Nihilarian

Man, this is so true! I gotta wonder how many years will it take Whaley to find a quality talent at RT. Just going by how long it took to replace Andy Levitre and when it did eventually happen 3 years later it was more Rex Ryan vouching for Incognito. I gotta think if it were up to just Doug Whaley it would have never happened. That was the 2-8 Jacksonville Jags that was dominating the Bills offensive line and if not for shady doing his Barry Sanders impression that Bills offense does nothing all game. Five sacks on Tyrod Taylor and if not for his unbelievable elusiveness it would have been a total debacle due to poor blocking. The Ravens and Dolphins games looked similar and the line needs more than just a RT. A competent top WR besides Woods and Watkins should have been a top priority considering they let Chris Hogan leave for the Patriots. In regards to so many wanting a better pocket QB, the FO needs to find a Brady clone or another QB who can find his target and get the ball out in under 2 seconds before he is killed attempting to throw. Sure Tyrod holds the ball far too long at times waiting for his receivers to break open but he also doesn't throw many INTs. And a Saftey or two...along with a CB or two.

Gugny is just stirring stuff up with that remark about Romo being better as we all know Kelly has four AFC Championship rings to go with his HoF status. While Romo is sitting on the bench as a rookie takes his job. Romo has taken Dallas to the playoffs six times and only won two of those games...a classic choker who is mostly known for his lack of postseason success.

The Bills under Rex Ryan have yet to beat a QB with a winning record and if that stays the same the Bills lose to Oakland, Miami and probably Pittsburgh. Which looks like 8-8 and should the team somehow get to 10-6 I kinda doubt any big changes will be made.

What's interesting is that 2000 Baltimore defense that was so great Marvin Lewis was the DC, Jack Del Rio was the linebackers coach and Rex Ryan was the D-line coach while Mike Smith was his assistant. Yowsa! The thing is after that #1 ranking in 2009 Ryan got the moniker as a defensive genius and that particular year and perhaps the year after that might have been true. Since then there has been a continuous drop-off in points allowed to around 20th for years for that Jets team and last year it was yards to around 20th for the Bills. Just looking at the games that Ryan's defense has played for Buffalo haven't been able to slow down a QB with a winning record that year in 2015 or so far in 2016. Last years Bills defense couldn't get to the QB at all and was second to last in sacks. This year the team leads the NFL in sacks and yet can't seem to stop those average to better QB's. Not Fitz, Not Brady, Not Tannehill, Not Russell Wilson, Not Flacco. The Bills still face Blake Bortles 2-8, Derek Carr 8-2, Ben Rothlisberger 5-5, Josh McCown 0-2, Tannehill 6-4, Fitz 3-7. At 5-5 past history says the Bills will win 3 and lose 3. At #12 overall in both PA-Yards is a step up from last season.

Hey man, this doesn't fit well with all theTyrod haters out there as some just want to complain and point. I'm more concerned about a defense that can't stop even average QB's. But hey, that's me!

You would have thought the team would have done that last offseason especially when they knew Sammy was coming off surgery.

I think they would. The Rams are attempting to build that same power run game that the Bills, Cowboys, and other teams are going with and Tyrod would be a great fit until that first round pick develops..if ever. Tyrod isn't losing this team games and he isn't at that point where he can overcome when another part of the team plays poorly. Hey, I'd love it if this team had a Derek Carr. It's just that this teams scouting dept drafts guys like EJ and Jones.

The fans that continue saying year 6 simply don't understand that it takes actual field playing experience to develop a QB properly. Four years on the bench means he might have mastered the film room and meetings. The point here is that even Drew Brees wasn't always so pin point accurate and he did make a ton of mental mistakes early on...things changed!! Then, Bills fans want to forget that Tyrod was a 6th round draft pick which usually means so much more developmental time involved than say a second round pick, which Drew Brees was. Consider, that many NFL people think EJ Manual is a massive bust for a #1 pick! To the Bills fans, that think Cardale Jones is the long term future... Cardale Jones just threw a pass so far off target it knocked the phone out of the hand of a reporter 40 feet behind the sideline. - Sal Maiorana (@salmaiorana) August 1, 2016 The Bills didn't lose to either the Dolphins or the NY Jets because of Tyrod Taylor!! The Bills offense scored 31 points against Miami and 25 against the Jets. However, the Bills defense was the problem in those two games as they allowed that 3-7 Jets team to pass (Fitz)for 374 yards and rush for another 123 while giving up 3 rushing TD's! The Dolphins managed to dominate both sides of the lines while having a single rusher gain 204 yards on the ground. The Phins finished the day with 256 yards rushing and two rushing TD's. The 2016 Buffalo Bills 5 losses aren't on Tyrod Taylors shoulders at all in my view. When the team is able to run the ball effectively and the defense plays decently the team usually wins the game. The Bills offense even put up 25 points on the Seattle Seahawks defense this year and only one other team has managed to do that all year. I'd say there are a few teams out there that would love to have Tayor at QB and will pay him. Rams, 49ers, Bears, Browns and Jets all come to mind. Still, six more games to play so let's see where he is after the team gets Watkins, Woods back in the lineup.

You guys do realize that in his second year of starting Drew Brees was benched for five games for throwing too many INTs. Brees was a second round pick in 2001. Brees In 2003 went 2-9 and threw 11 TD' s and 15 INT's while going 205 for 356 for 2108 yards. Currently Tyrod in 10 games 5-5, 181 for 295, for 1935 yards 10 TD's, 4 INTs. The Chargers ran a power run game like Buffalo with LT leading the rushing and a bunch of scrubs for receivers. The very next year the team went 12-4 with Brees using Gates as his main target. Point being is that not every QB develops that quickly and this is still only Tyrod's second year of starting. Things might be different if everyone on offense was healthy and the Bills were losing to even the bad teams. The Bills just went toe to toe with Seattle and almost won that game. Tyrod Taylor is still developing.

Same! The world saw what happened to Andy Dalton once his star receiver left the game with an injury and he started throwing to some scrub named Tyler Boyd. And Boyd started to look half way decent at times. Still, that Bengal offense was so limited without the #2 WR in the league with 66 rec for 964 yards averaging 14.6 yards a catch. Now haters, just think that Tyrod hasn't had his elite WR all fricken year, and Tyrod started to make Robert Woods look brilliant in that Seattle game until he left with an injury in Cincy. So suddenly the KR guy is the Bills leading receiver with 2 receptions for 48 yards. Clay stinks, Bush stinks, Goodwin stinks, Harvin stinks and yet the Bills won that game, right? Buffalo won that game by doing just what they were designed to do and that is running the ball and playing good defense. Yes, it was an ugly win! But the Bills also lost their superstar RB in LeSean McCoy and best WR in Robert Woods to injuries and luckily the Bengals lost AJ Green and Giovani Benard too. The game could have gone the other way due to some missed FG's and turnovers that didn't happen. Look at the bright side as McCoy should be back next week and so should Sammy Watkins. Robert Woods injury wasn't season ending and Ryan Groy looked passable as the new starting center. Plus, the Bills defense started to look like a strong unit in shutting down the Bengals run game. The Bills next week now face the 2-8 Jags and we get to see Saint Maroon in all his glory lose to the team he walked away from! Relax and relish the win. Tyrod did what he was able to do and the Bills won. Six more wins and the bills are in the playoffs!

Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good. The Bills could have turned the ball over multiple more times and didn't! The Bengals are a bad team that looked like they lost their only offensive weapon in AJ Green and couldn't do much on offense without him. That Bengal offense looks like a shell of what it was in the past without Hue Jackson calling the offense. AJ Green is out for the year with a torn ACL and they also lost Giovani Bernard to a torn ACL. Shady to have surgery on his thumb but should play next week. Woods spotted on crutches after the game.

I would agree that Jim Schwartz earned a shot at being a head coach again more so than Rex Ryan for what he did with that Buffalo defense that nobody has been able to duplicate. Not George Edwards, Not Dave Wannstedt, Not Mike Pettine and now not Rex Ryan with his brother helping. What perplexed me at the time of Ryan's hire in Buffalo was didn't anyone in the Bills FO watch those two Jets games in which Schwartz's defense literally dominated Ryan's team 43-23 and 38-3. Between the two games 11 sacks and 5 INTs with a total of 7 turnovers! Jets with 158 yards passing in the first game and 165 yards passing in the second game. Rex Ryan looked so lost on the sidelines in both those games and his defense couldn't stop Kyle Orton. Ryan has 7 games left to prove he deserves to keep his job and show he can beat a top QB with his defensive scheme. If Ryan fails I'd be for hiring Jim Schwartz or Wade Phillips. for the next HC.

That 2014 Buffalo Bills defense wasn't world beater great as in the 2000 Ravens or 84 Bears or even recent Seahawks, Broncos great. However, they were the best darn defense this franchise has seen since 2003 and the 2014 team was better against the pass. If that 2014 team had any kind of a balanced offense with a better run game they would have made the playoffs and won more games. I think you have it all wrong as to why the Bills lost games to the Chargers 10-22, Dolphins 9-22, Texans 17-23, Chiefs 13-17. As the only team to score more than 26 points against that Schwartz defense all year was Brady and the Patriots. I recall that Chargers game and they kept trying to run the ball 36 attempts for 83 yards while Phillip Rivers kept pulling 1st downs out of his arse by passing. Look at the Chargers drives TD, FG, Punt, FG, TD, Punt, Punt, Punt, Punt, Punt. If the Bills OC hadn't gone pass happy asking EJ to throw 39 times and ran the ball more than 22 times for 87 yards the Bills might have done a better job of moving the ball. The Chargers only scored 22 points so It's not like a domination. The Bills offense let them down as they only scored 10 points. Again in that second Miami game with only 19 rushes for 54 yards vs 39 passes for 193 yards and the Bills offense only scored 9 points by field goals. The offense let the team down again! Against the Texans is was that JJ Watt pick six that was the game changer. Against the Chiefs remember the three turnovers by the Bills offense that killed that game? That 2014 Bills defense compared to the 2015-2016 Bills defense was great and if this year's team had that year's defense I think the only game they lose is against the Patriots! The Bills would be 8-1.

On another note, this year Ryan isn't calling the plays and Dennis Thurman is running his defense for him. We all see the difference in teams as this year the Bills again lead the league in sacks and have the leading sacker. So that reversed completely under Thurman and that lack of sacks in 2015 wasn't just because of the players and more on the run-stopping scheme Ryan chose to run that year. However, This year because the team is so concerned about the run defense and they are sending a heavy pass rush all the time they are leaving the CB's in man coverage and those CB's are getting eaten alive game after game. Just food for thought here. Rex Ryan used to blitz 55% of the QB dropbacks with the NY Jets in 2009 and that number kept reducing every year up until he left NY. That heavy blitzing the Jets did worked for a while until opposing offenses learned how to beat the blitz and a lot of today's NFL QB's are masters at beating the blitz. When teams blitz it usually leaves a defender man on man and QB's now delight in seeing man coverage and beat it. Yeah, so kinda the reason as to why Ryan's defense is getting killed in the secondary this year with two CB's that did a great job the previous two seasons. What this shows me is the 2016 Buffalo Bills coaching staffs inability to build and field a strong defense that can both stop the run and pass at a high level. The Bills lost to Joe Flacco who is 5-4, Ryan Fitzpatrick who is 2-6, Ryan Tannehill who is 5-4, Tom Brady who is 4-1, Russell Wilson who is 6-2-1. The Bills beat Carson Palmer who is 3-4-1 this year. Colin Kaepernick who is 0-4, Case Keenum who is 4-5 and an injured 3rd string QB in Jacoby Brissett who is 1-1. If the team just beats the QB's with a losing record that's Andy Dalton 3-5-1, Blake Bortles 2-7, Derek Carr 6-2, Ben Rothlisberger 4-4, Josh McCown 0-2, Ryan Tannehill 5-4, Ryan Fitzpatrick 2-6 = another 8-8 season! This team will need to overachieve on defense to finish better than last years record. From what I've seen of the defense this year so far that even that record might be a stretch. My take is the league has passed by Rex Ryan's version of a 3-4 as he has yet to beat an elite NFL QB with a winning record the last two years.

For whatever reason, he certainly dismantled that 2015 pass rush enough so the team went from 1st in the NFL in sacks to 31st in the NFL in sacks. I'd say that qualifies as "dismantled"!

I stand corrected as Fletcher Cox was the only one i saw from the 2016 starters roster. Malcolm Jenkins replaced starter Tyrann Mathieu. Perhaps I should have pointed out that the Eagles in 2015 were 28th in points allowed and 30th in yards allowed. Bill Davis was the 2015 Eagles DC and they played in a 3-4 alignment. Schwartz has done a masterful job as the Eagles DC this year and like others have pointed out it didn't take a few games, half a season, a full season or a season and a half for the players to understand the scheme. Anyway you slice it Rex Ryan has so far screwed up a great and talented defensive roster from 2014. It was Ryan and Whaley that made the roster changes by letting Leodis McKelvin, Ron Brooks, Bradham, Searcy, Stephan Charles leave the team. Even Bacarri Rambo leaving in 2015 looks like a bad move as that Bills secondary stinks this year. At this point, I wouldn't hire either Rex Ryan or his brother Rob Ryan to be a DC and if they can't turn this defense leading the league in sacks into a unit that can stop even average QB's they are both done in the league after this year.

What I don't get is why so many Bills fans keep saying that defense was overrated. That defense was #4 overall in yards and points but they were also the #1 team in the NFL in passing TD's allowed, #3 in passing yards allowed. This was with Gilmore and McKelvin at CB. Look at some of the QB's he defeated that season! Cutler, Tannehill, Stafford, Bridgewater, Vick, Geno 2x, Hoyer / Manziel, Aaron Rodgers in his MVP season who went 17 of 42 for 185 yards and 2 INTs! Against Manning in Denver, the Bills didn't win but held Peyton to 14 of 20 for 173 yards, 2 INT's and that year Manning threw for 4827 yards, 39 TD's! Then, in that last game against the Patriots Belichick benched Brady more because he didn't want him hurt for the playoffs and because he was stinking it up against Schwartz's defense! Brady had 48% of the Patriots snaps and he played in the entire first half. Brady's stats 8 of 16 for 80 yards! with a rate of 64.6. When was the last time you saw Tom Brady go 8 for 16 for 80 yards and no TD's! To put that in perspective Brady threw for 27 of 37 for 361, 4 TD's in that first game. I think Buffalo wins that game if Brady played the entire game and it had some meaning for both teams. Sure, that 2014 defense had let downs. That Raiders game in which Derek Carr had a 3rd down and 22 and he completes a 51-yard pass to Andre Holmes! Pure luck! He beat Corey Coleman. If anything let down that 2014 team is was Marrone's-Hackett's offense with virtually no run game the entire year with Orton at QB. In that Raiders game, the Bills ran 13 times for 13 yards and Spiller was tackled behind the LoS every time he touched the ball. How pathetic is that! Now, go take a look at that 2016 Eagle defense and count how many all pro's on it compared to the 2016 Buffalo Bills. It's clear that Jim Schwartz is doing more with less talent. While in Buffalo he not only got the best out of every defender, he also was able to get some to overachieve.

Gee, I wonder who could have photoshopped human face into an animal or creature? Hrmmm... Seems like that same sort of fellow might defend Dick Jauron as the Bills head coach post after post all the way up until he was fired.

Some Bills fans brush over this like it's nothing and yet it means a great deal as exactly what a new head coaches job entails. Think of the job that any new head coach in Cleveland has to go through in regards to all the losing the team has done in the past and now has to change the players, the schemes and the culture of losing. The Lions, like the Bills, hadn't been to the playoffs since 1999. Jim Schwartz took over a 0-16 team with almost no talent save the star WR and a few low round draft picks at various positions. Think about the lack of player talent and lack of good coaching it takes for a team to not win one single game an entire year! Now that's what Schwartz inherited vs a 9-7 Bills team that missed the playoffs due to losing one single game. Schwartz took his Lions team to the playoffs after three short years. One or two more losses this year and the 2016 Buffalo Bills are out of the playoffs...again. Then the Bills will most likely finish this season with even a worse record than last year. http://www.sbnation.com/2015/10/21/9581575/mario-williams-marcell-dareus-rex-ryan-buffalo-bills-defense

I was merely pointing out that Rex Ryan inherited an already winning team at 9-7 and then went 9-7, 11-5 to 8-8, 6-10, 8-8, 4-12. That looks like only two winning seasons to me. Ryan also inherited a 9-7 team in Buffalo that many people had thought had enough talent to make the playoffs in 2015. If anything the offense should have been the weakest part of the team as that Bills defense had led the NFL in sacks in 2013, 2014 and was #4 overall in 2014. Instead, it was the defense that crapped the bed in 2015 going 15th in points allowed and 19th in yards allowed and the worst sack total in the history of the franchise. Schwartz inherited a 0-16 team and built a playoff team in three seasons going 2-14, 6-10, 10-6, 4-12, and finally 7-9 to end his five years in Detroit. I don't follow the Lions that closely so I can't say for certain what happened in Detroit. Although, as I recall his teams did have the very same problems as Ryan's with far too many player penalties. The only other area of concern is that Schwartz should have replaced his DC after that 2012 4-12 season. Inheriting a winning team at 9-7 is a huge difference over inheriting a 0-16 team and getting the players to buy into your system. The lions hadn't seen the playoffs since 2000 before Schwartz. It remains to be seen what Schwartz would do if given another chance at being an NFL HC. We know what Ryan's second chance looks like as he went 8-8 and ruined an already good defense because it didn't fit his scheme in 2015. Now it needs more upgrades for the CB position...among others. Gee, both Darby, and Gilmore looked more than good enough last year when given enough support by the safeties. Now suddenly the team needs two lockdown corners.

This says it all as the Cowboys have the best line in the league and a rookie QB & RB are playing like veteran all pro's because of it!!

Rex Ryan called the defensive plays last season and this year he delegated that responsibility to Dennis Thurman. You are correct that it is his defense! The bigger question is how many years is this team going to need to keep using the first few picks in the draft on defensive players until he finds the players that excel in his defense? He did spend a first round pick for his defense every year in NY for the Jets and they never did get back to that lofty number one status.. or even top 5 after the first few years. Jim Schwartz did manage to take a 0-16 team to 2-14 the first year, to a 6-10 his second year and in his third season, the Lions went to the playoffs at 10-6! That is a pretty darn good run with a team that didn't win a game the year before he took over. The difference being that Schwartz built that Lions team and made it better. While Rex Ryan inherited an already 9-7 team and made it better on defense for three years and then crashed to 4-12 his final year. I wouldn't call Ryan a better head coach than Schwartz because Ryan hasn't built a winning team in Buffalo after a year and a half.

The difference being that Dick LeBeau had fantastic linebackers on his Steelers teams and average defensive linemen so he could drop the scrub linemen into pass coverage in order to rush a linebacker who was usually a pro bowl player. In Ryan's scheme, it really made no sense because he didn't use that linebacker to blitz and usually ended up only rushing with three when he dropped a D-line player into coverage. It was not only stupid, it was very ineffective. Marcell Dareus dropped a few times against the Chiefs and on two occasions it ended up as a passing TD by Alex Smith. Those all pro D-linemen would have been better off just rushing the passer in 2015 instead of working on defending the gaps. Does it make sense to you to have the highly paid all pro pass rushing defensive linemen dropping into pass coverage and sending a scrub linebacker to rush and defending the run rather than rush the passer? Rex Ryan screwed up last years defense and now this year he is letting someone else on his staff screw it up.

Cool, let's blaze one up while we contemplate this.

Dareus started bleating to the media in training camp of how he didn't like the scheme and Mario chimed in around week six because he didn't like dropping into pass coverage so often. The difference between the two players was Dareus was asked to drop into pass coverage around six times and Mario around fourteen. So, he had a point. Let's look at some things here, under Ryan calling the plays the team stayed in mostly a run-stopping scheme and the defensive secondary played great. Alas, the sack total went into the toilet and was the lowest in the team's history during a regular season. 21 sacks total all year. This year with a new defensive play caller the scheme has changed to a much more aggressive style of pass rush that Ryan was noted for in the past. Thus this year the Buffalo Bills lead the NFL in sacks with 30. That is nine more after only 9 games. What changed is now because of that aggressive pass rush the defense is more susceptible to the run so the team has the safeties cheating up to help with the run. This leaves the CB's in man coverage with little or no safety help and they are getting killed in the process despite the pass rush. No matter how you slice it this Rex Ryan defense for two years now is stinking things up from the schemes and tactics they are utilizing!! The Buffalo Bills went from a scheme that put every defender in the best position to help them make plays and in Rex Ryan's scheme that wasn't the case last year or this year for different reasons.