for him this year. However, I wouldn't expect them to tag him again in 2007, as his cap hit then would increase to at least $7 M. (He would be gauranteed either a 20% pay increase or the top 5 CB salary, whichever is greater). Also, does anybody think that his moving to Houston sends any signals?

Here you go: 2006 Cap Figures These numbers are a few weeks old, but they should be updating them soon. FYI, the Bills rank in the middle of the pack.

While I don't necessarily disagree with anything you said here, at the time, TD had visions of Reed being a WR in the Hines Ward mold. While he didn't have all of the measurables of some of the other WRs taken in that draft, he was considered by many scouts to be rather polished and NFL-ready. Many insiders felt that he should have been a first round pick. Looking back, he had a nice rookie season -- but was placed in a bad situation the following year after Peerless left. Perhaps in a different setting he may have been a decent #2 WR. However, he was poorly suited for Gilbride's offense, and there was too much pressure placed on him. Personally, I still think that there is a spot for him on this team. Aside from catching the ball, he does a number of things well. And last year he seemed to overcome his case of the dropsies. With the "I love you man!" kind of atmosphere that Marv and Jauron are likely to bring to the team, I really think that this may be the year that Reed finally steps up.

Not to mention that MW seemed like a good character guy, while McKinney came across as something of a head case. In fact, MW was a pretty decent rookie, while McKinney held out most of his rookie season. Obviously their fortunes have changed since then -- although Levi Jones, taken 10th overall buy the Bengals -- turned out to be better than either of them. The writer of this article was so busy working up his hatchet job on TD that he failed to add this to his list of grievances. Oh, and I'm not sure where he comes off calling Denney an undersized DE. The draft that year was full of undersized DE -- and Denney was one of the few that was actually big enough to project to be strong in run support. That's why TD traded up to get him -- that, and the fact that he wanted to screw Pittsburgh who was all set on taking him with the next pick.

That is exactly right. I think the bad 2002 draft is further magnified by the horrible drafts that Butler had in 1999 and 2000. It's very hard to sustain a winning team when you have 3 bad drafts in four years.

Maybe they should check the accuracy of their comments... Marv's last team went 6-10 in 1997. (Recall that was the year that Todd Collins was calling the signals.) It was the following season, in Wade's first year, that they went 10-6 and lost to Miami. Still, the point is well taken that those 1998 and 1999 teams that made it to the playoffs were loaded with Marv's players.

The players know fully well when they sign the contract that they are unlikely to ever see the final big dollar years. However, the large up-front signing bonus makes that situation much more desirable for them.

I pretty much agree with VABills assessment. The only thing that I will add is that in the right situation, a healthy Lavar could fit in nicely as a pass rush specialist.

I'll pass... I remember when he came here to play against us a couple of years back. He was totally ineffective and commented after the game that he had a whole new respect fro what Jim Kelly was able to accomplish in the Arctic conditions.

I've also heard that some scouts actually worry about players who score TOO HIGH on the Wonderlic. They fear that the player may be too analytical and prone to over-thinking a situation, rather than being instinctive and processing the information quickly. Looking at Bledsoe's very high score, it would seem to bear this out.

I hate to cop-out and say wait and see what we do in free agency between now and April... but that is the honest to God's truth. Recall at this point heading into the 2003 draft that Linebacker was far and away our biggest need. However, TD was aggressive in signing both Posey and TKO -- and that need was mitigated. As of now, you can't go worng by addressing either the OL or DL -- and if we don't franchise or re-sign Nate, then Jimmy Williams could be a need pick for us. Heck, even Huff, assuming that we move Vincent back to CB.

It just reaffirms that at least the front office tried to bring in quality assistants -- and had trouble getting anyone to bite. In the final analysis that may be why MM left.

I agree. In fact, some of you who have criticized Schobel have disspelled your own point by pointing out that he had NO ONE of merit playing opposite him. Thus, the Hansen analogy probbaly isn't the best. The fact that Schobel's been as productive as he's been, despite no real help from the opposite side of the line, speaks volumes about how good he's been. Imagine how good he'd be if he had a legitimate pass rushing threat playing on the other end! Maybe someone like Darren Howard or Robert Mathis.

OJ's off-the-field problems have since clouded over what a great RB he was. Indeed, he was probably a top 5 all time RB. Like Jim Brown, every defender on the field knew that he was going to get the ball -- and they still couldn't stop him. Not to take anything away from Thurman, who did everything quite well -- and was probably the finest "Jack of All Trades" to ever play the position.

Hmmm. Considering that Abraham is a free agent and that the Jets would have to franchise him first to even have the rights to trade him -- which they can't do right now even if they wanted to, considering that they are so far over the cap -- I'd say that this rumor has little merit.

I wouldn't be surprised if Holmgren at least considers retirement. I seem to recall after that last Super Bowl with the Packers (the one they lost to Denver) that he reportedly went into some real state of depression, where his daughter actually tried to get him some counseling. He strongy considering retiring back then -- and supposedly Favre talked himout of it. A year later he moved onto Seattle.

1. I've seen the replay many times, and I'm still not sure if the nose of that ball managed to nip the goal line or not. Thus, the official did the right thing on review. 2. As far as the official changing his mind on the initial call, why is that so seemingly sinister? Maybe he was just waiting fro some bodies to clear away from the goal line before making the detrmination whether it was a TD or not. 3. Even if Seattle did get jobbed on the play, it is now 4th and an inch. Guarantee that Cowher goes for it -- and it's an easy QB sneak TD. No, I think that some of the ticky-tack boderline calls (like on Jackson's "push off") had a bigger thing to do with the outcome of the game than the controversy surrounding the Big Ben TD -- or lack thereof.

I've never understood this criticsm myself. Let's not forget that the Giants boasted the #1 defense in the NFL that year -- and our offense managed to score a point per minute. The fault squarely lies on the defense for allowing 9 and 10 minute long drives, which kept the offense off the field. If you look back, it's not as if Kelly went completely pass-happy. The dude completed 60% of his passes in that game -- and didn't turn the ball over against a superior defense that routinely had 8 or 9 guys in pass coverage. Also, as mentioned, that doesn't even account for the numerous drops -- which to be fair to Andre, he was beaten to a pulp by LBs and Safeties. The real story of the game is that we lost the battle of 3rd down conversions. The Giants were better than 50% on converting 3rd downs -- and we only converted (if memory serves me correctly) one or two all game. Indeed, when it mattered most and when we needed to make plays to keep the chains moving on offense we didn't get it done. And when the defense needed badly to get off the field, they couldn't force the Giants into 3-and-outs. I've always felt that the Norwood missed FG obscured this fact. In a sick, twisted way, the Norwood miss in the closing seconds has served to make the Bills almost like a tragic folk hero. The added notoriety has probably given that team more notoriety than they ever would have generated had they won the game. No one, for example, really talks about the Giants, who actually won the game. Instead of praising Parcells and his staff for putting together one of the great gameplans in NFL history, all we hear about is the Norwood miss. Maybe that's why I wasn't so upset back then with the outcome -- especially, since I had a feeling that we'd make it back. But if I had known how the other games would turn out -- and the fact that I really think we would have won at least one more of the others if we didn't have this loser's albotross around our neck -- well, it just makes that missed opportunity 15 years ago that much harder to take.

The more this unfolds, the more I'm starting to come around to being on TO's side. Owens still shouldn't have gone public with the lockerroom friction, but Donovan's "Poor me!" act is getting old. In a way I've always understood TO's dissatisfaction. Here he is playing in the Super Bowl -- laying it all on the line with a broken ankle. Meanwhile, McNabb is behaving like a pansy and moving like a sloth with no sense of urgency during clutch time. Personally, I think a coach and QB that don't allow their feelings to get hurt so easily will find a way to live in harmony with TO. There is no question that Owens is going to run his mouth -- the question is why anyone cares about what he says in the first place? Just ignore him -- and throw him the ball on Sundays.

If I recall correctly, Bruce's "sack" was a matter of being in the right place at the right time, as Hostetler tripped over one of his linemen's feet and fell down in the endzone. Even on the one good play that I can recall that Bruce made during those miserable Super Bowls, he failed to get the strip, when Hostetler's arm was exposed with the ball.

Hmmm. That is an interesting observation coming from Smith. And I bet it stems from that game we hosted against Carolina, when Smith was held pretty much in check. Recall that Nate entered that game being heavily criticized after a subpar perfromance against the Chargers. The Carolina game did witness the defense's conversion more to a zone coverage, which worked well for them defensively in that game, since the Panthers weren't prepared for it. However, the scheme proved less successful in subsequent weeks, most notably the very next week against Chris Chambers and the Dolphins. While I tend to agree that Nate is a bit overrated, he is still an above average player at a position, where good players are hard to come by. Thus, I hope that we can re-sign him. Also, with the DL's inability to put pressure on opposing QBs without blitzing, there's no CB alive who wouldn't have had some pretty bad games this year in Nate's shoes.

As we stand today, I agree with you 100%. However, if we address, say, the OL and DL in free agency in a major way, then I can see investing one of our four Day 1 picks on a QB.

OK.... 1. Anyone who blames TD for "letting" O'Donnell go has a very faulty memory of what happened in the off-season between 1995 and 1996. O'Donnell was a free agent -- and the Jets offered him an insane contract, one that TD and the Steeelers had no business trying to match. The contract made him one of the highest paid QBs in the NFL, despite the fact that he was more of a caretaker QB than a stud. How did the decision work out? Well, the Jets went 1-15 the following season with O'Donnell (who was admittedly injured for much of the year). The folowwing year he lost his starting job when the Tuna took over as head coach. Meanwhile, the Steelers were back hosting the AFC Championship Game (which they lost to Denver) by 1997. 2. I won't repeat what many others have already said about the Bledsoe acquisition. Suffice to say that we were in a bad situation at QB. Jeff Blake was the top free agent on the market, and we lost out (looking back, thankfully) on David Carr and Joey Harrington in the draft. I know others will diagree, but even knowing what we know now, if I'm TD I still WOULD have made that trade for Bledsoe ten times out of ten. If nothing else, it brought instant credibility to our team -- and I seriously doubt if free agents like TKO would have signed here otherwise. 3. Again, the verdict is still out on JP. He has clearly shown flashes -- but he was also so mishandled by our coaching staff last year that it isn't funny. With everyone that had a stake in his doing well -- TD, MM, Clements, Wyche -- all gone, I wonder if the new reigme will give him the latitude to sink or swim.