Webster Guy

I disagree with Reed being gone for sure. Our starting WR lineup next year is Evans, Hardy, Johnson then? We probably arent drafting a WR next year that can start for us and my guess is any free agent signings will be focused on other positions, so retaining a veteran who can still play and will sign a reasonable contract may make sense. No Parrish, no TO, I just think you can't ride your whole season on whether or not Lee stays healthy. Reed has a knack for 3rd down conversions and finding holes in the zones to sit and get open. I hope they keep him. Plus he always looks like he's cracking up in the huddle which keeps me laughing when the Bills are losing.

I think Florence was our best FA pickup. What a solid season that guy had in both run support and coverage.

Schopp has some good shows though. The guy is just a little too moody for my liking. You can usually tell within a few minutes by seeing how he treats the callers, sometimes he's engaging and works WITH the caller, and other days he's downright rude to them. Some callers are jerks and I understand his defensiveness, but other times you can tell its a first time caller a little nervous and he'll blast em too early or be insensitive and not help them clarify their point. I feel sorry for the old timers that call on bad Schopp days or the shy guys that you can tell are nervous on the phone cause they'll never try a call again after they get embarassed like that.. I tune in and see how Mike's mood is and half the time I end up staying, the other half I shut it down and go with tunes. Bulldog's enthusiasm can get you through a lame Schopp mood too, gotta look for that. If you get him on this third cup of Jo its worth a listen.

The problem with drafting projects that take three years is that you might end up watching them leave after you spend all the time and money to develop them. (jason peters comes to mind) The one thing Maybin has proven is that he will sit out and hurt the team unless he gets paid exactly what he wants. That kind of Me First attitude combined with Project/Raw talent is a bad combo. He sat out all of training camp and signed a 5 year deal, which is now down to 4 years. If he takes two more years to be a stud, my guess is he'll demand a renegotiation in year 4 and go for top dollar, or sit out again like JP did, miss camp and report on game day week 1 to avoid fines. In that case, I'd rather go out and spend for a proven DE who was somebody else's project looking to jump ship for money. At least you have NFL film to evaluate and you know what you're getting. Man, i used to be an optimist and I loved this pick when the Bills made it because the highlight stuff they were showing. It made him seem like he had really good pass rushing moves and not just speed, like he was beating guards and tackles, not just college tight ends. I hope he does well but I have no respect for the guy knowing he was raw and yet still missing all of training camp. He never had a chance this year.

good points. there is perfect parity in my opinion. every year there are a few teams that come from nowhere, and a few that fall hard and surprise everyone. An uncapped year may tweak things a little in the wrong direction but i believe its Rogers priority to avoid it and that an agreement will be reached.

Greise also said his kid had more skills than he'd ever had. Hmmmm. Proud dad or crappy analyst? Probably just a proud dad (but watch out for crappy analyst)

I like em both. And we need them both. Marshawn seems like he has been a little more tentative than in the past. Like he's getting the Willis Mcgahee "what should i do here.....hmmmmm" disease. I'd like to see him a little quicker on that first step, but I love watching our backs fight guys until the end. As far as that long run against the Chiefs, I didn't see any exceptional athleticism there either. In fact, Lynch seemed a little surprised he had that much space after about 20 yards and he kind of downshifted there. Whatever. It was fun to watch. Even tho the Bills are pretty weak, I still enjoy watching them battle. If only that lameass KC punter wouldve been able to kick the ball more than ten feet, Roscoe would've had some nice opportunities to get his groove back in the return game.

Boy it seemed like there have been some HUGE passing holes open over the middle of the field against us. I understand that sometimes that falls on the corners, the SS or sometimes even the linebackers, but our rank against the pass is a bit misleading. Taking away the middle is usually the first priority of a secondary. If we don't shore that up immediately, I don't care if we have 3 picks a game, the Pats are gonna smoke us. I wonder how Byrd will grade out as far as pass defense, aside from the picks. Is he possibly being a little too sneaky and trying to bait QB's but giving up some passes he shouldn't in the process?

If our new coach ends up running a 4-3, then your OLB is still an edge rusher in most situations and needs to have enough leverage to beat NFL tackles. Im worried about Maybins leverage. If you don't have any, then you get pushed upfield and not only are you a non-factor in the pass rush, but you're too far upfield to do anything including stop the run or even a QB scramble. Our front 7 on defense is WAY to light on average. Our DT's are ok, but our ends and OLB's are just not enough. On another note, Palmer had some scary hits yesterday. That guy seems like he has some potential. At least as a special teams beast and solid backup next year.

agreed.

Yeah we did it with Peters and Wilson successfully. Maybe Trent could be a cheerleader.

When Urlacher won NFL defensive player of the year award in 2005, the FIRST person he thanked was Rusty Jones. Greg Williams loved the guy, it wasn't his call that was Donaho ho ho. Rusty and Pat Williams. Who needs em.........

Trent is under contract through next season. Because he was drafted so late, his salary is only around 600k next year. Maybe there are incentives in there but he's likely going to be a backup and incentives don't usually kick in with reserves anyway. I would be very surprised if Buffalo released Trent next year. That's an awfully low cap number and every team needs three QB's. He's a team player and if he's smart he'll realize that career backups can work for a decade in the NFL and make serious cash as insurance policies. I think he'll get an opportunity to compete at camp next summer, and unless he completely dogs it, he'll be with us until someone takes a shot at him in Free Agency 2011. Of course, I thought Maybin was gonna be an impact player too, so whatever you do, don't believe a goddamn word I say...

I hate when people say WE WOULD BE BETTER WITH HIM THAN WITHOUT HIM! That's only true if we arent aggressive in free agency and need cap room to sign new guys in the future. This year we had the cap room, and your right--we would be better with him--but what if a new GM talks Ralph out of his "cash to cap" conservatism and we go for some big name free agents. And there's overrated, selfish Jason over there at the dessert bar with a fat $9m cap number, limiting the guys we can consider signing simply because he's hogging the team cap. In that scenario, we would most likely NOT be better with him than without him.

I'm not qualified to grade out offensive lineman, but if you have the Jets game TIVO'd, check out the two plays where Lynch gets the long run and the the TD run right after that. Both runs were big holes and Levitre was the reason they both happened. On the long run he sets his guy up with a quick chest hit and then shoots a takedown block at the guys waist and drops him. He did it so well that the DT's feet shot back into the linebacker and held him up from sliding over to the gap. Marshawn takes the huge hole for a big gain. On the TD run he completely pancakes his guy to the outside and Lynch scores. The reason I bring this up is that I've felt he was kinda struggling in the beginning of the year and that we might have overrated the guy. There were some plays where he just looked like he was underpowered (for lack of a better term). Its encouraging to see this kind of progress.

And to think we were ONE pick away from getting Patrick Willis before Mariucchi grabbed him. Although Levy said later he wasn't going to pick him anyway. (yeah Marv, why would you want to get the NFL defensive rookie of the year and perennial pro bowler to run the middle of your defense....?)

I think Hargrove tried to get into the White House too but he had white powder on his nose and he punched a secret service guy....you know....because he was judging him.

Yeah i was laughing at that too. Love the insinuation that the Bears have less holes OR a better QB. There's a guy who hasn't watched a Bears game this year. In fact, you could make the case that with such a high cap number in guaranteed money, Cutler would be worse to have right now because he limits your teams ability to go after free agents because you have so much in a single player. Certainly the receivers and runners we have are better than what the Bears have collectively. Both Olines are subpar.

I think DJ pulled Trent because it was his first game back from the concussion and he had Levitre trying to patch in for LT and a new guard in HIS spot and he was getting crushed back there. The game wasn't winnable at that point, I liked the call.

Good points. The one that hurts the most is your last point. We just aren't in a position where we can burn a draft pick on a QB in the first round, but yet it has to be a serious consideration. At the same time it's tough to make a decision on Trent because our pass protection is subpar and so is our coaching at this point. He seems accurate, athletic and intelligent enough to be an average NFL QB so you hate to give up on a guy until you see him play with more than 2 seconds to pass the ball before he gets blasted. Personally I think you have to go with a left tackle with your first pick unless someone falls to us that we can't pass up. Bell just seems too mistake and injury prone at this point. I would draft LB second. Then D line. I think Whitner is still our best option for SS. Move Maybin to LB, let him play in space because he can't shed OL blocks right now. I think he will work out OK for us. The guy was a project and we knew it. He's fast as hell, long arms. I think with the right coordinator they will find a way to get some production out of the kid. If I were head coach right now i would send Owens home. I need the remaining games to evaluate/build my future receiving corps and he's not part of it obviously. His salary is guaranteed so either way he's getting paid which means money doesn't matter cause it's spent already. I'd involve Stevie Johnson and Hardy and get them real game experience to see what I have (and what I don't have). Let's face it, TO isn't winning us any games this year and there might not be much dropoff if any from the WR's.

He needs reps. He can play. Seems to get pretty good separation, good Y.A.C. numbers

The main reason nobody signed TO is not production related, it was attitude and conduct concerns. He's shown himself to be under control on a team that is going nowhere. I think we could have picked up at least a mid/later round draft pick for him if we shopped him. We can't make a playoff run and he's hurting the playing time and experience for Hardy and Johnson, guys that desperately need reps in order to contribute for us down the road. Reminds me of the time when Mularkey was starting Holcomb over JP in a lost season when JP needed the reps and the team needed to evaluate him for the future. Lost-season strategies can really help a team's future if they do it right. Poor Jauron. The game has just passed him by.

GM needs to be on the same page as his head coach. If Russ was, they would have taken a LT instead of Maybin as our first pick because the GM would have known going into the draft that Walker was inadequate at the most critical position on our line. We had a chance to get 3 solid offensive linemen in the top 46 picks. Can't develop or even fairly assess a QB with our starting tackles right now. It wastes an entire season. The Bills could have even picked up RT Loadholt who looks great for Minnesota in the second round. Maybin isn't just low impact, he's NO impact. I agree that a lot of the blame is on Levy and Modrak but Russ isn't looking good in my opinion.

Whitner cant play corner. He has enough on his plate covering TE's much less speedy wideouts. He's a slightly undersized but servicable strong safety who was great in the college system and is ok in the pro's. Remember he only played FS because they didn't trust anyone else back there when Ko the Millionaire got hurt. He'll be at SS for the rest of his career here assuming Byrd continues his level of play. Scott will stay on the bench and back him up, play special teams. Having Wilson and Scott as backups is solid. Now we just need a monster OLB in this next draft or free agency.

Agreed. On and off the field he was such an asset. It was the biggest mistake I can remember. Vikes have our two best players from the years we had a top 5 defense. Winfield and the big Pat.