Dr. K

There are more people who are insisting that the U.S. is a "Christian republic," the kind of people who inserted the words "under God" into the Pledge of Allegiance in 1954 and "In God We Trust" on currency in 1956, who think that an atheist cannot be a good citizen and who maintained in the face of all evidence that Barack Obama was a Muslim (as if that would somehow disqualify him to be president). The founding fathers went out of their way to keep any reference to God out of the Constitution. Thomas Jefferson: "But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg."

Did you miss the part where I said "I can tolerate it in someone like McDermott"? I agree that tolerance is absolutely essential to civil society. But in fact the thing that I disliked about the FCA was that they DID "follow you about pressuring you to join them." That's what "evangelical" means. You'll just have to tolerate that this kind of ever-present public profession of Christian faith, in areas that have nothing to do with religion, bothers me. I think that having faith in something is indeed a powerful force in human affairs. But Jesus said (Matthew 6:5), "And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward." I do not begrudge anyone their sources of inspiration and faith. I just wish the proselytizers would respect the right of the rest of us to find our way with fewer public professions. And to the degree that they let their religion determine their choices in non-religious areas, I feel I have the right to question it.

Ever since high school the whole evangelical "Fellowship of Christian Athletes" thing has given me the creeps. I can tolerate it in someone like McDermott but I really do not like it. God does not care whether you win or lose a football game and has absolutely no hand in it. Should coaches practice astrology as well?

The Bills did not trade up to get Manuel. They traded DOWN form 8 to 16 and picked up an additional second rounder they used to draft Kiko Alonzo--who eventually was traded for LeSean McCoy. I'd say that was some compensation for the Manuel miss. At the very least don't repeat what is not true.

Troll

I spoke out about the Rex Ryan hire at the time. You could look it up. I thought it was a mistake from day one.

Watching the Bills try to score points under Flutie in 1999 was agonizing. People don't remember that he was being bailed out by the defense all season. Then Johnson comes into the last game against the Colts, who were 13-2 at that point, had won 11 in a row, and needed to beat the Bills to secure home field advantage throughout the playoffs. And under Johnson the Bills had their best offensive showing of the season and beat the Colts 31-6. THAT's why Flutie was benched for the playoff game against Tennessee.

Hiring Rex, which necessarily meant getting rid of Schwartz. Moronic move, and I put it on the Pegulas.

And Seabiscuit beat the crap out of War Admiral in their match race.

Maybe the Jets or Miami. That's a pretty tough road schedule, when you realize Andrew Luck will be back with the Colts. If the Bills come out of the pre-season looking strong I will alter this prediction. If not you can tell me, "I told you so, you idiot" when they win 10 games.

It's too early to trust these predictions and I'm sure I'll have a different take after training camp & preseason games, I hope a more positive one. But for now: at Baltimore L vs LAC L at Vikings L at Packers L vs Tenn W at Houston L at Colts L vs Patriots L vs Bears W at Jets L vs Jags L at Miami L vs Jets W vs Lions W at Patriots L vs Miami W That totes up to 5-11. I might add a win against the Jets or Miami to make it 6-10.

This. Add in some of the (I believe) questionable roster moves he made last season, and there are reasons to question his judgment. Judging him really does depend heavily on whether the Allen choice works out.

I have never met the gentleman.

Wow. It really looks, on paper, that Allen is headed for bust territory. It's worrying that whenever people start discussing him, the arguments in his favor sound increasingly desperate. Hope is not a plan.

This

Or his post-Bills team. Look at Robert Woods and Marquise Goodwin the minute they got away from Tyrod.

We should all do our jobs. Who's going to argue with that? Nobody's going to say they aren't doing their job. But what that means is subject to interpretation, as all such slogans are.

Exactly like the editors and publishers I know. If a book becomes a bestseller, they say, "Look what we did with this bag of horse manure." If it flops, they say, "What could we do with this bag of horse manure?"

Of course you do.

I respect your opinion but we may never find out. If things go as they should he will never see the field this season.

Peterman is better than you think he is.

I am on record as being unhappy the way many Bills fans have turned "the Process" into holy words that excuse all decisions, but you make as good a case as can be made for this regime. And despite my lack of confidence in the choice of Allen, Beane & Co. were right to pull the trigger and take a shot at drafting a possible franchise QB. If they picked the wrong guy, it was still the right thing to do, and I expect they will suck it up and look for an alternative if that becomes evident. We just have to see how it plays out.

Gillislee?

And he can't hit the broad side of a barn. The one thing I would think we would have figured out over the last twenty seasons of QB play in Buffalo, given Losman, Fitz, EJ, Tyrod, etc., is that ACCURACY is vastly more important to successful QB play than arm strength or height or escapability. The Bills drafted the one QB of those touted for the first round who has the most trouble with accuracy. If he is successful, I will come here and say I was wrong.

This is the thing that has just driven me crazy about McDermott and Beane from day one: their conviction that they are the smartest guys in the room. Their continual insistence that we should "trust the process" which is simply a mystical smokescreen for "trust our decisions no matter whether they make any sense." I think Allen will be a huge bust and, as you say, that they will be out of here in three years.