I was killing some time today, and started sketching out an offseason priority list.   Here's my plan to get the Bills back to the playoffs next year:

A. Trade a 2nd round pick, our extra 5th round pick, and JP Losman to the Lions for Roy Williams.  Williams is supposedly on the block, and while I've been wanting to see the Bills spend their top pick on a WR, the truth is that Williams is the best-case-scenario for whatever WR we draft (big smart and talented, with a nose for the end zone and game-breaking abilities). The fact is that drafting WRs is by and large a crapshoot--I don't mean in the first round, I mean drafting them period.  For some reason, there just seems to be an inordinate number of WRs that never pick up the nuances of the game.  Williams immediately becomes our number 1, and takes a ton of pressure off of Evans, letting him run free on the deep routes.  I'm curious to hear feedback on whether or not that's a reasonable offer--I can't see anyone giving up a first round pick, but this still represents a pretty good haul for the Lions pick-wise, and given that Drew Stanton is still an unknown, I can see them taking a flier on a young talented quarterback.

B. Sign a top TE--either Dallas Clark or LJ Smith.  We've got the cap room to make this happen, and again, this is a position where developing talent is kind of a crapshoot, so I don't mind paying for more of a sure thing.  Given how much Edwards loves to check down, getting him a reliable safety valve is a must.

C. Structure the draft as follows:

1. Keith Rivers, OLB, USC.  Guy's the prototypical WLB in the draft--great coverage skills, good blitzing ability, and a bit of a playmaker streak.  Isn't bulky, but is really fast, which fits the organizational philosophy.
   
2. (Traded in the Roy Williams deal)
   
3. CB
   
3. C (Ideally, Steve Justice from Wake Forest drops here)
   
4. Huge DT--I've seen Texas's Frank Okam in this range in a few mocks

D. Sign a veteran QB as backup--no preference here, just someone who is clearly brought in to back up Edwards, not compete for the starting job.  If it happened to be someone who could mentor him, all the better.

They've got a potentially top-notch defense at that point--LBs and Safeties are the key to the cover 2.  DiGiorgio and Ellison are nice depth players, but replacement-level starters at best.  Replacing them with Posluszny and Rivers and teaming those two with Crowell will give us an elite LB corp a year or two down the road, and go a long way towards fixing the defense.  It also addresses the team's main offensive shortcomings, giving Edwards a reliable safety valve/zone busting TE, and a red zone threat go-to WR who lets Reed and Parrish play in the slot and takes some heat off of Evans.

Poll

2nd Round Pick, 5th round pick, and JP Losman to the Lions for Roy Williams. Good deal? Realistic?

47%

Great deal. Gives the Lions a good haul, and allows us to hang onto our top pick

16 votes

29%

That's too much to give up. Draft picks are the lifeblood of this team

10 votes

20%

That's not nearly enough. Someone's going to offer Detroit a first round pick (which they'll promptly spend on another WR)

7 votes

2%

Waste of time. Williams isn't a good fit, let's draft a WR.

1 votes

34 votes | Poll has closed

ESPN.com's Scott Engel, long the weak link in their fantasy coverage (and frankly, that's being generous to Engel--I've constructed winning fantasy teams in the past out of no more strategy than doing the exact opposite of what he advised), took his jackassery to unheard of heights in his column Friday (Insider required: http://insider.espn.go.com/fantasy/football/ffl/story?page=engelsangles3).

Engel was discussing his picks for his suicide pool, and in explaining his pick of New England over Buffalo, actually used the following phrase:
"...but the Patriots are such a sure thing, the Bills should just forfeit."

Look, I'm realistic about our chances in this game, but to suggest that the game shouldn't even be played?  How the hell did this guy ever get a job?  The one phrase everybody repeats about the NFL is that, "On any given Sunday, any team can beat any other team".  It's part of what makes the league exciting, and frankly, it's why they play the games instead of just computer simulating everything.

If it was someone else, I might think it was just a poor attempt at humor, but Engel's never tried to be the least bit funny in the past (and who the hell knows why I keep reading him if I think he's such a moron).

I'm not calling for his firing or anything--if ESPN isn't going to fire him for gross incompetence, they're not going to fire him for one incredibly stupid statement.  I just read that and wanted to vent.

I was watching the game in a bar (I live in Denver), so I couldn't hear the audio feed too well; what was the deal with the second unsportsmanlike penalty on Evans late in the game?  It looked to me like he was just arguing vehemently for a pass interference penalty, which it seems to me is the sort of thing that happens on basically every pass play in the NFL.  

Did he do something more than that, like use some magic phrase, or was this just a case of an over-sensitive referee?  Granted, it didn't affect the outcome,but the whole thing struck me as pretty unprofessional on the referee's part.  These guys get jawed at and lobbied for penalties all game long, penalty calls shouldn't get personal.