yungmack

This is from The New Yorker, Feb. 16, 2015 issue, which had a long article on Andrew and, to a lesser extent, Mario Cuomo. As his second inaugural approached, which would take place both in NYC and in Buffalo, Andrew kept trying to get his father to accompany him. But Mario was too weak and close to death. Andrew decided to give it one more try, and this is the quote about that from the article: "So Andrew made him an offer. If Mario felt up to it, Andrew would take him along to Buffalo: 'And he loved Buffalo, my father. Buffalo was probably the worst-off part of the state for a lot of years. And the Buffalo Bills were always an underdog, so he was very drawn to Buffalo, as am I.'" It was just as Andrew Cuomo stepped down from the stage in Buffalo that he was informed that his father had passed away.

Could be. In any case, there is no Magical Quarterback Man who's going to come riding into town on a unicorn, trailing rainbows and lollipops, to take the reins in B-Lo for a run to the Super Bowl, because there isn't one, not in the draft, not in free agency, not in a trade (unless the Bills have video of an owner or GM in bed with Michael Jackson and a gaggle of little boys).

This never ending obsession over the QB situation continues to drift further and further from reality. It's like the Buffalo Chapter of Dungeons and Dragons after awhile. The two main themes that keep being gnawed on are clearly the result of deep ignorance or of mental deficiencies. To whit, that a McCown, a Hoyer, a Sanchez, a Glennon are somehow automatically such a big enough improvement over Manuel that the front office should trade Dareus, or a dozen draft picks or a bale of Pegulas money to get them into Buffalo, where the days of Heaven on Earth will suddenly prevail. This in spite of enough statistics and enough eye ball evidence that none of them -- as in zero -- are markedly better than EJ and in some cases are clearly worse. The second obsession is even worse, that the Bills should trade for one of the elite QBs (or at least an almost elite QB) on other teams, as if the management of those franchises are insane enough to trade Rivers or Brees or Roethlisberger or any of the rest, as if it never occurred to them that their success is built around the QB position. But those other GMs are not morons, so if they did in fact show a willingness to trade one of those types of QBs, you can be assured that they have determined that that player is about squeezed dry and they're going to try to snooker some rube. A subsidiary to both of those fixations is this idea that keeps being brought up, that the Bills absolutely have to draft a QB this year to replace EJ, again in spite of all evidence that none of the ones available in '15 are anything but "fixer-uppers" who would require more work than EJ. This faith-based fixation seems to be based on a belief that there is either a QB Tree out there where you can go and pick a ready-made franchise QB. Or else it's just an aspect of the well-known delusion that guys on other teams are always better than the guys on our team. While the odds of the Bills drafting one of the mediocre crop of college QBs this year is virtually 100%, I doubt they will do so believing that the new guy will be "The One." And anyone around here who continues to think that the Bills "savior" is hiding in plain sight in the draft needs the care of a mental health professional. The real reality is that EJ, like it or not, is the best the Bills can do this year, even after dragging in every single available QB in the land. So let's hope that those who say he's got what it takes and just needs the right coaching are correct. Because if his critics are correct, it's going to be a looooong season.

Whether or not you like EJ's chances to become at least a dependable starter, here is the reality of the situation for the Bills: Every QB in this year's draft who is likely to be available to the Bills is, at the very best, about the same as EJ and likely not as good as him. So why would you draft one of these "projects" when you already have a project in EJ? If you think Hundley or Mannion or one of those other guys is going to be an instant improvement for the Bills in '15, I think you are delusional. They're projects, EJ is a project; how is that an improvement? That leaves the Bills in the market for an experienced NFL QB, which they can get in either of two ways, by a FA signing or a trade. Let's get rid of the last option right away because no team is going to trade an elite QB UNLESS there is some compelling reason to get rid of him. I mean, if Green Bay suddenly made Rodgers available, wouldn't red lights start flashing? So the ones who might be available would be the likes of Cutler or Bradford and, boy, I think they'd be dancing the De-troit Shing A Ling in both front offices if they could onload those two disappointments and their heavy contracts on some other suckers. And personally, I don't see how either one would be enough of an improvement over EJ to justify the cost of that trade. So that leaves One Bills Drive with but one option, signing a FA QB. And as far as I can see, none of the names being tossed around can in any way be seen as a big improvement over EJ. Matt Moore? Mark Sanchez? Sheesh, even freakin' Brady Quinn has been mentioned. The Bills will definitely sign one and might very well draft one as well because they are too light at the position. But to think that whoever is added to the roster is going to be a big upgrade over EJ and take the team to the promised land this season is pure folly. There just aren't any QBs out there who are in any way, shape or form enough of an improvement to come to that conclusion. And that's the paradox the Bills are facing.

He lived in Amherst??? Head coaches pretty much live 24/7 at the office so instead of OP, he puts himself at the other end of the county. Yeow. BTW, it's odd that none of the Bills people live in one of those nice estates along Old Lakeshore Road.

Without Florida, Texas and California, the NFL would be a vastly different creature. And youth/high school football participation is in a severe decline in at least California.

Glad I already had breakfast before reading this.

Otto Graham. Ten years, ten straight championship games, five wins.

As the OP reports, Lynch is not particularly good at 1 yard goal line plays (one for seven and a minus one yard net on the season) and the Pats have been pretty darn good at stopping those runs of late. So with three plays, 26 seconds and one time out left, a pass might have been a good idea, just not the one they ran. If ever a situation called for the read option, I believe that was it. Others are saying they should have run it and even if it failed, it would have forced Belichick to call a time out, so the Hawks would have gotten a "free" one to set up their next two plays, with their last time out in their pocket. Still and all, I'm leaning toward the idea that you should have run the ball with Lynch those final three plays. Ah, well, at least an original AFL franchise won.

Just to be clear, I was not suggesting Gehry should be the architect (though I'd be interested to see his concept). Rather , I am hoping for some "outside the box" thinking instead of the usual sterile approach. And I agree Main Place must go, along with the Skyway and perhaps the snake nest of ugly highways in the immediate area. And while they're at it, let's get the second Peace Bridge built. And show some sensitivity to the proposed area where the stadium would be built which is the historically rich heart of Buffalo going back to its Wild West days.

Evolution is not a matter of faith, it is fact. You are of course entitled to your opinions but not to your own special "facts." If you want to put it in religious terms, you can go with the Catholic Church position, which is that creationism is false and evolution isfctual because it was arrived at through Reason, which is a gift of God that separates His human creatures from the animals. And, for the record, the Supreme Court has guaranteed anyone can pray in public school so long as it is private, not public, and not forced upon the students by the school itself. That's because public schools are the property of all the citizens, not just the Baptists or some other sect. If you want more than that, start your own parochial school with your own money, just like Catholics have been doing in this country for nearly 200 years. I never heard of a public school where the Pledge of Allegiance is prohibited. Your overall opinion on these topics seems to have more in common with the faux fights like the phony "war on Christmas" that the Foxites trot out every year.

According to reports, the Hawks ran Lynch from the 1 yard line 7 times this season for 1 touchdown & a net -1 yard gains overall, so that might have entered their thinking. Still, I would have run Lynch 3 times. And if he didn't score, you at least went with your heart and soul of the offense.

Let see if I've understood the situation: The Bills had a decent team in '14, with the exception of the OL, which declined rapidly in the two years Marrone oversaw it; and the QB which made zero progress in two years under Hackett. So Jacksonville hires those two jabones to run the OL and to coach the QBs? Ah, yeah, well, okay.

Once, a very long time ago, when Buffalo was the 8th largest city in the country, it was the place where all the best, most "modern" thinkers about urban space, seemed to be plying their trades. Louis Sullivan, the father of the skyscraper and a son of Chicago, had to come to Buffalo to build. He was followed by other greats, such as Frank Lloyd Wright in architecture, and Frederick Law Olmstead, who designed Delaware Park as part of the visionary lay-out of the city designed by Joseph Ellicott, an acolyte of Pierre L'Enfant, which essentially saw the city itself as a park, with neighborhoods connected by parkways and greenswards. What stands out about this past is that the men with the money to build offices, factories, houses and all the other structures of a city, and to commission those talented creators, seemed to always choose to go a step beyond the ordinary and utilitarian. They thought big and they thought -- no way around this -- artistically and modern. It seems to me that the Pegulas are kindred spirits to the Larkins and the other luminaries from that past. What they have already accomplished in a very short time is heartening, and is hopefully a harbinger of things to come. With that in mind, if a stadium is to be built in the city, I would like to see the design commission go to a visionary, someone who can rethink the current dull approach to stadiums and the areas where they dominate. I would at least like to see someone like Frank Gehry be part of the mix. Or perhaps someone completely out of left field. What I do not want to see is just another looming gargantuan structure that's dark for nearly all the year, its size and location chilling the area where it is eventually sited.

Here's a quote from Lee about EJ that indicates he at the very least finds positives about the kid: "I’m excited about EJ Manuel,” he said in Mobile. “I liked him coming out and I’m looking forward to working with EJ, that’s for sure. I remember that Florida-Florida State game and he took off and he beat a fast Florida secondary with his legs two or three times. I know what he’s capable of doing. We’ve just got to cut him loose and let him go play.” I think a lot of us around here who are on the fence about EJ feel that he hasn't been given a proper chance to play the game the way that's best for him, and it sounds like Lee feels that way too. We'll see how it works out but I'm encouraged that he says that what needs to be done is to "cut him loose and let him go play" instead of yadda-yadda-yadda about footwork, and release angles, etc.

Besides refreshing my memories of why I liked him coming out of college, these are a few of the things that stood out in the video: 1 - On many of those plays, EJ was reading the entire field, not just "half the field" as some have said he did at FSU; 2 - All the plays were out of the shotgun; 3 - I really like O'Leary. He'd make a nice "blankie" for EJ like Fleener does for Luck

I see this was posted by kpegula.

Wasn't this guy a rat in NO, with the "bonuses for hits" scandal?

I believe it was conclusively shown that Monos wasn't even present when he supposedly had a heated argument with Marrone. Was it Rodak or LaCanfora who got this all screwed up?

With all the revelations about Marrone that have come out since he bailed on the team, and reading between the lines of what Pegula and Whaley have said, I now have a much different view of this past season. It looks to me that the tensions between Marrone and the FO might very well have a whole lot to do with each of them having different goals and expectations in regard to Manuel. I think it's very likely Whaley, et al, thought of the '14 season as extended training for EJ, a true development year. I believe they would have even been content with a losing season if Manuel grew and showed real progress towards being the franchise QB they planned for when they drafted him. That's the only way that the Watkins and Mike Williams signings make real sense. On the other hand, Marrone seems to have decided to do as much as possible to pad his own resume even if it came at the expense of EJ's growth, which is why he benched him so precipitously, and did it without consulting Whaley. I think he might have decided to do that from almost the moment Ralph died, knowing there was a "free" $4 million just sitting there that he could grab, while moving to the head of the coaching line at another team if he could show progress with the Bills. And if the switch to Orton had gone south on him, and the team wound up with a poor record, he still had two more years on his contract with the Bills. For Marrone, it was a win/win situation.

Seriously? You actually wrote this and the very uninformed and wrong headed criticism of Brandon that followed this incredibly nasty statement. You do know that Brandon is the guy who hired Whaley,, don't you? And oversaw the sale process of the Bills? So lett me ask you a question, in all seriousness: What is wrong with you? On a daily basis, are you a very unhappy human being? Wow. I guess this isthe world we live in now, where vitriol and disrespect and hatred and even violence are considered normative. I suspect Brandon and the rest ofthe FO are decent enough people just trying to do the best for the Bills that they can. You, on the other hand, seem deranged.

Serious question: Why is it necessary for you to call him "Schmuck?" Seems extremely hostile on your part. What did he ever do to you? Or to your dog?

Rex already met with Jim Kelly....

If you haven't done so already, you should listen to Rex on Murph's show. Heck, the guy even went to games in the old Rockpile!

Taken a hit? It's like Berlin in '45.