QCity

Jim Ritcher?

It had nothing to do with "buying into the system" or "philosophical differences." It had to do with the entire defensive gameplan as a whole. You cite numerous instances of players getting beat in coverage. Nothing helps coverage like a pass rush. And how did Wanny choose to generate a pass rush? In the most predictable way possible - rush 4 and drop 7. That was a high school defense's gameplan. Where was the misdirection? Forget our blitz percentage, where were the fake blitzes? How many disguised blitzes did you see last year? Was there even a corner-blitz or safely-blitz in the playbook? How often did we bring DBs up to the line and pull them back into coverage to force an audible? When the other team knows what you are going to do, you have already lost the battle. It was a passive defense. A defense designed to react to the other team's offense. That is such a terrible idea I can't even fathom how he lasted the season. Will willfully let another team's offense dictate play on the field. We were embarrassingly beat by 3 rookie quarterbacks because of this generic, bland philosophy. And don't get me started on the rigidity of Wanny's planning. His defense had zero flexibility. Let's see, are we getting our a$$ kicked at halftime? Better bear down and try harder guys, because we are rolling out the the same defensive gameplan in the second half! Hopefully they will bench a few starters and ease up on us. And your argument is that if the defense improves this year it will be because we cut Barnett and Wilson and signed Manny Lawson? Are you insane? Our defense will improve this year (can't get worse) and it will be because of Mike Pettine. It will be an aggressive attacking defense that will attempt to dictate what the offense does. It will show multiple fronts designed to confuse opposing OCs and QBs. Our blitzes will be heavily disguised and difficult to pick up. There will be heavy run blitzing and you will see our SS spend more time in the box. How do I know this? Because I've watched Pettine's defense do this for the last 4 years. Absolutely, and the only reason he was hired here was cronyism. Chan Gailey couldn't pick a defensive coordinator if Bill Parcells fell out of the sky and landed on his head.

lol. It's called arguing for the sake of arguing. Some people will argue that the sun rises in the north and sets in the east. I'll never understand why, maybe it's an attention thing. I've been watching football for 4 decades, I can honestly say that I cannot recall a Bills defensive coordinator doing less with more. The scab players on defense in the 80s were more aggressive.

Buddy Nix is also responsible for the failed Peace Bridge proposal, the Sabres lackluster season, and famine in Africa.

I'm not questioning the outstanding value they got with their top two selections, I'm questioning your implication that they "knew" the Bills wouldn't draft a QB. They knew nothing of the sort, let's not tinfoil hat this situation up.

The answer is they didn't know. If they knew how good those 2 QBs would be, they would have taken them in the 1st round.

Leodis played very, very well in his late season starts before his groin injury. Shockingly well and it had me wondering aloud "Why the hell did it take this guy 4.5 years to learn how to do this???" I say this as a person that wanted to outright cut the guy 3 years ago. But I would understand if you didn't watch the 2nd half of last season.

This season can't end soon enough...

Lot of teeth gnashing for a guy making less money than Thigpen.

I'm starting to think Nassib will be gone 8th.

Well he plays safety now and yes I would love to see him starting over Searcy for us. This guy still wants big $$$.

This is the first I've heard of this comparison.

Smartest thing you've said in this thread. lol at "semantics" and "underwhelming." The man has had two career starts, and his performance in both has been extraordinary (He almost beat the Pats in his 1st start and his 2nd game with 6 TDs would be record-breaking I believe). I don't think anyone is questioning his performance in his starts. The knock on him is that there isn't enough tape to tell if he's for real - and that's the big question here and my biggest concern. He's not as good as Aaron Rogers and Russell Wilson, that's all we can infer from his current backup status.

Uggghh. Everything in your post is heavily skewed toward your opinion of not wanting Flynn. Fine. Just say that then. As someone else mentioned, he didn't "lose his job" - it was an open competition. He got beat out by a rookie that went on be a Pro Bowl QB. Wait I thought they "jettisoned" him, which implies he was cut? His contract was up and although I'm certain Green Bay would love to have him, he wasn't going to re-sign to be a backup. Also GB wasn't going to pay him the starter money another team would to sit the bench. I don't know, why would we give up a high draft pick and waste our time with [insert college QB]?

Please explain this comment "At the time the switch was made, Wilson was a rookie and not a pro-bowler." So in your mind, Wilson wasn't playing at a Pro Bowl level until they announced that he made the Pro Bowl??? what???? My point is your hyperbole is hysterical. Jettisoned by his second team? Is that the other one with a Pro Bowl QB? Or is he an All Pro?

Makes sense.

That's just not true.

Wow. Probably 80% of college spread offenses only require their QB to read half the field. Pass plays are designed so the QB has a primary and secondary, and the emergency bailout RB. No long read progression, it's simply 1-2-bail. This has been one of the biggest knocks on college spread QBs over the past 5 years. It's one thing to argue in favor of a player you like, it's another to spout complete BS. Here's some suggested reading - Evaluating Quarterbacks.

I don't see how anyone who watches college football regularly could ever say "Geno Smith has everything that a team is looking for." That's absolutely ludicrous. He solely plays out of a spread formation and doesn't take snaps from under center. I guess the fantasy football crowd probably thinks that's no big deal - "Heck, how hard could it be to take 3 steps back, right?" Let's also overlook the fact that the Airraid scheme in WV only teaches a QB to focus on reading half of the field. With all the underneath throws and wide open receivers, there's a legitimate concern that after 3 years at QB he still can't properly cycle through his read progressions. Bah, who cares right? I mean 42TDs and 6 INTS guys!!! That will certainly translate to the NFL! How's he perform with a pass rush on him? Well that's hard to say as well, because he rarely faced a pass rush in college. I'm not going to argue these points - it's too difficult when the subject is so adored, but they are valid concerns. I will however completely rain on your parade with this tidbit - Jeff Lurie personally attended Smith's Pro Day, only the 2nd time in his 19 year ownership of the Eagles that he has done that (Donovan McNabb was the other). So forget about him at 8, and sorry but no, this isn't the "complete package QB" that a team trades up for.

Ahhh, the old Fitzpatrick-Brees comparison. The talking heads on ESPN are always comparing the two.

We're going to say he's the same damn QB that Fitz was, only he costs about $9M less per year. He'll be just as good at throwing 2 yard screens to Spiller and watching him run 60+ yards, and he'll be just as good throwing useless TD's when losing by 40 points.

Fitz was the master at carving up 2nd string defenses that stop blitzing. But hey, it says 20+TDs on his stat line!

That compact, snap release is gorgeous. It really allows him to rip it regardless of what position his feet are in. That alone will probably vault him into the 3rd-4th round. I think he would be a great project.

If that were true everyone that works out could be a major league pitcher.