hondo in seattle

Thermal, it's hard to disagree. An offense should be built around the best players and Fredex and CJ are our best players. I'm just not convinced that Chan will change his scheme. This unit is virtually unchanged since last year so I expect him to do what he did last season. But maybe Chan's had an epiphany and I'm wrong. And maybe a better defense that keeps opposing scores down will allow Chan to call more runs. As to the dominance of the Offensive Line... I remember the Chuck Knox years when defenses would put 7, 8, 9 players up near the line of scrimmage to counter "Ground Chuck." Gailey, however, often has defenses guessing - and often guessing pass instead of run. Obviously, that makes it much easier on the linemen and backs. I admit that, like a lot of fans, I tend to watch the player with the ball. I don't have a good read on how often individual linemen won their one-on-one battles. But in obvious running situations, I didn't see the same forward push or gaping wholes that I saw on other downs (or on other teams, or on some previous Bills squads).

I'm not opposed to running more but I'm not sure we should expect it. 1. Chan uses to passing game to open up the run game. 2. We don't have a dominating O Line. Our two backs averaged over 5 yards a pop partly because of #1. With the exception of maybe a new starting LT, we're going into this season with the same players we began last season. So my guess is that what we saw in the first of last season is pretty much what we'll see this season. That seems to be Chan's formula for maximizing the talents of this group. But Blood's comment is valid. Hopefully we can run more at the end of games because we have a lead.

Here's how I think about loyalty. Chan needs to loyal to the whole team and all the fans who want to see the Bills win again. So if Powell is the better punter, he gets the job. Loyalty to the team and fans outweighs loyalty to one player, even one who has been good & loyal to us. That's why Bill Walsh dumped Montana in favor of Young.

I voted "yes" because Brees is clearly better than Fitz. We could draft and groom a future QB while Brees leads us to the playoffs a couple times. But this is all just pointless speculation. N.O. won't trade Brees. Even if they did, the asking price would be too high. I wouldn't be willing to mortgage our future to get a QB who's probably going to soon slide beyond his prime.

This is right on. Nix and Polian are both getting old and so their successors are important. Polian in Indy was unofficially partially retired and had already begun handing over the reins to his far less capable son. If the choice is as it seems to be - Nix/Whaley versus Polian/Polian - I have to go with Nix/Whaley.

As I said, I'm not a betting man. You and Papazoid helped clarify things for me so thanks. Given that I have to bet $140 just to win $100 for the "over" it seems more bettors are expecting more than 6.5 wins than think less. It turns out to not be such a great bet after all. But it wouldn't have surprised me that the betting nation underestimated the Bills this year. We haven't been over .500 in a looong time and unless you follow the Bills or NFL very closely, I doubt if the expectation for this year would be high either.

You are right... sort of. Tanney was listed on the team's 90 man roster. He participated in a weekend-long day tryout.

I'm not a betting man. But I'm tempted to make an exception this year when I hear the Vegas odds-makers have the Bills over/under at 6.5. Apparently, there's not a lot of optimism for the Bills outside of Buffalo.

Somebody who watched him play at South Carolina says that's just the way he is. Likes to keep his emotions inside. Rarely smiles. As long as he plays hard, who care?

Mr. Weo, really? You think the fear of the Bills moving is just a myth? Geez, NFL teams are valued at or near a billion dollars. Buffalo is something like the 44th biggest metro area in the US. Worse, we keep falling in the population and TV market rankings as other newer, more vibrant cities pass us by while moribund Buffalo hardly grows. So what businessman would prefer to put a billion dollar investment in Buffalo rather than LA? Ralph is not the one drumming up the fear of a move. It's simple economics. I personally think regionalization is a great idea. As previously noted, small-market Green Bay did it with some success. If the Bills can persuade TO and Rochester to embrace the Bills, our chances of retaining a NFL team are much improved. Remember what happened to the Braves? And. Weo, you seem to admire the Patriots organization. Do you remember they used to be called the "Boston Patriots." Even Boston, a much bigger city, had to regionalize their franchise to guarantee it's tenure in the city. If I could dream, I would wish the Bills were sold to the people of Buffalo and WNY. Since that isn't likely, training camp near Rochester and a game in TO is a small price to pay to help secure our team in Buffalo.

Yep. I was thrilled when Marv came back but it didn't work out. I wouldn't bet on Polian working out if he returned (though the situation isn't exactly analogous). Despite Polian's track record, he's burn a lot of bridges over the years and I doubt if he's as driven as he used to be. I doubt he feel he has anything left to prove. Nix seems to be doing well and we have a hand-picked successor in Whaley. As I recall, Peter King bemoaned the fact we didn't hire a young hotshot like Whaley as our GM when we hired Nix. Well, we got the best of both worlds. An old dog with mountains of experience and a new hotshot on the rise.

+1 It seems Fitz has to put everything he's got into a hard or deep throw. Some other QBs can make it look easy. Maybe because Fitz has to try so hard to get the velocity, he loses something with accuracy. I cringe every time he sets up to throw deep because it seems like he's throwing for distance, not accuracy, and just putting it up for grabs.

Speculative praise is fine but I greedily eat up the kind of praise that comes when your team is winning! Here's hoping for some of that later on.

Polian says that his two best moves were the signing of Kelly and hiring of Marv. These two should be #1 and #2 on the list.

As much as I hate it... Better one home game in TO then all the home games in LA.

I suppose I'm a Fitz fan. I really like the guy and loved the way he ran the offense during the first half of last season. But ultimately I'm a Bills fan which means I'm a Vince Young fan too as long as he wears a Bills uni.

I was in my home (at that time) in California with my wife (at that time) watching the game on TV. My wife wanted to do something that day and was bugging me to leave when the score got out of hand. I told her, "They can come back." She asked, "Has any team ever come back from a score like this?" Like a sad sheepdog, I replied, "No, never." But then added, "But anything is possible." I continued to watch the game but wasn't actually very hopeful. I was like an addict doing his drugs even though I knew full well this wasn't good for me. As I recall, the Oilers had dominated us just the week before in the final regular season game. So here was 6 consecutive quarters of pain leading to a 35-3 deficit in a playoff game. Houston was a good team and seemed to have our number. With Kelly being hurt, life was pretty grim there for a while.

I think QB win-loss records are nearly meaningless (and, yeah, I know what happened to the Colts when Manning got hurt). Football teams have three units: Offense, Defense and Special Teams. The QB is one part - albeit the most important part - of one of the three units. A QB can be bad but still win because the Defense and Special Teams are doing their work. And that's why VY has a better win-loss record than Fitz.

Huh? Just because he played on some winning teams doesn't mean he was a born leader. Those teams won despite Young's lack of leadership ability - partly because of his athletic ability. Regards him being a cancer, I doubt it. The worst scenario is that Fitz plays bad, gets hurt, Young comes in and plays well and then Fitz become the starter again after recovering. That scenario could potentially lead to a divided locker room and fan base. But it's an unlikely series of events. I suspect VY will be a good team player and faithfully play the role that Chan gives him.

It's hard for us fans to know how much of San Diego's rise can be attributed to Buddy and how much to Butler, AJ, etc... But nice research. Reading this reinforces my optimism. I think the sun's finally coming out for Bills fans after a long winter.

It's been a great offseason for sure. But there are still a lot of question marks. Can Glenn be a good LT in the NFL? Will a WR step up and prove they deserve to be the starter opposite Stevie? How will our LBs fare in Wanny's 4-3? Do we have anyone that can shut down Gronk and Hernandez? Has VY matured enough to be a solid backup? Will our injured players be 100% on opening day? How good are our 2012 draft picks really?

I recognize that you prefaced your statement about VY starting with a big "IF" but I have to mention that VY was beat out by TE for the #2 spot in Philly. It's hard to imagine that VY has matured so much in one year that he's now ready to compete for a starting job. But, I guess, stranger things have happened.

I think when Nix said that Young was signed to compete for a backup position, he meant it. I don't think the Bills are looking at Young as a potential starter. Young is not nearly as smart as Fitz and therefore isn't likely to run the offense the way Chan wants. He's not as emotionally stable as Fitz. He doesn't have Fitz's leadership skills. I only see Young in a game if Fitz gets hurt. But if that did happen, it's possible that Young could play well and create a QB controversy - at least amongst the fans. Young does have the physical tools to play well when his head isn't up his butt. Despite his erratic background, I'm glad we brought him in.

Skip Bayless tweeted this: "Vince Young eventually will be the starting quarterback of the Buffalo Bills, who'll start causing problems in the AFC East." If memory serves me, Skip once similarly said that VY will beat out Vick for the starting job in Philly. What do you guys say? Will VY ever start ahead of a healthy Fitz? Personally, I don't think so. By the way, Bayless is not a guy who I think is very accurate or knowledgeable when he reports on the NFL. Nonetheless, I did like reading that the Bills will "start causing problems in the AFC East."

Vince's biggest problems have been mental rather than physical: poor leadership, inability to get along with some of his coaches, erratic behavior, etc. If he's finally grown up, he could be a nice addition. Obviously, Nix and Gailey saw some change in him; otherwise they wouldn't have offered him a contract.