RuntheDamnBall

I think we could be justifiably more worried if 1) he were represented by Eugene Parker 2) he wasn't holding for dear life onto a roster spot 3) he were a Pro Bowler instead of serviceable depth 4) he played LT instead of DB.

ST's definitely botched it up, but as Cincy said, it was the D's fault for the most part. Some offensive play-calling left a little to be desired for Indy, too. A low % FG attempt, and running four straight times at the goal-line cost them dearly. Well, that and an ill-timed INT.

"Aging" Rob Johnson was 25 in 1998. Linky thing with birthday etc. It turned out to be a bad move, but teams move picks for guys with a small sample size of success all the time (Schaub, Favre, Feeley, etc). Sometimes it works out, sometimes you buy a house. Oops!

I'm going to re-post what I mentioned in a dead thread: If Philly is willing to go the conditional pick route with us, I'd send them the exact same structure for a deal that netted Favre: at least a 4th, a 3rd with 50% of snaps played, a 2nd with 70% played+playoffs, and 1st for a Super Bowl appearance. I think the Bills would ultimately need to offer more, though, considering that they need a QB very badly and that McNabb is a good deal younger than Favre was at the time of the deal. I'd offer as much as a conditional 2011 pick with this structure, and our third this year. I think a guaranteed third, and a fourth in 2011 that escalates with 2010 performance is a hell of a deal. Philly wipes McNabb's contract off the books, moves toward its future, and if McNabb comes out re-energized with the Bills, Buffalo pays a return worthy of that performance. If it'd take a 2010 second-rounder plus the conditional pick, I'd probably still do it. I agree with you that guaranteeing a first, especially in the top-ten, is beyond ridiculous.

Signing the hot 3-4 DL as a UFA would be the easiest item on that list, and even that's presuming the Bills offer the most cash, perhaps by a wide margin. I sincerely doubt McNabb is coming for a R4 pick. Other competitors vying for his services, two of them already known, will drive up the price. At a premium position, McNabb is older but hardly damaged goods. He should fetch at least a 2nd-3rd rounder where an older Favre, thought of to be in decline, fetched a conditional pick that ended up being a third (and could have been a first). If Philly is willing to go the conditional pick route with us, I'd send them the exact same structure for a deal that netted Favre: at least a 4th, a 3rd with 50% of snaps played, a 2nd with 70% played+playoffs, and 1st for a Super Bowl appearance. I think the Bills would ultimately need to offer more, though, considering that they need a QB very badly and that McNabb is a good deal younger than Favre was at the time of the deal. I'd offer as much as a conditional 2011 pick with this structure, and our third this year. Trade downs are great, but everybody wants to trade down, still net the guy they want, and get extra picks. You have to find a willing partner who thinks that the guy they've targeted will not be available at their spot. That's unlikely to happen with a team just 3-7 picks down from the Bills. In Buffalo's case, they could trade down and find themselves without a premium player to pick -- a bad position to be in, as well.

Why all the Peyton-hate, man? I'd give my left arm to have had him as QB of the Bills over the past decade.

Interesting perspective, and for me that really tells the story of why a few people love(d) Edwards and why a lot of us saw much to prove. Evident just within those stats is the notion that Trent didn't make a lot of mistakes (the reason many loved him) but that he also was not willing to take as many chances (the reason I didn't love him). It proved to be his undoing, and many of the rest of us, including some at OBD, saw what Trent was not seeing. I think he improved in the first few games of '08, in part due to the schedule. However, once he met Adrian Wilson he was pretty much doomed to rely on his more conservative tendencies -- tendencies of course favored by the departed Coach Skeletor. You can argue, and I'll agree with you, that Trent could have grown to trust himself more, but I'd argue that the same coaching staff that would have benefited from Trent maturing gave him a sh-- sandwich to work with at OL. This, too, reinforced his worst aspects, and caused him to look to dump off the ball even when he had decent protection.

According to some around here it's easy to know if a guy is a bust after one season, even if he missed training camp and the coaching staff has no idea what it's doing.

Bill Belicheck w/ Patriots = retread coach Tony Dungy w/ Colts = retread coach Marv Levy w/ Bills = retread coach Tom Coughlin w/ Giants = retread coach None of these guys won it all with their first NFL team, each made the Super Bowl (3 of them won) with their second. The only coaches in the last 15+ seasons to win it all with their first team, early in their tenure were Mike Tomlin, and Brian Billick. Fox, Whisenhunt, Lovie Smith and Callahan were in the mix as runners up, but 2-3 of them have been on the rocks as coaches since.

Who's Schrobel?

Steelers 1974 easily bests that. This is a pretty good link on the topic. 1 21 Lynn Swann WR USC 2 46 Jack Lambert LB Kent State 4 82 John Stallworth WR Alabama A&M 4 100 Jimmy Allen DB UCLA 5 125 Mike Webster C Wisconsin 6 149 Jim Wolf DE Prairie View A&M 6 150 Rich Druschel T North Carolina State 7 165 Allen Sitterle -- North Carolina State 7 179 Scott Garske -- Eastern Washington 8 204 Mark Gefert -- Purdue 9 223 Tommy Reamon RB Missouri 9 229 Charles Davis DT Texas Christian 10 243 Jim Kregel -- Ohio State 10 254 Dave Atkinson -- Brigham Young 11 283 Dickey Morton -- Arkansas 12 308 Hugh Lickiss -- Simpson (IA) 13 333 Frank Kolch -- Eastern Michigan 14 358 Bruce Henley -- Rice 15 387 Larry Hunt -- Iowa State 16 412 Octavus Morgan -- Illinois 17 437 Larry Moore -- Angelo State Edit: beat me to it, VABills

You've seen enough of Ellis to know this? Gimme a break -- he hardly saw the field, and he looked pretty solid last preseason. I'm not convinced the last coaching staff knew what it was doing well enough to get these guys to succeed, but if in fact Sanders has been helping them to improve, another year of him should help. I'm all for giving Maybin the benefit of the doubt thus far, though. He's just so young that we're basically getting what amounts to his Senior college season coming up here. He has a heck of a lot to prove and he is earning a lot of money while on the learning curve, but it'd be better to see him pan out than to be on the mark with regard to his impending "bust" status.

Zu laut!!!!!1

Look to the Pats and copy them. Go hybrid, and game-plan for each team you face. You have, will draft, and will sign players; you've got to build your system around them.

That's just great that you feel that way, man (regardless of how insane the opinion is) but his next offense is going to cost him, and his next team, dearly. I'd rather it didn't happen on the Bills. If you feel that he's better than T.O. in his prime, are Andre Johnson and Larry Fitzgerald better than 5 Jerry Rices and 4 Randy Mosses?

How about let's start with a guy who doesn't rack up domestic abuse charges as often as he scores touchdowns.

It's a really good thing we have Donte Whitner and not Haloti Ngata.

Curious... do the rules for interviewing candidates for HC jobs apply to DC candidates as well? I'm not talking about the Rooney rule as much as I'm thinking about periods during which teams can conduct interviews, when the candidate is still coaching in the playoffs. I'd been under the impression that a team has to grant permission for an assistant to be interviewed (and usually does so in the case of a promotion). One would think that'd be less likely in the midst of a playoff run. Considering the speculation that the Bills have found their man, one wonders why else they'd be waiting.

THIS.

http://www.charitynavigator.org/

I see nothing wrong with Frazier himself saying nothing publicly about either job. He said not a word about either job. If he was "pining" for the Seattle gig, this was only confirmed through Jay Glazer's report. The absence of any report in which he was "pining" for the Bills job doesn't mean he didn't want it. He may in fact have wanted the Bills more than they wanted him, given his lack of HC experience. You're comparing apples and oranges, and the apples only maybe exist.

Welcome to TBD logic. Because Leslie Frazier didn't talk about the Bills job while employed by the Vikes, he's no good. We could have had Gailey AND Frazier, because some poster knows Gailey would have been Frazier's choice as OC. I'm amazed at the amount of inside info, hard evidence and compelling arguments circulating around here.

I don't buy it since we have no idea what words were exchanged between the Bills and Frazier. We only knew that the Bills were "impressed." Obviously Frazier wants a HC position. He wouldn't have to sell the Bills on a GM candidate because Nix is already the guy. I just think of the Dungy / Seattle overtures as angling for a position. There's nothing to suggest he wasn't angling for the position with the Bills, just as there's little to suggest that he was. Reporters are doing their jobs, but Mortenson was pretty much campaigning for Frazier and has a bone to pick with the Bills, and even he said that Frazier did not decline the Bills' advances. The Bills went their own way because they wanted HC experience. Meanwhile, the only time we heard actual words from Frazier, they regarded his concentration on the task at hand. That's a man doing his job. Why should he comment about the Bills job when he has a job to do?

Bills might not have a choice if Schobel retires. You're not getting four new DEs and someone from among Denney, Kelsay, Ellis and Maybin will stay. A lot will depend on the choice of scheme. I'm definitely in the books as a Kelsay hater, but as much as it pains me to say it, he was not the worst problem on the DL this season. He'd be an OK backup for us.

I don't think it's crystal clear to anyone that Frazier was not interested. That's not what the last reports indicated. He cannot have turned down the Bills point-blank because the Bills could not have offered him the job until last night. I wanted to return to this. Switzer's 1997 'Boys were 6-10, not SB winners, just FYI.