hondo in seattle

You're right of course. But as a fan who sees some potential in EJ, I'd love to see him work with the ones. In fact, I'd love to see all three work with the ones. I'm getting the feeling that won't happen. It seems Rex and Roman have seen enough to narrow the QB race down to two.

I'd love to see EJ start the 3rd preseason game so all three QBs have a chance to work with the ones. Unfortunately, I've heard as-of-yet unsubstantiated rumors that Rex doesn't give a pile of poop about my opinion, but I really want the QB competition to appear fair to all three guys.

I'd love to keep the 3 QBs too, but I'd hate to cut an extra WR. There's a lot of talent there. And I bet Roman would hate to cut an extra TE given how he likes to use TEs.

Great analysis. Thanks! I'm getting more intrigued by TT because he seems to have a legit shot at winning the starting job. When we first signed him, I considered him a long shot. But you gotta guess Rex is putting him with the ones this week to see how he looks as a starter.

Lal, the receivers coach, tends to rate him with Woods and Harvin, but a step below Sammy.

Another great article by Tyler Dunne http://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2015/08/15/rex-ryan-bills-may-inviting-trouble/tjOLjBWGVdD3U8CG4oQGrI/story.html Dunne is starting to grow on me, writing the kind of optimistic - but not unrealistic - articles that fans like me want to read. Plus, I learn new things from Dunne while Sully only rarely tells me anything new. Tyler is actually talking to players, attempting to get to know their stories. Reading this article about Harvin makes me think about him a little differently.

Why remove EJ's long pass? If you remove Shady's long runs from his career stats, he's a mediocre RB. Stats are like that. Maybe more fair would be to add in yards for the dropped passes. And more for the bad snaps.

This is all overblown. We do have some characters on this team. We have some guys who have misbehaved. But we don't have the criminals that some other teams have. The Bills have 5 player arrests in the past 5 years which is below the NFL average of 8.1. 22 clubs had more arrests than the Bills. The Vikes had 18: http://forums.twobillsdrive.com/topic/179776-nfl-bad-boy-rankings/

Especially if the QB is feeling the need to get the ball out in 2.5 seconds or less. Between our Pro Bowl front four, and Rex's exotic blitz packages, we should be able to make QBs feel nervous and/or get rid of the ball quickly more often than not. On most plays, Gilmore will only need to stay with his man for less than 3 seconds. That doesn't require Revis-like lockdown ability.

Who started the Revis-Gilmore comparison? I vaguely remember some article wondering if Gilmore could be the new Revis for Rex. But I don't recall anyone on this board projecting something similar. Maybe I missed it. A lot of teams win a lot of games without a Revis quality corner on their team. I'm with the herd on this one. Gilmore isn't Revis, but he doesn't need to be. He's a good CB who's going to play behind a great DL. Someone posted that Rex's defenses depend a lot on CB play. That's true to a point. Rex often leaves his CBs in man coverage and if the QB isn't being pressured, this could be problematic. But Rex's pass defenses are really predicated on pressure and we have the personnel to generate a lot of pressure.

It was good to see our QBs play well. But let me ask... Which QB is the best at intermediate to long passes? The old adage "You have to run the ball to open up the pass" has been turned upside down in recent years. Now you have to pass to open up the run. The better a team is throwing the ball downfield, the less guys the defense can put in the box. Tyrod is more exciting with his legs than his arm. This brings more players into the box. MC is better at short passes than long. This doesn't push anyone out of the box. Could it be that EJ offers the best complement to Roman's run game? I'm just thinking outloud.

Here's another point in Andy's favor. What if the RBs combine for 20 carries and 40 yards but the Vick-like QB scrambles 5 times for 60 yards? The stat line will say 25 rushing attempts for 100 yards. Not a terrible Sunday for the OL and backs - according to the stats. But the running game really averaged 2.0 years per carry. I'm a traditionalist and don't want to give up the traditional method of keeping stats. But it would be nice for the stat geeks to produce more sophisticated analyses of the run and pass games. A full evaluation of a passing game, for example, would include penalty yards both for and against, sacks, and scrambles. A full evaluation of the running game would include penalties, but not scrambles or kneel-downs.

Please, no more EJ threads!

It's about time NFL folks talked to this guy. But the caveat in the middle of the article is spot on... Of course, just because it’s been an effective strategy for one high school doesn’t mean it would be an effective strategy in the NFL. Punters in the NFL are far better than punters in high school. And the talent gap between two high school teams can be huge, which means that Kelley’s offense might convert a lot of fourth downs just because his players are a lot better than the players on the opposing defense, not because his strategy of going for it on fourth down is inherently correct. During my junior year in high school, our team didn't punt much. Then again, we had two RBs averaging over 10 yards per carry. Pro teams don't have offenses like that. Still, I think a statistical analysis of the NFL would show that most teams are too conservative on 4th down.

I don't agree but I love when people aren't afraid to publicly make bold predictions! On the flip side, I hate when people gloat about being right when they never actually stated anything truly definitive in the first place.

I'm with section122 all the way on this. I want EJ to be good because he's a Buffalo Bill. We pretty much know what MC is as a QB. I'm hoping EJ becomes something more than that. Alex Smith had 5 mediocre years in San Francisco from 2005 to 2010. 49er fans started calling him a bust and wanted him replaced. The year before Greg Roman became his OC, Smith had a 82.1 QB rating - the best of his lackluster career thus far. Smith's first year with Roman, he passed for more yards in Roman's run-oriented offense than he ever had before. And his rating jumped up to 90.7. The following year under Roman, Smith's rating rocketed up to 104.1! Why is it so impossible for some to conceive that Roman might help EJ get better just like he did with Smith? I'm not predicting it, but I sure am hoping for it. EJ's career rating is 78.5. Roman improved Smith's rating by 22 points over two years. If he improved EJ's rating this year by 10 points - to 88.5 - it would be awesome. I think it's fair to predict the Bills are going to the playoffs if our starting QB has a 88.5 rating. This is not an unreasonable hope.

Great article. Clearly Marrone/Hackett couldn't correct his flaws. Maybe Greg Roman and his staff can.

I'm a pacifist by nature. Violence is rarely, if ever, the right answer. But I'm a realist too. I imagine every day in some camp or another, some NFL player is punching another. IK just hit harder than the other guys. Other teams sign serious criminals and we sign a puncher and the media gets upset. Ray Lewis had a nice career after possible involvement in a murder. AP was just given another chance. I'm expecting someone to give wife-beater Ray Rice another shot. IK is small potatoes in comparison.

Yep. Clearly it's our most glaring need. It deserves a first round pick. Unless EJ or TT win the job and make the Pro Bowl.

Like it or not, there's a lot of testosterone in NFL locker rooms. Guys get in fights all the time. So I'm curious how much the league will punish him for doing what players do often. IK didn't do anything unusual. He just did it better.

Every year there's at least one guy who outperforms many of the players picked before him. Fans everywhere start unfavorably comparing that guy to their pick. Predicting the long term performance of college players going to the NFL is like trying to predict the weather 4 months from now. You might have mathematically models and do complicated regression analyses based on thousands of data points. But in the end, you just don't know. No player evaluation method is perfect. All you can do is make an educated guess and hope for the best. The Giants bet on OBJ and it worked out. Good for them. Maybe hindsight says we should have picked him instead of Sammy but hindsight will always, always say we could have drafted better. I'm not going to worry about it. I doubt if Sammy will put up great numbers this year, given who'll be throwing the ball and the kind of offense we're likely to run. As long as we win enough games to get to the playoffs, I don't care.

The personnel executive in Green Bay that Tyler Dunne talks to isn't sure if Manuel will ever develop into a good NFL QB. Apparently, Whaley and Ryan aren't sure yet either. So while professional talent evaluators aren't certain yet, you know with absolute certainty. Ridiculous. Most QBs who get drafted never do develop into good starting QBs. So you may be right because the odds are on your side, not because you have some special talent at evaluating what QB traits can and can't be taught. Maybe because I'm old, I've witnessed several QBs who were supposedly not cut out for the NFL eventually blossom. Plunkett, Brees, Deberg - all sorts of QBs - failed to demonstrate NFL caliber skill sets their first years(s) in the league. They struggled with everything imaginable - timing, accuracy, mechanics, reading defenses, progressions - so much so that fans and teams gave up on them. And then they learned and then they blossomed.

I agree with Section122 on a lot of this - especially the part I bolded. I am a fan of anyone who wears the Red, White and Blue of the Buffalo Bills. Whatever shortcomings in their game, I hope they overcome them. I also think it's odd people criticize the pick. A vocal group of fans wants us to draft a QB every year until we get it right. Nix/Whaley drafted a QB. Some believed he was the best QB that year. Was he worth a first round pick? Good question, but he wouldn't have still been on the board if we had waited until the second round. To get the highest rated that QB, we had to roll the dice at #1. Drafting QBs is always a crapshoot. I don't KNOW if EJ will ever be good but... Jim Plunkett, big college star, started for 6 years for the Pats. By the end of his time there, almost everyone agreed the guy could be a good backup in the league but was not a franchise QB. He just didn't have NFL skills. In his 9th year in the NFL, Plunkett was backing up the great Dan Pastorini in Oakland. When Pastorini got hurt, Plunkett had the best year of his career and led the Raiders to the SB where he was named MVP. Some QBs are late bloomers. They continue to improve their skill set during the NFL careers until they're finally good. No one KNOWS if EJ will continue to improve or not. No one can KNOW.

That's a scary comparison. Brings back bad memories.

My thinking was, if the three QBs were performing equally, then Rex will want to go with the veteran guy who's led playoff drives before. Seems to me the trust factor would be higher with MC than the others. So in a tie, MC is the winner. But Alphadawg makes a good point. Everything else being equal, why not go with a younger guy who may still have some upside. We know MC isn't getting better at his age. Maybe if TT or EJ are just playing as good as MC during preseason, they get the nod because of their athleticism and the possibility they may get better as the season progresses with continual playing time and coaching.