Frozen Tundran

Where on earth do you think we were getting our recievers at the end of the year? A guy quick with the groceries at the local A&P?--sign him up! It was worse with running backs, actually. Which is why we had to start a guy who couldn't even start for Liberty U in the bottom dregs of college ball. Had two whole starts there. Guy didn't even start in high school. Turned out pretty good overall, actually won the Falcons game for us. Needed some work on holding on to the ball though, as you can imagine. Last time he took this many hits was probably Pee-wee league. A list of our RBs this past season: Ahman Green (IR) Najeh Davenport (IR) Tony Fischer (busted ribs, came back though) Walt Williams (lasted ONE real play--IR) RaShard Lee (Fumbled on first two carries--IR) Samkon Gado (did great outside the fumbles, but again--IR) Noah Herron (Our starter the last couple games, along with a repaired Fischer) Never seen anything quite like that. In comparison, we only lost our #1, #4, and #6 recievers, though we lost our #3 for several games and our Pro Bowl TE and his back up. Was like watching an episode of 'Murder She Wrote' there for a while.

He's real good at running that U-71--a play named for him. Worked pretty well, and in fact we put a RB who couldn't even start on his high school team into it and he did pretty well. One of the best long-snappers in the league, most the time, but wasn't impressive this year. Runs too high, always hurt--you can have him--doubt you need him though. Capable third-string running back. Runs the halfback option especially well. Not that I ever wanna see that particular play, but when it's Fisher at least I know he can throw the ball. Came off a season ending injury in '04, he wasn't impressive early and he was fighting a sports hernia all year as well. Made the Pro-Bowl a few times, and some of his early struggles could be laid on the fact we threw warm bodies in next to him when he was used to dealing with Pro-Bowlers. I wanna keep this guy, and hopefully due to recent injuries he won't draw too much attention. So hands off! Looked pretty good to me, I hope we can keep him. Then again we were combing the high schools for recievers by the end of the year so perhaps compared to what we'd seen he looked impressive for a guy who'd never played in our offense. Guy has athletic ability, I'll tell you that right now. You guys don't need RBs, don't tease us. Ahman got an absolutely brutal injury, so no one will sign him most likely. Don't be terribly surprised if he runs for 1000 yards (second half most likely) once he comes back. Not expected back for training camp, which makes his being signed by any other team unlikely. So hands off! Yep, too old for you, stay away. Hands off--we love him. : Grady has played very well for us, but wants a contract indicative of how he's played, and lemme just say I think it unlikely TT will give it to him. Knees are a problem, as well as age, but I just gotta say this: you couldn't tell it by the way he played. Don't you dare! This one is ours, but our Lowball Artist in Charge wasn't smart enough to sign him to a longterm contract last year, thus he'll command bigger bucks this year. We better sign him before you even get the chance, and perhaps TT will learn something about being 'penny-wise, pound foolish.' Lenon actually played well for us in Bates' scheme. He's pretty good in coverage for a linebacker. That being said, I hope we can do better, and it wouldn't break my heart were he to leave. Dunno if he's starter material in a 4-3, though a 3-4 might be a different story. Incidentally, he was only a starter by default. Robert Thomas who we hauled off the airplane and onto the field and Diggs were supposed to be our starters. Good. Thou shalt not touch. You dun wanna know Longwell's advantage over other NFL kickers in Lambeau since '97 when he came into the league. What would you need a kicker who could kick 84% after December first in the coldest place in the league? Why, you're almost in a dome there in Buffalo. (just being sardonic of course, I know what Buffalo winters are like) Probably better than Holcomb and Losman both, at this juncture. I know one thing, neither have a better arm. Guy has an absolute cannon. The only reason Nall has not gotten his shot is because we have Brett Favre, and the only reason he's been third string is he had his hand broken brutally in college holding for the kicker. This guy can play ball, was one of the highest recruited high-schoolers before he got an injury. Was all lined up to go to Miami U and everything. Played outstanding when given a chance, both in NFLE and the NFL itself. We just happened to have a guy considered worthy of the #1 pick in the draft fall to us, that's Nall's only real problem. Good solid back-up, played well in spot starts. Probably shoulda been starting from the beginning, but we went with TT's boys: Whittaker and Klemm. Sherman finally ditched those two in favor of the guys he knew could play: Wells and Ruegamer. Not much more to say, other than you'll be happy with him as a back-up, and I mean no offense, but probably as a starter too as I've seen your line play the last few years and it's been ugly.

Up until the day before the firing, Clayton had Sherman being retained. Afterwards, he kept telling us Bates was a lead pipe cinch. Either his information is faulty or he's relying on his own analysis and he happens to be smarter than Ted Thompson. Maybe both.

Had the pleasure of watching two of Brett's former back-ups play each other in a playoff game last week, Brunell and Hasselback. In addition to them, Aaron Brooks was a decent starter for a few years and guys like Ty Detmer took his team to the playoffs as a starting QB. None of these guys were drafted high, lotsa fifth round draft picks in there. There might be something to the idea that being around Brett Favre, watching him practice, and picking his brain, is of some value. I can't think of any other QB in history that had as many back-ups go on to be fine starters as he has. That being said, Favre isn't going anywhere but back to his tractor in Mississippi if he decides not to come back to Green Bay. Were TT to trade Brett Favre he'd be strung up by his short-n-curlies. Some people already reminicing about what happened to Dan Devine's dog, that would be the final insult he is allowed, to trade Brett Favre. That being said, there is an outside chance it could happen though. If Brett retires (like I expect him to) he might decide later that mowing his lawn is pretty dull, that he's really not that old, and return to the game he loves so much. Were that the case, he could petition the league to allow his return, and I imagine that would be a formality--it's not like he retired to avoid the results of a drug test--and while he'd be 'under contract' here he might ask for his release as TT has already intimated he wants to give him a 5 mil pay cut, and he'd have to learn an entirely new offense. While looking around, were Sherman in Buffalo that might make it pretty enticing, being as I imagine Mike Sherman would run a similar offense there were he selected as your coach. That's a real longshot though.

A lot of us do already--you have Lee Evans and we just loved that guy as a Wisconsin Badger. You also have (had?) Tim Krumrie as a coach, and Troy Vincent who is another all-time favorite Badger. You seem to be collecting them. Terrell Buckley went on to a fine NFL career, but he was always haunted here because he wasn't Troy Vincent. I was born in Upstate New York, my father is from the area, so I always had kind of an affinity for them anyway. I participate occassionally on another Bills board, BillsZone. I can't help but ask, were people here as willing to see Drew Bledsoe publically drawn and quartertered as they were there? If so, how do they feel about it now?

You will be happy if your team chooses to hire Mike Sherman. For one thing he is a 'coach' first--he teaches people and he is good at it, especially on the O-line. He spent about a dozen years in the NCAA as an O-line coach and it shows. With the exception of Chad Clifton, he put together a top-tier offensive line from scraps and leftovers. Fifth, sixth, and seventh round draft picks. With Flanagan hobbled by injury and our Pro-Bowl calibre guards shown the dooor, our O-line struggled as you can imagine early in the year, but solidified later in the year until it was an acceptable unit. Bubba Franks came out of college as a reciever-first who seldom blocked, and under Sherman became one of the best blocking TEs in the league. Although he's not much of a reciever, Robert Ferguson became one of the best blocking WRs in the league as well. Players on Sherman's team will know how to block effectively no matter who they are. He won't excite you, in fact when he's shown on the sidelines during games he will be invariably engrossed in his play chart, but he won't embarass you either. He doesn't say silly things and comes accross very competant and professional. He rebuilt the Packer offense into a dominating unit despite it deteriorating alarmingly under Rhodes. He did that by replacing the older ones with better young ones. Bill Schroader, an aging Antonio Freeman and Dorsey Levels were replaced by Donald Driver, Javon Walker and Ahman Green and we again were a 400 point team on offense basically every year, despite (like you) playing outside in freezing weather most of the time. Some of his game calls are conservative, to the point of being stone age, like the infamous '4th and 1' punt that cost us a trip to the NFC Championship game. When he tries to mix things up it's invariably the 'halfback option' that's employed, but despite me cringing everytime it's run, it also seems to work everytime. You won't see much razzle-dazzle from him though.