keepthefaith

It's a no brainer. Losman will be the starter if he's healthy. Bet the ranch.

How about a logo with a Buffalo wearing a loin cloth shaped like a Maple leaf?

Build a new stadium in Niagara Falls (USA) and you might be on to something. The Buffalo-Toronto Bills! Gets the NFL into another market and another country. No more small market team.

Willis was due a lot of the critism he got last year for his decision making when not running through the hole. He was very hesitiant in several games last year and got tackled for losses or no gain a number of times when he chose to go away from the designed play. He also did not run to the hole in an explosive fashion after taking a lot of hand-offs and so far he has not demonstrated that Thurman Thomas-like knack for finding a hole when there wasn't one. Willis just doesn't have the quickness necesary to make those kind of changes of direction, at least not at the weight he played at last year. In '04 he ran away from people better. If any of you have a copy of the Tampa-Bills game from last year, go look at that. Willis was awful and Cadillac Williams put on a clinic on how to get to the hole quickly and run with amazing determination on every play. That guy is a star in the making. Willis with his head screwed on straight playing at a lighter weight and giving 100% on every moment on every play can be a star as well. Yeah he'll need some help from the O-line, but he has not shown much motivation since he has declared himself recovered from his injury. I hope he's sandbagging.

Hey, this is the best. I hope it continues. I hope that everyone from Ralph Wilson down to the water boy is reading all the gloom and doom. As a player or coach or GM it has to be highly motivating to read this stuff. They get no respect from anyone and they have everything to prove - all of them. This is the kind of stuff that will bring the team together and make them even more determined. That goes a long way in all sports and in life. Bring on the negativity! Bring it all and don't forget it!

The fish acquired Malarkey, Culpepper and Beenie Anderson in order to execute a new top secret play devised by coach Malarkey. A play so innovative that it was the deciding factor when he was hired by Nick Saban. Here is how it works...... Dante lines up under center with Bennie at left or right guard. Dante goes in motion and shifts to the tight end spot. He's the only NFL quarterback with the size and strength to operate as a tight end on a running play. As Dante shifts to tight end, Bennie shifts into the backfield with both Sammy Morris and Ronnie Brown (backs now in a wishbone formation with Bennie in the lead position). Next the center snaps directly to Bennie while both Sammy and Ronnie (both of which are wearing matching Ricky Williams jersey's) run to the hole vacated by Bennie when he shifted to the backfield. Bennie receives the ball into his belly and is able to hold and conceal the ball without using his hands. He sweeps to the side where Dante is lined up. The defense is fooled on several counts. 1st they key on the backs (Ricky and Ricky). 2nd, with more teams running the Tampa 2 defense, the defensive line is coached to run through the huge gap left by Bennie when he shifted. 3rd the defense will key on the 2 backs trying to figure out which is the real Ricky. Lastly they never expect Bennie to get the ball and can't see the ball. Bennie running slowly behind the block by Culpepper draws no attention from the defense and walks into the end zone where he is greated by his teamates who have already arrived. While they huddle briefly for a touchdown celebration, one of the Ricky's removes the ball from Bennie's belly and spikes it. The defense thinks that the touchdown was scored by Ricky Williams, but they aren't sure which one. This allows the Dolphins to run the play over and over in several games since opposing defenses never figure out that Bennie is the ball carrier. Other benefits of the play are that they can run a lot of time off the clock based on Bennie's 40-time, especially if they run the play from deep in their own end. I don't think the play will work, but the Dolphins have invested in the coaching and personnel to make it happen. Mularkey discovered Bennie's ability to execute this during the last week of practice last season. Story is that with the offense lined up in the shotgun, Bennie jumped offsides and began to pull to his right when the ball was snapped and it became trapped in his abdomen. He made it through the end zone and into the locker room before the ball was discovered. Mularkey may have planned to use the play this year as th Bill's coach but never got the opportunity. Marv and Dick considered the play but don't believe in "trickery". This prompted them to cut Bennie who was imediately signed by the fish.

I rank SI 79th on the sports magazine list with only the swimsuit issue keeping them in the top 100.

The Buffalo news prints a rundown of AFC East changes and calls Culpepper an elite QB acquisition for the Dolphins? I think he needs to work on becoming average before anyone starts calling him Elite. He's coming off a serious injury and Brad Johnson looked to be a huge impovement for the Vikings after Culpepper went down last year. He might be closer to a bust than elite.

I'd say that's about the right rank given his performance last year and the Bill's questionable offensive line.

Maybe not this year, but by next year yes. Moulds is in the declining years of his career and by '07 the receiving corps in Buffalo will be more experienced and productive if they can stay healthy. This upcoming year cannot be viewed as anything else but rebuilding for the Bills giving young players and a new coaching staff more experience. Moulds will be remebered as a great player that played on losers his whole career if he stays with the Texans. He was a class act for the vast majority of his days in Buffalo and it's a shame that he isn't playing for a contender now. I think some good teams missed a nice opportunity to get a player who could be a difference maker for them in a playoff run this year. I don't see the Bills in the hunt for the playoffs this year with him or withouut him.

I would agree, but mostly beacause he just hired Drew Rosenhaus as his agent. I thought Fletcher was smart. Not so sure now after he hires an agent of much hype and low respectability. Drew was quoted as saying he has a dood relationship with the Bills organization. Last time I looked he has never signed a Bills player since Marv became GM. I think what he meant is he has yet to piss off the new regime, but with London and Willis as clients he has a nice opportunity to screw that up. London doesn't need Drew to get another team to outbid the Bills for him next year.

If he shows up in great shape (which he did not his last year in Chicago) and plays with passion each and every day (he didn't do that in Chicago either) he can make it. I think Lionel Gates is our best back next to Willis and hope somebody can push Willis for playing time.

Exactly. He's the only one not to show this year and he was a no show last year as well. Apparently he and his brilliant agent know a better way for him to get prepared for the new season. Of course Willis does have 2 newborn babies and 2 baby momma's to support both financially and emotionally, so he should be excused. Although you would think he'd like to take a break from running back and forth between two homes to change diapers.

1500 yards and 15 touchdowns cures all of this. We'll just have to wait and see.

In September we'll begin to get answers to all of these questions. Until then everyone should enjoy the great run the Sabres are having and the short summer.

Bruce Mathison or Todd Collins

Willis needs to mature as a person. A good first step would be to get a different agent. Rosenhaus is not exactly the mentor type. There are some good agents out there that actually help young players manage their careers. Staying in sleezy southeast Florida doesn't help. In terms of players, I don't see many veteran guys on the Bills that are likely to take him under their wing. At least not at this point. He could benefit from spending time with guys like Troy Vincent or London Fletcher. Too bad we don't have a crusty old veteran running back on the roster to help him.

Baloney to both of those numbers. He's heavier and slower.

More than any team in the league, the Bills have a lot to prove. From top to bottom. First there is Ralph Wilson who on his own has challenged the league and the CBA as unfair. A guy who just wants to win and win now inspite of the economic disadvantage dealt his team. Then there is Marv Levy, 80 years old in uncharted waters as a first time GM, trying to prove that Ralph made a good decision to hire him and needing to live up to the expectation of fans and players who know him as a hall of fame coach and the leader of '90's Bills. A guy who could easily have relaxed into retirement but instead took on the biggest challenge of his career. How aout Coach Dick Jauron, run out of Chicago and thought here (I'm a former Buffalonian living in Chicago) to have no chance to ever be a head coach again after the decline of the Bears from 13-3 to awful. Career wise he has the most to gain or loose in Buffalo. If he wins, he prove the naysayers wrong, and he has plenty of them. If he looses, he's finished as an NFL head coach. Huge upside/downside for Dick. Then there are the veteran free agents signed this offseason. Guys like Tripplett, Royal, Price, Fowler , Bowen and Reyes who all want to prove that their teams should have retained them. How about the Quarterbacks, all 3 of them wanting to start. This year's draft choices, picked too high or picked too low or shouldn't have been picked at all. They all should have a bit of a chip on their shoulder. Takeo Spikes, coming back from a serious injury, better than ever? Willis McGahee, is he a top tier back or not? Lastly is us, the fans, who deserve a winner and will support our team unconditionally, wanting to show them all that the team of the 90's was no fluke and that our underdog city belongs in the spotlight. I like how this season shapes up. There are huge motivating factors here, the kind that can get the whole organization on the same page. It ought to be the mantra for this new regime. It's us against them. Nobody expects anything great from us. We don't have the talent. Our old owner has lost it. Our GM hired a nice guy for a coach. Well take a look at the '05 Chicago Whitesox, world champions in convincing fashion. They laughed when Ozzie Guillen was hired as the manager, they had a low payroll, they had some castoff free agents that were never factors on their old teams, their pitchers, some of them, were unproven. What they did have was a team full of guys willing to put it on the line every game, who played unselfishly, believed in the new coaching philosophy. They had this after getting rid of the old guys and the troublemakers. More than any team, they were all on the same page. Sounds a little like the New England Patriots and maybe the new Bills. I like how this is starting to look.

I can read him just fine. He's a jerk with a jerk agent. He'll never play for Buffalo after his contract ends, and that's OK because there will be better backs out there. He's not quick enough, takes plays off and his high opinion of himself is an obstacle. I hope I'm wrong.

Actually they are pleased with him. Last time they saw him was during the Bills/Bucs game last season and he was very polite, didn't block anybody.

Those are nice boobies. The heck with football.