MDH

If I'm not mistaken Buddy had said that they had targeted QBs in previous drafts but they kept getting taken off the board higher than the grades they had them and that they'd have to adjust their strategy accordingly. I'm guessing that they thought if they tried the waiting game again they'd lose out of a guy they believed could be a franchise QB so they traded back when they could then pulled the trigger. I'm not sure why anybody has an issue with it. If he's the guy you believe in go get him and worry about people complaining you drafted him 15 slots too high later. If he pans out nobody is going to remember it and if he doesn't at least you pulled the trigger on a guy you liked. They're really damned if they do damned if they don't. If Manuel panned out for another team that drafted him at the bottom of the 1st/top of the 2nd and the Bills didn't draft him we'd be seeing posts for years about how they failed, yet again, to pull the trigger on a QB (like we see now with Wilson and Kaepernick.) I'm all for busting their chops on those misses but I'm not going to rip them when they actually went out and got a guy. Maybe he pans out, maybe he doesn't, but that's the case with all players - at least they took a shot.

The funny thing is that Crabtree beat him. If the throw is where it's supposed to be it's a TD.

To make some sense?

It just goes to show you that the idea that there's some "consensus" about where a QB should be drafted is a lot of hogwash. My guess is that unless we're talking a Peyton or Luck type prospect teams vary widely on their QB grades.

So now Kiper represents all pundits? Okay. The poster quoted several sources stating the opposite but because Kiper didn't agree what the poster said was "utter nonsense?" I guess in your worldview Kiper is the end all be it when it comes to draft and the "consensus" is whatever he says.

It's obvious Pettine is getting his chance because Cleveland feels he has the right haircut for the job. No long, flowing locks on Pettine.

While I'm not opposed to the Bills trading down that wouldn't do it. The top of this draft is packed with positions the Bills need - LB, WR and OL. Unless somebody gives the Bills a sweetheart deal they should stand pat and take their pick of a top flight guy at those positions.

Obviously coverage will be tighter but I'd rather have a guy who knows how to find soft spots and get open than somebody who can fight for the ball. How many "fight for the ball" type catches will a WR have all season long? 5? Give me a guy who consistently gets open and I'll worry about those 5 catches later.

In my lifetime I've never seen a QB better than Steve Young. Not Montana, not Marino, not Elway. Now, it can be argued that he didn't have the longevity those guys had because he sat on the bench for years but when he got a chance to play he was better than any of those guys. Young was just as good as Montana at breaking down D's and quickly finding the right WR to throw to but he had a better arm, threw deep more often and added 4k career yards on the ground yet wasn't a guy who looked to run first. Young averaged a half a yard more per attempt than Montana and had a higher completion percentage - all while running the same offense. That's a significant amount and goes to show you who was more accurate all the while taking more chances by pushing the ball down field.

Of course they can walk away from this. Just because some high school kids working the popcorn stand and sweeping up the theaters didn't stop two adults from getting into an altercation and one of them pulling out a gun you want to try and blame them? The fault lies in one man - the shooter. Altercations happen every single day without some idiot pulling out a gun. Hell, I'd go a step farther and say that even if it was physical there is no reason to pull out a weapon. Pushing, or even punching somebody shouldn't be a death sentence. Unless your life is on the line - and I can pretty safely say the shooter's life wasn't - there is no reason to pull out a weapon. The whole "I was defending myself" line is hilarious.

TD's and INTs are subjective to though. If a team likes to run the ball inside the 10 instead of throwing a QB might not pile up the TDs like some others but it doesn't mean he's not very instrumental in moving the ball down field and scoring. My favorite QB stat is YPA. Good QBs have a high one and mediocre and bad QBs have a low one - it's almost universal.

And then you get beaten by the majority of the league who employ a pass first approach. The Jets, while being the best in the league vs. the run, had some trouble stopping the pass and as such their D wasn't as dominant as it could have been. In fact, the Bills allowed fewer yards per play than the Jets. Take a look at the Hawks. Their D isn't too different from what Buffalo does. The run a base 4-3 with a mix of 3-4 and they pressure the QB by disguising who is coming. They don't throw a ton of size on the field like you suggest, in fact their DL is kind of small. What they do have are players who are more disciplined and don't make the big mistakes that cost the Bills all season.

There are plenty of Indian dishes that don't have curry in them. When someone says, "I don't like (insert type of food here)" I laugh. In any type of cuisine there are so many different types of food that there is something they'd like if they ever gave it a chance.

Yeah, my guess is they kept it simple in terms of routes and tried to have as much protection as possible for the young QB. So as much as people are trying to lambast Hackett for his "simple" offense it was pretty much a necessity with the young QBs and WRs. If you looked at the all 22s that were put up weekly you could see how the WRs or the QBs routinely weren't on the same page. Putting more guys in routes and having the QB make even quicker decisions with the ball probably wasn't the best choice so I'm not going to kill Hackett over it. Granted, I still don't like some of the things Hackett was doing. The read option with a gimpy EJ wasn't a good choice as it didn't fool anybody because EJ pretty much never kept the ball. And because the read option wasn't working to its full potential I'd have preferred to see EJ under center more often. His footwork (and consequently his accuracy) was much better when he took a traditional drop than when he was in the shotgun. That being said overall I agree with Hackett's conservative approach. Just look at the Seahawks and Niners. They run the ball more than the Bills and ride their defences to wins. It's the recipe for winning with young QBs. Unfortunately, unlike those two teams they didn't have a QB with two good wheels who was capable of running the read option like it should be run.

The wild card round was fantastic, I'm not sure how you could lump the "playoffs" together and say it's been ho-hum.

Chan didn't do anything other than run a spread offense.

Hell, I enjoy football more when the Bills aren't playing. Nothing ruins a perfectly good Sunday like Bills football.

What's notable here is her awesome mug shot. She looks she's been beaten and she's just been arrested but she's sporting a huge infectious smile. Nothing is going to ruin her birthday!

It is a good read but he's way off in thinking that EJ's accuracy issues aren't mechanics. Anybody who has watched the kid can see he doesn't always get his feet set and square his shoulders when throwing. When he does his accuracy issues magically disappear. Otherwise his assessment is pretty much spot on. If EJ can fix his accuracy issues (by being more consistent with his footwork) the guy has everything else you want in a QB.

Really, I just want to see an 8 team playoff. For college football that's enough. There's usually such a talent divide between the teams in the upper echelon and teams ranked 12+ that there's no real reason to include 16 teams.

I've defended Hackett all year long. The guy has rookies all over the field at skill positions and has had to design an offense that covers their inexperience and inability to quickly digest NFL schemes at this point in their careers. The result? A run oriented attack that frustrated fans because it wasn't aggressive enough. He kept his team in games by attempting to limit turnovers and mistakes. It was the smart play. How many did FJ have? Part of CJ's problem is he hesitates in the backfield which allows for defenders to get to him before he gets to the LoS. That's not all on the OL.

The rail guy is an interesting comparison. On one hand the damage he did far,far exceeded what this woman did - the person he landed on was seriously hurt. One the other hand his intent wasn't to do any damage. Both acted in a pretty idiotic way. I'd say in the end the resulting media/internet coverage was pretty fair. It's not everyday you see a guy fall from the rafters at a sporting event because he decided to slide down the railing while the type of behavior that the woman exhibited is pretty common internet fodder. It's all about novelty.

But this knee jerk mindset you're making fun of doesn't include knee-jerk reactions to rookie QB play?

Is that supposed to be a factor in drafting somebody else? McNair was the most underrated QB from his era. He was a very, very good, bordering on great QB. You're looking at a QB rating from a different era of football, one where the rules weren't all in the offense's favor. Look at the ratings of other QBs from his time. Marion 86.4 Kelly 84.4 Aikman 81.6 Moon 80.9 Elway 79.9 Simms 78.5 Theisman 77.4 Bledsoe 77.1 If we can expect a Steve McNair type career from EJ in relation to how he compares to other QBs of his era we'll be very happy. The comparison is only ridiculous if you don't understand what the point of the comparison is. The point of a comparison like that isn't to say the QB can be another Peyton Manning but to say you just don't know what you have that early in his career because just about all young QBs struggle.