The "long way down" for the Bills went way beyond losing your HOF QB. You have had arguably the worst owner, worst stadium, worst string of head coaches and worst roster since the early '90s. Now Meathead, before you go all ballistic on me, you know I like you (God knows why) so just sit back and embrace your team's 20 years of suckitude. Could be worse, you could be a fan of a team in a Gooberville city such as Indy.
Thanks for the compliment, albeit a somewhat backhanded one. I'll take that around here.
The Bills actually made the playoffs two out of three years after Jim Kelly retired. They still had talent on that team. How much talent do you think the Patriots have apart from Tom Brady? They have some for sure, but not enough IMO. How would the team be with Ryan Mallett as QB, for example? Would the defense be able to pick up the slack? I don't think so. The whole team will have to reinvent itself after Brady, which is not an easy thing to do. Being perennial contenders will no longer be a foregone conclusion, even in this division...even with Bill Belichick's magic potion elixir.
Take Brady off the Patriots and put him on any other team in the division, and then we'll know something.
Losing Brady is when reality begins to rear it's ugly head, unless the Pats get lucky to land somebody decent very quickly...which is easier said than done because every team is trying to rob the same train, and demand FAR outweighs the supply at QB.
I can understand if you want to be in denial about all that.
The Bills definitely had their moments of pure suckitude over the past 14 years, but they've mainly been mediocre or borderline-bad in relation to other teams. They've usually picked somewhere around #10 (many times lower than that) in the draft and so are never in a position to take the best QB prospects...that's been part of the problem. The main exceptions were when the Bills picked at #4 the same year they traded a 1st rounder for Drew Bledsoe (your welcome), and a few years ago when they picked 3rd and there was no QB worth taking. Yeah, the coaches haven't been good, but there were also a bunch of coach-killers at QB. Give a guy 3 years, fire him, rinse and repeat.
There has been talent on Bills teams. "Worst rosters" is just not remotely true over time. There is lots of talent there now, particularly on the defensive side of the ball. I don't see what the quality of the stadium has to do with anything, and Ralph Wilson is 95-freakin'-years-old. There is only so far he's even ABLE to be involved, but ownership is definitely an issue for sure. Management issues...and the big issue of not winning games.
