Mickey

Here are a few more differences: NFL Starts: DB-171, JP-0 NFL TD Passes: DB-221, JP-0 NFL Completions: DB-3,449 JP-3 We are all excited about JP and hope for the best but the reality is that he is a big fat question mark. I don't really think the offense in terms of design is going to be all that different this year at all. The plan last year was to move the ball on the ground and once McGahee was starting, that became even more of a priority. Does anyone think that is going to change all that much this year? We are still going to run first, pass second. Sure, JP is more nimble than DB but I went through every college game he played a while back and posted it all. Its not like he didn't get sacked plenty, especially on third and long. Something tells me that we aren't going to stop trying to improve our pass protection simply because we have a QB with more mobility. What you can do with JP is roll him out a bit more and run some bootlegs or QB draws now and then. Also, he will scramble and run for a first down or hit a pass after the play has broken down. That kind of thing is not by design so I don't think the playbook is going to change on that account at all. We are not going to ride into the playoffs on bootlegs and QB draws. We still need to run the ball effectively, especially on third down and we need improved pass protection. There were way too many sacks last year where DB got hit before he could draw a breath. I think people are investing the word "mobility" with almost magical properties. Realistically, you have a QB with zero NFL starts and a suspect offensive line that just lost arguably its best player.

I hope you are right about JP but your estimate is based on nothing but conjecture. For all we know, JP may be the next Elway or the next Leaf. He hasn't played so we have next to zero evidence to give us any indication how he will perform in a real game let alone an entire season of real games. If there is no way he plays worse than Bledsoe, are you convinced then that there is no way we don't win at least 10 games this year?

Winning is the only thing that matters and I think that if TD and MM were to conclude at any point that Holcomb clearly gives us a better chance of winning, they will start him. The real problems could start before the opener. What if JP stinks up the field during pre-season and Holcomb out plays him by a mile? It could happen. Who starts on opening day?

I'm sorry, did you say something?

NO, Mularkey did not challenge the call. Check out the game book for the game, it does not indicate that the play was reviewed however, the TD the Bills scored late in the 4th was reviewed and the game book indicates that so if we had challenged that play, that fact would be listed. See for yourself: Bills-Oakland Game Book from NFL.Com

Hard to believe we are all fans of the same team the way people come after you personally for daring to suggest that Joe Blow should be starting instead of Joe Schmo or that TD should have drafted the big, fat, strong guy from Texas instead of the big, fat, strong guy from Ohio. Some people can express a difference of opinion without resorting to personal insults, others just have to demonstrate to themselves how clever and brave they are by insulting a stranger they will never have to see face to face. Frankly, with some people they are never more proud of themselves than when they have achieved new levels of abrasive, insulting and boorish behaviour. Kind of like the guy who farts in a crowd and then smiles.

Arguably, Travis Henry IS the running back equivalent of Kelly Holcomb. Henry was not cosidered good enough by his own team to be the starter and they felt strongly enough about it to take a RB in the first round who had just suffered a terrible knee injury. If the Bills, who know Henry best, don't think he is an NFL starter, why would other teams want him as their starter?

I'm guessing your Viagra shipment came in early this month?

I put more value in the play of Pat Williams than you do. I think the defense may take a step back this year. I also was not encouraged by the way the defense didn't seem to be able to come up with a stop when we needed it late in the fourth. That problem started with Jacksonville on opening day and reared its ugly head again against the Steelers. As for the offense, the line will remain its achilles heel. No offense has yet been devised, no matter how mobile the QB is, that can score points consistently without blocking. Its like thinking your defense can work without tackling just because its nimble. Of course, I'm a pessimist. We won't know diddly until they take the field and that isn't until freaking August. I'll never make it.

Just my way of welcoming the new Pope with a little miracle.

What is the matter, too busy worshipping to come up with your own insults? Never seen you defend a player as much as you do TD. Tell you what, offer your kids a choice on whether they want a poster of TD in their room or JP and get back to me.

Fair enough. I just disagree. I don't think we were all that exciting until we started lining up against the worst teams in the league in the latter half of the season. I have no problem with special teams and not many on defense but that offensive line was just awful. Just my opinion. I think TD has made some real finds such as McGee. I do think he has tried to get by on the cheap when it comes to the OL and it has cost us. I think at times he has gone for the headline grabbing pick instead of what we needed. The bottom line is that if this team doesn't start making the playoffs, sooner later everyone is going to get fired, TD included. That is the way it has always been in the NFL and neither TD nor anyone else in that organization is exempt from that reality. The only thing we are really debating is the question JSP keeps asking which is simply, at what point do the lack of results on the field catch up with TD? I think that in the 5th year of GM's reign, that is a legitimate question. All the "TD Basher" name calling and all is just juvenile. It is a serious question, at what point, if any, is TD in trouble if this team continues to wallow forever on the cusp?

The Buffalo Donahoes? Sorry, I forgot how sensitive you personality cult nutcases can be. You are just the flip side of the TD basher coin.

Half the non-playoff teams in the league could come up with the same handful of mistakes that cost them just enough games to miss the dance. The only measure of success in this league for players, coaches, scouts and even GM's is ultimately making the playoffs. I see no reason to give TD a special pass that allows him to escape all blame for a franchise that is Ohfer in his tenure whereas anyother GM in the same position would have to shoulder his part of the blame. I don't know who is worse, those who find that TD can do nothing right or those whose dedication to defending his every move borders on the cultish. Are you guys fans of the team or Donahoe?

I hope he does well. I don't care for him myself but I never liked the idea of preventing a willing employee and a willing employer from entering in to a deal. When Clarett wanted to play, he should have been allowed to provided he was drafted or signed by an NFL team. Everyone needs to make a living. You don't have to be 19 to be a supermodel or an engineer, why do you have to be 19 to play pro football?

I'm sure he had a zillion options mapped out. I don't think he went in thinking "Parrish or bust". I'm sure that somewhere in the mix they made determinations both on what our biggest needs were and who were the best athletes available. Balancing all of that, they took who they took. For me, I don't really have many complaints except for Parrish. I don't doubt he has plenty of potential, I just think there were some better players at positions of greater need. I worry that we are trying too hard to copy the Steelers and picked him to have a Randle El clone on the roster. Just my opinion. Don't get me wrong, its hard to be too upset about having a 4.37 guy in the fold.

You just never know. Even when you are right you are wrong. I looked at Peters and especially moving Bannan to the OL along with the FA's and concluded that we weren't going to get an OT and I was right. However, I then concluded that we were going to try and find a DT given the loss of Pat Williams. WRONG. I just didn't see us going for a TE after taking one last year and I sure as anything wasn't thinking of a WR with Evans, Moulds, Reed, Aiken and Smith on the roster. Face it, we are on the outside looking in so all we can do is speculate pretty wildly which is half the fun. The other half being checking out how wrong we were with a few pats on the back here and there for those who managed a good guess here and there.

What really hurts is that Mel Kiper accurately predicted that we would take TE Kevin Everett in the third in his predraft predictions. I was out thunk by Mel Kiper. Whoa, that'll leave a mark.

Predraft mass hysteria, the CDC should study this stuff. It all sounded so reasonable then.

Yeah, lets all shed a tear for poor old TD because he is the first GM in the history of the NFL to have to find a decent deal for a player whining to be traded. It is his job. Its like complaining that the only reason you haven't scored a touchdown is becuase those rotten defenders keep tackling you. All the people who were waxing dreamily about the brilliant Henry trade TD was sure to pull off despite the doubts of others are now just as certain that he was brilliant for not trading Henry. Any who disagree are "TD bashers". His goal was to trade Henry for some good value, he didn't pull it off. We'll live.

Here are a smattering of brilliant pre-draft predictions culled from the fertile fields of the TSW. The authors have not been named since this is not an attempt to embarass anyone in particular. I just think it is good for some laughs on just how samart we think we are. Here goes: And if Jon Gruden settles on USC's Mike Williams over Auburn's Carnell Williams at No. 5, he might be able to pry Henry loose from the Bills for either the 36th or 71st overall pick. We couldn't even get a nibble for their 100th+ pick. I'd rather take a third from TB, Philly or Ariz. would you take a 4th? Id rather just hold onto to him if we cant get value. A 3rd is a joke. if a 3rd is a joke, what is a 4th? if alexandar, we send TH and 2nd to seattle for #25 and filler if james, we send TH and 2nd to indy for #29 and filler another cockeyed optimist A third is silly. Then you have to go find a backup. At that point F it, just keep an unhappy Henry. Turns out TD was begging for a third but no takers I would be surprised if TH and the swap of seconds doesn't happen, although I think TD also has something else up his sleeve. Surprise! While I still think that both these views are extreme and wrong, certainly the one which looks more realistic even if its unlikely is the second view that in the draft furor there may even prove to be a first for Henry (though I really doubt this will happen). Hedger if it turns out the way things are headed that the Bills will get at least the #2 thet have publicly stated was Henry's worth, if this turns our to be the case a post from you that acknowledges this reality would seem to be merited lest you would like a place in the TSW Hall of Humor next to ICE. a post acknowledging reality is indeed merited but from a different source Henry and the Bills 55th for Shelton and the Cards 44th is not enough for Travis Henry especially when their are three or more teams interested. Philly's 2nd and another pick is better than Shelton and swapping picks. Regardless, Henry is gone by tommorrow night. turns out they were not so interested My prediction is Henry doesn't go to the Cards, and we pick up Shelton in June after he is cut to compete with Khalif Barnes or Jamaal Brown, who we will trade up to get with our 2 2nd round picks. Henry to Philly. Brown was the 13th pick in the first and Barnes was the 20th in the 2nd. Since all we could get for Henry was a 4th, I'm thinking we didn't really have much of shot at those two.. If Buffalo isn't fairly compensated with at least a decent 3rd rd pick or better yet a 2nd rd pick,… "at least...", a recurring theme. Let's see. Get a second for Henry straight up, pick up Baas and Nugent. Then have an amazing talent at CB or DE that we pick up as a steal in the 3rd round. Or possibly, pick up Nugent in the 3rd round if he drops that far. Baas went first in the second round, Nugent was the 15th and we couldn't even get a third rounder for TH. Henry is traded to the Bucs for there 2nd round, in return we also add a 4th in next years draft. And a 5th in 2007 and a 6th in 2009 and.... Does anyone believe that TD is not up to something? His reputation precedes him, and whatever he may be cooking up will, hopefully, be delicious I guess the micro was on the fritz TD will get into the end of the first round, IMO. Perhaps... TH + our second rounder? Couldn't even get into the third with TH I think I would much rather see TD trade Trav for another 2 round pick. I would rather have 2 2nd rounders than a first rounder and no second. So would we all, so would we all …somewheres in the mid to late 1st rd. Maybe not. I do expect Buffalo to at least get into the early 2nd rd at the very worse. how about "at least" the 3rd round in 2006? Poll on where TH will end up on draft day: “None”, the right answer, got only 3 out of 35 votes cast. I've made numerous posts and about 95% of them have been about the Bills moving up to the latter part of the 1st rd or to the early part of the 2nd rd. That's where the real value is in this draft. Anybody who thinks that Donahoe isn't going to find a way to get us in this area of the draft better think again. Do you doubt this? I'm thinking again and I think you are 95% wrong Am It the only one who feels that TD has something up his sleeve to get us into the late first round? No, you weren't, you had lots of company, believe me, that is one crowded bus The reason they havent pulled the trigger is simple. They know people want Henry and can get something more out of the Cards for him. That seems to be playing out. Look, me and the fellas get together now and then for a friendly game of poker, I'm sure we could squeeze you in, want to play? Just so I don't leave out my own brilliant observations, I predicted that we would go for a DT. Anyone count how many of those we drafted?

Henry's worth is a tough sell. If he was so good and therefore worth better than a 4th round pick, we wouldn't have used a pick to take a chance on McGahee and his obliterated knee. Clearly, we didn't see Henry as a starter despite his yards and his pro bowl appearance. Despite all that, there were plenty of people here on the board that were convinced that TD would use Henry to get us into the first round, second at worst, and spent plenty of bandwith talking about who we should take once we got the higher pick. This isn't a criticism of TD on not having traded Henry. Instead, I just want to invite those who were so rudely dismissive of anyone who thought TD wouldn't be able to use Henry to get us back into the first or second round to give us their take now.

Thats why I like these grades coming out right after the draft. Years later when people say a team was stupid for not taking so-and-so, you can look these up and see that in real time, without the benefit of hind sight, everyone thought it was a good pick. You know that all those first round RB's are not going to be stars, at least one will be a bust. Somewhere down in the later rounds is a RB buried deep in the draft that will end up out performing Brown, Benson and/or Cadillac. When that happens, everyone will point fingers at the teams who took these guys in the first and say what idiots they were. Of course, the people raving about those guys now are the ones that will be doing all the finger pointing later.

I here we are also instersted in Matthew, Luke and Leviticus.

Let the rookies play: LT Teague LG Geisinger C Duke RG Villarrial RT Williams Look, if you have a guy nicknamed "Duke" on your roster, you have to start him, it is a League rule, look it up.