BillsPhan

...There, I fixed your post for you. Wanting to Bring Vick into Buffalo officially does make you crazy.

Wow. Thigpen looks like a cross between Montana and Young all in one on this video. But as reality enters into our realm, that video reminds me of J.P. Lost-man against the Houston Texans a few years ago. We all remember that high light reel game for the Lost One, don't we? Not one, but two 80 yard TD bombs to Lee Evans, and running for first downs like this kid was finally our answer at QB. Gailey might trade for the kid, because he had some success with him in KC, and give him a shot. But he will never make it as the Bills full time starting QB and lead the team back to the playoffs and beyond over the next 5 years. He is simply not good enough.

Based on our current needs: A) Retired Players: OFFENSE 1) Jim Kelly 2) House Ballard 3) Andre Reed 4) James Lofton 5) Joe D. DEFENSE 1) Bruce Smith 2) Ted Washington 3) Ben Williams (Sack Leader during the Knox years) 4) Biscuit Bennet 5) Darryl Talley B) Ex Bills Still Playing OFFENSE 1) Jason Peters 2) Nobody else good enough I can think of? DEFENSE 1) Pat Williams 2) London Fletcher 3) Jabari Greer 4) Jim Leonard 5) Takeo Spikes

I would root for my son's team to beat the Bills.........but if the Bills won, and my son wasn't injured during the game, after I consoled him, congratulated him on making it to the big game with his team, and I got back to Buffalo, I WOULD PARTY MY BUTT OFF THAT THE BILLS FINALLY WON A SB!

#1- Jim Kelly - Heart and soul of the best Bills' teams in history. HOF'er #2- Bruce Smith - Arguably the best pass rushing DE in NFL history. HOF'er #3- Thurman Thomas - Led the NFL in total yards 4 consecutive years. HOF'er #4- Steve Tasker - Everyone agrees - the best special teams player in NFL history - 7 time Pro Bowler - SHOULD be HOF'er #5 - Billy Shaw - The ONLY member of the HOF to play his entire career in the AFL! #6 - Andre Reed - All time Bills receiver - WILL be HOF'er soon when Jerry Rice, Emmitt Smith and Chris Carter are not all eligible at the same time, like this year! #7 - Jack Kemp - Heart and soul of the Bills two consecutive AFL Championship seasons - all guts, not that much pure talent. #8 - Cookie Gilchrist - Could have been #2 in my list, if he would have played longer for the Bills. - Quite possibly the second best pure athlete of all Buffalo Bills. #9 - Elbert Dubenion - "Golden Wheels" - the most exciting wideout in Bills history, the guy was way before his time! #10 - Joe Ferguson - Spent his first 4 seasons just handing off to Simpson, then became one of the best QB's in the league during his next 5 seasons under Chuck Knox. Held all Bills' passing records until Jimbo broke them. **From 1972 thru 1976, O.J. Simpson was without question the best running back in the NFL. I watched every run he made as a Bill, through my teenage years. I won't list him in my top 10 because he became such a scum bag human being later in his life. However, for those of you that watched this man run as a Buffalo Bill behind his "Electric Company" as I did, you could not argue the fact that he was the very best pure athlete in the history of the Bills.

I don't think Bob Rich has any interest in owning an NFL team. I'll never forget the "open letter" he wrote to MLB before his pitch to MLB was even decided on, back in 1990, that most likely doomed his expansion hopes. For some inexplicable reason, after spending who knows how much money trying to bring MLB baseball to Buffalo (including hiring Larry King to narrate his presentation video), Rich did a 180 on MLB with his "warning" letter to the current owners about how baseball spending was getting out of control and how MLB was heading to financial insanity, or something along those lines. (I can't find a link to that article, but I remember thinking; "why write this now, Bob, when MLB still has not decided on the two teams and Bufflao was still in the running??) Predictably, Miami and Denver were chosen and Buffalo lost out. Of course, Rich was a true visionary, and MLB spending has gone out of control exactly as Rich predicted. That explains to me why he is as wealthy as he is, obviously he is an extremely smart businessman. But on the same token, I'm sure he feels just as opposed to the NFL spending insanity now, as he did about what he saw MLB heading towards 20 years ago. Oh sure, NFL teams have a salary cap and all of that, but he still is a Buffalo guy, has made his fortune staying in Buffalo, and understands the Buffalo economy better then even Ralph Wilson does. So I would be really shocked to see Rich get involved with any bid for the Bills after Ralph dies. He knows a new stadium, chocked full of expensive seating and luxury suites, would be mandatory for Buffalo to continue competing with Dallas, Indy and the Giants and Jets and all the other NFL teams that have invested 5 to 10 times more into their new stadiums then our community has invested into the improvements in the Ralph.

Link: http://www.buffalonews.com/sports/story/938892.html Buddy Nix defended his hiring of Chan in the excellent article above. As he was doing so, he made an awesome backhanded insult that fit Tom Donahoe's hiring of Greggggggg Williams perfectly. He said: "A guy who hires off of interviews is going to get himself in big trouble," Nix said. "There are some guys who interview well. Check their history. That tells you what you need to know." Who can forget Donahoe raving about the interview Williams' gave back then? It was so long ago, I don't even remember the better qualified "hot" coaches out there we all hoped Whitey would bring in. I do remember that none of us were "rooting for" Gregg freakin' Williams. I am really starting to like Buddy. I think he's a hell of a lot smarter then he makes himself sound. It would not surprise me if he was intentionally slamming Williams and Donahoe, based on Gregggg shooting his cocky arrogant mouth off about "freezing Buffalo" these days!

Let's see, it happened in Atlanta when they brought in Mike Smith a couple years ago. Worked great for them so far, and they had to come back from the Vick to jail crap. Baltimore brought in John Harbaugh a couple years ago, playoffs for him both years. Miami hired Tony Sporano, 11-5-0 and then a drop off to 7-9-0, but not a bad two seasons for him. (And they came off 1-15-0.)

From 1986 to 2000, the Buffalo Bills were a good organization, being led by Bill Polian and then John Butler. From 2001 - 2005, Ralph thought he had another good man running things in Tom Donahoe. Polian, Butler and Donahoe made up Ralph Wilsons' "plan" of running his organization for 20 years, and unfortunately the five years that included Donahoe sucked. So it has only been these past five years, from 2006 to present, that the Bills have fallen off the "plan-wagon" so to speak. Ralph got cold feet after Donahoe and made a big mistake by not replacing him with another experienced GM. Ralph brought in Marv Levy and Russ Brandon and yes, your are right, those two did not create and follow a good plan. But Ralph has now once again, brought in an experienced football guy as his GM in Buddy Nix. He has "promoted" Brandon out of the football operations, and has allowed Nix to hire his own coach, (at least after Shanahan and Cowher turned Ralph and Brandon down, anyway.) So it seems that Wilson is at least trying to go back to his plan that he followed for 20 years - allowing a GM to run things for him, after he stumbled around for 5 years with his Levy / Brandon experiment. As for "a succession plan for the owner." - isn't that up to the owner, exclusively? We can B word about it, but no one has any control over how the owner of the team wants to leave things after he dies. And other communities or billionaires can "target" the Bills all they want. Wilson will not sell his team to them while he's alive.

I read up on Teerlink. Despite coaching mostly DL for 20 years in the NFL, he's never been a DC. He's had a lot of success coaching pass rushers, but he was also called out in the mid 90's for allegedly teaching pass rushers and d-linemen to take out O-Linemens' knees. Despite that, he has gone on to coach the Broncos' SB winning D-Lines in 98'-99', and of course has won a SB with the Colts, and should win his 4th overall SB as an assistant coach a week from Sunday as Colts' DL coach this year. Plus, he's from Rochester, NY! He seems like a pretty good choice, despite the fact it would be his first season as a DC. But alas, unless you have a solid link or are confident you've heard this from a real source, I think you can forget it. Reading through his coaching history, he never crossed paths and worked on the same team as Chan. It appears that Chan only wants guys he's already worked with, so I think you can cross him off the list. I hope I'm wrong, it would be great to add a coach who has coached in 3 to 4 SB wins!

Please go directly to the reply below calling me an "elitist douche bag.", to understand why I edited out this opinion on Buddy and Chan and the other coaches coming in from down south. Once the next ignorant "holier then thou" fan reads that one, I'll get flamed for 6 pages, and I thought when I started posting on this board I could take advantage of my sarcastic wit and have some fun. Apparently, this opinion was over the top, so I did you and myself a favor by removing it myself.

Very true. But that begs the question: Did young Todd Haley go out and get Weiss and Cronell to join his staff, or did Scott Pioli basically tell Haley he was hiring Pioli's old buddies from New England?? Haley is the odd ball here, and he just happens to be the head coach!

Good thought, certainly McNabbs best days are behind him. And that talented existing NFL QB under the age of 30 another NFL team would be willing to part with that the Bills can realistically trade for, or, is available right now as an UFA is........um........... ..... Oh that's right, there are ZERO NFL QB's available that fit your wish list. Currently in the NFL there are not even 32 starting QB's that are talented and under the age of 30!

Here's how it works with these old timers in the NFL: The GM (Nix) talks the owner into hiring his "guy" he knows and feels comfortable with (Gailey.) Then, Gailey hires assistant coaches that are his "guys" that he knows and feels comfortable with. Thus, these "guys" from Georgia Tech and Kansas City are comin' up to Buffalo to help Chan turn around "his" team. Maybe if the Bills would have hired a younger coordinator or head coach from college, that younger guy might have picked and chosen from around the NFL for guys he thinks had the best chance to succeed based on their coaching resume's. The younger guys are not part of the "good ol' boys" network yet, obviously. But Chan's been around for years, and now he's bringing in his buddies from those years. I hope it works out for him and his best buddy "Buddy", for we long suffering fans' sakes!!

Loved that game. I was a season ticket holder, and two weeks before against the Jets in the last regular season game the Bills played at home at it was almost as cold. I remember leaving that Jets game thinking - "thank God the Bills have next week off with the bye, so it will get a little warmer." Lo and behold, it was even colder for that Raiders game! The AFC Championship game the following week was like being in Florida - it "warmed up" all the way into the high 30's!!! Two other facts about that game. The Hall of Fame has ignorant idiots voting to keep Steve Tasker out year after year. Secondly, don't you love those old fashioned Blue home Jerseys with the white pants??? Screw these stupid WAC styled blue on blue things they wear today.

They patie - caked harder? They ate more crabby patties then any other team? And what exactly is patrying, anyway? Informing post, but slow down a little bit so we can follow what the heck you mean. Plus, was Woodson talking about this years' Cowboys, or the 1992-1993 Cowboys, or the 1992 Buffalo Bills???

Bruce Dehaven is a great SP coach, and I would love to see him back in Buffalo. But forget it. Unless he coached with Chan some time during his career, Gailey won't be calling on him. Same for Rusty. It's the Buddy and Chan show for better or worse, and Chan obviously has no intention of bringing in any "name" coaches he has not coached with in the past.

No, there is nothing to miss. Who cares if the Cardinals' running back coach gets hired as Chan Gaileys' OC anyway? He's an old buddy of Gaileys', just like Gailey is an old buddy of Buddys'.....just like Jerry Gray was a buddy of Gregg Williams, and just like Perry Fewell was a buddy of DJ's. Hey I think once we get through these tired days of Gailey rounding up all of his old coaching buddies and bringing them in, and free agency gets here March 1st, the Bills will immediatley start improving because I think Buddy Nix and Chan Gailey are smarter football personell people then John Guy and DJ were! But I'm done commenting on the coaches. Chan will have his "reunion staff" come on up and help him "expect to win" on Sundays, and I'm sure we won't recognize just about every guy he brings up. Fine. They can't add up to being worse then the three staffs we've suffered with since Donahoe came in, so I'll be looking forward to March 1st to see what happens with the team, next.

Due to the Bills' 0-4 record in SB's, I have one main reason I "root" for any team in the SB. If one of the teams has not won a SB yet, I root for the one who has. Obviously, I will be an AFC fan this season, even if your hated Jets upset the Colts today.

Good post. Teams Gailey has coached on, in any capacity in the NFL, have made the playoffs 11 of his 15 years coaching in the NFL. The two most impressive years in my opinion, were when he was OC in Miami with Dave Wandstadt, having only career mediocre QB Jay Fiedler, the Dolphs posted 11-5 seasons both years. That said, I have to admit there is nothing impressive about this Modkins he allegedly hired as his OC. It is nothing more then your typical Gregg Williams type of hire. A guy who has never been a coordinator, and hired more for the fact that Gailey has known him for years then any other logical reason. Certainly, serving as RB coach of the Cardinals did not earn Modkins the promotion. Gailey gets a pass because he told everyone he was handling the offense himself. But he still had the opportunity to at least hire someone who has been a legitimate OC at either the college or pro level, to make his duties a little easier on himself.

Why don't you read some facts about your "70 year old goofball.": Nix left Buffalo with John Butler and A. J. Smith after the 2000 season. He was initially the Director of Pro Player Personnel (2000-2001), but after Butler died, Smith was promoted to General Manager, and Nix to Assistant General Manager. Nix's job with the Chargers was to oversee both pro and college scouting and to be one of the main decision makers in each NFL Draft. Nix was a major reason the Chargers turned around from a losing football team to a rebuilt, winning team. In 2004, three players Nix drafted were selected to the 2005 Pro Bowl. In 2005, six players Nix drafted were selected to the 2006 Pro Bowl. In 2006, eleven players Nix drafted were selected to the 2007 Pro Bowl. In 2007, eight players Nix drafted were selected to the 2008 Pro Bowl. Nix is considered by some to be one of the top five talent evaluators in the NFL. The Chargers won four out of the last five AFC West titles with Nix as Assistant GM and Director of Player Personnel, in charge of college scouting and instrumental to the decision making process of their NFL drafts. In truth, after the last 10 years of garbage, hiring Buddy Nix was quite atypical of Ralph Wilson!

I like it. But if Bradfords' gone, the Bills still need to take their best QB on their board at #9! Also, I would not mind if they used the second round choice at OT, instead of third round.

Excellent point. The stadium is almost 40 years old, and if the Bills end up staying in Buffalo beyond the lease, I believe a new stadium should absolutely be built. Even in today's horrible economy, and even here in NY State, millions of dollars in debt and totally disfunctional, a simple temporary sales tax increase would pay for the entire new stadium, complete with a retractable roof, if they want to go that far. Just look at Cincinnati if you don't believe that. They used a temporary sales tax increase of about 1% and used it build both new stadiums to replace outdated Riverfront. As soon as the two stadium projects were completed, the sales tax increase was repealed. Sure New York is already at 8 to 81/2% sales tax rate. But if they raised it 1% for about two years, each and every tax payer would only feel a small hit, but the huge money gain would be used to build the new stadium. (Even if an average tax payer bought $50,000.00 worth of purchases over the two years, it would only cost them an additioanl $500.00, or less then $1.00 a day.) Flame away all you want you tax experts and politcal experts and New York and Erie County state experts, they did it in extremely conservative southern Ohio and it worked. If there is a chance that some miracle WNY group really wants to keep the Bills in Buffalo after Ralph dies, paying 1% more in sales tax over a couple of years is an extremely small price to pay to help that group's cause by building a brand new stadium for the Bills to play in.

...Listen, I don't care if Ralph Wilson had an "I love L.A." tee shirt on that clip, as long as he is breathing, the Bills will be staying put. Of all the things Wilson has said that has driven people nuts, his "succession" plan is the simplest thing out of his mouth to understand. He said something like; "The Bills will never move as long as I'm alive. After I die, the team will be sold." NFL Network can throw Buffalo in with the loser teams in the NFL with the loser fans that don't even sell out their stadiums all they want. They do that only because Wilson is 91 and of course he can die any day. The truth is if Wilson wanted to sell and/or move the Bills, he would have done it few years ago before he started taking games north to Toronto. Doesn't that make sense? Why go through all the PR crap taking one game a year to the Rogers Center, when Wilson could have just taken the entire team to Toronto when Rogers was alive and was hot to get the NFL into town? The only way the Bills are in "contention" for Los Angeles is if Ralph Wilson dies before a team is placed there.

Simone heard from her best friends' boyfriend's cousin that Ferris is sick. But Ferris is not the only one who knows the answer to this question. Ralph Wilson hired Buddy Nix to find the coach. Buddy is a good 'ol southern boy who wanted his good 'ol southern "buddy" Chan from day one, and convinced Ralph not to interview Billick, Grimm, Fassel et al. Ralph and Russ flew out to Denver and talked to Shanahan. We think they talked to Cowher. It could be as simple as Nix just convincing Ralph that Chan will get it done, without the mega contract and giving up all the power, and Ralph said fine with him. But like Ferris says, "Life moves pretty fast, you have to slow down once in a while and take a day off." I say, enjoy the southern fried quotes and let's see how this "Raiders of the East" Nix/Gailey led organization does before giving up.