yungmack

If FJ doesn't rate it, no one does.

If Parker refused to negotiate with the Bills, or if he tried to punish the team for the Byrd situation, he would be in violation of his fiduciary responsibility and could open himself up to losing his license with the NFL as well as facing a lawsuit and potentially jail time.

On the other hand, to counter your implication that college coaches are a bad thing, do the names Chip Kelly, Jim Harbaugh and Pete Carroll ring a bell?

Could we do him the courtesy of spelling his name crrectly?

As another Bucket O' Crap season draws to its merciful close, about the only things that could bring some joy into my aging heart are wins over Miami and New England. If they could knock them senseless in the process, my 2014 will have begun most auspiciously.

Thanks for the heads up.

I think it's more like 5 players: LB, LG, RG, LT and QB.

No sir, you are incorrect. If you won't throw or can't throw to open receivers, it doesn't matter just how many great ones you have. However, I would pay double to watch you QB-ing!

The bolded part of your statement is the key. The Bills are far, far, far from being a playoff team and the addition of a TE is not in the top three needs for the team. Further, one of the reasons those TEs seem to be above average comes down to having a solid QB. Take any one of them and put them on this Bills team, and then see just how above average they are.

The Bills could sign the 5 best WRs currently in the NFL and would still have problems with the passing game until either EJ improves massively or they get a QB that can make the throws necessary to succeed in this league. Go watch the All 22 video and see how often receivers are wide open. The size of the Bills receivers aren't the problem, the QB is. And until that's corrected, it's a waste of time and money to sign even more WRs who will also be wide open but not getting the throws.

I can't for the life of me understand the obsession by some with a TE when it's pretty much obvious that the O line needs at least two new starters. Chandler is a perfectly fine, middle of the pack TE and Gragg I believe is going to be a good one. Sure, if the next Gronk or Gonzalez would be available, then okay. But the problem with the TE position AND with WR has more to do with the QB. Even on that slant reception by Gragg last Sunday -- about as easy a pass as Manuel could have hoped for -- he threw behind him. And ILB is now a top priority? More important than RT, RG, LG? Seriously?

Hey, a Key & Peele reference!

It seems to me that the real difference between the Bills receivers & Rogers is the guys throwing them the ball.

Go watch the All 22's for EJ's games and you will see receivers wide open time after time, some with lots of running room open. The possibilities why EJ is NOT throwing to them might be: He is afraid to make the throw; he doesn't see the field; he can't "throw the receiver open," or he does not know the routes and therefore can't anticipate where the receivers are going. In any case, it doesn't bode well for him or the Bills.

It seems to me if you're the OC coordinator, yourself new to the NFL, and trying to install a new offense, that's pretty much a full time job and then some. Now add in that you have TWO rookie QBs and one guy who is barely more than one himself, all 3 of them in need of attention but none more than your first round pick whom the team is counting on to be your franchise QB for at least the next decade, which seems to me like an extremely important job in itself, and one that should take up a great deal of time. So someone from OBD, please tell me how it makes sense that all of this is on one rookie OC coordinator's shoulders? I suggest it is beyond the ability of any one person to do an excellent job with both vital assignments: if you focus on one they way you should, the other has to suffer. The other possibility is that you split time between the two in such a way that BOTH assignments suffer, which is what it seems Hackett has done.

In the past, I've been able to justify a bad run, whether it was the stupidity of the owner or FO screwing things up, or incompetent coaching or players who just weren't very good. I know this will set off the haters who really don't know a thing about coaching or playing but still are sure that the coaches suck and we need to replace Stevie or Graham or Legursky or Chandler et al, but this team has the players and the coaches to have won at least 4 more games than they have. Anyone with eyes can see that. Or could earlier in the season. In every way, they looked like a team solidly in the middle of the league, not SB quality by any means, but certainly able to win 8 or 9 games while showing signs of getting better all the time. After the last few games, I cannot point to any one thing or even two or three to account for the drastic dropoff. As I said, I am perplexed.

I watched my first Bills game in 1960. I have been through wonderful periods and some very horrible experiences with this franchise. But this is the first time I have ever been totally and completely perplexed by this team.

I'm okay with keeping EJ for another season...because Marcus Mariota is staying at Oregon for another year. So I'm counting on EJ to do poorly and for the Bills to really stink it up in '14. BTW, for all of you who are so into Cutler, my Bears fan friends will be dancing in the streets if the Bills take him on.

Schaub is the perfect example of what concerns me: a good to very good QB who gets you oh-so-close but never seems to take you all the way. In some ways, these types of QBs are the worst to have as they keep tantalizing you, keep you thinking "one more year." At least with the Losman/Edwards types, it was clear pretty quickly that they would never take the Bills to the "promised land." I'm hoping that EJ shines the rest of the season and becomes that elusive "franchise QB." But so far I'm afraid that he's going to fall exactly in that Schaub area of "close, but no cigar."

The only grade you can give this regime is "Incomplete" until next season at the halfway mark. However, I can give "Interim" grades and mine are: Brandon: A- Nix/Whaley: A Marrone: B Here are a few of the reasons for those grades (Keep in mind, these are INTERIM): Brandon gets his based on what he's done since getting rid of Levy. Among other items, that includes bringing Nix in to rebuild the scouting department, bringing Whaley in as GM in waiting, hiring Marrone, keeping the business end humming (those ticket sales and regional outreach are vital to keeping the Bills in WNY). Nix/Whaley: Scouting department improvements, pretty good and improving drafts, good in-season pickups, good free agent signings, analytics department (how well that works out will be determined as time goes by), solid contract negotiations (controversial, I know, especially with the Byrd and Levitre situations), Marrone hire. Marrone: Good to very good assistants, brought and maintains a palpable sense of positivity and hope, honest and open "obviously," has kept the team playing hard in spite of heart-breaking losses, even in losing, his team doesn't appear lost or uncompetitive or going through the motions (that is huge to me). Could easily have 4-6 more wins with a break here or there.

Here's what's depressing about this thread: there are so freakin' many "defining" plays in the history of this franchise.

I'll be watching but strictly to see if EJ can use these games to make a place for himself on next year's roster or if he's a bust in the making a la Schaub, Freeman, et al.

At this point, I'm up for anything, even this. BTW, supposedly a curse was put on the team (or the stadium) by Seneca priests for desecrating the burial grounds so I think you'd have to have them do the ceremony to remove it.

Funny how many around here who have moved away from Buffalo for financial gain are death on the Bills doing the same thing. Ah well. As a kid, when there were no Bills, my favorite teams were the Brooklyn Dodgers, the Minneapolis Lakers and the Cleveland Browns. All 3 of them moved (and the Browns were replaced in my affections by the new Bills franchise). I hated the Dodgers and Lakers for moving...but then so did I, to Los Angeles, and the romance was renewed. So if you want to continue being a Bills fan if they move, the solution is to move yourself wherever they go.

Thanks for your eye-opening criticisms. I am amazed that no one has ever had those "insights" before.