Turbosrrgood

True about the % of plays in a specific set, but most of the rest of that time was likely nickle, goal line, short yardage, prevent, dime, punt/fg D, ect....Not 3-4. All teams will have this stuff. The Bears are very clearly a base 4-3. I would say they are far from being considered a "hybrid" defense I think as Why So Serious pointed out, the Bill's roster has holes that could be filled and tweaked for whatever scheme Wanny thinks we should run. But eventually they will probably pick and stick to a scheme. Clearly OUR hybrid defense did not work...

^ This is what really matters...

Actually NE switched to a base 4-3 this year, I don't know if they ran much if any 3-4 looks... Either way, that defense was awful as could be, not something you want to emulate. And not just the scheme, but Bellicheck has butchered the talent level on that defense through excessive trading and botched draft picks...No one ever seems to call him out on it though... My personal opinion on the subject is that it's one thing for a team to use "other looks" to throw offenses off, but its a whole other deal to run two completely different schemes. People like to think that players are interchangeable between schemes, I disagree...Kelsay for instance, decent DE, awful OLB. 4-3 DE and 3-4 OLB are similar but not the same. While ILB's/MLB's may be more interchangeable, 4-3 OLB's dont really fit in a 3-4 scheme, IMO. If a team were to pull off a "no scheme" defense, they would have to be pretty deep. The Bills are obviously not very deep. They have to get good at one thing, before they can be good at many things...It must also be tough to develop young players if they are constantly being forced into different positions and schemes.

I'm not bashing Easley, I like the guy...But he most definitely dropped a number of very catchable balls...Easley was generally getting most of his playing time in the second half of those games, so perhaps not as many people were watching. Either way, just because a few people didn't see it, doesn't mean it didn't happen. His 1 TD catch was a good one though

Ahh yes, QBR...You can tell everything you need to know about a QB by this 1 arbitrary stat... Of course if you believe that, then JP Losman consistently had good games, and was a top half QB in 2006... So that means he succeeded? Then of course there is Rob Johnson, who had 3 consecutive years with a QBR over 100...He must be in the hall of fame... Again, the normal case of failing to account for injuries and lack of surrounding talent applies as well... In the article you posted, Fitz's numbers were in line with the final numbers for Brees and Rodgers before the Bills started going down... Seriously man, if you are going to say a guy failed, make a better case than that. This is laughable.

This ^. I was concerned by this as well, he was dropping easy passes, frequently. I do hope he gets better and we can see him on the field though, we need all the help at WR we can get. As for the contract thing, he signed with the team and therefor is not looking for other work. If he gets injured or sick during that time he still deserves compensation IMO. When players sign bigger contracts there are often sizable incentives to work towards, to get full pay. Obviously in those situations if you get sick or injured you can't hit those incentives, one way teams "protect" themselves from this kind of thing.

I know this is played out, but I'm throwing the injury card anyway. You may be right about the same personnel, but Merriman was hurt in the pre-season, he and KW missed most of the season, Williams and Wilson missed significant time due to injury as well. Plus, Sheppard didn't start until half way through the season. Lets assume by some miracle they could actually all be healthy at once, with a good DC perhaps they could perform. I think the talent is there...

I love it just for the fact it's a 3-4 set up. I know there has been a lot of "scheme doesn't matters talk" but I disagree, I think it matters significantly (Especially for guys like Kelsay, Merriman, and Upshaw for instance). That being said, Wanny knows a heck of a lot more about defense than I do...So I'm sure he will do whatever he thinks gives us the best chance to succeed. I'd bet either KW or Dareus will be the NT though (most likely KW). I like Heard, but even though he is big, he is more of a 3-4 DE type, more agility, less power. Carrington would push there as well No way Searcy starts at CB, he is a back up safety for now. Either Florence, a FA, or draftee (unlikely) will be starting opposite Aaron Williams (stud).

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nfl-shutdown-corner/brian-billick-recommends-tim-tebow-shed-muscle-172821454.html Last line is my favorite side note: I have no problem with this thread at all, but I think it's funny that people have been complaining about guys talking about former Bills players because they are no longer on the team...Yet we have a 39 page thread about a guy that has absolutely nothing to do with the Bills...

Let's say he did say he's retiring...We all know that doesn't mean anything anyway... Favre, Palmer, ect... With his mangled neck, at 36, he probably should though

Just retaining Chandler would be sweet...The only real redzone threat we've had in a long time....But all signs point to us not resigning him. I get the feeling Gailey wants more speed at the position...

I wouldn't mind seeing Mario Williams join, that would be a beefy line. He shouldn't be listed as a LB, 4-3 DE is his natural position. Also it seems like people think Dareus will be playing DE this year, even if we go to a 4-3...There is almost no chance of that, he and KW would man the middle. That means we NEED at least one pass rushing end, with Kelsey manning the other until another suitable replacement is found. We have good big guys in KW, Dareus, Heard, Johnson, so DT's aren't really a need...now we need good outside pass rushing guys. I like Bowe, SJ, and Garcon...They all drop balls, but are all playmakers as well. I don't know a lot about Henderson, but we obviously need LB help as well. I'm pretty sure Kleinsasser retired too...

I like Weeden, but is he really rated that high? Not personally a Floyd fan, yet somehow I would be excited if we took him.

Brad Smith is not our number 3, he was our "emergency" QB if our #1 and 2 went down, so that they didn't need to use an extra roster spot there. If one of them were to go down for a game or more Levi Brown or someone else would have been brought in. No argument that Smith was a disappointment this year though. I thought they could have worked the wildcat in more, especially when FJ when down. That was where he is at his best. He should never have been used as a #2 WR, the guy can't catch.

Honestly I know nothing about the guy, and I don't know that I put a ton of importance on the QB coach unless we draft a young talent, but... The way you describe his "resume" seems to be in tune with how the Bills select their coaches... Mularkey, Edwards, Jauron, ect... In fairness...While some might even include Gailey and Wanny, I do actually like them as coaches and they have FAR more experience than the rest of the recent Bills coaching dumpster. Perhaps Nix is actually able to attract real coaches to Buffalo...

I'm happy to see he still has NFL life, he's a guy that's easy to root for. I still don't think he is very good, but he could make a serviceable backup, especially in that type of offense. The fact that his "best year" included 11 TD's in 14 starts, while still throwing 10 picks despite his 66% completion rate, kind of says it all though... Accurate yes...good, no...

I doubt it would play out like that, but I'd certainly be ok with RG3. As far as the rest of it goes, I don't see how the Bills can NOT take a 4-3 DE at some point (regardless of ultimate scheme). And more LB help. If the Bills were going to play a true 3-4 maybe a 350 lb NT would make sense, but even then I would be skeptical of using a 3rd rnd pick on one. The Bills are just fine at DT with Dareus, KW, Heard, Spencer, and Troup. Rodgers was taken with the 24th overall, but he was hyped up as the possible #1 overall before the draft...

Is someone FORCING you to read those threads? If that's not interesting to you, you can always move on to the next...If you "could care less", why are you reading them in the first place? I don't care for instance about the posts saying "we need a new punter", that doesn't mean they shouldn't be allowed. I just often skip over them. Complaining about posts you don't like, is automatically worse than even the most awful post IMO... Perhaps we should only talk about topics that interest yourself?

I think maybe this applies for your friends who are hoping for serious injury... But what is wrong with following Bills players when they move to other teams? Personally I thought Evans was going to be good for the Ravens and was hoping he would do so. I was rooting for Fewell's defense. True I had a nice chuckle at Whitner's defense this weekend, but the Bills aren't in the playoffs, this is the Bills only link to the post season... For many it's interesting to see how players/coaches do when they join another team. People love to overreact, and call any comment about a former player "obsession". This is a Bills forum, expect people to talk about Bills players past, present, and future (draft, wants ect...), with both positive and negative things to say about them. Especially when they are still playing, and the Bills aren't... It's discussion, that's what forums are for...

That was craziness...Makes sense though, the guy is fast and big, and not expected to receive a hand off. It was scary what they can do with their TE's...Yet the Bills probably won't even keep Chandler...

Ture, Willis gave up the catch and also failed to tackle him, so he deserves some of the "credit". But he was trying to catch up to Graham from behind. Whitner is the saftey, in between Graham and the end zone. He wiffed on the tackle, or whiffed on the ball, either way he was the last real line of defense. It's one thing to give up the play, its another thing when the safety completely whiffs, and turns that 20 yard gain into a long go ahead TD.

Thanks for the links... Yeah that certainly does not look good for us. I know Gailey is not a big into the TE position in his spread offense, but Chandler was amazing in the redzone. Something the Bills have missed for a long time.

Man it sure was nice having a big guy in the redzone for a season...I can't imagine it would cost that much to retain him. Not bringing him back, especially with our lack of pass catchers, wouldn't make a lot of sense to me. Damn 9'rs, they so they took Willis AND Davis ahead of us, now they are top NFC seed remaining... And they got Whitner anyway...

Davis really stood out. I always thought he was good, but when I saw him lined up as a WR, and burn a CB with speed for a big play he gained a whole other level of respect from me... Sproles is awesome. I'd like to see Spiller used in a similar way, I think he could have similar success...

Interestingly enough, I didn't mind that the Bills picked him at 8. Even though he was considered a "reach". But I guess we differ in opinion on his talent level. I would have been thoroughly disappointed if the Bills had resigned him. George Wilson is light years better. True I'm not Whitner fan, but this was more to counter the arguments by people saying that he is all of the sudden good now, since the 9'rs are good. Whitner is still Whitner, and the weak link on that defense. I wish luck to Fewell, who has seemed to turn the Giants defense around at the right time... I don't wish anything against Whitner or the 9'rs, in fact I've been very excited to see them win. I'm just commenting on what I see. You always make such a meaningful contribution to threads...