Ed_Formerly_of_Roch

When I saw the play happn I tought it was cwick thinking on the punters part, but was looking up at the top graphics to se eif it was going to say "FLAG" as I was wondering it it was legal Eventually a flag was thrown. When I first saw it happen I thought it was like a drop kick. But it does kind of make sense that you can't do what was done, otherwise anytime a ball is fumbled behind the line, just kick it downfield and cal lit a punt.

While I totally agree that the QB seems to made a huge difference, some is I think is also due to these guys all getting more experience. I do think they need to improve more on run blocking though, could be they spent the bulk of practicve time working on pass blocking the past year or soas thta seemed to be the weaker area of play?? Maybe a new RT would also help overall.

Some comments about your comments: I agree with you about the receivers being the strongest unit. It worries me a little that a year ago everyone was saying the same thing about the secondary. I hope we haven't seen the last of Parrish. He's proven, guys like Easley while looked promising ,needs to do mre first before I'm ready to give up on Roscoe. Fitz is still only in his fifth year, that's young in QB years Agree about extending Johnson. Agree about adding a RT. The other area the Bills O-line does still seem to struggle is run blocking. Maybe too much practice time was spent on improving the pass blocking, seem they need to work more on run blocking and show more improvement there. Or maybe they still need to make some changes ot get guysa thta can do both? Seems it often takes rookies one full year to let the speed of the game come to them. Maybe now are seeing that in Troup and Carrington? It's easier ot play rookies and have them look good when there's a strong tem around the rookie. The Bills don't have the luxury yet so tend to bring them guys along slowly. One disapointment though so far this year is the play of Byrd.

Wasn't Andre Reed also a 7th rounder?? If so, wouldn't make him best, but he's following in good company.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/draft06/news/story?id=2410670 Here's the chart. I was looking at it the other day myself, but I was hoping the Bills would have the #2 overall and looking at what they could get to trade down. The Bills need help at OLB, DE, and RT, an center for the future and ideally a pass catching TE. I'd use around a 3rd for a RT as they aren't in too bad of shape there, same for a backup center whom eventually will become starter in a couple years. They need to use a high pick though on OLB and DE, so again trading down wouldn't be a bad thing for some extra picks. They also coule look for help through free agency too, maybe get one big time LB there. Then again maybe the secret in Merriman, after al lthey haven't lost since they've signed him.

Well it could be that it took him this long to figure things out. Now that he's got a better understanding, he's playing and looking OK doing it.

Agreed, they are both better than Fitz. But would I cal lthe melite QB's. If Eli's last name wasn't Manning, he'd be considered better than average, but not HOF material. I hope another team feels one of these guys is a can't miss prospect and offers the Bills 3 or 4 early round picks to move up a few pots. The Bills then can draft a QB lower, or get one by other means as has been pointed out. Take the extra picks and fill holes.

Yeah so out of those 20 SB, there were 10 QB's total. And out of those 10, I'd probably take out Rypien and quite frankly the jury is still somewhat out on Eli Manning and even Brees. Would I use the 1st overall pick on another Peyton Manning. In a heartbeat. But for every Peyton Manning, there are three Akili Smiths, Rick Mirer, and Ryan Leaf's! The odds are better in getting a Leaf than another Manning. Or you may get a Rypien type who hasa few good years, but all in all, had more bad years than good ones. Actually I'd more compare him to my original point about Trent Dilfer than many of the others in your list You better have a hell of a team around him. So yeah, that's the problem you need one of these guys to win a SB, but the odds aren't in your favor of getting one. Thats why there are many repeat winners as there aren't enough good QB's to go around. Thats the biggest problem IMO of the NFL, 30 teams and about a dozen good QB's to go around. And they don't go around, they stay with the same teams therefore those teams win and no one else does. So given thatI think I'd rather take my chances with Fitz and good team around him than throwing all my eggs in one basket of getting the next Peyton Manning. Also as was pointed out many of those guys weren't even top draft picks. What was Brady a 6th rounder? Kurt Warner was found stocking shelfs in a supermarket.

A better defense (LB's and DE) would often shorten the field for Fitz, a better RT, a TE who can catch passes, and another year under the belt for Steve Johnson would likely make Fitz look much better. If Balt can win a SB with Trent Dilfer, we could go far with Fitz and a strong team around him. In Buffalo's weather, you really need to count a defense and the running game to win late in the season anyway, so why worry abot getting a stud QB. There are bigger needs. Personally I hope they trade down a few slots and get extra picks. As was mentioned though too many more wins this year will move them down far enough on their own that trading won't get them much, maybe an extra 3rd rounder. The value of picks drops off very fast after around the top three.

Great, just tell us who it is?? I'm all for taking a franchise QB #1 IF you can be guaranteed he will be in a top 10 QB in 5 years and be a top level for another five years after that. Realize there's no promises at any positions but top QB's seem to have a higher failure rate than other positions. Why?? My opinion is that it's easier to hide the weaknesses of college QB's. Plus many have stacked teams around them i.e. Tim Tebow. In the pro's it's a much more level playing field. Defenses have 10X the time to study opponetns, figure out their weaknesses, etc. make supposed stars look average. For those reasons, I'd feel safer picking a DE or LB. Actually what I'd really like to see is some team who really has QB problems, say Az, or even Minn once Brett really does retire for the 15th time, make a trade with the Bills for extra picks. Looking at the draft pick value chart, assuming the Bills were to have the #2 overall pick, to move up from even #4 to #2 would likely cost the team their #1, #2, and #3. To jump from #10 to #2 would cost all of the above, plus likely their #1 the following season. More than likely there will be some team desperate to move up to pick one of these "can't miss" QB's Not that the Bill's don't also need one, but a team like Minn doesn't have as many other needs as the Bills do, so they may not need the extra draft picks as much and would more likely give them up. Is Fitz a great QB? no! Is he top 15? maybe Is he serviceable? yes! If a team can win the SB with Trent Dilfer, and a great defense, you can build a winning team around Fitz with good creative coaching which I think they now have in Chan, and a solid team around him. An extra 1st, 2nd, and 3rd could accelerate that greatly. SD and Cinn are two team who over the past 20 years or so have used many low round draft picks on QB's only to see one after another fail. No one saw these guys not succeeding.

Well alot of people do seem to listen to them as seen here by the number of threads every week discussing the latest stupid thing they did. You want to get rid of Shoup and the Dope, everyone needs to stop posting about them. I'll promise you one thing, every time one of these threads appears, there likely is at least one person who normally doesn't listen to them, will now go and listen to see if they "really are as bad as people here claim". I think they both are terrible, but seems to me they are sly like a fox as the dumber they act, the more people talk and write about them.

Wow, I didn't realize that people on this board are smarter than people who do this for a living. It really amzes me that more posters here don't work for NFLteams considering how smart they think they are.

Don't forget too, WGR is the voice of the Sabres. If WGR can take attention, interest and maybe sponsors away from the Bills, maybe the Sabres can pick them up instead. There's a limited amount of money to go around in Buffalo, so if because of their rants, someone decides to go to a Sabres game instead of the Bills, again a win for WGR. So I think WGR dumps on the Bills because: A) It helps the Sabres B) The Bills did turn down WGR for broadcast rights so there are hard feelings C) WGR has dumped on the Bills over the years, In return th Bills made it a bit tougher on WGR to work with them. Seems it was tit for tat back and forth, each trying to piss off the other. So WGR goes out of their way whenever they can to dump on the Bill's As far as WGR being a bunch of idiots, seems they are pretty effective as there are always a number of threads here talking about what idiots they are. Sounds like they are alot smarter than you think as people are always talking about them!

Based on prior year trades, I think it would take more than that to move up to the #1 overall, maybe their #1 Romo, and their # 2 or 3

Well..... yeah.... But what else is left?

I can understand the knocks on his play, but trying to explain how these these two topics are in anyway related is baffling. Did you ever think that while his play may suck, he is smart enough to give a decent anwser to a question that the media can use. Not everything is a conspiricy with secret meanings as many here seem to think.

It wouldn't shock me to see hiom canned, but switching to the 3-4 and having worse personal than a year ago, certainly made his job all the tougher. I think Schobel retiring hurt more than people realized. Stroud was probably better at DT than DE. What I don't understand is when we play the 4-3, why don't they move Stroud back inside?

This morning Mike Greenberg on Mike & Mike said pretty much the same thing. He was comparing us to Dallas how Dallas just quits, but the Bill'swho "stink, played their hearts out".

I could see the argument here either way. But if your solution was fall forward for three yards, then you lose all respect. They ended that drive on the 43 yard line, so based on your solution they would have been on the 40, which leaves a 57 to 58 yard field goal. Not exactly a high percentage kick. Even with +2 yards run on three downs, would have left then with a 55 yarder, still not a high degree of a makable kick. If they were 10 yards further up the field, say on the 33, I'd completely agree with you, but from that distance you needed another 10 yards, a solution of falling forward is laughable. But your point is totally valid falling forward would have given him a 57 yard kick instead of a 60 yarder. Good point!!

Well when I stated moving better through the air I was referring strictly to the OT. I don't count Fitz scramble as a run, so taking that one out I, looking at the play by play I see one handoff to Jackson for 3 yards. That's what my statement was based on.

Yeah, but you're making a big assumptions that we're going to gain five yards on a run when we hardly did all day. It wasa tough call. At the time I was also thinking at worst we get out of here with a tie. But while many of uf us fans would have been trille with a tie and counted it as a "moral victory", NFL coaches aren't playing for a tie (even a winless team) they want the win. So you needed 5 to 10 more yards for a field goal so they went for it. They were moving it pretty well with passes on that drive and the drive prior moving through the air, so couldn't totally fault them. I'm sure if they ran three plays or even two plays and gained a total of maybe five yards, and then missed the kick with time running out, people would have been ripping them for not going for the win. While I agree that one run play may have guaranteed at least a tie, considering their lack of sucess with running, can't really fault them too much as they were moving the ball better through the air . For all we know one or two of them maybe should have been a run but Fitz felt he saw something and changed to a pass.

The thing that further complicates things is that you basically have a different set of rules for plays in the end zone as compared to rest of field. If a player at the 30 yard line were to extend the ball to try and make the first down at the 29, but in the process fumbles the ball while falling to the ground, it's a live ball. But at the goal line once you cross the plane it's a TD regardles what happens afterwards.

If you read Chan's comments, he specifically mentions special teams as where he also needs to impove. Makes me wonder if Maybin has an attitude that as a #1 pick, he's too good for ST's, he doesn't need to play there??

If we want the #1 overall pick, we may have to trade up with Dallas!!

The way things are going, it could happen. Dallas also could have a top 10 pick and may be interested in moving up. So also a potential team to trade with if we wanted to get extra picks and move dow na few spots. I could see JJ wanting the #1 overall for a new QB