Dr. Trooth

Pat Williams, Sam Adams, Troy Vincent, Lawyer Milloy, Nate Clements, Aaron Schobel, Takeo Spikes, London Fletcher, Antoine Winfield... I hope he did a good job with that defense. I think a high school coach could have been the defensive coordinator and done a good job. Congrats to Jerry Gray for his Texas job. I'm thrilled he's not the Bills DC. As a defensive coordinator in the NFL he wasn't very good, as evidenced by the fact that the Bills were his one, and only, DC gig in the NFL. And, let's face it, Gregg Williams was the defacto DC of the Bills all three of his HC years here. The players plus GW were the reason the Bills ended up #2 on D in 2003. Gray went along for the ride. I'll never forget the beating the Steelers 2nd stringers put on Jerry Gray's defense in the season finale of the 2004 season when the Bills could have made the playoffs with a win.

Depends on how you look at it. Does Fred want to extend his curretn deal at a reasonable amount? He's 30 with a year left on his contract. At 30, and only a single 1,000 yard season on your resume, where is this leverage? If the Bills balk at a new contract, then what? Will Fred play it out or pull a Vince Jackson? If he pulls a VJ and sits it out, now he's 31 after sitting out a season and a FA. What team is gonna sign him for more than two years at more than he was making? I doubt anyone, but Belechick would snatch him up at a garage sale price cuz Belechick doesn't use a feature back... they are all part timers. On the other hand, if Fred becomes a "twit wit" and gets whiney and pissy about this publicly, it makes him look like he's holding the Bills hosage because they have no recourse (they wiffed on Spiller). Of course, the Bills look bad (like they already don't) if they let this fester because Fred's contract proabaly never intended for him to carry the seed as much as he has. Class organizations don't do that, and that will not be overlooked on by potential free agents that the Bills might pursue, and it defiitely would continue to valiidate a belief that the Bills do not have a committment to winning. The Bills still hold the cards. They could decide to draft a RB or bring a serviceable vet in during the FA period... or both. There has to be a middle ground... perhaps ammending Fred's deal, giving him a raise next year with a fair amount guaranteed and an option year after next season that he could excercise or opt out.

I think we got 1 good year our of Phil Villapiano and a 3 decent years from James Lofton.

Let's explorr that theory a bit. Usually, if an employer is recruiting you for a position, they contact you (or your designate). And, aside from asking you how you are and how are the kids, they usually provide some summary of what they have in mind for your talents and skill set. But, there has got to be some dialogue and some interest by both parties. The recruiter also knows your background, and your salary history. So, before traveling to the employer for the interview it's reasonable to expect that there is some measure of interest, or motive, to go ahead with the interview. Mind you, the guy you're interviewing has been a head coach somewhere for nearly 15 years, and prior to that a pretty good DC. The employer has no vacancy at either of the two positions the recruit has core experience in. To me, it just doesn't make sense. Was the Bills FO stupid enough to believe that Wanny was going to talk them about a role on the team? My take is that it was more about having a conversation with a knowledgeable guy more as a consultant about this hybrid defense bullschitt that Gailey is tossing around... or maybe even some discussion about Pitt or other players coming out in the draft. But, then I thought the FO took it to the next level for max impact. If the Bills FO would have left it at, yes, Wanny was here and we had a good discussion and then end of discussion. But, by going one step further and clearly announcing that he met with the coaching staff (even if he did, it wasn't something that necessarily had to be publicly announced), The Bills, I believe, intentionally planted a seed in the minds of the media and fans. The message... we're really serious about buckling down and addressing the problems of the defense. What a great way to get fans off your ass and provide them some meat to chew on than by parading a "big name" around OBD. They fans will be thinking about that for several weeks and they will also believe that OBD will be having discussions with more big names in the near future. Sadly, I've been a Bills fan for a long time. Long enough to know Raplh Wilson's MO. He doesn't bring big names in. He's done it only twice in over 50 years... once at HC with Chuck Knox and once with Wade Phillips at DC. When he hires a big name, he just goes out and does it. There's no media dog and pony show, no public display like in Wanny's case. When it does become public knowledge that a big name has walked through OBD it's done for only one reason... publicity value. That's all this Wanny crap was.

Amen, bro. 6'3" 345 (hopefully)

But, but, but but... what happened with the wine & cheese social with the Bills staff? Is Wanny not good enough for the Bills, or is it the other way around? Or, was it just another publicity stunt at OBD?

Right... show me any evidence that Ralph was willing to do that? Someone is blowing smoke up your shorts dude. Shanny ain't even making that kind of money with the skins.

Ok... can we sign opportunistic as a free agent, then draft opportunistic? Cmon man. Way to go out on a limb. Opportunistic is a broad, broad term. Were the Bills opportunistic when they drafted McGahee? Some say yes. What about Trent Edwards falling to the Bills in the third rd.? You must remember all the hoopla. Maybin, Whitner? Now that's gambling on a guy you think can bring your team up a notch. C'mon... the Bills thought they looked opportunity in the eye and grabbed it. Ask the Browns if they seized opportunity in 1999 and 2000... Tim Couch and Courtney Brown. Any team with the 1st pick in each of those years wouldn't have drafted any differently. What they need is an owner that cares about winning. Ralph doesn't. Right now he's all about staffing the team and making a reasonable buck... and somehow, someway able to keep the fans somewhat engaged with a little name dropping, ordering Nix to go out on the road to colleges and find a QB. Some sizzle, but no porterhouse. A 90 something owner, a 70 something scouting director, a 70 something GM? Between the three of them, a lot of old school there. But, every day the gap widens between them and today's game. Hey... there's an opportunity for Ralph... hire someone 30 years younger to fill those positions. Better yet... SELL, Ralph, SELL.

Nope. he has previous DC (and HC) experience. Ralph would have to damn near pay him HC coin. Ralph will stick to his plan of bringing inexperienced coordinators. When he fires them he ain't out a whole lot of money. Ralph is still pissed over the last DC the Bills hired that had previous DC/HC experience (Wade).

OK. Who are the top two? The pundits have their opinion and the NFL scouts have their opinion. We know what the pundits have there (usually their beauty contest winners), but we don't know where the NFL scouts have em ranked... and that's the ranking that matters. Now, you know the Bills will absoultely get the top one or two TEs in the draft when they select in the 5th round. When Buddy steps up to the podium at OBD after the draft, the transcript from the presser will read something like this... "Ya know, Joe Blow, the tight end we drafted in the fifth round, we had him ranked second on our board coming in, right after the guy that was taken in the first round. We could not believe he was still there when we our pick came up in the fifth. So, ya know, Chan and I talked it over and it was unanimous to select this guy". Ya know, "He's a guy that can get down the field and be a factor". "He gets after people and blocks pretty well for his size". "Of course, ya know, we have 3 pretty good tight ends already, so we expect some competition going into camp at tight end".

I don't care if they're samoan, mandarin, ubhangi, norwegian, siberian, or phillipino, as long as they are a quick, strong, fat slob that goes, say, 6'2" 345lbs.

Why rationalize what amounts to a publicity stunt by the Bills. If they want Wanny, fire Edwards and bring him in or the Bills front office should STFU. Then Nix and Gailey can man up and admit they made a gigundo gaffe in going to the 3-4 and bringing in Edwards in the first place. Wanny has only been a DC in place... in Dallas, under Jimmy J... then Jimmy J brings him on in mid season to be def. consultant for the Fins. That was a train wreck... Wanny gets the HC job and the Fins continue to suck. He then gets a "plum" job at Pitt (where he is an alum) and after 6 seasons gets shown the door. Hey... Gailey has a similar resume... maybe they're made for each other. But, the bottom line is... Wanny ain't coming to the Bills. If the Bills want to go high profile, they could bring in Man Gina or another experienced 3-4 guy. The hybrid crap ain't going to work with the Bills D. It might be different if the Bills were loaded with 11 starting vets that have seen just about everything, but that aint the case. They're bringing in a lot of youngins that will struggle just learning and mastering a few assignments. You start switching things back and forth and they're going to be thinking too much and not reacting and beaten for big big plays.

OK Donte. You win. However, since you ripped off Ralph and the fans for the past five seasons, you're welcome back at a 10% cut in salary and no guaranteed money. However, your contract will be worth triple if you meet certain incentives.

Stop being a sissy and a memeber of the "Liberals for Censorship as Long as the Thought Process isn't the Same as Mine" club. Reality check time dude... Get Real... don't just pretend and be a wanbabee. Or should I say "Wannybee" fanboy?

Dumbest. Not sure where you've been, but just a few tidbits. 1) Wanny is a 4-3 guy. Bills have already committed to the 3-4. Brining in Wanny stunts that transition. And, going baack to the 4-3 means Nix and Gailey made a huge mistake (they won't admit that), and any gain from the past year is wasted. 2) With Wanny and Edwards there, players and assts. are gonna be tripping over themselves. They won't know what master to serve... they may even end up taking sides. 3) Wanny wants high end DC money and wants to be Asst. HC so he can step into the Bills HC role when Chan gets fired. Ralph don't pay top coin for anyone. Not to mention, Wanny as a head caoch is a disaster. Wherever he's been as HC, he has a 2 yr. window in which his teams are very competitive and then a steady and steep decline. 4) This Wanny BS is Ralph's way of BSing the fans (AGAIN) into believing that he really cares about the Bills vying for a championship. He did the same thing last year when he feigned courting Cowher and Shanahan. A lot of fans bought in then, Ralph saw it worked tosell tix, so he's doing it again. What a bunch of crapola dog and pony show... bringing wanny in to meet, greet, and gnosh with the staff. Picture something like that happening in your own work environment. I'll bet that went over with the staff like a lead fart.

1) Leach has been out of work a lot longer. There's a reason for that, and it ain't the poor economy. Colleges think he's poison and the pros think he's a joke. (Just goes to show how much clout Craig James has) 2) There's a huge difference running a spread in college vs. pros. Two different animals. Leach ain't got what it takes. Once he faces a pro D that zone blitzes, he wouldn't know whether to schitt or go blind. 3) Sparano can give Ross the bird and walk away with $10M... kinda sorta like Wade did. Guys like Sparano won't compromise their phylosophy. They only know how to coach one way.

Why all the Hype for Leach? A percieved hot commodity like him has been outa work for a year. So why ain't he coaching some place? Those spread offenses work good in college when your opponents don't have the resources or talent to prepare like they do in the "bigs". Furthermore... suggesting or projecting him as the Dolphins OC is really amusing. The Dolphins have a dude named Tony Sparano as their HC. He's a Parcell's protege. Those guys have a specific modus operandi. They want their offenses to be extremely physical and run the ball down the opposition's throats so much that they'll beg you to throw a pass. Leach wouldn't know the first thing about that. Like Spurrier, if he ever had any opportunity in the NFL (especially running an offense), he'd find very quickly how far in over his head he is. I think he knows that already and I think NFL people know it too.

looks like it. Must be something about the 8th, er-uh, 9th pick. I wish these nit-twits like Whitner, Spiller, Maybin would just STFU. So far, they've all demonstrated that they're nothing but "do nothing" windbags.

OK... It's bad enough that any team would want to build their defense around Poz. But, even worse, pay him more than 30% more? WTF? How about 30% less than he's making now? And I'm not even sure that amount wouldn't be more than than his performance.

If Troup wants to be a stud nose tackle, he needs to spend less time in the weight room and more time in the cafeteria. 315 lbs. and not much of a belly won't cut it. More pasta, less meat. Another 25 - 30 lbs. should do it.

. What players are worth signing from a 4-12 team? Cheap vets? That's been the Bills MO since Donahoe left. How's that worked out, Ralph? Build through the draft sez Buddy? Well, CJ Spiller ain't exactly a good exhibit A. You get what you pay for. In Ralph's case, you reap what you sew. Bad seeds, bad harvest.

It kinda does. They call it the wildcat. You can't run it exclusively because, unlike college, all 11 guys are big and fast and the field is the same dimensions as in college. Bigger, faster in the same amount of space? No team wants to expose their $12m QB to hits by rather large men with bad intentions. Lose a dude like Peyton, and there goes your season and your ticket sales. That's why they expose their RB instead to these large men with bad intentions in the aforementioned wildcat. But the RBs tend not to be even the slightest passing threat and defenses have caught up with the wildcat (except for the Bills, see Brad Smith). In the pros, you want to spread the players out on defense so that you can capture large chunks of real estate. The option would bring everyone on D up closer to the LOS. These large fast men with bad intentions have a smaller area to defend and they are good with that.

What is your plan for the Bills to draft the 2nd coming of Tom Brady (and keep him)?

When do we draft that big fat smelly nasty slob nose tackle? That's what I want to know.

But, but, but... how can that be? The Bills have Steve Johnson. Hasn't he suplanted Lee Evans as the Bills #1 receiver? In fairness to Fitz, it was... 1) his first season in the offense 2) his first real shot as a #1, and thus, 13 starts in a season, the most playing time he's ever seen. 3) He has no protection from his blind side or right side 4) He had two deep threats. When Roscoe went down, that was probably the single most reason the offense went south. When Lee went down for the last 3, the hunt was over. 5) He doesn't have a receiving threat at TE Fitz may or may not be the answer at QB. Next season the bar is raised real high for Fitz. We'll have a pretty good indication in the first five games. I still don't know why many fans seem to think the offense is almost "there". The Bills ranked 24th... it's not close... and we still don't have that explosive player at RB. I remember when JP had his 19/14 & 62% comp. season in 06. Fans thought he had turned it up a notch and was on his way to stardom. Well, Fitz season was pretty damn good by Bills standards over the past decade. But, if you can't get your completion avg. above 60% and QB rating above 90, then you ain't gonna crack the top 15. If you don't crack at least the top 15, you're just there til someone replaces you.