Turbosrrgood

Yeah that's the big question mark...If the Bills go to a base 4-3 full time, their biggest need will become a rushing DE. Kelsay can play one end, and get a push on the pocket, but they need a true pass rusher to play the other side. If they go to a 4-3 the LB's are much less important when it comes to the pass rush, but hugely important in coverage and stopping the run. The Bills have NO good options on the roster for 4-3 OLB's IMO. OLB's will be high on the Bills wish list regardless of what scheme they use, but it could make a huge difference in who they select.

You never know in the NFL, but this certainly doesn't look good for Denver. Tebow has shown his true colors over the past 3 weeks, and defenses know how to handle him. This game basically comes down to the Denver defense needing to force turnovers, and probably a lot of them...

Maybin isn't a full time LB...actually he isn't really a LB at all...He is basically a situational blitzing DB, the way the Jets used him. Roman harper, a safety had 7.5 sacks this year...doesn't mean he could play defensive end or LB, it just means he blitzed a lot.... Maybin sucks as a LB or DE, not much more to it... He did have one hit.... http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/blog/shutdown_corner/post/NFL-s-worst-player-Aaron-Maybin-releases-awf?urn=nfl-284572

Well said.

Personally I've never understood why NFL teams take coaches that have failed in other places, and magically expect them to work wonders in a new environment... Yeah I know the Bills do it all the time, but it's because they're cheap...Mularkey (his offense blew with the steelers) and Edwards (His LB's drastically under performed in Miami...) are great examples of that. I'm a Gailey supporter for now, but his resume didn't exactly excite me either with a history of getting fired and under performing... Let's face it, the Bills D was not good under Fewell. They consistently got gashed vs the run, badly. The pass D stats "looked" ok, but that's because no one bothered to try...It was so easy to run, and the Bill's had no offense. Brian Schottenheimer is going to be the next head scratcher...He butchered that Jets offense full of talent (2 superbowl winning WR's, top notch TE, Top LT, Hall of fame RB, 1st round QB), and now is getting HC interviews?

Yeah I watched it...Jefferey really didn't do anything physically (a small harmless shove maybe), he was just kind of standing there while the DB swung wildly like a fool. I was really surprised that they ejected him, the ref's got that one wrong.

I like Kelsay and Carrington individually. They are decent players...I just don't see any sort of consistent pass rush coming from that combo though. 1 of those guys starting would be fine, but we need at least one true pass rusher if this defense is going to compete IMO. You make good points, but Barnett most definitely has the athleticism to cover TE's...That might be his best trait. He is very fast, and by far our best cover LB. That question mark is valid for Sheppard though.

Didn't you answer your own question? OLB, DE, WR, QB... We shouldn't understate that "OLB" part either. We aren't just short 1 capable starter, we don't have a single healthy starting quality OLB on the entire team, let alone depth. I'm not counting Merriman until he is healthy, I like Kelsay, but he is better on the line and will play there for Wanny. Moats is just bad, he can occasionally provide a small amount of pressure, but disappears against the run. If Stevie isn't signed, the WR position would be equally lacking...That was fully evident when he was benched last week and the "explosive" offense withered and died. The Bills may have accidentally given him contract leverage by doing that... To your point though (I think), it is conceivable that the Bills could fix these "holes" in the off season.

We should stop talking about this guy. Unless the Bills make a big trade (unlikely), Blackmon will be long gone before we pick. He's a stud though, the Bills could sure use him...Maybe we'll get lucky.

I still haven't seen anything saying the Bills will completely change back to a 4-3. Obviously with Wanny that is a possibility, but it's also possible he keeps a 3-4 going. Regardless I think Barnett has to be our #1 MLB for the moment, with Sheppard as his backup (or ILB in 3-4). He played MLB in college, and I don't know if he has the speed or coverage ability to OLB, I doubt it. It's possible that he would make a better 4-3 MLB than 3-4 ILB though, since he did pretty well with it in college. Morrison may also be in the mix there somewhere... That's the scary thing about the 4-3 for the Bills. They would need to find 2 capable 4-3 OLB's (I don't think they have a single one now), plus depth. On top of that they need a good edge rusher, something no where to be found on the Bills roster. Kelsay could be a good Hansen type of DE, but they need a true pass rusher on the other side. I just don't see them being able to fill all these holes. On the flip side, they have don't really have any 3-4 OLB's either (Merriman when healthy, Kelsay not his real position). IMO they certainly are closer to a 3-4 roster than a 4-3...

Yeah, this was no surprise to me. The Bills actually rank 26th in total defense, 1 spot higher. The Giants defense looked about the same as the Bills D did with him. He even has a MUCH better D-line, although a weak and injured secondary. Glad to see the FO has at least a little common sense in firing Edwards, I am a supporter of how Nix has been handling things. I don't know if Wanny is the answer, but at least he has some credibility. Nix was smart in picking up Wanny as an assistant last year, knowing Edwards looked in over his head during his first year.

The whole "Gailey sucks, replace him" thing is getting old. Look at the coaches we have had since Phillips left (not a good HC anyway, same for Williams who is a decent DC, not HC), they have all been worse than Gailey IMO. He had this team looking pretty good when healthy, especially considering the dearth of talent on this team. They were even looking pretty good against the Pats until they benched Stevie...looks like they were playing for a draft spot... Wanny, wasn't a great HC IMO...He certainly hasn't done our defense any good yet...Don't get me wrong, I love the move replacing Edwards with him...Let's just see if it means an improvement. The only way he would even be considered for a HC spot, is if he can turn this Bills D into something respectable. If he did that, he would likely be making Gailey look good while doing it anyway.

Looks like I'm in the minority in this one, but I don't blame Chan. I think this offense is VERY short on talent, and I was amazed by what the Chan's offense was able to do with the players they had. The way I looked at it, we already had a very poor #2 receiver in Donald Jones, once he, Jackson, and Wood went down the offense simply became unworkable. Fitz and Stevie, and Spiller alone can't carry an offense, no matter how good the game plan is. On the plus side, Spiller has really stepped it up and shown he has some talent. I certainly can't fault people for being upset about a collapsed season though.

I certainly think we give Merriman another shot... I am of the philosophy that until we have someone BETTER than Merriman, and Kelsay for that matter, we need to use them. However when people say that they think Merriman is "done", I think they are referring to his ability to recover from the unending string of injuries he has suffered since he was a dominant player. Certainly he has yet to prove that. I do think he is worth the risk though, we simply have no one else on the roster capable of starting at that position. No matter what, we should be drafting young talent for that position though.

I'm sure Wanny said to Gailey..."Wait, they think I'M calling the plays for this mess of a defense? Tell them it's not me! I'll never get another job again!"...

(sigh) I never questioned that you were a Bills fan. I was saying that we have common ground. I never said that "watching Whitner on TV makes him bad". My opinion is that Whitner is overrated, based on watching him play football. This is opinion, not fact. You feel differently, I fully understand your opinion. The Bills do often let good players go, but in this case the Bills have George Wilson who played tremendous football at SS. I fully agree with you that we need to keep Freddie and Stevie.

Love the idea, I'm going to put a twist on it. I'll take any DC who can build a defense properly, without forcing players into unnatural positions...

You have an interesting thought process But seriously, we are all Bills fans here I think. For the sake of everyone else that reads this thread lets simplify this... You are a Whitner fan, I can understand that. Certainly the 49rs have been good with him there. As for my opinion I will just say this. George Wilson has been amazing for us as a starter, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Honestly the two guys that come to mind for me are George Wilson and Dareus. The thing is that it's tough to make the pro-bowl as a defensive player on a bad team with a really bad defense. Wilson would have had a much better chance had he not gotten hurt. But he was amazing this year IMO, played all aspects well. Great tackler, great ball skills and hands, good cover guy, good leader. Not bad for a former udfa wr... For Dareus it's tough to make a name for yourself on a bad defense as an interior lineman. He actually had decent sack numbers, and has been tremendous against the run. He doesn't exactly get a lot of coverage around the league being on this small market team though... Yup I was wondering that myself. He was incredibly important to the Bills this year, but that one game at center really stood out.

Well if we went to the 4-3 we would need 2 OLB's (not a big deal, since we need them regardless of scheme). We would also REALLY need a good 4-3 pass rushing end. One of the biggest differences between the two schemes is that the pressure generally comes from the LB's in a 3-4, and the DE's in a 4-3. I think we have a solid 3-4 line, and 3/4's of a 4-3 line, but we don't have LB's to play either right now. CodeMonkey is right, we need to get a quality DC, and let them decide what they want to do...Getting the Bills to spend the money on an assistant may be dreaming a little though...

Exactly, perfect description. Someone who has obviously watched him play.

well said... I like Spencer Johnson, but he should be a rotation guy, not a starter.

Wow man, you are confused. Yes I know who Jim Harbaugh is, great coach. The fact that the 49'ers FO signed DW as a FA doesn't mean Donte Whitner is somehow the sole reason the 49ers are good this year. Point and case, 8 49ers were selected to the pro bowl, NOT Whitner (alternate, along with 8 more 49ers). So according to you, it wasn't those 8 49ers but Whitner that is solely responsible for this teams success. My TV is not broken, I watched the games, you should try it sometime and base your opinions off of actual play. You keep using the word logic, but I am not sure you know what it means. Reason and logic are not your strong points... I wont even go into the roles that HC's, GM's, and the FO play in signing a player. That clearly would be a waste of time.

This has been brought up several times, and I understand the logic... Personally I think the Bills should stick to the 3-4. In a 3-4 Dareus playing "end" isn't that much different than playing DT in a 4-3. For me though, I just like the scheme, they seem to be more successful in general. Having 4 good LB's running around to makes plays is hard to game plan against. Obviously that leads to the next big issue, LB's. IMO we should get some solid LB's to make the scheme work, instead of just switching schemes again. We have Barnett as the only solid starter at this point, it is a GIGANTIC hole on this team. The last factor is a good DC (which we don't have), this is probably the most important factor. If we get a good 4-3 DC, fine change I guess, but we NEED a good defensive mind to get that D working.

You're welcome to your opinion...... But the logic that you are using to convince yourself, isn't always going to convince everyone else...I form my opinions on players by actually watching them play, not by which organization wins contracting battles. You are right Whitner wasn't there last year...Neither was their HEAD COACH... Wilson had a great year (far better than Donte IMO), good enough that even WHITNER thought GW was "robbed" of making the probowl. So I don't think the Bills were that "clueless" for replacing Whitner with Wilson... I don't hate Whitner, I just think he's overrated. And I definitely think that Wilson is the better of the two. I have no delusion that I can make you understand my POV, nor do I care. Lets just say we disagree.