Ed_Formerly_of_Roch

I think the only thing that changes is they may pick a def lineman/end instead of a LB. Or may make trading down more likely You want to pick the best player available, (or within a couple of what you rate as the best) but if its' in a position you don't need, then maybe you trade down. Persoanlly I'd like to see them trade down. With a loss today and win by Denver which could havppen the Bills are picking #3. If they traded down to say around # 7 thru 10, likely they could pick up an extra #2 and #3 or a second #1 next year.

I watched two bowl games yesterday, both ended with some rather strange rulings by officals. In both cases the teams I was rooting for Syracuse and North Carolina won so was glad to see that, but kind of felt bad for losing team. In SU game, SU was up by 8, Kansas St scored a TD with like 30 seconds to go to cut the lead to 2. A 2 point conversion would have tied it. But on the TD, they assessed a 15 yard pnealty on Kansa for excessive celabration. All the guy did was give a salute towards the stands. Seemed way over the top penalty. I don't watch alot of college, but don't believe the NFL would have called something that little. So now Kansas has to go for a 2 pt conversion from the 18 which they didn't make and SU won by two. In the NFL that penalty is usually assessed on following kick off. Maybe team had a choice, normally they'd take it on kickoff, but if a team were to go for two could take the penalty on conversion instead?? Then in NC -Tenn game throughout he game everytime the Tenn QB threw a TD, he'd go through some little routine as as the announcer kept pointing out was no less than what the Kansas St player got a penalty for. The only difference was it didn't happen in the endzone, but was shown on TV repeatedly. So with 16 seconds left NC is down by three. They try a running play, get stopped, clock is ticking down, the QB is trying to spike the ball to then have time for a field goal, but half the field goal team has run onto the field. So with one second to go, the QB gets a play off for a spike, BUT with like 15 guys on the field. Initially the ruling is game over, the ref an even announced "game over", Tenn wins, coaches/players are on field shaking hands, then ref announces play is under review. So after review, they give him a 5 yard penalty for too many men on field, but allow them to then try a field goal with no time left. In NFL any penalty by team with no time outs left would have resulted in 10 second run-off which would have ended game. Seemed to me NC took advantage of what I'd call a loop hole to get a play off totally illegally, but it served the purpose of stopping the clock. NC then kicked the field goal to tie and won n OT. BTW the Tenn freshman QB looked pretty good.

I've also read that the whole 18 game thing is just a point for the league to use to talks with the league. They will gladly give up the 18 game request in exchange for a reduction in revenue % to the players.

So if Fitz is a 7, then what's Eli Manning a 7.5?? Trent Dilfer? I watched last Sundays Giants game and some of Eli's passes didn't look any worse than Fitz. I can recall many of a Jim Kelly five turnover day. I wouldn't want to see the Bills use a high draft pick on a QB at this point with all the other holes to fill. Use a 4th rounder, I'm fine with that and groom him. There also may be some mechanics issues that Fitz could work on in the off season to improve the accuracy issues. To me right now that's his biggest problem that's preventing him from becoming maybe an 8 which there aren't many teams better than an 8. I'd give Rothsberger maybe an 8 to 8.5. As far as LT goes, yeah I'd go around 6 to 7. But remember Bell had no time last off season to work at strengthing. Before you're ready to find a replacment, give it another year oto see if he can improve more. I think he made a big jump this year in his play. With another offseaosn, not a stretch to see him become an 8. While I agree that a Manning or a Brady may be able to live with a 6.5 LT, I think a more likely situation is any team can live with a 6.5 at any position IF they are surrounded by 8's Getting a better RT, maybe move Woods to center and fill his spot with either Reinhart or Ulrck or a FA signing, I think would produce a solid line. Bell would quickly look like an 8! The biggest way to continue to fail as a team is to continually look for replacements to your existing players. You need to give them time to develop unless you're certain a guy is never going to further improve. I'd use the draft picks on other positions, if there's no improvement by next ear with Bell, thn look for another solution. Does that potentially set the team back a year? Yes but if you pick a LT this year, then you're leaving a hole someplace else for another year. So fill that one first and give Bell a year.

No one really called Spiller a reach at #9. either. Prior years you could make the arguement that both the Maybin and Whitner was reaches at where they were picked. Really couldn't say that this year. Did he work out as well as a typical #9 pick should? No, but lets see how he looks next year. He did show spots where he looked like a #9 pick, just not enough of them.

Well actually #2 would likely solve the MAJORITY of the problems. Would you still have ONE BIG problem left? Likely yes, but many issues like stopping the run, rushing the passer which would make secondary much better, better run blocking which could lead to less pressure on Fitz, and better pass blocking could be solved by using all 7 draft picks on front seven defensively and maybe drafting a RT Agree you can do much better with a great QB. Finding one is the tough part. Or more likely the lucky part. Over the past ten years which team has done better, Balt or Indy? Balt had a great defense, good position players, but a weak QB. Now they have a pretty good QB thought wouldn't call him elite. so lets see how they do. Indy has had a great elite QB, but at the end of ten years, both have one SB win to show for it. Balt has still done pretty well for itself over the years without the QB. I guess my point is having a good solid team, OK QB you can compete every year, maybe win it once, maybe not. Or you can have the elite QB, and still have done no better overall. Both team have been to the playoff or in contention most years. Or you can be NE and win more than anyone, but that I credit to BB. I may not like him, but he does do better than anyone else it seems. Eli Manning won a SB. At this point, is he much better than Fitz? Basically all of those elite QB, boil down to a handful of teams, Peyton, TB, Warner, and Rothesburger

I doubt that will even happen. BB is making to much money for a backup. I'll be surprised if he's even with Buffalo next year. Likely will be realeased, maybe Buffalo resigns him at a lower number, but I'm sure if he can find a better deal he'd take it.

I looked at the list, don't see where it actually listed their draft round selection, but do recall many of the names were high draft picks. Not sure that list actually supports your argument or mine as there are many of the same names on repeatedly. That's my point, there aren't enough good QB's to go around and the odds of getting one aren't very high. When you look at the lists of busts you'll also see a number of teams had multiple selections, Detroit, Cinncy, San Diego, and Seattle. That's why they were terrible for so many years, they keep taking a shot only to fail repeatedly. Can you fail with any other position player, sure, but it's not as likely to set you back years a a QB does. You almost have to give a QB four or five years to figure out if he gets it or not. Some may get it sorted out a little sooner (see Trent Edwards) I'd also take everything from before the mid 80's and throw it out because it was a different game back then. I recall when I was a kid, almost every team had a decent QB, and if you didn't you could draft one. If it took five years for him to develop, not a problem, you'd just build the team around him. Your other postion players weren't going any where, there was no free agency. Now you need sucess within a couple of years, or the cycle keeps repeating. Why is it so hard for QB's to do well? Here's my take on it. The game has got too fast, players too big, there are too many coaches on a team that spend hours planning how to stop the other team. While it's a team game, whe nthe offesne comes to the line it's all on te QB to figfure out what to do in a split second. The QB doesn't have a chance, the deck is stacked against him. Once is a great while and getting less frequent, the guy comes along who can look across the line and figure things out fast enough, and also has the physical skills to get it done. Fitz has the mental part down, it's the physical part that is slowing him up. You want to improve the level of QB play in the NFL, limit the number of coaches teams can have, limit the hours of practice and meetings, eliminate all off season work other the fitness and strengthening. Don't all any off season studying of play books, require all players to turn them in after the last game and they don't get them back until June 1st. Will that improve the overall game? Not sure, but would give the QB a fighting chance. So I'm all for drafting the QB 1st round if you can promise me he'll be the next great QB. Unfortunately odds are in his favor of joining the list of busts.

Seems evidence supports the opposite. As the OP mentioned Ryan Leaf, I'll add some other names that were top ten or so selections: Akili Smith, David Klingler, Tim Couch, David Carr, Jeff George, JaMarkus Russell, Vince Young, Joey Harrington, (many were upset that he got selected 3rd overall right befoe the Bills picked Mike Williams) Rick Mirer, Cade McNown, Heath Shuler (hey at least he's got elected to congress), Andre Ware, Dan McGwire, (at least he can say he has a famious brother) Todd Marinovich (admittedl not a top five/ten pic) Were the GM's or all the above teams terrible to pick these guys? Mostly any team if they were draftign in the position would have made that same pick. If the Patriots were small smart they would hvae selected Brady earlier rather than take the chance he'd go elsewhere. They were just lucky. Here's some names of lower level picks I found online that have easily out preformed everyone I listed above. One name missing fom this list some may have heard of was sixth round pick Joe Montana Tom Brady (sixth round, 2000) Kurt Warner (undrafted, 1994) Tony Romo (undrafted, 2003) Marc Bulger (sixth round, 2000) Matt Hasselbeck (sixth round, 1998) Jake Delhomme (undrafted, 1997) Matt Cassel (seventh round, 2005) Derek Anderson (sixth round, 2005) Shaun Hill (undrafted, 2002) I watched the Giants game yesterday and some of Eli's passes looked just as bad as Fitz. Eli is considered a star, though it may be tarnishing fast. Do the Bill's need better play from the QB position, certainly, but so do about 20 to 25 other teams. I'm sure Miami, Oakland,, Tenn, Washington, Carolina, Minn, Seattle, Arizona, SanFran would all swap even up for Fitz in a second. Some other teams; Cleveland, Cinn, Denver, have big question marks. They problably will keep going in the same direction they currently are, but odds are not in the favor of the current guy being the long term answer and being much better than Fitz I'm sure if you went to the mssage boards of the following teams you'd find many posts implying that the biggest problem the team has and what is preventing them from being an elite team is QB play. They'd be some big ones like Giants, Jet's, Washington, & Dallas. I'd also throw Jax in that group. Detroit and St Louis have two young guys, will they make it to the next level?? Already Detroit is questioning if he can stay healthy. That leaves five to ten teams with good stable QB situations. Someone has to win it every year, there aren't enough good QB's to go around, so I'd rather see the Bills improve elsewhere, draft a mid round QB who may be good or may not. If not and good, not much invested. All draft picks are gambles, but the jump from college to NFL for QB's just seems much tougher than other positions.

Seems from what you hear about Spiller, there were alot of unusual things going on down in Clemson, Sounds like their whole game plan was heres the ball, you figure out where to go, and at a college superior talant can get away with that. In the NFL it doesn't work. Heard things how he's not use to having pays called in huddles, etc. Did the Bills know that's what they were getting, I'm certain Clemson as any school would go out of their way to hide those types of things so not to damage recruiting. Either way the Bill's should have known that, maybe they did, maybe they didn't?? Or they at least didn't appear to realize the level is seems to be at with him and ho it's slowed down his progress.

Tht's worked real well for Washington, Oakland, Dallas to name a few. What the Bills need to do is draft top notch picks with their first three picks, then sign a couple FA picks to fill some holes. Maybe one top level FA for LB. The rest, you draft or sign young FA. Foorball players careers are ofte ntoo short. By the time a guy is good enough t obecome a top FA, his career is often about over.

I hear NBC will be showing Heidi in it's place! (ask someone older than 55 for an explanation!) I'm really amazed. I can't believe the NFL didn't basically say, the hell with the fans, think of the TV revenue. Likely many more people would have watched the game because of the expected bad weather. I was really disapointed to see there were no east coast games today, the only one would have been tonight, now nothing. Was looking forward to see them sliding all over the field, and not being able to see the lines.

Of course they will because now they look back at which games they won and lost and say, yeah we were lucky. But losing the sixth game of the year and then proclaiming how lucky they were to lose a non conference game cause they know they still have X number of games they are going to win and now that increases the odds they wins will be within the conferecne is retarded. A preseason "8-8" team can just as easily lose another game they were supposed to win along the way and end up 7-9 or even 6-10. Can I ask you one question, are you just bring this point up to try and tweak people to get into an argument with you, or are you really this stupid? If you can't figure out the difference between those two scenerios, maybe you should stop using the computer, and god forbid, stay away from power tools. Maybe I should throw that questions out to others who know you better, is he really this dumb?? Can anyone be that dumb??

Agree, that was the problem with his logic. It was assuming you were going to win some other AFC game instead and their final record would end up with the same number of wins. The logic essentially was based that the Bill's could choose which games it wanted to win or lose.

In fairness to the punter, the snap wasn't the best, so he's taking a bad snap deep in his own end, he's a rookie, at that point, all he's thinking is kick it FAST, and not thinking too much of where he's supposed to kick it. Jackson even dropped it, no one was able to tackle him?? I'd put the blame more on the other ten guys,

Totally agree with you there. Butler would have overpaid like he always did. That was one of his problems, he loved all the players and would overpay. There was a mess he left behind. It's been written many times he left because he was tired of dealing with RW. I''ve often wondered if it wasn't also becasue he knew the Bill's would be in salary trouble very soon, so best for him to leave town with his image intact and let someone else clean up the mess.

At the time I thought it was a mistake, but after seeing how the line has played it proves once again that the people running the Bill's are much smarter than most of the people who post here. If Woods came back healthy, he's a backup guard. Could he have been the starting guard if Woods couldn't play or was moved to center, yes, but those were two moves he had no control of. So he took the best option for him. Could the Bill's have mad him a big offer to stay and would he have likely taken it, probably, but they knew what they had and didn't feel the need to. In hind sight, appears ot be a smart move.

It's interesting how he seems to play better in the second half of most games. Maybe due to his being very smart, he's able to figure out what adjustments to make. Other QB's can't figure that out as quick.. I also wonder if not having a legit #1 reciever isn't such a glaring weakness with Fitz. Again with his smarts he's able to walk up to the line, look at the defense and figure out, OK on the this play Martin will be the open guy, next play he looks agross and sees it Johnson, next time someone else, and throws to them. I haven't heard much negitive wit hregards to his arm strength, just the accuracy issues. Maybe something he can work on in the offseason Don't know if it's mechanics or something physical??.

I certainly wouldn't consider cutting him. But I'd be in favor of dangling his name out there and see what you could get. The other thing to consider is as has been brought up in a few threads; some people think he's going to ask to be traded If you could get a 2 or a 3, I'd go for it. Not sure if that's possible, considering Moss got what a 4th? The fact that he has a cheap contract may work in favor of a trade. If you do get rid of him, you'd likely want ot replace him wit ha FA vet, so again have to look at what that costs you. Signing a 2011 contract for a 2nd tier FA reciever may be as costly as paying Evans for 2011. Agai nif he asked to be traded, would more consider it.

So lets see, w ca now start a list of al lthe announcers we don't want. Based on all the commnets written here, have to start out with: Tasker, Wilcox, now lets add Criqui Porbably best they just don't bother broadcast our games at all this will keep everyone happy. Take off your rose I mean Bill's colored glasses and just watch the game.

I'm not a NE fan, but got to hand it to him, he is the best coach in the league far and away atdeveloping stratagy to beat someone else. I also find it interesting how so many o his assistants who get HC gigs, fail elsewhere without BB. Again shows how strong of a coach he is. Personality certainly isn't the best, though it seems his players all like the guy.

Yes that was my question, so no fumble in that game. I did recall the Int, but hen wasn't sure if there was fumble on next kickoff. Seemed it happened in s many games, had to keep track of which one was which. Thanks for clarifying!

Yes I know that one was him, but what about the Dallas game?? did he do the same thing there? I think this may be the one I was thinking of, so it was Parris this time? So sounds like Mckelvin wasn't involved in the Dallas Monday Night meltddown.

James Hardy?? Did anyone ever pick him up?? I don't recall hearing that anyone did?? Also on another topic, having an office debate the other day. In the Monday night game about three years ago where the Bill's blew the lead ladte. I recall there was an interception (or maybe two) Was there also a fumble on a return? Was McKelvin invloved? I didn't even think he was on the team yet at that time, but can't recall for certain.

Cause maybe you don't need the NFL's best guard. Would be an improvment, yes, but there are other positions where signing the NFL's best (fill in the blank) vs what we currentyl have would be a much bigger improvment. Like DE, or LB to start with. Most often teams sign there own players who are really good and worth what they are asking for. So what are left as free agents are mostly blems. Often teams are good at hiding their imprefections, so others think they are getting something worthwhile. When it comes to FA's it's buyer beware. We just used two #1 picks two years ago on two guards. Now you want to use another. I'm not against moving Wood to center, but essentially that means using a #1 on a center which is somewhat high for that position. That what makes teams stay weak longterm when you panic and continuelly give up on players too soon. From what was shown this seaosn, the Bill's have four quality players in AL, EW, DB, and Urbik. The yhave three good backups who could start in Wrotto, Howerd, and Hang. I'd have no problem using a 3rd rounder on a RT, but I 'd likely let him sit for a year and start Howerd or Wrotto there.