Nihilarian

Really Russ Brandon has been involved as the de facto GM since Marv levy retired as GM at the end of 2007 and as much as I love Marv as the Bills HC...he wasn't a good GM for the football side either. Previous to that the only men who had any real power and say over the Bills player personnel were Tom Donahoe 2001 to 2005 as the owner stepped away from the team. Bill Polian as GM and Chuck Knox as HC during their time in Buffalo. The rest of the time the owner had his hands all over everything to do with his team and is why he named himself team president for all those years. I was so elated when I read that these new owners were in conversations with Bill Polian to hire him as temporary team president to advise them and equally crestfallen when I read he had backed out of that process. These new owners initially wanted to do the right thing and then didn't....

Nobody is hating the man for his business / marketing decisions that I can see (Save Toronto) and all Bills fans want is to see is Brandon removed from the football side of operations which will be a good great thing! Do you really want to see Terry and Kim making the final decisions on the more important football hirings for the team? I know I'd rather see the new team president of football operations or GM hire the next head coach. From Leroi posted Oct 2015, Russ has a big part in scouting and the draft process. He is definetly involved. The guy is a sports genius, we are lucky to have him as the president of Buffalo sports. Remember he was our GM not that long ago. Imo

Due to all the other businesses that they are involved in and didn't want to be overwhelmed by taking on the enormous task of running an NFL team it looks like the new owners kept the entire staff that ran the team under the first owner. At first, it was reported in the media that these new owners were going to hire a "football czar" / senior adviser to help run the football side of things. Clearly, that didn't happen and we can only surmise that CEO Russ Brandon wanted to keep the status quo and lobbied to do so. I can only think that out of respect for what he has done in the past that the new owners did what Brandon wanted as he helped advise them in choosing a new head coach as he did with the first owner for quite a few years. "It was almost a year ago, in early January, when the Buffalo Bills called Rex Ryan back for a second interview for their head-coaching vacancy. Team president Russ Brandon was so impressed that he told owner Terry Pegula not to let Ryan out of the building." http://espn.go.com/blog/buffalo-bills/post/_/id/22828/playoff-promise-among-rex-ryan-statements-that-will-likely-prove-false More than anyone else I think we all have Russ Brandon to thank for these new owners making the decision to take part in the hiring of the next head coach after Doug Marrone walked away. While Brandon might not have made the actual hiring of Rex Ryan, it sure looks like he used his considerable influence to have the Pegula's be involved in the interview process and do the hiring. According to Bill Polian, who had been in contact with Terry Pegula as he was almost hired to be the Buffalo Bills senior adviser / team president of football operations before Marrone walked away. Then after Marrone was no longer the Bills head coach and QB Kyle Orton retired Polian then stated it would be far too much of a daunting task to take on as senior adviser / team president, so he backed out of the job. (I dunno about Whaley wanting anyone other than Rex Ryan as I haven't seen any actual proof in the media of him stating that afaik.) Anyway, what I'm hoping for is that if Rex Ryan fails to get this team to a winning record this season, and shows that all the problems he had last season are not corrected this season. That the Pegula's take themselves and Russ Brandon out of the football decision process by hiring a president of football operations and allow whomever that is to hire the next Buffalo Bills head coach and run the football side of things.

This and the lack of quality depth all over the team. The reality of the situation is that this head coach needs some specific players to run the defensive scheme that he likes to employ the majority of the time. The problem as I see it is that the defensive roster still has a few holes needing to be filled by a few of those specific players. Some Bills fans think that somehow magical unicorns will spray rainbow dust over the defense and it will become a top five unit. It won't unless Rex Ryan starts calling more of a 3-4 one gap scheme with some effective blitzing or otherwise it's the same as we saw for most of the past year and even then the teams best pass rusher now plays for the Dolphins. Ryan has a lot to prove this year with a tougher schedule.

I think so. My take is she is a winner in everything she does and wants the Buffalo Bills to win. If I'm not mistaken Terry told Kim he wouldn't buy the team unless she became heavily involved in the team as he has so many other interests (Sabres & Amerks) Kim wanted to buy the Bills Buffalo Bills to keep them in Buffalo due to her growing up in the Fairport NY area, so she said yes. From what I've read and have seen in interviews with her is that she passes the final yay or nay on any investment opportunities that come the Pegula's way. As smart as she is I'm thinking that there soon should be change at the top of the org if things don't go well this season in terms of wins as the two have a solid track record of business success.

Yet, 50% of his catches were for first downs in Buffalo. What I caught from what I read is that Hogan wasn't going to see as many chances in Buffalo. I can only think that is mostly because the Patriots are a throw first offense with the starters always injured and Buffalo is a run first offense with much less chance with Woods and Watkins in front of him. I didn't read where the guy said anything close to derogatory about the Bills. What offensive player on this earth wouldn't want a chance to play with future hall of fame QB Tom Brady or be part of the winningest org in the league since 2000 and he is getting almost double the $$$ what the Bills offered him. You would think. But Kirby was saying from the start of signing him that he was a waste of a roster spot in Buffalo and he has proven otherwise. Now he has a chance to really shine right behind Amendola as the #2 WR on the right side. The guy has managed to stay in the league six years now and that is better than a lot of players.

In 2014 I watched that week 8 Bills -Jets game with great interest as the Jets were 1-7 and the Bills 4-3 at that point in the season. Rex Ryan had started his yapping to the media on how his Jets team would manhandle the Buffalo Bills only to lose 43-23 and Ryan looked lost on the sidelines. That Jets team had 6 turnovers and Geno Smith went 2 of 8 for 5 yards and 3 INT's ! Then four weeks later the Bills faced the Jets again in Buffalo and Ryan boasting to the NY media that his team would play 1000% better in their second game, no question. The final score of that second game was 38-3 and this game Mike Vick started and as mobile as he is he was sacked 5x and Geno came in after Vick got hurt and was sacked 2x. It was just total domination by Buffalo and I really enjoyed seeing the Bills shut that blowhard up. When Rex Ryan was hired after a 4-12 season with the Jets I asked myself what are the jamokes in the Bills FO thinking? I later found out that the team president (Brandon) persuaded the new owner to make the choice on the hire and he also pushed to hire Ryan for some reason. "It was almost a year ago, in early January, when the Buffalo Bills called Rex Ryan back for a second interview for their head-coaching vacancy. Team president Russ Brandon was so impressed that he told owner Terry Pegula not to let Ryan out of the building." Anyway, after taking a closer look at that 2009-2010 NY Jets team I gotta think that Rex Ryan stepped into an almost perfect situation with those 2009 NY Jets in that he inherited a defense from Eric Mangini and a team that was already loaded with defensive talent that went 9-7 in 2008. Then Mangini being a Bill Belichick disciple who runs a varied schemed 3-4 two-gap D-line system and all Ryan needed to do was bring in a few players familiar with his nomenclature. Hence the reason for that league-leading defense for two seasons and once opponents learned how to play against it then it didn't go so well as time went on. This despite the fact that the Jets spent every first round pick on defense in Ryan's six years there. Look at what happened last year as it wasn't just the complete reversal in sacks from being a league leader 2x years in a row under Schwartz and Pettine to 31st under Ryan and dead last in QB pressures. If I'm not mistaken isn't that getting pressure on the QB the entire reason in giving Mario 100 million dollars and then giving Dareus- Hughes big paydays. There were many issues with the entire team from the #2 team in the league in penalties. Bad clock management in some games and after being asked why he failed to throw a red flag Ryan stated because he didn't see it on the big screen. Massive miss-communications issues with defensive player substitutions coming in late. Defensive play calls coming in late. Defensive players jumping around on the line and not set when the ball was snapped so they were out of position. Then, the defense hardly blitzed at all last year and even when they did blitz it was usually a bad call which resulted in a good play for the offense. If this wasn't enough, the defense kept asking the Bills pro bowl pass rushers to keep dropping into pass coverage and when they asked Dareus to drop 2x times against KC, QB Alex Smith threw two TD's passes on those drop backs. Even Bills HoF QB Jim Kelly was questioning why the Bills defensive linemen were dropping into pass coverage so often. In all my days of watching the Bills, I haven't ever seen a Buffalo Bills coach ruin an aspect of a team like Rex Ryan did to that all pro defensive line last year. And then miss-use those pro bowlers in the wrong scheme so badly that they go to the media to complain about it. http://espn.go.com/blog/buffalo-bills/post/_/id/22828/playoff-promise-among-rex-ryan-statements-that-will-likely-prove-false Buffalo Bills fans have a head coach in the hall of fame named Marv Levy so most of us older fans can see the difference between someone who lets their actions to their talking and a big mouth blowhard who constantly makes promises he can't keep. I choose the former over the latter. I have started to think that Rex Ryan is a below average head coach and a great con man. Good thing the 2016 Buffalo Bills won the offseason because I don't see the team winning many regular season games!

This bolded statement is more accurate than most realize. A 28th ranked O-line. a stinky WR corps and an OC who is also smelly. Foles was decent in Philly with a good OC, behind a good O-line and good WR corps and I doubt he would have much success in Buffalo. I'd rather have Tyrod and EJ.

NVM...signed with the Ravens Then I would somehow find the money for Bolden because if Sammy can't play for any reason the Bills have no other elite talent there.

With Fitz on their roster, the Jets feel they are a playoff team. Fitz in Buffalo wouldn't really work as his OC Chan Gailey is in NY and he has a much better receiving corps in NY with Bradon Marshall who caught 109 passes for 1502 yards and 15 TD's & Eric Decker had 80 catches for 1027 yards and 12 TD's. Besides, the Bills FO thinks Tyrod Taylor needs another year to see if he can step up and win games with his arm when the run game isn't working. Bringing in a different QB wouldn't help the current situation.

What I found even more amazing about the guy is that he took a bunch of nobody's and made them believe in themselves that they could win against anybody. Look at that roster from 1977 and they had two good O-linemen in Mckenzie and DeLamielleure, a good FS in Tony Greene and a CB Mario Clark and that was about it for talent. It was Knox who went on to draft who he wanted and brought in some older players to help show the younger players the ropes. Knox, like Marv Levy, was a supreme motivator who could get the most out of average players and motivate the malcontents. BTW, to the Joe Ferguson lovers I can remember watching him play in 77 and pre-Knox and it wasn't good. The guy went 3-11 that year with 12 TD's and 24 INT's and with every bad pass he would hang his head. The Bills didn't need to punt much because Joe would throw it up for grabs at the end of a series. Knox transformed what looked like a broken QB into a believer who took the team to the playoffs. One of my favorite all-time games was that 1980 home opener win against Miami that broke a 20 game losing streak against the Dolphins. The fans went nuts and the goal posts came down that day. The Bills had just about the best defense in the league that season and finished 3rd in points allowed, 1st in yards allowed.

After the strike year, Knox wanted a raise for what he was able to do for not only the team but also the city and Wilson said no! Mostly because the stadium was filled again and fans were coming to games in droves with Knox as HC. Before hiring Knox Ralph Wilson was getting desperate because fans wouldn't even attend preseason games so the team held them in other cities. Attendance was at an all-time low and season ticket sales were around 20k. Things in Buffalo were pretty bleak at that point in time as the Bills hadn't beaten Don Shula's Dolphins once in the entire decade of the 70's. The city was the butt of night time TV jokes and the that was the time of wicked snow storms and the infamous love canal, foul-smelling air from the steel mills that were now closing down from a depressed economy. Knox was fired by the Rams owner because he didn't get them a super bowl win and so Wilson hired Knox and made him one of the highest-paid head coaches in the NFL at that time. But yea, after his contract was up Knox left for Seattle and Wilson let him leave... In regards to Tom Cousineau, that was all the moron Bills GM in Stew Barber and the final difference between what Buffalo offered him and what the Montreal Alouettes offered was a mere 10k. The bigger deal here was that Cousineau was supposed to have dinner with Barber and Wilson in Buffalo and they never showed up thanks to Barber. This really upset Cousineau who said he felt like a fool sitting there with his agent waiting as nobody showed up to tell him they weren't coming. Kind of amazing in what Knox was able to do in Buffalo despite the complete tool of a GM in Barber and alas Wilson's bean counters eventually got the best of everyone worth a damn over time.

You would think that Rex was right there working with the GM on who to draft and who to acquire in free agency his last four years just like he was his first two years. If you look over those 6 years of drafting the Jets during Rex's time there he missed on just about every defensive position except DT. That second sentence is what gets me because you would think that he would adapt and change with what offenses are currently doing. Yet we all saw last season he couldn't get the most out of four of the very best defensive linemen in the league and put them into a scheme that didn't utilize their best abilities. Square peg, round hole type of thing. Who would have thought that would happen with all those pro bowlers? Now without the teams best pass rusher gone and the other pass rushing DE more suited to play OLBer then DE in his 3-4. I gotta wonder if the defense will indeed be fixed this year. Like someone else said, this defense has far too much talent to be in the last 10.

What if....last years defense was all we can expect to see again this year? I gotta think that Rex Ryan stepped into an almost perfect situation with those 2009 NY Jets in that he inherited a defense from Eric Mangini and a team that was already loaded with defensive talent that went 9-7 in 2008. Then Mangini being a Bill Belichick disciple who runs a varied schemed 3-4 two-gap D-line system and all Ryan needed to do was bring in a few players familiar with his nomenclature. Hence the reason for that league-leading defense for two seasons and once opponents learned how to play against it then it didn't go so well as time went on. This despite the fact that the Jets spent every first round pick on defense in Ryan's six years there. Ryan's Bills team swept the Jets and Dolphins last year but let's face it that Miami had some pretty bad coaching and that improved in hiring Adam Gase to tutor Talleywhacker. As far as the Jets go, Ryan had a lot of motivated revenge on his mind to beat the team 2x that fired him and if you look back at Ryan Fitzpatrick's record against Ryan's Jets he was 1-5. So, it's not inconceivable that Rex Ryan knew how to win against Gailey's offense with Fitz at QB and the same thing against Miami. I know all the Bills fans out there want to see the penalty problems fixed, the various communication problems fixed, the lack of pass rush fixed. We are all hoping for the best this year! But, perhaps all we will get is another year of excuses from a bad head coach. Believe it or not, I've been wanting a team like that 2000 Ravens team that pounds the rock and plays great defense for forever in Buffalo. Ryan looked to be the perfect guy to do that and so while I've complained a lot about him since week two of last season...it's because my expectations were the #1 defense in the league last year! Time will tell.

Taylor played well last year in Greg Roman's run-centric offense no question. But, when forced to carry the game with his arm by throwing more than running the team lost every game, save the Washington game. Let's face it that the Bills defense wasn't very good and got almost no pressure on any QB so when the Bills got behind in the score, it was try and catch up. Tyrod wasn't good enough with his arm to lead the team back from behind and score enough to win the games on his own, and there were games that he and the offense went invisiable for stretches at a time. The NY Giants finished 2015 with their defense 30 in points and 32nd in yards and the Bills offense only managed 3 points until the fourth quarter. The Bills lost that second game to the Patriots because the offense wasn't good enough. The kid still has a lot to prove from what I see and I think it's smart not to pay him before he has actually earned that 20 million dollar payday. Kaepernick started out hot and got paid, and SF got stuck. RG3 started hot, got injured and the Redskins dumped him. The upcoming season should tell us if a 6'0'' 221 running QB not named Russell Wilson will survive in the NFL to get his big pay day.

Well said and looking at this head coaches history of young QB's I sorta have my doubts that Taylor will be better this season only because I think the team will put more pressure on him to win games. It's like last year with the defense never happened and all the issues that could easily be correctable were going to be corrected each week and yet, in the end, were never corrected. Most Bills fans seem to think that Ryan will fix everything and field the defense this year he was supposed to field last year.

Are we too accepting as fans? In a word, yes! I think that there a few different reasons as to why Buffalo Bills fans keep buying tickets to the titanic of the NFL. The Bills are 3-28 against Tom Brady who has won 25 of 28 since 2000...The Bills haven't won the division since 1993! First and foremost is fear, as in fear of losing the team to a different city because if the fans don't buy tickets the team will be forced to relocate. Like the Rams, Browns, Colts. With the previous owner so old the fan base didn't know what to expect should he suddenly pass on! Never underestimate the power of fear! Second, to accommodate all the losing the Bills have had the lowest priced seats in the league and this helps keep the tickets affordable to the blue collar fan base. Third is the blue collar fan base that loves to get to the Ralph early and party with friends on Sundays. Nothing in the world like drinking and partying with so many like-minded friends. Fourth, is the team has not bottomed out and has been good enough over the last 16 years to keep the fan base thinking that things could change with each new year and this new upcoming season could be the one the Bills finally get to the playoffs! Poor, deluded eternally optimistic Buffalo Bills fans. Fifth and final is the history of the 90's with all those super bowls and hall of fame players and all the children of those people who attended games those years are now buying tickets in hopes the team makes a return to playoffs. What amazes me throughout all the years of losing is that despite the fact that this team hasn't had a legit franchise QB since Jim Kelly who retired in 1996, is that Bills fans are so eternally optimistic that they just don't get that until the team finds that individual that they will probably not make the playoffs much less attain a world champion title. The same thing applies to the hiring of an elite head coach and GM. And before that happens the team needs to end this ridiculous philosophy of having the owner or nonfootball man in the FO involved in football decisions. What exactly qualifies the new owner or baseball / marketing man to make those top football decisions? Because he owns the team like the past owner or because of their vast experience in watching the games on the TV? Hasn't this franchise seen enough losing over the last 46 years? 13 years out of 46 the Bills made the playoffs and only three out of sixteen head coaches were able to do that. Knox, Levy and Phillips. (not counting the AFL) The one and only way to force management to make proper changes are by not attending games and that means not buying tickets. Because the fans have kept attendance up over the last 16 years...then nothing much changes. Ralph Wilson made the proper changes back in the late 70's when he hired Chuck Knox (an actual winning HC)and he did so because fans wouldn't attend the games. Shoot, the team couldn't even have home preseason games in Buffalo because the fans wouldn't show up. Season ticket attendance was abysmal at around 20k in a stadium that seated 80k. Wilson knew if he didn't make changes that he would be forced to sell all or part of his team. Same thing in the early 80's after back to back 2-14 seasons with so few fans going to the games and the fans that did show up wore bags on their heads. This is why Wilson, a notoriously frugal owner made QB Jim Kelly the highest paid QB in the league at that time and he just got lucky to find a GM like Polian. But, he was also smart enough to promote the man to GM after he saw how he managed to sign Bruce Smith. There is no reason in this world why this new owner should have kept the status quo FO in running an NFL team because it hadn't worked in 15 years he should have made sweeping changes to the football side of the team. Now we are in the 16th year with no end in sight. Even if Tom Brady retires and the Bills somehow manage to win one against Bill Belichick now and then, it really won't change much. The one and only way to force management to make proper change is by not attending games and that means not buying tickets

I agree and If I recall correctly, another reason the team moved Stevie was because he didn't run precise routes and this would give EJ trouble going forward. Then Kyle Orton steps in to start after four games and he could have really used a WR that was almost always open considering the Bills went pass happy that year with such a craptastic O-line. It's like this team does one thing right (bringing in Orton) and then with the next they shoot themselves in the foot with bad decisions. Like with Erik Pears at RG among others stupid moves that year (Cujo, Etc).

Without Gilmore and Darby last year the team would have finished much worse than they did and in both stats, overall record. JMO

The thing is most fans noticed the difference in coaching between Mike Pettine, Jim Schwartz, and George Edwards, Dave Wannstedt and most everything bad that happened last season aside from the injuries is correctable. Clearly, the media dorks don't think the problems with last years team can be fixed by Ryan and his coaching staff and a lot of Bills fans seem to think those problems can be corrected. Just look at the difference between Schwartz and Wannstedt who both utilized 4-3 schemes and both mostly used just the front four to rush the passer. However, Schwartz used a better rotation system to keep his D-linemen fresh and he also had Jerry Hughes. Still, the difference in sacks 36 to 54 and being #4 overall to #26 in points- 24th in yards and Wannstedt allowed a league-worst rushing TD's. Kind of startling to look at the difference in only a few players and yet so much better results. Should Ryan not get the problems corrected this season then I can see changes being made rather quickly. Finding a winner head coach will come down to someone other than the owner being nudged by the current team president making the call.

Good lord I hope changes will be made far sooner than five years down the road. This team had enough talent to make the playoffs last year and should be in contention this year despite what the jackasses in the media think.

1) I understand that Rex's playbook isn't supposed to be about one set scheme or set and employs a multitude of fronts, looks to disguise the coverage and confuse the opposing QB. He even incorporated Jim Schwartz's 4-3 wide nine into his playbook last season. That doesn't alter the results of what transpired last season on the field for Buffalo in being 31st in sacks and dead last in the NFL in QB pressures and middling in stats at the end of the season. There is a distinct reason for those numbers. I mean, it has to be more than obvious that the overall defensive playcalling and schemes, fronts, sets, looks that Ryan employed last season weren't working very well except for in a select few games. This, with one of the premier defensive front four's in the league in which three of the four were named to the pro bowl just the previous season and that fourth could have easily also been named to the pro bowl with his 10 sacks and 36 tackles. The Bills also employed possibly the two very best cornerbacks in the league last season in Gilmore and Darby. Rex Ryan himself stated before the season that he had never had this much player talent on a defense. First off, understand that Marcell Dareus was complaining about how he was being asked to play in Ryan's scheme from training camp and after reading about what exactly he was saying. It was that he wanted to go back to Schwartz's style of 4-3, in just going after the QB on passing downs the majority of the time. After all, isn't that what the team had just given him a 100 million dollar contract to do? Now Mario didn't start going public with his complaints about how he was being used until much later and his complaint wasn't exactly for the same reason. Mario was complaining about how often he was being asked to drop into pass coverage more than anything else. If you read an article written by an ex-NFL defensive player who reviewed the game film of the week four NY Giants game in which he stated that Ryan used a two-gap run-stopping scheme the majority of the game, and he also noted that this isn't what the highly paid Buffalo Bills defensive linemen were given all that money to do. It was also noted by an ex-NFL player that after 7 games that Dareus was only asked to drop into coverage around 4 times, that Mario was asked to drop into coverage 14 times in that same period of time. Even the Bills HoF great QB Jim Kelly was questioning all those drop backs into pass coverage by the defensive linemen. The media gave Rex Ryan's 2015 defense a nickname called "Wreck's D"! Talk about hyperbole... "Ryan's quote: "You mentioned how well we played on defense last year. Fourth in the league is probably a little disappointing, to be honest with you, because that's not where my expectations are. I know we'll lead the league in defense. The reality: The Bills rank 20th in total defense, closer to being the worst defense in the NFL than the best." "Ryan's quote: "We play defense based on our personnel, not just the scheme. I don't try to put a square peg in a round hole. I think I've been around enough to adjust based on the players that I have, the talents of the players that I have, and it'll be no different this year." "The reality: Ryan has tried to fit a square peg in a round hole. After Jim Schwartz ran his "wide nine" scheme last season and allowed the Bills' defensive line to focus on pass-rushing, leading to an NFL-high 54 sacks, the story has been dramatically different this season. The Bills have 19 sacks, which ranks 30th in the NFL. Mario Williams and others have griped about their varied roles in the scheme, which is a close parallel to what Ryan ran with the Jets and requires defensive linemen to drop into coverage at times. Ryan has declared -- stubbornly, one might say -- multiple times that he and Thurman will "run our defense," essentially placing blame on the players for not picking up the system. The result has been a unit that has been leaky in most games. " http://espn.go.com/blog/buffalo-bills/post/_/id/22828/playoff-promise-among-rex-ryan-statements-that-will-likely-prove-false 2) In regards to the five years, the Bills will probably still be drafting for Ryan's defense in the next five years because that is what the NY Jets did with their first round picks in his six years there. It was also implying that Rex had six years in NY and his defense after all that time wasn't as good as his first two years there. Ryan's defense while being in the top 5 for yards a lot of those years was also 20th or so in points allowed. 2011 5th in yards, 20th in points allowed. 2012, 8th in yards, 20th in points allowed. 2013, 11th in yards, 19th in points allowed. 2014, 6th in yards, 24th in points allowed. Ryan's complaint that the GM's were out to get him fired by not allowing him the proper personnel is rather lame as I would tend to think he had a lot to say in who was drafted and signed in free agency, just like he did in his first two years. Like I said, this wasn't a first-year head coach experimenting with different schemes to figure out what works. With Ryan's extensive defensive coaching background, he should have fielded a better defense then what we saw last year in Buffalo and yet week after week it was excuse after excuse from him. The time for excuses is over, wouldn't you agree?

Interesting read that really doesn't take into consideration other differences between the two games such as the Patriots receiving corps and the offensive line being so different because of so many injuries to the Patriots starters. So, it was far easier for the Bills defense to pressure Brady in that second game! But yes, it was more than obvious Ryan changed "things" up in that second game. "Things" meaning he called more a one-gap 3-4 scheme and blitzed more often. Let's also not forget what the newest addition to the Buffalo Bills coaching staff stated after watching film of last years defense. "When Ed Reed went and watched film of the 2015 Bills, the lack of communication astounded him." Not to mention the confusion he saw between the players and the lack of effort. http://www.newyorkupstate.com/buffalo-bills/index.ssf/2016/06/ed_reed_saw_confusion_and_guys_not_giving_effort_when_watching_2015_bills.html I like to refer to the Bills 2015 defense as merged bullsh!t, or merged excuses. This wasn't a first-year head coach or someone that hasn't seen a Patriots offense very often like Jim Schwartz. This was a head coach that has seen Tom Brady and that New England offense twice each year for the previous six seasons! In his time with the NY Jets, he had only 4 wins out of 13 games and the bulk of those wins came in 2009 (1x)-2010 (2x). Here is the bottom line in my view. In five years from now when Rex Ryan has all the players on the roster, he needs to run his specific 3-4 two-gap scheme. I think we can expect to see the very same results we saw from what he did after five seasons with the NY Jets. A defense that can limit yards to a degree but suffers in points allowed per game and by suffering I mean by about 20th in the league in points allowed which is nowhere near good enough. I also think we Bills fans will need to wait for Tom Brady to retire before Rex Ryan will beat the Patriots again. There really shouldn't be any more excuses about anything from this head coach. Win or be gone!

You gotta know that i really disliked that the Patriots stole a WR from Buffalo with the nickname 7/11 (because he is always open). This reminds me of the Patriots stealing away a relatively unknown non-starting WR at the time from the Dolphins named Wes Welker back in 2007. Hogan about the only Bills WR not injured at some point last year? Then, not to mention that the Patriots also signed Martellus Bennett away from Chicago...like Brady needs another top pass catching TE. I will literally hate the NFL and football if Brady should win another championship and be the greatest QB of all time by winning another SB. You know, I really wanted to see Rex Ryan do well in Buffalo despite all his brash talk and broken promises. I bought into his last year's offseason hype of the building one of the greatest defenses ever last year. I have been hoping for years and years for the Buffalo Bills to build a super power run game with a super strong defense to mimic the Baltimore Ravens style of play. My problem is I just have a tough time getting over what Ryan did to the defense last year and now the team needs to keep drafting for the defense to allow Ryan to keep building his outdated 3-4 two-gap scheme. I'm with you in hoping that Ryan gets his stuff together this year and does more of what we saw against the Colts week one and against the Patriots week in eleven. If Ryan actually works hard to bring it every week then the Bills have an honest shot to be a good team. Should Ryan not put forth the effort to that happen then I hope that Pegula makes a change and ends this stupidity of switching defensive schemes again.

Oh, excuse me! Did I say that Hogan was a first down machine for Buffalo? I had meant to say that he will probably eventually fill that role for the Patriots like Wes Welker did and like Edelman, Amendola have done recently. Considering how often both Edelman and Amendola are injured it wouldn't hurt for them to develop another player who can move the chains for the Patriots. To me, that's what the Patriots offense is all about in finding a way to move the chains and make that first down again and again and then score. The Patriots just have so many weapons and ways to attack a defense when everyone is healthy it's almost impossible for any team to stop them. I don't know if Brady was "frustrated" simply because he still managed to throw for almost 300 yards (277) and win the game, didn't he? While the Bills did take Gronk away from the Patriots week 11 in that particular game by rolling coverages towards him and limited his receptions to only 2 for 37 yards. Brady also found Amendola that day for 9 receptions for 117 yards and I'm pretty sure that if Julian Edelman hadn't had a season-ending injury two games earlier, that he would have been another solid weapon for ole Tom that day. As for stopping all the big plays? Amendola did have a 41-yard reception that game. Looking at the Patriots offensive line for 2015, not one player on that line started a full 16 games for them and they were shuffling players in and out of the lineup weekly. Let's also not forget that the Patriots were missing their starting RB in Dion Lewis at that point too. He only played in six games in 2015 but already rushed 49 times for 234 yards a 4.8 YPC Avg and had 36 receptions for 388 yards receiving. Talking about stats. Edelman in 8 games had 61 receptions for 692 yards and 7 TD's too. In that week 11 game last year I will give Rex Ryan credit for actually getting pressure on Brady on about 50% of his dropbacks and Bills fans hadn't seen that much pressure on an opposing QB since week one against the Colts.Yet the Bills defense only managed one sack all game and that singular sack was from a linebacker. More then confusion, I attribute all that pressure from actually calling some blitz plays that were effective against a weakened offensive line, and Brady missing some of his favorite targets. It also looked like Ryan took the time to properly put some effort into the weekly defensive game plan for this game. Which was a complete reversal from that week two debacle! Rex Ryan did manage to beat the Patriots with his Jets team once in 2009, 2x in 2010 and one of those was a playoff game in NE. No wins in 2011, no wins in 2013, once in 2013, no wins in 2014. So, in 6 years with the Jets Ryan won 4x out of 13 games. (Just a note. In his last win in 2013 in OT, the Jets ran 52 times for 177 yards and the Jets Time of Possession was 46:13.) So now Ryan is 15 and 4 against NE as a head coach. Tom Brady is 25 and 3 against Buffalo and has thrown for over 7000 yards, 62 TD's in those 28 games. The only team in the league Brady has a losing record against is Denver at 5-6.