st pete gogolak

This really should be a poll but I'm to lazy to set it up. OK, now. Here goes. The Bills "braintrust" decides it's more important to have Aaron Williams on the roster than Colin Kaepernick or Andy Dalton, more important to have Kelvin Sheppard than Ryan Mallett and more important to have T.J. Graham (!) than Russell Wilson or Kirk Cousins. So clearly, this offseason will be utter desparation time for Nix and/or Gailey (assuming either one is still here) to obtain an NFL-quality starting QB. Options include: 1) Trading a #1 for Matt Flynn or Cousins; 2) Using a Top Ten pick on someone who shouldn't go in the Top Ten (Barkley, Jones?); 3) Sign an over-the-hill FA (Michael Vick?). If these are the options, I'd rather go with 3 - Vick or someone like him. I don't want to waste a Top Ten pick on a QB reach, either through trade or draft.

How many of these guys fall off the roster after this season? Pretty sure the last three. Any others?

If we're playing the 20-20 hindsight game (don't mind playing that at all), I'll take either the 49'er's draft (Aldon Smith and Kapernick) or the Texans' draft (J.J. Watt and Brooks Reed) as well as the Bengals. Hated, hated, hated the Aaron Williams pick. Would have liked to have seen Akeem Ayers playing LB for us.

1) Defense - talent may not be great but it is not historically bad. Blame has to go on Wannstadt. 2) 2011 Draft - Dareus - A. Williams - Sheppard. Dareus has been an enormous dissappointment this year. It seems everyone drafted before and after him is headed for superstardom (V. Miller, A. Green, Alden Smith, Watt). A. Williams is horrible. Sheppard just isn't very good. 3) Mario and Mark Anderson. 4) LB's as a group. Worst in the league. 5) Fitzpatrick. He is what he is. Marginal starter/quality back-up.

Unfortunately, the Tennessee game dictated the rest of our season. Bad loss at home to a bad team required us to beat either Houston or New England on the road to keep some semblance of hope about making the post-season. Didn't happen. See ya' next year.

I agree that, if this line stays together and stays healthy, that in the next year or two, it can be one of the best OL's in the NFL. Say what you will about Buddy Nix, obviously one of his goals coming into this job was to improve the offensive and defensive lines. You can say, "well, duh" but it would have been nice if that had been a priority for any of the three or four prior regimes. The Bills' O-Line had been deteriorated from the mid-90's on. Flutie helped hide the flaws (Johnson helped expose them). I think this team would have had an infinitely better decade if Tom Donahue came in and said "this O-Line sucks and we're determined to make it better" (say by drafting Steve Hutchinson and Matt Light #1 and #2 in 2001).

When Bledsoe was released after the 2004 season, I was fine with that. Even though the team posted a winning record (remember what that felt like?), the QB play was atrocious. I thought, it can't get any worse. That was followed by the legendary Holcomb-Losman QB controversy, a couple more lousy seasons from Losman, a couple of lousy seasons from T. Edwards and a couple of mediocre seasons from Fitzpatrick. When Jauron was fired, I was relieved. Hated the guy from the moment he was hired. Hated the conservative offense, bend but don't break defense guaranteed to eek out wins over bad teams and get destroyed by good teams. I thought, it can't get any worse. We haven't seen the Jauron Line (7-9) since. When George Edwards was fired, I was thrilled. His defenses flat-out sucked and it was clear he was in over his head. I thought it can't possibly get any worse. I want Wannstadt fired yesterday. After all, it can't possibly get any worse, can it?

The team's execution? As famously said by John McKay, "I'm in favor of it!"

Of course, it's a one-year extension. Can' tie the hands of the new owner.

No one - but no one - had Losman in the same class as Manning, Rivers or Roethlisberger. Yes, he was pegged to go low first round so he wasn't a "reach". The big mistake was not trading up with JAX to take Roethlisberger. Donahue (I believe) said JAX wasn't interested in trading up but I still don't believe that. They stayed put to draft Reggie Williams???

I'm still P'Oed about the putrid interception during the Dallas laugher that ended Eric Wood's season. If he had finished the season, he would have been a strong candidate, not just for the Pro Bowl, but for first string All Pro.

The 1965 AFL Championship Game in San Diego. Right after the game, I would take the pile of money I made picking the underdog Bills to win, not to mention correcty predicting the final score, and go out and buy as much SoCal real estate as humanly possible!

Florence is gone. I expect Edwards and Johnson to be gone. It's certainly not beyond the realm of possibility for all six to be gone before the season opener.

That didn't take long to answer. With Florence gone, I think that they'll keep all six of the remaining CB's.

Let's face it. A bunch of guys were drafted or acquired to fit into a 3-4 (Merriman, Troup, D. Edwards, Moats, Batten, even Sheppard to a lesser extent). Going to a 4-3 means that it's going to be awfully tough to find a home for any of these guys (except Sheppard). I hope Merriman is kept as a pass rush specialist because if he's healthy, he could flourish in that role but if they keep Merriman in that role, I see no possibility of Moats or Batten making the team. I'd also like to see Troup make the team just because he's a high #2 and it's too painful to contemplate cutting a guy picked one spot ahead of Gronkowski. Also, are they really going to try Alex Carrington at DT? If that's true, if I'm Carrington, I'm asking to be released. Jeez Louise, last year in training camp, they are playing him as a 300 pound OLB! He's either a 3-4 or 4-3 DE. I'd like to hope he's an effective 4-3 DE and that he makes the team in that capacity.

If you look at Young's career stats, they are pretty unimpressive (57% completion percentage, 46-51 TD to INT ratio). The exception is over 500 yards rushing and 7 rushing TD's as a rookie. On the other hand, the guy was an incredible college player and has amazing physical tools. Sometimes the light never comes on for a QB and sometimes it comes on late in a career. He's 29 and if he's signed, it's to COMPETE for a back-up job. The FO and coaching staff will have an entire pre-season to see if the skills are still there, if his head is in the game, if he will be a good fit in the locker room, etc. I really hope that they sign him. The upside is there and there is very little, if any, downside. The only downside I can see is that you'd be signing Young and bypassing another candidate for bak-up QB. Who exactly would that be?

We've got seven CB's (McGee, Florence, McKelvin, A. Williams, Rogers, Gilmore and Brooks). Assuming we keep five or six and assuming no UDFA makes the team, who stays and who goes? Obviously, Williams and Gilmore are locks. I assume that absent a horrendous camp, they'll keep a #4 round pick. Rogers looked very good at the tail end of last year. Do you try to peddle McKelvin in his contract year and pick up a draft pick in 2013? Do you cut one or both of the vets (McGee and Florence) loose? I vote for showcasing McKelvin in preseason and trying to get a #4 or #5 for him from a team that finds itself in need of a corner.

If Seattle is getting crushed by the "experts" for picking a one-trick, pass rushing "specialist" who can't play the run at #15, why we're we crushed for picking Maybin at #11? Was it because the "experts" for whatever reason pegged Maybin as first round material and Irvin as second?

Close. Bruce Irvin is Aaron Maybin 2.0 with character issues! Ridiculous pick.

Definitely trade up for JAX's no. 1 and take Roetlisberger (big, strong kid out of Miami OH). JAX is looking for impact wideout and there will be several available at #13 (maybe Lee Evans out of Wiconsin).

OK. Time to splash a little cold water on draft expectations. Here's a list of #10 picks since 2000: 2011 - Gabbert 2010 - Alualu 2009 - Crabtree 2008 - Mayo 2007 - Okoye 2006 - Leinhart 2005 - M. Williams (DET) 2004 - D. Robinson 2003 - Suggs 2002 - L. Jones 2001 - Reynolds 2000 - T. Taylor It's a pretty grim picture as the #10 spot is littered with total busts (Travis Taylor, Jamal Reynolds, Leinhart), busts in the making (Gabbert), some ok players and two All-Pro/Pro Bowl types (Mayo and Suggs). Maybe it is not a coincidence that the two best players were picked by franchises with strong track records in the draft (NE and BALT). By the ten hole, all the truly elite players are gone and you have to pick one player from a group of 10-15 very comparable players. Not that easy to do. Here's a reason for optimism however. The #11 pick over the last tweleve years has been treasure trove of great, great players (JJ Watt, Willis, Cutler, Ware, Roethlisberger, Freeney). (Biggest exceptions were two guys named Maybin and McKelvin.) Moral of the story. Forget about need and draft BPA.

I'll disagree pretty violently on the characterization of Matt Light being a "good" but not "great" pick. If you can get consistent Pro Bowl-level play out of a left tackle for a dozen years, I would put that down as a great pick, especially for a second rounder. Light hasn't missed much time and is part of what arguably has been the best O-Line in the NFL for the last twelve years, keeping the pretty boy clean as the driven snow. Hopping on the Captain Hindsight bus, if we had made Hutchinson and Light our first two selections in 2001 (and God knows the O-Line was the weakest part of the team), we would have had a rock solid left side of the O-Line for a dozen years.

What if the Dolphins are stupid enough to offer the Vikings an attractive package to move up to the three hole to pick Tannehill? The one thing the Browns don't need is a left tackle. Would they trade out of the four hole and slide to 10? What would it take to make that move? A second? I'd do that move for Kalil. Personally, I think the Vikings sit tight and take Kalil number 3.

Man, I'm glad you brought up F Troup. I loved that show as a kid.

You are what your record says you are - even when it comes to the Super Bowl. They should have lost to the Rams (Belicheck badly outcoached Martz) and could have lost to the Panthers. So if the breaks hadn't gone their way, they could have been 0-5 or 1-4 in the Super Bowl. But they went 3-2. You are what your record says you are.