Albany,n.y.

Did you know that 12 of the 44 Super Bowls winners have been quarterbacked by a player selected with the 1st pick in the entire draft? Considering the natural odds of one draft spot producing the winning QB over 27% of the time in Super Bowls, flaming out in the right year can be quite lucrative. In the right year 2-14 is infinitely better than 5-11.

A player who is drafted in the 2nd round & traded the next off season for a 1st round pick isn't a bust. A player who is a 2nd round pick & is waived a year later is a bust. One player was regarded highly enough to get a 1st round pick, one player was regarded so poorly around the league that no team even put in a waiver claim-HUGE difference. If the Dolphins or Jets had picked off a bust QB from another team's practice squad & he had a chance to end up their starter a few months later, everyone on this board would be laughing at them and making jokes how bad their QB situation is. The best chance for Brian Brohm to solve the franchise QB problem the Bills have is to emerge as the best of this sorry group, stink up the joint & get us a top pick in the 2011 draft, because there's no way Brohm will ever be a franchise QB. unless that franchise is in the UFL or Arena5.

Brohm's best will be in the UFL.

Fitzpatrick will still be in the NFL when Brohm gets the job coaching his high school. In fact, I expect Fitzpatrick to still be on the Bills, long after Brohm hangs up his Bills uniform for the final time. Of the 4 QBs on the roster, the only one I'm sure will be here in 2011 is Fitzpatrick.

I have the opposite opinion but there are times I can agree with you. Here are the two best examples. If the Bills are in contention for a team changing player, have a few wins & losing out guarantees the ability to draft that player, I don't want them to win & make a bad season even worse by just missing out on a sure thing. I'm talking Bruce Smith, Troy Aikman, Peyton Manning types. Now they don't come along every year, but say a guy like Jake Locker has a great senior year & is viewed in the Manning/Aikman class. The last thing I want to do is beat the Jets & lose out on getting a guy who can win my team the Super Bowl. One win in a totally lost season isn't worth it. On the other hand, if there is no clear cut sure thing who the Bills will miss out on by winning that final game. I'll root for the team. Even though it was against scrubs, last season's finale was very enjoyable to watch, I loved watching the game in the snow and had no concerns about who the Bills would draft that afternoon. Sometimes the best thing to do is just lose 1 more game, sometimes it doesn't matter. Like a gambler betting on games, sometimes you have to pick your spots. If we have a chance at an almost sure thing by losing to the Jets, all I can say during that last game is J-E-T-S Jets, Jets, Jets....then 2 years from now, I can watch the BILLS in the Super Bowl & not the Jets, NE or Miami.

I bank with SEFCU & have been pretty happy. Last month I moved some money into a CD & got charged a $15 fee for being under a required balance on the account I closed. It took about a minute on the phone to get the $15 back into my account. Around here SEFCU has many locations, including at a supermarket 2 miles from my house. They have Saturday & Sunday hours at that branch. In the past I've been able to borrow money from them easily. I opened an account with them 12 years ago & got an unsecured loan for over $14,000 the next day, I had never banked with them before that. When it came time to buy a new car 10 years ago, I got pre-approved for over $30,000 & had no problems with my car purchase. Also got a mortgage 7 years ago that was easy too-however, I locked into a rate that I got stuck with after rates went down between the lock-in & the closing date. Checking is easy too. I can go on-line and transfer $ between accounts with the click of a mouse.

The tailgate is usually in the same location, Pinto Kenny will be there. He described it to me as the lot behind the Liquor store because of the big "Liquor" sign is easy to spot. It's past the eastern end of the stadium area on Rt 1 going towards Boston.

I decided to go alone. For 1 ticket all one needs to do is go on to the Ticketmaster site for that game. I got a ticket in the upper deck near midfield for $104.80 including the printing at home fee. You can't get more than 1 ticket this way. However, I've had a good experience with Stub Hub getting Yankee World Series tickets last year. Stub Hub has decent multiple tickets for sale, but once you get away from Standing Room & Upper Corners, they get pricy. For Upper Corners, you'd pay close to what I paid, for seats near midfield, even in the upper deck it's about $200 each.

Miami did it with a proven NFL caliber starting QB, whose main weakness was staying healthy, who managed to stay healthy the entire year. If they had stuck with the QBs on the roster during mini-camp they would have been lucky to have won 4 games. We don't have anybody who can hold a healthy Pennington's jock at QB. Look at where Miami is 3 years later-they're still no better than the 3rd best team in the division. 9-7 this year & still only 3rd best team in the division 3 seasons from now is unacceptable. I want to be a Super Bowl contender, not a playoff contender, in 3 years.

I've watched football for over 45 years. I know a 1st year rebuild with new offensive & defensive systems when I see it. I've also learned a team isn't built in a day. This team has a lot of holes. A realist fan is not always a pessimist. As San Jose said in another thread, it can be very enjoyable watching a bad team grow into a good team over the course of a few seasons. It's time to remember the goal is to play in and win the Super Bowl, not be satisfied because the Bills won the game you watched even though they lost 2 or 3 times as many games by the end of the season. 7 wins this year would be an improvement. I find 7 win seasons unacceptable. I'd rather my team totally stink a season or two & win a Super Bowl a couple of years later than 3-4 years from now be a team that sneaks into the playoffs every year & never has a chance of getting by the 1st or 2nd round. So the way I see it, this team is undermaned at C, OT, QB, WR on offense. I don't care if Chan Gailey has done a lot with little, he doesn't even have little with all the holes on the offense. Chan can't work miracles, he can only get the best out of players & the best our QBs & OTs can give might still result in a very poor offense. If one or 2 young WRs can prove they're NFL players & we can get a QB & LT in the next offseason, there's cause for a lot of optimism-next year, not this year. The team is switching to a totally new defense with question marks about the NT, DE, & the former DEs switching to LB has a lot of room for improvement. If a foundation can be formed on defense, the future could look bright. Right now our goal should be watching players who will be around for a Super Bowl run, not getting on the case of people who think the W-L record is going to be dismal. The odds are pretty good the record will be dismal. If it's the 1st year of a rebuild, so be it. Here's something to think about. In the 1990s I used to look at old programs from the mid 80s & see how many of the guys on our really bad teams were destined to play in the Super Bowl as Bills. The 1984 team had 2 guys who made it, 1985's team had 7, and the 1986 team had 16. That 1986 team had almost 1/3 of the Super Bowl teams, yet still won only 4 games-with Jim Kelly. How many of the current Bills could be on a Super Bowl team in 3-4 years? Here's my estimate: QB -none; RB Spiller; WR Evans, Easley; TE Nelson; OL: Wood, Levitre, Meredith, Wang, Calloway; DL: Troup, Williams, Carrington; LB: Batten, Posluszny, Maybin(?), DB: Corner, Langster, McGee, McKelvin, Byrd, 1 more who stays among vets. So my total is 21, about 40% of a potential future Super Bowl team. Take 2-3 away for the optimism I have on this rookie class & it would be closer to 1/3rd. A little better numbers for the 2010 team over the 4-12 1986 team, but that team had future HOFers at QB & DE, and some more wall of famers. If I conclude 4 to 5 wins for this team, it doesn't make me a pessimist if I have an eye towards the future. The optimists around here who are thinking they have to win every week, even though they know they won't will look at the small picture, "feel good" the week the Bills win that 4th game and miss the bigger picture. As I've said before, Herm Edwards had it all wrong, you don't "play to win the game" you play to win the Championship. The record a year, 2, or 3 years before that championship becomes irrelevant when you've got the Lombardi Trophy.

Interesting that last year Philly had 2 good backup QBs and McNabb as the starter. If Vick gets cut they're down to 4th round rookie Mike Kafka & UFA rookie Joey Elliott as their backups. I wonder if Garcia would get re-signed by the Eagles if Vick is cut.

More current & closer to where Johnson was picked, I like it. Kamil Loud has more meaning to me personally because I once got the regional manager at our Batavia office po'd at me for an e-mail string that Petrino started. Now if you know Petrino, the e-mails can get very strange. In Loud's day Petrino used to post his Ode To Kamil Loud on this board. To make a long story short, this e-mail string had reached the ridiculous point where I had Kamil Loud in the press box with dynamite strapped to his body threatening to blow up the stadium if the Bills cut him. What I didn't know, because I didn't read all the recipients was Petrino had copied in all the people he knew in Batavia, including the regional manager, since he was also a Bills' fan. I got a reply from him that said something like this "Why don't you get back to work and leave my people alone so they can work too."

Bellinger wasn't a last round WR pick, look at what I was responding to, it was about like players, not alliteration.

Where have you gone Kamil Loud a nation turns its lonely eyes to you.

Upside: Hasn't played enough to prove one way or the other whether he should be starting for the Bills or tending bar at the Big Tree Inn. Here's an alternative: A backup to a player the user of the word upside hates.

Since the odds are 1/3 that Brohm will be the starter, you're safe in never being called out on an absolutely ridiculous statement. I guarantee that if Brohm is named the starter, he won't get anywhere near those numbers. Projecting Pro Bowl numbers for a guy who has started one NFL game & stunk up the Georgia Dome in the process is insane. There is one way you might be right-If you project the 10 games Brohm starts in the UFL to a 16 game season. You're either Jeff Brohm or you've lost your mind.

He's too green right now. Let him spend some time on a practice squad, then we can sign him the 2nd half of this season. After that we can have him start a game & suck because he doesn't have our system mastered, and then next winter 25% of the people on this board will proclaim him as their choice to be the starter in 2011.

I agree with just about everything you've said. Three years after each draft, look at the Ravens picks vs the Bills & you can't help but get a case of "draft envy". One more comment: 2008 Chad Pennington was light years better any of the bums we have on our QB depth chart.

There's so much wrong information and revisionist history floating around this thread, it's just sad. Smith did not beat out Boller, Boller suffered what turned out to be a season ending injury in the 2nd exhibition game of the preseason. That's why Smith was supposed to start exhibition game 3-Boller couldn't play. However, Smith did not start or even play in exhibition game 3 due to his illness. The only QB to play preseason game 3 for Baltimore was Flacco. So if the game 3 starter starts the season, Flacco was the man, not Smith. The only reason Smith was the presumed starter was because Baltimore wanted to bring Flacco along slower than starting him on opening day. Once Boller got hurt and couldn't play, Smith was the only one other than Flacco left to choose as a starter. Once Smith got sick, Harbaugh didn't have much choice other than to start Flacco. For the final preseason game, Baltimore picked up Casey Bramlet off the waiver wire & he split time with Flacco. Bramlet was waived after that game and before the 1st week of the season Baltimore gave up on Boller getting better, put Boller on IR & signed Todd Bouman to be Flacco's backup for the season opener.

The Bills have a plan right now. It does not include signing any more stopgap players. They're trying to build for the future. They can't come right out & say it, but the W-L record this season is irrelevant. The most important thing is player development for the future when they can be a contender. Flozell Adams does nothing to help this team contend in the future. TO also does nothing for their plan. The only stopgap player was Green because Butler's retirement caused them to sign somebody to replace him & Green was available.

From the where there's smoke there's fire possibility: PFW's latest issue is out. The Bills are picked 32nd in the rankings. The words after the rating say "There's a slim chance the starting QB isn't on the roster yet." So how should one interpret that with the ESPN story? My guess: It's probably no secret among the media types that Gailey doesn't think much of any of the 3 QBs. That's why the battle has been described as very close. They're all bums & Gailey knows it. Close in this case means he's scared to death of the thought of trying to win games with any one of them at QB. As a result, any time there is the possibility of a QB that "they've heard of" becoming available for little or nothing, the media is going to speculate his acquisition by the Buffalo Bills. Either that or the media, not Gailey, has such a low opinion of the 3 or 4 if you include Brown, who is apparently not going to contend for the starting job, that any time there is the possibility of a QB that "they've heard of" becoming available for little or nothing, someone will write a story he's headed to Buffalo.

That's BS! You can't count guys who signed with the NFL before the common draft. Since the common draft the only #1 who never played a down for the Bills is Cousineau.

It tells me the other 2 have no business competing for the starting job either. The fact Gailey has the three that close indicates that we will have no QB qualified to start in the NFL, but by default, one of them will be starting. At least if Brohm ends up the starter, we've got a chance of getting Jake Locker, big time. So if I have to live with bad quarterbacking for one more season, let it be Bruce Mathison bad.

That's like the lawyer grilling a witness in court saying something like "Is it possible that someone who looks just like my client did the crime? You didn't do a DNA test, did you?" Anything is possible. It's possible that Trent Edwards will lead this team to a Super Bowl Championship this year. The team is 0-0, so it's possible. I'd prefer probable to possible, and a proven track record to some imagined "upside". Theres's nothing to indicate that any other team in the league would start Brohm, or even consider him a candidate for the 2010 starting job. That right there tells you how bad the QB position is on our roster. Someday, we'll see a worthy successor to Jim Kelly and we will no longer have to pin our hopes on a small percentage possibility. I hope that day is within a season or two, but the probability is it is not this year. As far as ability to absorb damage goes, the guy who has shown the most durability is without a doubt, Fitzpatrick. Brohm had 3 injuries in college & Edwards gets injured opening up the Buffalo News about every other Monday.

Joe Gibbs started off 0-5 in his 1st stint with Washington. If it takes Gailey that long to get things rolling, around week 5 or 6, with the QB they didn't want in there, you'll see a bunch of anti-Gailey posts. I remember sitting in the stands an hour before our home opener in 1998. We had been on the road & were 0-2. A guy sits down several rows below us & yells out either "Fire Wade" or "Wade Must Go".