A few thoughts on the upcoming draft and season.

[Tipster19]

There was some disappointment when Marv and Jauron were hired but when you think about it, isn't it nice to have REAL football personnel running our team? I can't think of too many, if any, people who are currently in the league that have more NFL football knowledge and experience than Marv. Although he's in a new capacity, I don't think it's that big of a transition as you would first think. The GM may have a big input or even the final say but he's not the only one that does all the scouting. Facts are accumalated and reviewed. There is a board of personnel that have input and opinions. From scouts to coaches, and yes, to Mr. Wilson. Marv IS logical and sensible. That is known qualities of his. These are much needed at this time for our organization. As far as Jauron goes, he's a solid football coach. Period. If you think about Donahoe and Mularkey they were a white shirt and a inexperienced head coach. Our results reflected this. I think it will be a nice change of pace to have our football team ran by football guys and not by a corporate control freak and a meathead. Just my opinion.

 

The Bills are currently 10.7 million under the salary cap. We have plenty of money for our draft picks AND to continue to make moves with FAs/June 1st cuts. We're in great shape, we just need to make the selections during the draft and have A QB step forward. I really do look forward to this season with renewed interest.

 

Apparently the Packers could be looking to trade down to aquire more draft picks. If they do this should benefit us. One would have to think that the team that trades with them would be to obtain a QB. That should allow another player of need for us to slip to us. We could use a LB, DT, S/CB and a TE. If we were to get the best player at any of these positions then I would be happy. All one could ask for in a draft is to get a great player, right? Well, we should be guaranteed one.

 

From KFFL reguarding the Packers.

 

Bob McGinn, of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, reports the Green Bay Packers may look to acquire more picks in next week's NFL Draft. In five drafts for the Seattle Seahawks and one for the Packers, general manager Ted Thompson has traded down eight times and never traded up. He entered the 2005 draft with seven picks and finished with 11. Given the laundry list of voids on the roster, look for the Packers to turn their seven picks into a double-digit total once again. "They need a corner, they need a safety, they need two linebackers, they need a defensive end, they need two inside offensive linemen, they need a running back, a No.1 wide receiver and, really, the jury's out at quarterback," a personnel director said Friday. "They don't have a kicker and they don't have a punter. Good luck. How many picks do they have?" The scout said the Packers' depth chart had the makings of a 3-13 team.

[Pyrite Gal]

I was mostly disappointed by our sorry record the past 5 years and I think some folks have let their cynicism about this record infect any judgments they make about the future.

 

The thing I feel worst about from the past failures is actually that a number of them were really Ralph's fault and he remains the owner and thus the future remains a potential victim to his actions.

 

I'm glad he is around and chose to do what he did and is committed to Buffalo as a sports home when he doesn't have to be. However, like all humana Ralph is a mixed bag of successes and good stuff and also failure and bad stuff.

 

Though the good easily outweighs the bad IMHO. I think it is difficult to deny"

 

1. He screwed up badly in miscalciulating how much Jimbo had left as a player and this mistake not only cost him a million bucks in walk away money to Jimbo, but more importantly for fans started our trek of poor handling of the QB position as they failed to acquire a replacement soon enough, over-reached to draft TD in the 2nd, rushed TD along when he needed a lot more work, stupidly traded for Hobert, went back on their aggreement with Flutie that he would get a fair shot at competing for the starter job and then handed it to RJ, gave DF bonuses which when injury prone RJ got hurt put the Bills in a cap position which killed us.

 

2. it appears to be Ralph's doing to make RJ the starter rather than pay him big bucks to sit and this triggered a fight and hard feelings which scarred the Bills,

 

3. Misread the duplicity of Butler and then fired and lost an arbitration to Wado that shows the hard feelings here.

 

4. Played an uncertain role with directing/influencing the Holcomb-JP mess but the results of him finally movingto can TD and then have MM walk again shows owner involvemtn which is his right but clearly was not positive.

 

Ae any rate, I felt positive about the hiring of Marv because I think this fellow Golden Boy is probably one of the few people with the track record, the past friendship and a proven record of people management may be able to pull off telling Raph to shut up and baack off.

 

If Marv allows the football professional like Modrak and Jauon run the football team without the owner making dumb fan judgments things can get better.

 

Marv certainly has not been and will not be perfect. However, even with his failings he strikes me as such a better choice than other candidates which folks were putting their faith in like the failed former GM/HC at Green Bay Sherman who if hired as HC I could not see how he was merely going to do that job and not create problems if he meddled in GM land, or if we hired the former interim HC as DC, I do not see how he would focus on the Bills needs and not really be angling to get an HC job somewhere.

 

I am hopeful because I think a big Bills problem has been having too many cooks. I think we are in good position foe their to be a clear chain of command and Fewel/Fairchild will be suborinate to Jauron, Jauron will be subordinate to his buddy Marv and Marv should have the ability and capability as much as anyone can to rell his boss to shut up when necessary.

 

I am hopeful.

[Ozymandius]

Based on previous track records (either none or poor), there's really no reason to be hopeful that this new regime will succeed. Also, the talent on this roster is pretty poor so it doesn't look good from that angle either. At this point, I'm not going to get my hopes up for this team. I'm taking a "show me" attitude with them, and before I invest hope in them, I need them to show me reason for hope. It starts with the draft.