GunnerBill
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Posts posted by GunnerBill
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I don't think there is any question that the Bills can only take that step from 6-10 / 7-9 territory to 9-7 / 10-6 territory if they get more out of the quarterback position. And more means two things.... 1) it means EJ staying healthy for the entire season. 2) it means him being more consistent. If he played at the level of his best games in year 1 in say 10/12 of the games in year 2 that would give us a chance of making the post season and I think is a realistic progression. I'm not expecting to see EJ morph into Peyton Manning just a nice solid season of progression would be good.
However, I think everyone here accepts EJ has to get better to give us a chance to win enough games. The thread is about how do you help him get better. Personally I think another top talent on our O-Line does help him, because going back to point 1 above... him getting hit less increases the chances of him staying healthy. Equally on the O-Line I think that too often we ran for short yardage or lost yardage on first down with CJ in the backfield where our line was blown up before the back had a realistic chance. It is those plays that I think hurt you because then your rookie QB finds himself in 2nd long too often.
I think a top tight end would help him too. I haven't seen enough of Ebron to know if he is that guy... I'm personally a bit dubious about picking a tight end at 9... everyone talks about having a Gronkowski or Graham style game changer, but there are a lot more Gresham and Pettigrew types out there and if we gave up a top 10 pick for somone with that level of production I'd be pretty miffed. If we traded back a few spots I'd be more comfortable with a tight end knowing that we still had (hopefully in my trade scenario) a couple of 2nd rounders to use on O-Line and Linebacker. I think they are the three priority positions that we need to upgrade aside from better Quarterback play.
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The Nix-Whaley thing was a handover planned pretty much from the day Nix brought Whaley in. The extent to which he chose the timing or Russ chose it is open for debate, but Whaley clearly played a key role in the selection of Marrone and in the draft process particularly last year. This looks more of a mess than that I would suggest.
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Michael Lombardi has been a disaster. Who could have predicted that? Well.... anyone who listened to the nonsense he spouted on NFL Network maybe?
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Not for me but wouldn't be a huge surprise to me if the Bills sought to bring him in and have a look. One of the things Doug Whaley has talked about is keeping an eye on guys that you have high draft grades on when they hit the pros. I don't know how Whaley had Carimi graded coming out but if he had a high mark on him don't be surprised if he thinks it's worth trying the turnaround. They had a high first round grade on Jerry Hughes which was a factor in pursuing him last offseason. Having said that Doug Marrone seemed pretty committted to trying to develop one of the young PS guys.
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The idea that sexuality is some kind of choice is ignorant of fact. I wonder how many of these people chose to be hetrosexual?
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Alrighty then, how many of you would be comfortable sharing a locker room with an openly gay teammate? Would you go about your business, try not to change in front of him/her, demand that he/she change in another part of the locker room, etc.? I occasionally work with an openly gay colleague who does per diem for us and one time I was just getting into the locker room and was ready to get into my scrubs and he walked in. I could have milled about or gone to the bathroom, but instead continued to start changing just to let him know it wasn't a big deal. So even though I didn't have a problem with it, it still was on my mind. Now maybe next time I won't think twice, but that time I did.
I have and do frequently. One of my regular gym buddies is gay. Doesn't bother me in the slightest.
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Good on him and good luck to him. It's a definite sign of progress in American society. People trying to wrestle internally with living a secret life does them no good whatsoever. I suspect he will have a better career with this weight lifted from his mind than he would have had otherwise, not because being gay makes him a better football player, but bcause being totally comfortable in himself will.
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I'm a semi-professional soccer coach here in England. I've appointed guys that are very well regarded coaches who have interviewed well and who I've thought fitted what we were looking for "philiosophically" and then you work with them and over a period of time you think "nah... this isn't working out." It happens. Sometimes things just don't fit together as nicely as you had hoped. I suspect that is what happened with Hilliard. I don't think it had anything at all to do with any disagreement over D'Rick Rodgers. It's life sometimes it happens. The thing is people are not robots. So even when everything looks right on paper and seems to match up there are times when the reality is different and you don't know that until you are in the middle of the season. The speed with which the change was made at the end of the campaign suggests to me that they had probably both ome to the conculsion some time earlier that it would be best to go their separate ways.
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I'd leave well alone on both Martin and Incognito. On Martin it has nothing to do with him being "mentally weak", I don't believe he is.... it's because I don't think he is a very good offensive tackle. On Incognito it's because I don't trust him as a character one bit. The report will in all likelyhood finish him as an NFL player anyway. Make no mistake he has a hell of a lot of questions to answer.
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I think the key these days to being able to pressure Quarterbacks and sack Quarterbacks is not whether you are running 43 or 34 or whether you are blitzing often or rarely.... it's about not being vanilla and having an ability to disguise what you are doing. With Wanny's defense you could tell by the way they lined up pretty much every snap what they were going to do. With Pettine they could line up exactly the same 3 snaps in a row and throw three very different things at you...... once the season was done (after Atlanta basically) I spent the remaining games just watching the way the D lined up and what they then did, there were very few patterns and that's why they kept offenses off guard. However, being so creative and disguising things so much might have actually been part of the reason why we never fixed the run D. I'd be happy to tweak that balance and take 10 fewer sacks for saving ourselves 10 big gash running plays that cost us points.
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Marrone coached bush for a few years with Sean Payton.... I think he saw a few ideas on how to use him.
Did the Saints ever really utilise Bush properly? I think Miami and Detroit both did better jobs with him to be honest.
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I agree with what others have said about a "change" from a 3-4 to a 4-3..... it's not really a change at all. We did play some 3 man fronts in 2013 but it was still a lot of 4 man fronts... I'd expect Schwartz to lobby hard for a big run stuffing MLB in the draft.
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I think Donnie Henderson is getting a bit of a raw deal on this board to be honest. His D at the Jets resembled the Pettine D here last year. Attacking, decent against the pass, stinking against the run. Okay, his defense in Detroit was awful, but the year he was in Detroit everything was awful. He might not be an exciting hire, but I don't necessarily think it would indicate "giving up". From everything you hear the players like him (Jarius really likes him) and he has the respect of the locker room.
He isn't as qualified as Wade Phillips... don't get me wrong... but I don't think that's going to happen.
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I think it will be Henderson as I've said before. The Bills said they had a plan and they would execute if needed - that sounds to me like promotion talk rather than outside hire talk...
I'm not as high on Wade as some of you but he is by far the best qualified candidate out there... do the two Dougs have the freedom from on high to at least make the phone call and speak to him? I'm not sure they do sadly.
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I think it happens today. I think Pettine is the man. Looks like they won't wait for Quinn and everyone else seems out of the running.
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There was about 10 years ago a comedy show here in the UK that satirised 24 hour rolling news channels and had a news ticker rolling across the bottom saying "BREAKING NEWS: There is no news"...... Mary Kay Cabot's tweet reminded me of it.....
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I'm pretty certain it would be Henderson. I think O'Neill probably goes with Pettine to be his DC in Cleveland.
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That Yahoo article is pretty much how I see it (although not everyone had Cam Newton as a slam dunk not to miss prospect either back in 2011). I think those 4 guys who are seen as likely going in the top 10 are not that much better than the group expected to go in the 2nd and 3rd round and I'm pretty certain that by draft time at least 1, maybe even 2 will have slipped from the top 10 altogether.
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Say Pettine stays (and I hope he does by the way)..... and the defense performs about the same again..... top 10/12 against the pass with plenty of sacks and picks but continues to languish in the bottom quarter of the league against the run and has not solved that problem.... I think there would be plenty on here who would then begin to question him pretty intensely. Also would that restrict his chances of getting a HC gig at the end of next season?
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I think the numbers of the New Orleans offence during Marrone's time as the OC were pretty good weren't they? I know Payton called the plays, but Marrone put together the offensive game plan each week.
I ulitmately think both could well end up being good NFL Head Coaches.
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It doesn't matter if Cleveland's new coach (be it Pettine or a guy still involved in preparing for a Superbowl) likes Manziel or not... it looks very much like the front office have decided they are going to trade the house to get up and take him regardless.
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Khalil Mack or trade pick!
That's where I am I think. Although if nobody offers us enough value for that pick then I'd be happy with either Richardson (immediate upgrade on the O-Line) or Evans. But if Mack is gone my first priority would be a trade.
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If I was Houston, a veteran team with a lot of players that do need or will soon need replacing, I'd be quite willing to do that trade with Cleveland..... my first rounder for their two firsts and their second. Unless they have absolutely fallen in love with Bridgewater or Manziel themselves.... but I certainly haven't personally.
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Trying to pick ones way through the various reports it would appear that the Browns still want to interview Gase but fear that he is committed to staying another year in Denver (who knows whether this is or isn't linked to Peyton's possible retirement plans?). So if not Gase they seem to have narrowed down to two back up plans..... Dan Quinn and Mike Pettine and they want to interview both a second time. That would suggest that even though the Seahawks are in the play-offs Quinn has interviewed once. Presumably he could interview a second time this week? My feeling is if it's Pettine he will be gone within the week... if this drags on ino next week I think the chances are they have agreed something with Quinn but don't want it to leak out before the Superbowl.
If Pettine goes then I think Marrone would be wise to promote Donnie Henderson. He did a great job with the DBs this year and presumably would run a scheme that is at least very similar if not exactly the same. Any external DC's that are good enough to come in are probably off the market by now anyway. I've felt all along that Pettine would interview somewhere this year and then get his shot next year... I'm keeping my fingers crossed that is still the outcome.
Michael Sam is out.
in The Stadium Wall Archives
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As an English born, English speaking, English language graduate (first class honours no less), residing in England I can assure you that you are incorrect. Not that I think you will take any notice.
I think the issue is you sir. Staring at people you are attracted to is not reasonable behaviour, regardless of their gender or your sexual preference. There are no double standards here.