montanafan

This

I definitely believe the Bills will be looking to draft a guard/center in the mid-rounds. If Richie should go down, guard gets extremely thin.

With all due respect to the way Sammy played, I thought Dareus' hit on Fitz was the play of the game. His it caused the ball to flutter and hence the interception, that for all practical purposes ended it. As big a play as Marios strip of Rodgers in the end zone last year.

Yeah Charlie Warner played and I think another guy who played a lot in the secondary that year was Gene Sykes. I can't remember the exact statistic, maybe someone can help me, but pretty sure during the 64-65 run the Bills went like 13 games in a row without allowing a running touchdown. When Butch Byrd was traded in the late sixties, Larry Felser wrote a great article about him the day after he was traded. He talked about Butch Byrd's love of Buffalo and how it was reciprocated by Bills fans. In a sense, Byrd was the Fred Jackson of the sixties. Felser finished his column that day as follows: "They say Butch Byrd handled the news of his trade with class. It figures."

When Ron Darby was having a tough time in pre-season, there was a lot of concern on this board with the McKelvin injury, I was reminded of Butch Byrd's rookie season in 1964. (yeah I am that old) Byrd was a rookie (4th round draft choice) and he got toasted all preseason, but Lou Saban kept playing him back there all preseason- he started that year, did a great job and Buffalo won their first championship, in part because of strong secondary play with Byrd, George Saimes, Hagwood Clark, etc. I hope Darby turns out the same way.

Guess it is a slow off season. Lets' just let training camp play itself out. A lot of quarterbacks improve going into their third year, would not surprise me if EJ is much improved.

I remember being at that game. Namath through like six interceptions, a few were pick sixes, one was returned about 98 yards. Still the Bills almost blew the game on a blocked punt late in the game. I think they won 37-35 if my memory serves me right.

I'm surprised a lot of people are mentioning Gailey. When he came here Buffalo had one of the worst squads in their history. No one got more out of CJ Spiller. I agree his biggest fault was being to loyal to his assistants, especially on the defensive side of the ball. I agree that his best position might be offensive coordinator. I guess I liked him because he was a class act and when he was fired, left thanking everybody and said he would always be a bills fan. Good guy.

You know you are an old Bills fan when: You paid $6 for a ticket to see a bills game. You remember the day Butch Byrd was drafted. You remember Bo Roberson. You saw Mike Stratton's big hit on Keith Lincoln either live on tv or at the game. You remember all the articles Larry Felser wrote about Cookie Gilchrist and Jack Kemp. You remember the day the Bills were crowned the AFL champs

I keep hoping that EJ has the "Nigel Bradham Syndrome". All last off season, the biggest "hole" the bills had was considered to be at linebacker. We brought in Brandon Spikes and Keith Rivers, drafted Preston Brown and Randall Johnson and then Kiko got hurt. In all the discussion about linebacker, Bradham was an afterthought, and was considered no more than weak depth. Bradham kicked it around and now his a solid starter. Let's hope the same for EJ.

I would like to see Spikes back as well as we are dangerously thin at lb. An injury or two and this could be problematic.

+1 I think this a good for Bills, but also Urbik, He stays put, makes a decent salary and has a great chance to be backup guard/center at worst, while getting a chance to show new coaches he is starting material.

Whaley did say a few days ago he would turn his attention to the o-line. So far nothing has happened that we know of.

Bills drafted three lineman last year and probably will look to those players for depth, if they can't break into starting lineup. If Incognito starts that leaves Urbik, Kujo, Henderson and Richardson to battle for remaining OG and OT position. Would be nice to get a solid starter in one of these positions anyway and one of these four could fill the remaining spot.

If we could sign Justin Blalock for between 3-4 million/year for say a two year contract,,,,,, what do you think?

Actually I was thinking the same thing this afternoon. There hasn't been much free agency pursuit on the Bills part for the o-line. I still think adding Justin Blalock is a good thing. But the offensive line still needs some shoring up. Since Whaley already acknowledged this, I believe some things will happen.

I would love Blalock in Buffalo. At this point it will be EJ or a slight upgrade at quarterback. We need to build a strong oline around whoever is at qb and help them with a strong running game and good pass protection. For 2015 at least, this is our ticket to the playoffs.

Blalock, Incognito and Wood would give us a formidable interior with Richardson and Williams as backups or release Williams to save cap.

Signing him and Incognito would pretty much replenish bills interior.

Jerry Hughes was so little thought of his first few years he was traded for Kelvin Shepherd. Hughes better thing twice that the Bills turned him into a semi star and he might be better off staying put.

Anyone know if this would be broadcast. Is wgr carrying it?

Tom Sestak was an animal line, Bills all pro guard Billy Shaw used to say that Sestak was the best lineman he ever faced. Like Dareus he had the benefit of playing with some other all pro like lineman like Jim Dunaway at the other tackle spot, and Ron McDole and Tom Day at ends, and linebackers Harry Jacobs, John Tracey and Mike Stratton. They had a formidable front seven with all pros George Saimes and Butch Byrd in the defensive backfield. It was an awesome defense. Sestak had years of spectacular play. Hard to judge until Dareus career is through.

And this week we have a Hackett led offense against a Belichek defense.

I suspect Oakland to try to control the game by running the ball, Bills D has been a little vulnerable in that area lately. If they can control the game through their run game and get a turnover or two, this could be very interesting.