BillsVet

We're frequently told that things will change or have changed. Have they really? It's the same decision makers up there, except now it's Buddy and Chan out front rather than Marv/Smithers and DJ. As long as RW is picking the GM's and the only one authorized to fire anyone, nothing changes. I was a proponent of hiring a consultant to find the next GM/HC rather than entrusting that function to Mr. Smithers. Predictably, the search was a huge tease and we're left with a massive rebuild which the owner assures us will take 3 years. This for a team looking at 11 straight seasons without a post-season and have lost 99 games since 2000. What really gets me is how RW is still micro-managing personnel. He demanded Lynch in 2007 after McGahee made his comments, he liked Edwards when it was clear he'd lost the locker room in 09, and finally it wouldn't surprise me that he wanted to keep Kelsay for his ability to provide post-game comments. RW will never understand that paying a little more to front office types would win a lot of points across the league and result in better draft picks and more wisely spent UFA dollars. But, it's a business and that sort of thing would only hinder the bottom line Littman is striving to achieve.

Buffalo leads the NFL in moral victories since 2006. It's how homers explain away garbage football when they've got nothing left to argue with against the realists.

Pastabelly out at ESPN Teflon Tom Modrak will need to leak his info to another place Lenny P. works. Funny how Modrak doesn't want to be GM, but he's so awesome at picking future Pro-Bowlers. With his manufactured resume, you'd think teams would be lining up for his services as a GM or college scouting director.

As others have said, just call it the 2010 pre-season slate of 20 games. Ironic the team didn't mention Green's injury, just that he'd be out indefinitely. It's probably a means to protect themselves from looking worse for wasting 9M dollars on a journeyman former Raider who wasn't re-signed. Cordaro Howard is playing because they've got no one else plain and simple. If he doesn't draw attention to himself and plays better than Green, great. But when you look at the OL, they've got issues at, in this order, LT, RT, and C going into 2011. I don't think Howard could be any worse than Green and besides, offensive genius Gailey recruited him to GT.

Spiller is unproven but exciting, Evans is the 9 route king, Wood has been so-so since the injury, Bell is backup/cut material, McIntyre is the FB and plays ST, D. Nelson is a backup, Williams is high-effort but overmatched as a 3-4NT (and part of many bad run defenses), Troup is unproven, Poz is average, McKelvin was a backup to start the season, and Byrd has one year under him. Stewart, D. Williams, Beason, Kalil, and Gross are all proven NFL commodities. None of those Bills have 2 or more seasons of above-average play. Buffalo has average players at the secondary positions (ILB, CB, S, G) and is woefully talent-less at the important ones (QB, OT, pass rush). That's how they're 0-5 on the fast track to 0-6.

Whining doesn't cure anything. Then again, all the whining hasn't gotten Tom Modrak fired yet, although there's never been a bad pick charged to him so college scouting is fine as it is.

At least those teams have one or two solid guys, Calvin Johnson in Detroit and Nnamdi Asomugha in Oakland. Buffalo has not one established game-changer opponents plan around. Yeah, and in 2008 the Bills traded for their big DT in Stroud. Their big UFA acquisition in 06, Tripplett, had just been cut, McCargo was in the fast-lane to bustdom, and the team had allowed more than 120 rypg in 06 and 07. So much for smaller quicker. That strategy is killing their transition to a 3-4, which BTW is allowing 185 rypg now. I can't imagine having Ngata in the middle of a 3-4 or 4-3 with decent LB's free to make tackles.

Not only do the Bills fool the draft experts, they fool the people in the draft. With time, the front office is exposed as having no clue then and now.

Polian his the Ralph Wilson landmine. Both teams stink, although my money is on Carolina getting better faster. They've got some building blocks in Jon Beason, Jordan Gross, Deangelo Williams, Ryan Kalil, and Jonathan Stewart among others. Buffalo has nothing established to speak of.

Right. Unless of course you expect the opposing QB's to trip over his shoelaces. 6 sacks in 5 games, 3 of which came against MIA opening week. Lesson learned here is that a scheme cannot make up for the players, who, in this case aren't suited for the scheme now or in the future.

It's business as usual: the front office and the coaching staff are completely disconnected as to who they need to keep and not keep. They're selling out to stop the run, thus opening up the passing game for opponents. Their 2 DE's in the heavy front aren't pass rushers and probably won't total 5 sacks this season. So, the pass rush suffers to stop the run which leaves the DB's hanging out to dry. That's great.

And that's what cannot happen in Buffalo. Some fans forget that Parcells fired the entire front office and coaching staff, costing Wayne Huizenga more than 20M. I doubt RW would take a hit of even half that, and so we're left with hiring also-rans and never will-be's. Furthermore, I don't get the feeling that Overdorf, Modrak, and anyone who's been part and parcel of the team's failures could ever be fired. Unless of course it's someone fans are aware is terrible, like John Guy. Parcells is like an executive version of Saban, and that's not all bad. He wasn't hired in MIA to hang around, he's got a sort of wanderers mindset. And no matter what he's one of the most respected football minds in the past 20 years.

Mouse McNally is teaching the Jets OL from afar. It was clear that while he was coaching the Bills OL that they didn't have the talent, nor invested enough high picks on Olineman. I don't know Joe D'Alessandris' talent, but I know he's never been an OL coach like McNally has been. If teaching OLineman is so critical, and it is, then a proven OL coach with years in the NFL should have been a hire. I just don't think Chan Gailey has the league-wide credibility to do so.

Garbage. If you count taking a 1-15 team to 11-5 and stabilizing the franchise as diminishing, go ahead. People around here settle for mediocrity or worse and then say a proven talent evaluator with a track record of success shows diminishing returns. You want to talk about "diminishing returns" when the team has fallen from once proud to complete afterthought and irrelevant? Give me a freaking break. I'd settle for Parcells' diminishing returns in a heartbeat. What's the worst he's going to do, call Littman a bean counter?

How about an established HC who's respected league-wide?

The 2010 UFA class was sparse, so it's hard to hold it against them for not spending mega dollars just before a new CBA. That said, there will be a new CBA and I would think a team going on 11 straight seasons without a playoff appearance would make an attempt to find some quality players. Filling 2-3 positions of need in UFA allows them to use the draft to build, not maintain as they've used the selection weekend to do. I would think Doug Whaley is an improvement over Guy, and RW holds true to his promise to bring a winner to Buffalo. If they don't, that's tells a story that what they say isn't they're doing behind the scenes. It should never take 3 years to rebuild in the free agency era. Well, that is if you're more concerned with selling the team and profiting in the short term

Drafting RB's when you need tackles. Drafting G's when you need tackles. Drafting DB's when you need guards. Just once on Day 1 I'd like to see this team play OT who has NFL measureables and can play the position the pros. (Cue the homer Mike Williams reference)

Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. President Jeffrey C. Littmann Treasurer Russ Brandon Chief Executive Officer Buddy Nix General Manager Marc Honan Senior Vice President of Marketing and Broadcasting Jim Overdorf Senior Vice President of Football Administration Bruce Popko Senior Vice President of Business Development David Wheat Senior Vice President of Business Operations Boy, that's one murderers row of football people there. Watch out NE, IND, PIT, NO, et al. These guys are good, scary good...at squeezing a few more dollars out of the fan base. I see one actual football person, a capologist who cuts people without telling the coaches, and 5 money men plus RW. Sure, it's a business masquerading as a sport, but I can see Buddy being low man on the totem pole here.

The more the team unravels, the more fans see what the true goal is: set the team up for sale but make some profit while the owner lives. Nothing more, nothing less.

Glazer stating he'd understand women before he did the Bills front office is no doubt the tip of the iceberg. You've got to believe most agents know that Buffalo is not like going to STL or even DET. Both of those franchises, while inept, will be in their current city for the long haul. And both put up the cash to sign those #1 picks without much issue. It will be fun to see Jim Overdorf have to negotiate a contract with a kid who'll be represented by an agent demanding 50M+. What's Buffalo going to do after a 0-2 win season? Have a long holdout with their highest pick in 25 years? That'll go over really well with an indifferent fan base. Scary thing is we can all see it happening, homers and realists alike.

I'm just glad Marv didn't select Max Leinart. That would have been a bad pick.

I don't want to speak ill of the passed, but I'm not sure Linda Bogdan was anything more than an average scout. She evidently liked Carwell Gardner, and wanted Jerry Butler first overall in 79. Either way, the dysfunction of this franchise has only recently come to the surface. It was always there, but people like Polian, Butler, and AJ Smith were able to mitigate their absurd organizational structure and produce winning teams. Now, minus a Polian/Butler/Smith and featuring has been or never will be's in the front office, the dysfunction becomes obvious.

And yet, when the time comes to build up said OL, they go with a RB. Seemingly hundreds of people said after Spiller's pick was that it'll be hard for the kid to succeed because the OL is so poor, particularly at RT, LT, C and with a guy coming back at RG who suffered a catastrophic injury. The Bills should be developing an identity this year. Toughness and discipline from the TBD tagged offensive genius Gailey are nice catch phrases, but we still don't know what he wants to do offensively, despite having talent at RB. Instead, old ball coach Chan is throwing the ball like Coryell light. For Spiller and Jackson to get anything less than 35 touches a game combined is insanity

And there was much rejoicing...

Mike Curtis' hit on that drunk fan always get me. Maybe security should yield to a designated player when idiot fans run onto the field. Watching videos like that with those throwback players makes me realize the origin of the game wasn't Armani suit wearing owners and players driving Bentley's. And most of us want that back, but a 9B industry won't return there. In all seriousness, the toughness aspect is sorely missing in Buffalo. Not a player missing a game versus not, but someone who intimidates opponents. I remember when Whitner hit Johnnie Lee Higgins in the EZ after a long scoring play in 2008, thereby drawing a roughing penalty. This board went ape that someone did something like that, mainly IMO because no one had seen that in a long time. If Chan and Buddy truly believe in toughness and discipline, they'll start beefing up the OL and find LB's who beat RB's into the ground. Not taking skill players, aside from QB, come April.