Sisyphean Bills

How open was Rice? Wow.

Want to talk about talent evaluation?

What was that 3rd down play anyway?

TJ Graham with the good hands... or not.

That's an understatement. How about "blow out of the building"?

Yep. 4 scores in 4 drives. Wannstedt's got this D rolling.

Marshawn Lynch. Who's that guy?

Can they go 4 for 4?

You don't say.

Defense is a joke.

He should have been standing tall and patting the ball in the <cough> pocket behind Bell, Chambers, Hangman, and two rookies. No question.

Didn't Seattle already trade us one of their backup QBs? What was his name again? Can't recall.

Ever the optimist.

http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/ol The Bills are 29th overall in power football. Maybe, Chan knows something.

2009: The Bills played the NFC South and AFC South and only 1 of those teams finished with fewer than 7 wins. 2012: Not done yet obviously. The Bills playing the AFC South and NFC West. The Jags will not make 7 wins. The Titans and Cards most likely will not make 7 wins, but the Rams have a good chance. Only the Texans come anywhere close to the Manning Colts and Brees Saints of 09. Looks like an easier schedule than 09, no? As well as everyone that argued the same. I'm not going to speak for the board, but I don't think the terms "talent" and "skill" are really so conflated in the business. Scouts are often called "talent evaluators" and with good precision. A scout is supposed to see past the environment around a player and identify the player's inherent talent and assess the ceiling of his ability. Everyone has heard the tautology "Coaches coach." More precisely it is the coach's job to take whatever talent they have and hone its skills and develop the team and put in place systems that accentuate the strengths of the team. The GM's job is to make sure he has the right mix of coaches, players, and talent evaluators to be successful. Anyway, there's a bit of wanting it both ways. For instance, if we're going to say the team has better depth, are we stating that based on talent or demonstrated skill? It's not fair to say Troup sucks, right? Is it fair to say a GM is doing a great job but excuse poor results? Or pin the blame on the GM's choice of coaching staff? Is it fair to compare the talent potential of a guy that played with a bad wrist to the skill of a Pro Bowler but only as displayed in his last season? Or the skill of a guy with much off-field baggage playing behind one of the worst OLs in an offense called by a rookie coach to a guy's skills behind a good OL in a system designed to maximize his numbers?

So, what could go wrong?

Not really "my definition". http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/skill http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/talent Anyway, we understand each other's perspectives better.

Well, there have been a lot of posts extolling the virtues of having CJ carry the rock over 20 times a game. I knew he was the change of pace guy to Davis his first 3 years at Clemson, so I was curious what he actually did his senior season. He was the #1 RB that season and they got him involved in the passing game and kicking game as well. But, he really didn't get the sort of workload that is being clamored for now. Sort of begs the question of how effective he'd be and how long he'd hold up if they wanted to ride him, like Gailey rode Emmitt Smith or the Bus [edit: or like Frazier is riding Adrian Peterson], no? You raise an excellent question though. This suggests that the Bills will need to get a 1A pounder back, and that could be soon given the injuries Fred is piling up. Drafting a RB is liable to cause a few fans to throw their TVs, computers, etc. PS: Marshawn Lynch would be a pretty darn good workhorse (strictly speaking to football issues).

Larry Fitzgerald should probably be invited to the Pro Bowl in spite of his inept QB situation.

Thanks for clarifying what you think talent means. I think you are talking about skill myself, and they are really not quite the same. But, I do appreciate you clarifying.

4 20 17 26 18 9 14 5 22 18 19 9 20 15 Those numbers are the game by game rushing attempts of Spiller's senior season at Clemson. He only had 2 games at Clemson in which he had more than 20 carries, James Davis was the workhorse back his first 3 years at Clemson and Jamie Harper [Titans] shared the load his senior season.

Nicer catch. Buffalo is 12th in offensive rushing attempts. http://espn.go.com/nfl/statistics/team/_/stat/rushing/sort/rushingAttempts

Aside: I think the idea of trading back into the late 1st sounds extremely Billsian. They took Kelly and Losman with their 2nd pick in the 1st round. Who is Richie Lucas?

Another angle to ponder: Chan likes to throw when the defense stacks the box and conversely run when the defense is spread out in the nickel and playing the pass. Fred and CJ have both had gaudy rushing averages at times in this offense. Pure coincidence? Maybe not.

That list is, uh, least to most. So, the Bills are actually 11th.