DonInBuffalo

FYI, the other day I walked by the BWW on Elmwood Ave. It's no longer in business.

It's sold out most if not all of the time in the past. One difference this year is they raised the price of kid's tickets from $5 to $15.

Since the game's being played at 6:30 pm Saturday, that would be quite a trick.

I just went to WKBW's site, and they said it will be shown Sunday 8 pm. That is correct. The Bills listed the replay times on their site - Sunday 2 am, Monday 7 am.

Since starters typically play the entire first half and in some cases part of the 3rd quarter in the 3rd preseason game, and typically play only a small portion of the final preseason game, the game this week will likely decide whatever starting jobs are still open. For the purposes of this discussion, I'm thinking about "who is going to be the starter on opening day", not "who is going to be the starter if/when everyone is healthy". QB - I'm guessing Trent will play at least a quarter, but Brohm might get some reps with the first unit as well. It's either that or Gailey announces that Trent has won the starting job before the game even starts, and he gets all of the first team reps. I'm guessing the former. WR - Chad Jackson will probably split 1st team reps with Steve Johnson. I'm putting my money on Jackson. TE - Unfortunately, last man standing wins this job. OL - doesn't appear to be any real competition here. If everyone had been healthy for the entire camp, Meredith might have been able to push Green. But since he's had to take most of his reps at LT, I don't see how the coaching staff can seriously evaluate how he hypothetically would perform at RT compared to Green. WOLB - with Torbor possibly unable to go on opening day, looks like it's between Coleman and Maybin for this spot. I noticed Coleman getting some 1st team reps in the last game on 1st and 2nd down. I'm guessing that was after Torbor got hurt, and also guessing that's how it's going to be on opening day, assuming Torbor can't go. SOLB - The coaches appear to be impressed with Ellis. Looks like he might have a chance to take this job from Kelsay. CB - looks like it's going to start out this season the same way last season ended. Florence is the starter, and when they go nickel or dime, McKelvin plays the outside and Florence moves inside. Returners - looks like they're going to start the season with McKelvin KR and Parrish PR. With the injuries at RB, they need Spiller to focus on that position for now.

Even though he was suspended, Shawn Nelson was eligible to play in last night's game, but didn't get on the field. That leads me to believe at the very least he's in the doghouse big time. Most teams carry 9 OL. Last year, the Bills started the season with only 8 on the roster. Typically, you keep 2 backups who can play OT, and 2 that can play C/G, and on Sunday 2 out of those 4 are active. I expect the Bills to carry 5 CBs. McGee, Florence, and McKelvin are of course locks. Out of Corner, Youboty, and Lankster, I expect them to keep 2 and cut 1. They may carry more LBs. Backup LBs are a big part of your special teams. Probably 9, maybe even 10. Since Whitner and Wilson both have at least some experience at both safety positions, if they expect Byrd back relatively soon then they'll probably try to get by with just 4 safeties. If Lynch isn't healthy enough to play in the final preseason game, they might keep both Bell and Simpson to start the season. Every team in the NFL passed on Levi Brown at least 6 times in the draft. The only action he's going to get in the preseason is mop-up work with/against 3rd stringers, the vast majority of which won't make final rosters this season. Unless he does something outrageous in the final 2 preseason games, I can't see him getting enough attention for someone to sign him off the Bills P.S. to their active roster.

With both Jackson and Lynch possibly not ready for the opener, I can't see how the Bills won't carry 4 RBs on the final 53, at least to start the season. Your backup RBs have to contribute on special teams, otherwise they're a waste of a gameday roster spot. (unless somebody happens to get hurt during the game) I noticed Bell was on most of the coverage units tonight. IMO he'll have to show that he can contribute in that capacity to beat Simpson out for that 4th spot.

According to everything I've read, the general consensus is that in camp Trent has looked a little better than the others, but nobody has really stood out either way. So, I'm guessing their general plan is: - start Trent in the first two preseason games, plays most of the 1st half. - Fitz gets to finish the first half, and at least some of the starters are still in there. Plays most of the 2nd half. - Brohm does same in next week's game. At that point, you re-evaluate, and determine how to allocate reps with the starters in the 3rd preseason game. Starters typically play the longest in this game, so there would be more chances for 2 QBs to both get reps with the starters. In any event, you'll choose your starter no later than after the 3rd preseason game. The starters don't get enough reps in the final game to make that mean anything in the QB competition.

I'm not sure if they even have challenges in the preseason.

Keep in mind he's learning a COMPLETELY new position. He played DE in college, and now he's playing ILB. Also with Poz and Ellison not playing tonight, Moats got into the game sooner than he would have if everyone was healthy.

I'm willing to cut him some slack. His regular job is color. To the best of my knowledge, the only time he does play by play is Bills preseason games.

What leads you to believe that a player that none of the 32 teams has signed to a training camp roster would be any better than the players currently on the Bills roster?

They pretty much know who the starters are going to be. Might as well find out which backups can play at an acceptable enough level to keep on the roster. Reminds me of an amusing story when I was going to UB. A friend of mine was a very good golfer (2 handicap) and one day we went out to a field behind the dorms to hit some balls. We had two other friends with us that weren't golfers, so they got "elected" to go pick up all the balls when we were done. What they didn't know is that he hid about 20 extra balls in his bag that we didn't hit. After they had picked up the balls that were furthest away, and started moving in closer to us, they got "within range". He hit a ball about 5 yards to the left of them, then one about 5 yards to the right, and then gradually "closed in", until the balls were landing close enough to them to really get their attention. It was hilarious.

They sell out every game in large part because they have some of the lowest ticket prices in the NFL. Their club seat prices are among the lowest too. That lack of revenue makes it difficult for them to compete financially for top notch free agents and coaches. As long as Ralph is alive, it's true that they have no debt. When Ralph dies, whatever person/group that buys the team will have to take on a substantial amount of debt. At that point, it will no longer be economically viable to keep the team in Buffalo, because with that debt they will almost certainly be losing quite a bit of money every season.

I thought he got fired because he got in a fight with one of the other assistant coaches and stuck his face through a wall. Dickerson was light years ahead of clowns like Schmuck and the Bullfrog. Someone who has actually been an NFL coach of course has a good head start. He sometimes said things just to be controversial, but that's in large part because he understood that he was in the entertainment business. But all the listeners knew that it was going to be pretty much 100% sports talk. Toward the end of his run it started to get somewhat stale, as he had a small core group of callers each day, so you were always listening to the same people.

What really stands out to me looking at that chart is the complete lack of OL depth. Assuming no changes to the depth chart, they would likely keep 4 of the 5 backups. Meredith - the only thing resembling a quality backup Chambers - there is a reason he initially got cut last season. Watkins - UDFA that spent about a month on the Bills practice squad last season. Allen - UDFA Howard - UDFA

Interesting article. I don't think it's quite as "doom and gloom" as he tries to paint it, but it's a reminder that the Bills still have a long, long, ways to go before they're a seriously competitive team again.

Last season, Maybin was the #4 DE and got on the field for less than 10 snaps a game. The natural progression for him would be to move up to #3 this season, becoming the "situational pass rusher". Hopefully next season he'll be ready to handle a starting job.

I was thinking the same thing a while back. With no dominant #2 WR, and a surplus of effective RBs, and a precarious OT situation, you might need quite a bit of 1 WR 2 TE 2 RB sets. Assuming Nelson is one of the TEs and Spiller is one of the RBs, then you could potentially create matchup problems by splitting out either/both.

Someone who attended camp reported here that when the TEs did a drill involving pushing a blocking sled, Nelson was noticeably worse at it compared to the other TEs. Of course, he should have been doing work in the offseason to increase his upper body strength. If he wasn't, he has nobody to blame but himself. Maybe it's just going to take a little longer for him to build that strength up. Stupar's home town is listed as State College PA. And Jauron does have two daughters. He is 59, so you would think his daughters are probably somewhat older than Stupar, but not necessarily.

Apparently the coaching staff doesn't think Nelson is a good enough blocker to be the #1 TE. Would it have killed them to actually show us the entire depth chart? BuffaloBills.com doesn't have one listed, and the one listed on ESPN's site is noticeably different from what's in the article.

I'm guessing we're going to see a wide variety of personnel combinations and formations. Depending on how the OL performs, we may see a lot of 2 TE sets with Matthews and Nelson. If you also have Jackson and Spiller on the field in the backfield, then you could split out either Nelson or Spiller. (or on occasion possibly both)

IMO Parrish is simply too small to be a full time #2 WR. He's listed as 5'9 178. I wouldn't be surprised if he was substantially smaller than that. Last season, I noticed on occasion that Josh Reed was an effective blocker as the slot WR on running plays. Roscoe wouldn't be able to provide that, but he creates other matchup problems. In particular, he's so quick that you pretty much have to line up a DB across from him. (if you're playing man coverage) From an OC perspective, it's always a good start when you can dictate to the other team what personnel they need to put on the field, and/or what defensive schemes they're limited to. Here's a simplistic example of some of the things you might be able to do matchup-wise. Let's assume it's 3rd down and the Bills are playing a team that plays a 3-4. The Bills line up Evans on the left, #2WR on the right, Parrish in the slot on the right, and Spiller and Jackson or Lynch in the backfield. Most of the time, the defense will take a LB off the field (in this instance, since it's 3rd down, probably one of the ILBs) and put a nickel back on Parrish. If they don't do this, you pretty much know that they're playing zone, because a LB couldn't cover Parrish 1-1. On most 3-4 teams, the most effective blitzer is the WOLB. So you motion Spiller out to the left, and the WOLB pretty much has to go with him, because there isn't anybody else "in the neighborhood". You've managed to greatly reduce the defense's ability to blitz simply with a combination of personnel/motion.

The article doesn't mention WLB. Looking over the roster, apparently Maybin, Ellison, and Harris have been getting the bulk of the reps at that position. Of course, someone playing WLB has to be at least a capable SLB, because it's not uncommon for teams to shift their TE, when the OLBs don't have enough time to swap places before the snap. Kawika Mitchell might wind up fitting into the OLB picture somehow as well. Currently he is a backup ILB, but they might decide that he deserves the opportunity to compete for one of the starting OLB spots.

http://blogs.buffalonews.com/billboard/201...sans-lynch.html That article adds a new twist to the situation: Of course, the obvious question is WHY isn't he on the field if he's in town and working out?