hondo in seattle

It's curious how the Bills have been blessed with good RBs and cursed with bad QBs over the years. RBs: OJ, Thurman, Freddy, Marshawn, Travis Henry, Cribbs, Cookie, Greg Bell, Shady.... While other QBs had their moments, Kelly is the only passer who had a good career with us. The list of starters since Kelly is indeed "sad" to quote 26CB. My memory of Flutie is that our defense won a lot of games for us back then. Flutie would play horribly for three quarters and then do something amazing in the 4th quarter to become the game's hero. It's not really a fond memory.

As they say, "The best predictor of future performance is past performance." Rico's been an OC three different times and has worked with a variety of quarterbacks ranging from really bad to HOF good. His average offensive rank (yardage) is #12. While I hope for better, this is about what I expect from him this season. So I am expecting a drop in the offensive rankings from last year. But I also expect McD to have the defense in the middle of the league or slightly better. Given how poorly the Ryan Brothers coached our D last year, I think that's reasonable. And that doesn't add up to the #31 team in the league IMHO.

Rico isn't Rex Ryan. It's a false comparison. And Rico hasn't been running his scheme in preseason. He's hinted as much. He's an unknown quantity as an OC and he knows that. He knows DCs will be looking at tape of the Bills preseason trying to figure out what kind of offense he'll run. Rico's not going to lay his cards on the table before he has to. I don't know what a Dennison run offense will look like - and neither does anyone else. We can guess a little because there's going to be a Kubiak imprint. But we can't guess much.

We have to assume the Bills tried to trade him before releasing him. No takers. Then they placed him on waivers. No takers. It seems like the NFL doesn't view JW quite as positively as most Bills fans.

This is just plain dumb. It seems as if they're expecting Dennison to run the exact same offense here that he ran in Denver. In Mile High city, Rico was running Kubiak's offense. We don't know what a Dennison offense looks like because he's never actually developed his own scheme before. As an OC, he's always run a Kubiak scheme. Certainly Rico's been very influenced by Kubiak. But to say he doesn't have any other influences or ideas of his own is way premature. We just don't know - and have no way of knowing until we see what he unveils. Plus in Denver Rico had a entirely different roster. Why would we assume that Rico is a functional idiot who won't make adjustments based on the skill sets of the players he has now? Let's remember that Rico was the OC who made Brock Osweiler look good. There's no reason he can't make TT look good. Rico's had success putting points on the board in the past and it's reasonable to assume that trend will continue.

I think Chan was largely underrated as an OC. He managed to create production with very few real weapons.

I generally agree with all this. A lot depends on coaching. And a lot depend on injuries. But right now I'm expecting an interesting .500 season. I see a little less talent on the roster than last season but I'm expecting better coaching.

Ball security? Blocking? Something else? I don't know why the Bills waived JW. Clearly our coaches thought Banyard offered more and, for now, that's good enough for me. We're talking about a backup RB, after all. It would be great, though, if we had local media guys who could get behind the scenes and tell us why these decisions are being made.

That was the narrative... Last year he was slowed by injury but this year he's going to have a breakout season. I just never bought that narrative. JW's age doesn't matter if he's actually just-a-guy. Three more seasons as a 2nd/3rd stringer at a bargain rate on a rookie contract - not sure I see the immense appeal in that. 26CB ~ you're a guy I read carefully because you're a knowledgeable fan with an eye for talent. But all I saw was a JAG. If our coaches with their years of experience think the other backs will help the Bills more, then so be it and good luck to Jonathon in some other team's colors. Joe Banyard beat out Jonathon Williams for a roster spot. We can either bemoan the loss of Williams or celebrate the accomplishment of the unheralded Banyard. I choose the latter. I just don't see that losing JW is going to hurt our W-L record in the slightest. Not this season, or any future season.

Cool video. I'm ready for 2017!

I don't relish the role of Devil's/Beane's Advocate but I don't get all the wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth over Jonathon Williams. Last year, the guy averaged a mere 3.5 yard per carry whereas our top two backs running the same plays behind the same line averaged over 5.0 yards per carry. This year in preseason - often against 2nd teamers - JW performed better. But I didn't see anything special in him and our coaching staff obviously felt he was out-competed by the other backs in camp. Presumably the Bills shopped JW before waiving him but couldn't even get a 7th round pick for him because none of the other 31 clubs saw anything special in him either. Yet his release inspires 29 pages of apoplectic condemnation???

How do you know what this system is???? Rico is creating his own scheme for the first time in his career. And he's no idiot. He's not showing his cards before he has too.

There's a saying in leadership, "You get what you allow." If you allow players to show up to meetings and games late... if you allow players to exhibit a low level of commitment... you're going to get more of that. It's not a simple matter of "Well, Marcel is such a talent on the field we need to forgive his transgressions." Marcel will get worse if allowed to continually eff up. And other players will be poisoned by his bad example. Based on what I know from the interviews and media reports, Beane and McD are handling this pretty well.

I admit I was bugged when Kap started taking a knee. I fought for this country. I knew people who died while serving. I felt taking a knee disrespected the folks in uniform. But Cam is standing. He's telling people he wants to respect those who serve but also wants to bring attention to an important issue. Good for him. Personally, I fought for a free America, not a police state.

I don't doubt that the ex player said what he said. But if you're not currently on the sideline and not currently in the locker room, I don't think your opinion about McD means very much. I'm not giving McD my blind faith, but I'm not going to blindly criticize either. The data points that reach the public aren't persuasive and compelling enough for me to judge how he's handling the transition.

I strongly disagree. When I was a young army officer, I was taught, "You can come in like a lion and leave as a sheep. But if you enter as a sheep, you'll never be a lion." As a guy who builds teams for a living (albeit in a very different profession), I passionately believe you have to be clear about your expectations from the very beginning. There has to be strong accountability that doesn't play favorites. Accountability comes from the word 'count.' You count up the good or bad someone does and reward/punish them in measure. Holding people accountable isn't being a hard a$$. It's just being both smart and strong. Most people want to be on a high-performing team rather than in a loosey-goosey Rex Ryan environment that produces losing. McD's commitment to accountability won't just create a better team, it has a very good chance of making Dareus a better player.

I see this all the time. Bad leaders suffer the bad consequences of their loosey-goosiness all the time. Good leaders are principled. They're fair. They're caring. But they're firm about their standards and unafraid to law down the law. I don't know what Dareus did but I'm glad we have a coach who's going to stand up for what he believes in and not let the inmates run the prison.

+1 I don't care much if we win or lose. I hope all our players win their 1-on-1 battles. But mostly I think it's a good day of preseason football if no one gets hurt.

I think the other side is saying that Peterman is a more natural fit for the kind of offense that Dennison likes to run however you label it ("West Coast" or whatever). And they may actually be right. C.Biscuit97 makes some good points in another thread. The thing is, we don't actually know what kind of offense Rico wants to run. He's never ran his own show before, despite previously having an OC title. Cover1 ~ you're a great film analysis guy (I think it's super cool you went to the scouting academy) but you can't dissect film that doesn't yet exist. TT may very well be a good fit for the offense that Dennison is masterminding for the Bills. But we'll only find out for sure when the season gets under way. So I think it's a little premature to argue about whether or not TT is a good fit for Dennison's offense when none of us knows what a Bills-Dennison offense looks like.

In many ways, this is the wrong frame of reference. But I agree.

Kelly: more fiery competitor, better leader. Marino: quicker release, more accurate. Hard to say who's "better" but both clearly belong in the Hall.

C.Biscuit97, this is a really good post. For a moment you sounded like a ranting sky-is-falling type but you bring up some really good points here. Maybe because I'm an ever-hopeful Bills fan, I'm not convinced we'll see Dennison run exactly the same kind of offense that he's run in the past. If I'm not mistaken, every time Rico was an OC it was for an offensive minded HC. In other words, he's never been in charge of the scheme and playbook before. It was always his job to implement someone's else scheme. Obviously he must have subscribed to a similar philosophy. But you wonder if all these years, he's been pondering, "When I run my own show, I'm going to do things a little different..." On top of that, the guy has studied hours and hours of Tyrod tape. He's got to have a pretty good sense of what kind of plays Tyrod can execute and what kind of plays he can't. He's got to building his playbook with those observations in mind... Unless he thinks he can successfully correct some of Tyrod's flaws. And hopefully he's not thinking that. Or, if he is, that he's right. In any case, despite your valid concerns, I simply choose to reserve judgment.

It could be 'standard new wr talk.' It could be a shot at Tyrod. I'm not sure and I don't care. We all know who Tyrod is as a QB and a maybe/maybe-not veiled criticism from Sammy doesn't change anything. I'm just hoping Rico has developed an offensive scheme and playbook that effectively utilizes TT's strengths and avoids his weaknesses.

This perfectly sums out my own thoughts and feelings. Can only wish the best for him - and his sister.

For the most part, I believe in the pc culture. I don't think it's okay for people to make racist, sexist, or other hateful remarks. Certainly they're allowable under law and should be. But that doesn't mean they need to be allowed by society's unspoken rules of decency. But sometimes I think we're too pc as a society. Shady offered a balanced, reasonable criticism of a fellow player. But I guess Kap is off-limits because of his political stance. It's nonsense.