I realized something today about winning NFL teams...

[elltrain22]

Some will say, give this team time. Some will say, the Bills are just a pass rusher away, blah, blah, blah.... Step back for a sec. Lets harken back the last 13-14 years. Other teams, that are successful, build winners by smart, tacticle, and logical decisions. Teams like New England, SF, Pittsburgh, etc, draft well, trade down & acquire future picks, don't let good players just walk out of town, hire competent 1st rate coaches & staff, and realize what positions are most imperative to successfull football (QB, O-line, and D-line).

Look at the Bills the last 15 years. WTF do we have to show for it? Eric Moulds? Fred Jackson? Stevie Johnson? Aaron Schobel? Your either shaking your head b/c you know thats sorry as hell, or you're laughing your *** off b/c you know its true. Our track record this past 15 years is absolutely a calamity of mistakes. Horrible drafts, trading up & not down, reaching in the draft, not drafting "franchise" type QB's. Matter of fact, every draft, the past 15 years is the same. Lets reach like a mo-fo on our 1st round pick, make em think we'll take a QB or skill position w/ the 2nd, and then we draft a crappy DB who never pans out, then the rest of the draft ya hope for O-line & D-line, but instead we draft a 3rd down RB who gets cut in a year or two, another DB for special teams who gets cut in a year or 2, and then we wait till rds 6-7 to take O-line and D-line, and these schleps are so God awful, they don't our squad or anyone elses.

When it comes to Free Agency, I can remember one year where we made a splash getting Spikes, Malloy, and Adams, but since then our offseasons have a been a damn joke!! Trading a pro bowl LT in the prime of his career, letting 3 very good cb's walk out of town, depleting a decent LB'ing core, and then never trying to solidify it, and consistently fielding a weak defensive line.

Long story short, coaching is important, but its start from the top, and trickles down. These teams have great management, owners, GM's, and have smart people making smart decisions. Until we put smart people, that have a clue how to build a winner, this team is always going to be 5-11, 6-10, and if we're really lucky 7-9!! Buddy, Chan, and most, most, most of all Ralph have it all wrong now, then, and certainly could never convince me of anything to be hopeful for in the future.

[ParanoidAndroid]

You just realized this? You're about 8 years behind. I think you're realizing this as the team is slowly pulling out of that.
We got a taste of what this team can do early in the year if all the pieces are in place.
I think it is a testament to the quality of coaching that this relatively talentless team was able to do what they did the first half of the season.

[ddaryl]

New year, new optimism.

[Night Train]

, but its start from the top
The above line is all you need to know.

Ralph is a good businessman overall.. but has the football acumen of Richard Simmons.

If you set up your company yearly to fail, it will.

The reason this business survives is the TV revenue upfront ensures it sees another year despite constant blunders. The upfront $$ forgives this and has created a state of indifferent complacency for years. The yes men rule the day.

The football people must always overcome Ralph/Littman/Overdorf/Brandon. So harmony towards winning is non-existent.

[DesertFox24]

Hate to burst your bubble but New England has drafted horrible since Pioli and Dimtrioff left.

Just look. The reason they are good is because of Tom Brady.

That being said I think we all agree that the past drafts have really hurt this team, hopefully that has started to change with our new regime. The 2011 draft looks pretty solid and Spiller troup and Carrington could make the 2010 draft really good as well, next year will determine how successful 2010 draft was.

[Albany,n.y.]

Trading down is never the answer to success. The thing NE does is trade players for future #1s and manipulates those #1s into more #1s. The key is they're actually trading up into future drafts, not necessarily getting more picks in the current draft. That is hardly what a typical trade down is. Since the Bills don't have players to trade for future #1s to start the cycle, there is no comparison. Additionally the Patriots have a lot of talent and can afford to trade a pick to get a higher pick next year. Again-something the Bills can't do.
The other teams you mention do not have a history of trading down for success. In fact, one of the 49ers biggest moves was trading UP for Jerry Rice. If you look at trade ups and trade downs, the success is usually by trading up because you know who you are trading up for and you don't know what you're getting by trading down.
The Bills have had mixed success in recent years trading up because of their own incompetence at player evaluation. The trade ups for Losman, McCargo were bad, but trade ups in the 2nd round for Levitre & Posluszny have worked out.

[Goobylal]

Hate to burst your bubble but New England has drafted horrible since Pioli and Dimtrioff left.

Just look. The reason they are good is because of Tom Brady.

That being said I think we all agree that the past drafts have really hurt this team, hopefully that has started to change with our new regime. The 2011 draft looks pretty solid and Spiller troup and Carrington could make the 2010 draft really good as well, next year will determine how successful 2010 draft was.
And Brady was a 6th rounder who was a lucky pick by them. They're also good because Belichick is a great defensive mind, Dante Scarnecchia is an amazing OL coach, and because they have a guy with a photographic memory (I forget his name).

As for the Bills, their main failing has been landing a franchise QB, given that it's a passing league now. But that hasn't been for a lack of trying. They traded for Bledsoe. Then drafted Losman (after unsuccessfully trying to trade up for Roethlisberger). Then Edwards. Outside of that, the Bills haven't been in position to draft a top talent at QB in the 1st round, and later rounds are even more of a crap shoot.

[YardRat]

Trading down is never the answer to success. The thing NE does is trade players for future #1s and manipulates those #1s into more #1s. The key is they're actually trading up into future drafts, not necessarily getting more picks in the current draft. That is hardly what a typical trade down is. Since the Bills don't have players to trade for future #1s to start the cycle, there is no comparison. Additionally the Patriots have a lot of talent and can afford to trade a pick to get a higher pick next year. Again-something the Bills can't do.
The other teams you mention do not have a history of trading down for success. In fact, one of the 49ers biggest moves was trading UP for Jerry Rice. If you look at trade ups and trade downs, the success is usually by trading up because you know who you are trading up for and you don't know what you're getting by trading down.

I think New England actually started the cycle by simply trading down for more picks.



The Bills have had mixed success in recent years trading up because of their own incompetence at player evaluation. The trade ups for Losman, McCargo were bad, but trade ups in the 2nd round for Levitre & Posluszny have worked out.

Gotta disagree there, big-time. Hell, Losman probably had a more positive affect on the team than the POS...the only difference is some fans actually liked the POS so his perception is different.

[elltrain22]

You just realized this? You're about 8 years behind. I think you're realizing this as the team is slowly pulling out of that.
We got a taste of what this team can do early in the year if all the pieces are in place.
I think it is a testament to the quality of coaching that this relatively talentless team was able to do what they did the first half of the season.

No, I realized when you did, but it took me this long to put it into words. If this coaching staff was talented, they would've gotten this team some much needed depth during the off season.

[elltrain22]

Trading down is never the answer to success. The thing NE does is trade players for future #1s and manipulates those #1s into more #1s. The key is they're actually trading up into future drafts, not necessarily getting more picks in the current draft. That is hardly what a typical trade down is. Since the Bills don't have players to trade for future #1s to start the cycle, there is no comparison. Additionally the Patriots have a lot of talent and can afford to trade a pick to get a higher pick next year. Again-something the Bills can't do.
The other teams you mention do not have a history of trading down for success. In fact, one of the 49ers biggest moves was trading UP for Jerry Rice. If you look at trade ups and trade downs, the success is usually by trading up because you know who you are trading up for and you don't know what you're getting by trading down.
The Bills have had mixed success in recent years trading up because of their own incompetence at player evaluation. The trade ups for Losman, McCargo were bad, but trade ups in the 2nd round for Levitre & Posluszny have worked out.

2 things. First off, I disagree w/ trading down. Most teams that do it, are good teams. It makes sense move down about 10-15 spots, but get 2-3 much needed draftpicks/players. The Pats have had busts, but since they always stockpile there picks, they also have alot of drafted talent on there team as well (Gronk, A.Hernandez, Mayo, Devin McCourty, Volmer, Solder, Chung, etc, etc)

Second, I'm not saying that drafting up is always dumb. If you're getting a special player (Julio Jones for example) than I suppose the reward is worth the risk, but if you screw up and draft a scrub (for example Jon McCargo) you are freakin screwed!! Its dumb for us, b/c we are dumb. I mean that literally. Our "brain"trust for the past 15 years, have very, very poorly evaluated players. So many players we drafted just didn't pan out for us, nor anyone else. Its not like that w/ many teams, the consistency & ineptness of our horrible draft classes. The only place I'd say we have done well is signing undrafted FA's, which to me, doesn't make any sense at all; but neither does anything about the Bills.

[elltrain22]

Hate to burst your bubble but New England has drafted horrible since Pioli and Dimtrioff left.

Just look. The reason they are good is because of Tom Brady.

That being said I think we all agree that the past drafts have really hurt this team, hopefully that has started to change with our new regime. The 2011 draft looks pretty solid and Spiller troup and Carrington could make the 2010 draft really good as well, next year will determine how successful 2010 draft was.


2009 Pats draft:

They got Chung, Vollmer, 2 good players. Bit of an off year for them.

2010 Pats draft:

They got Gronk, Devin McCourty, Aaron Hernandez all 3 are pro bowl caliber. Not to mention they also got Brandon Spikes and Jermaine Cunningham.

2011:

Too early to tell but, Ridley and Vareen are decent backs, Nate Solder looks like a very good prospect, Ryan Mallett could very well be a decent QB, especially under that coaching staff. He could be Matt Cassell part 2.

IMHO, thats not too shabby. They got 3, 4, or 5 pro bowl caliber players. Also very good depth at O-line and D-line.

[X-Era]

The part I agree with is that the overall talent isn't good enough.