Spiderweb Posted Wednesday at 11:05 AM Posted Wednesday at 11:05 AM 15 hours ago, oldmanfan said: I’ve seen them all. I’d say Robert James. Here’s my top 5: Robert James Tre White Nate Clements Nate Odoms Booker Egerson No Butch Byrd? Quote
Dan Darragh Posted Wednesday at 11:10 AM Posted Wednesday at 11:10 AM I thought I was going to have to scroll through pages and pages of responses, then write a post reminding everyone that they forgot (or never knew about) Robert James. To my pleasant surprise, the first response mentioned that he's the hands-down winner. 1 Quote
Niagara Dude Posted Wednesday at 11:35 AM Posted Wednesday at 11:35 AM 15 hours ago, Billl said: Stephon Gilmore Gilmore stop trying in his final year, went to New England and became a star. 1 Quote
GASabresIUFan Posted Wednesday at 12:01 PM Posted Wednesday at 12:01 PM (edited) This is the one position in Bills history that we really can’t identify one or two guys who were great. Lots of very good but go through other positions and you find one or two great players. QB - Kelly, Allen RB - Simpson , Thomas FB - Gilcrest WR - Reed, Lofton, Diggs Center - Hull, Wood O Tackle - Dawkins, R Brown, S Brown? O Guard - Ritcher, Joe D, Shaw D End/Edge - B Smith DT - K Williams, Sestak NT - Smerlas LB - Biscuit, Fletcher, Talley S - Poyer, Hyde I’ve probably missed one or two guys, but you get the point. At CB, I don’t see anyone close to these levels of play. TE is the other position lacking a truly great player. Edited Wednesday at 12:03 PM by GASabresIUFan Quote
Chandler#81 Posted Wednesday at 12:08 PM Posted Wednesday at 12:08 PM (edited) George ‘Butch’ Byrd. End of story. A linebacker playing Cornerback. He set the team standard with his 40 career interceptions in the late 70’s and no one has come close since. Edited Wednesday at 01:02 PM by Chandler#81 1 Quote
DapperCam Posted Wednesday at 12:15 PM Posted Wednesday at 12:15 PM 15 hours ago, Rigotz said: This is the correct answer. 2019 Defensive Player of the Year. 7 Cornerbacks have ever won that award. Ever. Total. He might not have had all his best years on the Bills, but he's the best corner. -- Edit: LOL at all of the lists that don't have him in the top 5. Cmon. I think the question is who was the best as a Bills CB. His DPOY doesn’t count. Quote
Shaw66 Posted Wednesday at 12:41 PM Posted Wednesday at 12:41 PM 25 minutes ago, GASabresIUFan said: This is the one position in Bills history that we really can’t identify one or two guys who were great. Lots of very good but go through other positions and you find one or two great players. QB - Kelly, Allen RB - Simpson , Thomas FB - Gilcrest WR - Reed, Lofton, Diggs Center - Hull, Wood O Tackle - Dawkins, R Brown, S Brown? O Guard - Ritcher, Joe D, Shaw D End/Edge - B Smith DT - K Williams, Sestak NT - Smerlas LB - Biscuit, Fletcher, Talley S - Poyer, Hyde I’ve probably missed one or two guys, but you get the point. At CB, I don’t see anyone close to these levels of play. TE is the other position lacking a truly great player. Thanks for this. (You left off Jason Peters, who probably was the best offensive tackle ever to play for the Bills. I know most of his great years were with the Eagles, but he was a stud by the time he left Buffalo. He was already on a Hall of Fame trajectory.) I think you're point about corners and tight ends highlights a reality about those positions - they aren't game-changing positions, and you don't often find game-changing players at those positions. If you think about corners, what doesn it mean to have a shut down corner? Well, all it really means is that the game turns into 10-on-10 instead of 11-on-11. Shut-down corners don't win games; they just keep one player on the other team from beating you. Shut-down corners don't cause offenses to reshape their offense; the offense just limits their attack to less than the entire field. The offensive equivalent of a shut-down corner is the stud receiver - the Chases, Hills, Jeffersons, etc. Those guys can attack the entire field, so they actually do reshape the defense. They are, I think, more valuable than shut-down corners. I always thought it was interesting that for many years, Belichick built his defense around the shut-down corner. He had that other guy before he gave Gilmore a ton of cash. Between the two of them, the Pats had star corner talent for five or six years running. Belichick saw a real advantage in playing 10-on-10. I think the shut-down corner is no longer that valuable. Everyone, not just the Bills, is playing more zone these days, because it's the only way to cover the ever-changing route combinations offensives are attacking with. Playing straight man-to-man all day is a formula for losing, because offenses now always can find weaknesses to attack. Today, if you want to succeed playing strictly man, you need three really good cover corners, two good safeties, AND one or two good linebackers. Nobody has that. Zone is (and always has been) the way to cover your weaknesses, whether they are schematic weaknesses or personnel weaknesses. Quote
Toledo Bill Posted Wednesday at 01:25 PM Posted Wednesday at 01:25 PM 17 hours ago, JÂy RÛßeÒ said: Bob James. If only medical technology was 40 years further along when he tore a knee ligament cause in the 70's it was almost a sure career-ender I was at that game. Gruesome injury. My favorite player, very sad. 1 Quote
BUFFALOBART Posted Wednesday at 01:33 PM Posted Wednesday at 01:33 PM 17 hours ago, dwight in philly said: Butch Byrd should be in the mix,, all listed are deserving Byrd still holds the team record for INT's (40) while playing in in 14 game seasons. He should be up on the Wall 2 1 Quote
The Jokeman Posted Wednesday at 01:35 PM Posted Wednesday at 01:35 PM (edited) 4 hours ago, GASabresIUFan said: This is the one position in Bills history that we really can’t identify one or two guys who were great. Lots of very good but go through other positions and you find one or two great players. QB - Kelly, Allen RB - Simpson , Thomas FB - Gilcrest WR - Reed, Lofton, Diggs Center - Hull, Wood O Tackle - Dawkins, R Brown, S Brown? O Guard - Ritcher, Joe D, Shaw D End/Edge - B Smith DT - K Williams, Sestak NT - Smerlas LB - Biscuit, Fletcher, Talley S - Poyer, Hyde I’ve probably missed one or two guys, but you get the point. At CB, I don’t see anyone close to these levels of play. TE is the other position lacking a truly great player. R Brown was an OG, if looking for another OT then gotta include Wil Wolford, I disagree on Smerlas as think Ted Washington was much better, the only reason I'd favor Freddy is he spent more time here. Toss in Washingtom had 34/43 versatility. And sorry not sorry but Allen should start over Kelly. I've never been a big Kelly fan to begin with but he was never a top 2 NFL QB in any part of his Bills career where Josh has been that the last 4-5 seasons. Edited Wednesday at 04:23 PM by The Jokeman Quote
JP51 Posted Wednesday at 02:04 PM Posted Wednesday at 02:04 PM My top 15 ranked... clearly gonna be debate... but here goes... Robert James Tre Butch Byrd Booker Edgerson Nate Odomes Charlie Romes Mario Clark Tony Greene Stephone Gilmore Nate Clements Antoine winfield terrance Mcgee Thomas Smith Jeff Burris Kirby Jackson Quote
Manther Posted Wednesday at 02:36 PM Posted Wednesday at 02:36 PM 18 hours ago, njbuff said: Chris Watson He was more of a punt catcher Quote
TN Bills Fan Posted Wednesday at 02:47 PM Posted Wednesday at 02:47 PM Butch Byrd: borderline HOF. 2 Quote
Mark Vader Posted Wednesday at 03:36 PM Posted Wednesday at 03:36 PM 3 hours ago, GASabresIUFan said: This is the one position in Bills history that we really can’t identify one or two guys who were great. Lots of very good but go through other positions and you find one or two great players. QB - Kelly, Allen RB - Simpson , Thomas FB - Gilcrest WR - Reed, Lofton, Diggs Center - Hull, Wood O Tackle - Dawkins, R Brown, S Brown? O Guard - Ritcher, Joe D, Shaw D End/Edge - B Smith DT - K Williams, Sestak NT - Smerlas LB - Biscuit, Fletcher, Talley S - Poyer, Hyde I’ve probably missed one or two guys, but you get the point. At CB, I don’t see anyone close to these levels of play. TE is the other position lacking a truly great player. Ted Washington over Smerlas. 1 2 Quote
ChronicAndKnuckles Posted Wednesday at 03:57 PM Posted Wednesday at 03:57 PM 5 hours ago, The Cincinnati Kid said: Favre was addicted to Pain Killers, so… Not for the entirety of his career. Quote
ChronicAndKnuckles Posted Wednesday at 04:02 PM Posted Wednesday at 04:02 PM 15 hours ago, JK Fan said: I think with Favre and Bill Romanowski it was more that they were just stupid. Stupid or not Romanowski has 4 rings. Quote
oldmanfan Posted Wednesday at 04:22 PM Posted Wednesday at 04:22 PM 5 hours ago, Spiderweb said: No Butch Byrd? Butch was right there with Booker. I was in grade school watching them both and always felt Booker was just a bit better. But I wouldn’t argue with anyone putting Butch way up on their list. 2 hours ago, JP51 said: My top 15 ranked... clearly gonna be debate... but here goes... Robert James Tre Butch Byrd Booker Edgerson Nate Odomes Charlie Romes Mario Clark Tony Greene Stephone Gilmore Nate Clements Antoine winfield terrance Mcgee Thomas Smith Jeff Burris Kirby Jackson Thanks for mentioning Mario Clark! Forgot him but another really solid CB! 1 Quote
Kaenon Posted Wednesday at 04:26 PM Posted Wednesday at 04:26 PM Gilmore did win defensive player of the year, granted just not with us. Not sure who else on these lists can say that. Quote
Rico Posted Wednesday at 04:29 PM Posted Wednesday at 04:29 PM Top 10 as of today: Robert James Butch Byrd Nate Clements Nate Odomes Steph Gilmore Terrence Mcgee Thomas Smith Booker Edgerson Tre White Jabari Greer 2 Quote
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