TC in St. Louis

A kid cannot become the starting quarterback at Florida State without God-given ability. He has huge potential. He was not afforded the learning curve of most first year quarterbacks. Check out the stats of Elway, Manning, Aikman as rookies. Aikman was 1-15, right? Our quarterback rose to the top of the college ranks. He was MVP of the Senior Bowl. That's where I first noticed him. He threw a TD pass to somebody, and I thought, man, this kid is a natural. So we trade out of #8, pick up Manuel and Kiko, and EJ is thrust into the starting role on a young growing team. He struggled, but he had some really good games. The second year he had us at .500. He had a rough game against Houston and that crazy MVP candidate JJ Watt. Who didn't struggle against that guy? Marrone pulled him, and turned it over to Kyle. He gave us the best chance to win. And we finished 9-7. EJ got to watch this all happen from a great vantage point. And I think he was humbled by the whole thing. Did he lose his athletic ability? His intelligence? His determination? No. If anything, he has developed a major chip on his shoulder. Look at that video. He has the goods. I am not giving up on EJ Manuel. I think he's ready to become a star.

Good feedback. I was hoping people had noticed him. And we did get a lot of production out of our second team guys. Think about it. McKelvin and Gilmore were out the last game and a half. We had a good year.

4th round pick from Duke. What did he do this year? He was really smart, right? Did he play? Special teams? Was he worth being picked that highly? Pierre Desir was chosen a few picks later by Cleveland. I think that might have worked out better. Just picking through the leftovers tonight.

Rams might be in a position to take Winston in the first round, or move up to get somebody as franchise QB. Bradford has missed too many games to risk another injury and to miss out on his replacement.

Kyle Orton looks like he's hung over, which is fine. So am I. I don't think he has ever had a loyalty to any team. He's a true independent. He came in and gave it his best shot, and now that the season is over, he's got another few million in the bank, which makes for a nice retirement. At 32. I'd retire at 32 if I wasn't 60 right now. I don't think he'll be a Bills fan. He doesn't even strike me as a football fan. He did his job. We will miss his mediocrity, occasional great throw and throws at the feet of Fred Jackson.

They will have another starter and/or backup by then. Come on.

I can't make up my mind if I like the guy or not. I'm glad it's not my call. I like the 9-7, but I don't like the OC or OL coaching. Seems lame and non-productive. Still, 9-7 is showing good progress. Road wins in Detroit, Chicago, New England and New York. Not too bad, man. Not too bad.

Sammy's great. Can't wait till next year.

We have Cyril Richardson, unanimous first team All-American sitting there, in drastic need of coaching, Cyrus, first team All-American tackle from Alabama, needs coaching. These are better athletes than the starters. They need a coach. Iupati would be great. But without a good OL coach, his talents will be wasted.

Begrudgingly, I agree with the OP. We had some elements going against us. And some bad calls. The team was resilient enough to go to New England and get the win. Enough happy for one day.

Like it or not, we played a tough schedule. I'm glad we are picking #19. That vindicates the Cleveland trade somewhat. And I believe Sammy was worth a couple wins. Had we not made the trade, we may have been 7-9 again and picking 13th. What QB are we gonna get at 13?

We have a new owner who will spend the money to make this a better team. I don't think Levitre or Jairus Byrd were worth the money they got elsewhere. That was a good second round, back then. Byrd and Levitre. Anyway, unless we get a good OL coach, it won't matter who is up there. We have some athletes on the squad who need coaching. Cyril Richardson was a unanimous All-American road grader guard for Baylor. Cyrus Koinjeijeokoijloo was a first team All American projected as high as 11th in the draft. With that kind of talent riding the pines and weak guard play, something is wrong. Bring in Jim Hanifan. I heard he quit smoking, and has a few years left before he dies of old age. He knows how to build a line. Bring back that dude from Lockport. Get somebody in there. Bring in Joe D. Somebody. It all starts in the trenches. One trench is good. The other not so good.

No, we won today. We beat New England on the road, and ended up 9-7. Good finish.

I am glad we won this game. We could have easily gone 11-5 this year, but it was just not going to be a playoff year. I think we need a new offensive line coach. We have some horses that need training. I hope they get a new offensive coordinator, because I have seen absolutely nothing exciting from Hackett this year. He's predictable and boring. Some of our recent second round and beyond draft choices have become really good players. I don't mind Whaley and his guys making the choices. I'm waiting for the DB from Duke to become a player. The linebacker from Florida Atlantic? Who knows? Go back thru the last few drafts and most 6th round picks don't make much of an impact (Brady, yeah I know). Kiko was a surprise. Preston Brown. Seantrel. I still think we'll get starters in Cyrus and Cyril Richardson. They need coaching. We need a QB.....

Year after year after year, final game, let's give it all we got. Let's play like our hair's on fire. Let's do this, let's do that. It's been forever since they made the playoffs, and they turned that into a disaster of unforgettable proportions. Simple game. Guy has ball. Tackle the guy. Why is it that when we play New England we turn chumps into champs? I don't even remember the names of the guys who scored all those touchdowns weeks ago. One guy had 3, only had one catch in his career prior to that. As Marv would say, "knock their asses off." Last game. I'm going to be with my friends at the Bills Backers place in St. Louis. It would be a nice sendoff to get a good effort. Not like last week. WTF was that? Have a blessed day.

Bring back Billy. Keep Dougs. Move forward into the future. Trade Greg Bell for Biscuit. Hire Frank Reich as offensive coordinator/assistant head coach. Carl Mauck to the line. Sign that nebraska psycho as guard, what's his name? Incognito. This line needs to be nasty.

Most preseason pundits had the Bills winning 3-5 games. I don't remember the over-under in Vegas. Either 5.5 or 6.5. I would argue that most of those pundits don't give 10 minutes thought on the Bills because they have been irrelevant for years. Therefore, the accuracy of those predictions was questionable. I got angry at those predictions, because to me it was obvious that Bills had more talent than that, and they should win 10. That was before Kiko got hurt. After that i would have dropped to 9-7 or 8-8. Which is exactly where we are. I don't know if Pegula should dump either of those guys. I like Whaley's aggressiveness on draft day. I'd keep him around for that. Now that the new owner is in place, I think he'll give Whaley the backing to keep who we want, and to sign some good talent. Whaley is good. I don't know about Marrone. If he insists on keeping Hackett, he's gonna have to go. If he doesn't replace the line coach, he's got to go.

Nobody has a crystal ball. If they did, Beckham would have been the number 1 or 1a pick with Khalil Mack. Brady would have been picked before the 6th. We'd take Gronkowski. Wilson. All of them. You deal with what's in front of you. They were trying to move up to number 2 to get Watkins. Question: How do you think Watkins would do with Brady throwing to him? 2000 yards? Watkins is a great player. Beckham is great too. Who knew? CK was rated as high as 11th in the draft. I still think the reason he sucked this year is poor coaching. Our line has plenty of taken. Eric Wood was Pro Bowl calibre two years ago. Glenn was a rising star. Richardson was a unanimous All American. Henderson is Henderson. He's a rookie starter at RT. But that's because he was the best high school player in America 4 years ago. He's got world class talent. They couldn't mess that up. I think he could have played better. The signing I did not like was Chris Williams. The guy was never very good wherever he played. He was a high draft choice who never panned out, and he didn't do much here before he was hurt. Maybe they should bring in that 90 year old guy who used to coach the Rams offensive line. Sully mentioned bringing back Bill Polian. Maybe it's time to do exactly that. How good was Bennett? We gave up a ton to get that guy. But it took the right defense for him to dominate. Maybe giving up what we did to get Sammy will pan out better when he's got the right QB and OL in place. It might be Manuel and the guys we have now plus Iupati and another guy

Just saying we're not the worst. There are worse teams to root for. However, sometimes I wish we were the worst so we could pick number one. With the exception of the Dareus pick at number 3, in our worst years we always pick between 8 and 12. Not bad enough to draft a franchise quarterback.

We've been hapless, yes. 15 years. Has New England had a bad team in the past 15 years? It's hard to win a division under normal circumstances, but when you're in the same division as New England and Brady and Belichek, this does make the task more daunting. There have been other teams in this league that have sucked worse than the Bills for a longer period of time. We've come close, but nearly every year we have gone 0-2 against the Patriots, and are starting behind the 8 ball. I'm not saying that our team has an excuse for not being in the playoffs. I'm saying that we have not been the worst team in the NFL the last 15 years. 2004-13, we have the 5th worst record in the league. We have 12 more wins than the 4th worst (Rams), but only 3 less than the Fins, Skins, Bucs, and Chiefs. How many of these teams have to play the Pats 2 times a year? We have had a rough time, but we are far from the worst team over the past 10 years. Anybody get any solace from this? I don't get much, but I do believe that our Bills are better than they are given credit for. The 15 year drought has a lot to do with our division and conference. And some bad coaching and drafts, some stupid free agent signings (Dockery) and losses. I don't feel so badly when I run this through my pea brain.

I'd dig up whoever coached the Giants line when they went to the Super Bowl with two Bills cuts as staters....Dusty Zeigler and Glenn Parker. The Patriots line is always top notch, even after they traded Mankins. We need an OL coach who knows wtf he/she's doing. We drafted two first team All-Americans, and neither one contributed in a positive way. We had a budding star in Glenn, and his play was not up to his own standards. Eric Wood was a really good center until this year. We have some talent, but I just don't think our OL coach can be ruled anything more than incompetent. Look what happened to CJ Spiller!! He was a top flight fantasy pick going into last year, and dropped right off the charts. The team got 13 yards against the 27th ranked run defense in the league!! It all starts in the trenches. Our defensive trench is fine. Our offensive trench is horrible. One guy who I hope comes back is Freddie. Dude never stopped hammering on Sunday. Always gives it all. I don't think the Rams want to invest the money it will take to keep Bradford. He's cost them several fortunes and has not been able to play. They said they want to keep him, but I don't believe a word they say.

QB Bradford RB's Freddie, Bryce, and Boobie OT Glenn and Seantrel C Wood G two new guys TE Chandler and a new guy WR Sammy, Robert, Hogan Keep everybody on defense, add Kiko Have a good draft, get a new OC and OL coach. Hopefully the OL can get something out of Cyrus, Cyril and Williams. It is ironic that Marrone prides himself on being an offensive line guy, yet the offensive line is so bad. He possesses a brilliant offensive mind, but our offense is lethargic. That's why a new Quarterback is the key.

Now that's a decisive move!! Lose to the 2-12 Raiders, come home and make a bold move. Next year: 16-0.

We're fans, bro. We're all angry at this. I'm not drinking kool-aid. In fact, I saw this loss coming down the pike. It was an easy pick. I have a guy at work who had his elimination pick....he asked if he should take Buffalo to win. $1200 on the line. I told him no. I told him to take New England over the Jets. He took Buffalo. He's out. You can't dump everybody. I would dump Hackett for sure. Make Dougs get a new offensive line coach. Jeesh, these guys couldn't block Trott Vocational. I think EJ may turn out to be a star. He's got all the tools, and he seems to be intelligent. Needs coaching.

My son had a basketball game right in the middle of this, so I was not able to meet the St. Louis Bills Backers for the game. I taped NFL Red Zone and tried to keep up with the game. They were so focused on the Dallas game, they barely referenced the Bills game. Which in itself shows the obsession with the Cowboys. the Red Zone is supposed to keep you up on all the games, especially when teams are in the red zone. At some point in the 3rd, right after the Bills allowed 2 first downs on 3rd and long due to crap tackling, I started going Tourette's, shut it off, and went to the computer to see the final score. Lost. I missed a few things that would have killed me. Giving up a 51 yard pass on 3rd and 22? Punting on 4th and 1? Giving 140 yards on the ground to the worst offense in the league? Our vaunted running attack getting 13 yards on 13 carries? It is for those reasons that the Bills must be chopped. Keep the main ingredients and lose the rest. Tear up that OL and bring in somebody who can coach an offensive line. Get rid of Hackett. I'm glad they hired that quarterback coach, an expense that turned EJ into a mess and allowed Orton to flounder in mediocrity. Get rid of that guy too. Bring in Chan Gailey to call the plays. One more thing: Beat the Patriots and give us some hope for next year.