yungmack

When I hear experts on QBs talking, the three factors they all seem to agree on as the most important are an ability to quickly recognize the defense; quick decision making, and pinpoint accuracy. Ideally, you'd also like your QB to have a strong arm, and mobility. But all the the strength and fleetness of foot in the world are useless if you don't have those three other abilities.

Cookie Gilchrist just might be the greatest overall football player of all time. The great Paul Brown thought enough of him that he signed him right out of high school (in western PA) and stashed him in Canada. Unfortunately, Cookie's career was too erratic to qualify for the HOF. It's one of the great shames.

You might also add Jack Kemp and Darryl LaMonica to Cali QBs who've played for BFLO. And I believe Joe Ferguson hardly ever saw a snowflake until he moved to WNY. Weather didn't seem to bother Mark Sanchez this past year. Carson Palmer does alright in Cincinnati. John Elway surely did okay in Denver. Warren Moon made his reputation in...Canada. And I believe several people around here have supported bringing Jeff Garcia in. No less than Bill Walsh endorsed Trent Edwards as the second coming of Joe Montana. So maybe, just maybe, it isn't where the QB comes from but the TEAM and the COACHES that guy gets in his career that really matters. As, for example, Drew Brees under Sean Payton. Do you think anybody in the San Diego front office is banging their heads against the wall today?

Um, Green Bay not only did not waive him this past November, when Buffalo made him an offer, GB immediately moved to match BFLO's. Mike McCarthy is extremely high on Brohm. Here's the relevant quote from Wikipedia: "Brohm was signed off the Packers practice squad by the Buffalo Bills on November 19, 2009 after the Bills waived Gibran Hamdan."

Ha ha!

From here in LA, it seems to me that people from WNY have a built-in inferiority complex about the area so I thought I'd throw in a couple of stories you might like. First off, I'm friends with one of the top writers of mysteries/legal procedural novels. But when we became friends nearly 40 years ago, neither of us had two nickels to rub together. My friend is from the Bay Area, a graduate of Cal Berkeley, an epicure and gourmet and the kind of guy who keeps a place on a Greek island. So you can imagine my surprise when he once told me how much he loved Buffalo. Turns out he had a couple of friends who got jobs in Buffalo and he'd go visit them. And when one of his Bay Area friends was promoted to the NYC office he quit because he didn't want to leave WNY. Second story: The produce manager of my local supermarket was a guy from Hawaii, with the full-on "da kine" accent. We had a "How ya been" sort of relationship, nothing more until one day I came in with a Bills cap on. "You're a Bills fan?" he asked me. "Me too. I try to get there at least once a year to see a game or two." This seemed so out of the ordinary that I had to learn more about how he became a Bills fan. Turns out his brother worked in Buffalo and owned a small "gentleman's farm" in, if I remember correctly, Elma, and had married a local girl. So it wasn't so weird that this guy would visit Buffalo. But what really knocked me back, considering he was from Hawaii, a place most people I know consider pretty much a vacation paradise, was when he told me he loved to take his vacation in Buffalo, that he had more fun there than any other place he'd been. In fact, he liked to go in the winter when he could play hockey on his brother's pond! To quote the old William De Vaughan song, Be thankful for what you got.

Bob Sanders comes to the Bills and...Schobel has one of his better years overall as does the D-Line. Maybe it's a coincidence but considering he (Sanders) is staying with the Bills, I hope it has to do with his coaching.

Anyone have any thoughts about the game? Any players move up or down in your estimation? For myself, I was pretty impressed by Graham, from Michigan. And LaGarrete Blount. I also think QBs Canfield, Pike, Brown and Tebow played themselves out of any possibility of being picked in the first three rounds. LeFevour looked great, both in the shotgun and under center, while also making several nice long passes (I thought he had a second pass TD on the left side but the receiver looked to me like he slowed down).

Mayock can only say who the best pick for a team would be. He can't make them pick that player. And I think if you go back over his choices for just the Bills and who the Brain Trust actually picked, he sure looks a lot brighter than the folks at OBD.

Um, the Coliseum? The Rose Bowl? 90,000 plus seats in each? It isn't that LA doesn't have stadia, it's the NFL's persistent insistence on a brand-new one with all the modern bells & whistles (and loads of mega $ private boxes) that has constantly road blocked a move here.

I don't understand all the Tony Pike love around here. Did you not watch the Senior Bowl? At least Tebowism seems to have died down.

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned another fellow who is both connected to Buffalo and able to buy the Bills with pocket change: Warren Buffett.

This is factually incorrect. The Rams were very well supported in LA. The reason they moved to St. Louis was for boatloads of money. Taxpayers in SoCal refused to be blackmailed into building a new stadium for the Rams. Now, if you want to get worried about the Bills moving to another city or country, read this article in today's Los Angeles Times: http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-nfl-me...0,3949352.story

I would almost bet that the critics of the southern accent haven't traveled around the US very much. If they did they might realize that, to the ears of lots of people in other parts of the country, the "typical Buffalo accent" makes us sound, um, dumb, too. As the Chicago accent is very much the same (really, it's the common nasal accent with the harsh "a" sound found all around the Great Lakes), you need only call up on YouTube some of those old SNL "Da Bears" skits to get an idea of how funny the rest of the country thinks that accent is. One other thing about "drawls" being heard around St. John Fisher this summer. D'Alessdandris is from Aliquippa, PA and Bicknell has his roots in Boston.

The thing about the Maybin pick was that he WAS a one year wonder at PSU. And one of the very few positions the Bills didn't have a critical need for last season was a replacement for Schobel. If those two factors don't add up to "head-scratching pick," here's a third one: All 4 of the USC linebackers AND Michael Oher were available when the Bills chose Maybin. So the Bills take a classic tweener with a very small body of work at the collegiate level as a backup to one of their better players while letting proven talent who could contribute RIGHT NOW pass them by. That's the essence of the frustration with the Maybin pick. A couple of things I already love about Nix is that he's not into one year wonders, and he's not into projects who have to be converted to new positions where they MIGHT contribute a few years down the line.

As the old adage goes, opinions are like a-holes: everyone has one, and most of them stink. Mine too I suppose. But wouldn't it be better for all of us if people actually based their biases - er, opinions - on facts, which can be gained with maybe a little more study of history? Then we wouldn't have to sound like Archie Bunkers, braying away at the end of the bar. So here are my comments on two of the more prevalent opinions being expressed as facts. High Birth Rate = High Poverty. Even the most cursory study of demographics and economics shows that that formula is exactly backward. It should be: High Poverty = High Birthrate. Since birth control has become widely available in the years since WWII, the birthrate has dropped in countries around the world precisely as the populations in those countries attained greater economic stability (the Middle Class effect). This is true even in such staunchly Catholic countries as Italy, Spain, Ireland and most recently in Mexico, where the birthrate has stabilized and begun to drop with the growth in the economy. Where high birthrates continue in these countries and others such as India, it is found almost exclusively among the poor. Middle class Mexicans, Indians, Egyptians and others tend to have two or three children. China of course has the One Child laws. But interestingly, and even though you can pay a stiff fine and have more than one child, the well-to-do there seem not to want to have more than two children. Haitian History: When the French Revolution broke out, with its declaration of Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite, the slaves in Haiti made the not-unexceptional conclusion that this should apply to them as well. And so, inspired as well by the recent revolution in the US, they revolted against their "masters." It was long, it was bloody, and it was finally successful. Haiti became only the second independent republic in the western hemisphere. Then, having chosen to hew more to the American form of governance than the French, turned to the US in expectation of support. Instead, it got the back of our hand, largely because the slave owning aristocracy in the US was in shrieking fear that their slaves would rise up and slaughter every last one of them. Which, come to think of it, would have spared the rest of us the god-awful cost of the Civil War. As my fellow Marines, former or active, can tell you, Haiti has been interfered with ever since. Throughout the 19th century and well into the 20th, the Caribbean and Latin America were practically training camps for the Corps. That, of course, was at the order of the federal government, which then as now was beholden to special interests who wanted to exploit the resources of those nations. Then the fear of omnipotent Communism led the US into supporting one of the most brutal and violent dictators in the world, Doc Duvalier, and later his son, Baby Doc, and their Ton Ton Macoute, effectively undermining any remnants of democracy in an unequalled reign of terror (which the American taxpayers subsidized). Today the country is effectively owned, lock, stock and two smoking barrels, by six families, all with cozy relationships to American elites going back generations.

Two of the positions where rookies are seldom started -- and when they are, they're seldom successful -- are LT and QB. So if the Bills draft for either position at #9, that's a pretty clear statement that they're "drafting for the future." But I don't think RW or the fans have much appetite for "wait 'til next year." Of course, the fans, myself included, will probably go just as nuts if they don't get at least a very good LT onto the roster. Kind of an interesting quandry which is why I think we could see a trade for that elusive LT.

FWIW, heard a report than if Favre retires, Vikes will go after McNabb who has a relationship with Childress.

While we're all caught up in figuring out what the Bills need, who'll be available at #9 and arguing over who they should draft, it's good to remember that at best, the draft is a crap shoot. No matter how good a job the scouts do, it seems a fairly high percentage of draft picks (20%? 40%? 60%?) never live up to the lofty expectations that come with their draft-day position even when they make the squad. And while that's true of every team, it seems particularly true of the Bills and their first round picks in the last ten years, so many of whom have been outright busts. In addition, the higher the position of the pick, the costlier the contract. And it's human nature for the people who picked that player to stick with them year after year (Losman, Williams). Plus that player is taking up a roster slot which might have gone to a player who could have helped your team. On the other hand, you already know the track record of players currently in the league. Unlike draftees, who your never really certain about until they get some real life NFL experience, you know what guys currently in the league can and cannot do. So, considering the needs the Bills have -- and if Schobel retires, there's another major hole to be filled (unless you're content with Aaron Maybin) -- and the pressure to have at least an exciting and competitive team right away, I don't think it would be a bad idea at all to trade that #9 pick (and maybe some others) for one or more proven players who can immediately contribute. Comments?

Funny!

It is almost always silly to pick a RB in the first half of the first round. Really good backs are one of the truly "dime a dozen" positions and can be found later in the draft or in free agency. For example, Fred Jackson. Also, RBs have about the shortest career span of any position. If you're drafting in the first half of the first round, you are going to pay a premium for your player. Best to use that slot for one of the critical positions, and one that has a long career span as well.

They traded up to get him. Sounds like they expected him to be exactly what he's become.

Lefevour might be an unknown to many who post on TSW, but he's far from unknown to the scouts. He has a huge booster in Mike Mayock. He'll be gone in the first round.

Gailey is the 15th. Out of that whole bunch, only four have winning records: Saban, Knox, Levy and Phillips. And while the Bills are on their 15th head coach, the Steelers are on their 4th (I'm pretty sure) over the same time period.

Can you give me one solid reason for preferring Clausen over any other QB in the draft? I have to say, whatever his supporters around here see in him escapes me.