WhitewalkerInPhilly

Good deal! It introduced a little extra competition at the position. I'd like to hear what the salary is.

It might make sense for Hackett's offense then, since they might be going for people who are smaller and faster and can keep up with the pace of their attack. Seriously, I would be happy with this. I've still been a little shaky about guard, and this would do a lot to make me feel better.

You could have just said "no". Nice to hear!

I think it's Marrone trying to make a statement more than it being that Da'Rick made a huge mistake. It's OTA's, and I remember stories of camp fights breaking out every so often by more than one team. I think this is Marrone's way of saying 1) "You're still on probation Da'Rick" and 2) "This is my team. This is my standard. I'm letting everyone on the field know this." To me, it sounds like good, if tough, coaching.

Of course it's early...and we were saying similar things about Tank Carder last year. But I do think it's worth noting that even then, no one was thinking that Carder would be a Week 1 starter. With Kiko, the man is already being placed to start at the Mike. He's the playcaller for the front 7, and considering that the coaching staff seems to be in no rush to push EJ or Woods into the lineup, he's looking like a promising candidate.

Can we keep things in perspective? I think everyone, and I mean everyone who was talking about EJ Manuel before the draft had the same line: "He's easily the most physically gifted out there, but he needs refinement." Why are we getting upset about having two very reasonable people ahead of him get first shot while he gets more time to work on mechanics, master the playbook and get used to the speed of the game like Colin Kaepernick did in San Fran?

This does seem to make a lot of sense, especially if the focus is going to have both Darues and Kyle Williams charging the 1-gap areas. If Carrington can be a solid DE (which seems to have a lot of promise for him in these OTA's) It looks like we can get decent pressure rushing the gaps. When you add on Mario and Anderson rushing from the LB spots, we might actually get a pass rush this year. That does seem to be the case. In spite of my "I only want EJ when he's ready" mantra, I think everyone was kind of hoping that he would be ready to take the first snap this year. But what I care about more than having a playoff run this year, would be having another period of dominance like we had in the 80's and 90's and that the Patriots have had for the last decade. If waiting gives us that, I'm willing to do so.

Dareus is indeed looking kind of slow. I know there's plenty of time, but it is still disconcerting to see.

It's really nice to hear. I know, we're supposed to be saying "show me the baby" but after the past few years of soporific coaching interviews you see some life. In one of the earlier roundups they talked about how Marrone steps onto the field to personally help with drills because he feels like he isn't doing anything otherwise and gets bored. Hackett and Pettine seem to have definite plans,and have an energy about it. Of course, come the season we won't care, but while Chan grounded us after freefall (which we needed) suddenly it seems like we have a spark again for the first time since those heady days of Fitz's 5-2 start...

It certainly would be a unique personnel grouping. The Bills were already gifted with two highly talented running backs, I would love to see this scenario. I think the operative word there is "as". Teams will be spending the entire offseason looking to beat it, and everybody is almost assured to try it. The only thing that will be different is on how you tailor it to the skills of your people. In the Bills case, they may have the advantage of being able to work with three dyamnic players. The read option can also be used as a quick play action fake, determined at the line. So while everyone is on run blocking, suddenly there is a mismatch for our WR's. Also, you can let Spiller and Freddy run, then do a quick screen to Spiller with Freddy out in front to block. There are a lot of ways it can be used, and as long as new wrinkles can be put in to force opponents to pick their poison between Spiller, Freddy and EJ, it could be deadly. Of course, this relies heavily on EJ being able to read a defense correctly.

It's kind of weird hearing that Hackett's offense is simpler than FSU's...and a touch worrisome. Unless Hackett is purposely putting in a simplified offense so that Manuel can learn and then slowly making it more complex (like they did with Wilson in Seattle), I'm suddenly going back to the "Pop Warner playbook" days that was Jauron's last season.

With some of the deep bombs we've seen from Manuel and Kolb, that seems a lot more likely this year. Of course, you need to get the timing down, but there's no solution for that other than to practice, practice, practice.

Well, if we have him maybe we can get a bit of production. If anything, he's depth we could use, but I'm not going to be singing the Hosannahs anytime soon.

Never would have seen that coming. *reaches for earpiece* Wait, I'm getting word now that every single member of this board, the local media and anyone who has paid the slightest bit of attention saw that coming. I just wonder what took so long.

I don't know about anyone else, but I liked seeing Marrone getting involved in the O-line drills. He flat out states that he loves doing it, and getting hands on, because otherwise he feel detached and goes all in. I feel like Gailey was necessary to rebuild our fundamentals, and now Marrone gets to do something special with the talent we've cultivated.

Excellent point. There's no denying that Stevie has the highest production, and will likely continue to do so. Might he be more effective in the middle of the field? Maybe, but he's doing a pretty good job right now. Really, I'm stoked about the talent that we've brought in this offseason: Woods seems ready to start, Goodwin might be that deep threat we need, and Kaufman and Rodgers are looking like possible UDFA gems. Between them, and with Stevie returning, and throwing Brad Smith, TJ Graham and Dorin Dickerson in the mix I think there's going to be a lot of scrapping for who is in the top six.

I'm kind of conflicted, because I think they have a point but I don't want to detract from SJ. An alternate view: Was Wes Welker a #1 receiver for the Patriots? By the obvious logic of how he plays, no, you don't want to line him up on the outside. He's a slot player. Of course, for the last few years the man has been putting up tremendous numbers and was the Patriot's best weapon. I see Stevie the same way. He might not fit the classic #1 mold, but his incredible shiftiness let him be the one guy who Revis couldn't automatically shut down. If two prototypical receivers were to be the #1 and 2 (say Woods and Rodgers for example) Stevie might be able to go crazy.

That does seem to be what they have him working on first. From the reports we've heard two days in, that seems to be the big problem. That this seems to be a known quantity is slightly reassuring, but it looks like Manuel is going to need a lot of polishing. Thanks for the link. It does seem like our WR corps is making a lot of strides.

Well, I'm trying to keep perspective, as this is the first rookie minicamp of the season, and I REALLY shouldn't be analyzing it in such depth, but so far it seems like we are getting what we expected. Manuel had some very nice throws, much showed some maddening inconsistency, and is spending time working on his footwork with Hackett. Woods apparently showed a lot of polish, amazing hands, good speed and looks to be ready as a day one starter.

Why don't we just put a blond stripper on stage and have her whirl around a bag of full of cats on acid. It can't sound worse. Yeah, I hate country music.

I would definitely like to see it. I'm personally in the camp of "sprinkle it in, rather than make your offense about it" but I would definitely like to see it, especially with out strength at RB. If you have to defend against the pass, CJ Spiller and an EJ Manuel simultaneously good things will happen for the Bills. My one concern is with what happened with RG3's injury at the end of last season.

I agree. If Smith turns out to be an amazing QB you are going to see people who complain about the pick. That said, if the Jets wound up picking a guy who turns out to be a less talented Prima Donna, we can all bask in the schadenfreude. Hehe, yeah, I saw that one. It's part of a bi-weekly comic that's usually pretty good, even if it's written by a Giant's fan. I have to say, I'm a fan of black humor, so I still have to laugh my ass off, bad taste or no.

I agree. I think I speak for everyone here in that we don't hate Ryan Nassib as a person and I can get how Marrone would feel bad passing over someone he likes as a person and has a connection with. It seemed that almost every sportswriter made the lazy pick of "The Bills take Nassib" or "the Bills take Warmack". They were calling for the Bills to take him at 41, and to take him at 8. In the end, he went where people said he would before the hype. Yeah, from what I've heard (all secondhand) people are pissed. In all fairness, Marrone left the program and stripped it of a lot of its coaches, just as they started to get some consistency. Am I happy the Bills have them? Yes. Can I see why people are upset...oh hell yes.

Mmmkay, let's break the sumbitch down... First, from OTA's we saw Mario at OLB. Not saying he'll be there all the time, but looking at Pettine's time with the Ravens they would use someone as a pure rusher, only not keeping his hand on the ground and there is no one we have more dominant at the role than MW. He is likely backed up by Anderson and Hughes. Two, Alonso seems likely to start at Mike unless they pick up Dansby Three, DL is likely to be K Williams, Dareus, Branch, in some order. Backed up by Troup and Carrington. Fourth, Sam LB is Lawson, but Buddy has said he thinks that Hughes could back him up there as well as his role as the Hybrid DE/OLB

Suddenly, finishing this off makes a lot of sense. Seriously, to swap Sheppard with Dansby, and get another depth pass rusher on the team we'd be looking at a DL of K Williams, Dareus and Branch, with Mario as a designated rusher and Bradham, Dansby and Lawson as pure linebackers....they would look scary.