ColdBlueNorth

I am not sold on any of the QB prospects. This is a defense heavy draft, and the Bills are just as likely to succeed with someone like Dysert who carried arguably one of the worst offensive supporting casts out of this draft class, than a Gino Smith who cooled off towards the end with a decent team around him. Similar arguments can be made for Barkley's situation. Wilson also looks like he could develop into a starter. I guess my point is that with no clear standout in the group why reach so high?

I am kind of with Joe on this - time for a fresh start and letting Fitz linger around would just be fodder for QB controversy that a new QB would not need. The only way I see this panning out is if they plan on starting Fitz and do not plan on starting a rookie right away. If the new QB prospect has the tools, I say you put him in there and use max protect formations where you focus heavy on the run game and outlet passes to your TE's and keep the reads and options simple as you bring him along. I just don't know if it helps if you bring in a young QB and as soon as he struggles - which most all new QBs do, there is that veteran sitting on the bench with players loyal to him pushing for their guy to start. I cannot imaging how the defense could possibly be worse than what it was under Wanny (I admit I was in the camp of those expecting improvement with Wanny handling the reins and the off season addition of bonified edge rushers). If the defense improves under Pettine, it would really take a lot of the pressure off the new QB's shoulders.

I cannot help but associate the red helmets to our successful teams of the 90's. Been nothing but duds since in both uniform design and helmets, though I do not mind when teams go retro now and then to mix things up.

So much for my Ray theory - it was tongue and cheek either way. So 2 unarmed small guys got stabbed to death by three sizable guys (one of them probably an NFL player) and it was self defense....sure. Not sure who started it, but it is pretty clear how it ended. I never said that the DA was part of a cover up, but that Ray and his thug friends were; multiple witnesses made the same statement that Ray Ray told everyone in the vehicle that they had to keep their mouths shut and he was found guilty of obstruction when it came to the investigation, also the physical evidence, other than some of the victims blood found in the vehicle, vanished (although there was testimony that the bloody clothes were tossed into a laundry bag and then thrown into a restaurant dumpster that night. The DA was merely incompetent. I am kind of dumbfounded that folks would accuse others on this site of being prejudice because some of us believe that Ray Lewis is either a murderer or an accessory to murder - I believe those are just facts; he and his crew were there, they had the altercation with the victims, and fled leaving two guys dying on the ground. The other fact is that it was a case of black on black violence. So how does sticking up for the victims and their families equate to prejudice? Just because a jury screwed up and he worked the legal system to get off, does not make him innocent of the crime, it makes him someone who is smart enough to get away with one. I quick internet search turns up these quotes from the families who were obviously closer to the events that we were: “My nephew was brutally beaten and murdered and nobody is paying for it,” Baker’s uncle, Greg Wilson, told USA TODAY Sports. “Everything is so fresh in our mind, it’s just like it happened yesterday. We’ll never forget this.” “Every time I see him (Lewis), I think of my nephew,” Lollar-Owens says. “I’ve seen where he was speaking about family and stuff, and I’m quite sure that every time he sees his son, he thinks about the son, grandson and father that we lost,” Lollar-Owens says. “It would be impossible not to. Never a day goes by that we don’t think about him.” Greg Wilson-Uncle of Jacinth Baker: I’ll be very upset if they induct (Lewis) into the Hall of Fame. There’s other people out there that committed a lesser crime and they’re sitting in jail.” Baker, his nephew, “was raised in our home,” Wilson says. “We have no compassion for Ray Lewis, for Art Modell, for any of them. We don’t want to see him.”

Great football player, but as a human being he will always have that tainted murderer or accessory to murder label. If he was truely repentent for his actions, he would have come completely clean and told law enforcement the truth when they were trying to find out what happened outside that night club. Then he and his crew would have paid the price that anyone else involved in a double homicide would have paid. For those who somehow think justice was served, 2 guys got into an altercation with Ray Ray and his crew and spontaneously sprouted lethal knife wounds and no one was found guilty of wielding the knives.... The families of the victims received and undisclosed settlement; a payoff which reminds me of the blood money payoffs used by some backwards desert country. The NFL back then was really into keeping it's image clean and more than enough money was spread around. How else do you get all three guys involved in the altercation that left two men dead of knife wounds completely off of murder charges. That NFL approach of doing whatever they could to protect their image seemed to end with the Ray Carruth incident. Where they took a policy of distancing themselves from a player facing serious charges. Maybe there is something about being an NFL defensive player with the first name of "Ray".... This was not a case of Ray Lewis' innocence being proven in court, just a case of abject failure of the prosecution to prove a case where the circumstantial and eye witness evidence was substantial, but the physical evidence was destroyed and hidden in an obvious cover-up. Folks can tout his ability on the field and his love of the game, but he is not the kind of man I would want my son to idolize. The game means a lot to me, but not that much.

NO. And slowly back away from the pipe.

That, and a defense that is consistently playing with a significant lead knows the other team has to pass the ball to try to catch up. This is particularly true as ol' Bill does not let off the gas even with a lead, he probably feels good sportsmanship takes a second seat to the psychological edge of pressuring his opponent to feel that they have to take a lot of downfield shots to have any chance of staying in the game. I always wondered why a team didn't just send an all out blitz after blitz to knock Brady into next week when NE is padding their score late in a game. If I knew I was going to lose who cares if I blow the coverage? It would at least send them a message that leaving their prize QB in the game while they are running up the score would be a bad idea the next time we met.

Folks get off base with "forced" diversity. Teams have a lot riding on these choices, and as another poster mentioned there are plenty individuals of color working the front offices of teams scouting for head coaching talent. Defining some kind of percentage of HC diversity that NFL teams have to meet would force teams with coaching turnovers to actually include race as a hiring factor. This creates an environment of discrimination based on race and color driven by a perception of inequality in the HC review process. Perception is not reality. I feel bad for Lovie, I believe he would have insured that we were at least a .500 team. Lovie puts together solid defensive teams, but he has never been able to pull together a competent OC staff while being a HC. We are in the hunt for a new franchise QB, the FO was looking for a staff who could develop a young prospect into that role. I would wager that selling point was a primary factor in the hiring process and race never entered into the equation.

I know Gino had a rough outing his last game, but going through his other games this year I just like his athleticism in the pocket and outside of the pocket. I like the way he keeps his eyes downfield and goes through his progressions, and he has one heck of an arm on him. He has that element of escapability and extending plays. There is a bit of that gun-slinger mentality to the kid, but with the right coaching and system??? I would not be too upset if the Bills went that direction at #8.

The kid has a good arm, but he did seem to be the second coming of captain checkdown. Even when he had a guy open at the sticks he would dump it off. Only one clip, but I guess that is what makes this draft such a crap shoot at QB.

I will go out on a limb and say that I really like what I saw on film from this kid. If the management wants to go the Kapernick route, this is not your QB. However, a QB with a great grasp of the game, above average arm strength, adequate release, who can hit all the throws and will occasionally pick up a 1st down with his feet... this kid has the tools. What really stood out on all the film I looked at was how much he stood out with how piss-poor the Miami Ohio offense looked around him. Very average to below-average receivers who dropped balls, ran terrible routes, and none seemed to have any breakaway speed even if he hit them 10-15 yards behind the coverage. No running game to speak of, and god forbid the kid held onto the ball for over 2 seconds because their left tackle rarely could hold a block to allow anything downfield to develop. The kid must be pretty durable, because he took a good pounding over his college career and all I saw was that he had a lacerated spleen at one point - like I said, he took a pounding. What really stands out was his quick decision-making. This is a kid that with a bit of coaching up could become a QB that could call his own plays after making pre-snap reads. If the current Bills brass want someone that can run an up-tempo offense and call the correct pre-snap audibles, he may very well fit that bill.

It can be risky business on this board to share too much Yeah, I thought about your comment about athletes hiding injuries or faking baseline testing, also the fact that better equipment may lead to more reckless play, but my post was reaching the epic saga length that is painful on attention spans.

There is certainly evidence to support that there is a cumulative negative effect to the brain in regards to those lighter impacts, but it is the same thing regardless of where you are hit. It is the sudden acceleration and deceleration that causes the brain to twist or impact the wall of the skull and cause damage. They have the same effect as a concussion just not detectable with the conventional, "hey kid, how are you feeling, what time is it, what was the last play we ran, do you feel nautious, dizzy, light headed, or do the lights seem too bright, etc... They may be even worse because there is generally no time taken off for the athlete to heal. Most coaches follow the protocols and are more careful than ever, unless our name is Shanahan and we coach the Redskins. In my own school district parents were alarmed at the number and frequency of concussions this year. What they failed to understand is that the instances were not going up, rather there was an increase in identification and kids being sidelined from concussion symptoms until they got the all-clear from doctors. I believe that the rates of occurrence are probably pretty close to the average and the scary thing is that just 3-4 years ago most of those kids would have been right back on the field the next practice or game. This development has got to be considered a positive, especially for our youth that play the sport. And for those who would not allow your kid to play football or hockey, I understand the reasons and respect them. It can be a tough call particularly if your kid loves the sport. My compromise is that I make sure that I am actively involved in my kids sports and I don't allow other coaches to override my concerns about my kid's health. If he needs to come out, he comes out. Folks would not believe how many arguments I have with parents who want to keep their kid in the game, or on the mat wrestling. They are often times far worse than coaches. I had a heated argument with one dad/coach who kept his son in a wrestling tournament after I found his kid wandering around the halls of a large Indianapolis school where the tournament was being held complaining about a headache and how bright the lights were. That same dad also had his kid wrestling up against a weight class that was far too heavy for him; to prove what? This year after multiple concussions, and multiple knee injuries his kid who was a promising athlete had to have reconstructive knee surgery and will most likely never be the athlete he could have been. Back to the problem of those sub-concussions. The noticeable effects of those smaller concussions are usually only there for few seconds or so if they happen at all. Enough for a player to get up shake his head a few times (we would all say he was shaking off the cobwebs) and go back to the huddle or come to the sideline and pass all the tests, but they require the same healing process as any other concussion albeit probably less time. At this point there is no clear way of identifying those concussions that do not manafest clear signs of impairment. And even if you did pull a kid out, how long do you keep him out. Without clear tools to measure the healing process, there is no way to truely know. My only reason to advocate better equipment is that there is clear science that better equipment can reduce the stress factors that cause brain trauma. I am careful to say reduce, because I firmly believe that a complete elimination of impact trauma is impossible in impact sports. What I do believe could be possible in the future is better injury detection equipment and recovery protocols for athletes in contact sports. More detailed neurological jargon could be found if folks search on: Histomorphologic Phenotypes of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy in American Athletes

There are some similarities in offensive styles, but rather than being a bad thing I view that as a positive as the players have less of a learning curve that way. I don't think the offense that Chan instituted was a bad thing and most of the elements he used with spread sets and bunch formations are used by NE and other successful teams with better QB's. I personally like to have a running back always in the mix so you can keep a defense honest, but that only really works if they are afraid of the QBs arm and don't cheat extra support towards stopping the run. I am not sold on Nassib, but better minds than mine that understand the upside of rookie QBs will be focusing on QBs this upcoming draft. I have to believe that they will take the best available QB for our needs whether it is Nassib where Marrone and Hackett have a thorough grasp of his abilities and upside, or a kid they have admired in another program that they feel has more to offer at the next level. I do not think it is a lock that they will take Nassib, 8th overall is awfully high for this kid and for most of the QBs in this class. I hate the idea of the Bills reaching, if there is not a clear-cut difference between most of the top QBs in this class then they should take the best player available at #8 and then grab the next best QB out of the pack that is available in the 2nd. Just my 2 cents worth.

Although where there is smoke there is not always fire, there is a lot of scrutiny and debate over concussion prevention and protocol in contact sports. Concussions are a real thing and if you are a parent with a kid in sports there are plenty of real reasons to have medical science push protective gear development. Even at the junior football levels, and other organized youth leagues like FBU there was a lot of training and discussion this year around concussions and the proper gear. I love the sport and like to see it played hard and fast, but I don't want to see my kid or any other kid get permanently brain damaged playing it. Most professionals in the field of concussion prevention agree that the current helmet testing standards that deal with linear stress (more akin to head-on collisions) provide no support for rotational stress (head gear hit at odd, off-center angles). A significant portion of concussions are caused by the later, but current helmet testing standards do not incorporate any protection against it - why? It is not like the folks at Riddell, Schutt, or Zenith, etc... do not want to protect folks, but apparently testing or making claims beyond an approved testing protocol opens a company up to litigation. There are helmet inserts that have been developed that reduce rotational stress and likely the concussions they cause, but until the testing standards are updated to include rotational stress testing manufacturers will steer clear of them, but it is the push from health experts and the public that forces the progressive changes that not only protect our kids and favorite athletes, but the sport as well. I don't want to see football turn into a game of two-hand touch, and if better protective equipment allows the game to be played the way it was meant to be played I am all for it.

OK, I admit it...I was slumming at the BleacherReport site. Actually, just trolling for a breakdown of the different defensive allignments used by the Jets. The BleacherReport was just another hit in the search. That being said, I have to give them some credit for a decent article.

Still nothing official outside of Mort's report... get'er done Russ.

Not sure if anyone else posted this, and I usually do not put much stock in BleacherReport articles but article below actually has an interesting breakdown of the type of defensive flexibility Pettine has incorporated over the years. http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1477149-what-does-mike-pettine-bring-as-defensive-coordinator-for-buffalo-bills

I like this hire, but Rex does cast a big shadow and I have noted how he would defer to Rex in interviews... this will be a learning curve for him in regards to being the man. In this regard it looks like he will be in good company with the new look Bills coaching staff. I am interested in the assistants he successfully lures to work with him - my personal hope is a new secondary coach because the Jets not only pick solid DBs, but have had a good track record of coaching them up. Just speculation on my part as to why he would take the job, but perhaps Pettine is sick of the circus show the Jets have become and just wants to coach football. From his more personal interviews he seems to just have a genuine passion for the game. If I were in his shoes I would be pretty tired of the distractions and bailing out that offense. At least with the Bills he has most of the tools he needs to be creative, it is currently a good mix of young talent and some steady vets. I think the players once they got a taste of success in his system would welcome the aggressive game planning, and our offense is a QB away from being pretty competetive. Gailey left a well coached solid offensive line, and players who know how to run much of the spread and West Coast schemes that Marrone employs while Marrone may have more of a tendency to ground and pound in bad weather or with a lead. Gailey also was masterful at employing a variety of screen plays to create space for Freddy and Spiller...they would have worked better if folks had some fear of our passing attack and defenses didn't cheat up into the box so much. Folks make too much noise about schemes...every DC uses some 3-man fronts, 4-man fronts, or a 5-man front with the linebacker putting a hand down on the ground. Same with coverages, man to man, zone, zone-blitz, cover-1, cover-2, cover-3, and cover-4. The situation and personnel dictate the front and coverage scheme, and the success or failure of a DC is dictated by his ability to mold his game plan around and encorporating the schemes that work with the abilities of his players - ala Wade Phillips (although our nemesis NE spanked Houston pretty badly the first time around this year). Foolishly, I find I am gaining some hope around this failing franchise - someone needs to slap me and wake me up:) There is a certain security in going with the retread coaches and knowing that your team will at least be somewhat competetive and beat the beatable teams, but isn't that the formula the Bills have used the past 13 years. Why not throw the freaking dice and if the players are tired of the cycle of changes - do something about it and put in the effort needed to win for thier coaching staff.

DB's? Huh? Our secondary has been under the same retread assistant for years and has shown no penchant for being an area of defensive strength. It is high time we got an assistant in who can actually coach and scheme a way to stop our secondary from giving away just about every 3rd and long pass and get the most out of Gilmore and maybe resurrect the abilities of Aaron Williams. This.

Different approach for certain. I was really expecting Whisenhunt or Lovie, both safer picks to at least bat 500 on the next season. I do not know a whole lot about this coach, but I am most curious about who he will bring in as defensive coordinator - our offense has the tools to run the ball and we all know that it yet needs a NFL calibre QB to get to the next level.

Down with the mobocracy Admins may want to pin this thread then, and modify the subject to "Bills coach search updates - ONLY". A separate pinned thread devoted to the pro's and con's of each candidate would then make sense because realistically updates on the coaching search will inevitably elicit the pro's and con's of each new candidate as the field of candidates narrows or when new or known candidates are added or lost to other teams.

Source? Not that I don't believe you, but I have met players on the Gophers and the Badgers teams who have run clinics that my kid has been in and they have shared enough of their in-season schedule practices and training regimen that I have an idea of how little time they get off from organized team activities. Even their volunteer and community work comes into play. They are pretty much treated as school property especially when a scholarship is involved. If Chip and Oregon has a different philosophy and approach to their football program it would be radically different than most division I programs and an interesting read. I am not knocking Chip as a candidate either, just cautious about the coaching challenges that are a part of making the transition from college to the pros if someone has not coached in some capacity at the pro level. Schedule aside, I think there is still a learning curve that has to be made between coaching college kids where there are several underclassmen waiting for a shot to red shirt and a variety of negative motivational tools at a school's discretion from suspention, booting off a team, or revoking a scholarship compared to trying to motivate and push full grown men who have been drafted, are part of a player's union, and are under contract. I think that is probably the most difficult aspect of the transition from college ranks to the pro's, the flexibility needed to work with older established players. Chip certainly appears to have the X's and O's down and has served in some coaching capacity in a variety of roles on both sides of the ball and has an outstanding W-L record; I don't think that game planning would be an issue for him. It would be interesting to see what kind of staff he would put together. On the positives I believe he and his staff would probably bring some welcomed energy and fresh ideas and his college level personnel experience would be beneficial in regards to his ability to relate to and coach up younger players and rookies.

That will be a very tough transition for any coach coming out of the college ranks. Even Chan lamented what he was able to accomplish with the practice restrictions that were part of the latest player's union deal.

I actually think he did a decent job in AZ with the tools he had. He certainly took them farther than any coach since Wade has taken the Bills. If the Bills can land a decent QB in FA and draft another to bring along and compete, Whisenhunt could be the right guy for the job. I think with the exception of QB, any OC can see that there is talent across our o-line, at tail back, and at receiver. There is also a lot of young talent on the defense as well as veteran talent. For Whisenhunt there are definately worst places to land than in Buffalo. He would have a friend and former colleague in line for the GM role, and he would inherit a pretty young roster that aside from a few missing pieces could easily be coached to turn the corner. There are dynamic skill position players in Spiller and Johnson on offense as well as solid talent across the offensive line. The defense is an enigma to me, but I do believe the right DC could drastically improve this unit. I personally believe that striking out on the early picks for McCargo and Troup set the d-line back for years and we are still a solid 2-gap d-tackle away from being a force against the run. Kyle is a good pass-rushing tackle that can be moved around on passing downs and is great on stunts, but he has struggled when teams run right at him this year. Aaron Williams is still a question mark, but Gilmore is solid and Searcy is coming on and if they can keep Byrd they have enough to build around in the secondary.