mjt328

Really? He was terrible today. He got beat several times and never looked back for the ball. In a closer game, that stupid personal foul could have cost us a win. The only thing that saved his butt was that Henne sucks.

Why do our cornerbacks never turn around to look for the football? We have watched Leodis McKelvin waste his talent for 4-5 years, simply because he has no idea when to turn around and get his hands up. Today, watching Ron Brooks was absolutely brutal. I'm sure this guy has the skills to play, but what the heck? Also, I think Stephon Gilmore needs to work on being more subtle with his contact. I absolutely love his physical play, but he's getting flagged way too often.

The only thing that scares me is winning worthless games against the Jags, Rams, Dolphins, etc. A late season winning streak (against the bottom feeders of the league) will be all the ammunition Nix needs to keep Gailey. It would also mean a lower draft pick and less chance we move on from Fitz next year. I'm a longtime Bills fan who is tired of the losing. But I realize that turning things around will require those changes.

I can understand why Nix is tired of answering the same questions over and over. But everyone on the planet (except Nix and Gailey) can see that our coach is an idiot and our quarterback sucks. Honestly, I think the Buffalo media and Bills fans are expecting Nix to admit his mistakes and say something like "I've already been talking to Bill Cowher and Marty Schottenheimer" or "We are definitely replacing Fitzpatrick after the season." Instead, he continues to give our current guys a vote of confidence and refuses to throw them under the bus. We'll find out pretty quickly after the season whether Nix is being honest or not.

Nobody would be suprised except Chan Gailey. Fitz has had several games like Brees is having.

We can't keep waiting around - wasting season after season - hoping for a can't miss prospect to fall in our lap. It isn't going to happen. People keep ripping the upcoming draft class, but it's a pretty deep group. I would be willing to bet that at least 2-3 of this year's prospects become solid or better NFL starters. And that would be a SIGNIFICANT upgrade over Fitz. Are we looking at Andrew Luck or RGIII...no. But in my opinion, both Geno Smith and Matt Barkley are better prospects than Ryan Tannehill and Brandon Weeden last year. We absolutely have to take a chance drafting a quarterback early. And if he doesn't work out, there are no rules against taking one again in 2014, or 2015, or until we get it right.

Makes perfect sense to me.

Exactly. Elite "can't miss" prospects at QB are actually pretty rare. Guys like Cam Newton, Sam Bradford and Matthew Stafford weren't considered "elite" either, but they still went #1 overall. This draft class reminds me a lot of the 2011 group. If anyone recalls, once Luck decided to stay in school another year, there was a huge void at the quarterback position. None of the guys left on the board were considered top prospects. Regardless, Newton still went #1 overall. Locker, Gabbert and Ponder went early in the first round. Dalton and Kaepernick went early in the second.

Ugh... We just can't win here. Buddy Nix wants to stay the course, and doesn't want to fire Chan. Chan still thinks Fitz is the answer at quarterback. If Ralph steps in and forces a change, he will continue to reinforce his reputation as a medler who won't let his football personnel do their job.

For what Chan asks our O-Line to do, I think they do an exceptional job. Whether they would excel in another coach's blocking scheme... there is honestly no way to tell. Some linemen are better at power blocking schemes. Others are better in zone schemes. Some are great at pulling and getting up the field. Others are better handling the blitz. Some are great run blockers. Others are better in pass protection. In the Bills current offense, the ball gets out of the QBs hand very quickly. Our linemen are usually only asked to block for a couple seconds - and that obviously helps their sack numbers. But at the same time, the spread offense rarely provides additional blocking help from running backs and tight ends when the defense decides to blitz. So there is a little bit of give and take. Same thing with the running game. Our offense is designed to spread the defense out, then take advantage of draws and misdirections. Our linemen are frequently asked to pull and get upfield to block on outside runs and screen plays. They obviously do a great job at both. Rarely is our O-Line asked to match-up 1-on-1, make a big push and force the defense backwards. But then again, rarely does it get help from a fullback, extra lineman or even a double tight end set. That makes a huge difference.

No. Nix/Gailey took over this team 3 years ago, which is plenty of time to turn around a team. In the years prior to them taking over, we were 7-9 three times in a row, followed by a 6-10 season that was accomplished partially with an interim coach. This year's schedule - compared to most other seasons - is a cakewalk. So far, we have played 4 games against teams with a winning record and still have a record of 4-7. The only winning team we have coming up on our schedule is Seattle. This team is not making progress, and a decent argument can be made that they are moving backwards.

I love this post. I remember how Jauron's offensive philosophy was to "play for the field goal." Then on defense, it was "bend but don't break" and giving up a field goal was considered a victory. Loser's mentality.

Usually it's the guys with big physical skill that rise. Scouts start focusing on potential and forget about how they played in games. I'm thinking Landry Jones makes a climb back up into 1st round consideration. If Tyler Bray and Aaron Murray declare, you might see them jump too.

We need a QB worse.

I am 100 percent behind this. With the high percentage of busts, it would be smart not to put our eggs in one basket. And if somehow we ended up with two good players, another team would be willing to refund us that pick in the future. It would be awesome to get a more polished prospect like Smith or Barkley in the 1st, then follow it up with someone raw with bigger upside - maybe Bray or Murray - in the 2nd or 3rd.

The argument that Nix had no QBs to choose from is also disappearing. Last year, it was clear he whiffed by not taking Andy Dalton for Aaron Williams. This year, we watched him pass on Russell Wilson for TJ Graham. Over the last 2 weeks, we have also witnessed Colin Kaepernick show what he can do.

Mark Sanchez threw for 301 yards and a touchdown on Thursday night (Thanksgiving) against the Patriots. He also had over 70 percent completion percentage on the night. Do you feel like he played a good game?

A few years ago, I started a study on this exact topic. I went all the way back to the year 1978 to see how successful players were, based on the round they were drafted. For quarterbacks, there was a HUGE downward trend in success outside of the Top 10 - and especially outside of the first round. Finding even a solid starter after the second round was next to impossible. In fact, over the course of 27 years, I could only find TWO great quarterbacks that were drafted in the second round. Drew Brees and Brett Favre. On top of that, Brees was drafted #32 and Favre was drafted #33. So they barely slipped out of the first round. During the same period, there were also only a handful of solid starters out of the second round. Jake Plummer, Randall Cunningham, Boomer Esiason and Neil Lomax. The number of successful players continued to drop each round. Based on the results of my study, I came to a very strong conclusion: I've heard many critics say the draft is a complete "crap shoot" and is nothing more than luck. This is simply not true. In reality, scouts generally have a good idea where the top talent is at - and those players generally get taken at the top of the draft. Sure, there are always the Ryan Leafs and Jamarcus Russells that never realize their potential and go down in history as incredible draft busts. And then there is Tom Brady, a Hall of Famer taken in the 6th round that somehow everyone missed. But when you look at the numbers - the VAST majority of successful quarterbacks (and players in general) are taken in the first round. And finding a successful quarterback in the mid to late rounds is harder than finding a needle in a haystack.

The Redskins will not miss those draft picks, and Cleveland will forever regret not making this deal. It's very early, but RGIII appears to be as good as advertised. Players like him are rare, and they make everyone on the team better. Griffin is having a spectacular rookie season, even without his #1 receiver (Garcon) for most of the season. His success is coming with players like Alfred Morris, Aldrick Robinson and Logan Paulson.

Johnson took 3-4 steps after catching the ball before going to the ground. In NFL-terms, those steps are known as a "football move." So in the eyes of the rule book, he had already completed the catch before going to the ground. Now, if the receiver is going to the ground while making the catch - then they must complete the play with possession and cannot lose the ball when they hit the ground. The steps Johnson made make all the difference. It was the right call. The Forsett play... Not so much.

I notice that you conveniently left out the 1985 draft, which netted us one of the greatest NFL players of all time (Bruce Smith) and a should-be Hall of Famer (Andre Reed). Not to mention the numerous late-round successes that aren't listed. Not to mention (as someone else also pointed out), the pick that was traded for Cornelius Bennett. Your thread fails to make a point. Even with all Polian's "misses" I still see numerous hits. VERY big hits. Numerous Hall of Fame-type hits. Where are the big hits for Buddy? Heck, where are the average hits for Buddy? He's struggled to even get us solid starters in the draft. Most of the 2010 draft has been a complete loss. The lone exception being CJ Spiller. The 2011 draft got us Dareus, who I still think has potential - and a couple low-end starters (A.Williams, Sheppard, Hairston). Almost every one of those players has digressed in their second year. To compare the two regimes is insane. Polian took over the WORST team in football. In 3 years, they were 12-4 and in the AFC Championship game. In 5 years, they were in the Super Bowl. Nix took over a perennial 6 or 7 win team. In 3 years, the team appears to have made no progress.

Exactly. Nothing happened to him. He always had a low celing because of his limited physical skills. At 29 years old (almost 8 years in the league), he's reached his full potential. For his first 6 seasons, Fitz was known around the league as inconsistent and inaccurate - better suited as a backup than as an NFL starter. In early 2011, Chan and Fitz caught some teams off-guard with how successful he was in the spread offense... and he had a nice 4-5 game stretch. But once defensive coordinators caught on, the offense came back down to earth. He still has a nice game once in awhile against the really bad defenses of the league. But whenever he faces a good defense, he's pretty much screwed. And for the people that claim that his passing is getting BETTER as the season wears on... You do realize that our offense was held without a touchdown in two of our last three games, right?

I agree. Like I said in another post, there are plenty of other stadiums/fans that take care of business. I live in St. Louis and you never hear about or see the drunken nonsense that happens in Buffalo.

My biggest knock on Flacco is that he's always looking for the big play. In that sense, he's kind-of the "anti-Brady." There are lots of times he has guys wide open short, but he decides to launch it downfield because his receiver is 1-on-1. If he just developed some patience, I think he would be among the best in the league. As far as his comparison to Fitz, I think it goes way beyond arm strength (although that is a big and important one). Accuracy is one of the most important traits for a quarterback to have, and while Flacco may not be Drew Brees-like in that respect - he has Fitz topped by miles. In my opinion, Fitz is one of the least accurate passers in the NFL. He's constantly forcing his receivers to the ground to catch slant passes. On post routes in the middle of the field, the receiver usually has to wait for the ball. On deep throws, he's either way long or way short. Flacco is also a much better decision-maker. Despite what I said above, he doesn't force a lot of his passes. Every quarterback has his bad moments. But Fitz makes WAY too many "what the heck was he thinking!?" passes. Tennessee was a perfect example.

I just don't get it. Just because other quarterbacks have flaws, doesn't mean Fitz is anywhere on their level. I've asked this question before: What does Fitz consistently do well? In 8 NFL seasons, what has he shown on the football field that would make you believe he's a reliable starter? I can answer that question for Manning, Rivers, Schaub, Flacco. I can't for Fitz.