Bob in STL

I cannot believe that people think of things like this. Who should we have drafted in 1965 that would have helped us win the championship in 1966 -- that way we could have beat the Packers in SB I and all of our fortunes would have changed after that.

Draft to fit our philosophy? What is our Philosophy? What philosophy did Ralph Wilson develop and pass on to his troops. What attributes do his top leaders have in common and pass on to others? I would like to know that. At my company we have a clear mission statement and leadership attributes that are taught and passed down to all employees. We have a spirit and a culture and everyone (including our suppliers and customers and competitors) knows what we do and what we stand for. It is in our culture. This is a hard thing to do. It takes years and dedication and hard work and requires continuous improvement at the top. It has to start at the top and flow down to all. The leaders have to live the philosophy otherwise all you are doing is making up slogans. Employees will see that and ignore it. So starting with the owner - If you decide to hire someone (Donahoe) to run your team and your business then you may be deferring to his philosophy. That might be fine, however, if you decide that it isnt working and make a change after 4-5 years then you personally need to step in and lead and fill that void until things are back on track. Instead Ralph turned the ball over to an old friend from the past (Levy) and expected him to turn back the clock. When the old friend had enough, Ralph turned to "people that he knows". That would be Brandon, Jauron, and now Nix. It is high time for someone in the Font Office to do the heavy lifting (hard work). What is the Buffalo Bills philosophy? I don't know. I think that Nix is a great scout who brought in some other top scouts. Not sure if he has it to be a GM. I think that added some good coaches (Chan and Wannstedt). I think they added a future GM (Whaley). I do know that when you change GMs and Head Coaches 3 or 4 times in a decade then you probably do not have philosophy at all.

Too funny. Ralph even called him a "hard worker". Modrak could be home all day reading the same College Football Magazines that we can get at the local drug store.

Still need to fix the defense. - Your front 3 lacks depth and size and a consistent pass rusher. - Moats still has a lot to prove as an every down player - Poz and a rookie in the middle ? - Merriman even playing again is a leap of faith. The OL is still marginal with a rookie RT that could take a few years. Urbik is an unknown as a starter. Wood should be a good center, we shall see Bell does not run block very well no TE as usual.

I would love to see. it. It would be funny if Modrak got all his picks from reading TSW. We would have Ngata, Mangold, Bulaga and many other favorites.

We are ok at the skill positions for now. We really need better tackles if we want to run the ball consistently. For as long I have been wathcing football there has been one constant. Good teams run the ball, even when the other team knows they are going to.

So can Spiller. Well ... that is what they thought when they drafted him.

From what we have seen so far the answer is YES to all of the above. He does have speed .... but without size, strength, moves, heart, brains, and football instinct he has a big hill to climb. He has played for two different coaching staffs in two years and neither one felt comfortable putting him on the field. That says a lot. Given his age and lack of college experience he will be given another summer to improve.

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.