GaryPinC

Actually Jessie Jackson came to speak at the hospital I work at in Feb of 2013 and I found the time to go and hear him. I was quite surprised and pleased to hear him say the fight for racial equality is over and that while isolated racism still exists both the black and white communities need to continue to come together and work together. It would be great if some leaders of the black community publicly condemned this altercation.

I would argue that we should have won the last one also but after TT fumbled early in the third quarter for a Dallas touchdown to tie the score, the team gave up. The camera panned the players' faces on the sidelines immediately after and I was so mad because the look of defeat was so obvious I was yelling "it's only a tied game!" at the TV. That actually bothered me a lot more than wide right.

It's been one year. You may be right or they may know very well what they're doing. It's early. Perhaps you would feel more at home as a Cleveland Browns fan. I'm looking forward to our draft this year. I don't believe Buddy "keep it simple" Nix was responsible for trading back and getting us that extra pick last year.

Nothing's changed? For starters, if Ralph had still been in charge I highly doubt the Toronto series gets put on hold. Looking at how we went after Marrone and Pettine, I don't recall the Bills being that organized and decisive about coaching decisions ever. Just to clarify, Russ Brandon is not directly responsible for winning games. He is responsible for bringing in the proper people under him so that they will win us games. Right now it's Whaley and Marrone and you HAVE to allow your people to work for you. It's also unclear if Whaley was Brandon's preference, he may have been Buddy and Ralph's preference. I don't hold Brandon responsible except from 2013 forward. He is a corporate speak guy, but you should be if you're the face of the franchise. He also came back from Detroit and went to an informal tailgate tribute the next day, he said they were going to review the Toronto series shortly before it got put on hold. That says a lot about his underlying character. I have the sense that this franchise has an organized plan moving forward which is refreshing. As far as Byrd, we just don't know what the decision making process was on that, Whaley/Marrone could have been a significant factor. We just know the FO wasn't comfortable with $9 mil per year, we'll see how it works out.

I share your viewpoint on Russ almost entirely and I'll just say this. He has to sell this team to every possible ticket/merchandise buyer he can and so he does. He's the face of this franchise. But he will also own up to unacceptable losses and did what he said he would with the Toronto series. I pay the most attention to him when he's addressing solving issues presently facing the team.

Incredibly gracious. Give a man a fish or teach a man to fish? Most everything said or heard about Ralph is that he valued the person, people but he was seldom one to give out fish. Business is business, yet he has put preconditions on the next owner(s) in hopes we all learn to fish and keep the franchise here without permanently tying down ownership. That's more than anyone should have expected and I for one am grateful for his thoughtfulness. I think the NFL wants the team to stay here for the reasons discussed in this thread and now a large part of that is up to us the fans.

I'm with you 100% Fred's a straight up kind of guy and he's all about the team. Well, how's the offer she made to you? Going to take it or test the market? ;-)

Players know this league is a business. It is the rules of the league that the Bills can use the tag and does Byrd make us a better team? How do FA's view our FO if we are not trying to put our best team on the field? The FO seems to have been respectful about the whole process, whatever the past they now risk sending the message that they are weak. Certainly the "lifers" spat points to that and not tagging him would also IMO. As others have queried, what NFL GM is going to talk trade about a player who's about to become a FA? The tag is the only leverage we've got left to get any kind of value in a trade.

+1 Sadly, I think this is what it all boils down to and the rest is fluff. Now we need a team to offer us a reasonable deal for him like Philly did for Peters. Hope to hell we're both wrong about all this though!

Thing is, I picture Byrd being sick of the instability and turnover with the organization as top of his list to leave. He'd be fire jumping if he wants Cleveland.

Norwood put it just wide, not short. If he was short I could see your point. But it was well within his range that night and was simply mis-aimed. If something weird happens trying to run another play and your receiver gets tackled in bounds it would be much worse than what Levy decided to do. They didn't need to squeeze a few yards out of one possible last play, Norwood simply blew it. Plus, according to the statistics here, http://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/N/norwosco01.htm the 1990 season saw Norwood hit 6-10 FG 40-49 yds, so he was 6-9 coming in to the superbowl. Over his career he seems to have hit from this range about 2/3 of the time so I'm not sure where you are getting the 1 of 5?

Cleveland's offense finished the season ranked 28th, sent Joe Thomas, Alex Mack, Jordan Cameron, and Josh Gordon to the pro bowl. I could acknowledge that Thomas didn't have his best year and popularity may have been a factor but not for the rest.

Keep in mind they have to hold together the roster and I don't expect that to happen. That locker room has been through inconsistent or missing leadership for years and I think firing Chud after 1 year may have been the tipping point. Pettine is inheriting a mess, players do not trust ownership and the FO. Plus, as others have said on here, it's not like Pettine has some awesome resume. I too wonder if he'll be any good as a HC considering the better teams were able to run holes in his defense with no answer/adjustment. It's not all bad he's leaving, if we get Wade back I will view the entire situation as a positive outcome.

Think of the marketing potential for next season! I'd be all for it myself.

I also believe Haslam was solely behind Chud's firing and I predict Banner will move on within the next year, probably sometime after the draft. He had a great plan right up until they fired Chud.

All of Mack's quotes show he wanted to stay in Cleveland and was happy having Chud as a coach. Nothing I could find since the firing, though. TJ Ward wanted to stay and finish what's been started, but again, before the firing. The players in that locker room have been a tight-knit team and stuck through all the coaching and front office turmoil for years now. Firing Chud may have broken the morale of that locker room and IMO if Mack and Ward exit whoever decides to coach has a nearly impossible task in healing that locker room and restoring faith in the front office. Mack and Ward would be worth keeping simply to restore some faith in the front office. If they leave, look out below.

I agree that it's sad the guy was fired. I know back in 07, Derek Anderson played with a lot of conviction and then in 2008 he just seemed to have no confidence. I think Chud's a pretty good coach and he deserved better. In my view it's hard to blame the OC if your quarterback sucks. Kind of why I'm not as pissed off at Hackett as so many are. Clearly his hands were tied with Manuel but less so with Thad. I thought overall the playcalling was respectable with Thad in there so I'm willing to give Hackett the benefit of the doubt for now.

+1 Considering what they went also through this offseason, I am more than impressed with the season they put together. Rex can coach. Given Manuel's injuries and problems quickly reading NFL defenses, do we really NOT take a QB in the draft? We don't have to sell our soul for one but this is the most important position in the NFL. Until we know we have a great one we need to keep trying. Got to respect the Jets for that, and if Smith can't mentally handle the challenge he probably wouldn't last in the NFL. We are doing Manuel no favors babying him and giving him the job, IMO.

Kind of wondered if his long term health was a factor in that decision. It's one advantage the FO has knowledge of that we don't.

I'd love to have Chud as OC because in 2007 he was given that position with the Browns and produced a top ten NFL offense, after being ranked 30th in 2006. It's not that often a first year OC can produce a quality offense especially having Derek Anderson and Brady Quinn as your QB options and having been ranked #30 the year before. He's had his ups and downs coaching college and NFL but I think he's a good coach and has demonstrated to me he can be solid but creative as an OC, while working with the talent and tools given instead of trying to impose an abstract.

Great article. Certainly shows O'Brien as someone who wasn't a fit for the type of figurehead Penn St. wanted. He certainly did a good job there though.

Well, I guess Buffalo fans can point to a franchise consistently in worse shape then us now. Players seemed to like Chud and can't help but think the more talented ones will be leaving as soon as they can. Just a really stupid move.

+1 Out of all the ups and downs EJ has had this season dumbing down the playbook again is the one action that tips the balance to drafting a top prospect in 2014, IMO.

I don't like the Toronto series but saying the Toronto game cost the Bills a shot at the playoffs is extremely short-sighted. They tanked too many games this year to pin it on one game. I was at the Pittsburgh game and they played like utter crap. As others said, if we hadn't turned the ball over twice late in the Toronto game this topic doesn't happen. Once they put a better product on the field maybe the fans up there will warm up, and more from Buffalo would pay the extra $$ to see them up there.

Why should they be in a "win now" (vs "build a winner") ? There was an entire new front office and coaching staff put in place this year. I respect the fact that they did not have a massive roster purge as seems common with changes such as this. Do you really want a perennially losing team to be always in a "win now" mode where they immediately dump the old roster and insist on bringing in their own guys? Also, milking the draft as much as they can even if the talent to fill their needs is not there? "Win now" teams give their coaches 1 to 3 years and dump them. Cleveland and Buffalo have both been in that mode a long time now. Works great, doesn't it? I briefly thought Banner was crazy giving up draft picks until 2014, until I realized what he's trying to do. You and some other fans may not like it, you may think that they're "taking a year off" but he's trying to break the 2-3 year constant turnover that perpetuates losing by holding steady and seeing what they've got and can keep rather than just blowing it up. Hopefully it results in much less roster turnover and correspondingly less needs in the draft. And his top 3 2013 picks are keepers. As far as the QB situation, I don't care why they decided to keep Weeden. In my mind it is smart to give a highly-picked, 2nd year QB a long look, especially in a weak QB draft year. They had an ok plan with Hoyer as backup until he forgot how to slide. I do agree they need a QB and with extra (high) draft picks in a supposedly QB-strong 2014 draft Cleveland should be able to get the QB they want and believe can succeed. Would you really rather have had Banner mortgage off his 2015 draft to get his QB in 2014 or mortgage your 2013 picks and team, in a year they weren't going to contend anyways, for that QB?