Ranking the 15 greatest Bills ever

[GASabresIUFan]

If you are making a list of all-time great Bills you have to start with the guys in the HOF.  There are 7 primarily Bills in the HOF - Smith, Kelly, Thomas, Reed, OJ, Joe D, and Billy Shaw.  

 

From the AFL Bills you have Dubenion, Edgerson, Kemp, Sestak, Stratton (LB), Saimes, Byrd and Gilchrest

 

From the Kelly ERA Bills you have Bennett, Talley, Tasker, Ritcher and Hull

 

From the recent Bills you have Poyer, Hyde, Dawkins, Spencer Brown, Diggs and of course Allen

 

From other eras you have Smerlas, Wood, Hansen, Moulds, Rueben Brown, Kyle Williams and maybe some others.

 

1. Bruce Smith

2. OJ Simpson

3. Billy Shaw

4. Kelly

5. Joe D

6. Josh Allen

7. Thomas

8. Reed

9. Hull

10. Kemp

11. Sestak

12. K Williams

13. Talley

14. Moulds

15. R Brown

 

Others - Ritcher, Smerlas, Dawkins, Bennett, Gilchrest, and Tasker. 

 

[Bullfrog]

11 minutes ago, GASabresIUFan said:

If you are making a list of all-time great Bills you have to start with the guys in the HOF.  There are 7 primarily Bills in the HOF - Smith, Kelly, Thomas, Reed, OJ, Joe D, and Billy Shaw.  

 

From the AFL Bills you have Dubenion, Edgerson, Kemp, Sestak, Stratton (LB), Saimes, Byrd and Gilchrest

 

From the Kelly ERA Bills you have Bennett, Talley, Tasker, Ritcher and Hull

 

From the recent Bills you have Poyer, Hyde, Dawkins, Spencer Brown, Diggs and of course Allen

 

From other eras you have Smerlas, Wood, Hansen, Moulds, Rueben Brown, Kyle Williams and maybe some others.

 

1. Bruce Smith

2. OJ Simpson

3. Billy Shaw

4. Kelly

5. Joe D

6. Josh Allen

7. Thomas

8. Reed

9. Hull

10. Kemp

11. Sestak

12. K Williams

13. Talley

14. Moulds

15. R Brown

 

Others - Ritcher, Smerlas, Dawkins, Bennett, Gilchrest, and Tasker. 

 

Very fair list. Some of these guys I was too young to appreciate but I agree that Bruce is hands down the best on the field player ever. A dominant 3-4 DE that was a nightmare for a whole OL. I am very critical of our DE today but I was spoiled too learn and watch the game with such an elite player.

[eball]

11 hours ago, Kirby Jackson said:

So Trent Dilfer is better than Allen? Jalen Hurts? Brad Johnson? Nick Foles? Jeff Hostetler? Those guys must be better than Kelly too because they WON Super Bowls. That’s the dumbest argument ever made. 
 

Someone said throw the deep ball earlier and that’s fair. Kelly was also elite calling the game. We haven’t seen that from Allen. 

When I compare players, I compare them vs. their contemporaries to avoid the “game was different back then” argument. Josh Allen is the MVP of the league. He’s been a top 3 QB and top 10 overall player for 5 straight years. Jim Kelly wasn’t that in his era. He was, and people hate this, a lot like Hurts is now. He was in the next tier of QBs and had the best roster in football. He was the right guy for them. If Josh Allen quarterbacked those early 90’s team they have AT LEAST 2 Super Bowls. If Jim Kelly quarterbacked these Bills teams they would look a lot like Bucs do now. 

 

Steve, the guys defending Kelly right now are the same ones who wanted him benched for Reich back in the day.

 

Kelly’s a legit HOFer and his teams went to four consecutive SBs.  He’s on the list.  But the Bills have won so many games because of Josh Allen and I find it hard to recall telling myself that back in the 90s about Kelly.  Usually I was thinking about how great Bruce was, or Thurman, or how Reed just ran away from people after catching a short pass.  Folks just don’t really remember how freaking talented those rosters were.

 

[Kirby Jackson]

27 minutes ago, eball said:

 

Steve, the guys defending Kelly right now are the same ones who wanted him benched for Reich back in the day.

 

Kelly’s a legit HOFer and his teams went to four consecutive SBs.  He’s on the list.  But the Bills have won so many games because of Josh Allen and I find it hard to recall telling myself that back in the 90s about Kelly.  Usually I was thinking about how great Bruce was, or Thurman, or how Reed just ran away from people after catching a short pass.  Folks just don’t really remember how freaking talented those rosters were.

 

Exactly!! Kelly in hindsight is much better than Kelly at the time. Eli Manning may be a fair comp for Kelly. He was, in his era, like Kelly was in his. The Giants didn’t win as consistently as the early 90’s Bills but they managed to win the 2 big ones (that happened to be against Brady). Eli was always considered a very good QB. He was never considered Brady or Brees or Peyton or Rodgers.

 

Kelly belongs in the HOF. I said earlier that  he is like Mike Mussina in the HOF as opposed to Willie Mays in the HOF. That felt like a decent way to articulate it. He was a great player in his time but was never considered to be one of the top few players during his era. That’s Josh. Josh has been in the top tier for at least 5+ years. Kelly wasn’t ever in that top tier. That was Montana, Elway and Marino. Later in his career Favre and Young were there. Kelly was in the Warren Moon tier. 

Edited 10 hours ago by Kirby Jackson

[frostbitmic]

1. Bruce Smith

2. Jim Kelly - Led the tam to 4 straight AFC titles

3. 0J Simpson

4. Thurman Thomas

5. Andre Reed

6. Josh Allen - A Super Bowl win moves him to #1 ... Top 5 are in the HOF Josh isn't there yet.

7 - 15 include  Bennett, Talley, Smerlas, Hull, Joe D, Gilchrist, Kemp, Shaw, Byrd

 

If they had played here longer - Jason Peters, Chris Spielman, Bryce Paup

[Ethan in Cleveland]

1. Bruce Smith

2. OJ Simpson

3. Josh Allen

4. Thurman Thomas

5. Andre Reed*

6. Jim Kelly

7. Joe D

8. Billy Shaw

9. Eric Moulds 

10. Cornelius Bennett 

11. Cookie Gilchrist 

12. Butch Byrd

13. Fred Smerlas

14. Ruben Brown

15. Kyle Williams

 

*I've argued Moulds is a better WR than Reed. Talent wise he is but you can't discount the production Reed had.

 

Allen is a far better QB than Kelly but that does not mean Kelly is not a HOF all time great QB. Both can be true. Allen is just that talented. Not his fault he has not been to multiple SuperBowls. 

[Kirby Jackson]

I was thinking about this differently. I was thinking, “what would my all-time, Bills starting lineup be?” The late 80’s is as far back as my memory goes. I’ve included HOFers before my time but not savvy enough to know if Sestak/Byrd/Edgerson/Cookie belong. I’ve also made some executive decisions because WR & RB have been better than TE. This is ONLY for their time as Bills (sorry TO) here it goes:

 

QB - Allen

RB: OJ

RB: Thurman

WR1: Andre

WR2: Moulds

Slot: Diggs

LT: Dion

LG: Joe D

C Kent Hull

RG: Shaw

RT: House Ballard

 

DE: Bruce

DE: Mario Williams

DT: Ted Washington

DT: Kyle Williams

OLB: Takeo

OLB: Biscuit

MLB: Talley

CB: Winfield

CB: Clemens

S: Jones

S: Poyer

 

KR: McGee

ST: Tasker

K: Christie

P: Moorman

 

HC: Marv

OC: Marchibroda

DC: Schwartz

Edited 4 hours ago by Kirby Jackson

[oldmanfan]

1 hour ago, Kirby Jackson said:

I was thinking about this differently. I was thinking, “what would my all-time, Bills starting lineup be?” The late 80’s is as far back as my memory goes. I’ve included HOFers before my time but not savvy enough to know if Sestak/Byrd/Edgerson/Cookie belong. I’ve also made some executive decisions because WR & RB have been better than TE. This is ONLY for their time as Bills (sorry TO) here it goes:

 

QB - Allen

RB: OJ

RB: Thurman

WR1: Andre

WR2: Moulds

Slot: Diggs

LT: Dion

LG: Joe D

C Kent Hull

RG: Shaw

RT: House Ballard

 

DE: Bruce

DE: Mario Williams

DT: Ted Washington

DT: Kyle Williams

OLB: Takeo

OLB: Biscuit

MLB: Talley

CB: Winfield

CB: Clemens

S: Jones

S: Poyer

 

KR: McGee

ST: Tasker

K: Christie

P: Moorman

 

HC: Marv

OC: Marchibroda

DC: Schwartz

Great idea.  Being one of the old guys, I’d make a couple suggestions:

1.  I would think about Jerry Butler vs, Moulds at WR.  His career was cut short by injury but he was something else.

2.  I’d reverse Reed and Diggs; to me Andre almost invented slot receiver.

3.  You don’t have a TE so I’d throw Ernie Warlick in there.

4.  DT I’d have Tom Sestak.  He was a great player.

5.  DE:  Could make a case for Ron McDole

6.  OLB Mike Stratton was great.  And MLB I might put London Fletcher, or Jim Haslett.  Talley was really more an OLB.

7.  CBs for me would be Robert James and Butch Byrd.  I personally liked Egerson as much as Byrd James to me is the best CB to ever put on a Bills uniform.  Could also put White here. 
8.  At S you could throw in Saimes and/or Tony Greene.  Saimes was a mainstay of the great AFL defenses. 

 

[NewEra]

Josh will be the best while Bruce is currently the best.  The torch will be passed before Josh is complete. 

[Old Coot]

Don't forget Jack Kemp. he QB'd the Bills to two AFL championships in 1964 and 65. In 1966 he led the Bills to their third consecutive appearance in the AFL championship game, losing to KC, for the right to play Green Bay in Superbowl I.

 

Should Daryl Lamonica (aka the Mad Bomber) be on the list?