BillsPhan

I don't agree. How can you say Fitz is "not consistent enough" this season? He's played lights out (especially compared to Edwards) every game he's played this season. Plus I do think the offensive coaching is 100% better then last year, when Fitz did have trouble being consistent. The line seems to be coming together, and even they have been steadily improving over the past few weeks. Who knows if or when the Bills will actually win a game this season? I'm not predicting a win against the vastly improved Chiefs and their number one rushing offense this week, that's for sure. But I am predicting the Bills offense to continue to roll up yards and points, against the Chiefs middle of the pack defense. The only thing that could hurt the offensive production this week is Kansas City controlling the football for 44 minutes running up about 500 rushing yards against the worst run defense in the history of the NFL. That aside, look for Fitzy and his crew to put up some good numbers again this week, and not allow K.C. to stuff them the way you are predicting.

1972 was a weak draft year, and looking over the rest of the 1st round, the Bills passed on Ahmad Rashad & Willie Buchanon. (Ironically Rashad ended up playing for the Bills a couple of years later via trade anyway.) But even though there are far better players in other drafts the Bills missed out in while they drafted their first round busts, I still think Walt Patulski is still their worst draft choice ever. He was the #1 pick of the entire draft in '72, and he played only 4 seasons, contributing next to nothing in the way of production, as a defensive end. Just my opinion, and also proving how old I am to remember watching big Walt get blown off the line those 4 seasons, the guy was out of Notre Dame and was actually rated that high on most teams' draft lists, (there was no draft coverage back then or draft "guru's"). The guy was just a walking stiff, and he made Kelsay look like Bruce Smith, if you can believe that. Other first round misses in my opinion: Mike Williams-#2 worst pick. Tom Cousineau-#3 worst pick. Phil Dokes-#4 worst pick. Tony Hunter-#5 worst pick. Tom Ruud-#6 worst pick.

Edwards is clueless as a DC, nobody can deny that. Maybin doesn't need a better coach however, he needs Rusty Jones to spend about 6 months teaching him how to add muscle mass to his pathatically skinny and weak frame!

Great point!

I think both should happen. Even Kelsay managaed a few sacks and tackles near the line of scrimmage playing the 4-3 last year. This season he looks like oldest, slowest linebacker to ever play in the NFL. (although I was happy for him and his hustle and fumble recovery late in the game - the guy really does have a high motor, unfortunately he just doesn't have the speed and quickness to play OLB.)

By now I'm about the 100th poster telling you this in your thread, but I don't mind adding that he did a terrific job. I hope he ends up being the best find this new staff has made and he will, if he can continue to play as well as he did Sunday.

Great post. Even though I no longer attend home games, as a former season ticket holder of over 20 years, I have always been proud to be a Buffalo Bills fan. In my "prime" as an attending fan, I went to my share of road games and there was always an amazing number of fellow Bills fans at every away game I went to. That's one thing that Ralph Wilson can never take away from Buffalo, even if he does simply allow the team to go to the "highest bidder" after he passes, and the Bills leave town. Buffalo fans are an amazing resilient group, and no other city will ever be able to duplicate us!

Well I stand happily corrected and humbled. I used Cordero Howard as my sarcastic whipping boy last week in another thread, pointing out how endless the list of undrafted free agent offensive linemen the Bills continue to bring in is, The kid did an amazing job against one of the best defenses in the NFL. No holding penalties. No offsides. And no sacks allowed by him, and perhaps the most impressive stat, he did not suffer any injuries! In fact, the entire O-Line played their best overall game together in....who knows how long? Naturally, they did contribute to the loss in the end however, by Hangartner stupidly throwing his helmet right in front of an official, tacking 15 yards onto the "non-fumble" recovery the Ravens made against Nelson. But that aside, they played way better then they needed to for the Bills to win this game, if they had even a bad defense, instead of the horrible one they are stuck with!! I have no idea if Fitzy can duplicate that game once more in his entire career, much less again this season, much less again next week in Kansas City. But if his line continues to block that well for him and his running backs, at least he will have every opportunity to prove to the Bills staff just how good he really can be.

Excellent observation. I too thought much more of Hardy then Stevie J. long-term for the Bills number two receiver position. I was convinced that both coaching staffs were simply not giving Hardy enough chances to grow into the position, coming out of Indiana, not exactly the best, most sophisticated offensive machine in major college. Rarely have I been this wrong. Has any other teams even picked up Hardy since the Bills cut him??

Yeah and Anthony Davis is a "young guy" too. Of course, you Nix / Modrak apologists have already written Davis off as "sucking" and have the 49ers fans wishing they had Cordero Howard starting for them this weekend. How pathetic is that?? My point is not about giving all the young "undrafted or late round drafted rookies cut by other teams" a chance to play on the Bills' O-Line. They have already been doing that now for almost three consecutive years. My point is that other NFL teams draft offensive tackles in the first round every single year. Some of them bust, but most of them end up starting on either side from day one and continue to start for years. Looking at the offense so far this season, I would personally rather be watching Anthony Davis playing right tackle as the #9 overall pick from Aprils' draft, firmly entrenched as the starter from day one, then to have C.J. Spiller gaining around 40 yards per game and running behind Cornell Green or Cordero Howard! You say: "Give the kid (Howard) a chance." and "What have they got to lose?" and "He can't be worse the Green!" I say, "How do you know he can't be worse the Green?" Jamon Meredith was supposed to better then Green. What happened to him? Bottm line is, do you really think the Bills won't be looking for a real RT next free agency period or after they draft their QB in next years' draft?? Sorry, but unlike the Bills, I have zero faith in Howard becoming the starting RT for the Bills over the next decade. There is simply no excuse for Nix not to have addressed RT in this past April's draft, after he refused to address it in this past March's UFA period signing.

Thank you Kevin. But do you love the way the Buffalo Bills are playing so far? Because at 0-5-0, that could have something to do with "all these negative posts". Of course I'm just spit balling here, I guess it could be because we are all just negative people, what do I know?

Another unknown free agent steps in to start on the Bills offensive line this Sunday against the Ravens. Linky: http://www.buffalonews.com/sports/bills-nfl/article225040.ece Look out NFL, here comes Codero Howard, who was so highly thought of coming out of Georgia Tech that nobody drafted him - including the Bills, last April. Of course, Chan Gailey did recruit him, so of course Gailey knows more then anyone else in the NFL about him, so of course he will do just fine at RT against the Ravens defense. I wonder if Buddy Nix knows that he is allowed to draft starting caliber offensive linemen. Take the 49ers as a case in point. They drafted Anthony Davis out of Rutgers with their first round choice just a few picks after Nix took Spiller. In fact, they even traded up to be in the position to draft him! Oh my God, what a strange idea that would be for Nix, who takes about 10 seconds to have his choices sprinted up to the podium as if he is jumping for joy to choose small college players like Terrel Troup and Arthur Moats, that no other team is even thinking about drafting that round!! NFL teams trade up - giving up those valuable extra picks, to target one player???? Nix would never dream of that, based on his performance last April. But I digress. So the 49ers move up to draft Anthony Davis, who was just sitting there available for Nix to draft ahead of them, and what happens?? Take a look at the 49ers depth chart today - Davis is their starting right tackle!!!! Amazing, I'm sure Nix never thought that could happen, that's why he waited until the 4th round to draft Eddy Wang. No way could Davis ever start right away for his Buffalo Bills, Nix must have thought. So now we will all have Cordero Howard to watch struggle against the Baltimore Ravens monster defense, while Cornell Green recovers from his "mystery injury", and at the same time, Anthony Davis continues to start as he has from day one at RT for the 49ers, gaining experience and earning his first round money. And Buddy Nix is a "football guy", who believes you build through the draft??

Great observation! Along with making rookies play different positions then they excelled at in college, Nix also seemed to go out of his way to draft players from small unknown colleges. Terrell Troup and Alex Carrington spring to mind. Not many NFL teams use their 2nd and 3rd draft choices - both - on small college players, but the GM from the Buffalo Bills sure did. And what greatness did he and his Modrak - led team of scouts mine from those two players that the teams choosing ahead of the Bills miss out on? Troup plays invisible when he plays at all, and Carrington doesn't play....at all. Seems to me, in today's NFL, with all the money these rookies are demanding, you should get more out of your 2nd and 3rd round picks. And I love what they did with Arthur Moats. Another player from a small college...of course. But the guy at least had some amazing pass rushing numbers from his DE position down there, and he may have added a spark from the edge considering how pathetic the Bills DE's and OLB's are. Naturally, Gailey and Edwards instead forced him to switch to an INSIDE linebacker, a position he never even played at his small college!! From day one of mini camps all the way up until a couple of weeks ago, this kid was wasted trying to take on centers and guards and learn how to play ILB at the NFL level, until somehow a "light bulb" went off in Edwards' mind and he decided to put Moats back on the outside. Wow, what a freakin' ingenious revelation, huh?? And as with Buffalo Bills luck these past 10 plus years would have it, Moats gets injured early in his first game playing OLB, or DE, wherever he lined up on the outside. Truly amazing, and, only in Buffalo.

Poz takes bad angles, over-persues, and rarely makes a tackle near the line of scrimmage. You seriously blame Kyle Williams for that?? I'm not saying Williams is a pro bowl nose tackle, but Poz really is not as good as people seem desperate to want to make him out to be. If you or anyone else out here want to think Poz would be so much better on "a team with better d-lineman", then it is just as true that Williams, Stroud and Edwards would be better on a team with better linebackers!! You can go ahead and try to prove me wrong, but you cannot remotely do it! The fact remains that the entire starting front 7 of the Bills combine to form the worst in the NFL, and Poz sucks as much as any of the other 6! Adams, Williams Spikes and Fletcher were very good, but the best those guys helped lead the Bills to was a 9-7-0 record after Williams was fired, under Mike Mularkey, in 2004. Bottom line, the Bills have been lousy overall since the Music City Miraculous Forward Pass after the '99 season, and it hasn't mattered who was playing anywhere since then. Nix will continue to purge this roster, and I believe, the labor problems leading into the 2011 season not-withstanding of course, he will be much more active this coming March in free agency and I also think he will have an excellent draft the next month. I'm convinced Nix decided to see who can and who can't play this season from the players already here, and he's seeing that just about nobody on defense can play.

I don't know any of them who have left the board, but being one of the posters out here who enjoys "getting under the skin" of other posters with my sarcastic "wit", they should not allow idiots who make personal attacks to get them that upset. Instead, the jerks making the personal attacks should be tossed out!

Unless Nix is completely senile, his only plan that makes sense to me is for him to get rid of as many players on this team that he won't end up drafting. The easiest way for him to do that, in my opinion now, as I watch this mess transpire in front of me, is to do nothing the first year and watch as many of them fail as possible. I think his real "plan" will finally start to take shape the day this joke of a season ends, and he finishes cutting or allowing to walk away all the rest of the players he doesn't want around. By March 1st, 2011, when UFA signing begins, I think he will be ready to go after "his" vision of a football team for real. And then he will follow that up with his second draft, and I expect that to be pretty good, too. Unfortunately for Buddy and his "plan", the strike / lockout looming around the day after the draft or shortly there-after, will certainly have a big impact on things.

Come on. At some point, we have to stop defending one position for compensating for another position with this talent-less football team. Do you really think Clay Matthews would not have an impact at outside linebacker if the Bills would have drafted him this past spring??? Or do you really think that Brian Cushing would get blown off the line or over-persue as much as Poz does if the Bills would have drafted him? Poz is over-rated. Sure he runs his butt off out there, but he does not have the strength to hold up inside, and he is not an impact linebacker. For all you or I know, Kyle Williams suffers for having Poz play behind him! Nobody is without fault when they play for a defense giving up over 200 yards rushing a game. Or....put Kyle Williams in front of the linebackers they have in Pittsburgh or Baltimore, and he's a pro-bowler. In reality, niether guy is pro bowl caliber, and that's why they combine with the other 9 stiffs starting that allow over 200 yards rushing per game.

I don't agree. Poz has a high motor and he makes a lot of tackles, but rarely are they within 3 yards of the line of scrimmage. He over-persues constantly, taking bad angles and he certainly does not seem to help out in pass coverage very much. If the tight ends are his responsiblilty in certain "packages", he sucks as much as anyone else who is supposed to cover tight ends for the Bills defense. In fact, nobody covers tight ends for the Bills defense....period. Add in the fact he is a tad injury prone, and I don't see getting all excited about "locking him up." While I agree with everyone that Chris Kelsay getting his contract extended for so much money is mind bogingly stupid on Nix's part, I do not agree that Poz deserves some of those wasted millions. Let's face it, there seems to be rookie linebackers like Cushing and Matthews coming out every year that make Poz look as average as his is. If he gets a great free agent contract somewhere else, it won't be that hard to replace him.

Well it must be nice to have 3rd round draft choice - misses as the only thing to joke about. I love the part where the Colts' fans "concede" the fact that Polian hits on all of his first round picks though. As if that is so easy to do when he is always drafting at the bottom of the first round. So you had to vote no because Polian would be over 70 years old if Wilson dies in the next few years or so. As if turning 70 would automatically make him just another "old fart" who would forget how he built the Bills into 4 time SB participants, the Panthers from an expansion team to NFC Championship participants in two seasons, and the Colts into 2 time SB participants and 1 time SB Champions. Yes sir, once the man turns that horrible 70 years old, he would lose all of that know-how? Let me ask you something. What if our wonderful economy forces you and I to have to work until we are 70 or over just to afford some kind of decent retirement after that. I suppose your company and mine that we are working for at that time, will simply laugh at us and throw us out because we would just be too damn old to be able to do our jobs, right?

Gee let's see: Since John Butler was fired and / or quit after the 2000 season, We've suffered through Donahoe/Williams; Donahoe/Mularkey; (although that combo somehow produced the Bills' only winning season, 9-7-0, in '04, since then!); Levy/Jauron; Brandon+"Inner Circle"/Jauron; and now finally this rousing 0-5-0 start for Nix/Gailey. After all of that amazing incompetence, do you really think there is normal die hard Buffalo Bills fan over the age of 30 who would not be supportive of Kelly getting Bill Polian back as President/GM of the "new" Buffalo Bills?? (Fans who are younger then 30 were too young to remember Polian's unique style and combative personality - perfect for the Buffalo fans back then!!!!) So other then the younger fans out here who really don't remember the guy, who do you think would vote no? I've even wondered if Polian might not be one of the "secret investors" Kelly alludes to all the time. That could be the one step Jim Irsay won't let Bill take in Polian's progression up the ladder of management in Indianapolis, now that he is team President and his son is GM of the Colts. Who knows, anything is possible I guess.

Yes, Marv's drafts sucked. One break we need to give him however, was Brad freakin' Butler retiring heading into the prime of his career. Some out here may say "so what"? I say the guy could have been an excellent right tackle or even left tackle down the line....we'll never know. He did a good job at guard as a 6th round draft choice (or was he a 5th rounder, I don't remember?), and he was going to be moved out to right tackle when he made the unbelievable decison to quit football altogether. No GM could be "blamed" for that one. As far as the players Marv drafted who didn't retire, most of them should have never even started NFL careers. That's too bad that you don't accept the "great coach" comment. Fortunately for Marvin, the Hall of Fame voters did. He got "out-coached" in the first Super Bowl, but of course he should have still won it if Norwood kicks the 47 yarder. In the next 3 SB's, Marv may or may not have been "out-coached", but they were out-talented more then anything else.

Sure they can trade him. I'm sure many teams would be willing to part with a 4th rounder in 2011 and a conditional 5th or 6th rounder in 2012 for the former #13 overall pick in the '04 draft. That seems to be the "asking price" for Bills' first round draft choices with many good seasons ahead of them.

Of course not. Convicted felons coming out of prison can fill out job applications and find work with any companies that will hire them. I believe they should have that right, and they do have that right as U.S. citizens. I do not believe however, that they should be allowed to ever play football in the NFL again. Remember, it is not a "right" to play in the NFL, it is a privilege. Commissioner Goodell has made things stricter for the "bad" guys of the NFL and that's his right. I think he should just take that big step to make it a rule not to allow convicted felons back into his league.

Excellent points! Those crimes you bring up are much worse then Vick's dog fighting ring. And you are right, he is allowed to play and he is playing better then I ever thought he was still capable of playing. But the NFL is still wrong to allow him to play and I'll tell you why. Some day an NFL player will get convicted of some degree of rape or even some degree of murder, and they will serve their time in prison, and then because Vick was let back in as a convicted felon, that scum bag will have to be allowed back in to play too. It sounds crazy, and obviously they should get enough time to serve where they won't have any career left, but it is possible. Oh wait a minute, is Donte Stallworth back in the NFL yet? He did actually kill a man with his car in Cleveland a while back, didn't he? He plea bargained down to some kind of lower manslaughter charge, and I don't even know if it is a felony on his record, because he served very little if any time in prison for it. But ask yourself this question: Would Donte' have been more careful driving that night, if he knew a felony would have meant him never playing in the NFL again? Would Plaxico have walked into that bar carrying that unlicensed loaded hand gun if he knew a felony would have meant never playing in the NFL again?? I'm sorry, it just seems to be so logical for the NFL to draw that one line in the sand and demand it's rich players to act like human beings!!

Great question, and you make a compelling point. Certainly Vick has the right to pursue any type of job he wants. My problem is not with Vick having the right to re-apply to the NFL as a player. My problem is with the NFL. Players do not "have the right" to play in the NFL. It is a privilage to play in the greatest sports league in the world where even the practice squad players earn more then most college graduates for the weeks they remain on their respective team's squads. Make that 53 man roster, and even if you are never activated to play in one single game, you earn at least around $250,000.00 a season..(or more, I'm too lazy to look up the exact numbers.) In today's economy, with those kinds of salaries being paid to the players, I feel the NFL should draw some kind of line on conduct. They have the legal right to do that. Every job application I have ever seen in my life asks if the applicant has ever been convicted of a felony. Obviously those companies are within their legal rights to ask that question, and use the answer as criteria of whether or not to hire the applicant. Why do so many of you think the NFL does not share that basic legal right? Ask yourself this question. If the NFL had that rule in place, that any player convicted of a felony can never play again, would Vick have either gotten out of his dog fighting ring, or have never started it? I think he would have gotten out of it or would have never started it, if he knew flat out that getting caught would have meant never being able to play again. I could be wrong, it's just my opinion.