Buffalo In A Race With St Louis? I Hope They Can Win.

After sitting through one of the worst performances two football teams could ever muster up on Sunday when Buffalo played Cleveland, I was left with a feeling of dread.  I was not worried because the season is now looking very bleak after such a promising start.  I was feeling dread because I knew this team was good enough to do it, but there were other teams playing just as good as Buffalo to hear those great words, “with the first pick in the NFL draft, Buffalo selects.”    Although the Bills have now reached a new low in futility, I sat and wondered, how good of a pick can this team get?  

Looking at the schedule I was amazed, there really are only two or three winnable games left on their schedule.  But who knows, the Bills seem to be getting worse with every game so maybe these games will no longer be winnable when it comes time to play those games.  Buffalo has a fair shot at anywhere from 1-15 to 4-12.  In most seasons that is enough to merit a top 3 pick.  Unfortunately for Buffalo, that just may not be good enough this year.  With Tennessee forgetting that they have Jeff Fisher as a coach, the Chiefs remembering that they are the Chiefs, Oakland…well…being Oakland, St Louis being a train wreck, Tampa Bay having to rebuild, and let’s not forget the Lions.  Detroit may be a better team, but for now they are still the Lions.  Also, there is Cleveland, yes they beat Buffalo.  But, they did so in the dying minute of a game that saw no touchdowns.  Cleveland is just not that good.  The difference between Cleveland and Buffalo is that Buffalo should be better.  

By my count, there are 7 teams that could finish worse than the Buffalo Bills.  could it be that a 4-12 season rewards Buffalo with only a 7th or 8th pick in the first round?  I hope not, or else what is the world coming to?  But there is a silver lining, I do not see Tennessee finishing with a worse record than Buffalo.  They do have some easy games on the schedule and have far too good of a coach to allow that to happen.  Tampa Bay has a tough road and may actually tie Buffalo in wins, but they have a very good chance at finishing ahead of Buffalo, damn.  St Louis all but has the number one pick locked for the upcoming draft in 2010.  Here is where it gets interesting as Oakland and Kansas City both are equally as bad.  I the Chiefs can split their season series with Oakland and also beat Buffalo and/or Cleveland, than it is possible for the Chiefs to finish behind Buffalo.  Chances are that it wont happen, the Chiefs are bad, really bad.  Cleveland has a decent shot at finishing ahead of Buffalo, so I am not overly worried about them.  So by my count we are now sitting at the fourth or 5th pick overall.  One problem, we have not addressed the Detroit Lions.  

The Lions have improved drastically, and I like what Matthew Stafford brings to the table for that team.  If Detroit can pull off some upsets deep into the season, Buffalo can keep their top 5 draft position.  I do think it is possible as the Lions are improving week to week and can actually score points.  It is something that Oakland, St Louis, Kansas City and Buffalo are all unable to do.

So Buffalo is really close to a top 5 pick, anything less will be pointless.  With guys like Brandon Spikes (Florida) LB, Eric Berry (Tennessee) S, Greg Hardy (Mississippi) LB/DE, even possibly Sam Bradford (Oklahoma) QB, most likely all declaring for the draft, Buffalo should end up with a quality impact player.  The problem with Buffalo being so futile this year is that there are really no projected impact players on the offensive line, which is where Buffalo needs the most help, way to pick the worst time to be bad.  But they should be able to finally get an impact linebacker that can play alongside Mitchell.  Let’s go Buffalo, the race is on.  It will be hard to catch St Louis, but I know that if any team can disappoint, it is my Buffalo Bills.

Tags: 2010 NFL Draft, Buffalo Bills