Sisyphean Bills

Of course I was NOT implying Torbor was a rookie. Torbor was the subject of a different sentence. I was refuting Big Kat's claim that the only move Nix made that didn't pan out so far was Green. If you want to list all the great accomplishments made by the "new" regime, why don't you just do so instead of playing thread rent-a-cop?

Sure. There is only one problem with this team, the run defense. And you're kidding yourself if you think that Gailey is completely untouchable and has no accountability to anyone. If the team spirals out of control and the players clearly give up on this coaching staff, Ralph may step in and simply demand that Nix fire Gailey. Ralph may be an old man and has made lots of mistakes, but he's not been one to suffer embarrassing incompetents for long.

The NFL isn't going to step in. It's a zero-sum game and the Bills play a part, the part of the patsy and farm team. Just being bad is hardly a reason to hope that the NFL steps in to rescue this torpedoed franchise. The notion that the NFL should step in is really not realistic so much as it is rhetorical and to emphasize the point that the Bills are beyond hope at this point. The decisions that have been made by the Bills as an organization have been the stuff of legendary foolishness.

I asked this question in another thread. Really, if the team is a train wreck that it goes in the tank like the Cam Cameron Dolphins did, then any owner that is truly serious about trying to win and having people support his product might seek to reach out and rebuild some public confidence in his franchise and blow the thing up. The Dolphins didn't wait 3 years to see if Cameron could pull his head out of his ass. Rod Marinelli did get 3 years to drive the Lions into and through the turf after starting out with a 3 win season. This Bills team is playing a style of ball that reminds me a lot of that infamous '08 0-for-ever Lions team, by the way.

Well, when you're getting your ass kicked, I suppose trying to out razzle dazzle someone when you're not the smartest guy in the room is the next best thing.

Sure. There is always the hope that things will get better. Don't take my comments as some sort of "last word" on this draft. That's not how they are intended. It's more just a reflection of the general sense that this "new" regime came out of the gate pretty damn leisurely if not dropping their pants around their ankles and falling flat on their face.

That's not always true. The Falcons didn't have a solid core a couple of years back. The Rams were a very bad team and Bradford is playing well. The Lions have many young players coming into their own off their 0-16 debacle. http://forums.twobillsdrive.com/topic/121922-nix-got-one-right/page__view__findpost__p__2014600 In my previous post, most of those players are on teams that were equal to or worse than Buffalo last season. Most of those teams will probably be better than Buffalo after this season. While we could debate the meaning of "impact", contributing on a team that is getting better overall isn't such a bad outcome. The Bills have had really bad drafts since Tom Modrak came on the scene. It's a sort of snowball effect and it's going to be very difficult to break the cycle at this point. What is truly disturbing is that the current regime, though they talk about "plans", don't demonstrate it. Their first rookie draft class is doing nothing. Even the Dick Levy regime fared better than that with Whitner, Simpson, Williams, Butler, Ellison, Pennington, McCargo, and Youboty all making some contribution on the field as starters or in spots as rookies.

The question that I haven't seen asked is what happens if this Buddy Gailey regime does step on their members with an 0-16 beat down out of the gate? Are fans going to buy tickets? Will anyone save the most addled homers think that these guys are doing a great job? Will players be lining up to run into a brick wall in their enthusiastic support? Going winless, other than for an expansion team, should be completely and totally unforgivable. Firing everyone would be akin to a mercy killing to an established franchise in that position. But, then there is the Bills. Ralph has no other names on his list of people he knows. The team was just here 10 months ago and settled for Chan Nix. What the !@#$ do they do then?!

I hear what you are saying. But, this sort of thinking is outmoded in today's NFL. There are beaucoup counter-examples of rookies contributing to their teams very early in their careers over the last several seasons. The NFL has changed. Players' careers are shorter than they have ever been. Teams use the draft to re-load their rosters every year. Even perennially solid teams like the Patriots, Colts, and Chargers re-load their line-ups through the draft. Not every rookie may produce at a superstar level, obviously, but many teams get good production out of many rookies and 2nd year players. Let's take a look at all the good things Buddy has done in the first 10 months or so on the job to turn around a bungling team. <crickets> Well, hopefully Whaley doesn't suck as bad as John Guy did, but that's anything but proven. <crickets> The team is worse and there hasn't been a single profound move of note made by Nix in the first 10 months. First impressions count. When things are bad, most people expect the new guys on the scene to start pulling hoses and getting to work, not break out a bag of marshmellows and a pack of smokes to enjoy the fire.

Is this a joke? Or do you not watch football? Bradford, Suh, McCoy, Williams, Berry, Okung, Haden, McClain, Alualu, Davis, Matthews, Graham, Thomas, Iupati, Bulaga -- every draft pick before Buffalo and several after -- is either a outright starter or seeing plenty of playing time.

Well, the draft class in its entirety isn't producing anything. Torbor just got benched. How about the coaching decision? The staff is knocking it out of the park so far. But why limit ourselves simply to moves Nix did make, which were minimal and vacuous in effect. How about the non-moves, like putting all his eggs in the Trent Edwards basket. Thinking they could switch to a 3-4 defense without the players. Riding the "3 backs" propaganda express and then just taking a 4th rounder because any old draft pick is just good as another and it's hard to remember all those phone numbers in the NFL.

The only premise the league has is that Ralph, through his clueless mismanagement, is killing all interest in the sport and the NFL in particular. That may be the case in the western NY, southern Ontario market, but it's more likely that football fans will just gravitate towards other NFL teams. Ralph is 92.

Oh, really?

I think Spiller could be a great player. Why our "genius" coaching staff can't seem to get him the ball is a completely different problem. Although this is the same set of coaches that thought they could sprinkle pixie dust on a 31 year old DE and he'd be athletic enough to run with NFL RBs, TEs, and WRs all over the field.

Well, you certainly nailed your prediction on that Mike Leach fiasco. Finkle is right, and it might not take 3 years.

I think it was all about money. My hunch is some chuckle-head in the Front Office in charge of contracts with the initials Jim Overdorf pulled up his Visicalc spreadsheet on his TRS-80 and realized that Kelsay being listed as an OLB now meant that he could be paid less than if he was listed as a DE, as he was his entire career prior to this training camp. Realizing this was a win for his profit-sharing, he went to work and hammered out a deal through TC and pre-season and got it signed in September. Which only makes the Bills look like morons, because Kelsay is quite simply a terrible OLB.

It would be a boon to the doctors that wire broken jaws shut as well.

It's hard to take a man that peed his pants before each game too seriously.

Just because the Bills are part of the NFL doesn't mean all their players are NFL caliber right now, that they are well-coached, that they know their assignments, that the coaches are NFL caliber, etc. I mean, it's been discussed on this very board how the defense was actually much better last year under Dick and Perry. To quote Adam Schein, "The Bills are a complete disaster. How can they even win a game?"

Gotta like all the empty seats too.

The strength of the team could all become free agents in an estate sale next year. Whitner, Florence, Youboty, Wilson are all in their final year, I believe. Corner may be as well. Then you got Posluszny and Ellison in their last year as well. As good as this unit has been this year, I'd expect any rat with a few survival skills to run like his tail is on fire for the exit.

I wonder who the board will blame if there are another 2 or 3 bad draft classes. Smart money is that it will all be Buddy Nix's fault and Modrak will leak news to his ESPN friends that he would've picked whoever turns out to be RotY.

0-32 would be pretty rough.

Has there ever been a pick in any draft where Modrak was in a war room since 1998 (other than Donovan McNabb) that Mr. Modrak was actually in favor of later on? Hint: Despite the revisionism, Modrak initially praised Aaron Maybin as a good solid pick. http://www.buffalobills.com/news/article-1/Bills-take-pass-rusher-Maybin/14658d98-47ca-4db6-9944-c260ae5e98e9