Yoho

I don't know where he gets this stuff.

Informed sources out of Buffalo tell me that the final cuts of the Buffalo Bills were dictated by more than performances on the field. It seems that venerable (read that- really old) owner Ralph Wilson interjected himself into the process. These sources report that some of the reasons for the final decisions were, to say the least, a little bizarre. Reportedly, Mr. Wilson decreed that all postions whose names ends in "end" were to be filled only by white players. Wilson kept repeating "Lonnie Friggin Johnson" and Erik Flowers as the reason for his decision. Further, Wilson ordered the release of Drew Haddad because, according to the source, he didn't want to have Haddad confused with Drew Bledsoe. When I go into the locker room and say "Drew, come over here, I want my big money quarterback not some two-bit wide receiver". Other decisions were based on the fact that Wilson's favorite player Travis Henry played for Tennessee. Wilson ordered all players from Tennessee to make the squad except for "that Dominique kid, I don't want a player on my team named Dominique". Finally, according to the source, Wilson ordered the Bills to "keep that magician kid (long snapper Jon Donrobes), I love it when he does the card tricks". More on this story as it develops.

Is he done for the season?

Hello Jay - I was being totally sarcastic. How can you possibly know who is going to succeed and who is going to fail before the draft? It is so stinkin easy to be a Monday Morning Quarterback and judge things after the fact. NO team gets right all the time or even 50% of the time. Give up looking backwards. What is done is done. If you want to criticize Donohoe base it on what happens this year and next. ANYONE can go back to every draft and find out who was successful and who wasn't and suggest that you should have drafted the successful guy. No NFL executive has ever been able to hit a high percentage. I can't believe some of the drivle here. But, then again, I am responding. Oh well.

This is easy. I know what we should have done on draft day. Not only this year, but the last several years. We should have drafted the players that have succeeded (e.g. - Boldin) and passed on the failures. All you have to do is look at the statistics the next year and it is easy to figure out who you should have drafted. I do not get why a highly paid executive like Donohoe can not get this. I believe it is his super gigantic ego that gets in the way, so he drafts guys that will get bad statistics just so he can prove that he is smarter than everyone else or he drafts guys that are connected to Pittsburgh. What a friggin idiot!

I am not any Patsie fan, but beating up on Rohan Davey, Mike Cloud and the rest of the replacement team does not tell me squat about the regular season. I believe it has been said here once or twice. It is the PRE-SEASON, get over it.

I retract it all. Zolman just threw an interception. Here comes 3-13.

They had the nerve to cut my man Asa Franics, even after his tremendous fumble recovery for a touchdown in the scrimmage against the Browns. If Asa can go, so can Sape. Nothing is sacred.

Of course, we could backward, but that was exactly my original point. All you can hope for as a fan is that there is a reasonable chance if things go right that there is enough talent and potential to make a run. We all know that things can go wrong and we can be 4-12. If you are as old as me you know that we can only one game all year (happened twice). We can all write a scenario where the season is an utter disaster. Maybe some of you were spoiled by the Super Bowl years, but I remember Bills teams in the 70's and 80's that were picking people up on the waiver wire the week before the season and starting them on opening day. Those were teams without hope. This team has a lot of talent and potentially good coaching. Let's hope it comes together rather than obsessing about all that can go wrong and highlighting the limitations of every player. Lighten up and have fun.

The thing I wonder about is - if Bledsoe has a comeback year and goes to the Pro Bowl again will they be happy that the Bills did well or will they be unhappy that their predictions were so wrong?

Thanks, but, yes, from reading this board, I am more than well aware of the disaster that is about to befall us.

As a lifelong Bills fan (and that means a fan since the Bills began in the AFL), let me play old guy and offer some perspective about this years team. The most you can hope for in the salary-capped NFL is that you can look at your roster and develop a realistic scenario that this can be the year. There are NO sure things, NO teams without holes and NO teams with comfortable depth. I see a top ranked defense that needs to improve on turnovers (they have shown improvement in the preseason). If the defense can remain in the top 10 and move to the top 10 in turnovers, we have a chance at a serious run, no matter what the offense does. I see an offense with a lot of tools- a healthy Moulds, 2 potentially great running backs, a new weapon in Lee Evans and a quarterback who is undoubtedly a great leader with a great arm (please do not feel the need to list his limitations, it has been done here approximately 2.7 million posts). Maybe with the new coaching staff and new philosophy, we can become at least an offense in the top half of the league. There is no way I can make a realistic assessment of special teams until we get the regulars out there. Yes, Lindell does worry me, but he has shown moments, now can he consistent? Maybe. Are we guaranteed a playoff berth? No way, neither is anyone else. Could we have another double digit losing season? Of course, especially with injuries. But, we have a legitimate shot. Believe me, there have been many, many years (2002 being the last), where it was almost impossible to put on rose colored glasses and make a case that we could go a long way. For those of you who are convinced that we have no shot this year, I feel a little bad, because the late 80's, early 90's glory days are over and likely will not be coming back. If you want to root for a sure thing, I would suggest becoming a Yankee fan (who can spend twice as much as other teams) and then you can be successful every year. Let's hope that this is the year that it all comes together. If you can't do that 10 days before opening day, I am not sure what the fun is in being a Bills fan.

He is way ahead of what I thought about Greg Williams at a similar point. I didn't like the stupid tactics like airhorns at camp to wake up players, his lack of experience in choosing assistant coaches and his overall smug, uncoachlike looks.

So far today, stevestojan has promoted Jim Rome and Extreme Makeover as outstanding examples of American entertainment. And he wonders why I don't respect his opinions on matters concerning the Bills..........

I love pro football and only have a religious affiliation with one team - the Bills, but given that choice I would have to give up the NFL. The alternative would be to give up the NCAA basketball tournament in March, the Masters on CBS (just a wonderful spring experience), the playoffs and the World Series (I used to be a baseball junkie, but have soured, but I am not ready to give up the great series when they come around), the Olympics (I don't care about all of it, but there are always moments), spring training, the occasional great NBA series, and waking up hungover on January 1 for a full day of bowl games you don't particularly care about but would miss if they were not there. It would mean 20 weeks of sports and 32 without. 32 weeks of x-games, NASCAR and strong man competitions. The only way hell could be worse would be a 24 hour per day Jim Rome show, annoying female play-by-play announcers, the only TV station being a 24 hour all-hip-hop music channel and the Mime network.

I asked this question this morning but as the usual crowd rushes in, I wanted to get the late nighters opinion.

Thanks for making my point about the connection between gratuitous name calling and the enjoyment of Jim Rome. I also enjoyed the cheap shots about the stick and the attitude. Have the Bills cut pussywillow yet? Thought you might enjoy it one more time.

I realize everyone has fallen in love with this guys height, weight and speed but let us look at the evidence. 1. NO ONE drafted him. Every scout that looked at him took a pass. 2. The team that did take a look at him cut him at the first opportunity. There is something that doesn't show up in the draft guides folks. Either he is incapable of learning the intracacies of a pro system, he has no work ethic or there is something else going on that worries all the scouts and the Bills. Some guys are just draft guide wonders but are not football players. That is why I rarely get carried away with draft guide rankings.

The best I can figure some "fans" gain some sort of psychic satisfaction if they can develop insulting nicknames for players they don't like. They find it even better and evidentally funnier, if the nicknames have some sexual connotations. Just to get as far as he has, Mike Pucillo must be an incredible football player but maybe just not quite NFL material. Not one of you would call him kitty willow to his face but are emboldened by your anonymous nature here to be big shot name callers on the board. The best I can figure these are probably the same people who find Jim Rome hilarious.

We all seem to be happy with our starting linebackers and we were fortunate they stayed healthy last year, but what is the progress of our young linebackers-- Stamer, Crowell, Stevenson and Haggan? Are they ready to step in? I know some of you get a chance to see (and record) the preseason games and do some analysis of the tape. Any observations or opinions on our linebacker depth? I know we have Gildon, I am just not sure he will be with us on opening day. I am wondering about the younger guys.

I am only for using gadget plays when they work. We shouldn't run the plays that don't work. I want to run, run, run the ball. Unless we go out 3 and out then we should have passed the ball more. I only want to run pass plays that do not result in sacks. If Bledsoe gets sacked then it was a bad play. I want to blitz and be aggressive. Send them flying. But I don't want to use blitzes that could end up in long pass plays against us. See, that was easy.

I really think that any Bills fan who thinks that TD is a horrible GM should be forced to stay after school and write "Stew Barber" 500 times, followed by 500 more of "Terry Bledsoe..." You know, the Bills may be victims of their own success and have drawn front runner fans who only want to follow a winner. For those of us who lived through the mostly awful years from 1967-1986, being a Bills fan was a labor of love. There were no front runners rooting for the Bills. Some of those teams were beyond embarassing but there I was every Sunday hoping that magically this was the week that Perry Tuttle would live up to his reputation or that Walt Patulski would finally get a sack. I remember us picking up players off the waiver wire the week before the season and they would start opening day. However, our success in the late 80's through the mid 90's drew a new sort of fan; the type of fan who would have been Cowboy fans a decade earlier or whatever team was winning at the moment. Everybody knew guys like that when you were kids- they were always rooting for whoever was winning at the moment. Now, some of them are stuck with the Bills as their team and can not handle a little adversity. No slow rebuilding program for them. Success now or we fire your ass and start a new rebuilding program. Organizations run that way start to look like the San Diego Chargers in a hurry. It is hard for us old-time Bills fans to realize that those sorts of fans would follow the Bills. Believe me, there were no front-runners rooting for the Bills in 1969 or 1984. So, to all of you, sorry that the Bills are not winning every year to your satisfaction. I hope it doesn't have a negative effect on your egos. For the rest of us, seeing the talent that Donohoe has assembled in this salary cap era and the realistic hope that we can go a long way if things fall right this year is good enough for many of us.

Take this for what it is worth and I am not naming names, because I would likely never get information again if I did. I was told by a !@#$, that Donohoe knew he had a serious problem early in the season on play calling and implored Williams to address the issue but Williams never took control. Greg was loyal to his assistants. Dononoe refused to order Williams to do anything because the GM felt that word would get around the NFL that the coach is not allowed to make his own decisions and thus would limit our ability to attract a talented coach the next time around. It is not Donohoe's style to micromanage (by the way, I believe he is correct). When Williams did not take action, his fate was sealed but Donohoe saw little value in firing Williams and hiring an interim coach that would have to rebuild our offense past mid-season. Instead, he played out the string hoping that the coaches would figure it out. Obviously, they did not. This is what I was told by someone at One Bills Drive.

I understand, and sometimes enjoy, the off-topic posts. I recognize the need to expand our horizons beyond Jonas Jennings ankle. However, I would implore people to keep worthless bantering over inane topics to a minimum, especially while the Board is having trouble. I know, I know, I just did it myself, but I ask you to look at the number of posts that I put up here over the years and see if you can accuse me of overloading this site. To get this topic back on subject. It appears the Asa Francis era is over.

I am confused. Do you think it sucks or do you think it blows? Either way, it is certainly colorful and insightful analysis and a Freudian could have a good time trying to figure what is on your mind.