chris heff

Dear Rob's House, Check paragraph four. See what I mean.

Ok I'll play. This is harder than I thought but I'll say Vick in Philly.

Passive aggressive EJ thread?

The Bills took a TE with their first pick before, so this would not be ground breaking. In what may have have been the greatest first round of all time, the Bills took Tony Hunter with the 12th pick, a bust.

None of that is Byrd's fault. It is because Manuel is not a franchise QB. There I said it for you.

Exactly

Here is what I'm confused about, prior to this season there were a llot of people that wanted Kolb to start so EJ could watch and learn and the start eventually. I fail to see how what has transpired is any different. Manuel, like most rookie QBs showed some good and some bad. They are not going to give up on him based on ten games. The only way they draft a QB in this draft is if there is if in round three or latter there is a guy they just can't pass up.

Some random thoughts. My father had season tickets from these first year. One of my brothers friends was Pat McGroder, they went to St. Joe's together, his father was one of Ralph's original partners. They had a Lincoln Continental with the Bills Logo painted on the sides. I remember after a game at the Rock Pile, going to a smorgasbord at The Lord Amherst (I think) and meeting all the players. I got all their autographs on a football. I played with it so much all the autographs wore off. We use to go to the Goalpost restaurant on Egart Rd. It was owned by Glenn Bass and I can't remember who else. It all had such a small town feel, that team belonged to the community. What a great fan base it was and still is. First dumb move was trading Cookie, I was twelve and even I knew it was stupid.

The NFL is going to have difficulty popularizing the sport outside of the US and Canada. I knew the guy who was the first commissioner of the defunct North American Soccer League. He once told me that it takes three generations of kids playing a game, to make the sport popular. No one played little league soccer when I was a kid and very few high schools did. We are just now hitting the third generation of soccer players. Someone can correct me, but I don't believe many kids are playing football in Europe. With the concern about head injuries I find it unlikely they will start. I think European expansion is a fantasy. You want yhe Bills to stay in Buffalo? "Just win baby".

Things will fall apart if the Bills listen to some people on this board. Here is my wish list, through the draft or free agency, I think this is what they need. On offence, left guard, right tackle, tight end and a big wide receiver. This is a lot. I'd be happy with the first two. It is amazing how much better QBs look with a good running game and good protection. On defense, a line backer, a defensive tackle (run defense needs to be better), and sign Byrd. The last one probably won't happen, but this is where the Bills could create a hole were there shouldn't be one. I thnk at this point the Bills are better than both the Jets and Dolphins. Even if they lose to the Patriots they end up 3-3 in the division. When was the last time that happened? It's a start. Did anyone else watch Patriots, Ravens yesterday? The Ravens and for that matter the Giants are examples of what happens when you don't give good QBs a supporting cast. Very few QBs can over come not having talent around them. Brady happens to be one, but you could make the argument that he is the best to ever play the game. The Bills need to do everything they can to make EJ Manual successful before they start using high draft picks on another QB. Doing so would insure "something else will fall apart".

Ralph Wilson is responsible for the state of the Bills.

At the time I thought over paying Levitre was a bad idea, but in retrospect the lack of plan B is alarming. The Bills had to know they were drafting a QB and that the rookie QB would be starting at some point. Having a good o line that had played together was key. They should have paid Levitre. The protection has not been great and the run blocking has been bad. Manuel, as with all QBs, is much better with a running game. The line now needs a LG and a RT. I hope they can address at least one of these in free agency. What happened with Hairiston? It was a non football injury. Is he done?

I don't get the no QB coach.

I been saying this since preseason. You know when he doesn't aim? In the two minute drill.

Agree with you. Summers will continue to get way more touches than Choice, since Choice got cut two weeks ago.

After losing a power struggle to Cower, Donahoe was never going to let that happen again. That is why the two head coaches he hired were on no one else's radar. How about the press conference where he blamed the fans for having to fire Williams? Always a good idea to blame the customer.

Are you crazy? Red? Red is for Ferraris. British racing green is a Jag color. There is a blue one in the NY Museum of Modern Art.

How about hiring a QB coach instead of firing coaches.

You are wasting key strokes. There are people on this site that for some inexplicable reason are rooting for Manuel to fail just so they can be right. Of course odds are in your favor when predicting failure in an NFL QB. Remember all the "injury prone" posts after Manuel injured his knee? If Manuel is injury prone then what is Locker? Locker's completion percentage is 57.3. Locker is "boarding on "franchise" status" and Manuel is a bust, mind boggling.

He saiid " strictly AFC".

Manual should be 2-0 vs Glennon. In that loss FSU had a 16 point lead at halftime. Fisher put his offense into a shell, let NCS back into it.

I agree, it is way too early to tell about either. That being said I believed and still believe that Manuel was the top QB in the draft. I watched a lot of his games. Not as many for Smith. Smith lost me when Syracuse beat WV in the Pinstripe Bowl. Manuel has been checking down too much. As opposed to Trent Edwards, who did have the deer in headlights look, I think Manual is being overly cautious. In Manuel's case I believe it is fixable. For the life of me I can't understand why you draft a QB to be the future of the franchise and then don't hire a QB coach.

The first time I saw anything about opening things up was after the Pittsburg game. I think the handcuffs were on early in the season. The Jet game was pretty opened up, not a lot of check downs. Someone in another thread said that the Atlanta DBs had very good coverage all day. I did not look at the all 22 is this correct? Went deep three times, I think, one completion to Woods. Two of best throws were the fumbles. I hope for these next four games they just let him play. People write stuff all the time about his college career. He was pretty successful. Living in FL it is hard not to pay attention to the college teams. College football is king in this state. The FSU offense is misunderstood. I've had conversations with diehard FSU fans, who know their football and what I've been told about that offense is, although the number of plays are limited the same play can be run out of multiple formations. Young receivers can have a very hard time with this. There were times at FSU, when Manuel was hesitant but there were times when the cause of that was receivers not being where they were suppose to be. Why the hell did it take ten games to figure that out?

This is speculation, but I think Manuel is being coached to check down. He is so worried about turnovers that he is very reluctant to try and fit the ball into a tight spot. The other thing that I have noticed is that his best drives have been during two minute drills, this started in the preseason. He seems to be better when he has no choice but take chances. In two minute drills he also stops aiming the ball and just throws it.

The solution to selling out RWS, making the Toronto game a true home game and vastly increasing the odds that the Bills stay put is winning.