PDaDdy

Again that leaves us with ZERO depth on the DL and a lot of question marks at LB. I have not forgotten who we drafted and the roles they are supposed to be playing but your scenario basically is a best case and therefore somewhat unlikely scenario. At the bare minimum if any ONE of those guys doesn't live up to your high expectations we are going to have the same problems stopping the run. I also don't see those guys playing every single defensive snap either.

I agree. We have WAY too many question marks to have to rely on that motley crew to stop the run. LB Moats is small and is only in his 2nd year. Poz is nothing special even when he is healthy enough to be on the field, Sheppard as a 3rd round rookie LB is unlikely to make an impact. Merriman has yet to prove he is even a shadow of his former self since injury and substance abuse issues were uncovered. DL Moving Williams to DE and starting Troup at NT if he is ready is a good start. Edwards the journeyman and Carrington the 2nd year guy can make contributions but it is nothing to write home about and we have absolutely ZERO depth. Stroud is kind of an odd man out. He played out of position last year and I barely knew he was on the field. We need a lot of talent here. You can argue either way whether LB of DL is of greater importance. If we don't take best player available which would likely be AJ Green or yet another DB I think we have to go for a DL or a hybrid DL/LB. It is way to early to tell but I have a suspicion if Robert Quinn's supposed great athleticism is measurable at the combine he is a lock for us at #3.

Couldn't agree more. KW is the little engine that could and he has proved me wrong over the last 3 years but he is a penetrating tampa 2 DT. He is great at shooting gaps etc but he is not a guy that holds the point and ties up 2 offensive linemen. I said a while ago that KW needs to be a DE in our 3 - 4 front and we need a big guy that can anchor for the NT. There are many variations but the best 3 - 4 defenses have that boat anchor that can't be moved out of the center of the line and ties up 2 guys.

Another way to state that is that Pittsburgh's vaunted defense took down the Jets and made them play from behind all game. The Bears were undone by Green Bays stifling defense who also took out their QB and effectively any chance of victory. Quit being obtuse. Again the answer is both. Great defense AND a franchise QB.

What makes you think that? I provided VERY plausible and dare I say it almost guaranteed reasons for his continued growth. What do you present to the contrary other than the myriad of backup and spot duty starts that he has had through his career????

Live and learn. Generally smart QBs get better as time goes on. Fitz is one of the smartest ever according to education and wonderlick score. Fitz will actually have the benefit of an entire off season as the starter. Buffalo has an offensive mind running the show for the first time in YEARS. We have WRs that have stepped up and shown their worth during a year where we were obviously trying to see what we had. Again with an entire off season and guys coming back healthy like Parrish and the promising rookie Easley we have more optimism at that position than we have had since Moulds had a running partner in Price and later Evans.

THE ANSWER IS SO OBVIOUS IT'S COMICAL!! I think the best plan for a championship team it BOTH. Seriously ...BOTH. We have seen great defenses falter. We have seen great QBs go down in flames. Most of the good teams out there have a great defense and a franchise QB. Sprinkle in some talent here and there on offense year to year and you've got a perennial play off team. To be sure this is not the only way. It is however an approach that often leads to success. I have no idea how to get statistics on this but I would imagine teams that truly have both are usually only beat by other teams that have both.

There may be a franchise QB in this draft but nobody will know for a few years. That being said none of them appear worthy of the #3 spot.

All it shows is correlation not causation. To ASSuME anything more is on you not on the writer. Generally we know if you want to win you have to pay. We don't pay, we don't win. Again not causation BUT definitely a correlation.

Hrmmm....lets ponder this one. Work with the Bills as a DC....or go win a super bowl with the Steelers as a DC???? Which would you choose? Defensive coordinator is what he does. It would have made his role official. Doesn't the fact that Lebeau according to you was offered the DC job draw a parallel to what Wanny's future might be? Good points that play right to my expectations. Gailey is busy running the offense and handling other matters. He doesn't have time to give the defense the focus that a head coach that isn't the offensive coordinator normally could. Edwards was left all alone and obviously struggled. These are the facts. Now, enter DW to fill that role!!!! Coach up the defensive coordinator and give him direction, help him game plan like a head coach, who isn't the de facto OC, normally would. Again, speculation as another forum member already said but it seems to make a hell of a lot more sense than he is a glorified LB positional coach who they don't want to have stolen by another team. Wanny will be doing the job that Gailey doesn't as a HC with the defense. As stated Gailey left Edwards to his own devices with the defense this season and he came up short....way short....enter DW.

Speculation to be sure but that is what makes by far the most sense to me. Do you bring in a 3 time head coach to just handle the 7 LB on the team? This guy still has some defensive cred in the league. He has a wealth of experience and knowledge and it only seems sensible that he is being put in an AHC position to leverage those strengths. I think the AHC title ensures that his opinion is relevant and matters a LOT. The tile, and responsibility I assume he will have, means that he is not just some underling positional LB coach trying to tell the DC what to do. He is an assistant head coach not just an assistant TO the head coach.

Perhaps I over estimated the strength of his statement. I think it means exactly what it sounds like. He will have a role and responsibility of being an assistant head coach. What does that mean? He will not be an assistant positional coach. He will not be an assistant coordinator. He will be an assistant head coach. EVERYONE reports to the head coach. Wanny will assist in overseeing coaching the entire team presumably with a focus on defense. Instead of seeing this as barely more than a title I see it as Wanny having a lot of input to the defensive COORDINATOR as an assistant HEAD COACH. I very much imagine his role will be similar to what Gailey's is with the offense. To be honest I can never remember the name of our offensive coordinator because it is Gailey's show. To be clear. I am not saying Wanny will be making the calls or all things go through him like Gailey. I am saying he will be heavily involved in game planning, film study, scheming, etc. He will help to oversee the defense and he will specifically focus on the position that is our worst on defense. LB. Makes perfect sense to me.

Give that man a prize!!! He gets it.

In that case why not just call him the LB coach? Why give him the title of assistant HC? He already accepted the job. It's not like he will be hired away this year. If assistant HC is just a job title and means absolutely nothing wouldn't it stand to reason that the entire NFL would know this as well? It would make the title completely 100% totally useless. Therefore they wouldn't bother using it. Make sense?

Maybe he was trying to prop Edwards up in preparation for bringing in Wanny. If he hadn't propped him up and praised his work the DW hire would look like even more of an undermining of Edwards credibility and competence. I think the move was exactly what it appears to be. We bring in a former head coach of 2 NFL franchise and 1 college franchise who made his bones as a pretty good defensive coordinator. If Edwards fails, as some have said, we already have his replacement on the staff. DW's experience and contribution to defense should be VERY valuable. The NFL is like many other industries. Employers try to squeeze the most they can out of their work force. Sometimes that answer is to get your employees to work harder. Sometimes the answer is more bodies to help do the job. This guy is a quality hire with plenty of experience and knowledge on the defensive side of the ball which has in my opinion been a huge glaring weakness for this team for years. It is only now that it is truly coming to light as by far our former #1 weakness was Edturds at QB. He wasted 4 years of my life.

Team needs by round. No names yet #1 DE run stuffer that ALSO is a great pass rusher (Could be an exceptional OLB). #2 OLB Pass rusher with size to hold the edge against the run and the speed to compensate if they get sucked inside and out of position. #3 RT that is not a liability in pass protection and run blocks like a steam roller. #4 ILB with sideline to sideline speed who can cover a TE and stay healthy enough to be on the field every Sunday. #5 SS that defends the run and can actually cover TEs and slot WRs. Not just make tackles after the catch #6 TE that is HUGE that can run block and doesn't have hands of stone. Talking 6th offensive lineman big. #7 TE that is HUGE that can run block and doesn't have hands of stone. Talking 7th offensive lineman big. Of course this focuses on the draft only. If any of these needs are filled in free agency we can we can cross it off the list.

Where is the probowls mean nothing crowd? Probowls must only be meaningless popularity contests when they are given to LTs for 4 years in a row....Sorry...couldn't resist. Congrats Kyle!

PLEASE GOD NOT ANOTHER TRADE BACK IN THE FIRST ROUND THREAD!!!! GOOD LORD DON'T THEY REALIZE IT HAPPENS ONCE IN A BLUE MOON!?!?!?!?!?

How about 23 and 15 with a 6.7 yd/carry rushing average? Not to mention it was in just 13 starts and he wasn't the starting QB for all off OTAs and preseason.

Glad to see this post. Lynch was a really good RB. Buffalo has a way of driving anyone out who doesn't fit their little western NY dying steel town image. Maybe if his name ended in "luzny" people would have cut him some slack. The kid had a few screw ups no doubt. A drunk chick on Chipawa get's nicked by him and he got dicked over for a questionable "search" in the ghetto out in Cali. After that it was a non stop campaign by certain closed minded people and forum members to assassinate his character. You know who you are. The "he's a thug" crowd. "Thug" is just the almost PC way to speak of a person of color. He has a new start. He apparently has a line to run behind and a credible threat at QB to take the pressure off of him unlike Trent Edturds!!! Gone is all the talk of he can't hit the holes, he's not conditioned, blah blah blah. I'm glad for the kid and hope that he keeps himself out of trouble.

We Bills fans are a bunch of nervous Nelly's aren't we. The kid was a rookie. Give it a rest. Take a pill. Get some sleep. Things will be fine.

The team that let got the promising rookie(Rivers) and let the steadily improving veteran QB(Brees)go didn't get a ring. The team that got him(Brees) got the ring. That being said probably neither of our statements have anything to do with the Bills.

Definitely more concise than I put it but absolutely 100% on the money. P.S. I have thought this for a while and I am hopefully completely wrong but I don't think Merriman will ever play a down for the Bills.

Ahmen brother!!!

I agree in principal with the original poster. Dumping talent is dumb unless you have someone better to replace them. Whitner is better than people give him credit for because they are still pissed we didn't draft Ngata. That being said he isn't anything special on the field but a solid player and a guy who publicly says he wants to win and wanted to stay in Buffalo. Believe it or not those guys don't grow on trees. Free agents aren't beating down Buffalo's door for an opportunity to play. Whitner will probably not be missed at all. Poz, I don't know what it is with the love affair that many have with this guy. He is a solid player but he gets hurt almost every year, doesn't have sideline to sideline speed to play the middle and can't cover a TE to save his life. Look back at all the TE scores or big plays on the Bills this year. Often that TE was Poz's coverage responsibility. Even more damning is that in my opinion he has been outplayed every year by the guy he replaced, London Fletcher. Anyone remember all the complaints about Fletcher? Led the team in tackles, supposedly all were downfield after significant gains by the RB, etc? Sound like anyone whose name ends in "luzny"? Fitz at QB isn't our biggest problem. Give the guy some credit. He was held behind Trent Edwards who we tried to show case for the first 4 weeks to get some trade value and missed out on starter reps in training camp and preseason when it counted. THAT being said, if Luck falls to us which he won't, you take him! Barring something that ridiculously "lucky" we get guys on defense. We get DT that can hold up against the run so we can actually run the 3 - 4. We get DE/LB that can rush the passer, hold the edge in the run game and stay in position on the backside to cover the cutback run. We get LBs with sideline to sideline speed and the ability to cover TEs. The offense just needs time for already acquired talent to develop. WR will be one of our strengths when everyone is healthy. RB is set. All we need, STILL, is for the oline to gel and for the love of all that is football get us a freaking RT. Maybe that is Wang who was injured for months. I know the idea isn't popular and doesn't come with any guarantee of success but get us a really good LT and move Bell to RT ...IF AND ONLY IF HE IS CAPABLE OF IT. It has become apparent to me that the improvements that I thought the o-line made might largely be attributable to Fitz calling out the protections, helping the line to make calls, running the right plays and getting rid of the ball. Fitz had us forgetting about the offensive line for a while but I am reminded of the first games with Trent, the game with Fitz hurt and then Brohm. A good line is a good line regardless of who is behind center. We don't have a good line yet.