Bob in STL

He implies that if you change one word, "steriods" to "xxxxxxxx" then is story is correct. Well what is xxx? Beer? Fireworks? Cuban cigars? I give him some credit for the apology but he left himself a big out.

Gregg Williams was going to make the #2 defense in the league into the #1 defense, remember???? That is what really hurts.

Nix must be taking marketing lessons from Brandon. Lets forget the Eagle and talk about the Bills. Bringing in free agents you say? All the remaining free agent are leftovers so if we bring in any they are depth/filler players -- which on the Bills means a potential starter at most positions. We brought in Smith and Barnett and we signed them. Who else? We negotiated with Clabo but did we bring him in? If his wife was concerned about moving the family did we pay to bring her in? Do we have people on the payroll to help with free agents signings? Heck, Kim Pegula met with all the players wives when the Sabres went on a West Coast trip. She went to Calgary to talk to Robin Regher's wife and help close the deal. What do the Bills do again? Sign our own players? Like who, Kelsey? Yes we signed Florence and Williams. How many others were let go with good mileage left. The list is long. Even under the Nix era we let veterans go and replaced them with less. We demand competition? Where other than OL and LB, areas that were so woeful we have no choice. So what great competion do we have in camp this year? Rinehart-Levitre-Bell. Woo-hoo! What are the other 31 teams doing? Well 29 of them are making the playoffs at least one in the past decade. The other two, Detriot and Houston, look to be further along than we are. I jumped on the Donohoe/Greggo bandwagon. And the Levy/Jauron bandwagon. I am not implying the sky is falling but I will start giving this regime credit when they show results.

The Kelsey hate is similar to the Whitner and Poz hate. People just don't think he is very good. As a linebacker I agree, he is bad. As a DE he is decent back up. Before Moats, Stevie Johnson was a favorite of the developmental players. I think the dreds and the rapping helped his popularity because he never played for two years. Last year Stevie had a breakout year and we need more of these young hopefuls to do the same. Moats seems to a be favorite on this board. He has shown some flashes as a pass rusher and has potential. The new favorite hopefuls are Batten, Carrington, Sheppard and Jasper. There were people on this board pencilling Sheppard in as a starter before the lockout even ended. This things take on their own life form on TSW.

You end the last season with Bell, Pears, Wang and Wrotto as your OTs. You bring in one new tackle ... a 4th round draft pick. You try for the best OT in free agency and you do not get that done. Your twenty something million under the cap but you do not bring in any other players for OT? ---- Yes, Chan is trying to make something out of this mess.

Good points. The defense has to be beter with Wannstadt helping out and the addition of Dareus and Barnett. Plus we have Kyle Williams. If Merriman is healthy they could be decent. On offense, uhmm, uhh ... if Fitz has time to throw we will be ok.

Gailey was out of the NFL for 12 years but he coached and ran a NCAA Div 1 program. He saw first hand how todays players are turned into coddled prima donnas. Hew knows what they are all about. He knows that the leadership and accountability has to come from the players. Gailey is not out there missing blocks and tackles. If there is a problem in the locker room it is because of a lack of veteran leadership by the players. We have no leaders like the glory days with Jim Kelly, Kent Hull, or Darryl Talley. This is easy to understand since we change coaches and GMs every 3-4 years. The players we draft we often fail to develop. When they do develop they leave because a new coach comes in and brings in "his players". We are in a viscous cycle of change and all it is doing is breeding a losing mentality. Who are the core veteran players on this team? Evans (now gone)? Jackson? K. Williams? Wilson?

Sounds like a veteran backup on the inside. We have Davis and Barnett most likely starters. We can swing Moats outside now and have Sheppard/ White and now Morrison.

I think that the internet communication certainly amplifies the problem and the negative feelings. I have sufferd with this team through all the lean years and like all of you out there remain a die hard. Just cannot imagine me not being a fan and going to Buffalo a couple times a year to watch them.

Good points. I was going to mention that the era between Chuck Knox and Marv Levy was very grim. Never under-estimate what adding a HoF QB (Kelly) and an all time great defensive player (Smith) can do. Each of this men helped to make the people around them better. Kyle williams is the best football player on the team right now. I hope to say I'm wrong and Dareus, Merriman, and Johnson have great seasons.

Maybe so, that was a bad era, but we had less communication outlets to put spin on it.

After scanning the topics on this board it was really dawned on me how bad things look for the Bills right now. While the team is making some strides in some areas there really has been very little done in the past year to improve this team. Some of the negative stuff: 1. Ownership issues - more than any other time there seems to be a lack of a winning comittment. They will make tons of money no matter what. 2. No known succession plan for the inevitable passing of Ralph. 3. Lack of respect from the national media has reached an all time high. Maybe today's journalists have more insight or is it our culture now? 4. Just when we think we have a football man running the show a story leaks that maybe that is not so. (Overdorf and the Evans trade) 5. Front office taking a slow deliberate approach to rebuild, almost a reluctance to bring in better players and depth. 6. Not since the early 70's (prior to Lou Saban's return) have we had so little talent on the roster. At least relative to the rest of the league and especially our division. Are things that bad for the Bills or could it be the mass communications blasting away at us? Think about how things are today - sports radio, all sports TV, internet, blogs, tweets, youtube. Seems like the focus is on the negative. I even find it to be happening to me.

Freddy is playing his cards now. Imagine the beating Fitz will take without Jackson there to pick up blitzes?

After 3 years the picture will be clear that they need another three years. I am not saying that to be negative. Why you ask? Because we are building through the draft only. After three years we might draft a franchise QB and a legitimate LT. It will take them three more years to develop. Even then, that assumes some of the current players that Nix has drafted actually turn out ok. Since the Bills are not using trades or Free Agancy to improve their talent it will take them longer than most other teams.

I can understand Spiller getting more reps in preseason. Spiller needs to work on ALL aspects of his game such waiting for his blockers, pass route running, and blitz pickup. Jackson can get less reps and still could have started against Denver. Jackson should be number 1 until Spiller beats him out. Chan should know this?

I am shaking my head in disbelief. Levitre, is not a "pile of crap" at LG. He did a good job last year. They chose to make an example out of him and platoon him with Rinehart. Competition is good, right Chan? All of a sudden Levitre is good enough to play LT, the most important position on the OL? Buddy, read your roster --- did you not know at draft time that your tackles were Bell, Pears, Wang, Wrotto and Howard (who is really a Gaurd). Buddy, are you even trying? Wake up please! Are you playing for Andrew Luck? Lee Evans, one of the few legitimate NFL starters on our offense, is shipped out for a fourth round pick? That was going to make us better? They want to see Spiller play more so they alienate Fred Jackson, the only complete running back on the team. They have lots of opportunities to play Spiller without handing him a position that he did not earn. I am shaking my head in disbelief.

He made a few plays against 3rd and 4th stringers in preseason last year too. Then he did crazy celebrations.

I can tell your frustrated. I did notice the loss of Evans in the first half of the Denver game. We looked silly just trying to go deep. Hopefully what we were seeing was a plain vanilla offense and poor execution, and not a foreshadowing of things to come.

Let's remember that he is playing aginst plain vanilla backups and camp fodder. Also remember that Matt Cassel looked like Joe Montana in Belicheck's system. I prefer Dareus, but after the first round a QB would have been nice. I think the guys they liked were gone. Someday we will draft a QB again, someday we will draft a LT too.

From within themselves. That's the only place it can really come from.

It is one preseaon game so I try not to get too negative about it. We were difinitely not ready to play and it looks like John Fox threw a lot at us that we did not have answers for. I cannot believe the talent between the two is that far apart. The two biggest observations from me: 1. Our OL is not any further along than last year at this time. In fact, it may be worse. (Even though Wood and Bell are healthy) 2. Our defense looks a lot worse without Merriman.

Something is wrong in the middle, not sure if it is the line calls but something is wrong and the play has degraded. Levtre-Hang-Wood looked better at this point last year then Levitre-Wood-Urbik and Wood was not even healthy. Levitre is getting the heat from Gailey but the RG looks even worse. Both tackles are suspect but everyone knows that except for Buddy and Ralph.

John, I repsect your opinion and I enjoy your posts. I do want to mention a few things about the OL that go against some of your points here. Bell - true a full year of conditioning should help. Let's hope that yesterday was an aberation because he looked very bad. Overall, I see Bell as a good backup LT and not suitable as a LT on a playoff caliber OL. LT is a postion that the Bills have neglected for years. Will Woolford was the last first round LT that we drafted and that was in the late 80's. Hard to believe. Levitre - You say looking stronger and better? Not according to the coaches who are platooning him with Chad Rinehart. Middle of the line - something is wrong here and I do not have enough insight or video to tell what it is. Levitre is getting the heat but I am wondering about Wood at center and Urbik at RG. Yesterday was not a good day for the middle of the line either. Hargartner is a TSW whipping boy but last year we started with Levitre-Hangartner-Wood and we looked better than Levitre-Wood-Urbik do right now... that is my opinion. Pears - who nows? He may be better than Green/Howard/Wrotto but he looks as bad as Bell. There is constant pressure pouring in from the edges, Fitz has lttle choice but to throw short most of the time. Preseason is half over and I do not see any substantial improvement at any position on the OL.

To all the yougsters and newbies telling us old farts to be patient, I admire the positive outlike. I recall those days. Ok. I am not sure what you see about this administration that I cannot. I think Buddy Nix is a good college talent evaluator. He is putting all of his eggs into the draft basket. It is still too early to even grade his drafts yet. Next year Buddy will have to spend more money and we shall see what he does with free agency at that time. So far he has done nothing outside of the draft. Chan Gailey is a proven excellent Offensive Coach. Jury is still out on him as a head coach though. His decision to swith to 3-4 last year seemed to be a bad one. The Spiller pick? Hmmmm. I've been watching this team since 1963. I have seen many bad teams, some that were just plain eye watering bad. I have seen a few good teams ('73-75), a few very good teams ('80-81, 98-99) a great team (64-65) and even a great era(88-95). I am patient and loyal with this team. I try to be fair. We all, as Bills die hards, we deserve the right to be cynical every now and then. Cheers.