vincec

I'm sure that these tactics would work well with grown professionals in the NFL. Can you imagine him trying to deal with players like TO? It would be entertaining to watch.

I liked the article in the Buffalo News this week that quoted Bill Parcells as saying that most of the many injuries that Miami had before he took over were due to the players not being good enough to protect themselves or being out of shape. I think that's right on. Many of the Bills injuries are due to these same reasons. Brad Butler- injury prone, maybe an indication that he isn't good enough Seth McKinney- not good enough Marcus Buggs- not good enough- probably too small for lb Keith Ellison- not good enough- probably too small for lb Demetrius Bell- not good enough- totally overmatched Kendall Simmons- out of shape (picked him up off of the street and started him right away) Jarius Byrd- out of shape (missed camps, etc) Bryon Scott- not good enough- probably too small for lb Trent Edwards- due to OL not being good enough and his inability to deal with pass rush Ryan Fitzpatrick- due to OL not being good enough

1) Only 1 team in the history of the NFL has had an undefeated season and nobody has gone 19-0. I don't understand why any professional athlete wouldn't want a shot at this. It's worth risking an extra 4 quarters of playing time for your starters, IMO. 2) Even setting that aside, it's arguable whether a team is better off resting starters and playing poorly than keeping their momentum going into the playoffs. 3) There is an aspect of sportsmanship involved. Teams that played the Colts early in the season (like the Pats) should be able to assume that Indy will play their competitors with the same desire to win. It's basic to competitive sports. If this isn't the case then I don't see why every team that has been eliminated from the playoffs doesn't simply rest all of their good players and play to lose out their schedule so that they get the highest possible draft pick. Something tells me that the league wouldn't stand for that... 4) Finally, as a fan, for what I am paying for a ticket, I want to see Peyton Manning and the rest of the starters. If the Colts can pull their starters at halftime, then I should get a 50% discount on my tickets and related expenses (parking, food, etc.).

I also want to mention that I disagree with the basic premise that the Bills need to "clean house". The Bills have many promising young players that should be given a chance to improve. With good coaching, I think that they are (5) starters away from being a strong playoff team: QB, LT, DE, DT and LB. Unfortunately, these are the most important positions and the hardest ones to find, especially QB.

First, the Bills need to keep everyone who can play at all until they have a replacement on the roster. No more release and hope things work out or figure out what to do later. In general though, I would say this:

Why? So that they can audition for the UFL next season?

As if...

On the bright side, they are better than Washington's OL. Part of the Bills problems have been injuries but Washington is starting Dockery and Mike Williams in their #1 group. They just got shut out by Dallas...

I don't think it's TO's fault by any stretch of the imagination. He will turbo out of Buffalo because he only has one or two years left in his career and he doesn't want to spend it in Buffalo...

2. He led our offense to 3 more points than I could have. We could've played Jackson at QB the entire game in the "wildcat" and probably done just as well. He looked the same as Edwards and worse than Fitzpatrick. To be fair to all three of them, they are young and they really can't be judged until they play behind an NFL quality OL, not what the Bills are fielding.

Exactly. The guy is open most of the time, including on the deep pass that was intercepted. He has no chance. The Bills are playing with their 3rd string QB and 50th string OL. People are criticizing him for not breaking up passes? Are you kidding me? He is a receiver not a DB. His job is to get open and he is open most of the time. He is frankly a guy that the Bills should think about resigning, unless you want to see Hardy as the #2 receiver... Unfortunately, TO will leave a smoke trail out of Buffalo when the season is over. I'm sure that he wants no more of this.

I'll bet that there will be a high speed police escort to the airport followed by a sonic boom as he leaves town...

No. Resign the good players, then draft to fill weaknesses. It's very simple. This concept of trading good players for draft picks leads to what you see on the field. If anything, the Bills should be looking to extend Shoebel's career by transitioning him to a situational player or possibly a LE on passing downs where he can face weaker RTs. Of course, this pre-supposes finding his eventual replacement at RE...

Forget signing new free agents. It's a money pit and not worth it in the vast majority of cases. The Bills need to sign their own good players for a change instead of letting them go and then address weaknesses through the draft instead of just trying to fill the holes they just created. For example, if we didn't let Greer go, we wouldn't of had to spend our #1 on McKelvin and if we'd of resigned Peters, we wouldn't be looking at spending next year's #1 on an OT. There are many more examples of this. Ideally, the only reason a player should be allowed to leave via FA is if he's not playing well anymore and you have his replacement on your roster and ready to go.

Exactly. In addition to that, he would probably be doing Brohm a favor by not starting him and getting his confidence destroyed and injured behind the Bills OL.

I love that the Bills pick up players cut mid season by other teams and use them as starters. It was bad enough to pull practice squad players and people off the construction line and start them...

I would make the trade, but I seriously question your proposed switch on defense. Johnson and Stroud as defensive ends? Not to mention that our best defensive lineman this year, Kyle Williams, would now become a backup? Overall, it doesn't sound like much of an upgrade to the DL, especially in the pass rush department. We'd be better off rotating Rogers in with Stroud, Williams and Johnson. He'd be a lot better than John McCargo. If we could simply get a higher draft pick for Whitner, I'd be good with that as well.

I wouldn't say he's distinguished himself in the playing time he's received. As has been mentioned many times, Fewell is trying to win not develop players for the next coach.

Apparently, the Bills didn't think he was any better than who they had at the time (Ellison). Since they are two steps down from Ellison now I suspect that they view June as an upgrade...

Denney and Johnson are solid backups who can contribute on passing downs. Frankly, Johnson has outplayed Stroud this year (which is not good). I have a question, however. If there is no new CBA, won't all free agents next season be restricted FAs? It that's the case there will be very little movement.

Strange how Fletcher seems to always be on one of the best defenses in football. First with the Rams, then the Bills and now the Redskins. Just lucky I guess, I mean it's not like the middle linebacker plays an important role in the defense or anything.

I hope that Brohm does play so that I stop hearing about how he will be the Bills next great QB. This guy couldn't even make the Packers roster as a backup QB and will be playing in a new system, with just a few weeks practice with the receivers and behind one of the worst offensive lines in the league. Something tells me it's not going to go well... The fact is that there are very few QBs in the league who could look good behind this offensive line. I think that even excellent QBs that have limited mobility like Rivers or Brady would look mediocre and would likely be injured just like Edwards and Fitzpatrick. I think that Fitzpatrick has actually done about as well as could be expected given the situation. He deserves a shot at the job behind a better line, IMO.

I wonder why most teams just don't put a lineman back at FB anyway. It's really just a blocking position- they never carry the ball. One would think that a 340# lineman can do it better than a fullback provided that he can move.

Dockery and Williams looking good. What kind of team starts OL rejects from the Bills??!!

If the Bills don't bring in new DL next season the DL play will fall off a cliff. Everyone except for Williams is on the downside of their career and they are just average players to start with...