Typical TBD Guy

How much time do you think TD - or any GM - should get to build a winning team, a team capable of at least making the playoffs? 6 seasons? 7? 8? Life tenure? I'm really curious to read your answer to this one. We will see who is the one with common sense. Am I impatient for thinking 5 years is enough?

This better be true. TD should be fired this afternoon. Anyone disagree now? I think he's out of excuses.

Don't expect Jerry Gray to change any of this until we're down 24-23.

Our offense wasn't that great during the second half of the 2002 season. Why does everyone keep forgetting that? They were awesome until they first played the Pats, and from then on either BB got into Drew's head or BB showed the rest of the league how to stop Kevin Killdrive's O.

Terrence McGee. As a TD basher, I must admit that he knows how to find CB's, whether they be early round picks (Clements) or late round picks (Jimmy Williams who's still in the league, Kevin Thomas, Eric King) or undrafted (Jabari Greer).

Current playoff standings after Week 12’s conclusion, with tiebreakers in effect (my apologies for forgetting to update last week, though I wonder if anyone actually missed this thread following The Great San Diego Massacre ?): DL1. Colts: 11-0 DL2. Broncos: 9-2 DL3. Bengals: 8-3 DL4. Pats: 6-5 WC1. Jags: 8-3 WC2. Steelers: 7-4 7. Chargers: 7-4 8. Chiefs: 7-4 **Observe the wide gap here** 9. Raiders: 4-7 10. Bills: 4-7 11-16. Not important anymore. Wild Card Race Analysis: There’s not much to analyze here. The best the Bills can finish is 9-7, and I can't envision at least 3 of these 6 teams - Broncos, Chargers, Chiefs, Jags, Bengals, and Steelers - failing to reach 10 wins. Need I elaborate more? Judging by the poor hits-per-week average of my thread, I’d say no. AFC East Divison Title Analysis: This is by far our best chance to sniff the playoffs. And so this should be all that concerns us in the next 5 weeks. A standings tie with the Pats is possible, so it's worth keeping track of the first 5 division tiebreakers, in order: 1. Head-to-head (we're 0-1, and the Pats are 1-0...duh). 2. Divison record (we're 2-1, and the Pats are 2-0) 3. Common opponents record (we’re 3-7, and the Pats are 5-4) 4. AFC record (we're 4-3, and the Pats are 4-4). 5. Strength of victory (we’re at 14-30, which is obviously lower than NE's 29-37) And this is the only weekly schedule worth following here on out: Week 13: Bills @ Fins (1pm Sunday) and Jets @ Pats (4:15pm Sunday) Week 14: Pats @ Bills (1pm Sunday) Week 15: Bucs @ Pats (1:30pm Saturday) and Bills @ Broncos (8:30pm Saturday) Week 16: Bills @ Bengals (1pm Sunday) and Pats @ Jets (9pm Monday) Week 17: Bills @ Jets (1pm Sunday) and Fins @ Pats (1pm Sunday) For the Bills to win the division at 9-7, we’ll need New England to lose 1 more game (aside from the loss to us in Week 14), but it MUST come against an AFC East division opponent in Week 13, 16, or 17. For the Bills to win the division at 8-8, with our 8th loss coming against the Patriots, we’d of course need the Pats to lose all 4 of their other games. For the Bills to win the division at 8-8, with our 8th loss coming against either the Fins or Jets, we’ll need New England to lose 2 more games along with the Week 14 loss in Buffalo – and they MUST both be against division rivals. For the Bills to win the division at 8-8, with our 1 remaining loss coming against either the Bengals or Broncos, New England’s 2 needed losses can be against anyone. At least for now, I won’t bother breaking down the scenarios of a 7-9 Bills team winning the division. Suffice it to say that, as I noted in an earlier post, no NFL team has made the playoffs with a sub-.500 record since the advent of the 6-team-per-conference playoff format in 1990 (if ever). Got all that? If not, all you need to remember is this 1 fact: the Bills can regain control of their own playoff destiny as early as this Sunday with a New England loss to the Jets. That’s amazingly great news for such an amazingly crappy 4-7 team! Hopefully JP Losman is given this memo. That should fire him up…

Cool. Thanks for the info, Rico. So it's not as bad a situation as I feared. I'm sure we could find a better LG for less than $3.9 million, at least as good a #1 WR for less than $5.5 million, and still have some money left over to upgrade the OL and DL.

I hope clumping platelets gets the chance to jump in on this discussion, but my understanding of our cap situation is that the cap hits from cutting MW and EM will be gigantic, and cutting them may actually cost us more for the 2006 season. Unless both are willing to take pay cuts, we may be seriously screwed. Plus if TKO can't return back to his old form, we are even more screwed. Other potential pink slip victims (Vincent, Posey, Adams, Milloy, Villarial, etc...) won't have cap hits nearly as detrimental, but nevertheless they will have cap hits of some significance to add onto the problems of finding their replacements. In a way, an uncapped NFL in 2007 and beyond could actually help us greatly regarding some of these contract situations. But then again, if Ralph is unwilling to shell out the $$$ for a legitimate head coach, I shudder to think of Ralph competing with all the uncapped big market owners (Snyder, Jerry Jones) for free agents . Amazing, ain't it? In just 5 seasons, we've gone from cap jail to cap freedom and back again to cap jail without ever sniffing the playoffs. What a rollercoaster ride that was. Thank you, TD, you GM genius you . Hey but on the bright side, we can all save money on car insurance by switching to Geico.

About 1,500. But next season, there may be unsold tickets in the 5 figures for over half of the 8 home games.

He will once the games stop selling out. And that could easily happen next season. There are only so many tickets that Toyota can buy.

Technically speaking, you're probably right. TD won't ever be fired. Ralph simply won't renew his contract following the end of the 2006 season.

I'm a lot more angry with TD for drafting guys like Ron Edwards and Tim Anderson - as well as not drafting guys like Vince Wilfork - than I am with him letting Pat Williams go. TD could have also signed Corey Simon to patch up the hole at DT. But unfortunately, a much better GM beat Teflon to it.

EXACTLY!!! Games that go into OT shouldn't be worth 3 points (2 for W, 1 for OTL). This becomes a big deal for the conference games, where teams can miss the top 8 playoff seeds simply because their conference rivals played in more OT games . This is the 1 thing that is keeping the NHL from being the best pro sports league, in my opinion (I would rank NFL #1, but they're about to lose the salary cap...plus the Modells, Bensons, Snyders, JJ's, and Tagliabues piss me off beyond belief).

As an anti-Lindellite in the preseason, I must say that I'm enjoying my crow. Aside from the KC game, he's having a Pro Bowl season. Extend Roarin' Rian's contract now (and Mike Schneck's contract as well)!

TD definitely deserves the blame for drafting MW. We had lots of needs besides OL after the 2001 season, so saying TD had no choice but to draft an OL with the #4 is wrong. But even so, if TD insisted that we choose an offensive lineman, he should have at least gone with the guy who plays tackle on the left side - Bryant McKinnie. McKinnie was my OL preference at the time of the 2002 draft, and while he certainly hasn't lived up to all the hype he was given in college, at least he's still starting at LT. Where is MW? Riding the bench because his vagina hurts.

You've gotta be kidding me. TE??? We don't need any more TE's. Campbell is OK. He's no gamebreaker but he's also not being used properly by the coaches. See 2003 season for what he can do. Everett could be our next "top notch pass catching TE" as you say. Euhus may also show us something in the passing game by next season. Our biggest needs are linemen. We have 8 draft picks in April, right? I wouldn't mind using 2 for OG, 2 for OT, 2 for DE, and 2 for DT. No joke. RunTheBall is right. The rest of the team's holes pale in comparison to the lines.

Breaking division ties goes like this: 1. Head-to-head record 2. Division record 3. Common opponents record 4. AFC record 5. Strength of victory 6. Strength of schedule 7. Best combined AFC ranking in points scored and points allowed 8. Best combined NFL ranking in points scored and points allowed 9. Best net points in 14 common games 10. Best net points in full 16-game season 11. Best net touchdowns in full season 12. Tagliabue coin toss, i.e. "just give it to 'em" #5 is the overall record of the teams you beat, i.e. strength of schedule for the wins only. Our losses to the Saints and Raiders (both wins for the Pats) will definitely help us out here.

!@#$ off, TD Apologist. I'm asking a serious question, and would appreciate serious criticism.

Here are my 2 choices: Offense: Josh Reed. Not only did he play horrible in yesterday's game, but he's mostly been a non-factor all season. Too many drops this year...again. I've been giving this idiot the benefit of the doubt for way too long. 3.5 years and little to show for it. His release will allow Parrish to get more playing time at WR. Also, Reed will be a free agent this offseason and probably wasn't in the team's future plans anyway. Defense: Jeff Posey. Not just for the dumb penalty yesterday, but for generally being outplayed all year. Occasionally he'll make a smart play, but for the most part he's been quiet and certainly less effective than Crowell. The excuses for him have long been based on the idea that TKO and Fletcher soak up all the plays, but this year the truth has emerged. Posey's cap hit is minimal (he has 1 more year left on his contract), and Crowell's emergence coupled wth TKO's return next year may have made his offseason pink slip inevitable regardless of these final 6 games. Cutting him would also free up opportunities for Stamer and Haggan to show what they've got. Both have looked solid during their preseason chances as LB's and not just special teamers. Thoughts?

One stud isn't enough. We need 2 studs - one at LT and the other at LG - before we can start calling ourselves a power running offense again without laughing. Hopefully that's all, assuming Preston will become a good C and Peters a good RT and Villarial a healthy RG for the remainder of his contract... these last 6 games should reveal more on these guys. As for the other 6 linemen on the roster: Mike Williams - gone. Bennie Anderson - gone. Trey Teague - gone. Mike Gandy - backup. Justin Gesinger - backup. Greg Jerman - gone. And the practice squad: Dylan McFarland - gone. Jasen Esposito - gone. Marques Ogden - unsure, haven't ever seen him play. And the IR squad: Ben Sobieski - gone. Lawrence Smith - gone. Sadly, this thread is an exercise in futility. Teflon had 5 years to put together a proper OL, and he didn't. What makes anyone think that the 2006 draft will be any different from 2003 or 2004 or 2005 when we threw a lot of our picks away at the chance to land the biggest "name" player at the skill positions? And why would this free agency offseason be any different from last year's? In 5 years total, only once did we go after one of the more coveted free agent linemen, and when we did, he was a 30+ year old guard (Villarial) who now is starting to look badly overpaid for the production. So in other words, until we find a new GM, we're all just setting ourselves up for some major disappointment by talking about all these great available linemen.

When it comes to ranking recent Buffalo GM's, it goes like so: 1. Polian 2. Butler 3. Teflon If you disagree with this ranking, you might be a TD Apologist.

He's nothing more than a possession receiver now who can't even beat single coverage against the better NFL CB's, let alone double coverage. His production no longer justifies the gigantic contract he makes.

My sarcasm detector is beeping. Sounds like someone finally realizes that TD is a mediocre GM.

Yes, the right coach. Third time's the charm for Tom Donahoe, eh?

And who signs these inconsistent players? Keep on apologizing.