Fan in Chicago

I think where you are going is that if a true Manning, Brady, RGIII type is not available in 2013, we can win with a Flacco or Matt Ryan type of QB. And I would be on board with that idea also. My post was suggesting a scenario in which the FO believes there is too much risk in drafting a first rd QB in 2013. if Smith becomes available for a trade, the FO will have to decide soon what to do - cover themselves for 2013, 14. The pressure to draft a QB high in 2013 becomes significantly less and attention can be paid to the other critical needs. But, as Joe wonders also, what would be Smith's draft price ?

Apologies for resurrecting this thread but I did not want to start a new one. I am warming up to the idea of the Bills trading for Alex Smith. I read here (and take the opinion of those that follow college football) that there are no franchise QBs in the upcoming draft but there are several in the 2014 draft. Given that, perhaps it may be a good idea to trade a 4th (maybe 3rd worst case) to the 9ers for Smith. Then draft a QB in the first round of 2014. Allow that QB to learn under Smith. Several advantages: - Draft LB and WR in the top two rounds in 2012 making this team fairly stacked on both sides of the ball - Makes us serious contenders for the playoffs in 2013 - Buys us 2-3 years for development of true 'franchise QB' I realize that Smith is not top flight talent but he is stronger armed than Fitz and less prone to making critical mistakes. This alone allows Gailey (or his successor) to open up the playbook and make opposing teams have to defend the entire field. Opinions ?

So John was indeed correct about you being an eternal optimist

That is a lot of (fired) coaches to choose from for the Bills. What are you worried about ?

Watching what I can from Charlotte airport waiting for a connection. Past half hour is telling me Brees and the NO offense is out of synch. That second interception could be on either. NO lucky to escape with a ATL FG only.

I pick Gailey to leave (Because then the new coach will want a new DC. Fitz can stay as backup)

I view this situation differently. Fitz tends to get too much on the flow of things and starts trusting himself beyond his abilities. This is probably what gets him in troubke by trying to fit in tight passes etc. Despite what I think about Gailey overall, i think he is trying to save Fitz from himself

At this time, I would be worried that Alex Smith is damaged goods mentally. He has been jacked around a lot with regime changes and now gets essentially benched after a 13-3 record last year, playoff win and a 6-2-1 record this year. Note: I am fully on board with the 49ers making the switch but from the perspective of Smith as a Bills QB, I worry he may have lost his confidence too much to be effective. Also, even if we acquire him, we may still draft a QB which will put Smith in the same situation as with the 9ers which can only make matters worse.

Yes but in which year or his regime ? If we are going to compare, compare at equal points of their tenure. Not saying we are on the cusp of greatness but we could be only a couple of critical pieces away from the playoffs. Note: this is not bashing Polian at all. I m simply saying that we have a lot more body of work (i.e. years in the position) from Polian to point to compared to Nix.

I will save myself a bunch of typing and refer you to DrD's post which I agree with to a large extent: http://forums.twobillsdrive.com/topic/150798-colin-kaepernick-get-er-dun/page__st__120

Agree that Mario is starting to make an impact. Disagree with your thoughts on Dareus - he played a very good second half in terms of pressure and being in the middle of tackles. Overall, the D improved but did not make stops. Giving up a 9 minute drive to a rookie-led team is inexusable. Allowing multiple 3rd and long conversions is not a sign of a good D.

On the roster he has done a good job given what we had when he took over. However, I think he made two big mistakes - choice of HC and lack of prioritizing the QB position early in his tenure. One or both will come back to bite him. There is a possibility that Gailey advised him we are are fine at QB and if so, the first mistake becomes bigger. I am on board with Whaley for GM if only to not see a total change of direction (change 4-3 back to 3-4 etc). The roster build is going fine and if the above problems are fixed, we should do well next year. Yesterday, it was the coaches that really blew the game.

Based on some guesses regarding coaches who will be let go, we should be able to put together a very good coordinators from out of: Mangini Rex Ryan holmgren Norv Turner Howver, I have no clue who will be a competent shepherd to herd the new bunch of cats.

leave the middle open to a team that has 3 timeouts left.

Why exactly did we punt ? Do we trust our D so much to get us the ball back ?

Fitz-Johnson not on same page, Jones with stone hands, clueless D, PR TD. How many ways can we mess this up ?

a-friggin'-men. Firing him during our bye week would have been too late

those last 3 points were squarely scored by the refs. Three poor calls in a row

Too early to tell either way. To me it was evident by the end of the first half that the dude has uncanny accuracy and moxy which IMHO the 49ers have been lacking with Alex Smith. However, it was just one game. Opposing D's in the NFL have a knack of digging up QB weaknesses and exploiting them (see Cam Newton between last season and this one). CK has to play for at least half a season for a judgment on whether or not he is better than Smith. So, back to your point, I think it is a calculated gamble by Harbaugh. He knows he has some buffer in the 49ers record such that the season won't magically be flushed down the toilet due to this change. The surrounding cast is still the same. The worst that may happen is that CK makes a serious mistake or two to cost them games. At that point, Harbaugh can still put Smith back in and chug along towards the playoffs. I think Harbaugh got presented this opportunity at the correct time of the season. Too early on or later, he may not have taken this gamble. (shameless LAMP): http://forums.twobillsdrive.com/topic/152787-bears-niners-live-game-thread/

If it was possible, your post should be pinned just to answer the 'what has Nix done' crowd. While I have been on his case for not acquiring a QB early in his tenure, the achievements are not unremarkable. I would add a #2 WR to your list of must-haves.

It releases tomorrow, probably wide on Friday. Not sure if there were many preview shows for this movie. SHould be very interesting because I have read the book and considered it very difficult to translate into a successful movie-going experience. Heck, there were many who thought the book itself was quite a frustrating read. It will be interesting what Ang Lee has done with the source material and how he used 3D to enhance the vastness and dread of being 'alone' at sea.

Okay. How about I put it this way - Nix and Gailey should have have seen that the QBs they had on their roster were not the kind to take the team to the promised land. This would not have been hindsight, it would have been an assessment of existing players. What SHOULD have happened is that they make a concerted effort from day 1 to land that guy. What did happen is that the position was largely ignored save for the dabbling with a low pick, Vince Young, Tarvaris Jackson etc. And what did happen is that we continue to get mediocre and inconsistent play out of the position. These are facts. No hindsighting in any of it.

Can't we do this for just about any position ? And you are saying that the Bengals, 49ers, Seahawks are better that QB evaluation than the Bills ? You are excusing the FO for not knowing which QB had the potential to be significantly better than Fitz ? Then why evaluate any front office ? why fire any GM or college scout ? Can't each and every incompetent, out of work GM claim that he did the best he could at the time ? It is their job to know who is a talent worth drafting. And what we are doing here is performance evaluation. Which happens in every organization every year. An understanding of what the individual did well and what he has to work on in the coming year. An assessment of whether past mistakes are serious enough for a demotion or a firing. This is not hindsight. The good organizations get things done. And Nix has failed at setting us in the most important position. I am not using this argument as a blanket criticism of his regime. Arguably, he has made some very good decisions in retaining and letting go players. But for the QB position, he has failed so far.

Had to bump this thread because I read yesterday that at the rate at which Skyfall is going, it may pass the Dark Knight Rises in worldwide gross. Does anybody besides me find this utterly fascinating ? TDKR was a huge hit, but had a lot of hoopla, anticipation, viral campaigns and 'last in the series' mojo that went with it. Skyfall, OTOH was not that kind of iconic picture and yet here we are: TDKR worldwide: $1.08 billion Skyfall (as of Nov. 18th): $669 million