Typical TBD Guy

Very troubling, indeed. Makes you wonder how he did in the interview with Chan? Extrapolating from that video, I'd say he bombed it.

A Pulitzer Prize-winning article right there. All that's missing was a jab at how much it snows in Buffalo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=No1UKN-SKlg

Anyone else getting turned ON by the lockout? Nothing gets old Randy hot and bothered like a great impasse in financial negotiations. But that's just me, I guess.

One might consider his refusal to secure the franchise's future in Buffalo as treating us badly ("us" being fans who have paid taxes in WNY that have gone directly to the stadium and who also buy tickets and merchandise because of the BUFFALO name association). One might also consider giving away one home game a year to Toronto as a slap in the face to all Bills fans who expect their team to at least try and compete. I don't see Pegula selling Sabres games to Hamilton for a tawdry money grab. Pegula knows that the fans will travel to Buffalo and will continue to sell out the games so long as the effort to field a competitive team is there.

Remember Corey Moore? Just dropping his name to remind you that college football and the NFL can be two very different beasts. Back to Fairley, I would think he has prototypical 3-4 DE size at 6'4" 295lb. Plus he offers elite pass rushing skills that very few 3-4 DE's in the NFL have. Plus he can pair up with KW as a 4-3 DT when needed. The only things holding back Fairley from being a perennial Pro Bowl DE would be his maturity and work ethic.

Oh lighten up, Francis. I was deliberately mocking how Newton gets compared to every other black QB instead of being evaluated as an individual.

Some QB the Titans drafted 3rd overall in 2006. The Raiders then proceeded to draft him 1st overall in 2007. Now he's entering the NFL draft for the third time this April.

But on the bright side, at least Ralph doesn't look like this: http://www.tiricosuave.com/2011/01/18/so-this-is-what-al-davis-looks-like-nowadays/

So then why do you have 16,000+ posts on a message board centered around a football team?

Baseball is a lame sport played by a bunch of sissies and fairies.

I definitely know what Kelly is talking about! I, too, have found Jesus in my life. My relationship with him really helped me grow as a person. The only downside was that he gave me herpes. Oh well. Live and learn, I say!

Don't forget "fat" too.

1. Miller 2. Dareus 3. Fairley

If you were in this poor boy's shoes, wouldn't you ask to meet with an attractive actress instead of spending time with some Chris Farley look-a-like cook???

Yeah, Fairley fell a bit in mocks because he measured in at 6'3" 290 lb instead of the expected 6'5" 300 lb during the combine. Could very well be a classic case of amateur internet scouts obsessing over measurables instead of focusing on game film. On physical talent alone, I doubt any professional scout has him ranked outside the top 5. Keep in mind a couple of random things about the human body: 1. Guys this size can add and drop 10 lb without any trouble. He probably drops bowel movements that weigh several lb alone. 2. During the course of the day, the human spine can shrink an inch or so due to gravity acting on the body's water composition. You will be your tallest in the morning and your shortest right before bed. Fairley would still make an awesome 3-4 DE, even if his pass-rushing talents aren't optimized quite as much as they would be as a 4-3 DT. He undoubtedly has Pro Bowl talent, even if not quite at the level of Suh. The issue with Fairley is going to come down to personality and work ethic. How will he react when he can't get by on talent alone? How will he react to all the easy money and sudden fame and intense pressure from being a top 5 pick? There are internet rumors concerning Fairley's questionable work ethic. Then again, I've read these same concerns for Dareus and Bowers. It's up to Nix to decide how serious these concerns are.

How does this parrot's 40 time compare to Peterson's?

IMO the author of that article, Gregg Doyel, focuses too much on the stats to suggest that Fairley is clearly the better player. But stats - especially college stats - are often misleading. Dareus played 3-4 DE in rotation, while Fairley played 4-3 DT for the vast majority of snaps. Here is my current rank of the top five 3-4 DL/LB players in the draft: 1. Dareus (3-4 DE) 2. Fairley (3-4 DE) 3. Miller (3-4 JOLB) 4. Quinn (3-4 SOLB) 5. Bowers (3-4 DE) As you can see, I think the Bills can't go wrong with either of the two mentioned in the article.

What the !@#$ is wrong with you people?! Over a dozen posts in, and no one posted a pic?! Unreal... http://thesundevils.cstv.com/sports/w-volley/mtt/mendivil_danica00.html

Some results from that recent poll the Pew Research Center took on Egyptian public opinion: 77% believe thieves should have their hands amputated 82% believe adulterers should be stoned. 84% believe that apostates from Islam should be executed. Thieves? Lara was accused of being both a Jew and a citizen of a country that supports Israel's "stealing" of sacred land. Adulterers? Lara was a woman dressed quite provocatively by their standards. Apostates? Caucasians over there are assumed to be Christians. Whether this violent mindset came to be from Islam or from tribalism or from some combination of the two...the point is that a clear majority of Egyptians believe in some pretty violent and irrational codes of behavior. I don't think it is so far-fetched to believe that an attack similar to what Lara Logan endured is much more likely to occur in a country - like Egypt - where violence is that much more condoned (and where women are that much less respected as citizens).

The guys who assulted her were the more fair representation. The "guys" who rescued her were actually women (plus military soldiers who probably had less altruistic reasons for rescuing Lara). All the Egyptian "men" were too busy beating and raping and standing around and taking phone pics of the assault. Face the facts: Egyptians are primitive people. Not in the genetic sense, of course, but in the cultural sense. Just take a look at the polls coming out that ask Egyptians their thoughts on rule of law and on women's rights. I realize that mobs can take on a psychological life of their own, but no mob in any Western country would have ever gotten this out of control for this long with a woman's very dignity in peril like this.

With your fatalistic attitude, you are letting the Bills front office(s) off the hook for their gross incompetence. Could you provide some evidence to suggest that other teams have been as incompetent as the Bills have in drafting 1st round DL's and LB's? The info I provided in the OP - even without any comparison with other teams - looks pretty damning to me. Since the AFL-NFL merger, the Bills have been 20% effective (2 of 10) at landing a 1st round DL or LB that was at least "mediocre." I'll define "mediocre" to mean capable of holding a starting NFL job about 3-4 years into his first contract...a pretty low expectation for a 1st rounder. The 2 anomalies were Bruce Smith and Shane Conlan. Bruce Smith, of course, was a homerun pick. But I have a hard time giving the Bills' scouts too much credit here when 99% of casual football fans in 1985 would have made that same pick. Shane Conlan was an outstanding selection. We even traded down from 3rd to 8th to make this pick. If not for injuries, he might have been a Hall of Fame candidate. Guess who made that pick? None other than BILL POLIAN, one of the greatest GM's in modern NFL history. Polian went 1 for 1 in his selection of front-7 1st rounders.

Thank you for the comments and criticism, everybody. Keep 'em coming! I'd like to address a couple points that have come up... Regarding the Cousineau draft pick, it WAS a busted pick. Yes, it eventually gave us the 14th overall in 1983 that turned into Kelly, but who's to say that the Bills wouldn't have taken Kelly at 12th overall instead of Tony Hunter if they knew they didn't also have the 14th pick? And was Cousineau really that much of a success with the Browns? I'd expect a LOT more from the 1st overall pick. Captain Hindsight would say that the Bills should have picked Dan Hampton (or Joe Montana, actually, but that would have been too controversial at the time). Also, I was NOT attempting to hold Nix and Co. accountable for the poor DL and LB drafting of the past 51 years. This was more of a "FYI/FWIW" and "Bills in general suck" type of post with no specific agenda. The only person who can ultimately be blamed for this is Ralph Wilson. None of us have any idea how long any of the current team scouts have had their jobs here, but they certainly have not been around with the team for as long as Ralph has. However, it might actually be fair to blame the current scouting team on the Maybin, McCargo, and even Flowers picks. All three were probably recent enough. So what lessons can be learned from these mistakes? Let's review: 1. Flowers - classic "workout warrior" who skyrocketed up draft boards much farther than the game film would have suggested. 2. McCargo - played on the same line as Mario Williams (1st overall) and Manny Lawson (22nd overall), so I'm guessing those two made McCargo look much better in college than he actually was. 3. Maybin - only had a few really good games against smallish OT's as a sophomore, and he was also - erroneously - projected to gain enough bulk to play 4-3 DE despite having the natural shoulder frame and torso of a WR. So basically, PAY CLOSE ATTENTION TO THE GAME FILM. Pay attention not just to the player's performance, but to the teammates around him and the competition he's playing against.

The Bills have had 54 first round draft picks in their history, and only 11 (about 20%) of those have gone to the DL and LB positions (which comprise about 30% of a roster). So right away, you can see that the Bills have not properly allocated first round resources to these 7 positions. The historical drafting percentage for a team's front 7 should really be closer to 40%, given the importance of stopping the run and rushing the passer to a team's success. But now looking closer at these 11 picks: 1964, 6th overall - Carl Eller - a great pick and a Hall of Famer who unfortunately chose the NFL's Vikings over the AFL's Bills. 1970, 5th overall - Al Cowlings - oh boy. 1972, 1st overall - Walt Patulski - yikes. 1975, 19th overall - Tom Ruud - oops. 1977, 12th overall - Phil Dokes - d'oh. 1979, 1st overall - Tom Cousineau - terrible. 1985, 1st overall - Bruce Smith - finally! 1987, 8th overall - Shane Conlan - another solid pick! 2000, 26th overall - Erik Flowers - thanks a lot, Mr. Butler. 2006, 26th overall - John McCargo - thanks a lot, Mr. Levy. 2009, 11th overall - Aaron Maybin - thanks a lot, Dick. Is it just me or are there a high number of epic draft busts in the above list? I'm not talking about sub-Pro Bowl play not commensurate with their draft spots; I'm talking about guys who could barely get on the field and stay in this league for more than a few years. Two things stand out here: 1. The Bills could not scout a DL or LB worth a !@#$ throughout the 1970's. 2. From 1988-2010 (23 frigging years), the Bills only chose 1 DE, 1 DT, and 1 Maybin...all spectacularly legendary busts. Guess how many 1st round DB's the Bills took during that same 23-year period? EIGHT. Yep. EIGHT. Just something to think about for this April's draft. Fairley, Bowers, Quinn, Dareus, Miller...do you think that Nix and Co. will pick one of them? And will they pick the right one? P.S. For those interested, our other 43 first round picks went to the following positions: 3 QB, 10 RB, 6 WR, 3 TE, 10 OL, 11 DB.