DazedandConfused

The simple fact is IMHO is that some (likely many of those who are whining about TO before a game is even player) is that they too experience the game as entertainment. However, they appear to be most entertained by ragging on what TO might do than on being entertained by thinking about the good things TO may do. From my perspective, TO has committed no crimes against society that we know of. Any violations of even mere NFL rules which he has done he has been punished for doing this. He has said the right things generally even if he does not believe them saying the right things is important. What however is most important for the Bills right here and right now is that TO has scored more TDs than any other WR in the NFL in the last three years and that he comes to Buffalo as our #2 WR. Our #3, Parrish is a little guy who one would be a fool to completely ignore his IR history, but likewise one would be a fool to totally disregard his real world production, speed, and open field running ability he has hinted at when used that way as a WR and demonstrated in PR duty. Add to this that our #4 WR Reed has demonstrated he can be an effective #3 way back when in his inexperienced rookie year last time he worked with two legit threats as the #1 and #2 WRs. When one considers the greater experience he has gained and demonstrated when he was asked to be our #2 (a role above his skills) and now he should be our #4 (a role below his skills again IMHO). Add to that that filling out our WR squad is Hardy a youngster who disappointed as a rookie but drafted as a legit potential #2 who helps out our coaching because it is difficult to coach someone to be tall. Also add to that the most impressive rookie last year was the "short" guy 6' 3" Steve Johnson and it seems silly to me that some folks refuse to see that we are loaded at WR. This is gonna be a great test of Edwards as this pinpoint passer will have the tools to work with at WR. Most importantly, this will be a test of Schoenert and the coaching staff as they simply have obvious tools on hand to run a pressure passing attack and if this team fails to produce in the passing game the blame starts first with the coaches. The potential collateral benefits to this O are even more intriguing since on of the more productive pieces of the O last year was the running game. Running the spread offense with a single back and high passing pressure from a 3 WR base offense would seem to be an obvious good running attack. The irony is that with the loss of Lynch for 4 games (I hope 2 on appeal) it forced the Bills to acquire former star Rhodes and a single back attack with Jackson looks formidable. The biggest unknown on this O is obviously the OL. However, we now appear to have depth in potential candidates with the acquisition of potential first year starters Wood and LeVitre. Add in the acquisition of solid vet swing guy Hamgartner and I think the Bills have the possibility (unfortunately the odds are against it as I think we are still one solid OL player short to not have to hope that some bolt of lightening comes forth from Bell, Rudd, McKinney or Chambers). However, it is being loaded at WR which gives me the most hope for what I think at best is going to be a learning OL. Our coaches need to be aggressive and put the WRs into the best position to win by going 3WR and no huddle as much as possible. They will force opposing Ds to play on their heels as they zone up to deal with attacking WRs. This in turn will allow the young OL to not have to worry as much about where will the pass rush come from facing 8 in the box. A spread O with 3 speedy WRs will force D to assign enough players to cover the zones or dt if they go man to man. This will leave the OL and the vet Hamgartner to assign blocking tasks which clearer one on one assignments for the young OL. The no huddle simply reduces the time and ability of a D to run complicated stunts which will confuse the young OL. I like our O if Jauron is uncharateristic and allows/mandates the Turk to attack attack attack. Its a tough row to how to expect an old dog to learn new tricks. However, old dog Jauron (and most importantly likely dead in a few years max Ralph) has 3 straight mediocre 7-9 seasons as testimony to what playing it safe will produce. The surprising acquisition of TO and the flirtation with the no-huddle are both positive signs that a new day may be here.

No way do you sign him. My sense is that if he follows his previous MO, TO will be on very good behavior his first year as with his previous teams he was a showboat right from the start, he did not become a cancer to some until later in his time with a team. I am not sayin TO is anything but an idiot, but even his harshest critics are simply acknowledging reality if they understand the likelihood is of a showboaty but painless first year. Particularly as the Bills only have him on a one year deal, this is a good situation for this proven talent. Why mess it up by signing him long term? The answer appears to be be folks are afraid of losing him to the marketplace if he hits FA. Not really much of a prob because according to my understanding of the rules (though they can be altered by the agreement of both parties) the Bills should have the ability to tag him if they chose and actually give TO a substantial raise to the average of the top 5 WR salaries. if he has a great year he is worth it, if he has the general reduction in output that tends to happen with age he is not worth it so let him go. The best thing for the Bills about keeping him on his current 1 year deal is that it gives TO every incentive to perform at the HOF levels he has in the past. If he does he likely cashes in on a huge FA contract (the average of the top 5 WRs in the league at worse if the Bills tag him) In a one year deal, TO is under contract with a huge FA incentive to play well. If we sign him you take away this prod to perform. I think signing him long term simply sucks as an idea,

All one has to see is a winnable game go down the tubes because of a bad snap on a makeable field goal in a close game and there is nothing a team wants more than a top 10 longsnapper. Being in the upper third in the league at any position is not only not half bad (it actually is only 1/3 bad but if the luck of the draw puts this player in a critical must make a play situation in a game having a player starting who is markedly better than most of the other players at that position is pretty darn good! Could be better but all in all is simply a good and really a very good thing.

As is the case with all these players since last I checked I an not in charge, my default stance is to trust but verify. I really do not think one can count on any player from a year after year (after year) 7-9 team. The good thing though about Walker is that though it would pretty silly to expect Pro Bowl level play out of him right here and right now, he did show enough as an RT starter who filled without big flaws as a starting LT when Peters was trying to work himself back in to shape. He will need to step up his game to be a credible fulltime starter, but he had the rep coming in as a player and a marginal but signs of being a good starter for all but the most pessimistic to hope for the best (and likely says more about the observer than it says about Walker). PS- One likely answer to the weight question is that he never was asked to lose weight by the Bills because in the old mode we were proud to have the heaviest OL in the league by weight and he was employed mostly as a roadgrader. The interesting question is how he was able to at least hold his own at LT during our winning streak last year against weak opponents when he had to start at LT. My guess is that this year as a constant LT starter he likely will be better with less weight. There is a ton of time once the season begins to start whining about this issue if it is a real problem (a problem that is likely better assesed by how he looks to objective observers rather than relying on the oft fictional official weight claims.

The missed much of last season to injury Fine and the rookie Nelson I think are exhibits one and two as to why I suspect we will be seeing a 3 WR set as our base O this year. Add to that the lack of any significant talent at FB and us cutting a lot of the heaviest OL in football points to us not going smashmouth but running from the spread O. Folks being worried anout the blitz is a naturally smart thing as well, but I think a Bills response of using the 3 WRs with Homerun hitter Evans, RAC producer TO and the speedy and elusive Parrish to force other teams to zone up as their base O would do a lot to force opposing Ds to not rely on a series of continual blitz packages. I think our reported significant use of the no huddle would also pressure Ds and not allow them a lot of time to apply exotic stunts which would challenge the young OL. Ultimately the players will have to play and the youngsters will simply have to sink or swim a lot based on their talent as players. However, if the Bills use their 3rd in the league ranked WR talent (at least according to a Foxsports analysis) to dictate D schemes for the opponent the # of times per game that the youngsters will be relied upon will be the least possible.

I think the Bills have also been a part of a shared scouting collaborative known as the BLESTO0V group. I think the original B was for the Bears, but membership in this group which collaborated on scouting and assessments of college players has shifted over time. I am not sure that even survived the development of a new order of operation which saw some fairly detailed and practical collaboration in regard to the combine. However, NFL teams (and even with the players as reflected in the partnership embodied in the CBA clearly recognize that the teams rather than being competitors except on the field of play are actually partners in providing entertainment and getting every $ they can from you and me through selling a stable product to the TV networks.

I think as far as specific analysis of the failings of last season and what can we do this season to make it better, it is trying to find a real answer to this question which reduces the thought that the current coaches are the problem to the same level as an analysis which points out that our trail of tears ia at least 9 and probably 15 years old. Will we change the decisions made 15 years ago? No. However, will we change HCs or make major changes in the Bills' coaching staff this year that delivered us 3 straight 7-9 seasons? No. Worrying about the need for changes in the HC or the coaching staff is only somewhat more likely to happen than changing the decisions made 15 years ago. While it is physically impossible to change the past and it is physically and legally possible to can Jauron or make major coaching changes, the likelihood of this happening is so negligibly small as to make this proposal easily ignorable. Perhaps there is some rhetorical benefit to pointing the finger at the current coaches. I do not think so as if one wants to simply rely on rhetoric rather than reality then changes the HC when the team owner has a record of repeatedly making bad decisions since he canned Polian indicates pretty clearly that the Bills outcomes will not improve. The sad fact is that Bills fans face a paradox. The Bills will have great difficulty building a winner as long as Ralph keeps making the horrendous decicsons he has consistently made for the past 15 years.. however, when Ralph dies there is a not unreasonable chance we may lose the team. We fans may well be damned if Ralph dies but also damned to live with a loser if Ralph lives. Changing the coaching staff is simply not going to happen and if it did it likely would not produce a result other than Ralph screwing up the hiring as he has consistently done since Marv produced such a bad result he deserved the boot. Rather than the problem allegedly starting with the current coaches this is my analysis. If you disagree then I think we simply agree to disagree. If you agree that the problems really start with Ralph but neither Rallph nor the current coaches are going any place this season then the question is what do the Bills do to get better this season. My sense is: 1. Get lucky. Given the sometimes sudden changes in who is worst and who is first schedule weakness is difficult to determine with full accuracy based on last years (and sometimes even ear;y season results. Add the unpredictability of injuries and there is a big time MY Lotto aspect to all this (which the deadlock certain predictions prominent on TSW show all the time. Luck is simply a large determining factor in ultimate results. 2. Run an attacking offense with 3 WRs. Is this Jauron's inclination? No. Has Schoenert demonstrated success at doing this? No. Why is this even a reasonable hope then? Because it is pretty obviously a good thing to do given the surprising acquisition of TO and the lameness of the talent we have at FB and youth at TE. The personnel on the roster just screams heavy pass pressure and the possibility of going smashmouth just does not look possible with a lame FB, TEs with little pro experience as pass blockers and a young OL which actually would be greatly helped by a 3WR set that forces the opposing D to go zone rather than put 8 in the box and pass rushes using complex stunts. The early word we hear of more no huddle lends itself to a pressure O even though that is not Jauron's style or Turk's demonstrated expertise. I hope after 3 mediocre seasons the braintrust is desperate enough to do something different than the slow plodding style we went for with the largest OL in the NFL. 3. Increase the sack pressure from our Tamps 2 Base D. We spent our 1st rounder on a sack master and then loaded up on CBs. I think what we may be doing is the obvious of get more sacks and the Jauron style of cover your bases. I think we went heavily for CBs (not only the draft but also FA Florence). While its hard for me to see the Bills giving up on a version of the Cover 2 as our base D, they seem to be loading up on CBs capable of covering downfield rather than the traditional Cover 2 which has the CBs looking to pinch the run first and only doing pass coverage in the underneath zone. Though its hard to teach and old dog new tricks as I think it is incredibly unlikely we are going to get new dogs to coach this team and with three mediocre seasons under his belt, perhaps Jauron will be desperate enough to try something different. If Ralph is being good old Ralph and promising Jauron a job for life as long as he does not mouth off it is unlikely we will change coaches much less require the coach to change.

No. It would be silly and illogical to try to draw some direct cause and effect connection between an event which happened last year and an event that happened 15 years ago. However, though attempting to draw a simple cause and effect relationship would be silly, the post responds to a claim that a fuller explanation of the Bills deficits starts with a look at the coaching staff problems. My post states that if one is trying to identify where the problems embodied in an 0-9 playoff run start one needs to start start at a point prior to coaches who have led us to 3 consecutive mediocre seasons. My simple point is that the definite poore results of the last three season can in no way be a starting point for a record of mediocrity and struggle which dates back 6 years prior to the current coaching staff time in charge. Do you disagree or do you somehow maintain that the current coaches are to blame for the previous 5 years or failure or that we should ignore the previous 6 years reults when assessing the 3 years of demonstrable mediocrity. Which is it or is there something I am missing in my math?

I disagree in that the coaches are certainly key and an essential part that one can and should fault for performance. However, fish start rotting from the head down. As deserving of fault as Jauron and the crew are for the results achieved the buck starts (and stops if one insists on blaming one person though the reality is that the only way to win is as a TEAM so one loses as a team as well) with Ralph. Ralph deserves great credit or keeping the Bills here when he likely could have cashed in big time if he sold them team at several points he could have. However, it simply defies reality not to give both the deserved credit for the early 90s not to also plant the deserved blame for our 0-roughly a decade playoff drought. The current drought for success by the Bills links pretty directly to: 1. Ralph could not maintain a good relationship with Bill Polian who clearly deserves tons of credit for building the 90s team and led Indy to an SB win eventually. 2. Ralph did well in surviving the Polian chop by promoting Butler to the helm, but the fateful choice he and Butler made to wait a year in getting a replacement for Jimbo (leading to the rules violating and my guess HOF honor for Ralph delaying handshake deal with Kelly and even worse for the Bills reaching for TC and then rushing him along as a replacement for Kelly) leading to a series of QB debacles which still plague us. 3. Ralph and Butler ended up with a toxic relationship that forced us into the deal with TD. 4. Ralph was so pleased to get TD he gave him the keys to the car without the needed checks and balances. TD was so abused by getting run out of dodge in Pitts that he made a number of bad decisions here which proved fatal for many 5. Ralph has mismanaged completely HC relationships post Marv (Ralph completely bollicksed the parting of ways with Wade Phillips, then let TD hire GW as HC when what GW really offered was that he was a beatable administrative assistant to TD rather than a true HC, letting TD hire MM and then badly managing the canning of TD and the forcing out of MM,and finally seeming to settle for mediocrity with the Jauron and Brandon leadership to a mediocre result. I thank Ralph for all he has done, but the simple fact is that the current Bills mediocrity started before Jauron got here so claiming it starts with him is simply a misread. If you want to claim it starts with Jauron then how do you explain the playoffless streak being composed of a majority of misses before the guy you say it starts with was even here?

The big challenge facing Edwards (and all other NFL "leaders") is that the successful leaders manage to both lead and know when to "follow" (be a teammate subservient to the greater group goal) as well. One of the main faults of so-called leaders in our society is that their only response to a crisis is to jump out front and demand/expect everyone to do as they do. The truly effective leaders are good at parceling out the opportunities for others to lead and collect the glories of victory. Simply demanding all of these over-pampered athletes to follow the directions of some self-appointed leader may work in the short run if you force a TO to shut up, force and Evans to man-up, or force the HC to be aggressive. However, in the long run, these overly proud men will find a way to assert themselves and often at the cost of true team unity. Edwards needs to demonstrate not only the ability to be out front and win (a difficult thing when opponents are trying to beat the snot out of you) but also an ability to lead from the rear or behind the scenes and allow other players to feel (sometime the illusion) that they are in charge.

I'm still trying to figure out why we drive on the park way and park in the driveway.

Somebodies in the Bills braintrust went out of there way to acquire Florence so clearly they have something in mind for him such that it does not strike me that Florence's fate is going to be determined by cap issues.

If he shines in ST play that is how he makes the roster. Folks tend to focus too much only on position play, but in this case I do not see him beating out McGee, McKelvin, the recently acquired Florence, or the contractually obligated to Corner for the first 4 CBs slot. After that, he is dueling with vets Youbouty and Fox , jumping over the more highly regarded Harris and the S/CB playing Byrd simply to make a roster that takes an expanded number of CBs that will be a lot of them if they keep merely 6. The odds are incredibly stacked against him doing better than making the PS. The early reviews are good but a little hype at this point is a pretty thin straw for him to make the team.

I doubt any of the Bills opponents are shuddering because the Bills aint done nothing yet. The key for the Bills strikes me as the coaches need to design and run an O that lets these players achieve up to their likely level of capability: 1. Evans has proven he can be episodically great but appears to have not been consistently great as the Bills have not had reasonable production from their #2 WR and the Bills have yet to mount an overall effective O (you may have some other theory that lays this on Evans toughness but I have not seen any compelling case made this is true so please make it if you can). 2. TO has produced HOF numbers in his career but proven to be a cancer for a team a year or so after he gets there. I see no problem with him dropping off from HOF #s and still be a far more productive #2 than we have had (and Evans has never had since Moulds imploded in this role). Do you disagree and if so for what reasons. 3. Parrish clearly has great speed and on PR has demonstrated he can be a very good open field runner. I agree durability is an issue, but ironically this probably stems in part in that though his body is to small to take consistent pounding he is not afraid to rumble. On the face of it if you buy into the concept that both Evans and TO deserve consideration of whether you dt them that this creates a problem to be addressed when you add the threat of Parrish speed and openfield ability to the mix. Again do you disagree and if so why. 4. Reed was a big time disappointment for a Biletnikoff winner. He is not good enough to be a #2 much less a #1. However, why do you see a problem with him being a #4 if we have 3 alternatives ahead of him (translate that to mean loaded). Even if (and likely when) he is pressed into service because Parrish goes down the demand of him is that he re-enact the accomplishments of his rookie year when he showed he could pick on zones caused by Moulds and PPs threats. I like Reed as a back-up #3 IF abd Evans/TO threat is established and actually more likely if we run an empty backfield as we did several times last year. 5. and 6. when you add to these assets the possibilities offered by much ballyhooed but still disappointing but you can't teach tall Hardy and the actually more productive Steve Johnson as your back back back-ups it hard for me see how anyone can deride this group based on quality. Will the coaching braintrust actually not put these players in a position to make the plays they can make. Yep, this is quite possible, but its pre-season and we have an unbeaten record so why anyone would not see the potential here is not really logical iMHO.

The thing which made this loaded observation different is that the Bills have not simply the subjective pre-season claim of being loaded but in fact they have devoted their cap room to this area greater than any other. The question is really a more objectively measurable bang for the buck. IMHO this is: Evans- BFB- Not yet. He is paid like a Pro Bowler but despite some great demographics (his speed his real and he has shown an ability to make catches in traffic) he simply has not been a consistent producer. The sometimes outstanding performances lead me to conclude that him not providing the bang for the buck is likely due to his never having had a #2 that forced the opponent not to focus on him. We have seen what can happen when the other team stupidly chooses to single cover him (over 200 yards receiving in one game and a 3 TD game in another. I have no problem with him being a part of declaring us loaded even if you want to label him subjectively as untough. TO- BFB- We will see. However all the signs point toward this working out for at least a year. TO is aging as you note, but actually this is one thing that makes him fit well here because he is not our #1 WR Evans is. The two things operating in the Bills favor are that even if TO continues to degrade in talent as we all do as we get older, a fall off from his previous Pro-Bowl worthy achievements are still far better than anything we have had at #2 since PP teamed with Moulds. The second thing is that TO has a demonstrated record of being a prima donna cancer for his team. However, the demonstrated record is that his first year with his teams have been great and it goes downhill from there. If TO has even a declined from HOF production and is on tolerable behavior for the one year we have him under contract, this is a great thing IMHO. I easily can see him being part of a claim of being loaded. I think you are simply wrong in your subjective cut on Evans but agree with your description of TO as aging, but the answer is who cares if an aging TO should prove to be far more productive than our recent #2s. Parrish- He was a number 2 because of his speed. The Bills have never really made consistent use of that capability, but this strikes me as a problem more rooted in our coaches than the player. Parrish has proved to be an excellent player on PR duty. His production in this role shows that his potential speed and his open field running ability are actually the real deal and not mere wishful thinking. For this watcher also, I have been impressed with Parrish's willingness to play the slot with such a small body. I think he has demonstrated the heart of a football player with his PR accomplishments and some examples of tough work in the slot. However, from his immediate injury in his first camp to a few dings he has suffered in season I think his heart is actually bigger than his small body. I think we should go with 3WRs as our base O, with Parrish in the slot. I think Evans will often demand a dt due to his speed and proven ability to lay a major hurting on a team with his plus 250 yd. game and multi-TD games (he will not and has not done this every time, but has done this enough he forces the opposing DC to dt him to stop him in that one game right now). I think even an aging TO is unlikely to be a fulltime #1 WR threat as he was in his youth, but we plan for him to be a #2. His RAC ability really demands an over and under dt on him as well. Adding Parrish and his speed threat in at the slot simply force the opponent into a dime or the zone. Parrish is likely to not survive the season, bu no matter, if Evans and TO get off to a hot start then even without the Parrish threat Reed gets to re-enact the situation he did well with as a rookie when he used the dt demands of Moulds and PP to allow him to pick apart zones with his even more precise route running now that he is a vet. Add to this mix that this team can also throw the big body and disappointing as a rookie talents of Hardy into the mix and the surprisingly good production of big boy (6'3") Steve Johnson into the mix and I think by any objective view this team is loaded at WR.

I think of Lynch as more of an idiot than a thug. For me, it would be an impossible to deal with problem if Lynch really had a thug lifestyle where he had to go out and routinely and randomly attack folks (if this were the case the Bills should run and not walk from this contract). However, Lynch seems to me to be pursuing other juvenile interests (drinking and partying on Chippewa, thinking he is so important someone is gunning for him and the other idiocy that a handgun is gonna actually protect him if someone is gunning for him) and in the course of these other misguided things exercises incredibly stupid judgment. Yes, I think this is a problem, but it is not an issue (yet) for me as the long arm of the NFL is disciplining this little boy in hopes that he starts acting like an adult. For the Bills in the cruel world of contracts, Lynch provides enough of a performance upside that makes him a problem worth trying to deal with until he actually demonstrates a thuggish lifestyle which drives him out of the NFL(ala Pac-Man and Chris Henry seem headed that way). The Bills would be foolish to view this as some choice between Jackson or Lynch when he seems clear that as a 1-2 punch these two players make each other better. Lynch needs disciplining as he is getting it, in the interim, the Bills being able to put forward a front of Jackson, Rhodes and Lynch (once his suspension ends which I suspect will be cut down to 2 games if he is keeping his nose clean this spring and early summer). However, simply calling him a thug seems like drawing conclusions based on his outward appearance rather than how he gets along with the team (reports I hear are the generally he is a solid guy unlike drug fiends like Travis Henry or true thugs like Pac-Man.

As tough as it is for folks to do the thing to do on this one is to just wait. Some folks are already screeching about someone in the police dept. saying their not investigating (a comment which was either someone who does not know jack simply being stupid or it was simply a flat out lie by the police to put the idiots involved in his killing at ease). I know its summer and folks are looking for entertainment, but this is the same drive that saw a chunk of society foolishly give too much attention to whether Gary Condit killed Chandra Levy (only to be shocked when reality hit us hard on 9/11). In this case I think it would be appropriate if folks simply let the investigation go where the investigation goes and let the theories be informed by facts which will be revealed later. If folks want to be entertained right now, it would nice if they could find in a few days of thinking about how we all take life for granted too much, then a few days remembering the good things about McNair running through walls. Then finally with a week or two for allowing reality to play out in the investigation then folks can entertain themselves with the True Crime aspects of this sad case. A thought likely to be rejected by the entertainment mavens but just a thought. R.I.P.

Does anyone know what typifies the Gators's version of a spread offense? I have always liked the NFL versions I have seen run not simply because they were dynamic passing attacks, but actually because given the right type of talents at RB I think the spread is actually a more productive running attack than the traditional student body left or lead blocking smashmouth FB which is traditional NFL fare. With the substantial investment in WR talent this team has made it seems like a no-brainer to me that our base O should be a 3 WR set. Evans has proven that his speed forces opposing DCs to consider dting him with over the top coverage with orders not to let Evans get by them and underneath coverage which prevents him from simply cutting off his route from the backpedaling DB and make a simple catch for first down yardage. A few teams who felt they had great coverage CBs have tried to single Evans with some success against the Bills without a consistent take it to the house threat anywhere else in the O they felt they could take the risk. However, a few games like Evans' best where he racked up over 250 yds receiving in one game revealed the perils of this approach. Besides the Bills only got marginal production from their #2. Neither Fairchild nor Schoenert had shown little ability use the receiving talents of their RB (Even the much hated McGahee showed how poorly the Bills used him as he uped his catches from the mid 20s as a Nill to 43 for the Ravens). Evans could be focused on with little penalty to pay and he still occaisionally had breakout games due to his raw speed and talent. Add in TO who even in decline accomplished far more than the Bills previous #2. The standard coverage for TO was also tho dt him over and under because TOs proven RAC ability demanded he be covered tightly underneath but if he got behind the DBs then good night TO. Now if it was me in charge (which thank gosh it isn't since even bigger disasters would have befallen us). I would spread things out even further by using Parrish in the slot (where he has been an incredible gamer with freakish speed shown by the stopwatch and great broken field moves demonstrated in his punt returns). Pairing Evans and TO (if TO simply has the normal slow decline with age and no rapid plummet) in itself may force opponents into the nickel in order to sorta dt both. Add Parrish into the mix and force the opposing DC to put his fastest guy on either Evans or Parrish (the other gets a slower guy) and also to put their best cover guy on either TO or Evans (the other guy gets their second tier coverage) and it actually pretty much forces the other team into a dime or the zone because of our soread. Now it gets really fun because the dime or zone lets Lynch who rarely gets bought down by the first hit (a good thing since the Bills OL was great at pass pro but never established itself in the run game) gets to avoid the gang tackling that comes with the opponent putting 9 guys in the box (a side effect of the power game we used to try to run ineffectively with the biggest OL by weight in the league. Add in the no-huddle to put additional pressure on the D (which should help our too-young OL alot as opponents will not get the time and substitutions they want to run a lot of stunts and tricky rushes on our likely 2 rookie guards, new Bill C, and an RT and LT who started at other positions last year. I like the pieces of what I see. I simply hope Schoenert is up to the task of attacking with it (a trait he has not demonstrated in the past, but the TO acquisition makes this so obvious he has to try). Heck, even though I think Parrish was undertutilized in the slot last year, my guess is that his heart is bigger than his small body. No prob though as McKelvin in a PR threat that might sit Parrish anyway on PR though he is one of the best in the NFL. Likewise if Parrish does not survive to start 16 in the slot, Reed demonstrated in his rookie year with Moulds and PP demanding twin dts that he can pick apart a zone. I can't wait!

The first question is to the asker as do you mean start immediately or do you mean start at some point this year. To the extent you mean start immediately unfortunately to whatever the extent the answer is yes for anyone it simply points to the Bills likely being in big trouble. This question simply underscores the usual factual occurrence that even in outstanding years for draft talent only a hair over 50% of 1st round choices are #1 at their position on the team's depth chart in the SECOND season for drafted players. There tends to be a large bias in who starts among 1st rounders to the top 10 (makes sense as not only are these quality players but the top 10 picks are usually unsuccessful teams with plenty of clear openings). If the Bills are starting rookies immediately it generally is a sign of how bad things are. My specific sense is: Maybin- no because with the rotation system the Bills will use on DL this question should not matter anyway. Maybin's extraordinary skill set that made him a high pick is actually as a third down or second down and long pass rusher so doubtful he will be relied upon heavily for 1st down. Wood- likely 1st year and probably immediate starter due to his quality that got him taken in 1st round and the FO self-immolating on the OL with the loss of Dockery/ Peters and Fowler and the likely position moves of Butler and Walker. Likely starter at LG as the Bills want to strengthen interior push and Hamgartner presents as a smart guy (47 our of 5o Wonderlic and started a majority of games last year but at a variety of positions giving him a knowledge base to call signals for all. Byrd- likely eventual starter at FS but has little playing experience there since he was an SS there ib college. Still, the two safety roles are not disimilar in the Bills scheme, and Whitner seems clearly able to play both slots so he likely will start at SS.. As soon of a former Pro Bowlers son is ready he is expected to start this year. However, though looked upon with disdain for his production since his surprising rookie year Simpson may get bumped but will fight to stay a starter. Byrd has a few folks excited by his productivity in college (he got something like 7 INTs) but the question remains if he was that good why was he still there late in the first day when the Bills got him. If he starts it may well be because we are so inadequate at FS rather than him being a world-beater at FS. LeVitre- sounds like a good player who slipped out of the 1st round (where if he had been taken it is a possibility that he could be expected to start at some point this year) to the 2nd round where the concept of him even starting this year would seem to be wishful thinking at best. Yet, it looks like he slipped not due to some deficit in his play but because he is demographically too short to play tackle. The Bills hope to address this problem by putting him in at G. Will he start at RG this year? Yep, probably though because we have been so bad at OL development and management. This does not bode well for us developing and managing this game youngster into being a starter for us at RG. Nelson- Personally I think it is silly for us to have him start immediately (and likely at any point as he learns this difficult position in his rookie year). The word on him from what I hear though is that we actually are so lame at TE that my sense is that our offense would be most productive if our base O has 3 WRs and minimizes TE use in 09.. We will obviously need some of the capabilities a TE brings from time to time. but having an H-Back who is a hybrid FB (another position we suck at) and TE is a more likely bet for us than to count on Nelson and the needed back-ups if we are going to use the TE a lot to master this position. Nelson sounds like a great guy who can become a fan favorite, but a good Pro TE takes a year or two to master the position and Nelson easily strikes me as a yeat away from being someone to rely on. Even if lightening strikes and he is great the team needs a back-up capable of both blocking like an OL player and catching passes like a WR and I do not think we have that back-up. If Nelson starts and plays a lot pretty much write the season off. Harris- (Nic) Has ST written all over him. Again if this is the best we can do for a starter fuggetaboutit for 09. Harris- (Cary) ST guy Lankster - ST guy Saying someone is an ST guy is not an insult in my book and I am glad to have 'em. However, the more rookies start for us the worse of a sign it is. The fact that we might well see 2 rookie starters is mostly testimony to how badly botched the OL situation is.

QWhen one hears a set of facts in a newstory which do not make sense, I think it usually is a pretty safe conclusion to figure it is a poorly reported story (some reported facts are simply wrong or key facts are left out). Its usually pretty difficult to conclude from a series of bad or incomplete facts what is bad or incomplete about them. Garbage in/garbage out. This is one where clearly one needs to wait for more facts before drawing any legit conclusions. If one insists on drawing legit conclusions it creates and obligation to go get some more facts or if not to simply offer condolences but for the most part shut up and wait.

Yeah, but the question of WHY someone is your favorite is a big part of what makes this interesting and the quality of their play which is often indicated in the stats and the question of who was BEST are keys to why many judge a player as their favorite. For me Reich is my favorite in a large part because Buffalo became my hometown through marriage and I had not Bills favorites during the day of Darryl Lamonica when my heart was still in my hometown of Chicago. In the past 20 years and a little change which saw me become a true Bills fan (my birthtown Bears won an SB in 85 and as the love of my life drew me to Buffalo prior to the end of the 80s my allegiance to the Bears was done as my life changed (ironically I root for Buffalo where they have pro teams in the NFL and NHL and have left the Blackhawks and Bears in my rearview mirror, but I still maintain a significant rooting interest in both the Cubs and the Bulls where we have no major league alternative). I can see why LaMonica makes the list due to his accomplishments but I tend to think of his total career and categorize him in my rooting heart as a starter quality player with the Raiders and his Buffalo back-up duty though critical to the Bills championship runs is actually still a blip on his career screen. Reich epitomized the favorite back-up QB in my mind, because he actually could be a back-up starter who gave the Bills a good chance of winning whenever he started. AVP was a good back-up because he could come in off the bench when called upon and save the team (largely in my opinion because the other team gave up and rested on their laurels to some extent because they knocked Kelly from the game- something I have dubbed the well-documented AVP effect). However, if the opponent got the least little chance to prepare for AVP (there was a NE game here he started where they prepared for an owned him and a game against the Jets were their coverage scheme designed for him fooled him badly) he was great as a fill-in but sucked as a back-up starter. Reich actually was not as good of a fill-in as AVP, but he was an unparalleled back-up starter. One of the main advantages he had was that there was no illusion he was gonna take Jimbos job. The QB controversies inherent in RJ being injury prone and JP being mismanaged at best made Flutie and potentially JP good QBs but actually lousy back-ups. Reich could come off the bench and the team play one of the best games ever and in retrospect have us not miss losing Kelly for up to 3 games, and best for a true and my favorite back-up QB there was no QB controversy. The lack of a QB controversy also gave the starter a trusted second set of eyes on the game as well.

In general, I think the lead post in this thread sought to focus on the issue of why not trade Dockery for a very late pick rather than release him rather than looking for comment on his quality (or lack thereof) of his play, I think asking the question this way was an intelligent move as it focused discussion on the technical and timing issues involved with making a trade or cutting a player rather than the (often fact-free) opinions of whether he could lead block or not. However, as this technical question is fairly well answered in this thread so far, I think that the questions regarding opinion on his play are legit and interesting. From my memory of watching the Bills games I do not remember Dockery as being such a horrible liability as a pulling guard. It was not a notable part of his game (but the the ability to pull is not the central element of his skill as a Bill as for example Fowler did demonstrate clearly to me a number of times that actually he was quick and good enough to be a pulling center but this good skill in now way outweighed the fact the team showed zero push up the middle on short yardage. I think you are more correct in identifying the huge contract signed by Dockery as being the root of his disappointment for the FO and the Bills were willing to take a contract hit (writing off his bonus simply as bad money and valuing getting rid of him whether it be by cut or trade before the next bonus payment kicked in which would have them throwing good money after the bad money. My sense of the Bills disappointment with Dockery is not found in his pulling ability but: A. The Bills could not generate much or any push from the interior line on short yardage play. I think like in the loafers but very bright Fowler, disappointing Dockery and likely shifted from D to RT Butler are gone from their interior line positions because of this failure. B. Separate from his production on the field, my GUESS is that the Bills were willing to give Dockery such a huge contract with the expectation that he would assert himself to be positive leader for the OL (Kent Hull played this role for the best Bills OL ever). On the contrary not only did DD fell to fill this leadership void but as one of the few players who had any substantive contact with Peters during his holdout, rather than be a leader who urged him to play, DD either took his side or simply remained silent. I think the Bills were disappointed that the largest OL in the NFL seemed to fail to throw its weight around and could not even control the middle of the field during crunch time. I think Dockert's fate was sealed as a Bill when at best he failed to be a mouthpiece for management regarding Peters and actually probably took his fellow players side. Despite blocking for 2 plus thousand yard years for Lynch and the run game showing some positives with Fred Jackson and even setting a record for fewest sacks given up by a Bills squad last year, the FO clearly had it out for the entire left side of the OL (gone), their C (gone) and even rearranged the right side of the OL. Given the demonstrable successes mentioned above in this paragraph it seems clearly to be more than simple on field issues which has seen the FO essentially tear out the OL page of the roster and start over.

This a bog reason why I hope that we can go with a 3WR base O. This would help the OL immeasurably as opponents would be forced to go to the nickel and take a passrushing LB or DE off the field to simply cover the WRs. In particular I hope that Parrish proves to be consistent enough as his scary speed and open field running demonstrated in his punt returns forces the opposing D to put a fast good cover guy on Parrish. This in turn means that Evans is facing a slower guy, TO a lesser cover guy or vice/vice/versa and putting sackmasters or running complicated stunts (again particularly against a no huddle giving the opponent little time to plan or call complex Ds, I think the Bills are loaded up quite nicely (IF) the Turk is up to the task. We will see.

This to me is the key sentence fragment. All the toughness, smarts, and predictions this or that is an individual player is starter talent will be worthless unless these players develop and show a chemistry together. The key player is Hamgartner who apparently will be doing the line calls. IF he is a good enough vet to recognize changes and make the proper switches with authority. If he is a good enough player despite the fact he has never really broken through to be much more than a reliable back-up and a sometime starter. If the rookies are not under so much pressure to start and perform that they simply get overwhelmed being relied upom THEN maybe this will work out. Its gonna be very very tough to pull off. We better go no-huddle a lot and 3 WRs that force the opposing D to play the dime or nickle (Evans, TO and the speed og Parrish) to keep the opposing D from having time to plan stunts and tricks as our young OL is talented but will need a lpt pf help with so many young players.