Bill from NYC

Actually, my post was a mistake. I thought he meant LG.

Well, McKinnie was unemployed. The Ravens signed him. They took a gamble which could pay off for them over a period of time, or it may not. The Bills have the cap space and nothing to lose imo.

If the Bills defense is going to improve as much as I and others believe, I think that Merriman will be the biggest factor. I say this despite having high hopes for Carrington. I am very high on Dareus, but he is a rookie. Merriman is a potential superstar. He showed this against the Bears. He had problems and sort of faded out of the picture, but imo he has all world talent. If the Bills can improve their run defense (which Dareus will help big time), AND they can put up some points, teams will have to throw. Under these conditions, I can picture a healthy Merriman with as many as 14 or so sacks, along with blocked passes and a ton of pressure in general. He was a great signing by virtue of what he can possibly do. Now, let's take this to the OL (you knew I would lol). I hope that the Bills make a move at a UFA blocker. Brian Waters perhaps? If we can make the OL better, even for a season, it can open the door to winning football games. I subscribe to the Edwards Arm theory. If you can draft a franchise QB, take him. I add that if you can't, go grab a LT. Look at superbowl rosters and you will more often than not see very good to great LTs. Perhaps a player such as Waters can buy us time. We would be a better team this season, and be allowed bide our time to make a big time move at either a QB or LT next season. My point is that signing a vet such as Merriman is looking great right now. There is nothing to lose by going after a blocker who can potentially help us a great deal. The money is there and the time is right to take a chance. GO BILLS!!!!!!!!

I hope so.

Thank you.

You mean because of the life threatening violence on every play? Drunks are already escorted out of the stadium. Now, they will be joined by cigarette smokers who light up out of the walls of the stadium. And, hypocrisy abounds (not referring to you Joe). The Bills SELL 24 ounce beers to drunks. They stop at halftime? So what. People just stock up before the half. Drunks can find a way to get plastered. Brandon is am embarrassment. He is a self rightous loser who did nothing but harm this team. He would be better suited to be a shift manager at Burger King. The sooner they fire this pompous p&$%k, the happier I will be. As far as I am concerned, he can shove his slogan up his a$$.

The Bills have set a very bad precedent of letting players walk when they feel like it. It started imo when Levy made that idiotic "promise" to Clements. IF they still wanted him they should have kept him. A salary dump seems way more likely imo.

Actually, I was serious. I have been at games in which some of our gadget players had a very good and exciting play. Naturally, the crowd goes wild. Once I saw McKelvin return a kickoff for a TD. His speed was blinding, just unthinkable. I thought that he might be the next Mel Gray in terms of kick returns, until I realized that he has the brain of a flea, but that's another matter. If we lived close by, I would bet you a six pack of your choice that Spiller has some sort of amazing play in preseason. It's really gonna happen imo, and the board will quite naturally be happy. The good news is that I have a better feeling about Brad Smith than I ever had about any Bills gadget player. I think this kid can win us a game.

Good luck to Lee but fear not. Spiller will soon break an amazing TD run (or maybe a pass) and this board too will be ecstatic. I am sure of this. Then, we will see what both of them do in real games.

Straight up.

ERBF, I hope you are calmer now than when you posted this. We are all a part of the Bills experience. You may consider me a "basher," but I raised 3 girls as Bills fans, 450 miles away from RWS. I actually think that it helped tham in life in terms of being loyal and to persevere. This is a board that is founded and frequented by a lot of very smart people (myself not included lol). Speaking for myself, I care a lot about the Bills, the people I have met and interacted with from TBD, and the board itself. I sense that you feel the same way. Some people are going to gripe. Some are going to think everything is great. Then, there is everything in between. The bottom line imo is that we have great dialogue here. I have been bitching about blocking since the late 90's. Others have their own particular complaints. With all due respect, my suggestion to you is to not let other Bills fans bother you. They are suffering, but they love this team as much as you do.

I agree.

I disagree. Most Bills first round draft picks are similar to new car purchases. When you drive off the lot, the value goes sharply down. Think about it.....Maybin, Whitner, Losman, McCargo, Lynch. These players had little to no value once the league saw them play. It's nice to think Spiller is different, and he might be. But at this point he would only be worth perhaps a 4th or 5th. Might as well roll the dice and see if he will ever be any good.

Why doest the above mystify you? Seriously, I am not being a wiseass, but the reasons appear to be clear: 1) Nix/Gailey drafted Spiller. They took him despite other needs (we are told) because they thought he was the BPA. Maybe they still think he is great. It appears so, right? 2) If Spiller develops, he will be more "exciting" than Fred. After Spiller was drafted, Mr. Wilson himself said that the team needed, "excitement." And this sir is a good thing for ticket sales. 3) By naming these players co-number 1 backs, or something of this sort, it justifies not giving Jackson a raise. But, who are they saving the money for? Clabo? We don't know what he breaking point was to sign here. What we do know is that we didn't reach it. Boss? No, he was a proven TE there for the taking, but we are going with Chandler. I hope it works; we will see. 4) Spiller is being paid #9 money. My point is that the money they save on Jackson will simply be put right into Mr. Wilsons pocket, along with the savings from Evans. It's nuts, but these are our Bills.

My house was rocking. The worst part was that my 17 year old daughter is at Great Adventure in NJ and wasn't answering her phone. I was picturing the worst. I got through to their local police and they said there were only tremors. The good news is that she finally called and is OK. Things like this make our draft selections and offensive line seem to be of little consequence, ya know. It's rough to be a parent. Time for a heineken.

Make that 2 cents. We are all different and react to things in different ways, but your description of being a fan is all encompassing imo.

I'm not so sure it works as you describe. From what I see, fans give extra room to first rounders in order to not face the ugly fact that one of them is a bust. Players such as Whitner and McKelvin were given a lot of slack by fans in terms of their performance vs. their draft slots. Then again, there were others (McCargo, Flowers, and Maybin) who never produced anything at all, ever. The good news is that I totally expect Dareus to finally break this alarming trend.

This is a great post, and I admire your way of thinking. Many of us (myself included) probably get into the Bills a little too much. This explains the despair when they repeat the same moves that put the team in this bind that it is in. But as bad as they are, I look forward to every draft and every season. Even this one.

This is spot on and few if any posters are addressing this. A strong case could be made that either Mr. Wilson or the useless schmuck Brandon was behind this idiotic draft selection from day 1. And make no mistake.....sooner or later, Spiller will make a long, breakaway run that will have fans drooling, and thinking that he was a good pick. Despite his total lack of production, one can clearly see how people continue to assert that he was a sound draft choice. He wasn't, and this notion will change. It always does. At this point, what we do have is a shrimp who cannot gain yards on the groud, is a so-so receiver, and cannot block for s*&t. And now he is causing dissension. What a freaking mess.

Do you think Gailey is getting pressure from above to start Spiller?

Absolutely!

Mr. Wilson is extremely intelligent. Levy is a fan favorite. To many he is the face of the franchise. It is even bad form on this board to not praise him. Bringing in Levy made Mr. Wilson a lot of money. He was surely paid less than most GMs. The fans were happy and bought tickets, beer, etc. The rest is history. Levy and the rest of the clowns took the Bills down the tubes, but Mr. Wilson was filling his pockets while putting forth a poor product. Mr. Wilson is anything but unintelligent.

Absolutelty true. However, I continue to stress the damage that Levy did to this franchise. Here was a man who wanted to be a coach. Nobody wanted him except Mr. Wilson, who made him GM. He in turn hired a head coach who nobody wanted, but shared his idiotic football philosophy. You are right John in terms of your assertion that this ultimately falls upon Mr. Wilson. It has to. But I make the case that virtually anyone connected in any way to the NFL would have done less damage to this team than did Marv. I am not that impressed by Nix, but at least he has (or seems to have) a hint of a clue. But even at that, I offer you CJ Spiller at #9, and Aaron Williams with the 2nd pick in round 2 with a slew of trade down offers. To make a long story short, as the story unfolds, Nix will probably wind up being a nightmare in terms of being a competent GM. But, he is a breath of fresh air compared to Marv, and the other idiot who is Russ Brandon. PS: As your opinion of Spiller changes, do keep me posted.

You don't want an average cornerback at #11. Especially on a team that needed huge help on both lines. In this sense, McKelvin is an absolute bust.

I don't trust listed weights. Do you? Bell imo does not look like an NFL LT in terms of his frame. He could barely budge 225 at the combines. This is why an agile kid like him lasted until round 7. Jason Peters has more strength pushing people away with his arms than Bell has when running into someone. Bell, agility notwithstanding, will probably always be hampered by his physical limitations which are real. This is why he is consistently banged up. In the long run, he will probably prove to be not strong enough to compete at this level, although I must admit that he would make a decent backup LT imo. Dick Levy killed this team by drafting DBs and RBs with our best resources. Nix isn't quite as bad, but he went the same direction in terms of Spiller and Aaron Williams. I wanted to be happy about Nix, but he is proving to be just another old, inept hire. That said, I do think that Gailey is 100x better than Jauron (sorry C Biscuit).