BuffaloRush

He saying all the right things. I really hope he can take a step forward this season

You might be right and it’s probably why he was a 7th round draft pick. I’m just reporting what Joe B said. He said Durpe looked really good in OTA’s and compared him to Stevie Johnson back in the day. Like I said, it’s easily for WR’s to shine without pads or contact. We’ll see what happens when it matters

Uh no.... everything I wrote about was discussed on The Bills Beat podcast

listen here: The comment about KB comes at the end. Fairburn said it looks like he’s always fighting an injury. Joe said he’s like a TE who runs like a WR so that’s why. Its almost June and Zay recently had knee surgery. Lets say he’s back at full strength in 6-8 weeks. That leaves him just a few weeks of work before the season starts. Their point was, when Sammy missed preseason time it seemed to affect his play on the field. Sammy is much better than Zay. How is the missed time going to effect a player like Zay who is coming off a disappointing rookie year?

I know the feeling. I had a Bills winter jacket and back then kids had just one heavier winter coat for those cold January and February months. I dreaded going into schol wearing that coat on Monday after a SB loss

Listening to The Bills beat podcast and Joe Buscaglia shared some surprising names that might make an impact at WR. These are names you might expect. First odd Joe and Fairburn really share their concerns about the WR corps. They feel that Kelvin Benjamin looked like he’s “laboring” on the field and that Zay Jones is a huge question mark. With Zay missing the preseason with a knee injury, he’s really going to behind the 8 ball after a very disappointing rookie year. If he falters it’s a miss on Sean McDermott and if Benjamin fails to take a step forward it’s a whiff on Brandon Beane who traded a 3rd for him. But the more interesting part was when Joe shared the names of some WR’s who might contribute this season - and they are names you wouldn’t expect: Malachi Dupree - he had been getting reps with the first team at OTA’s and has been very impressive on the field. There must have been a reason why the Bills kept him on the practice squad last year - potentially because they saw him as a developmental player. Quan Bray - another player that might surprise you. Great burst of speed and a very good route runner. Austin Prohel - Said the Bills and their QB’s really love this kid. It would be an upset if he gets an active roster spot but he’s done a lot of good things over the past two days. Most of us weren’t really expecting these players to make the roster. If they do, you’ll see significant turnover with veterans like Andre Davis or Jeremy Kerley potentially gone. And who knows what happens with Zay? So time will tell if there is legitimacy to these thoughts or if these WR’s will end up as another Dez Lewis.

Ive been saying this for months now. If you want to play the “luck” games there’s many examples you could find through NFL history. There are teams that, by some people’s definition, lucked into a Super Bowl. Its all part of the game.

Again, I’m stealing a really interesting topic from Howard and Jeremy and twisting it around to share here. Question is - what moments in Bills history made you cry? This is a serious question too - so no embellishing. I mean - I was thrilled when they broke the playoff streak but I didn’t cry over it (like Russ Brandon was rumored to be doing). It’s an interesting idea and I’d love to hear your responses. All of my moments were as a youngster. I haven’t cried over football but certainly have felt a myriad of different emotions: Super Bowl 25 - I remember losing it when Norwood shanked that kick. I was literally in tears and finished with Scotty as a kicker. Looking back, Scotty was on the decline in 1990 and should not have been in that position. I fault the Bills for holding onto a player that they should have upgraded from for a season too long. Also there’s a lot of blame to pass around for that game. New England 16, Buffalo 13 I never saw this knew coming. New England was a terrible team that year and they pulled off a giant upset. The Bills actually struggled against the Patriots earlier in the season, but I never could have called this one. I remember having to run around the block after the result of this game. Jets 24, Bills 17 - 1992 This was “The Dennis Byrd Game.” I was in shock that the Bills lost to such a bad team. Super Bowl 26 The score made this one seem a lot closer than it was. To me this just seemed like a slaughter. Nothing that the Bills did seemed to work on offense and the defense was getting shredded. Just a clear nightmare. Houston 27, Buffalo 3 - 1992 This was supposed to be an AFC Showdown. But instead it was the game that went off the rails for the Bills. Houston knocked Jim Kelly out of the game and absolutely owned the Bills. I remember being sad not just because they lost because it seemed their time at the top was nearing an end. I remember thinking, “well, it’s over. It was fun while it lasted.” This game was a Sunday evening game if I can recall and it wasn’t pretty. Therr were plenty other moments as an adult where I was livid, angry, or pissed off but never reduced to tears. How about your moments....

Yeah this is not a good sign for Daboll’s offense. We should be very scared. Mike Alstott he is not

Cover 1???? Get real... I thought it was a reputable source.

Clearly he did belong in the NFL. He was not an All-Pro by any means but did have several productive seasons. Numbers don’t lie

It’s a great point that I’ve said many times. Norwood was not a good kicker in 1990. He had reached his peak in 1988 and two seasons later he was no longer as reliable, especially from 40+ and especially from kicking in grass fields. Making a 47 FG for Norwood is probably the equivant to havong Steven Hauschka kick a 60 yard FG in 2018. There’s a chance he could make the kick, but it’s likely a long shot. Hate to say it, but Marv and the coaching staff was completely out coached by Parcells and Belichick. They outworked and outsmarted Buffalo early on, and they just couldn’t respond. But I agree - it was an overall team loss. Still....what could have been....

Was Tom Donahoe any worse than Marv Levy, Buddy Nix or Doug Whaley? He wasn’t probably equally as bad. I don’t think that you can he turned everything team back 20 years. If anything you can call his run distinguishable from the other GM. I feel that out of the GM’s from 2001-2017, Donahoe might have been the best - Which again isn’t saying much.

Buffalo BILLS history... not Sabres

Context though. He certainly was a whiff but he was a low round 1st rounder. There have been much worse examples

This is my list, and it doesn’t have to be since 2000. My choices are only from 2000 since I do think it makes things more relevant. I think Jeremy’s defense of Williams was that he was the top LT coming out of college. Most teams would have taken him high and he was considered as “solid” of a draft choice as any that year. Right but very rarely was he a game changer. Also you can argue he was a selection that the Bills did not need to make given the strength of the RB position on the roster at that time. It was a huge whiff

This is an underrated choice that not many people remember because of the success of Flutie for a few season. But the Bills traded a #1 and #3 for a QB with very little experience. In hindsight they gave up a lot for a very average QB

There are people like Hap who will completely defend Whaley no matter what. I don’t get it.

Interesting topic from WGR this morning. Jeremy White was talking abou the biggest whiffs in Buffalo sports history since 2000. He used both the Bills and Sabres but for the sake of this discussion we’ll focus on just the Bills. Remember a whiff doesn’t necessarily have to be all draft busts. It more about getting some of the really big and important decisions completely wrong. Also it’s important to consider the negative impact on the organization. For example, signing Shawn Merriman was a whiff, but it didn’t really impact the team that much. Here are my choices and I keep everything current so this is only since 2000. Hiring Rex Ryan - this was JW’s top choice and mine as well. Rex did some major damage in Buffalo. Terrible hire. Trading for Sammy Watkins - this was an agressive move by a bad GM that backfired. Whaley basically pushed all his chip to the table and gambled with this move on both Sammy and EJ. He’s now out of a job. This move was so reckless it drives me nuts Re-signing Ryan Fitzpatrick to a long-term deal Prospector Buddy Nix thought he found gold...except it was fool’s gold. The quick decision to extend Fitz, committed the team to a QB that was a fringe starter and resulted in them passing on other choices like drafting Russell Wilson. This was the start of QB purgatory. Drafting CJ Spiller This was a foolish move when the team had 2 good RB’s in Fred and Marshawn Lynch. CJ also never turned out to be much as a starting RB. Marv Levy as GM A terrible and selfish choice by Ralph Wilson. This move would ramp the drought into high gear. Lets hear some of your choices!

You can argue that there factors that made his job harder for sure, but to say that he was “unfairly criticized” is a bit much. Go back through his tenure from an objective standpoint and you should see them. Also notice how very few players, coaches or media members go out of their way to praise Whaley? Most have negatives opinions of him based on the job he did in Buffalo, and it Tim Graham’s reporting has it right, he was about to get canned in 2015 along with Russ after Marrone walked out. But The Pegula’s needed their help with the coaching search and ended up forming a “bond.” When you think of it, it’s probably best for all parties of those ties were severed 3 seasons ago. Whaley did draft some nice talent - which he had a reputation for being a good talent evaluator. But you make it sound like he hit homeruns every draft. His drafts were average to below average. Also notice how most of his draft picks succeeded when they were off the team? Shows that he had no clue how to build a team and very little long-term planning (take a look at their salary cap) Then there’s EJ,Sammy, Marcel’s deal, so much you can get into. But the the bottom line is that in 4 seasons as GM, Doug was 30-34 and did little to find a franchise QB. Most GM’s don’t get a second contract based on those numbers. (Though I believe Doug did get a second deal. Good thing Terry came to his senses)

I was down on the idea of a roast and I stand by it. I’ll give this - Fitz and even Murph were funny as hell. Watch the rest of the roasters on that YouTube channel. They aren’t really funny and I think part of the reason was that Fred is not a great person to roast What did he say about rehab and a dog and peanut butter? I didn’t understand that joke

So basically this roast was everything I thought it would be. Fitz was hilarious.... the rest of the roasters sucked

It doesn’t take a rockwt scientist to figure out their model was severely outdated even a few years ago. I feel bad because I fell that the content in the News is very high quality. The other thing that I think made everyone scratch their heads was the whole Bliss Blitz paywall. Again, the content and reporters (despite what some may think) are actually good. But with so many news outlets available for free on the internet both locally and nationally, the idea to pay for sports coverage didn’t seem like it would work. ESPN is even having issues with premium accounts

I agree. Basically it seems like Ralph was never the same after Donahoe. He took a huge leap of faith by giving the most money and control of any Bills GM to date. From that point on he was reluctant to hire anyone outside of the organization as GM. Everyone was an internal candidate, really until 2017. I don’t think I would agree that everyone knew. Most of the Bills fans, and the city of Buffalo were pumped! In the end it was a terrible decision but at the time, the move energized the city.

I actually was excited for the Rex hire as was most of the fan base. Looking back though - man what a disaster