Good lord, how far we’ve come…

[stuvian]

Lynch never turned into the badass OBD made him out to be. As a result we gave him away for a song. Same story with Jason Peters.

That said, the decade of fail was not all bad. I maintain that our defenses were better then than they are now. Jabari Greer, Kyle Williams, Aaron Schobel, Jerry Hughes, Stefon Gilmore and Lorenzo Alexander were great football players. Looking back it seems like we were a farm team for the big markets 

[Ethan in Cleveland]

1 hour ago, NewEra said:

He had no vision

This is so true.  He had size, speed, and power, but he literally had no idea where to run.  I also swear he had exercise induced asthma or some cardiac issues as well. Never saw a NFL RB breathing so heavily after a 10 yard run.  

[Ethan in Cleveland]

Just now, stuvian said:

Lynch never turned into the badass OBD made him out to be. As a result we gave him away for a song. Same story with Jason Peters.

That said, the decade of fail was not all bad. I maintain that our defenses were better then than they are now. Jabari Greer, Kyle Williams, Aaron Schobel, Jerry Hughes, Stefon Gilmore and Lorenzo Alexander were great football players. Looking back it seems like we were a farm team for the big markets 

They had some good players on offense too - Rueben Brown, Lee Evans, TO, Stevie Johnson jsut to name a few. Don't forget Spikes, Winfield, and Sam Adams jsut to add a few more names on defense.

Don't make it too hard.  They didn't have a QB and now we do.  It's really just that simple.  It's is almost impossible to win without an elite QB.  A few teams have done it like the Ravens and Bears but they had arguably two of the top 3 defenses of all time.  It is to the point it's really not a team game.  It is really 1 + 52, and without the 1 there is almost no hope.  

[thenorthremembers]

inexcusable to take both Spiller and Troup over Gronkowski.    Not to mention missing on Dez Bryant, Demaryius Thomas, Brandon Graham, Jason Pierre Paul, and Rodger Saffold.   Feel like everyone both here and the Bills message board wanted Saffold.     Spiller was an amazing talent but the draft was filled with talented players on a team that needed everything but running back. 

Edited August 14 by thenorthremembers

[The Firebaugh Kid]

Wow. That was so depressing and I only lasted like five minutes of it. 
RIP Mr. Wilson but hiring jokers like Nix was a huge part of the problem.

[RoscoeParrish]

4 hours ago, Rigotz said:

My friends were chatting about the “dark ages” and the CJ Spiller draft came up.
 

Most of you will recall, the team already had Marshawn Lynch and Fred Jackson on the roster, with about a billion other holes. Despite this, new Bills GM Buddy Nix selected CJ Spiller 9th overall. A few months later, he flipped Marshawn for a fourth round and conditional fifth round pick.

 

So… I went down a rabbit hole, curious how egregious team building like this could even happen.

And I present to you, Buddy Nix’s introductory Press Conference:

https://www.buffalobills.com/video/buddy-nix-named-general-manager-1002411

Compare this to our current operation. Yes, Josh has elevated the franchise, but there’s more to Buffalo’s rise than just one man. It’s refreshing to look back and see the difference.

 

(Before anyone says anything, my apologies for slandering Ralph. We are forever grateful to the man who created the team we all love!)

Somewhere, CJ Spiller is still marching to 2000 yards

[T.E.]

3 minutes ago, The Firebaugh Kid said:

Wow. That was so depressing and I only lasted like five minutes of it. 
RIP Mr. Wilson but hiring jokers like Nix was a huge part of the problem.

Nix was at least was making a genuine attempt to win. The real lean years were when Russ Brandon was calling all the shots. That entire era felt like a showcase to ultimately move the team to Canada.

[Jay_Fixit]

2 hours ago, dayman said:

 Since 2000 the best qb we drafted other than Josh was Nathan Peterman. So there is that…

 

here’s the list: https://thelistwire.usatoday.com/story/sports/2025/01/19/quarterbacks-buffalo-bills-2024-nfl-draft-josh-allen/77832309007/

 

insane

On no planet is Peterman better than Losman, Edwards or Manuel.

 

None. Zero.

[Don Otreply]

To think some folk don’t seem to remember what a sh-t show things were for so long, and they want to fire the very people who created what we are currently enjoy so much, odd to say the least,  these are the good old days! 

 

GO BILLS!!!

[DaVinci]

31 minutes ago, The Firebaugh Kid said:

hiring jokers like Nix was a huge part of the problem

"he's good off the hoof"

[Thrivefourfive]

What a mess! Ralph was somehow a half century behind the times. Buddy didn’t want the job, didn’t know what to do for the job, and the accent was almost unreal. Russ Brandon gets promoted 🤣🤣🤣

[major]

4 hours ago, dayman said:

Oh my freaking God what a train wreck that press conference was—lol. Thanks for posting! I forgot how dark those days really were. That’s like a SNL skit (from when SNL was good).

 

”I’m not the smartest guy in the room. I’ve never been accused of being the smartest guy in the room.” —Buddy Nix 

It was a train wreck, but man that circus was fun to watch 🎪 

[Mikie2times]

1 hour ago, Don Otreply said:

To think some folk don’t seem to remember what a sh-t show things were for so long, and they want to fire the very people who created what we are currently enjoy so much, odd to say the least,  these are the good old days! 

 

GO BILLS!!!

20 years without a viable QB will

make a franchise look really bad. Just like an MVP at the position will

make it look really good. Hard to be successful in the first situation and hard not to be in the second. 

[vincec]

2 hours ago, stuvian said:

Lynch never turned into the badass OBD made him out to be. As a result we gave him away for a song. Same story with Jason Peters.

That said, the decade of fail was not all bad. I maintain that our defenses were better then than they are now. Jabari Greer, Kyle Williams, Aaron Schobel, Jerry Hughes, Stefon Gilmore and Lorenzo Alexander were great football players. Looking back it seems like we were a farm team for the big markets 

Jabari Greer was a great football player?

[TheBrownBear]

6 hours ago, Rigotz said:

Even if we were calling Marshawn irrelevant, using the #9 pick on an RB when you just gave a big extension to another good RB is dumpster fire franchise mentality.

To be fair, we had a pop gun offense and desperately needed game breakers.  And that was still the tail end of the era of the running back, where an elite back like Adrian Peterson could drag a team to the playoffs.

[Thurman#1]

7 hours ago, SirAndrew said:

I’ve never fully understood the Lynch saga. He wasn’t a model citizen while here, but he never held out either. He was playing when they traded him away. I’m sure he wanted out, but we didn’t want him either. That was the choice of management. Did anyone else actually want to play for what was a really pathetic franchise at the time? 

 

 

Marshawn has made it clear that he blames a group of police here for targeting him.

 

That had to do with that cop's wife saying that Marshawn had stolen a $20 from her. He wanted out, badly, and not because of the team situation.

[Thurman#1]

4 hours ago, Ethan in Cleveland said:

They had some good players on offense too - Rueben Brown, Lee Evans, TO, Stevie Johnson jsut to name a few. Don't forget Spikes, Winfield, and Sam Adams jsut to add a few more names on defense.

Don't make it too hard.  They didn't have a QB and now we do.  It's really just that simple.  It's is almost impossible to win without an elite QB.  A few teams have done it like the Ravens and Bears but they had arguably two of the top 3 defenses of all time.  It is to the point it's really not a team game.  It is really 1 + 52, and without the 1 there is almost no hope.  

 

 

This is it.

We had no QB then, and we do now

And Buddy knew it. But they had to get a QB in a year where there just wasn't a good QB option in the draft. The best QB in 2013 was clearly Geno Smith, but he wasn't any good until - what? - eight years later? Ideally they should have done what McDermott did in his first year, traded way back to get good draft capital for trade-ups the next year.

 

But even the next year who was the best QB in the draft? Either Derek Carr or Teddy Bridgewater. If handled better, would either of these guys have had better careers than they have? Maybe.

 

That two-year stretch is one of the worst periods to draft a QB in NFL history.

[RoscoeParrish]

3 minutes ago, Thurman#1 said:

 

 

This is it.

We had no QB then, and we do now

And Buddy knew it. But they had to get a QB in a year where there just wasn't a good QB option in the draft. The best QB in 2013 was clearly Geno Smith, but he wasn't any good until - what? - eight years later? Ideally they should have done what McDermott did in his first year, traded way back to get good draft capital for trade-ups the next year.

 

But even the next year who was the best QB in the draft? Either Derek Carr or Teddy Bridgewater. If handled better, would either of these guys have had better careers than they have? Maybe.

 

That two-year stretch is one of the worst periods to draft a QB in NFL history.

2015 wasn’t great either.

 

Honestly, QBs are just rarer than hen’s teeth. 

[Chandler#81]

Thanks folks. Now I’m depressed. It was bad enough that we couldn’t win, but then we were a sh!tshow to boot..

Just shoot me.

[nuklz2594]

Being 62 and life long Bills fan. It has been a roller-coaster ride.