Sisyphean Bills

There is no doubt in my mind that Gailey is an upgrade by orders of magnitude [edit: in terms of the offensive coaching]. However, tricking others can only help one so much. Unless he can get some of the DJ oil slick off what amounts to mostly the same players that washed up on the oily beach last year, they'll still be floundering with the tar balls on offense and all the talk of soaring is just more talk. That is, he just may not be able to save them all; some of the birds he has inherited may just not be really all that good.

It could be worse.

Some links about QBs for the last draft... This article mentions 3 QBs as possible top 10 picks. It doesn't even mention Snead, Locker, or Clausen. This article has 3 "franchise" QBs (I won't count Snead since he didn't come out) and 4 possible starters. Here's an article about darkhorse John Skelton. Hope springs eternal. The marketing genius is out in the summer and there are plenty of kids being hyped for the upcoming NCAA season and their chances in the NFL. The only constant is that things change from the hope and hype of the summer to the final evaluations in the spring between the combine and the draft.

The ensuing house fire notwithstanding...

Where's your link?

Seriously though, better to have a few dings now than in the first series of the first game.

It wasn't a positive premise, but it is easy to be correct when you call "heads and tails". In this post, http://forums.twobillsdrive.com/index.php?...t&p=1874760, I explained my mistake about the word visibly and apologized. As I also explained there and in this post, http://forums.twobillsdrive.com/index.php?...t&p=1871205, that there are reasons to believe that the Bills may have have an interest in Tebow and not and probably both. Your arguments that the Bills had no interest in Tim Tebow were based on the negative premise that because they didn't draft him they didn't have an interest. You tried to support that with arguments such as "The only reason Jim Kelly would've had dinner with Tim Tebow was if the Bills were going to take him with their first pick and since they did not take him, but took C.J. Spiller, they must not have had an interest in Tebow." This denies the Bills very own claim that C.J. Spiller was the top guy on their draft board as an explanation for why they took Spiller over anyone else, not just Tebow. It also denies the fact that businesses don't usually interview people they have no interest in whatsoever. But, hey, it's an argument from a negative premise, so you can draw whatever conclusions fit your preconceived notions! Another argument you used was that Ralph Wilson denied they were interested in Tebow after the fact. I essence, Ralph Wilson was totally believable and there was no reason to be the least bit suspicious of his motives for saying what he said about the Broncos drafting of Tebow. On the other hand, I heard people on NFL Network saying on air that "Bills officials were upset". Ignoring the attack-the-messenger debate tactics, you basically imply that NFL Network has no believability and there is every reason to be totally suspicious of what they were saying. Ralph: 100%; NFL Network 0%. Still, if this were some other sports franchise and their owner came out with an unexpected, uncharacteristic, emphatic statement denying something, there would no doubt be a few people that would question someone like Jones, Snyder, or Al Davis and why they made such a statement. And before you break your back patting yourself, realize that in this post, http://forums.twobillsdrive.com/index.php?...t&p=1874699, a reporter with far more credibility than yourself simply stated that he wasn't aware of anyone in the Bills camp being upset. That is not the same thing as saying no one was upset. Nor does he say that the Bills had no interest in Tebow, just that he didn't get the impression the Bills were seriously interested. So, your "victory" in proving that the Bills had no interest in Tebow is indeed a very hollow one. Going back to what I originally posted on the subject, we simply will never know. There are reasons to believe they had some interest and reasons to believe they didn't. There are reasons to believe that the entire organization wasn't of like mind on the topic. My dispute was in your excruciating use of bad logic through lame arguments to make a certainty out of an unknown. PS: The sky is not blue, thus it must be raining.

You are the king of argument from a negative premise. "The Bills didn't draft Tebow, so ..."

I'm just saying. I can only assume that Gailey watched all the film from last year and came away either thinking he saw a few flashes of talent or just plain not knowing much at all. It's difficult to evaluate an offense that was a revolving door of over simplification.

I think the key point to the past offseason was that the defensive front 7 couldn't stop anybody last year and was getting older (Schobel possibly retiring). They spent their few poker chips there and are going in a new direction philosophically. With the offense, they are also going in a new direction, but many of the players there are already fairly young. The bet is that the new coaches can get more out of these young guys than they have shown under the previous inept coaching. Nobody knows if it will pan out, but you have to start a multi-year project somewhere.

Might it have something to do with Schonert thinking Jauron was an idiot?

Yet, oddly enough, Chan Gailey said yesterday (or maybe it was earlier this week) that none of the QBs has yet established himself ahead of the others.

You're confusing me with someone else. I never heard nor read that, never mentioned it, and never even commented on it until this post. I have no idea if it was a lie nor do I really care. FWIW, as I stated initially, and even with jw's post, given the layers of uncertainties involved, we will never know if what was said on NFLN was a simple lie, just speculation that was conveyed as fact, or an accurate statement (someone, who?, was angry) but that the wrong inferences (Tebow) were drawn. Again, as I said from the start, the way the draft played out was perfectly in keeping with Nix's comments that he lets the draft come to him and isn't at all interested in being a Donahoe wheeler dealer type. It is also perfectly plausible from the Bills recent past that Russ Brandon could have been interested in Tebow as his latest genius sales gimmick. Given what did happen, it does seem that Nix is in charge. For now, anyway. Have a good weekend, d00d.

What the board really needs is a few more of your sermons on being a real fan.

Thanks, jw. Fair enough. (Note that I never said these anonymous Bills officials were upset, only that it was reported that they were upset. A distinction that some cannot grasp.) So, that just leaves the mystery as to why it was reported that they were upset that the Broncos took Tebow. Perhaps it was reporting idle speculation and rumor or, as others have suggested, just unsubstantiated parroting of some other network's gossip. NFL Network's reporting just took a hit in my opinion. PS: I see that I did slip in the word "visibly" in an earlier post without the proper qualifications and caveats. The conversation had drifted towards the ridiculous (IMHO) argument that "Bills officials" never said (with the spoken word or typed by Chris Brown in an official blog) that they were upset. Clearly, one doesn't always have to say anything to convey that they are angry. There are other visual clues ("body language") under the right circumstances that could convey such an emotion unequivocally. NFL Netowrk said these officials were upset. They didn't say how they knew that. I had made the inference that they may have had a reporter covering the Bills who saw some sort of reaction and reported back about it. Then again, it is only the Bills, so perhaps there was no such coverage at all. My mistake for trying to convey that not every person's emotional reactions are captured on a Youtube link.

Not surprising in a race where the entrants are 3-legged donkeys though.

It's really not his fault that he is so flexible that he makes Gumby look like a stiff.

You realize that when you run past the ball carrier, they don't give you credit for a sack in taking down an empty handed QB, right?

Jiminy Crickets! Someone is going to sprain a neuron or two with all this complex football stuff. It's barely friggin JUNE! !@#$ that noise. I want him to throw !@#$ing touchdown passes.

I just wonder how he knows what Suh is doing in his practices.

Try this.

Everything is chicken salad. Disregard the taste.

I think you missed the memo. Gailey is going to change his approach to coaching and start pounding square pegs through round holes.

In the sense that a "true fan" should just be thrilled about it.

The people covering the draft said "Bills officials" were very upset. You are the one claiming that they lied. The burden of proof falls on you, not me. You claim that the reporters on NFL Network were making **** up and did nothing but regurgitate what Schefter, who works for ESPN, told them to say. This was within a minute or two of the Broncos making the pick, so Schefter got the word out fast. If your spin seems less than accurate, it isn't my problem. You want a camera? Frankly, I didn't see a lot of shots of any Bills officials during the coverage. They don't stick a camera up every guy's ass in Madison Square Garden. Maybe you should put that in their suggestion box though. As if a link on the intardnet proves reality. I and others watched it on NFL Network. No, they don't transcribe every word said on air for your gratification. Edit: Attack the source. Discredit NFL Network. Prove that what they say on air during the draft is ****. That they have no idea what they are talking about by virtue of evidence in various cases. Prove that what they report is just lazy horse **** that they pick up off the internet from other people that don't know ****. If they are reporting ****, it would behoof us all to know about it.