vincec

... like the Vikings play this year. I can see that, but I still like having the DTs penetrate. As a former interior lineman, I hated nothing more than quick DTs who were good at getting penetration. However, this means that the LBs need to be bigger and more physical so that they can take on free blockers. Enough small LBs.

You mean parents that don't want their kids locked in electrical closets for having a concussion? Yes, I know lots and lots of them...

Maybe I am, but for some reason I always liked the guy...

Following the Shottenheimer coaching tree, I see the following guys: 1. Bill Cowher 2. Herm Edwards 3. Jack Del Rio 4. Jim Haslet 5. Russ Grimm John Fox is off of the Chuck Noll Tree (like Dungy)

Nix said all the right things at his press conference and in his interview. That's nice. Talk is cheap. Now we'll see if he can really get the job done. Step 1: find a head coach.

I doubt that Rivers would play well behind Buffalo's OL. He is not mobile and the strength of his game is his arm strength and downfield passing accuracy, both of which are of limited use if you have to dump everything off immediately due to the pass rush. Maybe someone like Kurt Warner or Drew Brees could look good here.

Who cares how complex an offense is? The only thing that matters is how many points they score. Look at the Chargers offense, it's pretty simple and they're scoring like crazy. Marv once said that good teams do the ordinary things extraordinarily well, not extraordinary things ordinarily well.

I don't think that this is true. The PSLs were sold when the stadium was built to help with funding (no public funds were used in construction) and in order to keep your PSL you need to buy season tickets every season. No one forfeits their investment of several thousand dollars in a PSL by not buying season tickets. They sometimes try to sell off the PSL or the tickets for financial reasons and many times people just don't show up at the games (especially in the PSL seats that are corporately owned), but the seat has been sold and the Panthers have the money. The few single seat tickets that are not tied to PSLs were sold in a few days before the season started. Basically, although the stadium may not look full on TV, the seats have been sold.

Movie was a classic and one of my all time favorites...

Defensive secondary is outstanding and very deep. They lead the league in interceptions and held Brady to one of his worst passing games ever a few weeks ago. This is being done with McKelvin out for the season and Byrd, Florence and Whitner all banged up a missing time. Imagine if they could stop the run and force teams into more third and long situations or if they had more than one player who can rush the QB.

This article (and part ii as well) is very interesting. Thanks for posting this.

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.