Archives for January 12, 2016

'What went right: When Watkins spoke, his offensive coordinator and quarterback listened. Perhaps it was a bit too late to help the Bills make the playoffs, but at least they responded.'

'It’s amazing to think that, despite having his defensive methods exposed in such a fashion, Ryan would be allowed to double down on his system by bringing his brother into the fold. But did the Bills really need to invest more heavily into the Ryan family myth, which is losing traction in an ever-evolving NFL?'

'There were pleasant surprises and big disappointments. With that in mind, here is our final look at whose stock is rising and whose is falling following the 2015 season.'

'Unlike Roman, many of us lacked faith in Taylor at the start of the year because even though he had won the three-man training camp quarterback battle, he beat out Matt Cassel and EJ Manuel which wasn’t saying a whole lot. All we knew about Taylor was that he was a former sixth-round pick of Baltimore who sat on the bench for four years, throwing 35 passes, mostly in mop-up duty.'

'"We don't make the calls as players. We've got to go out and execute whatever's called by any means. If it's three guys going, then it's three guys going, and we have to figure out a different way to get there faster on our part."'

'Rex: "I got him good, and it was over. I felt terrible. I couldn't believe I hit my brother like that."'

'“I still think there’s a lot of things that come down to feel,” he said while wearing an orange Clemson polo shirt on set. “This isn’t baseball. There’s no righty-lefty matches and all that kind of stuff. But you will look at some things, ‘hey, how’s this quarterback do versus pressure?’ all those type of things that you’ll look at. But the tape is really the meat and potatoes.”'

'Ryan said, “there are a lot of things you can point to,” regarding the team’s defensive struggles this season. “This, that, and the other…..but we just didn’t get it done,” and added “we’re going to do things much different next year and we’re going to be better because of it.”'

'While I wasn't happy with the news, It won't matter as much as the off season player moves. Those should help the defense more than any staff changes. The Bills need to find a pass rushing end to replace the soon to be released Mario Williams. They might be in the market for a successor to Nigel Bradham should they not be able to re-sign the pending free agent linebacker. They need at least one starting safety and maybe two should Aaron Williams be unable to play football again.'

'"We’re going to do things much differently next year, and we’re going to be better because of it," Ryan said. "In a way, I tried to merge a couple of things, you know, two systems and things like that. And quite honestly, it didn’t work, so we’re going to be all in, we’re going to play Buffalo Bill defense, and we’re not going to be fun to play."'

'Buffalo finished a lofty plus-35 in toxic differential, the highest figure the club has ever posted since the metric was published by analytic researchers in 2009. It’s also the second time in three seasons the Bills have finished in the top 10. They ranked ninth overall in 2013 with their only other positive figure (plus-11).'