atlbillsfan1975

Of those 5 that the original poster mentioned only Woods and Levitre played really under jauron. You are kind of pointing out the fact that Jauron was inept at identifying talent. SJ showed talent and promise early but was not a starter till Chan got here same can be said for Freddie and Fitz(while with cincy). Sorry but the biggest knock on Jauron is the guy would not stick his neck out and was way to passive. You proved the point even more so. By your rationale, which i do not agree with, if Jauron woul dhave realized some of the talent he had maybe the Bills could have finished 8-8 or 9-7 or heck even 10-6 and made the playoffs. But no Jauron had zero clue what an offense was and even less ability to realize offensive talent. It was sitting there right under his nose on his squad. Sorry but i will take what the Bills have now over any jauron team.

He had a shortened off season and still had great chemistry with AJ. I dont think he has the strongest arm, but neither does Matt Ryan. But Ryna has worked his tale off and been for the most part pretty smart. The fact that he beat bad teams is a positive to me. How many times do you see teams playing down to their level of competition. I have no clue if Dalton will be a top ten QB or not. But i would take a rookie that went to the playoffs in a heart beat. he has proven something and he has a ton of upside

I went back to Buffalo to visit family right after OJ was found not guilty. My Uncles called me an idiot for standing up for him. And they knew OJ. Not saying they know he did it or anything, but my grandfather their dad worked for the Bills in the 70's and 80's. Having said that if Winslow was released i highly doubt he makes it to Buffalo, i bet the Falcons try to grab him. Gonzalez has said this is his last year.

He reached the playoffs as a rookie. You can claim it is because of the D and AJ all you want. But he played with in himself and the system.

I do not mind him playing LDE. The whole blindside thing is a little cliche at this point. Plus the Billshave another good rushing RDE in Anderson. I expect Kelsay to play RDE on first downs and running downs, and Anderson to be in on second and third downs and obvious passin situations. It has been mentioned that when Anderson is used more in a pass rushing role he has excelled in sacks. I would also expect maybe for the Bills to steal a page out of the Giants playbook. Have a Dline that consists of 4 DE one 'Nose' then one MLB and 5 DBs. This would allow for you to get your best rushers on the field and still protect the run.

I agree with that to a certain extent. But i think more and more players are realizing that what is really the difference between a few million(god i can't believe i am saying that). I mean wouldn't you rather make $8 million a year and play for a quality orginization that is showing they want to be a winner. Over making $10 million a year for a team that is just using your signing as a way to sell tickets?

Players and agents want to be a part of an orginization that has quality, intelligent leadership. They want to see a sense of direction. Buffalo has that now, they also have a succesion in place for when Nix does retire- Whaley. When Buffalo did not have a GM, and was the only team like that, agents were weary to direct their players there. As they should have been. Now that Buffalo is showing the desire to be a legit team, agents and players are coming in. The Bills had a plan this offseason. Make our pass rush better. The Bills watched the Giants beat NE 3 times now with this formula. Twice in the SB when Bellichek had 2 weeks to try and prepare, but still could not stop it. This intelligence resonates throughout the league. The Bills have to win their division first, which means beating NE. The Bills furthered this approach by signing argueably the best corner in the draft to help cover and shut down passing threats. There was not one move made this offseason that left you scratching your head. Put all of this together with the fact you have players openly 'recruiting' guys to come play for the team, and finally we as fans should be legitimately optimistic.

Word

especially playing CB. You are going to get beat, but you can not let one bad play turn into two.

Maybe people ar eupset with this one because they know Young has displayed the ability to be a starter. But like Fitz he has inconsistances with his play. Both for completely oposite reasons. I do not see a controversy unless Fitzs' play allows for one. By that i mean long stretches of questionable decision making. Never once last year do i recall hearing anyone asking for Thigpen. It will be different this year if Young has a good preseason and keeps a good attitude.

Come on you know everyone in Buffalo thinks the world is out to get them. Bills fans especially suffer from this paranoia!

It was a Saturday game i believe. I was sitting on the couch at my parents house in Atlanta. I was 17. My dad was at work and kept calling me for updates. He was the pessimist and me the optimist. He quit calling by halftime....i started calling him as the comeback mounted. Sports and in particular Buffalo Bills football was about the only thing he and i could talk about. It was a great day for a father and son. Sounds like more the a few of us had a special day that day, and not just because Buffalo won. Just another reason why Sports are so important and great.

You know who else looked great in practice? Trent Edwards. Let's see what Wilson has during a real preseason game. I hope he has much success, but just like the Gilmore piece, i could care less right now. The only thing you do not want to read right now is someone gets a fluke injury

I like Fitz, but until he puts together a complete season, he is my biggest worry. He is allowed a bad game or two, but the NFL is very much so a QB driven league. I am cautiously optimistic that we see more of what we saw in the first 7 games and less what we saw over the last 9 games. Whether it was injuries to himself or others around him, i hope this year he proves he is a starter...something like 3600yds 25 t.d and 12 int. To me he would be a solid qb then and this team has a good enough D(on paper) and runnning game, the Bills would finally be in the playoffs.

Skip is a 'shock jock' who happens to be on t.v. He takes the controversial stance to get people talking about him. He did his job on this one.

You laugh, but me and some co-workers have discussed this. Imagine if you could somehow come up with that? 'Gold Jerry, Gold i tell ya'!

Yeah with the new CBA, and the rookie scale for draft picks already slotted. There is really no reason for holdouts. I am sure some Dbag agent will at some point try to push the envelope.

How about the 1998 game vs Pats in NE where the ref called pass interference on Henry Jones in the end zone. No time on the clock. NE got one play from the one yard line and scored. Bledsoe to Ben 'Winter' Coates. I kicked the laundry basket across the room when the pass interference was called and scarred the girl i was hanging out with. Think i shout ' F*cking refs, they screw us every time'. I often wonder if players hurt as much as we as fans do. Ha

I wonder how much of every tax payers doller from western NY stays in Western NY. Just wondering. If someone has that information please post. And as another poster pointed out, the western NY population has many times been asked to help fund projects for eastern NY. I live in Atl so not really my place to stir it up. But have for a long time heard how western NY does not see the majority of it's tax dollars, insteand it goes down to 'the city'.

with in two years of retirement 78% of NFL players are broke or in bankrupcy. Wow. I know we are acapitalistic society and people can spend their money how they feel, but the league needs to also look at this 'epidemic'. Forcing players to set aside a certain percent every year should be praised by the players association. The so called rookie weekends where former players come in and tell their stories is not working. I for one do not reveal in another mans missfortune, that is just bad karma and unhealthy. These players also sacrificed their bodies so we could watch and be entertained by them. I am not saying they are worthy of the Noble Peace Prize or anything, but would like to see them able to enjoy the rest of their lives. Many already have to deal with medical ailments, financial ones can debilitate them just as much. Ultimately a mixture of the two, physical and financial, can lead to the growing number of suicides we are witnessing.

I have always thought of any position on the field CB is usually on of the easier to transition to into the pro's. Not saying it is easy by any means. But with a proper offseason this year, i think Gilmore will be a very solid starter. He will make 'rookie' mistakes, but at CB they are usually mental errors. Lineman have to get use to the speed and strength of playing in the trenches in the NFL. Not to mention the length of the schedule. Florence seems better suited for a team that likes to play zone coverages, he never struck me as a man to man guy. If i recall it is how he ended up in Buffalo after Jax. He was not suited for the scheme the Jags tried to put him in. or atleast thats what we were told when the Bills signed him

I do not think Graham is exactly the same type of guy as Evans. Evans never went over the middle. To me it seems like Graham is kind of an in between Evans and Roscoe. He also seems like a guy that has returner abilities

Excellent observation. I would say that as also been the case for Chan's first two years. But i think now with the added quality depth, the coaches will feel more comfortable rotating in guys. Especially some guys from last year who saw considerable playing time like a Moats, Carrington, or Batten. Even the oline should be better BECAUSE of som eof the injuries last year. By this i mean guys like Harrison saw time and Rhinehardt. These guys will be able to give a series off maybe here or there during a game. The one thing i also believe is it will take some time for this team to completely jell. I think after the bye week we will really see what we have here.

With Wanny's system being based on the principal of each player has to win his individual battle then on paper this D looks good. Wanny 4-3 stresses that Dlineman must win their individual match ups against Olineman. The Bills now have about 6-7 Dlineman that are good-great. These guys will help the Lb's look better then last year. I always think about Ray Lewis when people talk about Lbs'. Lewis is argueably one of the greatest LBs' of all time. If you remember he has enjoyed his greatest success when he had a good Dline and specifically a big guy in fron tof him eating up two olineman. Goose and then later Ngata.

Scott may have been a CB in the Nickel, but he is a safety not a cb. Not really trying to argue symantics. I really do not believe with the Bills front line blitzing will be necessary. I am sorry, but the Bills spent a lot of money on the Dline not just with Mario and Anderson this year, but also Williams Dareus and Kelsay. Throw Merriman in there and those guys are going to be asked to get pressure. So it takes me back to my original point, a good blitzing corner is not something this team needs to use one of the 53 men spots. And McKelvin being 0/2 is not surprising, was it the Raiders game? He probably tackled the ref...i mean they do wear black and white(looks kinda like black and silver). having said all that, it is good to have you here. i enjoy the discussions