List of whipping boys we should have kept

[Bills4L]

I disagree about McGahee. McGahee does have some talent, but I wouldn't put him in the Top 20 of RB's in the league. He has an attitude problem and was almost out the door in Baltimore. McGahee went down easy upon contact with a DB. So, I'd rather have Lynch over him.

 

Here's my list:

 

DT - Pat Williams

QB - Doug Flutie - wish we kept him over Johnson. Flutie would have been a nice stop gap at QB until the Bills could have drafted a replacement.

CB - Antoine Winfield

Rueben Brown

Travis Henry

 

 

+ Wade Phillips = Perfect

 

Eric Moulds?

[The_Philster]

Sounds like you're either a relative of Littman or Wilson.

 

I don't worship Polian or think he's God, I just know he was the best GM in Bills history and one of the best GM's in the NFL. I blame Ralph for being cheap and too stubborn. None of us exactly know what went on between Littman & Polian, so I'm not gonna guess. But, I'd rather have the guy on my team that built a superbowl caliber team (which ultimately brought in a lot of money to team) versus the guy who counts the money.

I would've rather had him stay as well...but I can't blame Ralph for firing him after he was starting fights, either...not related to Littman or Ralph....I just have enough common sense to know that someone who starts fights won't stay employed...he fought with Littman and he fought with one of the team's scouts...whether he was in the right or not is not the point...he handled a situation terribly and lost his job because of it.

I'm still waiting for one person to step up and try to pull what Polian did...anyone who blasts Ralph for doing what any boss would do without being willing to try doing it themselves is kinda cowardly

What's your excuse for John Butler's & A.J Smith's exodus to San Diego?

Were you living in a cave at the time? Butler wouldn't even negotiate a contract extension with the Bills (He claimed Ralph low-balled him but in contract negotiations, one side starts out low, the other starts out high, and they meet in the middle somewhere...but Butler didn't handle contract negotiations with players so he obviously didn't really realize that) Butler was essentially the head of scouting...not handling other duties that other GMs around the league had. There was speculation at the time that San Diego engaged in tampering to get Butler to leave the Bills and it later came out that Butler's wife wanted to leave Western NY. Since Butler refused to negotiate in good faith, Ralph fired him...he wanted to interview AJ Smith but he refused to interview for the job, choosing to follow Butler to San Diego

 

You are the only person I've ever heard of defending Littman and Wilson on this issue.

Maybe because I know how businesses work...you start fights, you get fired

[OCinBuffalo]

No way on McGahee, no way.

 

We all liked the idea, let's be honest. We especially liked it because we were giving an underdog a chance. But, we found out that this guy wasn't an underdog, he was just a dog. I couldn't care less about babies/not liking Buffalo. If I have to signal in plays from the sideline because you are either too dumb to remember them, or, to cool to come to practice and learn them, you aren't on my team. And, given what we got for him, and what we did with it? That is one of the biggest steals the Bills have ever had. So, no way.

 

I agree on Pat Williams, I do not agree on Bledsoe = prolonging the inevitable with that guy.

 

The DB thing is like Lord of the Rings, it spans a decade, and has lots and lots of characters:

I think that while Winfield wasn't the best, we expended an awful lot of draft value trying to replace him.

Which lead to Nate Clements, and clearly, letting him go was a good move. Is there a better example of OVERPAID in the NFL right now?

Yeah, yeah we drafted a lot of DBs.....which means....we now have one of the best secondaries in the league....in a passing league, btw. So, whether drafting DBs is good or bad, remains to be seen.

What I like about our current Defensive backfield unit is, it is that: a unit. We don't rely on a big star, shut down CB, and pray that the other guys can cover their assignments.

We are still looking to replace Henry Jones at safety, especially since Henry Jones couldn't replace Henry Jones from the season before. If only he had been able to replace himself, but he didn't, and moving him out was ultimately a good move.

Ko Simpson was a bust. Coy Wire was a bust. Jim Leonhard was an incredibly knowledgeable, and smart football player, who is pretty good, but I want a Gary Fencik type hitter that makes the QB think when he comes up to the line, and makes WRs think before they go over the middle. Henry Jones, when we was Henry Jones, did all of those things.

So, the DB saga goes on.....

[GrudginglyPessimistic]

Surprising to note that no one has mentioned Peters, given our struggles at LT. And I'm not suggesting that he should be on this list either.

An interesting though. On the one hand I think folks see the raw wounds of his summarily leaving after a confrontation with the team (and the FO virtually totally caving in to his wishes by sending him to Philly which delivered completely on what he and his agent were demanding).

 

However, given the completely to date unfilled vacuum which we have at LT the case for keeping him is clear. Even if his play in Philly is judged not to be worthy of his current huge contract (and with the help of the Bills FO and the LT market the contract is so huge that no player is worth that much even if performed at Boselli like levels) there is a pretty clear mistake the Bills FO made.

 

The Bills mistake was playing a TD style numbers game of switching Peters to starting LT but keeping him at the starting RT salary.

 

Clearly it is not irrational to recognize that the Bills had done several things already to reward Peters financially from agreeing to a nice contract with him as a UDFA, to rewarding him with a roster spot, to giving him a full contract at starting RT levels.

 

All of this was done willingly by the Bills before they had a financial obligation to renegotiate.

 

However, also make no mistake that though they may not have had a financial "duty" they did have a something varying between a market obligation to a market need to reward Peters not because the Bills are nice guys but because this is what the market demanded.

 

Peters was in demand as a UDFA and could have gone elsewhere if he chose.

Peters also was clearly unblockable on ST and could have been signed off our PS essentially forcing a roster award.

Peters was under contract to us but flat out earned a starting RT contract even though signed as a TE.

Peters was under contract as an RT but like it or not (and we should have liked it bigtime) earned a Pro Bowl nod at LT.

 

We certainly had every RIGHT to not to extend him to a near market rate LT contract until he proved himself with additional Pro Bowl berths.

 

However, though we had the RIGHT it is questionable whether exercising what was allowable was the right thing to do.

 

Likely the real mistake we made were demonstrably wrong Bills quality assessments which led us to reward Dockery with a huge contract (arguably by experience and happenstance his getting more $ that Peters was tolerable). However, in the end, it was simply a stupid move by the FO to decide to pay Langston Walker more than Peters.

 

Its amazing the Bills braintrust could have been so correct in recognizing Peters as a potential OL talent when he was committed to TE as a player, but then made a horrible assessment the other way on Walker.

 

Objectively my hats off to agent Parker for doing his job extraordinarily well for Peters. He saw how the Bills flinched in writing Pro Bowler Schobel a contract when they did not have to and played it the same way with Peters

[San-O]

+1. No doubt about it. One of the best GM's ever.

 

+ 2.