Utah John

The Bills as it stands have 10 draft picks. It's unlikely there's going to be room for 10 rookies on the 53 plus practice squad. I'm thinking some of the lower picks get used to elevate one of the 2s or maybe even the 1.

It doesn't sound like Palmer is the burner the Bills need, to take the top off the defense. He actually sounds like a veteran version of Keon Coleman. Not sure this is what the Bills really needed. And $36M. Good Lord, this makes the Samuel signing last year look frugal.

Thuney is a lot better than Ford ever was, at least while he was with the Bills. Ford is a slow-footed road grader, and the Bills offense involves a lot of pulling linemen.

He had those great stats playing behind the Eagles' ferocious D line. It makes all the difference when the QB has the extra half second or so to find open receivers. The Bills' amazingly bad work on building a D line is what's kept them from the Super Bowl. Patching a hole in the defensive secondary with an expensive Band-Aid when we're still relying on losers like Epenesa and Oliver to get to the passer is not the solution.

Thanks. I missed that comment from the announcer, who by the way was Curt Gowdy. Gowdy was by far the leading play by play man in NFL games in the 60s and going into the 70s. Little known fact -- Gowdy was from Wyoming (as I found out when I went to grad school at the University of Wyoming -- before Josh was even born). There were so few celebrities from Wyoming back then that they named a state park after Gowdy.

Elbert Dubenion didn't get a mention. Was he injured? That was a great defense, particularly on the line, but really at all levels.

This is not the solution. The referees are still going to eyeball the place where the ball is spotted at the end of a play. So there will be a very precise measurement of a much less precise position. This would not have saved the Bills in any of the several egregious plays, where the Bills player clearly crossed the line to gain but had the ball spotted behind it.

More and more the past two years, I've seen ball carriers getting assists 10 yards downfield, when they're pretty much stopped and then some lineman comes barreling into the pile. I don't like that.

It's not like McDermott to call out a player publicly. If he's tried privately to convey that message to Coleman and it hasn't gotten through, then it's a particularly bad sign that he's resorted to a public comment like that.

Coleman was drafted to be a long-term WR2, never the WR1 we all thought (and think) we need. Drafting at the end of the first round, the options were limited. I think the Bills made a mistake by undervaluing Xavier Worthy, who turned out to be far better than many expected. So yeah, it was a mistake not to grab Worthy when they had the chance. But as for Coleman, maybe he does need to show more dedication to physical training, to tape study, to understanding the offense, and to better two-way communication with Josh. The fact remains that Worthy is a small guy and Coleman is not. You'd think it would be Worthy who was more likely to be injured, but a wrist is a vulnerable point for everyone. It could still turn out that Worthy gets broken in two by some throwback safety, and that Coleman becomes a productive and reliable weapon. Time will tell. All that said, it wasn't Coleman or any other receiver that kept the Bills out of the SB. It was the lack of depth and capability among the DBs. And THAT was due to Beane trying to play whackamole with all the gaps that appeared in his roster a year ago. He patched together what might have been an adequate secondary, but when a couple of starters went down, the weakness appeared.

Way too expensive, both in what it would cost to trade for him, and what his salary would be. ********************************************************************** Trading Stafford makes no sense from the Rams perspective. They were nearly in the SB last year, and will return a very good team even without Kupp. Nacua is the real deal. So they should be looking to win, now, not in a few years when someone new figures out how to play QB. Stafford is still a very good QB.

My brother and I had jobs as vendors when the stadium opened. It was our job to carry trays of beverages up and down the stairs, selling as we went. The first year I was 17 so I could only sell pop (boy it's good to call it that and not get sneered at), but the next couple of years I could sell beer since the drinking age was 18. I think I was there for every game the first three years the stadium was open. The comeback game against the Raiders, when Ahmad Rashad caught the winning TD, after OJ got hurt and wasn't available and after Braxton fumbled to give the Raiders the lead back -- probably the most amazing end of a game I was ever in the stands for. I also was in the stands behind the Minnesota bench in a late season game in the snow, when both OJ and Chuck Foreman were chasing the lead for rushing TDs. Someone behind me threw the snowball that hit one of the Vikings (Foreman, I think) in the eye. It was a great job for a college kid. I could make pretty good money and watch the Bills and OJ for free. I only gave up the job because I transferred from UB to Albany to pursue a major not offered in Buffalo. Probably not 1972. The stadium opened in 1973. I did get to see Namath play there, but his knees were shot by then and he couldn't do much.

Long fingers! Should play the piano.

Getting drafted by the wrong team, when all you'll be is training camp fodder or a placeholder while their starter gets over an injury, is a killer for many promising players. Going undrafted lets you have a voice in where you sign, and lets you see the lay of the land about where you have a chance to stick.

A lot of those four and five star players aren't out the yin yang, they're out the door through the portal when they realize they're not going to get onto the field for 2 or 3 years, if at all, because of all the OTHER four and five star players at the SEC school. There's a lot to be said for getting the opportunity to play for several years.

Maybe he flies under the radar for the NFL, and the local team is the only one that gives him a shot. It could work out. The combine isn't the goal -- making a team's 53 is the goal.

So he's just about Matt Milano's size and speed.

I'm thinking the order might be reversed. Maybe the script writers would be more favorable for getting the Bills a Lombardi, if Allen gets established as an entertainment star. Nah, what am I saying. The NFL is completely legit.

I still remember Jim Brown walking away from the NFL to go make movies. 60 years later, the Browns still haven't recovered. Let's not go getting thoughts like that in Josh's head.

What's his 40 time?

Whatever the Bills would get for Milano wouldn't be enough to replace him with a player as good as he is. Plus the salary cap hit for trading him would preclude bringing in a FA.

It sounds good that the Bills would bring him back on a cheap contract as a depth CB, and the timing would need to be after the FA allocations are determined. But, the thing is, even depth CBs have to play, and Tre just looks slow. Possibly this was because he wasn't integrated into the Rams' or Ravens' system and was still thinking about where he needed to be, or maybe he just got injured too much and old. Tre is where Douglas will be in a year or two. Paying Douglas a lot just to watch him slide into his slow-running 30s doesn't make sense.

I'm trying to remember if the Bills just cut Hunter, or if they traded him. I think he went to a California team but I don't remember which one. Amazingly, he was picked in the same draft as Jim Kelly, two picks BEFORE Kelly.

I want to nominate Al Cowlings. The Bills drafted him number 5 overall in the 1970 draft, primarily because his very good friend OJ Simpson wanted his buddy around. He played three seasons for the Bills, during one of the very dark periods of the team's history, and ironically was traded from Buffalo to Houston prior to OJ's breakout season in 1973. Cowlings is best known for the slow speed Ford Bronco chase, with him at the wheel, after Simpson's wife and her friend were found murdered.

Rusty Jones was one of the people who pioneered diet and programmed exercise, leading to physically dominant teams in the Super Bowl years. One of the rotten coaches the Bills hired after Wade Phillips got canned, fired Jones and brought in his own guy. Terrible mistake.