OldTimer1960

To my eyes it has been Walter Powell by a wide margin. I know every year some preseason hero gets cut, but I think Powell has shown a lot. Anyone remember when Kamar Aiken looked good for the Bills in the preseason only to be cut? He played very well for the Ravens last year - he might be #2 here now if they had kept him. In 2012, they kept Kevin Eliott, TJ Graham, Brad Smith and Ruvell Martin over Aiken. Sometimes preseason performance should count.

With you except for it being a given that Taylor will be better. There a plenty of one year wonders who couldn't sustain success. That being said, I like Taylor and hope that he is the long-term answer. That is true, but I think my description is closer to what the league sees than is the more optimistic description that you offer.

I think that is about right. I don't think the defense will be in the top half of the league, so Taylor, McCoy and Watkins are going to have to play great to pick up the slack. I don't think the defense is going to be very good. Having good CBs with no DL or LBs is going to be a problem. The starting DL looks like it will be an old Kyle Williams who has barely participated in camp, 3rd round rookie Washington and journeyman Jerrel Worrthy. LBs are Preston Brown and a bunch of cast offs.

With the defense hurting due to injuries and suspensions, it looks like the Bills will be forced to rely on an offense that isn't built to be a high scoring unit. I was very pleasantly surprised by Tyrod Taylor's play last year. I think that he will need to take another significant step forward in order to keep the Bills in contention for the full regular season. Thoughts?

I think this is a genuine possibility. Smith isn't great at all, but they could do worse than Geno and the Jets aren't going to keep 4 QBs

Where is the "too talented" that will be on the field? That is too-homer even for my rose-colored glasses to see. Top two rookies who were brought in because the D needed help - gone. Best Defensive player on the roster - gone for 1/4 of season. Every LB ever signed - injured and/or heading to suspension. What is to provide optimism?

The poop just keeps piling on with Dareus missing the first 4 games... So, top 2 draft pick, specifically selected to help the defense - 1 out for the year, the other out for likely at least half the year. Best defenive player by far: out for the first quarter of the season. Practically every LB ever to compete for a roster spot injured...Franchise OLT has a high ankle sprain and will miss most of the preseason (at least). Well, at least there is a glimmer of hope that we have a NFL capable QB for the first time in 25 years - until he is booed out of town because the OL has no continuity and the backup RB is overweight and the #1 WR missed most of the offseason with an injury... Just finding it difficult to s e the silver lining.

It may be what he deserves, but I still don't like the sentiment. SJ13 was an over-achiever and a good player for the Bills. He was flamboyant and, at times, hurt his team, but was still a positive in BFLO.

This team was built to win with defense and, as currently staffed, I don't think the defense is up to the challenge. I'd be happy to be proven wrong, though.

Hit me with your scenario. I am open to find a way to get there.

Harsh reality losing Ragland for an extended time after losing Shaquille Lawson for a significant time. Last year's defense was not good enough to make the playoffs- maybe was THE reason that they didn't reach the postseason. I think that the Bills' management tried to address that weakness in the draft with Lawson and Ragland, but those plans are now on hold (at least). There is no tangible reason to believe that last year's bad defense will be any better this year - and the offense shouldn't / can't be counted on to carry the load. I know that Mario Williams was blamed for a lot last year, but who will replace him? Who will fill in for Ragland and play at an NFL level? Who will fill in for Manny Lawson who was filling in for Shacquile Lawson? Not a pretty picture 1 week into training camp...

I am trying not to be too pessimistic, but Ragland didn't look like he was in shape to begin with. What will he look like after 3-6 months of inactivity? I know that he will be able to start cardio work and upper body strength training in a couple months, if he has surgery, but if he didn't train hard prior to this injury, then what makes anyone think that he will train after the surgery when he really needs to (and it is much harder to do)?

He has been less than good every year except for his phenomenal 2nd season.

I saw the hat Nick Foles was released today and I took a gander at his career stats as I remember he had a pretty good year not too long ago. I was recalling his 2nd year when he threw an amazing 27 TDs and 2 INTS. For the other 3 years of his career combined he has 26 TDs and 27 INTS! Caution be to those bestowing greatness after 1 good year. Who else were super one year wonders?

Yeah, I was upset that it happened, but that was an incredible play by Cunningham. Joe Klecko of the Jets was an excellent DL who was extra-tough

If have to throw Gary Marangi's name into this competition. In 11 games in 1976, Marangi's completed 35% of his passes with 7 TDs and 16 INTS.

Well, the RBs sure seem to be trying hard to mess up their opportunities. As someone else said, Jonathan Williams will likely earn a suspension for his DWI. Karlos Williams will really struggle to even make the team if reports are correct that he was at least 20 pounds overweight just a month ago. In order to lose serious tonnage like that, he'll have to really reduce his caloric intake and that may leave him losing muscle mass and he sure hasn't shown that he has willpower to push himself away from the table. Gillislie and Wilder will have a great opportunity to make the team as they will get a lot of reps in training camp and preseason games. I would expect that McCoy will be treated with kid gloves in camp and get very little work in the preseason.

I was fortunate enough to see all of these players except for Mike Stratton. I would call it a toss-up between Smith and Simpson for best ever with Kelly right there in the discussion.

I would not call McCoy a middling star - he is really legit (when healthy). I think Clay is one of the better TEs in the game, but not the game changer that Gronkowski is when he is healthy. I don't really understand this kind of criticism. Teams only have a few ways to acquire talent: draft, trade and Free Agency. If you are going to play in FA, then you are going to pay top dollar (at least for the premiere players available). Clay is here to give the QB a good safe option and to make plays after the catch. I am not sure why he wasn't as productive as we expected last year, but some of it might be Taylor's propensity to run rather than dump the ball off to his TE or RB when the play is breaking down. It might also be that Taylor wasn't comfortable throwing the kinds of routes that Clay runs. Taylor hasn't yet shown that he likes to throw down the middle of the field - and that is where many TEs make their living.

I agree with the point that this was not a complete surprise. I just believe that they were making a first round draft selection for the long-term and were comfortable that the injury could be completely repaired with surgery and rehab. Did they get surprised that it flared up now? Maybe, but I would be absolutely shocked if they didn't know it was a possibility. The first half of his rookie season is not his career. Yes, it is disappointing that the Bills' first round pick is going to miss time this year, but that does not mean that it was a bad, stupid or Ill-informed selection. I am actually optimistic that Lawson will be even better after the injury has been corrected due to better ability to lift/train. Imagine, he played very well with a shoulder that was that bad - what can he be like with a repaired shoulder and better strength?

I heard that Jaguars 1st round pick Jalen Ramsey injured his knee in non-contact drills. How could Jackosville's medical staff have missed the obvious potential for his meniscus to tear? That is 2 years in a row that their 1st pick was injured even before the season started! Heads must roll! (Heavy sarcasm) Do you know that Gronkowski was considered a medical risk after missing much of his last year in college with a back injury?

Or it could just be that teams that are currently on top can't afford to keep all of their players and can't afford to pay other team's FA and therefore get compensatory picks. Not sure which is cause and which is effect.

Thanks for weighing in with that insightful commentary.

Stop. If you don't think that the Doctors had a good idea that this was a possibility, then think again. This was a long-term pick and please everyone spare us the "we haven't made the playoffs in 15 years speech". That fact is truly irrelevant with regard to where the current team is and what their hopes for moderate success were this year. The truth is (from my vantage point) the Bills have crawled out of a major talent gap over the past 4 years. They haven't been fortunate enough to stumble into a Manning, Luck, Brady. They are pretty much as good as any team who doesn't have a great QB. "But, but, but they should have gotten a future HOF QB" - those guys are truly rare and even when they come along they are snatched up early in the draft.

I am neither a "sold on Taylor" or a "he isn't the answer" guy, but I think that the measuring stick that you laid out is far too restrictive. Only the true Hall of Famers do much of anything in those situations and those guys are REALLY rare. Yes, you want some hope that you can come back down by > 3 with < 2 minutes left, but realize that defenses have a BIG advantage in those situations- especially against offenses that are designed as "run-first". The Bills are built to win with stout defenses protecting narrow leads or needing a late FG to win. They don't have the offensive fire-power to come back in the last 2 minutes needing a TD. That isn't just Tyrod Taylor, but includes the run-dominant/pass deficient OL and the WRs beyond Watkins. If Taylor is good enough to keep the Bills in contention into tha last minutes of the game then he should be good enough for how this team is structured, provided - and this is a BIG caveat - he doesn't eat up too much cap space to allow them to field a dominant defense. I think he can improve over last year, but i think we already know that he isn't the guy to pay $18+MM to and then have to weaken the defense. If he proves me wrong - I would be thrilled, but those guys are VERY rare.