ax4782

I simply disagree with that last statement. Volek is not exactly a rookie now, and he wasn't then. If Volek had been so good, they wouldn't have signed Vince Young to replace McNair who's going. Second, Holcomb played well for Cleveland the year he was basically pulling starting duty. If I remember correctly he was the last QB to lead them to the playoffs where he threw for over four hundred yards and four or five touchdowns against a potent Steelers defense, on the road. To say that Holcomb is always Mr. Safe, is simply wrong. Volek played in an offense where throwing down field was a huge part of their offense. That's giving what the game gives you. He was a decent back up playing on a good team. Holcomb was a good back up playing for a lousy team, who gave them a chance to win, during the same year. You can say all you want but Volek never would have been, nor could he have been a consistent and steady starter for the Bills. Period.

Those are the same kind of number Frank Reich had with the Bills as a back up, but he didn't turn out to be a very good starter for Carolina after they released Kerry Collins. Kelly Holcomb played that well for the Browns when Couch was out. Neither of them are really born starters in the NFL, no matter how well they could come in and play. Volek is a great back-up as were the others, but he is not starting QB material, then or now. That would have been the worst move in history, and yes that includes Rob Johnson. Now, could we please talk about something important to the team this year than speculate on who should have been or is going to be our quarterback? Maybe we could discuss who is going to be the likely starter THIS YEAR and why he will or will not do well. That might be an interesting discussion.

Thank you! That's the best point I've heard anyone make. Let's wait for the season to start before we start talking about our needs. This is crazy. The only thing I would say is, I think Buffalo can be a place with a fantastic passing offense. Jim Kelly did just fine throwing the ball in December and January.

Everyone here who thinks that Leinart is going to be a great NFL QB is off their rocker. First off, the comparison to Losman AND Nall is irrelevant. Only one of them is going to start so obviously he is going to have better numbers than one of them. Bad comparison. Second, Leinart is very different than Tom Brady. First off, Brady was never knocked for having a bad arm. Second Brady played at U of M. Ever been in Michigan during college football season. It is windy and cold folks. USC, however, where USC plays its game is 80 degrees and calm. Third, Tom Brady doesn't want to act and have other interests than his team and the Super Bowl. Leinart's heart isn't totally into football and that is not the type of player that anyone in the front office or any of the fans would want. Lastly, Leinart will do moderately well because Arizona will be in a climate that suits Leinart's weak arm, and it is weak (his longest completion last year through the air, not including YAC wasn't even fifty yards) and Arizona has been rebuilding for four years. If they aren't a playoff team with anyone a QB this year in a weak conference and division, it would be amazing. Stop the talk about Leinart. All this whining makes me sick. Besides, the Bills would have taken Cutler first. He's the better QB anyway. You want to have a discussion, talk about whether the guy we might have actually DRAFTED would have been better than what we have now.

I think by make a move he means pull a Ditka, give up our whole draft to move up to number one and take him. Clearly this would not be a scenario Bills fans would enjoy. I think if the Bills can get him they should, but not give up the farm to do so. We have other problems that the office will need to address next year. Forget about Quinn for now. Who knows, ND might go down the tubes and his stock will fall. Then no one will be talking about him anymore anyways.

Um, when did McNair win that first ring? Second, has anyone watched this guy over the last few seasons? He's been on the shnide for three years. He was a good quarterback during his prime, and for the kind of money he wants this season, he can go to the Ravens. Anyone who wants McNair better not criticize TD, because that's the same kind of lunacy that made us a five and eleven team last year. I bet Losman has far superior numbers to McNair this season, in part because McNair will be injured for five maybe six games. Taking him would be a terrible move for the Bills and if the front office even thought about it they're as silly as the last bunch of clowns that were in there. Go Sabres!!!!

Maybe Leinart can start his acting career by becoming the new spokesman for those Herpes medication commercials that are always on TV at dinner time.

I think Quinn would be a good target if none of the QB's pan out. However, the Bills have other needs on offense they may be able to draft next year, namely offensive line. If there are good OLs in the Draft, the Bills might look to get a veteran free agent and give Losman the boot. Quinn has a good arm and you know he is well coached under Weis. He will be ready to compete in an NFL style offense and will be able to make good decisions with the ball. If the Bills have the opportunity to move up and take Quinn, they likely will, if Losman does not do well this year. However, there is a long way to go until then, so, let's play wait and see before making any final decisions.

Maybe the guys at ESPN were just unhappy that all of their draft boards got screwed up and they can't figure out why. None of them has any idea what was going on in those rooms and they should keep their opinions where they belong. Opinions are like butts, everyone has one and they all stink.

I think you are exactly right. He will spell McGahee for short periods and will be expected to do so with consistency. He is never going to be a feature back for us or anyone else, but he could be a very reliable back up for us over the next few years. This is still a good signing.

Don't count on Nall not getting the nod. There are a lot of Packers and Vikings fans who were sad to see him leave and get snatched by the Bills. Losman is not going to be handed the job and Marv has yet to tell us something that is not true. If he says that there's a competition, Nall has a good chance to be the starter after camp and the pre-season are over. That said, we're better off not having Volek. Could we stop talking about the wouldas and shouldas and start worrying about the heres and nows.

Knock on wood

Tougher for Sabres to win this series. The Senators don't play goon hockey and they are faster than the Flyers for sure. However, we beat the crud out of them the last three games, and the shutout against them at the end of the season when they were fighting for the One Seed was a good sign. Also no Hasek. Coincidence? Sabres in Seven. Hurricanes in Six.

On the QB thing, understood. I think Losman will do well this year and that Schaub would never have been better than a backup, but you pays your money and you takes your chances. I did not know that Evans had been as productive as you are suggesting compared to the rest of his class, which included some other big names. That is an interesting point that does not get very much attention. Further, we were both going on the assumption that TD was smart enough to draft other non-skill need positions, which, based on past performance seems unlikely to have been the case. Anyway, as you said, time to look at the future with the team we have, not what we could have had. Go Sabres!!!

After last years frankly mediocre performance, I don't think he's worth the 7.2 mil they're offering him this next season, and there is NO WAY he is worth some six year fifty some odd million dollar contract ala Champ Bailey. Not right now, IMO. If he plays well, and shows the organization over the course of the season that he is worth expending this unbelievably large sum of money for, then they will sign him. Until then, the team has other needs that they could use that money to address rather than tying up huge surpluses of money in a player who last year was frankly just par. IMO. Go Sabres!!!!

Matt Schaub was an average QB at UVa who was made to look a lot better because of the line he played behind. He has played decently as a back up in ATL, but not spectacularly. That would have been a bad choice. Losman was handed the job last year before he was ready, and I think this year he will be a much better QB from what happened to him last year. Rarely does a good QB come out in his first year. Playing the shoulda game, one could argue that Lee Evans would have been available later in the 2003 draft and that Buffalo should have moved up from 13 to get Roethelsberger rather than drafting Evans. That would have been better than Schaub, for sure. Oh well. That's history. Let's look at the future based on what we have. Go Sabres!!!

First off, we beat the pants off the Maple Leafs this season without playing Philadelphia goon hockey. NO skates for Butler. On a serious note, Butler plays with a bit of nastiness. So does every good OL. Villarial is a bit nasty, as are Runyan and Hutchinson. Those are the kind of OLs you need to win championships. This is not to say that Butler is going to start for years to come and help win the Super Bowl this season, but he has the sort of attitude that many successful OLs have. His hit was dirty, but he was punished and there is nothing to suggest that he has done anything of the sort before or since. He overreacted. It happens when college kids play football. Let's give him a chance and see what happens. Go Sabres!!!

Pete, you are absolutely right. And since we're talking about Volek, a good backup who performs well in games, that youbotymyboty thinks we should have brought in as a starter, I think we tried that already. Rob Johnson anyone? Or maybe you'd like a little Billy Joe Hobert? Thought not. Memories in Buffalo are short these days. Go Sabres!!!

Vincent is still much better than average at safety. Keep in mind, he played corner for most of his career. He makes a big difference in a number of areas, including leadership and toughness. He's still quick enough to start and will be a great mentor for both Whitner and Simpson. I think the biggest problem with the OL was at tackle and that once Williams was moved to guard and Peters was put in the tackle spot, tackle improved. Villarial's injuries last season didn't help. Fowler and Reyes are good upgrades and will make us a better running team on first and second down. Lastly, I went to NC State and had the opportunity to see McCargo, Williams, and Lawson all play together every Saturday they played in Raleigh. McCargo played EVERY position on the DL, not just tackle, though that is where NC State primarily used him. Many times, McCargo was the reason Lawson and Williams thrived. He would break through the center of the line and flush the play towards Lawson or Williams, whichever direction the set called for. Without McCargo's speed in the middle or from the outside, Williams and Lawson would have had a much more difficult task. He is a solid player and would have been selected by the Giants at 32 and we would have been stuck with a second rate DT and that would not have helped. Ferguson was the only First Round Tackle, period. Justice was too raw and had way too many character problems for Buffalo to draft him. He would have been the next Mike Williams in Buffalo. Levy did a good job, fixed a lot of problems and is building effectively for the future. Go Sabres!!!

I'm not saying that A-T will start or anything. Quite the contrary. Willis is obviously number one in the RB camp hands down. All I'm saying is that having a seasoned veteran who can do an adequate job when Willis needs a play or two off on a long drive is a good thing. Further, just because he hasn't had playing time does not mean he can't play. Big difference. A-T was brought into Dallas last year when Julius Jones was hurt, because they needed a reliable veteran to back up Marion Butler in the event that he too got hurt. He didn't, and so A-T was not going to get any playing time. If nothing else he can provide some competition for the young guys behind McGahee, particularly Gates who is more in the big bruising back mold. Also, A-T is a better pass blocking back than Willis, so he could help him improve there. Not saying anything more than this is not a bad signing.

I think Shaud played well last year, but he is not a reliable #2. The Bills looked at the game tape last year when Willis was out and realized they needed a guy who has proven he can play on Sundays, even if he hasn't done it a lot. Thomas was a very good back in Chicago and he is still a skilled player and a reliable back up. Willis will get a lot more playing time this year on third downs than he did last year, mainly because I think he proved towards the end of last season that his hands were good enough to catch some passes. However, Thomas is a versatile back and will be able to come in and perform consistently when Willis is taking a breather. Good signing. And with an improved core of lineman in Fowler, Reyes and the return of Villarial, I think the Bills will have much more success running the ball between the tackles this offseason.

Both DTs in the draft will get playing time. McCargo will help in the pass rush as he played DE successfully in the Wolfpack's defensive scheme at times last year. They often moved Williams or Lawson into the middle of the line and moved McCargo out to end, so he knows how to get after it from all points on the defensive line. Williams will get time as well, playing behind Anderson who has developed during the course of 2006. Kelsay is coming around as well and with Schoebel on the other side who is turning into an above average rusher, the Bills should do much better this year. With the secondary getting younger and faster, the Defense is not really the problem. The OL is the problem, and though they have made some good moves in FA already, I'd like to see them bring in some more talented players. The offense needs to be able to score between 21 and 31 points a game to compete for a playoff spot in the league right now, and the Bills aren't at that point yet, IMO. Next two years will be very telling how far Marv and the new staff can take this team.

Forty times don't mean anything, folks. If Buffalo drafted forty times, we'd be even worse than we were last season. The argument isn't about which guy can run faster, its about who plays harder. Sure, speed is important and necessary, but it is not sufficient in terms of determining who is and is not a successful player. Intelligence, desire and pqs are all important and Whitner displayed all of those traits at OSU. He will be a GREAT asset to the defense and will, in terms of talent push Bowens, Wire, and Vincent to be better. Let's focus on the stuff about these players that means something rather than picky points that in the grand scheme of things don't have anything to do with whether or not someone is really going to be a good player. Anyone remember Mark Kelso's forty time? Leonard Smiths? Bennetts? Reeds? No, we remember them for a lot of other things, but no one cares what their forty times were past the time when they were drafted.

This is a much fairer and IMO a much more accurate look at the Bills' draft results this weekend. I think Whitner would have been gone before 15 and that the Giants who needed DL would have taken McCargo at 32 if he had been available. The Bills did the right thing and built up the middle of defense that was fractured in the middle last season and was further weakened by free agency. Go Sabres!!!!

If the Ravens were going to take him, then who do the Bills take at 15? Hmm? Bunkley and Ngata, the "Fan Favorites" and Lienart the "glamour" pick WERE GONE!!! The player we wanted would have been gone to the Ravens. Who would you take? No one has been able to answer this. I actually watched college football games this season, and because Ohio State is on TV so much, I had a chance to actually WATCH Whitner play against some of the best football programs in the country: i.e. Michigan, Penn State, and this year Texas and Notre Dame. The kid is an amazing talent and he out played Michael Huff in the game against Texas. He's a better hitter and has just as good coverage skills as any corner that played this year. And on McCargo, the Giants wanted a DT at 32, not a DE. The only reason they drafted Kiwanuka was because they couldn't get another DT who was even close to being worth a first or even second round pick, and Kiwanuka was the last DL worth a first round grade. They would have taken McCargo and we would have been stuck. I can't even imagine the hate that would have been thrown at Marv if we hadn't drafted a DT at all. The whiners would really be crowing then. Give these players and the front office the benefit of the doubt for now. They know a heck of a lot more about what they're doing than we do. And do try to keep in mind that if Marv was so terrible at drafting talent, someone explain why he was the last winning coach who was able to draft well enough to get us to Four Super Bowls.