jahnyc

I doubt we will find any waiver pick-ups that would help immediately, particularly since they would need time to learn the scheme and playbook to be effective (assuming they are good enough to contribute). Kind of shocking to me to go into the season with this group of CBs. With Gilmore out, could be the worst group I have ever seen on an NFL team. I hope Byrd is back for game one, because the safeties have not looked good either.

Does he count for a roster spot or is he excluded until activated?

In terms of free agency, I don't believe that we have "upleveled" safety or QB. We will see about LB. It will depend on the play of Hughes and Lawson, but I am not sure whether either player was particularly sought after. I excluded WR because we opted to try to improve that group through the draft. Our o-line could be added to the list, since the free agent acquisitions we made are inferior to the players we lost (Levtire and Reinhart).

I don't know what the offseason plan for free agency was for the team, but as executed, it was horrible. 1. Levitre. They knew that they would not pay him top of the market before he hit free agency, so not finding an adequate replacement is inexcusable. 2. CBs. We needed a second starter and a third corner this offseason. Instead, the Bills re-sign McKelvin to an oversized contract and do not pick a CB in the draft. 3. LB. We will see about Lawson and Hughes, but Bradham has been a disappointment and Lawson was only a part-time player for the Bengals. The Colts gave up on Hughes. I am not optimistic. 4. Strong Safety. Do we have a capable strong safety on the roster? 5. Tight End. Seems that we are fortunate that Chandler has returned quickly from his ACL injury. Otherwise, the position is very weak. 6. QB. Enough has been written on the board about this. We had a lot of needs, and we failed to address them, even with significant cap space.

The front office only will deserve kudos if EJ develops into an above average starting QB.

Whether it is their fault or not, the Bills picked the wrong guy to compete for the starting QB position or to be the competent back-up. That is where we are. Now we need to see whether EJ is the QB of the present and future, which may take at least two years to fully play out. Really difficult to find both a future starting QB and a veteran QB to challenge for the starting QB position in one offseason, particularly when the draft for QBs is the worst in years and the veteran QB market is weak.

The Bills have obvious holes at CB and left guard. The linebackers are either unproven or looking for a second chance to show that they are not busts. The QB situation is poor, but not with out hope, although it is unrealistic to think that EJ can play like Luck or RGIII in his first year, particularly after missing training camp time with an injury. The wide receivers are young, but with potential. Putting all of this together, the only way that this team will have an improved record this year will be if the coaching is superior to previous years. We need to hope this is the case.

Hard to argue with any of this. Bills need to prove it on the field, and they have not done so in more than 10 years.

Not sure that Hackett is fully responsible since Tuel was the quarterback for most of the game. I like the idea of an uptempo offense, but we will see if we have the right personnel to run it. If it is not effective, Hackett will need to be able to change things up, otherwise the defense will get killed.

Theisman had one good point during the telecast, which was if the Bills are going to run an uptempo offense, they better get first downs, otherwise their defense will be on the field most of the game.

At this point, I think there is enough of a body of work to make judgments about McKelvin. He is an amazing athlete and maybe the new coaches will make a difference, but I am not sure a lack of instincts can be fixed.

I don't get the re-signing of McKelvin. He is not a starting caliber CB and his kick returning abilities were not enough to justify his new contract.

Secondary and linebackers looked really bad.

If there is no chance that he will re-sign with the Bills after the season (since they can't negotiate a new contract now), then he should be traded when he will generate the most interest and trade value.

Before the end of last season, I would have voted to wait to consider extending Wood to see if gets through this season injury free. Given his past injuries, it also is a fair question as to whether his overall effectiveness will be negatively impacted over the next number of years. Now, with the loss of Levitre and likely Byrd, plus more than $20 million in salary cap space available this year, I would try to sign him well before before he hits free agency.

I don't think any of us know enough to figure out who to blame for the situation with Byrd. It may well be about businesss if Byrd wants to be the highest paid safety in the NFL. If this is the case, not sure I understand why there would be bad blood and I certainly would not blame the Bills for a broken relationship. The real question to me is whether Byrd wants to be here. Would he be willing to take less from a playoff caliber team? Is he asking to be highest paid (if true) only because it is the Bills? The Bills did pick two safteties in the last draft. They must have had some inkling as to where this was going.

This will not end well. If these reports are correct, seems like the relationship is broken. I am sure a lot of teams like Byrd, and some may be willing to pay him what he is looking for, but few of these teams also would want to give up a high draft choice to get him. Really can't lose Levitre and Byrd, two of the best players we have drafted in the last five years.

This is really unfortunate. EJ needed the practice reps and to play in preseason games.

This is interesting. While not bad compared to the numbers for other teams, our debt to value percentage is higher than I would have expected. I was not aware that the Bills had any debt. Maybe they have loans in connection with the renovations to the RWS? The operating income number is worrisome, considering that the Bills have a relative low debt to value percentage. If the team gets sold and our debt service increases, it will be difficult to generate positive operating income based on these numbers.

Maybe the long-term plan is to find a LT and move Glenn over to LG. If this is the case, it may be tough to watch the left side of the o-line this year. I do not understand going into the season with Brown and Legursky as the possible starters. While it can be argued that signing Levitre to the contract he received from the Titans would have been a mistake, you would think that signing a mid-tier LG would have made sense considering the Bills have more than $20 million in cap space. The o-line may need considerable revamping in the future, particularly with Wood being a free agent next year. I really don't agree with the posters who claim that finding guards is easy. I remember what we had after Ruben and before Levitre, and it was not pretty.

I am still confused about all of this, but I have a feeling long-term that Glenn ends up being a left guard. I am surprised that we did not draft an OT in the last draft. It was a good group and fairly deep.

Another example of really poor planning by the front office. They could not have been surprised by the offers that Levitre received in free agency and they had plenty of time to reach a deal with Levitre well before he became a free agent. Most importantly, the front office lkely knew that Levitre would leave. They also knew that there was not an adequate replacement on the roster, so they needed to find a free agent replacement or select a guard in the draft. Signing a back-up guard from the Steelers is not addressing the situation, and the o-line will suffer this year as a result. There really is no excuse for this. The Bills are more than $20 million under the salary cap and they had time to prepare for and address this situation. I also do not buy into the theory that Bills did not try to re-sign Levitre because they know they would need to re-sign other pending free agents, including Byrd. Looks like there is a good chance we will lose Byrd in the next year or two as well.

I had the sense that Levitre wanted to stay, but it seemed that the Bills were not interested in keeping him, at least at the dollars that Levitre was looking for. I have always thought that Byrd did not want to be here. Could be wrong, maybe it is only about the money the Bills are offering, but Parker will force a divorce. I would have re-signed Levitre and I would press to re-sign Byrd. I do agree that we need to see that Wood can be healthy for a season before re-signing him. He has had two very tough injuries and I do have concerns about this ability to play over the long term. We will see about Spiller. We really should not be losing homegrown talent with the cap space that we have and our poor record with signing free agents.

No one in the Bills front office deserves the benefit of the doubt. Brandon has been a part of the decision making team for too long to escape responsibility for the state of the Bills over the last ten years. Even Whaley has a lot to prove given his prior roles with the Bills. Doug Marrone and his staff have a clean slate. Let us all hope that they are excellent coaches to help overcome some of the front office and personnel decision making deficiencies.

I think we need to be careful about our assessments of the potential contributions of Hughes and Lawson. Indy did not want Hughes and he has underperformed as a first round pick. Lawson was a part time player last year for the Bengals. Hopefully, they will produce for the Bills, but we should be realistic about the chances of both being quality players for the Bills. I am more excited about seeing more of Carrington. He seemed to make strides last year and he made some plays. Maybe he will blossom this year.