For one last time….for now.

I’ve voiced my displeasure with OBD plenty of times! I don’t see why some people think the moves of the past 3 years have been so wonderful. There have been a ton of mistakes and questionable moves. Of course, I’m thrilled we seem to have found our QB and have a number of other good young players, but we still screwed the pooch with some moves. Some of which all of us hated at the time.

I just don’t agree with you on the Crowell thing. He was our starter going into the year and the team was going to let him move on after the season. Nothing wrong with that, and nothing anyone here should be mad about. Why would we have considered trading him months ago when he was our projected starter? It’s not like we had good backups where it was obvious there would be no drop off. You can’t trade every guy you don’t plan on resigning when their deal is up.

The McCargo trade just proves what a mistake it was drafting him and trading 2nd and 3rd round picks to get him. Huge mistake. It was a questionable move at the time and pretty obvious now that it was a dumb move. I can’t argue with anyone here that OBD erred on him. Now I would have been just fine giving him more time here. It’s not like he’s been a bust for 4 years now. He had an injury shortened rookie year and a decent, up and down second year. He fell behind this year because of the two vets we brought in ahead of him. Well, what happens when Stroud gets hurt? We have NO depth, so I agree getting rid of him was a bad move. Unfortunately, it’s pretty obvious from their desire to get rid of him so quickly, that they are admitting a big mistake.

A pass rusher with speed would be nice because we dont’ have any speed at the DE position. However, it’s not totally necessary that we bring in a DE who’s considered that speed rusher. What I, and I’m guessing everyone else, want is a DE who can apply consistent pressure on the QB. That’s all I ask for. If it’s a speed rushing situational guy, or a complete DE, I don’t care. I just want guys who can get after it. What we have now just doesn’t cut it.

At least we have started adding size to our D again. It made no sense to have a tiny, semi-quick defense here. And calling the guys we had semi-quick was being nice. We tried building a D based on speed by adding guys who had very little of it.

Hopefully, we find more ways to add more draft picks in the upcoming draft becauase as you said, this is how teams like the Bills need to keep building their team.

When you are a Buffalo, or a Pittsburgh, you NEED to hit on a higher percentage of your draft picks than if you are a Dallas or Washington. And, you HAVE to be judicious in your FA approach.

We have been hitting quite high in the draft and in FA. FA less so, but this year we’ve done better and that makes sense because, as team rebuilds, you wait until the team has less holes before you fill them with more expensive players. I have liked the Bills approach so far, and while I wish we could have gotten a better tight end somewhere along the line, i still think we should wait and see about McCargo as some of the other players we have let go that many have thought to be bad moves, later proved to be fine we let them leave. And now, DJ and the crew looked a the tape, knew they had fat-man not performing like he should and they pulled the trigger. Maybe they are looking ahead to 2009 draft, and strategizing for what they want. I think this is a questionable move, but nt good or bad just yet. We probably could have traded JP somewhere too (just kidding)

Every single team makes mistakes that the bills have made. Plain and simple. We just notice them more in Buffalo because their our team.

As far as the small economy – Your statement is not correct except for coaching purchases. The salary cap says that you have to spend at least 80 (i think its 80) million with a cap of almost 117. So with revenue sharing, everyone is in the same ball park with how much they have to spend. No more or no less or you get punished.

While you thnik that we scrutinize those picks more because of the economy, i think its more because you follow those teams more because their in your community. Even the Redskins get bashed by their followers for stupid moves that they make. It happens to all fans and all teams.

Also, to say that we don’t question stupid moves at OBD is unfounded. We do everyday in these forums. We know how inept they are from time to time. We discuss those when they come up. Some for and some against – typical forum fashion.

As far as a speed rusher, I disagree that we all think we need a speed rushing DE. I agree with Kurupt that we just want a DE that can consistently put pressure on the QB. Even if its a 120lb high school girl.

do you like to have every single move you make at work scrutinized? the fact is you can do all the due diligence you want on a player but sometimes all the good they have done in college doesn’t translate into success at the NFL level. it sounds as if McCargo did not have the internal drive to get better at his craft.
As far as Crowell is concerned, he may not have been in the long term plans of the team but he was a good player that would of helped out team THIS YEAR. If you don’t have an adequete player to replace him why would you “flip” this player? sometimes you have to use an asset until you don’t need it anymore and that is what the Bills were looking to do with Crowell.

When you are at an economic disadvantage, your personnel decisions are scrutinized more so than if you were in a big market.

That isn’t true. The big market teams have hardcore fans who bicker over every roster move too. The one thing that does cause fans to scrutinize their team less is success on the field. I would bet that Patriot fans were less dissapointed about their team not addressing secondary depth than us Bills fans were about the team not looking for a new TE or C because their team has been winning, not because Boston is a huge market.

Why is it so many of you don’t question the moves made at OBD?

I was shocked about Crowell being IRed and still think it was a mistake.
I thought the McCargo trade was a solid move.
I hated the Reggie Corner draft pick.
I don’t question most of OBD’s moves because I agree with them. I feel like I do question a few decisions here and don’t feel like I am a part of the group of fans that always love what the team does. Believing your team is making the right moves is just part of being a fan though. Nobody likes that guy (ie: Nick/superfan82) who always cries and moans over every decision the team makes. The organization is right most of the time and it is easy to call them out all the time and then pat yourself on the back the few times you are right. It is even easier and more rewarding to applaud every decision and then celebrate your team’s success when you were both right. That is where the blind loyalty comes from, a desire to see the team be right and win games.

Don’t you understand the ramifications of spending resources on an individual, only to see it go for naught?

McCargo WAS a first round pick. That doesn’t make him any better of a player or bigger of an asset currently. If the Bills treat McCargo any differently than the other players on the team (I mean in terms of playing time, assumed value, standing on the roster and not coddling or literally treating him differently) it would be a huge mistake. This is his third year in the league and the coaches know what they have in him. He never should have been a first round pick anyways (obviously).

When you are a Buffalo, or a Pittsburgh, you NEED to hit on a higher percentage of your draft picks than if you are a Dallas or Washington. And, you HAVE to be judicious in your FA approach.

Sadly, that is very, very true.

Angelo Crowell thoughts:
The Bills DID view Crowell as a fit here as our starting strong side linebacker. At what point were they supposed to get value for him? Once he decided to have the surgery, what team would want him? Could the Bills have even gotten a sixth round pick for a soon to be free agent who was having a procedure done that wouldn’t allow him to practice for a month and might not even fix the problem in his knee? I still think it was a mistake to IR him. They could have stashed him on the bottom of the roster and worked around having 52 players for a month or two until they knew what he could give the team during the second half of the season. Wouldn’t it be great to have Crowell on that injury report right now and be wondering if he is going to be making his season debut this week?

I posted this somewhere else, but Crowell did have that sugery. The Bills placed him on the injured reserve on September 4th. He had a second opinion on the 6th or 7th and then had the surgery mid month.
http://www.rotoworld.com/content/playerpages/player_previousnews.aspx?sport=NFL&id=2277

Seriously Kry, what value did you think the Bills could have gotten for Crowell?

It takes big men time to learn the game

I posted this earlier too, but here it is again:

Kevin Williams had 52 tackles and 10.5 sacks as a rookie
Chris Hovan had 93 tackles and 8 sacks during his first two seasons
John Henderson had 54 tackles and 6.5 sacks his rookie year
Shaun Rogers had 81 tackles and 3 sacks as a rookie
Kris Jenkins had 78 tackles and 9 sacks during his first 2 seasons
Vince Wilfork had 42 tackles and 2 sacks his rookie year
Darnell Dockett has improved over the last couple years but he still had 40 tackles and 3.5 sacks as a rookie
our very own Marcus Stroud had 48 tackles and 6.5 sacks his sophomore season
Tommie Harris had 44 tackles and 3.5 sacks as a rookie
Sedrick Ellis already has 9 tackles and a sack and Glenn Dorsey has 15 tackles, 11 of them solo tackles already this season
The only players I can think of who took a few years to get going are Albert Haynesworth and Jamal Williams. McCargo is 25 years old and in his third NFL season, he isn’t a rookie who we need to be patient with any more.

Over the last decade the elite defensive tackles have started playing at a high level during or before their second season. Penetrating DTs (which McCargo is supposed to be) always take less time to develop than the huge run-stuffing guys do. McCargo has some potential left in him, but he shouldn’t be looked at as a first round type of guy who is waiting to break out. I think McCargo is a 4th DT who has the potential to develop into a nice starter but is a probably bust. You could draft one of those in the 4th round with the pick we almost got. Red Bryant and Dre Moore lasted until the 4th round last year and Letroy Guion, Jason Shirley, Frank Okam and a few other guys I don’t remember off the top of my head all went even later. Just because the Bills havn’t had quality depth at the DT position for awhile doesn’t mean it isn’t out there.

Your right about the speed rusher. People do assume that the smaller guys are all speedy, get to the QB players and the bigger guys are all slow and stuff the run. The Bills do need a speed rusher, but not necessarily in that mold. A big guy with enough hustle and quickness to get to the QB (think Kyle Vanden Bosch) would be a much better fit than a small speedy one dementional guy (like Robert Mathis). It makes even more sense when you consider that any new DE would probably be getting playing time across from the 190 pound Aaron Schobel.

And why is thinking proactive on contracts always met with disdain here?

I havn’t been around the site much for the last few weeks. Do you have anyone specifically in mind? The Bills have already locked up 3 players this year so they seem to be on the ball. I havn’t noticed any resistence towards contract extensions here at Rumblings. Was it you who brought up Fred Jackson? I thought we explained that pretty well. He is stuck here for 2 more years at a very fixed, cheap price. Any extension given to him would cost the Bills a lot more money than they have to give him. I would love to see Youboty get locked up ASAP and I’m sure the Bills will look at Edwards and Peters during the offseason. I don’t see the need for anyone else to be getting a new contract.