Albany,n.y.

He had some pretty good receivers in 2016 who left & flourished in the NFC West. So no, you can't argue that the Bills failed to give him a supporting cast just because his 3 top WRs, who he turned into mush, were gone in 2017.

Obviously he was talking about what we had to give up vs what the Redskins gave up. To move up to 7 he Bills gave up pick 12 (which includes 1st moving up by trading Glenn) and picks 53 & 56 (which was for letting the Rams have Watkins for a year & the Bills got the pick & Gaines for a year). Meanwhile to move up to 2, the Redskins gave up 6, pick 39 in 2012, their 1st in 2013 (22nd) and their 1st in 2014 (#2 overall) Just the fact that the Bills didn't give up any other #1s except pick 12 proves it was a much safer trade than what Washington did. It's not even close, they gave up 3 #1s, one of which turned out to be the 2nd pick of the draft (which the Rams wasted on a bust, Greg Robinson).

I would think that in the hopefully unlikely chance that Allen is a bust, Beane would understand it quickly enough to take another swing at getting a QB. Not double down like Whaley did, trading away way too much in hopes that he can turn around a bad QB pick like EJ was. There were some QBs available the year after EJ was drafted like Carr, Garoppolo & Bridgewater. If Whaley had shown any ability to see how bad EJ was after a year here, he could have corrected Nix's error. If Allen fails & Beane sees it quickly enough, he gets a 2nd shot. To me that means if Allen isn't showing enough, Beane would be wise to spend a 1st or 2nd on another QB in next year's draft. Unconventional going after a QB a year after trading up & drafting one, sure, but better to hedge the bet than put all your eggs in the Allen basket if he hasn't shown enough to be entrenched as the 2019 starter. It's not like teams haven't hedged on the franchise QB bet before. Many years ago the Jets had 2 rookie QBs in camp, Joe Namath & Heisman winner John Huarte. More recently in 1989 the Cowboys drafted Troy Aikman #1 overall, then spent a #1 in the supplemental draft on Steve Walsh. Eventually they recouped the #1 by trading Walsh to the Saints when Aikman proved to be the franchise QB they were looking for. Other hedges have included Washington trading a ton to St.Louis for RGIII at pick #2 overall, then taking Cousins in the 4th round. The Redskins also hedged when they drafted Heath Schuler & Gus Frerrotte in the same draft. In both cases the #1 pick bombed & the other guy ended up starting.

I'm going to Disney World.

Whaley had little or nothing to do with finding Poyer. The man who pushed hardest was Bobby Babich, the Bills safeties coach: https://buffalonews.com/2017/09/22/inside-bills-jordan-poyer-got-buffalo-came/ “Yes! Absolutely,” Bills assistant defensive backs coach Bobby Babich says when asked whether he thought Poyer would be this good, this fast with a new team. “People don’t understand the amount of work that Jordan Poyer puts in and the time he spends. He’s absolutely relentless.” Babich is the main reason Poyer is in Buffalo. Having spent two-plus years with him in Cleveland, he saw firsthand a star in the making. Poyer just needed the right opportunity, Babich believed, and he would take the NFL by storm. That’s why, with the Bills needing help at safety as free agency approached this past March, Babich campaigned hard for Poyer. “I brought his name up to all the people who are above me and said, ‘hey, this is a guy we need to take a look at,’ ” Babich said. “Everybody that was involved in the decision looked at the tape that he did have, listened to my input, and we ended up with Jordan.” Even as a 34-year-old assistant DBs coach, Babich said there was “zero hesitation” on his part to push so hard for his bosses to sign Poyer.

I can't imagine Jackson getting fired in the middle of the season after letting him go 0-16 after 1-15. He makes it through 16 more games before the axe falls. It's either Koetter or Joseph, with Koetter as the favorite.

The pick we got from Houston was used to draft Kyle Williams.

I really expected a Peter Pan link. When EJ Manuel announced his plan where one could buy stock in his career, that's what I said.

In the early days of internet radio broadcasts I didn't have a computer yet, so I got WebTV so that when I got home I could listen to The Coach's daily show on WGR. During his time on the radio the Bills went from an AFC dynasty to a non-playoff team. I thought he was pretty funny & a catharsis for the bad play on the field. He's much funnier to listen to when the team is in decline than when (hopefully) they are on the rise. If you're going to propose a podcast with Dickerson, might as well go all the way & have Jerry Sullivan join him. Back in the day, I used to go to every Bills home game. One time I was driving back to Albany with Petrino & we called Coach up after a late season game (I think it was Donahoe's last home game) where it had snowed & I had security come down because right below our seats was the roof of the indoor seats & I wrote "Fire Mularkey" in the snow and they made me erase it. Coach asked if I had written it in yellow. Another memory of the Coach is when a caller said something he really liked, he adopted it as if he was the originator. After a Bills loss a caller phoned in & called a play "4th & stupid". Soon afterwards the Coach used that phrase often, as if he was the one who originally said it.

They trained together with Jordan Palmer and became good friends. They are the future of the AFC East, Brady will be just a memory as the Patriots take their rightful place in the AFC East cellar for the next decade after Brady hangs them up.

They like him enough to keep him on the practice squad. He may be on the opening day roster, but don't be surprised if Derek Anderson shows up in Buffalo around 9/10 or shortly thereafter when they can sign a veteran & not guarantee the contract.

I still have a yellowed copy of the final paper the Courier Express ever printed on 9/19/1982, since I was living in Buffalo then. When I was in school at Fredonia the Courier would come in around 2 AM at the all night donut place at the D&F plaza. I often waited to get the paper there. I also remember the days in NYC when I could get a Daily News next day edition early in the evening before headed back to LI on the Long Island Railroad. Now I wake up to the morning edition of the Albany Times Union delivered to my computer. Newspapers are going to be on-line only eventually. Why get a hard copy for $2/day when I can get the same thing subscribing on-line for $1/week. The paper saves printing & delivery costs & I save over $50/month reading it on-line.

The future isn't now.

There's a good chance that none of the 4 QBs taken in the top 10 will be starting on opening day. I wouldn't be inclined to write any of them off that soon.

This is like when I looked at the assessment roll and one house near mine was owned by someone who had the same name as a former NBA player. I drove by his house one day & instead of seeing a 6'8" black guy in the yard, there was a little old white guy. Before seeing the owner, I thought at least it could be the ex-player's son & I could eventually meet the player, but that was never going to happen.

I'll be there. 6/23 is a Saturday, but the 518 Lunch Club says it's Friday 6/22. I assume the correct day is Friday 6/22. Hey, if the food is really good maybe we'll just stay there & never leave until Saturday.

Baltimore. Best place to fly in & out of on gameday. Public transportation from the airport to downtown. Rich's tailgate party at the Bills bar & then the game, can't beat it.

I have relatives in the Bay area who wouldn't have recognized a basketball if it hit them in the face before 2014. Now all talk about is "The Dubs"

I've been to baseball & football games at the O.co Coliseum and never saw anything that I was afraid of (except maybe the dump of a stadium falling down) . Now I didn't go there wearing the opponents gear, either. I did go to a Nets/Warriors game a few years ago & openly rooted for the Nets without any problems, but the Warriors were winning and nobody cared if I was rooting for the Nets. .

7 & 9 can sometimes go together on message boards. When fans call other fans losers because we are rooting for a 4 or 5 win team not to win game 5 or 6 in December, I feel like I have to keep reminding them that they are not part of the team. Only the team's players & management have to try to win every game, even when the games don't matter & it's better to lose & get a higher pick. As a fan, I'm rooting for anything that will bring a championship to my team. If losing one extra game for an out of the playoffs team gives the Bills a shot at a better player I'm all for it. To those who say it doesn't matter where you draft, but who you draft, remember the next time you complain that the Bills gave up too much draft capital to move up for a player they want, that if they hadn't won that 5th game in December, they might have been drafting high enough that there was no need to trade up. Obviously this wasn't the case in 2017 since they were trying to make the playoffs & you don't root against a team in playoff contention, but some really lousy Bills teams have won one extra meaningless game in an otherwise dreadful season and the win set the team back for years.

The Bills think so highly of Peterman that they did everything they could to move up in the draft to get a QB of the future who isn't named Nathan Peterman. Last year I went to 1 road game-in LA vs the Chargers. Peterman ruined that game for me. This year my 1 road game is in Baltimore. The last thing I need to see is Peterman starting & ruining another road game for me.

If Allen plays like a top 10 pick should play, I see no reason the Bills can't be competing for a championship in 2019 or 2020 at the latest. We're going to have a ton of cap space in 2019 & can fill a lot of holes before the 2019 season. I expect Allen to be playing by November or December at the latest (I'm hoping a lot sooner) this year & show up ready to start from day 1 in 2019.

Sure they can, they can go 0-32 the next 2 seasons. But the only way they can do that is by not firing Hugh Jackson if he goes 0-16 again.

I used to go to the old Albany Firebirds games during the years 1990 to 2000, I had season tickets for a year or 2 during the Bills Super Bowl years. I went to all 4 Super Bowls & my next game would be an Arena game. I saw the Buffalo Destroyers play twice in Albany. I have no intention of seeing any Albany Empire games. The league is currently a shell of its former self. My 1st Arena game was in 6/23/1988 in Madison Square Garden the NY Knights were playing. I was in NYC that day on business & stayed to watch the Arenaball game out of curiosity. The best part of that game was there was an old guy with a young wife sitting in front of a bunch of college age guys. The college age guys were cursing & the old guy told them to stop cursing in front of his wife. Things got heated and the younger guys finally had enough of some old guy trying to look tough in front of his trophy wife & they cursed at him and then threw their beer at him & left. He went chasing after them, which was kind of ridiculous since they were younger & stronger than him & he eventually returned to his seat. I have no idea if he ever caught up with them, but since he came back & wasn't bleeding, my guess is he didn't. What I also remember about that day was it was the day Billy Martin got fired for the last time as Yankee manager. When the Knights were doing poorly, I yelled out they should fire their coach & hire Billy Martin, since he had just become available.

He wasn't fired. He quit with 1 year left on his 6 year contract & moved on because he was fed up with Ralph's cheapness. It was during his 2nd season as coach that the Bills became the 1st team to ever lose the #1 overall pick to the CFL. Knox was pretty PO'd that Ralph wouldn't pay Cousineau and that was the beginning of the end even though he stayed until one year before his 6 year contract expired. https://www.nytimes.com/1983/01/26/sports/knox-quits-as-bills-coach-over-contract.html Tension reportedly grew between Wilson and Knox when top players were not signed. One was the linebacker Tom Cousineau, who went to the Candian League out of college in 1979, then was signed by the Cleveland Browns when he came to the N.F.L. last year. The wide receiver Jerry Butler and the running back Joe Cribbs held out unsuccessfully in training camp last summer in an attempt to force new contracts.