ColdBlueNorth

Schobel will stay and will pick up his play after pre-season is over. Vets mainly try to stay healthy through preseason. Kelsay is already on the hot seat, and so is Jauron, but I don't think that Ralph will fire anyone mid-season. We will have a full season of either Jauron and staff turning things around, or painfully repeating his current resume.

Hardly the point of my original post.... "zazie"? There is very little rational thought on the board at the moment, particularly from Erik and his apparent entourage of zazies. OK so moving up 2 spots in a draft is impossible - I get the logic I thought Raji looked good, and would have looked good in a Bills uniform - we will see how Maybin's coming out party compares. Like I said before, I hope I am wrong and that he lights things up ala a young Jason Taylor. Whatever...moving on so I can read more of the enlightened posts by Erik.

Trent looked lost last night because he was under pressure early and he still cannot read a 3-4 defense. With the Pats, Jets, and Dolphins all running a 3-4, it is inexcusable not to prepare soley for that. Trent definately needs to see those alligments more in practice.

Hence the term trading up. There was much discussion as to which player would benefit our defense the most. I was of the opinion that it would be Raji, and there were some that agreed even though pass-rushing was considered the high-priority need. This led to discussions regarding whether a DT can help a pass rush. My comment was the Raji looked good, and I still think that he would have been a good pick. What controversy are you referring to Erik? Feel free to "move on" as you put it. I would rather discuss the merits of the defensive rookie class with more rational posters.

I understand it is preseason, but straight up blocking with your starters should not result in embarrassment. You have a good point with the Steelers, but they have a successful coaching staff that has proven their worth during the regular season. Jauron and company have not. The sky is not falling, but there is cause for concern. Edwards looked really shakey and so did the line.

Still think that he was one if not the only defensive player with true impact potential as a rookie in the early 1st round. I wonder what it would have taken to trade up a few spots to grab him rather than the crop of light edge rushers who may or may not pan out against the big dogs. In yesterday's game we saw the difference between a defensive lineman with a high motor, and one (a rookie) that can forklift your veteran center 5 yards deep on a play. Maybin sounds too much like Maybe, as a Bills fan I do hope I am wrong.

Not to rain on your optimism, but... I would say that our pass rush is still unproven: Maybin is a raw talent, and we have no idea if it will translate into actual pressures or sacks. As it is, he is too weak against the run so he should only see playing time on 3rd and long or 4th and long situations. There is no guarantee that Schobel will come back fully from his injury. McCargo may perform better now that we have a new defensive line coach, but he hasn't shown much of anything yet. Trent had an annoying propensity last year to start games really poorly. It's a real head-sratcher when you watch him thread passes between defenders when playing catch-up late in a game, yet he starts the game overthrowing wide open receivers or one-hopping balls at their feet. Rather than applaud the offense for their ability to come back and make a game of it, I would rather see them start strong and keep the lead. Our defense is geared to playing with a lead, and there is a whole dictionary of blitzing plays that Perry doesn't even tough unless we are playing with a comfortable lead. We have a lot of ball hawks in the secondary and if we can blitz our linebackers and safeties we can usually force the turnovers. What if Trent gets hurt (again), who is are reliable backup that can manage a few wins while he recovers? The offensive line is a huge question mark, we will probably have two rookies in the lineup, they will make mistakes. If they are not game killing or QB killing mistakes we may have a chance of being competitive down the road. Coaching. We were clearly outcoached in several games. The confusion on the sidelines, the questionable challenges and the abysmal clock management has to stop. Why call pass when we are running the ball down the other teams throat. If it works keep doing it, coaches sometimes think that they have to come up with a wrinkle when it can be a simple as using the thing that works over and over again till the other team forces you to use something else (the emphasis is on "forces").

I like Jauron. That being said, if a coach loses more than he wins he is a loser. Them's the facts. Folks can make up any number of excuses about QBs and such, but watching NE dismantle us with a reserve high school QB shows you how far behind the learning curve our Jauron (and our staff) is. Hope springs eternal, and I can only hope that this experiment somehow becomes a winning combination this year. If it does I don't care if my ex-wife is coaching the team.

Correct me if I'm wrong... but even a blind nut finds a squirrel now and then You hit this one right, they had rights to Jackson yet still took care of business extending the contract. And yes, you were right - we were B word'n about this a tad early.

Marv took over a reeling organization and stabalized it, Donahoe left it reeling. I have a hard time blaming Marv for his brief venue at the head office. The one thing I do not agree with is his hiring of DJ. DJ brought in his staff, or promoted from within if Ralph was too cheap to pony up more cash. DJ and his coordinators strongly influence the type of players selected to run their system. And still the biggest thing in my mind is that DJ and his staff seem incapable of modifying their systems to fit the cast of players they have. We have at least as much talent as Miami, and the Jets, but both those teams gave us fits. I applaud the strong hand taken with some slackers this off-season. Everyone knows that Dick is a players coach, but sometimes the best thing you can do with a player is to give them enough rope to hang themselves and cut them loose. Will the jettisoning of Dockery and Peters hurt those two - porbably not, they have money in the bank now, but it certainly helps the team if you can remove the me-first attitude of Peters and the I-got-mine-so-I-can-coast attitude of Dockery. Let them take that "winning" attitude to their next team. I would rather see some hard-nosed blue collar effort on the line when it is 4th and 1. We will see - I hope that old dog has learned some new tricks. I still think we are light on the defensive line, and I would prefer to see Wood at center (his natural position where he was a beast in college), but I understand putting a more seasoned guy in the middle to make the line calls.

Understood. But if Jauron is in a win now mode, he will need a good plan B if our young guys struggle and having an experienced LT ready to step in can only be a good thing and at 3-4 mil a year he is a bargin.

A bit more from Rotoworld... It looks like he would not be able to start right away, but I think that he would be fine if they gave him the time to heal that he needs. Looks like he tried to tough it out with some injuries. "Jones is only 29, but probably has the body of a guy in his mid-30s. Back, hamstring, and knee issues cost him 17 of the Bengals' last 48 games. His latest injury is to his leg, where heavy scar tissue buildup caused the appendage to go numb. Jones had surgery this winter and is out until June. He's mentioned Arizona as a possible fit, but needs to get healthy first"

The Bills should do this plain and simple A tackle that still has a lot left in the tank, who isn't asking for Jason Peters type money. I like our interior line prospects, and I think we have some decent development players, but having a veteran you can plug in at left tackle would be a huge asset.

Reed and Johnson will share time, with Johnson getting the nod closer to the goal line where he is able to use his size to out-position defenders. However, Josh is so good at finding open space, moving the chains, and blocking downfield he will probably get the bulk of the action outside of the red zone.

I miss the spread them out then direct snap to Thurmal on a draw. Lynch and Edwards could pull that off, and with the right amount of smart and nasty in the middle of our line, it could work to move the chains.

Cowboys Frank Middleton - cheapest hit I ever watched when playing with Tampa he took out Cowart's knee (Sam Cowart was having an incredible pro-bowl season and was never the same after that). That was also the year of the music city debacle, and Wade's last year of pissing all of us off by not wearing a headset and getting us into playoff contention. We haven't been close since. Jimmy "hair" Johnson - arrogant porker (followed closely by Belicheat)

Fresh blood

I think a lot of the above is overly optimistic, but we were never reallly that far behind our AFC East rivals. If it weren't for Trent's injury and some inexplicable play calling during some close games - -who knows. All I am saying is that we were close, we have made a lot of changes, and on paper those changes look good but it all has to come together rather quickly.

Not trying to bump this thread, but wanted to respond. I do not believe in run to setup the pass, or pass to setup the run. I believe a team simply has to play to their strength. Now, if that is passing the ball to loosen things up for the run then so be it. Generally teams simply look to see where the safety(s) are playing. My hope is that Trent will recognize coverage better and be able to audible to some better plays when he sees them. I know that we have a lot of weapons now on offense, and it would be a mistake to ignore them, but since run-blocking is easier than pass protection I would think that the offense would lean heavily on the run in the early going until the youngsters get their feet underneath them. We would still take a couple shots downfield and those shots should be fairly lethal. If and when the line gels a bit, I would be more in favor of spreading things out and taking the quick drop and hitting intermediate targets. Zone blitzing schemes like the Steelers use, and the Cover 2 are both susceptible to underneath routes (like how Warner nickeled and dimed us to death when we planed Arizona). If you can get the other team to commit a safety to stopping the run, or if you can split the coverage (and avoid the blitz) you can hit the jackpot - anyone that watched the Superbowl will remember Fitzgerald doing that. I like our weapons. Arizona has two great WRs and they had an average O-Line (god Gandy was horrible at LT), but they were successful because they had a veteran QB who could quickly read coverages and hit the open man. I think that we now have two really good WRs, we have a line that could be as good - if not better than Arizona's (given time), and we have a better group of running backs. The biggest question mark is Edwards. Too many times last year he would start games horribly slow and off the mark - it wasn't like the plays were not there for the taking, he was just more inaccurate at the start of games. He had a penchant for warming up and playing stronger in the 3rd and 4th quarter, but we need him to start stronger. Edwards also was not seeing the whole field, and in this area I think that Owens will force him to not only lock onto the Evans side of the field and then check down, but he will also have to check off to the deep side that Owens is playing. I have seen some horrible predictions, and heck in the division that we play in we could get crushed, but we all saw a team like the Dolphins turn things around last year with a very average cast - who knows? We don't have the coach Miami has or the Tuna as a GM, but our coaches are smart enough to copy the game plans that Parcells and Co. create when going up against the Pats. If we can beat the Patriots or even split with them, that would take away a couple automatic losses that we have accrued for longer than I care to remember. I will gladly put on my rose colored glasses at least till I see how this new hand of cards plays out with all the new components.

One of the more selfish plays I have seen on this team, and I have seen some doozies. B-bye to that. Getting rid of the chess-master at center was the first of many good moves IMO.

Yeah, the fact that our QBs could not step up to make throws would certainly have contributed to some of those sacks as well as some of those shots downfield being so off the mark.

My condolences to the Wilson family. It has to be a terrible thing to outlive your own child... I don't even care to imagine that.

Walker played a bit of LT last year and he was not a complete disaster there, but I do remember that he could get beat to the outside on a speed rush if Edwards takes more than a 3 step drop or simply got too deep. He just didn't have the arms or the range of Peters. Then again, when Peters came in he was getting beat to the outside too - he just looked slower getting out of his stance and staying with his block than in previous years. That tendancy to get beat with the outside speed rush was even worse when Losman was under center. Losman had a much deeper drop than Edwards (longer legs, bigger stride, I don't know he just always ended up deeper in the backfield) and would hold onto the ball longer. The line never compensated for that difference and we all know the result - blind side hit and fumble... rather than the defender being steered safely around the back of the QB. With the infusion of attitude on the O-Line we may finally be able to run the ball successfully. The question remains though, if we are running the ball down the other teams throat does the brain trust suddenly get cute and start throwing the ball?? Of course I would change my mind if they hit Evans or Owens deep because the other team was crowding the line If they can work that new tightend and Fine into the short yardage game, and run the ball then that should setup Evans and Owens with single coverage for the occasional shot down the field. Both of those guys can take it to the house. Hit a couple of those then other teams will have to call off the dogs and play honest more often than not. Still interested to see if the FO has any free agent or soon-to-be free agent tackles on thier radar to man the LT position. I would think they would if for no other reason that to get some depth at that position. We have good depth across the interior, but that LT position is one spot where the team is one injury away from deep trouble (unless Bell is the answer). I am anxious to see how Schobel looks, we really need him to come back strong from his injury and stay healthy. If Maybin can contribute on 3rd and long, where last year we were tortured by the amount of time opposing QBs had to get rid of the ball when put in obvious passing downs, then maybe this year we will have the semblance of a pass rush. Having the offense score some points so that we are playing with a lead would not hurt either. Fewell certainly has enough blitz packages in his arsenal, but he does not use them if they are playing from behind or trying to stay close and conservative. I can't believe that I am excited about this year. My feelings for Russ Brandon aside, I have to give him props as a GM for simply generating interest in a team where the fans were falling off the bandwagon pretty darn fast - myself included.

WTF What is it with this staff and their man-love for corners? If they did some more to improve the pass rush and perhaps drafted some depth at LB maybe we wouldn't need so many corners in coverage for the 15 seconds the oposing QB has to throw the ball.

Yep, including HC, DC, OC, and owner