Matt in KC

You misunderstand his meaning. The comment was obviously tongue-in-cheek poke at people who get hung up on the exact ranking (from people of unknown qualifications from some time before the draft).

I love the size and athleticism of Jasper, but can't imagine with his small school coaching and change of positions he'd possibly be ready to play at all this year. So, do we tie up a roster spot with him? Do we really have enough space for that luxury? Do we try to put him on the PS for a year or two and hope he isn't signed away if he shows anything? I'd love to see us use him as a (now-mini, 2-person) wedge-buster on kickoffs like we did with Jason Peters in the begining. Now that was fun to watch! If anyone can find any footage of him actually playing football (at any position), please post it!

I don't believe there's anything to this. The claim of the OP is this: 1. Buddy Nix was asked days before the draft a question that meant "is a QB the top pick on your board?" 2a. He was asked this Q by a reporter 2b. He was neither told nor asked to keep this info off the record 3. He answered truthfully, saying yes ******** Reacting to the above if it were true: I hope we don't take a QB with our first pick, though if Dareus and Fairley were gone, I could live with it. We do need a franchase QB, and Newton could be the savior of the Bills in the long run. I understand the Bills wanting to take a shot if they think Cam can get up to speed enough to start winnning by year 2. He certainly has the physical tools to be great.

Wow. I'm floored. I loved watching Sara Jane Smith on the old classic Doctor Who episodes when I was growing up. I thought itthey brought her back for a modern series character reunion. One of the things that really struck me was how good she looked, young and fit for her age (60+). I had no idea she was sick.

You've kind of changed your focus since post #36 in this thread when you asked the question bolded below, which others have been responding to. Moats is clearly doing more for the Bills now, if by now you mean last season. I don't think Merriman is returning to his old form (or better). I personally think there's artound a 50% chnce he returns to 75% of his peak performance. For Moats, I think there's a 25% percent chance he gets to that level or better (75% of Merriman's peak). I interpret all these probabilities as Merriman having the better upside potential. That said, I'd want both to play enough that we'd know who's the better player and make sure they're on the field when the games count.

Dexter, what makes you think the Wonderlic is multiple choice? ...because that's what it is in Madden? The condensed (15 minute WPT) version I took had a few multiple choice questions (e.g. which shape comes next in the series?) but most were not. I suspect many of the very low scores, especially by players who do much better on later attempts, just reflect the player doesn't care about the test, not necessarily that they are profoundly dim (though I'm sure some are).

I think Pat would really help upgrade our line and would love to have him back. He's obviously nothing like a long term solution to our run D, but I think he'd really help this year. I saw a number of Vikings games and watched him. While he may be slipping a bit I think he's better than all but KW on our team. If he'd come here for reasonable salary, I think this is a good addition, at least for one year. Does Pat (and Kevin) still have that Starcaps suspension hanging over his head?

I think the team Bills fans used to love to hate the most is working to get its mojo back....

What is this, a test to see which posters like workout warriors? I think we should look at trading up to get this kid. No one can overpower him, so he's obviously the rock we need to solidify the defense and make it impossile to run up the middle on us.

Frankly, I'd sign Asomaugha. I'd love to have a CB that can provide blanket man coverage. It would really open up our defensive options and seems to be a big part of the formula for beating the Pats (ala the Jets). Yes, he'll be expensive, but frankly so is drafting a DB in the top 3 rounds every other year hoping one will become even 60% of the player he is. We need to invest those draft picks in more big men. I don't think Youbouty or Corner are really ready to start on a winning team. We have a significant talent issue growing in our secondary. I don't buy for a minute stats that indicate we had a decent secondary this year, and I think without intervention it's getting worse quickly. If we can sign Asomaugha for 3 or more years, I'd do it, even for 9+ Million per year. For 2 years, it might not be worth it since this year is still going to be transitional (and disrupted) and I think next year the team should really be coming together if "the plan" is working.

I don't mind Fairley's penalties, and any apparent immaturity. It might just stop him from going #1 and sliding to the Bills. I thought he shed blocks pretty well, and certainly persisted on plays, even run plays away from him. The one criticism I have from last night's game (the first game I've watched) is that he turned his back to the LOS a number of times. I think he did this to shed blocks when he was being held, and it worked pretty well. He was only pushed back a bit while he did this because of his strength, but I remember thinking that wouldn't fly in the NFL. I have unpleasant memories of Tim Anderson constantly wrestling O-linemen with his arse (ineffectively).

I thought Florence was one of our unheralded players on defense last year, maybe the second or third best on the team. That said, he really played poorly to start the year this year. I didn't know if he was going to make it as a starter to the end of the year. As it turns out, he got significantly better at the bye, and continued to improve late in the year. I'd favor keeping him, though I'm not as high on him as after last season.

Actually, the article does say they are suing the fans too. Unless they were very (clearly) intoxicated, I don't blame the beer vendor. Unless the plaintiffs called the "Jerk" line more than 15 minutes ahead of the incident, I don't blame the stadium. The fans, however, need to be responsible for their behavior and any damage they cause.

If I remember right, the argument was something like: if you're going to have certain number of losses, (say, ending 8-8) it's better to have them against a team that is not in your division/conference because you'll have better tiebreakers at the end of the year (because that means the wins are more likely against division/conference opponenets). Therefore it's better to lose to Arizona to help our playoff chances. ...And several people engaged this argument for a handful of posts back and forth trying to help Crayonz see why his logic was flawed.

He's gay?

I guess we'll outscore NE by about -17 points....

I really lke Moats, and am eager to see if he gets stronger going into next year. He could be a real handful as a pass rusher. On the negative side, he looks a bit slow in pass coverage, and I think can be exploited. As far as I can tell he's making decent reads, but just can't physically keep up with receivers. I'm just going off of what I see on TV, which is nowhere near the full plays (or Moats on all of the plays). I kind of hope he's just making his reads a bit slowly and will improve. If it's raw speed he lacks, that might really limit him.

I'm as sick of our perpetual rebulding as anyone else. When our recent QBs haven't panned out it looks like we'll have to find another and wait 2-3 years to see if they work out, then rinse and repeat when they don't. I think right now, while we have a serviceable QB, is exactly when we should be loking for our franchise QB. I'd normally espouse firming up the o-line first, but Fitzpatrick, while he's taking shots, really isn't getting killed back there. The Bills have allowed 26 sacks, 7 of which were on Edwards. Let's find a solid franchise prospect and start investing in their development. As far as D Anderson goes, I dont know what happened. He looks horrible, depressed.

I'd play Garrard. I'm choosing between him and Cutler (favoring Garrard). I thought Collins looked ok against Indi, but really bad the week before against Jacksonvile (watched NFL Shortcut of the game).

I mistakenly thought (for whatever inexcusable reason) the contest was the Bills plus the Vikings receiving yards and posted 435 early in the thread (post #5), which I've since deleted. For the Bills, I'll guess 209 yards.

I have no problem with the running play ending with one second left. But who called time out? I never saw anyone call time out. If the ref had said the whistle blew (and I think it did) and someone called time out before 0:00, I would have been fine with it. Taking the clock back to one second was a joke.

Check out this link of Pro Football Hall of Famers by Draft Round. The first think that's clear on this page is that yes, how early (round) you're chosen definitely correlates with likelihood getting into the NFL HoF. Looking at the draft classes 1950 and later, there were 19 players chosen 10-19 that were inducted into the Hall of Fame. At the same time, there were 47 inductees who were drafted in the top 10. Heck, 10 of them were chosen first overall. Another tidbit, highlighting that Brady is an anomoly: there are zero players drafted after the third round since 1976 who are in the Hall of Fame. I don't want the Bills to lose. But, to say draft position doesn't matter in just not factually correct. At the same time, I agree there are more important things than draft position. I want to see the Bills playing respectably each week, and to be improving. If they played well and lost to teams playing lights-out, or due to bad luck, and in the process helped our draft position, that would be fine.

Great read. Thanks, Rich. I agree with almost everything you posted, but don't have time to comment right now (quick work break). I'm posting because this deserves to be bumped back to the top.

It's written Steve, but pronounced Stevie.

Shaun Hill looks like a nice one week play. (Any chance he's free?) The STL defense is not as bad as many think, but Hill is on a tear.