Mikie2times

By drafting a safety that high being elite or not is the difference between being a bad decision or a good one. Whitner should be judged in the context of the elite safeties because he was drafted in a position before most of the elite safeties. I'm not exactly giving kudos to Marv for finding what looks to be a very good safety in the top 10 until that safety turns into an elite one. I especially won't when we could have had Ngata, and I'm not saying such in hindsight. I started the draft Haloti Ngata bandwagon about 4 months before April and half the wall was on board.

I don't think Reed is polished enough to be that guy. I just don't put him in that class in terms of route running, or being refined like a sound vet. Then again I just looked at what’s available and I can't say I can find a player I'm talking about. Not one Bill Brooks in the group. A lot of the 3rd down issues also seemed to come from a lacking ground game. We just need to improve on 3rd down, especially if we have playoff aspirations.

The only way possible we trade him is if we draft Lynch. If we knew we wanted Lynch and he was available when we picked, we would most likely draft him and then trade Willis. Look at it from the Bills and McGahee's perspective. You just drafted a player’s successor during a contract year. It would be a major blow to McGahee’s next contract. Fuming would be an understatement to describe how McGahee would feel. Concerned he would go in a Travis Henry like catatonic state; Levy decides to trade him while he still has a small amount of value left. They would start Lynch, because if they didn't think he was an immediate starter they had no business drafting him. To me if we draft Lynch it's more plausible we trade Willis then keep him. Having said all this I think it’s unlikely we draft Lynch.

I wasn't referring to you in my post, just making a general statement.

I was a proponent of the larger Red Zone threat but I'm not nearly as concerned with it after watching JP in the RZ this year. What I would like to see is possibly bringing in a Vet who can fill in as a possession WR. He doesn't exactly have to be Shawn Bradley, but a good underneath WR with seasoned route running would help out a lot on 3rd down. Issac Bruce seemed to fit that role when Holt came into his own. Moulds seemed to fit the role with us before he left for Houston. We need to get better on 3rd down, and we should by bringing in that Vet and improving our run blocking.

If it's your opinion Lynch isn't going to make a great pro then you’re entitled to it. I haven't watched enough on him to decide one way or the other. My beef with not factoring in Lynch is with the people who think we shouldn't because we need help in other areas, or that RB's are a dime a dozen. To consider Lynch he needs to be graded as an elite difference making RB. A player like that is ten times more valuable then a normal RB, and supercedes all other needs. I'm confident that if we pick him Marv and Co. will do it believing they've found a top 5 RB. To select him under any other condition would be the lunacy you describe.

The reasons you discredit Lynch could just as easily be applied to Walter Peyton (Jackson State), Marshall Faulk (San Diego State), or LT (TCU). All of whom had a significant amount of space to work with do to inferior competition threw out college. RB will be a need in 2008, and if we decide Lynch is an elite RB it's not pure idiocy to consider drafting him.

I'll take one of those with a high motor.

He couldn't pick a coach for us, which hurt him a lot more then his ablity to find talent or manage.

I'm not disputing the validity of what he's saying. Lots of teams try and follow this strategy and aren't successful in locking up everybody. We've even followed this strategy with players like McGee and Schobel, and probably tried unannounced to us with others. The way I read his comments implied it was some sort of Bills error that led us to these circumstances. That if we dealt with these contracts two years ago we wouldn’t be in this position. It came off like that because of the context he's used in previous chat sessions regarding our team. If it was a general comment regarding the strategy all teams should use then so be it. I just don't find similar league lessons explained when he discusses the rest of the teams. The Bills and our fans have a clear inferiority complex but this is one of the examples where I actually believe a writer has an agenda with us, and it's not a positive one.

His comments insinuated a Bills error by not signing our guys two years ago. It wouldn’t bother some so much if it wasn’t part of a routine we see week after week from Mort. He injects comments like this for us, while rarely passing similar judgment for other teams. It doesn't make everything he says unreliable, but he's not impartial when discussing the Bills, so what he says regarding our team isn't exactly reliable either. His insights both good and bad, are no more valid then many of the posters on this board.

What professional injects a comment like that? It's as if he's the one Buffalo let go. It's real simple Mort, your guy TD might have brought in some good players but he couldn't pick a coach to save his life.

In hindsight I believe Buffalo would choose Ngata over Whitner. At the time I don't believe Ngata was Jaurons ideal fit for a DT, and Whitner was for a S. I felt he choose wrong, and still do. But Whitner is going to be a very good player.

All those years the Bills have shown profitability have been years in which league wide revenue sharing was intact. It allowed the Bills to have the cheapest prices, while still having enough for the cap and profit. With the new CBA Buffalo will no longer qualify for all of the revenue sharing they received in the past. Even worse the salary cap is rising at a rate reflecting the entire league, most of whom qualify for all of the revenue sharing. If we want to remain competitive and meet the demands of the increasing cap we will have to raise prices. Eventually we won't be able to raise prices anymore because the Buffalo economy dictates such. We would either lose profits by overspending or spend less then other teams and try and stay competitive. Either situation isn't exactly enticing for Ralph, and I imagine it's even less enticing for a buyer. These are the real problems that face us over the next 5 to 10 years. We need to continue acknowledging them and get creative in how we can keep our team profitable and competitive in Buffalo.

At some point over the next ten years Ralph will most likely not be the owner of the Bills. It's sad, but he's getting older and those are the facts we have to deal with. Whoever it is that takes over will be inheriting a team that is either way under fulfilling the entire cap allotment, or barely reaching it by squeezing out every last possible source of revenue from the Western New York market. The cap won't then just level off, it will only continue to rise, and it will continue rising at a rate much higher then the Bills revenue can or ever will keep up with in the WNY market. No matter what we do now to nickel and dime our way above water something will eventually give, and that most likely happens without Ralph around to keep the Bills in Buffalo. Buffalo will stay loyal to the Bills and do whatever it takes to keep the team. With the NFL going international Canada seems like our only real hope of keeping the Bills 10 or 15 years down the road. If we can successfully become Canada’s most followed NFL team we have a long term outlook, when right now all we can try and do is fight to keep up with the cap. That’s not a situation many new owners would love to stay in. If this comes at the expense of a couple home games a year its hell of a lot better then the Bills leaving Buffalo, both for fans and the WNY economy.

Please explain to me then how we will be able to keep spending up to the cap? We probably won't even come close this year.

We (The Bills) wouldn't want Plexico anyway; he's a complete head case and polar opposite of the Marv player.

Ever since the new CBA the idea of Buffalo being in trouble isn't for the paranoid. Politicians can talk about sell outs, but sell outs won't save us. We could sell out every game for the next 5 years and it won't save us. As each year passes the gap between what we spend on players and the salary cap will grow. It will continue happening under the rosiest attendance scenario we can come up with. How can we remain competitive under such circumstances? This isn't baseball.

It's safe to say this franchise is doomed unless we become Canada's main NFL team. How else could we survive? We pay a fraction of what other fans pay to go see a game and still barely fill it up. Sure if we win we can sell out, but how can we consistently win if we can't spend to the cap. Even then selling out won't be enough to keep the Bills in Buffalo 10 or 15 years from now. Promo's idea might be drastic but drastic is what we will eventually need. Perhaps we could lay out a strategy targeting the Canadian market but not going as far as to move the team or change the team name. Maybe stick with renaming the Ralph , and doing some sort of split for Home games between Buffalo and Canada.

I can only speak for the 360 as that’s the only one I own. Good The premium system is pretty amazing for all it can do. I can stream music from my computer while playing other games, upload pictures, movies, download game demos or movie trailers. For these reasons hooking it up online is a must. The controllers are also very comfortable which was important for me coming from Sony land. Everything else I'm sure you've read about. Graphics are right on par with PS3, good selection of games, and some very addicting first person shooters. Bad I bought my premium system in late November. Two weeks after buying it the system took a crap. I received the three red lights of death error as it's known by many in the 360 community. I didn't even know the systems had any issues when I bought it otherwise I would have bought the warranty from the store. To make a long story short these babies get REAL hot and some systems overheat. Obviously Microsoft hasn't pulled everyone of these systems otherwise I wouldn’t have got one in November. Microsoft did send me a new console which seems to run much cooler then the other one, and I'm yet to have a problem. You can get the error lights for a whole host of other reasons, so they don't necessarily mean your systems done, just sometimes. I would purchase the in store warranty that way you don't have to wait a couple weeks to get your new console from Microsoft if your 360 craps out. It probably won't happen, but I really regret not doing that. The last gripe I have is the lack of good sports games. I think we can blame EA's exclusive rights BS partially for this, but in general the first person shooters and other games blow away the sports games right now.

By this logic no team would ever start a rookie MLB. It's not written in stone that the MLB calls the plays anyway. They usually do, and London was a very smart and prepared player, so he called them. Everything you find on Willis says he is in the mold of London in terms of preparation. He could probably do it his first year but if we didn't feel comfortable with him Takeo Spikes would do just fine.

BALT/IND Under 20.5 half, Under 41 game New Orleans -5.5 Chicago -9.5

But what if he isn't? I'm really starting to think that's possible. He looks very Marshall Faulk like to me and has good size. His YPA career averages against USC are all very solid, so he performs up. Depending on what he runs he might not even be around at 12.

I don't like the idea of drafting a RB when we still have Willis and all these holes, but if the Bills feel Lynch is that rare talent that can make up for the line then you have to consider him. Just because RB isn't a glaring need now it probably will be next year so it's not as if we couldn't still use a long term option. The best way to play this could be to wait until about the 7th or 8th pick and if Lynch is available start making some calls to trade for Willis. I would look for a 2nd round pick. If a team is willing to accept the trade and Lynch remains available when we pick then move forward with both. If Lynch isn't available go ahead and draft Patrick Willis.

Funny you mention college being what the NFL used to be. I wish I could be a fan of a college team like I'm a fan of the Bills. I enjoy watching the college game so much more. I just don't think being a true fan of a team is something we choose, more like the team chooses us.