The Apologist

Over the last few weeks, Bills fans probably feel like they’ve been on a little bit of a roller coaster ride. I remember visiting family and friends in July who were legitimately concerned that there wouldn’t be games to attend at One Bills Drive this September. I tried to reassure them that the opportunity to torture themselves would still be there. And I was thinking of them and all the other Fall pilgrims to Orchard Park when the league announced that the lockout had ended.

Their first and most perplexing move was to overpay for the services of Brad Smith. Don’t get me wrong. Brad Smith is a lovely, versatile player. But he’s about as far from a necessity as this team has right now. Particularly since he won't spend much time blocking for anybody. The receiving corps. was the one unit that appeared to be deep.

Of course that was until the Bills decided that they no longer had any use for Lee Evans. Or as more fans chose to take it (myself included), the Bills decided they didn’t want to spend so much money on Lee Evans.

You could argue that this cleared the way for guys like Donald Jones and Marcus Easley to make their presence felt. However, you cannot tell me that we’re a better team without Lee Evans. Add in the fact that the trade was only for a fourth round pick and it’s hard not to call this a calous salary dump from the small-market kings of profit margins.

(Fourth-round picks under Nix: Marcus Easley, DaNorris Searcy and Chris Hairston. Ummm. Maybe?)

All that said, I don't mean to totally trash Buddy Nix. He and Gailey put their faith in Fitzmagic, only Buffalo's 3rd 3,000-yard passer in the last decade. He snagged Merriman off the waiver wire, a gamble that appears to be paying off. Then he signed a solid veteran in Nick Barnett to shore up a linebacking corps. that had been a black hole for years. And after solidifying his run defense with 343 lbs. of Marcel Dareus, he made his wisest move to date, locking up Kyle Williams for the next 6 seasons at a reasonable price.

That's why, despite this post's somewhat dour start, I really am excited to see this team on the field in 11 days. It's just the waiting that's killing me. Between waiting for the games to mean something, waiting for Ralph to kick the bucket (Did you hear Los Angeles approved a deal on their new stadium? So that happened.), waitng for your average fan to stop overanalyzing preseason games and waiting for Jerry Sullivan's next column blasting anyone and everyone in the Bills' front office, I've had enough predictions and projections. It's only been a month and I've already heard more than I can handle.

But it won't be long now. Soon the season will start and odds are, pretty soon I'll wish it never had. Then it's on to the next task...

Waiting for the Sabres' season to start.