WhitewalkerInPhilly

Hey Astro, observers were saying that EJ was looking sketchy. Any thoughts?

It's sounding like Manuel's having a bit of a rough day. Hey, the more lumps he takes now...

Joe Buscaglia ‏@JoeBuscaglia12m Rest of the team is here, and no Kevin Kolb. #Bills Manuel takes another day as lead. I have to wonder, with the first live scrimmage Monday night, if Kolb misses that as well and Manuel holds his own, is the competition over?

I honestly don't see how Geno Smith isn't the Jet's QB when we play them. Of course, I'm increasingly of the same opinion about Manuel after seeing what the man can do. I think we laughed at Kolb's injury a bit too.

I hate the wording on this question, since you can go higher than anything realistic and still be entirely correct. Semantics aside, I'd say that a reasonable minimal benchmark of success would be similar to Tannehill and the Dolphins: flashes of great play with some periods of slumps while building a rapport with the team, establishing himself as "the guy" and positioning himself for a good sophomore season. The Dolphins had a better defense in 2011 than we did in 2012 so there were fewer problems to fix. This is about as bad as it could get and still be called a "success" Alternately, there's the "highly optimistic" level, where Pettine can take a talented group which underperformed, fill in the holes and get the defense to be...average. Combined with heavy doses of Spiller and Jackson, the pressure is off EJ. In this scenario, the Bills come out strong week 1 and without a great deal of tape for the Patriots to study, and with Gronk out the Patriots are low on receiving threats. They also face the Ravens during their Superbowl hangover and a depleted roster to take 2 wins against 2012 division leaders. It wouldn't be *easy* mind you, but as PTR mentioned, the Bills went 6-10 with a poor defensive scheme, wildly inaccurate QB play and a refusal to do the smart thing and RUN THE DAMN BALL when you have CJ Spiller and Fred Jackson. ... No comment

Hey, I'd love to see the Bills dial some of those up in the regular season. They mentioned a second one as well, even if they didn't show it.

You know, I'm happy that Kolb is alright. I really would prefer to have him there during the season but I'm not going to lie: this is a windfall for Manuel. There was always a bit of a concern about Kolb's injury history, and the timing works out almost perfectly for Manuel. Manuel was already making a strong case for starter on merit, and now he's had a complete practice in charge. If he gets two, three days of this? The competition may be over.

I like the idea of the 20 personnel grouping. I kept thinking all last offseason "If I'm Chan Gailey, I find a way to maximize the fact that you have two really strong running backs" Well, we all know how that turned out. While this offseason has flipped the order of who is the starter, I'd like to see both Spiller and Freddy getting and least 30 handoffs, with about 5-10 pass targets a game. The best part of the duo is that, while they aren't one dimensional, their strengths are diametrically opposed. Spiller's hallmark is his elusiveness and Freddy's is that, when he's trucking, you have to expect at least a few extra yards after initial contact. Does Spiller get tired? Yes. Is Freddy at increasing injury risk? Yes. So why not have them back each other? Also, I'd love to see wrinkles where you run Read Option in that setup. I don't if it's possible, but the idea of defenses having to anticipate runs from Spiller, Freddy AND EJ tickles me.

I agree. There's no doubt that I would prefer Manuel to win, but unless he legitimately wins the job the locker room might become toxic. However, at the current rate of advancement, I think there's a chance he can adapt to the offense to diagnose it about the same as Kolb with his enhanced arm and running ability. We...will see though.

I really don't get the argument. Marrone has flat out stated that Manuel has been seeing easier defenses to start with. Like, you know, you would do with someone who has zero NFL experience. The big justification of Kolb starting is that he ought to have the experience to deal with being rushed, the level of speed in pro games and diagnosing complex defensive schemes, so it makes sense for him to start at that level. Manuel seemed to ace the basic D, and now they're starting to break him into the more complex schemes. Marrone probably wants Manuel to start. But he has said that if Manuel wants the job, he has to win it. Kolb is still getting the lion's share of the reps overall, and the lions share of the 1st team. He's in the league, and better hang on tight.

I think this is a good sign of progress from TJ and the rookies. I've been holding out hope that Da'Rick would prove himself in camp, and be places as a starter on the outside...or even placing him there for 3 WR sets to let Stevie work the middle. With TJ apparently impressing with his ability to just sprint past CB's, that gives him a way to stretch the field, Da'Rick is in the Randy Moss mold, and Goodwin can tear the middle and do reverses as a gadget player and Woods is heir apparent to Stevie. This looks like the most talented 5 WR that we've had on the team in a long time.

I think I need to keep this as a quote: Marrone-"‘I believe you throw to score and run to win.‘’

Considering the competition at the #2 CB and the concern about Byrd, picking up another camp body doesn't sound too surprising.

Listening to him in the interview, I feel like he has basic the concept down. From what I can tell, what Hackett has him doing is beautifully simple: Option 1, option 2, then dump to spiller or Freddy on a screen. He'll probably work up to a few more as time goes on. I do want to start seeing more of those exotic blitzes that Pettine has been throwing at Kolb and see how he handles it. But man, that is still one beautiful spiral.

You know, after the last three days, I really can't tell if you're joking or not. I'm secretly kind of hoping that Marrone hulks out at one point. "MARRONE SMASH PUNY REPORTER!"

No need to get snippy. And my relationship with my tissue box is private

Heh, either way it could be a full contact sport I was being slightly hyperbolic, but I really am getting excited and I need my fix.

I'm currently 6 months without football. I must look like an afterschool special on the dangers of freebase.

Oh? Please post that link!

It actually means a lot hearing things from outsiders. Locals (ourselves included) tend to need a heavy dose of skepticism when hearing good news after getting burned for 13 years straight.

I've been thinking this! TJ seems to have having a lot of chemistry with EJ, and Woods has the size and blocking skill to be great as a slot receiver. With Chandler and Spiller in play, we could run a whole host of plays really effectively. It's interesting to note that the OL is looking gassed. They're really going to need to get into shape if the plan is to keep with this up tempo offense. Any notes on who is standing out at QB?

This is great to see Thanks for mentioning EJ's fumble and overthrows, they weren't mentioned in the highlights. Still, listening to talk, and some of the highlights it does look like he's showing why he was drafted so high.

It would be nice if he made it, and finally lived up to what we were hoping. I'm not counting on it of course, but it would be good to finally see it in play, especially considering his body size makes him a really nice fit to have a prototypical Nose Tackle. Even with all my skepticism, a small part of me would love to see Dareus, Carrington and Troup to all come alive on defense along with decent rookie outings from Manuel, Woods and Rodgers.

I'll say this: there is very much a financial incentive for Byrd to come back for week 1, as opposed to training camp. Veterans get paid ~$1700 per week of camp. This is in comparison to the $406,823.53 he'd be making per game. It costs Byrd very little, and is the most leverage Parker can manage before his client really starts cutting off his nose to spite his face.

I've played around with a few, but last offseason someone at Bleacher Report wrote a joke article about the 2012 NFL season if it was written by George R.R. Martin. In it, Shawn Merriman is one of the Whitewalkers. It's getting a little old, but we'll see...maybe a King in the North reference, considering how last season went...