Fan in Chicago

I did. In my very first response - "Trade for a QB who lost his job to a 3rd round rookie ? No thanks." We can argue semantics. But Green Bay did not retain him. And now Seattle is most definitely getting rid of him. I have not read if they tried to re-structure his contract or just simply wanting to see if they can get a draft pick out of him. Are you arguing against drafting a QB at all ? Flynn's games have been underwhelming. He has already been evaluated by two teams and rated as nothing more than a backup. OTOH, Geno Smith and Barkley are being given high grades by scouts and talent evaluators. Hence, picking a highly rated prospect would not be a waste of time. I am done with this argument.

Let us try this one more time. You re-worded my post to say "Trade for a QB who lost his job to a Pro Bowl QB?". First of all, those were NOT my words. Secondly, you are implying that a pro-bowl QB came in and took away Flynn's job. Peter Caroll evaluated the rookie Wilson to be a better QB than Flynn and made him a starter. Wilson had perhaps one of the best low-round rookie seasons ever which points to the correctness of Caroll's decision. Now, Green Bay picked him in the 7th round and then did not retain him. He went to Seattle, his second team, which is now trying to get rid of him. And we already had Fitz we were unhappy with and TJackson - both of who may not be too different from Flynn in terms of production. Why would we give up a draft pick and waste our time with Flynn ?

At the time the switch was made, Wilson was a rookie and not a pro-bowler. Flynn is being jettisoned by his second team now. DOesn't that tell us all something about his prospects ? Do we need yet another stop-gap performer who may or may not be better than Fitz. And, please make your point without changing the wording in my post.

Trade for a QB who lost his job to a 3rd round rookie ? No thanks. I would much rather put my stock in a promising rookie from this year's draft class. The only QB on the block who I wanted was Alex Smith and he is long gone. Mod: there are three Flynn threads right now - merge ?

I thought it was rather uncharacteristic for Beerball to miss it so I agree and hence the question. The real issue here is that the car came with three. You know, if you have three women, you have none.

Being sarcastic ? India drives on the 'wrong' side.

Not one of the guys with pitchforks but here is my explanation - there has been a dearth of information regarding discussions, workouts etc with free agents. Such activity may very well be on-going and the Bills are quiet because of Buddy-gate and I am fine if that is the case. All the news we have received is about private workouts with Geno Smith, EJ Manuel etc. But then the only piece of news re: FA that comes out is regarding a TE who suffered a big injury just a few months back. If the FO is going to control and manage what news gets out, can they not do so with a more exciting FA ? Leads me to believe they either made a poor choice of who they want the fans to find out about or that there are no other FA discussions happening. Hence the frustration IMHO.

Indeed. A receiving corps that looks like SJ, DHB, TJ, DNelson, FDavis, Chandler will make life for our QB (rookie or otherwise) a whole lot easier. Dibs had earlier posted our cap situation and I would be willing to sacrifice Brad Smith to help head off any impending cap issues in 2014. The above hinges on the return from injury of Davis and the extent of Nelson's injury as you stated. A lot of ifs but certainly not out of the realm of possibility

I suggest looking up disorders and symptoms in this link. I have used this in the past mostly to understand some difficult personalities in my life. I am on my phone so cant do the research for you at the moment. Also, as you read through the symptoms, don't fall into the trap of self-diagnosis. Many perfectly normal people may have one or more of the listed' symptoms' but that doesn't mean they suffer from any disorder. I think the Mayo clinic guide has a good explanation of how o use DSM-V. http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/personality-disorders/DS00562

Great leader but not sure he will last the season. We should have checked out the other Bears LB, Roach, but too late for that.

If he covets your Bud Light, we fans are in sorrier shape than I thought

Hang on. Are you questioning the basic premise of free agency ? Teams do not improve by getting highly coveted free agents ? They have been less active than a team with so many needs should have been. Frankly, last offseason brought in two big names in Williams and Anderson. In retrospect, Williams may have been a marketing ploy for a highly disgruntled fan base. Sure it worked, and we were happy but net result was that it bought the FO another year of peace with the fans. This year we will be forced to draft a QB high whether or not the FO believes that he is the long term answer. That will buy them another year. IMHO, we should have traded for Alex Smith, kept Levitre and gone after LBs and WRs in FA/draft. Then gone after the long term QB in next year's draft We needed to go after more impact players wherever we could find them. Other teams filled holes, yet we preached patience and keep selling hope as if it is a strategy

And what exactly are we doing with the money we spent ? I know it is early in FA but the lack of movement besides Lawson is concerning. Levitre's was a hole that did not need to be created. The money saved is far less than the service we lost. If we use up a pick to replace it, that would have been one we could have used to fill a much more needy hole. No matter how we explain away being net negative in the personnel department, the fact is that we are poorer and unless there is action soon we will have a depleted corps of players. Sure, many of them deserved to be cut. But maybe Kelsay, Wilson would have been depth if we found better ones. Nelson was still a #3 or #4 at worst. SOme say analytics, some say patience. I see the continuing pattern of inaction followed by selling us on hope of some bargain bin FA and draft picks. For once, I would like more action on the FA front (ya I am not ignoring MarioW). Would i have killed our FO to sign a few out of Levitre, Nelson, Vasquez, Ellerbe, Dustin Keller, Amendola ? The reconciliation and patience with Nix and co. is unbelievable seeing what we have over the past 3 years. Yet, many here somehow think it will be different this time.

Dude is just getting in shape so he can play and leave for a fat contract next year. Thats his motivation

I didn't realize that we are actually agreeing on several items. I too would have liked Nelson back for ~ $1.5 million per, Levitre for up to $8 million per. Both numbers would have most likely gotten them re-signed. Agree with cutting Fitz but that is about all I agree with recently.

So only pro-bowlers get paid top-5 money ? Do we have a replacement in mind or will we now depend upon Wood alone to handle pressure up the middle ?

Great response. I would have responded similarly if I did not have anything meaningful to add to the conversation

For arguments sake, John, what would you have recommended ? After last season it was eminently obvious that the franchise was not moving forward and indeed there were plenty of indications that it was regressing. After three years of rebuild, we were stuck in neutral. Unable to consistently win division games, becoming irrelevant by the half point of the season. Would you have recommended staying the course with Gailey, Fitz, Wannstedt ? At some point, you have to cut your losses. There have been some good moves made by the FO but not enough and not in the key departments to build a winner. In year 4 of Buddy's regime, we are still struggling to fix the defense and have become desperate for a QB in a reportedly unspectacular draft class. Patience is fine and I had offered plenty of it to Nix and co. during the first 2 years of their tenure. But when he did not see Fitz's limitations and insisted on going BPA with no consideration to drafting a QB in his third draft, my doubts started becoming a certainty - that he just does not know how to build a winner. How long did it take him to realize that a superior QB is a key to winning ? And if you say he already knew that, then why did he not make any major moves to address it ? I understand patience but cannot ignore recent history either. We cannot keep doing the same things and expect success to magically drop into our laps.

Why do I not feel like celebrating ? I wish I could share in said thrill.

Does not retaining David Nelson and Levitre add or subtract from your happiness ? I for one, want talent added and mere subtraction does not give me any great pleasure. Fitz had to go I agree. But there have been a lot of questionable moves and non-moves till yesterday. And , I have come to hate the word VALUE. We will ride the value horse to the NFL basement yet again. Was Vasquez that expensive ? Would paying $8 MM/yr (ignoring the TN no-tax) been such a problem for the Bills ? Yes, but we have tons of cap room. Congrats -we can take that head room and make a serious run at Manziel.

Ofcourse. It is only right that FAs do so, they owe it to themselves. I am just surprised that the Bills pegged his value at less than $7.8 MM/yr

I guess I am too upset. Historically the Bills have struggled to staff the OL and I hate to break up one of the most competent units we had in years. I don't see to many better available options out there but am willing to wait (have no choice anyway) Ignoring the condescending tone of your post, care to specify in what way it did not make sense ? How many of them are available to help the Bills this season ?

You keep guys like Levitre. Period. You let guys like Fitz go. And if it is a question of money (which I am not sure we are short of), Levitre > McK (as I said earlier). Which I suppose is what you are saying. There is simply no way to reconcile our way out of this loss. IMHO, this is a loss of Pat Williams, Ruben Brown and Antoine Winfield proportions - something we will live to regret or allocate resources (draft pick) which could have been used in so many other areas.

15 minutes back I was disappointed and now that I have had time to think about it, I am incensed that we did not pay Levitre $8 MM/yr to keep him. Sorry but this is an utterly idiotic non-move.

Think about how many years it took us to get a guard like Levitre and then tell me again how easy it is.