Nihilarian

It's not just about motivating a single player. It's about putting all the players in a situation to best utilize their talents and last year's coaching staff not only failed to do that but also managed to get both the best players on that all pro D-line upset about how they were being utilized. So upset that both Mario and Marcell went to the media to vent their disdain. In my view, Mario was nothing more than the Bills fans scapegoat in defending a bad HC hire that took a team with playoff-caliber talent on both sides of the ball and only managed 8-8. Some Bills fans are still defending a coach who ruined a great defensive line with the wrong scheme and now expect things to change just because it's a different year. I'll believe it when I see it on the field.

This Ole Miss hurry up offense kinda reminds me of those 90's Bills and how they kept a defense off balance and out of breath in attempting to keep up with the offense. Chad Kelly playing well in that offense and against that #4 Fla St team.

For the life of me, I don't get why more Bills fans can't see this? Mario was great the years before the 4-12 Jets HC got to Buffalo and he made the pro bowl in 2013 under Pettine with 13 sacks. Made the pro bowl under Schwartz with 14.5 sacks. There was a real reason why the thread count reached the highest I've ever seen in this forum about signing an elite pass rushing free agent DE and when the team did sign him the gave him a 100 million dollar contract. Last season the new coaching staff not only failed to properly motivate an elite player and made him so unhappy that he wanted out of a previous great situation. Is it the player's fault that the coaches improperly used him in a bad scheme to the effect that he went public with his disdain about the entire situation. Asking an elite pass rusher to not rush the passer and to stay in place to handle a 300+ LB OT while playing gap control and when he wasn't doing this he was asked to drop into pass coverage far too often. Even HoF Bills QB Jim Kelly was questioning his misuse in the new defensive scheme under Ryan. Anyway, losing the very best pass rusher this team has had since Bruce Smith will have a negative effect on the defense and now the team has only one decent outside pass rusher! Plus, lost it's best inside rusher for the first four games due to a suspension. It will be up to this year's defensive coaching staff to do the job they are getting paid to do and that is coach up the players they have and put forth an effective game plan that will work to stop the opposing offense. Hopefully, do a better job than they did last year in being the worst team in the league in QB pressures. This coaching staff and the Ryan Bro's have a lot to prove this season!

See, it's OK for the super-homers to talk about the past seasons in putting down arguably the very best defense this franchise has seen in a decade. But when anyone brings up what happened to last years defense they deflect into an OMG, we're still talking about the past again! We all want the Bills to be in the playoffs this season. All we have at this point is hope.

The Kool-aid is strong in this one! That was a super bowl winning Patriots team the Bills faced in 2014 and the Bills had 3 turnovers they gave to NE in that first game. If the Bills OC didn't suddenly go pass happy and the Bills attempt to run the ball more like they did in the first two games then things might have gone differently in that game. Rivers went 18 of 25 for 256 and one TD so it's not like he dominated the Bills D. But you're right as fans should not be looking at the past. That includes Rex Ryan boosters who can't seem to remember that the last time that Ryan had a winning season was way back in 2010. That's 5 NFL seasons without a winning record! Not to mention that this same HC went 4-12 with his last Jets team. I'm more bitter than kdiggz is about how a top NFL Buffalo defense in 2014 was made to look inept by a so-called defensive guru the very next year with the very same players. Wanna talk about the Patriots beating a Bills defense let's go look at that first game by a Rex Ryan defense against Tom Brady in which Brady set a Bills 50+ year franchise worst in yards allowed by a single player!! Rex Ryan has so much to prove to this Bills fan and all the homers can point and say things will be different this year and it changes nothing! History says that Ryan's rookie QB's fall on their face in their second season and I really hope honest to god this doesn't happen to Tyrod Taylor. I want what every Bills fan wants and that is this year's team to make the playoffs, but I bought into the Ryan hype last year and I'm not about to be fooled again. Rex Ryan needs to prove he deserves to be an NFL head coach by putting a winning team on the field this year! NO EXCUSES!

Why shouldn't we base it off last year when the coaches took an all pro line that led the NFL in sacks and castrated it with a bad scheme. A scheme so outdated and bad that it had two of those all pros going public vocally complaining about how they were being utilized in that scheme. It's one thing when the fans say something about the scheme and when the players themselves say it then fans should believe it. The best pass rusher on the team was forced to stay put and read the offense before committing to the play and if that wasn't bad enough he was being asked to drop into pass coverage far more than he should have been. Which were about 14 times in the first six games! Paying the man 100 million dollars to rush the passer and a new coach comes in and decides to limit the number of times he will rush the passer in a game was blatantly moronic. The team hardly blitzed and when they did they were usually burned by big plays. To some of us fans nothing is a given this year considering how badly the coaching staff performed last season. They need to show that they can correct all the problems. I'll believe things are better when I see it on the field during the regular season and after a few games! To some of us the 2016 Buffalo Bills do have enough talent to make the playoffs and they had enough talent to get into the playoffs last season too...and only went 8-8! The simple truth is after you get past the few star players on this team the depth is terrible at certain positions and the dropoff in that talent won't win many games.

It's not just the injuries with this year's team. That said, the team is paper thin at some positions and should certain starters go down it could mean disaster in specific areas of the entire team. TE-WR-O-line-LBer-QB. The dropoff behind CB's Gilmore and Darby is another area of concern. While many say the depth is good, the talent level between the starters and backups isn't even close. IMO We all saw what those backup O-linemen looked like and should an injury strike the left side the offense could be in real trouble. Rex's defensive scheme, what will we see this year? 1.)This is hypercritical as last year the defense didn't blitz much at all and when they did blitz it usually resulted in a big play for the opposing offense. If the team does blitz more, will they get it right this year or will more big plays follow? 2.) Will the Bills have an effective pass rush and will they get pressure on the QB? Many times during the preseason I noticed that while the defense was playing better overall they still didn't manage much pressure on the starting QB and at times those QB's had all the time in the world to complete a pass...not good! Lacking to get pressure on the QB will eventually lead to breakdowns in the Bills secondary over a 60-minute game as no DB's can maintain coverage with little or no help from the pass rush. 3.) What scheme will the team mostly run this year as the roster still isn't setup properly for that 3-4 two-gap and be much better off in a one-gap scheme! Will the team stop dropping Dareus and Kyle into pass coverage? 4.) The Ryan Bro's have been running a dinosaur of a defensive scheme that has been figured out and defeated for a few years by the better teams. Will the 2016 Buffalo Bills defense be innovative and be in the top ten again in all areas? Not just good in yards allowed or points allowed while stinking in other areas? 5.) The 2014 & 2013 Buffalo Bills were the #1 & #2 team in sacks in the entire league and while many here claim that sacks simply aren't important are in major denial as the 2015 Bills under Ryan fell to 31st in sacks and want to justify this colossal collapse! The #1 team in sacks in 2015 also won the super bowl helped by getting unstoppable pressure from both sides. 6.) Will Buffalo being the #2 team in the NFL in penalties in 2015 be fixed in 2016? 7.) Will the special teams become special again as they fell off the map last year! 8.) The Bills offense led the league in big plays with help due to all that rushing from the RB's and QB. By the time the fourth quarter rolled around many teams were worn down and susceptible to big runs later in the game. The guy that made a lot of those late game runs ate himself off the team for this year. Will opposing defenses be able to counter all that rushing by stacking the box and force the Bills QB to beat them with his arm? Something no Bills QB was able to do last season. So many questions to be answered gives me pause to wonder if this coaching staff will put forth the effort into every NFL game this season and not just AFC East games against teams they have experience in beating. For me, it's easy to see why someone might think this year's team won't make the playoffs.

NFL.com has the Bills at #23 http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000694532/article/seahawks-top-atnfl-preseason-power-poll #2 Patriots, Vegas book 7-1 #14 NY Jets, Vegas book 60-1 #23 Bills, Vegas book 75-1 #27 Miami, Vegas book 70-1 We all want the Bills to be great this season and yet if the defense doesn't get back into the top ten it's going to be a long season despite how good the offense will be. More specifically will the Bills pass rush step back up to where Schwartz and Pettine had it. No matter how good the Bills secondary is they can't be left out hanging all game with no QB pressures and last season the Bills were the very worst in getting pressure on the QB. The Ryan Bro's have a lot to prove this year.

Some have been talking about this for awhile and if something happens to any line starters this years offense could be in real trouble. Hate to see TT needing to scramble all game.

That was very true of a QB that suffered a severe neck injury and has had problems with his arm / elbow in the past in Manning. Sadly, Tom Brady has taken diet, exercise and staying in top shape into almost a new profound religion in which he is very devout. At this rate, Brady could play another 5 years and win another 1 or 2 super bowls which would make all Bills fans want to literally go off a cliff.

I've been attempting to get this same thought through to some fans and a few won't let it get by their hate for EJ. The simple truth is that a strong run game when it's working, is the best help you can give a young QB and when forced to throw more then they run it, it usually ends in a loss. Eventually down the road, once they have adapted to the scheme and play calls, that young QB should start to develop into a stronger passer who can throw more when needed. EJ was 21 of 39 for 221 yards, 1 INT. while the team ran 30 times for 144 yards which is a decent balance in my view. I think the Bills FO should be pleased with his progress so far. I feel that he would have done better with the starting O-line and Watkins, Woods and Clay in there too.

My opinion is Polian purposely had the team tank to get Andrew Luck, a once in a decade type player. When you look back at the Colts in the 2011 offseason all he had on the roster were inexperienced scrubs at QB (Curtis painter 0 starts & Dan Orlovsky from Detroit) and he didn't bring in an established veteran QB until two weeks before the season started in Kerry Collins. This is the same time that Peyton's longtime mentor Tom Moore retired from the team so the OC in Clyde Christensen only stayed as OC through 2011 and then he was replaced by Bruce Arians the next year. Curtis Painter 0-8 Dan Orlovsky 2-3 Kerry Collins 0-3 What's interesting is that Collins started the first three games and then was replaced by Painter who didn't have much playing experience. So, the Colts were already 0-11 before the guy who actually had a chance to wins some games for them got a start. It cost him his job but Polian got his QB.

It wasn't a stupid decision to start the starting QB of the team against the 28th ranked defense to have him and the #1 WR get in sync before the opener. What was stupid was going forward with all those backup scrubs on the O-line.

I agree and hope that this game might just give some pause to the Bills FO in bringing in some better players for that line. Starters on the right side and depth need to be a concern going into the season and last time I looked the Redskins had the 28th ranked defense. So, it's not like the Bills played Denver or Seattle.

Hate can be blinding.

I agree with this I also think some fans harbor way to much hate and allow it to cloud their judgement. Bills fans need to remember that EJ's first two seasons he learned more from Kyle Orton then he ever did with Nathaniel Hackett as OC and he even stated as much. So basically last year was his first with an actual NFL OC. The Bills O-line and receiving corps does suck and the Bills were not only fighting the Redskins they were also fighting the refs who seemed determined to hand the game to the home field. Torn ACL for Gragg

Yeah man, I agree. What does it say about the RT situation that the starter was signed midseason away from the Lions practice squad! Still, Mills is better than the rest and it's why I worry about the young QB this year.

Yea well, watch the highlights of that 2014 Raiders game I posted earlier to how "air" Henderson did against Mack. It was brutal and a big reason why he graded worse than the worse RG in the league in Erik Pears @ -25. Hmmm, -2 for one brutal play...

I agree. When you think of what kind of grade the Buffalo Bills put on players in the draft and 9.0 being the highest. You would have to think that Sammy Watkins was a 8.0 or a 9.0 to be worth two firsts and a fourth. THE PLAYER GRADING SCALE Most teams use a grading scale from 1.0-to-9.0 to evaluate players (some teams only go up to 8.0). The only 9.0 grade that Ron Wolf has ever given, Lillibridge told me, was for Bo Jackson. A 9.0 is a generational talent, and that's so rare that it's not even worth mentioning. So, in practice, an 8.0 scale is used. Greg Gabriel breaks it down thusly: 8.0 grade: Special player, will impact a game and dominate at his position 7.0 grade: A potential pro bowler, a player you win because of 6.5 grade: A solid rank and file starter you could win with 6.0 grade: A solid backup who could start, but limited 5.5 grade: A role player but not a starter. A specialist 5.0 grade: A talented player, but not draftable. Developmental "If you’re a 7.0 and above, you expect that person to be a starter in year one and then eventually, a Pro Bowl player, "Lillibridge said. "That’s what you’re looking at when you’re looking at the first two rounds." http://www.sbnation.com/nfl/2014/3/6/5473554/2014-nfl-draft-scouting-process-big-board The reality is that so far five wide receivers from that 2014 draft class put up better numbers in 2015 with Watkins being the 22nd best WR in terms of yardage. Beckham #5, Robinson #6, Evans #11, Landry 13th, Cooks #14, Watkins #22. Then Sammy was fourth best in 2014 and ranked as the 24th best WR. Beckham #10, Evans #19, Benjamin #21, Watkins 24th. Here is another take on that 2014 draft class. http://rotoviz.com/2014/01/2014-nfl-draft-sammy-watkins-mike-evans-and-the-early-wide-receiver-rankings/ When you look at the offensive players drafted over the last few years I come away thinking this teams scouting dept isn't nearly as good in evaluating offensive talent as they are on the defensive side. The mere fact that the Bills were ready to draft TE Eric Ebron at #9 also says this. 2013 EJ Manuel, Robert Woods, Goodwin, Dustin Hopkins, Chris Gragg. 2014 Sammy Watkins, Cyrus Kounandjio, Cyril Richardson, Seantrel HO'Learyn. 2015 John Miller, Karlos Williams, Nick O'leary, Dezmin Lewis. 2016 too soon to judge. What really bugs me is that right after that 2014 draft I read that the team was saying that they still needed that big, tall elite red zone threat. If this was the case then why not trade up for Mike Evans or trade back for Kelvin Benjamin? Anyway, nobody here is denying Sammy's talent. It's just that so far it looks like the Bills overvalued his talent and there are others from the same draft class with equal or better talent. So far it does look like the Bills paid too much.

Keep Whaley and hire a team president of football operations to run the football side of things. This adds total accountability and keeps the owner from making the football decisions.

This! Last in the NFL in QB pressures and defensive hurries in 2015 left the Bills secondary out to dry like two week old wash in so many games. The single most important progress would be to up the sacks and QB pressures will help an already really good secondary so much. The first four games will tell so much about what's in store for the rest of the season.

You do realize that in 2014 the Bills suddenly went pass happy after the second game calling more passes every game over what they did in 2013 in running the ball more. EJ fell on his face when forced to carry the game with his arm. (2013 522 pass attempts vs 546 rushing attempts) (2014 579 pass attempts vs 402 rushing attempts) Then take into consideration that usually in every game that EJ was forced to throw more than the team ran the ball the team usually lost, regardless of the games situations. (2013 Games in which EJ played) NE 21-23 L (34 rushes-27 passes) Carolina 24-23 W (33 rushes-39 passes)**** NY Jets 27-20 L (25 rushes-42 passes) Baltimore 23-20 W (55 rushes-22 passes) Cleveland 37-24 L (31 rushes-40 passes) Pittsburgh 23-10 L (22 rushes-39 passes) NY Jets 37-14 W (38 rushes-28 passes) Atlanta 34-31 L (31 rushes-32 passes) Tampa 27-6 L (22 rushes-33 passes) Jacksonville 20-27 W (44 rushes- 24 passes) Miami 19-0 W (51 rushes-25 passes) NE 34-20 L (35 rushes-29 passes) Now, looking back on that season I think we can see that there is a direct correlation in that when the team ran more than they threw it they usually (but not always) won. Conversely, when the team passed more than they threw it they usually lost. (only one win against Carolina) 2014, Chicago 20-23 W (33 rushes-22 Passes) Miami 29-10 W (33 rushes-26 passes) San Diego 22-10 L (22 rushes-40 passes) Houston 23-17 L (23 rushes-43 passes) Kyle Orton came in for week 5 and the Bills were still going pass happy by calling more pass plays every game and usually to the tune of only 20 runs vs 40 passes. Trust me, EJ would have gotten destroyed behind that craptastic 2014 O-line. Now if you look at the 2015 stats, 465 passing attempts vs 509 attempts rushing and when you look game by game you would see that whenever the team was able to establish and maintain a strong run game they usually won. So the same thing happened with both EJ and Tyrod Taylor last season. With young QB's it makes sense to help them out with a strong run game. Don't let the hate get ya. I still contend that with a better line in 2014 the Bills not only make the playoffs but they win some playoff games.

The way I look at things is the Bills have one elite player on their offensive line at LG and his stellar play last season helped elevate the play of the center and LT. I suppose fans have a short memory and forget how both Wood and Glenn looked in 2014 as both had a down season. The 2014 Bills O-line graded at 30th at the end of the season was ranked 32nd for most of the year and as I've stated previously Pears at OG was a complete disaster and yet Henderson graded worse. The team threw the ball quite a bit in 2014 probably in an effort to make the Watkins trade look worthwhile and while QB Kyle Orton gets a bad rap by most Bills fans. The guy did manage to go 7-5 and throw for 3000 yards in 12 games with 18TD's and 10 INT's and was only sacked 33 times mostly because like Fitz, as a veteran QB, he was able to find the open receiver and get them the ball before the pass rush got to him. So, while the 2014 line didn't grade very well and were 23rd in pass blocking they were 32nd in run blocking. The game I can't get out of my head is how poorly the line run blocked against the Raiders. With a playoff berth on the line, the Bills rushed only 13 times for 13 yards and this was against the Raiders 32nd run defense! I mean WTF! I watched in horror as Urbik was getting shoved 5 yards behind the line time after time by some scrub DT so Spiller ended the game with 4 rushes for -4 yards and even Freddy had only 6 attempts for 10 yards rushing. Looking back at that season you have to think that having that bad an offensive line didn't really affect the team that much because of Orton and yet I think had EJ been forced to play that entire season the Bills win maybe 3-4 games instead of 9. With a better line and being able to run the ball at will, the Bills make the playoffs that year IMHO. The Bills having some top quality players at RG, RT means the team wouldn't have holes in the line for defenses to exploit and could dictate where they wanted to go with the ball at any time. (like those 90's Bills used to do) Rather than looking to see what holes they could exploit in the defense. One reason that allowed the Bills to get those big runs in the fourth quarter last season was because the opposing defense gets tired of chasing down the RB's all game and will allow those big plays later in the game. That is a great part of having a strong running attack. At one point Doug Whaley attempted to obtain OG Jahri Evans and RT Brian Bulaga and those two chose to stay with their respective teams. In my view a darn shame he didn't continue to attempt to upgrade that right side with quality talent.

He is inebriated by the exuberance of his own exuberance or the Kool-Aid is really southern comfort... There is no doubt that this team is loaded with talent in various areas and really should have made the playoffs last season. While I'm not as optimistic about the team as some. I'm also more pessimistic about the defensive coaching staff in working on a decent game plan each and every week and getting the unit back into the top ten.

Watkins may have 2000 yard seasons in his ceiling, I just kinda doubt we will ever see that in Rex's / Roman's power, run-first offense. Marrone ran that same run-centric offense in 2013, so I questioned the need for an elite WR costing that many resources. Plus, Sammy needs that elite QB that can throw enough to even get him the ball that much. Not to mention that although there were several attempts to upgrade the line in the 2014 draft and that really didn't succeed. Julio Jones in his 1871 yards receiving had a QB in Matt Ryan that threw for 4591 yards. Tyrod Taylor barely broke 3000 yards last season in 13 games and even in a 16 game scenario that's only around 3600 yards. Sammy might just have a Julio type season in him but we haven't seen it materialize just yet. So yeah, I agree that I think we will always disagree on this issue. The YPC Avg does show that the team still led the league in rushing with just the RB's. However, The Bills were still #1 in the league in rushing yards and the QB amassing 568 yards helped in that aspect. The sentence that was overlooked was the one stating that while the team led the league in big plays (runs of over 10 yards and pass plays over 25 yards) (Seems to me the fat guy the team just cut had a few of those runs over 10 yards.) Anyway, the bigger issue I mentioned was that in 2015 the offense was 31st in three and out percentage and that stat tells me the O-line wasn't as great as some make it out to be... A good Three-and-out Percentage suggests that a team is able to maintain possession of the football longer instead of quickly punting the ball away to the opposition. A bad percentage can indicate a team's offensive difficulty getting possessions off to a good start, or maintaining a sustained offense. The third point leaves me very skeptical due to the past history of backup linemen this team brings in year after year. Perhaps now with Kromer involved things will change for the better. I still have difficulty forgetting all the scrubby bums this team has attempted to get by with for so many years. Duke Preston-Langston Walker-Derrick Dockery-Demetress Bell- Kirk Chambers-Mansfield Wrotto-Cornel Green-Cordaro Howard-Ed Wang-Kyle Calloway-Chris Hairston-Sam Young-Chad Rinehart-Colin Brown-Chris Williams-David Snow-Doug Legursky-Zerbie Sanders-Mark Asper...and I'm sure there are others that I missed. In regards to #4 point, I think you do need to expend high picks on the offensive line and in particular the center, LG, and LT. RT and RG not so much with a right handed QB. Continuity is very important and if your team is going to be facing the very best defensive players in the post season. Well then, I would think you would want some of the best players protecting the QB. The Bills have a #1 at center and a #2 at LT. Incognito might be a 3rd rounder but he developed into solid pro bowler. HoF QB Jim Kelly had some of the best on the left side too and they were #1 picks. On the last point, I feel the Bills line on the left side is excellent and the right side is still very much unknown. Like you mentioned that defenses will move their best pass rushers towards the weakest players on that line. Granted Mills and Miller might just further develop into better starters this year. However, if they don't there could be serious problems protecting that young QB this season. I suppose I'm just jaded from the lack of QB success over the last 16 years with help from bad lines. Guess we need to wait and see in a few weeks.