Rubes

Let's not let hindsight get too much in the way. Remember, at the time of the trade, the Bills were 3-3 (in a strike year, FWIW) after finishing the previous year 4-12. At best, you're talking about a mediocre team, which, in the end, they turned out to be with a final record of 7-8. Yes, there was a lot of talent on that team. But at the time, many of them hadn't hit their stride yet. Harmon turned out to be decent, but unreliable. Burkett never panned out. Metzelaars, at the time, had only had one decent season as a starter. Bruce was only in his third season, and was just beginning to tap his potential. Radecic, Burroughs, Drane...those guys were talented, but average starters. They had definitely assembled a team that seemed poised to make a move, but they hadn't made that move yet. I think you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who, at the time of the trade, believed the Bills were one impact defensive playmaker from hitting the big time. The jury was still out on many of their draft picks and new acquisitions. The one thing you could definitely say is that they were set at QB, which is a big thing, but this was by no means a team that most people thought was one player away.

I don't think it's particularly fair to lump my critique in with the knee-jerk "run down anyone who doesn't high five the Bills draft" reaction, either. I have absolute respect for Polian and his body of work, and I'm definitely not one of those that believes the game has passed him by, by any means. I also don't buy the argument that you can't compare personnel decisions from the late 80s with today. Teams were constructed differently, sure. But like you say, back then the draft was the #1 way of acquiring players and filling out a team, other than trades. So in that situation, draft picks -- especially high draft picks -- were extremely valuable. Nowadays, if you don't have a #1 pick, you can always try your luck acquiring a great player via free agency. But to me, this just shows that trading away your #1 and #2 picks the following year, plus your #1 the year after that, was a huge gamble, moreso than the Watkins trade. And yes, he did have a franchise QB. But let's not forget that, in early 1987, Bruce still had not fully lived up to his billing as a #1 overall pick. And as mentioned, this was a team that had gone 4-12 the year before. There was a lot of young talent on that team, but much of it was still unproven at that time. This was still a team very much in rebuilding mode, not a team that most believed was one impact LB away from the big dance.

I don't buy his argument about Bennett. If you think about it, the trade occurred in 1987, right after the players' strike ended. The year before (1986), the Bills went 4-12. At the time of the trade, the Bills were 3-3. There was definitely a sense that the Bills were on the rise, but it's not like they were a player away or anything. They still had a lot of team needs, and Polian still mortgaged the future -- remember, that was a player in exchange for the following year's #1 and #2, and the year after that's #1. That's huge, much larger than this one. For a team that just came off a 4-12 campaign.

How awesome is that? SI_PeterKing How great is this? @sammywatkins visiting Jim Kelly between cancer treatments today: http://t.co/4Ss3Vb7pDJ 5/12/14, 7:19 PM sammywatkins Pray for uncle Jim great guy it's crazy how strong he is and how he continues to smile and make jokes… http://t.co/FWCqI5ZtgJ 5/12/14, 7:15 PM

Another stadium site is proposed: Linky I'm trying to figure out exactly where this is. Is he talking about just west of Lackawanna? Or am I completely off base? If so, I have a hard time figuring out how traffic would get in and out of there.

Yes, but some obviously have a lot more talent and potential than others. For instance, Watkins has a lot more talent and potential than, say, TJ Graham. The point I was making is that we drafted guys with a lot of talent and potential, but who come with a lot of risk because of other issues. The 7th round OL guy is a good example of that.

The first I saw of it was on Twitter by Tim Graham. ByTimGraham Howard Milstein tells The Buffalo News he will not bid on the Buffalo Bills or participate in any attempt to purchase the team. 5/12/14, 10:07 AM

All around, I'd say it was "risky". A bunch of guys that have a lot of talent and potential, but also a reasonably good chance of flaming out. If Watkins turns out to be elite, and they hit on a couple others (especially on the OL), then it will have been a very good draft. Big "ifs", though.

I went back and looked at it again as well. I still think it's debatable, in that Stevie was not "pulled down," but rather had his arm hooked, and in my opinion the contact wasn't tremendous. The ball might also have been deemed uncatchable. Mind you, I think it was a good call, but I do think it's debatable. I've seen much worse not called, and much less called. A different ref could have called it very differently. The point here is not that Stevie was not interfered with, but rather there is no clear standard for the call, and different refs call things differently. That's where the debate is.

Well, you know, if a certain referee doesn't call a very debatable pass interference penalty on Luke Kuechly, there goes one of the wins.

Hi.

Welp...not Niklas.

Interesting. So, it's the fall of 1987. The Bills finished the previous season at 4-12 -- not quite last place, given the pathetic Colts at 3-13, but damn near close. Now they have an up-and-coming GM, a coach in his second year, a #1 overall pick from two seasons prior (though still not playing up to the level of the #1 overall pick), and they just returned from the player's strike, beating Miami on the road for the first time in like...forever. They have a new gunslinger QB and a team that is showing some life and excitement, but they still have a looong way to go. So the GM goes and pulls off the "trade of the decade", giving up their #1 pick the following season, and their #1 and #2 the season after that, along with an established RB, for one potential major impact player -- arguably, the second-best rated player in the draft, behind only the legendary Vinny Testaverde. Knowing how Cornelius Bennett turned out -- and he's not a Hall of Famer, for what it's worth -- do people think it was worth such a huge mortgage of the future? Remember, this was not a team that was one player away from the playoffs, much less the Super Bowl. This was a team that could barely get out of it's own way the year before. It was a huge price to pay. Huge. For one player. Yes, he seemed like a sure thing, but you never know. No #1 pick the following year, no #1 or #2 the year after that. Would you have done it? Did it prevent the team from making the playoffs? Or getting to the Super Bowl? Yes, yes, we all know -- we had our franchise QB. But there was no guarantee at the time that Kelly was going to continue to develop into a hall-of-fame QB, or that he wouldn't suffer a major injury, putting the team in a terrible position with no top draft picks for three years. Funny, I don't recall anyone bitching about that trade at all, or the high price, just excitement about the impact player they just got.

Todd McShay liked it. Is he an expert? http://youtu.be/Fxo1BK9mFUg

I believe the quote was, "He is a beast in the open field after the catch; one of the best I’ve seen in 36 years of doing this." Nevertheless, point taken. I'm glad we have him.

Cue jokes about which class you missed that day...

There is a famous guy who does the audiobooks for GoT by the name of Roy Dotrice -- the guy just turned 90 and recently was treated for cancer. Amazing voice work -- had to create (and consistently use) more than 300 different voices for the fifth book, apparently. Probably aren't many other people out there who could do the voice work for these books with such skill, so there are a lot of people out there hoping GRRM can finish these books soon so Roy can voice them all. Supposedly GRRM contacted Roy on his 90th birthday and told him to get ready for the next book, probably before the end of this year...

I have meetings every week with a group of people, some who have read all the books, some who have read some, some who have only watched the show, and so on. I'm constantly aware of possible spoilers, and I've been trained to dance around them with the skill of a water dancer...

Three stooges.

Yeah, I can't see them going into the rest of the ironborn until next season, but it would be hard to just ignore them completely. They already have Theon, Asha (now Yara apparently), and Balon, so they're set up for it. I'm guessing they'll need to off Balon either by the end of the season or the start of next season, which could kick things off with the other characters.

What, is it bad to point out where the TV show differs from the books, without going into what specifically happened in the books?

Yeah, it was at the inn. Sandor had too much to drink, which is why he had so much trouble with them. In the TV show there were five of them, but in the books there were only three -- Polliver, the Tickler, and a boy squire. Sandor removed half of Polliver's face, but not before he had taken a few serious wounds, including losing his ear. Arya took care of the Tickler, took back Needle from Polliver, and finished off the squire. She will most definitely end up at the temple in Braavos, I have to think -- they've already shown flashes of Braavos in the TV teasers, so we know it will be part of the storyline. True, good point. We never know for certain it was her wolf, but yeah, it was her wolf. I bloody well can't wait to see that on the TV show, if they include it. They'd better.

Crap, I forgot that part.

There is no chance the sale is already completed, as the Bills haven't even hired an appraiser yet. Also, the NFL owners can't sign off on it until the league meetings, the earliest of which are in October. That's probably what they thought was meant by everything being wrapped up "by October".

You mean Patchface? Haven't seen anything of him on the show that I can recall. I thought last night's episode was a little slow, but I liked it since many of the storylines got back on track -- especially Bran's. They took some liberties with that one, especially Bran warging into Hodor to kill the Bolton guy (Locke), but I thought it was well done. And now Bran and the group are free to get back to searching for the one-eyed crow. I think they're doing great with the Littlefinger-Sansa storyline, the Brienne and Pod storyline, and others. I don't know what they're planning on doing with Arya and the Hound...they already had the encounter at the Inn where the Hound was "mortally" wounded, but he wasn't wounded in the show. Not sure how they plan on getting Arya the opportunity to rid herself of the Hound.