Brandon

I wouldn't expect roster spots to be a major issue. Aside from Steve Johnson and, to a lesser extent, David Nelson, none of these guys are anything close to guaranteed a roster spot. The rest of the WR roster is essentially glorified camp fodder.

They need both, so yes, I expect them to draft at least two WRs next month. They need one as a full time starter opposite Steve Johnson and a second as a slot receiver to replace Roscoe Parrish.

While I'm sure this type of thing is fairly common around the league, that doesn't make it acceptable and when someone gets caught, like the Saints and Gregg Williams have, the league needs to make an example of them. The Saints need to lose several high draft picks over this, the ownership heavily fined, and the coaches involved should be banned. There's no place for this kind of garbage in a sporting event.

I really don't think you can go into the season relying on a 4th round pick who hasn't even been on the field for a regular season game in two years because he can't stay healthy. Given how desperate they were for help at WR for much of this year, I think they'd be wise to add some quality competition at that position in the first two or three rounds this year, assuming they don't sign anyone as a free agent.

I'm just saying that the sample size is too small to say that they're really playing as well as the rankings, or, more importantly, that they could sustain it even if they were. The regular season rankings are likely much more indicative of the actual quality of those two defenses. ' Otherwise, yes, I'm in agreement that a balanced approach is the best one. That said, if I had to pick one or the other, I'd rather be stronger on offense than defense. You may slow these elite offenses like NE down, but you'll rarely stop them completely, and in a close game, they'll find a way to beat your D on that last drive of the game to win it.

These teams have played two or three games. Its like saying that the Bills have one of the best defenses in the league because they only gave up 293 yards per game in a three game stretch in November this year. Obviously, that's not the case for the Bills and its not true here, either. Look at the Pats as an example. They gave up 411 yards per game in the regular season, yet they're ranked 4th in defense in the postseason. But how worthless is that ranking? Well, they gave up 252 yards to Denver, then 398 to Baltimore. One great game, one right in line with their yearly average. So which is more indicative of the real Pats D? I have a pretty good idea. You see the same thing with the Giants. They had a great game against the Falcons, but in their next two, they were a lot closer to their average. Does defense win championships? Not this year. The two Super Bowl contenders bring the 2nd and 8th ranked offenses into the game, as well as the league's 31st and 27th ranked defenses.

Joe Adams and Jarius Wright, the two Arkansas WRs. If the Bills go shopping for a receiver with speed in the mid rounds, these two are going to be high on the list. Adams, in particular, is deadly in the open field and is a great punt returner with four TDs this season. Just watch his punt return against Tennessee if you want to see what he can do. Another one? Chandler Harnish, the Northern Illinois QB, as a late round developmental prospect. Not only did he throw for 3200 yards and 28 TDs this season, he also found time to run for almost 1400 more. He did hurt his ankle in their bowl game, so I'm not sure how effective he'll be as a runner today.

And as an Arkansas fan, I'm not sure whether that's Lee's fault or that of Houston Nutt. The Razorbacks didn't have much luck with their QBs or their passing game before Petrino was hired.

I tend to agree. As long as he doesn't have any more serious infractions on his record, a little weed isn't likely to scare anyone off these days.

Note the word 'usually'. The Pats aren't going to beat everyone every single time. You may beat them occasionally, but you won't do it consistently. The division records and the division championships the Pats have won in the last 10 years are proof enough. While the rest of the division spins its wheels trying to build a defense that can shut the Pats down, the Pats are beating them much more often than not on their way to 12 wins or so on average for the last decade.

Agreed. Once in a while, you may lure those teams into a defensive battle, but the truth is, they can easily score 30+ on you no matter how good your defense is. If you go into it thinking you're going to beat NE, GB, or the Saints by holding them under 20 with your stellar defense, you've already lost. Every team in this division has had at least a couple of very good defensive seasons since the Pats started winning in 2001; even the Bills were ranked 2nd in the league in 2003 and 2004. Where have the Bills, Jets and Dolphins gotten with that model? Usually, 6-9 wins and a beating from the Pats when it counted late in the year. The only way you're going to beat the Pats consistently and knock them off the top of this division is to beat them at their own game.

Lets assume that's the case. How well is the hybrid D working? Not well, obviously. They don't have the talent to run a 4-3 or a 3-4 effectively at this point, but they've been gearing their roster towards a 3-4, so they may as well continue and fill the gaping holes at OLB. If they do that, combined with another offseason of development for the guys they've drafted the last two years, they could very well turn out to be a decent defense next year. There's nothing inherently wrong with the 3-4.

Back to the 4-3? I hope not. The 3-4 switch hasn't worked out, but its largely because they haven't invested anything at OLB. Fix that and I think this D will improve significantly. The 4-3 still has the same basic problem, lack of a pass rush, but I think its easier to find that with a 3-4 OLB than with a 4-3 DE. I don't think it'll help matters against the run, either. Oh well. As for Edwards, good riddance, I suppose. Someone had to go, although I'd have preferred that they shop around a bit before just promoting the Wannstache.

I wouldn't worry about it too much. 16th is the worst case scenario where they win and everyone else that's 6-9 or 7-8 right now loses. Some of those teams may be playing each other today, too. I only checked the records. I doubt the Pats are going to roll over with home field advantage on the line, anyway.

I haven't factored in strength of schedule, but the Bills cannot pick higher than 7th or lower than 16th regardless of what happens today.

While I would prefer that they stay in a 3-4, I don't think it matters much in the short term. They're not a good defense in either alignment. I think people are forgetting that the Bills allowed 2500 rushing yards in Dick Jauron's last year. Their struggles started before the coaching change. The two biggest problems with this defense are that they don't have a pass rusher and that their starting corners are older than dirt. Those problems will still exist in either front and will continue to plague this defense until they're addressed.

Yep. You can't really expect a 22 year old DT to come right into the NFL and be a dominant player against guys who are several years older and who have had that much more time in a pro strength and conditioning program. Its rarely going to happen. Give him at least until the end of year three. Let me remind everyone that Ted Washington was generally considered to be a disappointment through his first four seasons with SF and Denver. We all know how that one turned out.

I'm not necessarily saying he would have made a difference. What I am saying is that the Bills offense sucked a** last year, as it has for about a decade now, and they made no real attempt to improve it. The end result has been predictable.

Its not surprising. In the last ten games a year ago, the Bills scored 20 points only once. The Bills' solution? Get rid of the only proven WR on the roster and wait 122 picks to add any help to the offense. Gailey did exceptionally well early in the season given what he had to work with, but now, somewhat predicably, teams have figured it out and we're seeing the lack of talent on that side of the ball as well.

I wouldn't put Spiller in that category yet. While Maybin did absolutely nothing on a team that lacked any semblance of a pass rush, Spiller is being relegated to the bench by a RB playing like an All Pro. Under those circumstances, it may simply be that the coaching staff doesn't want to take Fred Jackson off the field and can't figure out how to use Spiller otherwise. And lets not forget that Spiller is averaging 6.3 yards on the few carries he gets. No, I think it could still go either way with Spiller. He may turn out to be a complete flop, but with Fred Jackson playing as well as he is and Spiller's playing time severely curbed as a result, I would not be stunned to see Spiller prove to be a very good player once he's given a real opportunity.

What does anyone expect? This is what happens when your receiving corps consists of 7th round picks and street free agents. They got by with it for a while, but predictably, its starting to bite them in the ass now as the season progresses.

It was just one game. Don't read too much into it. That said, I was glad to see Stanford lose. I'm sick as s*** of hearing about him and Stanford. Put them in the SEC West and then lets see how well they do.

1) OLB The need of a pass rusher is pretty obvious, and in this defense, the easiest way to generate that pass rush is from the OLB position. To this point, Merriman isn't getting it done. This is clearly their top need, IMO. 2) CB It helped that they drafted Aaron Williams last year, but the Bills' top 2 CBs are both on the wrong side of 30 and McKelvin has been a disappointment. Considering that they play the Patriots twice a year, not to mention how the NFL is becoming more and more pass happy every year, I think they'd be wise to invest in another CB in R2 or 3 this year. 3) WR Aside from Steve Johnson and perhaps David Nelson...and in spite of the preseason hype...this group isn't much. The rest are a dime a dozen. Factor in injuries and we're down to CJ Spiller as the 3rd WR. Ouch. As the season wears on, I think this is a position that will become more and more obvious as a point of weakness and the offense will suffer because of it. They could also use a quality TE prospect, like that will ever happen.

I wouldn't be in any hurry to replace him. The only thing that's wrong with Fitz is that if he doesn't lead them to 30 points, they're probably not going to win. He's not a great QB, but he's still a good one, and if the Bills continue to build the rest of the team around him they can win with him.

Well, I do think Spiller has a bit of an excuse so far this year. He's just not getting opportunities, which says less about how he's playing in this particular case, and instead more about Fred Jackson. Jackson is on pace to have about 2200 yards from scrimmage right now, and with production like that, its going to be difficult for anyone else to get on the field at that position, especially with the defense as bad as it is and the Bills being forced to pass more than run. There's certainly a real possibility he will never live up to expectations, but under the current circumstances, I think its way too early to give up on him.