Typical TBD Guy

Losing always tends to bring out the worst in fans, especially consistent losing. If you really want to gauge the anger and the collapse of manners among today's fans, a better question night be, "did Bills fans react the same way to the late 60's/early 70's/late 70's/mid-80's teams as they do today?"

Your comments about JP's confidence and about TD with his binoculars (accurate or not) epitomize TD's downfall - prioritizing team marketing and fan approval over the bottom line of winning. Drafting OL isn't as sexy as landing the next hyped QB or RB or WR. And trading away picks for Bledsoe and Losman, while drafting guys like McGahee, Evans, and Parrish, appeared to be the better marketing route to TD. However, what TD didn't get is that Buffalo sports fans are generally smarter than the average fan, and they will realize that those "sexy" skill position players are only as effective as the "boring" drafted linemen in front of them. Coming from the similar sports town of Pittsburgh, TD should have known better. I think it had something to do with him trying to prove to the Rooneys and to the rest of the NFL how much of a clever genius he was...but it backfired horribly...at our expense....for 5 years....and maybe longer now with the new rebuilding effort. It's something to think about for all those fans reading this who are getting excited about the opportunity to draft Matt Leinart this April. I'm not denigrating anyone's football opinion here; I'm just saying that at some point we have to get stronger along the OL, and for JP's sake - the already chosen centerpiece of this franchise - that some point should be ASAP. Jim Kelly, Todd Collins, Doug Flutie, Rob Johnson, Drew Bledsoe, and now JP Losman. There's a disturbing pattern here. And if so many of us Joe Schmoes can see it, why can't Bills management see it? The bewilderment for me - and for many others - began in March 2003. Whether or not MW was to become a bust, the second half of the '02 season indicated that the OL still wasn't close to being good enough. And yet the Bills did not continue addressing it. All we have to show for the OL since March 2003 is Ben Sobieski, Chris Villiaral, Jason Peters, Lawrence Smith, Dylan McFarland, Bennie Anderson, Mike Gandy, Justin Geisinger, and Raymond Preston . Notice how none of those guys were day 1 draft picks, and only 1 (the rapidly aging CV) cost us more than peanuts on the free agent market. PS: I'm relieved that you had a great time in Buffalo over the weekend. Yes, I intentionally used the word "relieved."

Looks like the AFC East will be a 2-team race for the next 2 years...Patriots and Dolphins .

IMO, 2003 was TD's best draft...even if that year was also the beginning of the end for him (when he stopped seriously addressing the OL). As for the Modrak issue, I'm in agreement with you. Clean house. We need radically different football views, not Teflon Lite.

If they kept stats for the number of times a RB gets hit before reaching the LOS, Willis would probably lead the league. Let's change the OL first (along with the head coach who's afraid to use Willis on 3rd downs). Then, if Willis still looks too slow, it would be safe to call him just another Travis Henry (who doesn't fumble). But on the bright side, at least he'd be cheaper to re-sign!

Case in point: DT Corey Simon gets cut from the Eagles. TD looks the other way, and Polian doesn't.

I, too, was willing to give Reed the benefit of the doubt as late as this past August. But this 4th season of Reed's proved to me that he still drops balls when it matters (example: SD game), and only holds on when the pressure is off him (example: yesterday). Short and slow WR's who drop, on average, any more than 1-2% of the passes thrown to them don't last long in the NFL. Furthermore, Josh Reed is THE perfect symbol of the mentality on this team - dominating when the stakes are low (6 game winning streak in 2004 when everyone had written us off), but folding miserably when the stakes are high (2004 season finale, every game against NE, every game against playoff-caliber teams, every road game this year, etc...). For that reason alone, he doesn't even deserve a no-risk vet minimum contract. The 2006 Bills need to have the mentally weak purged COMPLETELY from the roster: Josh Reed, Mike Williams, Trey Teague, Sam Adams, Jeff Posey, Nate Clements, and so forth. Why? Because sometimes losing is contagious.

Incorrect. He forgot the Saints, Cardinals, Lions, and Redskins (though the Skins could still make the playoffs this year). But yes, the point is still strong - Tom Donahoe is a poor GM and should be fired no later than 3 weeks from now.

That's too bad, Carp Heaver, because the new NHL happens to be the most entertaining pro sports league around. And I'm not just saying that because the Sabres are doing good and the Bills aren't.

...coming from the same guy this past offseason who argued with us that TD is a top 5 NFL GM? Honestly now, are you the right person to be calling other people's football opinions stupid? Spare us all your sanctimonious drivel.

Christian Okoye?

Yeah I was looking for that one, but didn't see it. Instead I voted for Homerun Throwup. The Milloy signing was actually one of the few moments in this board's history where the hysteria was unanimously POSITIVE. Remember those first 2 weeks of the 2003 season? Drew was a first-ballot Hall of Famer, TD was a genius, Gregg Williams was Bill Cowher, the Patriots were a 1-year fluke, and the Bills were Super Bowl bound .

2005 was not a good free agent year by any stretch of the imagination. Gandy and Holcomb are marginal NFL starters AT BEST. 2002 wasn't very good either. Fletcher was the only decent pickup in that short list of names you provided. I'm willing to cut TD some slack here, though, because of the residual Butler cap hits forced onto that offseason. 2004 was also below average. Villarial and Vincent are already showing their age, and thus were overpaid. I only agree with you on the 2003 offseason. That was TD's one year during his Reign of Terror in which we were major free agent players.

TD this year, Mularkey next year.

Replace "we" with "I" in your last sentence, and you have the makings of a pretty good post. Donahoe is a below average GM, and deserves to be fired in a month. Nevertheless, I'd wish Bills fans would try to show more class. If you want TD fired like I do, insulting him directly to his face won't have any effect on this. He's digging his own grave as is .

That's great that you were able to lower your own expectations for 2005, but many of us agreed with TD when he said that 2005 wasn't going to be a rebuilding year just because of 1 player (JP) on a 53-player team. If TD had put together a capable OL and defense in his first 5 offseasons, playoffs this January would have been likely, even with JP. Just look at how much improvement he's made over 8 games. A season that could have been .

Exactly! Mularkey can't think on his feet, and all the good coaches can. No surprise that the Bills are statistically a great 1st quarter team and an awful second half team. Time to move on. Just suck up the 3-year contract, Ralph.

Yes you can. With experienced head coaches, you can.

My pitchfork has 6 prongs. 4 problems with this statement of yours: "Aside from the lines, we have good talent." 1. The OL and DL alone account for about 40% of a football team, so I wouldn't simply shrug off the amount of rebuilding necessary to get this team back into contention. Not just the starters, either. Even the backups suck along the lines, with the possible exception of the DE position. 2. It's not just the putrid lines. We also have serious problems with aging at the LB and S positions, questionable talent at TE and FB, and we may also have to worry about the CB position if/when NC leaves for greener pastures. 3. With the way free agency, the salary cap, and the draft are set up, EVERY single NFL team has good talent and at least a couple stars/Pro Bowlers. Part of the trick to being a good GM is figuring out which talented players go well together. To date, TD has done a poor job of doing so. His teams lack cohesive play and heart. After 5 years, cohesion and heart should have long been assembled. The evidence lies in the road record, the second half record, the record against winning teams, the record when behind in the fourth quarter, etc... of the TD-led teams since 2001. 4. Talented players are only part of the solution to winning and are therefore not enough. In the pro ranks of football, coaching ability is at a premium. And our Bills team also has coaching problems to resolve. This season has emphasized the reality that Clements and Gray are not very good, and Mularkey in particular may be downright awful. In fact, nevermind Mularkey's poor playcalling. He has shown many times to not have ANY innate leadership skills. I doubt he'll get better by his 3rd year. And 2 more problems with other statements you've made in this thread: 5. That Josh Reed is having a good year. My, how quick we are to forget all the drive-killing drops he continues to make . As a perfect example, watch him in the SD game if you have the stomach. 6. The idea that Posey is an "above average player," as you say. Not even close. He's a 4-3 Sammy LB'er with zero pass rushing skills and marginal ability at covering RB's out of the backfield, much less TE's and slot WR'ers. Watch the games more closely is all I can say. Crowell is totally outplaying Posey. Posey will be gone by February. That's 6 prongs. Count 'em. TD is done, and much-needed change is coming. Accept it. Embrace it.

Now did Bruce Smith really say that, or are you just making sh-- up?

I see you missed the gist of my post. Good work there, buddy.

/Rant begins:/ The people who voted "yes" are probably not true fans. A sports team's identity lies with the community it represents, not the players or uniforms or past successes or all that other garbage. You're a fan of the Bills because you're a fan of the WNY community. There is no other legitimate reason (IMO). I've never been a fan of the candy-assed no-contact sports leagues like the steroid-loaded MLB or the gangsta wannabe NBA, but now I'm starting to think it actually has more to do with the fact that those pro leagues have no Buffalo teams. So obviously...I voted "no." My refusal to watch would extend to the NFL in general and not just the LA Bills. Allowing Cleveland to move to Baltimore, allowing Benson to !@#$ with New Orleans, allowing Jerry Jones and Dan Snyder to own teams, "just give it to 'em," Bruschi soap opera.... this sh-- is almost unbearable even WITH a Buffalo franchise...a CRAPPY Buffalo franchise. No, if the Bills move to LA, it's just the Sabres and the NHL for me. And with the way the NHL cleaned up its act this year, that's not such a bad thing. /Rant ends./

Yes, but it has also reached the point where the whining about the whining has become even worse than the original whining.

Threads like these just go to show me how !@#$ing worthless the opinions of many people on this message board are to me, the same people who ripped on the rest of us during the 2005 offseason, the 2005 draft, and the 2005 preseason for pointing out flaws in the almighty genius that is Tom Donahoe. To date, only 4 of 31 other NFL franchises have a worse cumulative record since TD became Buffalo GM - the Browns, Texans, Lions, and Cardinals. To date, only 7 other NFL franchises have yet to make the playoffs in that same span - Jags, Bengals, Texans, Redskins, Saints, Lions, and Cardinals. Note that the Jags and Bengals will most likely be removed from this list soon, leaving TD's Bills with 5 others. So I ask you, oh wise and patient apologists of Tom Donahoe, how hard would it be to equal this production - let alone improve on it - with a new GM? If you can't come up with any names for a GM replacement, then most likely it's not because there's no one who can do better. Most likely, it's because you don't know any names in the professional football business. TD is a subpar GM who made one great decision while in Pittsburgh - Bill Cowher - and has since been living off the coattails of that one head coaching decision. The Pittsburgh teams of the 90's (and still today) are known for overwhelming their opponents at the line of scrimmage while the players behind them clean up. Based on the status of the OL and DL currently in place here in Buffalo, it's safe to say that Cowher was the one pushing for all those great Steeler linemen draft picks. If TD had had his own way, Pittsburgh would have traded all of their draft picks in order to move up to grab the biggest, sexiest offensive skill position player available. Firing TD now seems a little scary for devoted Bills fans. Change can be scary. Uncertainty can be scary. But you TD apologists need to put your hand down your pants, find your testicles, grab them, and plop them down on the work station table because it's time to do the hard work necessary in fielding a competitive team again. TD, after 5 long years, may have actually given us a few nice players to build a competitive team around (Losman, Evans, McGahee), but now it's time to find our next Polian who can put together the other 50 or so around them like Polian did with Kelly and Co. in the mid-80's. Hey, even if we can't find a GM on the level of Polian, at this point I'd settle for another Butler type. At least Butler's teams made the playoffs every now and then. I just want a GM who won't make me give up on the season before Thanksgiving.

BUMP. Any TD apologists want to take a stab at this question I posed for Adam? I'll define a "TD apologist" as one who thinks the man shouldn't be fired by this January.