Utah John

I just KNEW there was something like that going on.

The player the Jags have looks like the player the Bills had, but he's not really the same guy. The guy who was here was lazy, pampered, self-entitled, and arrogant. The guy the Jags have is motivated, just like he was when he was here in his contract year. Dareus has all the talent in the world. He might turn out to be HOF player in time. He wasn't going to get any better while he was here. And the guy we traded wasn't the player who was in his contract year, trying to impress. He's the fat dumb and happy guy who had his millions and thought the struggle was over.

I'm pretty sure one of the Bills was wearing 666. It's the only valid explanation.

I think they were worried that Darby would follow Gilmore out the door in free agency, and we'd get nothing in return. Also he did have a less good year last year compared to his rookie year. He's playing OK for Philly but keep in mind he's playing behind a much better, more aggressive D line that puts a lot more pressure on QBs. I don't know what kind of influence he was in the locker room. Could be he simply wasn't committed to Buffalo and may have let out that he'd be leaving when he could. As to the overall team, they're pretty bad, but this is exactly the team that we thought we'd have at the start of the year. It's only because they played over their heads and got some lucky breaks that we started thinking playoffs this year. That was never the expected outcome for the year. It was fun while the mirage lasted, but that's all it was, a mirage. The Bills are being built to win in 2019 -- get through this year, draft a ton of good rookies and pick up FAs next near, and have a good team ready to win in 2019. It isn't wait until next year, it's wait until the year after that.

The Bills simply don't have enough great players. They have exactly one, McCoy. Possibly Haushka. All their draft picks that should be paying off now, are gone. Watkins plus the guy we didn't draft in order to get Watkins. Dareus. Gilmore (although I never thought he was really that good). Darby. Woods. Hogan. Gillislee. Karlos Williams (not the Bills fault there). Manuel. So many busts or guys who lacked the professionalism to strive to win. So where are we? The O line good players got old this year, and the bad players aren't improving. The WRs strike no fear, so the box gets loaded and the running attack can't get past the first wave. (OK, McCoy got a couple of holes today and showed he still has it.) The D line that was so outstanding a couple of years ago, which was so deep it could roll two complete starter-quality D lines out there, is down to an aging Kyle Williams, a double teamed Jerry Hughes, a wannabe Shaq Lawson, and some guys none of us can name. None of the LBs seems to have the ability to understand what gap they're supposed to fill and to stay there, or to defend against passes over the middle. The DBs were playing above their talent level but apparently the other teams have figured out what our safeties are doing, and they're running routes to expose them. 6-10 or 7-9. Take your pick. The difference is where we draft. The only game we really should win is next week against KC, to hurt their record and improve the position of our extra first round pick. After that, tanks for the memories, 5-2. The good news is we got to November before blowing up. The bad news is we've done that before and never made a step forward the following year.

There are four reasons the rushing attack has fallen apart. First, lack of credible receivers lets defenses put another player or two in the box. Second, Taylor was not running as much as he used to, and his yards made a big difference in the rushing rankings. (Who's fault is it that Taylor isn't running? His, or the coaches? I don't know.) Third, the O line is not as good. I fear that both Wood and Incognito are falling off the age cliff, before our eyes. Glenn is still hurt a lot, and the right side is still a disaster. A lot of the problem could be traced to Castillo, the O line coach, or could be due to age an injuries. Either way, the O line is not as good as it was. Fourth, coaching. Dennison simply didn't want to carry forward what was working before. In his defense, he could have noticed the first three reasons I mentioned and realized it wasn't going to be good enough to keep doing the same thing. One other reason -- Tolbert is just not as good as Gillislee.

Rob Johnson looked great in his first start too, leading the Bills to trade for him. The point is, it takes a while to evaluate what a QB can do. It's good the Bills are taking a look now.

Lots of draft picks coming up next year, and the guys cast off by other teams are probably feeling like rent-a-guys who will be replaced with more talented younger players next year. Still, you'd think players in that situation would at least be playing hard to try to get held on next year.

My wife took one look at the Seahawks unis and said they have Gumby on their team now.

Every team has a crap game at least once a season. This is a wake-up call that they need to keep making the effort the did before, and take the breaks when they're delivered on a silver platter between the 2 and the 4. These guys are professionals and will get what passes for their A game back. New Orleans at Orchard Park -- a home game against a strong opponent. I think they'll have no trouble getting up for this one.

There is no way it makes sense to cut multiple players on a playoff-bound team for a draft pick NEXT YEAR. Create holes NOW on a tight-knit team, eliminate depth we'll probably need later in the season, "reward" players who have been making good contributions by cutting them -- you've got to be kidding.

About trading Watkins and trading for Benjamin -- There are some secondary considerations that make this a win. 1. We got a second and a good player for Watkins, and gave up a third and a seventh for Benjamin. Win. 2. Watkins is in the last year of his rookie contract and was not going to re-sign in Buffalo. He'll be a FA after this year (and probably a Patriot next year). Benjamin's option year is picked up so we keep him next year too. Win. 3. Watkins was not a good influence in the locker room. Beane and McDermott know Benjamin and they wouldn't be bringing him in if they didn't think he'd be part of the process. Presumed win. 4. Watkins little, Benjamin big. Probable win. 5. I don't know if it's possible to have too many draft picks in one year, but the Bills might have found out. They had too many in 2018, to be able to absorb so many rookies into a tight knit veteran team. Look for the Bills to package more picks to move up on remaining picks.

What the Bills are doing is sometimes called addition by subtraction. Get rid of certain people and end up with more than you started with. What they're doing is establishing a core of team-first players. They will bring in a boatload of rookies next year who will find out what it NOW means to be a Buffalo Bill. When Dareus, Watkins, Gilmore and others found when they got here was a group of guys, not a team. The purge is now complete, I think. The Bills are doing much better than I expected considering that the purge also cost them a lot of their top talent. Their success is really important because it validates what McDermott is doing. He could have done the very same things, but if a couple of the games had gone the other way, there would be terrible grumbling. As it is, this is an exciting, tough team to play and I haven't had this much fun watching them for years.

The Bills are an imperfect team in a league of imperfect teams. For once they have their heads on straight, they're working together, playing football good enough to win most of the time. They did addition by subtraction, building the team's interconnectedness by getting rid of the prima donas. But, they also got rid of some real talent. So they're winning by putting good not great players out there who are devoted to each other. That formula will work most of the time. But our offense is just not reliable enough. I do not blame Taylor, I blame thinning out of talent at WR, TE, and O line. The Bengals tried hard to give us that game and we couldn't accept. The Raiders gave us four turnovers and except for Milano (on defense) we didn't do much with them. There will be games where the O just can't get it done. They will probably lose a couple of games they should win, the rest of the way. 9-7 is within reach, and 10-6 is manageable. If they beat the Jets (NO guarantee about that) they'll be 6-2 and just need to split their remaining games to get to 10. They're halfway to the magic threshold of 10 wins. They beat the Broncos, a likely wild card competitor, which is very good. But they have to play two good AFC West teams on the road, and the head to heads with the Dolphins will be opportunities for the fish to derail the Bills. I don't know if they hate us as much as we hate them, but those will be tough games. And Brady. He and Grouch are watching all the Bills tapes, taking notes on how to carve up that defense with quick passes. Their offense is really good. There are some tough games ahead and the Bills will lose some of them. They've moved up to the top third of the league but they'll have to keep struggling to stay there. One caution: The Bills are one Shady hamstring or one TT anything from disaster. Chicken counting is hazardous.

The biggest lesson I am taking from this season, so far, is that character and heart are far more important than people have been thinking. Most teams and fans focus on the measurable factors (speed, time in agility drills, weight lifting, jumping, etc) and no one pays attention to the intangibles. Whaley drafted some real locker room cancers. Young kids coming in at 21 thinking they're God's gift and just entitled to show up and get rich. Some of them outgrow this, learn to take their craft seriously, take care of their bodies, and work hard every day to improve. Some don't do this. The guys who work hard must shake their heads or throw up in their mouths at how much the lazy slackers make. The guys who have the intelligence to figure out how plays really work or don't work, must have the same reaction about the dotards. I look at guys like Hyde, Poyer, TT, Kyle Williams, and Eric Wood as examples for how players should approach the game. Not all of these guys are the most talented at their position in the NFL, but they are all strivers. I look at Jerry Hughes and I see a guy who's grown up and become one of the leaders. I look at Marcel Dareus and I see a tremendously disappointing, highly talented but lazy prima dona. Hughes and Dareus are buddies, so why did one guy turn around his game and the other guy just piss away his chance? Put aside for a moment all of Watkins' injuries, which clearly affected his performance. He was just a bad guy to have in the locker room. Why didn't Whaley find out about that? Why on earth did he give up so much to get him, without finding out what kind of man he is? Whaley spent a pick on Karlos Williams, probably the most egregious waste of talent I can think of. So he had a good rookie year, big deal, he couldn't act like a professional, take care of his body, stay in shape. Gone. Chris Hogan would fit in great with this year's team. So would Gillislee. The fact that they're not here is a major failure of Whaley. The "loss" of Gilmore is an example of addition by subtraction. The Bills are simply better off without him, and it's just great that NE is paying so much for his services. McDermott and Beane are clearly much more in tune with what kind of person a player is. Also McDermott's style of leadership is helping the players become leaders themselves, and when that happens in any organization, the whole place gets better results.

How was it that Lynch was beaten out by Freddie Jackson in Buffalo? Jackson has far more heart and determination, but Lynch had more physical talent. If he had used it while in Buffalo who knows how things would have shaken out. I say all that as a fan of Jackson -- one of my all-time favorite Bills. But I don't think other teams game-planned to stop him, where the Seahawks opponents probably did game plan Lynch.

Whoever it was who replaced Humber against the Bengals managed to play while invisible. I don't think I ever heard his name called or saw him make an impact. Humber please come back as soon as you can.

I thought it was interesting that on all the replays of Crabtree's catch, they started well after he pushed the DB away. There's no indication from those replays about the obvious foul Crabtree committed. You can't blame the players or the teams. They want to win and they have to play in the environment that exists. WRs and TEs will push off all game, catch a lot of balls and are willing to take an occasional OPI call like it was a tax they have to pay. If they didn't do that, they'd catch fewer balls and be benched or cut. Teams could teach WRs not to play like that but why would they? The NFL is on a steep, slippery slope toward WWF standards. No one will take it seriously, and the fans of actual sports will move on.

I'd be happy to pay for access to Courier-Express articles. If you ask me the wrong paper went out of business.

The only defense I can muster for Dennison isn't much of a defense. It's that the WRs and now the TEs are so talent-deficient that the defenses are stacking the box. There aren't any cutback lanes for Shady. The reason this isn't much of a defense for Dennison, is that this year's WRs aren't much worse than last year's. Watkins hardly played. Woods was better than people realized at the possession game. Now the only option for possession is the TEs, and with Clay hurt, they're too easy to cover. OK, so, you've got a very elusive RB, a pretty good power RB (Tolbert), the best running QB in the league, and a pretty mobile O line. You've got two weeks. Put in a very heavy run-first offense, including the option plays for the QB to run or hand off. Dennison doesn't have Payton Manning here, a great but immobile passer. He has the opposite. A decent passer (yes, really) who runs great. But TT just looks hesitant to run now, like he's having it drilled into his head not to. I agree with the OP that what's going on is a coordinator who's determined to impose his vision on the team, not to use the talent that's there to win. Greg Roman would be a big improvement. He put in the offense that Anthony Lynn simplified to get good results.

The Biils showed you can't win in this league even with a strong defense and a good running game. If you can't throw, you're too easy to stop. Take out Watkins, Matthews, Charles Clay, and Robert Woods -- what would you expect to happen? Andre Holmes is the opposite of a 7-11 -- he's never open. Zay Jones could turn out OK but he's getting doubled. There just isn't any talent left. Kaelin Clay's biggest play of his career came when he was playing for the University of Utah. Utah was playing Oregon when Oregon was really good, and Clay caught a long pass and was running in for a TD that would put Utah up by 14. But the showboat dropped the ball just before crossing the goal line, just friggin dropped it on purpose thinking he'd already scored, and the Oregon defender picked it up and ran it back for a TD the other way. Tie game and Utah would go on to lose and lose a chance for the Rose Bowl. So that's our new go-to guy. It hurt a lot to have Mabin playing in place of E.J. Gaines. And apparently no one playing in place of Humber, whom I'd never heard of before this season, but who showed by his absence how good he is. If Charles Clay is seriously injured, it's tank time. Either that or the Bills mortgage their future by trading too much for a third-rate WR or TE. I'd prefer the tank. Let the friggin Jets beat us twice to get to 5-11 and we edge them out for whoever the second-best looking QB is. Cleveland will take the best looking one and sprinkle poison fairy dust on him, and his career will be over before it starts.

Just wondering if Gilmore has made any tackles this year. I mean, intentional tackles, not where he happened to get run over on the play and couldn't dodge out of the way, so the ball carrier tripped over his prone, inert body. And Gillislee looks like a guy who's a great offensive or defensive coordinator, but lousy as a head coach. As a backup for Shady, when Gillislee came in, he could attack the D with energy and aggressiveness. But when he's on the field all the time, maybe he just can't keep the energy levels as hight

I think the biggest difference between the O and D is that the D plays consistently well much more of the time. Other teams generally get a couple of long drives (Atlanta did better, but with a really good offense), but the Bills force a lot of 3 and outs or short drives. The Bills O sometimes gets it going and dominates, but the next possession is a 3 and out. What's up with that? I really would like to see the Bills get MORE dominant on O when they have a lead. Step on their throat, as the current buzz phrase has it. I don't think this is correct. My understanding is that when the Bills came to him and told him they wanted him to take a pay cut, that essentially released him from his contract and let him offer his services to any other team. He got no takers, at least none he wanted, so he re-signed for less money.

We won't know who the best QB in this year's draft is for a couple of years. It takes some guys a couple of years to find their game. Aaron Rogers sat for a year or so behind Brett Favre, for heaven's sake, and he's the best QB playing now (my opinion). Other guys light up the league for a year or so, and then get hurt (so bad about RGIII, what a waste), or it turns out they played great because their O line and WRs and RB were great and he was not so much. Or the league figures out their game and how to stop it (Kaepernick). For now, enjoy watching Watson and the other new QBs, and watching to see how they develop. If you love football you love watching good players, even if they're on other teams.

He and the other DBs have played very well, but I think a big reason is that the D line is putting so much pressure on the other QBs. If Dareus gets healthy and gets his head on straight (not holding my breath), the D line will be even better and the DBs will miraculously get even better too.