yungmack

Spoken like a true child of WNY! If things are going too well, doom must be just around the corner. I know the feeling all too well.

Um, I guess you haven't noticed that that's what the Bills have been doing since Buddy took over.

If you consider that Buddy, along with the highly regarded Mike Mayock, don't think this year's crop of DEs are worth a top ten pick, then it would make sense to trade down. However, with MW's signing, the Bills no longer have a need for that pass-rushing DE in the draft and so now might keep the 10th pick and use it on a WR or LT. That's possibly what Kelly meant.

I was disappointed the Bills didn't grab Davis coming out of USC. Would love to have him finally.

Dead on accurate. Which is why it's silly to keep going on and on about upgrading the offense as the first order of business. Sure, it would be fantastic to have all future Hall of Famers and the Bills are far from having any right now on offense. But the O is "good enough" right now as it is while the D is still killing this team. The D has to be able to generate more 3-and-outs. Do that and you give the ball to the O more times in a game which will translate to more points. Fail to do that and your "good enough" offense doesn't have the time or talent to generate enough points to win on a consistent basis. The Bills simply put must focus on the defense. BTW, putting Wanstache in charge is tremendously heartening even with the D as it is. Replacing Edwards with him might be the biggest off season move the Bills make.

My take on the Stevie situation is that he knows the town, he knows the team, he knows the coaches, he knows the system and he's Fitz's security blanket. Why would you (the front office) let him walk away? After all, if he signs elsewhere then the Bills have to sign a receiver at least as good or else the 2012 season is really in danger. And what is a FA receiver going to cost? At least as much as Stevie and probably more. And that's assuming they could even entice one to come to Buffalo. WTF is the front office doing? Get him signed and put this behind you.

I believe that under the terms of the current agreement, each team receives an equal share of league money. And also under that agreement, they are required to spend a set minimum. So as cheap as Ralph may be, he doesn't have the leeway to just stuff the league payments into his fanny pack. Areas where owners can be cheap or lavish (that is, outside league mandates) include coaches salaries, scouting departments, training facilities, etc. If you're looking for evidence that Ralph is cheap, I'd suggest you nose around in those areas.

Just in case you haven't as yet noticed, the NFL financial system is completely based on the socialist model. It's basic premise is, "Share the wealth." Of course, the lion's share goes to the owners.

On that same segment where Mayock said he wasn't sure that Coples should be a top pick, he also said he hates the DEs in this year's class. He wasn't at all sure any of them deserve going in the first round.

And Stevie is from San Francisco...

The Giants were 9-7 and won the Super Bowl....

It seems to me that if the Bills are to use their first pick on a DE, that person has to be a significant upgrade over the DEs currently on the roster or else it's a waste of a pick. On the other hand, if there's a "Bruce Smith" available, by all means grab him. Right now none of the guys being talked about seem to be a major upgrade nor do they begin to approach Bruce's talent.

:lol:

I can think of reasons to have them everywhere "just in case." But do you really want to live in that sort of country? Actually, I think we already do.

Buddy Nix runs a top scouting department so I think it's safe to say that they've seen every single player in the FBS and maybe all the way down to Div. III so right now they have a much better idea than any of us about who's the best for the Bills needs. The Combine is where those beliefs are refined and confirmed, and where Buddy and the others get to see the top guys all in one place. It is highly unlikely that they will be shocked by some unknown kid from Podunk U who comes out of nowhere to be the sensation. That only happens in bad movies.

The Pats were a couple of freaky plays away from an unbeaten season just four years ago. And without Welker's drop or Brady's boneheaded intentional grounding, they might very well have won Sunday's game. So it's kind of hard to get my head around the tone of some of the criticism around here that seems to come down to "the Patriots are a shadow of their former selves." My fellow dudes and dudettes, we can only hope and pray the Bills "deteriorate" to that level.

One of the weakest HOF classes ever, especially when you consider who was left off. Tim Brown, Cris Carter, Andre Reed AND The Big Tuna? Seriously? For Cortez Kennedy? Huh?

Where to start? I still remember missing that first Super Bowl, and I'm having a hard time forgetting the loss to the Pats this past season.

Financial reporter Ron Insana is also from Bifflow. Now, wouldn't Insana and Blitzer make for a fine linebacking duo?

A couple of things: First of all, Buffalo is actually one of the largest media markets in the country if you take Ontario into consideration. For some insane reason, the league pretends that Ontario is invisible, that televisions in Fort Erie, Hamilton, Toronto somehow can't pick up American broadcasts, that Canadians can't buy pizza, beer, cars and all the other crap that's advertised on an NFL game. Second, the other teams don't share very much of each other's revenue, or at least not enough to make it worthwhile going through all the hassle of moving a team. If that were the case, it would make more sense to more the Jaguars, for example. A good Bills team almost guarantees 70,000 plus attendance.

Are you sure about that? I seem to remember him having Dareus in that spot.

Why your premise continues to be a point of argument for some people is beyond me. Yes, you must have a good offense (or at least a "good enough" offense). But even the finest offense is useless if it can't get on the field. A good defense limits an opposing offense's time-of-possession, which limits its chances of scoring while increasing its offense's scoring opportunities. The best example of this truism is our own Bills in its offensive heyday in the 90s.

You might be correct. Then again, when you lose your security blanket receiver (Parrish)and then your already young and inexperienced receiving corps falls apart through injuries, you lose your "QB" center, your left tackle, your running back...and then the kicker you know can get you a "gimme" 3 points when all else fails, maybe you start firing the ball quicker than you should, or you force plays or you just in general don't have the same confidence in the players you're left with as you had earlier in the year.

I was following your thinking until I hit this: "But the Bills can't afford top talent." Really? Maybe I'm wrong, but I thought every team had the same amount to spend on talent and not a penny more. And I seem to remember as well that the Bills have gotten themselves in trouble by spending too much for talent. So maybe the problem isn't that they can't afford talent so much as it is that they either don't choose to spend it or they've managed to screw up the budget by overpaying for underachievers. As to Gailey's shortcomings with game plans, you do remember that the Bills were one of the top offenses early in this past season, right? Then receivers started to drop like flies. Then Wood, Jackson, Bell, Chandler et al, went down. I'm not suggesting that Gailey handled it properly but it's pretty darned hard to game plan when you're flying guys in on Friday, signing them on Saturday and putting them on the roster on Sunday. The problem with the Bills isn't the offense per se but the defense. If you get your opponent off the field with a 3-and-out, and do that frequently, not only don't they score as much -- and your offense isn't playing from behind so often -- but your offense gets more time on the field and more shots at scoring. If you want to improve the offense for 2012, then focus on the defense. And on keeping the offense healthy. Do those two things and Gailey will look like a genius

Are you serious???