BuffaloRebound

Season opener in 1986 against the Jets. Kelly's 1st game. Kelly kept tripping over Hull's feet. Exciting game, but couldn't get the ball back for the offense. Don't remember his stats but couldn't stop Al Toon.

My guess is there is going to be a sweet spot in Round 1 where the blue-chippers are gone and it makes sense to take Tebow. I don't know where that is in this draft, but how is taking a chance on Maybin any better than taking a chance on a guy like Tebow? There is more to talent evaluation than just physical skills which Tebow has plenty of.

Pike knows how to play the game, but I don't think he'd last 6 games much less 16 in the NFL. He is built like a tooth-pick. Roethlisberger is built like a D-Lineman.

Excellent post. When you think you are part of a 2nd rate team/organization, you inevitably play like one and other teams expect to beat you. Shanahan or someone like him who has won in the NFL is needed to provide credibility around the League and within the organization itself.

This is pathetic. Why even call Cowher before you know if he is interested? It would be pretty easy to find out... the NFL is a small world. Shared agents, former players, coaches. How hard would it be to float the question before an 'official' phone call is made? This tells me that this search is a charade. Ralph and Brandon probably were caught off guard that Shanahan even agreed to an interview.

Why do we know everyone the Bills are contacting? Something smells fishy. It's hard not to think this is all just an exercise to show the Bills faithful that Ralph tried to get a big fish and ended up with a minnow.

Someone must have leaked something to Len P. to calm the WNY masses. Brandon/Ralph are smart enough to realize that if Shanahan isn't locked up, this can only lead to disappointment.

Haha. Wouldn't surprise me. I have vivid childhood memories of listening to the Smerlas/Haslett show on WBEN in the mid-80's. Every week a caller would say they were a bunch of bums (these were the 2-14 years) and Smerlas would go crazy and get all tough asking the guy where he lived.

No. I am looking at it from a Coach or GM making a decision to come here. I'll add Jacksonville to Oakland as the only less desirable places for a GM/Coach. Detroit might be debatable as well due to their epic ineptitude, but at least you don't have to deal with the very real threat of new ownership and re-location. Fan base and tradition mean nothing when home games are being sold to Toronto and the 90 year old owner has no succession plan.

It's more about the risk of the unknown. Would Shanahan/whoever want to work for a new owner and where would the team even go? Would the new owner want his own people? Hate to rain on people's dreams of getting a big-name GM or Coach, but with all the unknowns, Buffalo is the worst job outside of Oakland that a GM or Coach could take.

I don't see it. The Bills have 1 less home game than everyone else in the NFL and a 90 year-old owner who has not ensured at least publicly the franchise stays in Buffalo. Don't see anyone with other options coming here unless they have a connection/soft spot for Buffalo or Ralph privately assures him that the Bills are staying in Buffalo.

Disrespected, please. Ralph doesn't want Kelly to continue to talk about it because Ralph doesn't want pressure from the likes of Schumer, Goodell, and the other owners to sell to Kelly's group, which could potentially mean less money for Ralph. When it comes to Ralph, simply follow the money. For those who say Ralph could have made more money moving the team, I'd love to hear the credible offers he had to move and how much more money he'd have made than the millions, probably billion he's made/will have made keeping the team in Buffalo where he effectively gets free use of a stadium named after himself and gets the same TV money as every other franchise.

It's going to take a couple of years to rebuild the O-Line. Vick or a QB like him might be necessary to be competitive next year. You can't take a QB in the 1st round and put him behind that line.

Good post. I'll add that when you don't have good QB play, a good Offensive Line, or a good pass rush, everything else is just polishing a turd. Donahoe, Levy, and Brandon have proven they don't know how to build a winning team, and it all floats down-hill from that.

Like Al Davis, the NFL has passed Wilson by. Even if he wanted to hand over operations to someone, he is so dis-connected from football people who know what it takes to win that he would screw that up too, like he did with Donahoe. So, he'll continue to focus on marketing a POS product and make his $30m per year while spending $120m per year on players in the hopes of not being a laughing-stock.

Being a Bills fan is more like having a drunk father. They'll keep embarrassing you but they're blood, and you never give up on them.

Should have kept Williams. Winning teams also don't jettison a player like Fletcher and replace him with a rookie. Like Winfield a lot, but believe that was the year we signed Spikes, so can't really argue with that trade as Spikes is probably the best player we've had here since the glory days. Letting Williams walk was probably one of the dumber things the Modrak/Guy/Donahoe triumvarate did, and that is saying a lot.

Gotta love Jimbo. Not one to pull punches even on the team's official website. Calling out TO, Edwards, the OT's, and Bledsoe, Flutie, Johnson, and Losman while he's at it. Don't know about him coaching, but he would make a great owner (obviously as part of an ownership group). Knows the game, knows what Buffalo and its fans are about, and has other interests so I don't think he would meddle too much.

Might as well go with 6 DB's on the field since our OLB's are not much bigger, but much slower.

I think every situation is different, but Bradford's decision was questionable. Oklahoma doesn't play a pro-style offense and he was losing a lot of guys on the O-Line. Hope he got paid well to stay.

Like a boxer who is finished after taking that big hit, I fear that Edwards will never be the same. You simply can't stand in the pocket and absorb those types of hits unless you are built like Roethlisberger and even then it catches up to you. Look at Bledsoe. At some point you have to be able to avoid the big hits, while still being able to buy yourself time in the pocket. Someone with a similar build to Edwards is Eli Manning. I know the Giants O-Line is better, but Eli always seems to duck out the big hit at the last second while still standing in and delivering the ball.

I would be shocked if the Bills don't lead the League in special teams penalties. It seems like a penalty is called on our punting unit 30-40% of the time. How many voluntarily running out of bounds penalties have we taken? More than 1 is unacceptable. Or blocking out of bounds. I know there are some rookies out there, but what are the coaches teaching them? Too many men penalties are unacceptable. April has been abysmal this year.

Good post. Don't know how good Fitzpatrick is, but the offense looked better with him in there. Fitzpatrick, if nothing else, looked fearless in the pocket, whereas Edwards has the Bledsoe-waiting-to-get-hit look in his eye.

I don't know if the coaches tell the OLB's not to attack the line of scrimmage or they are just bad, but it really looks like we are playing with 4 DL and 1 LB on running plays. The OLB's stand 5 yards behind the line of scrimmage and sit back waiting to get pancaked by OL or FB's or miss the tackle because the RB is already at full speed and they are standing still.

He still gets his $3m this year no matter what he does. He thinks he should be a WR. Parrish doesn't seem like the sharpest knife and it would not surprise me one bit if he is tanking it to get a ticket out of town.