To all those trying to fire up the "woe is us Bills fans" story again on this blog, let this be a reminder that our season is still one that has had us cheering for a team head and shoulders better than most any NFL fan would have anticipated. We are in the thick of a playoff race, a half game out of first place in the AFC East, with a young roster which has seen almost every man contributing and which has developed a special bond with the fans. its been a great year and it could continue to get better. To throw our hands up when the going got tough and start talking about a new QB or the upcoming draft when we are a half game behind the Patriots is the exact opposite of what this team and fanbase should be doing right now. The Bills feed off of us, their home record and Ralph Romp are evidence of this. Let's start cheering again.

SQUISH THE PHISH!

Questioner tried to veer Warner into talking about how tough teh Jets D will be for the Bills and he turns right into how tough Fred Jackson will be for the Jets D. Love it his take on our offense. Thats all Chan!

Rumors about Merriman being stopped at the border, and having some containers confiscated, have been circulating among some Buffalo governmental offices for weeks and hit the Internet on Wednesday.

"We have not been presented with any matter for prosecution involving Shawne Merriman or anyone else on the Buffalo Bills," said James P. Kennedy, first assistant in the U.S. Attorney's office in Buffalo. Kennedy said he was not even aware that Merriman had been stopped at the border

And that's that. We never doubted ya Shawne. All thats left to say? LIGHTS OUT BABY!!!

30. Buffalo Bills (4)

Biggest beneficiary: Ryan Fitzpatrick. Short throws are his bread and butter.

On the Bills:

Sam: There is no shortage of quality offensive linemen potentially available, which is handy for Buffalo, because they could stand to upgrade almost every spot across their line. Jared Gaither and Doug Free would both make some sense, with Free in particular allowing them a bit of flexibility, but I think they should focus on Marshal Yanda. Yanda’s been successful at both RT and RG and would allow the Bills to focus on identifying players they feel can succeed on that line long-term.

According to ESPN Dallas, under the expected new CBA rules, the Cowboys tender offer on free agent LT Doug Free has become void and worse for them, under the new expected setup the team will be 18 million over the cap.

The article notes that Free was always the Cowboys number 1 free agent target but that now there is a chance he gets away.

Just another free agent to keep an eye on....

RT Tyson Clabo and RG Harvey Dahl are arguably the best OT and best OG available in free agency this year and both are Atlanta Falcons. According to this article, the Falcons may not have the money to sign them both with high salaries to go to CB Brent Grimes (tendered and will soon get long term deal)and CB Dunta Robinson (who just got a massive deal last year).

Behind Clabo and Dahl the Falcons have boasted one of the best run blocking offensive lines in football and they are pretty good pass blockers as well.

Clabo should be one of the marquee names the Bills try to go after this off-season and I wouldnt mind Dahl either who is a monster run blocker. In fact, they are both monster blockers. Either would be a great haul.

Its always easy to criticize OBD when a draft pick goes sour but its really only fair when you follow a guy you really wanted as well to see how things would have been if you had gotten your way. Obviously, myself and most of you would have made the better call with Orakpo over Maybin. But last year I was very upset when the Bills didnt get a chance at Trent Williams because Washington took him at 4

A year later, its looking like questions about his work ethic and dedication that popped up in college might be surfacing in the NFL. This is not a good sign for a rookie that went in the top 5 but looked overwhelmed and confused on the playing field.

"Some of Williams‘ teammates wondered aloud Wednesday why he hasn’t been to any of the team’s seven informal practices during the lockout.....[he] is under contract, presumably has enough loot from his first-round deal to catch a flight and is coming off an uneven rookie season. He also doesn’t have the veteran status that allows certain other players to skip these unsupervised, voluntary workouts without grabbing teammates’ attention. Buzz about Williams‘ absence built Wednesday, and some players privately questioned why he, in particular, isn’t working out with them".

Just a little update.

Pro Football Focus ranked their top 15 and bottom 15 pass blockers at both LT and RT based on a forumla of all their snaps. No Buffalo Bills feature on any of the lists except Mansfield Wrotto, who is the 15th worst pass blocker at RT.

The link takes you to the SportingNews WarRoom page because the following is an excerpt from their draft preview magazine. The person in the cubicle next to me was reading it so I snatched it (naturally) and found some bits to share with the Rumblers. Their positional rankings and scouting are based on War Room Scouts and SportingNews claims they are based on watching film of every single game in college.

To demonstrate how this scouting has given them some unique results the magazine lists Jimmy Smith as the best cornerback prospect, Mark Ingram as the fourth best running back, Marcel Dareus is their third rated DT, and they claim the offensive tackle class gets a grade of A+ with Anthony Castonzo as a top 10 talent and Solder and Tyron Smith joining him as elite prospects in their mind. As you can see, they arent afraid to tell you what they think.

So here are their QB thoughts:

Strongest Arm: Cam Newton - Newton has rare, elite arm strength and has consistently shown the ability to throw the ball way down the field with excellent zip and accuracy. There is no question that he has the arm strength that few NFL quarterbacks possess."

Most Accurate: Cam Newton - While Newton made a lot of throws last season at Auburn that he will never even try in the NFL, he was remarkably accurate on film. What was most impressive was his ability to make throws of 20-plus yards accurately. He did so when he needed to make touch passes and when he was called to put a lot of zip on the ball.

Despite these incredible reviews, Cam Newton was still ranked fourth on their QB prospect list with Gabbert as 1, Kaepernick as 2, and Ponder as 3. They graded these guys different facets out of 9 and to give you an idea:

Arm Strength: Newton (9), Gabbert (8), Kaepernick (7), Ponder (5)
Accuracy: Newton (8), Gabbert (7.5), Kaep (7), Ponder (6)
Field Vision: Ponder (8), Kaep (7), Gabbert (6.5), Newton (5.5)
Running Ability: Newton (9), Kaep/Gabbert (8), Ponder (7.5)
Intangibles: Ponder (9), Kaep (8.5) Gabbert (8), Newton (5.5)

Other: Quickest Release - Nathan Enderle (Idaho), Most Dangerous Runner - Tyrod Taylor (Virginia Tech), Most Battle-Tested - Greg McElroy (Alabama)

SportingNews says the risk is too high with Newton and that no QB with his types of red flags has ever become successful in the NFL.

Go buy the magazine if you're interested in more, or just steal it from a co-worker like I did! These guys definitely go out on some limbs and I found it refreshing and worth the read through.

Normally I don't care for these but this I had to share with you guys. Pat Kirwan went back to the 2004 draft and re-did the first ten picks if the teams knew then what they knew now. In his re-do, to what will be a shock to some Bills fans, Lee Evans goes higher than he did to us at 13 - with him jumping up to pick 6 in hindsight.

Some good perspective of what observers outside of Buffalo think

6. Cleveland Browns

Actual pick: Kellen Winslow
Do-over pick: Lee Evans

The Browns were looking for a game-breaking receiver, and Evans is a solid guy who is still playing in Buffalo. Winslow, meanwhile, had to be shipped to Tampa Bay because he just wasn't a good fit with the new Cleveland coaching staff. Evans has gone through multiple changes but just keeps performing.

Moon took particular exception to the part of Nawrocki's evaluation that labeled Newton's smile as "fake."

"How do you judge a player on his smile, whether his smile is fake or not?" Moon asked. "I've never heard anything like that in all my years of listening to evaluations on players or anybody, whether their smile is fake or not and you've never met the kid. If you're going by what general managers have to say, most of those general managers spend 15 minutes with him at the combine, so how are they going to get a real good sense of who this kid is by that?"

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"(I) talked to a lot of people in the Auburn program and a lot of people throughout Cam's career," Nawrocki said. "Talking to NFL sources, just tracking down his background.

"I'd rather not go into any specific sources, but anybody that questions what was written can go back and do the homework.

I think I've been very clear on how much I love Robert Quinn as a prospect. In this video segment, Bucky Brooks breaks down the tape of these tow guys to offer his opinion on which one is the better pass rusher.

I love Quinn because of how awesome he is when it comes to using his hands against blockers and his speed and burst for a guy his size. But Bowers is bigger and stronger and explosive himself. In my humble opinion, this might be the biggest positional draft debate - including over Newton vs. Gabbert and Peterson vs. Amukamara.

NFL.COM is doing a special mock draft in which team beat writer's are playing GM for their teams and making the picks - Chris Brown is making the pick for Buffalo. He takes Von Miller in his video clip. Here is how the Bills segment was set up:

Team needs: Quarterback, left tackle, guard, defensive end, outside linebacker, tight end (For more: AFC East team needs)

Analysis: "The Bills need help on the defensive side of the ball, both with the pass rush, which (he) would help and against the run, where they finished last in the league last year."

Interesting article from a neutral source by the fine fellows at Mocking the Draft on the Bills and a QB at 3.

I thought 5 years, $30 mil was a good starting point to make a deal with Poz. This should help establish the market.

The Bills only have one man on this list.

Bucky Brooks over at NFL.COM has put up on their front page his 2011 list of the top 25 prospects in the upcoming draft. Now, I personally have never admired Bucky Brooks' NFL analysis as top notch but that is just my opinion and considering he is a top NFL.COM writer I think its noteworthy that Nate Solder is listed as the no.8 prospect in the country. I'm curious if anyone agrees with him and if he really is so highly regarded at LT is it possible the Bills consider him either at 3 or by trade down?

As I do every time the Bills are mentioned in more than passing on one of the two ESPN shows I DVR, here is a transcribing from Around the Horn's Monday show in a segment they called "the Drop".

For those who are unfamiliar, Around the Horn is a show with four panelists who are local sports writers from four different regions and they debate hot sports issues.

Host Tony Realy: Stevie Johnson, ugh Stevie Johnson, [sympathetic groans from [panelists] the drop that killed the Bills and fantasy owners alike. Look how Fitzpatrick had to tell his center Hangartner. Two things about Stevie - after the game facing the media saying he'll never get over this and that he was devastated, and then on twitter, this tweet : "I praise you 24/7!!!!!!!! And this is how you do me!!!!! You expect me to learn from this??? How???!! I'll never forget this!!!! Ever!!!! Thx tho..." End tweet. What do you make of all that Cowlishaw?

Cowlishaw: Well the main thing is that I think Stevie will get over this because he is a great young receiver making big plays he will win games for the Buffalo Bills that will offset dropping this ball that could have won this Steelers game.

McMullen : What I made of this is that we don't realize the raw emotion sometimes for these players when they have incredible disappointments like this young guy had. I wanted to give him a hug for crying out loud and I love the fact that he was so honest about what he was going through. The tweet? Thats the 24/7 instant message world we live in. I bet this morning, if he is really a man of faith, he regrets saying that.

Plaschke : Oh man, I'm a huge Stevie Johnson fan today. Not only did he do the interview, he did it on the podium! He didn't do it in his locker, he didn't do it walking to the bus, he did it on the podium in front of everybody facing the music. Plus! He had the Buffalo Bills carved into the side of his head that shows you what kind of team guy he is, I was very impressed by everything.

Tony Really : A point for bringing it up, but a mute, because I think it was shaved into the side of his head not carved. Paige what do you say?

Paige: Well, I appreciate that he came out and he was so emotional about it and I even accept the tweet but Jackie [MacMullen] if you're a Buffalo Bills fan Im sure you would have come out of the stands and given him a big hug...He dropped the pass!!! Thats what he works on!! [disapproving grunts and such from other panelists] Its what he practices all week, he was wide open!!! He dropped the pass!! Don't forget about that!! Carve on the other side of your head "I DROPPED THE PASS".

Tony: Ok, alright, a little off the rails there. Its ok, its alright, we respect his opinion.

Tuesday Morning QB is filled with Bills stuff this week so I suggest you check it out. Topics covered in depth:

- Why small school/late round WRs outperform big school/early round divas [Stevie is the focus here with an Andre Reed mention and James Hardy sighting]

- How the NFL might be seeing its first Ivy League superstar [Fitzy is the topic here]

- How absolutely atrocious Ed Hochuli's decision to add one second to the clock was [Im still disappointed in the Bills fans who are defending it]

- How the football gods punished Jonathon Joseph for taunting and dancing his way into the endzone during his pick six to make the lead 28-7 [raises a good point - you were supposed to be a Super Bowl team and your 2-8 and dancing before half?]

- Small mention of Bills winning streak over Bengals.

For those of you who are unfamiliar, Pardon the Interruption is one of ESPN's most popular talk shows. It features Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon going over the "most important' sports news of the day in an argumentative fashion. The last time I was aware of the Buffalo Bills being featured for a segment of the show it was when we were 4-0 in 2008 and they had Trent Edwards on for a 5 minute interview. The following I transcribed for you guys, I figured you might be interested because it was the first time in a long time the Bills have been discussed on ESPN without the normal ridicule and dismissive attitude that accompanies it. Regardless if you feel they portrayed us, the team or Buffalo accurately, their tone was pretty much respect filled:

Wilbon: If you're a Buffalo Bills fan, it's getting hard to find hope. The Bills are 0-5 and team owner Ralph Wilson has a message for the fans. Quote "Two words. Pain and Patience. P and P." Close quote. Tony, is that a message Bills fans should be receptive to?

Kornheiser: And they know that they could lose a team when Ralph Wilson isn't there anymore. They'll be there like they've always been there and they understand that. This is their identity this football team.

This had to be a tough one: Jets released veteran FB Tony Richardson, one of the league's classiest players.

Tony Richardson could provide a great veteran presence in the locker room, a teacher for our young running back committee, an excellent blocker, and a man with inside knowledge of the Jets offense in one signing. Anyone interested, Rumblers?

Akin Ayodele was cut released by the Broncos. If I'm not mistaken he started for George Edwards for two years in his 3-4 in Miami. Should we give him a shot here? Could be good depth.