Mickey

...and what was the problem with this country before the '60's or did we have none?

Yes, it worked well for Lee Harvey Oswald and Timothy McVeigh. I think the tail hook disaster was also a particularly instructive example of the military version of how to "be a man". I wouldn't blame the military for these black eyes anymore than I would give it blanket credit as a panacea worthy of being forced upon the unwilling. Plenty of good men have never held a rifle and plenty of bad men collect them and vice versa.

Maybe it is the result of the bad karma produced by our hoping for an injury to a starting back somewhere else so that we could get a 5th round pick for Travis.

Pretty much any time Aiken was on the field we were in a 4 receiver set and often enough we were going with three.

We didn't have a chance at Nugent as it turned out and frankly, I have no idea if there really is anyone out there any better than Lindell. I gotta believe there is but damned if I know who.

Yep, it was even worse, I try to block it out but it haunts me still.

If the only way we get much value for Henry is if some team loses their starter to a season ending injury and on top of that, doesn't have a second stringer they are comfortable with as a starter then we are in a bad situation. Effectively, we are hoping on dumb luck to get us out of this mess. That is not a personnel strategy. I just don't understand how we can even call him the third best available RB if not a single team was willing to part with a lousy third rounder to get him. Denver was more interested in Maurice Clarett than Travis. We need to accept the reality that the league does not think much of Travis Henry as a running back. That should come as no surprise to us, we don't think much of him which is why we spent a first round pick to find his replacement. It certainly is possible that the siutation will be resolved when other backs get hurt but I would hardly describe waiting around hoping just the right back gets seriously hurt at the right time to be in the catbird's seat. This is absolutely not where wanted to be. Granted, maybe we will get lucky but that is all it will be, luck.

I gotta give it to Kendra, annoying though she may be. She pretty much won the last two tasks on her own. I lost respect for Tanna when she and Craig went to bed while Kendra pulled an all nighter on that Pontiac brochure for the Solstice. Tanna had immunity so she didn't care if they won or lost. Last night, she is the one who came up with the idea of having Brito's asst. contact all those Brito collectors and invite them to the exclusive sale of his t-shirt design which is what won them the task. The more Tanna talked about her long ago "Bedazzler" tour de force, the more she sounded like Cpt. Queeg and his "duplcate key to the storage locker" past glories.

I am glad to hear so many people express confidence in Lindell and I hope it rubs off on me but I am afraid he will give us something to worry about all year. He made plenty but he wasn't challenged much this year to hit anything long and when he was, he did not fare well. I won't bother listing all the 25 yarders he nailed since there is no diputing that from close in, he was sharp all year, well almost all year. Against the Jags he missed from 42 and we lost by 3, youch. Against Oakland we punted from the Raider 37 rather than try a 54 yarder which, though admittedly out of most kicker's ranges is the type of kick the elite guys, the guys on playoff teams, are able to make. In fact, we passed up similar opportunites because of his limited range 7 times. He missed from 43 at home against the Fins with the score Miami 10, Bills 7 He missed in Miami from 38 and of course, there is the now infamous 38 yard miss against Pittsburgh. For my money, I wouldn't trust him at any distance in a high pressure, must make situation. Apart from that, he is adequate from inside 35 to 40 yards. I just don't think you get far in to the playoffs with a kicker like that. I hope TD is thinking about this even if there really is no better option for us at the moment.

That is a good point. When I said he was a bargain, I was speaking strictly in terms of draft picks. I don't bother with the money, just whether the guy helps you win. I'd love to be a fly on the wall in the office of various NFL GM's when they are considering the value of Henry. I have a sneaky suspicion that money and draft picks aside, they just don't think much of his running ability. Think of how often teams have signed marginal FA's for overpriced contracts, it happens all the time and yet Henry is barely getting a sniff. You have to wonder whether people think he really any good on the field.

The poster that started the thread said: "Everyone acts like it was a huge mistake not to trade Henry before/during the draft. Am I the only one that thinks the Bills will get better value for Henry during training camp or in the preseason?" That sounded to me like he was saying this situation was a blessing but maybe I read too much into that.

They are priced right out of the market, Henry was at bargain basement prices and still no takers. Maybe we should throw in a set of dishes and see if we get a nibble.

You may be right but at the present, they are available and are better backs than Henry. Frankly, the league doesn't seem to percieve Henry to really be a starter since nobody would part with even a third round pick for him. Fact is, we didn't see him as a starter either which is why we drafted Willis. Apparently, other teams agree. All indications are that he is not a hot property at all. Aren't some more backs goint to be released by various teams in June? There is no denying that he just isn't worth all that much and if he were, he'd be gone already. The mode we are in now is hoping for a season ending injury to a starting back on a team without an established second option. I'm sorry but to me, that sounds more than a little desperate. Hoping for a bolt from the blue is not sound investment strategy. I don't deny it could happen but the idea that this was a smart play by the front office, the strategy all along, is just silly. They might not have had a choice but certainly, the plan was to get rid of him long ago. This is not where TD wanted to be with Henry.

I am ranking their choices strictly base on who is the better back. Certainly, a team might decide to pick up a lesser back as you indicate but I think the assumption that teams will want the player that gives them the best chance at winning is pretty sound. Consider also how poorly thought of Henry must be right now aroung the league. So poorly that not a single team was willing to give up a lousy third roung pick to get him. Check out the number of posts at this site where Henry is variouly referred to as everything from "cancer" to a greedy moron. I don't subscribe to that kind of thing but if that is what his former fans who know him best think, imagine how he must be perceived elsewhere. A hot commodity he aint. Fact is, there are plenty of second string backs that are just as good as he is and compared to Henry, are a bargain with none of the headaches. The surest indication of a player's value is how the "free market" reacts to his availablity and the reaction of all those teams was basically to take a pass. We need to just get what we can for him and be done with it. There is no rush so we can always wait and hope that something happens to improve our bargaining position but I wouldn't bank on it.

TD currently occupies that vast region between the Land of Suck and Genius Mountain called Mediocritania. Hopefully he is going to migrate to higher ground this year.

Well, that view is pretty similar to what we heard before the draft. That TD would get what he wanted by waiting until draft day and then he would be besieged with offers. Henry isn't the only running back out there nor is he even the best available right now. If some team does lose a starter to injury, Henry would probably be their third choice at best. Therefore, we need three starters to get hurt in camp before Henry's stock goes up. Besides, teams know that he is pretty much useless to us as it is so I doubt we would have much of a bargaining position. As it stands now, the most likely scenario is that we will have a pro bowler stewing on the bench all year who will be gone at the end of the season in exchange for nothing.

Moorman We only have one punter on the roster and he is pretty much the team MVP so....

We didn't get blitzed every down. In fact, one of our problems was the pressure teams could apply with only 4 guys. Generally teams loaded up the box on first down gambling that we would run, we usually did and usually got zip. On second down, that is when they teed it up. There is no question that on occasion Drew made a bad decision but if you look at the film game by game, play by play you will see that very few sacks were the result of Drew failing to see someone wide open and whom he had plenty of time to see. There were sacks where someone just totally blew a block, there were sacks where there was a major blitz and the WR didn't read it and there were sacks where Drew just couldn't bring himself to throw it away. There were lots of culprits. We may have solved the Drew problem but we didn't solve all the problems of this offense in one fell swoop by replacing one guy. Mike Williams needs to start playing up to his salary and McNally needs to do some major work if he is to prevent the disaster that is lurking on the left side.

What do you base this opinion on when it comes to what JP will do? I know he looked great against Northwestern State and TCU but as far as his professional experience goes, he hasn't played a game. What is this based on since it certainly isn't actual performance?

I don't understand your position here. You seem to say that Drew killed our running game but that in fact we had a perfectly good running game. It seems like every problem this team has is somehow attributable to Drew if you trace it back far enough. All I am saying is that we have problems beyond him. I did a play by play analysis after most games last year that I posted and all I'm going to tell you is that this team had problems running the ball well enough to sustain drives, especially on first down. We had receivers dropping passes, we had blocking assignments missed so badly you would have thought you were watching a little league game. Take the now infamous bootleg play at the end of the first Patriot game. The whole play depended on faking Henry to the left side while Drew went the other way. Problem was, Henry went the wrong freaking way. He went right instead of left. Meanwhile, the left takle and guard miss their blocks while Teague and Villarial let a guy in between come in untouched. Guaranteed that even if you had Superman back there instead of Drew, that play was over the minute Henry went the wrong way. Do you really think that on offensive line that has lost arguably its best player is going to go from leading this team to a 26th in the NFL finish to a top ten finish in one year by inserting a QB with zero starts under his belt simply becuase his 40 time is 5 tenths of a second better than Drew? One thing is for certain, the coaches are certainly worried about the line, look at their FA acquisitions and draft picks. They have added Gandy, Anderson, Preston, Geisinger and moved Bannan (and moved him back) to the OL and moved Peters to OT. They didn't do that because the line was great. I understand the idea that a niftier QB, a younger QB etc, is going to make some plays on his own and all that is great. Still, I have never seen a QB so nifty that he didn't need blockers and blaming Drew Bledsoe for everything from a rainy day to our zero gain runs inside the 5 is just getting old. The line needs to get better, is that so radical?

I don't think any of us have the foggiest idea whether JP will be great or the worst mistake we ever made. He is a big fat question mark. So far, he has managed to do three things in the NFL, break his leg, carry a clip board and convince the coaches that he will be better than Drew Bledsoe. The only one of those that give me any confidence in his abilities are the last one but even that is tempered by the opinion so often expressed here that Drew Bledsoe is by far the worst quarterback in all of human history. If true, that means JP managed to beat out, at least in the board room, a dead fish. I am not sure just how impressed we should be by that feat. He is working hard and saying all the right things but so did Todd Collins and RJ and lord knows how many other players here and around the league. I hope he is great but right now, I have nothing really to base that on but nearly blind faith.

None of that explains our running game problems. Granted, Drew was slow and JP is faster and more mobile and may even have a quicker release however, none of that will matter if a blitzer comes up the middle untouched as happened time and time and time again last year. Marino had "quick release" but the reason he didn't get sacked much had a lot more to do with him having a solid line and his penchant for throwing it away at the first sign of trouble. It is one of the reasons he had good stats but the Phins either didn't make the playoffs or made an early exit form the playoffs. I think we all want to believe that simply having a more nimble quarterback will transform our line from one of the worst performing units in the league to one of the best but I don't think that is realistic. There are plenty of quarterbacks who are just as slow as Drew in every department and have done fine because they had a solid line and becuase they did, a running game that had to be respected. Bill B., who has 3 Super Bowl rings to attest to the accuracy of his judgment has said or line was "for s..t". He was right and that has to change no matter who our QB is.

I agree with that, we are terrible at screens. Certainly DB was to blame in large part for that but screens require more than just a good touch to succeed. You have to fool the defense and if you don't, they are done. They are too easy to break up since there is no interference in the backfield. A DT can maul the RB as long as he is behind the line. Your lineman have to get out infront of the screen fast enough to make a difference and they have to at least manage to get in someone's way. The back needs to manage to get in the flat without tripping over someone and to make a catch in traffic and then be able to get upfield in a hurry before the defense reacts. When you are facing a defense with 8 guys in the box, even if they are blitzing, there will still be a defender close enough to make the tackle on a screen, there are just too many defenders close to the line which is where a screen pass happens. Screens are complicated plays which is what makes them so pretty when they work. Here is something I don't know. JP has a strong arm and nimble feet. He is competetive, fearless and creative. That is if you believe all the best things that are said of him which I do. What I don't recall ever hearing is that he has a great touch on screens where you have to make off balance throws in traffic that have to be in a certain spot to give the RB a chance to start running quickly and make a move. What is the basis for believing that JP is a great screen pass guy other than his quick feet? I'd love to read some articles that talk about him having that skill, it would allay some of my fears for this season.

I think our tendency to gain zero or next to zero yards on first down has more to do with defenses blitzing us than their belief that Drew wouldn't make him pay. Most blitzes are called because of the down and distance situation. You will see a lot more blitzes on 2nd and 9 than you will see on 2nd and 5 no matter who the QB is. If an unblocked blitzer comes through the line, no QB on the planet is going make a big play unless he makes that guy miss. Granted, JP will do that more than Drew but not enough to radically change the performance of the offense. Brady is a good example. Teams don't refrain from blitzing the Pats because he has lightening quick feet or makes amazingly quick reads. They don't like to blitz him because his line gives him just enough time to burn the defense. The fact that the Patriots don't end up in a lot of 2nd and 13 or 3rd and 9 situations also helps. I think Drew's lack of mobility was a scapegoat. Sure it was a problem but there are lots and lots of slow footed QB's in this league. That fact alone didn't make us the 26th ranked offense or whatever it was. Drew's having cement feet is just such an easy problem to identify that people focus on it to the exclusion of all else. Mobility is always nice but take a look at the QB's who win Super Bowls, they do it with their arm and more often than not, a good running game. Not many running plays outside of bootlegs succeed or fail based on the QB's 40 time. I'm sorry but I am old school on this one. I have yet to see an offensive system that didn't require blocking people to succeed whether the QB was Houdini reborn or a lump of lead. If JP takes us to the promised land, it will be with his arm. Good feet will be nice but QB's get into the Hall of Fame with their arms, not their legs.

The problem is they don't respect our line. You want to burn a blitzing defense? Pick up the blitz often enough to make them regret it. A good scrambler might make a play now and then but unless he is Michael Vick, defensive coordinators are not losing sleep over a quarterback's "mobility".