hondo in seattle

Clayton knows a lot about the NFL in general but he's not an expert on the Bills. I'd trust him more when he reports on his two favorite teams: the Steelers and Seahawks. I tend not to give much credence to the national media guys. They don't study every move of the Bills like we do on OBD. Then again, Buftex is more right than many of us may want to acknowledge.

Someone in Buffalo ought to buy that animal and outfit her in Bills colors. She'd make a great pet and conversation starter.

For what it's worth, we have 2 of the top 18. And Washington at #38 almost grades out as a first rounder in terms of expected impact. If we all agree with these rankings at the end of season, huge congrats to DW.

For some reason, I always assumed Gruden's enthusiasm for certain players was genuine while his criticisms were prompted by some producer. The praise and positivity just seem to come more naturally to him. But Dr. D is probably right that he's often positive to start building good relationships with college guys who could be tomorrow's NFL stars. And OldTimer is probably right that producers may sometimes ask Gruden to be negative when a contrarian view is required for entertainment value. For the millions he gets paid, Gruden's probably positive and negative more-or-less where ever needed. It'd be interesting to have a private, confidential conversation with him and find out what he really believes after all his film study.

Until now, I thought this was our one truly wasted pick. The article makes me think differently. But the new contacts (or, later, laser surgery) won't necessarily turn Seymour into a productive CB. I'm sure he wants to blame all his problems on his eyes but the truth might be less simple. We'll see. Agree with NoSaint... perfect late round pick because there might be a high ceiling.

It took two behemoth to bring him down. Maybe we can line him up as a FB in short yardage situations.

I think Gruden said he would have worked as an assistant to Chip Kelly for free, when Chip was at Oregon, just to learn the nuances of that offense. He's a big X's and O's guy. But he also seems to love college QBs - having heavily praised many that did little in the NFL. Perhaps a knowledge of what their game tape looks like from 6 different angles doesn't necessarily translate into an ability to prognosticate NFL success & failure.

He has no life. Gruden is in his office watching film by 4am on most days. He obsesses about game tape. Take a look at Dan Pompei's article on the bl--cher report yesterday about Gruden (Inside Jon Gruden's Maniacal Obsession with Football). Gruden probably watches more game tape than any man alive. Any man ever. So much, it's not healthy. Here's an interesting Gruden quote from the article: "I used to hang out with the Jets with Rex Ryan and Bill Callahan and Mike Pettine... I thought that was the best coaching staff I'd ever seen."

Maybe more than any other position in the NFL, QBs tend to get better with more game experience. The top 5 QBs on the list were Newton, Wilson, Brady, Rodgers and Brees. Together they average a little over 32 years of age and 4815 pass attempts. Tyrod, in comparison, is 26 years old and has attempted a mere 415 passes in the NFL. He's just a baby compared to the collective Top Five.

Imagine some rookie RB trotting onto the field wearing number 32. On the one hand, it will hard for fans not to make comparisons. And when it comes to skill running a football, the rook will be found sadly wanting. On another hand, it will be hard for fans not to be reminded of the horrible murders committed by OJ. Why force a RB to deal with all the baggage that comes with that number? Why force fans to remember OJ and his terrible legacy? Leave the number unofficially retired.

Ultimately, I don't really care if the jersey is retired or unretired. But if I were a Pegula, I would need to provide an opinion and it would mirror BuffaloBill's. The unofficial retiring of the number is a tribute to OJ the football player, not OJ the man and murderer. I would leave the status quo unchanged. As an aside, I also agree that OJ was one of the all-time greats. Preternaturally talented - without question the best football player I've had the privilege to see play (having been born to late to watch Jim Brown). And sadly, later, he morphed into human scum (CTE?) who did horrible things.

Man, I'm old. I remember James Harris taking a wicked hit but still somehow getting the pass off (a completion) before hitting the ground. I loved his toughness. And I loved his determination to defy the odds: he was the first black QB to start on opening day when he lined up under center for the Bills in '69. I just wish he had been a little better, though as I recall, our OL didn't do him many favors. http://www.buffalobills.com/news/article-1/Former-Bills-QB-James-Harris-retires-from-the-NFL/30e87209-af72-4dfe-8e95-07cafaad5aec FWIW. Career passing ratings of a few of these guys: Fergy: 68.4 Harris: 67.3 Kemp: 57.3 Kemp's leadership skills were better than his passing skills. I'm not sure how you can quantify that, but he did lead the team to two AFL titles.

Like DriveFor1Outta5, I remember Bledsoe being really good for the first half of his first season with us. His performance tailed off dramatically afterwards.

Looking at the list of past Bills QBs, it's easy to understand why some people are skeptical of TT. We've been down this road too many times before - promising young QB flashes signs of talent only to disappoint us in the end. I think if we were fans with a different history, we'd be more enthusiastic overall about TT's prospects.

I really liked Fergy but in my opinion he was not a franchise QB though I can see both sides of the argument... Fergy's job his first few years in the league was to hand the ball off to OJ. From 1973-1976, Fergy only threw for a mere 123 yards per game. In his rookie year, Fergy didn't crack 1,000 yards for the season despite starting all 14 contests. But Fergy seemed to mature as he got older. We may forget that Fergy led the NFL in passing yards in 1977, beating out the likes of Roger Staubach, Terry Bradshaw, Ron Jaworski, Ken Stabler, and Joe Theisman among others. Fergy was #8 in passing yards in '79, #6 in '81 and #11 in '83. Fergy had a lively arm, and had a few good seasons, but he had a number of unproductive years as well. Here's how I remember Flutie... He would be terrible for 3 quarters but our good defense kept us in the game. Then Flutie would do something magical in the 4th quarter to pull out the win. If Flutie hadn't sucked the first 3 quarters, we would have gone into the 4th with a the lead and wouldn't need him to lead a comeback. He only threw for about 194 yards per game in an era when good QBs were throwing for a lot more.

Sadly true. But as a true fan, I keep hoping this year will be different.

Sometimes casual fans forget he did it in a 3-4. Amazing player! The Bills have had a lot of good players in their history but only Bruce and OJ are in GOAT conversations.

If you count Listenbee, the Bills have 3 guys who clock in under 4.30. Amazing.

If you did a similar list for RBs, it would be so much stronger. Our history with QBs is sad.

Good find.

I missed this important piece of news. I guess I have to give up eating bison meat.

If Listenbee pans out, we'll give you all the credit. Great job with the announcement!

It's partly the "Rex Effect," as McFly says. Rex made such a mess of the D last year that many have lost some faith in his abilities as a defensive coach. Let's call the other part, the "Lake Erie Effect." The Bills have a history of disappointing their fans, just as the Browns do. I get the optimism - Rex will run his D this year and has the personnel to do it; Shady will hopefully be healthy this year; TT in is second year will only be better; Sammy is due to breakout; Listenbee will stretch defenses; Ragland is gonna thump people; etc. But after 16 years of disappointed optimism, I can't help but think the cold winds of Lake Erie will blow over this roster as it has over every other roster and give us yet another cold, bleak January at home. 8-8 sounds about right.

I'm not super optimistic about this season but this commentary is just plain uniformed. Unless TT is injured, he's going to play and he's going to perform fine. It's a contract year and as a second-year starter, he still has a lot to prove. Besides, TT seems like a high-character guy who's not going to let his teammates down. And why bring Cardale into the picture when he's our third string project? He's irrelevant in 2016. And why would the offense get "way worse" in Roman's second year with slightly more talent (and a more experienced QB) than he had to work with last season? What a bunch of nonsense.

I don't like Vietnamese fish sauce wings because I don't like fish. When I make wings at home, I use my own version of a Korean Gochujang sauce. I made these two Sundays in a row and the Bills won both games. But then we lost the following week despite making the wings again. Still trying to discover the exact correlation between my Sunday eating habits and the Bills W-L record.