X-Era
11-20-2005, 08:14 PM
First off, I want to bring a few things to the attention of many of the Bills fans who may not know this.
1) Wade Phillips is the D coord
2) Butler and then AJ Smith built the Chargers. Butler drafted LT and then Drew Brees in the same draft
3) Carl Mauck is the Chargers o-line coach
Just something to think about when we are so quick to assume that some of our GM's and coord's are crap. Now, there are issues in this staff but Ill get into that in a minute.
Its time my friends to gut this team of some of the overpaid vets.
IMHO, TD is a serious problem on this squad. His ego is SO ridiculously out of control that he is over paying for over the hill vets, and under paying for UFA in the hopes to get some bargain basement deal. This team proves once and for all, Tom, that your silly plan doesnt work and never will here in Buffalo. You have done a masterfull job of getting exactly what you paid for as far as young vets and then wasting money on your older vets. Lets take a look:
1) Takeo Spikes- I will give TD credit is the ONLY move he has made that was smart in FA and has paid off.
2) Milloy- he was cast off for a reason from NE. We of course gulped him up and paid a hefty contract for a guy whos better days are behind him. On most teams thats fine but if you dont have up and comers to step in and this vet wont show mental toughness and lead on the field, he aint worth a sh_t. Milloy has done a big fat pile of jack crap this year. Cut him.
3) Fletcher- we wouldnt pay for Cowart (which actually turned out to be smart) but then paid too much for the next wonder smurf who would only be a stud ILB if he had Mount McKinley in front of him. Well they grabbed Sam Adams but then let his twin mountain Pat leave because, "we think real highly of Ron Edwards, Tim whats his name ohh yeah Anderson, and Justin arms-are-too-short- Bannan". Rather than get then the next set of circus freaks who have some genetic disorder, why not pay the money for some guys who look and fill the part. Corey Simon was out there, but we OF COURSE were not interested. Fletcher can go as well. Hes another Milloy who is overpaid at this point. He has shown to be a liability against the run and now isnt that good in coverage either. Cut him.
4) Eric Moulds has a permanent chip on his shoulder as a guy who just never had a good team to play with him. Well, he is now very highly opverpaid and cant even get open. I seriosuly can count on one hand how many times I have seen him open. Hes a #2 at best and ought to be paid like him. His ego wont take the cut, so I think Eric chooses to be cut or retires.
5) TD made a huge splash by signing the first FA one year less than an hour into FA. That player was Posey. He again paid and average player average pay and ended up with what he paid for...an average player. We could have grabbed Winborn recently but why do that.
6) We finally got some brains and went and drafted a very very high OT. But, in true TD fashion, picked the wrong guy, a guy who gets paid LT money but will never be one. Mike isnt even a starting frikking G at this point. What a monumental waste of money. Id love to totally blame TD for this one but I think Mularkey should share some too. Mikes biggest problem is injuries, he actually has played decent at times but cant make it through the season. Mike Williams needs to be cut as well and he will go down as the greatest Bills bust ever.
3) Trey Teague- Well TD you scored another stink bomb whne you grabbed Trey Teague. You of course paid average pay for an average OT. But then became even dumber and moved him to C where he is now out of position and highly overpaid. Trey is an average C at best and is FAR from being an upcomer which is what you should have with the amount of money you spent. Damien Woody was out there one year, but why grab him when you have Trey who has proven nothing to you? Trey should be cut as well.
4) Of course we have the parade of vet QB's like Drew, who on the RIGHT team would be very good. But here, with our bargain basement o-line stink up the joint. Holcomb can stay but only if he and the team permanently shut there mouths and never again stupidly think an immobile QB can do jack squat with our turnstyle o-line
5) TE- why finally make another good move and get a very good young TE by offering a contract to Bubba Franks when you can go with an unproven young vet who has done nothing in his career yet like Mark Campbell? Another good move.Kepp him? probably I dont think he costs that much.
6) Troy Vincent- He isnt a CB anymore and isnt that great of a FS either. But why not overpay for him? his is a vet who was great a few years back afterall. I say keep him, we cant completely gut this pass D.
7) Nate Clements- Fortunately I think TD's stupidity will actually have him make the right move here. Clements has had a bad year this year. The number 1 CB in the league? You just got torched by Brees and Co. Shut up and take your pennies. He will walk, and thankfully TD wont overpay to keep him. Not because he is smart enough to NOT pay him. Only because TD's ego wont allow him to pay top dollar for ANYONE. Nates gone.
Now, with all those cuts, how much Cap cash would we have left and where should we spend it? I seriously want Clumpy to answer me on this and give us an idea of where we could be with some cuts.
With the cap cash we HOPEFULLY will have enough to grab a few very highly rated players. Lets make a splash and get back on track. We have suffered long enough with the bargain basement players that fall apart as soon as you leave the store. Heres my moves:
1) Get yourself a horse saddle, strap it on to Steve Hutchinson's agent and glue yourself to that guy so you can beat the competition to signing him. That one move alone will pay HUGE dividends. TD, of course, wont do it, he will get the next Bennie Anderson clone to play average, give up lots of sacks and penalties. But im trying to be positive and heres to hoping. Steve is the guy we should have. If we dont land him, LeCharles Bentley may be even better and would be our day one C. We could grab a G in the draft.
2) Sign yourself a SS who can play and has the mental toughness of a winner. By the way, get on the RIGHT side of the hill and get a guy with UPside not DOWNside. Grab Adam Archuleta.
3) Sign Damione Lewis or Ryan Pickett. Either is an instant upgrade to Ron, Tim, and Justin. Get it done TD all you need to do is look at your stats and you can see where our issues are, its our run D up the middle. Adams can last a few more years if he has young, quicker, big help. Adams can go the route of Wilkinson, Young, Glover and others who are older but can play. Get a young big, high potential DT like Lewis or Pickett. Larry Tripplett is another option. All these guys are great #2 DT's and an upgrade to what we have but arent #1's yet.
4) Sign Andra Davis. Unlike Fletcher, he has the size and makes plays all over the field. I wouldnt mind keeping Fletcher at a reduced price but ONLY if we add another productive big man next to Adams. If not, or an even better option is to get a guy with the right size that is young and proven. Davis is the best Brown defender. Again, not a have to have unless TD doesnt upgrade us at DT.
5) Start Crowell where Posey used to be. He has played well. But draft another OLB early enough to have him be a viable option if Crowell falters.
6) We probably end up 7 and 9 or 6 and 10 and have a pick between 10 and 17. TD has actually been fairly smart here recently and has taken the best skill player available. Continue that plan. If Clements leaves, grab Jimmy Williams or Jason Allen. Hes not a burner but has plenty of size and can play FS when Vincent starts stinking worse than he does already. The other move Id love is Marcades Lewis. He is not as much of a need but neither was McGahee. Lewis is a game changer. The guy is a better TE prospect than Winslow and doesnt have the issues. He will be the next Shockey without the mouth and would be great short target for a young learning QB. Many will say to get a OT or a DT with the first pick. But you think TD, who will be looking at a LARGE number with a negative sign in front of it on his salary spread sheet in the recent cut Mike Williams, the 4th pick, is gonna do it again? It would be smart, but TD's gonna repeat that move? No frikkin way. Besides, there really is only 1 guy that I think is worth that high of a pick in Ferguson and he will be long gone by our pick. DT, sure Ngata would look nice. But if Clements is gone and both Ngata and Jimmy Williams are sitting there, you take a DT? after HOPEFULLY signing another big DT or 2, you take another DT when you have no starting CB opposite McGee? No way.
7) Draft another OT in the 2nd or 3rd. I feel that T is one of our stronger spots on our o-line with a LT or RT prospect like Peters who stunk in this game but plays with heart, strength, and great feet. I think Peters will be even better at LT where the DE are faster but also usually smaller. Peters has the feet. Mike Gandy has actually played pretty well, over all, for a guy who looked to be a big waste. T's take longer to develop than G's, usually a few years. We want to win as soon as possible. Draft a OT prospect from a later round, like the 2nd- 3rd rounder but get an interior o-lineman earlier. Its the interior that sucks here. Besides, there are plenty of very tall guys with great feet in this years draft. Trueblood, Winston, Scott, McNeil, Ferguson just to name a few. Take advantage of the depth at this spot from the draft. Grab a player like Niock Mangold, Max Jean Giles, guy from Texas, or Myers (Miami) in an earlier round, maybe 2nd.
8) Get the best LB available with the 1st- 3rd. Spencer Havner is a guy I like from UCLA. Another is Nicholson from Ohio State.
Now, as far as the front office and coaches go:
1) TD is here to stay unfortunately. Wilson is a doddering old man at this point. God love his sould, but he is very old. He was willing to resign Butler when Butler wanted out and had us in cap jail. He extended TD and will stay behind him. Hopefully TD will wake up and start getting us back on the same track. Lets hope. JP, McGahee, Evans, McGee all are good starts. Its the rest of the team that needs help. TD is a given but his record and aforementioned mistakes should have him out the door so fast that even our turnstyle o-line's heads would spin. It just wont happen. Im learning to deal with it. Rather than be pissed until next year nd beyond, just let it go.
2) Mike Mularkey is on very thin ice with me. Im not completely willing to can him yet like many. Partly, because TD wont upgarde him but rather grab another coordinator with no HC experience. I dont see that as an improvement, kind of like cutting Rueben and then signing Bennie Anderson. But. Mularkye is on thin ic with me. Mularkey did coache us to be in contention last year when we stunk it up early on. I like the way he doesnt talk stupid to the media, and I like the way he yells and screams and benches whoever the hell needs to be benched. Unfortunately, he benched the wrong guy and caused us real damage. This year, before the season, he himself, stated that only the most extreme circumstances would make him bench JP. He was WAY too quick to can him after that kind of talk. Especially considering he could see what we all saw which was that the team wasnt gonna go anywhere anyways. That one move hurt much of the heart of the team. Players started second and third guessing when even our supposed leader in Mularkey wouldnt stay the course. Confusion was the last thing we needed and thats what benching JP did IMO. Its THAT reason that Im down on him right now. You just watch Mularkey put Holcomb back in next week even though the fat lady is warming up on this season and every start is SO critical to developing our future QB with talent, Losman. Just watch, Mularkey will do it, I will be shocked if he sticks with Losman even when Losman had an average game today; made mistakes but also made some plays. Mularkey needs to grow a sack and lead the players even when they think they know whats best.
3) Clements is gone. He isnt even calling the plays anymore. I want us to get a guy who can TRULY use our best players abilities. I honestly dont know who, maybe Norv Turner when he gets canned. Who knows.
4) McNally can stay, but ONLY if the frikkin Bills can learn how to zone block. Denver has a whole o-line full of undrafted and low round no namers who play well enough for my grandmother and her walker to rush for 1000+. Why in the hell cant we do that? An improvement in overall talent and sone shuffling should fix the pass protection.
5) Gray can stay but only when we upgrade the players on D and let these overrated and overpaid vets go.
6) Id love to see us build a real scouting department again. I havent seen enough real steals come from the draft. Jennings and McGee are the only 2 to me. McGahee, Evans, Losman are great but all were also well known and far from sleepers. I want some sleepers from later rounds again. We passed up guys like Jerome Mathis, and Dwight Freeney. Lets get back into the swing again and add to our scouting staff.
7) John Guy needs to go. Yes, this position is a puppet for TD but cant we get some better personnel evaluators? I cant believe its ALL TD's fault that we have done so terrible in FA, surely Guy has something to do with it. Our internal personnel evaluation may be the single biggest problem on this team. We have overvalued virtually ALL of our FA pickups, often have not honestly assessed what they would do on THIS team, and have either over or under paid for key postions often giving us little to no real sustained improvement. Guy's head should role, especially if TD's wont.
8) Since im trashing where we are, lets throw in the mess of a uniform we have. You only have to walk through any sporting goods store and have a pair of eyes to see who has the best design department. Its Nike not Reebok. Crap Can that mess and get Nike to get us something stylish, pure, clean, and simpler to maintain a sense of the past while looking bold in the league. Denver has it right, even the Giants, and Rams. We, however, just went with AGAIN the cheaper route im sure and spent our money on a vomiting Walt Disney. Seriosuly we have like a dozen different colors when we really are supposed to have 4 or 5. I like the fact that we wanted to look new, but in this case new wasnt better. Go back to the drawing board and go simpler, with less colors, and a sophisticated style. New uni's definetely bring a sense of a new era, that where we are, but stick a fork in that mess of a uniform. Lets lead, not fail.
I know this post has a sense of negativity, and why not with our seemingly endless mediocre results. But, overall I am excited about our future. I still believe in the core of our youth, JP, McGe, McGahee, Evans, Parrish, maybe Everett, Kelsay, Schobel, Peters. I dont even mind some of our questionable front office. They DID add these players afterall. I just feel that we need to be honest as an organization. Id like to see us not stop or be limited to an assessment of our team but also the orgainzation. Be thorough, look at each and every move since TD's tenure. Find the mistakes, obtain a list of errors in judgement and commit to not repeating these mistakes.
Admit that we arent good enough as far as talent, be willing to pay for much better. Yes, scarifice draft picks, overpaid players, whatever it takes to step WAY up as far as overall talent.
Cut your mistakes reagrdless of its impact on your persona or clout. Reinvest the cap cash into true, highly rated, top notch talent. Admit that less overall players with more spent on each stud is overall MORE. No more boatloads of bargain basement backups.
Continue the strong early rounds of our drafts, but push even harder to find later round hidden gems. Dont be afraid to move and sacrifice later picks to move up and get that star.
Thoroughly analyze the successes of other teams on some of your suspect units. Adopt their styles by adding quality teachers that know those schemes.
Get a plan and stick to it. Dont undermine your young players when they start to step up as leaders. Stand behind them, never publicly second guess them. Even if they are wrong early on, your team will benefit from the leadership in tough games later.
Understand that the Kelly lead teams did what they did because they BELIEVED they were NEVER out of it. Find a way to instill or build that winners mentality. It was back then that you could see a BIll in the top ten of many of the league leaders at their positions.
Yes, we are in a pivotal point in this decade as far as this team goes. Find what you can build on, cut what you cant, learn from your mistakes, and get going.
I am now and always will be a Bills fan. Thsi season isnt mathematically over. But its time to look to the future. We can make a big dent in our future success with some key moves. They may be controversial, but lets get going.
Go Bills!!!
1) Wade Phillips is the D coord
2) Butler and then AJ Smith built the Chargers. Butler drafted LT and then Drew Brees in the same draft
3) Carl Mauck is the Chargers o-line coach
Just something to think about when we are so quick to assume that some of our GM's and coord's are crap. Now, there are issues in this staff but Ill get into that in a minute.
Its time my friends to gut this team of some of the overpaid vets.
IMHO, TD is a serious problem on this squad. His ego is SO ridiculously out of control that he is over paying for over the hill vets, and under paying for UFA in the hopes to get some bargain basement deal. This team proves once and for all, Tom, that your silly plan doesnt work and never will here in Buffalo. You have done a masterfull job of getting exactly what you paid for as far as young vets and then wasting money on your older vets. Lets take a look:
1) Takeo Spikes- I will give TD credit is the ONLY move he has made that was smart in FA and has paid off.
2) Milloy- he was cast off for a reason from NE. We of course gulped him up and paid a hefty contract for a guy whos better days are behind him. On most teams thats fine but if you dont have up and comers to step in and this vet wont show mental toughness and lead on the field, he aint worth a sh_t. Milloy has done a big fat pile of jack crap this year. Cut him.
3) Fletcher- we wouldnt pay for Cowart (which actually turned out to be smart) but then paid too much for the next wonder smurf who would only be a stud ILB if he had Mount McKinley in front of him. Well they grabbed Sam Adams but then let his twin mountain Pat leave because, "we think real highly of Ron Edwards, Tim whats his name ohh yeah Anderson, and Justin arms-are-too-short- Bannan". Rather than get then the next set of circus freaks who have some genetic disorder, why not pay the money for some guys who look and fill the part. Corey Simon was out there, but we OF COURSE were not interested. Fletcher can go as well. Hes another Milloy who is overpaid at this point. He has shown to be a liability against the run and now isnt that good in coverage either. Cut him.
4) Eric Moulds has a permanent chip on his shoulder as a guy who just never had a good team to play with him. Well, he is now very highly opverpaid and cant even get open. I seriosuly can count on one hand how many times I have seen him open. Hes a #2 at best and ought to be paid like him. His ego wont take the cut, so I think Eric chooses to be cut or retires.
5) TD made a huge splash by signing the first FA one year less than an hour into FA. That player was Posey. He again paid and average player average pay and ended up with what he paid for...an average player. We could have grabbed Winborn recently but why do that.
6) We finally got some brains and went and drafted a very very high OT. But, in true TD fashion, picked the wrong guy, a guy who gets paid LT money but will never be one. Mike isnt even a starting frikking G at this point. What a monumental waste of money. Id love to totally blame TD for this one but I think Mularkey should share some too. Mikes biggest problem is injuries, he actually has played decent at times but cant make it through the season. Mike Williams needs to be cut as well and he will go down as the greatest Bills bust ever.
3) Trey Teague- Well TD you scored another stink bomb whne you grabbed Trey Teague. You of course paid average pay for an average OT. But then became even dumber and moved him to C where he is now out of position and highly overpaid. Trey is an average C at best and is FAR from being an upcomer which is what you should have with the amount of money you spent. Damien Woody was out there one year, but why grab him when you have Trey who has proven nothing to you? Trey should be cut as well.
4) Of course we have the parade of vet QB's like Drew, who on the RIGHT team would be very good. But here, with our bargain basement o-line stink up the joint. Holcomb can stay but only if he and the team permanently shut there mouths and never again stupidly think an immobile QB can do jack squat with our turnstyle o-line
5) TE- why finally make another good move and get a very good young TE by offering a contract to Bubba Franks when you can go with an unproven young vet who has done nothing in his career yet like Mark Campbell? Another good move.Kepp him? probably I dont think he costs that much.
6) Troy Vincent- He isnt a CB anymore and isnt that great of a FS either. But why not overpay for him? his is a vet who was great a few years back afterall. I say keep him, we cant completely gut this pass D.
7) Nate Clements- Fortunately I think TD's stupidity will actually have him make the right move here. Clements has had a bad year this year. The number 1 CB in the league? You just got torched by Brees and Co. Shut up and take your pennies. He will walk, and thankfully TD wont overpay to keep him. Not because he is smart enough to NOT pay him. Only because TD's ego wont allow him to pay top dollar for ANYONE. Nates gone.
Now, with all those cuts, how much Cap cash would we have left and where should we spend it? I seriously want Clumpy to answer me on this and give us an idea of where we could be with some cuts.
With the cap cash we HOPEFULLY will have enough to grab a few very highly rated players. Lets make a splash and get back on track. We have suffered long enough with the bargain basement players that fall apart as soon as you leave the store. Heres my moves:
1) Get yourself a horse saddle, strap it on to Steve Hutchinson's agent and glue yourself to that guy so you can beat the competition to signing him. That one move alone will pay HUGE dividends. TD, of course, wont do it, he will get the next Bennie Anderson clone to play average, give up lots of sacks and penalties. But im trying to be positive and heres to hoping. Steve is the guy we should have. If we dont land him, LeCharles Bentley may be even better and would be our day one C. We could grab a G in the draft.
2) Sign yourself a SS who can play and has the mental toughness of a winner. By the way, get on the RIGHT side of the hill and get a guy with UPside not DOWNside. Grab Adam Archuleta.
3) Sign Damione Lewis or Ryan Pickett. Either is an instant upgrade to Ron, Tim, and Justin. Get it done TD all you need to do is look at your stats and you can see where our issues are, its our run D up the middle. Adams can last a few more years if he has young, quicker, big help. Adams can go the route of Wilkinson, Young, Glover and others who are older but can play. Get a young big, high potential DT like Lewis or Pickett. Larry Tripplett is another option. All these guys are great #2 DT's and an upgrade to what we have but arent #1's yet.
4) Sign Andra Davis. Unlike Fletcher, he has the size and makes plays all over the field. I wouldnt mind keeping Fletcher at a reduced price but ONLY if we add another productive big man next to Adams. If not, or an even better option is to get a guy with the right size that is young and proven. Davis is the best Brown defender. Again, not a have to have unless TD doesnt upgrade us at DT.
5) Start Crowell where Posey used to be. He has played well. But draft another OLB early enough to have him be a viable option if Crowell falters.
6) We probably end up 7 and 9 or 6 and 10 and have a pick between 10 and 17. TD has actually been fairly smart here recently and has taken the best skill player available. Continue that plan. If Clements leaves, grab Jimmy Williams or Jason Allen. Hes not a burner but has plenty of size and can play FS when Vincent starts stinking worse than he does already. The other move Id love is Marcades Lewis. He is not as much of a need but neither was McGahee. Lewis is a game changer. The guy is a better TE prospect than Winslow and doesnt have the issues. He will be the next Shockey without the mouth and would be great short target for a young learning QB. Many will say to get a OT or a DT with the first pick. But you think TD, who will be looking at a LARGE number with a negative sign in front of it on his salary spread sheet in the recent cut Mike Williams, the 4th pick, is gonna do it again? It would be smart, but TD's gonna repeat that move? No frikkin way. Besides, there really is only 1 guy that I think is worth that high of a pick in Ferguson and he will be long gone by our pick. DT, sure Ngata would look nice. But if Clements is gone and both Ngata and Jimmy Williams are sitting there, you take a DT? after HOPEFULLY signing another big DT or 2, you take another DT when you have no starting CB opposite McGee? No way.
7) Draft another OT in the 2nd or 3rd. I feel that T is one of our stronger spots on our o-line with a LT or RT prospect like Peters who stunk in this game but plays with heart, strength, and great feet. I think Peters will be even better at LT where the DE are faster but also usually smaller. Peters has the feet. Mike Gandy has actually played pretty well, over all, for a guy who looked to be a big waste. T's take longer to develop than G's, usually a few years. We want to win as soon as possible. Draft a OT prospect from a later round, like the 2nd- 3rd rounder but get an interior o-lineman earlier. Its the interior that sucks here. Besides, there are plenty of very tall guys with great feet in this years draft. Trueblood, Winston, Scott, McNeil, Ferguson just to name a few. Take advantage of the depth at this spot from the draft. Grab a player like Niock Mangold, Max Jean Giles, guy from Texas, or Myers (Miami) in an earlier round, maybe 2nd.
8) Get the best LB available with the 1st- 3rd. Spencer Havner is a guy I like from UCLA. Another is Nicholson from Ohio State.
Now, as far as the front office and coaches go:
1) TD is here to stay unfortunately. Wilson is a doddering old man at this point. God love his sould, but he is very old. He was willing to resign Butler when Butler wanted out and had us in cap jail. He extended TD and will stay behind him. Hopefully TD will wake up and start getting us back on the same track. Lets hope. JP, McGahee, Evans, McGee all are good starts. Its the rest of the team that needs help. TD is a given but his record and aforementioned mistakes should have him out the door so fast that even our turnstyle o-line's heads would spin. It just wont happen. Im learning to deal with it. Rather than be pissed until next year nd beyond, just let it go.
2) Mike Mularkey is on very thin ice with me. Im not completely willing to can him yet like many. Partly, because TD wont upgarde him but rather grab another coordinator with no HC experience. I dont see that as an improvement, kind of like cutting Rueben and then signing Bennie Anderson. But. Mularkye is on thin ic with me. Mularkey did coache us to be in contention last year when we stunk it up early on. I like the way he doesnt talk stupid to the media, and I like the way he yells and screams and benches whoever the hell needs to be benched. Unfortunately, he benched the wrong guy and caused us real damage. This year, before the season, he himself, stated that only the most extreme circumstances would make him bench JP. He was WAY too quick to can him after that kind of talk. Especially considering he could see what we all saw which was that the team wasnt gonna go anywhere anyways. That one move hurt much of the heart of the team. Players started second and third guessing when even our supposed leader in Mularkey wouldnt stay the course. Confusion was the last thing we needed and thats what benching JP did IMO. Its THAT reason that Im down on him right now. You just watch Mularkey put Holcomb back in next week even though the fat lady is warming up on this season and every start is SO critical to developing our future QB with talent, Losman. Just watch, Mularkey will do it, I will be shocked if he sticks with Losman even when Losman had an average game today; made mistakes but also made some plays. Mularkey needs to grow a sack and lead the players even when they think they know whats best.
3) Clements is gone. He isnt even calling the plays anymore. I want us to get a guy who can TRULY use our best players abilities. I honestly dont know who, maybe Norv Turner when he gets canned. Who knows.
4) McNally can stay, but ONLY if the frikkin Bills can learn how to zone block. Denver has a whole o-line full of undrafted and low round no namers who play well enough for my grandmother and her walker to rush for 1000+. Why in the hell cant we do that? An improvement in overall talent and sone shuffling should fix the pass protection.
5) Gray can stay but only when we upgrade the players on D and let these overrated and overpaid vets go.
6) Id love to see us build a real scouting department again. I havent seen enough real steals come from the draft. Jennings and McGee are the only 2 to me. McGahee, Evans, Losman are great but all were also well known and far from sleepers. I want some sleepers from later rounds again. We passed up guys like Jerome Mathis, and Dwight Freeney. Lets get back into the swing again and add to our scouting staff.
7) John Guy needs to go. Yes, this position is a puppet for TD but cant we get some better personnel evaluators? I cant believe its ALL TD's fault that we have done so terrible in FA, surely Guy has something to do with it. Our internal personnel evaluation may be the single biggest problem on this team. We have overvalued virtually ALL of our FA pickups, often have not honestly assessed what they would do on THIS team, and have either over or under paid for key postions often giving us little to no real sustained improvement. Guy's head should role, especially if TD's wont.
8) Since im trashing where we are, lets throw in the mess of a uniform we have. You only have to walk through any sporting goods store and have a pair of eyes to see who has the best design department. Its Nike not Reebok. Crap Can that mess and get Nike to get us something stylish, pure, clean, and simpler to maintain a sense of the past while looking bold in the league. Denver has it right, even the Giants, and Rams. We, however, just went with AGAIN the cheaper route im sure and spent our money on a vomiting Walt Disney. Seriosuly we have like a dozen different colors when we really are supposed to have 4 or 5. I like the fact that we wanted to look new, but in this case new wasnt better. Go back to the drawing board and go simpler, with less colors, and a sophisticated style. New uni's definetely bring a sense of a new era, that where we are, but stick a fork in that mess of a uniform. Lets lead, not fail.
I know this post has a sense of negativity, and why not with our seemingly endless mediocre results. But, overall I am excited about our future. I still believe in the core of our youth, JP, McGe, McGahee, Evans, Parrish, maybe Everett, Kelsay, Schobel, Peters. I dont even mind some of our questionable front office. They DID add these players afterall. I just feel that we need to be honest as an organization. Id like to see us not stop or be limited to an assessment of our team but also the orgainzation. Be thorough, look at each and every move since TD's tenure. Find the mistakes, obtain a list of errors in judgement and commit to not repeating these mistakes.
Admit that we arent good enough as far as talent, be willing to pay for much better. Yes, scarifice draft picks, overpaid players, whatever it takes to step WAY up as far as overall talent.
Cut your mistakes reagrdless of its impact on your persona or clout. Reinvest the cap cash into true, highly rated, top notch talent. Admit that less overall players with more spent on each stud is overall MORE. No more boatloads of bargain basement backups.
Continue the strong early rounds of our drafts, but push even harder to find later round hidden gems. Dont be afraid to move and sacrifice later picks to move up and get that star.
Thoroughly analyze the successes of other teams on some of your suspect units. Adopt their styles by adding quality teachers that know those schemes.
Get a plan and stick to it. Dont undermine your young players when they start to step up as leaders. Stand behind them, never publicly second guess them. Even if they are wrong early on, your team will benefit from the leadership in tough games later.
Understand that the Kelly lead teams did what they did because they BELIEVED they were NEVER out of it. Find a way to instill or build that winners mentality. It was back then that you could see a BIll in the top ten of many of the league leaders at their positions.
Yes, we are in a pivotal point in this decade as far as this team goes. Find what you can build on, cut what you cant, learn from your mistakes, and get going.
I am now and always will be a Bills fan. Thsi season isnt mathematically over. But its time to look to the future. We can make a big dent in our future success with some key moves. They may be controversial, but lets get going.
Go Bills!!!