2003Contenders
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Innocent until proven guilty indeed. The only problem is that he supposedly failed a drug test. Even in the most innocent of circumstances -- say he took a vitamin or a supplement that he didn't realize contained a banned substance -- it is still his responsibility to KNOW the ingredients of anything he puts in his body. Remember Jim Miller?
With that said, remember a few years ago AFTER Leon Lett had already been suspended for a year for failing a 4th drug test -- and he failed a 5th? After an appeal his suspension was knocked down considerably.
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Actually the Bills did make an offer to both. Now, the offer to Jennings was not one that he'd have ever accepted -- but at least an offer was made. As for Big Pat, he wound up signing with Minny for not a whole lot more than TD offerred him.
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Remember TD did not leave of his own choosing. He was fired becasue the team had failed to make the playoffs during his 5 year tenure. Had Ralph not fired him, I fully well believe that he'd still be here.
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This report is worth ignoring... Clearly the Post "borrowed" tips from the Buffalo News this morning. That would be Mark G's article, which was pure speculation.
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Has everyone forgotten the fact that Culpepper had a SERIOUS knee injury last season? His future is in question, especially with his style of play.
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If Clayton said that the Chargers would cut Brees, then he doesn't know what he is talking about. Unless the Chargers use the Franchise or Transition Tag, Brees will become a free agent and they won't be in the position to "cut" him. That tag will also cost them at least 20% more than they paid him last year, which is in the $10 M range.
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I too lobbied for either Roy Williams or Bryant Mckinnie. I liked the Josh Reed pick at the time but I dont have all TDs tools at my disposable. True you could always play should of, could of but the fact is we drafted the same positions pointed out in the article and our evaluations were off.
Mike Williams over Bryant Mckinnie and Lecharles Bentley(whom we should be at the top of our off season priority list IMO)
Ryan Denney and a second round pick over Alex Brown in the 4th
Josh Reed over Deion Branch, Antonio Bryant
We had 4th pick overall in a very talented draft and got garbage. Just a horrible !@#$up on TDs part
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.
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I would say that Gray's first year of "calling his own shots" was the best defense the Bills have had in five seasons. Say all you want about it was GW's defense or it was LeBeau's defense. That's kind of garbage. All coaches defenses (with very few exceptions) are adaptations and fusions of several other previous coach's defenses they worked under. One could argue that Gray never had a chance at his own defense until 2004, and it shined, for the most part. I am not saying he is a great coach, and last year, his defense was deplorable, as was every other element of the team not called special teams. But you can't say that 2004 was not Gray's defense, because it was. And I would bet anything that if he was named a head coach, or a DC this year, he would bring that exact same defense and defensive philosophy to his next job. It may be stupid, it may have weaknesses, but it was "his" defense.
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.
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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?
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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.
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Let's look at the Josh Reed pick in a little more detail. With Moulds and Peerless, John Reed wasn't going to be more than the #3 WR.
But, you say, TD knew Peerless's contract was running short, so why not draft his replacement? Why not, indeed. But Peerless had speed to stretch defenses, while Reed did not.
But, you say, not all offenses necessarily have a deep burner WR. The New England offense, for instance, has receivers who aren't the biggest or fastest in the world, but who have great hands and run great routes. However, the QB TD would soon trade for--Drew Bledsoe--put up mediocre numbers in exactly that New England offense. In his last three years in New England, his passer ratings were 76, 77, and 75.
With Peerless, Bledsoe's rating was 86. After Peerless left, Bledsoe's rating fell to 73.
The point I'm getting at is that even with Peerless gone, there was no way Josh Reed was going to be the type of #2 WR that a QB like Drew Bledsoe needed. 3-13 teams don't get to use 2nd round picks on career #3 WRs. Not when the OL is full of holes.
Displeased with only having made this mistake once, TD decided to do so again. In 2005, he used a second round pick on Roscoe Parrish. We don't need Parrish to start opposite to Moulds, because we already have Lee Evans. As for someday taking the place of Moulds, Parrish doesn't have the size.
That's two 2nd round picks--in just three years--thrown at the position of #3 WR. There are five OL positions. How many first day picks have these five positions received in the last three years? One; and that's one fewer than the position of #3 WR.
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.
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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.
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He failed miserably and though he's since departed, we're still paying for it today.
TD or Butler- take your poison. I would say the Bulter years towards the end of his reign parallel those of TD's for draft longevity. But for every Dwight Freeney there's an Eric Flowers and I just wish our GM's had that Almanac from "Back to the Future".
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Schobel is actually a better DE than Hansen ever was. And if you look closer he doesn't dissapear for long periods in games like so many here seem to think for some strange reason. The RDE position is not only about getting sacks, it is about weak side containment, forcing the runners to cut inside. It is also about not allowing the QB to take too many deep drops and making him step up in the pocket into would-be pressure from the inside. Schobel does all of this with consistency against some very high level competition. The problem here goes back to the oiriginal poster's point. There's not enough help currently from the other positions along the D-line as Kelsay and Denney have both only been spot-players and our DT's are inadequate.
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
What should the Bills have done at QB
in The Stadium Wall Archives
Posted
One other point I'd like to make is that Holcomb benefitted from a more balanced offensive coaching philosophy. I remember being at that home game against Miami, KH's first start. And I remember watching MM make better use of the running game and place KH in a better spot to succeed than he ever did with Losman.
In fact, that to me was the great failure last season. MM and TD supposedly saw what Pittsburgh was able to do with Big Ben and felt that they could do the same thing here with JP. The problem is that MM never tried to really follow Pittsburgh's blueprint by spoon-feeding JP and bringing him along slowly with a strong running game. They threw him into the deep end... but were much kinder about playing it safe, when they inserted KH.
Also, KH's big wins came in two home games against Miami and the NYJ -- two games in which I feel confident that JP would have led us to victory as well. Both games also exhibited the same problem that we saw with either QB -- an inability of the offense to do anything in the second half. The lone game that we won with KH behind the reigns that JP may not have pulled out is the Cinci game. However, I would trump that by pointing out how inept the offense was in the KC game before JP came in off the bench.
It's sad that we are having to debate which less than adequate QB is better. At least in JP's case he has the upside to get better -- and I'd like to see if that upside exists before I even think about giving up on him.