Dorkington

Well, I think he's better than Tuel or Thad, so I guess I'm here. No clue if he'll turn out to be good, though.

Excellent runs by CJ, too bad about the penalties. :/

That was a nice play by EJ

What qualifies as a "defender"? I still think he's the best we got, likely for two more seasons.

Terrible throw... Was it tipped/EJ hit?

There's the classic D!

This game is embarrassing.

"Defensive struggle" defines this game haha

Our offense is a disaster so far.

Hell of a defensive stand!

Chandler slips, EJ doesn't see it, and throws anyways. Awesome. :/

The Patriots and Jets looked pretty damned good yesterday...

Too many questions in important areas for me to feel confident in predicting a winning season.

If EJ shows up, all these discussions become moot, and the Bills get a winning record. It's all about the "if"

Who said anything about the past? NE is simply a better team than us due to Brady, at this point. Without Brady, they fall back to the pack. NYJ are close to us, but I think they have a more stout defense, otherwise they are pretty equal to us. The Dolphins, I think got better over the offseason, moreso than us, but really, we could switch them and us. We might sweep them, sure, but they also might beat more teams than us. Like I said in another thread, I think we got a bit better on paper, but the schedule is pretty rough for the whole of the AFC East. I think EJ will progress slowly, but I'm not really sure about his ceiling... so as of now, I see a lot of what we saw last year. But, lets say EJ improves and stays healthy, and our OL improves, and our playcalling improves on offense.... and our new defense doesn't give up big passing plays, we'll be in good shape. The problem is, that's a whole lot of ifs. Hence my somewhat down prediction. It has nothing to do with "oh, we'll suck because we sucked for 14 years", it has everything to do with the fact that I see big question marks at many positions, and the odds are that some of those question marks will turn out well, and some of them will turn out badly.

Oh, I'm not at all suggesting we'll be bad simply because we're the Bills. I think if we had last year's schedule, we'd be a 10 win team this year. But we haven't improved enough to overcome the schedule we have this year, and I'm not super confident in our coaching. Edit: I think the AFC East in general is going to look pretty mediocre, when it's all said and done. NE wins the division with something like a 9-7 record, for example.

I have a feeling our run defense will be good... but our pass defense will start tanking, causing for an overall worsening of defense, due to the nature of the league...

Indeed, our team got better on paper... but, our schedule also got tougher this year. So we may be a better team, but we'll end up with the same(ish) lousy record.

Good point

Marrone threatening Hughes' spot on the team is funny. If Hughes were to be cut, he'd find 15 teams interested in his services. Most of them likely to finish with better records than the Bills.

For me, I see concerns at: QB TE LG RG SLB WLB CB1 SS EJ, well, he's 10 games into his career.. who knows. Will Chandler be reliable? Especially in the endzone? LG is a well known issue. No clue what's going on at RG. Are Rivers, Bradham, and Brown going to perform in the LB corps? Gilmore has looked questionable this preseason, is he actually a legit corner? Will he be neutered by the new rules? Who's our starting strong safety? Basically we have running backs, an exciting rookie wide receiver, and a good defensive line. The rest could be argued to be absolute garbage.

"@JaySkurski: At one point Marrone told Jerry Hughes "you don't have to play on this team." Marrone to the whole team: "get your (expletive) together."" Oh boy.

NFL is a win now league. I'm honestly surprised that Marrone/Hackett wasn't fired after last season, simply because that seems to be the way it is these days. Either win right away, or you're out.

It's a pretty easy prediction to make... Likely: 1. Patriots 2. Jets 3. Dolphins 4. Bills Like most years. All we can do is hope Brady gets injured, the Jets implode, the Dolphins implode, and the Bills get lucky, or something.

I predict we won't be happy with whatever EJ does. Whether he performs well or poorly. I predict we'll lose at least one starter to a minimum multi week injury.