BillsVet

Unforunately, working for Ralph places him into an impossible situation in which he may not have any chance for success. At some point, any intelligent executive realizes when they aren't given the resources to suceed.

Take note of Ko Simpson coming over late in coverage as well on that play. I'm not covering entirely for DW, but Simpson's anticipation is consistently poor. I believe the Bills will find a way to have Whitner revert to playing FS next year, regardless of who is the HC.

When Russ Brandon was promoted to Chief Operating Officer, many fans wondered how much clout he had in football operations. It's clear, by virtue of this past season's ticket numbers, that he's more than adept at marketing this team. But now that he'll be charged with guiding a new marketing campaign which depends on the moves off the field, we'll see how much pull he has and what kind of money he can spend. Either way, he's got an impossible task considering the owner. I suspect Jauron is gone at the end of the season, but that alone will not sell tickets. Real football improvements obviously must come before fans will buy tickets from a franchise whose owner is, "used to it" and laughs at seeing his team play poorly. It's also clear that Ralph has a certain degree of faith in Russ. But if RB isn't given the lattitude to find a legitimate personnel guy for GM who can hire a real HC, I see the COO leaving. This is pure speculation, but Brandon is a bright guy who could work in many places. It doesn't seem that Ralph is all that concerned with maintaining a ticket base by improving the product. If, and only if, that is the case, RB has done all that he's going to do for this franchise. And that would be one more step to the franchise leaving.

Easy. Ralph looks at Russ and says, "do your job." And now we know why Russ was livid Sunday and Ralph could sit back and laugh.

Mays is a great athlete, and may be a fine safety. But you don't use 3 first rounders out of 5 on DB's. You just don't. It will be early for Alex Mack or the top center, but there should be pass rushers available. If not, perhaps someone will be looking to move into the 11-15 range so Buffalo can add another pick. This franchise has traded up three times in the past five years. The results: Losman, McCargo, and Posluszny, with only the latter being someone who might help this team down the road. Trading down should be the option this team explores.

I haven't been on this board as long as some, but I can honestly say I've learned quite a bit from the more knowledgeable posters. There's a whole bunch more to understand, but I can't get over the fans who convince themselves that the situation here was fine until this season. There were underlying issues during the 5-1 start which were masked by inferior opponents, who I might add are all dreadful this season. The problems of this franchise have been identified by many posters on this board, yet the front office believes they know better. That's not to say a good poster from TBD can be GM, but the example to build a team should be more obvious this season. With all due respect to Marv, his track record as GM has proven that he was not capable of handling the job. Some knew after the first draft, but it's taken the most stubborn until now to realize it.

What, he more than 35K? Al Davis won't answer his letters. Last I heard, he was looking to get into the CFL. Probably Ralph's kind, but not someone to make this team better.

Mays is a tremendous athlete. 6'3 230 with 4.4 speed (reportedly). He may go before the Bills pick, and I hope so, because there has to be someone deep at OBD who loves DB's. As excellent as Mays is, they've got to get someone who plays either: 1. OL 2. DL

The combined record the Bills have had since 2000 against teams that finished with a winning record. Scary...and it doesn't look to improve in the final three weeks. Just know it'll be 14-61 or a .187 winning percentage.

This is what's it has come to. DJ arguing semantics in a monotone voice with reporters who are moving in for the kill. I'm not asking for him to throw the owner, organization, and team under the bus. I'm just thinking it's time to finally say they've failed. Just once, I wish DJ would go Jim Mora Sr. and go out in a blaze of glory.

William Moore and Taylor Mays will be available at safety. And as we all know, you build a winner from the secondary in. Look at the results DJ has from drafting this way.

Ngata wasn't an option because this team never considered it. Rather, we were led to believe by OBD that he didn't have the requisite skills to succeed in our soon to come horrible defense. (Allowed 140 rypg in 06, 125 rypg in 07) before finally trading for a sizable DT. Ngata is a unique player, in that he has the footwork to succeed in any defense he play, whether as a 3-4NT or 4-3 1 gap. Unfortunately, many fans refuse to consider this and repeat the company line that he wasn't an option. Patently false. It's important to admit how many resources this team has poured into the DT position. They signed a moderate FA deal with Tripplett. (5 yrs 18.5M) traded a 2nd and 3rd for McCargo, and used a high 5th on Williams. When none of this worked, the front office was forced to trade for a high dollar player in Stroud (which has been a good deal so far) and gave up a 3rd and 5th. Meanwhile, they signed Spencer Johnson to a 5 yr 17.5M FA contract. All of this for their DT rotation. This team has proven that they over-allocate to cover up for problems they themselves started. Tripplett and McCargo were busts, Williams is average at best, Sp. Johnson isn't playing as much as I'd hope, and Stroud is very good IMHO. Whether Bunkley had a learning curve or not (the position usually does) it does excuse the fact that the Bills have been mediocre on both draft and game days.

Dropping down a few slots and acquiring extra picks is what most quality front offices do. Bill Parcells has advanced this strategy many times. It's not guaranteed, but having a mid first along with a 2nd in addition to your regular second and two thirds would really have given this team more options. It's like having a $5 lottery ticket or a $2 and 3 $1 versions. More chances to win. But DJ and ML couldn't help themselves. They got greedy, and it backfired. I could have seen taking Whitner without trading up for McCargo. But the Bills decided they needed both players in 06, which you do not do in a rebuilding year. The threat of losing out on Unmotivated McCargo scared them into trading for him. No matter how it's spun, that 06 draft was average at best. Whitner, McCargo, Youboty, Simpson, Butler, Williams, and Ellison. Nearly three full seasons into their NFL careers, you have one legit starter (Whitner), two average starters (Butler, Williams), one below average starter (Simpson), an oft-injured CB (Youboty), and a busted first rounder (Johnny Mac). Marv's first foray into the draft was not as great as many made it out to be.

What changed your mind?

We give them Jauron, they take his salary, and we get the ball boy, plus perhaps a cheerleader to be named later. If they get really greedy, we'll include Fewell in the deal. That's more than fair.

Preston must have stayed in the Rogers Centre last night.

Give it a few more posts and we'll be getting the "at least Whitner isn't a bust" excuse. SS was, is, and always will be a luxury pick. Buffalo hasn't been able to make a luxury pick since about 1993. You'd think after this season that a lack of pass rush would be shown as a greater priority than anything on defense. There are still some clingers-on who disagree. Also can't help but notice Ngata and Bunkley starting for their teams. And playing really well.

Nearly 17 years ago, Ralphie let the finest GM in modern NFL history go in favor of Jeff Littman. Unless Littman the bean counter has made RW a billionaire, which I don't believe, he's not even worthy of kissing Polian's shoes. You be the judge: Architect of the finest era in Bills history (1988-1996) or Chief Financial Officer for an elderly man who can't help but laugh about his perennial inept franchise.

Glad to know he really cares.

Listen to Jerry Sullivan's segment from this morning's Howard Simon show at the 10:15 mark: Sullivan: "I asked him if he was embarrassed." Ralph "I'm used to it." Of course this is paraphrased, but I doubt Sullivan is telling a boldface lie. I trust Sullivan knew if the guy, whether he's 90 or 50, was laughing as a joke or about him going to the bank with his 78M.

Ralph is a PR (hello Scott Berchtold) mans' worst nightmare. This reminds me of the reaction we all had about the press conference announcing the Toronto deal months ago. RW drew the ire of fans when he made comments about the struggling city which has propped up his team for years. He was more than flippant, he was gleeful when talking about going to Toronto, most likely because he was banking 10M per game. Either RW doesn't realize or doesn't care that his team is one of the worst in the NFL. He's forgotten that these past few years will be a part of his legacy, which isn't great these past 40 years anyway. I sick of people citing RW's work back in the 60s. Since that time, when he saved the AFL, he's done so very little. Without his affiliation with Polian, how much has this franchise done? The franchise record since 1970 (the merger) is 282-319-1.

Listened to WGR when Sullivan came on. I'm not making this crap up...RW was laughing about this thing. Listen to the audio vault when you get a chance.

I cannot even fathom the owner of a NFL team laughing after their team loses in their showcase moment. If there is any doubt where the problems start, it's with the owner. He no longer seriously is interested in making this team a winner. OTOH, Russ Brandon knows that he's been dealt a horrible hand, and must market this joke of a franchise next year. He's predictably upset, but I'm not sure he has the contacts or resources to do anything about it. But to think RW is joking around and assuming fans will return next year, well, his senility is getting in the way.

Brandon is not experienced in handling player personnel. He knows nothing about the subject and is not qualified to be a General Manager. If anyone thinks the Bills have a better front office than most teams, I'd love to hear why. The teams in the AFC East all have better executives. To think Miami went from 1-15 to 8-5 in one year should make fans wonder why we can't improve in three stinking years. Jerry Sullivan said Russ Brandon looked like he wanted to cry after the game yesterday. He's responsible to market this team next year and while Ralph can make stupid comments like he normally does, Russ has the job of getting people to buy tickets. He knows it's going to be an uphill climb to get ticket sales to normal levels.

Ralph can no longer get away with cosmetic changes, like hiring Levy, promoting people to VP's, promoting Brandon, and making a non-remarkable FA acquisitions. They have not seriously committed to building a winning football team. I've always said hiring Levy was a PR move which had short term benefits. He wasn't the guy to get this team into the playoffs as GM and Brandon isn't now. Firing DJ is only part of the solution. This requires a new coaching staff, new players at C, G, DE, TE and OLB. On this day, this team is living like their owner: day to day without any plan for next week or next year. People said Donahoe had no plan, and he probably didn't. But this franchise hasn't done anything differently from a planning perspective than Donahoe did.