JDG

On what basis?

Guy used to completely outkick his coverage... I'm not sure he necessarily deserves the title of best punter in NFL history. As for Steve Tasker, they guy isn't even on the Wall of Fame, how can the guy (whom I admittedly consider the Greatest Buffalo Bill) possibly make a case for the Hall of Fame without even being on the Wall of Fame? JDG

I dunno, compare Mike Mularkey's Bills' last game in New England vs. Gregg Williams' Bills' last game in New England.... JDG

Yeah, how is it that "Thurman Thomas" isn't a headliner of this HOF class???? JDG

Our starting Safeties are in the same boat. As were our starting LB's until Spikes got hurt. The simple truth of the matter is that the core talent of a team usually comes through your 1st day draft picks, and particularly the 1st and 2nd rounds. Donahoe has had 10 drafts with the Bills, and in those 10 drafts we spent a whopping *eight* picks on QB, WR, and RB. The truth of the matter is that Donahoe built a team around Drew Bledsoe, Travis Henry, Eric Moulds, and Josh Reed (as well as Greg Wiliams) and after three years was forced to completely rip out that team in favor of the new JP Losman, Willis McGahee, Eric Moulds, Lee Evans, and Roscoe Parrish team (as well as Mike Mularkey.) That's a huge investment to have go bust, and then be completely rebuilt in the space of just five years. Toss in the occasional bust like Mike Williams, and it should be no surprise as to why the Bills' talent cupboard is bare. The only question really is - do we see "Donahoe Project 2.0" through to its completion (i.e. 2006), or do we advocate the firing of Donahoe at the end of 2005 based on the failure of "Donahoe Project 1.0" - and bring in a new GM, new Coach, and probably a ripping apart of the team and starting over? JDG

Why does any owner belong in the Hall? i.e. how does one compare the worthiness for the HOF of Ralph Wilson vs. Dermontti Dawson? Its absurd to even try. As for lawnboy's question about stats, Football is not baseball where sheer longevity to pile up certain career benchmarks can punch your ticket for Cooperstown. Football is a far more complex game with many more intangibles. Drew Bledsoe is another guy who is piling up great career numbers, but who should never sniff the HOF. Rather, HOF assessment should be based on some combination of the following factors: 1) Was there a period of years in which this player would alter the gameplans of opponents? 2) Was there a period of years in which this player was the best, or at least among the Top 3 at his position in the NFL? 3) Does this player's accomplishments at his position at least compare favorably with the career accomplishments of other players at his position already in the Hall? 4) Is this player's accomplishments significantly better than the career accomplishments of other players at his position not (yet) in the HOF (and not an obvious lock for the Hall ala Reggie White)? 5) Did this player have an extended period of years of being "very, very, good" in addition to the period of "dominance"? JDG

If defense wins championships, how do we explain the rise of the St. Louis Rams?

Reggie White is a mortal lock. Aikman is almost a shoo-in. Thurman Thomas belongs in the conversation of greatest NFL RB ever - only player to ever lead the League in yards for scrimmage for four straight years (even Jim Brown didn't do that), so he should be a shoo-in. Seniors' candidates are rarely rejected, so put in Rayfield Wright and John Madden (though I wouldn't vote for him - broadcast experience isn't supposed to count.) That leaves one slot, for the likes of Irvin, Carson, Dawson, D. Thomas, Young, and Wilson. My ballot: White, T. Thomas, Aikman, Wright, Moon, and Carson I don't think Moon stands much of a shot, but I think that he eminently deserves it under the HOF rules that are supposed to consider CFL Stats in certain cases. JDG

The question is.... do we give JP Losman long enough to become the next Drew Brees or (dareIsay) the next Rich Gannon before judging Donahoe???? JDG

Would you trust Donahoe's judgment at the QB position? Rob Johnson (Flutie's still in the League, RJ is not...), Travis Brown, Drew Bledsoe, and then trotting out JP Losman for the first four games of a year with high playoff expectations. Ron Wolf had a nice run, but Donahoe's track record is beginning to look a bit like Ozzie Newsome's (who in every other respect is a top-flight NFL GM, and superior drafter, BTW). JDG

Fair enough. I can't completely absolve Tom Donahoe on this basis, though, since the definitions of "reaches' are formed by the NFL GM's themselves. If Donahoe had called up his buddy Len Pasquarelli at ESPN.com and said "keep an eye on that Freeney kid (sic) from Syracuse", then Freeney would not have been considered to be such a "reach" when the Colts (or Bills) took him. JDG - Who of course has at least 5 posts in the TBD archives before that draft advocating taking Freeney....

Dwight Freeney JDG

For example, let's say that as soon as Donahoe arrives, he immediately decides that Rob Johnson is not the answer, and so decides to pursue a QB in the draft, here are the drafted QB's over those two years: 2002 1 1 1 1 David Carr Texans Fresno State 2 1 3 3 Joey Harrington Lions Oregon 3 1 32 32 Patrick Ramsey Redskins Tulane 4 3 16 81 Josh McCown Cardinals Sam Houston State 5 4 10 108 David Garrard Jaguars East Carolina 6 4 19 117 Rohan Davey Patriots Louisiana State 7 5 2 137 Randy Fasani Panthers Stanford 8 5 23 158 Kurt Kittner Falcons Illinois 9 5 28 163 Brandon Doman 49ers Brigham Young 10 5 29 164 Craig Nall Packers Northwestern State 11 6 14 186 J.T. O'Sullivan Saints California-Davis 12 6 33 205 Steve Bellisari Rams Ohio State 13 7 5 216 Seth Burford Chargers Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo 14 7 21 232 Jeff Kelly Seahawks Southern Mississippi 15 7 24 235 Ronald Curry Raiders North Carolina 16 7 25 236 Wes Pate Ravens Stephen F. Austin 2001 1 1 1 1 Michael Vick Falcons Virginia Tech 2 2 1 32 Drew Brees Chargers Purdue 3 2 22 53 Quincy Carter Cowboys Georgia 4 2 28 59 Marques Tuiasosopo Raiders Washington 5 4 11 106 Chris Weinke Panthers Florida State 6 4 14 109 Sage Rosenfels Redskins Iowa State 7 4 30 125 Jesse Palmer Giants Florida 8 5 18 149 Mike McMahon Lions Rutgers 9 5 24 155 A.J. Feeley Eagles Oregon 10 6 9 172 Josh Booty Seahawks Louisiana State 11 6 14 177 Josh Heupel Dolphins Oklahoma The best ones on the board from those years whom the Bills had any shot at (obvious Carr is off the table) are Quincy Carter and Rohan Davey - who are both available, as well as Josh McCown, Sage Rosenfels, and JT O'Sullivan.... but all in all, not a lot to work with. And as I mentioned earlier this week - if the Patriots were such geniuses when it comes to the draft, would they really have taken Dave Stachelski ahead of Tom Brady???? In other words, if drafting the next Tom Brady is your standard - well, good luck to ya.... because sometimes that sort of thing *just happens* and there isn't any explanation for it. JDG

We'll see if Losman gets back in this year or not.... but at worst we're talking about a one year difference in giving up on Losman or not. That's the fallacy in your analogy - what has given the Bills troubles all these years was *not* playing Flutie in 1998, it was then investing in the Williams - Bledsoe - Henry - Moulds - Reed team that ending up completely busting. JDG

In the NFL you *always* have a shot of winning at home. Heck, even *Losman* nearly beat the Falcons at home. The Bills showed against New England that when they can get McGahee going, they can make games ugly and close. The Bills have some of the best Special Teams in the League, and the emergence of Roscoe Parrish should make our offense more dynamic. In short, the Bills need to win at home - where we have four games left, and then win on the road the sub-.500 NY Jets and Miami. That's 9-7 - a very reasonable expectation. I think that the Bills will likely be favored in home games vs. Kansas City and New England. We might be slight underdogs at home vs. Carolina and Denver - but both games are winnable. If we lose one, we can make it up by winning @San Diego or @Cincinnati. JDG

It all starts this week with the Bills beating the Chiefs at home, and the Patriots being upset in Miami! The Pats have not won consecutive games all year, they've been beaten very soundly at home twice, and have three wins by the very skin of their teeth. I the Bills would be very foolish to assume that the Patriots couldn't go 5-3 the rest of the way. If we tie at 9-7, with the Bills beating the Pats at home, we'll have a decent strong shot at the tiebreaker, particularly if the Bills win out in the division. JDG

Promo - I don't think that you can totally absolve TD of his pick by virtue of his pick being a product of the "expert consensus" beacuse TD is one of those guys who *forms* the expert consensus. All those mock drafts that we see in part get their starts from guys like TD calling up his buddy Len Pasquarelli at ESPN.com and other Bills staffers casually talking to the pro football media. If TD had recognized Freeney for what he is, and dropped some nuggets about Freeney in the media, the expectations game about the pick would have changed entirely. JDG

Which goes to show that good drafting teams *do* make reaches.....

6-2 means winning all of our home games, and beating the sub-.500 Jets and Pats on the road. You can Bill-ieve in that... and it all starts on Sunday. JDG

Yes, the schedule is easy - but the Jaguars have also shown their true colors the last two weeks.... losing to the St. Louis JV team, and nearly losing to the Texans at home. JDG

How many NFL Teams have ever lined up an offensive line with *FOUR* tackles on the field! Bizzarre.....

Just remember that whomever wins the AFC East will be playing at home in the first week of the playoffs - admittedly to the Cincinnati/Pittsburgh runner-up or the AFC West #2. But still, you can't be completely depressed about a home playoff game. JDG

Yes, Wade Phillips, you were wrong to count the Bills out of it.....

A couple quick replies to various posters: 1) Sorry to disagree with plenzmd1 after the nice compliment, but given the choice, I would pick 5-straight 10-6 playoff birth years, over one 14-2 year with a Super Bowl win and two 10-6 years, and two 4-12 years. Especially given the situation of our franchise, the former would probably keep the Bills in Buffalo - but definitely am not sure it would survive a prolonged a downturn at the wrong moment. 2) To Bill in Livonia - the Bills have *not* been run on the cheap. Cheap times don't sign a tagged Takeo Spikes away, cheap teams don't trade for Bledsoe and then jettison him after just two years. There are many valid criticisms of Donahoe (see my post above), but running the team on the cheap is not one of them. 3) To Holcomb's Arm - In my tally, Gilbride counts as a "Donahoe Pittsburgh Hire".... Gilbride was in Pittsburgh during Donahoe's tenure, and I honestly don't think that Gregg Williams fired his hand-picked offensive coordinator (remember all the Lists he had during the job interview?) after one talent-deprived 3-13 season. Given the unrealistic expectations Donahoe set for that team, however, I can easily imagine Donahoe having done so. JDG

The point being not that it was a great win five years ago, but that it seems pretty extraordinary to me for an NFL team to turn over basically its whole roster in five years. I definitely wish we still had Bryce Fisher, but in fairness to Donahoe, I think that St. Louis let him walk too before he finally busted out.... JDG