BuffaloRebound

Is Commander Tom still among us?

The only undisputed fact is that Polian had no problems landing another GM job and has been wildly successful everywhere he's been.

So what you're saying is a GM not only has to deal with a cheap, meddling owner, he has to deal with his daughter too?

Polian has already won a Super Bowl in Indy and I believe he still has strong ties to the area. I am not familiar with what Polian said to Ralph's daughter. I thought Polian didn't get along with Ralph's accountant and that was the reason for the split.

Most owners care about winning first and foremost. Ralph has repeatedly shown the bottom-line to be more important than winning. Selling a home game and canning Polian, his most successful GM, are just 2 examples. No in-demand GM or Head Coach is coming here with Ralph as owner. My dream scenario would be Ralph selling the team to the Kelly/Golisano? ownership group and Polian coming back as GM/President.

No one good is coming if Wilson is still the owner. Why would they? He ran the only good GM he ever had out of town and no one knows what will happen when Ralph passes on. Anyone who cares about their reputation would never accept the GM or head coaching job with Wilson as the owner and in a division with Parcells and Belichik. The only good news may be that Ralph is running out of options to appease the fanbase and in this economy the Bills aren't going anywhere except Toronto and that is a long-shot as well with Rogers out of the picture. It would not surprise me if Ralph sells the team this off-season. He's too old to change and even he has to see that is exactly what this organization needs.

I saw the same thing. Dockery was an embarrassment. On both sacks, he stopped playing. Over-paid bums are a cancer to a team. I'd add Denney to your list too who routinely gets blocked by a Tight End but I don't think he gets paid more than a backup which is what he is. Simpson needs to go too as he is allergic to contact and never makes a play on the ball.

He's not? He plays in a stadium that doesn't cost him anything. He gets an annual check from the NFL for $120m. He spends significantly less than that on players. He gets $10m per game from Toronto. His coaching staff and front office are or should be the worst paid in the NFL. I'd say Ralph makes more in Buffalo than he would in any city that currently doesn't have an NFL team outside of Toronto.

Equally as problematic as the busts, the players we have hit on in the 1st round - Clements, Evans, Lynch, McKelvin, and Whitner - are not QB's, pass rushers, or lineman. Take it back 3 more years and it is the same story - '97 Antowain Smith was a bust on the Bills, '98 Johnson bust, and '99 hit with Winfield but also a CB. Maybe that's why the Bills keep picking DB's in the 1st round... it's one of the few positions they know how to pick.

Do what it takes to get Haynesworth, and take a DE or QB with the 1st pick. This team is in desperate need of impact players on the defensive line and at QB.

Instead of over-paying for the Kelsays and Dockerys of the world, go after the true difference makers like a Haynesworth. It's so f'ing depressing watching Ralph and his minions trying to build an 8-8 team, while brain-washing most of the fanbase into believing that's all poor Buffalo and poor Ralph can afford. Meanwhile, he gets a check for more than $120m from the NFL every year, plays for basically free in a stadium named after himself but built by taxpayers, spends nowhere near the $116m salary cap limit, and sold a home game to Toronto for $10m per year. Don't fool yourself, he's got plenty of money to compete.

The point, my man, is that Levy liked Cutler. Levy had a past with Ralph and had no experience putting a team together. Someone like a Parcells or a Polian would have got busy cleaning house and wouldn't have passed on a potential franchise QB because of Losman. If a similar scenario presents itself this year, even though I think Edwards can be a good QB, he is by no means a franchise QB, and I wouldn't be against drafting a potential franchise QB. Do you think Brandon has the balls or football intelligence to do something like that? Instead the Bills will continue the process of building an 8-8 team when what they need is a new front office with no ties to the past to come in and get rid of the dead weight. Lynch, Evans, Peters, Stroud, McKelvin, and maybe Whitner are my core guys and everyone else is replaceable. A pass rusher is first on the priority list and then I'd look to upgrade at QB or at least bring in legitimate competition for Edwards.

Losman didn't show anything his first 2 years.

If I remember correctly, Levy actually said he had Cutler rated higher than Leinart. That's why a house-cleaning is needed in the organization. Too many people married to the losing decisions of the past. Look at Parcells and Miami. He didn't let Beck preclude him from getting Pennington and drafting Henne.

Long term cap implications are of no concern with the Bills as far under the cap as they are. In terms of costing too much, cut the dead weight and pay Haynesworth with that money. There is plenty of cap room to absorb any cuts. Who in their right mind wouldn't cut Kelsay or even Schobel if it meant landing Haynesworth? Keep Denney and play Spencer Johnson more at Defensive End. Sign another low cost defensive end (Kelsay at the veteran minimum) and draft a pass rusher with our 1st round pick.

Karma for Ralph. He can take the money he sold his soul for from Toronto and buy-out Jauron.

How can any card-carrying Bills fan believe that the Jets would not have at least tied the game if the Bills don't get a 1st down? Questioning run or pass is legitimate, but I believe even Jauron knew we were losing that game if we don't get another 1st down.

I don't think the play-call was horrible, but it was called by a loser coach and executed by a loser QB. Losman and Jauron need to be gone.

I actually liked the play-call. It was right before the 2 minute warning so an incompletion is the same as a running play. They were going for the win for once. I only fault the coaches for still having Losman on the roster.

Could not agree more. Wash that loser out of this organization.

It is, but deals get torn up/re-negotiated all the time when they no longer make sense for both sides. If that game actually meant something to the Bills, the outrage already being shown would be multiplied. I still am amazed that Rogers shareholders went along with this... they are most certainly going to incur a loss and there is no upside for them as the NFL doesn't allow corporate ownership.

I bet Rogers shareholders would be pretty happy to tear up the rest of the deal. There was never anything in it for them. This is and will be a huge money pit to them. The only thing it did was grease the tracks for Ted Rogers to buy an NFL team and bring it to Toronto. Now he's gone and they're left paying $10m per game including pre-season games to Ralph to see a low budget version of an NFL team.

Too many unknowns to put together for that kind of analysis to be worth anything. A stadium adds close to $1billion to the cost of the Bills. In this economic environment, no one is getting any govt money to re-locate a football team. $1billion even at 5% is an extra $65m a year in expenses over 30 years. At 8%, its close to $90m per year. I guess someone would have move somewhere where they could make more than $65-90m per year than in Buffalo. The Bills had $206m in revenues last year according to Forbes. New England, Washington, and Dallas, and now the 2 New Yorks look like the only teams that could make more than $65m per year more than the Bills. Philly, who has a relatively new stadium, only made $30m more than the Bills in revenues. In this economy, I think it is a hard sell realistically finding a city that could make more than $65m more than the Bills. But all it takes is one crazy rich guy to think he can do it in LA or somewhere else.

How can anyone claim that the Toronto thing was anything other than a money grab without knowing how much money Ralph makes? It would be a different situation if Ralph ever made it known that he would like to keep the Bills in Buffalo after he's gone and potential buyers need him to access to Toronto to make that happen. I would accept the Toronto situation more if a new owner who paid $800m for the the franchise did it, not from a guy who paid $50,000 for it. Wilson gets a check from the NFL that basically pays for the salary cap limit and spends significantly less than that on players. He doesn't spend on coaches or front office. He essentially pays nothing to play at the stadium built by taxpayers and named after him. Without access to the numbers, it is probably safe to assume any money he gets from tickets, parking, concessions, and luxury boxes is pure profit, estimated at $5-6m per home game. Toronto simply increases that number. I think the problem for Ralph is he's been an owner for 50 years and is bitter that a new batch of owners like Jones and Snyder make more profits than him. So he uses the the poor Buffalo economy to extract more revenue sharing from the NFL and scheme up the Toronto thing. This is not about viability in Buffalo, it is about trying to close the profit gap with Dallas, Washington, and the New Yorks. The problem is there are only a handful of those markets, and Toronto and LA are the only ones without teams. And LA isn't building someone a stadium with the mess California is in and has already seen 2 teams leave, and Toronto has political barriers. If the Bills get put up on the market when Ralph is no longer here, I think people might be surprised to see how attractive keeping the Bills in Buffalo will be with a free stadium, a rabid fanbase, and rich NFL revenue sharing especially in this economic environment.

Bingo. Ralph only thinks with his wallet. It's not like the coaches and front office aren't the ones picking the players. I think it's BS that everyone knows how much the players and coaches are making, but Ralph's profits are kept under lock and key despite getting state and local incentives to play here. He's gotta be pocketing $40m+ with the extra Toronto revenue. Until the majority of the Bills fanbase overcome their fears of the team moving, Ralph will continue his fleecing. With this economy and Rogers kicking the can, the odds of Buffalo moving have never been lower in the last 15 years.