jahnyc

I think the gloom results from the following: 1. The team is bad, and there is no confidence that they are getting better or that they will be better next year. 2. The team has been bad for a long time. I think the playoff drought will be seven years after this year. 3. If JP is not the guy, finding the guy could mean more rebuilding and patience. 4. We will lose Clements, and possibly Fletcher, Kelsay and others this offseason. The team will be worse after losing these players and there are too many holes to fill. 5. The offense is not entertaining in any way, shape or form. 6. While the Bills won yesterday, they were outplayed (except on special teams). A win is a win, but it was really ugly. Overall, we are tired of losing and being patient.

Good article. Drafting and free agent acquisitions have been poor overall. I don't think McNally is the problem, but maybe our talent evaluators, for the draft and free agent acquisitions, are the problem. I think Marv needs to take a hard look at this because I believe that all of TD's hires are still the ones evaluating the talent.

Losing Clements will be a problem, particularly with McGee's recent struggles. Any replacement cb of the caliber of Clements will require spending big money in free agency or using a first round pick on a cb. Losing Clements without receiving anything in return really hurts. He will not be franchised next year and I don't see the Bills re-signing him at this point.

I agree, and on a more basic level, our talent evaluators are below average at identifiying free agent acquisitions. Bennie Anderson, Vincent, Posey and Gandy have not worked out well, and there are questions about Fowler, Reyes, Triplett, and P. Price. The bottom line is that the Bills have done a poor job of replacing talented player swho have departed (i.e., Pat Williams).

He may be a rookie in terms of the number of games played, but he has been through three training camps, a number of preaseason games, numerous practices over the last three years and a couple of offseasons.

I think it is an important game for JP. The game is at home, and if the team loses and he plays poorly, the amount of pressure on JP will increase significantly, both in terms of the fans and the locker room.

1. Clements will not be back. The Bills agreed to not franchise him this offseason (why? I have no idea). We will not be able to franchise him and then trade him. 2. He should have been re-signed. The Bills did not use all of their cap space this year and will have a lot next year. Signing Nate would have had almost no impact on the Bills' ability to sign other available free agents, even top free agents. 3. Nate will be one of the top free agents in the offseason. Any decent replacement via free agency will be very expensive. Fletcher should be popular as well. We will receive no compensation for either player, other than possibly some low round compensatory picks, assuming we do not sign equivalent free agents. 4. It is doubtful that the Bills will be able to sign a top free agent LT, DT or CB. I think there will be few available and I don't think the Bills will be a particularly attractive destination. 5. We will need to find a top LT in the draft. The problem is that we may be looking at filling needs at QB, DT, LB and CB as well. We will have more holes going into this offseason than last season. 6. I think it will be hard to find improvements over Clements and Fletcher. They should have been re-signed, assuming they were interested in doing so.

I agree that Clements should have been re-signed for all of the reasons listed above. One additional reason: the Bills have so many holes and it would suck if they have to draft a cb in the early rounds to replace Clements. That would mean one less draft pick for the oline or the dline.

The current situation is depressing, I don't think this team gets turned around quickly. The Bills have so many holes now, and will have more after losing Clements, Fletcher and Kelsay. Add in the possibility of finding a new qb and this team may not be competitive for years.

Very interesting. I have previously commented on the ability of the Bills' scouts and other talent evaluators to make good selections of cornerbacks. This is not the case with the offensive line, where draft picks and free agent acquisitions generally have fared poorly. Do the different people evaluate college talent and current players in the league for the Bills?

I think the Bills being competitive in the first four games really masked how much the team has changed and how far the teams needs to go. New coaches, new schemes for the offense and defense, new players and veterans cut or not re-signed (Milloy, Adams, Teague, etc.). What concerns me is the o-line, JP and losing some quality players this offseason. It seems that for the last seven or eight years there has been constant complaining about the o-line and it does not get better. Gandy should not be a starter in the NFL, the Bills can never seem to rush to get a first down, even when they need only a few yards, and JP does not have enough time to throw. I know that Marv inherited this problem, but a few low round picks in the draft and some budget free agents will not fix this problem. I have strong doubts about JP as a starting NFL quarterback. Granted, the line play has been poor, but JP does not seem to feel the rush and makes too many bad throws, pressured or not. He may not have many NFL starts, but he has been in three training camps and participated in a couple of offseasons. He should be further along at this point in his career. Again, maybe the problem is the o-line, but I also thought that about Rob Johnson, who is no longer playing in the NFL. Clements will likely be a free agent after this year. Fletcher and I think Kelsay will be as well. It is hard to find quality players in free agency, most teams re-sign their own quality players. I would have no confidence that we will be able to fill our holes in free agency this offseason. We certainly will not be able to do it through the draft alone. In addition to the above, we will need o-line help, possibly a rb since McGahee will be a free agent after next year, and another DT. Can all of our problems on offense be traced to the o-line? Is it JP? What about McGahee, who has been ineffective at times this year? On defense, why is McGee suddenly so exposed this year? I understand why teams can run effectively on the Bills. Losing Pat Williams really hurt this team and our new DTs are a work in progress (although Anderson seems like a bust). Bottom line is that we have a lot of holes and will have possibly more holes going into the offseason if we lose more players to free agency. We are rebuilding and it will take time.

There is no linkage between the Bills checking interest in Clements and Tampa Bay's willingness to trade some of their veterans.

Jay Glazer reported on the CBS pre-game show that the Bills are shopping Clements before the trading deadline. He also noted that Tampa Bay was willing to trade a number of veteran players, including Booger McFarland (DT). I recall that there were reports that the Bills agreed with Clements that they would not put the franchise tag on him again next year, which means this would be the last chance to get some value in return for Clements.

Some thoughts/questions below: 1. I hope the Bills re-sign Clements and Fletcher. If they don't, we will be trying to fill too many holes again this offseason. Free agent cbs are expensive, even mediocre ones, and I don't think Youboty will be ready to replace Clements. Fletcher is a leader and the Bills need to show that they can keep their veterans. 2. Is Kelsay a free agent after this season? If so, that will be another hole to fill in the draft or free agency (even if Denney becomes the starter). 3. We need to win today (and approach .500 for the year) because the Bills need to be perceived in the league as an improving team with a bright future by both fans and potential free agents. 4. At what point do amounts available in the current cap year cease to be available for contract extensions? I have noticed that some teams that are under the cap are extending players by using amounts available this year (i.e., Dockett). It sounds like Vincent will count towards this year's cap, but do we have more available? I would think that the Bills would use up their available cap amounts so that there is more available next year.

Not feeling terrible after the loss, because there were some hopeful signs for the future: 1. Whitner was a factor. Other rookies made contributions. 2. Offensive game calling was better. 3. No turnovers. 4. The Bills seemed like a well coached team (not outcoached to the same degree as in prior years against the Pats). The not so good: 1. Poor rush defense. Same problem as last year. I saw many huge holes today for the Pats. This will doom the Bills in '06 if it is not corrected. 2. JP played better, but his stats (less than two hundred yards passing) and no tds are familiar. He needs to show the team that he can engineer a comeback and a victory. 3. Is it our oline or JP? Still not sure. Same with McGahee. 4. Depth was already tested on defense. The Bills will have problems if there are any injuries to our oline. There is no depth (of all things, this is hardest thing for me to understand about the current makeup of the team-- how do you not have a capable back-up at tackle?)

I can't remember over the recent history of the Bills this number of players being picked up by other teams after the final cuts. King, Baker and Smith (regular roster) and Gates, Nance and Geisinger (practice squads). I don't think this goes to our overall talent, although there are some positions that have quality players and depth. I think we have a talented secondary and a number of receivers who are adequate 4th or 5th wide receivers and good special team performers (which made making the team as a receiver tough). The Bills do not seem to have much overall talent on the oline and the dline. Peters, Schobel and Triplett are the exceptions. We will see whether JP is our quarterback of the present and the future.

The jury is out on Preston at this point. His position in college was center and I would have thought after not re-signing Teague that Preston would have had the inside track to be the starter this year at that position. Instead, he is playing guard and backing up Villarial.

Good point, and again this year the Bills followed the same formula: they used early picks on the defensive secondary and late round picks on the oline. Seems to me that other than Williams, the Bills have not made much of an investment (in terms of early picks in the draft) in the oline. Strange, since top LTs and RTs are almost prohibitively expensive as free agent acquisitions.

I am not sure how the scouting for the Bills works, but the Bills have done a good job of acquiring talent in the secondary through the draft and with undrafted players. Do the scouts work by region or by position (I think it is the former)? Our depth is evident and Baker and King have enough potential to be picked up by other teams. If the Bills can find a way to keep Clements, I think our secondary will be one of the strongest in the NFL within a couple of years. Constrast the success with the secondary with the failures with the oline. Williams, Sobieski, McFarland, Puccillo, Geisinger, and possibly Preston. Now we have no depth on our oline and an injury to one of our tackles would be devastating.

Is Parrish really better than Smith? They seem to have similar skills. Smith looked good returning punts a couple of years ago, better than Parrish last year.

Not sure why you think the Bills may be close to consummating a long-term deal with Clements. I have not read any reports that the Bills and Clements are even in negotiations.

After Evans and assuming there is a problem with Price, I don't think we have a #2 wide receiver. Reed has been tried as a #2 and he failed miserably (the Bills drafted Evans after that season).

New coaches and new systems/schemes. Who knows if we have the right personnel to run the offense and defense the way the coaches would like them to be run. It will take time for the players to adjust. Implementing a new offense alone would be tough in one offseason/preseason, and we are implementing a new offense and a new defense. It took a couple of years for the Bills to find the right players for Gregg Williams' system. Combine this with the fairly significant turnover on offense and defense and there is no choice but to be patient and wait to see how things go in the regular season.

Sorry to be negative about this, but I think little progress has been made. Reyes may be an upgrade over Bennie, but he is not an elite level guard. Fowler is undersized and it is not clear (at least to me) whether he is an upgrade over Teague. We need to improve at LT and at RT. I understand that Peters has much potential, but the reality is that our running game suffered after he replaced Williams. I do have high hopes for Peters and I anticipate that his overall play will improve this year with additional experience. Villarail is getting old and has been injured over the last couple of years. He may need to be replaced sooner rather than later. I don't think this team will show improvement until we make a more significant investment in the o-line (both with high draft picks and quality free agent acquisitions).

I really don't care for WM's attitude and I found his recent interview with the Florida paper kind of disturbing. He has skipped all of the optional sessions and does not seem committed to the team in general. I know our line was poor last year, but his play really regressed, and I have no idea whether he is an elite back. There is no way I would re-negotiate his deal at this time. Let him prove himself on the field this year.