hondo in seattle

For the past 14 years, I've been hanging my hopes on those 'someones.'

I remember this game well... at least that final drive. Roland Hooks, what a hero that day! The catch before the Hail Mary was indeed "spectacular."

I guess I'm one of the few here old enough to remember that game. Awesome memory.

I agree. The OL struggled to open holes, or to get any push in short yardage situations. The production we did get was mostly due to the fact we ran more than most teams and had two good backs lugging the ball. Offensive scheming and play-calling could have been better too. I know CJ had a high ankle sprain last year but it also seemed like Hackett just didn't know how to create space for EJ. Gailey was much better at it.

Thanks b2henning. That's a great find and, as you say, a fair and informed evaluation of EJ. But I've also heard this general comment from a lot of NFL personnel guys: no college QBs are NFL ready. They all have stuff to improve. And that's why NFL scouts are so often wrong - because it's a guessing game who's going to continue developing and who won't. I'm personally going to guess the observers in this article are no better at prognosticating future NFL success than NFL scouts, and probably worse. EJ at 20 or 22 isn't necessarily EJ at 25 or 30. I'm going to assume that - like a lot of other QBs - he didn't reach his peak in college. Nor in his rookie NFL year. How much improvement he'll show this year, I don't know, but my fingers are crossed and I'm hoping for the best.

LaCanfora is just guessing, as he often does. I think he's guessing wrong, as he often does. (I may be wrong myself, but isn't LaCanfora the guy who earlier this year reported the Browns were about to hire Schwartz as their DC?)

I get what you are saying about keeping complimentary a skill set. But the opposite POV has validity. If Sammy, Goodwin, or another speedy WR goes down, TJ is a good backup because he has similar speed. We wouldn't have to change the play-calling much or, worse, throw out the game plan.

As a reminder, in Schwartz's first press conference with the Bills media, he said this about the Wide 9: "Mostly that's thrown around by people that couldn’t line it up if they wanted to. That’s no disrespect to those people, but there’s 32 teams in the NFL, and all 32 of them line up in a Wide 9. Not all of them are called Wide 9 teams, but that’s just the way it goes. That sort of developed because it fit our personnel [in Detroit], and it fit what our opponents did. You can dictate some things on defense with it, make it hard on offense. There’s some things that you need to constantly work because, like anything, it has strengths and it has weaknesses. It’ll certainly be part of our scheme here, but it won’t define our scheme."

I'm curious... what is Schwartz's scheme with the Bills? He's run different schemes over the years. I'm not sure what scheme he's using with the Bills. If you know, please share. Here's what Schwartz himself said about his scheme: “You can’t put it in a box. It’ll be opponent-specific and multi-dimensional. We are an attack scheme.” http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/01/27/jim-schwartz-were-going-to-be-an-attack-scheme/ As vague an answer as that is, it sounds good to me. What it will look like on the field, I'm not sure anyone actually yet knows.

Yeah, I've wondered about this too. What does it entail and how hard is it? Failures are uncommon so I'm guessing it's reasonably easy to pass.

These media reports aren't making Kluwe look very good. I actually read the report by the 3rd party investigators - it pretty much exonerates the Vikings and makes you wonder if Kluwe is just an attention whore with too much imagination.

I'll go with E.J. Nobody seems to be expecting much from him this year. The national media continually questions him. The pundits ranking the 2014 starting QBs always place him in the bottom half. But, mark my words, he's going to light it up this season and toss 30+ TDs. (Of course, this is all wishful thinking. But if it turns it he actually was the most underrated player going into 2014, it'll make for a great season).

This guy lives in a completely different world than you or I. He's talking to owners on a daily basis. He's getting input from the NFLPA and individual players. He's interacting with fans from around the country. He's got lawyers, advisory committees, and others bringing insights and intel to him. He's swimming in NFL information every day. I couldn't possibly guess what decisions I'd be making if I was as "read in" as he was and facing the same pressures from the various constituencies. I do know, however, that with Ralph's passing I'd rather have a reputed Bills fan and WNY native in that job right now than someone else.

Good points - especially the first one. But we still don't know what he have in EJ. As a fan, I'm hoping he does turn out to be one of the top 20 Bills this season.

My mom was French - born and raised in the suburbs of Paris. And she was the nicest, saintliest person I've ever known. Not sure what false assumptions you're writing under.

Great post CBF. I envy you. While I grew up in Cheektowaga, I live on the West Coast now and rarely have an opportunity to see a Bills game in person. While you live across the border, you're closer to the Bills - in more ways than one - than I am.

Man, you guys are hard on Jaws! I've got to stick up for the Lackawanna kid who once came to talk to my H.S. football team and who I'm guessing is still somewhat of a Bills fan. Jaws is great at breaking down film and telling us what happened. For whatever reason, he's horrible at prognosticating what will happen. Despite all his QB expertise, his predictions about the future performance of QBs are notoriously bad.

Seahawks also had four states.

They could rename the team, "The New York Bills of Buffalo" but I doubt if that would draw any new fans. New Yorkers will still root for the Giants or Jets. They could go whole hog and just rename the team, "The New York Bills" but I don't think even that name would attract a lot of fans outside of WNY - and would probably lose a few fans within the region. I really don't see a good way use naming options to attract fans from the other half of the state. Whether or not they play in Jersey, New Yorkers will remain loyal to the Giants and Jets. Regardless of the name, as long as the team plays in Buffalo, it will be viewed as Buffalo's team, not New York's. The best we can hope for, in terms of attracting fans, is more localized regionalization. But the "Niagara Frontier Bills" and other proposed name changes are rather inelegant.

1851 If this was better known, more would sign. Though it would still mean very little. Money and grand strategy count for more than signatures.

Preseason power rankings are pretty meaningless. Media guys often talk/write just for the sake of talking and writing. Because it sells and we fans like it when they say (stupid) stuff, even when we don't. Given that we have an unproven HC, unproven OC, unproven QB, a bunch of unproven WRs, a new DC implementing a new scheme, etc., it's not surprising we're ranked low. Where we see potential, the national media sees concerns & weaknesses.

Field participation precludes speed??? Goodwin ran a 4.27 40 at the combine - 6th fastest in combine history. He missed the record by .03. I'm not sure if this is "Olympic speed" but it's pretty darn fast!

Good find. Thanks. It will be interesting to see what he does this year.

It's all about EJ's development as a QB, Hackett's development as an OC, and Marrone's development as a HC. And then there's Danny Crossman. This team does have talent. But for the Bills to emerge as playoff contenders, several folks need to become better than they've been. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

That was unnecessarily unkind.