hondo in seattle

Thanks Astro! While everyone else is obsessed with the QB battle, you're noticing things like great guard play. Given we'll be a running team this year, that's an important and encouraging observation.

Good point, Promo. I think we all looked around earlier this off-season and realized the shelves in the grocery store were bare. The best we could find was Cassel. The best the Pats could find was Lindley. Maybe someone interesting will become available later as teams cut down and the shelves get restocked a bit. Or maybe Doug needs to go downtown to the Buffalo Medical Campus and talk to someone about somatic cell nuclear transfer. If Whaley can't find a QB, we should demand he manufactures one. Kelly would probably donate his genes.

Good to see (read) an articulate, thoughtful athlete.

That was exactly my point when I posted this: I expect more knowledgeable arguments - if not always rational - about the Bills record here than I do in a national newspaper.

I get your point. But I don't think all the assets in the world would have captured a Top 16 QB. The teams that have Top 16 QBs understand their value just as much as you do. They're not giving them up. Same with the teams with top draft picks. If there's a QB there that looks like a Top 16 QB, and your team needs one, you're not trading down. I just don't see a scenario that would have solved our QB situation - though I'm not opposed to rolling the die on picking college QBs that might have long odds. I don't think drafting a QB each year until we find one is a bad idea. But here's what Whaley did. Not seeing a good answer at QB, he acquired the best RB he could find. Gosh darn it, if we can't throw the ball, we at least have to be able to run it. And he surrounded our mediocre QB with guys that will help him look good.

I have us at 10-6 and making the playoffs, too. Why is USA today the headline?

Whaley's remark is not a big knock on who we have. He didn't say we're in QB Hell. We're someplace in between Heaven and Hell. And not having a top draft pick may condemn us to purgatory for a while more. We're not bad enough to have a chance to draft the QB we want, not good enough to win the SB. But I don't get the hate toward Whaley. He's done a fine job building up the roster. He swung and apparently missed with EJ. It happens. I can't think of a single GM that goes 100% with draft picks, or even close. Remember when that great talent evaluator, BIll Walsh, thought Trent Edwards would be a good NFL QB? Sometimes even the best personnel guys are wrong. At least Whaley didn't play spin doctor and say we're set at QB with 3 franchise caliber QBs.

Good job, PP. Dispels the myth that you can't win without an elite QB. You can, but the odds may not be great.

What I hope and what I think are two very different things. What I hope is that EJ takes a huge step forward, wins the job, and plays at least as well as the average starting NFL QB. What I think is that Cassel probably wins the job, and doesn't stink it up entirely but is clearly less-than-average for a starter. We go to the playoffs nonetheless due to our strength at other positions. But there will be disappointments in our QB play this year. It's been a few years since Cassel played well and his overall career performance screams backup. Poor Rex. Entering his 7th season as a HC and has never had the joy of working with a upper tier QB.

The Bills D has started to get some of the credit it deserves. We'll rank hire by season end.

Whaley says the play of Ron Darby and John Miller at camp has impressed him This is good to hear because we need both these guys to contribute. Thanks for the update 26CB

Touching story. Seems like Woods comes from a strong, good family.

Point taken. But OJ was called "Juice" before there was an "Electric Company" in Buffalo. At first "Juice" was just a play on his initials but later grew into something more evocative. From a purely talent POV, as Tu-Toned suggests, calling a RB "Juice" is like calling a baseball player "Babe." Very few, if any, are good enough to deserve the epithet so it becomes a joke. But considering who the Juice became, calling a RB "Juice" is like calling him "John Wayne Gacy" - it's not a compliment. If I was a player, I'd be uncomfortable with either connotation.

I think it's great the Bills front office added this position. Here's a nice little "Where Are They Now" article on Kerner from 2013: http://www.buffalobills.com/news/article-1/Where-are-they-now-Marlon-Kerner/1f345a13-eec5-479b-91cf-8331f53a75a2 "When you marry a Buffalo girl, you always stay in Buffalo." You mean in his 7 starts?

I missed the hiring of Pat Meyer. The Bills now have 3 OL coaches. http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/13352503/buffalo-bills-hire-former-chicago-bears-offensive-line-coach-pat-meyer We'll have Kromer during this important preseason period when the coaching staffing is coaching technique as well as implementing a new scheme. We won't have Kromer for the first 6 games of the season when the coaches will be working on implementing game plans. Andersen and Meyer will capably handle that.

It's an odd nickname to be sure. Many NFL nicknames were meant to compliment the player: "Prime Time," "Snake," "The Chopper," "Mean Joe," "Beast Mode," "The Assassin," "Iron Mike," "Ironhead," "Megatron," "Sweetness"... But "Juice" just comes from Orange Juice/OJ - nothing inherently complimentary about it. If OJ hadn't become a killer, "Juice" would be a good nickname for RBs with speed, grace, elusiveness and vision. OJ had, for a while, transformed "Juice" into something very positive. Given what came later, I don't get why Tomlin or anyone would call a RB "Juice."

We got very little for Lynch in the prime of his career. Don't see us getting anything for Freddy, no matter how much gas is left in his 34 year old tank.

I mostly agree with you. But I also wonder if the Pegulas are trying to begin their ownership with a strong message: behavior off the field matters.

The 46 defense, even in its prime, had some problems with the West Coast offense and other quick hitting passing schemes. There aren't a lot of guys in coverage. The aim of the 46 is to disrupt the QB. But if the QB gets rid of the ball quickly, there can be big gains. In a modern offense, there might be 4 WRs running routes. So you'll need 4 good CBs. And in today's game you also have TEs link Gronk who also present coverage problems. You'll need someone who can handle big fast TEs 1-on-1. The dink and dunk that NE now uses might be effective against the 46.

Hard to fathom. Brady gets suspended four games for cheating in a playoff game. Kromer gets suspended 6 games for some undetermined altercation with some misbehaving kids. Kromer deserves punishment. But 6 games, using Brady as a benchmark, seems heavy-handed. It's interesting the suspension starts as the season begins. So Kromer will be here during preseason when he can teach technique. When the season begins, coaching is more about implementing the game plan which others can do.

I don't think there is a Plan Z. I just hope one of the 4 QBs can attain mediocrity.

Many years ago, I watched a running back - now mostly forgotten - named Willie Ellison rush for nearly 250 yards at nearly 10 yards per carry. It was the pro record at the time - breaking the mark set by our own Cookie Gilchrist. Later broken by our own Orenthal James Simpson. Why has Willie been forgotten? Because he wasn't all that good. That record-setting day, he was running through holes large enough for a dump truck to drive through. The point is that offensive lines matter. Last year, Shady ran behind an injured, inferior line. I don't see any evidence Shady's skills are in decline.

Obviously it's better to have both Darby and Leodis than just Darby. So, yeah, this is bad news for the Bills.

I haven't read this article and - except by accident once in a while - stopped reading him a long time ago. He has a talent for annoying me. He can find a dark cloud on the sunniest day. He's an anit-PR specialist - able to find the negative spin on anything. When we make the playoffs this year, he'll criticize the decisions that failed to deliver a SB win. Reading his articles brings me no pleasure and no new information. So I just don't do it.

Hard to discipline a guy when there's no definitive account of what happened and no court case.