Sisyphean Bills

Ralph's primary legacy is keeping the Bills in Buffalo. He's not going to live forever and I don't see him trying to lead his team to a new "promise land" at this point. That's all water under the bridge. Still, that isn't going to prevent him from keeping the franchise's debt low and term contracts short. It gives new ownership groups the most options and thus keeps the value of the asset higher.

http://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/

Reference to Chris Spielman, who was an actual LB, and when the Bills dumped him for "past considerations" to an expansion team.

Yes. Winning the coin toss is something positive. Just celebrate the high points.

No sharp objects for you.

Reminds me of the No-Huddle offense to start last season. Just taking an ostrich and painting it green and yellow doesn't make it a parrot.

Not all farm franchises are created equal.

Plenty of ad space there, no doubt. There's probably a queue to the horizon forming now for all this rampant ad space.

What move? Is there someone else in the building that Ralph knows that's going to unsink the ship? Maybe Modrak will take the post if he's asked again, eh?

Looking under "straws", subheading "grasping"...

Kelsay should have been traded. For a box of tape if that was the best offer.

You're correct. The middle of the line is just as likely to get steamrolled as the outside is to shout "Olé!"

Yes, but John Butler got all his ideas from AJ Smith who got all his ideas from Buddy Nix.

Maybe the best sign is the empty seat.

Well, they had trouble figuring it out at the QB position as well.

Does that mean Ronde is planning to coast to the finish line now?

John Guy already met the hatchet man though.

The players are decertifying the union to make it possible to sue the owners quicker. That could mean playing ball in a courtroom, which could mean who-knows-what. The NFL draft (also the salary cap) is part of the CBA between the league and the union.

The Kent Hull story is a great one. "What the !@#$ is wrong with you? Do you want to be a part of this or not?"

Excellent GMs are not afraid to draft at a position of strength. The idea in doing so is that the new talent is something special and will be able to play right away. Therefore, it makes the existing talent already on the roster expendable, so it can be moved via trade to address an area of weakness (it's obvious that the Bills certainly have those) with a proven player and more effectively than by reaching in the draft on a project. It is in this last part that the Bills failed to execute. They are apparently either concerned that Spiller is not an every down back, overestimated the market value of Lynch, or just don't get what I just wrote and that they might seriously consider doing more than waiting for good luck to happen.

Did you read the entire post? Because you are just repeating what I said at the end. Or maybe you are just agreeing that the strategy was, ah, "questionable". Let me say it plainly, I'm not defending nor am I agreeing with Nix' 2010 draft class and team building strategy. (I'll hope for the best, but so far [and it's far too early] ... not looking like an A+++.) The point of my post was that one could make the argument that Nix did draft to fill needs after the 1st round. (And like I said, some of those "needs" were self-imposed.) The other oft used argument to defend this draft class was that there was no talent at QB and OL worth taking, so drafting for the defense was the next best thing. If you want to make a counter-argument to that, you should start with the idea that if Nix knew that going into the draft then why wasn't he more active in free agency or trades to try and bring in competition at those positions? Cornell Green was the only signing, and even Buddy admitted that his signing may have been a mistake and that they may need to make another move at RT after one game.

Well, they have taken 4 WRs in the top 100 during Modrak's time here, and only 2 of them are still in the NFL.

It's absolutely brilliant stuff.

They needed players for their new 3-4 defense: Troup, Carrington, Moats, Batten, check. They needed to replace T.O.: Easley, check. They needed to fix the OL: Wang, Calloway, check. They needed to fix QB: Brown, check. So, of the 9 players drafted, one could easily argue that 8 of them were drafted for needs (real or self-imposed notwithstanding). Now, we certainly don't have to agree with the Nix strategy on where to start building a football team. Why focus on blowing up and fixing a defense when the offense was the bigger problem? OL and QB probably needed a little more attention than some late round prospects. DL was long in the tooth and needed some beefing up to stop the run; but, switching to the 3-4 which accentuated the lack of talent at LB? (The Bills were so thin at LB last season they played 3 safeties for much of the season!)

No doubt it is embarrassing and frustrating to play for this team. Especially if you care about winning. Cheer up, Donte. Assuming the labor dispute is settled without sweeping changes, you'll be a free agent and be able to sign with a first class organization soon enough.