hondo in seattle

This is so Billsy... 25 years after the fact, we're still arguing about Johnson versus Flutie. I enjoy it in a warped kind of way.

Fairly or unfairly, this is how I remember Flutie: He'd play like badger doo-doo for three quarters, but our stout defense would keep us in the game. Then in the 4th quarter, Flutie would do something magical with his legs or complete an unlikely pass and be hailed as the hero of the game.

Beane questioned the validity of the survey, the F- in particular: "My question is how many people actually completed this survey? This is the problem when you do anonymous surveys. Are we talking about six people, 12 people? You're talking about we have 70-something players when you count our practice squad and beyond. So, it's really hard to ascertain who gave the F-minus for their plane travel. Ultimately, we love feedback, but we're not getting that in the building..."

Thanks for posting. I hadn't realized that the Bills had finally, finally, finally broken .500.

I get the point, but I don't think so. Could Chan Gailey have been a good (i.e. winning coach) if he had found a good DC? Could Dick Jauron have been a good coach if he had found a good OC? And would they have both been more successful with good GMs? I don't know but maybe - if we had more patience. I think NFL organizations, in general, are too quick to pull the trigger on coaches. This creates chaos. Chuck Noll went 12-29 his first three years with the Steelers. Most teams would have fired him by then. He went on to win 4 Super Bowls. But his legacy was even bigger than that. He helped the Steelers build a culture and a way of doing things that has sustained success for decades. Rolling out a new coaching staff with new offensive and defensive schemes & philosophies every three years creates chaos. As Art Rooney II has said, "I don’t like to criticize other people’s way of doing things, but we do feel there’s value in stability and continuity, and so that’s worked for us.” I guess so: over the past 50 years, they're the winningest organization in football.

The team with the very best winning percentage - the Steelers - have only had 3 coaches during that time. Meanwhile, the Bills had 16. Continuity matters.

Not amongst the 5 best. He's among the top two. I love good RBs and have been watching them with awe for decades. And I've seen most of the contenders play: Walter Payton, Barry Sanders, Emmit Smith, Bo Jackson, Eric Dickerson, and so on. OJ was, IMHO, clearly better than any of them. The only guy who competes in my eyes is Jim Brown who I've only seen in highlights but those highlights, along with his statistical dominance, are impressive. Jim Brown and OJ would average 8 yards a carry against today's coverage LBs and pass-first defenses. My dream Bills backfield: Josh at QB, OJ at HB, Cookie at FB. And then let's have Eric Moulds and Andre Reed at wideout. We'd be unstoppable.

It was a different era when OJ played: the best athletes became RBs, Heisman trophy winners and first round draft picks were RBs more than QBs, rules didn't protect QBs and favor the passing game like today, and defenses were built to stop the run. And OJ shined like no other. When he rushed for 2003 yards, the next best guy in that heavenly year of the Golden Age of Running Backs gained 1144 yards. OJ nearly doubled the next best guy at what was then the most important position in football. It was freaking superhuman, barely believable. Off the top of my head, the only comparable achievement in all of American professional sports was in 1920, when Babe Ruth hit 54 home runs and the next best guy hit 19.

To quote Jim Morrison, "The future's uncertain and the end is always near." Andrew Luck retired at 29. Maybe Josh pulls a luck. Then again, maybe he does a Brady and gives us 10+ more good years.

I confess I'm no DL guru but I've had the same concerns for the same reasons. Maybe someone who's an expert at DL play can answer the question.

I think Beane is a good GM. But I'm afraid that 20 years from now, I'll look back on the 2020s and reminisce that the primary reason we didn't win a Lombardi is because Beane was a good GM, but not quite good enough.

I hear you but all I care about is whether a player practices hard, plays well, and is a good teammate. How they go about their negotiations is irrelevant to me as long as it doesn't involve a long sit-out.

Agreed. He might deserve a mention though if the thread title was, "Most Frustrating Player..."

McKelvin was good at shadowing receivers but had terrible ball awareness. He'd often be draped all over a guy and allowed a big reception anyway just because he didn't know where the ball was. That's how I remember him.

I don't have a good memory, but you make me wish it was worse because, unfortunately, I remember all those guys.