RJ (not THAT RJ)

He might be too busy sobbing over his autographed Matt Leinart picture....

Whachoo meen, tree fiddy?

Gosh, thanks... I haven't seen this yet (today). You don't happen to know Willis' 40 time, do you?

I respect your football knowledge, Bill, but even your example reinforces my original point. You mention three playoff teams that have drafted OL (though I am not sure from your post whether their drafts were so very different from the last five Buffalo drafts) but the original post mentioned two other playoff teams that were built very much like the Bills. Glancing at all the playoff O-lines, I am struck by the great variety of strategies used to build good teams, and am also struck by how much fortuna is involved. I am sure that people who know more about these things can make marginal improvements, but on the whole I am not convinced that there is any single formula that can be applied with universal success. Heck, Bill Belichek should be sending flowers to the Jets the rest of his life; without that hard hit on Bledsoe, Tom Brady would still be an unknown. (I know, I know, that last example is not OL-related, but it is a good example of the role of the unpredictable and unforeseeable in sports success.)

Thanks for this info. I have been saying for a long time that there is no magic formula for building an O-line, and this proves it. The sad thing is that the failure of the Bills line is not due to any failure to look for players, but rather in their failure to work out in games. That is unsatisfying to those who want to be able to pinpoint the one mistake, but is a reminder of how much these games are based on intangibles that cannot be automatically predicted.

*cue the annoying pop song* "You know we're gonna win that Cup..... We're gonna win that Stanley Cu-up, Me an' the Buffalo Sabres yeah, yeah, yeah...." Well, it's just one game... but one step closer. Whooo hoo!!!

Well, you have to cut Bob some slack.... his fixation on Leinart is probably a continuation of his search for a replacement for Zippy Chippy in his columns....

Exactly. I mean, murder is one thing, but not knowing your Bills History is a Mortal Sin. Right, Lori?

Actually, I am more offended by the fact that a Buffalo Bills fan would not know that OJ ran for 2003 yards in 1973, not 1972.

Your grasp of Bills history is almost as bad as your moral calculus....

Sploog? Eeeeeewwwwwwww!!!!!!

...and I am not sure how someone who doesn't recognize a line from Animal House can be a real American. If you did not recognize it, I apologize for appearing to insult you. The insult was directed at the idea of signing Steve McNair. Seriously, the idea of McNair, of the huge contract and the fragile body, being a real option for the Bills escapes me completely. The Bills, as is stated elsewhere in this thread, do not need to go looking for another Bledsoe-like veteran QB. They need to build a better team on both sides of the ball that will relieve some of the pressure on whichever young QB gets the job.

Son... *taking off my glasses* Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life...

Amen, brother... Did you see Comcast Sportsrise this morning? The tears are still flowing from Morganti and co....

Fair enough. Carry on!

Of course, Marv did not draft Jim Kelly, since his first draft with the Bills was in 1987. I'm just sayin'

I apologize. It was too good to pass up. You know, like trading down in the draft.

Back to the Ifs. Yes, according to your scenario, they would have had Whitner and picks, but how do we know he would have been there at 15? I'm not saying Marv and company are automatically right, but I have little patience for people who simply assume that some other scenario was obviously better.

I am aware of that... I am also aware that there is a difference between moving to 11 and moving to 8, and it could very well be that the Broncos were not willing to pay that difference, precisely because they knew that one of the two would be there at 11. But don't let that get in the way of the unwarranted assumption that the Bills somehow passed up on a clear offer.

Again, this is based on the idea that the "draft value" difference between, say, 8 and 14 is so incredibly large and measureable that it makes any sense to call it a mistake. I am not convinced that such an "opportunity cost" even exists in this case.

Does that make Holcomb's Arm a poor man's Spiked Lemonade?

Come on, man.... the fact that both of those QBs were available made it that much less pressing for anyone to trade down that far, because it was that much more likely that at least one would have been available later. Several commentators have said that, yet it does not appear to sink in.

Amen... I have been annoyed by this all day. "Complete neglect" is an idiotic overstatement, but I despair of ever succeeding in rooting it out.

Oh.... well, then, I'll wait until after my burned-out corneas heal before we have that beer...