Hapless Bills Fan
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Posts posted by Hapless Bills Fan
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Actually checking into a facility is a better recommendation.
A facility where beer is served? That probably preceded the post, Boyst is just stirring sh*t and doesn't want to admit it.
I see is wrs and targets being a key factor
I'm not sure what this means in this context
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What makes you think we won't alter our offense. Yes, studying film helps, but teams knew we ran the ball most of the time and still couldn't stop us. Just because you know a teams tendencies it doesn't always give you an advantage.
klos, I guess I personally have the fear that we won't alter our offense because Roman is kind of a one-trick pony. I agree, if your team is really really good at executing, sometimes the other team can know what you're going to do and it doesn't help....see Brady and the Patriots
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It appears that the Jets are not too worried about losing Fitz. Who will they replace him with? I can't say right now. What I can say is that it appears that the Jets are not very concerned about the the risk of losing Fitz because of their limited contract offer. Do the Jets still have time to acquire a bridge qb to replace fits if that situation materializes? I believe so.
John, you said earlier "For the Jets pedestrian qbs can be easily had on the market." If pedestrian QBs can so easily be had on the market, surely you should be able to name a couple of guys the Jets could bring in to replace Fitz?
I don't think the Jets limited contract offer reflects their lack of concern over losing Fitz and ability to readily replace him. I think it reflects their limited cap space. I think they were hoping for a draft-day trade of Wilkerson and/or for Fitzy to give them a "home-town discount" and when neither happened, they said they were "up sh*t creek" and grabbed a Hackenburg paddle, hoping that Gailey can somehow manipulate Geno Smith into being a decent QB for a year.
I think the crazy contracts offered to Osweiler, Bradford and Daniel reflect the fact that even pedestrian QBs are hard to come by in today's NFL.
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there are at least 4 teams i can think of that fitz would start on in 2016 and upgrade them. browns, jets, jaguars, bucs.
Jeff, you know I love ya but that's Crazy Talk.
Browns, Jets, yes.
Bortles is looking really good, though. Passed for over 4000 yds, 35 TDs, 7.3 YPA...He's looking like Truth, even if I do regard their OL coach with loathing and feel that their rushing game needs Catsup.
Winton didn't look bad for a rookie, most players do take a jump their 2nd year, and the Bucs have an underrated RB and a real rushing game.
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Was an impressive interview. It will be interesting to see him develop in a pro set offense.
He comes across as articulate and intelligent. Love the back-and-forth about the ripped shirt at the start of the interview: "it's cool for you to send me a shirt now, it's no longer an NCAA violation" "my son goes to Michigan State, it will be a Michigan State shirt, sorry about that" "It's OK, I'll just rip it up too"
He sounds like he has his head on straight
Edit: I like this quote from this article in the Cleveland papers:
By the way, no draft day party, Jones said.
"You have a party to celebrate, I mean, what?" Jones said. "I'm just getting my foot in the door. I'll party after a long-term contract or something."
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It's a bit premature to say he's going to be the next Ray Lewis. But Rex's defensive system needs studs at LB, and RR has the talent to be that type of player.
Yeah. Basically, we needed to go into the season with the potential to have seriously upgraded our LB corps. Given our salary cap situation, that had to come through the draft.
La voila. RR. Is it a sure bet, no way, but at the least it's reason to say we filled our biggest gap between what Rex's D needs and our existing D personnel.
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Karlos has branded our RB group
@karlos_29_sr
@Jwillpart2 welcome to the #LegionOfZoom
oh yea that's the job. Like I said no one is selfish in that room everyone eats. It's real family in there. We happy to have you
Now that's funny. What's our WR group, "the legion of ZoomZoom"?
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No one is arguing that Fitz doesn't have the right to leave the game if he decides the offer isn't worth the risk. The bottom line is that in this negotiation the Jets do hold the cards as to whether Fitz will play for them at a particular price.
The Jets have placed a value on Fitz and it appears that they are sticking to that range. That is similar to what the Broncos did with Osweiler. They placed a value on him and weren't willing to go higher. Osweiller had options in the market and signed a lucrative contract with Houston. That is not the case for Fitz who has minimal leverage in the negotiation.
The late Eugene Parker had a saying “Leverage depends not about what you have, but what you’re willing to do". The point is, as long as Fitz has options other than "play for the Jets at their price" (and he does), he has just as much leverage as if he had other teams waiting to sign him. He may not have options to start for other teams, but he does have leverage.
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I don't think it's a good plan, but it's their plan. They didn't draft Hack just to let him sit on the bench for 2+ years. So any interest in Fitz is as a stopgap,meaning a short contract for low money. Not that they can afford anything with their cap situation.
What a difference a round makes. Hack gets a year to sit (maybe), without the guarantee of a great veteran mentor ahead of him. Poor Hack.
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Hoyer, McCown, Josh Johnson, McCoy etc. Go check the backup list for each team and you will come up with a surplus of pedestrian qbs.
(to TX) You properly framed this issue. What is his worth to the Jets and for Fitz is it worth it to him with respect to his well-being and family considerations. It's a non-sentimental calculation in a non-sentimental (cold blooded) business. It's not an issue of right or wrong as it is an issue of judgment.No, John, sorry, you're switching the frame. Your original claim was "pedestrian QB can be easily had on the market". Hoyer was available, had statistical comparabilities to Fitz and at least one team that preferred him in the past, and has now signed with the Bears - the Jets had their chance and passed, so he is not on the market. McCown is under contract to the Cleveland Browns, he is not available. Who are these pedestrian QB, comparable to Fitz, who can be easily had on the market?
I'm glad to see that when talking to someone else, you're able to acknowledge that it's a non-sentimental market decision on BOTH sides, not simply an issue of "market value" from the Jets side.
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And yet the Panthers were slammed for their line in 2014, the Broncos line has taken plenty of heat and the Seahawks line was a hot mess last year - much worse than ours. Only KC have had a relatively consistent solid line in that period.
This. In 2014, the Panthers were starting 2 rookies at RG and LG, one an UDFA and one drafted in the 3rd round. The Panthers line improvement moves for 2015? They drafted a single OL - a guard in the 4th round. They signed a FA OT who was graded 74 out of 78 tackles and cut from the Titans one year into a 4 year contract. They scraped up a RT who'd been kicking around league practice squads.
I'm sure they had fans on a message board somewhere predicting gloom 'n doom, but, it worked. If it hadn't worked, I'm sure they would have had fans squealing about it.
Not understanding or agreeing with a team personnel department's plan or decisions does not mean they have no plan. They have a plan. It might work out, it might not work out, but it is a plan.
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I'm not going to fall into a discussion non germane to sports, but following 12 lines of valid text with an unprovoked personal attack on me as a member of the grammar police immediately set off the warning lights of the personality type I was dealing with. There is a known interrelationship of the personality traits of an individual who enjoys the role of being a member of grammar police and trollism. I was considering responding to your valid opinions and offerings and why I disagreed, but after that needless personal attack I realized the personality type I was dealing with. Let us not waste the board's time, or our own in doomed further attempts at intelligent conversations.
This is what I said: "Moreover, when one places something in quotes, it implies that it's something someone has said, around here, either someone from the Bills organization or news media, which is clearly from the OP's article not the case - shoddy."
If you consider that an "unprovoked personal attack on you", you 1) need to understand what a personal attack actually consists of (hint: if it addresses something you've written directly and politely, it isn't a personal attack 2) won't last very long around here (this is an experience-based observation - thin-skinned people who exaggerate typically don't)
As for the rest, I leave it to the rest of the posters here to evaluate what is and isn't trollism or an unprovoked personal attack (hint: taking what I wrote and turning it into an assessment of my personality, is, in fact, a personal attack)
I do agree that intelligent conversation between us is unlikely. G'day.
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The 2016 NFL Draft is over. As we all know "You cant measure a draft until 2-3 years later" but, on paper which teams do you think had the best draft based on how many players are day 1 contributors, and how many players can develop into NFL Stars, starters, and Pro Bowlers. If there is a team you think I left out feel free to add it to the poll. You can view team specific draft boards at this link
http://scores.espn.go.com/nfl/draft/live
Simply scroll down to "Draft Tracker" section and click the drop down "team" icon, there you can select which team to scope their draft picks.
Go Bills! The homer in me wants to say we had the best draft but Ill go on record and say the Titans had a really good draft for their team, they got enough valuable players and day 1 contributors to make Ozzie from Baltimore jealous.
McFly, I think you're a good guy and make interesting posts, so I hope you don't take it personally that I tell you this kind of stuff gives me the willies. I keep flashing back to the year we signed Mario and folks kept extolling our D and saying we had the best DL in the league, on paper. Football games played on grass on Sunday and until then..."Gentlemen, Hush" - Owen Wister, the Virginian
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This is a situation where both sides are right and a deal might not and should not get done.
Fitz feel it's not worth it to be starter and take all the hits/pressure and get paid like a backup
Jets feel he's the quality of a backup and is being forced into a starter role out of necessity and should be paid based on that
I wish the Bills took that approach a few years ago, instead, they paid Fitz starter money and got burned, smart FO's don't do that !
Exactly right, TX. Both sides have a reasonable market position, and a deal likely won't get done unless one side sneezes.
The Fitz Bills Contract thing is evaluation of smartness in hindsight. Sometimes guys who've been kicking around for a while have the lightbulb come on and take a legitimate step as QB. In that case it's smart business to lock them up. That is one school of thought for what the Bills ought to do with TT, and if he lights it on fire all season and has other teams bidding for his services, people will be explaining how stupid the Bills FO were to not lock him up this year. So the Bills thought that's where they were with Fitz and the smart thing was to lock him up, and they were mistaken, but they didn't know that then. I thought so too and I was sadly, mistaken.
I'll repeat the question that I asked in a prior post: Name another team that would be interested in Fitz as a starter? Name another team in the league that would be interested in Fitz as a high cost backup? We are not talking fairness here. We are talking what the market is.
John, all respect, you're looking at "the market" in a very narrow sense. If you want my services, and I look around and say "what are your alternatives?", you can tell me what "the market" says I'm worth, and it doesn't matter. If I perceive you as needing my services, and I'm not willing to provide them to you at the price you name, it doesn't matter whether there are 10 or 0 other organizations bidding for my talent. My services are only subject to what other competing organizations are willing to pay if I'm Vince Young or TO and I've squandered my money and need to work. Otherwise, economically speaking, I can work out in my own private gym, play scrabble and sudoku, and help my kid work on his batting until you meet my price (or don't). That's also a market evaluation.
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And with their offer the organization is saying that although he started last year he is not a starting caliber of qb in this league. It's not difficult to understand Fitz's position. But putting aside the Jets team for this discussion is there a team in the league willing to bring on Fitz as a starter? I don't believe so. Eventually Fitz and the Jets will come to terms. But it will not be at the level that Fitz has staked out. For Fitz what are his options? For the Jets pedestrian qbs can be easily had on the market.
Fitz option is to take his $39M career earnings/$24M net worth and make it to all his kids soccer and baseball games.
Who are these pedestrian QB that can be easily had on the market instead of Fitz? Please name them.
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It makes a lot of sense. He is a backup caliber of qb. He started on the Jets last year because they had no other options. That is not much of an endorsement for a 14 yr career backup who has moved around the league as if he is a gypsy running from the law. Let's look at Fitz's options: No other team in the league is interested in him as a starter. In addition, no other team in the league is interested in him as a high cost backup.
I'm sure the Jets will up their offer with the realization is that hey know what his worth is in the qb market. Fitz is Harvard educated economic major. He knows as well as anyone that he is worth not what he thinks he is worth but that he is worth what the market says he is worth.
Fitz had a good year last year as a starter. It was an aberration. Fitz has had a long mediocre career mostly as a backup. That's what he is worth. Good backup money plus a little more.
John, I don't really want to go down the rabbit hole of debating Fitz stats, but last year was actually not an aberration as far as his stats. He threw for higher completion %, better TD/INT ratio, and higher Y/A the previous year in HOU. He threw for lower total yards, because Houston was riding Arian Foster in a run-first O. The only thing that's an outlier is the # of TDs he threw.
The difference between being a starter, and a backup, is the bodily wear and tear and risk exposure and hits that the starter takes. If the Jets want to pay him as a backup because "that's what he's worth", then they shouldn't ask him to expose himself to all that.
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Why should the starting QB accept backup money? That makes no sense.
Exactly Fitz point - he's essentially saying "you guys want me to start and take all the hits and risk and wear and tear and media heat of a starter, don't offer me backup money, pay me like a starter".
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saving money by being his own full time counselor !
he don't need no stinkin' in patient rehab. He has a bartender
A termite walks into a bar and says "Bar tender?"
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My biggest issue with this team is that they're building the roster to win, only circa 1995. Investing so much in defense the result of frequently changing schemes and building an offense to run is not how to win in 2016.
Memo to Denver Broncos, Seattle Seahawks, Carolina Panthers, and Kansas City Chiefs: investing in defense and building an offense to run is not how to win in today's NFL. Any winning you done this way, give it back, y'hear?
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What to expect from players like Cujo and Cyril Richardson? Do you guys think they can still contribute or should they be considered lost causes at this point?
I think they're pretty much lost causes at this point, and that's one reason why they signed such a OL heavy UDFA class and are likely going to be using a fine-tooth comb on the league cuts.
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He probably regrets overpaying for Matt Cassel though.
Hah! I imagine he does.
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Awesome. If Taylor tailors him, tearing his shirt off like that will be more costly.
Looks pretty flabby. Looks like he could stand to lose 10-15 lbs
Taylor was no physical specimen on his draft day and look at him now. If he puts in the work, he'll be fine.
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The fact is the 2015 Buffalo Bills were the #1 team in rushing yards and #2 in rushing attempts. The Bills were also #1 in scoring rushing TD's and they averaged 4.8 yards per rush. While those rushing stats were great...we must also realize that because the Bills QB ran 104 attempts for 568 yards that it pads those overall rushing stats somewhat. The Bills were also 28th in passing yards and 31st in passing attempts.
The 2015 Buffalo Bills were also 31st in 3 downs and out percentage at 186 drives with 53 going 3 and out! When you think about dominant running teams you would tend to think they control the line of scrimmage and clock and that really wasn't the case at all with the Bills last year. The simple fact is the right side of the line play was pretty bad and the left side basically carried the team. Miller was decent at run blocking and lousy at pass blocking and vice versa for Urbik. The RT play was pretty bad from everyone all season.
What a lot of fans seem to forget is that in 2014 the Buffalo Bills fielded one of the very worst offensive lines in the league for most of the season and in my view is the biggest reason as to why the team lost to the Raiders in week 16 while attempting to gain a playoff berth. The Bills run game had only 13 rushes for 13 yards and every time Spiller touched the ball he was getting tackled five yards behind the line of scrimmage. The line also had great difficulty in protecting Kyle Orton all game.
Doug Whaley's answer to the weakest and neediest area of the team in the 2015 draft was to select an OG in the third round. If it wasn't for Rex Ryan vouching for OG Richie Incognito the line would have been another horrid mess in 2015. Then to Incognito's credit, he played some of his best football with the Bills last season and really anchored that left side. His play upgraded both Woods and Glenn's play without question. The right side of the Bills line will still be a mess in 2016 and it should have been addressed in this year's draft or free agency.
Because of cap hell, the Bills were limited in free agency and went full bore into helping Rex Ryan build the defense he wants in this year's draft. Still, the Bills did re-sign Richie and tagged Glenn. I can only imagine that Doug Whaley didn't want Ryan to have that same excuse that he used after he was fired by the NY Jets. The Bills did go 'all in" to get Rex Ryan the players he needed to build his defense and now let's see if it works.
The bottom line is I feel the OPs pain and think this team has almost no quality depth for the O-line and the right side is still a huge question mark. I have no idea what this team will do if there is a serious injury to one of the left side of line players or if opposing teams start focusing on stacking the box to stop the Bills run game and thus forcing them to throw more than they want.
Think what you will, but I can tell you that last season when the Bills were forced into throwing more than running they lost every game and Taylor didn't fare very well in those games.
You raise some interesting points.
The impact of Tyrod Taylor and his rushing attempts has been repeatedly addressed in other threads. Bottom line, 4 of the top 6 rushing teams (Bills, Panthers, Seahawks, Chiefs) had QB who ran for similar yardage, and when QB rushing yards are subtracted from every team's total (with the not-always-valid assumption that the OL has nothing to do with QB yardage) the Bills are still in the top 10, maybe top 5 (I did that math, and anyone curious can search for my post about it).
I don't forget that the Bills OL sucked in 2014, nor that with the same OLmen, we were much better in 2012 and 2013. Marrone ran a very simplistic blocking scheme, and his bizarre insistence on turning Pears from an adequate RT to an abysmal guard had a big impact.
So to call OL the weakest, neediest area of the team in 2015 is a fan judgement call. It's not unreasonable to have a different interpretation: the coaches watched film from a couple seasons and reached a different conclusion. We had no 1st round pick, so selecting an OG with our 2nd pick was a substantial action IMO as was signing RI. (Aside: isn't it a bit of an agenda to tag Whaley for neglecting the OL but credit Rex for actions that are stated publically to be Whaley's remit?). But it was acknowledged at the time that we pursued select FA's and lost out.
The question is: do you feel OL was the weakest neediest area of the team last year and required the most infusion of draft picks and FA money this year? I personally don't. I think replacing Mario and improving our LB corps was the biggest need, and we addressed that.
FA isn't done yet, the Bills have signed several vet and a larger-than-usual number of UDFA OLmen. Have they done enough? I can respect the viewpoint that maybe they haven't, maybe we should have done more. But what? Used draft picks and forgone Shaq Lawson and Reggie Ragland? Then what would we do to fill the huge crying hole at LB and DE? Cut another vet to free up $$ and pursued a FA OLman? Who do you want to see go and how would we fill their hole?
The truth is, a football roster in the salary cap era is a careful balancing act, and the Bills had too many roster holes to fill with the available draft picks. It's a very valid point that the right side of the OL is a question mark and could use improvement, but having reason to believe (from film etc) that young OLmen may improve or that the FA signings may provide at least quality depth is rather different than the alleged reliance on the power of prayer.
Isn't it possible that the Bills believe that Miller and Mills/Hendy will be fine at RG and RT respectively, now that the problems of last year appear behind them?
It's possible. It's also possible that they believe Velasco will provide quality depth, one or more of the UDFA they signed may push for a spot, and someone they pick up from the cutout bin may have value.
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Please don't try to be a member of the grammar police. You may get arrested for "impersonating an officer". Quotes are used in the English language to attribute something written not unique to the writer. Also "Punctuation is used to create sense, clarity and stress in sentences", according to many grammar sites. Since "the power of prayer" is a commonly used phase and not my creation, it was put in quotes. I am not a plagiarizer and attempt to attribute my sources. I don't claim to be a perfect writer, but in this case the quotes were properly used.
For all the grammar police that inhabit this site maybe you should check out this article and see if it fits.
http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/news/a43468/stop-pointing-out-typos/
LOL! Don't you see it speaks volumes about you when you totally blow off 12 lines of my post which carefully and factually address what the Bills have done to address OL in FA and UDFA, in order to pen a sanctimonious little screed addressing a single line suggesting that putting quotes around "power of prayer" was misleading on TBD as around here, it implies someone in the media or Bills organization actually said this? The point I was making addresses context and meaning, so linking an article about correcting typos is not germaine.
If you're really here to debate/discuss, then when someone actually pens a meaningful response, you really need to address it to avoid living in a falling credibility zone heading towards Troll City.
PS Brush up on the issue of how and when (and when not to) use quotation marks. An indirect quote or commonly used phrase does not require quotation marks, which should never be used for emphasis or stress. I won't go into cred here, but I'm quite certain no one will be arresting me for "impersonating an officer" of the grammar police.
Fitz calls his shot -Update Signed w/Jets
in The Stadium Wall Archives
Posted
Now we're getting into magical franchise QB mystery land.
Remember all the debates we had a few years back about who was and who wasn't a franchise QB? It turned out everyone had a somewhat different definition of franchise QB, ranging from starter to "can carry the team on his back sometimes" to magical mystery makes the team good all on his own dude.
If a guy can start a season, be wanted back to start another season, but that doesn't make him a starting caliber QB, we're getting into "franchise guy" territory.