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If you paid attention, some of us have been saying that Hardy's presence, if nothing else, will draw attention away from Evans. You simply cannot ignore a guy who is 6'5" 220#, runs a 4.45, is agile, and has a 37" vertical jump, or even put a LB'er on him.

The bolded part pretty much sums it up.

Nah, the Bills lost no one of any importance last year.

Yep, those scouts are correct 100% of the time. So when they say about Jake Long (a guy you've touted) that he's "a little tight in his hips, lacking ideal lateral agility in his kick-slide and can struggle when having to immediately change direction" or "best operating in a short area, as he does show some balance issues when asked to run long distances" it means he'll never even be a good RT in the NFL, right? True. Forget the 4.45 speed. Or agility. Or leaping ability.

What a coincidence. You keep producing facts from your backside and then I shove them back in your face. How slow does one have to be to look at the wrong page for stats or not realize when he's quoted someone twice?

The Bills had better punt and kickoff return averages than the Bears. On punt coverage, the Bills were slightly better while on kickoffs, the Bears were slightly better. Neither team allowed a punt return for a TD but both allowed a kickoff return for a TD. WRT net punting average, Moorman was higher than Maynard, who also had 3 punts blocked. WRT FG percentage, Lindell was better than Gould, who had 2 FG tries blocked. Where the Bears beat the Bills is Hester's ability to score.

The way I see it, the Bills don't have a #2 WR from among the guys they already had. Reed and Parrish are slot guys. The rest are ST'ers until proven otherwise. So put Hardy at the #2 slot, put those guys inside, and let Hardy develop as a rookie and get ahead of the curve. I seriously doubt he's NOT working on his weaknesses and will never improve on them.

And simply reading the stat-line (ignoring the stat-line of the QB, not to mention the recap of the game) doesn't help prove that he can't beat the jam. If someone saw the game, I'd like to hear it. And I'd like to know who are the "big, physical CB's" on the teams the Bills will be playing, who will cover him.

Gee, what a shock. It's your attention to detail that impresses us. Nope. You're still the same joke we knew you were.

Ikegwuono was nowhere NEAR a 1st round prospect. And keep professing your brilliance by reading the stat sheet.

And that had nothing to do with the poor play of his QB? And despite his play against Hardy and Manningham, he wasn't considered much better than a 3rd round pick. But it's a good thing for Hardy that he suffered an injury that will probably derail his career before it ever gets started.

Many of the teams you mentioned have strong QB's like NE (with cheating helping them of course), Indy, GB (with Favre), Philly, and Seattle. The Chargers were lousy for so long that they stockpiled top picks. And the NFC is a weak conference. Had the Bills played in it, they would have made the playoffs several times already. And Green Bay "found" Grant? Why was he inactive for the first game and only became a starter mid-season? GB is looking a lot more like a pretender than a contender without Favre. You need a good QB to lead your team, do you not? What has Aaron Rodgers done to inspire any confidence in him whatsoever? Not to mention the Vikes should be the best team in the division and the Bears are likely to rebound from their post-SB doldrums, while the Giants, Cowboys, Saints, Bucs, and Seahawks should be good teams.

And this (people knowing what their needs are) is unique to Buffalo? But I disagree that CB was an obvious need. Had Greer failed to step-up and if they hadn't added Will James, I'd agree. There's a difference between "working out" and being worth ridiculous money in FA. I have almost no problem with them letting Antowain Smith, Winfield and Clements walk, unlike letting Ted Washington or Pat Williams walk. Those last 2 were real mistakes. He had leverage. He could have sat-out half the season, played 8 games and fulfilled a year of eligibility to become an UFA after the season and leave. He could have also shown-up and half-azzed it. But again the point is that he had 1 year left on his deal, so the Bills were looking at replacing him eventually anyway, and would have "telegraphed" their need for a RB in this year's draft. Who, Hardy, who allegedly "pulled a gun on his dad" as per a 73-year old woman, yet the father didn't want to press charges and the cops never pursued the case? Because Lynch was drafted by Marv. And not to start this up again, but the evidence points to Lynch not knowing he hit her. But if you want to win, drafting choir boys isn't going to be the answer. It's a violent game played by juiced-up mostly spoiled manchildren.

I'll answer. If Stroud's ankle holds-up, and that's a real concern, he should be a tremendous addition to the Bills' DL. The guy was an all-pro in 2005 (which means something, unlike the Pro Bowl which has become a popularity contest) and was playing well until getting injured in 2006. And in the past 20 games he's played the past 2 seasons, he's had 43 tackles (38 solo) and 5.5 sacks, despite playing a lot of those games with a bum ankle. I'm not concerned about the steroid suspension.

Name them. You've obviously seen game film from his college games. Let me know which CB's prevented him from getting off the LOS. Wow, that's pretty amazing that he faced just 1 team his whole college career that had NFL caliber CB's. And NFL teams are so deep with them (just like starting-quality backup LT's).

Yes, let's play the "if" game. Yep. All those non-1st round RB's atop the rushing yards list last year. The Packers "targeted" Grant (an UFA of the Giants in 2005 and a training camp body until last year) all along and did it how it should be done. Sure. We'll see how well Grant, or Brandon Jackson, do now that Favre's gone and no one is respecting Aaron Rodgers.

The Bills telegraphed their 1st pick in 2004 when they took McGahee? In 2005 when they took Parrish? In 2006 when they took Whitner? Okay. And this past draft, everyone figured it would be WR, and it wasn't. And what "telegraphing" a pick has to do with anything is anyone's guess. It's not like any team jumped in front of the Bills and took their guy last year, the only year they actually telegraphed their pick. And you don't keep 1st rounders JUST because they were first rounders. This whole "they let their players go because they've only signed 1-1st rounder to a 2nd contract" is spurious at best. The Bills have re-signed OTHER players to 2nd and 3rd contracts. McGahee needed to go. He had 1 year left on his contract, wanted a big money deal even though he didn't earn it, was bad-mouthing the city, continued to workout in Miami instead of learning the offense, and had a propensity to do stuff like forget which down it was in a game, or give maximal effort when blocking, or throw-up on the sidelines. But if the Bills kept him, do you think he would have been re-signed this off-season? Do you think the Bills would have offered him what the Ravens gave him and/or he would have wanted to return to Buffalo? Doubtful at best. And as I pointed out, no non-1st round rookie RB did anything worthwhile last year, so expecting that the Bills could have drafted anyone after the 1st round and done well is unproven. And the Bills may have gotten their QB of the future with that 3rd rounder they got for McGahee.

What's the over/under on him starting for the Patriots?

It can't be stats. Otherwise he wouldn't be talking about how Hardy couldn't beat the jam or separate in college, when he had 191 catches in 33 games. Or how Marcus Stroud, Kawika Mitchell, and Spencer Johnson weren't even as good additions as Jake Long, Randy Starks, and Reggie Torbor were for the Fins. I think he seizes on the most negative thing about a player and uses a "he can't do this" argument as a reason why he'll fail. Then again, I'm sure it's much more complex than that. Or he "misremembers" or looks at the wrong stats. Perhaps he's thinking of Dusty Ziegler?

You're joking, right? What the Bills got was the best they COULD get. And they absolutely made the right move. And the laughable notion that taking a RB in the 1st round is a waste was put to rest.

Hate to break it to you son, but everyone is a homer for one thing or another. If you like something, you'll make excuses for it. It's human nature and EVERYONE does it.

If any team should definitely be ranked above the Bills' ST's, it the Browns. Cribbs is a 2-way threat (punt and kick returns), Dawson is a money kicker, and Zastudil is good. WRT Bears, they get extra credit because Hester is a threat to score on punts and kicks. But Gould is no better than Lindell and Maynard isn't as good as Moorman. You could probably rank them all 1a-c.

Does the fact that 2 of those 1st round DT's have been playing DE for them for the past 4 years make a difference? Since we can't go back in time, what should the Bills have done differently this past off-season than trade for Stroud (who was an all-pro in 2005 and playing well in 2006 until he got injured)? Rogers and Jenkins have had injury problems, if not suspensions, and Corey Williams is a 3-tech.

And again, this assumption is based on...what? Because the Jags traded him?

It's not just sports reporters.