Bocephuz

Did Freddy look so bad last year that it was obvious he should have retired this year?

I didn't say he was the Derek Jeter of the NFL.. just the Derek Jeter of the Bills. It's all relative.. Relative to anyone else who has played for the Bills in the last 20 years Freddy is arguably the most talented and most beloved Buffalo Bill for on and off the field reasons.

By who.. I'm an Orioles fan.. and I can tell you the one guy who wasn't despised when he came into Camden Yards was Jeter. Texeira was hated, A Rod hated, almost every other Yankee was hated.. but no-one I sat by or had talked to had anything bad to say about Jeter

Good points.. however.. blaming all of the O Line problems last year on Whaley is probably not justified. Marrone was the one who sabotaged the first half of the season by shoe horning Pears into Right Guard and a pushing the rookie Henderson out at Right Tackle when he clearly wasn't ready. The right thing to do would have been to let Urbik ( who Whaley had just signed to an extension) start at RG and Pears or Hairston start at RT and then keep grooming the young guys and let them win the jobs when they were ready. Most of the young OL guys Whaley drafted ( Richardson, Henderson) were thrown to the wolves way too early by the coach .. and Kuandjio clearly needed time to learn to adjust his technique to play RT. Bryce Brown showed his potential with the good game he had against KC ( except for the crushing fumble). Just another example of Marrone being down on one of Whaley's guys.. and then being proven wrong. The Bills are just fine at WR without Stevie Johnson. I think both Chris Hogan and Robert Woods are better ( cheaper) players than Stevie at this stage of his career. I also think the Red Zone issues are more on the QBs than on the targets.

There is a rarefied group of athletes who reach a special status with a team and community by displaying their work ethic, by being an example for others by the way they carry themselves on and off the field, and by the sacrifices they have made on the field. These special few typically earn the right to go out on their own terms... ie.. they may play a few years past their prime but everyone involved knows letting them play out the string and letting them retire with their long time team is the right thing to do. Fred Jackson has earned that right.. he is the Derek Jeter of the Bills. Freddy has given up his body time and time again, has fought for extra yards time and time again, has been an emotional leader time and time again, has consistently carried himself properly on and off the field .. and he has been a constant fixture contributing his time to causes in the local community. Good on the Bills for recognizing this. Think of Ray Lewis is his last year with the Ravens... he was clearly a shell of himself on the field.. however.. his leadership and passion was a key part of the Ravens winning the Super Bowl in 2012. Freddy has a chance to do the same thing with the Bills this year.

Hah...

sanchez, iupati and cameron work as alternates for me. Good call on Thigpen.. Forgot about him I can roll with an alternate of getting Boling and Free instead of Iupati. However I have a feeling they are going to not spend $ on RT this year as its too early to pull the plug on guys with potential like Kouandjio and Henderson. I do favor Urbik over Chris Williams.. However one of em has to go due to salary and Williams is younger. Pears is too old.. He may have one average year left at RT but not worth way we'd pay him

Trades are very rare in the NFL... But Dealer Doug could care less. In his 2 years as GM Whaley has already made 2 major player for player trades ( Hughes/ Sheppard) and now Shady/ Kiko. Throw in the draft trades ( Watkins/ Browns), Stevie Johnson for a 4th rounder snd then trading that to Eagles for Bryce Brown and that equals 5 trades in 2 years. This must be some sort of modern day record. I'm a little skeptical about this one for Shady.. But I gotta give him benefit of the doubt as the Stevie trade abd Hughes trade were both great moves in in hindsight. What do you all think? Does Whaley deserve the benefit of the doubt?

Good point.. I hope they at least work on extending one of either Cordy Glenn or Dareus this year to try and avoid the open market competition.

Dareus - I think with his off field issues and us approaching him early we may be able to get a discount...perhaps 12 Mil is a little optimistic.. but $15 mil is doable. I think we do whatever we need to do ( restructure Mario etc...) to get him locked up long term Signing FA vs. Extending Glenn/Dareus - Signing both Locker and Moore will be expensive..it will also be more expensive to sign a FA RB than to draft one. If you don't like Moore then perhaps we sign Locker ( who will probably be a little more expensive ) instead. However, having 2 high level FA QBs doesn't make good fiscal sense. If EJ doesn't beat out whoever the FA QB signing is for the starting job, I certainly think EJ is capable of stepping in to win a few games as a back up. If we sign 2 FA QBs and a RB I don't think we will have room to extend both Glenn and Dareus. Brandon Bridge - I misspelled his name ... development prospect at QB http://www.rotoworld.com/player/cfb/132330/brandon-bridge TE - Roman likes to use heavy formations and values strong blocking Tight Ends.. I'm quite certain they will stock up on TEs this year. Especially since the RT situation is in flux... RB- whoever best available RB is in Round 3 works for me.. I'm not totally sold on Yeldon.. however.. he may be best available when we pick. Bryce Brown showed quite a bit.. if he can fix his fumbling problems I think he will be a quality starting RB.

Cap Space - That $3 mil or so is what's left over after Free Agency/ Resigning Extending players... I should have been more clear there I'm assuming that will be enough to cover the rookie salaries from the draft.

40% - 60% assuming that Rex/ Roman install the same kind of read option offense that Kaepernick ran in San Fran. EJ has some similar characteristics when compared to Kaepernick Strong Arm - not quite as strong as CK .. but EJ certainly can zip it if he has the presence of mind to just let it go Mobility - EJ is not going to bust a 60 yard TD run anytime soon but he is certainly athletic enough to run for first down or two and provide enough of a threat to make the read option work I would say that it's doubtful that EJ will ever be aggressive enough to be a top level QB.. however.. I think it likely that he could produce at a Kaepernick level.. which was good enough to get the 49ers to NFC Championship game and Super Bowl

I stole this idea from Buffalo Rumblings.. however.. thought I'd move it over to this forum. Put on your mock GM hat and fill out the following areas to show your 2015 Offseason Plan for the Bills. Keep in mind salary cap ramifications and try to be reasonable in your draft picks ( Jameis Winston probably won't be available in Rd 2). LAST SEASON APPRAISAL GENERAL STRATEGIC GOAL FRONT OFFICE AND COACHING STAFF PERSONNEL FREE AGENTS NFL DRAFT CONCLUSION Here are some links to help with contracts and salary cap.. http://www.spotrac.com/nfl http://overthecap.com/calculator/buffalo-bills _______ ___ MY MOCK 2015 OFFSEASON MOVES LAST SEASON APPRAISAL – Poor Offensive line play coupled with mediocre QB play sabotaged one of the all-time great Buffalo defenses and prevented the team from making the playoffs GENERAL STRATEGIC GOAL – Make playoffs in 2015, build around strong defense focusing on the short term knowing window for D will close in a year or two. Focus on making team more physical. FRONT OFFICE AND COACHING STAFF - Hiring of Rex Ryan and Greg Roman fit goal of building around strong defense. It should be their discretion to hire their assistant coaches.. GM should let HC/ Coordinators choose their own staff. Russ appears to be doing a good job on the business side of things.. maintain him for a few years until Pegulas get their footing and then re-evaluate. Based on the fallout from the Polian fiasco and rumors of old guard bad mouthing Polian.. I would fire Jim Overdorf and either fire or manage out any of the back office holdovers from the Ralph years. PERSONNEL - Goals – shore up O Line / D Line.. draft for skill positions… find Vet QB for competition.. extend young talent • CUTS o Keith Rivers, o Kraig Urbik ( $1.4 mil cap hit) • RE-SIGN/EXTEND o Chris Hogan ( 3 yrs/ $1 mil/yr) o Marcus Easley( 3 yrs/ $1 mil/yr) o Marcell Dareus ( 5 yrs/ $12 mil/yr/ $18 mil guaranteed/ $5 mil signing bonus – similar to Gerald McCoy deal) o Cordy Glenn ( 5 yrs/ $9 mil/year/ $15 mil guaranteed/ $5 mil signing bonus – similar to Branden Albert deal) • FA DO NOT RETAIN o Jerry Hughes , CJ Spiller, Erik Pears, Brandon Spikes FREE AGENTS • Mike Iupati – G – ( 5 yrs, $6mil/year/ $10 mil guaranteed. $10 mil signing bonus – similar to Marshal Yanda deal) • Virgil Green – TE – ( 4 years/ $2.5 mil/year/ $0 guaranteed/ $1 mil signing bonus – similar to Chandler deal) • Matt Moore - QB – ( 3 years/ $4 mil/year/ $1 mil guaranteed/ $1 mil signing bonus) NFL DRAFT • RD 2 – TE – Clive Warford • RD 3 - RB – TJ Yeldon • RD 5 - DE – Markus Golden • RD 6 - QB – Brandon Bridget • RD 7 – FB- Jalston Fowler CONCLUSION - As GM I addressed both short term and long term issues while leaving $3.6 mil in cap space. The main goal was to stabilize both lines and become more physical. We were not able to plug every hole.. RT and DE/OLB are still question marks.. hoping one of the young guys ( Kuandjio, Henderson) steps up at RT. Manny Lawson will be suitable stop gap at ¾ OLB role for now. o Managed to extend 2 of our best young players ( Cordy Glenn, Marcell Dareus) while also adding several solid free agents that will immediately make us a more physical team. o Addressed O-Line issues except for RT ( extend Cordy Glenn, sign Iupati, TE Virgil Green good run blocking) o Provided veteran QB competition for EJ at reasonable price (Matt Moore) o Drafted skill players Warford and Yeldon that should be cost effective immediate impact players

Good detailed stuff there.. I've watched his first 2 2014 games ( NO and GB) on NFL rewind and here are a few things I noticed It may be wise to take a grain of salt when evaluating his 2014 performance ..if theTB line performed as poorly the rest of the year as they did in the first 2 games it's no wonder he got hurt ( I thought the Bills' O Line was bad at handling stunts.. but TB o line blows them away in stunt pickup ineptitude). ARM - middling... throws with body.. MOBILITY - solid shuffling around in the pocket to avoid pressure coming from up the gut and he generally keeps his head up looking downfield when pressured. There are a few good examples of him either shuffling to avoid a strong rush and hitting his guy or taking a big hit and delivering a throw. On the other hand.. his mechanics get all goofy when he rolls out of the pocket. He is definitely more mobile than Orton and will be able to run adequately if pocket breaks down... not anywhere close to as mobile as EJ though FOOTWORK - he is very solid executing 3 step drops and the quick game. His footwork does get messy when he goes to 5 or 7 step drop. He has a habit of lifting his back foot up when throwing .. even when there is no real pressure. This tends to make those throws sail a bit. I did see some good examples from 2013 Bears games where he plants his back foot and drives.. so he's capable of doing it .. but at age 35 I'm not sure if he can overcome bad habits TRUSTING RECEIVERS- He's not afraid to throw it up into tight coverage and let his receivers fight for the ball. Several good examples of him throwing it up high into double coverage along the sidelines to Mike Evans and Vincent Jackson.. allowing them to fight for and make great catches. DEEP BALL - I saw him throw several deep balls and they were all thrown with poor timing and accuracy.. not his strong suit PRESENCE - shows good command of huddle on field presence .. takes tough hits and gets right back up PLAY ACTION - not very good at selling play fake.. defenses rarely bit on his play action SUMMARY - More grit than talent/natural ability. Better attitude/presence/mobility than Orton. Weaker arm than Orton.. Orton threw better deep ball. Capable of moving the chains and executing the quick game. Will occasionally make big plays by having the guts to throw it up and let big receivers go get it or by having the guts to take a hit and deliver. Lack of good deep ball and frequent slips in his footwork/mechanics will offset his good characteristics and prevent him from being anything more than a game manager who occasionally makes gritty plays.

Great point... he voluntarily put his AC's in a bad position.. that was the most selfish part about his opt out. If you were a solid established assistant coach/ coordinator.. would you want to be on Marrone's staff now after seeing how he screwed his previous staff? If I'm an NFL owner interviewing him for a HC position.. I would certainly ask him how he intends to overcome that stigma and I as an owner would be very concerned about him being able to assemble the highest quality staff. Say what you will about Wade Phillips not wanting to fire his special teams coach back in the day.. it probably caused his firing.. but at least he had the perception of being loyal to his staff.. and he ended up getting another HC gig in Dallas a few years later

Paul Kruger average salary is $8 mil/ year as a 3/4 OLB... do you think Pernell McPhee is as hot of a commodity as Kruger was? Jimmy Graham average salary is $10 mil/year.... do you think Julius Thomas is as good/better than Jimmy Graham? I think Peyton Manning makes any TE look good (see Dallas Clark). Levitre was way overpaid by a desperate team. Perhaps I'm a little low on Mike Iupati ( Marshal Yanda... arguably the best Guard in football average salary is $6.4 million/year) ________ _____ Let's say I'm $5 million off on these players... That still leaves the Bills with $3 mil in cap space in my scenario. They could cut Urbik or Chris Williams if they needed a little more cap room to sign draft picks... fill in gaps with lower tier free agents. Perhaps Mario would restructure to free up some space as well? My point is there is room to pick up several elite players .. one can disagree on who they should be.. but there is cap room

Right.. now I remember. Obviously Wade shouldn't have said that. Marrone may not have been very good at X's and O's but he was a good motivator and I think he really had the team believing they were a playoff team.

This would be a feasible splash for me that they could afford... Using that interactive cap tool and plugging in some guesstimates... if the Bills Make the following moves they would still have $8 mil in cap space to spend on draft picks.. fill in gaps on other departed Free Agents PLAYERS UNDER CONTRACT: - Release - Rivers , Spiller ( assuming he exercises option to stay) FREE AGENTS: DON'T PURSUE - Hughes, Spikes, Pears and anyone else who is FA not listed below - Extend - Hogan ( $1.2 mil/year - 3 years) Searcy ($1.5 mil/year - 3 years) Thigpen ( $660K/ year - 3 years) Easley ($660K/year - 3 years) SIGN Julius Thomas TE ( $8.5 mil/ year - 4 years) Mike Iupati OG ( $5.5 mil/ year - 5 years) Pernell McPhee OLB ( $5.5 mil/ year - 4 years) Ryan Mallett QB ( $3 mil/ year - 3 years)

Just found this seemingly cool interactive salary cap thing.. haven't had a chance to play with it and check it's validity yet.. but thought I'd share the link http://overthecap.com/salary-cap/buffalo-bills/

Sorry .. forgot it was an insider link. In short the writer listed 4 areas where the Bills could make improvements/adjustments (1.) find a good 3/4 OLB .. not necessarily Hughes 2.) Fix the O-Line 3.) Get Average QB play 4.) Improve the slot CB position. If said adjustments were made the Bills should be able to make playoffs in 2015

We were all spoiled by the 90's Bills' incredible run ( Ralph included). Wade was a good coach.. unfortunately he got walked all over by management ( Ralph insisting Rob Johnson start playoff game etc...). I remember when Wade was interviewed after a close loss in a late season Monday night game and he made a statement like " We're not a playoff team" when they were still mathematically in it. I'm pretty sure this sealed his fate. At the time I was pissed at that statement and wanted him fired as well. Looking back I think it was a bad move. Firing a guy for one slip of the tongue in a post game interview was not smart in hindsight I forgot about Manny Lawson... he would be a good early down 3-4 guy with his coverage and edge setting abilities.. not sure he can bring enough heat on the pass rush though

Fair enough. Consider though that the 49ers were one play away from winning it all in 2012 ( pass interference?) and they made the NFC championship game several years in a row with Roman running the Offense. Rex also made the AFC championship two years in a row. Not sure why you think Roman or Rex aren't capable of reaching that level of success again when they both have histories of actually getting to that level. Obviously a lot of things have to go right for that to happen.. however.. I think the odds are better when you have leaders in place who have already demonstrated they are capable of generating that kind of success.

Also just read that Roman's power running game very rarely uses the screen game as his scheme calls for big lumbering O lineman to block downhill and those type of guys don't do well pulling and getting out in front of the screen game. This could be good for a guy like Cyril Richardson.

http://insider.espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/12153872/how-rex-ryan-get-buffalo-bills-playoffs-2015-nfl Outstanding/ insightful/ well researched article from Neil Hornsby at PFF. Great to see a national writer actually know what he's talking about. To piggy back on his points HUGHES... I agree we shouldn't break the bank on Hughes. He seems to be a better fit for a 4-3 than 3-4 anyway. Plenty of other good free agent 3-4 OLB hybrid types available. O LINE - Marrone really did sabotage the OLine with all of his tinkering.. Roman has to be an upgrade as he has a history of building top notch o lines and creating a physical identity. Having a defined identity ( Ground and Pound) will be beneficial as the Bills O clearly did not have an identity in 2014. If we can sign someone like a Mike Iupati .. who knows the scheme and would be a great leader.. that will help. AVG QB PLAY - An upgrade in FA would be nice.. but if for whatever reason it doesn't happen I think Roman is the perfect guy to coach up EJ and play to his strengths... which are.. mobility and ball security. In 2013 ( when Hackett was allowed to run things his way) EJ did fairly well with the read option stuff.. and did much better when under center with a fullback and heavy formation on the field. As soon as his knee problems surfaced the coaching staff panicked and threw that all away in favor of shotgun/spread one side of the field read kind of offense. The 49ers offense with Kaepernick frequently used heavy sets and a lot of read option and I expect to see similar looks for the Bills O in 2015 SHORE UP THE SLOT - With Rex's defense .. secondary play is priority one so I'm sure the slot cb position will be upgraded one way or another.

Good call. A man who really researches and puts a lot of thought into his work before he puts it into words and print. For example, Sully wrote an article mid season after one of Orton's better games suggesting the Bills give him a multi year extension. 3 or 4 weeks later he writes an article completely contradicting himself saying Orton is not the answer. Really Sully... did Orton all the sudden become a bad quarterback in just 3 or 4 weeks? He writes dumb knee jerk articles like that all the time and then contradicts himself later on a regular basis.