Utah John

Two points. First, the Bills were playing the NJJ in NJ, a week after the NJJs almost (shoulda) beat the Patriots in Foxboro. Tom Brady a week earlier was 20/37 for 261 and three TDs, and he was fighting hard for the win all the way. I think Orton could easily have had 400 yards against that secondary if necessary, but he did enough to win easily, he didn't get pummeled behind our rotten O line against the Jets great pass rush, he didn't throw any picks or do anything to light a fire under the Jets -- let's just enjoy the win. Second, it's the season to talk about coaching moves, and I think the biggest threat is that Schwartz becomes the new HC of the Jets next season. The Bills pulled a rabbit out of their hat when Pettine left suddenly, but who would Schwartz's replacement be? And who's the better coach, Marrone or Schwartz? The Jets will get their personnel situation figured out in 3 or 4 years, and if Schwartz is still their guy, watch out.

Weather determines the outcome. Bills can't run behind that O line, whether Fred is back or not. Chiefs run run run and can't pass. On a snowy field, advantage Chiefs since our D line won't get traction. Dry field, Bills.

The 1999 team was one covered kickoff from a very realistic run to the Super Bowl, where I think they would have beaten Saint Louis. This year's defense has its strengths but let's not get carried away.

So basically this move stashes a guy away for the rest of the year. The Bills still have to pay his salary, but they don't have to cut or waive him where another team could pick him up. Maybe they want to keep him around to compete for a job next year. But, he's not in a situation where he could latch on with another team that needs safety help right now. To me, this sounds like an abuse of the IR category, which I thought was to be used when a player is actually Injured and therefore put on Reserve.

Look not only at current ability but at future cost. Some of the Bills strong D linemen will get big pay raises next year, particularly Jerry Hughes. He deserves it too. But the Bills have a lot of money already locked up on the D line and he will probably not be here next year. I would try to re-sign him NOW and if that doesn't work then trade him. Seriously. Jarius Wynne has been playing well enough to take snaps away from Mario Williams so one of them could switch to the RDE position, with plenty of backups remaining. The Bills have a nice problem with so much D line talent but it's still a problem nevertheless. And the weakness on the O line is appalling. This is the kind of tough, hard-nosed, cold-eyed move that Belichick makes ever year or so, that has kept his team younger and stronger.

Not only did the Bills waste a 3rd rounder on Graham, they actually traded up in the round to be sure of getting him. Not the worst pick in Bills history, by far, but still pretty disappointing.

Under the unspoken rules of the NFL, it would have been disrespectful to put EJ in to mop up. Disrespectful to the Jets. To Orton. Most of all, to EJ, who needs to get past this time and get his head back around the idea that he's a starter, not a mopper-upper. I really think the Bills' plan is to let Orton play this year and next, while EJ sits and watches like Aaron Rogers did, and then let him take over.

The Bills have a better record playing outside New York State this year (3-1) than at home (2-2). This is a good trend. It has a lot to do with the strength of the team being the defense, especially the D line.

Hey, Doug, my eyes are up here!

Most importantly though, the personnel will still be very good, provided they pony up the cash to keep Jerry Hughes. Yeah, I think Hughes will be the first salary cap victim. Jarius Wynne will be next year's Hughes. I love Hughes, I think stealing him for ...gosh I can never remember that guy's name... is a major reason the D is so good this year. But there's too much money on the D line and too many holes on the O line. Something has to give.

Here's all I can think of in defense of Hackett's play calling yesterday. Napoleon said, 'Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.' The Jets were clearly not in gear and seemed determined to screw up. The worst thing the Bills could do was toss an easy pick six or fumble on an exposed play like a screen, and give the Jets a chance. So the Bills had all those runs into the middle of the line, all those three and outs, all those 3 minutes of possession time that did nothing for us but gave the Jets less time to do anything of their own. So now and then Orton would pass, and that worked out fine. It was boring but still satisfying watching the game bleed away while the Bills slowly built up their margin of victory.

I think the key isn't Kiko or Spikes, it's Schwartz. He'll want to leave if there's any HC job available. I hope there's someone on his staff who is picking up his system and who won't follow him to Schwartz's next job as (dare I say it?) HC of the New Jersey Jets.

Another nice problem to have -- none of those guys are really getting old. Mario Williams and Spikes have been in the league a few years but have lots of mileage left. Kyle Williams is not slowing down at all and probably has three or four good years left. The rest are young guys with many years of dominance in their future. We should face facts that we won't be able to keep all these guys. We have at least 7 starter-quality D linemen. If Brown and Bradham develop as expected, and Kiko returns, and Spikes comes back, I pity the opposition. But from our perspective we have too much talent to keep everyone, other teams will raid the Bills and overpay. There will be some tough decisions ahead about which ones to keep and which ones to let walk. The cold hard calculation is to let the older guys go (KWill and MWill) but KWill provides such leadership, we need him around particularly if Fred Jackson doesn't come back at full speed.

The Bills are fairly consistent from week to week. The Jets are wildly inconsistent, and it usually comes down to whether good Geno or bad Geno shows up. I realize the Vegas experts have to set a betting line but if Geno is the QB I'd almost take their games off the board. If Geno played against the Bills like he did against the Pats, it would have been a different game. I'm assuming the ridiculous play calling that Hackett inflicted on us was just a matter of not doing anything to interfere with the Jets self-destructing. No turnovers, no freebies, play good solid field position, score a few times, and watch the other guys shoot holes in their feet. If the Bills needed to move the ball more, they could have done so easily by passing almost every down. Every single run up the middle was a waste of a down. The Bills O line can't block the Jets' good D line, and I will have no idea whether Brown or Dixon is a legitimate runner until they get a chance to run through an actual hole.

I haven't read all the posts on this topic so I apologize if I'm repeating something, but keep in mind that the Bills gave up a lot in the trade for Rob Johnson, and there's always a push from the front office to make their deals work out. I think I remember that Ralph Wilson was personally involved in the trade for Johnson, after watching Johnson look incredible with his former team in ONE GAME (I think he went 22 out of 24 passing). So there was always this controversy, that by playing Flutie the Bills were holding back on developing Johnson. Flutie was a great competitor and leader, and we remember when he found ways to pull out a miracle win. We don't remember the losses or the times he didn't get the job done, when a more traditional QB like Johnson might have succeeded. We will never resolve this but the outcome was a big contributor to the disaster of the last decade.

Geno Smith has good games from time to time. Hard to predict when the good ones will be. If he's on, our mediocre DBs will be the difference. If not our D line will devour him. That's why they play the game, because you never know how it will go.

There are a couple hundred pitches in a baseball game so the players have a chance to adjust if the strike zone is different than usual. A football game has fewer plays, but more to the point a given particular situation will come up only a few times. If holding is going to be called or not called for a particular technique, there is no chance to know that ahead of time, and the impact could be a drive stalling or being kept going. The point is there's a real need for consistency all the time, in all the games, because there aren't enough chances during a football game for the players to know what the rules du jour are.

Well there were two teams on the field. The Vikings were playing the role that the Bills usually play, finding a way to lose. The Bills are simply a better team than Minnesota, which was usually the case in the past when the Bills snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. Nice to be on this side of the divide. Talking about capriciousness, Scott Norwood probably makes that SB kick 7 or 8 times out of 10. But he only got to try it once.

Branch was a very good DT on a Bills team overstocked with great DTs. I'm surprised no one else has picked him up.

Thanks for reminding me of the name of the guy we traded for Hughes. I had to google it before I saw your post. For all the dumb personnel moves the Bills have made, that one sure panned out. A completely lopsided win for the Bills. So I wonder how long the Bills can keep this D line together? Mario Williams is locked up for several years. Can the Bills afford to pay both Dareus and Hughes? There are younger and cheaper (and not quite as good) DT replacements for Dareus already on the team, and very few DEs, so my guess is we let Dareus go if one of them has to. But what a loss that will be. And does anyone know how long Kyle Williams is signed for? I think the professionals in the NFL, much more than the casual fans, recognize KW's value, so it could be expensive to keep him too. I would keep him over Hughes actually because he's the locker room leader on defense. I'm guessing Fred Jackson might have one more year left and he's the other leader on the team. Bad mojo to let both leaders go.

I was going to mention Shula's position on the rules committee but noticed you had done so. I am old enough that my football consciousness goes back further than that, and I recall the Bills going 0 for the 70s at the same time that Shula had that position. Now the Bills are losing almost as regularly to the Pats. Probably coincidence. I'd be shocked, shocked otherwise.

It's interesting that Marrone benched his second-year QB who was stinking up the place while learning on the job, while he's letting his rookie O-linemen stink up the place while they learn on the job.

The title of this threat indicates Orton made a ton of unforced errors. In truth he played pretty well. Probably a B or B+ considering the last drive and what he had to overcome. If you saw Fitz stinking up the place last night, or recall EJ against the Texans, you have to feel pretty good about Orton.

He picked the Jets to sweep both the Bills and the Dolphins, and to beat Pittsburg, but to lose to the Vikings. Really?? Granted the Steelers aren't a top 10 team this year, but the Dolphins and Bills have both beat teams the Jets have lost to. Just like the Bills played down to a weak team but won last week, the Jets played hard against the Pats and the Broncos two weeks ago and still found a way to lose. I have seen this movie enough times with the Bills in the starring role to recognize a sequel when I see one. I am not saying the Jets will end up 1-15, but 7-9 as this guy predicted seems crazy.

When Watkins breaks all of Andre Reed's records and gets into the HOF his first year of eligibility, will we stop talking about this then? Geez. The draft is a crap shoot. The Bills are lousy at picking first rounders. There is no reason to believe the pick they would have saved next year would have been better than Losman, McCargo, or Maybin. For that matter, Manuel, who was also a first rounder. You can make a case that the Bills paid too much to move up just a few slots, but only for now -- once Watkins reaches his full potential that discussion will be moot. The Bills had no first rounder in either 1988 or 1989, and did pretty well -- not having first rounders is not necessarily the kiss of death. Jones' injuries are keeping him from his full potential but he could still turn out great. And, take a look at what Cleveland did with all the picks they got. http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/05/16/greg-littles-release-leaves-browns-with-one-player-left-from-julio-jones-trade/