VADC Bills

No he wasn't... but he had a stronger arm.

Gotta go with James Harris on this one. He clearly had the strongest arm. If you remember one of the knocks on him was that he threw too hard. He threw nothing but bullets. The real question is who had the second best arm.

I think DW was trying to show some leadership on a team without leaders so I don't fault him for trying to rally the troops. I think he is very good against the run with that being said it was extremely refreshing watching Byrd and Wilson ball hawk last year. Aside from Byrd I think everyone on the defensive team runs the risk of being replaced but the secondary is the best unit on the team...so if it's not broke don't fix it. I agree with your Lynch assessment. My biggest issue with Lynch was that he was out of shape . If he comes back in shape I think we will be set at RB. I can't argue that Lynch and Whitner are better than average because they are not. Who on this team is?

I think that Gailey is putting everyone on even ground at all possitions not just QB. I don't think Poz is far and away better than any of the LB's that we have. I don't think Poz is about to lose his job but he has below average instincts for a LB which is just one of the factors why we faired so poorly against the run. Mitchell does have better instincts and is stronger at the point of attack. Which is probably why Poz is trying to bulk up which I think is smart. Let's face it Poz is missing half of the time anyway. Don't be surprised if the competition for ILB turns out to be between Mitchell and Poz. Keep in mind there are no great LB's on this team...they are all expendable. I am hoping that some of the new talent proves to be better than than Poz and Mitchell..thats the only way we will get better. Gailey wants all of the LB's to be able to call the plays. It will be interesting how it shakes out. But I think it's smart for Mitchell to realize he is in a dog fight at LB...all of the LB's should realize this.

No doubt the smack down he received from Hines Ward served as motivation. I remember when Ed too tall Jones took up boxing he actually came back in the best physical shape of his career. Good luck Keith. But I'm not much af a Bengals fan....Lets go Bills.

You stated that everyone knows Gaither is not a workhorse...how? This type of data usually comes from sources somewhere in the team or team leaks. Think about it this way..if you have no intention on trading him what do you lose by maybe creating doubt for anyone looking to get him. If a player feels that he may not be able to get a huge payday because of lack of demand he will be more apt to sign for less with the same team unless the relationship is totally destroyed. If a LT was our only need prior to the draft I would make the deal for a 2nd rounder, but since we have many needs he would not be worth it.

This is close to what I have heard. Baltimore never had any intentions of trading him. Baltimore promised him the LT position. Oher was drafted to be the RT. When Gaither was injured Oher was moved to LT and never looked back. It was clear Gaither was going to the right side. Gaither was upset about this and wanted out of Baltimore. LT's ccommand more money than RT's and Gaither had successfully played the LT position. That is when the work ethic rumors surfaced. My guess would be that the purpose of these rumors were to kill Gaithers marketability and keep him content and motivated to stay in Baltimore for one more year. Why would the Ravens want to keep him if he was that much of a problem. He is a very promising LT my guess is the Ravens never intended on trading him thats why a high tenure was put on him and the anti was probably raised during negotiations where no team was willing to go.

Let yesterdays uniforms remain in the the past. Come up with something new...the problem is not the uniforms as much as the teams in them. Once we start winning these uniforms will look a lot better. If I had to pick a favorite past uniform it would be the 90's superbowl team uniforms. Just not a fan of the 60's uniforms. I can't imagine how the royal blue tops and bottoms would look together.

You sound like the consummate yes man. I made no mention of negativity in the surprises mentioned. Being surprised and being pissed are two totally different things. The only negativity was from your response. Read the lines as written as opposed to reading in between them. You can't tell me that most fans weren't surprised by the Chan Gailey appointment. I agree with your assesment of Spiller.. great pick. At the end of last season I as well as most fans expected to see changes in our QB's and line. Nothing negative just fact. As an FYI I won't judge until I see the final product on the field. I am optimistic.

I have been nothing but surprised by the Bills in the off season. Why should it not carry into the regular season. Buddy Nix..surprise Chan Gailey..surprise and shock CJ Spiller... surprise No QB in the off season..surprise. No LT in the off season...surprise. I hope the surprises from here on end are pleasant. I think we can bank on more surprises.

Evans has demonstrated in the past the with good quarterbacking he can deliver. He not as good as Moulds but he suffers from the same poor QB situation. The real question is..If we had a solid QB what other receiver would benefit most from it. The other on the list were annointed starters without having to truly prove themselves.

This is just fodder for people that want to feel we are better than what we are with out the wins to prove it. People that have more interest in BS stats than watching the games itself. When your team isn't very good you have to resort to bogus stats to make your team appear better than what it really is. There is no one on our defense that can be considered beyond average. Byrd and Schobel are the exceptions here. The real fact is that other teams aren't putting special game plans together to take special account for Williams, Stroud and Poz. For the fans that feel anyone of these players are very good...you have become used to mediocrity.

Part of the game is for the LB's to be able to fend off lineman especially on blitzes. Poz has showed improvement on playing the pass but still very average. A lot of his tackles come from getting burned in the middle on passes. Most LB's will be good if they are untouched. Why do so many people make excuses for Poz?

+1

Personally I feel Poz's play is extremely average. If you truly watch the games you will see that Poz has a problem shedding tackles. Often misreads plays. Very weak at the point of impact. When you have to resort stats as opposed to just watching their play it is a problem. This list has Poz rated above Ray Lewis, Patrick Willis and many others...please. Although he had a few picks he is constantly taken to school in the middle on pass coverage. He is the least talented MLB or ILB that we have had since the superbowl teams. I hope he becomes the player that some of the fans want him to be. That would be great but I don't see it now. I would have no problem putting Poz out there as trade bait before Lynch or Whitner..I think he is more over rated. I honestly don't think we could get any thing for him.

Why would we give up our best safety defending the run when we have a poor run defense. I think we could have drafted better but Whitner is no bust. You can say the same for Poz. They are not great players but they are solid and I wouldn't just give them away because we could have had some one else. For 2 years Lynch has carried this offense. Now that we have a rotation that is a solid threat to score why give that up? Yobouty is expendable because of the many cornerbacks we have acquired. I would offer a 4th rounder and Yobouty. Gaither is gone after this year and the Ravens know it. They should get something for him before he leaves. The reason Gaither is ticked is because he was promised the LT position and played well but lost it to Oher. Once Gaither started to be verbal the Ravens started painting a negative picture but they still wanted him as a starter as RT. He wants to be LT and knows he will be able to get a starter position with many other teams.

Where is the pimp and hooker screening reform bill when you need it. Once again congress is dragging their feet. I'm all for putting date of birth and reference details on hooker applications in the future. I always thought that famous athletes, actors and rock stars would not have to go the prostitution route. There was always a groupee type of following....look at Larry King.

Curious..does anyone remember Don Beebe's 40 time? I remember for years he was the fastest Bill.

Don't think any of the experience LB's will be cut, in a 3-4 you need LB's and we are just ramping up in that area with that being said Mitchell, Poz and Ellison are soft. We need tough players at the ILB spot and we don't have them. I could easily see all of them cut by the end of next season. I'm sure there is a blogger that will produce stats that states that our LB's produce more than Ray Lewis but these guys are pansies as a unit. It seems as though we will have more size on the line hopefully that will help. I believe Chan will give everyone a fair chance.

+1 I'd rather draft real talent over ticket sellers any day.

I think we will see improvement as the season goes on but there are a lot of reaches switching to a new defensive scheme. Last year when the season ended I felt that our front 7 was a huge liability. I thought it was more of a talent issue than scheme. Our line was too small and would get dominated by the fourth quarter. Dwan Edwards will be a huge addition here, I think Carrington could make a difference as well. Kyle Williams is not a nose that can control the middle and Nix knows that. Troup adds size. Our line has gotten bigger which is good. Our LB's were awful. Poz had trouble reading plays, shedding blocks and being dominated at the point of impact often making tackles 3-4 yard after the initial hit. Ellison is too small but as much as I hate to say he outperformed Mitchell and Poz before his injury. Mitchell is the most versitile LB that we had. He has the best instincts for the game but couldn't stay healthy. All 3 starters were injured but honestly they weren't that good when they were healthy. What will be different this year. Will a larger DL allow the LB's to make more plays...maybe but how will it make Poz stronger at the point of impact and not consistantly run himself out of the play. How will it make Ellison bigger and stronger. Will Maybin contribute and will he honestly be better than Ellison because I have seen nothing from him so far. Love Schobel but will he be around? What type of 3-4 will we play. Will we be aggressive like Pittsburgh or a passive Ted Cotrell type of 3-4. Will our offense be able to keep our defense off of the field? I think we have made some good moves getting bigger and stronger but there are still many questions that need to be answered regarding the talent that we have.

That is true to a degree. From what I have seen of Spiller which consist of 3 games he played his Sr year. The impressive part of his game seems to be his ability to read the gaps and blocks. He always seem to make the right read. I didn't know he had sub 4.4 speed at the time. When you have speed your blockers don't have to hold the block as long so I agree with Nix. This is also true with the QB. I remember when we started Rob Johnson everyone screamed the O line sucked. When Rob got hurt and Flutie came in suddenly the O line was no longer an issue. Our O line will seem much better when we get quality decisive quarterbacking.

Your correct Lynch was a probowl alternate..I believe Jason Peters was his first probowl as well as Kyle Williams last year. Not sure but I know they weren't the original starters. I'm not going to lessen the accomplishment of how they got there. Lynch has not been the dominant RB that we have all have hoped. He reminds me of a tougher and slower Antowan Smith. Antowan had trouble hitting the hole too. We would like to see him get 1400 yards per year. Thats not going to happen You make a good point that the QB is the premium position...this is why Campbell was eventually let go because during the Campbell era they are winning less and less games per year. With one of the lighter schedules in the league the Redskins couldn't generate a passing game. In fact they haven't been able to generate a passing game for 3.5 years. When do we stop talking upside and choose to go in a direction where you can get a QB that can read defenses and find his own receivers. Campbell has never been an alternate at the probowl. Being in the DC area Campbell has been a solid character guy but that doesn't translate into a good football player. I wish him the best with the Raiders. We are not comparing two great players here but I agree with the way Nix handled the Lynch and Campbell situation. No matter what you read into it voluntary workouts are voluntary and I don't think that Gailey and Nix are losing sleep over this one.

??? You forget the obvious...Lynch has made the pro bowl and is a probowl caliber player when he is in top shape. He has had two 1000 yard seasons. For his first two seasons he was clearly the the Bill that was the toughest and played with the most heart. He has made some off season mistakes not the worst mind you. We have had Bills do worse. Campbell sucks has never produced as a QB and lost his team last year. Only people that follow stats say he has gotten better each year. Last year he regressed that why he is gone this year. Campbell will not be making the probowl anytime soon. He could not find the end zone in many games and constantly has excuses for bad play. Your assumptions are off. Mc Nabb is an established star in the league and Spiller isn't. So only Campbell is expendable here. No team would put the entire running load on a 30 year old and a rookie unless they absolutely have to. Voluntary OTA's are voluntary new coach or not. Your post is more aggressive and belligerant than Lynch skipping a Voluntary OTA. Nix did the right thing.

I thought it was just me that felt this way. Doesn't it seem like most teams are competing for the upcoming year where the Bills are always competing for 2 years away. That philosophy seems readily accepted on this forum. I didn't know how to take it when Nix said " we can't do it all in a year" because some GM's and coaches can. Would it be that difficult to build and expect a team that has gone 7-9, 7-9, 6-10, in the past three season to go 10-6 for the next year?