ColdBlueNorth

Completely homer response, but yeah I like this move. You get that synergy and you know that he and Hackett will be on the same page.

Well, I think it is a case of an affluent young man who comes from a good family not wanting to play in the gutter with Richie. Also, I look at Martin's history and Richie's and I am afraid that I don't see anything in Martin's past that shows he is a problem child, and Incognito's is chock full of crap. There is nothing about this hazing BS between a new player and a veteran that just went too far that tells me Martin cannot play at a high level in this league. Forget all that beer-guzzling, chest thumping, macho BS the kid has size and talent as an offensive linemen and would likely be an upgrade to most of the linemen the Bills have grabbed off the scrap heap. NFL Draft analysis of Martin: Overview Martin is one of two tackle prospects in this year's class who could be called elite, and given the value of the position will be a likely first-round pick because of it. He embodied all that Stanford football was throughout his time there, as he is an aggressive, smart, technically sound prospect who will enter the league at a stage in his development where he should be able to contribute immediately. Analysis Strengths Martin has prototypical skills for the position. He missed just two games in his career and is extremely tough. He carries his weight well and is one of the most technically sound prospects in the draft. He has a smooth, efficient pass set that allows him to get a solid base and work from a balanced state. He is powerful and aggressive against the run and has good footwork for his size. Martin was the anchor of a very polished offensive line and is simply an NFL-ready tackle. At Stanford he played left tackle for that unknown QB... Andrew Luck. Protecting Luck's blind side, Luck was only sacked 9 times in 2011. The Dolphins felt good enough about him at the beginning of last season to move him from the right tackle position they had him playing to left replacing aging pro-bowler Jake Long. The Dolphins were a shambles without him in the lineup and even worse when Incognito had to sit out - none of that bothered me in the least.

Martin is a good versatile O-Lineman who decided not to stick around and be Incognito's B word forever. It is not a surprise that Richie crossed the line, he has been doing that since he came into the league. I don't care what happened in the Miami locker room and neither will the Bills if they can get some help along the O-line. Miami's loss can be our gain - that's a win/win in my book.

Reading between the Marrone lines I felt he was saying that he did not find it valuable to force retention of a coach if that coach wanted to be elsewhere even if the Bills had contractual leverage. Makes sense, as anyone who has worked with someone who feels trapped at their job can attest. You want coaches that want to be where they are at and you also want to give your new DC a chance to fill out his roster of assistants with folks that understand his defensive philosophy and playbook.

Just to be clear - I said what I said, which had little to do with what you just said.

The only thing unbelievable about certain topics is how often folks say that "this topic is unbelievable" as they reply to it, thus making the topic relevant. There is something to this topic. Fans often see one set of rules in the regular season of a sport that seem to be thrown out in playoffs or championship matches. This is true of hockey, and often true for football. I think the lesson Bills football and hockey teams have had to learn the hard way is you build and coach your team for how the games are played in the post season. Personally, my preference is to let them play fast and hard all year. Nothing worse in my mind than a game turning into a zebra show, but if the application or non-application of the rules are not consistent it erodes the integrity of a sport.

Yup. Totally prepared. I was really impressed with the way their safeties would peel off a Denver receiver running a deep post to come up on the receiver trying to take advantage of the soft spots underneath. They saw the routes before they developed and ended up having tight over and under coverage on the places where TE's or Welker normally flourish.

Got a lot of grief for saying the fix was in so why watch till the end, but we all know there are key times in a game where a call or non-call can swing a game. Denver driving and getting an obvious PI call that puts them at 1st and goal, then putting up some points before the half may have made it a different game. Perhaps this game and some of the calls that benefited Seattle balances the karmic criminality of the calls when Seattle was robbed in their SB with the Steelers. Congrats to the Hawks for joining the ranks of SB winners. Not saying that Denver would have won, just that the game may have been more watchable. Manning was definitely off on a lot of his throws due to the edge pressure that Seattle was able to bring. Over running coverage on that pop-fly kick to Harvin was another example of "one often meets their destiny on the road they take to avoid it". Denver has more issues at heart than calls going for or against them. It nearly made me sick to see the level of non-compete that Denver receiver showed when Manning's arm was hit and threw that pass that looked like a bad punt. Rather than bail your QB out and act like a DB on that play knocking that ball down or even taking an offensive PI, his receiver just stood there and let it get intercepted virtually non-contested. Then it gets ran back for a score. I thought that Ball was going to be a better runner coming into this league than he has been, and without sporting a lead Denver looks very ordinary.

OK, I wanted the Seahawks to win because they don't have a SB win but after watching that blatant pass interference non-call and the twitch false-start called on Denver's o-line...that killed that key Denver drive why should I worry. The fix is in.

I did not hear him make that claim. What I did hear, was that Schwartz admitted that he was not Mike Pettine - and got that out of the way. Then Marrone said that they were already looking at making some changes to make the defense better before Pettine left AND Schwartz said he was going to do a review of the defense and the things we did well he would likely keep and then he would take his own approach to addressing things that our defense did poorly. He does not stick to one philosophy, but game plans based on the opponent and other details like down and distance and such. As far as the wide-9 approach, he was truthful in that every team employs that alignment from time to time and he has found it to be useful with the right personnel. He is in for a bit of a shock regarding Bills fans most of us DO know what a wide 9 alignment is. Basically, all I heard from him is a common-sense approach to defense and to some degree he is right regarding continuity. For most professional football players, playing in the same system for the same guys for more than a few years is rare, and can be considered a luxury or drudgery if the scheme blows. Our guys will adjust, or some of them will move on when their contracts expire (or before if the fit is not right). He didn't sound married to a strict philosophy other than your D-linemen have to win battles....

You get a pass. You "came out" after the Bills posted another solid 6-10 record. Wear what you want, but no body paint...unless you are a hot woman then as Mr. Marrone would say "obviously" you get another pass, "obviously".

The proof actually shows that Schwartz using a wide 9 for both ends and covering the gaps with the linebackers usually performed well against the very thing Pettine's system struggled with - that being stopping runs and stopping teams on 3rd down. The trade-offs are that I do think that Pettine's system generated more confusion, got to the QB more and created turnovers against opponents passing game, but our smaller ends were sometimes man-handled when they lined up shading inside against the O or head-up playing 2-gap. When the ends were covered by a lineman then pulling guards, uncovered linemen, and power running backs, would hit our smaller linebackers running downhill and we were gashed by those longer runs. Do I think we may have taken a step back? Honestly I do at this point. In my mind Pettine was a proven commodity and Schwartz not-so-much wearing the Bills colors. He is probably the best of the rest, if you discount Wade (and I am not sure that Wilson would ever agree to have him back). I think Pettine is a rare football guy who has been around football his entire life and is likely better suited to being creative with the personnel he has. Schwartz has shown that with the right pieces in his defense they can be very good. His defenses struggled against pass-catching tight ends, but I think he has the right personnel here to address that issue better, but he will need to tweak the roster to run the base he likes to run. I believe at least one linebacker that is a bit more stout at the point of attack will be needed and I am not sure if Kiko is out there every down - we will see. I believe Schwartz was in over his head as a HC, but I believe that the more simplified DC role will be one that he should thrive in. As I pointed out in an earlier response, there are quite a few examples of coordinators that failed as HC's, who seem to flourish when they get canned and go back into a coordinator role. Some folks are just better with that singular focus.

A lot of the dirty play was 100% centered around Suh, who simply is a dirty player. If you look at team penalties for 2013, Detroit was not penalized as much as Buffalo was and (big surprise) Indy and New England were the least penalized. Since 2007 New England has always been in the top 10 least penalized teams.

Ebron is that high-risk, high-reward kind of player... TE's get hurt (alot), but having a TE with speed and hands creates so many options for an offense it is hard to pass on a good one. Chandler made Fitz a high efficiency QB in the red zone. Teams had to pick their poison down there, but Chandler getting injured set the offense back as I believe losing their key TE's in NE set their offense back, but they have an all pro veteran QB in Brady to compensate. I would not mind rolling the dice on him early... my biggest concern is injury with that type of player, but you have that risk with any player taken early.

I don't see a big problem with this. The guy has a resume, and plenty of failed HC's flourish when they go back to their more comfortable coordinator roles. As far as his enthusiasm and lack of discipline, I think that is a perfect counter to Marrone who I believe is more rigid and structured and remember Marrone was the first coach to punish Dareus for slacking and not showing up to team meetings.... He will do well - interesting to see what defensive players the Bills will target in the draft - DC's always try to put their mark on a team pretty quickly. For Pettine it was taking a chance with Kiko, we should be able to get an idea of what position Schwartz feels needs upgrading pretty quickly.

This, and he didn't do too shabby a job stocking the chargers with talent when he was with them. Whaley would be wise to pool all the resources at his disposal putting together their draft board - nothing wrong with that.

My guess is that he was not a "Pettine guy". This is normal IMO for a first year coaching staff - you bring a bunch of alpha male coaches together for the first time some of them get along and others not so much.

Dareus may not be undersized, but he is not a prototypical NT either. He is however the Bills current best option for playing that 2-gap over center, but he is better suited for shedding blockers and getting upfield. I guess I am ok with Dareus in the middle, but when Pettine moves him away from the middle (which happens too often for a defense that does not have another DT that can play NT) or when he is getting a break or hurt, the drop off in the middle of the defense is huge. Kyle is not a mauler, neither is Branch, or the other serviceable linemen, and Mario can be blocked on the edge. I would like to see another road grading run stopper picked up, so you don't lose s much moving Dareus out of the middle, or spelling him.

The Hawks have one of the more dominating NTs in the game right now in Brandon Mebane. He's not small. He does not get all the press, but he is solid and does not get moved around.

The Patriots pick up a bruising running back and go all down your throat against teams when everyone has been loading up on defensive backs and safeties and lighter linebackers who can cover athletic TEs to stop Brady from spreading it around. Always feels like the league is one step behind these clowns. They dabbled using that against us 2 seasons ago and made Wannstedt look like a more complete idiot than he was when he loaded up the box with defensive backs and safeties to stop the short pass and they plowed over our guys with off tackle runs... hard to forget how helpless and hapless the Bill's defense looked that day. They dusted it off again right in time for the post season and they are going to be very difficult to beat. As sick as it makes me feel, Belicheat will likely end up with another ring out of this if Blount can stay healthy and folks cannot figure out a plan B to stop their offense.

Was just looking through the OSU standardized reading and math scores for their football program that they gave to CNN... one individual even scored a grade equivalency of <1st. Less than 1st grade level competency. How can that person be a student at a university? For some reason the Tommy Boy movie comes to mind, but at least his character could spell "Herbie Hancock". http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=UOsQ2epsI2M

Lets be accurate here. The study showing 8-10% of college athletes reading below a third grade level, and that 60% were reading between a 4th and 8th grade level. It was for football and basketball specifically and at UNC specifically, but I read that studies done for the University of Kentucky were even more alarming. But you are right regarding the sports and that those are the Big 2 in regards to revenue generation. I am sure that much of the controversy comes into play because African Americans make up a larger percentage of players in football and basketball programs, but I do not think that race was cited in this study at all. She did cite in her whistle-blowing the following: "No-show classes, that were heavily attended by athletes, were offered by the African-American Studies department. Called “paper classes,” they were supposed to be lecture courses, but the requirements were never met. Willingham said she learned of these when she was assisting an athlete with a paper she called a “cut-and-paste job.” The student had received a grade of B or better." I know plenty of young black athletes who keep their grades up, and I think they should have a leg up getting full or partial scholarships over someone who doesn't have the grades, but runs a better 40. It is almost humorous the way the big programs are scurrying from the light like cockroaches. Click on a few of them to see the responses. http://www.cnn.com/i...ores/index.html The harm is that there are kids getting a free ride at major universities that receive plenty of federal dollars, our dollars that should be going to pay for athletes who can both compete on the court and field while also meeting minimum university academic qualification for entry standards. The harm is when educators who are passionate about both sports and academics bring the issue to light they are dismissed. And, it is just plain wrong to reward that behavior, and it is a by-product of the profiteering cancer that has pervaded our higher education institutions. I think the NCAA should have more stringent educational standards and quality controls, and I believe they and the universities should share revenue with the athletes they are profiting from. That should be incentive enough to have athletes working for scholarships or getting onto a university starting roster to keep in school and keep their grades up.

Just amazed that the recent "news" that a good percentage of college athletes cannot read or write at a college level is actually "news". I thought everyone knew this. Frankly, having attended youth combines, USA Youth Football and NUC events for aspiring high school athletes you run into your fair share of der-t-der kids that you would expect would only have options in JUCO, but plenty of universities will stand in line just to get that rare athletic ability - educational acumen be damned. It is not just the Southern kids coming out of the states that rank low on standardized tests, there is plenty of dumb to go around and at least most of the Southern kids say "sir" and "mam" especially those from military families. I hear that so rarely these days from young adults that it takes you by surprise at first - a pleasant surprise. But the dark side to letting poor students slide because of their athletic ability is that it simply has to involve some level of deception and falsification of grades or tests. That creates a subculture that deception and cheating is not only permissible - it is the norm. And there are plenty of parents and coaches who feel it is their duty to protect this environment that lets those students slide. It is an environment and support structure that is inherently unhealthy. If it was only about helping kids afford college when they could not otherwise do so, that would be understandable to a degree. However, when it is more about bypassing and cheating the system to fast-track kids with exceptional athletic ability one has to ask, what happens when most of these kids wash out, as most will, or when they get injured, what is their "plan-B"? Now it seems, the lady who "exposed" the elephant in the room is receiving death threats. The system is clearly broken and there is so much money on the line for the NCAA and Universities that it will likely just be hidden a lot better rather than addressed, and there are plenty of folks that would make those kinds of threats to protect the status quo. http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/09/us/ncaa-athletes-unc-response/index.html?hpt=hp_t3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbfxKCL4Dsk&feature=player_detailpage

That is why I changed my response to "least repulsive"