metzelaars_lives

Have to agree with this as well. Which makes it all the more disheartening to think that tax payer dollars will eventually go to building a new stadium when they already have a perfectly good one (it's not like there's an issue with the structural integrity and everyone loves it) JUST so Mara and co. can make more money. That's literally the only reason. People talking about it as an inevitability just because it appears dated? Who cares? Seriously take a step back and think about it: who gives a s**t? And there's this as well! Does anyone actually think that people won't be waxing poetic about and missing Rich Stadium the second it goes down? It's all so predictable and sad.

That article made me sick. There's kids all throughout this world with nothing to eat but a handful of billionaires want the Bills to build a new stadium- when the Bills have a perfectly good stadium; Bills fans are happy with the stadium; it doesn't make financial sense for the Bills or certainly WNY to build a new stadium- so that those handful of billionaires can become even richer. Makes me absolutely ashamed to be an NFL fan.

I was gonna say the Milt Northrop of the board. Both high compliments.

Holy de ja vu. This brings back some memories.

Thank God!! It would have been such a distraction. Probably would've cost us 4-5 wins minimum. I probably wouldn't even have watched.

I think he's been above average and good. I'd even go so far as to say he's been very good. The biggest mistake he may have made was letting Marrone/Scwartz get away because we would have made the playoffs last year with them intact (assuming we still signed Taylor/Roman). And for the other people telling me I can't give Whaley any credit for Incognito because that was Rex's guy, who re-signed him at a very reasonable rate at the 11th hour before free agency started? As far as Rex being responsible for bringing in Taylor- does anyone have a link to show me where that is absolutely the case?

OK FireChan, you're right. I don't literally think that you believe in NFL GM's who possess actual "magic" and hit on every single move they've ever made. So in that sense, yes, I was lying. And for that, I apologize. But indulge me- you do agree with the following statements: 1. Doug Whaley is a poor NFL GM. 2. Doug Whaley has hit on a lower percentage of moves he's made as GM of the Bills (draft picks, who to sign, who not to re-sign, who to restructure, etc.) than the average NFL GM in that same timespan. I just want to make sure we're on the same page as far as what you believe to be true about Doug Whaley.

You think Whaley has been a poor GM for the Bills, right? I can deduce from that that you believe most GM's in the league hit on a higher percentage of picks/signings/re-signings/restructures each year than Whaley does, right? I would disagree with that. I think that in his brief tenure as the Bills GM that he has hit on a HIGHER percentage of moves than the average NFL GM. I think most people would agree with me on that. But you talk about intellectually dishonest- in your argument to tell me that Whaley has been a poor GM, you cited Manny Lawson, who is playing on a 4 year, $12 million contract, as being overpaid? You cited Dan Carpenter, who gave the Bills the two best kicking seasons in franchise history before missing a handful of extra points last season, as a "bad player," inferring that his XP problem in year three on the Bills should be put on Whaley? Guys have windows. Whaley has been excellent at getting guys in their good windows and then letting them go at the right time. It's exactly what the Patriots do. I was more pissed than anyone when they let Fred Jackson go last year. Lots of people questioned letting Scott Chandler go at a pretty reasonable salary. He was right on both of those, as he's been time and time again. Yes, Chris Williams was a bad signing. Every GM in the history of the NFL post free agency has made multiple bad signings. All in all, he's been a good GM. It's almost indisputable.

Exactly. I have stressed over and over that the Bills have a GOOD offensive line (of course they do). Yet posters will write stuff about how we're doomed because we have a question mark at right tackle. Every team has question marks on the OL! Similarly, FireChan, in his short life of watching football, seems to think that there are these magic GM's out there that hit on every single pick and every single move they make. Ya know what? Robert Woods was the right pick. He was the consensus best receiver on the board at the time and we very much needed a WR. Whether he actually pans out or not is kind of besides the point (granted, you do have to hit on some or most of your high round picks). But those were exactly the picks that previous regimes did NOT make. Whaley never makes the "cute" pick- see: Whitner 8th overall, Torell Troup, TJ Graham, etc. He makes the obvious pick. And even when you make the no-brainer pick, it's not gonna work out every single time. The guy inherited a team with no QB whatsoever. QB is the most important asset your team can have. I believe that Whaley has done everything in his power to address it. You can't, as Biff from Tonawanda would call into GR to suggest, make a trade for Ben Roethlisberger. Look at the Patriots: they have had some terrible drafts in the Brady era (more often than not) and yet they're SB contenders every year. When someone is critical of the Manny Lawson signing (what??) you know that that person is simply not being objective and is already dead set on believing what they want to believe. Anyone with an objective football sense that follows the whole league and not just the Bills, understands that Whaley has been a very good GM thus far- at worst. Anyone who can't see that the guy has been right more often than he's been wrong is simply not paynig attention.

As I elsborated more since you responded, he has made plenty of very good moves as GM- much more than he's missed on. He missed on Manuel but they needed a QB and as it turned out, there wasn't much better out there anyway. I liked that pick at the time and don't hold it against him at all. What bothers me is when they would pass up on the no-brainers like Gronkowski/Troup and Wilson/Graham. Those were all Nix. Whaley has been very good as GM since he took over.

OK you win. Doug Whaley has been a poor GM for the Bills. Who do you like? Like is there anyone/anything in life that you're positive about? Is there a film you like or maybe a band that you like? A book that you enjoy? Do you like food? You conveniently left out the 2015 draft class, Levitre and several other restructures, among many other very good moves he's made as GM. But I digress.

Naturally you would be the one to debate. His drafting record is good (post-Nix), his decisions on what players to re-sign vs. what players to let go have been excellent, his ability to get players to restructure has been excellent. Anyway you look at it, he has been a good GM. Period. He's also very candid and likeable in interviews. There's really nothing not to like about the guy.

Bills fans are so used to incompetent management that they can't even recognize when they ALREADY HAVE A GOOD GM.

Because some players have sustained head injuries playing hockey does not prove that playing hockey is just as much of a risk as playing football. You should be smarter than that. How many Bills sustained concussions last season alone? How many Sabres have sustained concussions this season?

Yes that was my point. And furthermore, people on this board are constantly saying stuff like "we just simply don't have that talented of a football team." Well prior to last season, more than one source that I saw (one was nfl.com) ranked the Bills as having the 1st or 2nd most talented roster outside of the QB position in the NFL. How many Bills made the NFL's top 100 players list last year- 5 or 6, right? Sorry some of you, but this team actually is very talented, deal with it. I know there's another thread for it but in my not so humble opinion, it's on the head coach to make this thing go. Like immediately. And yes, Robert Woods is whatever. He's a quality #3 WR. They need another one. Everybody knows that. Do some of you realize just how good Sammy Watkins is and how lucky we are to have him on our football team? That I would question.

Ahh TBD myth #471 that this board always overrates its own players. While that used to be true to a certain extent, there has been a swing in the opposite direction, which I believe now overcompensates for the overrating. For instance, very few people on this board realize a) how good Cordy Glenn is and b) that the Bills have one of the better OL's in football. They think it's an abomination that we have a question mark at RT as if every team doesn't have question marks all over their OL. Nobody on this board seems to appreciate just how good McCoy was when he was fully healthy last year. And yes, actually read this thread. Who said anything about Robert Woods being that good? I think most people know exactly where he stands.

Sports things that don't work: GOAT as an acronym for greatest of all time, the crying Michael Jordan meme, dabbing, Tebowing, calling Robert Woods "Woody."

Well one's Twitter viewpoints are kind of their viewpoints. And yes, his viewpoints are often times very disappointing, especially for a guy I hold in such regard as a player, and very sad. Plain and simple, the guy is an idiot. You wanna know who's a cool dude? Jonathan Toews is a cool dude. You can learn a lot about someone from Twitter actually.

Thurman Thomas was and is my favorite running back of all time. I have a signed plaque of his on my wall in my office as we speak. Thurman Thomas is kind of a disappointment as a dude. I follow him on Twitter and he is severely misinformed on a lot of topics. It's actually kind of sad. It's hard to take anything he says that seriously. But I think it's cool that he is Buffalo for life and supports the Sabres as well as the Bills.

It looks as if reasonable football minds have prevailed in this thread, which so rarely happens, and people can agree that stats most certainly matter but stats, particularly QB stats, vary greatly from era to era. Would you say "look I just proved that home runs don't mean anything: Bryce Harper hit however many home runs last year and Brady Anderson once hit 51?" No of course you wouldn't. Patrick Kane's point total this year will be far more significant than when Mike Gartner and Glenn Anderson used to score 100 points in a season. You get the idea.

You guys do realize they signed Donald Brown today. Who is half-white. There are about two and a half white running backs in football and they've now had one and a half of them.

That's simply not true. This does nothing to expose anything football statistics. It does go to show that you cannot compare statistics from era to era. I read recently that Kirk Cousins broke the Redskins' all time single season completion % record this season. Whose record did he break? Try RG3 the previous season! Not 2012 RG3 but the RG3 that got replaced. This is why I would get so frustrated when people would say stuff like "EJ Manuel's first 14 games compare favorably with Bernie Kosar's first 14 games (or some QB from the mid 80's)." THAT means absolutely nothing. Back in 1985, you could win the MVP with like 25 TD's, 17 INT's and 3,500 yards or thereabouts. All that being said, comparing stats from two QB's from the SAME era is as pertinent as ever. Just curious how old you were during Kelly's prime? He threw a lot of picks my friend.

Betcha he won't have more receptions than Hogan next year.

Oh they're definitely using that 2nd round pick they acquired on a white guy. Mark my words.