MRW

Dude - mock drafts are not based on team officials telling Kiper who they are going to draft. Not sure how we can make this any clearer for you. Your entire worry is based on an erroneous assumption.

More to the point, I doubt any of the mock drafts are basing that pick on anything they've heard from the Bills. I'm not sure why you'd assume that they were. The Bills have a glaring need at LB, so it's kind of an obvious pick to slot in for the team. And besides, as this Te'o story shows, media outlets are very happy to run with a story that someone else reported, so having multiple mocks showing the Bills picking Te'o doesn't make it any more likely.

What? First you call out the press for running with a story without investigating, then based on mock drafts (put out by the media) you treat it like it's set in stone that the Bills were going to take Te'o? Can you expand on your thought process a little here?

I am about as impressed with this guy as I could be in the offseason. Obviously all that really matters is what happens once the season starts, but he sounds so forward thinking, engaged, and eager. Pretty much the polar opposite of Wannstedt. Here's the link to John Murphy's interview with Pettine on WGR: http://audio.wgr550.com/a/69649841/1-10-mike-pettine-on-jms.htm

Nah. Equivalent of what happened with the Bills hire three years ago would be if Cleveland had hired Mike Tice.

I think Hackett was a pretty middle of the road coach. I mainly know him from his OC stints in the NFL, and he was often criticized for being conservative. Based on the evidence out of Syracuse I don't think you can levy the same accusation at his son. I guess to the extent I put stock in N. Hackett being the son of a coach, it would be based on growing up around football, learning the basic concepts at an early age, and being around a lot of different coaches.

I was surprised by the hire and am still a bit worried by it, but really, it's not the age so much, it's that his NFL experience is as a quality control coach. If he had put in a year or two as a QB or other position coach, then went on to be a college OC, I probably wouldn't have the same reservations. And from what he discussed during his interview with Chris Brown, he took on some QB coaching duties with the Bills in his earlier stint since AVP ended up the OC. All of which is to say, I still have some reservations based on the length of his resume (not his age) but not by all that much. And I hope that his energy (and the energy of the whole staff at this point, really) will transfer to the players and offset whatever issues may arise due to inexperience.

Man, if I can't be unfair to the Dolphins, who can I be unfair to?

Sorry, just thinking back to the comments I saw from some Miami players when NE beat them the same way a few weeks back.

That's so disrespectful.

Yeah, I'd imagine most of the Bills have had vacations planned since mid-October.

Seems like a good bet.

For all we know, Brandon told Ralph when he thought he was wrong as well. I've done the same with my boss, and my staff will tell me when they disagree. But at the end of the day, if there is disagreement on a course of action, it's not going to be the employee who makes the decision.

Their collapse - to 10-6? They went 3-5 in the second half of the season, which is not great, but I'd hesitate to describe it as a collapse. If you need to pin it on something, I'd point to injuries and a tougher schedule. Every team they lost to this year is in the playoffs.

Maybe he did. Just because Ralph trusts Brandon, it doesn't mean that he blindly does everything Brandon says. My boss trusts me, but he's still my boss and is ultimately the one who makes decisions about the company. If I were put in charge I would probably run things differently than he does, because we're different people. So Wilson backing off from the football team, no longer calling the coach and GM every week, not stepping in to make decisions based on his whims and gut feelings and personal animosities, is potentially a very big change. And short of a sale, it's the biggest change you're likely to see.

Is your thinking that Wilson adopted Kelly?

I don't get this (and other posts that make the same argument). The Bills are totally mockworthy, but that has absolutely nothing to do with making fun of the Jets. I would've left Bills fandom behind a long time ago if I didn't have schadenfreude to sustain me.

Seriously? I mean, I'm done with Fitzpatrick, but this is idiotic.

The Pats* look intimidated. The last turnover SF got was caused by the big hit on Hernandez the play before. Not a bad tradeoff.

I would agree with you if we were talking about Chan as of the end of last year. But what I've seen out of him this year has convinced me that he is not the guy to take the team forward, and he is losing his players. To me, that's a more dangerous situation to throw a young QB into than rolling the dice on a new coach. The bottom line is I do not trust him to put players in position to succeed.

That's true, but by the same token I don't think replacing Gailey will result in a meaningful negative impact. Maybe you end up with Rich Kotite, but I'd rather cycle through a string of subpar coaches instead of keeping on one we know won't get the job done. Who knows, maybe you get lucky with an actual competent young coach ready to grab an opportunity. So I think at this point the issue is not a question of who you get to replace Gailey, but whether he has done anything to justify staying, and IMO he has shown that it's time for him to go.

Back in 2000, the season opener.

I think the Bills plan to hold them to touchdowns, to prevent him being a factor.

There are a number of unstated assumptions here, among them: 1. The method you're advocating is more likely to lead to a Super Bowl win 2. The hypothetical owner in this scenario values a Super Bowl win as highly as you do, and will not be satisfied with a consistent winning team that does not win a championship Leaving aside #1 for the time being, as it's been debated ad nauseam, I think #2 is highly problematic and undercuts your argument quite thoroughly. You are assuming a far higher degree of patience from the owner than I think is warranted. Owners may put up with several seasons of mediocrity, but you will not get more than one season of outright tanking (and even that puts you on the hotseat).

Yep. If Bill Polian couldn't keep his job after last year, why would any GM feel confident in throwing seasons to get a high pick? And now we're talking about potentially multiple seasons, deliberately trying to get a high pick? Not going to happen.