Nihilarian

No idea what team you think is on the verge of the playoffs. The 2016 Buffalo Bills had holes all over the roster in safety, WR, RT, CB and depth at several positions. The special teams took a huge drop this year to 23rd and no idea why Crossman kept his job. We still don't know if Tyrod is the answer at QB and how can we when most of the better receivers were injured for a lot of the year. Now Whaley needs to retool the defense again to fit McDermott's 4-3 scheme. This was like 2009-2012 all over again switching from Jauron's 4-3 to Pettine's 3-4 to Wannstedt's 4-3! Now to Schwart's 4-3 to Rex Ryan's 3-4 and back to another 4-3. WTH! This is why this franchise needs to imitate the Atlanta Falcons with their front office of a team president of football operations who was a long-time NFL GM, a director of scouts for the Patriots to GM and his assistant who was also a GM with the Patriots. The Falcons need three GM's to equal what Bill Belichick does in NE to keep his team forever in the playoffs. This franchise needs better NFL people at the top of the org chart.

After that initial sentence, it's quite clear that any opinion you have on this subject is inconsequential. Do us both a favor and don't respond to my posts as I have no use for contentious fans.

Mike Evans?

Gotta add NFL to google it! I can only imagine the term in being used about coaches means they put their nose to the grindstone and work their tails off. "A lot of NFL players flash production from time to time. You'll see them on the plays of the week, but then they disappear and you cannot count on them consistently. The 25 guys on my 2016 All-Grinders Team heading into the season have never been named to the Pro Bowl, but every one of them is a day-to-day, down-to-down producer. These are disciplined, tough and often overlooked players -- many from humbler backgrounds. The league is filled with guys who were drafted for their potential. Coaches can't play potential. They need production. They need reliability. These Grinders deliver, and it's time they finally get their due. http://www.espn.com/nfl/insider/story/_/id/17524408/jon-gruden-2016-all-grinders-team

and it still almost got him fired along with HC Mike Smith! The team then brought in ex-Patriot GM, ex-KC GM Scott Pioli as assistant GM who has been working with Dimitroff. If you look at that Atlanta Falcons front office they have arguably three brilliant football men at the top of the football operations chart in Team president Rich McKay who was a GM. Thomas Dimitroff who is the Falcons current GM and Pioli as his assistant. On another note, the Bills have Russ Brandon marketing/finance/ex-baseball guy as team president. Doug Whaley as GM the last four years.

A very valid point as all Belichick seems to want to do on offense is to keep moving the chains again, and again until they get to the end zone. His eye for TE's and slot receivers is unequaled IMO.

All in all, the Falcons sent the Browns a first-round pick (No. 27), a second-round pick (No. 59) and a fourth-round pick (No. 124) in 2011, and also chipped in the No. 1 pick in 2012 (No. 22) and their No. 4 pick in 2012 (No. 118). Two firsts 2011, 2012 A second in 2011 Two fourths All for the #6 pick in the 2011 NFL draft. The very next season the Falcons went 13-3 losing to the 49ers in the NFC Championship game 24-28 Then, possibly because of all those picks the team gave up they went into a funk in 2013 going 4-12 and Julio only played in 5 games that year. The defense was the real culprit being 27th overall. They went 6-10 in 2014 with Julio back and a worse defense. This period in time got HC Mike Smith fired and almost got GM Thomas Dimitroff fired as well. One could argue that giving up all those picks could have hurt the team's ability to bolster the team/defense through the draft., There is no question that Julio Jones is a game changer and one of the very best WR's in the league. Still, TY Hilton led the league in yards in 2016 and was a 3rd round pick Julio Jones led the league in yards in 2015 Antonio Brown led the league in yards in 2014 and was a 6th round pick Josh Gordon led the league in yards in 2013 and was a 2nd round pick Calvin Johnson led the league in yards in 2012 and was a 1st round pick Calvin Johnson led the league in 2011. I still think it was a mistake to give up so much for Sammy Watkins with the team not already having that franchise QB to throw to him.

Yea, and look at who molded him in his first season. The kid had no veteran QB on the roster to learn from and even bigger no freaking QB coach!!! The only person he had to draw knowledge from was a person who was new to the NFL as offensive coordinator. Never have I seen a situation in which a rookie QB is being instructed solely by a rookie OC! The team wanted EJ to sit and learn behind Kevin Kolb and that plan was ruined by the attack of a rubber mat In his second season, EJ finally got a QB coach and veteran QB to learn from and as he stated he learned far more from Kyle Orton then from anyone else on the team just by watching him. The pre-game preparation by Orton, the film study of opponents he never got to learn his first year under Nathaniel Hackett. Great point. I had more faith in Lynn, Roman developing Cardale Jones over this new coaching staff. We'll see.

Not if they can't stay on the field due to injuries! Watkins played in 8 games in 2016 and was useful in about two of those games having over 55 yards in those. Watkins had foot issues all season and he recently just had foot surgery again. The only Bills receiver who played in all 16 games was TE Nick O'Leary. http://www.rotoworld.com/articles/nfl/62752/472/broken-bills This game went on to show just how brilliant Bill Belichick is in his film study as he literally destroyed that Steeler secondary and their soft zone coverage. And yes, from what I've read old Bill is the team's GM and goes over film for every facet of the team. He finds ways to exploit the opponents weaknesses. Can you name one other player in the history of the NFL who had a game like Hogan had in the playoffs against the Steelers? That some unknown WR who steps up like that? Sorry but those numbers he put up in that playoff game showed he is and was more than JAG! I'll bet now that he has had time to acclimate himself into that Patriots offense that he will be even better for Brady. Tom Brady doesn't tolerate stupid players who don't know their jobs! NFN, there is a real reason as to why Hogan was nicknamed 7/11 before going to the Patriots as the guy would always find ways to find that seam in the defense and get open. Belichick targeted Hogan in free agency because, like his love for the TE position, he also loves those shifty slot receivers. Like I said earlier, It burns me to see the stupidity of the Bills GM allowing a player to leave that was a position of need and then attempt to replace him in Buffalo with scrubs. What that article doesn't grade is the evaluation of the Bills GM and the reason for some of those poor grades was the lack of quality players at several positions and a lack of quality depth once the starters went down. This will be his 5th season as GM and his record so far is 30-34.

I'm cautiously optimistic about the entire team this year. From what I see is that McDermott's defense is more about the players than the scheme and if he doesn't have the right players to run his defense it could be a disaster just like with Rex Ryan. The Bills don't have a Luke Kuechly or a Thomas Davis, Shaq Thompson. That Jimmy Johnson scheme relies a lot on zone blitzing out of a 4-3 with cover 2, cover 4 zone. OTOH, I look at the Seattle defense that has allowed the fewest points the last five years. Yes, they have a bunch of great players and the difference is not all of them are first round picks. In fact, CB Richard Sherman and S Kam Chancellor were both 5th round picks that were selected because they fit a specific body prototype and then were coached up in that defensive scheme. I was hoping the Bills could get Mike McCoy for OC in Buffalo to fix that outdated Buffalo passing playbook and Gus Bradly as DC to bring in that Seattle scheme to Buffalo..oh well. As far as Danny Crossman goes, in 2014 under Marrone with the extra game day players all going to special teams the Bills were #4! I feel St Doug helped his good bud Danny mostly because that unit was 30th in 2013 and people were calling for Crossman to be fired. 2013, 30th 2014, 4th 2015, 12th 2016, 23rd I dunno, I hope I'm wrong but I can't shake the feeling that this is just another Dick Jauron type hire. In someone who will have his players playing their hearts out for him only to see a rash of injuries plague the team year after year.

Kyle Shanahan as HC, anyone who Kyle wants as OC, Gus Bradley as DC. I would much rather see a Pete Carroll disciple in Buffalo bringing in that Seattle state of the art defensive Scheme over a Tampa two man. That defense is as outdated as Ryan's A better special teams coach. It seems that Crossman's ST unit was only good one season when his best bud St Doug Marrone was helping him every week. A better GM in someone who can actually find the team that franchise QB!! Someone who cab draft more talented players so the team doesn't need to overspend in free agency or get super lucky by having some idiot give away star players.

Perhaps if you swapped the Falcons GM, assistant GM and team president you might have a Buffalo roster capable of getting to a super bowl. Perhaps the Facons doctors and trainers too. Tyrod Taylor isn't close to a talent like a QB Matt Ryan! The Bills have three decent receivers similar to the Falcons and yet the Bills players can't stay healthy. Watkins played in 8 games and was actually useful in only two of those. Clay had more than 60 yards in only four games. Goodwin had two good games of over 50 yards. Woods had only two games of over 60 yards. The RT position was a turnstile. Safety and CB positions were poor at best most of the year. Great coaching can't overcome a lack of talent or injuries.

This is the part that most fans don't get. Williams, Mularkey, Jauron, Gailey, Rex Ryan You could give them all five seasons or more and all you would have is 5+ years of losing. Sean McDermott has his work cut out for him and he is younger and more energetic than Ryan. Discipline wasn't the only thing wrong with the Bills the last two years. They QB had issues, the WR corps had issues, special teams had issues, the line isn't solidified at RT and because of that weakness the better linebackers, DE's will exploit that turnstile. The defense had issues with tackling, safety, CB problems and lastly communication issues. Then, so much of what this new HC is able to get accomplished is also on the GM to properly fill in the holes in the roster and get the players he needs to have a successful season. What QB? What RT? What S, CB?

Some Bills fans would rather keep saying how bad ex-Buffalo players are because it helps them with their denial issues. Both those players would have helped the Bills get more wins this year. Chris Hogan corralled nine-of-12 targets for 180 yards and two touchdowns Sunday in the Patriots' AFC Championship Game win over the Steelers. If they ever make a 30-for-30 about Hogan’s career, this game might be a good place to start. There was legitimate concern about how effective Hogan would be this week after sporting a noticeable limp in the locker room after Friday’s practice. Hogan erased any doubts about his health by having the game of his life, setting career-highs in yards, catches and touchdowns. He ran circles around the Steelers’ overmatched secondary while breaking Deion Branch’s team record for the most receiving yards in a postseason game. Hogan was left wide open on his first touchdown of the night and later scored a 34-yarder on a perfectly executed flea-flicker by Tom Brady. Next up for Hogan and the Pats is a Super Bowl LI matchup against the NFC Champion Falcons. That game will be held in Houston two weeks from today. http://www.rotoworld.com/headlines/nfl/353807/edelman-erupts-as-pats-advance-to-super-bowl?ls=roto:NE:topheadlines Funny to note that in this same column it mentions that Julian Edelman erupts for 8 of 10 targets for 118 yards. Too bad Buffalo can't find more WR's like Hogan, after all, he is JAG!

Well said! Might as well give JaMarcus Russell another shot. Jeff George or Ryan Leaf maybe? I'd be in favor of keeping Tyrod and restructuring his deal to see if he develops this year. Whaley needs to do his job better in finding better quality "healthy" talent to catch the ball.

The Bills didn't lose games the past two years because of the offense as the defense had worse stats both years. The 2015 Bills under Wrex finished 31st in sacks, 32nd in QB hurries. The 2016 Bills finished 8th in sacks, 17th in QB hurries. So, even when they had more sacks the team really wasn't that good at getting to the QB. Both years the Buffalo defense failed to win more than one game against a team with a winning QB and that sole win was against Brian Hoyer. What made Hogan worth keeping in Buffalo was that most of the passes he caught were for first downs. Oh I dunno, 9 rec for 180 yards, 2 TD's made him the MVP of that AFC Championship game. Not something just anyone can do.

It really isn't worth arguing over as the Patriots actually have Hogan listed as their #2 wideout on their roster. http://www.patriots.com/schedule-and-stats/depth-chart Clearly, he was their #1 receiver in that AFC Championship game with 9 rec for 180 yards, 2 TDs averaging 20.0 yards per catch. As he led the Patriots in yards and receptions as well as TD's. Julio type numbers for sure. It burns me that Belichick managed to steal away from Buffalo a newer version of Wes Welker, Edelman, Amendola that has managed to stay healthy in his career so far. Meanwhile, the kid that the Bills gave up two first rounders for just had another foot surgery. Even after watching this JAG kill a good Steeler defense that was #12 overall this year and held the Chiefs to under 200 passing yards in the previous playoff game. Some Bills fans still can't acknowledge that 7/11 might have been worth keeping in Buffalo.

Yea, That's why Hogan is listed as the #2 WR on the Patriots roster with 6 WR's. What Hogan did for Buffalo in 2015 was that he caught a lot of passes for first downs...except not many noticed besides Belichick.

There was a real reason his nickname was 7/11. Just like Wes Welker playing for the crappy Dolphins and not many could see the potential. Just read through this thread to see the fans that are still calling him nothing special after a game like this.

9 rec for 180 yards. 2 TD's....JAG! It's clear to me that some Bills fans that were disparaging the guy have no clue what they are looking at on the field, and neither does Doug Whaley.

Atlanta might have the 25th ranked total defense in yards. They were also 4th in the NFL in defensive hurries! (Buffalo at the end was 17th, despite the more sacks.) Aaron Rodgers was under constant pressure all game. Plus, their new HC Dan Quinn built that defense very similar to the Seattle Seahawks defense with a decent secondary and fast linebackers. Like I said earlier, It isn't just all about the QB! Matt Ryan has been with the Falcons for 9 years and just now they are getting to the SB. That Falcon offensive line has two #2 picks at OG and one is Andy Levitre, a #1 pick at center in Alex Mack and a #1 pick at LT in Jake Matthews. So that Falcon line is very solid and the Packers didn't sack Ryan all game. It looked like he was under not much pressure either. While Falcon QB Matt Ryan had an MVP year. He was also supported by some great offensive coaching in Kyle Shanahan as OC, An excellent receiving corps with one of the very best WR's in the game in Julio Jones with 1409 yards this year. Plus, the Falcons have a thunderous run game with two solid pounders in Freeman and Coleman. That Atlanta rushing game had almost 2000 yards this year with 20 TD's. Look at that Atlanta Falcon front office with Rich McKay as team president, Thomas Dimitroff as GM and Scott Pioli as assistant GM. Basically, three GM's and two are from the Patriots. Google those three names to find all have achieved great success at what they do. The Falcons are really very good at talent evaluation, unlike other teams. This year's Atlanta Falcons have the whole package at work, great FO, great set of coaches, players, a solid team with the highest scoring offense in the league.

The same teams keep getting into the playoffs and keep winning the super bowl, Pittsburgh 8x-(6-2), Dallas 8x-(5-3), New England 8x-(4-4), Denver 7x-(2-5), 49ers 6x-(5-1), NY Giants 5x-(4-1), Packers 5x-(4-1), Washington 5x-(3-2), Oakland 5x-(3-2), Miami 5x-(2-3), Indy 4x-(2-2), Vikings 4x-(0-4), Buffalo 4x-(0-4), LA/ ST Louis Rams 3x-(1-2), Ravens 2x-(2-0), Bears 2x-(1-1), Chiefs 2x-(1-1), Seattle 2x-(1-1), Eagles, 2x-(0-2), Bengals 2x-(0-2), Saints 1-(1-0), Jets 1-(1-0), Buc's 1-(1-0), Titans 1-(0-1), Cardinals 1-(0-1), Falcons1-(1-0), Panthers 1-(1-0), Chargers 1-(0-1). Rivers, Romo, Palmer, and Cutler I'd say that window has closed on those QBs in my opinion. First of all, Tyrod Taylor probably could win a SB if given a great team around him like Peyton had in Denver. Given the situation in the Buffalo Bills front office, I'd say those chances are pretty much nil. It's the same teams keep getting to the SB and keep winning it because they know what it takes to get it done and they move the world to do it. With Pittsburgh, it's the same family. Dallas two owners. Denver the same owner and the QB that lost a bunch of those SB's is now the team president. Oakland, it was Al Davis. Minnesota it was Fran Tarkington, Bud Grant. Buffalo it was Bill Polian, Marv Levy. In Miami it was Don Shula and no matter how much money the new owner spends he hasn't gotten it right yet with multiple team presidents, GM's, coaches. Most fans out there think it's all about the QB and that is only one part of it. Atlanta QB Matt Ryan is in his 9th year and has still never seen a SB. Maybe this year for Ryan and the Falcons.

Massive learning curve? Russ Brandon took over as de facto GM once Marv Levy retired in 2007 and has had the power to run the entire team since that time. Rex isn't the only smooth talking snake oil salesman. So from 2007 thru 2010, it was Brandon. 2010 thru 2013 it was Buddy Nix. May 2013 to date it has been Doug Whaley. It was Brandon who led the search that eventually found Rex Ryan and fully supported his hire, as did Whaley. Brandon has been involved in football operations for 10 years now and what did he learn? He learned it's better if he steps away. Buddy Nix had a lifetime of football to prepare him to be a GM and what did he learn? That the team is better off without him! Whaley had been with the Steelers for 10 years before coming to Buffalo in 2010 and was promoted to GM in may 2013. What has Whaley learned in his four seasons as GM? No franchise QB just yet and 23 free agents this year. Still, no decent RT and Denver's Vonn Miller or the Raiders Khalil Mack or the Texans JJ Watt can move over to face that turnstile Buffalo has at RT! That the team goes into each season paper thin at some positions because the scouting dept in Buffalo stinks. What Whaley has had is an incredible amount of luck so far in the Colts GM wanting to dump Bill Polian's last first round pick, so he calls Buffalo and trades that first for a 3rd round scrub. CJ Spiller doesn't sign that huge offer that Whaley made him and instead signs with the Saints. Chip Kelly gets a wild hair up his arse and decides he no longer wants his best RB so he picks up the phone and calls Buffalo... What you don't get is that almost everyone in the world of the NFL was advising these new owners to hire an NFL experienced senior adviser to help guide them through owning an NFL Team. The NFL even offered an adviser. Instead, they chose to listen to their then team CEO Russ Brandon who told them that "they would know who to hire as the new head coach after they interviewed all the candidates." That was how the old Buffalo Bills worked with an owner that needed the team to make a profit to support him and all his hobbies like horse racing and collecting fine art. Ralph Wilson lived in Detroit and kept the team in Buffalo because he knew he had a rabid fan base in Buffalo that loved their football team. He could keep the ticket prices low to keep the blue collar fans coming to the game and still make a huge profit every year as long as the team was on the edge of winning. Anyway, Terry Pegula was rewarded in hiring Rex Ryan as he saw the season tickets sale take a jump to the highest amount the team had ever sold. Which basically reinforces that he did something right in making that hire. At this point, it looks like it's going to take a lot more losing and empty season seats before Terry Pegula realizes he is doing things the wrong way in hiring his own choice for the team's head coach. SSDY

So true! The simple fact that Doug Whaley is still with the team leads me to think that Russ Brandon still has control over his puppet. Now this Bills team is on a similar 7-year journey like the Buffalo Sabres in that after tanking for years and years while hiring a better head coach they are still dead last in the Eastern Conference. Kind of depressing to think that in 2021 the Bills still might be a bottom of the division team. Andrew Luck is one of many young QB's that have the ability to win a Super Bowl and yet lack the talent all around them, GM, coaches, players, scheme. So the Colts were bad enough for one season to snag the best young QB of the decade but then fell on their faces with the wrong guy as GM. What stinks for Colts fans is now that window of opportunity of when the QB wasn't one of the highest paid players in the league is now closed so the team can't afford to build around like they could have in his first few years in the league. From the looks of things, the current Buffalo Bills are also at that point and they don't even have their known franchise QB. Will Whaley dump Tyrod so he has more money to find above average players at other positions in free agency so mediocre can be medicore again?

We all want that 90's Bills team back again and it likely won't ever happen anytime soon because finding that sort of talent in all phases of a team takes a great degree of change. It's not just finding the right GM... it's not just the team's scouts to find player talent at every position... it's not just about finding that elite franchise QB. Those 1990 Bills first started to be built in Buffalo the day that Ralph Wilson hired Chuck Knox in 1978. When Knox came to Buffalo he also brought with him his director of player personnel from the Rams in Norm Pollom. From there the team scouting department started to change as he hired different scouts. Pollom also recommended hiring a young man to be the Buffalo Bills new pro personnel director in Bill Polian. The team now had the right man at the top who could identify top player talent and had a vision of the team he wanted to build. In order to compete in the same division with the Miami Dolphins, a team that had owned the Bills the entire decade of the 70's. Polian wanted to build a team that was "tough'' in every facet, top to bottom. I believe it was Polian who hired the teams S&C trainer in Rusty Jones who Marv Levy called his secret weapon. The Bills had the right medical staff at that time too as QB Jim Kelly had pins put in his shoulder during his senior year at the U because of a severely separated shoulder. Those doctors had speculated that Kelly might never recover his full throwing motion and they were wrong. Thurman Thomas was also a question mark in the draft as he already had so many miles on him at Oklahoma and he blew out his knee. So he wasn't drafted until the second round where the Bills were confident that Thurman would be a great player for them. I think that when Bills fans read that these new owners are Billionaires that they automatically think that the new owners will hire the very best people to build a super bowl winning team. The best GM, the best doctors, trainers, scouts, coaches and so on down the line. Some of us are still waiting for that to happen and sadly not much has really changed since Ralph Wilson owned the team. 8-8, 7-9 is so Jauronish. It's going to take more than just luck to build a super bowl contender in the AFC East.