yungmack

Based on your "reality is what I want it to be," I'll bet I can guess with 99.999999% accuracy who you're going to vote for as president

I think you're 100% correct. I could see the Bills winning 11 -- which would put the fans over the moon -- and not making the post-season -- which would depress us all. HOWEVER, looking at the schedule, I don't see a single game where they're so overmatched that they have no chance of winning. That's a big change from recent years. Realistically, I don't believe any of us expect they'll go undefeated but with a little bit of overdue Bills luck, they do have a shot at winning the AFCE (i.e., they sweep the Pats and wind up with the same record, & the Jets and Dolphins have fewer wins) with 11 or 12 victories. And I think 12, and even 11, wins could win it this year. I actually think they have a better chance of winning the East than making it as a wildcard team.

The Scajaquada ... just for the fun of hearing all those ESPN, NFL and network announcers try to pronounce it.

So far, under Goodell, the NFL has been clear that it does not intend to expand beyond 32 teams. As to LA, it would like to eventually put two teams there. Obviously, if the league isn't expanding, then those would be existing franchises. Will one of them be the Bills? I don't think so. But here's the wildcard: there's a guy here in LA who is from Buffalo (can't remember his name right now), has several billion in the bank and has previously expressed an interest in buying the team. If he did, would he want to keep them in Buffalo or move them to LA?

For the record, the team we're all so excited about this year is directly the result of Brandon's work. In case you've forgotten, after "retiring" Marv Levy, Brandon became the de facto GM. And when he did, one of the first actions he took was to quietly entice Buddy Nix back to Buffalo. He then gave him a year to assess the situation and once he was up to speed, put him in the GM's chair. The draft and the FA signings also began improving once Brandon took charge. No, they were far from perfect (ya gotta figure Maybin was a concession to Jauron, and when that went south, Brandon was in a better position to jettison him...and eventually, to get rid of Modrak as well). What began happening under Brandon was that the additions to the roster began to make sense, began to point in the right direction. So, yeah, let the guy bang the ball around without hammering him, will ya?

Back in the good ol' AFL days, Ben Davidson of the Oakland Raiders was a legendary DE. Those were the days when you had two home teams you rooted for, the Bills and the AFL. Davidson was 72 and he died of prostate cancer. Here's the link to the story. I'm sure the NFL Network will cover it. Link

I don't know if you can write off any SB winning QB as "mediocre." But one thing I've noticed is that "gunslinger" style QBs have won far fewer SBs than than less flamboyant "system" QBs.

Top Ten!

Bingo! When you're looking at cutting a guy for financial reasons, that's the figure that counts.

Why this urban myth continues to make the rounds is beyond me. Probably the same mental deficiency that keeps people passing along the myth that Obama is a Kenyan muslim. So let me say this again: The LA Rams were a huge success in LA for decades. LA often led the league in attendance. But after Carroll Rosenbloom died, his widow, who some say had him murdered, began doing that old owner thing of blackmailing one city with offers from another in order to get a new stadium at LA's expense. When that didn't work, they left the 90,000 seat Colisseum for Anaheim's 50,000 or so seats, while tucking a nice chunk of money from the Orange County citizens into Georgia's girdle. And the attendance continued to be sellouts. But Georgia and her crew tried and tried to squeeze more out of the guvmint by playing one city off against another which finally ended with one of the great deals (for an owner) of its time. And so off the Rams went to St. Louis. The only way you could say LA failed was the city refused to give in to her demands. As to the Raiders, they initially started out with large crowds in the Colisseum. But before long, Al Davis started grumbling about the stadium, the deal, blah blah blah. When he couldn't shake down Los Angeles any further, he started making deals with other cities around the area, then reneging on them, and on and on, until he'd created a toxic mess for himself. When he couldn't squeeze the locals any longer, he ran back to Oakland (which gave him a terrific sweetheart deal). But he never again had the kinds of crowds he had in Los Angeles. One other thing: the Raiders went out of their way in LA to attract the thug crowd -- Bloods, Crips, Hells Angels, ex-cons, and any other sociopathic subgroup you think of. By the time the Raiders fled back to Oakland, sane people no longer went near the Colisseum.

LA won't pick up a penny of that fee. But AEG might. The owners will approve a move in one second flat. The NFL is dying to put a team in LA. In fact, they want two. And they don't want to expand to do it. The top 5 candidates appear to be the Chargers, the Raiders, the Rams, Jacksonville and the Bills, probably in that order. On a more positive note, once the LA slots are filled, there really isn't another city that makes much sense for a move, other than Toronto. And there's not much sense in moving 90 miles, into a market that doesn't appear to be that excited about an NFL franchise, and where there would be loads of lawsuits and roadblocks thrown up by the CFL and its allies. The best scenario for Buffalo would be for the Rams and, say, the Chargers to commit to LA before Ralph dies.

So the guy's forming an investment group? So far, no big deal. Hasn't Jim Kelly done the same thing? And there are rumors of a couple of other syndicates with their eyes on the Bills. The simple fact is that someone is going to buy the team sooner or later. And prices have been soaring across all the major pro sports. So, keeping them in WNY is likely to be an act of charity because I don't see how you pencil out perhaps a billion dollar purchase price in that area.

Nope, you're not the only one. I also think it's kind of lame Fitz didn't haul himself off to one of the coaches around the country that do this sort of thing on his own dime. Lots of QBs do.

I didn't see this topic until you'd already talked with him but a question I would liked to have asked him is if he was aware that a very large number of posters on TBD have been fans since he first came to the Bills. That, and how come he just seems so damned happy all the time.

If by unknown you mean "unknown outside of the Bills fan base," then you can pretty much include the entire roster with the exceptions of Freddie, Stevie, Merriman, Fitz and Mario Williams. As to which of them will make an impact, again I think it's nearly the entire roster because there are a lot of second and third year guys, and guys who are coming off injuries, who seem like they are capable of making a mark.

Quite a few of those interceptions came when the Bills were trailing, usually late. If the D is anywhere near as good as we think it will be, that shouldn't be the case this year. If the Bills aren't playing from behind, then they can run the ball more often, or mix it up more. The opponent won't be able to sit on the pass play knowing the Bills have to chuck it.

Not around here because...he was a 7th round pick, because...Ralph is too cheap to pay for a franchise QB so he can't be one, because...the large number of NFL talent evaluators who post here say so.

There is no player, no matter how good, that can't use an outside set of eyes to help improve himself. What I wondered (in regard to Fitz's remark) was why he didn't seek out one of the several highly regarded private QB coaches out there on his own. Some of the biggest QB names do it routinely in the off-season so why didn't a guy who was passed over by the major schools coming out of high school, and then played in a rinky dink program at Harvard, think that he maybe could use some help?

I don't think RW is involved at this point. When was the last time we saw him? Or heard from him for that matter. If he's out of it, someone must be overseeing the business side on a day to day basis. Who knows? Could be Brandon, with Mary Wilson overseeing from afar.

It seems to me that much of the criticism of Kelsay comes from his failure to be a reasonable facsimile of Bruce Smith instead of giving him his props for what he is: a Phil Hansen-type DE who unfortunately has not had a dominating DE on the other end of the line.

An overall good post but the heart of it is right there. An ongoing problem for the Bills for the last 20 years is an inability (because of management or because of the player) to keep top players at key positions over an extended period of time. Every time a player like Winfield leaves, you generally wind up expending a new draft pick on that position. And that means one or more fewer picks for all other positions. One last thing: for those of you who are down on the concept of drafting DBs high in the draft, all I can say is this ain't your daddy's NFL anymore. With the emphasis on passing and on big receivers -- and the use of TEs virtually like WRs -- CBs are among the most coveted players in the draft. And in Free Agency, they are commanding more and more money.

Most teams have a need for at least one of those positions so the question I'd ask is: Why aren't these guys being signed?

The Steelers used to be the Clippers of the NFL, a consistent loser decade after decade. Things didn't change until the "ownership" changed, That is, until Art Rooney turned things over to his son. It was under Dan that the modern Steelers were born, the model franchise we're talking about here. Let's hope the next owner of the Bills does the same thing, while keeping the team in WNY.

Moulds lives in the Buffalo area, Amherst I think. Or at least he was last year.

Seems to me you've confused the Head Coach with the General Manager. Whatever input Jauron had or Gailey has is subordinated to the GM and...(ta da!) a fellow by the name of Ralph Wilson. You want to B word about the choices made while Jauron was head coach, okay, give him ten or twenty percent of the blame. The rest falls on Donohoe, Levy and Wilson.