Typical TBD Guy

Does one need to be a youth coach for 3 different sports to come to this conclusion? Almost 50% of the offense and 40% of the defense are along the line of scrimmage. So naturally, this small area of the field must be important for something. The offensive skill players can't ever function if the OL collapses within the first second, and the defensive skill players can't get off the field if the DL is blown back 3-4 yards on every down. The NFL basically comes down to a 32-team race for the best linemen. Those who miss out can overload in talent at the skill positions as compensation, but success then becomes much less likely (see: Matt Millen, Tom Donahoe, etc..). PS: The word is "feel," not "fill." I hope you're not these children's English teacher, as well. PS PS: I'm just busting balls tonight. Don't be offended. Too much.

Whatever helps you sleep at night, Mr. Haaaavard Reject...

Two more clues: 1. He lives in Miami. 2. He watches Lost. We're getting closer!

That is HIGHLY debatable.

That's a nicely laid out argument, Mr. T. I think you're onto something. Just like racism is argued to be subconscious in some, one could say that AA activism was a subconscious thought for many of the HOF judges. Maybe this was how Moon got in the HOF this year. Slightly off topic: I know comparing QB's and WR's is an apples to oranges situation, but do you think Moon's first-ballot induction helps Reed's eventual chances? The assumption with Moon's induction is that amazing stats and consecutive Pro Bowl appearences can trump postseason accolades. So shouldn't Reed, who is 4th in career receptions, 6th in career yards, 10th in career TD's, and who had 7 straight Pro Bowl appearences, have a better shot now in the eyes of the future HOF judges? Maybe Reed didn't dominate in the Super Bowl, but Moon never dominated in the PLAYOFFS.

Two problems with comparing Regier and Donahoe: 1. Regier has had to work within the confines of a very limited budget under very difficult ownership circumstances. Donahoe, on the other hand, had an owner who let him sign any free agents he wanted (signing coaches is another matter ). 2. It's naturally a bit harder to get good quickly in the NHL since drafted hockey players usually take much longer to develop (farm club system) than drafted football players. My opinion? Patience with Regier was warranted, and Donahoe being run out of town was entirely appropriate. With more job constraints, this century Regier still did more with the Sabres than Tom did with the Bills (31-49, 4th worst NFL record in that span, yada yada).

NO!!!!!!!!!! The metric system is MUCH better than the American/English system.

I'd have no problem giving Toronto one of our preseaon games. In fact, I'd encourage it. Training camp in Rochester, 1 preseason game in Toronto, maybe the other at the Carrier Dome...this would be a great way to further regionalize the team and gain more fans/team revenue. But a regular season game? No !@#$ing way. There are only 8 of 'em. Each one is precious.

That's a unique theory, but I'm not buying it and I'm sure you're not either (as you alluded to in your above response). As I understand it, Jauron's new style of cover 2 defense requires both safeties to play the deep routes, while the 2 CB's and 3 LB's cover the short routes and assist the safeties only when the opposing offense threatens deep with more than 1-2 WR's/RB's/TE's. So basically our SS is no longer a 4th LB and more like a 2nd FS. Vincent, Milloy, Wire, Baker, etc... will be doing a lot of running around. Vincent and Baker should be fine. Milloy with these coverage responsibilities is probably too slow. Hell, even Fletcher may not be good enough for this new system (though I am NOT advocating cutting either of those 2. I don't want to gut too much of this team in 1 year). Regarding Wire: not only is he too slow physically to be a FS, but his mental awareness speed is too slow as well. Remember when we played him at FS for a while? It was a total disaster there, even though as a FS he got to sit back for an extra second or two to scan the field. Basically, Coy Wire is a VERY smart guy and a VERY athletic guy, but neither have translated well to the pro football field because Wire is and always was an undersized LB - never a safety. Marv Levy beware: Wire is a perfect example of a "high character" guy who never should have been drafted. Typical Teflon Tom pick. Outsmarted himself. Solution: Cut Wire, save $600K, absorb the $56.16K hit, and move on.

What's the holdup, Angry Mob? Soprano's count is 2-2, the Bates fastball is clocking in mighty fast, the "For Sale" signs are already made, Tony Jr.'s teacher has already been tipped, and right now I'm just sitting here waiting for an address...

Bates possibly as our DC?! That'll sedate the Sherman lovers for at least a day or two.

Thanks for all your insight in this thread! That statement I highlighted makes perfect sense to me! Some of the football media talking heads have made it sound like a QB's accuracy is some sort of innate ability that JP lacked. To me, this reasoning was always suspect. I think these guys just like making definitive answers such as "JP will be the next Brett Favre" or "JP will be the next RJ" because it makes for better headlines and makes them appear smarter...as opposed to simply saying the neutral but far more accurate comment of "JP will be a great success if he works REALLY hard and stays healthy and maintains confidence in his God-given abilites." My conclusion? Hold onto JP, draft a day 2 QB, cut Holcomb, let Matthews retire, and sign another vet QB to push JP.

Gray won't be missed. He was an average DC - great when he had help (GW and LeBeau in 2003), superior talent (2003 and 2004), easy opponents (2004), and no serious injuries (2004); but otherwise awful (2001, 2002, and 2005). He was just another ex-player turned meathead coach/coordinator who can't compete with the upper tier NFL coaches/coordinators when a game turns into a chess match. His dreams of becoming an NFL head coach probably won't ever be realized. That said, Gray's still good enough to find employment SOMEWHERE in this league as a DC or DB's coach. So don't feel too bad for him .

Read his bio on that website: says he's single. What a shocker . Anyway, here's my opinion for each of the 9 coaches: April: Duh. Keep. McNally: Can't spin feces into gold. Keep. Wyche: Great league rep for handling QB's. Keep. Tolbert: Good league rep as well. Keep. Gray: One-trick pony who can't make halftime adjustments without LeBau's help. Bye. Miller: Was never qualified for the position in the first place. Bye. Roll: Players seemed horribly out of shape this year, which happened to be this guy's first year coaching. Bye. Lester: the Joe Burns of coaches. Will miss the moustache, though. Bye. Studesville: McGahee regressed from last year, Gates regressed from preseason. Nothing special. Bye.

1. I hear every now and then from media "experts" and also knowledgeable TBD fans how Losman has fundamental problems with accuracy that suggest he will be an NFL failure. Can any of you who know a lot about this and have been watching Losman closely elaborate? Personally, I think his lack of self-confidence (which Coach Meathead and the Bills vets didn't help) is his biggest problem, and the errant passes are simply the consequence of his low football self-esteem. He never had an accuracy problem at Tulane, did he? Anyway, clarifying this issue could help us better understand Losman's fate under the new regime. 2. Speaking of the new regime, I've really come to like Jauron. I'm a results-oriented kind of guy who doesn't look too favorably on his bottom-line record in Chicago, but the reality is that all people in all walks of life deserve a second chance provided that they show some promise of having learned from their rookie mistakes. And I have a lot of confidence that Marv saw DJ as a smart, humble guy who is plenty capable of learning from his original failures. So DJ deserves at least 1 full season before I/we consider running him out of town like I/we did to Drew and TD . And for what it's worth, I think DJ's excuses of poor player talent and a poor GM in Chicago are perfectly fair. If Sherman was HC in Chicago and DJ was HC/GM in Green Bay, maybe their records would be reversed?? 3. We either draft a LT, DE, or DT with our #8 pick. I can't imagine any other positions selected, and I also don't think we trade up or down. Ferguson is the best LT at this time and Super Mario is the best DE at this time, but neither will be around at #8. The best DT (in my opinion) is Haloti Ngata, a younger version of Ted Washington who should still be around when we pick. He is one of those "high character guys" that Marv loves, and so that's who I'm fairly confident (I know, I know...way too early) we will draft. 4. I know this is OT, but !@#$ it - when are the Sabres gonna trade a goalie already???? With our currently tenuous grasp of the 4th playoff seed and our currently fading hopes of the division title, we could really use some extra non-goalie talent at this point in the schedule. I highly recommend trading both Biron AND Noronen for a bunch of defensemen plus a cheap veteran goalie to back up Miller. OK, I'm finally done. All comments and criticism welcome.

Good article. Normally I'm against unsubstantiated psychoanalyses of Bills players and personnel... ...but in the case of Tom Donahoe, I think it's perfectly reasonable to suggest that his failures in Buffalo were in large part due to ego. Case in point: building an NFL offense through the draft. Here was a guy who came from the aforementioned successful Rooney/Steeler school of thought on this subject. As the Steelers' GM, TD used a lot of his day 1 draft picks on offensive linemen in the 90's, and the skill positions were for the most part a secondary concern. This makes sense because - as Bills fans should know more than anybody - it's hard to evaluate the talent you have at the skill positions when there is no line blocking for them. But then TD was fired, came to Buffalo, and got so caught up with proving his Pittsburgh doubters wrong that he all too often jumped on the high risk/high reward draft day opportunities that attracted national attention (examples: the Bledsoe trade, the McGahee selection, the Losman trade) instead of sticking to the bread and butter fundamentals of building the OL first. Note that after Mike Williams was drafted #4 overall in 2002, no OL player was drafted within the first day thereafter . Instead, from 2003-2005 we drafted a boatload of offensive skill position players (McGahee, Losman, Evans, Parrish, Everett) while the OL continued to deteriorate as CV got older and JJ grew greedier and MW became more of a kitty. Anyway, sorry to beat this dead horse .

Let's play a game! Below are 5 exact passages from Fake-Fat's original post, except for 1 difference in each: I've added a single extra letter somewhere in each of the copied posts. Find the 5 added letters, unscramble them, and you will get the answer to this question: Who is the opposite of new head coach, Dick Jauron? Answer will be posted tomorrow. P.S.: If you don't want to play, an alternative game would be to guess the new name of Fake-Fat Sunny/Barry Brady/Lvel Vram/etc... now that we have a new head coach.

I, too, am longing for the glory days when the Bills posted the 28th best franchise regular season record from 2001-2005.

An informative Jauron thread grounded in civility ?! It's a crazy idea, but it just may work: 1. Played college football in Yale, where he also earned a degree in history. 2. Played 8 years in the NFL (1973-80) as a free safety (with Lions and then Bengals) 3. Began his coaching career in Buffalo as a DB's coach for 1 year (1985). 4. Was a DB's coach for the Packers (1986-94) and a def. coord. for the Jags (1995-98) 5. Was head coach of the Bears for 5 years (1999-2003), and was named Coach of the Year in 2001. 6. Was def. coord. with the Lions for the past 2 seasons, and was made interim head coach for the last 5 games of this season. Specifics of Jauron's head coaching tenure Interesting WGR interview with PFW's Hub Arkush Positives: Has head coaching experience, is known as a great defensive mind, is known as a players' coach, and is generally thought to have gotten the most out of a Bears team that was seriously lacking talent. Negatives: His coaching record, his perception of being another typical hire from the NFL's "old boys network," and his reputation for hiring poor coaches on the offensive side of the ball. This is all I have gathered on DJ, to date. I'm waiting for one of the many TBD boneheads to step up and help you out...expect a LONG wait.

BUMP. So it looks like the answer to C probably was a YES . I'm bumping this so that maybe anyone who knows anything about Jauron and/or Levy can elaborate more on A and B...rather than the typical "Jauron sucks" or "Marv is a senile idiot" comments. I know that a lot of us are currently disappointed in this latest hire from the "old boys network," but depending on the responses to my question A, we may hopefully come to see Jauron as the better candidate than Sherman and start to get excited about Bills football again.

True. A more realistic option would be to have some sort of WNY triumvirate ownership with a 51% majority owner (Tom Golisano?) and two 24.5% minority owners (Jeremy Jacobs and Danny Wegman?). I'm sure Tagliabue would approve of something like this. The Bills are still very profitable in Buffalo, there will always be other opportunities on the horizon to reach the LA market, and also I don't think the old AFL owners and small market owners would let Tagliabue get away with moving the Bills out of Buffalo if it can be avoided. The success of the small NFL markets in the North are what has made and continues to make the NFL the #1 pro sport league in America; league leadership (most of 'em) knows that. Regarding a new downtown stadium, BAD IDEA. Renovating RWS every decade or so for three or four more decades would be a much cheaper and a much more viable option to Erie County. And a dome?! Unreal. Late-season football and playoff football is played in the elements. Our team needs to suck it up and learn how to play in Buffalo weather. That includes those guys from "THE U."

My sentiments exactly. If you can't stand the negativity from Bills fans, you should consider becoming a Cardinals fan. From what I hear, out in Phoenix they don't get nearly as upset over their franchise's incompetence.

It's probably a good sign that Vanderjerkoff is laughing this off. A kicker, like a CB, needs to have a short term memory about these kinds of mistakes. Otherwise, the hauntings from these past failures will kill their future careers. Oh and FYI for the angry Colts fans, Vanderjagt choked on one crucial play. Manning and his OL choked on lots of crucial plays throughout that game. Something to think about...

Good one. I'd rather have Carpenter over Vincent right now, especially when you factor in the price tag each comes with... Believe it or not, I was a mild Flutie fan back in the day (NOT one of "those" Flutie fans), but the fact remains that he did nothing in the league after we dumped him. There were a lot of guys like Frutie who did nothing after we cut them (Cowart, Wiley, Price, Fina, Brown, Riemersma, Holecek, Jennings, Flowers, RJ, etc). There have also been a few who have had statistically productive careers upon leaving (Bledsoe, Winfield, etc), but still weren't worth the money at the time. And then there were some let go who went on to have mildly productive careers (Antowain Smith, Newman, Irvin, etc), but nobody here ever cried over losing.

Bryce Fisher, Ted Washington, and Pat Williams are the only guys I can think of that we've let go in the past 5 years but truly shouldn't have...the rest never amounted to much after leaving Buffalo. Interestingly enough, all 3 of the guys I named play on the DL... As bad a GM as TD has been in the past 5 years, this wasn't one of his weaknesses IMO.