yungmack

They may be the best 3-6 team on the planet, as you claim. But they are 3-6, & that's all that matters. On the bright side, the team is on a path to grabbing a top QB in the draft. My choice is Marcus Mariota.

With enough time, EJ might turn out okay. Based on his play so far, I don't see any grounds for optimism. Still... Two words: Marcus Mariota.

I have very few reasons for saying this, but I think Tuel will be at least okay Sunday (if he's the starter). I don't much hold the Cleveland game against him mainly because I don't think he should have even been in the backup slot to begin with. You need an experienced guy in that spot, a "game manager" type, not an inexperienced rookie taking his first NFL snaps. So the few reasons for thinking Tuel will be okay Sunday come down to this: he showed some real promise in the pre-season; I have confidence in Marrone and Hackett as evaluators and they like him a lot; he's had a week with the first team; the mess in Cleveland likely snapped him into greater focus, maybe cranking up his competitive juices; he should have SJ and FJ on the field and in decent health, and he's capable of getting the ball to Woods, who's been MIA with Lewis. I don't know if this adds up to a win for the Bills but I don't think it will be a disaster at all with Tuel under center.

Maybe would could trade him, Byrd, Mario and Kiko now that they have some peak value.

I'd prefer him to be playing and learning in games. So looking for a silver lining, I think in a weird way, his sitting and watching was likely what the Bills projected him doing anyway which is why they brought in Kolb. I don't think the Brain Trust thought he was a day-one starter like Andrew Luck and would have preferred nurturing him well into this year. At least that's what they were saying right after the draft. Then, if he was developing the way they hoped, he would probably have gotten his first start right around week ten. Hope springs eternal.

Remember when Stevie was in exactly the same situation, unable to get on the field ahead of guys like Hardy? There was a faction around here that thought he'd be great if given a chance, and another, larger faction that shared your opinion, that if he wasn't getting playing time, it was because he wasn't good enough. Not saying Easley is another Stevie, just that he might be and we won't know until he gets regular time in the offense with a decent QB.

When Doug Flutie was languishing on the bench, he practiced a lot with a receiver who had difficulty getting playing time, Eric Moulds. But when Rob Johnson went down and Flutie took over, and Flutie Mania hit, suddenly his practice buddy went from being a bust to a revelation. On a smaller scale, that's what's happened with the much-reviled TJ Graham since Thad took the reins. Right now, I wonder if Matt Flynn is developing something similar with Easley and maybe Hogan, and that if he has to take over, might one or the other of them become his go-to guy.

Woods is having the same QB problem TJ had with EJ.

If Matt Flynn is up to speed, should he start against the Chiefs?

I know this can't be true but it seems like ESPN's Thursday Night Baseball game is always Yankees-Red Sox.

Yes, that was the story at the time, one that of course, considering the times, was never publicly mentioned. However, what I heard was that it was teammates wives (plural). Never heard about a coach's wife. Darn, too bad Larry Felser isn't around; he would know the story for sure. Anybody connected enough to Van Miller to ask him about this? That's totally accurate. Also, Ed Rutkowski was the "emergency QB." I was at a game at the old Rockpile where the fans were booing Kemp and shouting out "Bring in Lamonica." Finally Saban did exactly that. And he did as bad a job as Kemp. So the fans started chanting, "Bring in Rutkowski!" I seem to remember that he did. Great days, great fun.

Tremendous story, thanks for finding it and sharing it. Living in LA, and following high school sports for a long time, it surprises me that I never heard a peep about this guy.

The Bills were always going to replace Buddy with Whaley; that had to be the deal. If you remember, Brandon effectively took over the team and made himself the GM. What he did next tells me that the Bills FO situation today was planned out from the beginning. First off, he brings back Buddy Nix, age 70, retiring from football, to head up scouting, an area that was not in the best shape. And that's what Buddy took care of from the start and through his entire tenure. Having wrested control of the team from whoever, and with the scouting department renewed, Brandon turned the reins over to Nix who almost immediately brought in Whaley to mentor. Remember, Brandon had gotten to know Whaley and clearly identified him as a real football administration talent. That's as much a Brandon hire as Buddy was. Among themselves, they identified the key player positions that needed shoring up and went to work on them for the next three years, a plan that's bearing fruit right now. Having gotten the team back on the right path, with Brandon's control over the team formalized, and with Whaley ready to take over, Buddy finally got to that retirement he was headed to 4 years earlier. Do I know this is exactly what happened? No, I do not. But the signs are all there that this or something very much like it was the plan all along. Buddy was never going to be the long term GM and he must have know that from the beginning. My guess is that Brandon would have liked to hire Whaley as GM right out of the gate but either judged that he wasn't quite ready for it, or would be destroyed by stepping into the mess that then was the Bills so he turned to an old Bills guy who was done with football in any case, a first-rate talent and scouting evaluator who gave the Bills respectability with players and agents while helping to stabilize the situation in the wake of Donohoe and Levy. I could imagine Brandon saying something like this to Nix: "Look, I know you're retiring. But could you give me one year and get the scouting department back in shape? And if you find you've still got the fire for the game, I'll bump you up to GM the next year. You only have to do that for two or three years because I've got a young guy who needs a mentor like you, then he can take over. It'll be a nice capper to a great career. What do you say?" The two biggest knocks I hear about Nix is that he made a "bad" hire with Gailey, and that he never drafted a franchise QB. As to the first, unless you've been in a coma, the Bills were such a toxic situation that not only couldn't they hire a top-tier coach, they couldn't even get them to interview for the job. Contrast that just three years after Buddy was named GM when they were lined up around the block to get a shot at the job. And as to drafting a franchise QB, Nix never had a shot at the top guys and refused to "reach" for one when he had so many other holes to fill. BTW, if EJ works out, then Nix will have drafted the franchise QB. But of course, that was Whaley's pick.

Ken, a very nice article. I had no idea Lamonica still came back to Buffalo or that he had no hard feelings towards the city or the team. Man, that was about the worst trade in Bills history. We can only fantasize how things would have gone had Lamonica replaced Kemp in the late 60s. Thanks for the read.

Not a single solitary soul around here knows for certain how the draft was done and who held final serve. But I'm pretty certain about one thing, that all the people who "know" Nix was powerless, and "heard" from unimpeachable sources that Whaley made the calls, and have the "facts" to prove Nix was a bust are exactly the type who get their "facts" and "knowledge" from FOX/Limbo/Hackity. It is so much easier to get behind a belief system that suits our biases when we do it without any real information or facts, in our addled minds.

Steelers weren't Bettis's original team. Still, you're right that the league would be able to promote the hell out of a return to KC, especially if the team is in the mix going into the playoffs. Noticed that the Bills are not mentioned as a likely spot for any of those ten players.

I worry about NO's running game, especially if Pettine focuses on shutting down the passing game.

Great post, brought back a lot of memories I hadn't thought about in years. Mazer was the man in those days and few have come close to him since.

You are right on point. This syndrome is at the heart of the extremely serious situation our nation is in.

I don't for a minute believe they'll do it, but the Bills are capable of winning all four. They've generally been competitive, several of the walking wounded are returning, the win against Miami has to give them a morale boost, and Lewis will have more experience as a starter. And what if they did win all four? Would you then sit Lewis and put EJ back in the starting slot? That would take some very big brass ones for Marrone to do that. But if he didn't, what would that be saying about the team's commitment to the supposed "franchise QB of the future?"

It's a good idea to stay up on the news about your team before jumping in the porridge pot. Go listen to Marrone's press conference where he explains exactly why he called time out at that point. On the return, he thought his knee was down on the 33. But you can't challenge inside the final two minutes. Instead, the officials are supposed to do that up in the booth. So he wanted to make sure they had the time to do that before Miami ran a play and made the question moot. The Bills didn't get the call they wanted (and should have gotten) but it was a pretty heady decision in my opinion.

Nuts sez the Jack, I gotta 'em and I ain't.

I wanted the Bills to draft him coming out of USC. Now? Not so much.

Dolphins were coming off a bye week, and playing at home, a significant edge, especially considering the Bills have been atrocious on the road and against teams coming off a bye. So in that sense, this was a significant win for the Bills.

Required reading for all of those who tsk tsk player injuries.