2003Contenders

Agree on both accounts. Kelsay was in Big Ben's grill all day. He always seems to be in the right position -- just doesn't make the play often enough. Not only did Maybin make the tackle -- but he was PULLED to the ground by the OL on what should have been an obvious holding penalty. Also, did anyone ever identify the phantom defensive hold on the Ward non-fumble? The official stated it was number 23, which was obviously wrong -- and CBS never showed a replay or made an attempt to identify the real guilty party.

Should have re-signed Greer and let McGee walk. And that is NOT hindsight.

Funny enough, Donahoe did the same thin in the same draft: trading down from 14 to directly acquire Nate Clements, Travis Henry and Brandon Spoon. The Pats have been doing this for years, and it is a very sound strategy.

Bottom line is that they just can't get to the QB. They need to understand that -- and focus on dropping more guys into coverage rather than trying these worthless (and poorly disguised) blitz packages.

Either you didn't watch the game -- or you have an agenda of some sort. On the VERY next play after that Stevie drop, Fitz hooked up with him on a deep pass down the sidelines.

In fact, that's just about where they ranked under Jauron. The good news is that they appear to be getting better.

Uh, obviously 8-8 is not going to happen. But let's just assume for a moment that it is even in the realm of possibility. That would mean victories over the Pats, Jets, Dolphins, Steelers in addition to 3 other at least middling teams. Do you really think that would match the smokescreen 7-9 records posted by those Jauron teams? Anyone who doesn't believe that this is the best possible scenario -- ending the season with 8 straight victories over such quality competition to finish on a high note -- really hasn't truly thought about this very much.

You know, Moorman has been a bit of a disappointment this year.

To be honest, I am not unhappy with Chan. He may not have been a "sexy pick", but fit the criteria for what we needed: NFL head coaching experience (with at least some degree of success), offensive-minded coach and someone who could work well with Nix. He has, of course, made some key errors: 1. Believing his own press clippings about being able to make something of less than stellar QBs. He actually believed that he could "fix" Trent. 2. Not going after a proven DC. If you recall, at his introductory press conference, Gailey said he was not going to be hiring a "household name" for his DC. In a way, that was the inverse of the same mistake that Jauron made. Namely, Jauron the "defensive guru" never saw fit to hire a proven commodity at OC. My guess is that barring some miracle turnaround on defense, someone (Ralph) will force Chan to hire a new DC.

Dang! I bet he broke the wrist of the hand that hit the sideline on that foolishly challenged 3rd down play.

Kelsay is an enigma. He usually does a good job diagnosing a play and is in the right position to make a stop. But he rarely ever makes that stop. He probably looks great in practice, when the players are not playing at full speed and he doesn't have to make tackles. He is probably a force in the classroom, where he may even act as a second coach in describing the breakdown of a play. That probably explains why the coaching staffs -- and he is on his fourth now -- always seem to like the guy. The funny thing is that if the rest of the front 7 was better, we could probably live with his shortcomings. But, alas, with so little surrounding talent, Kelsay's weaknesses are magnified.

Kudos to Chan and Nix for keeping it close to the vest regardless of what they decide to do.

I voted yes. However, I can understand concerns about his injury history -- as well as the fact that he has not been the same player since getting busted for 'roids.

The sad thing is that this mess was brought about by someone in the Bills' organization foolishly thinking in absolute terms. That is, according to Orakpo's agent, they knew that the Bills were not going to draft him because of the team's disdain for Texas players after the Mike Williams fiasco.(Not coincidentally, Derrick Dockery, also a UT product, had recently been cut by the Bills leading up to that draft.) Vinnie Cerato, the Redskins personnel guy at the time, echoes the same sentiment. He said that the Redskins wanted Orakpo so bad that they tried to trade up inside the top 10 and couldn't find any takers. Once Orakpo fell out of the top 10, Cerato knew he would be there at 13 because, even though the Bills needed a DE, he knew they wouldn't take Orakpo thanks to their disdain for Texas players. So the Bills had a front office so inept that they: 1. Completely ruled out talented players based on their bias against a top college program 2. Their bias was so well known around NFL circles, that they couldn't even leverage a potential trade down scenario.

Rich Gannon is a good example, I think, of a QB that took many years to thrust himself into the limelight.

How about the STUPID PI on Florence? That pass from Flacco was a lame duck; all Florence had to do was turn around and it was an easy INT. In fact, that single play was even MORE damaging that the Spiller fumble, as it set up the sequence of unfortunate events (which included the Spiller fumble) that rounded out the first half. As others have already mentioned, the dropped Pick 6 was on Whitner, not Poz. As much as the fumble by Spiller hurts, I think the bigger culprit for the loss on Sunday was indeed Whitner and his inability to cover Todd Heap. Agreed. I think adding one front-seven player like Ray Lewis, who is a great player obsessed with winning and an even more important presence in the locker room, would do more to improve this team than any other possible acquisition. The problem is that these guys don't come around very often.

Indeed, Modrak gets a pass on this one. He wanted Cutler and tried to make Marv understand that JP wasn't an NFL QB. Marv was reluctant to take a QB in the first round because he didn't want to throw a high profile rookie QB out there with so many other problems yet to solve. From what I am told, the only first round picks during the Levy/Russ era that Modrak highly recommended was the Leodis McKelvin pick in 2008. (Modrak was on board with the CJ pick last spring.) He really wanted Cushing in 2009. In 2007 Lynch was another one of those consensus picks, but Modrak was supposedly trying to get them to draft one of the top corners (Hall or Revis). In fact, Marv almost pulled the trigger on Poz there but Modrak convinced him that he could be drafted MUCH later, whereas Lynch would definitely go within the next 4-5 picks.

I have heard from a pretty reliable source that the final decision on that pick was indeed Marv's. It was his first pick as the new GM, and after the Donahoe autocratic style, Marv wanted to place his consensus-style print on the team. At the time, Ngata was indeed the conventional choice, given the big need the team had at DT. However, there was some concern about Ngata's character and the knock on him was that he had a tendency to take plays off. There were also some concerns that Ngata was not an specially good fit for Jauron's new Cover 2 Defense that was looking for more of a penetrator than a run stuffer. Some of the scouts and coaches believed that Broderick Bunkley was a better fit for that scheme. Meanwhile, there was consensus in the war room that the best QB in the draft was Jay Cutler (rather than Vince Young or Matt Leinart), but there was also heated debate about whether or not JP Losman was THE guy. While all of this was going on, both the Broncos (who were picking at 15) and the Eagles (picking at 14) were desperately trying to trade up. Amidst all of the confusion, Whitner was the one player that everyone in the war room could live with: -- He filled a definite need (Lawyer Milloy had just recently been released) -- Reminded many of Bob Sanders, who was an important part of that similar-themed Indy defense -- Came out of a well renowned college for cranking out DBs (OSU) -- Was highly recommended by some of the veteran players (London Fletcher among them). Meanwhile, Whitner's agent had smartly worried Marv by suggesting that Whitner would NOT get passed the Ravens, who were picking at 13 -- a spot before the Eagles or Broncos, who had made the trade offers. So, there was plenty of hemming and hawing -- and Marv wound up making the consensus pick, the one with the least "risk". While I do not believe that Whitner has been a total bust, Marv probably made the worst possible choice he could have made: 1. The Ravens were going to take Ngata all along. Had the Bills traded down with either Denver or Philly, they could have still landed Whitner AND picked up another high (presumably a 2nd rounder) draft pick. 2. Ironoically JP would go on to have a pretty good season in 2006, but the team would have been MUCH better off to this day with Cutler. 3. Both Ngata and Bunkley are quality starting DTs.

For all the hand-wringing about the OL (and it is well below average), they have played well enough two of the last three games to have warranted a victory for the Bills. I am suddenly MUCH more worried about the defense than I am about either the OL or the QB.

Here are some things to remember. 1. It is WAY too early to tell how good of a job Nix and the gang did with the draft. Think back to 2006 and 2007, the early returns on both drafts was pretty good. So, if Troup, Carrington, Easly, Wang etc turn out to be decent players, then we can thank Nix for that. 2. The concept from the outset was to rebuild this team from the ground up. That means NOT spending a fortune in free agency, and when signing free agents, try to go with younger guys with upside. Because of the impending labor situation (and the unique rules associated with this being the final year of the existing CBA), players with 5 or fewer years in the league where not unrestricted. Thus, there truly were not many viable guys to pick up. D. Edwards was actually one of the better FAs that ANY team picked up. Think about it for a minute, how many key signings did OTHER teams make in the off-season? 3. As many here have already pointed out, sometimes the best moves you make are the ones you DON'T make. That is: Campbell, Clausen, etc.

The last QB I can think of where that happened successfully was with Troy Aikman, 20 years ago. He was almost killed as a rookie, and the Cowboys had the benefit of all those Hershel Walker picks to get that OL fixed in a hurry. The only other QBs taken #1 overall to have succeeded since then (really, just the Manning brothers and Carson Palmer [who didn't take a snap as a rookie, anyway]) were all placed in situations where the OL was already in pretty good shape. Michael Vick was a unique talent, so it is hard to correlate his early success (or lack thereof) to OL play. Jeff George, Tim Couch, David Carr, Alex Smith, and Matt Stafford are the other QBs we are talking about. The verdict is still out on Stafford, obviously, although he has certainly had problems staying healthy. Bradford looks to be a keeper; and the Rams just happened to draft a stud OT with their #2 overall pick last year. The likelihood of success for a QB drafted #1 overall is no better than 50/50, and teams with lousy OLs clearly have an almost certitude of failure.

Well, I will say this: Fewell had already evaluated that Fitz and Jackson were superior to Edwards and Lynch, and the defense was at least middle of the road with him at the helm.. No one was exactly knocking on Chan's door, so the Bills could have very easily signed him as the OC if they wanted him.

While I value an elite QB and would be all for the team picking one (if available) in the draft, I wouldn't want that kid on the field until the OL is fixed. We've seen it over and over again in the league what happens when you stick a rookie QB behind a suspect OL. In fact, if the rest of this year is spent doing nothing more than fortifying the OL, then I would consider the season to be a positive one, regardless of record.

You know, I have always been something of a Modrak apologist because I always gave him the benefit of the doubt that he wasn't necessarily the one calling the shots. However, it is no coincidence that one and only GOOD draft of the post Polian/Butler era was that 2001 Donahoe draft in which Modrak was NOT present.

It's funny I look back at the last two drafts under a new regime, 2001 and 2006 (and by "new" I mean new front office personnel AND new coaching staff; thus, I overlook 2004 as Mularkey was an extension of the TD regime). Because the Bills were so devoid of talent we prematurely hailed both of those drafts as great, since so many rookies made an immediate contribution. Hind-sight being 20-20 neither draft was nearly as sensational, although 2001 is still easily the best draft the team has had in the past decade. If Troupe and Carrington turn out to be core players in the future (as well as Easley, who showed some positive signs prior to his injury), then you can label the 2010 draft a success.