ProFootballTalk.com's Top 25 In 25

No. 11 Bruce Smith.

We've received plenty of e-mails from Buffalo Bills fans who are miffed that they've yet to see the name of a member of the franchise listed in our ranking of the top 25 NFL players over the past 25 years.

Our standard response?  "Blame Scott Norwood."

Really, if the Bills' kicker hadn't pushed to the right that fateful 47-yard field goal attempt at the tail end of Super Bowl XXV against the New York Giants, there would be at least one Super Bowl trophy perched atop the 1970 Zenith console with the dark brown plastic wood and big lighted dial in Ralph Wilson's living room. 

As it stands, the Bills' Super Bowl record is like Barry Bonds' stats in a playoff game:  0-4.

And, as a practical matter, that failure of Norwood's has taken the shine off of a few guys who otherwise might have had a chance to make our list.

As to one member of the Bills of the 1980s and 1990s, he'd have a spot on the list even if the team had never made it to the postseason once.  We're talking about the anchor of that Buffalo defense, and the all-time NFL sack leader.  Bruce Smith.

Smith made it to a whopping 12 Pro Bowls, and was named to the all-decade team for the 1980s and 1990s, despite the presence of plenty of highly-talented players at the position.  Smith also was twice elected the NFL defensive player of the year, in 1990 and 1996.

We're firm believers that good defense begins with a good line, and we're convinced that the Bills' defense of the late 1980s and early 1990s would have been generally mediocre if Smith weren't there to create havoc.

He's often overshadowed by the legend of Reggie White, who was a little bit better on the field but a lot more gregarious and quotable off of it.  Thus, Smith received far less attention at a time when Reggie was regarded as the pre-eminent NFL lineman on either side of the ball.

We'd take either of them.  And just think of how scary a team with both of them would have been.

Click here for No. 10.