Buffalo86

"One of the largest trades ever made in National Football League history occurred on Halloween Day in 1987. The marquis name in the three-way deal between the Los Angeles Rams, Buffalo Bills, and Indianapolis Colts was Hall of Fame running back Eric Dickerson." And, as we all know, netted us Cornelius Bennett. A slam dunk deal, right? Let's take a look at the deal & consider what might have been. OK, so let's start with Bennett. He was a beast in Buffalo, pretty much from the day he arrived. Moving on to what we gave up: RB Greg Bell exploded for 1336 yards & 18 TDs in '88, following with 1222 and 15 in '89. He was pretty much done after that. And if we still had him, we probably wouldn't have drafted Thurman in '88. Then again, maybe we would, and we wouldn't have the ball bouncing off of Ronnie Harmon's hands vs the Browns in '89. As for the picks they traded, here are some multi-year Pro Bowlers they could've had: 1988 (14): WR Anthony Miller (15), G Randall McDaniel (19), LB Chris Spielman (29), CB Eric Allen (30) Miller was a field-stretching WR who made the Pro Bowl in '89, '90, '92, '93, & '95. He would've been an upgrade over Lofton at that point in their respective careers, and could've continued to pair with Andre Reed as an unstoppable duo for years to come. The Bills drafted WR Bernard Ford (don't even remember the guy) with their 2nd pick of the '88 draft, so WR was definitely in their plans. McDaniel was a HOF G who made the Pro Bowl every year from '89-00 & would've improved any O-line. But, being that the Bills didn't take a single G with any of their 14 picks in '88, he probably wasn't on their radar. Spielman was one of the best ILBs of his day, among the league leaders in tackles every year and going to the Pro Bowl in '89, '90, '91, and '94. Pairing him with Conlan on the inside would've given opposing OCs fits. Add in Darryl Talley, and you'd think the Bills could find someone good enough to man the other side without an overall dropoff. And we know the Bills were in the market for a LB, even though Bennett & Spielman didn't play the same position... Allen was a ball-hawking CB who made the Pro Bowl in '89, '91, '92, '93, '& 94. And we all know the Bills' propensity to spend first round picks on CBs. On to '89, here are some Pro Bowlers who would've been available: 1989 round 1 (26): OG Steve Wisniewski, CB Carnell Lake (34) 1989 round 2 (53): TE Wesley Walls (56), C Mark Stepnoski (57), TE Marv Cook (63) Admittedly, this is revisionist history at its finest. Still I think there's an argument to be made that we could've been better off without Bennett.

Indeed. I think it was SI's Peter King who kept talking about how smart Colts GM Chris Ballard was to mend fences with the Patriots after Deflategate, which made it possible to lure McDaniels away. So much for that.

Maybe the Colts don't value "gentlemen's agreements" the way our FO does. Rumor had it that the Giants were "desperate" to trade up for Mahomes, but we already had such an agreement in place with the Chiefs. I think there's a lesson to be learned from this.

Buddy Rip Van Nix fell asleep under a tree the night before free agency opened & woke up just in time for the season. When he spent his first two picks on Spiller and Troup, I distinctly heard the sound of a toilet flushing. But never let it be said that he was not highly skilled in the ways of the dumpster dive.

I've been warming up to that idea myself. 5 picks in the top 65 could plug quite a few holes. 5, to be exact. Jackson @ 12 Vander Esch @ 22 Some combination of WR, OT, CB, OG/C, DE, RB Playoffs!

Maybe he can get in on the ground floor of Polian's new league!

It would depend on how the rookie progressed. Assuming AJ started all year, only the coaches would have any idea of that.

This is from over a year ago. Being that we made the playoffs with Taylor, I think we would've done pretty well (at least in the short term) with a healthy Romo. Therein lies the rub.

Totally agree with those who said Freaks & Geeks. Undeclared isn't quite on that level, but it also deserved more time. The same goes for Get a Life, which was hilarious in an awkwardly painful way.

The world had only 4 oceans.

The haters have been right for a very long time. I happened to be fortunate enough to know exactly when it was time to change sides.

I was floating out of nyc nightclubs and finding daylight.

Drops a lot of balls, cries when he gets tackled. No.

Just say he wasn't buying in and fire him. Done.

Oh snap!

Pretty close. Starting Seneca Wallace for a game in '13 (and starting Scott Tolzien the next 2 weeks) ended a streak that began in '92. Before that it was all Majkowski, Favre, Rodgers, & Flynn.

Meanwhile, the last time the Patriots started a QB that they DIDN'T draft was 1993. That's 24 seasons.

It's things like the 4 replay reviews that overturned TDs in the Pats' favor that make me suspicious. This one, not as much.

I agree to a certain extent, but that makes having Tolbert as our #2 for most of the season even more of a head-scratcher. We didn't find Cadet until the season was half over. He's also never been used much as a running RB; his 23 carries this season are more than double what he'd amassed in any other season prior.

Last week he was all power, but without the power. I marveled at the fact that Dion Lewis regularly required 3+ Bills to bring him down, while Tolbert hit the deck on first contact.

Agree to disagree. I thought he looked like a solid #2, so spending most of the season on a team's practice squad before being signed to the team with the best 1-2 punch of RBs doesn't seem like a ton of interest to me. Of course, it's just as likely that I overvalued his worth.

He got paid $30K a week to be on Denver's practice squad, which works out to $510k over a 17 week season. He was signed by the Saints in November for a deal that pays him an average of $645k a year. Not exactly top dollar, and quite a bit less than what Tolbert's collecting.

And that Williams generated so little interest from the rest of the NFL. I truly believe there's a sordid tale in there somewhere.

I'd say enough money has already been spent on Tolbert.

Will the Chiefs face a 17 year haunting, courtesy of the ghost of Alex Smith?