Bob in STL

He said he wants to draft an impact player regardless of the position. That is not tipping their hat. That is normal rhetoric that GMs tells reporters. He also said he improved the OL by bringing in Urbik, Rhinehardt, Wrotto and Pears. Those moves did not translate into good line play. Our OL looked really bad the last two games with Rhinehardt, Wrotto and Pears seeing a lot of playing time. Does that mean they not draft OL? I sure hope not.

The Colt fans in Indiana now?

LOL. For the job she has she is probably very good and represents the Bills well. Wonder how much Uncle Ralph pays his Execs for a position like that?

For all the Jason Peters fans and haters, he made 2nd team.

yeah, that bad Cowher.

I tend to agree with all your points. The past Bills regime was even dumber than you suggest, they replaced Peters with Langston Walker and expected him to play LT in a "no huddle" offense.

We should take a space heater whenever there is a draft.

what'is a tight end?

It is pretty safe to assume that most teams in the NFL have a former player or coach that is on a Super Bowl teams roster. That thing call free agency is a large cause for it. Do we need to hear about every former Bill that plays in the Super Bowl?

If I were a GM I would focus on these things: 1 - Defense - a mean, swarming, ball hawking defense. 2 - A strong running game -yes most team pass but you have to run to close out a game and to win in the post season you must impose your will on your opponent. 3 - Build from within by drafting players that are leaders and absolutely hate to lose; then do everything you can to keep them.

This is what happens when you have four GMs (Donahoe, Levy, Brandon/Jauron, Nix) and four coaches (Greggo, Mularkey, Jauron, and Chan) in ten years. Bad drafting + constant turnover = Losing Football

True that Ralph bailed out Oakland. Not sure what year or who the owner was when that happened. if Oakland folded back trhen Davis may have been hired by someone, maybe even Ralphy also bailed out the Sullivan Family --- original owners of the Pats*.

Davis gets a lot of crap on this board but he is an amazing man in a lot of ways. He started in the AFL as an assistant coach of the Chargers under the great Sid Gillman. At 33 he bacame the youngest HC ever when he went to Oakland in 1962. He also became their GM. No one, to my knowledge, has held both positions since Davis did it. He built the Raiders into a powerhouse on the field and a marketing machine off of it. He then became the owner (majority owner in a partnership). He was also commissioner of the entire AFL for a time and in that role he went to war with the NFL over free agency (started when the Giants signed Pete Gogalak from the Bills). He lead the AFL in the signing of several high profile NFL players (Mike Ditka, Roman Gabriel, and others) and he brought the NFL (lead by Pete Rozelle) to their knees and straight to the negotiation table. That is when the two leagues agreed on a merger plan and that decision actually pissed Al Davisoff. He really preferred to battle them and destroy them. Years later he moved the Raiders to LA and won another Super Bowl. Pete Rozelle had to hand his old nemisis the Lombardi trophy. Davis made be past his prime, and he does some stupid things today, but you guys should know there is good reason why he is the HoF. One of the great characters from the AFL that helped make the NFL what it is today.

Do you really know that Gailey does not bother with the defense? If true, that makes Wannstedt even more valuable. Do you know how much Wannstedt is making? Do you know how many second interviews were granted for other DC positions? Do you know what minute of the day Jauron was offered the Clevland job and if so, do you know when Wannstedt was notified? It looked to me that the news on Wannstedt broke before the news on Jauron but I will not claim to know for sure. Comparing Edwards DC position to that of Modkins OC position seesm reasonable. It is reasonable to assume that Wannstedt will have more resonsiblity than just ILB coach and that he will be leading the defensive game planning and strategy as well as have a role in mentoring Edwards. Thanks.

Eliminate the GB game since Trent played it. Balt and Pitt - we were improving and may have caught them by surprise. NE - They were ready the second game, they expected to see an improved team and they they just pounded us. Some of our problem with NE is in our heads. We expect to loose. Until we can get to Brady we will loose. Jets - We do not match up in the trenches and we tend to get manhandled. The last game of the season we ran for the bus. Many players had their worst game of the seaon on that day. We need to draft some strong mean defensive players and pressure the QB. We need to run better and that means add a monster to the ROT spot. We need a TE that blocks like a tackle and can use his size to get open and be a reliable big target. Until we address this we will loose to our division teams. We are not built to compete in the AFCE yet.

I love the idea of the Bills getting some mean players and playing with passion. I hope we can draft Fairley, I really do not care about his past rep. Does anyone wory about Ray Lewis and his temper? When you back it up with your play you get away with it. Just one question .. what is "tea bagging"? Is it hanging over the person you tackled and taunting?

Wannstedt will run the defense just like Chan runs the offense. They call Modkins the OC but on game day it is Chan calling the plays. Expect the same with Wannstedt. Wannstedt has played mostly 4-3 but that will not stop him from playing both. I susupect they will draft a versatile DLs and LBs and then play the system that best fits the talent. At least that is what i hope they do. I also suspect they will try to mix it up on defense, just like today's offenses do. Wannstedt is just to experienced and well paid to not be the main man on defense.

Why must people look for reasons to complain? We currently have a very lousy defense. We just added an excellent football coach that specializes in defense. The guy respects and likes our current HC and wants to work with him to take on the challenge. He wants to come to Buffalo. This is a huge step forward. You have permission to feel good.

I think that Ralph tries to win. He tends to hire from within. He puts a high value on loyalty, or his perception of it. No matter what decade you look at, when his current regime (or inner circle) fails he looks from within first, then he looks out if he has too. He does not take a lot of chances with top names. The problem with that is that he has not hired enough good football people (as in managers) over the years, and then let them strenghten the organization from within. The front office is responsible for bringing in the players and coaches, it all starts there. Looking at the "modern era", Polian had a front office that contained top football people that went out and succeeded - Bob Ferguson, John Butler, AJ Smith, Buddy Nix ... all well respected and succesful in other places, came off of that family tree. Bring in Donohoe and who was left to succeed him? Modrak? Guy? Brandon? Levy was brought in from retirement to do a job he did not want and did not know how to do. His move to hire Donohoe was a big leap of faith for him. He turned the keys to the car over to an "unknown" and the guy did not get it done and worse than that --- Ralph thought the spirit of OBD was broken. He should have cleaned house and started over but instead Modrak, Guy, and Brandon remained and eventually Levy was summoned. Levy had no ties to this group and he did not have any better people to work with to replace them. You all know the rest. More stagnation. Even now with Nix as GM, Ralph is counting on an old relationship to run the ship. Personally I am not sold on Nix as a GM. He may be a great Scout but there is much more to the GM position and Nix has a lot to prove.

Calm down. Yes, the point two conversion was a great call. How about the fake punt? We will beat them. There will a time when we have the better team. Hang in there.

I remember how the Pats* acted when upset the Rams in the Super Bowl. Cocky and classless ... oh yeah, thats right, he had never been there before. Holding Marshall Faulk was declared a legal play that day, and taping the Rams practice was later deemed ok by the NFL, I guess the Pats really are champs. NOT. I will always be happy that the Jets kicked the shi! out of the Pats*, right there in there home stadium.

McIntyre should stay over Stupar. Corner could stay, especially if we lose Drayton Florence. The rest should be shown the door.

New England can draft 2 good TE's in one draft and we have not drafted a good one in over a decade. Something is very wrong with that.

They should be students of the game, but realistically they are not. Being a student of the game does not mean studying every player in the history of the game either. Young comes from the video game (Gen Y) generation and they entertain themselves in other ways. Talley needs to chill out. Young was born the year Talley was drafted. Talley was out of the game by the time Young got to high school. Talley made two pro bowls in 14 years and was never once a first team All Pro slection. He is not a HoF candidate. I like Talley but in this case I would expect some humility on his part.

You are correct. We need a true TE that can block and catch. Nelson is a shakey prospect right now and he cannot block at all. What about RT? Are you ready for another year of Wrotto, Howard, Pears, or Wang?