"By once complaining about living in Buffalo, Willis McGahee took on the equivalent of a 90-pound safety and flattened that sucker.

Coincidence or not, the oft-injured tailback was traded to Baltimore in 2006 for a couple of draft picks.

McGahee's successor in the Bills' backfield, Marshawn Lynch, went out of his way to show just how much he liked western New York's predominant chain-restaurant culture in a quasi-famous YouTube shtick.

Doubtless, Lynch would love it in Green Bay.

"Bring him on," is Aaron Rodgers' quote being heard 'round the NFL

Apparently, the concept of introducing a two-time 1,000-yard rusher into a situation just vacated by a two-time 1,200-yard rusher was such that the Bills made the decidedly anti-Packer gesture Wednesday of positing on their official Web site that Lynch would not be traded.

Let's see . . . a team going nowhere won't part with a back who has fallen on the depth chart behind a rookie and an old guy because, well, no one wants to admit they blew it again on a first-rounder.

And there's your moral for the Green Bay home opener Sunday, rumors and innuendo aside.

McGahee and Lynch were first-round picks. So was A.J. Hawk, who barely got on the field in the season opener at Philadelphia as the Packers abstained from their base defense.

So forget that every blogger from Ashwaubenon to Cheektowaga was conveniently linking the linebacker-needy Bills with Hawk in an arrangement that would somehow make the Ryan Grant-less Packers whole. Instead, look at what's real.

If anyone had forgotten that teams occasionally hang on to a first-rounder to a fault, the sight of Justin Harrell being helped off the field in Philly was a bleak reminder. So was Hawk standing around with nothing particular to do.

It was apparent on draft day in 2006 that Hawk was an overreach at No. 5. Just as no one takes linebackers way up there, it was virtually impossible from Day 1 for Hawk to live up to being a No. 5 overall. He's perfectly adequate when the Packers play it straight-up, as they likely will more often than not against the Bills, but an eventual change of scenery would be best for all concerned.

That's no permanent LB mark against Ted Thompson, who knocked it clean out of the yard with Clay Matthews at No. 23 last year and at least doubled off the wall two seasons ago by taking one of his ultra-rare fliers on free agent Brandon Chillar. Say what you will about Thompson's general reluctance to build with anything other than his own picks, but going outside the organization is not always the answer at running back."