BillsPhan

No argument here. I would rather not wait "a couple more years" to "get a defense", however. In this day and age in the NFL, when the Miami Dolphins can go from 1-15-0 one season to 11-5-0 division winners the very next season, as much as I like Gailey and his offensive success, his choice of DC sucked and Nix and Whaley and Modrak sucked this past off season finding players in FA and the draft that could contribute right away this year. Buddy Nix seems to be convinced you need three or more years to "rebuild." I have no idea why, since every single season in the NFL some last place team ends up winning it's division or at least making the playoffs the next year. Look it up, that has happened every season since the 90's I'm guessing, when FA combined with the salary cap became a yearly reality in the NFL. This season we have KC, St. Louis, Tampa Bay and Jacksonville all having "great improvement" seasons, if not "worst to first" seasons, compared to last year. That happens every single year folks. Just not in Buffalo, Detroit or Cleveland. For we fans of those franchises, it is Groundhogs Day year after losing year. So sure Chan is a definite offensive guru, as advertised. But even if shell-shocked George Edwards is learning on the job and improving and he's allowed to stay, it is still on Buddy to find him some stud defenders to play his 3-4 or 4-3 or 1-9-1 or whatever the hell main defense they practice from the start of OTA's through the first game next September! I mean why did it take George and his fellow defensive coaches from draft day in April all the way to the 8th game of this year's regular season to finally realize that Chris Kelsay could not play OLB? But I rantingly digress. I'm expecting Buddy to make a splash in FA and have a better draft featuring players from colleges every Bills fan has actually heard from this next off season, and I am really expecting Chan's Bills to compete for the playoffs next season, not three years from now!

I don't agree that the Bills and Dolphins of the 90's would destroy the Jets and Pats of today. It's always hard if not impossible comparing teams of different eras. I just take satisfaction in the fact that for 4 straight amazing seasons from 1990-1993, the Bills were always one of the two best teams in the NFL. And it's hard to imagine any team today being able to win 4 consecutive conference championships today. It may happen, but there's a better chance that it will never happen again. Too bad the Bills couldn't have hoisted that Lombardi just one of those four straight SB games! As for your two poll questions, I always root for the Bills to win every game I attend, watch or even listen to on the radio. And I've been around long enough to remember watching the Bills going 0 for the 1970's against the hated Dolphins, so of course I always want the Bills to destroy Miami.

For many younger fans out here, it seems like the Bills have been the dregs of the NFL forever, and the Patriots have been the absolute class of the NFL forever. But perception is truly reality. Being bored heading into the annual "Lake Erie Stupor Bowl" match-up with my beloved Bills humming along at 2-10-0, my mind drifted back to the glory years of Buffalo Bills football. I started my research in 1988, the Bills' first AFC East Division Championship season of the Levy/Kelly era. Check this out, you may not believe it because the Bills have been in this endless "Modrak Loop of Losing" for this past decade-plus. In the 20 year period between 1988 and 2007: The Buffalo Bills record was: 177-143-0 including going 0-4 in Super Bowls. The Patriots over those same 20 years between 1988 and 2007, (and this includes their amazing 16-0-0 2007 record): 173-147-0, including going 3-1 in Super Bowls. Yes, the Pats actually lost 4 more regular season games over those same 20 years as the Bills! But because they won 3 of their 4 Super Bowls, and because they have been great much more recently then the Bills were during that span, most fans around the country consider these two franchises polar opposites. Of course, adding in the 2008 and 2009 seasons, plus this 2010 season so far, plus adding in the fact the Pats got new better younger ownership and a brand new sparkling stadium - the Pats have become a much better and stable franchise earning more money in their larger market. But for those of us who were around from 1986 through 1999, during the Levy/Kelly era and through the good 90's years of Flutie and Moulds, we can take some solace in the fact that the Patriots really sucked back then! Their stadium was a joke compared to the Ralph, and after they snuck into the Super Bowl in 1986 and got rolled by the Bears, they fell into their very own decade of crap football, similar to the one that the Bills are experiencing today.

#1) Fire Tom Modrak. Today. #2) Fire George Edwards if Gaily won't - at season's end, and bring in a new DC who has at the very least DC'd at the major college level. (Keeping the same HC but bringing in TWO Coordinators has certainly seemed to "improve" the Chiefs this season!) #3) Make sure he and Doug Whaley, the "whiz kid from the Steelers" are ready on March 1st to sign some productive free agents. #4) Draft a QB with his #1 pick, even if it's Mallet,Locker or Newton, I don't care which one. Nothing happens in almost all major NFL rebuilding projects until the QB is in place. This past April All the naysayers said "don't draft a QB this year at #9, none of them are worth it....wait until next year's draft." Now, it seems those same naysayers are saying Luck is the only one worth drafting in the top 5 where the Bills will of course end up. B.S I say! Hey, the naysayers may have been 100% right in not wanting the Bills to waste their first round pick on Clausen, McCoy or Tebow. So what the hell has these other three great QB's done (Mallet, Locker and Newton) this past season to make the naysayers decide they aren't worth it either?? Locker had some injury issues, but he still looks pretty damn good to me. The other two had outstanding seasons. I do not believe that Andrew Luck is the only top 5 worthy QB in the draft, and I hope Buddy feels the same way. #5) After the QB is drafted (I hope) number one, Nix must then start drafting players from bigger colleges who are more prepared for the "speed of the NFL." Troup and Carrington wasted too much time in the rookie learning curve this past season, and I believe rookies drafted in rounds two and three should be more prepared to contribute right out of the gate then those two guys were!

I think that's a fair comparison, although it seems that Leodis has had many more gaffs then poor Ronnie, who was never the same after he dropped that pass. (I don't think he came back to the Bills for the 1990 season, did he?) Plus, you are right about McKelvin's stupid cocky reaction after he allowed Moats to tackle him 50 yards away from a wide open end zone that would have ended the game just as OT started. Because on this football team, getting pumped up about a 45 yard return that was easily a 95 TD return if not for tripping over his own guy is wrong on two counts. Obviously, he should have been more pissed then happy himself. And secondly, Stevie was on the bench waiting for his own chance to inexplicably refuse to win the game for the Bills. If ever there was a football team in the NFL that should never celebrate until the obese lady screams, it is this Buffalo Bills bunch!!

How long have you been a Bills fan, 2 years? I simply said "he dropped it." and laughed like everyone else watching the game with me. Not to mock my beloved Bills or this young exciting rising star Johnson. I laughed because after watching plays like these for over 40 freakin' years with zero SB wins as a life long Bills fan, you just get used to it. Plain and simple. Nothing new, nothing shocking, and certainly nothing to get all "screaming and flopping around" over. Let's be real here, the catch of the perfect pass would have only made the Bills 3-8-0....this is not "wide right" pain here, my friend.

Now Buddy's got 5 tight ends on the roster / practic squad. Great!. The Pats drafted two rookie tight ends this past April, and either one would be 100% better then all 5 of these talent-challanged Bills' TE's combined.

Fitz has a two game winning streak going and he basically won the game against the Bengals with his arm. Good for him - hey maybe the guy can start every day in the NFL. But if Fitz really expects to win the Bills starting job before the draft next April and allow Buddy the luxury of not drafting the best available QB with his number one, then I would demand him to put up over 3,000 yards passing with twice as many TD's then Int's, no matter what record the Bills finally end up with this season. Well, I suppose I should cut him some slack because he did not start until the great Trent Edwards experiement went down in flames. OK then, his final yards would need to be on pace to end up at or over 3,000 over 16 games, and he still would need to have twice the TD passes then Ints. I'm really tired of so many posters defending Fitzy every game and starting these "we don't need to draft a franchise QB" after he has a good game. Wait for his entire body of work, and enjoy the wins or get pissed about the wins, whatever your feelings are about getting the number one pick for Andrew Luck. I'm not convinced yet that he will turn his arm into Dan Fout's arm, despite the fact he is determined to turn his face into Dan Fouts' face with that stupid looking beard. Everybody likes Fitzy. Everybody wants to see him do well, accept for the number one pick fans, of course. But there's still 6 more games left and 3 are against perhaps the 3 best teams in the NFL right now. Cleveland has improved more then the Bills this season, and the Vikings are never easy to beat in the dome even though they are suffering through a lousy season themselves. That leaves only Miami as a game I might pick as a good chance for Fitz to win. So if he "leads" the Bills to a 1-5-0 finish, he had better have those stats to back up his case to "win" the draft choice of Nix not choosing a QB number one.

I never thought Vick should have been allowed to play in the NFL again went he came out of prison. I thought it would be a great message to send to other young talented millionaires that they had a line they could not cross and that was.....if you get convicted of a felony and serve time for it in prison, you are forever banned from playing in the NFL again. I still believe Vick should be out here amoung the average American citizens trying to carve out a living because he still is a convicted felon. However, this is America, and it is the greatest country in the world. Goodell and the NFL disagree with my idea, so they allowed Vick to come back. Even you have to admit, the guy has taken full advantage of the chance he was blessed with. Even you have to admit none of us ever thought the guy would be back playing this well only two years out of prison. I'm sure I agree with your reasons you want him seriously injured. I have owned dogs my entire life, and of course I cannot understand how he ever got himself involved in dog fighting in the first place. But he did serve his time and if he was a relative of yours you would not want him seriously injured. Your take is stupid, ignorant, and quite possibly bigoted. Nobody deserves to get seriously injured playing in the NFL, they risk their lives every minute they are on the football field, and even convicted felon Vick deserves to be respected for that aspect of their careers!

Chris Berman is a HOF announcer. He was with ESPN the very first day the network went on the air way back in the late 70's, and he is still popular and relevant today. He invented the nick-names during his highlights, came up with his own Home Run Call (back, back, back, back), took the Howard Cosell TD call and made it his own (he could go all.....the.....way), and although "The Blitz" with Tommy Jackson is scaled way back these day compared to their old high light show doing about 90% of the games throughout the 80's and 90's, I think just about every real true die hard NFL fan in the country wants to see his team end up being done by Berman on "The Blitz" to this day. Dan Patrick has been around a long time too. He may have been and ESPN original himself back in the day. But if he's dissing Berman, it is simply because he knows he can never duplicate the "Boomer's" success and popularity. Simple egotistical jealousy. And as Berman would say; "And oh by the way".....every year he picked the Bills to return to the SB out of the AFC, he also picked the 49ers out of the NFC. Sure it was obvious he was a Bills "fan" since the mid 80's, he still talked about how much he liked Montana and the 49ers and of course, he never shied away from bragging about his all time favorite team, his Jets. Unfortunately his Jets never had the success the Bills had during Buffalo's run in the late 80's into the late 90's.

Great post. Vick deserves MVP hands down after 9 weeks. As you say, forget his trials and tribulations, there is not an athlete playing better in the NFL to this point. While I still believe he should not have been allowed to play again in the NFL because he is a convicted felon who did serve time in prison, I have to admit, the guy has taken 150% advantage of the second chance Goodell blessed him with....and good for him. I have no idea how on earth he got himself involved in that disgusting activity of forcing dogs to fight and then torturing and killing the losers. (I've had dogs and loved them my whole life, so I thought I would remind you of what the "pooch thing" and "doggie backlash" really was) But Seeing the man Mike Vick has become these days, how humble he is after playing so well and leading the Eagles to these resounding wins, it doesn't make any sense to me at all. So I'm rooting for the guy to continue playing so well, and of course I would not mind seeing Nix sign him as an UFA to lead the Bills into the next 5 years of rebuilding. I've come full circle about him playing for the Bills. If the rest of the NFL says he can play, then fine, I'll watch him play for the Bills and cheer for him if somehow he ends up here next year.

I'm thinking that Chris Kelsay should stay at DE and never play linebacker again. And even at DE, Kelsay trys as hard as he can I'll give him that, but he should not be a starting DE if the Bills had a top 15 defense.

I'm sure they mean the first full-blooded Chinese American player to be active for an NFL game....unless he's in the USA under a temporary work furlough or something.

You don't think the Bills will have the first pick next year? Um...why? Secondly, even if the Bills do pick 2-5, (but I'm unfortunatley pretty convinced they will "hold onto" the number 1 pick and be "on the clock" the minute the regular season ends, as whoever will be calling that game will inevitably mention), how on earth do you think the Bills can afford to not pick their franchise QB number one? Even Ralph Wilson has stated they "need a quarterback" a few weeks ago. The Bills will draft Luck with the number one pick in the 2011 draft, unless Luck decides to stay in college. I will stand by this prediction from now until draft day next April. It's just too obvious a need in my humble opinion, especially seeing how well Stafford, Ryan and even Bradford already this rookie season, have played as recent overall Number One draft picks. Andrew Luck has been favorably compared to being as ready as any of those guys were coming out of college. Remember back heading into the 1986 season. Bill Polian had holes to fill all over the roster, but nothing really started until he signed Jimbo about 5 minutes after the USFL closed up shop. Nix doesn't have anything close to that kind of stress to deal with in order to get his Jim Kelly into Buffalo. All he has to do is instruct his guy to hand the slip of paper up to the commish with Luck's name on it.

You are 100% wrong about Bell, in my humble opinion. The kid is a 7th round draft pick and is only starting his second full season in the NFL. Not only do I think he is a starter in this league, I am convinced he will be a future Pro Bowl LT in this league. Outstanding take on Gailey using Wood at center this past offseason. I believe this will be Hangartner's last season as the Bills starting center, and Wood will entrench himself there this coming off season, and remain the cornerstone-center for the next decade. Howard may be in Chan's thoughts as a starting guard next year. However, I think he and Wrotto were simply two ex Georgia Tech kids he recruited back in the day as head coach there that were available, so he signed them to fill in as back ups that knew his system. Nothing more, nothing less. Buddy Nix must address the OL seriously in the UFA signing period starting March 1, 2011 or the 2011 draft in April, to fill in around Wood and Bell. Levitre looks like he will stick at one guard, but I would give him a big chance to become the answer at RT next offseason, no matter how "short" his arms are. He was a natural RT in college, and he will have two years of starting at guard in the NFL under his belt.

Fitz is a good back up quarterback to have on the bench - if he was needed to step in for 4 games, he might be able to go 2-2-0. With his lack of consistent accuracy in his arm, that is all he will ever be, no matter how optimistic you want to be about the guy. If I were him, I would pay Peyton Manning to work with me through as many off seasons as I could to practice throwing the ball over and over and over and over again. But of course I'm not him, so Fitz is what he is. I don't understand your fox hole takes, and the fact that you brought it up twice makes me laugh. Unless you are in the armed forces or are a vet, and then I will take back my laugh and salute and thank you for your part in protecting our rights to be on this board! You became a Bills fan in 1987? Well how incredibly lucky for you! It wasn't too "hard" to remain a die hard Bills fan over the next 14 seasons, now was it?? Let's see, during your first 14 seasons as a Bills fan, they won 6 AFC East Championships, 4 consecutive AFC Championships, but lost 4 consecutive Super Bowls (looking at that one optimistically, as I choose to do, it's hard to imagine any team ever playing in 4 straight SB's again!), and made the playoffs 10 out of those 14 seasons. Wow, you really suffered your way through those first 14 seasons leading into the 21st century, huh? Now, I on the other hand, first became a Bills fan in 1968. Here's my Bills' teams first 14 seasons that I cheered for and became a die hard fan during: They won 1 AFC East Championship, 0 AFC Championships, and made the playoffs 3 out of those 14 seasons. And oh by the way, the following 5 seasons leading up to your first season as a fan in 1987, I continued to go to all the games and cheer for the Bills despite the fact they "racked up" a 20-53 record, from 1982-1986! So please excuse some of us older fans that enjoy our sarcasm, negative or otherwise. We feel we've earned it!

Any chance Casey is another son or at least a nephew of Clay Matthews? If he is, I would draft him with my first pick in the second round! And oh by the way, looking at the "learning curve" Clausen is suffering from this season, and the fact that he was not an expensive first round pick, how on earth do you or that draft predictor reason that the Panthers won't take Luck number one?

...and just look at all the SEC Championships and major or BCS Bowl games that offense helped him win at Georgia Tech! So much for the B.S. about Gailey running his offense around the players he has. However, my usual sarcasm aside for a moment, he's the best offensive coach the Bills have had since they brought in Kevin Gilbride 7 or 8 years ago, and the offense has absolutely improved over these first 8 losses. It just sucks that Roscoe went down for the season, because Gailey really liked him in his "Georgia Tech" offense and Roscoe really liked playing it! Damn Bills injury bug strikes again.

There seems to be no end to ex-Georgia Tech football players recruited by Chan Gailey while he was head coach there, hanging around the fringes of NFL cut lists and practice squads for Chan to bring in. Lucky for the Bills, huh?

You don't understand the mentality of the billionaires or groups of millionaires that may actually line up to buy the Buffalo Bills after Wilson dies. They won't need a BillsBonds loan, but more importantly, they won't want a BillsBonds loan. The last thing any prospective ownership group will want, in my humble opinion, (including the phantom Jim Kelly-led local group if they really exist), is a loan made up of thousands of bonds purchased by WNY based Bills fans to have to answer to. Your time and efforts would be much better served if you just contacted Jim Kelly and simply asked him if you could set up your BillsBonds group as part owners of his existing group. And if that is not allowed in today's NFL bylaws, then I say simply forget this idea. As awesome as it is, it simply won't be welcomed or needed.

If you are talking about the Bills number one pick in April, QB of course.

Thoughts? Well, I have to ask you a question before I give you any "thoughts"; Did you watch the Bears-Bills game on Fox today that started at 1:00 PM, when referring to Fitz as a "solid QB that can carry this franchise into the future..."? Because my "thoughts" are that if Fitz had a real NFL arm, the Bills would have won that game going away. In one drive alone, he under and over threw open receivers about 4 times, any of which might have been run in for TD's individually! My friend, most of us on this board love the Bills as much as you do. But you have to come back into reality. Fitz cannot lead a franchise anywhere with that inaccurate arm of his, regardless of how mobile, tough or Harvard-smart he is. You might like to pretend he's a "gunslinger like Jim Kelly". In truth, he would not have beaten out Frank Reich during Jimbo's Hall of Fame career with the Bills!

Good take! I have to admit though, Poz looked pretty tough near the line of scrimmage, he seemed to react better in this game. And Kyle Williams is a damn good DT, in anyone's front 7. But the rest of them desperately need to downgraded to back ups and/or simply replaced by real NFL athletes. But despite all that, I do not agree that Luck is the only QB next April that will be "worthy" of our top 1-5 draft choice. (Watching Dallas lose to GB 28-0 before the 2 minute warning as I type this now, it looks like even at 0-8 the Bills will be in a dog fight to secure that top pick.) Mallett, Ponder and Locker should all be considered. Fitz looked really bad today, and he is proving each week he is just a back up QB who might be able to keep the team at 2-2-0 during a 4 game injury stretch by the starter. (Might...I repeat!)

In today's Buff News, not surprisingly, they featured an article about how the "Toronto-Buffalo" series is working out. What does surprise me, no...what shocks me, is the author used yet another quote from Chris Kelsay to be able to complete the damn thing!..."We're getting a little more accustomed to it," said linebacker Chris Kelsay. "But there's obviously a big difference between playing up there and playing before our home fans here in Buffalo. Hopefully we can make it a home game. It obviously falls on our shoulders, playing good football and giving them something to get excited about." What on earth does Kelsay do within the organization to deserve this amazing "leader of the team" role he has in the media? Does he work on the side in tele-sales? Does he drive the team bus to and from the airport? Is he the "illegitimate love child" of Ralph Wilson? Because for the life of me, I have not watched a less effective defensive player start every game week after week, season after season, then Chris Kelsay. Now that he has secured his contract extension, I suppose we will be forced to watch him start at some front 7 position, continuing to make zero tackles until the 4th quarter where he piles onto one sack and recovers one fumble every 4 games or so, all the while getting faked out of his shoes 9 times each game, for the next 5 or 6 years, eh? But the deperate media will continue to ask his opinion of every single subject Bills-related year in and year out, as if he is the wise sage like combination of Mike Stratton, Jim Haslet, Biscuit Bennet and Bruce Smith. For whatever it's worth, after playing two consecutive close OT games on the road, I have a feeling the Bills will lay their annual egg in Toronto today, and get defeated easily. But worse then that, we will all once again watch Kelsay look slow, over persue at the most basic cut-back running plays, get easily beat on pass patterns by any receiver, including tackle eligibles on the freakin' goal line or 4th and less then ones the Bears decide to try, and in general give the hands-down performance of the very worst defensive player on either team yet again. And after all of that, the media will rush to his locker and question him for his quotes as if he was the defensive MVP. One day I swear this stiff will go up on the Bills wall, and not a single fan will have a clue how in the world he did it.