Webster Guy

He was thinking of the arc of Mark Sanchez's 15 yard "out" and doing the necessary calculus in his head.

Rex: "When we had Brad Smith,and we were able to run the Wildcat, that helped us. We may not have run the Wildcat as effectively as Miami was doing, but we were close. (Now,) when you bring in a guy like Tim ... as much as I like Brad ... he wasn't able to give you the inside running game that Tim can -- and Tim can throw the ball a little better than Brad." This prompted me to think about what it is that Brad Smith does better than anybody on our team. I know the guy is a great athlete and a versatile player, but I believe we have better options in EVERY down and distance. As far as kickoff returns go, I would rather have Terrence, Leodis, TJ Graham or Gilmore do that job and I think they would do better than Brad all day long. As far as WR goes, we have some guys like Aiken and Easley that I'd rather have make the team and see them develop and if Brad takes one of their spots we could lose a potential solid young WR. As far as the Wildcat goes, we are the only NFL team with two RB's that averaged over 5 yards per carry last year, and my understanding of the wildcat is that it's only effective if the defense thinks you might throw out of it once in awhile, which we don't. So now it's simply a direct snap play to a runner. If the game is on the line and you need two yards, I want the ball in Fred Jackson's hands.

My children have learned how to exploit the "enforcement fatigue" technique around my house with alarming proficiency. When i take them to training camp I'll have them draw it up to Gilmore......

Lets see how our LB's do this year. I really wanted Keuchly and I think Nix had him higher on the board than Gilmore, but they will probably both be good pro's. I had Patrick Willis flashbacks--one pick away from a stud LB and someone else grabs him. The thing that bothers me was that stupid "strength of schedule" system the NFL uses to set the draft order when teams have the same record. That put Miami in the 8th slot ahead of us and the Panthers at the 9 pick even though we had the same record and Miami beat us twice. Ridiculous logic. They should use head to head as the tie breaker (assuming the teams played each other that season) like every other league in the world. I remember sitting there on draft day thinking: here's a team that KILLED us twice last year picking two slots ahead of us even though we have the same record. Then Keuchly goes next pick.....

Im not surprised. I've never understood the Brad Smith move. As far as kickoff returns go, I would rather have Terrence, Leodis, TJ Graham or Gilmore do that job and I think they would do better than Brad all day long. As far as WR goes, we have some bubble guys like Aiken and Easley that I'd rather have make the team and see them develop and if Brad takes one of their spots we could lose a potential solid young WR. As far as the Wildcat goes, we are the only NFL team with two RB's that averaged over 5 yards per carry last year, and my understanding of the wildcat is that it's only effective if the defense thinks you might throw out of it once in awhile, which we don't. So now it's simply a direct snap play to a runner. If the game is on the line and you need two yards, wouldn't you rather have the ball in Fred Jackson's hands? The versatility argument is weak because we have solid talent in the skill positions that Brad Smith plays. I agree with the OP here, and I don't think Nix cares if he looks bad or not, if Brad isn't sharp in training camp he might be gone.

We all know this one. Pats Comeback

Hairston gives us depth at left tackle (and a guy Nix said we can win with as our starting LT) and a rookie LB who was defensive MVP of the Rose Bowl and should be a strong special teamer. A Coy Wire type of overachiever and team leader. Too early to judge but I'd rather have what we have. Lynch will probably be suspended for the year (gun charges, hit and run, now DUI) at which time I'm sure he'll stay out of trouble living back in Oaktown with his homies....

Yeah I loved watching him run too. We got a 3rd round pick and a conditional pick for him right? Does anybody know who we drafted with those picks?

Here's why: Good size, blocking, speed, plays with an attitude, productive, has experience and gets great separation. Caught everything we threw at him last year. He will beat out Easley in camp and contribute this year for our team. He's the same body and speed type as Easley but he has a 100 NFL catches and a half dozen TD's compared to Easley's zero production. They will platoon Jones and Hagan for that 3rd spot behind Stevie and Nelson, and bring in Graham for the 4th WR field stretcher when Chan wants to keep defenses honest. I think Easley, Ruvell, Aiken, Namaan get the onion this year.

Yeah 2010 was a bad draft for Nix. One impact player with the 9th overall pick in Spiller, the rest unimpressive. Troup wasn't his fault because the back injury wasn't a known thing at the time, Moats has flashes but definitely overall I would give it a C- grade so far. Carrington looks the part but I don't see where he can contribute in this year's defensive front. 2011 made up for it though. And some good free agent pickups have made us all forget, which is good.

If he kept us moving the chains on offense and controlling the ball, catching a few TD passes, yes.....

The Wall rocks. Its the only message board I ever go to aside from the occassional harassment of the Jets and Patriots. I like it most because its interesting and funny (well....my posts are anyway...and somebody else said something funny last year) Seriously, there are lots of guys here that know so much more about our team than the sportswriters choose to write about. I swear I can tell who some of the good posters are without looking at the name and just reading their input (PTR, San Jose etc) Seems to me that there are far less idiot posters than the other NFL sites I have looked at. I enjoy the occassional idiot poster, but go look at a Jets board and you'll see an overwhelming amount of obnoxious fools--the downfall of most message boards. I don't know who runs this site and have never met anyone in person from here but I check it most everyday. So good job whoever you are. Thanks!

I agree with this, except maybe troup instead of Edwards if he has a productive camp because he's younger and has more potential. My gut says if we didn't draft Troup so high he would have been gone long ago. I agree with an earlier poster that the dude should think about his health first and seriously consider getting out of football and slimming down and taking care of his back so he's not stuck on a couch addicted to painkillers the rest of his life. It sounds like his injury is no joke.

This is my official "I can't wait until the season starts" post. We're talking about Trent Edwards people. And I got suckered in too....... Damn. You got me man......

You're basing that on Merriman in his prime dude. He's not better if he can't play because he's hurt, in that case he's way worse than Anderson because he's taking up a roster spot and not helping the team win. Also, Chan has said they think Anderson can do more than be just a specialist pass rush guy and I'm sorry but you seem to be the only one that thinks Merriman can be any more than that. He's not fast enough to be a 4-3OLB, not even close. Merriman himself would agree with this, and Wanny certainly would too. Situational pass rushers are tricky things to have because you can't always get them in when you want to. Picture Brady in 2nd and 7 and he's running the no huddle, they try a run, we stop them at the line. Now you have a 3rd and long passing situation, and they know we have Merriman fresh on the sideline waiting to get in there (assuming he's healthy and playing well....) he's going to immediately line up and prevent the substitution, take his time and call the play at the line that he wants to play based on the coverage etc. Unless we are willing to call a timeout, we are stuck with the personnel from the previous play. Good offenses in the NFL almost never allow substitutions on those 3rd and long plays. Fitz is good at keeping the defenses from changing up on us, and so are lots of other teams. It's not just to keep the situational pass rushers off the field, its to keep dbacks and other guys from changing too. Thats why having a good base package is such a key in the NFL. Versatile guys are more valuable than specialty guys by a long way. I think Wanny would say if he can get Merriman in for a third of the pass plays (12 to 15 rushes) then he's doing well. Anderson and Kelsay would handle the rest of the DE work, spelling Mario on the other side where necessary.

Convert the dude to safety like Jauron did with George Wilson. Let him take Ruvell's job on special teams and see what happens. Speed strength work-ethic Has anyone seen him hit guys? He's big enough to cover TE's for sure....

Yeah I agree. We had more people at Bills games than Chicago had at Bears games. Their city alone is almost a 3M population with many millions more within blackout zone. Either way, i have a little piece of technology that lets me see the blacked out Bills games on my TV anyway, so I don't care.

I was thinking that too. My guess is if you looked at the NFL total picks thrown last year, probably two thirds of them were thrown when the team was behind, which puts Fitz right around the norm as far as being aggressive, maybe a little on the risky side. He had some tipped balls too that weren't his fault. Hey either way, the bottom line is our offensive personnel are pretty much identical to last year's opening day squad but our defense is going to be tougher and bigger and faster than it's been in a long time. So we'll see how much a killer D-line and a new defensive scheme brings to a team. How many days til the Jets? We need a counter on this site....

Yeah and it's not just the deep balls, I think the intermediate stuff is being worked on as well. A lot of the picks i remember he threw last year were in the 10-20yd range, and he got into that habit of dropping his front shoulder when he was throwing and he was low quite a bit. It's really hard to change muscle memory for something you've done tens of thousands of times though. The idea is that he can do enough reps with proper form in 6 months time so that he doesn't have to think about it in the games. I think he'll improve his mechanics when he's getting good pass protection, and regress when he's getting pressured and trying to make a play. He only needs 5 or 6 passer rating points to get into the 90's, and that's plenty good for playoff ball if the running game is solid and the defense productive. Personally I love the way back foot throws look (ala Fitz, Cutler, Elway etc) when they're on the money, it's just that it's a less accurate way to get it done and should only be a last resort approach. Like the ludicrous speed lever.....

Those are cool. Thanks for sharing. Sorry for your loss, but don't forget he can still watch the games from heaven (another advantage to not playing in a dome) Once a Bills fan, always a Bills fan brutha....

Achilles and shoulders are very tough NFL injuries. I'm trying to think of a pass rusher that has had Merriman type injuries, been inactive for a few years and come back to be productive. I remember Charles Haley trying it with the Niners after his Dallas years of greatness and he couldn't make it work. Those injuries on a wide receiver or a QB or a D-back are not always career killers because those types of players aren't getting pounded by a 300lb Olineman on every play, but these Dlinemen are in a car crash on every play. Hey after what they did with Willis Mcgahee's knee when some people said the dude would never even run again, you never know baby!

Exactly. That realtor's quote is total BS. Gee lady, so lets ask the two realtors that split the 120k in commish for mario's house if they agree with you that there would be zero impact. They've become ambulance chasers. I equate those overachieving know-it-all women realtors with Jets fans-- if they all disappeared tomorrow the world would be a better place.

Eli lost 7 regular season games last year with great receivers and a top notch defense. If they had a reasonably tough division they wouldn't have cracked .500 I don't call that elite. He's certainly played well in the playoffs, even if he was a whiny baby when San Diego drafted him and he refused to play for them. Sorry but as nice as the guy seems now, that was a classless move and a horrible precedent to set for college athletes coming into the league thinking they can dictate where they go based on which city their daddy tells them they should be in. Lame. He's lucky he got Cruz or that first ring he got would've been his last. I think i hate everyone except the Bills now. That kind of makes me an elitist.

This happened to the Patriots a few years ago. The Matt Cassel year I think. They got 10 wins but it wasn't enough to get a playoff berth. We went 1-5 in our division last year and we have pretty much the same offensive coaching and personnel as last year, so even though our defense will be better, it's my guess that we can go 3-3 in our division, steal a few road games and get 10 wins overall. Gotta hope that's enough but I don't see us winning any more than that. Still mad about the back to back west-coast road games, San Fran then Zona. Who is the f#ckin idiot that set THAT up.

I thought it was a wasted pick. Maybe because I'm sick of us drafting 1st round RB's, my faith in Fred Jackson, and that Pierre-Paul was best available AND at a huge position of need for us. Maybe we were just stung from picking Maybin over Orakpo the year before and didn't want to make a mistake like that again for a pass rusher and CJ was so dominant in college it was closer to a sure thing. Never felt he would be a bust though, just the wrong guy for us at that time. But hey that's in the past and he's ours now, he works well with Fred and Fitz and adds depth and excitement at a key position.