Which former Bill will have the best year?

[Orton's Arm]

Could Drew give the Cowboys another good year? Will Mike Williams trim down to a svelte 340 to help a Florida NFL franchise? How well will Eric Moulds play?

[Rico]

Shayne Graham.

[MDH]

Out of curiosity, why not Pat Williams? Because he’s the obvious choice?

[sfladave]

I think Holcomb as a Steeler will outperform Bledsoe as a Cowboy...so I have to go with Pat Williams or Moulds.

[Orton's Arm]

Out of curiosity, why not Pat Williams?  Because he’s the obvious choice?

Yes.

[ans4e64]

Shayne Graham.

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good choice

[Scraps]

I'll go with Antoine Winfield.

[Orton's Arm]

I'll go with Antoine Winfield.

You know, for all the complaining I've done about TD's failure to re-sign Winfield, or to at least get trade value from him, you'd think I'd have added him to this poll. Antoine Winfield, for me, belongs in a different category than the likes of Lawyer Milloy or Travis Henry or the other question mark former Bills floating around the league. So maybe it's better his name isn't in the poll, for the same reason I kept Pat Williams out of the poll.

[Scraps]

You know, for all the complaining I've done about TD's failure to re-sign Winfield, or to at least get trade value from him, you'd think I'd have added him to this poll.    Antoine Winfield, for me, belongs in a different category than the likes of Lawyer Milloy or Travis Henry or the other question mark former Bills floating around the league.  So maybe it's better his name isn't in the poll, for the same reason I kept Pat Williams out of the poll.

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How do you measure success for Ruben Brown?

[Pyrite Gal]

This is actually a tough poll to chose from as I don't think any of these players is likely to have an outstanding year for his team next year (its actually a tough thing to measure as choosing what is a good year for these players is a fairly variable standard and it calls for comparing players at different positions).

 

For lack of a really accurate measure of a good year, one can pick the measure of a Pro Bowl appearance as generally being a sign of a player having a good year (though clearly the Pro Bowl accolade is not a perfect measure at all, but generally if a player gets the nod he had a fairly good (though maybe not the best since there is a popularity aspect to voting).

 

Its interesting that even though the Bills have acquired FAs like TKO and Sam Adams (or even Bledsoe for 2002) who met this standard, there are few Bills that have left here and achieved a Pro Bowl nod.

 

One might leap to the conclusion that its because Bills players have not been that good the last few years, but actually given the accomplishments of Bills acquisitions like the ones mentioned above and the fact that some msde it here, but did not have we let them go actually points to some generally good decision-making about a player being done when we let him walk.

[Buftex]

 

One might leap to the conclusion that its because Bills players have not been that good the last few years, but actually given the accomplishments of Bills acquisitions like the ones mentioned above and the fact that some msde it here, but did not have we let them go actually points to some generally good decision-making about a player being done when we let him walk.

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Or it could point to some generally poor decision-making in signing them in the first place. Just think about how much further ahead this franchise might be in its' development, if they hadn't signed or traded for guys like Milloy and Bledsoe. I liked the singings at the time (I still hate the decision to dump Bledsoe before last season....maybe the worst decision TD ever made), but in the end, Milloy wasn't the same player anymore, and management didn't build an offensive line that could allow Bledsoe to play to his strenghs, rather than expose his weaknesses.

 

Anyways, I vote for Bledsoe, simply because he is in the best position (QB), and on one of he better teams of the guys in question. I am not necessarilly predicting Super Bowl for Bledsoe and the Cowboys, but I do think they will be improved. Having Terell Owens to toss the ball to is not going to hurt.

 

I am not one who thinks that a player is necessarily "no good", because he doesn't succeed in one place. Every team, and every situation is different. Think of all the great players the Bills had during their Super Bowl era. Many went on to other teams, and faded into obscurity. Was it because they were all of the sudden bad players, or was it because their job changed with their new team, and they just weren't as effective?

[C.Biscuit97]

Really good question. Personally, I think Bledsoe is going to have a monster fantasy type year. However, I think he is going to make a few costly mistakes that will cost the Cowboys a playoff berth. Moulds is now a number #2 wr. The Texans still have a shaky line and Carr has yet to prove he is a legit NFL starter. If Moulds does end up with a lot of catches, it will be another long year in Houston.

I guess my answer would be Lawyer Milloy. I think he got a really bad rap last year. Our defensive line stunk and Milloy had to play a lot in the box. However, good coordinators noted this and began to throw against this. As a result, Milloy looked really bad on some plays. In 2004, along with Willis coming into the lineup, Milloy returning from injury was a major part of us turning around our season. Next to Clements and Spikes, he was one of our best playmakers. The guy defintiely has some football left and will have a serious opportunity to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl. Just watch.

[Pyrite Gal]

Or it could point to some generally poor decision-making in signing them in the first place.  Just think about how much further ahead this franchise might be in its' development, if they hadn't signed or traded for guys like Milloy and Bledsoe.  I liked the singings at the time (I still hate the decision to dump Bledsoe before last season....maybe the worst decision TD ever made), but in the end, Milloy wasn't the same player anymore, and management didn't build an offensive line that could allow Bledsoe to play to his strenghs, rather than expose his weaknesses. 

 

Anyways, I vote for Bledsoe, simply because he is in the best position (QB), and on one of he better teams of the guys in question.  I am not necessarilly predicting Super Bowl for Bledsoe and the Cowboys, but I do think they will be improved. Having Terell Owens to toss the ball to is not going to hurt.

 

I am not one who thinks that a player is necessarily "no good", because he doesn't succeed in one place.  Every team, and every situation is different.  Think of all the great players the Bills had during their Super Bowl era.  Many went on to other teams, and faded into obscurity. Was it because they were all of the sudden bad players, or was it because their job changed with their new team, and they just weren't as effective?

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I think that the signings of both Milloy and Bledsoe were the right moves at the time they were made and actually both woked quite well for us initially.

 

The Milloy move was the correct one for us to make at the time, because both Chad Cota and Ainsley Battle agreed to play for us and then retired in pre-season. The Milloy signing was actually dumb luck for us as Boy genius Bill Belicheck completely misread and mismanged negotiations with Milloy.

 

Folks who praise him for making a smart decision to let Milloy walk forget that actually for a mere 200K of so that BB refused to give Milloy he would have stayed in NE and Bb would have been happy to have him I think even he did not know what he would get out of Harrison at S).

 

Folks who also want to sing BB's praises for this dscision also forget not only the role that Milloy played in the shocking Bills 31-0 skunking of the Pats which began that season, but also what Milloy brought to the locker room where one of his first acts was to challene the Bills for laughing when one of their own got bowled over by an opponent by pointing out that this was not how teammates supported each other.

 

He was right. He learned how a team hung together in adversity and the fact the Bills never learned this lesson as seen in the Moulds implosion last year, and the attitude TD brought here when he seemed to cut Larry Centers right after his boy GW transgressed into GM territory by saying publicly Centers would be a Bill as long as he wanted to be.

 

The teammate support issue was shown that right after BB screwed up the Milloy negotiations to the point that numerous Pats publicly called him out, the team simply sucked it up and came together when the team suffered a number of punishing injuries like the one that knocked out recent FA acquisition Colvin for the season.

 

One of the great ironies of the BB genius is that I doubt that NE would have won either of their first two SBs without the hit that an NYJ LB put om the 0-2 Bledsoe which collapsed his lung and gave Brady a chance to play or the injuries which led the team to look beyong the BB GM idiocy and come together.

 

Likewise Bledsoe was a tremendous acquisition in his output for the 2002 season. He not only led to a rejuvenated offense which placed Moulds, Travis and himself on the Pro Bowl, but off field several thousand folks showed up for the welcome Drew event at the Ralph and there was a buzz which put butts in the seats after a 3-13 season.

 

The mistake here was not in originally signing Bledsoe, but in resigning him after his horrid 2003 season.

 

If anyone wants to think about what life in 2002 would hae been like without Bledsoe, remember that the reason we were looking for a QB was we had finally cut the injury prone RJ. The two most reasonable options if the trade for DB was not made was FAs Chris Chandler and Rod Peete.

 

In addition, remember that another effect of NE trading DB, was that though they made the right decision picking Brady over him, ironically they missed the playoffs completely the year after and the year before they won SBs due to acceleration of the huge cap amount Bledsoe made.

 

On the Milloy front, i have but two words to say why this move was necessary as without Milloy the starter would have been:

 

Coy Wire

[Buftex]

If anyone wants to think about what life in 2002 would hae been like without Bledsoe, remember that the reason we were looking for a QB was we had finally cut the injury prone RJ.  The two

 

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While it is true that the Bills traded for Bledsoe, because they finally got rid of Johnson, don't forget, it was, in the end, Johnson who didn't want to be in Buffalo. TD pushed hard to sign him to a more salary cap friendly contract extension (for cryin' outloud!). Johnson refused to budge, because he knew the Bills would cut him, if he didn't. I still remember the night he got cut, the news was broken to him while he was a guest on "Best Damn Sports Show." He could hardly contain himself. His choice was to take less somewhere else (and maybe escape the pressure of being a #1 QB), rather than extend his career in Buffalo. It was Johnson who did us a favor. If TD had his way, we would have been stuck with Johnson another season or two, and maybe, we would have ended up drafting a Joey Harrington or a Carson Palmer...instead we got Drew...

[Orton's Arm]

If TD had his way, we would have been stuck with Johnson another season or two, and maybe, we would have ended up drafting a Joey Harrington or a Carson Palmer...instead we got Drew...

It's a waste of a first round pick either way. Unless, of course, you consider one good year of quarterbacking to be a first round pick well spent.

 

I like Marv's approach to rebuilding this team: sign younger players, even guys with question marks about whether they're the real thing. If a given player does prove himself here, he'll be young enough to contribute for a long time. The farther away you are from contending, the younger your roster should be.

[JAMIEBUF12]

i think sam adams will do the best

[ACor58]

Bennie Anderson

[C.Biscuit97]

Bennie Anderson

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For the comedy of reading this board, I almost want Bennie Anderson to get picked up by some team and become an All-Pro. Peoples' heads would explode.

[H2o]

Eric Moulds success hinges on the offensive line of the Texans. Can they give young David enough time to actually set up and throw a pass or not? That's the tell tale question. If they block, Moulds has 1,200+ yards and 8 TD's. Reason being is that he has Andre Johnson opposite him on the field. Who do you think is going to be seeing more double-teams?

 

If Bledsoe doesn't throw for 4,000+ yards this year and 35 touchdowns, then Parcells should start Henson. He's got Terrell on one side, Terry Glenn on the other, and Jason Whitten along with Anthony Fasano running over the middle. He has Julius Jones and Marion Barber in his backfield, who both can catch passes and know what to do in the open field when they do.

 

Both of our TE's that went to New Orleans will be a wash.

 

Adams and Williams will both play well on the DL, but they always have.

 

Travis Henry can't even win the starting job over Chris Brown and now they got "The Bus Reincarnate" in Lindale White also. He also can't seem to stay away from the drugs either. Pretty sad.

 

Milloy is getting old, but he will be surrounded by youth to help take the pressure off of him (D'Angelo Hall and Jimmy Williams). He probably will be pretty solid for Atlanta.

 

We all know what's going to happen to our former OL that have been disposed of this year. They won't make it for long somewhere else. Not unless they do a complete 180 in their football lives. The ones that left on their own over the past few years, of course they'll be solid for their respective teams. That's why Donahoe let'm leave in the first place, so he could create an OL turd alacomode.

[Coach Tuesday]

Carwell Gardner is due for a MONSTER year... on the pie-eating circuit.