RuntheDamnBall

Hey, I don't disagree. But NFL talent evaluators across the board would have taken Ryan Leaf in the top ten, or Mike Williams in the top ten. No one would have been thought stupid for making that pick. In fact, if those picks were made in the latter half of the top ten, they would immediately have been judged masterful picks, great value selections. It's more a question of knowing whether the guy really is "the guy." I would be vetting players with a fine-toothed comb. It's early, but if they end up with #1 or even a top-five selection, it should result in the most thorough scouting and interview process the Bills have EVER done. Period. This is going to be a crucial draft, even if it leads to another season with many losses.

True enough, Ramius, but if that chance yields a Ryan Leaf, it sets you back more than being in that 5-7 win range does, IMO. As an aside, there was an interesting recent SI article about the Lions and Rams as teams that have been in that top 5 realm for awhile. They are paying Peyton Manning money to very unproven guys and being asked to do this on a yearly basis. It might work out with good drafting, but if it doesn't, being up at the top of the draft can be crippling. That's a good reason for the rookie wage scale to change with this next CBA.

You need willing partners and a number of bidders to get value in a trade. Realistically, who has value here? If the Bills go to Denver, and say, "hey, I've got a fluffernutter, want to trade me something?" the answer we're going to get is, "Here's a sh-- sandwich and 50 cents you can use next year." If no one wants what the Bills are offering, they shouldn't just trade players to anyone who will take them. They've got too many holes to go creating new ones. If there was anyone I would have tried aggressively to move / ditch it would have been Kelsay (to a 4-3 team that needed run help), and even with him you would have gotten next to nothing. Instead the FO viewed some continuity and locker room presence as more important than talent. Everybody else recognizes that most of these players wouldn't be starting on other teams. Kyle Williams, Lee Evans and maybe some of the CBs have value, but Buffalo should be holding onto the few players that can occupy spots that they DON'T need to fill, unless Dick Jauron calls offering an Eagles third round pick for Youboty or something (which Andy Reid would be pretty pissed about).

The PROFESSIONALS on the Bills still have him on the team, and promoted him to second string. Let's not let this get in the way of our little crusade though.

I'm not about to defend this defense. It sucks out loud. But the D also isn't giving the opposition drive starts at the Bills' 23 or 35. All but one of Jacksonville's scoring drives started outside their 45 yard line - the rest began in Bills territory. That's the offense and special teams conspiring in the defense's demise. It's a lot easier to score points with a short field, and the Bills get stuffed on 3rd down often enough to give the other team prime field position with regularity. It sucks that the Special Teams aren't even the rock of this franchise anymore, though.

Fixed. Individual players don't win and lose games. Wins aren't a stat for individual players in football. Your points are taken, though. I am not sure why Wilson felt the need to divulge the need for a QB. For one, you never know when a good FA QB is going to come available, and two, broadcasting your draft plans is always a stupid idea.

Johnson is young and makes some stupid mistakes, but he has some potential for sure. I just want to see him playing a little more level-headed. He doesn't need to cost his team with stupid penalties, and he should act like a pro. Nelson I feel has a lot of potential. The Bills are lucky to have scooped him up from what I've seen of him.

Well, being the moron that I am I'd have to look at my posting history to unearth the many times I said any of these things. I hope I don't trip over my shoelaces trying to find the search button. Most people interested in Brohm (I hesitate to call myself a fan because I can't be a fan of a guy who hasn't done anything) think they haven't seen enough to decide whether he does in fact have the talent to succeed. They think he needs live game action to show this. This is the perfect season to do so, when it's clear the team isn't going anywhere. This opinion includes many respected contributors to the board here. I guess they're all morons, too? Everyone is stupid but you? Must be an amazing life you lead, surrounded by admirers tugging at your sleeve, waiting for a morsel of your football evaluation. You've seen enough... in preseason... in the many Green Bay preseason games you've watched... in Brohm's college career... and in his one game for the Bills after being picked up a few weeks earlier to judge him. That's great. He wouldn't still be on the roster, or have been promoted over the opening-day starter, if the Bills didn't have some interest in him, however marginal. You don't like the guy and think it'd be detrimental for some reason to give him a shot; your certainty must make you very comfortable, but keep the hate to yourself.

can he play linebacker?

You know, I hope you have this sh-- saved in your notepad so you can copy and paste your Brohm hate manifesto. I'd sure hate for you to waste the time writing it every day when you have so little to add to the conversation. Your disdain for Brohm is well-documented. We get it. If you're happy with the QB play and don't think that a young guy who has been seen by at least some scouts as having some upside is worth the Bills' time, that's fine. Other people think it's at least worth exhausting the options before spending an unprecedented amount of resources on a quarterback. I don't necessarily think there needs to be a new Brohm thread as regularly as there is, but I don't see why you need to respond to every Brohm thread with the same tired spiel.

Even better example might be to post Matt Cassel's stats. I'm not sure if I'm buying him as a starter long-term, but here's a guy who had nothing to show for himself and still found a believer in one of the smarter talent evaulators in the NFL.

Well, mission accomplished. Mom must be proud. I don't know, I thought I came to the games to watch football, enjoy the company of friends, and have a few beers and some homemade food with people you know and some nice people you've never met. I wish I had known that the true joys of the festivities are coming to hang out with a--holes who can't control themselves and believe they're paying for the privilege to act like toddlers, getting puked on, and stepping in the garbage of people who don't have enough pride to keep their trash within a reasonable radius. I might have saved my money a few times, considering the football product reeks like so much waste. We're lucky not everyone is like you.

I don't believe Florio, but I do believe Glazer. This is piss-poor management, if true. Being GM is a poker match and the Bills are acting as though they're just happy to be invited to the table.

I know some good journalists who frequent here will defend him, but I find Sullivan to be a really irresponsible writer. A report (not a charge, not a conviction) that a policeman smelled marijuana in Lynch's car becomes "There was a soft side to Lynch, if you only looked past the hit-and-run, the loaded gun and drugs in the car, the boorish behavior in public." I'm not saying Marshawn never did drugs or didn't have them in his car, but the fact is that this was never proven in a court of law, not even alleged to the point where he was charged for it. So you have one man's word - and that man for some reason didn't feel confident enough to charge Lynch - vs. Marshawn's. Meanwhile, Jerry's apparently done enough hardcore investigative journalism to convict Lynch in the court of public opinion. I'm sorry for anyone who likes him or enjoys having a beer with him - that's a dick move.

In baseball that's a season-ender or worse. I'm curious what it means for a football player. Davis is one of the guys I like in this defense. It's a big blow to lose him at all.

If you are that sure, pony up. He has 4.4 YPC in THE BILLS' OFFENSE, splitting carries with two other guys, even though he is a "malcontent" and "costing the team" and "laughing after a loss" and all this nonsense I'm reading around here. That puts him even with Jackson. It'd take 22 carries a game to get Lynch to 100 at that pace, and Carroll already says he intends to make him their workhorse back. I see it happening unless he gets hurt. By the way, to be consistent, you need carries, and you could also use some blocking. I've acknowledged before that Jackson has better field vision. Lynch is way harder to bring down, though, and I think in the right system you will see him do some damage.

NOOOOOOOOOOO!

You know for a fact that Lynch is a different kind of runner. If the blocking scheme doesn't support power running, then it doesn't support power running. You're mistaking me for someone who hates Fred Jackson, which I don't like. Apparently we all live in some world where Lynch and Jackson couldn't possibly both be good runners with different skill sets. How about this, buddy. Let's make a bet. If Marshawn Lynch doesn't have six 100 yard games with the Seahawks, I'll buy you a replica jersey of the player of your choice. If I win, you get to buy one for me. Handshake? I just think he is worth more on the field than these future draft picks will be. At age 27 how much would he have left? Good question. Most star-potential players aren't done by 27. Only time will tell.

This doesn't make the Lynch trade look better or worse. Lynch is a 24-year-old whose potential was not tapped by this team, with two-to-three controllable years at a fraction of Moss' salary. Moss was going to walk after this year, is a public malcontent, fantastic talent, who openly discusses his tendency to turn it on and off when he wants to. He's also old in NFL years, though very in-shape and probably durable enough to hang around for another 5 productive years - years the Vikings will pay for after a protracted and possibly distracting discussion of a contract extension. With only an assurance of 12+ games of that, the Vikes paid a third. The Bills were only able to get a fourth and some possibly delicious draft table scraps for a guy with upside. Make no mistake, the Bills are NOT going to find someone as good as Lynch with either of these two picks. The odds are stacked against them. Sorry, the premise of this argument doesn't wash.

My thoughts...

Oh God please make it stop. These OL flashbacks are giving me bedspins.

Dude, you can't buy that kind of consistency, unless you have $5MM a year.

I can't argue with you. You're right, he's really the first one to ever bring the snark to sports media. Making fun of the Bills is one of the more original thoughts I've seen making the rounds. It's pretty cool that Rome came up with that one so we could all enjoy.

Comparing this era of the NFL to that of our Super Bowl Bills doesn't wash. Those were the latter days of drafted, cost-controlled giants with total control over rosters. Polian was and is awesome in that he has adapted from that mindset to today's game (that, and he lucked into having Manning and Kelly at the right times, though he did right to keep them both). But this is a different world. I think it probably will take time just because this team did it with smoke and mirrors for years, and talent is not like that of those wayward Miami and St Louis teams. Maybe Jauron was better than we thought in that he got the most flavor from a sh-- sandwich; I still hated his demeanor and his gameday acumen, and steadfastly refuse to believe he'll ever be head coach for an NFL playoff team again. It's stuff like the front office direction, like the Kelsay re-signing that just makes one wonder how long it's going to take. This team has paid top dollar for table scraps; what would it take to get prime rib?

Jim Rome = a real creative dude.