Nihilarian

Waiting for Brady or anyone else to retire is not the answer and never will be! The Seahawks went ahead and built a great team and didn't care what the 49ers were doing. Same thing with the Cardinals who took the division last year in the toughest division in the league. In 2013 in the Cards hire Bruce Arians after a 5-11 season under Whisenhunt and then go 10-6 in his first year and 11-5 the next to 13-3 last year. Putting a top football mind at the top of the Bills org and allowing him to make all the football decisions should be the way to building a great team in Buffalo was my point.

I think Doug Whaley drafted a guy who Ryan wanted to fit his 3-4 scheme. What I see is a guy who will be a strong player in Ryan's two-gap run-stopping scheme but in terms of sacks I just don't even see a 4-6 sack guy unless Ryan changes up his priorities and starts calling a whole lot more blitzes than he did last year. Jerry Hughes was a full-time pass rusher when the QB dropped back to pass in Schwartz's scheme and he only saw 10 sacks in 2014. Then he only saw five last year and that was with Mario on the other side in Ryan's scheme. On another note teams are not gonna want to run at whatever side Lawson is on. JMO.

I said Patriots, simply because they have basically owned the AFC East division for the last 14 years and have only missed the playoffs twice in all that time. They have been to six super bowls and won four of them. I for one don't ever want to see Tom Brady in another super bowl! If you think waiting for Brady to retire is the answer then there really is no hope for this team, ever! The Patriots lost Brady for the entire year in the first game of the season in 2008 and still went 11-5. Last year they lost so many starters that only 3 of 22 starters played in a full 16 games and yet were only one game away from going to the super bowl again. It isn't about waiting for Brady, Belichick or anyone else to retire. It's about building a great team that can contend with the best in the league and right now Buffalo isn't even close, IMO.

The thing is, this is a new owner who is so wealthy he doesn't need the team to make a healthy profit to support himself. He doesn't need to be the team president to get a paycheck. Plus, I'm not advocating replacing or firing anyone in the Bills FO. About the only time this franchise has had winning seasons in it's fifty plus year history under the late owner was when he stepped back and let Chuck Knox take over control of the team and let Knox build up the team his way despite a bad GM. The next time was when Bill Polian was GM making the important football decisions. What I'm against is this team going forward with the old model of running the team under the first owner. The point here is that the current flow chart has both the head coach and GM reporting to an owner who really has no NFL football experience in running an NFL team.Just as that first owner was an insurance man and not a football man. Then, as current team president and managing partner of the Buffalo Bills, Russ Brandon is still in position to influence these new owners on the football side of operations. These new owners have no experience running the football operations of an NFL team and they really shouldn't be choosing the head coach. But that is exactly what happened in the hire of Rex Ryan. Brandon was so impressed by Ryan that he told the Pegula's to not let him leave the building and so they didn't. People at the top of the org chart making football choices that they shouldn't be making. The hiring of a team president of football operations would give Doug Whaley some help in building the team properly while making the right choices in the hiring of a good head coach. Someone to set the idea of what wins in today's league in terms of offense, defense and then stay on course instead of changing schemes every few years. All the team has done over the last sixteen years is keep changing directions because there has been no distinct NFL knowledgeable leader at the top and there still isn't one today! Bottom line is, this team is in desperate, desperate need of hiring a president of football operations to make those intelligent football choices on how to make this franchise competitive against the New England Patriots.

Yet the Patriots were riddled with injuries to so many starters all last year. They had only three starters from their entire team that played a full 16 games last year and still were one game away from the SB. In 2008, the Patriots lost Brady after the first game and still went 11-5. Funny how the Bills still had enough talent on it to beat the 10-5 NY Jets (who had just beaten the Patriots in OT the week before) for the last game of the season to knock them out of the playoffs. The defense seemed to play well in games that mattered most to the head coach.

Not for me! Mostly because It will give the status quo more excuses for this season and it shouldn't be about excuses anymore! Bill Belichick lost Tom Brady for 15 games and still finished that 2008 season 11-5. Last year that Patriots team lost so many starting players to injury, at WR, at RB, on the O-Line, and on defense and that team still almost went to the SB! Brady, Ninkovich, and Butler were the only three Patriots players on the entire team to play in all 16 games! Can we all agree that the current front office has said they were ready to win now and put a big effort into finding players to make that happen for 2015, and last year's team had enough talent on it to get this team into the playoffs! Then the team fell far short due to the hire of a bad head coach who is a supposed defensive genius and yet couldn't figure out how to get a pro bowl D-line to play up to their former performance of a short year ago. It wasn't just the defenses defensive line playing below what they did the previous season. It was a clear lack of team discipline with being #2 in the league in penalties. It was the defensive play calls coming in late and late player substitutions. It was the defensive players not being ready when the ball was snapped. It was bad defensive scheming, bad defensive game planning, bad play calls and the team looking very unprepared for half of the seasons games. We all saw it and it's hard not to notice the elephant in the room who is crapping all over and stinking up the place. I wondered at times if this new HC hire was still stinging from his two humiliating defeats by the Buffalo Bills during the 2014 season and was purposely attempting to submarine his own team to get fired so he could do nothing for the next four seasons and still get paid 5 mill per! Why the 5-year contract for an HC that went 4-12 the year before? Anyway, Is he still a gang green Jet fan at heart or is he really that inept that he refused to run the proper schemes to make that pro bowl D-line work? Then again, Ryan seemed to embrace everything Buffalo, so did he start believing in his own bombastic blathering about fielding the best defense and making the playoffs so he didn't put enough time, energy or effort into winning more games? Who freaking knows. The offense improved with the hire of a good coordinator who helped an offense improve from 26th in total offense and near last in rushing, 27th in rushing TD's in 2014! To last year being the best team in the league in rushing The 2015 offense (13th overall) jumped into the top 15 in points scored (12th) Yards (13th) and number one in the league in big plays (Plays of over 10 yards rushing and over 25 yards passing). The number one team in the league in rushing TD's with 19. The new OC was so good he helped a first year starting QB make the pro bowl by going 7-6 and throwing for 3035 yards with 20 TD's with only 6 INT's. This new owner is one of the richest owners in the league and he can afford to hire the best and brightest coaches, doctors, trainers, GM and a new team president of football operations. He is so rich he could hire an entire staff of football czars if he wanted. Yet here we are with mostly the same schumcks in the front office that the last owner hired. I yearn for the days of Chuck Knox who could take a bunch of nobody's and coach them up enough to believe that they could win against anybody. The days of Marv Levy who graduated college with a degree in English literature and his famous quotes. "Ability, without character, will lose." "Don't be dumb, don't be dirty." " Football doesn't build character, it reveals character." " When it's too hard for them, its just right for us." "Fight on, my men, Sir Andrew said. "A little I'm hurt but not yet slain. " I'll just lie down and bleed a while, And then "I'll rise and Fight again." Levy, like Knox, was a supreme motivator who could handle the big player egos and could also get the most out of his players. Like Dick Jauron said, "its tough to win (to be a Bills fan) in the NFL"

It's not just about looking at the stats and comparing the two defenses. When you consider that the 2014 defense with it's highly paid defensive line players did exactly what was intended in leading the league in sacks with the best defensive line in the league. I'd call being the number #1 team in the league sacks elite! I'd also call the #4 in yards allowed and #4 in points allowed the best darn defense this team has seen in years. Also #3 in passing yards allowed and #1 in passing TD's allowed. You have to go back to 2003 to just about equal it and to 1999 to better it. Then when you think about the fact that Jim Schwartz with his wide-nine defensive scheme didn't even call many blitzes to lead the league in sacks as that front four did most of the work. Three of the four D-line players went to the pro bowl and the fourth (Jerry Hughes) could have gone with his 10 sacks and 33 tackles. How many Bills defensive players went in 2015? That 2014 defense shut down Peyton Manning at Denver and held him to 173 yards passing, no TD's and two INT's! Manning threw for 4737 yards and 39 TD's in 2014 leading his team to a 12-4 season. Then the very next week held the league's MVP in Aaron Rodgers to 185 yards passing, no TD's and two INT's! Rodgers threw for 4381 yards and 38 TD's in 2014 while leading his team to a 12-4 season. It certainly wasn't the defense that let the 2014 team down as the offense stunk it up being 20th in rushing attempts and 25 in rushing yards, 27th in rushing TD's. This with a pass happy offense and the worst offensive line in the league with 579 passing attempts vs 402 rushing attempts after being #1 in rushing attempts and #2 in rushing yards the previous year. That week 16 Raider game with a playoff berth on the line saw the Bills rush 13 times for 13 yards and every time Spiller got the ball he was tackled five yards behind the line and struggled just to get back to the line of scrimmage as he finished the day with 4 attempts for four yards! The point being that even the best defenses in the league can't stay on the field all game and still be successful. That Raider game went like this TD, INT, PUNT, PUNT, PUNT, PUNT, PUNT, FG, PUNT, PUNT, TD, PUNT, INT, TD and this was against the #32 defense in the league in points allowed, #21st in yards allowed and against a 3-12 team. The 2015 defensive team won games mostly against bad QB's all year in the Colts, Luck (2-5) Titan's rookie QB Mariota (3-9) Tallywhacker (6-10) Dallas Kellen Moore (0-2)with only the Texan's Brian Hoyer (5-4) and the Jets and Fitz as the exception at (10-6) with winning records and we all saw what Hoyer looked like in the playoffs under pressure. Ryan managed to beat Fitz with his Jets teams by going 5-1 in his three years against Buffalo. That 2014 defense should be put on a pedestal by fans and have the future Bills defenses hoping to do as well. The simple fact is that Rex Ryan inherited the league's best sacking defense and turned them into nearly the league's worst sacking defense (31st) by attempting to fit square pegs into round holes. It wasn't just the lack of sacks either as a confluence of crap flowed from that 2015 defense that I pointed out in the above post. I also hope he and his coaching staff are on a very short leash as he has a lot to prove in my view.

I agree and to me, it's inconceivable to even criticize the 2014 defense in comparison with the 2015 defense. The 2015 defense actually had a better CB in Darby and yet were 31st against the pass after week two because of the defensive scheme that Ryan Employed. "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." http://espn.go.com/blog/buffalo-bills/post/_/id/22828/playoff-promise-among-rex-ryan-statements-that-will-likely-prove-false Yea, this is why the 2016 team needs to retool the defense to fit Ryan's lame 3-4 two gap scheme. Because Ryan couldn't figure out how to get sacks out of the best pass rushing D-line in the league. Dropping Dareus and Kyle Williams into pass coverage was simply absurd and in particular against the Chiefs as two of Dareus dropbacks went for TD's. I have a difficult time figuring out why so many fans still want to defend the debacle of the 2015 defense. Want some more pessimism? http://www.rotoworld.com/articles/nfl/62752/472/broken-bills "First-round pick Shaq Lawson will undergo right shoulder surgery on Tuesday. According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the operation will require a 5-6 month recovery period. The injury occurred at minicamp when Lawson tried to perform a swim move on a tackling dummy."

I agree. Now just imagine how good that 2015 Bills secondary and total defense could have been with the fierce pass rush of that front seven the Bills had in 2014.

Good points. On paper, the Bills have some of the best player talent in the league and should have been playoff bound last year! Last year wasn't just about injuries or bad luck like it used to be with head coaches like Jauron and Gailey. This team swept the Jets and Dolphins and has enough talent to give the Patriots a serious run. And yet they didn't! If only the team was motivated and prepared enough to beat teams with good QB's out of the AFC East. That first game against the Patriots in week two the defense looked like it was in a "prevent defense" most of the game and with no pressure on Brady he set a Bills franchise worst 466 passing yards allowed ever! That bad defensive scheme with such a total lack of QB pressure wouldn't be the only thing to define the 2015 Buffalo Bills. It was all the penalties on both sides of the ball. It was the noticeable lack of defensive team preparation against non-AFC East opponents. It was defensive play calls coming in late and the late player substitutions. The defensive players not looking ready when the ball was snapped. If this new head coach hire was his first year as an NFL head coach then some of those things can be forgiven. But this hire with an experienced NFL Head coach who was supposed to be a defensive guru who wouldn't try and put square pegs into round holes... then went ahead and did just that with the defensive line. That 2015 front seven was not built to run zone blitzes or two-gap run stopping and yet we saw quite a bit of those all last year. Yes, the 2016 Buffalo Bills have the player talent to reach the playoffs! Sadly though it looks like they don't have the defensive coaching talent to even come close and wasn't that the biggest reason as to why this current coach was hired? Like a fool I bought into Rex Ryan's promises last offseason to see the Bills in the playoffs and have the number one defense in the league. Not this year!

Flacco is 6'6'' 232 lbs and won some SB's. Brock is listed at 6'7'' 245 lbs. Cam Newton is 6'6'' 260 lbs, Big Ben is 6'5'' 240lbs, Phillip Rivers is 6'5'', Glennon is also 6'7''. EJ is 6'5''. Russell Wilson is 5'11'' and Taylor is 6'0'' I might be the only guy here who likes Osweiler and the guy did go 5-2 running that Broncos team the last seven games of the season to get them in the playoffs. He won games against two playoff teams in both the Patriots and Bengals in overtime. Thus showing he can perform well in big games. Then for the draft, the Texans went out and got two WR's an OG and a RB. In free agency, they got the Brock, OG Jeff Allen from KC and RB Lamar Miller from Miami. I like the Texans chances to make the playoffs again this year. I like Tyrod Taylor too. The thing is, I'm a bit skeptical that the Bills can be the number one team in big plays again now that opposing teams have the film on Greg Roman's offense. The Bills were 31st in 3 downs and out percentage on offense last year and those big plays are what made that offense so good. Ahhh, September can't get here fast enough.

Good for him and hope he does better at Bama.

Man o man, you guys and your lists. That writer Brad Gagnon really has Taylor way to high on his list IMHO. I can't think of another QB besides cam Newton that was in such a run-centric offense and when forced to carry the game without the rushing attack Taylor didn't fare so well and lost those games. Denver QB Brock Osweiler led a comeback in a huge OT win against the Patriots that helped the Broncos get home field throughout the playoffs. and he even had comparable stats to Brady in that game. Granted he didn't face the rush that Brady faced and yet he was a big reason for that win and for that crazy money contract he signed with the Texans. FireChan got it about right IMO with perhaps the exception of Fitz (who had a career year with almost 4k yards and 31 TD's) and Osweiler. Even BB's Talleywhacker threw for 4200 yards and 24 TD's on a bad Miami team. Bortles also had 4400 yards and 35 TD's on a bad Jags team. The 2015 Bills were 31st in passing attempts and 28th in yards. But they were also the number one team in the league in big plays with runs over 10 yards and passes over 25 yards.

Au contraire! In 2009 that NY Jets defense blitzed around 50% of the pass dropbacks and went to around 35 to 30% before he left the Jets. So, when he got here and blitzed almost less than 10% the majority of last years games I was more than taken aback. This is the man that stated "I'll bring everyone known to man at you" and then when he got to Buffalo he did just the opposite. Wait! That's not entirely true as he did blitz a lot on that season opener against the Colts (around 50% of the dropbacks) and then just didn't blitz much after that game. (except for that second Patriots game and again it looked like the Bills got pressure on Brady on about 50% of the dropbacks) “Nope," he said. “I mean 30th in sacks is not real good. Wow. But nah, I expect us to get better. I really do. I expect us to get better and we’ll see. Like I said, it’s different for me. I’ve never been in this situation. You know I think the worst I’ve ever been in this league is 11th. http://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/sports/football/nfl/bills/2015/12/02/rex-ryan-goes-defensive/76668578/ Then when Ryan saw his team not getting many sacks went on the defensive and said sacks aren't that important and said that we just want to win. Well, sacks, QB pressures, hits, hurries on the QB all go hand in hand in disrupting the opposing offense and is exactly what made Ryan's defenses so good in the past. Kinda why I think the Bills wanted him in the first place. What I think Ryan really needs to stop doing is dropping Dareus and Kyle into pass coverage. Last year against the Chiefs, Marcell Dareus was dropped into pass coverage on two of Alex Smith touchdown throws! I know these defensive guru's love their zone blitz, but dropping a 331 DT* elite pass rushing DT into pass coverage seems rather insane to me. But hey, maybe that's just me. When you sort everything out it looked like Ryan ran a two-gap run-stopping scheme more than any other scheme last year. I think this was a big reason why the sacks fell off the chart. The players that the Bills drafted with their first two picks this year look to fit that 3-4 two-gap scheme. Now, Ryan could easily change things up and start calling more one-gap scheme plays (Like Wade Phillps and the Broncos ran last year). I really do want the Bills defense just to get back to being as good as it was in 2014 and if that happens this team could find itself in the playoffs this year.

Interesting take on the defense, draft and probably should have stopped there. You made some good points in earlier posts. Rex Ryan has a lot to prove this season and Whaley went out and got him the players he needed to make his 3-4 scheme work so he will have little excuse should the defense fall on it's face again this year. Ryan is lucky he has Whaley as his GM because if nothing else... Whaley knows defensive talent, IMO. Bills fans in denial don't care to compare the 2015 defense against the 2014 defense simply because it doesn't fit into their optimistic rational for the upcoming season. The simple facts are that Ryan boasted that the Bills would be in the playoffs in 2015 and not just have the number four defense but have the number one defense. "I'm not going to let our fans down. I am not going to do that. I know it's been 15 years since the Bills made the playoffs. Well, get ready, man, we're going. We are going." "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. " http://espn.go.com/blog/buffalo-bills/post/_/id/22828/playoff-promise-among-rex-ryan-statements-that-will-likely-prove-false We're going alright, going to be 8-8 with arguably the best defensive line talent in the league. With a team that led the NFL in sacks fell to 31st in the league in one short year. "We play defense based on our personnel, not just the scheme. I don't try to put a square peg in a round hole. "The reality: Ryan has tried to fit a square peg in a round hole." "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." And, to the fans here that adamantly state that team president has had no influence over the football side of things. 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. Like I said, Rex Ryan has a lot to prove this year just with the defense and now he has, even more, player talent to run his 3-4 two-gap scheme or whatever scheme he chooses to run. Here is hoping the Bills defense is a top five unit again and is back in the hunt for leading the league in sacks. This team has far too much talent to be 8-8 again with a middling defense.

Yet the 2013 Buffalo Bills were #2 in rushing yards and #1 in rushing attempts with EJ, Tuel and Lewis at QB and they ran that brilliantly designed hurry up and punt offense. In that 2013 season, the Buffalo Bills were 25th in three downs and out percentage. In 2015, the Bills were 31st in three downs and out percentage! The difference being that last year's team also led the league in scoring rushing TD's, a 4.8 YPC Avg and more big plays passing by the QB. The 2015 Buffalo Bills were the #1 team in the league in "big plays"! Meaning rushing plays that are over 10 yards and passing plays that were over 25 yards. This upcoming season opposing teams have plenty of film on what Greg Roman did with the offense in 2015 and unlike Nathanial Hackett, he didn't pound the ball up the middle 70% of the time or force the QB to carry the offense every game. Roman's offense is more sophisticated and complex and while defenses never really shut down his rush offense in San Fran they did manage to give his QB Colin Kaepernick quite a bit of trouble. If you look back at that 49er history since 2011 under Harbaugh. It wasn't the so much the offense that carried that team as much as it was the defense. 2010 before Harbaugh 24th on offense (#19 in rushing) (18th in passing)- 13th on defense (6-10) Alex Smith at QB (3-7) 2011 26th on offense (#8 in rushing) (29th in passing)- 4th on defense (13-3) Alex Smith at QB. (13-3) 2012 11th on offense (#4 in rushing) (31st in passing)- 3rd on defense (11-4-1) (Alex Smith 5-2 / Kaepernick 6-2) 2013 24th on offense (#3 in rushing) (30th in passing)-5th on defense (12-4) Kaepernick at QB (12-4) 2014 20th on offense (#4 in rushing) (30th in passing)-5th on defense (8-8) Kaepernick at QB (8-8) 2015 31st on offense (21st in rushing) (29th in passing)- 29th on defense (5-11) Kaepernick (2-6) Gabbert (3-5) If you look back to the 2009 NY Jets you would see the same sort of stats. #1 defense and #1 in rushing while being 32nd in passing with rookie Mark Sanchez at QB. For 2016, Ryan's defense has to get much, much better at getting pressure on the opposing QB and better than 31st in sacks. Which will, in turn, help out the Bills secondary to allow less passing yards and help create more big plays by turnovers. Just by calling more blitzes and running a one-gap scheme more often should help quite a bit. I have no idea what happened to that Rex Ryan "we will bring everyone known to man at you" defense last year. Here is hoping that the new additions to the Bills defense help get that Buffalo defense in the top ten. Taylor still needs help at WR (Anquan Boldin?) and on the right side of that line at RT. JMO

Trent Edwards had his year and games. In 2008, the Bills opened the season 5-1. Bills fans were saying Trent looked like another Joe Montana after starting the season 4-0. Trust me they were... and right in this forum! That helmet to helmet hit that Edwards took by Adrian Wilson in that week five Arizona game would have been a fine or even bannable hit by today's standards. Some fans say that he should have thrown the ball away after he saw the safety coming unblocked and others say it took great fortitude to stand in there and throw a completed pass while taking on that hit. Two seconds was all he had to decide! That hit defined Edwards career IMHO, mostly because while he did return to win the next game against the Chargers. Edwards play went downhill after that Chargers game and probably because he was still suffering from concussion symptoms. Now, in today's game players that suffer a serious concussion go through much, much different protocols and Edwards probably should have sat out most of that year if not the entire year to fully recover. I think a lot of Buffalo Bills QB's over the last fifty-five years have been defined by the offensive talent around them.

No offense, but I watched Joe play at the stadium in that 77 season, Fergy went 3-11 while playing in a full 14 games. Then throwing 12 TD's and 24 INT's and that man would hang his head with every bad throw...at times he looked so frustrated that he would just throw the ball up for grabs at the end of a bad series. He also went 1-10 under Kay Stephenson in 1984. Chuck Knox got there and really resurrected his career and then playing in that Chargers playoff game with a bad leg showed he had a heart of a lion! But even in that 1980 playoff year he threw 20 TD's and 18 INT's and again in 81 with 24 TD's and 18 INT's. 79-92 career. -------------------------------------------------------- The only thing that sucked about Daryle Lamonica (nicknamed "the fireman" because he would come into games that Kemp would get hurt in and win the game) was that Wilson traded him to the Raiders! In his six years with the Raiders, they went to 5 playoff games and a Super Bowl! 66-16-6 career ----------------------------------------------------- I agree with this and had the Bills built a better line they would have made the playoffs with Bledsoe at QB. If well protected he would rip any team a new one. Once flustered from a heavy rush he would start seeing phantom rushers...kinda like JP used to do all the time. 98-95 career ------------------------------------------------------ I also agree with this! This man coming off the bench in week 5 and then going 7-5 behind the league's worst offensive line. Then Orton throwing 447 times in those 11 games with the Bills having almost no rushing attack during those games also tells me that the dufus OC was forcing the QB to carry the offense. 87-82 career

You do realize that the Bills were 31st in sacks last year under Ryan after being 1st in the league under Schwartz and 2nd in the league under Mike Pettine in 2013. Last year the Bills were also 32nd in defensive hurries! Speaking of Pettine, one could look at the stats and say that Mike did better than Ryan and he also ran mostly a 3-4 scheme. Ryan will need to change up a whole bunch of things in his scheme to actually make life miserable for opposing QB's this season. Bills fans also need to remember what happened in those last two games of the 2015 season. Against Dallas, the Bills were playing against a QB making his first NFL start and it showed. The simple truth is the Bills were only able to get one hit on Dallas QB Kellen Moore and no sacks. It was more that Dallas QB's ineptitude that lost the Cowboys that game than anything else. Veteran Dallas QB Tony Romo playing in that game and it's an entirely different animal and result. Then the game against the Jets the Bills defense did play very well despite all the injuries to a bunch of Bills starters. But then, we all need to remember who were the NY Jets QB and OC in that game. Rex Ryan has owned Chan Gailey and Fitz while he was the HC of the Jets and Ryan, seemed to be particularly motivated to have his team prepared to face the team that fired him. It really does remain to be seen if Rex and his brother can get the 2016 Buffalo Bills defense as good as expected and I expect it to be better than just top ten. Plus, getting back on track with leading the league in QB sacks, hits, and hurries. This 2016 team has far too much defensive talent on it to be near dead last in sacks and middling stat wise again.

The thing is being an NFL O-lineman is a very difficult job and those guys don't get the credit they deserve at times and vice versa. It's a team sport and the line is really only as good as the lines weakest link because opposing teams will switch around their strongest pass rushers to play against the offenses lesser talented players. What really stinks for those line players is because they need to play as a solid unit to be successful they are so dependent on each other to grade well in both pass and run blocking. Plus, they are also dependant on the entire offense to be successful, coaches who set up the scheme and game plans, game plays. The QB, the RB's, the TE's, the WR's because all offensive players are required to know how to properly block. While I agree that people not privy to the play call or blocking assignments might not know the assignments. It's also not that difficult to give a bad grade to an offensive line player who gets pushed back five yards on a run play by some scrub D-tackle. Which is exactly what happened to Kraig Urbik in that 2014 Raider game with a playoff berth on the line and it didn't just happen once. Think about what has happened the last few years with the Buffalo Bills offensive line and the players on it. Take 2013 for an example, LT Gordy Glenn in his second year graded a (+23.0) by PFF and that weak link in LG Colin Brown who replaced Andy Levitre for the first five games graded an astonishingly bad (-30.1) and the backup center Doug Legursky replaced Brown also played poorly (-12.5). The other players on the line were C Eric Wood, RG Kraig Urbik, RT Erik Pears. BTW, Brown and the backup OG in Sam Young were both outright cut from the team after week six. Young played in four games and after he replaced Brown in week six he immediately gave up a sack and two hits. The overall line graded 22nd in the league. For most of 2014, the Bills fielded the very worst offensive line in the league with Pears at RG who grade at (-25.0) LG Chris Willams was a waste of money at 5 mill guaranteed as he only lasted three games before he went on IR and Urbik took over at LG. Both Glenn (+6.5) and Wood suffered in grades because Urbik was just not that good. A seventh rounder in RT Seantrell Henderson got the starting nod over the second round pick in Kounandjio who really never saw the field. The 2014 line ended with a grade of 30th in the league. Then in 2015, the Bills signed LG Richie Incognito (+9.4 after week 5) who played his best football last year and was named to the pro bowl. His stellar play also elevated the play of both Woods and Glenn to make the left side of that Bills line one of the best in the league. Rookie RG John Miller was the weak link of the line while he was in there (-10.6) clearly that grade was mostly for his pass blocking as he was pretty good at run blocking. The 2015 Buffalo Bills ranked 9th overall per PFF. I don't think PFF's grades are perfect, but I also think they are closer to the reality that many give them credit for being. Now, If Bills line coach Aaron Kromer is as good as some say he is that right side should improve for Buffalo this year. Just my two cents.

I have no doubts that Whaley found the best defensive players in the draft to fit Ryan's defensive scheme. No question that Whaley knows defensive talent.

I agree and adding a better player at RT might just allow Miller to further develop at RG. Alas, Doug Whaley was basically forced to allow Ryan to get the players he needed to run his 3-4 scheme. I keep hearing that the team will draft best player available and yet went for need with those first three picks. #1 pick, Lawson is considered an excellent run defending DE. Now we learn that Lawson might need shoulder surgery at some point that will sideline him 4-6 mo. and he says he can play with it so he could put it off until next year. Clemson connection here because Ryan's son is attending Clemson. #2 pick, the Bills gave up two fourth round picks to move up 8 spots to draft ILB Reggie Ragland! So another player that fits Ryan's 3-4. Ragland dropped into the second because it was discovered he has an enlarged aorta but was cleared by the Bills medical staff. #3 pick, Adolphus Washington a DT who is projected to play the 5 tech at DE, or 3 tech at DT or 0 tech at NT and is more of a pass rusher than run stuffer. This kid pulled a Warran Sap after a bowl game win and was arrested for it. Looks to me like the Bills took three players whose value had dropped because of different problems. All three could be starters once the season gets here and that #3 pick could be replacing Kyle Williams at some point. I'm not really a big fan of this draft simply because I have my doubts about Ryan building a top defense in Buffalo with any players. Also, Mark Sanchez and Geno Smith entered the NFL and had some success their first seasons. Then for whatever reason after starting out decently those two QB's under Ryan were pressed to throw more and failed miserably. I only hope the same doesn't happen with Tyrod. Anyway, it's just a darn shame the Bills hired Rex Ryan who couldn't make that all-star defense work. So now the Bills retooled in the draft on defense to run his 3-4 instead of a WR, an OT and perhaps even drafting Paxton Lynch or even gotten the Cowboys 2nd and 3rd in giving up that pick at 19. Time will tell.

In regards to that Panthers offense. The Carolina Panthers have a... very... unique... player at QB who is 6'6'' 260lbs and won the MVP this past year because of his ability to escape the rush and make plays with his arm and legs. That Panthers offense was the #1 offense in points and #11 in yards and this with the only two skill players on offense gaining 1000+ yards in the process. TE Greg Olsen and Jon Stewart who had a combined 1008 yards from scrimmage. The 2015 Panthers went 15-1 and that only loss was to the Atlanta Falcons while Newton had a very unlike MVP game. Cam went 17 of 30 for 142 yards passing and ran with 7 attempts for 46 yards and one TD. That 8-7 Falcon team managed to shut down Newton and his receiver corps. The Panthers played without RB Jon Stewart in this game and despite rushing for more than they passed they still lost the game and ToP. If you could point to one single major factor as to the reason why the Panthers lost the SB to Denver, what would it be? I'd have to say it was all Broncos LBer Von Miller (MVP) and the Panthers inability to block him. Denver had 7 sacks on Newton in this game. Now that the world saw that you would expect the Panthers to shore up their line, right? In the 2016 draft, the Panthers drafted a DT with their first pick, then 3 CB's and a TE. Free agency= Signed C Gino Gradkowski to a three-year contract. Re-signed QB Joe Webb to a two-year contract. You would think that this team would make every effort to bolster the tackle position. In regards to the Buffalo Bills. Those superstar pass rushers on other teams aren't in cement as to rushing on just one side. Teams can and will overload their rush to the Bills weakest side and exploit it.

The one thing I'm very confident about is that Doug Whaley knows "defensive football" talent when he sees it. While some fans here have alluded to the fact that those first two draft picks are run more stuffing players rather than the pure pass rusher they lost in Mario Williams. This could be so that Ryan will have the players at DE / LBer he needs to properly run his two-gap 3-4 scheme. In my view, it wasn't just not being able to get the most out of that great talent on the defensive line. The entire defense had problems with play calls coming in late and late substitutions. Players in not being ready and set when the ball was snapped and there appeared to be communication issues almost all of last season. Not to mention the amount of penalties from the team on both sides of the ball. The defense did start looking more cohesive towards the end of the season even with all the injuries, but that could have been the result of playing the Cowboys with a QB making his first NFL start and the NY Jets that Ryan was very passionate about beating. That said, Rex Ryan should have no excuses this year should his defense not perform like expected. The offensive line has been seriously neglected over the past years and even with a great left side the line this past year they still had great difficulty in controlling the line of scrimmage and clock while maintaining drives. Being 31st means they were pretty bad at sustaining drives. Last year Greg Roman's offense with Tyrod at QB worked so well at times to get those big plays in the passing game while teams were trying to stop the run and that's what made the offense so good. The thing is, will that be sustainable this year with a more difficult schedule and now teams that have plenty of tape on the Bills offense? In my view, it's just a darn shame the Bills stopped attempting to upgrade with better players at RG, RT after they lost out on Bulaga and Evans. It would have been a better season had Harvin been able to play more than six games. That right side being so weak is like attempting to fight with one arm tied behind your back. The receiving corps also needs to be upgraded with a solid #2 big, tall red zone target WR. Can't have it all though when the team is in cap hell. Let's hope the defense does improve under Ryan this year.