BillsFan4

WTF? When did this start? I was just reading articles on there yesterday. Well, I guess I am done reading BN Blitz then...

Only 3 republicans voted for it, and 36 against. Where as 50 democrats voted for it and only 5 against. It is true that if the Democrats would have had all 55 votes (100% support) they could have passed the bill with those 3 republican votes for. But, I'd still lay the blame for not passing it more on the party that only had 7% of its senators vote for it than the one who had 91% of its senators vote for it.

I agree that Norman is overrated and isn't as good when asked to be more of a man cover CB. But he was very good in McD's zone scheme. If J Gaines is the same way, I'm perfectly happy with that. IMO, that's what good coaches do - find players that fit their schemes very well. It would be great if EJ Gaines is able to play at a similar level as Josh Norman in this scheme. Hey, who knows. It could happen. We can hope, right? After all, Norman was a 5th round pick that McD played a big role in developing. Hopefully he can do the same with EJ. He does have a pretty decent track record of developing the secondary, so I am hopeful.

You could very well be right. I honestly don't know. None of us do... But it does fit Whaley's MO. If it was all McD, I think at the very least he was relying on Whaley's input. He was only here a couple months at that time and hadn't coached any of these players yet (or even met them in some cases). I would guess that Whaley was pretty confident that J. Williams could replace Gillislee, or that he could draft another 5th round RB with the pick from MG to replace him. Again, I have no clue though. I am just speculating.

Here's how I see it - -they didn't want to pay their backup RB $4M this year, and devote $12M in cap space to their top 2 RBs. They took the 5th round pick and turned it into Nate Peterman. I'm good with that. Was that truly a McDermott move anyway, putting the original round tender on MG? Whaley did the same thing with Hogan the year before (original round tender) and chose not to match the offer. - McDermott doesn't need a $13M man cover CB in his zone (cover 3) scheme. Plus the Bills only had $19M in cap space at the time with 26 players to sign. Oh, and Whaley had 2 years to sign Gilmore and didn't. It was reported long before McD was hired that Whaley wasn't willing to pay more than $11.5M to Gilmore. - Sammy was injured a lot, that's true. And he said he was looking to change the pay structure of the NFL with his new contract. So they chose to move on and get assets in return. - Darby was coming off a down year, true again, and he was struggling in the zone scheme. It takes more thinking to play zone, where as in man all you do is cover your guy. A lot of times man cover CB's aren't good in zone and vise versa. I think that was the case here. - they did sign Boldin. They were trying to bolster the WR position. They had no control over him choosing to retire. Can't call that a tank move... - keeping Vlad is a bit of a head scratcher. He sucks, it he does know this scheme pretty well. As of now he is just a backup though, and we've had backup OL of his caliber before. Many teams have sucky backup OL men.

They already have 10 guys, but it'd be nice if they did put him on the PS. I'd be happy to hear they did.

Love Lesean McCoy. Hope he is here at least through his current contract.

As I said all along, I would not freak out until Ducasse was starting week 1, and it looks like I won't have to freak out after all... lol.

Looks like Miller might be the starting RG after all... Bills to keep Miller, Mills as starters on right side of line http://buffalonews.com/2017/09/04/bills-keep-miller-mills-starters-right-side-o-line/ 'John Miller and Jordan Mills each withstood challenges this summer to remain the Buffalo Bills' starters at right guard and right tackle, respectively. Coach Sean McDermott said Monday that both would be in the starting lineup for Sunday's regular-season opener against the New York Jets.'

Are you talking about the 3 waiver wire pickups and the trade for Clay? If so, all of them are likely bottom of the roster players that may not be active for the first game and even if they are will likely play very limited snaps anyway.

I get what you're saying and I too was hopeful that the defensive personnel wouldn't need to be totally overhauled (and I agree with you that it's much harder to find good man coverage CB's btw), but that's kind of besides the point now. If the CB's didn't play zone well, what are you going to do? If McD/Beane etc evaluate these guys and feel they don't fit, should they just hang onto them anyway? Try to be "half pregnant" again? We don't know everything that went into the decision either. I also feel that there was going to be quite a few changes to the team this year no matter who was hired as coach and even if Whaley and his front office staff were still here. The Bills had a crazy number of free agents and not too much cap space to sign them. $19M to get 26 players signed, you kind of know changes are coming... some tough decisions were going to have to be made by whoever was in charge. I'm not thrilled by some of these moves either and it's hard not to be somewhat skeptical about some of them. But I want them to do whatever they feel it will take to ultimately be successful in the long run and I give them credit for having the courage to make some of the tough decisions they've made. Only time will tell if those decisions were right.

But if this new scheme uses mostly zone coverage (cover 3), what good is it to keep man coverage guys who were struggling in zone? McDermott's defensive scheme has been proven to be successful. I want him to succeed here. If that takes getting rid of guys and getting players that fit better, then so be it. Do what it takes. I'd rather they go all in than just try to half ass it and fit square pegs into round holes.

Wow, what a game! Rosen looked amazing as the game went on. What a comeback.

Really glad Reilly was signed to the PS. Same with Shorts. I could see both possibly playing some games for Buffalo this year. Happy Ian Seau got a spot too. Loved him on hard knocks last year. Very easy kid to root for.

The other choice appears to be have zero patience and give up on the new regime already without even giving them a real chance. And I never said that anyone was not a real fan. I was talking about how I choose to view things. I'd rather try and find the positive than always focus on the negative.

I'm a Bills fan to the core. They are my hometown team. They are and always will be the team I root for. I'm not a bandwagon fan.

Sorry for trying to look for the positive in situations instead of choosing to focus on the negative... That is my nature. I don't agree with every move and am skeptical about some of them, but I am actually willing to be patient and see what these guys do. I haven't decided that they are already a failure before they've played their first game or had their first draft like some have. I am not going to go around constantly posting negative crap and getting upset about every move. I have no control over any of this stuff. So I'm going to sit back, watch, wait and find reasons to be hopeful and support my favorite team. And you're right, not every head coach or GM would have had the courage to do a rebuild like this. We've seen that bandaid approach by coaches/GMs for years here.

Yeah, they have ZERO regular season wins! Can't get much worse than that. Total failure... Get rid of these jokers! We've been plenty patient with them.

Don't like either of these moves, not for the players they were replaced with off waivers, and Especially with someone like Vlad Ducasse still on the roster. All I can say to everyone is Don't get attached to any players currently on the roster. This is going to be a full rebuild (which was most likely needed IMO)

This was a great article Yolo. Thanks for sharing! Tim Graham has been on a role recently. This is his 3rd very good article in the last few days. I really enjoy reading pieces like that. It's the type of stuff the Buffalo News used to put out much more frequently. That really is impressive to read about what Beane & McDermott accomplished. They really seem like kindred spirits to me. So much in common. You can see why they both have the respect for each other that they do. Having a coach and GM who are so similar and truly on the same page working together is exciting. We haven't had a front office and coaching staff like that in a long time. IMO all the best organizations are in lock step from top to bottom, working together. The Bills had been infighting for ever. The old Ralph Wilson cronies had perfected the art of scapegoating the coaching staff when things inevitably went wrong with their most recent bandaid approach... Lol, it's funny I was going to share the same quote. Except I've been saying what's in the previous paragraph. No more bandaid approach. No more making all these moves that hurt the future to help now, just to try and sneak the Bills into the playoffs and get creamed. Pegula wants to be a true Super Bowl contender and consistent threat year in and year out, and if that takes a rebuild so be it. I loved this quote - "Teams that have turned it around and sustained it are doing exactly what the Bills are doing right now," Banner continued. "They're taking a step back. They're doing a very honest evaluation of where their team is at and know their long-term goal is big success, not just incremental improvement"

I wouldn't mind him on the practice squad. He offers more upside than most practice squad caliber/eligible QBs imo.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=MdXlR5dT3oA Not sure if this has been posted but this is a great punt return that gives a good idea of Clay's on field speed.

Well, maybe that's why I'm not upset over the moves & trades as some are. I never really had high expectations for this season and I knew the Bills were nowhere near a championship roster. If people really thought we were close I can see why they'd be upset. But I think that 2016 team was nowhere near championship caliber. Too many "me" type players that didn't care about hurting the team. Too many holes, no depth. The defensive talent went downhill and the offense was good at running the ball but couldn't really pass the ball or score when they needed to. IMO the only thing they were close to was maybe sneaking into the playoffs on a wild card and getting crushed in the first round. Also IMO, this team was set to take a step back in 2017 no matter who the coach/GM was. They had 26 free agents and only $-9M in cap space. The we're losing good players and depth at positions because of that. Plus, with a new coaching staff top to bottom, it was likely a transition year anyway. From the day McDermott was hired though, I noticed a difference in the organizational philosophy and it gave me hope. Before he was hired, Whaley was always about now. We were close, never talk of building for the future etc. I think Whaley basically just wanted to sneak into the playoffs and break that streak. But I remember right after McD was hired, Whaley changed his tune. He started to mimic McD's message and talk a lot more about a long term approach, building a consistent winner & a true contender and stuff like that. I r,emerged some local reporters even being surprised by Whaley's change in message. That told me right there that it was no longer about almost maxing out the salary cap, kicking the can down the road on salaries like we were a legit SB contender and making moves just to win now. It was about building this thing right and for the long term, not just sneaking into the playoffs and being immediately eliminated. Also, IMO this is what happens when you hire a brand new staff from top to bottom that's looking at the roster with fresh eyes and no personal attachments to anyone. We have totally new GM, personnel, scouting and coaching staffs. That's a ton of change. They don't care where a player was drafted. IMO They are looking at everyone and judging by performance and fit, draft position be damned. All they care about is that players performance on the field and their buy in to the new way of doing things, and I would say every player they traded away (besides Sammy) for the most part was underperforming - Darby, Cardale, Ragland, Seymour. So instead of just cutting them, they got value back in return to have more chances to get players that do fit and perform in this system. I am very excited about this new regime. I feel like they are finally building things the right way. Everyone shares the same vision and everyone is finally on the same page. All the players they acquire fit a specific mold. It weird though. I remember most everyone was so excited when we hired Rex. They bought in to all his hot air playoff/super bowl talk and broke records buying season tickets. But I was never excited about Rex. He had been so mediocre for so many years and his teams were an absolute disaster his last couple years in NY. I wasn't excited about Marrone or Gailey either. This is the first time I've been legitimately excited about a coach and front office in forever, and I feel like I am totally in the minority now. It sucks. Everyone got to share their excitement with other fans over Rex, and now I want to share my excitement with fans over this new regime and it seems like many don't have that same excitement. lol

I'm not sure what quote people are referring to, so I can't link it specifically. But I can't remember them ever saying that we would be playoff contenders this season. They may want to compete for the playoffs. That should be every team's goal every season. But I have never heard them say that they actually expect to make the playoffs this season. I know McDermott has that motto "playoff caliber" but like I said earlier n this thread, that doesn't mean that they expect to make the playoffs this season. That's him wanting things done a certain way to be a playoff caliber team eventually. This is what McDermott said at his opening press conference when he was asked directly about any type of playoff promise - http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2017/01/13/sean-mcdermott-wisely-avoids-making-promises/ “I am not in to making promises and I think you will find that out about me soon enough as well,” McDermott told reporters in his introductory press conference. “The promises I will make are we are going to be competitive, we are going to compete every day. What I intend to do, it starts today. . . . We are going to compete on a daily basis. I am going to build this culture along with the people in this building to develop a daily standard of winning in the way we do things. We have to earn the right to win in this league and I have learned that. So I just believe in the process. We are going to win going through the process, and when that time comes we will take the field, but we have a lot of work to do between now and then.”

Unless I missed it, I don't remember them ever saying that we will be a playoff contender this year. McDermott went out of his way to say he's not about making claims or predictions like that. They just said that they are not throwing this season away and that they plan to be competitive week in and week out. I know McDermott has that "playoff caliber" slogan, but that's about how he wants things done on a daily basis. That's not him saying that this is a playoff caliber team as constructed.