BillsVet

He's had 3 seasons of taking the majority of his teams' snaps. And during that time I haven't seen anything to indicate he's a long term guy. Some of those games he had last season were just plain awful. In 4 out of 13 starts he threw for less than 160 yards. In 5 of those games he completed less than 52% of his passes. That's not the type of consistency I'm looking for from a franchise caliber QB. The guy's a great story and an outstanding teammate. But that's not enough to win games in an ultra-competitive league where QB play more often than not is the difference between winning and losing.

There's no evidence Fitz is a long term answer at QB. He lacks a strong arm, struggles with his accuracy, and turns the ball over far too often, notably in the KC game. Not having a strong presence at OT, the lack of a threat at TE, a marginal running game, and a poor defense surely exacerbates his situation, but it's not a complete excuse for why he struggles. Buffalo hasn't had much at QB to compare him with either. Teams have a year of tape on Gailey and Fitzpatrick. In the NFL it's not always what you do out of the box, but how you react after someone sees what you do well. It's entirely possible the offense stagnates or improves marginally in 2011. Besides, after 3 seasons of starting the majority of his teams' games, what stands out to demonstrate he's a top-10 caliber QB? Because if you don't have one of those, you're not getting to the playoffs.

No play sums up how badly Buffalo was versus the run last season that this one: Peterson 43 yard run Players out of their gaps, LB's misdiagnosing, and DB's taking bad angles. Of course, it doesn't help when the team decides to go 3-4 and ends up playing more 4-3 by season's end. Some teams can make the transition to 3-4 from 4-3, but the Bills were set up to fail, especially when you bank on having Chris Kelsay and Marcus Stroud playing the strong-side in your new base.

GB traded Favre and didn't release him. They made an organizational decision to go with Rodgers during 2008 as Favre neared 40. But I digress. The point remains that solid ownership (CEO in this case) combined with excellent front office management and talent evaluation can and does produce success. Rodgers with the Bills' supporting cast doesn't win enough. But take an organization that gets the QB and surrounds him with top talent while featuring a very good defense and they'll win. That's the GB Packers. If you're inferring that just having a franchise QB is sufficient in a QB driven league, well, that's false. It's much more than that.

Quibbling and sophistry. How predictable from you. You think GB knew (EDIT: they) had a SB MVP on their hands in early 2008 when AR hadn't started a game in 3 seasons?

It's ironic in the discussion of big market versus small market that Green Bay was the SB champion this season. Some will rush to point out how the Packers spent a lot of money, but pay close attention to where they allocated their dollars. It was re-signing current players, originally drafted, undrafted, or in the case of Ryan Pickett, on free agents they're giving a 2nd contract. And I'm sure someone will point out their ownership structure is different, and that's valid. Except it has nothing to do with their ability to build a championship caliber team, while transitioning from a HOF QB and implementing an entirely new defense. The Bills are where they are because the owner sought to meddle and only now is delegating authority over football decisions to actual football people. You won't see Mark Murphy telling Ted Thompson what to do, even though both played in the NFL. For all the credit some Bills fans give RW, he is directly responsible for their inability to win these past 11 years. Small market or big market, a team has to have an owner who A) finds quality people in the front office and B) let's them do the job they're hired to do. Maybe RW is finally realizing this, but in the interim it's inexcusable to waste an entire decade like Buffalo did.

The major ramification from RW hiring/promoting familiar and lesser talented individuals is a huge blow to the franchise's reputation. This was illustrated in the HC search last January when they were repeatedly rejected for interviews, forcing Nix under cover of darkness to seek out a man who hadn't been a NFL HC in a decade. It also didn't help when, before introducing Nix, RW admitted he didn't personally know potential GM candidates and therefore eliminated them from consideration. I doubt that comment earned Buffalo any credibility points, especially from guys who wanted to be a GM and didn't get an interview. As a result of these recent hirings, Buffalo has become and remains the NFL's Siberia.

I take it you're not enamored with Billy Volek then?

I'm not pinning my hopes for a decent TE on him regardless. Even teams with fine #1 TE's have need for blocking TE's, and Chandler didn't play in a regular season during 2008 or 2009. We're not talking about a guy who could be a #2, but rather a fringe NFL player. I too would like to see Buffalo pursue a Kevin Boss or Zach Miller, but don't believe Gailey will use his TE's as anything more than blockers. Still not sure, because he's supposedly an offensive genius and he's relegating a position most of the league has decent talent at. NE drafted two outstanding ones thus far last year. No amount of WR's makes up for this either.

I'm not seeing this hype of Scott Chandler. He's on his 5th team (2 stints with Dallas) in 4 seasons, has caught one pass in those years, and was on a practice squad all of 2009. I'm not sure there are many good TE's who spent their first 4 seasons in the NFL this way.

Now he's just got find that elusive baby. For now, we've got a lot of labor pains to deal with, literally and figuratively.

I think we should chalk up all the southern picks to Nix. Clearly, that's his favorite area to scout, and as Pro Personnel Director he lived in Tennessee.

I really cannot wait for the Bills to tank the season so they can draft Andrew Luck.

When does our version of Al Cowlings show up then?

For a NFL HC to say that a rookie RB not named Barry Sanders can make an OL look better is downright laughable. For a newly hired 70 year old first time GM to make the latter statement, it's plain ridiculous. We're told that Nix and Gailey are straight shooters who tell it like it is. Well, which is it? Were they not far away or was it (gasp) the GM and HC spouting hyperbole to rile up a downtrodden fan base? I point this out because we've heard, dating to Gregg Williams, a lot of talk without much results. I don't think the fan base has a lot of patience with the franchise given the past decade of failure. There isn't one signature win since Levy took over and there are no star players on that roster. Rebuilding takes time, but it doesn't have to be 3-4 years like the owner said. Just ask Atlanta, Baltimore, and Green Bay.

Wanting to lose is definitely unfathomable to any NFL owner, executive, coach, or player. That said, during Nix' tenure with the Chargers, they didn't exactly light it up until picking top 5 for 3 out of 4 drafts from 2001-2004. With those picks, they acquired LaDainian Tomlinson, Quentin Jammer, and Philip Rivers. Tomlinson was outstanding, Jammer has his ups and downs, and Rivers is a top shelf QB. And of course, they picked high in the 2nd and 3rd rounds as well. No one wants to go through the pain that was the 2010 Bills season again. But I often look back and see how SD was rebuilt to provide a window into what a Nix rebuild takes. IMHO, I think Buffalo will pick top 5 again, although I suspect Whaley is GM for the 2012 draft. Still, they can't win the games from the front office. It's up to their players and coaching staff and I don't see enough talent at the critical positions to believe they'll win 7-9 games.

The PR people have to be squirming whenever RW is in front of a camera or giving an interview. He made mention in announcing the BiT series that Toronto was building and things were happening there. Then he talked about Buffalo not doing so well. Sure, it's true, but it wasn't the right time to make that comment. Scott Berchtold and his staff seem like they're working to protect the owner from...himself. He's not able to be out front like a younger man, but when he does he says something which rankles people. Just look at the cancellation of his HOF ring ceremony in 2009. Biggest problem at OBD is their terrible track record has made it so qualified people aren't willing to even interview anymore for their top football jobs, GM and HC. And so the Bills end up with lesser known and more likely lesser qualified people because the owner doesn't have any contacts throughout the NFL.

Thigpen is more of a gimmick QB and Jackson plain stunk against Buffalo in December. Trevor Pryce is at the end of his career, but I'd be fine with Tyson Clabo. Unfortunately, they already have Erik Pears, who will dominate now that he's on his 4th team in 3 years. I truly don't think Nix cares for spending big resources on his OT's, unless of course it's for a 34 year old has-been spouse abuser.

It's funny how people forget the Bills HC search just over a year ago. It was an embarrassment that they wanted to interview multiple candidates and were repeatedly turned down. Weeks later, Chan Gailey was named HC without much notice, aside from a notable poster on TBD. Now there's a vacancy in the front office, and we're surprised at promotions from within? I like Doug Whaley, but the above comment basically spells out why he's hyped in Buffalo by the TBD homers: he's not Modrak, he was formerly with a good organization, and he got props from some national NFL people. Aside from that, what's he done in Buffalo? What it all boils down to is this: When you've got a track record of failure, most normal people will wait to give plaudits until they see on-field success. Buffalo took a step back last year and we're seeing that the team won't interview or won't/can't consider outside people. Not surprisingly, some people question the Bills for their front office decisions and the homers attack. I guess contrarian opinions are now illegal.

RW set him up to fail. This league is so complex that there's no way an untrained eye can possibly do any personnel management job, and yet the owner didn't know anyone, so he turned to his most trusted deputy not named Littman. Everyone knows the story, but no one can argue the 4 seasons of Levy/Brandon seriously hurt the franchise. So much so that they're again rebuilding for the 2nd time in 5 years.

In a competitive league, you've got to have savvy executives who understand when to take calculated risks and when to stand fast. Nix has all but said he isolates on one player and is so risk-averse he won't consider trades. The Dareus pick was a no-brainer, and I'm glad they didn't trade out from the 3rd pick. But if ATL offfered a group of picks for Buffalo to move down in a strong DL draft, you've got to consider it. The fact that BN outright denies trades should alarm those who think this team will be rebuilt in 3 years. I would think Buffalo received plenty of calls for their second rounder, 34th overall, but chose to use that pick. Compare that with a team like Cleveland who decided, in a DL heavy draft, to move down and add picks. Sure, there's risk, but that's present in everything anyone does. The Bills haven't traded down in the draft since 2001. In any round.

The owner said they needed a QB during the season and after. It didn't happen. The owner defended Tom Modrak and his record of failure. Modrak was fired. The irony abounds. This is precisely the right time to fire the man, namely because scouting for the 2012 draft has begun already and axing him in July would affect that process. Too bad it should have happened when TD was fired. At the same time, how many College Scouting/VP's survive through 3 separate GM eras (TD, Levy/Brandon, and Nix)? I get the sense this move was made to placate fans who now know just how bad the drafting has been and wonder why he wasn't fired with Guy at the beginning of 2010? What did he do in the last year he hadn't previously done to warrant his firing now? Same old Bills. No plan and knee jerk reactions. Ah well, Pasquarelli will be reporting from a pro-Modrak stance shortly.

I am proud because we kept the fight up on the enemy and didn't quit when things got tough. The War on Terror isn't over, but this is major victory on destroying the al Qaeda terrorists. I am proud of the US Military and those in other organizations that were more relentless than most thought they were.

Bin Laden said the U.S.A. was a paper tiger after the battle in Mogadishu, Somalia. He was wrong. As a War on Terror veteran, I am extremely satisfied at this development. U.S. counter-terrorist and military capabilities remain second to none.

Look on the bright side, Donahoe pulled starters from the 7th round. That clearly makes up for the busting on Hardy, Ellis, and underwhelming production from McKelvin. I think it's worth noting that Russ Smithers-Brandon was the GM during this draft. An individual thrown into a role by the owner who was completely untrained to lead a NFL franchise in acquiring personnel to rebuild this club. Not all Smithers' fault, but clearly another bad decision by the owner not to find a football man to lead football operations.