2003Contenders

We still don't know how long it is going to take Brady to come back from that knee injury. He may NEVER be the player he once was. Thus, I suspect that the Patriots will try to do everything in their power to try to keep BOTH QBs. (Think the 49ers after the 1990 season, when Joe Montana was nursing an injury -- and Steve Young was the unproven, healthy alternative.) Even if Cassell does make it to free agency, it will be interesting to see how much serious interest there is in him. The New England machine has been grand in recent years with BB able to plug in spare parts as needed. This could deter other teams fearful of making a Scott Mitchell or Rob Johnson type signing.

Hind-sight is always 20-20. Denney's contract was not all that big in the grand scheme of things. The font office did miss the boat with Kelsay, but I think it was because there was some indication at that time that he was ripe for coming into his own, having had similar career stats to Aaron Kampman before his career breakout season. Also the FA market that year was VERY thing at the DE position, and (believe it or not) Kelsay WOULD HAVE received a lucrative offer to play elsewhere.

He actually has found some diamonds in the rough: Reed, Crowell, McGee, Ellison, Butler, K Williams. I am not excited about Parrish, Denney or Kelsay, but you couldn't exactly call any of them a 2nd round bust. The verdict is still out on Preston, Youboty, Poz and the entire 2008 class.

Count me in for the best available player (almost) regardless of position. If we were to go based on position, I would say LB -- either OLB or MLB, since we can move Poz outside if there is a better MLB prospect in the draft. I think that would help set us up for the most immediate impact -- as LBs, RBs and OL are usually the fastest players to make a transition to the NFL. I personally believe that DE is really the most glaring need, but the NFL annals are filled with 1st round DE busts. I would be more inclined to fill the DE need in free agency -- and use a mid-round pick on DE depth. The same goes for the TE position. Royal needs to go, and we would be best served replacing him with a free agent -- unless there is a really good prospect available in the 2nd/3rd round of the draft. And, yes, we do need an improvement at Safety, as DW is playing out of position because Simpson and Wilson are a liability at FS. It would be interesting to see if any of our CBs (Greer, Youboty, Corner) can play FS. I would also look toward free agency for a veteran QB to backup/push Trent. If we go QB, it should be a 6th/7th round option to push Hamden. 1. LB 2. TE/DE (whichever is NOT addressed in free agency) 3. S (player capable of playing FS) 4. TE/DE (whichever IS addressed in free agency) 5. OL (preferably interior help at OG or C) 6. PPA 7. BPA

Mort is an excellent reporter, but I think he has allowed his friendship with Donahoe to place him in a somewhat biased position as it relates to the Bills. Unlike many on this board, though, I am not a TD hater. I think he did a number of good things for the organization, and his track record in the personnel department was probably average-to above average. Yes, he made some blunders as has been fairly noted. But he also struck paydirt regularly -- and did a very good job of attracting free agents. I would categorize his biggest failures in this order: poor coaching hires, letting signable free agents get away (most notably Pat Williams) and failing to properly address the OL (although he tried with the drafting of Mike Williams). I think he also had a tendency to allow the salvageable parts of the team to evaporate, while trying to fix the obviously broken parts. I think he often underestimated just how much improvement this team needed, when he (for example) took the unnecessary risk of drafting Willis McGahee at a position that did not require immediate attention. The bottom line is that the team failed to make it into the playoffs a single time during his tenure as GM, so his being fired was not out of bounds as Mort seems to believe. Of course, since Mort and TD were such good friends, you would have to believe that Mort may have been privy to some of the behind-the-scenes dealings that went on between Ralph and TD. In other words, perhaps some of the decisions that we now blame TD for (especially the head coaching decisions) may have been forced upon him by Ralph.

In my mind, Duke Preston has two more games to prove to me that we don't need an upgrade at Center. I thought he looked VERY good Sunday against the Jets.

Yes, and reportedly played most of that half with a groin injury, which is consistent with his unusual inaccuracy that day.

I didn't say it was OK. I said it is not unusual for a young QB to struggle against a team that has seen him before and can better gameplan for him. Do you think it is a coincidence that Trent is 6-0 this year against teams that had not seen him before -- and 0-4 against teams that had? (Throwing out the Arizona and SF games in which he was hurt)

It really is hard to say. I do believe that if we had a GREAT coach, then perhaps 2-3 of the losses we have now would have gone the other way. However, there is some flawed logic with assumptions that we make about things. Allow me to play devil's advocate for a moment. Take the Browns game, for example. I, too, was frustrated with the way that Jauron decided to sit on the ball once the offense got it close to the 30 yard line. However, do we have any assurance that Lindell would have made the kick, even if it were 10 or more yards in? Yes, I know that he was perfect at that point from within 40 yards, but his very next kick (against SF), which was less than an extra point try, was a miss. In some ways, I give the coaching staff some credit for helping this young team regroup and in the position to win after losing the turnover battle 4-0. I give Jauron a free pass in every game in which Losman played a major part. That means the Arizona, 49ers, Toronto, and most recent Jets games. JP is clearly uncoachable. Yes, blame Jauron for the 2nd and 5 call if you like, but there is no way that a 5th-year QB can make that sort of mistake. (I am also not excusing our very own Pro Bowl LT for whiffing on a block either.) Aside from that one call, I actually thought the Jets game was pretty well coached. The offense finally forced the running game, and the defense made the necessary adjustments after the first couple drives. And, remember, even after the ill--fated 2nd and 5 call, the offense STILL had two more chances -- and Losman did the impossible by turning the ball over 3 times in roughly 2:00. Trent clearly hit a mid-year slump, which is not uncommon for a 2nd-year QB who is playing against familiar opposition for the first time. Is it any coincidence that every game that he lost this year [discounting the Arizona and SF games in which case he was out of the lineup by the 2nd half] has come against teams that had played against him before? With a more stable, secure option at QB (at least a reliable veteran backup like Brian Griese or Kerry Collins), a genuine pass rushing DE, and an upgrade at one of the LB positions -- I suspect that Jauron would look a whole lot smarter than he does now.

Actually, looking back, I wonder if the Bills may have been interested in Matt Schaub in the 2nd round (he went early in the 3rd to the Falcons) if they hadn't traded up for Losman. Assuming that they didn't draft a QB that year, I suspect that they would have taken a close look at Aaron Rogers with that #20 pick in 2005.

I wonder if he didn't injure the groin in the KC game during the final minutes when we had the game in the bad, and he was still throwing the ball. He tried to play through it in the SF game, and aggravated it more. Just a hunch.

Maybe there was a method to Ralph's madness of leaking the "official word" on the signed extension at this seemingly most inappropriate time. Maybe the media and fans will do the job of driving Jauron to resign?

The funniest thing to me is that the Ellis' TD return left the Bills with almost 2 minutes and all three of their timeouts to try to answer. With everyone talking about the dubious play call, no one is talking about how improbable it was for the Bills to get the ball back TWICE -- even after the Jets' offense had tried to milk the clock by going for it on 4th down -- and for Losman to toss an interception on both drives. In barely over 2 minutes JP managed to turn the ball over THREE times!

Funny enough, the Giants were the team that the Bills brass thought was going to draft McCargo, which is why they traded up. Sometimes it is better to be lucky than good.

Indeed. There are still numerous things to play for: 1. Chance to finish with a better than .500 record for just the second time in this Millennium. 2. Spoiler 3. End the season on a positive note for next year 4. Get the rookies (especially McKelvin and Hardy) some playing time 5. Further player evaluations (where do we REALLY need help in free agency and the draft)

It would be interesting to go back over the years and analyze every decision that has been made by the organization -- and try to reach a determination if the person we blamed at the time was the one REALLY responsible for the decision. For example we now know that Ralph pressured Wade into starting RJ over Flutie in the Music City game. I have always also thought that Wilson was also responsible for the decision to keep RJ over Flutie heading into the 2001 season. Recall that TD, when he was working for ESPN, made a blunt statement that there was really no decision to be made when you looked at the QBs' winning %. Recall also that RJ himself expected to be cut.

I actually expect that the team will play well this week for a variety of reasons: 1. JP is due. Yes, he is too erratic to be a decent starting QB, but when he's on, he CAN play well. After the back-to-back lousy efforts against the 49ers and Dolphins, he should be due for a good game. He's also historically played pretty well against the Jets. His job is to avoid the big mistakes: don't turn the ball over or take unnecessary sacks. 2. Marshawn is ready to lay it all on the line. Maybe I am giving the coaches too much credit, but I honestly believe that they will come out with a game plan to run the football with purpose. If they stay committed to it, the Jets could be worn down by the 4th quarter. 3. After the Toronto embarrassment, the team will be highly motivated to put that behind them. I actually think going on the road is a good thing -- and (crazy as it sounds) like their chances better at the Meadowlands than at home. 4. The Jets aren't nearly as good as their record would suggest. I actually like the Bills defense BETTER than the Jets' -- even during this bad run, the Bills defense has been limiting opponents to about 20 points per game.

For all the problems the team has had since 1998, Wade wasn't one of them. All he did was go 29-19 as head coach and take us to the playoffs in 2 of his 3 years here. In fact, Wade's record during those 3 years was better than Marv's was in his final three years coaching the team. So if you want to blame Marv for the current team, blame him for some of the questionable decisions he made as GM the last two years -- not for leaving the team in Wade's hands.

Have you all forgotten that this guy had his play calling duties taken from him as an assistant with the Ravens just last year?

No thanks.

Bingo! Probably the best assessment I have read in these here parts. The head coach's job is to prepare his team -- regardless of the talent level he has at his disposal -- to be prepared each week and play the best that they can play. Up until the mid-season collapse this year, I really felt like Jauron had done a pretty good job of doing exactly that. If nothing else, in his first two seasons as head coach, Jauron's teams always seemed to win the games that they were supposed to win. For whatever reason, that went by the wayside earlier this year to the point where we have lost 3-4 games that we had no business losing. I think Jauron is what I would call a good coach for a bad team. He is best served working from adversity and trying to keep the damage down. That is his "gift". His conservative style normally keeps the team in the game -- but they just about always lose to the better team anyway. The fact that the loss is by a smaller margin is somewhat irrelevant, but it gives a false sense of actually being more competitive. That damage control style was fine back in 2006 -- and even to a certain point last season. However, when the team got off to the hot start this season (mainly thanks to an easy schedule), he failed to build upon the momentum and help this team believe that they could do even better. The problem isn't necessarily with the conservatism. After all, passing the ball on 2nd and 3rd down from the 2 yard line certainly isn't conservative. The problem is that once he gets out of his safe haven of damage control, he doesn't know what to do! His best mode is a survival/hang-on-for-dear-life mode, rather than an aggressive/attack mode. With better personnel -- that is, assuming you believe that the roster is better than it was a year or two ago -- the team needs a coach that is more in tune with knowing how to take that next step. I, for one, will be very interested in seeing how the final three games play out. I am not interested so much in W's as I am of the team giving a good account of itself.

It's because deep down Dick knows that the coach on the other sidelines is better than he is -- and the timeouts would only serve to better prepare the opponent for the up coming play.

Indeed. The 6-7 record is inflated by a very easy schedule and some uncharacteristically good luck at the beginning of the season. This team is probably the worst team we have had since that 3-13 disaster back in 2001. Wait until next year when the Bills have to face the NFC South and AFC South teams instead of the West.

I was actually thinking about this same thing this morning. I was thinking about this for two reasons. First, because of the comments made by Ralph: How much merit is there to the notion that Jauron is a victim of a poor roster. Second, I was wondering to myself just how much of a setback it would be if Jauron was gone and someone did decide to just "blow it all up". I honestly don't see many players on this roster that I would be teary-eyed about seeing leave if a new HC were to start cleaning house.

Therein lies the value of these last 3 games, right? Let's see if Edwards can end the season on a high note -- that is, if his groin doesn't hold him back.