yungmack

Why oh why do you say this? Please explain.

While I would agree that it isn't the player's fault in which round he gets drafted, and that he shouldn't be blamed for "not playing like a first round pick (Whitner, for example, who is a perfectly good player but not on the level of a first rounder), the thing about Maybin is that even if he had been a free agent signing, he's just not good enough to play in the NFL. And had he been just a free agent signing, he'd have been cut looooong ago.

Gotts ta git yer facts right, bubba. The LA Rams were one of the most successful franchises in the NFL for decades, often leading the league in attendance. Carroll Rosenbloom essentially traded the 'Skins for them because he saw them as a money machine. When he died, his wife, the Widow Georgia, and her flunkies tried to hold the city up for massive money, which led them to move to Anaheim where they still did okay even as Jawja worked overtime to make the team non-competive as part of the plan to move to St. Louie, where massive amounts of public money were shoved into her greedy hands (her machinations were the inspiration for the owner (female) in the movie, MAJOR LEAGUE). The Rams so "owned" LA at one time that the Los Angeles Chargers (named to promote Conrad Hilton's credit card business, btw)packed up and left. The Raiders threatened to move to LA as a ploy by Al Davis to hold Oakland and Alameda County hostage. When that didn't work, he moved the team. Like the Rams, it too was quite successful in LA. But then Al started his "show me the money" games with various municipalities in SoCal. And when that didn't work, he pulled off a deal with the now compliant pols in NoCal. As a side note, the Raiders have never since matched the size of the crowds they had in LA (nor the success). So, the NFL never did fail in LA. In fact, it was highly successful there. What happened was two scumbag ownerships tried to hold the city and county hostage to squeeze taxpayer money from them. They failed at that, and so found suckers in other parts of the country to pick up their tabs.

I think he learned which coaches have to go.

Kellen Moore.

I agree. That Fitzcarraldo is terrific.

"LA" didn't steal anything. The owners of the Minneapolis Lakers moved the team to Los Angeles. They didn't sell until later on, to Jack Kent Cooke, later the infamous owner of the Washington Redskins. For the historical record: LA Rams began in Cleveland; Dodgers in Brooklyn; Lakers in Minneapolis; Clippers in Buffalo; Raiders in Oakland, and the Chargers in LA (so it would be fitting for them to move back). BTW, Al Davis claims the LA market is the property of the Raiders so that adds another element to the ongoing "NFL in LA" saga.

Tom Donohoe had a rule of thumb that you don't give big contracts to guys on the wrong side of 30, which apparently was the reason the Bills didn't offer Williams a new contract. As to the complaint about not giving Williams a contract, but overpaying for Kelsay, this is FOUR front office regimes later. I see no correlation.

Dog, you've done a good analysis here. I would only add "balls" to your list. Kelly had them, Flutie had them and Fitz has them. And the distinguishing flaw with Edwards was his lack of them. I don't mean physical courage (every QB who steps onto an NFL field has to have that quality). What I mean is the willingness to execute high-risk (and high-reward) plays. The inability to pull the trigger in those situations was what led to Edwards nickname of "Captain Checkdown." He was just too fearful of failure in those moments to "just do it." One of the things that has most impressed me about Fitz is how he will fire the ball right between two or three defenders, which is one of the key reasons the Bills are exciting even when losing. And this leads to another characteristic he's shown: the willingness to take the risk will sometimes result in turnovers. When that happens, some QBs become cautious and conservative (Edwards). But I haven't seen a bit of that with Fitz. He seems to accept that sometimes "the bear eats you" and goes right back to doing whatever is necessary to move the ball. That's a tremendous quality, one that's very Jim Kelly-like.

One of the great "what ifs" in Bills history: What if Wade was the DC for that Super Bowl run?

I find most of them sub-par. They're all "Masters of the Obvious," reliant on the same tired, tired cliches (I think if I hear "He's takin' it to the house" one more time I just might lose what's left of my mind. Where is this house? Does it have a porch? Is he going to jump through a window? Is Mama home?). I'd like to see them go with a single announcer in the booth. That would separate the men from the clones.

I wasn't expressing surprise that a 7th round pick didn't make the team (although the Bills have a pretty good record with lower picks). What was surprising was how quickly he was cut (which is fairly unusual with draft picks), that he wasn't offered a practice squad slot, and that apparently no other team in the NFL or the CFL or the Arena League gave him a look. Which raised the question in my mind that the Bills horribly whiffed on the selection. Or that there is something that hasn't been made public. After all, a good many FAs who are cut seem to wind up at least getting a try-out with one or more teams. As to being slow, or with poor technique, or just a mauler, those are things that should have been known before any training camps. And if he's so bad that not another single team even bothered to give him a look, then I'd want to seriously consider terminating the scout who championed him. Like I said earlier, it's not that big of a deal, just something that's nagged at me lately.

Dylan Ratigan too. And the half-time guys on CBS (at least on the west coast) where in hysterics, laughing at Johnson.

While not an elite lineman, Calloway was good enough to garner generally quite favorable reviews from scouts with a number of services and many teams. It seemed at the time that he was a solid "value" pick by the Bills, particularly considering the dearth of O-linemen on the roster. So I was very surprised when he was cut so quickly. But, hey, that happens. So I figured, well, he was a successful starter on a very good college team, good enough to get drafted, surely he'll at least wind up on somebody's practice squad. But no, he's not with anybody, at least that I could find. And that seems mighty odd to me. My question to you guys who follow this sort of thing in depth (maybe John Wawrow, et al) is this: Did the Bills just miss wildly on this guy? Or is there something else going on here? Character issues perhaps? Or something physical? This is a fairly minor question but it's been nagging at me.

God is a Steelers fan. Everyone knows that. And NE is Satan's Own.

So only the fictitious top 4 teams would get to play for the fictitious National Championship? What about the next 6 teams? Or the next 16? Keeping in mind that, give or take a better performance or another win by a Big Ten or SEC team this very year, it's likely that the Non-Q teams such as TCU or Boise State would not be in the top 4. And if they weren't, would fans be satisfied that the final victor in this scenario really was the best team? I sure wouldn't. When you boil it down, all this proposal amounts to is adding another bowl game so that the colleges and the TV networks can make even more money. People would still be arguing that the best team was one that didn't get to play. Which, by the way, is what we have already. And it's fun.

And how exactly would that work? In order to arrive at a "fairer" outcome thru playoffs, how many teams would be in them? 64, like basketball? The top 25? 10? And how is the top 10, or 25 determined to begin with? And how many playoff rounds have to be played to arrive at "the best?" Can it be done in less than 3, 4, or even 5 weeks? A playoff system would be no more fair than the current polls. Leave it the way it is. Oh, and Boise State this year would beat Ohio State 9 out of 10 times.

One of the greatest players ever was Jim Brown. If he absolutely had to, he'd run into the defenders (or, really, run OVER them). And sometimes he'd do it to punish someone. But what he was famous for, and often criticized for, was running out of bounds when he determined it was foolish to go any further. Jim Brown retired at 29, with relatively excellent health. He also held most of the rushing records for years and years. And he did it in mostly 12 game seasons, with the only post season game being the championship. And the Browns were one of the best teams ever.

While Paterno's suggestion might eliminate the intentional helmet-to-helmet hit, you'd most certainly have a major increase in head injuries from all the inadvertent hits.

Not surprisingly, Ed Hochuli was the referee today.

For a number of reasons, greed among them, I think the NFL has peaked. Anyone who has young kids (up to, say, age 30)knows they just aren't as interested in football as kids were 20, 30, 40 years ago. Sure, there are exceptions. But it appears to me that the days of being "America's Game" are passing away. That's a factor in the owners push for a new bargaining formula. Not that the game itself will fade into oblivion -- that won't happen. But I believe it will settle in the way MLB has, where the TV ratings for the recent World Series (a fun one too) were less than Dancing With The Stars. And that's not necessarily a bad thing. It would mean the game returns to the days of the 50s, 60s and 70s, where the money was way less but the game seemed more fun and belonged more to the rabid fans.

You make some very good points. I would only add that this next draft is likely the last one where the top picks can count on walking away with enormous sums of money. So if Luck comes out in the 2011 draft, that's a sign to me that he understands the financial implications. And so I don't think he'll screw around with the "I'm not going to sign with Buffalo" tactic. Of course, I don't know if the Bills will pick him, even if they have the first pick.

I think your friend's father was correct. Reich had been QB-ing the team very well (including that phenomenal comeback), Kelly was rusty and far from 100%. I thought Levy made a mistake not going with Reich. And it's not like backup QBs can't succeed in the Super Bowl; two of the three QBs who whipped the Bills in their four losses were backups.

One of the better posts on Luck. We should be so (excuse the pun) lucky to get him.