RuntheDamnBall

Homer.

Does not compute.

Disagree. Ray-Ray is the loudest LB of all-time, and maybe the sneakiest, but not the meanest. Can I get some backup on this?

McGee is sort of healthy every other year. He's under contract, give him the time and see if he can get healthy. Florence can be re-signed or upgraded in FA. McKelvin is way better than he's been playing, but that's to be expected in a new system. He had days where he was the best, and days when he was the worst on the field in the defense. Youboty is in fact a free agent, but I don't think anyone's going to offer him big bucks. The depth players they've had on board have all showed enough promise to me to be worth holding onto and developing. Corner can be depended upon in nickel situations. Say no to first round CBs unless you're looking at them as final pieces to the puzzle. NYJ had Mangold, Ferguson, a strong DL and a great running game before they added their stable of top flight CBs. We have none of those things.

Good question. What I want to know is, what's the latest regarding FA? Are players not allowed to sign FA contracts after the season, without a CBA in place? I had heard that FA doesn't begin till after the draft, which alters the landscape (and especially the draft approach) drastically.

that's really something. Thanks for sharing that.

I don't think we need to pick more CBs. We need to ask our CBs to play more physical man coverage and jam receivers at the line. We've been hoping for this for years. We already have the horses.

That's all very reasonable but it's all still speculation. Gailey strikes me, if nothing else, as a guy who keeps his house in order and doesn't talk sh-- about anybody. I think we can read into this enough of his comments about what he values, and about the team's performance ("QBs who succeed don't have to play catch up, the defense is always giving them another shot, etc"). He can't have been happy about how they performed. The question is how much of that does he feel is Edwards' fault, and how much is due to the lack of talent on the field? If nothing else, Wannstedt is another experienced evaluator in the room, which is sorely needed. I don't think we lose him for anything short of another HC job. As for DC, he's been there, done that, unless a premier job opens up (like LeBeau with Pitt). If the Bills can match what he'd earn and show him that he's valued around here, the title should be pretty meaningless. OTOH, if Edwards is running the show and underwhelms again, we already have our new DC. This is a big win in my book.

Prince's Super Bowl performance was probably one of the most entertaining things to happen on a football field in the past 10 years. Prince Fielder is a hulking dude who hits home runs. What's in a name? The meanest LB of all time is named Dick Butkus. Maybe we'll get a LB named Fairy Fawn and he'll be the hardest-hitting MF of all-time. I wouldn't care as long as he could play.

I think you can't be too enamored of any one guy's approach. I think Tomlin and Ryan have done wonders for their teams but they're not infallible. See Tomlin's sort of idiotic statement about James Harrison needing to put his kids through college (a justification for not fining him for dirty hits). Ryan has had plenty of less impressive moments. They're feted right now by the press because their approaches are working. That's to be expected. But the chorus of people who insist that strong, stable, level-headed ownership is the constant in a winning franchise isn't far off. Barring that, it's strong, level-headed management without ownership interference (think Polian under RW). I do hope that Gailey and Nix are a partnership that Ralph will interfere with minimally. Good football people being allowed to do their job is what has made Pittsburgh great, and has led to the NYJ resurgence. Pittsburgh football fans were blessed with the Rooneys. You won't be seeing the likes of them again. (Regardless, note that they gave Big Ben a pass when other transgressions didn't go unpunished. A bit of tarnish on their legacy as far as I'm concerned. Again, it worked out for them.) Ralph is a mixed blessing. He has done much with his wealth and with his team, but the Bills have been capable of so much more than they have accomplished, and that's in part on Ralph. Part of that is the bullheaded nature of managers like Donahoe; part of it is RW's reaction to Donahoe's failures, or to disagreements with Polian. I don't doubt that the man desperately wants to win. That would seem to account for some of the desperation moves of the past decade. I just am positive he doesn't know modern football well enough to be making crucial personnel decisions.

A rebuilding team shouldn't be signing players over the age of 35 for long-term starting roles. If those guys want to come as depth role players, I don't see how they would be doing so with visions of the f---ing glory years in their heads. Mike Williams came in as a fan of the Bills' super bowl teams growing up. That worked out awesomely!

Mike Vrabel as an insurance policy? Maybe seven years ago. As an insurance salesman, maybe. Pat ain't coming back and he may be finally on the down slide. I just can't see him sustaining a high level of play for much longer at that age.

Sweet, we can finally get CJ Ah You back.

I'd be pretty scared for the man to see him walking down Abbott Road. For one, it's a different era and fan civility is sort of at an all-time low. Two, he's old. I mean, respectfully, he is really old and way too frail to take that walk. I agree over their lifetimes that the Rooneys were much closer to the people who paid for their tickets. How about sitting in the cheap seats? That'd be something!

Not as much as he misses an NFL paycheck to pay for all that snow.

He was worth that, in that draft. It's like your house. If someone gave you $500,000 for it, even if you think it's worth $100K, it's worth $500K on that day. Now, when the sucker who bought it tries to sell it on the open market, it's of course not worth that. But you have to look at the draft as a scenario where you're willing to spend certain assets to obtain others, and if you can benefit from the people who are really overvaluing something in your opinion, you jump at the opportunity. Likewise, if you see an undervalued asset, you take it, even if it doesn't look good to others, because you know better. Gauging that is the hard work. I messed up on Missouri - got my black and yellow confused and was thinking Iowa when I wrote that. Obviously a bad brain fart on my part. I'm not going around telling other people they don't have a !@#$ing clue, though. Regardless, Gabbert's YPA sucked this year. Care to argue this? As for point #1, I was talking about Cam Newton (the primary topic of this thread and the guy mentioned by the person I was responding to), not Ryan Mallett (I am a Mallett fan). So maybe we both don't know what the !@#$ we're talking about! Lighten up, Francis.

He's worth as high a pick as anyone will spend on him. The trick is to exploit that if YOU wouldn't spend that much on him and you're in a position of power.

Oh hold on: Dick York, Dick Sargent, Sergeant York.

Agreed. I mean, if forced to put money down on it, I'd probably go with your argument. Only 2-5 guys come out on a yearly basis and become quality starters. Sometimes less. It's so situational, and the variables are about as numerous as those acting on a ball sailing through the air at the Ralph on Sunday. Predicting this is a tall order. If it were predictable, the numbers would tell us we should be discussing whether Ryan Leaf has done enough to make the HOF, and Brady would probably be in the same conversation as Billy Volek.

I thought the VT and OSU wins were legit - I saw those - but I don't get to see a lot of WAC football here. I won't defer to your opinion but I respect it.

You could argue the same of Fitzy, or Chad Pennington, or Tom Brady in 2000, or Matt Cassell at the time of his drafting, or plenty of other QBs who have been unheralded. Ryan Leaf's skill set was MAXIMAL for what you need to make it in this league, until you examined his head. Moore is by all accounts a guy who anticipates what the coaches see on the field. He consumes game film. He has worked hard his entire life to correct notions formed by looking at his measurables. He's led a perennial winner at Boise St and helped them remain relevant in the national football conversation. He's started for three years in cold weather and has really improved. He's crazy-accurate. Do I think he's worth a first or even a second-rounder? No. But in R3-4 you're looking at good projects. The Bills have two R4 picks. If they haven't gotten a QB by then, Moore's there, and they don't take him, I'll throw a brick at my TV if they let him pass by.

Would it help you if I said "runs that often" instead of "run first"? Also, look dude, it has NOTHING to do with him being black. I loved Randall Cunningham and hated Doug Flutie; both were QBs who utilized the run threat well. It just doesn't fly as well in today's NFL, and I DO see a guy who's had much success running in college looking to see if he can escape the typical rookie jams with his feet. It could end disastrously if the way he carried himself after getting blasted against the Ducks is any indication.

He's good, but he's indeed spoiled. Better poll, maybe: would you rather have a) gone 0-4 in Super Bowls with Jimbo Kelly (kind of a prick at the time, but in a regular-dude sorta way)... OR b) gone 3-1 in Super Bowls with Tom Brady (hard-working guy who is absolutely a prick in almost every way)? Honestly, that's a really hard choice if you ask me. I know what you're all saying, you'd take the Super Bowls, but the starting QB usually represents your team in such an extraordinary way. I guess the only way we'll ever find out is if a grade-A douche brings Buffalo the Lombardi trophy.

I am just not sure about that. I do agree that Cam's mobility helps him in a Gailey system and in a situation where the line can't protect well. But running first in the NFL will get him killed. I think he could be as good as Culpepper, but if you look at the latter's career, how much time does that buy you? We're hoping for 10-12 years out of the guy we get here. Also, I think Mallett has one of the best arms I've ever seen PLUS he's got two years of record to look at in the SEC, and has shown improvement. I'm arguing that is going to go a long way with Nix - not that I think it cements a decision, just that I think it goes a long way. I'm actually not-so-secretly hoping we address DL / LB early and try and nab Kellen Moore if he declares and is there. Small, but he does it all, has plenty of history, is a winner, is smart, and the team would feel no pressure to yank Fitz until Moore's time is here. KM doesn't have all the measurables but I like him in R3-4 a lot better than I like any QB at #3 overall. Already pointed out, but this is f***ing genius.

I would throw Mallett on this list, not necessarily because I want to see him at #3 though (if they were going to take him I'd prefer they trade down a few slots - because that's how you at least TRY to play the draft). BUT, if they did draft Mallett, and he ended up working out, would anyone here realistically still be mad if they got their franchise QB at #3? Or put it another way... if Whitner did = Reed or Polamalu, would anyone still be bitching about him at #8? We'd probably still be pining for Ngata a bit, but the whining wouldn't be of the proportions we're accustomed to (and I'll self-direct a little of that criticism). Picks at certain high spots are only really bad if they don't work out, or if they're just unanimously foolish, like a kicker in R1.