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Brian Galliford

Feb 12, 2008 Dec 10, 2009 2089 14400

I run Buffalo Rumblings. Go Bills. Go Sabres. Go Orange. Go Magic? Yes. Go Magic.

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NFL Week 14: Buffalo Rumblings Authors Picks

Week 14 of the 2009 NFL regular season is set to kick off at 8:20 PM this evening, and the authors of Buffalo Rumblings are back to provide our picks for all 16 games on the docket. Nine of us are participating, and once again, we encourage you to leave your own picks in the comments section. All of our picks are after the jump. The standings after 13 weeks of NFL action:

#1: Brian Galliford (132-60)
#2: krytime (130-62)
#3: poz (127-65)
#4: Kurupt (126-66)
#5: MattRichWarren (122-70)
#5: Ron From NM (122-70)
#5: sireric (122-70)
#8: MARVelous (121-71)
#9: WABillsfan (115-77)

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Buffalo Bills wide receivers coach Tyke Tolbert has accepted the same position on Les Miles' coaching staff at LSU. Tolbert will finish the season with the Bills.

about 10 hours ago Ronswanson_tiny Brian Galliford 14 comments 0 recs

Ten worst Buffalo Bills draft picks of the decade

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More photos » by David Duprey - AP

Yesterday, we talked about the ten best draft picks that the Buffalo Bills have made over the past decade. In order to complete our "[descriptive adjective] of the decade" series here, we've got to knock off the worst picks, too. This list can also be known as "why the Bills have sucked for a decade," but we're also hoping that one last vent session over these missed picks will be therapeutic as the franchise turns a new leaf - and a new decade - next month.

On to the list. Hope you can stomach it.

10. Josh Reed, WR, LSU (2002, Round 2, No. 36 overall)
Tom Donahoe's first draft as GM of the Bills, in 2001, netted some really good players. Nate Clements, Aaron Schobel and Travis Henry all made our "best of" list yesterday, and the Bills even got quality years and production out of third-round pick Jonas Jennings. 2002, however, was an epic flop, and Reed, the Bills' second-round pick (fourth overall in that round), was part of the reason why.

Drafted well ahead of his talent level thanks to a huge bowl game as a senior, the converted running back had a solid rookie season playing between Eric Moulds and Peerless Price on a very prolific Bills offense led by Drew Bledsoe. Then Price was shipped out of town, Reed became the starter, and his career has been incredibly average since then. This was the first in a long line of high-round luxury picks made by Donahoe that did not pan out, and obviously eventually cost Donahoe his job.

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Top 10 Buffalo Bills draft picks: 2000-2009

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More photos » by David Duprey - AP

I don't get into the whole "Hey, a decade's about to end, let's make lists!" culture. It's fun, but it's repetitive and boring. Still, those types of lists engender some fun discussions, so while I won't go overboard and do best/worst lists for every possible topic concerning the Buffalo Bills, I figured we'd knock off the most important aspect of the team: drafting.

This past decade has been a brutal one for Bills football. But even in bad times, a few (random and ultimately meaningless to the win column) good decisions are made. What follows is my list of the Bills' ten best draft selections of the past decade.

10: Travis Henry, RB, Tennessee (2001, Round 2, No. 58 overall)
We start our "best of" list with one of the more controversial figures in the NFL of the past decade, and he only played four seasons in Buffalo. That should tell you a lot. However, as a second-round pick, the Bills got three highly productive seasons out of Henry - until he was usurped by a man who will appear a little higher on this list.

Henry finished his Bills career with 3,849 yards and 29 touchdowns. He played in three more seasons with Tennessee and Denver, but his career was cut short thanks to off-field troubles. Henry is currently serving a one-year NFL suspension for violating the NFL's substance abuse policy, but that's made irrelevant by the fact that he's nearly a year into a three-year prison sentence for financing a cocaine trafficking operation.

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Talk Bills with Buffalo Rumblings...

... if you can stomach it. Some days, we can't.

Is there a less exciting game on the NFL Week 13 docket than Bills/Chiefs? Statistically speaking, there are a few that contend for the crown; the Bills and Chiefs have combined for 7 wins this season, a number featured in the Steelers/Browns, Jets/Buccaneers and Raiders/Redskins games. We're actually surpassed in this category by Titans/Rams, but hey - Chris Johnson and Vince Young are in that game.

Alas, NFL football is more exciting than most other sporting events, and this particular game holds some intrigue. I'm here to answer any questions y'all might have about the Buffalo Bills, and if my answers are not satisfactory, I'm sure several of my Buffalo Rumblings minions will set the record straight.

Best of luck this weekend. Stay healthy. And throw us a bone if you feel the urge.

102 comments  |  25 recs

Four men with ties to the Buffalo Bills - LB London Fletcher, CB Antoine Winfield, defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau and GM Bill Polian - made Sports Illustrated's All-Decade team.

It's just unfortunate that Polian did none of the work that got him that honor in Buffalo.

2 days ago Ronswanson_tiny Brian Galliford 13 comments 0 recs

Reed, Tasker semifinalists in fan HOF voting, too

About a month ago, I wrote a short piece detailing the JC Penney/Van Heusen Fan's Choice vote, giving NFL fans a chance to cast votes for Hall of Fame candidates. That post was written for two reasons - because JC Penney and Van Heusen sponsored SB Nation's NFL blogs this season, and because several former Buffalo Bills, including Darryl Talley, Kent Hull and Cornelius Bennett, needed a little boost in the voting process.

Now that the Hall of Fame has released its list of 25 semi-finalists - with two former Bills (receiver Andre Reed and special teams ace Steve Tasker) on the list - it seemed like a good time to compare results.

NFL fans voting at www.fanschoice.com currently rank Reed at No. 18 on the voting list. He trails four other receivers on the list - Jerry Rice, Tim Brown, Cris Carter and Cliff Branch. Meanwhile, Tasker comes in at No. 23. If the fan vote is indicative of the real vote, Reed and Tasker don't have good, strong shots at enshrinement next August. Still, it's nice to see that experts and fans alike recognize the quality of play Reed and Tasker provided some of the NFL's best teams of the '90s, and recognized them on each semifinalist list.

Of the 25 semifinalists actually in the running, fans agreed with just 14 of those selections. The mutually exclusive groups are below; the first group are actual semifinalists that were not recognized as such by fans, and the second group is men recognized as semifinalists by fans, but not by the experts.

Semi-finalists: Don Coryell, Roger Craig, Terrell Davis, Dermontti Dawson, Chris Doleman, Russ Grimm, Rickey Jackson, Cortez Kennedy, Art Modell, Paul Tagliabue, Aeneas Williams

Fan semi-finalists: Randall Cunningham, Jim Plunkett, Phil Simms, Joe Theismann, Sterling Sharpe, Todd Christensen, Ed "Too Tall" Jones, Steve Atwater, Tom Flores, Jim Tunney, Otho Davis

The final results of this vote will be announced on NFL Network early next year, just before the official results are announced. Voting is still open, so if you'd like to cast votes for either Andre or Steve to get them recognized on NFL Network, do it quickly over at www.fanschoice.com.

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Fitzpatrick still the right call for Bills at QB

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More photos » by Nathan Denette - AP

Amidst one of the worst seasons to witness as a fan of the Buffalo Bills in the past decade - and as the entire decade's been bad, that's saying something - calls for the Bills to change quarterbacks occur on a seemingly weekly basis. With Buffalo all but eliminated from playoff contention and awaiting organizational direction in the form of new football decision-makers and a new coaching staff, Bills fans are making their voices heard about the quarterback position.

It's tough for me to understand why. Buffalo doesn't have a desirable starting quarterback option on its roster. The man with perhaps the most vocal fan support at the moment, Brian Brohm, has been with the Bills for less than three weeks. Starter-by-default Ryan Fitzpatrick has put up some truly horrendous stat lines this season, to the point where even Trent Edwards, who fell out of favor quickly after a slow start in his third season, is the choice candidate in some circles.

Ultimately, however, it's Fitzpatrick that should stay in at quarterback for the Bills. I understand completely that that's not exactly the best news in the world. The reasons behind that opinion aren't great, but they're better than the reasons for starting Edwards or, far more importantly, Brohm. Buffalo has bigger fish to fry than trying to find a franchise quarterback this month.

Poll
Who should start at quarterback for Buffalo's last four games?

  1149 votes | Results

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Clausen enters NFL Draft; is he a fit in Buffalo?

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More photos » by Michael Conroy - AP

The Buffalo Bills are back to work on the practice field today, but with news scant and the team not very interesting to begin with, it's still, unfortunately, more intriguing to ponder future iterations of the Bills than the current outfit. Naturally, we're going to be taking a brief field trip from talking about the Bills this afternoon - these Bills, anyway - and instead focus on the bigger news of the day.

Notre Dame quarterback Jimmy Clausen has announced his intentions to enter the 2010 NFL Draft. [Mocking the Draft]

Playing quarterback for the New York Yankees of college football, Clausen is one of the most highly-debated prospects in the nation simply because of the golden helmet he wore at Notre Dame. The 6'3", 226-pound junior was college football's second-highest rated passer in 2009, and given the fact that his head coach, Charlie Weis, was recently fired by ND, his declaration for next April's draft is not anywhere near surprising.

The natural thought process for Bills fans at this point is something along the lines of, "Hey, Buffalo's quarterbacks stink, and a new regime will, of course, want a new quarterback. Is Jimmy Clausen the answer?" Time will tell, but fans shouldn't dismiss him as a potential remedy to the team's longest-standing personnel issue out of habit.

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Jets 19, Bills 13: Week 13 Film Session

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by Chris Young - AP

It's Monday, and even though the Buffalo Bills are a full three days removed from their most recent loss - in this case, a 19-13 loss to the New York Jets in Toronto - Monday means it's film session day.

You know the drill. We've added a few thoughts about teams and games outside of this (dreary) matchup, so that's slightly different, but you know what to expect. As always, feel free to add your own thoughts and observations to those presented here in the comments section.

Rex Ryan has Buffalo's number. Buffalo put up 29 points in two games against the Jets this season. They ran the ball well in (extremely occasional) spots, and were able to hit the (extremely occasional) big play. But New York's offense was also very kind to Buffalo, giving them plenty of opportunities to put both games away, and the Bills were only able to do so once. Just how thoroughly is Rex Ryan's defense owning Buffalo's offense? Take a quick look at Ryan Fitzpatrick's stat line in the two games: 39.6% completions (19 of 48), 214 yards (4.46 yards per attempt), 1 TD, 2 INT, 3 sacks and a quarterback rating of 43.2. Fitzpatrick's quarterback rating of 43.2 is only slightly higher than the number of yards per quarter Thomas Jones picked up against the Bills this season (39.9).

Ryan's defense didn't do a ton, but given Buffalo's massive upheaval along the offensive line, it did the only thing it needed to do: run a bunch of exotic blitzes and confuse the hell out of Buffalo's blockers. Just like in Week 6, the Bills had opportunities to make plays down the field in this one - Lee Evans was open on intermediate routes several times, for example - but overload blitzes and stunts got pass protection out of whack, and Fitzpatrick was forced to either throw an inaccurate pass or eat the ball nearly every time.

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