Utah John

There was also a QB whose name escapes me, who I think we gave up a 3rd rounder for, who was a backup who had to play due to an injury, and admitted he hadn't studied the playbook. Does anyone else remember that? For a few years after Kelly retired, I was keeping track of all the draft picks the Bills had used in actual drafts or in trades, to find his replacement. I quit after a while because the total was getting ridiculous. The Bills have definitely been trying all these years, they just haven't succeeded. The more damaging failures have been the many first rounders who were busts or who didn't play well for Buffalo. From 1990 to 1996 their first rounders were James Williams, Henry Jones, John Fina, Thomas Smith, Jeff Burris, Reuben Brown, and Eric Moulds. All good players. Maybe not great stars but they were good. After that, they couldn't pick many good players, and they couldn't keep the ones they got. 1997. Antowain Smith. Did better for New England than Buffalo. 1998. No pick. Rob Johnson. Fred Taylor. 1999. Antoine Winfield. Great player. Should have kept him but let him go in free agency. 2000. Erik Flowers. Never learned the game. 2001. Nate Clements. Very good player. Should have kept him but let him go in free agency. 2002. Mike Williams. Makes Erik Flowers look good. 2003. Willis McGahee. Big bet on a big talent that didn't work out. 2004. Lee Evans. Good player. Not in Eric Moulds' class. Not a true #1 WR threat. 2004. J.P. Losman. Nope. 2005. No pick. Traded away picks in 2005 for the J.P. Losman pick in 2004. Losman was a very expensive acquisition. 2006. Donte Whitner. Not a first round talent. Pretty good player. 2006. John McCargo. Seriously? BUST. 2007. Marshawn Lynch. Pretty good Bill. Great Seahawk. 2008. Leodis McKelvin. Good player, not worth the first round pick. 2009. Aaron Maybin. The depths of drafting ineptitude. What a joke. Even worse than Mike Williams. 2009. Eric Wood. Average player. Probably not worth the first round pick. Andy Levitre whom they picked the same year was better. 2010. C.J. Spiller. Occasionally great. Overall a bust. Definitely the wrong pick for the team at the time. 2011. Marcel Dareus. Probably the Bills' best player last year. Disappeared this year. Ryanitis? If you look at this list, the Bills were drafting DBs while they had Kelly at QB, which worked out well overall. After that, they spent just as much effort trying to replace Thurman Thomas as they did Jim Kelly. Look at all the RBs. Smith. McGahee. Lynch. Spiller. And they had others through that period as well. (Remember Travis Henry?) They lucked into Fred Jackson, who all Bills fans love dearly for his effort and accomplishments, but seriously, Fred was never in the same category as the top RBs in the league. That's 15 years listed. Arguably the only players worth a first round pick in that set were Winfield, Clements, and Dareus. Conclusion: the Bills not only couldn't draft QBs, they couldn't draft at all. They seem to be doing much better the past three years. When Whaley has been in charge. Kick Whaley for his mistakes if you want (trading Matt Cassel was just so stupid) but his batting average is the best the Bills have had since Bill Polian and John Butler and A.J. Smith.

The title of this was "What Bills should go?" The answer is, all of them. They'll have to pay their way in of course, but it would be a chance to see professional football players, as a reminder of what they're supposed to be.

OK, I get it, the Robey call was a bad call that led to the Jags having the chance to score the TD when the Bills D screwed up, that won the game. All true. Note that the Bills D could still have clamped down and stopped the Jags last-gasp chance. After that, the Bills got the ball. On first down, they got 9 1/2 yards and it was spotted as a 9 yard gain. On second down they got 1/2 a yard and it was spotted as no gain. If there's ever a replay available, go back and check. They should have had first down at that point. On third down, doofus Manuel screwed up the QB sneak, and on fourth down a lousy play call had Manuel running to his left. He had Hogan open but instead of rifling it in he flipped it, and the D back made the breakup. So, where did the failure come in? Was it bad spots on first and second down? Was it a bad QB sneak? Was it a stupid play call and a pass that wouldn't be good enough in high school? It's always a combination. If the refs just did their jobs, the Bills wouldn't have to overcome the refs' mistakes. But, two points. The Bills got favorable spots at times. This happens a lot, that the offense (no matter who's playing) gets a little extra, and quite often gets a first down they didn't deserve. And, second, why does it come down to such a narrow margin of victory or loss, when this powerful team is playing a 1-5 loser?

I was done with Rex Ryan after the Giants game, when his team as a whole played so badly and his legendary defense couldn't stop Manning. My thoughts were confirmed during the Bengals game. I think Whaley put together a lot of great talent, but Ryan can't adapt to the players' strengths.

The scoop on Harvin before the year was that he was a highly talented player who couldn't get along with teammates. This year he apparently has been just fine in the locker room, and he started the year playing well. The last couple of games, not so much, and it could be he's been playing hurt. Saying he was useless is not fair. He did what was asked (got his personality issues under control), learned the offense, was ready to go, and demonstrated what he could do. Then, and this is of course the first time it's ever happened to an NFL player, he got hurt and can't play as well. If he's worried about being 45 and not being able to get out of bed due to long-term effects of playing hurt, then good for him. The reward for being such an exceptional athlete should be a long and happy life, not a miserable pain-filled existence thinking about a few great years when he was younger. At the start of the year the Bills O skill positions looked outstanding, the line looked improved, and the only question was QB. Now the skill positions are looking pretty limited -- a less-than-healthy McCoy, no Watkins, no Harvin, no Karlos, no McRib. The only bright spots are Clay and a pretty-good McCoy. The line is not great but is as advertised -- much improved. To everyone's surprise, we found a decent QB, but even he's hurt. So no wonder the O is more like Eh. But you can't blame players for getting hurt playing a violent game.

Kelly is right. A lot of us have been expressing doubts and concerns for three or four weeks, as the sacks dried up and opposing QBs all looked like Tom Brady. Even Mariotta, who was supposed to be a deer in the headlights rookie facing this sophisticated defense, nearly beat the Bills. Only Miami, playing to get their coach fired, and the Colts, who must have spent their offseason thinking how great they were instead of getting better, couldn't handle the Bills' defense.

This. Manuel was accurate on about half of his throws. The others were either injury-bait for his receivers because they had to adjust quickly to where the ball was instead of where it should have been, or because they had to move into harm's way; or they were too far away from where they should have been for even a professional receiver to adjust to (starting with the first little dump-off pass that was too short to be caught); or simply intercepted. TT is accurate on a much higher percentage of throws. I think at least 85 percent of his passes hit the receiver in stride. Both have strong arms, decently quick releases, nice touch on soft passes. Manuel is simply not consistent enough.

There are 6 or 7 teams in the league that are clearly better than the Bills. Patriots, Giants, Bengals, Falcons, Panthers, Cardinals, maybe the Broncos. All the rest, the Bills are about even with or better than. It so happened this year that the Bills played three top-tier teams at home early in the season, and lost to all three. I think they could and should have given the Giants and Bengals better games, possibly winning one, but injuries and Rex's head up his butt with regard to defensive play calling really held them back. They had BETTER beat the Jags next week, taking them to 4-3. After that they're in a position to catch fire and go 6-3 or better the rest of the year. 10-6 and a wild card are still very much within reach.

There's an old joke that Las Vegas is a place where you can drive to in your $60,000 car and ride home from in a $200,000 bus. Rex took an elite defense and made it average. I coulda done that.

I am coming to the conclusion that Rex is running on reputation as a defensive genius. Could it be that Pettine was really the mastermind of the Jets D? The Bills did great with him as DC. They also did great with Jim Schwartz. Ryan, and Thurman, seem to have taken a great defense and made it average. They have a scheme that appears easy to figure out, and they don't make effective adjustments. Brady showed the league how to beat the Bills, and even though there's only one Brady, there are other excellent QBs, and they're all doing the same things. The pass rush QUIT. I saw several plays today when the Bills front four did the standard push they always do, then Dalton broke out of the pocket, and there was almost no pursuit. I'm afraid the D is quitting on their coach.

Does the NFL get any revenue from commercials on those vines? Do the television networks that filmed those games get any revenue? I think that's your answer. Your convenience is not relevant.

I didn't know a player on one team's practice squad can decline an offer from another team, if a regular roster spot is offered. This is interesting. I don't blame him, BTW. He had all preseason to make a case to stay, and the coaches were not impressed enough to keep him around. Why would they like him more now, enough to keep him after TT is back to health?

The newspaper this morning said the Bills were 1.5 point favorites over the Bengals. I don't think you'll find too many Bills fans who think that makes sense, but the professionals doing this must have their reasons. The Bills' D did an excellent job Sunday, keeping things under control when the O wasn't doing anything, and then shutting the door after the Bills got the lead. Mariotta is a great talent and he was held in check. Dalton is not as talented but is an experience pro with good skills, but he'll be playing in noisy RWS. If we get Watkins back, that changes a lot for the O. I'm reasonably optimistic about this game, depending on Watkins more than anything else.

If you divide the league into quintiles (five equally sized groups, so 6 teams in each group plus one here or there), I think the Bills are solidly in the second quintile. There are six teams with much better records. The Broncos I don't believe in, they're winning ugly, but I think the Giants are better than their record. The top quintile gets into the playoffs, and the competition for WCs is in the second. Each division in the AFC has a top dog, and only the East has real contenders other than the lead team. Right now the best looking non-leaders in the AFC are the Bills and Jets. Both could make it. The Bills have that status without Shady, Sammie, and Karlos. And Kromer. Can they crack the top quintile when they get those guys back? Let's see what happens if the top teams start getting key injuries too. I've been considering their defense. Where are the sacks? Are they giving up too many yards per game? Statistically, Rex took a dominant Schwartz defense and made it average. Well, sacks are down but the opposing QBs are adjusting their games and if the Bills catch on to that like they've started doing, their pass defense will become much more effective. No sense playing for deep routes when the other team will be running quick outs and slants all the time. Gilmore's interception at the end of the Titans game came about just as much from Dareus forcing an early throw without stepping into the throw, as from Gilmore making a great play (both are true, no offense to Gilmore). The Titans were averaging something like 30 points a game. The Bills D held that good offense under control while the offense struggled for the first three quarters. I'm leaning now toward the view that what counts with a D isn't sacks, it's overall performance, and the Bills' D looks pretty darned good.

I think there were other holds going on by their O line. Our guys were getting turned, choked, etc. Maybe it was going the other way too and I wasn't noticing.

If a Bills player ever completely loses it and punches a ref, God forbid, the Bills might not win another game all year. The Bills only hope is to play teams the refs hate more than they hate the Bills. So much for the importance of drafting, and conditioning, and coaching, and practicing, and executing.

Three games out of five, the other team has extra time to prepare. Seriously?

Gray had some really good plays last year, and I was hoping Roman and his TE-friendly offense would find ways to make Gray even more productive. Hasn't happened so far. Maybe next year.

For whatever reason, it has been clear that the Dolphin players were trying to get their coach fired. Any team that plays that badly against a decent-but-not-great Bills team in their home opener, and then perhaps even worse against a pretty strong Jets team, is sending a clear signal that the party's over. It's a sad thing when a team quits, but there's no getting back from that point. The owner had to make the change.

It's the defense that has me worried. Generally the Bills are quite good at rush defense, but against the pass we're getting killed. This is the case with very few injuries on defense, except for McKelvin and A. Williams. I've been wondering for a few weeks now whether the defense is better this year than last. The conclusion for me, so far, is that it's not as good this year. Sacks are way down, passing yardage and more to the point the ease of beating us through the air is way up. I think Darby is doing well and the coverage generally seems to be fine initially, but rushing the passer has become a weakness and the QBs are getting too much time. Eli was not throwing just quick, short routes. There were several plays that took longer to develop, and he was not usually hurried. What has me really upset is that Ryan has the Bills blitzing so seldom. The other teams don't seem to be worried about the threat because we don't do it enough. If Ryan can't make defensive adjustments as the game moves along, he needs to let his defensive coordinator coordinate the defense, instead of being Ryan's puppy. I wonder what Jim Schwartz is doing these days.

Looks like the Dolphins are trying to get their coach fired. That puts a talented but disorganized team (Miami) into the division cellar. The Jets look good although I watched their game against Philly and I think the Bills offense can do even better than the Eagles did. Having Chris Ivory back is a big deal -- he is a tough tough tough runner.

Leodis better hurry up and get back before Darby locks down the starting position. Somehow this team has become really deep in a lot of positions. Way to go, Whaley.

This ain't exactly McCoy for Alonso we're talking about here. Two marginal players who might find a better situation where they're going than where they've been.

Possible? Sure. So is 2-7. This team is one year removed from beating Green Bay and losing to Oakland back to back so let's step back. I think 6-3 is more realistic. The Bills will probably lose to either the Bengals at home, or the Jets in New Jersey, and they'll stink up a game they should have won and lose to someone else. These are the Bills, after all. But hey, if the Chicago Cubs can make the playoffs, maybe this is the year for us too. The Bills are getting their injuries concentrated in two positions, CB and safety. They had good depth but if Rambo keeps assaulting Darby who knows. Injuries to any team that accumulate in the same position are usually trouble. If we lose Gilmore for an extended period, before McKelvin returns, that will be seriously bad. Is anyone else having trouble figuring out if the Bills defense is better this year than last year? The stats say no, but the NE game is an outlier. In their two wins, the defense shut down the Colts and the Dolphins through the first half, and then played clock ball, ceding long slow drives that choked off the opponents' chances to win. individual stats aren't great. Mario Williams is, the coaches say, playing great, but you never hear his name called, while he seals the edge and prevents the off-tackle plays to the defense's left, but doesn't get to the QB. Compare this to the right side, where teams seem to find regular space to run off tackle. Maybe this is all by design. I would be OK with making the playoffs while other D linemen make the Pro Bowl.

The Bills offense scored 32 points against a very good defense and a brilliant coach. Sure, let's hate the QB.