hondo in seattle

You have a point but, c'mon, don't you get tired of hiring the same verbiage over and over? "He's got great range." "High football I.Q." "A lot of upside." "Plays well in space." I'm guessing he's using "friskiness" to mean a creative, uptempo offense. I like it.

Pettine/Ryan did great things with the Jets. Really creative, effective stuff. It will be exciting to see what Pettine does here. Marrone/Payton did equally great things with the Saints. Both Marrone & Pettine had their units in the top five of the NFL. Needless to say, having Drew Brees helped Marrone in NO, though Drew wasn't nearly as productive previously with SD. I'm excited to see what Marrone/Hackett will do. Hackett seems like a smart, enthusiastic ("hyper" & "giddy") guy. I'm drinking the Kool-Aid.

Brian Galliford has spent a lot of time watching NYJ video, trying to figure out Pettine's defense and how he may apply his defensive philosophy to the Bills. I thought Galliford's analysis - in a series of articles - made for good reading. The first link might be the most illuminating... http://www.chatsport...media-2-7912241 http://www.chatsport...media-2-7912241 http://www.chatsport...media-2-7912241 P.S. Bobby Chandler, congrats on your 5,000th post (even if you closed my last thread)!

Brian Galliford has spent a lot of time watching NYJ video, trying to figure out Pettine's defense and how he may apply his defensive philosophy to the Bills. I thought Galliford's analysis - in a series of articles - made for good reading. The first link might be the most illuminating... http://www.chatsports.com/buffalo-bills/a/Buffalo-Bills-news-523-Mike-Pettines-defense-fascinating-fans-media-2-7912241'>http://www.chatsports.com/buffalo-bills/a/Buffalo-Bills-news-523-Mike-Pettines-defense-fascinating-fans-media-2-7912241'>http://www.chatsports.com/buffalo-bills/a/Buffalo-Bills-news-523-Mike-Pettines-defense-fascinating-fans-media-2-7912241 http://www.chatsports.com/buffalo-bills/a/Buffalo-Bills-news-523-Mike-Pettines-defense-fascinating-fans-media-2-7912241 http://www.chatsports.com/buffalo-bills/a/Buffalo-Bills-news-523-Mike-Pettines-defense-fascinating-fans-media-2-7912241

I sympathize. Fortunately, my Dan Manucci tat is somewhere where no one can see it.

The Bills are young enough already; there's no need for a youth movement. No one will be cut solely because of age. Players on your list may be cut because they get beat out and declining skills could have something to do with it. If Freddy looks better this preseason than all the other backs (other than CJ), do you really think Marrone will say, "Freddy is awesome, but I prefer a younger back who's not nearly as talented"? That's insane. The best players will make the roster, regardless of birth dates.

As a guy who's had disc fusion surgery, my sentimental pick is Troup. But of the guys on this list, my rational brain tells me AC is the most likely to have a career break-through this year. It would be exciting if under the guidance of new and (hopefully) better coaches, several players have break-throughs this year.

6.5 seems fair enough. The Bills have to be one of the most difficult teams to project this year. New HC, DC and OC. New offensive and defensive schemes. 30+ new players (as of right now). Not sure who the QB will be opening day but it's definitely not last year's QB. A serious, realistic bettor might have to play the under. As a fan, though, I find reasons to hope for better. BBF's time-warp prediction of 11-3 sounds good to me.

You are right, of course. So I'll let you figure out a way of calculating the odds that's more precise and not (1) subjective, or (2) a royal pain in the ass. My point was only that the odds were long. But what a great year for the Bills if we had either ROY.

There's 1 chance in 32 of the OROY being a Bill. There's 1 chance in 32 of the DROY being a Bill. So there's 1 chance in 1,024 of both the OROY and DROY being Bills. It would be awesome if it happened.

I doubt if this article accurately predicts the Bills O in 2013. There's been talk coming from OBD of elements of the K-Gun and a lot of West Coast looks and the author doesn't mention this. Nor does he talk about Marrone's offensive tactics at Syracuse very much. But the article does present an exciting case for the options Marrone does have. IF guys live up to their potential, Marrone & Hackett will be having fun this year. So, too, us fans. Iron Butterfly, thanks for the link. It was a good read.

Stevie didn't tell you anything really dramatic or shocking. Nonetheless, it's good to hear he's jazzed about the new offense and WRs. I thought it was cool he watched tapes of the 90s teams. Not every player will do that. Shows he's identifying himself as a Bill and not just as a guy stuck in Buffalo and toughing it out just for the money. Thanks for posting!

If the playbook is indeed simple (maybe EJ hasn't seen the whole offense yet) then it's probably because Marrone and Hacket want something simple enough that they can execute it to perfection. The simpler the offense, the more likely you can execute it well. The more complicated the offense, the more you (theoretically) confuse defenses. Every coach finds his own balancing act. Lombardi, for one, was on the simple side of this continuum because he wanted flawless execution. I don't think Marrone is dumbing down his system for the sake of a rookie QB. I think he may instead be philosophically against overly complicated offenses. But it's too soon to say.

Good research... but not sure what conclusions we can draw.

These are all good points BUT... Whaley has brought in two guys from outside the organization for leadership positions. He's also said he will implement a new process. While he may continue to use BLESTO and the old scouts, he intends to have a process that makes them more effective. These may not be the wholesale changes we saw in the coaching staff. But they are pretty significant. Regarding the scouts, he might want to evaluate how well they implement his program before replacing them.

I'm just happy that Doug isn't Buddy Junior. He's going off in his own direction. I don't if that's good or bad but after 13 years of misery, I want something new. New GM, new HC, new OC, new DC, new QB. I'm about as happy as I can be right now.

Your welcome. I've been wondering about Whaley role the past couple years and if, maybe, the reins had already been handed him before the draft in an evolutionary sort of way. Apparently, not. Day One on the job he's making big changes and talking about implementing his own program. He seems to have a plan for improving the house that Nix built.

I think the changes show Nix wasn't just a figurehead as some had speculated. I thought Whaley's comment about Fisher was interesting, "...he knows the process that I'm going to implement." It sounds like Whaley's going to make the Bills scouting department run like the Steeler's scouting department.

From Mark Gaughan... Whaley wasted no time putting his own stamp on the organization. The Bills announced the hiring of Jim Monos as director of player personnel and Kelvin Fisher as director of college scouting. Monos spent the past eight years serving a key role as Southeast college scout for the New Orleans Saints. He becomes Whaley’s right-hand man, overseeing pro and college scouting. Fisher, who spent the past 13 years as a college scout with the Steelers, becomes the Bills’ new director of college scouting. Chuck Cook, who held that title with the Bills the past two years, gets demoted to the role of national college scout. Whaley was quick to make some changes to the scouting hierarchy. Anybody know anything about these guys beyond the above? EDIT: I just found a good article from Jay Skurski answering my question. Here are a couple excerpts... Monos steps into the role that Whaley previously held, overseeing both the pro personnel and college scouting departments. “I’ve known him for a while. He’s an incredible talent evaluator and he will be important for us on the road, seeing the top talent,” Whaley said of Monos, who comes to the Bills after spending the past eight seasons as a scout with the New Orleans Saints.... Fisher has spent the last 13 years with the Pittsburgh Steelers as a college scout. Fisher started with the Steelers in 2000, a year after Whaley. “I’ve been with him for a long time so he knows the process that I’m going to implement,” Whaley said. http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130517/SPORTS/130519255

Gotta love being ranked #32 of 32.

CJ is a classy guy. No matter who we hired as coach, CJ would have had something good to say at this point. He's always looking for the positive.

The first time I ever heard of Doug Whaley is when we promoted Nix to GM. Peter King opined that we should have given the position instead to an young rising start like Doug Whaley, for example, rather than an older guy on the verge of retirement. King said as I recall that Whaley was highly respected in NFL circles. A few days later, we hired Whaley and now Pete got what he was proposing: Whaley as GM. I'm cautiously optimistic.

Who cares about who had the higher stock? The only thing that matters is who will be the better NFL Head Coach. Both Kelly and Marrone were respected in NFL circles when they were coaching in college. Neither - at this point - seems like a bad choice but time will tell. Btw, I agree that Kelly had the higher stock but not by that much. Forget the media buzz and compare the list of teams reportedly interested in Kelly with the list of teams reportedly interested in Marrone. Kelly's list isn't that much longer. The thing about Marrone is that he already understands the NFL and - to a certain extent - has already proven himself on this level. Kelly hasn't.

If EJ turns into a good NFL QB and Marrone into a successful NFL HC, I'll remember Buddy fondly as the guy who turned this failing franchise around. People can argue that this was more Whaley's draft than Nix's. Or that Whaley chose Marrone more so than Buddy. We may never know. But let's not forget Nix hired Whaley. If we blame Nix for the Gailey hiring - and we do - then we should credit him for the Whaley hiring if Whaley is indeed already transforming the Bills into a winner. It's still too early the evaluate the Nix legacy but I'm more hopeful this off-season than I've been in years.

Perry Fewell?