Cynical

Keep reaching.

And was promptly benched the following year for a rookie, never to play football again. He was 32. Why was he benched? For the same reason that plagued Plummer his entire career: He was inconsistent. He never became the next Joe Montana, "including Super Bowls" as Walsh predicted. Can we include you in that description? Or are you, or have been, a professional scout? I hope Trent pans out, so we can move on from this silly discussion. But I have seen this musical before. 1) Trent looks good in TC, says all the right things, Trent fans go nuts. 2) Trent plays questionable during preseason, Trent fans down play his performance citing vanilla offense, it's only preseason", and such. 3) Trent plays horrible during regular season, Trent fans blame Bills management, HC, OC, OL, defense, special teams, other players, concussions, phantom concussions, play calling, offensive schemes, my dead grandmother, his uncle, her twice removed niece, Chucky the Killer doll, Satan, etc ..... We are seeing #1 all over again. How about we wait until we see 2 and 3 before we start circle jerking to his poster?

Thank you! And bedsides the part you highlighted, the other passage that sticks out is: "Even Walsh, who acquired Joe Montana and Steve Young for the 49ers, needed to be pushed into selecting Montana in the third round in 1979. Walsh nearly chose Steve Dils." So for all the blabbering about how great Walsh was selecting QB talent, the guy needed to be pushed into selecting Montana. As somebody else pointed out, Walsh was very high on Fuller. The only reason Marv was able to select Fuller before Walsh was due to the fact the 49ers had no first round pick that year.

So says the person who is notorious for doing just that. Try following your own advice.

Oh, Jesus Christ. Can we PLEASE stop with the Ratliff comparisons? This is the 4th reference to him in this thread alone. Troup has yet to take the field, and unless I missed it, he's not even signed. At this point, Troup isn't even qualified to hold Ratliff's jock strap. At this point, I no longer care how well Troup played in college. He's looking to play in the NFL. As for Ratliff, just like JStranger76 said: "... there are always exceptions. If a player is gonna perform way better at a certain weight than that's where he'll play."

Um, Mularkey was still the HC in 05. Jauron took over in 06. The 05 defense was subjected player loss and injuries. Pat Williams was let go after 04. Spikes and Williams replacement (Edwards) were both lost for the season early in the year. That meant Tim Anderson was a starting DT. Edwards wasn't a great player, but he was a hell of a lot better than Anderson.

I can feel the love just oozing out of this thread.

Agreed. USC would have no clue what clauses were contained in his contract to the Titans. IMHO, the only way USC/Kiffin is in trouble is if Pola told Kiffin about the clause and Kiffin then chose to ignore it.

Panther Homer. Same thing as a Bills Homer. Both have little to no ability to objectively analyze their teams strengths and weaknesses. The 2009 Panthers went 8-8 last year despite being "one of the best teams in the league on paper" (according to Panther homer). He doesn't understand why the team just cannot get it together. That's because the Panthers were not nearly as good as you thought they were, dumbass.

That would be Lonnie "!@#$ing" Johnson

Sure it was. That was Jauron's attempt. He WANTED an inept offense. First, Trent did NOT lead a 4th quarter comeback win vs the Rams. The Bills were down 14-13 entering the 4th quarter, and that changed with Greer's pick 6. By the time goober threw his first TD, the Bills were already ahead. Second, look at his stats again. 4 TD's in 4 games. Did you know all 4 came in the 4th quarter? The drubbing of Seattle? Thank you Special teams. 2 FG by Lindell, a punt return for a TD by Parrish, and a Moorman pass to Denney for a TD on a FG attempt. Goobers TD was the last score of the game. Third, in 2008 Raiders were 5-11, and defensively were 24th in points and 27th in yards Seattle was 4-12, and defensively was 25th in points and 30th in yards Rams were 2-14, and defensively were 31st in points and 28th in yards Jax was 5-11, and defensively was 21st points, and 17th in yards Other than Jax, those were some god awful defenses, and even Jax, at best, was below average. Non-linear post concussion syndrome, phantom concussions, ... whatever excuse works for you. Can we just stick a fork in him and move on?

Jesus H, you are all over the place. Then what did you indicate? Because from my perspective (and many others), it sure as hell sounds like you thought he could be the starter. When Thoner 7 stated: "So is a 5th too much for a starting QB?", you agreed by stating: "Exactly! You get it." Your own thread title "Troy Smith more than a back up" seems to indicate you think he could be starter. And when I pointed out that nobody actually states that 'Smith is more than a back up', you replied: Now you are saying you never indicated Smith should be the full time starter. He's more than a back up, but not a starter? What the hell is he? And if you do not think he has the capability to be a starter, then why should the Bills spend a draft pick to acquire him? And as Edwards Arm has already pointed out, Donte thought highly of Edwards, and so did Bill Walsh. How did that work out? What makes you believe Reed's evaluation of a QB is any better than Donte's or Walsh's? Here's a concept. Maybe Reed's comments are not necessarily his indication of Troy Smith's ability of being "more than a back up", but of his indication of Bulger's inability to lead a team. As I and others have pointed out: a player sticking up for a teammate. Imagine that.

Christ, I needed a good laugh ...

First, it would be teammate (singular), not teammates (plural). One man, Reed. Actually, no it's not. I cannot even begin to count the number of times players on different teams, over the years, have said the very same thing about their back up QB. They all believe their back up QB is capable of leading them to the ultimate goal. If they truly don't believe that, then the team is in big trouble if the starter goes down. IIRC, during the glory years, even the Bills felt that could win it all under Reich. And for all we know, Reed and Smith could be close friends on the team, and Reed is just sticking up for Smith. See 1, 2, 3 in my previous post, especially #2. Don't focus on who he is, but on what he is: a QB. McNabb. Again, don't focus on who he is, but on what he is.

Some people just cannot accept the fact the Bills are doing things the Nix/Gailey way, and not their way. Both have been pretty straight forward with how they want to approach things, and when the Bills go out and do it (just like they said they would), some posters are shocked, and do not understand why the Bills did "that way".

Or as Nix/Gailey have stated: Cannot fix everything in one year 1st and 2nd round draft picks are expected to start immediately Will not over pay to acquire players From everything I have seen, the Bills had 2 OT in mind they would have grabbed at the 9th position, if they were available. They were not. Actually, no. They wanted Bradford. He was gone by the 9th pick. They tried to acquire a veteran starting QB. They are going with what they have, because they felt what was available was not necessarily better and/or needed additional development. The Bills already have projects. Bringing in more projects solves nothing, except for making fans like you happy. Actually, none of Troy's team mates are stating Troy "is more than a back up". The title of the article is "Ed Reed: Troy Smith more than qualified to be a back up". Or as Reed says: "I honestly think Troy was the guy and is the guy [at the backup spot]. . . ." Nothing in there stating Smith being a "more than a back up". If you follow some of the links, Flacco defends both Smith and Beck, saying how well he got along with those two. He doesn't know how well he'll get along with Bulger, and there might be some tension between them. If anything, from reading some of the other links, Flacco feels threatened by Bulger's signing.

Cool! The next time some member of the Flutie cult starts yammering about 21-whatever, I will gladly remind him/her that stats are for losers, especially non-existent stats.

Going from Lee > Josh is one hell of a typo. Brain 'fart' is more likely. I would have over looked it, except he didn't mention the "guy from Oakland"s name, nor did he bother to mention any of the "pile of others at WR". How hard is it to remember guys like Green and Hardy? Especially when the one is expected to be the starting RT. I have no problem with the optimism, but hell, at least have a clue with who's who and what's happening. The poster comes across as one of those idiots at the Bills game trying to get everybody to cheer when the Bills offense is coming to the line. But hey, those idiots are optimistic too!.

Some, yes. A ton? No. Agree on both parts. Funny. I distinctly remember you sunshine pumpers just raving about the no huddle last year. Couldn't wait for it. It was going to help the young Oline. It was going to help Trent Edwards. And the addition of TO, easily top 15 or better offense. I'll give you Roscoe has speed. But route running and separation seem to be an issue with him. At 5'9" and 170 lbs, getting separation is vital because I don't think he will win that many battles for the ball. I am speechless. Josh Evans, a guy from Oakland to play RT, a pile of others at WR, .... Do you even have a clue who is on the team? We have issues at tackle, but we got Bell and Meredith to work at LT? Those guys aren't solving the issues at tackle, THEY ARE the issues. Yes, and there is a real possibility that person is not the roster this year.

Only partially correct. Professional football is entertainment. College football is do or die in the SE.

You are basing this statement on what exactly? Hope? Last year, the Bills were more competitive under Fitzpatrick than they were under Trent. And nobody really knows how Brohm will play.

Trent looked good last year during TC. That's right. Big difference. Let's see what happens when the pads go on, and the hitting starts happening for real.

Brohm is ineligible for the practice squad.

IIRC, Kelly did take a beating in the USFL. Furthermore, Kelly missed several games in 1985 due to an injury, but still managed to toss 4,623 yards and 39 TDs. Linky Feel free to check the video library of this site Mash here

Here's what you need to know about how Nix/Gailey feel about the present Bills QB: 1. Both have said they will rebuild through the draft, and it will take more than one year 2. Whoever is drafted in the first and second round is expected to start immediately 3. They will not over pay for players 4. The Bills were highly interested Bradford before the draft 5. After the draft, the Bills tried to acquire a viable starting veteran QB I conclude, based on their own actions and words, the Bills are not overly satisfied with the present QBs. They had no intentions of drafting a high profile college QB that needs additional development, because in the end, high profile or not, it still ends up meaning the same thing: a project QB. The Bills have enough "projects". Time to start finding out if the "projects" are worth squat or need to be sent packing.