Koufax

Sure, if you think the difference between where we draft at 4-12 and having the #1 pick is very significant, and you think that 1-15 doesn't undermine the building effort with our core players. I hope they win each game, and would rather have 2-14 than 1-15, etc, but I'm being patient with losses. But look at past drafts. Being #1 or #4 is not always a big difference. Of course the most important thing is to root for the other bottom teams to win Niners and Cowboys will win games. We need for Carolina and Detroit and Cleveland to find some more wins, and we might be able to win some games AND get the #1 pick. Caroline still plays Cleveland, but otherwise their schedule is brutal. The last time we picked behind Carolina in the top 5 we got a franchise left tackle and they got a useless end named Peppers if my memory serves me There are tremendous players available if we fall to #2 to #5, so I'm not so worried about locking up that #1 overall pick and would prefer to have our team win some games and play tough in others.

Excellent detective work! Much more likely that his million picks last year as a rookie over the majority of the season are the fluke, and much less likely that a handful of games coming off a serious injury and surgery with a historically hapless Bills defense and an injured secondary could be the fluke. I say we cut him now! As far as Donte is concerned though I will turn off the sarcasm and wonder if he is really outperforming what George Wilson could do. I've seen him make a fly by appearance in a lot of opposing offense highlights, and don't know which times he is to blame, and which times he is providing late safety support to the DB who made the mistake, but my gut feeling is that he is getting beaten way too often. We all know he won't be better than Ngata, and that is a moot point, but he does have to be better than George Wilson if he wants to continue playing.

And why is this? Are you thinking about 2010 value and you are sure that Bulaga would have us at 1-5? Or you are thinking that he is incapable of rushing more? Is it his 4.3 YPC that is bugging you? Way too soon to get down on Spiller. There is nobody in the draft who would make this team good (although I would like to have Bradford or Suh), so that draft is about getting players who can help this team over the next few years total. I think Spiller is definitely in that category. Also the quick default reply by me: Chris Johnson as a rookie was held under 75 yards 8 out of 15 times as a rookie, despite getting the ball lots. I am disappointed that Chan isn't getting him more involved, especially after a bye week and after Lynch leaving town, but to say he is a complete waste of a #9 you either need to wait a little, see him fail (I know he fumbled), or have a really strong player they passed on lighting it up. You know like the whole Maybin vs. Orakpo/Matthews/Oher. I don't see CJ there, and I don't see any evidence at all of a total waste.

Riiiiight...because what we were doing was working so well and this is supposed to take us to another level of failure? I think it makes sense. I have a question about Kelsey being the guy, but I like our strong front four. I am sad to see us move away from the 3-4 as a concept, but we don't have the personnel yet to make it work. We could keep trying it on our way to 0-16 in the hopes that learning for the guys who won't be replaced would be valuable for next year, but I think being run over the way we have been and being the league laughing stock is worse, so if four big bodies up front helps us perform better, we can ease our way into a future 3-4 when we get the people to make it work.

Right...because if he were NOT a shell of his former self he would be available for the Bills to add in the middle of a season without giving anything up... He is a low cost high reward risk worth taking if possible, like TO was for us. Maybe he will work, maybe not, but I would love to see it happen.

We should be picky with: 1) Taking playing time away from promising young players who we feel have a chance to be good (Brohm? Maybin? Spiller!) And any moves to the contrary aren't good. But we aren't stacked at LB who are going to be future stars so this doesn't go against that for me. 2) Wasting money if it is a lot of money or if it will make Ralph spend less elsewhere in the future. I don't see this as that either. 3) Bringing in player who don't add anything AND don't have a future. I think Merriman likely adds something to this team, and it was controversial to cut him from the stacked SD team. Any move has to either make us better in 2010 without compromising the future, OR make us a little worse in 2010 and make us stronger in 2011+. I don't know how the process works on waivers vs. him being free, etc. But I think he makes us better in 2010 without making us worse in 2011. So I am fine with this.

I don't get the TE position idea. I could see trying a TE who couldn't catch or run routes or remember blocking assignments as a situational pass rusher who has a much simpler role, but I definitely don't view that as a productive transition for him. He needs to play better in practice and earn some more game reps, and then play better in games. He was drafted as a project, but we are way past draft day with no impact. He doesn't have to live up to his draft position...he is clearly a bust for his slot (like Whitner), but has to prove he can be a pretty good football player (like Whitner) or hand in his jersey sometime between now and the start of 2011 mini-camp. I'm okay with him riding the bench until he shows something to Chan in practice, and I'm also okay with him being thrown to the wolves and given a chance to sink or swim with more snaps...either way I think he needs to become a different football player than he is right now, and I am not too optimistic of that happening right now.

Not sure on the level of sarcasm, but we will need a kicker in 2011, 2012, 2013, etc. I don't see Lindell on the verge of retirement, so I think he can contribute in those years more than the value we would get back. No player is worth it to us for his 2010 value, but there are pieces of our roster that have 2011 and beyond value (contrary to the popular opinion that we are 53 worthless guys and should just blow up everything), and keeping useful pieces while casting off the useless stuff is the way to go.

Hmmm...I agree about the giving up on 2010 at some level. Any 2011+ improvement is more important than any 2010 goal, so any place we can get better for 2011+ is fine with me. I am not sure that trading Lee will help us get better in 2011+. If we could get value sure, and I'm happy to give up 2010 Lee, but I really want 2011, 2012 Lee on our team especially as we get our new QB with the #1 pick So if value is there, it was nice to know you Lee. But anywhere a player on our roster has more 2011+ value as a Bill than the pick value we would get back that player needs to stay.

Dear Peyton Manning fans...the vast majority of top QBs were not selected #1 overall, and there are more busts than stars selected #1 overall. I don't think you have to bend over backwards hoping for a high pick, because that is what is unfolding, but us moving from 0 to 1 to 2 to 3 or even 4 or 5 wins is not going to be a bad thing if good decisions are made. At this point I don't mind #1 and think it could be refreshing, but I am definitely happier if we beat Jacksonville Sunday than if we lose, and I don't think losing that game "helps" us get better. We are going to have a tough transitional year and a lot of losses this year, and end up with a high draft pick. But thinking that 0-16 and the shame that comes with it is somehow better than 1-15 or 2-14 or 3-13 seems a little silly to me. And if you think #1 is enough important to want to lose, tell me who you are picking #1? Who is the Peyton Manning and you don't want to get stuck with Ryan Leaf? I don't see enough clarity among the top QBs right now, and I think this might be a draft where there is a Rivers/Rothlesberger situation after the top pick to go with Eli Manning #1. And while I think a top 5 pick could help this franchise a lot...please look at history and realize that one and two win seasons are much more predictive of future 3-13 and 4-12 than they are of Super Bowl winners.

Confused in the logic. First, "tanking" isn't really a good way to build a regime. While I'm accepting a bad season at this point, I want the groundwork to start to be laid, playing good football to start to be the expectation, and having the young players on our team start to learn to play better. So who do you pick #1? You are certain you want to lock that up and even intentionally lose to accomplish it, but then you list three QBs as interchangeable. So do you think those three go 1/2/3? I'm not sure the last time three QBs went 1-2-3, but fair enough. But do you think one of them is Peyton Manning and one of them Ryan Leaf? Or do you think we might have a Eli Manning and Philip Rivers situation (he was taken at #4). This seems to me like a draft where you might get one of the top QBs at #3 or #5 or #7 and tanking to get #1 doesn't really seem to make sense. I'm sure a guy who is the best for us will emerge, and draft position might make a difference, but right now in October I don't see it.

No. RB miles are measured in downs and hits. Freddie is low mileage and that will mater as he ages. I don't think he will be good for five years, but we certainly can sit with Freddie/Spiller for now and fill in with UDFA and late picks. And FYI we turned a #1 into three years of high mileage from a position that averages about five good years, plus two picks. Not my ideal fantasy trade, but I think a good move in the Bills' long term interest.

How is it squandered? We got two picks AND three years of running back miles. I like Marshawn, but we are not in a position to win in 2010, and if we can do anything to be better in 2011+ I am open to it. I think he certainly and obviously has a lot left in his tank, and enough that we could have considered passing on Spiller if there was someone of similar value there at #9 (or a good trade down). But having drafted BPA in Spiller and having three talented RBs on a talent devoid team, getting some value for one of them makes a lot of sense. I would have rather seen him go on draft day or go for a higher pick, etc. But getting value for him now instead of less for him later is fine with me. Having watched the Charger roster pretty closely while Buddy was in town, I think the more picks we have the faster this team gets better. I'm not really excited about what our 2010 picks are doing so far, but you can't judge everyone in their first year, so I will try to be patient and hope they turn out better than Maybin/McCargo/Losman/etc. It would be nice to see Troup/Carrington/Easley/Wang starting in 2011, and I to see more of some of them this season.

I can't imagine that we will get anything for him at this point, but I do see him having a better future than JP did after he is asked to give his Bills jersey back. The things he does, take no risks, hand off, check down complete, are things that are somewhat valuable for a backup QB for a decent team. I think he will end up with a clipboard for at least a little while after his Bills days are done.

Really? Really? Now we are mad at the Spiller pick? We sure are a fickle bunch. Preseason we are worshipping him. Two games in to an incompetent offense and we are ready to have him carpool with Maybin? If the more experienced Marshawn and Freddie can pick up some of the slack while our offense pulls it together, this kid is still going to have an amazing future for us. It isn't quite like Carson Palmer sitting as a rookie, and RBs need to play, but if his load is a little lighter until our offensive line is doing a better job blocking and our passing game is getting rid of the 8 guys in the box, he will be fine. Everyone is trying to see us as the 0-16 Lions and feeling the pain of two losses (Green Bay was likely to be one of our 5 losses even if we were a miracle 11-5), but I see a few more similarities to the Titans team that started 0-6 last year. I don't think we will go on that kind of run, I don't think we have any Vince Young on our team, and I don't think Spiller compares to Chris Johnson yet. But also keep in mind Chris Johnson last year during the 0-6 start was under 100 yards in four of the first five, including games of 34 yards and 57 yard. And in the first six games he only carried 20 or more times once. Bring on the gloom so I can say I told you so, but I think it is very likely Spiller still has a solid year, and we end up with the 5-6 wins most people expected going in to the season. My one real hope is we see Brohm play, because we know with 100% certainty that we don't want Trent or Fitz as our QB next year, and while it is unlikely we want Brohm, it would be nice to find out. But right now he has to outperform Trent in practice to move in to the #2 spot, and that is difficult, because Trent is very effective at practice speed against the pressure that our second string defense brings. I just hope he gets a shot later in the season that is more than last year's 60 minute audition.

Wait, why are we drafting #1 again? Are they using the ESPN rankings because of the uncapped year? Last I checked there were eight 0-2 teams, so with our luck the strength of schedule will break us to a #8 pick and we can get a new strong safety. Or maybe we will have to play out the next 14 games and the rest of the season won't be quite how we are expecting. I'm glad they moved the draft back from October to the spring, because I was starting to get stressed about us having to vote so soon and risk making a collective mistake with our decision.

It is simply the right decision here. Trent had a chance. He has the tools, he edged out Fitz in camp, but all along Chan said that was the order they were in at that point, and it could change, and never "Trent is our guy, he is our starting QB, chips fall where they may". Trent was the slightly better performer out of three so-so QBs in camp, and Chan chose the best option at that time. The hope being that Trent could continue to put it together and perform once the season started. Trent fell flat on his face, not just with overall results, but with decisions and actions on individual plays. Chan doesn't need to give him six weeks to realize that it isn't working, and a fourth year QB who barely won the competition has a short leash. I'm happy for the spark and change because the first two weeks were pretty embarassing. I am disappointed that it isn't Brohm who at least has the mystery potential to be a good NFL QB that we could hope for, while I think we know Fitz's upside limits. Brohm will get his chance, and hopefully he takes better advantage of it than Trent did his. But for now, go Fitz! I also do wonder if it might have been a better bet to try to hide things and have the surprise advantage against the Pats, but probably in this age of Twitter it would have been too hard and made it more difficult for the two QBs during practice.

Why? How different were the off season snaps between Edwards and Fitz? How different were the first team snaps? I thought that with the open competition they had very very similar involvement until the last couple weeks. I am a Brohm over Fitz guy for potential upside, but I know Chan wants to win right now, and thinks Fitz is better. Trent has to be done now. He has entered JP Losman territory for better or worse, and whether it was his fault or circumstances + o-line + coaching + concussion, he has no shot now to be a successful QB for the Bills. I had my hopes that he could have a rebirth with Chan and return to where he was when we were 5-1 a couple years ago, but that didn't happen. I'm looking forward to Sunday, and who knows?

If Trent stinks it up on film (not in the stat line which can reflect the team as a whole, and other things going on), it will be his second strike of the year, and we will be closer to seeing a QB change in week 4...but I can't imagine anything other than injury that would have him lost his starting job after a week 2 road game against a very tough opponent (by some measures maybe our toughest game of the year on paper).

We had a decent shake on Tuesday night, but nothing significant enough to wake up with a relocated franchise. I can't speak for Oakland (who is also a terrible team), but remember in San Diego we are still in the summertime mode, distracted by the beach, etc. Even the pennant race Padres can't get past a half empty ballpark. And remember that there is some regular-season disease here where interest remains somewhat low until December because the city kind of expects to be there. And the economy. All of these excuses are not mine. I have never been to a Chargers game and have only seen NFL games at the Ralph (okay, technically I have only been to Rich Stadium), so I am part of the local problem and not part of the solution! Go Bills!

Bombs for the first quarter or so then I would realize that that won't work, and I would prefer the checkdowns. If only you could give us a third option of some sort...

Based on what? You think Buddy and Chan are just taking the slow road on a seven year plan? Or they don't mind losing as long as they get paychecks? Here I completely disagree. While I wouldn't mortgage our future for 2010 moderate success, I think they both want to win as many games as they can right now. Nix wants to get this roster as strong as possible right now, and Chan wants to get as many wins as possible with the roster he has at any given point. If they are not good at it we can talk about that. If they are not willing to compromise 2011 for 2010 (trading big picks for Gaither, etc) we can talk about that. But the idea that the lack of pressure to put a winning product on the field in the short term or feeling the need to build a championship caliber squad is crazy. Buddy has one goal, and I think he cares about it a lot. His goal is to (like has happened in San Diego) build a talent packed roster that allows a team to win and makes him look like a great GM. Chan has one goal, and I think he cares about it a lot. His goal is to take the roster he has at any given time and try to win football games with it right now while teaching it to be better prepared to win in the near future. No regime comes in to a team as mediocre as we are and sacrifices the future and bets the farm for minor improvements year 1...that would be dumb. But these guys want to win right now, and want to get this team better week by week and year by year.

So you would trade Spiller for Anthony Davis / Bulaga? Or you would trade Troup for Claussen? Or you would trade Spiller plus to move up for injured Okung? Or you want to mortgage the future and send Spiller plus multiple picks for Bradford? Or Troup and another pick to move up for Saffold or Tebow? I'm just not sure where you see the better value at these positions than what we drafted that will be a short term fix. I look forward to having a great QB, but mostly I look forward to having a good team. Wasting multiple picks to move up or reaching for need are not ways to have this roster get the most talented it can get. I don't like our weak spots, and I am iffy on Bell and not sold on Trent, but I just don't see the un-doom options out there that would have made us a better football team.

Not the Yips. He is Gun Shy. Those are two very different things.

I don't fault Buddy too far on this, because I have not seen Green play enough, or over his recent seasons, and don't really know how he compares to starting Meredith, etc. He clearly seems like a week link, and I hope we find a way to get him out of the lineup soon THIS SEASON. I know Buddy is definitely thinking about that and trying to find a way. I can't imagine Wang or Meredith or Ubrick would be worse, and I think the Bills will make an adjustment here very soon. The Butler situation is definitely what caused this issue, and I don't think Cornell was a terrible signing given the circumstances unless this level of sucking is what really should have been expected. But they have to admit their error and get Cornell down the depth chart or off the team pretty soon.