All_Pro_Bills

You got to think Orton must have said that to himself "Hackett is the only guy in the stadium that thinks play action is going to slow the rush or hesitate the linebackers from dropping into coverage, Unbelievable". And at some point after 2 or 3 games he must have said to himself "I've been in the league a while now, I know what works and what doesn't, and this guy doesn't know how to game plan in the NFL or call and offensive game". That, having no confidence in your coaches, has got to affect your game. It's got to effect the entire offense. Is it the only problem? No, but its a big one..

I've seen enough of Marrone. I don't have any ill-will toward the guy but for an offensive guy the Bills offense is really 'offensive', as in awful. Hackett has been way in over his head since the start and his scheme is not working. We can't live through this disaster on offense for another season in '15. I would promote Schwartz to HC, promote Pepper Johnson to DC, retain most of the defensive and special teams staff and bring in an NFL level, competent OC and let him choose the offensive coaches with the new HQ. 1st order of business - identify a credible QB plan to get some competency under center, evaluate free agent offers to retain Hughes and Spiller while fixing the problem in the offensive line for real.

The Raiders defense is 25th against the run in yards per game and 8th against the pass so expect the Bills offensive braintrust to dial up 40+ pass attempts.

I hope Hughes and his agent understand that Jerry's performance and production are a combination of his abilty, the system he plays in, and the players around him. Playing with 3 potential all pro's on the D-line can make life a lot easier. I expect they can agree to a package that is fair to both sides and I don't see this as a 'Byrd' type scenario where the player was intent on going elsewhere. My expectation is Hughes is here in 2015.

I'll throw another name out there. Assuming Tampa gets the number one pick and goes with Mariota what about making a deal for Mike Glennon? 2nd year pro with a good arm some decent but not great numbers, and lots of potential. Career - 19 games, 364 of 619 for 4,025 yards, 29 TDs & 15 Ints with a QB rating of 83.7 with a not so good Tampa Bay team. Also see a lot of Eli Manning in some threads but there is no way on earth the Giants deal him anywhere. I would also take a look at Bradford and possibly RG3 if I could be certain his issues are specific to the situation in Washington.

I think we need to quantify what horrible means. His stats in San Diego 2002 thru 2005 are respectable and to me show a trendline of improvement. And remember the Chargers were playing 'Marty Ball' at the time so the running game had a lot of focus. Truth be told hindsight shows the Chargers didn't need RIvers and could have simply kept Brees and used that pick on another impact player. http://espn.go.com/nfl/player/stats/_/id/2580/drew-brees

No team has a monopoly on idiot fans and while 99% of fans respect each other and the game there's always a few that ruin it for the rest. What you likely experienced was the affect of alcohol on people with limited mental capacity.

Drafting another QB might be the way to go but we'd be looking at using a 2nd or 3rd round pick to do that in 2015. Which college QB coming out in the draft would anyone recommend? And as you stated it is going to take years with this approach. But how long can the Bills keep the strength of this team together, this defensive group? And isn't 15 seasons without a playoff appearance long enough? At this rate most of us will be dead from old age before the Bills make the playoffs. I'd we willing to take a shot at RG3 or Bradford if they're available as a 'short term' but at the same time look to the draft as a 'long term' solution because I think the best approach is not to do one or the other but rather both. To me its not one or the other but a combination that might yield success. I've stopped buying into the 'we need to wait 2 or 3 seasons' approach. We need to focus on the goal of winning in 2015 with a capable veteran (assuming that we agree that's not Orton) and also keep an eye on the future by trying to develop EJ or some other QB's via the draft. Hell, even look at the CFL. I'm wondering if the best QB in the Canadian league is better than what we have now?

Nassib is too much of an unknown to take a gamble given the structure of the Bills team, good to great defense, competent special teams, and an offense lacking a competent QB and O-line for what seems like forever. If you're think 2 or 3 year plan or something like that maybe but the front office needs to think next season. What about guys like Newton, Locker, Cutler, RG3, Bradford, if the price is right? I'm not advocating any one of them but I cannot foresee any scenario where the Bills trade for a guy that's been sitting on the bench for two years behind Manning in NY and all of a sudden he's going to come in here, light it up, and make this offense highly productive. If I'm going to take a risk its going to be on veteran with a known body of work where I know what I'm getting, flaws and all, rather than some crapshoot.

There you have it, the core of the problem. We all know you need a good QB but what are the options available for next season? Through the draft, the current roster, free agency. We can debate the degree of impact of a better QB relative to other problems but who exactly are we expecting the Bills to go out and get that will solve the problem?

Woulda, coulda, shoulda. All teams make mistakes in the draft. Some are more obvious than others. The Bills made some drafting mistakes, maybe more than other teams. But what's not apparent in the present becomes clear and obvious with the passing of time and the availability of more information. If every team knew Brady was going to be what he is then he would have been the #1 overall pick that year. But not one team saw it including the Patriots who basically stepped in 'it' when the took a flyer on a QB with a late round pick. A stoke of blind luck, not design or planning, or skill, or knowledge lead to their dominant run. Hey, I should have bought a couple thousand shares of Microsoft in the 80's instead of that new car and married that rich girl I was dating too!

Both teams have been caught in a constant cycle of rebuild and inside this cycle has been many mini-cycles of various coaching staffs and front office personnel. The goal here is to settle on a system that works and have competent people in place that can run the system which translates to success on the field. I expect the Browns to stay on course with minimal adjustments this off season but with the Bills new ownership is a wildcard and its not clear what plans are or will be put in place by TP/KP. Does Marrone and the entire staff stay? Will they replace the OC? What happens in the front office? We might start to see something right after the season ends but my guess is that JP/KP have done a lot of homework in the background with a lot of 'experts' and have their minds pretty well made up at this point. Both teams have veteran starters with young QB's on the sidelines with some significant differences. JM in Cleveland showed a much higher level of competency in college than EJ. Unfortunately circumstances threw EJ into the starting line up last season and he suffered some growing pains and injuries. And EJ was pulled in favor of Orton this season. The Browns QB situation is pretty well set with the expectation that Manziel will win the starting job next season while the Bills QB situation is up in the air. Will Orton come back next year? Will EJ show improvement after sitting? Will the front office sign a veteran free agent in the off season that is expected to start? Can this QB fill the gap until they identify a longer term solution to the franchise QB search? Will they draft a QB in 2015 or wait until 2016? The big question. Can any free agent veteran QB available in the off season be a difference maker? Or just another fill in? The difference maker between challenging for the division and making the playoffs or not making the playoffs? Lots of questions and no answers right now. When free agency starts after the SB things might get interesting. This is the #1 issue holding this team back. Give me a top 10 QB and I'm pretty confident this team is a playoff team this season. Both teams have built good defenses. The Bills get Kiko back next season. WIll Spikes return or will the Bills be happy to move Brown to the middle and use the cap money on another need? Will there be money to sign Jerry Hughes? Both fan bases are loyal and long suffering. We share a lot here. It would be fun to see both teams rise to the top and battle it out in the playoffs a couple times.

The Packers are an 'average' 3 and 3 on the road this season so maybe we up the percentage to 50/50. But the Raiders are playing better ball having won 2 in a row at home with that 52-0 drubbing at St. Louis thrown in the middle. So I don't see this game as the sure thing it once was earlier in the season. And the game at New England? Sure there's a chance but looking at the Bills recent history of 'must wins' can you really expect something different than a 3 or 4 turnover 11 penalty blow out loss to end the season? While it keeps the interest level high these mathematical scenarios are unlikely and I wrote off the chance of making the playoffs back when they lost the KC and Miami games and dropped to 5-5. A split of those would have left them at a more favorable 8-5 but 7-6 is what it is and they need to jump 5 teams in 3 weeks to catch the 6th spot.

In the NFL the ref's call the game in a very situational manner. Which teams are playing, where is the game, who is the home team, who is the 'better' team, which players are involved, the score, the point in the game, etc. They lack consistency. And let's call it what it is, favoritism. Sometimes they know they made a 'bad call' and try to fix that as evidenced by the obligatory 'make up' call on the next play. Who hasn't seen that? It's not just the Bills who are ending up on the short end of the stick here. But some teams are good enough to overcome these mistakes by the officials. However, the Bills are not. Going into Denver as the underdog against one of the league darlings this is the treatment I expected the Bills to get from the officials so its no surprise they got flagged so much. It's up to ownership to address these problems and discuss them privately within the league.

I don't think there's any formal policy of bias in the league but its obvious that individual officials and crews, along with league officials have established an informal culture to hold different teams and different players to different set of standards. Seattles secondary can climb all over receivers all the way down the field for the entire play and not get called for illegal contact but the Browns or Bills cannot. Gronkowski can push off the defender to get separation on every single play but Candler cannot. Hughes gets called for taunting but JJ Watt does not. And on and on. When we had the replacement officials a couple years ago I liked the fact that their mistakes were at least unbiased. Only when a marquee team got screwed in a pivotal game did the league look to bring back the regular officials. That said it all to me at the time and spoke loud and clear of the need to restore the bias immediately.

Marrone shoud be thinking short-term here. Like job preservation. If WIlliams really can help the Bills score in the red zone he's a fool for not playing him, regardless of his antics and comments. If I'm ownership and I know my head coach didn't play a WR that could have helped the team with their most obvious problem because of some grudge or personal issue then I am going to seriously evaluate my options with regards to the head coaching job. Do I want to keep Marrone or replace him with 'my guy'? Also, WIlliams should be smart enough to realize this might be the end of the line for him too.

If the Bills played the AFC and NFC south divisions this year like the AFC north they'd probably be 9-3 right now. But probably Miami would be too..

I think Denver sat Manning once before in last years Super Bowl. Or maybe it just seemed that way?

The number of passes targeted for Woods and to a lesser extent Hogan in recent games would appear to counter the argument that Orton is 'forcing' a high number of attempts at Watkins. I suspect Watkins injuries are hampering his production and play. The Bills offense suffers from a lack of big plays and red zone production due to some combination of execution, personel use such as no use of Mike Wiliams known past proficiency in the red zone, and play calling. The first is up to the players and the latter two can be corrected by coaching staff decisions.

Just like the Bills did against the Giants in SB 25.

The Bronco fans should be confident but their team is hardly unbeatable. When NE mopped up the field with them a few weeks ago I concluded they don't deserve another Super Bowl appearance off that putrid performance. Their run defense stats are supported by a high scoring offense rather than some dominant play up front. Still, they have some great players, when Manning is 'on' he's almost impossible to beat, and being home is a big advantage here too. For starters, the Bills 'D' needs to give them a physical beating similar to what the Seahawks gave them in the Super Bowl. I think they're up to the task here. And the offiense needs to get a little more creative. While I don't expect a win I do expect a battle.

I think Coleman's crew had the Broncos/Chief on Sunday so its unlikely he'll be assigned to a Denver game two weeks in a row.

The big difference between the Saints and Bills in your example is the Saints put up 5 TD's with Graham getting lots of attention and the Bills 1 and a lot of FG's with Watkins being the focus of attention. Until they 'hurt' the defense and force them out of their coverage schemes of keying on Watkins with some significant points on the board from mulitple TD's they'll continue to face this strategy. Along with the other obvious difference being the OC dialing up the right calls and the QB executing on them.

All the Bills have to do is finish 10-6 by beating Oakland on the road and winning 2 of 3 games against 3 of the top 4 teams in the league each of which is lead by a future home of fame quarterback. Given that, to me 14.3% seems too high. They screwed the pooch by losing to both Miami and Kansas City in that 5 day stretch where getting a minimum of a split was needed. The defense should hang tough but I find it hard to get too excited with an offense that cannot score red zone TD's. FG's are not going to beat Manning, Rodgers, and Brady. Not that its impossible but something has to get fixed and fast for any kind of miracle finish to happen.

A college offense? Yes, watching a lot of college games yesterday a lot of teams were running the Bills offense. But getting better production than the pro version. Next season we need to dump the college 'O' and get a 'real professional offensive system..