hmsmystic

I’ve decided to try and focus on the positives about the Bills situation, so I enjoy next season and beyond, and figured I’d share this mojo with my fellow Bills fans. There are two possible outcomes, one bad and one good, with all the changes. Before I get to the positives, let me first state the potential negatives: Buffalo has not had an effective team strategy or draft for years. Many of the bumbling key decision makers are still in place (Modrak, Wilson, Brandon). Our offensive line is potentially among the worst in the league and actually may be weaker than last year (no Butler, hurt Woods) Our QB situation is among the worst in league. We have only one proven pass catcher among our WRs and TEs We can’t stop the run, AT ALL. OK, that was easy, and anyone can recite those issues and more. Now, the positive side of things: Buffalo has too many holes to fix quickly. The team is likely to finish in the cellar of a very competitive AFC East. However, this new management team is making some good moves. They are focusing on building a competitive defense first. The secondary of the Bills has the potential to be great. Buffalo has taken steps to improve one of the worst run defenses in the league, shuffling to a 3-4 alignment and adding key pieces through free agency and the draft, including a NT. We HAVE to be better on defense now Buffalo’s line backing corps got some nice upgrades with adding Davis and moving Maybin to OLB. Buffalo may be looking to add a franchise QB next year. It is hard to discount how much less guaranteed money will need to be paid to a top draft choice if a rookie wage scale is put in place. While the Bills are rather weak in the line and passing game, they have a stable of big young lineman and 3 good backs. Buffalo looks to be implementing a strong power rushing game, with potential big plays coming from quick hits to CJ Spiller or Play action to Lee Evans.

Had to be done! How else can we establish hope

Let me preface this by giving some perspective on my opinion of our Bills. I love ‘em, but they are poorly run at nearly every level, and I have adopted a “wait and see” attitude over the new brain trust. Bear with me on this post, I’m on a vendor conference call and have some time! Now, there has been a lot of anger and frustration over the beginning of the new free agency period and the Bills lack of meaningful activity. I wanted to post a note about building a team from a non- emotion, Madden Football (video game) or strato-matic type perspective. I am older and don’t play anymore, but there are some lessons to be learned. Building a franchise thru Madden takes the emotion (read: ours) out of the equation and uses some (albeit abstract) math to rate players, teams etc. Consider- the Bills are a terrible franchise- out of the 32, we have got to be a bottom three destination. This really rules out most, if not all, big ticket free agents. Peppers, etc. are not coming here. Take the emotion out of it- there are 29 or 30 better options for them. Now, and this is where the math comes in, we still have to look at our roster. Madden players are rated on a scale of 1-100. As a benchmark, an elite LT (Joe Thomas) is probably about a 90. Let’s estimate our current tackles rankings, shall we? RT K. Chambers 60 J. Meredith 56 LT J. Scott 59 A. Ramsey 50 Awful. In fact hard to get worse (Again I’m estimating the rankings) So the Bills have to look at free agency and then the draft. No big names are coming here right now, so we look at the next group. Cornell Green is probably rated about a 71- not good, in fact marginal at best, and better suited for a backup. HOWEVER HE BECOMES AN INSTANT UPGRADE FOR US. Granted we overpaid for him. He’s probably worth only a bit more than the NFL minimum. But we have to get him, remember if he leaves and gets say a 2 year, 2 million dollar deal from say Houston, he’s gone. By grabbing these stop gap players the team has more flexibility to draft players. Consider that is the draft was today we would essentially have to draft an OT and a NT in the first three rounds. Signing these journeymen just gives us a little breathing room In other words, take the emotion out. Desperate times call for desperate measures. We have to overpay a bit for mediocre talent to sign with us.

I'd wager to say that most of us have never seen or heard of this guy before he visited Buffalo. He looks to be an average at best OT, which is a HUGE upgrade for us and an instant starter. It's probably safe to say that we can expect to see a few more journeyman type signings like this at DT, LB , OL and WR. While the moves aren't exciting and I am not drinking the new regime,s Koolaid, we need these players on the roster- they are starters as of right now! This gives us more flexibility in the draft, and allows us not to reach for players. (assuming we have different people making draft decisions for the Bills this year)

Awesome! That means Nix and Modrak will be there horrifying potential draftees.

Second round

This just can't be true. I don't post much, there is enough blaming and such going on, but dammit- after 10 years of shame and dysfunction wouldn't Martyball be the PERFECT solution? We know he can coach. We know he can fix franchises. We assume Ralph is a (the?) primary reason for the franchise failures but this is just too much if he blocked this hire.

The very existence of this thread is alarming in every way- god forbid anybody points this out to a candidate. In addition to our AIG and Fannie Mae style of fail leadership they would have to deal with Buffalo lawn abusers, during game home thieves and now stalkers!! ....that said go Cowher Power!

All- The Bills ability to recruit and hire a big name coach, imho, has little to do with the climate or market size in Buffalo. (The fact that we sold out every home game this year, again, for a miserable team underscores this) The reason Buffalo can not recruit a coach is organizational disfunction. If you are THE MAN, ala Cowher, you want to work directly for the boss. No big name, with options, will come here with this org chart: Ralph // Russ // Buddy // Coach This is the main reason why Shanny went to the skins- he is making the decisions (with Allen of course) You heard Parcells- if I am going to do the cooking, I want to buy the groceries.