Sen. John Blutarsky

In a related story, Randy Cross' perceived IQ jumped from 64 to 147 with his brilliant commentary regarding the Buffalo Bills....

Do they still have Ochs? I'm available and I have the requisite clipboard holding skills. They won't burn a pick. It'll be Losman, Nall and a bunch of UDFAs you never heard of-ideally you'd look for a college QB who doesn't necessarily have all the "NFL tools" but can devour film and read defenses. That's what kept AVP on the team for so long. He was a second QB coach on the field. Didn't have enough arm but he could dissect film.

You are ALWAYS looking for difference makers but the reality is that you're never sure where they are going to come from. Thurman Thomas- round 2 Andre Reed- round 4 Terrell Davis- round 6 Brett Favre- round 2 Pat Williams- undrafted Karl Mecklenberg- round 12 Tom Brady- round 6 it goes on and on...on draft day all these guys had major flaws. Take all the picks seriously and look for players with the potential to be difference makers. You sign low level FAs for depth, you draft for difference.

I think we all are ignoring Marv's track record. We hardly ever moved around at all on draft day during his tenure. Sure he wasn't GM but he had a lot of input both with Polian and Butler. They were always committed to taking the best player available at your spot rather than targeting specific guys and moving aorund to get them. We never made big splashes but we were generally consistent and rarely had big misses in early rounds (JD Williams - ahem). For example in '96 Eric Moulds and Leeland McElroy were both on the board with our pick, we liked both of them and Berman who, at the time knew all our picks, didn't know what we were going to do. The current "gurus" would have been all over us to move down a little and take whichever one was still there and stockpile an extra pick. We stayed there and took Moulds then got ripped apart because he ordered a pizza to practice and some jackass GM (I forget who, Jerry Angelo maybe?) said he wouldn't have taken Moulds in any round. If we move out of that pick, get an extra 4 and get McElroy (who eventually went in round 2) do we do better or worse? There's no way to know at the time. Take the guy you want when it's your turn and be done with it unless Jesus and the Apostles are somehow falling into late round 1. The guys that jump all over the place seem to be more boom or bust (Donahoe?), Jimmy Johnson did that all the time, he'd "stockpile" picks and some years he'd do well but other years were a mess. It became popular because it worked out for him a couple times in a row in Dallas after they fleeced Minnesota and they got really really good because of it. After his initial drafting success he fell off considerably though, what happened in Miami? same strategy different results. Sure it makes for a more exciting day but I'm not sure it's a good long term strategy.

I don't have a clue who is rising but I know who is falling... Anybody with shady character issues. Pac-Man and Chris Henry's suspensions are not going to be taken lightly in the drafting process. Nobody wants to invest a high pick and the money that goes with it into a guy who shows the propensity for miscreance at this point. They are no longer worth the risk in rounds one and two and possibly 3. Before, when you had a guy who would get into trouble it would be described as a "distraction" and so long as the player didn't fail his drug test everything was fine. Now all the DUI and other issues are pressed to the front along with drug problems becuase the suspensions for repeat violations are now just as severe. The Raiders used to be the only people who did that, it became a lot more commonplace after Jimmy Johnson but now I wouldn't be surprised to see a reversion to the old ways with only a few rebel owners taking shots on guys with problems. I don't know which guy it will be but someone will drop like a rock and it will be because of off the field issues.

Nice.

4 years in a row is beyond coincidence i think. We catch anyone else after a bye? they usually hit us more than once

San Diego has reportedly balked at the inclusion of Pyrite Gal in the rumored deal for Surfratt. Apparently, San Diego found Pyrite's list of demands to be far too long to read in one sitting.

The best thign you can possibly do to Willis MCGahee is ignore him when he comes back. he's shown REPEATEDLY that he's not a self-starter but that he's a beast when well motivated, hence he destroys the Jets, it's not the Jets, it's Jonathan Vilma that gets him going. Let sleeping dogs lie.

That seems to be the MO doesn't it. Dissention in the ranks is not looked upon favorably. Vincent is gone, Moulds is gone, Spikes (who griped about Vincent being gone) is gone, Holcomb (who was the cause of the dissention-though possibly not through his own words-you never know) is gone, Willis (move the team to Toronto, et al) McGahee is gone. Makes you wonder what Nate and London were saying behind closed doors because everyone else who has left has had at least one locker room dividing thing about them. London moreso than Nate in my eyes b/c Nate was going to walk regardless. Marv went through the 89 bickering crap and you have to wonder how that shapes his thinking. The Bills made a couple subtractions after 89 that would have been ripped today. They jettisoned starting WR Chris Burkett in mid-season who then signed on with a division rival and replaced him with James Lofton who at that point was too washed up for the Raiders. They let their best pass catching back (Ronnie Harmon) and starting NT (Fred Smerlas) walk for no return via Plan B FA in the off-season. In retrospect those three guys were possibly some of the biggest me players on the roster at that point. I see a similar trand here. Me guys out, we guys in. Anyone who takes sides against the family gets the Fredo treatment.

I like Zabransky's moxie too, he could have easily closed up shop after his late turnover vs. Oklahoma. He didn't do it though, he showed cojones and came back out and won the game. Big stones from a college kid in the biggest game of his, and his entire school's life.

No they didn't. Boise's offense actually worked and their trickery was successful. Boise State trickery = Statue of Liberty play to win the Fiesta Bowl after running every other school yard play you can think of to hang close to Oklahoma Mike Mularkey trickery = Splitting Daimon Shelton out as a WR on 3rd and 1

Holcomb fixes a short term problem for them. McNabb might not be ready to start the year and they only had AJ Feeley on the depth chart to start. Now it alleviates some of the pressure on that position early in the year. Holcomb will be a nice fit for their offense like Garcia because (as we all know) he'll throw to the backs a ton. The problem with the analysis is that it misses some symbolism and the benefit for Buffalo. A. The team is now "officially" JP Losman's team. B. We don't spend over 1.5 million on a #2 QB in each of the next two years along witht he money we're givng Nall to do the same thing. If they're going to hammer Buffalo for trading their old, noodle armed, backup QB for a conditional draft choice there isn't anything they WON'T hammer them for so let it go. I agree with Carucci, Clements is a loss but he's not worth 80 million. Fletcher IS getting older and he won't see the end of this contract. Spikes hasn't been the same since he was hurt. Why prolong the inevitable by one more year? Remold the defnese the way you want it to be when you have the chance to do it w/o penalty. I like it better when they rip us, I always get squeamish when we are spoken well of this far in advance. Let us not forget the lambasting that Marv took for last year's draft class which is now lauded by the same numbskulls who killed it last year. We started two rookies at safety last year, why not a rookie or two at LB this year? As others have said I wouldn't be at all shocked to see Coy Wire at OLB this year. 6'0" 220 lbs makes him bigger than Dexter Coakley. He's not much smaller than Ellison. Look at Tampa's OLB's for size comparisons, that's what we'll be fielding so I wouldn't expect to see a 260 lb guy out there unless he's an athletic freak of nature a la Urlacher. One thing a defense with Crowell, Wire, and Ellison at LB would be is fast and we never doubted Wire's tackling it was always his coverage in space, being an OLB cuts that responsibility down significantly. The current staff is obvously building a fast defense and that almost alway equals smaller, there are exceptions and I'd like to see Willis in the middle. He might have skills similar to Cornelius Bennett but the desire to play inside that Biscuit lacked until he was older. CB would have been a killer MLB.

It was Hollis Thomas that you were thinking of. The Eagles dealt him to NO last year. I forget where he signed this off-season. He might have re-upped with them. I'm honestly a little confused about the Eagles letting Walker go. They are killing their DTs here for lack of run stoutness but gave up one of their "better" players. Maybe it is a scheme thing where he'll fit better here but something tells me not to get too excited.

How many teams will we catch coming off their bye week this year? We've had New England coming off their bye week each of the last two years and last year we played them opening day as well so they had two weeks to prepare for that one as well. Of our last 4 meetings, New England has had 2 weeks to prepare 3 times. 2 of the 3 have been in Foxboro as well. Last season that was the only team we played coming off a bye but in 2005 it happened 3 times vs. Miami, New England and San Diego. Last year we had four home games after Thanksgiving which is usually a plus for us, but only when we're good. We'll see how it works out. I was happy we didn't get Thanksgiving vs. Dallas - Dallas usually plays very well that day and they sent the Jets on top of it which is a bonus.

And there it is... I'm fine with signing Brown to an incentive laden deal. If he's healthy he's decent, if not we don't lose anything. For those who disparaged Antowain Smith he was part of a RB by committee that won a Super Bowl in New England. Nobody is asking Brown to carry the whole load. Brown and Thomas get the bulk of carries-if someone gets hot in a game ride em til they drop, Shaud Williams plays obvious passing downs. I agree with other who suggest that if we do this we can roll the dice a bit on a RB in later rounds. Bottom line is we need at least one more person to tote the rock, if we dont get a FA we need to draft a guy reasonably high. If we sign another platooner it gives us more flexibility and leverage in the draft.

Sanders had to make someone miss in the backfield on almost every carry. If he ran behind Emmitt Smith's o-line where Emmitt didn't have to do anything but run straight for at least 6 yards before doing anything Sanders' numbers would have been beyond comprehension. I totally disagree re: Barry being able to control a game, Barry made an entire offense by himself. He made Scott Mitchell a 4,000 yard passer because the ENTIRE defense was geared to stop him and he STILL got yards. Unfortunately I never saw Jim Brown apart from NFL Films footgae and that never does the old players justice because they always look slow.

psst....isn't it Marmalard? don't interrupt, he's on a roll....

Least: Ronnie Harmon Most: Chris Spielman

I've seen a lot of Tony Hunt. He pushed the pile but his biggest successes seemed to be on draws rather than slamming the ball. That may be an effect of PSU's line and offense, we'll see. My issues with Hunt are/were: 1. He's painfully slow. I don't care what he ran in shorts, on the field he's a slug. He had many opportunities for big plays at PSU but never got them because he couldn't get away from defenders at the college level and one of PSU's major problems this season was they had no big play potential running the ball w/o Micheal Robinson and Austin Scott. i don't see that improving. In contrast, Larry Johnson frequently ran away from people at PSU. 2. he has a penchant for putting the ball down quite a bit. I don't have the exact totals but it sure felt like he fumbled a lot.

Wow, it's a good thing Buffalo picked a RT at #4 a couple years ago. They won't ever decide he stinks and/or gets hurt too much and try to get another player in there. Oh...right...

Note to self: Bomb Canandaigua. That is all.

I don't think they are allowed to do a deal apart from the franchise deal for awhile. i remember there being some sort of rule about that. According to what I heard this morning the Bears had over 30 million on the table before he got tagged. Now it's down to whatever the tag deal is 7? 8?. The quote was "I will do everything in my power not to play for the Bears organization." Keep in mind, we're talking about a team who basically didn't keep one of the hottest defensive coordinators in the game over money. He went from interviewing for HC jobs to unemployed. He's a lesser status coach now only because of the time frame when that happned, all the other jobs were gone. A Super Bowl team who went to the Super Bowl because of it's defense didn't keep it's defensive coordinator? After something like that anything can happen.

Right, I think they're still in the "dazzle me" phase. Jones helped set the RB market a bit as will any McGahee deal. Them saying they'll ONLY accept a 1 and 3 actually helps us right now becuase I'm pretty sure we'll take a 2 for McGahee which makes him cheaper in comparison and is a much more proven commodity. I see the Giants, Bears, and Packers (especially if they are trying to have one more year for Favre) as legit options. Of course other people like the Raiders could sneak in there. I feel we could mezmorize Al Davis into taking McGahee - he'd fall in love with the background story and pedigree. Not sure I'd want Lamont Jordan in return, but the Raiders definetly have high draft picks.