RealityCheck

I can't believe some people are afraid of losing a LG off of a 6-10 team. There are a number of tackles in the draft that can play his position. As far as the cap goes, simple addition shows that Mark Anderson's contract has absolutely nothing to do with resigning Levitre.

Seriously? The only question that matters is will the Bills make the playoffs this coming season? 13 years of no playoffs is the answer to every question until they start winning early and often. As for the bolded part, you complain that they are "marketing" their moves right now, and yet you want to ask a question that you already know the answer to to get a quote from the guy in control of the marketing. I think you want Chris Brown's job.

I am a big Levitre fan but I can't say that I am a fan of giving him a boatload of money if it means limiting our moves at QB, LB, CB, or WR. I want him to stay, but he is a guard after all. He represents Nix's current philosophy in drafting Tackles and moving them to Guard. It would be nice to get a more physical player with better size and arm length at his position without the price tag he will command.

He has a 50/50 chance of winning a Super Bowl here. He either will or he won't. 2 possible outcomes. I'll take those odds.

The jets bet on the wrong qb.

Sorry brother, but the Jets 3-4 is a 1 gap system that typically uses 4 DL. Again, the Jets since Jenkins have drafted for a 4 man front and are trending to emphasizing DBs over the typical OLB. Expect personnel for a 4-3 that will line up in an under or over less than 40% of the time with far more nickel and dime alignments. All teams are forced to use the Nickel and Dime to keep up with spread alignments, why aren't we asking each other what personnel we need to play out of those alignments? Perhaps teams should start drafting for a single gap nickel base defense instead of investing so heavily in LBrs that will usually be on the bench with the game on the line.

I would resign Merriman and cut Kelsey.

I could care less about this 43, 44, or 46 nonsense. How many times are we going to debate defensive schemes that we will barely use? The Nickel and it's variations seem to be the true base defenses these days, the %'s don't lie. If you can't stop an offense out of the Nickel your QB better throw at least 5 TDs or you'll probably lose. The Jets played a 4 man front over 70% of the time with a lot of DBs on the field. Without Jenkins in the middle they have succumbed to being a 4 DL defense. Has anybody watched the Jets play the last 2 seasons?

The Jets used a 4 man front over 70% of the time and that is considered part time? Why do you want to get rid of our top DT?

All coordinators know how to run different fronts. The question is, what do we have to do to play great defense out of the nickel?

Fitz needs to go. It has nothing to do do with the defense. He is literally a coin flip as to how good or bad he can be from series to series. Fitz helps the opposing team's defense on a semi-regular basis. No thank you. Fitz will never win a playoff game no matter what team he is on. As for the salary cap, not really my problem. There is no justification to continue paying the man. I think that if there was anybody who lost the team this year, it would be Fitz. After every pick early in the season the entire team would go into a shell. If you game plan around what Fitz is actually good at you basically are stuffing the offense into a phone booth. Why?

It's real simple. No matter who the boss is, it's Ralph's money. You may not like it, but it's his money doing the talking, not Russ Brandon's.

At this point, I just want to see a great defense. Personally I think that our players might make for a good group of blitzers. We have some good athletes on defense compared to a lot of teams. They just can't cover very well. Why not send them to the QB instead? McKelvin blitzing from the slot would be a step in the right direction. Bradham was a decent blitzer in college.

A thread full of straight speculation being marketed as truth. Why do you guys bother with these types of threads? Nix is not popular anymore so now we'll assume he had nothing to do with the hire?

In substance we have no idea what this move will lead to. The team's personnel problems will remain before them no matter who the coach is. Philosophically speaking from a pure business management perspective, this has been an atypical coaching search for this team leading to a somewhat atypical hire compared to their recent history. The fact that they Beuford T. Justiced out of Buffalo in high speed pursuit to Arizona to get a coach is not Ralph's MO. This may or may not be a winning move, but it is an aggressive move demonstrating an aggressive mindset. We'll see. If this team starts to win, most of us won't care what it looks like or who gets the credit.

Dalton at this point in his career lacks January accuracy. If you are a fan of being good enough to one and done the playoffs then maybe Dalton is a QB you wish the Bills had. At this point in Fitz's career he lacks August accuracy. If you are a fan of being good enough to not make the playoffs then maybe you hope Fitz stays. Aaron Rodgers at this point in his career has February accuracy. If you are a fan of being good enough to win a Super Bowl then maybe Rodgers is a QB you wish the Bills had. Unless the Bills can get a supremely accurate QB with at least half a brain, they will have lost the Super Bowl before they began, so on and so forth. Next year will be a make or break year for Dalton. If he continues to lack accuracy late in the season it could be curtains for him. In football, if you're not first, you're better off being last. That in between s*** is means squat.

I'd rather stay 4-3. When you spend most of your time in the nickel why carry a base defense requiring that you carry more roster spots at LBr, in particular the usually expensive OLBrs if they are any good. In any trend, it's typically better to accept the fact that it is too late to join the innovators once the herd moves and seek an effective counterpoint and seek to innovate yourself.

Mork calling Orsen...come in Orsen...

Very interesting... The defense would have a totally different vibe.

Who would be the DC?

Excellent question. You could look at simplistically in terms of particular QBs, but that isn't really an analysis. It would be more beneficial to not only take the conversion % but superimpose it over the % of various defensive formations and personnel packages by team and in which quarters vs. score differential and grade the quality of the play call based on who actually got open vs said coverages and if the QB went to the right guy or into the teeth of the coverage. This would allow you to properly grade the design of the play and both the decision making and accuracy of the QB. Most NFL defenses play man coverage and back the safeties off to protect against the deep ball in those situations unless they're within their own 20. Lots of DCs will call a coverage that is weak underneath so that if the catch is made then it's not for a big gain and not some 20 yarder. Personally I hate any 3rd and short package that doesn't keep a RB in the backfield to at least pick up a blitzer, delayed handoff, or an inside screen if you're not gonna run it. Chan was calling plays like he had Brees or Brady out there. I hope by now he is at least aware that it was just a guy named Fitzgerald.

Chip Kelly as an OC is one thing, but I just can't see letting him run the entire show with so little NFL experience.

If you are calling McCoy a fraud I have to agree with that. Fool's gold perhaps?

I question the sanity of leaving Manning after one season.