All_Pro_Bills

If there is interest in the Safety position in round 1 and there is injury/durability concern with Hooker then Jabrill Peppers could be a potential alternative.

If you think the Bills are 'the' QB away from competing for the division with New England and a potential conference championship game team next year then making a play for Rivers would make sense. I don't. I see this team with some potential cap issues needing upgrades at several positions which needs to come via the draft and free agency. Specifically on defense at LB and in the secondary. It might take 2 seasons to fix and adjust everything to the new systems that will be installed. Rivers, at 35, is at the age where you ordinarily see a big drop off in production. So maybe you get a year or two out of him but by the time the rest of the team is ready he's likely to become more of a liability than an asset at the QB position. So then you've likely given up some significant assets, either players or draft picks, to get Rivers but he's not elite anymore and you've depleted your future picks at the expense of a present that never pans out. The answer is finding a long-term QB solution through correctly evaluating draft prospects and putting yourself in the position to make the right pick at the right point in the draft. Whether that means staying put, or moving back, or moving up if needed. Unfortunately, the Bills track record at this is not good. My expectation is that the new blood in the coaching ranks with different eyes on the draft will show some better results in the 2017 draft.

I've been saying this too. TT has his faults that we painfully see each Sunday but what is the alternative to Taylor the team's masterminds have in mind? Hoping some recycled free agent works out? Hitting on some yet unidentified QB in the draft? Making a trade for some high-mileage veteran one hit away from retirement? Given their track record of nailing the QB search my confidence is zero any of these will work out. Hoping the new HC will have some heavy input and some rational and realistic plan emerges.

Don't know anything about DeCosta or how the Raven operate but if I was running the show I'd take a look. Something the Bills will not do here since Whaley seems safe for at least another season. The Ravens are one of several teams that always seem to hit on a majority of their draft picks. And they're not always drafting near the top of the round. Others like the Steelers, Packers, Seahawks identify and draft players that become contributors and starters. Of course it helps these teams are set at the QB position too. The Bills on the other hand cannot recognize a 'good' QB and got more or less nothing out of this years draft class. If you go back a few years and review their selections maybe you count a handful of guys they hit on. It;s pretty depressing how bad they've been at the draft for so long. Stating the obvious but being able to identify a QB and lousy drafting are the biggest problems with the Bills.

My wife keeps telling me Jim Kelly should be head of football operations for the Bills because he's 100% on board with wanting this team to win. I say he's got other things on his plate like charitable foundations and has to watch his health. I don't know, maybe she's right?

The initial problem with the Bills org structure is this co-CEO set up. How can you have two owners? A husband and wife. What's the dynamic between the two? How are decisions made? How many other owners have their spouse sitting at the table as an equal decision maker with them? You need one person in charge, either Kim or Terry. And Whaley's answers at the press conference concerning his role as 'general manager' were disturbing and makes it sound like nobody is setting clear goals or actions here. The way the Bills are run sounds like an intervention is needed similar to the TV shows Bar Rescue or Restaurant Impossible. If you've seen either you should get what I'm saying. Clueless owners running a dysfunctional operation that need help from an expert. That path wasn't taken 2 years ago and it appears it will not be taken now. The frustration is this would be relatively easy to fix if ownership was willing to take the actions necessary rather than do what they are comfortable with doing.

Floyd was a great waiver pick-up by NE. Explaining the claim Belichik said later that he didn't know his blood alcohol level was around .21. But nobody followed up and asked him so now that you know that are you going to release him? LOL. Its was no-lose for the Pats. Floyd getting released now has something to prove and he'll be another good target for Brady entering the playoff. Now with a chance for a SB championship. And any legal action will likely be postponed to the off-season and NE has no legal or financial liability as he'll be a free agent. All they're on the hook for is the pro-rated amount of his 2016 contract. I'm surprised another AFC contender like the Steelers or KC didn't think to make a defensive claim to keep him away from Billy B. But I suppose that's what makes him the evil genius one step ahead playing chess while these other guys play checkers.

Injuries aside, the way Watkins has been used by the Bills offensive minds reminds me of how another Bill was utilized early in his career. For those of us old enough to remember, OJ was more or less a decoy in the backfield before Lou Saban came back and built a running game around Simpson, the only RB in NFL history to rush for 2000+ yards in a 14 game season. Any new OC has to dial up #14 20 or so targets a game. Does anyone recall one WR screen to Sammy? I don't but I do recall it was a frequent call from his college days. Maybe our coaches need to check this out too as another way to get him more touches.

Yup, it was a tank and I thank them for it. As I was watching the game for reasons unclear to me, I said to myself please don't win this game and for once the Bills came through. I not sure what all the hate is for Tyrod. He did exactly what he was expected to do at the start of the season. The team's objective on offense was to run the ball effectively and throw in some passing attack when needed. Protect the football and minimize mistakes. They accomplished this and although they didn't beat a team with a winning record except for Brady-less NE I'm not blaming Tyrod and the offense at the end of the season. The other part of the plan was to let the leagues #1 defense keep the opposition off the scoreboard. Give me 17 points and we'll win every game, right? The defense and Rex by extension just didn't perform. The entire 1st game against the Jets, 2nd half at Miami, the 1st half at Seattle, Pittsburgh and at home against the Dolphins, this defense just plain sucked. How many short-fields did this defense give to our offense? How many 3 and outs when it counted against a good team? Not many. Sure Tyrod has his limitations but what are the options available? Some re-tread free agent QB or a back-up coming off his rookie contract? These are long-shot bets not improvements. Romo? Who knows if he'd even come here and he's one good hit from retirement. Bradford, Glennon, Foles, and others discussed on the board. Anyone expecting these to pan out is just working with hope and prayers. No team is out there throwing franchise QB's into the bargain bin. The only viable option is through the draft by getting a top pick or by pure luck like Dallas or Seattle or New England. This draft looks pretty light on high-end QB talent. The rational thing this off-season would be to keep Tyrod for at least another season, see if Jones can develop, and look to the draft for a potential sleeper in the draft.

When EJ missed Clay wide open at the goal line on a 15 yard throw that was pretty much it. A QB has to make that throw. No excuses. His accuracy and mechanics are terrible. If people want to blame that on coaching or 'mishandling' then they're in denial of observed reality. By now either he has 'it' or he doesn't. The tape doesn't lie. Seriously, what team is going to be interested in picking him up after this performance?

What are the odds of hiring the wrong coach and GM every time during a 17 year stretch? Or not being able to find a QB? These things aren't random chance or statistical probability equations. You have to be very, very good at being this pitifully bad to pull off missing the playoffs for 17 years. I think the solution is simple. Make a decision on something and then do the opposite. Example - Bills decide to 'move on' from Tyrod. Answer - don't do it. Bills ownership decides to retain Whaley and Brandon. Answer - Fire them. Problem solved, playoffs year 18.

I think it depends on your expectations for 2017. Maybe Jones turns out to be the first-time-starter Prescott story of 2017. Or its a short-term hit but long-term we find our guy. But if they decided to go with Jones the most likely thing would be that it signals a re-start and maybe a 4 or 5 win season. It would mean there are no playoff expectations for next year inside OBD. And the decision isn't in a vacuum either because it affects all the players especially on offense. Do you want to waste away another year of McCoy's tread life? What about Watkins? it will be year 4 for him and after a 5th year option if the Cardale experiment fails I get the impression he's gone unless they franchise tag him year 6. And then what? If they did it my way I'd say they keep Tyrod, upgrade at RT, add a veteran WR, get some help via free agent/draft at safety and OLB, Ragland healthy, Lawson with a full off-season, a new kicker, hit on 3-4 draft picks, and the core returning.

Moving on from Taylor sounds like a plan without a solution. We know it's not EJ. So is Cardale the new 'Plan A'? And they're expecting him to be ready and able to lead an NFL offense 2017? There's no evidence right now that he's ready or will be ready and it sounds like a major gamble at the most important position . And if the team is convinced none of their current QB's should be the 2017 starter then its some available free agent, a trade, of a 2017 draft choice. Forgive me but I don't see anyone out there in free agency or a good QB without some baggage that some other team would be wiling to trade. And the draft looks weak. I see no credible option better than TT. So moving on with who?

The 6 million sounds like is might be simple random probability. You might need to consider that each team has a 25% chance of winning a division title but in the case of the Bills their actual chance of winning the division has been close to 0% given the Patriots dominance. Which leave you with a 16.7% chance of getting a wildcard spot. Statistically, I'm not sure how that works out to odds.

Or they just don't have a clue on how to deal openly and honestly with the press and their fans. If Rex was let go with 1 week to go in the season because he wouldn't sit Tyrod to avoid injury in a meaningless game Brandon and Whaley (and perhaps the Pegula's) should have shown the intestinal fortitude to come out before the press and say that's the reason they made this decision rather than waiting until the final game. The excuse this is the regular coaches PC is weak given the changes, rumors, and confusion that have transpired the past few days. Or was Rex let go early because they wanted to avoid a potential circus atmosphere the last week of the season playing the Jets and also give Lynn a one-game experience as the HC? Or sit Taylor to give EJ a final game to show his worth? What harm could a little truth and transparency do? My problem with management at this point is they appear to be both incompetent and dishonest. I sincerely doubt that is the kind of operation Terry Pegula has in mind and I wish to the Football Gods that the light would come on in his mind and he'd come to the realization these guys are clowns, something radical needs to be done, and he'd clean house and bring in some new blood with an fresh perspective.

I'm not hating the choice of Lynn as the next head coach but I'm more concerned about the selection process than I am about who ends up as the next coach of the Bills. It might be because I'm living in Jets-land and I had more exposure to Rex and his antics, but all the problems you highlight with Rex with the Bills were foreseeable based on his body of work with the Jets. We layed 80 points on the defensive genius in 2 games on his Jets defense the prior season so how much more obvious can it be that his self-proclaimed defensive genius status might be false bravado? I'd speculate that after Rex was hired the majority of the board expected we'd be sitting here in coach-search mode either 2 or 3 years later and 2 years later here we are. It's simply amazing the people sitting in on the decision process can't see the obvious. Apparently regardless of all the evidence to question all his bluster, Rex wowed and bamboozled the Pegula's, Brandon, and Whaley. So unless this is a case of learning from mistakes can we really trust the same process and the same people to make a better decision?

For what its worth, this quote about the decision with Taylor was on ESPN.com article on Ryan's firing. "EJ (Manuel) playing is strictly for injury reasons in Tyrod's deal," one Bills source said. "We already know who EJ is, and Cardale (Jones) is not ready." http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/18358134/buffalo-bills-cautious-tyrod-taylor-plan-start-ej-manuel-week-17-new-york-jets

Something happened in the past and the Jets will not allow players or staff to come on his show anymore. But I think he was correct about Rex.

Yes. For some reason it appeared the Bills coaches had no idea that Miami would be attempting a FG with time running out. When they ran the FG unit out the Bills had 10 players on the field which was likely a mix of the defense and special teams groups. I don't really think screwing up the timeout call mattered because it seems like nobody ever misses a long kick against the Bills. The sad thing is everything else they needed to happen yesterday happened. To torture us further I expect the football gods to dial up losses by the Ravens and Broncos today.

Under different circumstances signing Gilmore to a big deal would make sense but given how poor this defense is the money might be wisely spent elsewhere. This defense is just too slow all over but noticeably at OLB. And the safety position needs a significant upgrade.

But nobody here that I am aware of is getting paid $5.5M per season to coach a professional football team. For that chunk of change there are some expectations and qualifications. One of them might be your team is prepared. And on the most important defensive series of the season after a change of possession with several minutes to prepare for the next 1st down play you can't get a full 11 player set out on the field? Wouldn't you agree that in planning and executing a combat mission that type of lack of detail could get somebody killed? Prior to the end of the game I was on the fence but willing to give Rex & Co. one more season. But this was the last straw so to speak. I don't feel sorry for him. He'll pocket a cool $16.5M as he rides out of town.

The Bills tackling on defense is an embarrassment. Since it's Saturday they're playing like a college team. Cant' blame Rex for this. Simply pathetic.

This is a good point. Until they 'fix' the structure of the organization I'm not sure there's any value in replacing the people every 2 or 3 years. I don't care if its Whaley and Ryan or Polian and Lambardi. The GM needs to have total control of the football side of the team. Deciding on the coach, managing the scouts and the draft, deciding what free agents to target, determining the identity of the team and the long-term approach to offensive and defensive scheme. Everything needs to fit and work together. When he looks for a coach its got to be one that fits and embraces his overall approach. We have a basic approach we take to offense and defense. Can you make it work? I don't want to put a plan in place to build a team around a passing offense and a 4-3 defense and then hire a coach who emphasizes the run on offense and a 3-4 defense. This organization is a mess and ownership's job #1 is to fix it before moving more people in and out of jobs where they are set up for failure when they walk in the door.

When it comes to the Bills I go back and forth with my wife on the topic of negativity. It gets pretty intense at times and I suspect its entertainment value would be much better than a lot of reality shows. She's always positive. Every week she says they're going to win. If she was right they'd be 14-0 and would have won every regular season and playoff game and Super Bowl for about the past 10 years. She seems to think negativity expressed in our family room during the game transmits through the TV and onto the field of play adversely impacting the team's play. My counter argument is that there's a difference between being negative and being realistic. And a difference between being optimistic and delusional. If its one thing Bills fans are good at it is recognizing failure when they see it. And Rex's version of the Bills have that look and feel. He over-sold and under-delivered proclaiming the Bills will be the top defense in the league. Right there he left himself no out where no excuses are acceptable. If some fans want to believe this team is ready to turn the corner with one more year of the same maybe they're right. Who really knows the future. Ultimately I don't blame Rex but rather the blame falls to ownership. They signed off on a head coach that was going to 'fix' something that wasn't broken at the time.

Rex promotes himself as some kind of defensive genius. But I'm still waiting to see it and it looks like we're never going to see that in action on the field in Buffalo. Whether its the scheme/player fit excuse, or the players aren't 'smart' enough, or the defense is too complex its up to the coaches to figure it out and put the best possible group of players out on the field with a scheme and game plan that will maximize their abilities vs. the specific opponents offense week-to-week. Not to put a system in place that exposes their flaws and weaknesses. Not being able to do that in almost 2 seasons here just means to me the coaches aren't doing their job.