Utah John

In 1972 or 1973, our West Seneca East high school band went on a band exchange with a school from Maryland. Aside from concerts we gave at both locations, that Maryland school's band got a day at Niagara Falls and we got a day in DC. A group of 6 or 7 of us boys found our way to Congressman Kemp's office. The secretary squeezed us into his schedule for 15 minutes. The other guys were just in awe, looking at the pictures of Kemp playing football. (I remember one where Kemp had just released a pass, and enormous Ernie Ladd of the Chiefs was in the air above him, on his way down to land on him. A good choice of photos for a politician.) I started talking to Kemp about China, and I took the position that the people in China were going to be better off under the communists. Wow, did that Republican not agree. We debated in a very cordial way for 45 minutes until his secretary insisted he stop talking. I am impressed to this day that he took so much time to listen and communicate with a high school student.

Low draft picks who make the team are cheap labor. Trading a low pick for an established player costs a lot. Better to take a shot on a draft pick than trade that pick for an older guy who would want a big contract.

Beane had to have a clear understanding of what the teams ahead of the Bills were going to do. There must have been a temptation to give something up to move up a few spaces, but he didn't do that. "Genius" is probably too strong, but "well-prepared" and "nerves of steel" apply.

SOMEONE'S got to push the wheelchairs for our ancient RBs. Just kidding, just kidding.

Sorry if anyone has posted this already. I went through the Bills schedule comparing the rest the Bills had each week vs the rest their opponent had. This was easy because except for the Thanksgiving game the Bills games are all at 1 pm. I scored 1 point if the other team had a 4:25 pm game the previous Sunday, 2 pts if the other team had SNF game, 3 pts if one team had a Thursday night game (10 days rest) and 4 pts for a team coming off a bye. The Bills have only one game against a team with more rest: the Skins who have a Thursday night game the previous week (-3 pts) The Bills play 5 games where the other team played the 4:25 pm game the previous week (1 pt each) The Bills play 1 game against a team that played the 8:20 pm game the previous week (Eagles) (2 pts) The Bills play 1 game against a team after the Bills play a Thursday night game the previous week (Ravens) (3 pts) The Bills come off their bye playing the Dolphins who had a game the previous week (4 pts) Total +11. I'm not going to figure this score for the other teams in the league, but this has to be one of the best scores in the league. Plus the farthest west they have to travel all season is Dallas. The have no 3 game road trips. I see 6-2 at home (losses to Patriots and Ravens) and 4-4 on the road (losses to Titans, Browns, Steelers, and Patriots). 10-6, wildcard, Browns in the SB.

This whole topic is so off-season. No one would pay any attention to this any other time of year.

Filled a lot of known holes with unknown (to me) talent. Mostly guys who couldn't start somewhere else. I hope most of them work out as planned. If most them turn out OK, the season should be successful, barring injuries.

He was a good player who got into the league only because the Bills gave him a chance. He made a business decision to move to the Patriots, and it worked out for him. He did much better there than he would have here -- what receiver wouldn't do better catching Brady darts? Hogan's game meshed well with the Patriots' offense, too.

Get back to me when some RB breaks 2000 in 14 games.

Middle capability RBs are replaceable. Getting a guy in the last year of a rookie contract means his price goes up a lot next year or we let him go and turn a 2019 draft pick where we get 4 years of cheap production, into a one year rental. Pass,

Which one's going to play Doug Flutie in this play, and which one's going to play Rob Johnson?

Steelers fans should be thinking about their own situation, not bashing another team and city. No Brown, no Bell, aging Ben (though still playing well) -- not a bright future it seems to me. Turns out denial is actually a river after all, but in Pittsburgh and not Egypt. No sense in getting into a peeing contest about which city is better or worse. Both have nice places and not so nice places. I like the culture in Buffalo better than the hillbillies in SE PA, but that's just my two cents.

A team builds a 10 point lead, the other team scores a TD with 20 seconds left, has a 4th and 15 and tries a pass play where there's a BS pass interference or defensive holding, followed by a hail mary. 59 plus minutes of winning overshadowed by some foolishness. OK, you say, don't let PI or DH calls change things. Suddenly it's fair game for the defense to do whatever it wants to, if it's necessary to stop the 4th and 15. This will be a total mess. No thanks. If you're losing at the end of the game, it isn't the end that's to blame, it's the other 59 minutes.

Looks like we're gonna need another option then.

About Whitner -- Does anyone ever remember him wrapping up on a tackle? His style was to try to bump the guy over with his chest, which generally let the guy get more yards or even get away. I always assumed he was playing not to get hurt so he'd have a long career and retire rich. Is this the worst Bills draft ever? https://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/buf/2006_draft.htm Only lucking into Kyle Williams preserved a little dignity. About Whitner/Ngata -- Is this worse than Torell Troup / Gronk? I think not.

I just got home from Hawaii this morning. The people on the big island will certainly tell you that Mauna Kea is the tallest free-standing mountain in the world. They don't mention that a lot of it is underground. And how exactly do they know the depth, exactly? A mystery not to be solved without beers.

The Browns had a terrible roster except for a few excellent players (Thomas, Haden). The were eager to dump and start over. The Bills had most of the defensive personnel from the Schwartz D and thought Wrecks would only make them even better -- fat chance (hah). The Bills also had talent at RB and WR and knew it, but without a QB it was wasted. The Bills took a pretty big dip in order to regroup, but the Browns went waaaay down and got picks and cap cash to rebound fast. On paper the Browns look like the team to beat in their division. (Amazing to say that but true.) We'll have to see how the coaching works out and whether the team bonds. On paper the Browns are stronger than the Bills, but so what. I'll be happy to play the Browns in the playoffs. I think the Bills have patched enough holes to be a lot better this year. I am not convinced the O linemen we brought in are the solution, and RB by senior committee is an interesting strategy to put it mildly, but we still have the draft to go, to grab some strong players.

Parts of Oakland have always been very nice, particularly in the hills on the east side. Parts of Oakland have always been very bad. You need to be careful about where you go.

We didn't trade Watkins for a 2nd. We traded Watkins and a 6th for EJ Gaines and a 2nd. Gaines played well but then we let him walk after a year. So we traded Watkins and a 6th for a 2nd. We didn't trade Darby for a 3rd. We traded Darby for Jordan Matthews and a 3rd. Then we let Matthews go for nothing and he resigned with the Eagles. So maybe we did trade Darby for a 3rd after all. Darby, who was a very good player for the Bills and a mainstay on the Eagles defense. For a 3rd. Anyway I don't quite follow about some of the throw-ins on these cleaning house trades. Was Jordan Matthews over the hill? He didn't produce much after he went back to Philly. So why take him at all? Letting Gaines go when we had holes at CB is very questionable. Fortunately we've had good players step up, but there was no guarantee that was going to work out.

I'd like to see the Bills go all-in on the O line this offseason. There are other holes but the defense is still good, Shady is NOT over the hill but he can't overpower people, and if given just a smidge more time Allen will light up any defense. We have some young receiving talent and just need one fast FA and a decent TE to be in good shape overall.

I think Beane was trying to get AB for cheap, both in draft picks and salary. The draft picks were probably OK but AB wants OBJ money, and he's not worth it at that age, and not for the Bills with a rebuilding offense. I look at this like a regular guy walking into a yacht store and seeing one he likes, and trying to figure out how he could make the payments. After a little while you just shake your head and walk out.

There really aren't a lot of good tight ends (although the draft seems to have some good ones). The Cowboys really missed having Witten on the field. Even old, he's probably better than their other options. They'll probably draft another TE in case Witten doesn't work out. And Witten really was terrible in the booth.

The thing about both this play and the No Goal play, is that in both cases, the Bills and Sabres failed to do their jobs. Yes, it's true, they were cheated by the refs because both plays were called wrong. But, the Bills failed to contain the away side of the field on the kickoff, after failing to run the clock down so there would be no time for a kickoff play. And, just before Brett Hull scored that illegal goal, a Sabre came right past him and tried to poke check the puck away, instead of body-checking Hull. Also, to be fair, the Sabres were exhausted and hadn't had a decent scoring chance for an hour of playing time. Every time someone would summon up a burst of energy and attempt a play at the Stars end, their huge defensemen would swat him down and the puck would be coming back. Even if the No Goal hadn't happened, or hadn't counted, it seems really unlikely it would have made a difference in the outcome. Rob Johnson did OK in that game. Maybe Flutie would have been better. Johnson left the field after leading the Bills to a lead in the final seconds, that should have been enough to win. I told a friend before that game that I thought whichever team won, would go to the SB that year. It turned out it was the Titans who went, and they came within one tackle that they couldn't break of winning the game.

If the Bills did as much winning as Trump has, we'd be drafting first every year.

To compare Allen and Rosen, consider this -- the Cardinals are talking about taking another QB at #1 overall this year. If they do that, I assume they'll trade Rosen and get good value. But if the Bills were drafting #1, do you think they'd dump Allen at this point and move on? I sure don't.