transient

Depends entirely on the scenario. If this season was about advancing in the playoffs with a hope for the SuperBowl, then veteran depth would be a valuable thing. However, in a season that is more likely to be based on player evaluation, keeping a replaceable player like Mitchell around and paying him money that could be spent elsewhere is foolish.

To be accurate, Thigpen's numbers were what they were, however he was a third string QB playing cuz of injury to the other two QBs on a team with no defense. Given the offense on this team the last few years, I think fans would take 18 passing TDs in 11 games. I don't think Thigpen is a starting QB in this league, however I think Gailey got all he could out of him. He hasn't turned pigs*&t into ProBowlers, as someone suggested, but he has designed offenses around his player's strengths. His offenses were successful behind such inauspicous QBs as Kordell Stewart, Jay Fiedler, and a host of other second string has beens. There are 4 young QBs on this team and IMO, with the exception of Fitz, all of them have the tools to potentially succeed. Give the man the chance to evaluate them and see what he can get out of them. There was no QB in this year's draft with the potential to come in this season and be more successful in this situation than what we already have. Nix has said all along that if you bring in someone else who doesn't make the situation better, you've only compounded the problem. Regarding LT, I'd love to play poker with those that insist something has to be done now. There are two LTs potentially on the market, and now SD's LT doesn't want to sign his tender. The only team that comes up as a possible destination is Buffalo, because everyone knows we could use a tackle. That's three sellers potentially, and one buyer. We don't need to make a move before training camp, and realistically not even a week or so before preseason starts, as I'm sure a starting caliber tackle can probably pick up a blocking scheme and cadence on short notice. So, why not wait for the market to come to you while evaluating what you already have, which is a couple of young players with potential who ended up starting too early last year because of horrible decision making and a kharmically challenged slew of injuries. Why spend money or burn draft picks when you don't know what you have in place currently.

My tastes vary, as well. HUGE IPA fan though, especially the Imperials. Love most of what Dogfishhead and Stone brew. Also a big fan of Avery's Maharaja. Unfortunately, on moving to Houston I've found a general lack of good beer on tap at a lot of places, so now I just drink my tears... especially on game day.

I am glad to see they finally brought in a QB coach who's done it for a while to work with their young QBs. Expecting both your QB coach and your QB to learn on the job is a recipe for disaster.

I had heard Dos Equis had approached him to be the new face of their "Most Interesting Man in the World" campaign so that they could stop paying him royalties to use anecdotes from his life.

Trent's problems are more mental than physical (you know, with the exception of that whole injury thing), so if "the light goes on," or if this offense makes more sense to him (or anyone for that matter) he could improve. I'm not a huge advocate of any of our QBs, but unfortunately the one with probably the best (and biggest) head for the game is also the one who is woefully lacking in talent.

While this may be the case, the problem for Fitz is that we've seen what he has to give. He's maximizing his potential. He's not going to get any better. If he's starting opening day, we're screwed.

Really?? I would have thought that everyone on this board immediately following a game was stone cold sober.

The whole problem right now, as I see it, is that we don't know where the holes are, because we don't know if we have the players in place at those positions or not. Who knows if Hardy or Johnson can fill the number 2 WR, or Easley for that matter. We don't know yet if Nelson can fulfill his potential at TE. We don't know if the young guys can fill the holes on the line, and we don't know if any of our QBs can play at a reasonable level. And on, and on. The only thing that is certain is our secondary is set. The FO tried to fill the holes they KNEW existed with this draft. Now we'll find out, assuming Gailey's philosophy is sound, who is serviceable, who is not, and who is the answer at their position for the foreseeable future. Evaluating a players performance based on the last several seasons is akin to gauging someone's swimming ability by whether or not they survived the Titanic disaster.

I gotta say, if all I did was write inflammatory blog posts in my early 20s when I was drunk (and honestly, not even all that inflammatory), my mid to late 20s wouldn't have been spent dealing with the mess. The path to maturity is different for all, as is the scenery along the way.

Has anyone seen my taser?

I've seen mention of Sanchez's success in a number of places, and I personally believe his "success" was the result of the best running game in the league and the Jets defense. He may have played a few good games, but overall he looked like a rookie. YDS CMP% TD INT RAT 2444 53.8 12 20 63.0 Hardly awe inspiring. The fact is he wasn't expected to win games, he was expected not to give them away (like he did in that trainwreck in Buffalo, 5 ints, and a final QB rating in the single digits). I think Flacco and Ryan are more of an exception than the rule, however they were also the beneficiaries of having solid teams in place. As for the Bills in the last decade, they haven't had a solid core in place probably since the Bledsoe seasons, so it's no surprise that the growing pains of young QBs are magnified, especially with the nightmare OC merrygoround we've had in place. When you're expecting a rookie QB or even a young QB to be the reason you win, you're usually setting them up for failure. If you want a young QB to succeed early, you need a dependable running game that can produce even when the opposing defense knows your gameplan is to run it down their throat, and your defense can't get routinely torched for 200+ rushing yards.

Didn't mean to imply that you were suggesting they don't play the youngins. Was using your post more as a jumping off point of saying I think there is a youth movement afoot, and unless Nix and Gailey feel what they have is destined to fail, I don't see them bringing in anyone soon. I see Green at RT, either Meredith or Bell at LT, and Wang and the loser of the LT battle as depth, as well as Calloway and Levitre if need be. I agree that Bell was not ready, but neither was the offense in general. Meredith looked ok toward the end of the season. I think they go with one of the young guys in order to figure out if they need to draft a LT in the 1st or 2nd, or pick up a free agent next season when maybe there is a better selection of UFAs. At WR, I see them going with Hardy or Johnson as #2, and a combination of Parrish, Hardy/Johnson, and Spiller in other formations. Again, unless there it looks like a disaster early, I wouldn't expect any moves. I really think Nix is taking into account the total ineptitude of the previous coaching staff in player evaluation.

I don't think the current regime knows what they have in Bell, Hardy, Johnson, Maybin, or a host of other young players, and if they bring in someone to fill those spots on the team they will not find out either. Hardy, Johnson, and any young player healthy enough should have been mandated to play as soon as DJ was fired last year, if not before when it was obvious the season was a loss. By not playing them, they took an obvious losing season and made it a total loss by not even using it for talent evaluation, effectively forcing the new regime to do it this season and eliminating any chance of them being competitive early on. It sucks, but it is what it is. They will never know if the young guys can play if they glue them to the bench.

Neither did the goofy kid at school with the funny last name, but HE got one.

3 yards and a cloud of... spunk?

Uhh, they both talk funny... and Nix says things that make me laugh... which so far makes them more entertaining than all of last season.

IMO, for this year to be a success, Troup, Carrington, and Easley have to show enough to suggest they will adequately fill their intended roles in the next 1-2 seasons, Spiller will have to show that he has the playmaking abilities that he was drafted #9 overall for, and enough other guys need to step up at whatever position so that going in to next year's draft and free agency we do not have more than 3-4 MUST positions of need to fill. Oddly enough, outright failures that we can turn the page on would also be helpful. This, to me, would be a success regardless of W-L record.

Uhh, for the record I never got the clap from a Haitian hooker, either...

I never got the clap from my bike...

This is telling. And based on watching that PAINFUL offense the past few years, as well as TEs seeming reluctance to throw people under the bus or open himself up to the media, most likely true.

They're installing a new defense, whereas they played the cover two for three years prior to last season. If they weren't installing a lot more this season than last I'd be really concerned. Anyone else finding it a bit... suspicious/annoying/telling that it's Donte "I guarantee we'll make the playoffs" Whitner that has so much to say now that the old staff is gone? Methinks he's in love with the sound of his own voice/de-activated twitter account... Can you say "Diva," or maybe "Drama Queen?" The only person I'd have less interest in hearing from at this point would be Maybin. And for the record, this is not a reflection of what I think of them as players, just as media whores.

Not saying it's not impossible, as steroid use in high schools is (or was) an epidemic, but on the flip-side in the right setting a teenager can bulk up pretty quickly. I was 160# at 18 during my sophomore year of college, and bulked up to 195# in just over a semester. It coincided with working out 3-5 times per week during my last teenage "growth spurt". Nothing artificial.

Depending on where it occurred, I could see a guy going 55-60 mph being launched 100 feet with ease (since this is a football site, think of it in terms of ~30 yards).

There are 2 sides to this argument. Having owned a motorcycle myself, I can say that there are an unfortunate number of people who do not know how to react to them while driving their own vehicle; from tailgating, to not checking blindspots or blindly pulling out of driveways, to not liking motorcycles on the road and intentionally dealing with them in an aggressive manor (surprisingly, I find an even larger number of these people when pedaling my Trek, but that is another story). While this ranges from mildly annoying to life threatening, it does not p$ss me off nearly as much as the people riding motorcycles who do things like wheelies on the freeway, or use stopped traffic a their own little slalom course, or treat the slightest bit of open road as a chance to crack 100 mph (and there are a LOT of people out there like this). These people fuel other's dislike of motorcycles, and make life difficult for responsible riders. Don't know which group these guys fell in to, but regardless I wish him the best.