J-E-T-S-L-O-L

Ray Lewis got the antler spray more then 2 years ago. Back when many people where using it, including Roy Williams and Heath Evans, who where both openly promoting it in the media. Former Oakland head coach Hue Jackson was involved with the company aswell. I don`t think the spray was illegal intially, until the league put a stop to it. Mitch Ross lost a lot of clients at that point. This is just a PR stunt by Mitch Ross, who is the owner of SWAT, trying to promote his business. And Grantland has never written anything worth reading.

I am not sure I trust Adam Schefter on this. Ravens have been projected to be 10 million under the 2013 cap for a while, and 15 after Ray Lewis announced his retirement. Not 5 million over, as Schefter reports. Meaning the Ravens would have to clear 20 million to even franchise Flacco. That suggests they are in big trouble. First I`m hearing this. Why is this suddenly being reported now? While I`ve been hearing about the Jets and Steelers salary cap woes for months? Just sounds fishy to me.

The Ravens are projected to be about 15 mill under the cap. But they do need to sign Flacco and Ellerbe. Probably leaving Kruger to test the market. I like the guy alot. He has been a beast down the stretch. Buyer beware though. He didn`t do alot when Suggs was out. He is a pass rushing specialist only, who excells playing a limited number of snaps, and is not good in run support. He`s been there for years and only finally came through in his contract year, and now demands a huge salary for a great half season.

Just looking at stats. Over Flaccos last 6 playoff games. He has thrown 12 TDs, 2 INTs, 247 ypg, and has a 101 QB rating. The only average thing about those stats are that they are similar to your average superbowl winning QB. Flacco is not going anywhere.

That's just one game though. Flacco has a 95,9 QB rating in his 53 career wins.

I agree. But I do like the argument the guy made about him being 2-9 when his defense yields more then 21 points. From that you could make an argument that Big Ben wouldn`t have 2 rings with that many other teams either.

I said I agreed with that list except Eli. That includes Big Ben. But I`ve not come to that conclusion based solely on the fact he has 2 rings.

I agree with that list, except Eli. This is sort of a self-fullfilling prophecy or whatever you want to call it. The QBs on the list are "elite", because they won superbowls. Therefore all the last superbowls are won by elite QBs. Thereby the conclusion; you have to have an elite QB to win a SB. In my opinion Eli Manning is not elite. He costs his team almost as many games as he wins. Tom Bradys failure to solve the Giants defense in both games, were the difference, not Eli. The miracle play. was classic Eli; escapes good throws bad, only this time he got lucky. Ben Roethlisberger migth be elite. But if you`re gonna jugde on rings. The minimum requirement should be, the QB should atleast not be detrimental to the teams effort. Big Ben played worse then Dilfer when he won his first ring, and wayyyy worse then Brad Johnson. So Big Ben may be elite, but you can only use the one ring as an argument. Putting Ben over Peyton Manning, Rodgers or Brees because Ben has "2" rings is just dumb imo.

Rivers had 1 season with Cam Cameron. Where Rivers basicly played like Alex Smith did last year, but with 2 elite weapons. Drew Brees improved significantly after leaving Camerons offense, despite the Chargers having better weapons then the Saints. Tomlinson, Gates, Neal, great O-line. Cam Cameron is not good.

A couple of points I want to clear up. This has been brewing for quite a while. Flacco and Cameron have never gotten along. The offense has been struggling for a long time. The Ravens are basicly stuck with Flacco, and they have to try something to get him going. Jim Caldwell, probably isn`t the answer, atleast not with Camerons playbook. But Cam wasn`t getting the job done. Cam Cameron is not a great coordinator. He had Drew Brees for years. But Brees sucked so badly they had they had to draft Philip Rivers. What does that tell you? He only had 1 season with Rivers before leaving for Miami. So he can hardly claim any credit for either QBs development. His only valid claim to fame is Flacco, who has been average at best.

Agree, and I`m worried. A big reason we`re in this mess(playoff drought) is letting players like Byrd get to this point.

I think Byrd is great, and I really hope he`s staying. I just thought comparing him to Ed Reed, who`s the type of player that comes along once in a decade, or not even that, was a little far fetched.

Reed also had returned those 22 INTs for 700 yards. That`s an average of 32 yards pr. INT. He might only have returned 2 for TDs at that point, but those 32 yards per pick are huge in helping the team score points. He had also blocked 4 punts/kicks returned 3 of those for TDs, and also scored a TD on a fumble return. And he won the Defensive Player of the Year award in his 3rd year. Byrd average 16 return yards per INT. Reed had 54 pass delfections, Byrd has 26. I guess that`s a "couple more". And what is everything else that Byrd has him in? What else is there? Tackles? Reed has him by about 10. Byrd has him in forced fumbles by 5 and recoveries by 3. That`s it. Ed Reed was a legend after 3 years in the league.

Making the playoffs 5 years in a row, has a 0.27%, which is almost the same odds. And Im sure that has been done numerous times. Colts, Eagles, Ravens and Seahawks have done it since 2000. Pats will reach their 4th in row for the second time in 9 years. A one year miss in between when Brady was hurt, and they still got an 11-5 record, which is a playoff spot any other year. The Bills is a poorly run franchise. But they probably would have made the playoffs by now, if the where in any other division besides AFC East and AFC North.

YES! 1. Knowing what we now know about Fitzpatrick. How can anyone expect or even predict 10-6? 2. Schedule much harder then anticipated. The resident doormat divison in the NFL, NFC WEST, had their best year in a long time. Tough defenses across the board. Having only 1 home game against that divison doesn`t help. 3. 7 of the first 11 games where on the road. 2008 was the last year the Bills went .500 on the road. And that record has declined with 1 game a year since, til reaching only 1 road win last year. 4. 5 of the 7 losses where against playoff locks. 1 other loss where opening game @Jets, a much better team back then. Really a tough game. Excuseable loss. Only other loss was Tennesee. Which we should have won. But Chris Johnson still has a little CJ2K in him, if he is allowed to show it. The way this defense was playing early on, he did just that. Tough to win when you give up 200 yards on the ground at 11 yards a carry. 5. Mario Williams injury. Death of Marcells brother. Mario was hampered early on. Marcell has lost focus. 6. Expecting pro bowl level corner play from a rookie and first year starter. 7. Horrible linebackers. 8. Defensive scheme and cooridnator change. 9. This team lost 8 of the final 9 games last year. The immediate "upgrades" in the starting line up where 2 rookies, a first year starter, and an injured pro bowl level defensive end. The quotation marks are due to not knowing if it`s actually an upgrade. Especially when it comes to rookies. The corner position was actually downgraded in my opion, atleast to start the season. If this team can get to 8-8. This team would look pretty promising minus the quarterback. They then would have won most of the games that where realisticly winnable, barring upsets. Beating a team like New England would be great. But it would be an upset, like the Browns beating the Giants yet still finishing 4-12. Doesn`t amount to much. You gotta beat the bad teams before you can beat the good ones. Let`s get us a new QB and keep beating the bad teams, and take down a couple of win inflated teams in the process and we will have built us a nice record, so when we beat a team like New England it will mean a lot more. Playoff spot, division, playoff win etc. 8-8 would be the best record since 2004. That`s 8 years. How can the best record in 8 years not be a good season. The Texans spent years trying to get to 8-8. They did it finally in 2009. Made the playoffs for the first time last year. Now they`re one of the best teams in the league, even with average QB play.

CB and LB or D-Line is not the same. When is the last time a CB won defensive rookie of the year? Here is every CB drafted in 1st or early 2nd round going back to 2008. Only 1/3 of them started their rookie year. 2011 draft #5 Patrick Peterson - Started allowed the 3rd most passing yards in the league, and had 10 penalties. 85 in QB rating. #19 Prince Amukamara - Injured. Played limited role when he returned. 122 QB rating when targeted. #27 Jimmy Smith - Injured. Played limited role when he returned. Gave up 3 TDs in just 250 snaps. The rest of the Ravens CBs allowed 5 TDs combined. 74 QBR. #33 Ras I Dowling - Barely played. #34 Aaron Williams - Played less then half a season. Gave up 5 TDs, and a QB rating of 120 when targeted. 2010 draft #7 Joe Haden - Started. Played excellent. 50 QB rating. Not much yards. #20 Kareem Jackson - Started. Allowed 4th most passing yards in the league. QB rating of 111 when targeted. #27 Devin McCourty - Started. Played excellent. 57 QB rating. But was horrible in year 2, when he allowed 2nd most yards in the league, a QB rating of 106. #29 Kyle Wilson - Played limited role. But wasn`t bad. 77 in QB Rating. #31 Patrick Robinson - Played limited role. 87 in QB rating. #34 Chris Cook - Played limited role. 124 QB rating when targeted. 2009 Draft #14 Malcolm Jenkins - Played limited. 104 in QB rating when targeted. Switched to safety and the team darfted a new 1st round CB following year. #25 Vontae Davis - Started. Allowed 2nd most yards in the league.2nd most TDs in the league and a QB rating of 112. #37 Alfonso Smith - Barely played. Traded after 1 year. #41 Darius Butler - Barely played. Released after 2 years. 2008 Draft #11 Leodis McKelvin - Played about half a season in snaps. Allowed 4 TDs. The rest of the Bills CBs combined for 4 TDs. QB rating of 95. #16 Rogers-Cromartie - Started. Didn`t allow that much yards. But gave up 3rd most TDs in the league and a 90 in QB rating. Regarded as a good rookie season. #20 Aquib Talib - Played limited role. But weren`t bad. 54 QB rating. #25 Mike Jenkins - Played limited role. Allowed more TDs then 3 other CBs on the team with more snaps. 92 QB Rating. #27 Antoine Cason - Played limited role. Allowed 75 completion percentage and 90 in QB rating. #35 Brandon Flowers - Started. Played pretty good. Not that much yards, and 72 in QB rating. To sum up. That`s 21 CBs taken in the 1st and early 2nd round the past 4 years. Only 7 of them started their rookie year. 3 of those were in the top 5 in yards allowed that year. 1 of them where 2nd in TDs allowed, as was 1 of the remaining 4. These guys had a QBR between 85 and 112 against them. Only 2 players had great rookie seasons. Haden and McCourty. But McCourty followed that up with a horrible 2nd year. Where he was in the top 5 worst in several categories. Flowers was pretty good too though. Cromartie was above average, but gave up alot of TDs. So far Gilmore has allowed the 6th most yards in the league. And a QB rating of 129 against him. Aaron Williams has allowed about half the yardage, but is leading the league in TDs allowed. And has a QB rating of 124 against him. Dre KirkPatrick has yet to take a snap. Claiborne and Jenkins are playing pretty good. But they have great defenses. The other CBs on those teams are playing very good also. Still Claiborne has a completion percentage of 78, and a QBR 128 against him. And Jenkins has yet to face an offense that is good, or with an O-Line that isn`t destroyed by their D-Line. So far it looks like the young Bills CBs are right on par with the norm.

When you draft a player 10th overrall, you assume he`s gonna eventually become a pro bowl type player. But that is not a guarantee. It`s not even a guarantee that he`s a starter in this league. McKelvin 11th overrall in his 5th year. Are we ruling out the possibiltiy that GIlmore might not live up to his draft status? And even if he does. Usually CBs are not even close to playing that way their first couple of years. Jimmy Smith is 1st round CB from last year. He only plays in nickle situations. But he arguably should be further along then both GIlmore and Williams. Since he`s a higher draft pick then WIlliams. An undrafted player that was on the PS for years starts is in front of him. He hasn`t even played well, but he`s still starting. Jimmy is probably eventually gonna unseat him, but right now the coaches are more comfortable with experience over potential. 5 starters had started 16 games or less to start the season. That`s almost half the starting defense that are essentially rookies. 2 are completly new to the team. New England has drafted highly touted defensive players for years. And Bellicheck is supposedly a defensive guru. Why has it taken so long to field a good unit? They drafted a CB within the first two rounds 4 years straight. Still their passing defense is ranked 30th or worse for the 3rd straight year. The backups have experience. But what does it matter when they`re not playing. Why even mention them? You could have 11 pro bowl players, doesn`t matter if they`re on the bench. 2 out of 3 LBs are inexperienced, and 2 out 4 DBs. Couple that with an underperforming D-Line and you have you asnwers. Even if the d-line starts playing up to it`s potential, it`s not a top 10 defense this year.

Wanny takes a lot of heat, and deservedly so. He is not doing enough with a defense apparently stacked with talent. This defense is not that talented. It has alot of potential. But right now it consists of alot of young players still learning the pro game. There is a reason why the youngest defenses in the league are usually the leagues worst. While old defenses like the Steelers are still going strong despite being injured, and less physically gifted. Darreus is only in his second year. Most players don`t come on as strong as JJ Watt. And even he probably has a lot of holes in his game that are masked by people around him and the overall success of that defense. It takes time to develop. Also Darreus had to change scheme and coordinator. He is almost a like a rookie again. Mark Anderson is best served as a role player, not a starter. The Williams bros are potential pro bowl players. But both had to change schemes since last year. And both are coming off injury. So it would be fair to expect a drop in productivity, and thus they`re not pro bowl players this year. Then you have Byrd and Barnett. Solid players. And then what? Not much else. The secondary has potential to be great, but not now. Maybe in 2 years. Right now they`re probably amoung the worst in the league, simply because the 2 starting corners has not 16 games of starting experience between them. I dare you to find me a less experience starting CB duo. Then you have the rest of the LBs. Not exactly perennial pro bowlers. A second year player with barely 1 season worth of starts. A 219 lb SS playing LB. And 6 round pick from 2 years ago that has bounced around just about every position in the front 7 and has yet to start more then a handfull of games. Is this the talented defense I keep hearing about? Sounds like a typical bottom 5 defense if you ask me. Regardless of coordinator. It`s just too young and inexperienced. Most of them have barely been here 1 year. It takes time to turn that around. The potential is deffinatly there. But right now it`s a defense in the process of rebuilding.

The scoring defese seems to be the big difference when you compare Jauron to Gailey. I wonder if this team would have turned around by now, if they hadn`t swiitch to a 3-4. Or maybe let`s say Jauron hired Gailey as his OC in 09.

Expectations where probably too high. Most big free agent signings don`t live up to the hype. But it`s only money, and the Bills had cap room to spare. It`s not like they gave up picks or had to cut someone to get him. Wether Mario turns out to be great or just plain average. I still say it was the right move. How else are you gonna potensially get a good pass rusher without drafting and developing one? Mark is probably used the wrong way. As far as I know he has only been succesfull when playing limited snaps.

This guy is an idiot. He has all the talent in the world, but has absolutly no work ethic. He held out all of training camp last year trying to get a big deal. Franchise LT money. And when he finally shows up. Turns out he`s not in shape to even practise. Getting injured, or faking injury. Basicly was inactive, most of the year, until he finally was put on IR. He hadn`t been working out at all. Really skinny. The guy is like 6`9, but his weight had dropped to less then 300 lbs.

Thanks for all the response, and great post everybody. San Jose Bills fan I see your point about having a good run stuffer at LB. The Ravens have a great one in Ray Lewis. But trying to find his replacement has been hard. They don`t grow on trees as you said. We`ve haven`t really gone hard after one in the draft though. Rather try to develop late rounders and undrafted free agents. Which seems to have been your teams strategy aswell. But the teams that have drafted a LB in either of the first 2 rounds the last couple of years, seems to have found what they were looking for. With the exception of Aaron Curry. Even you guys seemed to have found one in Posluszny, if it hadn`t been for the shceme change and his tendency to always get injured. I used to joke with my friend and call him PUP Posluszny. Point is, if you spend a 1st or 2nd rounder you have good shot of getting a solid linebacker. And Kelvin Sheppard is a rookie 3rd rounder with no offseason. He`s only started a handful of games and I would say he`s doing pretty good. You can`t go wrong with adding another one next year either through the draft or via free agency, as you said you can`t get enough good linebackers. The nose tackle is an important position don`t get me wrong. But the reason I would like to see you get one, is that you could move Kyle Williams and Marcell Darreus out of that postion. Darreus is not the best fit. And using Kyle Williams to play NT is a waste IMO. I can`t think of 1 team that run a 3-4 or a hybrid defense, that use their best player to play NT. Other then Jay Ratliff they`re usually all 1st and 2nd down players. And see 20-30 snaps a game. Williams is so versatile that he can play that position, but I would rather see him play more of a 3 technique. That`s where he generate the most pass rush. Marcell Darreus could play the 5 technique on the left side and move inside in nickle situations. Much like Justin Smith of the 49ers. Hopeful I am with you on the DC. We`ve been through our fair share of coordinators. You can definatly see the difference beetween the good ones and the bad ones. With just about all the same players. All you need to do is look at the Jets. Most of the players where already there, but nobody talked about their defense before Rex Ryan came in. The reason I would like to see a defensive rather then OLB, is because most of the good pass rushing OLB are converted defensive ends. It would have to be a 4-3 defensive end that you try to convert. And also like you I am not sold that your current scheme is the best way to go. So drafting that defensive end wont handicap you if you decide to switch back to a 4-3 defense, whereas drafting an OLB might. Casey D Hard to say why the Ravens keep laying eggs against bad teams on the road. My guess is as good as yours. Maybe it was a good game for the opponent match up wise and a bad game for us. They all run 4-3 and have good run defenses. We usually struggle against Cincinattis defense, and they also run a 4-3. Combine that with alot of mistakes from us and that`s about as much I can tell you.

I am Ravens fan, with a buddy who`s a big Bills fan, so I watch all of your teams games. I will not pretend that I know as much about your team as you do, but rather provide an outsider look at your situation. No team is perfect. Nobody has pro bowl level talent at every position. Not even the 72 Dolphins, 07 Patriots or this years Packers. Every team has problems. Winning sort of just sweeps them under the rug, until you start losing. I`ve seen a lot of threads around here naming, just about every postion as a position of need, DT, CB, OLB, LT, QB, WR, you name it, and multiple players at each position. To me, you just need a couple more star players. And you already have a couple. Comparing your defense to the Ravens defense. You have a few of the peaces already D-LINE: You need a big fat nose tackle inside on 1st and 2nd down ala Terrance Cody. Then you could put Marcell Darreus outside DE, where he will dominate and you upgrade both the run defense and the pass rush. Your D-Line will at that point be better then the Ravens. Because Kyle Willaims when healthy is a beast, just as good as Ngata, and we have nobody comparable to Darreus. LB: You need a pass rusher. Other then that, I think you`re fine. Getting a stud for the future would be nice, but alot of veteran linebackers play great well into their 30s. Combine Nick Barnett with possibly another veteran free agent pickup, and the young guys you already have, and I think it looks pretty good. Secondary: Hard to say about your corners, because you get so little pass rush. At times I thought McKelvin was gonna turn into a pretty good corner. He seems just as good as what we`ve had at corner the past couple years. You already drafted one early in the second round. So I would not have a high priority on Cornerback this year in the draft. Rather try a free agent. Doesn`t have to be a big name. Just a little better then Drayton Florence will do. Both your safetys are good. That`s 2, maybe 3 pieces missing on defense. And a little depth. On offense. I really like Chan Gailey. He seems to get the best out what I thought was scrubb players going into the year. QB: I like a lot of things about Fitz, I don`t fully thrust his arm strenght though. But alot of good QBs didn`t have the greatest arm. The Bills currently have limited deep threats, so I haven`t seen him test it that much. He seemed to throw alot more deep the year you had TO and Evans. I wouldn`t be against drafting a QB, but I wouldn`t be angry if they waited a year either. Either way, Fitz is gonna start next year. RB: Sucks that Fred Jackson is as old as he is. If he where young he was gonna dominate this leauge for years. Hopefully he still has a few years left in the tank. And you always have Spiller. Good oportunity for him to get some carries as the season ends. He should be better next year for it. Perhaps you`ll end up with a duo at RB next year. WR: Stevie Johnson is like a young Anquan Boldin. I really like David Nelson. The others might be good. But I feel like it is kind of a long shot, that Donald Jones or Namon Roosevelt are gonna end up being consistantly good deep threats. So I will say finding a deep threat is a need. TE: The league is filling up with more and more rediculous tight ends. So if you get your hands on a beast why not, right? I like Chandler. But a beast he is not. And he doesn`t see that many snaps. If the Bills had a great tight end, Gailey would find a way to use him alot more. Billieve that. O-LINE: I thought this was gonna be what killed this team this year. They ended up getting killed by injuries, but up until that point they played very well. The tackles are the weak spots though. And they got injured. But they might be just fine. I`ve come to the conclusion that finding a tackle is almost as hard as finding a QB. Maybe the rookie salary cap will change that, because now they have to earn their money. But the last couple of years have been horrible. And alot of the good teams don`t have great tackles. They just don`t have horrible ones. But you could always put that theory to the test, if one falls into your lap. Guard seems to be a strong point for the team. Levitre looks like a future star, too bad he can`t stay at one position with everyone going down. It`s also too bad Wood can`t stay healthy, he seems to be one of the leagues top young centers. On offense that`s 3 maybe 4 players. So that`s 5-7 players total, and a little depth. You`ll see improvement as every bit falls into place. It`s not 5-7 away from 8-8, but being a perennial contender. I would say 5 of them should be enough. DE, NT, WR, TE and OT. And the 2 extra being QB and LB. CB maybe, but you drafted 1 high in the 2nd last year. I would take a Pass rusher in the 1st round this year. Because you deffinatly want a star at that position and you dont wanna screw around hoping some project player will turn out. Draft a DE not an OLB. The most important thing is that he can rush the passer. A hybrid is a luxury and a risk and you`re not in a position to gamble. 2nd or 3rd round should be spent on either a big fat nose tackle, an OT, a deep threat WR, or TE. Good options should be available. Maybe not an OT that starts day 1. But fast WRs can be found. Not the star of the draft, but plenty good WRs has come out of the 2nd round. As important as a good TE has become. Usually no more then 1 gets taken in the first, so alot good ones should be available. And the nose tackle is just a 2 down player, so he has not enough value to be taken in the 1st. But can still be an elite run stuffer. The rest of the rounds? If you don`t get a TE or WR in the 2nd or 3rd, try again in the 4th. After that it`s a crapshoot at all positions. Get these players and you`ll be in good shape. The defensive coordinator is not the be all end all. Our cordinator sucked in 2009 and 2010, and we still got it done. I would still like to see someone else get a try. Preferbly someone aggressive and innovative. That`s what works best for us. And it is my impression that is what works best for most of the good defenses that run 3-4. Any thoughts? Agree, disagree?

The thing is, as things are the Chiefs don`t play a real team the rest of the year. There may be a good team mixed in here or there, or somebody might improve by the time KC meets them. But if KC is even an average team they should be able to get a winning record and win the division, provided San Diego don`t win out. Their remaining schedule consists of Oakland and Denver twice, Seattle, Arizona, St.Louis, San Diego and Tennesee. I think KC is a pretty good team. Only real problem they have is Cassel. 10-6 or even better is a strong possibility for them.