SoTier

Nope, can't hold the FO accountable for yesterday ...or for the previous seventeen years of suckitude. When the Bills fire one coaching regime and bring in another that has a totally opposite offensive/defensive scheme than the previous one, how can that be the FO's fault? When the Bills have to let their best young players leave because of the salary cap, how is that the FO's fault? When the Bills continuously use first and/or second round picks on a revolving door of DBs, WRs, and RBs that they develop for NE or Philly or Baltimore, how is that the FO's fault? When the Bills hire has-been or neophyte head coaches and GMs, how is that FO's fault? When the Bills trade their best young talent for draft picks because they can't afford to pay them because they're a small market team playing an old stadium without lots of skyboxes and PSLs, how is that the FO's fault? The only fault of the Bills' FO is its failure to get a "franchise QB" since Kelly retired. All the Bills' problems stem from that. Let them get that elusive franchise QB, and they'll be Super Bowl bound by the next season even if their OL sucks and they have no deep threat WRs and some of their best defensive players are refugees from STs. Well, the Bills FO will fix that fault in the 2018 draft by taking their franchise QB savior in the first round. It's a going to be a great QB draft with at least 5 or 6 great prospects according to all the draftniks and their amateur wannabees, so the Bills will surely get their man ... and then, watch out Patriots ... you're DOOMED!!!! //sarcasm off

Or your downfield passing game.

I watched parts of both games. Even if they lost, both teams were far more entertaining -- and showed much more promise -- than the Bills have shown. I think the Bills are going to set a league record for punts in a season. This is what I've seen, too, and I think it's something that's going to come back to bite the NFL in the arse sooner than later. That there were empty seats at the Bills home opener on a sunny day versus division rival Jests simply underscores the attendance problems all around the league. From what I've heard, the Jests have been having attendance issues at their new stadium ... primarily because they've priced out the ordinary fans who were the backbone of the Jests fanbase. The newer Jest fans flush enough to shell out for PSLs want to see better than what they've gotten ... and older Jests fans aren't traveling to B-lo to see their team stink, either. The Bills aren't nearly as immune as some fans think. According to a news story back before the start of the season, the Bills season tickets are down at least 5,000 from last season. I believe that there are individual game tix available for most games, too. It's been seventeen years since the Bills fielded a team that recorded double-digit wins and made the post season. That's a whole generation of potential fans who have never had the experience of regularly seeing the Bills win. There's almost two generations of fans who have never experienced expecting to see the Bills crush opponents game in and game out. Most fans who actually remember "the Glory Years" are staring grandparenthood and retirement in the face ... or are already there. Old folks don't attend football games nearly as often as younger people, and teams that never win -- or win sporadically -- aren't going to attract new fans.

Who is this "we"? You may have been hoping for coaching competence but after watching the fiasco that was the offense in the preseason, I knew that McDermott was most likely a Jauron-clone. I thought that the Jests game would have been a TD-less gem but apparently the Jests are more inept than even I thought, and Carolina not nearly as good offensively as I believed. The good news, of course, just like in the Jauron-era, was that the Bills beat the point spread as they were 7 or 7.5 dogs. PS: every QB needs protection and targets, even the greats like Brady or Rodgers. Taylor has neither ... and that's not his fault.

The Bills hate players with talent because they have to pay them well to keep them ... and the Bills (and too many Bills fans) have 1001 excuses for why the Bills can't "afford" to do that when other teams manage to exactly that.

I'll be interested to see how Cleveland does against the Ravens, how the Rams do against Washington, and how the Jags do against the Titans. All three surprised me last week: the Browns with how well they played against Pitt and the Rams and Jags with how they beat the crap out of Indy and Houston respectively. I'm not sold on Tennessee being all that good like some of the pundits claim but they'll be a better test for the "Sacksonville" than Houston.

If the Bills had given Peters a fair contract in the first place or if they had just said, "mea culpa" and re-did his contract when he found out that they were trying to pay him like he was a backup RT, things wouldn't have gotten as ugly as they did ... and the Bills might have gotten much more production out of their entire offense over the last eight seasons. But that's the Bills' way: maximize profit by gutting the team of its best talent. Y'know, it's really amazing how successful teams always manage to figure out how to re-sign/extend their best players under the same cap that always forces the Bills to let their best young talent leave.

It's only "ridiculous" because you don't want to believe it. Who, exactly, hired Whaley? Let me give you a hint: the same person who hired Beane ... and Nix before him.

Well, that's the official line. Maybe he did but maybe his situation was made so untenable that he had to leave. People are forced out of jobs all the time through management actions that create hostile work environments. Ask any woman over thirty-five who works/worked in a male dominated profession how that goes.

The real issue is that the Rams haven't been in LA for 20+ years. They no longer have a following there. The LA situation wasn't like those in the other cities that got teams in the 20 years since the Rams left where much, if not most, of the impetus for bringing in an NFL franchise came from local people. Who was agitating for the NFL in LA? The NFL itself for TV ratings and real estate developers. If the Rams can turn themselves around on the field, they may eventually have a successful run in LA but I'm guessing that even the promised new stadium isn't going to save the LA Chargers. They'll leave eventually ... possibly back to San Diego.

I'm so over the "new owners" excuse. I don't quite agree with your observation only because there are some really crappy owners who've been around a lot longer, but I gave them a D for the Bills. I gave them an F for the Sabres because they've done nothing. The Pegulas are working toward the goal of being the worst, though. As long as they leave Russ Brandon in charge of the teams -- and don't doubt that he is -- neither the Bills nor the Sabres will be better than mediocre because the emphasis will always be at maximizing profits over winning football or hockey games.

Owens and Knox are both most likely to get in and probably most deserving from the perspective of their careers in the NFL.

He didn't look nearly as good as Kizer did for the Browns against the Stillers. The two rookie QBs taken before him are sitting behind Glennon and Smith, so we aren't like to see them much this season unless the starters go down.

And when will the Bills start winning? It's likely Dareus and most of the players currently on the roster will be long gone before that happens.

Three time Pro Bowl LT Andrew Whitworth is now helping Jared Goff look like a pro QB in Los Angeles and RG Kevin Zeitler is now protecting Deshon Kizer in Cleveland. That's what happened to Andy Dalton ... that's exactly the same thing that happened to Drew Bledsoe in Buffalo. A crappy OL can bring down any QB. ^^^ C'mon, Bill!!! That wasn't great defense ... it was simply terrible offense. Neither Houston nor Cinci has a decent OL, and it showed. It was reminiscent of the gem that the Bills and Browns played in October 2009 where the Bills lost 6-3 at home.

Let me guess. You're still fighting the Civil War, and in you're alternative universe, the South wins. Amirite?

They're not going to wait until the off season to dump him. Dareus is gone probably well before the trade deadline if they can find any team willing to give them whatever bargain basement price they set. The Bills are employing their typical negative propaganda about said player in the ever-cooperative local media to prep fans for his departure sooner rather than later. They've employed that tactic in the past, most notably with Jason Peters and Marshawn Lynch but also with players who were sent packing in FA.

Since he owned the Sabres when he bought the Bills, I think the NFL is okay with Pegula owning both of teams ... and I don't think that anybody except an NFL team owner can question the NFL by-laws pertaining to who can own teams ... in case you were thinking of suing. As somebody mentioned, the AHL Buffalo Bisons were replaced by the NHL Buffalo Sabres in 1970. Both were owned by the Knox family incidentally. In addition to the NBA Buffalo Braves, the Buffalo Bisons AAA baseball team left in the 1960s or 1970s IIRC. They were replaced with an AA franchise for a while but then the Rich family resurrected the Bisons on the AAA level in the 1980s.

I didn't find it funny at all, and I gave up on it before the episode was even over.

I can see the Bills doing this ... and their loyal, brainwashed fans applauding the genius of it: let a speedy young WR walk away in FA, trade away a fast, sure-handed young WR, and then turn around and trade for a speedy, older WR who makes more $$$. I'm sure that the Bills brain trust have concluded that Hilton will fit the Bills' "culture" even before he's on the team.

It's one game: the season opener at home against a division rival that not only appears to lack talent but didn't seem all that interested in winning games. I kept waiting for the Jests to fight back, but they seemed content to be pushed around. That says a lot about the Jests IMO, but to draw conclusions about how good the Bills are based on that game is silly.

No, it doesn't "feel different". It feels like exactly what it was: an opening day win over a hapless Jests squad that didn't even put up much of a fight given that it was a divisional game. We learned nothing about the quality of the Bills from that game because the Jests seemed disinterested in winning.

The Bills have started 3-0 numerous times before during the drought. They've gone on impressive 4 or 5 game winning streaks during that time, too, but the reality is that they haven't won 10 games or more in the same season since 1999, and they've only won 9 games twice. Start crowing when they win 10 games or make the playoffs, dude.

Believe whatever you want to believe but I watched much of the game, and totally agree that Marrone is a decent HC and will get more out of that team than you think. The Jags looked good, especially on defense where their pass rushers literally overwhelmed Savage on just about pass attempt, and on offense they made Bortles look respectable, which was probably quite a feat. Oh, yeah, they went into the Texans' house and dominated them ... and the Texans aren't the Jests.

Tannehill is nothing all that special as a QB, which is why Cutler can replace him and look decent. Miami's offense is well constructed and talented, and just about any decent QB would make it click. Contrary to myth here on TBD, a team doesn't necessarily need a "world class" talent at QB if it's got a good offense, a stout defense, and good coaching ... and as Indy demonstrates, a world class talent at QB is wasted if the rest of the pieces aren't in place.