BarleyNY

The most frustrating thing to me is that in 2017 Watkins will be playing the last season of his rookie deal. 2018 would be his option season. If he doesn't stay healthy in 2017 (and it's not starting out great with that surgery), then how could the Bills sign him to a long term deal? They'd have to execute his option for 2018, hope he can stay on the field and then use a tag if they can't work out a deal. That is not a path I'd want to go down if I could help it. The other aspect of this is that I don't think Watkins is all that happy in Buffalo. He is not getting the number of targets he wants and he's been frustrated by the lack of a quality passing QB. He's vented about both of those things. If he makes it to his option year I see the Bills in the same situation as they are with Gilmore. Sitting here deciding if they should tag him because that's the only way they're going to keep him. Probably the best way to entice Watkins to stay here is to make sure he's got a quality passing QB and some additional talent at WR to help keep defenses from keying on him so much.

Absolutely correct. Lots of work to be done, including finding (and paying for) a number of starters.

That was my first thought, too.

This thread and many other similarly whiny threads. Really? Here are the rankings: Offense - Run 1st - Pass 30th - Overall 16th Defense - Run 29th - Pass 6th - Overall 19th Sure is obvious what the two problem areas are.

So people here want to repeat the 31st ranked passing offense and 7-9 record? Interdasting......

Haven't heard/watched it yet, but perhaps Whaley is just tempering expectations for the new regime. New schemes on both sides of the ball that will likely mean replacing some players that don't fit well. Tyrod would be example A. Changes at QB can be bumpy, especially if they are looking toward a rookie acquisition this season. All of the guys coming out this season need work and a bridge QB will be easy to spot.

I'd put Hooker after Williams, but any of the three would be great. I don't think any of them make it to 10 though. Maybe Hooker.

Yup, he's been juicing for years and is referred to as HgHarrison by many. Gets his PEDs at the same Denver business as Peyton Manning did.

Adams if he's there. If not, then Williams. I don't touch Peppers.

Yeah, I don't want to see him not be able to walk away from the game or wind up with serious mental issues after leaving. There are a lot of players who will sacrifice their bodies and brains for the kind of paycheck that AW is set to get this coming season. Many are looking to take the best care of their families that they can. And I should note that a lot of other people in this world make similar sacrifices for a lot less money for the same reason. Still, I don't want to see anything tragic happen to AW for my entertainment. Yeah. The Bills might need to make a business decision here. He is a great player to have on the field and we are so thin at safety it's very tempting to keep him, but he doesn't do us any good on IR. He has a $500k roster bonus that the Bills can decline if they want out of the contract. He will count $4.85M against the cap if his bonus is declined. He will count $6.625M against the cap if they retain him (plus an additional $2.425M of unaccounted for cap hit in 2018). Full details: http://www.spotrac.com/nfl/buffalo-bills/aaron-williams-7749/

I agree. Taylor would fit there well and Denver is good enough all around that they could win with Taylor.

Has to do with Jim Johnson, a DC who was a friend of Brad's. Here is part of the article: But with his 60th birthday approaching, Childress kept thinking about a conversation with the late, great defensive coordinator Jim Johnson, who was pondering his future around the same age during their days on Reids staff with the Philadelphia Eagles in the early 2000s. He just said, Im going to tell you what now, Brad, Im not going to do this (expletive) forever. I want to retire, and (wife) Vicki and I are going to play golf and go back out to California and visit with my grandkids theyre the joy of my life, Childress said recently at the Chiefs training camp. But he did it til he died. When we played them in the (January 2009) playoff game, that was the last game he coached standing on the sidelines. They beat us and went on to play the Giants in the Meadowlands. He was upstairs in the press box. He was already sitting on a golf cart. He couldnt move around. And he was dead in (July 2009, at age 68 from a cancerous tumor on his spine). I'm not saying this kind of stuff doesn't happen, but it would be a forfeiture of a meaningful draft pick if the Bills were caught.

I doubt it. Maybe McD would like to have him here, but hasn't contacted him yet. Without KC's permission it would be tampering to discuss a job with Childress or his agent.

- Totally agree that Rex didn't match his scheme to his talent. - Gilmore isn't Revis of a few years ago, I don't think anyone is saying otherwise. But Gilmore and Darby as a pair should be far more than adequate talent-wise to run an effective defense. This is more of an issue of Rex failing to adapt his scheme to his talent. If you need Revis and Cromartie to run an effective defense, then you're not very good at it. You know who can do well with talent like that? Pretty much everyone. - As for stopping the run, yes players have to play. I saw a lot of times where the defense was gashed because a player did not fulfill their responsibility. Failure to keep contain on the edge, failure to contain cutback lanes and filling the wrong gap happened far too often. Miami killed the Bills with the zone run. Adjai was patient and simply waited for a crease. Some of this is definitely on the players, but some was surely due to confusion caused by Ryan's complex scheme.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/chiefs/2016/08/19/brad-childress-kansas-city-chiefs-minnesota-vikings/89001000/ Seems like Childress may retire soon. It's difficult for me to see him taking another coaching job that isn't HC.

Agreed. Good read.

He had 4 receptions for 95 yards yesterday. He's a competent WR as he showed. He's not a stud and he's replaceable in this league, but he's capable of contributing. No need to disparage him.

For sure. I noticed it too. I couldn't tell what was causing it, but Brady was throwing a lot of ducks. Not every pass, but way too many. Hopefully the end is nigh.

One big issue is that the current coach must be released from his contract. Even promotions do not release a coach from a current contract unless he is moving up to head coach. An expiring contract would be the likely situation, but even then the coach would have to want to leave a playoff team and/or not be wanted back by that team. I'd rather the position get filled before the supply of quality coaches dries up entirely. Who knows? Maybe there's an agreement in place with a coach, but it hasn't been announced yet.

http://www.writeups.org/wp-content/uploads/Inverse-power-law-h1.jpg Probably a Power Law Curve with the tail on the left and head on the right. The average cashier steal little to nothing while virtually all of the thefts are from a very small group. Dareus certainly sits at the very far right of the curve.

This is what we're all hoping for, but my biggest fear is that Watkins has injury problems through the next two seasons (through his option season), moves on to another team and then finally stays healthy and tears it up. I could live with him busting, but watching him light it up in Miami/NY/NE would be particularly tough to take.

Smart of Taylor to call McDermott and smart of McD to respond as he did. It isn't likely to impact the Bills from moving on from TT if that's what they've decided to do, but it was good to see that interaction.

Executive search firms are commonly used to place high ranking executives in virtually every industry, including the NFL. Nothing uncommon here.

Well said. Yeah, he's a pretty good coach when he has a massive advantage over the majority of his competition. Otherwise, not so much.

I think what gets me about this in general is his arrogance. he so offended by having to answer this question that he doesn't even come up with a reasonable response. It wouldn't have to be true. He could even just give some generic a boilerplate answer. How hard would it be to say "After meeting with the Bills new ownership I didn't feel like I was in the long term plans there so I decided to move on immediately."? But he's too arrogant for that, he has to play the this-is-beneath-me card. Again, F him.