Delusional Bills Optimist

No. He was pretty calm and collected, and looked to be moving pretty well. He looked pretty resigned, more or less disappointed, when the trainers took him into the locker room. Everything looked to be pretty precautionary. Even when the contact occurred, you couldn't tell he was injured. He sort of put a hand on his hip, did and bit of stretching and came off. Just looked like a Jim Brown-style slow get up to me. Unless he's phenomenal at hiding pain, he looked to be okay.

I thought Woods looked good tonight. He was consistently running free of the DB assigned to cover him. EJ sailed a ball over his head on one occasion, where, if he had dropped it over Woods' shoulder, he would have taken it to the endzone. Hogan, on the other hand, looked atrocious (except for covering punts).

I was at the game behind the Bills' bench and I watched Sammy getting worked on by the trainers for a good couple minutes before they took him into the locker room. They unhooked the flak jacket and appeared to be stretching and twisting him and gauging his reaction. When I first saw his injury in the Steelers game, it seemed to me that it was less of the knee to the ribs and more of the torquing of his upper-body that caused the injury. I'm wondering if the injury is a pull or strain of the muscles on his ribs, and not a cracked rib. If this is the case, its probably a pain tolerance issue, and there may be some range of motion deficiencies on that side of his body. If that's the case, and he doesn't have cracked ribs, that's good news in my opinion, as, in my experience, a strained serratus or oblique takes less time to heal than a cracked rib. All in all, it was incredibly disheartening to see him leave, tonight, after taking such an innocuous looking hit.

The worst thing to happen to EJ was that the Bills were able to assemble this supporting cast around him so quickly. It seems to me that EJ was viewed as a high-ceiling talent that would need two plus years of experience to deliver. I bet the Bills were eying EJ's 3rd year as the "all in" year. But somehow, the roster was gutted in short order and a bunch of recent picks seem to be winners, and suddenly, what should've taken three years has taken two. Furthermore, Mr. Wilson passing and the impending ownership change has forced the current Bills management to push their chips in this year (Year 2), and not next (Year 3). Moreover, this is further complicated by EJ's missing most of camp and playing only 2/3 of the season last year. Instead of being in Year 2, EJ is two-thirds of the way through Year 1, and the Bills have built up Year 3 expectations. We've got a Year 3 team, and a Year .67 quarterback. All of the "This Is Our Time" talk is premature given EJ's arrested development, and it puts a lot of unfair pressure on him. The sad thing is, IF he does have the talent to make it as a quality starting quartrback in this league, he might be run out of town before he has a chance to prove it. Full disclosure: I was not an EJ fan when we drafted him. I am an EJ fan to the same extent that I am a "fan" of every memeber of the Bills, i.e., I hope he tears things up. His highs are intriguing, his lows are maddening. I think it was obvious when he was drafted that he was not an Andrew Luck "straight-out-of-the-box-starter"-level talent. That said, this town has been waiting on a winner for going on 15 years. And it's tough when everything lines up except for the most important piece.

Thus ends the Dennis Dixon experiment.

Great hands by Searcy.

Damn, Nickell! For a little guy, he packs a hell of a punch on run plays.

I count Whaley as having an impact mainly on the 2013 and certainly the 2014 classes, although I do think the Bills, in general, have gotten some good second/third day picks in Carrington, Easley and Moats (2010), Searcy and Hairston (2011), and Bradham and Brooks (2012). You would like your 4th through 7th rounders to make the team and have some sort of an impact, and I think that these players did in various capacities, even if it's just building solid depth. Between Whaley's 4th through 7th rounders last year and this year, I think he has hit on talent more than the average GM (contra, the Texans, who I think might only have three of their nine 2013 picks on their roster at this point). All that said, I am one of those who is hoping that the Bills look for another option for back up QB (both 2nd and 3rd string). I think the Bills have done a woeful job in addressing these two positions for quite a few years (although, who knows how the Kolb experiment would have turned out). I would not have picked EJ where we did, but I was, and am, certainly willing to give him a shot. However, it would have helped if he could have stayed on the field last year, and furthered his development along. And normally, I wouldn't concern myself that much with who are back up QBs are, except that (1) EJ has a brief, but unsettling injury history, and (2) the rest of the team finally looks like they could do some damage with some adequate QB play. It would be nice to have some veteran insurance, even of the game manager variety, or, in the alternative, to have a young guy who can throw a crisp 25 yard pass to someone in the same color uniform, when he's not handing the ball off thirty times a game.

Please at least make the call, Mr. Whaley...

Then the price should be cheaper... How's Cleveland's DT depth? Maybe they would take Branch for Shaw if Branch was a Pettine guy...

Well, I appreciate the candidness. Who would get his spot? 7th receiver? 9th O-lineman? Either way, I think Cohen or Charles might be an upgrade (although I think Cohen may already be in his late-20s).

Much obliged. Given Whaley's seeming ability to mine late-round talent, I hope he attempts to identify one of these types, and works the phones to pick one up. Hell, maybe some team would take a Legursky or Branch off our hands for their late-round project QB.

I am familiar with the name, but don't know much about him. Could he play in our system (whatever the hell it is)?

Is Dennis Dixon still on the team? If so, can he possibly be worse than the lesser of Thad or Jeff? If so, cut them both and pray for a team to try and sneak a decent young backup QB onto their PS.

Please just make Cyrus a guard and let Legursky go. Watching the latter play guard and the former play tackle is nausea-inducing.

Who gets Hopkins and Branch's spots?

Couldn't agree more. I'd take a halfway competent QB that's a few weeks behind, playbook-wise, over these two. I don't get it, they at least looked passable last preseason.

Randell is looking strong holding contain this week.

Man, I don't remember Thad looking so poor for extended periods last year. He at least had some ups for all his downs.

Damn, Cohen wants it!!!

That's exactly what I was thinking. One last shot to show up against a 1st string NFL defense. I really hope that is the case. It would've been nice to see how Cyril would've held up, though.

Plus, slow developing counter out of shotgun on 3rd/4th and 1.

Fred Jackson and Scott Chandler can take the day off tomorrow. The rest of the boys...

That's what the sideline tablet is for.

Robert Woods' body language is a little disconcerting.