Mickey

Actually I am interested in reality and "all the pieces are in place" is not what I would call reality. Rather than babbling on about what you think some people prefer, why don't you talk about the team, like I did, and if you disagree, tell my where I am wrong? Do we not have two rookies, two guys at new positions and one third tier FA as our starting offensive line? Did we not go 0-6 in the divison? Is the defensive backfield not the same absent Jabari Greer who was a pretty good player? Don't we have the same QB who goes to the check down quicker than you can say "punt"? Did we or did we not trade our only pro bowler? Is Schobel older and coming off of an injury? Is Lynch going to miss three games to start the season or is that just a product of my pessimism? Anything is possible from the playoffs to 0-16 but after being a fan of this team and this league for many a year, this looks more like a rebuilding year to me than a "we finally have all the pieces in place" kind of year. By the way Dad, could you shoot me a lits of what kind of speculation as to the team's fortunes are permitted without drawing your disapproval? Do I have to predict rainbows and lollipops all the time or am I permitted to occasionally point out that a really crappy player is a really crappy player, even if he is in a Bills uniform?

Funny how winning championships seems to be endlessly rewarded. I can't stand him but that lucky little $%@#$% wins.

It may also stem from what other people think of our QB situation, an opinon perhaps gleaned from the nationally televised tent folding lesson Trent gave the country against Cleveland.

"All the pieces are finally in place"???? I am not sure which one of these balloons I want to pop with a reality pin first. Schobel is on the backside of his career and is coming off of a serious injury that hasn't healed completely. Kelsay sucks. Denney sucks. Maybin is an undersized rookie who will be a likely liability against the run. So I am not sure why anyone would think that our anemic pass rush is going to make a major turn around. One of our best players, Lynch, is out for the first three games, assuming he can make it to opening day without another run in with the law. There isn't a team in the league that fears Josh Reed. For a franchise WR with the talent he has, Evans' numbers were pretty sad last year. Was it his fault? Was it the QB's fault for not having the gonads to go deep more regularly? Was it the OC's fault? Since we have the same QB, the same OC and Evans is still Evans, not much has changed. Sure, TO is a big change but I am not sure that a group whose numbers were among the crappiest in the league suddenly becomes among the best in the league due to the addition of one player. The TE position is being manned by the same stiffs last year less one stiff with the addition of one promising rookie. Hardly a titanic shift in quality just yet. I am not sure what you are thinking about at DB. We have the same guys as last year pretty much though we did lose Greer, a guy who made a lot of plays despite his lack of an impressive pedigree. Don't confuse their runback abilities with picks and returns with their ability to cover. As for the LBs, Poz has been nothing more than ho-hum average and Ellison is only on the field because we have had too many other spots to upgrade to get a linebacker too. The offensive line is now depending on a RT who no none has ever thought could play LT starting at LT. Then we have a guy we long ago decided was a G and not a T, being moved out to RT. We are then filling up the inside with two rookies and a third tier FA. Our depth will come from the practice squad. As for our QB, he is quick to give up on the downfield routes in favor of the dump offs the defense gives because they won't move the chains. If that habit isn't enough to give you cause for concern regarding his guts, watch a tape of the Cleveland game. An Origami champ couldn't a fold a tent that quick. McKelvin is older and hopefully ready to justify the high pick. Hopefully Trent took a trip to Oz and got some courage. Hoepfully TO will kick some complacent butts. Lots of hope to go around but really, this is looking more like a rebuilding year than a playoff year. Tell me what we have done that is so markedly better than what the other teams in the division have done this offseason that we can expect to go from 0-6 to, say 4-2? Really, the PATS get league MVP Brady back and our biggest achievment this off season was to divest ourselves of our only pro bowler.

Words = 0 Mike Williams gave great interviews.

Schobel has 7.5 sacks over the last 2 years and will be entering his 9th season with an injury that is still not 100% healed. I am somewhat skeptical that coupling an undersized rookie with a fading, wounded vet is going to result in our having an "imposing" defense. Realistically, Maybin is here to replace Schobel more than to play with him. I am hoping that Schobel recovers and has some fight left in him but it simply is not realistic to think that he has more than a couple good years left in him. We don't even know if Maybin will be on the field save for obvious passing situations given his size and vulnerability to the run. By the time Maybin is ready to make an impact, Schobel will likely be gone. Maybin is an exciting prospect and given our situation, we pretty much had no choice but to take a chance on him. I don't want to see people draping him with unreasonable expectations in his first year. I won't be disappointed if he defense is not "imposing" this year. It'd be nice though.

Well, it would allow a decent offense to arrive in town one year earlier than it would if wait for another year of failure before we are willing to admit the obvious. We just ditched the equivalent of three starters off the offensive line. So if you are hoping to avoid the pain of rebuilding, too late, we are already rebuilding. Unfortunately, we are using the same architects that already built one house of cards.

Evans was already, as a high first round pick, making a ton and the team negotiated with him from the get-go. Evans was also not exactly setting the league on fire. They made Evans the third highest paid receiver in the league despite the fact that he finished 19th in yards, 33rd in receptions and 61st in TD's. The year before he was 45th in catches, 32nd in yards and 36th in TD's. With performance like that, I can see why he was perfectly happy with that contract. Peters' situation was entirely different. I just don't get how easily people villify the guy and give the front office a pass given the mediocrity that front office has, year in and year out, produced on the field. Where is the outrage over guys like Schobel, Kelsay and Evans whose performance on the filed is waaaaaaay below what they are getting paid? At least this year people will have to blame someone else for what happens rather than hanging all their anger on what was our only pro bowler.

That will only matter if we send out WR's on patterns deeper than 7 yards and if Trent actually throws to them.

Why is it that you consider an employee who tries to get the highest salary he can to be greedy and selfish or not a "team player", whatever that means? Have you ever turned down a raise for the good of the team? Freddie isn't playing a game for kids, he is earning a living out there. When Freddy's kids go to college, will the team be paying their tuition or Freddie?

If Reed is the heart of our offense, that would explain why our offense sucks. And whether or not he has "embraced Buffalo" or not is totally meaningless. I am not looking for a hug, I want wins. There isn't a team in the league that is wondering how they are going to cover Reed. The last thing we need is another "nose clean" likable guy who has so little talent that when he makes a play once every 10 freaking games, we all go nuts. He is the human equivalent of a 7-9 season, not so bad, but not so good either.

Yeah but the things you do to win games outside the division seem to help you win in the division as well. Its talent more than game planning time that we lack.

His performance in the Cleveland game has left me with serious doubts about his mettle. I am not sure that even if he were healthy, he could lead us anywhere. There is only so far the 3 yard dump offs he has become known for can take a team.

That remains to be seen Suzy but I love how cute and perky you are. This is a team that lost every single division game last year. This is a team that finished the year losing eight of its last ten games, winning only against the 2-14 Chiefs and the collapsing Broncos. Hint: if you only beat teams at the bottom, you are a bottom feeder. This is also a team whose QB suffered a complete loss of courage under fire when things go tough against the Browns. And we won't have our best back for the first 4 games. Could they get lucky with scheduling? It could happen. Could Jauron turn from the guy who gave away the Jet game to Lombardi reborn? I guess its possible. All any of us can do is hope but the fact is, we didn't do anything this off season to gain ground on the three teams that wasted us in the division last year. A good case could be made that we lost ground. What you see as a dramatic improvement, signing Owens, much of the league looks at it as sheer, pathetic desperation. Perhaps you noticed the lack of a bidding war over his services. Either our people are smarter than the rest of the league, soemthing that is clearly not true, or we were the only team around so desperate that we were willing to try anything, even signing Terrel Owens.

I think of the picks we spent on CB's and the players we could have picked instead if we didn't have to replace him. I also think of how he never missed a tackle and how the Pats used to always throw away from him. Of course, what do the Patriots know compared to the team of brainiacs that have run the Bills into the ground?

There is a reason no one has played this guy on the left side. It is not as if he is some sort of mystery, he has been in the league long enough for there to be a body of film on the guy showing what he can and can't do. I wish him the best out there on the left side, he is basically all we have barring rapid and unexpected development of someone from the practice squad.

Yeah, that is all that stands between our "sack free" defense and the elite defenses of the league, one washed up, released LB.

4) We go to the land of dreams and there, in the lollipop forest, the King of the Fairies casts a spell on three friendly ogres riding Unicorns, transforming them into pro bowlers in Bills uniforms. I think that "something special" might be the number one pick in the draft.

No one would be that stupid....er, oh, right *sigh*.

Amazing how this simple reality eludes the grasp of so many.

What offense is that? Do you mean the one that lost a 2 time pro bowler? The same one where the entire line save the RG is either a rookie, in their first year starting, playing a new position or a combination of those? I just hope Trent's health insurance has no co-pay for ER visits.

I am going to be optimistic and predict a 4-12 season.

We hear these same descriptions every year. I have yet to hear, of a draft choice, that "he doesn't really care for football" or that "he doesn't like to hit people", etc. You rate a player by the results he produces on the field, not by the quality of his post draft interview or the accolades heaped on him by fans, coaches and columnists. Right now it is all talk and hope.

Not every whiney beyotch, just the ones who make the pro bowl twice. And really, the point isn't what they pay this or that player, the point is winning and the Bills don't do that. When you regularly lose and spend the post season on the golf course, your personnel decsions, especially when it involves dumping a two time pro bowler in his prime, are legitimately going be called into question. The Patriots let go of players but not guys in their prime, for them they break the bank. The guys they let go are the guys on the backsides of their careers like Lawyer Milloy. The Bills on the other hand, break the bank for aging, fading vets, like Schobel. The results are pretty obvious on the field.

Jeeezus, you do realize it was the Bills that were 0-6 in the division last year and not the Patriots? Don't you? It isn't the benefit of the doubt at work here, it is actual, honest to goodness, on the field results. Facts, not conjecture. People don't unfairly think we sucked last year, we really and truly did. And we "fixed" it by dumping our one pro bowler. And he wasn't just "hailed" as a pro bowler, he actually was a pro bolwer, twice.