VJ91

Pats' source: "...Washington joined the team during the Great Receiver Roundup of 2007. In two seasons, he caught a grand total of one pass, for three yards." Wow, what a great follow up move after signing Jenkins and DiGiorgio! What's next, hiring a new quality control coach? This is too much excitement for my off season.

What is your problem with Jim Kelly exactly, to the point where you put him in the same sentence as our troubled young running back Lynch??

Good running back who could catch the ball. I think it was against the Steelers at home in 1980, Brown ran the ball in for about a 10 yard TD, but the Bills were called for holding or offsides, no TD. Fegie called the exact same play from either 5 yards or 10 yards further out, and Brown ran in it again, this time no penalty. Remember the Steelers were the defending SB champs that year, and the Bills owned them that game. Yeah, 1980 was an awesome year for the Bills.

If I worked for the Bills, I would not be announcing inside info on the most popular Buffalo Bills fan forum.

Jimbo - my all time favorite Buffalo Bill, and the best quarterback in Bills history. If this crazy franchise ever wins a SB, Jim should get an honorary ring from that team. HAPPY BIRTHDAY JIM. What a terrific example for any current and future Buffalo Bills player. Kelly started out cocky and too good to sign with the horrible Bills team playing in the horrible cold weather city. But With some luck (USFL folding) and a future Hall of Fame-worthy young GM doing some great convincing and hard-line "I will never trade your rights" negotiating (Bill Polian) Kelly came to Buffalo eventually anyway. The rest is of course history, with him still living in Orchard Park now 12 years after retiring as Buffalo Bill. He can relate to cocky "superstars" who won't want to play here, and then set them straight on how awesome a community Buffalo is, and how great it was for him to play only for the Bills. I remember all the rumors when Jim was ready to come to the NFL. Kelly will never play for Buffalo, the Raiders or Rams will trade for him. Blah blah blah. It may have happened exactly that way, if Polian would not have been beginning his career as Bills GM. I read that Polian immediately started out demanding every office worker and Bills employee start taking pride in the Buffalo Bills organization. He relayed that pride and excitement to Kelly & his agent and began the rise of the Buffalo Bills before the 1986 season by signing Jim. Come to think of it, that passion and desire to begin winning that Polian passed on to Kelly is exactly what is missing today at One Bills Drive. The Inner Circle-jerks don't have a pinkie fingers' worth of pride and excitement about the organization they represent that Polian had the day he was hired in late 1985! I have no idea what was missing from those 3 straight SB teams Kelly & Polian were together for in the early 90's. But it's just a damn shame Polian and Kelly could not win at least one of them, for themselves and all of us.

It's not amazing when you consider how lightly those two positions have been regarded in the Bills' past 10 or 15 drafts!

Yeah sure, just what the number one special teams unit in the NFL needs, another kick returner to back up Parrish, McKelvin and McGee. Who do you think the Bills should take in the second round, the best long snapper available?

Ray lost too many brain cells during his "career". The Bills will always be bigger then the Sabres in Buffalo. However, the town will party just as hardy regardless of which one ever wins a championship first.

Great point, Vet! And the Browns were certainly not the only team to flood 6-7 and sometimes 8 men in coverage against Trent. And why? Very simple: The Bills OL, for as huge as they are, were one of the worst run blocking teams in the NFL. If not for the particular specific tackle-breaking talents of both Lynch and Jackson, Edwards' stats would have been even uglier. And oh by the way - tack on rookie OL coach to your list of inexperienced assistant coaches Trent Edwards' team employs!

I think people out here take pot shots at your personal info because we have no way of knowing if it is true or not So if you are posting stuff like "Matt Cassel is going to do this because I'm friends with his Mom and she told me so", you are just opening yourself up for ridicule. Nobody out here cares if you are friends with Mrs. Cassel, and those that do care, don't believe you anyway. I just enjoy posting my Bills' and NFL opinions, while keeping my personal info to myself. You would be smart to do the same from here on in. As far as your post about Lost-man and Edwards stats the past two seasons, they are facts, and indisputable, obviously. But I put more blame on the Bills' biggest, tallest, fattest and weakest OL in the NFL, both guys have had to play behind. If those overpaid, passionless fatties would figure out how to run block, Edwards or any decent QB (leaving Lost-man out), would have much better stats as Lynch and Jackson were averaging 4.5 yards per carry.

I agree completely. The latest mock draft I looked at on the web had Mack going at the very bottom of the first round to the Steelers. If the kid anchors the Steelers' O-line for the next 12 years, and perhaps becomes a perennial Pro Bowler in the process, why should anybody at One Bills drive care if drafting him at 11 would be considered a freakin' "reach" by the millions of draft experts out here? Especially when the Bills have such a need at center.

Hardy was really unprepared for the NFL, and his late season knee injury ruined his already lousy rookie season. But don't forget that James Harrison was an undrafted free agent that was cut more then once before he finally caught on as a special teams demon on the Steelers. Look at the guy now. NFL defensive player of the year, and he made the obvious play of the game to keep the Steelers ahead in the first half of this year's SB. Jeremy Green was not the only writer or football personnel guy that thought Hardy would be very good his rookie season. Hopefully James can rehab, grow up a little and come back strong the next couple of years.

Coffman compiled more defensive players lept over then both Royal and Shouman had yards in receiving combined last year! This kid looks like a hell of an athlete!

Oh, you mean the Niagara Bills in 2012?

That's nice that Flutie was the best CFL QB....for a quitter. I'm sure when he hit that Hail Mary pass that is still shown today, 25 years later, as one of the greatest college plays ever, his first thought was..."Wow, Phalen caught the ball and we win, now I can become the greatest QB in the CFL!" No, after following up that play with the Heisman Trophy, I'm sure ego-manicial Doug was thinking more along the lines of breaking every passing record in the NFL, or at least becoming known as the next Fran Tarkington and making the Hall of Fame. Instead, he quit on the NFL in the prime of his career, only 5 years into it, because he could not take the pressure of being too short in the eyes of stupid NFL coaches. Instead of forcing NFL teams to play him by working harder and having a good patient attitude, he took his game to the CFL. By your screen name, I see that means something to you, and I have nothing against the CFL. But it is not the NFL, and the way Flutie played in Buffalo those three seasons late in his career, and his one year starting in San Deigo even later, it proves that he would have found his place in the NFL if he would have just stayed here!

I really don't see any players on the Bills that need to be cut right now. Well, there is one....the worst FA signing in the history of the Bills, Derek Dockery, the 7 Million dollar a year average left guard. I don't care what the cap ramification would be, the inner circle-jerks should have cut this guy the day after the season ended, to begin their purge of underperforming overpaid players that have zero passion for winning. But Levy screwed the Bills royally by being the GM of record, even if John Guy walked past his office on the way to the airport, flying to Wilson's office in Detroit to beg Ralph to sign this joke of a player. I don't know what a hate more about Dockery; his lack of talent or his lack of heart and passion. But if DJ really thinks he can win, he had better figure out a way to light a fire under this guy's butt next year.

Flutie clone? Hardly. Dougie would have loved to have been a Garcia clone, though: NFL Careers (Does anyone care about their CFL careers?) GP PA Compl. Pct. Yards TD INT RATING Garcia - 124 3,676 2,264 61.6 25,537 161 83 87.5 Flutie - 92 2,151 1,177 54.7 14,715 84 68 76.3

Great post! I think Biscuit Bennett is one of the all time under-rated OLB's in NFL history. Bruce gives Talley a lot of credit for playing next to him so well for all those years, as well he should. But people tend to forget Bennett was rushing from the opposite side of Bruuuuuce for about 7 years! I don't remember Carl Banks being that much of a pass rushing threat opposite LT as Biscuit was for Smith. Another nod towards LT.

I don't like the idea of the inner circle-jerks trading Peters. People on this board have mentioned the Pats' and Giants' OL's having late round draft picks and free agents starting on them. Well, Jason Peters was an undrafted rookie free agent tight end, who has quickly become one of the best LT's in the game. That's the kind of value FA signing you want to pay top buck and make your left tackle for 10 -12 years! It is the only really great story that has come out of One Bills Drive since the late great John Butler took off for the west coast. Tom Donahoe signed him, and it was down-right Polian-esque for Donahoe to see the potential in the kid. So who knows what the inner circle will bring us this March and April? But if they need to shave salary to pay Peters, then they should cut their losses and dump Dockery and his 7 Million a season, and draft one of the excellent guard-center types in the first 3 rounds to replace him.

I'm 50, so I was able to watch both Taylor and Lewis in their primes. LT was better. You have to understand that before Taylor came along in the early 80's, there had never been a linebacker like him. Ray Lewis? A great MLB, who has followed in the foot steps of Mike Singletary, Jack Lambert and Dick Butkus. You would have an argument on your hands if you wanted to say Lewis is the best MLB in NFL history. However, no one would argue that LT is the greatest OLB in NFL history, simply because he was. Joe Montana does not have Marino or Favre's stats, but most consider him the best QB ever to play the game. You can put LT in that same un-quantifiable category of greatness. Smith has the most sacks, I'm sure other linebackers may have more tackles and interceptions. But LT was just the very best ever.

LT, no comparisons. LT revolutionized the OLB position, and single handedly created more havoc on defense then anyone had before, or has since. Bruce cannot even get a consesus as the best defensive end of all time, much less the best defensive player of all time. Don't get me wrong, I am fortunate to have been a season ticket holder during the majority of Smiths' career with the Bills, and I agree he's one of the best defensive players ever. But he was not better then Taylor.

You are right, the article was fantastic. The writer had a great sense of humor, and mixed some compliments of Buffalo in with his list of bad Buffalo-jokes popular 40 years ago. Here's something that struck me reading about Ralph Wilson as a 50 year old imposing-looking owner being interviewed in his office in Detroit back then. He was tougher in 1969! He told Buffalo that unless he got a new stadium, domed or otherwise, he would leave town. Plain and simple. He became a lot softer over the next 29 years, right up to the day he accepted the proposal to "re-model" Rich Stadium for half the money a new stadium would have cost, in 1998. Looking back, I wish Wilson would have simply made the same demands in '98 that he made in '69, "Build the Bills a brand new state of the art money making stadium, domed or otherwise, on the Rich Stadium site or someplace else in Western New York, or I will leave town." We all know we would have built it and it would have been a stadium that deserved another 25 year lease, and not this idiotic lease that already runs out in three years. In fact, if Western New York, New York State, and "Business Backs the Bills" would have found a way to get the very best stadium available in 1998 built, the Bills may not even feel forced to sell out to Toronto for regular season games.

You didn't disagree with me, San Jose. In fact, you missed my entire point. I never said entertainers made the same amount as athletes. I never said I thought either were overpaid. I never said pro sports were not dangerous. I never said I did not respect or admire the current or former pro athletes who have had major surgeries, nor did I say I did not feel terrible about the former football players that have been paralyzed, forced to retire, or have committed suicide. I did said I hate when pro athletes tell media and fans that they need to "take care of their families", when talking about earning the most money they possibly can. I also said I would respect Freddy more if he just said he deserves to earn more money then the minimum the Bills can get away with paying him, based on his excellent play and production. I just want these guys to leave out the "I have my family to take care of" line, that's all. We all have our families to take care of, and I don't care if we earn more or less then Fred Jackson, we wake up every morning knowing we have families to take care of.

Zonabb, the guy isn't even from Western New York. Of course he's ego-driven and self serving. If he wasn't, he would have approached Niagara County before he put up his stupid web site and started selling his stupid Niagara Falls Bills crap on it. In case you have forgotten, for the past 50 years, the Bills have been known as the Buffalo Bills. This guy is crazy, in my opinion, and it pisses me off that his idea includes changing the Bills' name to Niagara. I'll wait and see what Jim Kelly and his guys say about a new stadium in Niagara Falls, but with the same Buffalo Bills playing in it. You go on your buddies web site and buy up all of his Niagara Bills gear if you want to.

I know it's stupid to compare elite pro athletes and entertainers compensation to their average fans' compensation. I fully understand how hard it is and the odds you have to beat to get even into Freddy Jacksons' position, and he certainly deserves every penny he earns from the NFL. But, even if the Bills take advantage of their selfish cheap loop holes and only pay the guy the minimum they can get away with this year and next, he will still have an average of $505,000.00 per year to "take care of his family." Despite how elite these athletes are, I really resent them always playing the "I have to take care of my family" card. That's when I feel compelled to compare them to the rest of us fans, who also have to "take care of our families", earning, if we are really fortunate, 10% the amounts, or in most cases less then that, of what Fred Jackson is complaining about earning. At least I don't hear that tired arrogant chant from most of the entertainers we love to watch. I never heard Tom Cruise tell People magazine he won't do a film for less then $20 Million because he has to "take care of his family." Even Jackson admited he earned $200.00 a week gross before he worked his butt off and took the long road to the NFL. Now, after his first break out season as an elite back-up running back, he needs to earn more for his family. I sure hope Freddy would still feel responsible for taking care of his family if he was still earning $200.00 a week! I would admire the guy more if he just came out and said he wants to get paid better just because he deserves it based on his production. We all know that if the last guy on the bench can keep his special teams spot on any team in the NFL for the average 4 years, his family will be taken care of just fine and dandy for the next 10 - 20 years, depending on how smart they are with their money and tax planning.