Mark Long Beach

I haven't watched Kolb enough to form a strong opinion on him, but Philly has devoted an awful lot of resources to him and all but anointed him the franchise QB after trading a good QB away. Even if he struggles a little the first year, I can't see the Eagles dumping him off in a trade. Especially not a quarter of the way through his first year at starter. So the very premise of the trade for Kolb argument is more than a little spacey. It feels a little to me like the we should trade for Peyton arguments... I generally agree with you that if they become available it's because they aren't any good.

As a reader (mostly) of this site, I also get tired of the rant du jur. Especially one that was just the opposite of last week (as PTR pointed out). I greatly enjoy his additions of sanity to the chaos that surrounds our team. Especially when it helps bring the thread back to being a discussion rather than just a series of crazy posts of people venting. Honestly, we're all frustrated to one level or another, but I come here for discussions on football, specifically Bills football. Another post on how much smarter the poster is for wanting a different draft pick, or a different free agency signee, "our player(s) suck" or a "we should trade for Peyton" thread gets old and isn't much of a discussion on football. I'm much more interested in thoughts on (for example) Fritz has proven to be capable but erratic, how can we further tailor our offense to his strengths or we've re-arranged our defense significantly to a 4-3 heavy or 4-2 scheme but are still giving up huge rushing yards how can we further tinker with it?

We had our shots to get lucky with a lower draft pick QB and didn't get lucky. We need one badly and we need one soon. The best shot to get one is to draft one early in the first round. I HATE drafting a QB in the first round, but I think that we should. Assuming that Nix thinks there is one left that's any good of course by the time our pick is as I trust his judgment waay more than mine.

I find it interesting how different people watching the same events come up with wildly different interpretations of what happened(ing). We've been a poor team for the last 10 years or so, most recently three straight 7-9 seasons capped by a 6-10. We just replaced our GM, asst GM, Pro Player scout, new national scout, promoted head of college scout, oh yeah, and our entire coaching staff (save two competent holdovers). Additionally, we had no clear-cut starting QB. We've been on a slide for the last few years and no amount of front office shuffling is going to fix that overnight. ESPECIALLY since because of the CBA not being in place the pool of available free agents was slashed and those that were available were all SIX plus year veterans! A whole slew of six year veterans (that their original team wasn't even willing to re-sign) are not what a rebuilding team needs. So that leaves the draft and its handful of picks. So you complained about not picking up replacements for players leaving, I disagree. We drafted/picked up replacements for receiver and pash-rusher. But rookies usually take a while to contribute. Hopefully ours will. Am I happy with what's transpired? No. I thought we'd be more competitive. Our defense is confused and incapable of stopping the run. The new system puts too much responsibility on our weakest unit (LB). They haven't been able to step up. Over the last few years the Bills have shown that they are incapable of beating teams that are better than they are; merely capable of beating those teams weaker than themselves. IMO that hasn't changed much. Due to our hard schedule I think that we had only a reasonable chance of beating Miami and Jacksonville. Trent proved incapable of being an NFL starter and blew our Miami chance. Jacksonville was very strong in an area where we were terrible weak (run & TE defense) and pounded us mercilessly with it. Same as it ever was. The difference, which seems clear to me, is that that this regime is putting its mark down. It can only replace so many players at a time, and so it's finding out who they think can contribute meaningfully. If not they're shipped out. I'm very happy with that. Bye bye Trent, sorry you couldn't make it. Bye Bye James Hardy, Chris Ellis, and Marshawn Lynch. I also believe that it won't be long before McCargo and Maybin are gone as both sit on the bottom of the depth chart and haven't performed well. I look forward to more discards and more player acquisition. I believe that Nix is a good scout and understands what it takes to turn an organization around (ala San Diego). I like his replacement plan in Doug Whaley. It's not going to happen overnight, but I'm going to enjoy the process not wallow in misery through the difficult parts.

I believe that Whitner hasn't lived up to his draft status, but I think that he's still a solid starter and one of the few members of the defense who's play matches how much he cares. BTW did anyone notice on the Gerard fumble, Whitner (a safety) was one of the later entrants to the scrum and he was the one who came up with ball. It was a nice hustle play full of grit. He was one of the few bright spots on a horrible defensive day. A number of times his was the only play to keep a long gainer from being a touchdown. A safety is supposed to keep the mess in front of him and prevent tds, and he had a lot of mess in front of him.

Agreed. Although, I hope for success sooner. This is Chad Simpson's third year in the league and couldn't stick with Indianapolis for two tries nor us for one. J. Bell was not only undrafted but was even free for anyone to sign from our practice squad for several weeks after the season started before the Eagles finally did. Neither runningback has logged a carry for either of their new teams. I liked the work that Simpson did, and I thought that J. Bell had real possibilities to be an NFL caliber runningback, but keep it in perspective, NEITHER were NFL ready runningbacks right now and might never be. There are LOTS of guys who have potential to be NFL players but most don't make it. So I'm mildly sad not to have JBell on our team but I'm still rooting for him, but all he is at the moment is potential.

Good catch. I agree that's too much emphesis on the DL when we've just added those three last offseason. We even have some existing reasonable players in Stroud, and Kyle Williams. I certainly wouldn't cry if we ended up drafting another DL, but three more seems like too many considering our numerous holes. Especially our weaknesses in OT and LB. My personal feelings are that our shortcomings at LB are preventing us from being anything but a bottom end defense where we are now. I believe that we're last in the league in points per game at 31.2 and 27th in yards per game 382 (!). What's staggering to me is that this is the case even though we have a pretty good secondary. This is a STRONG indictment on our LB core which is supposed to good at both pass rush and run defense.

I can believe that. you can still pick up much of the analog info and still have somthing, but you lose enough of the digital info, you'll have nothing. Thanks.

Wrong on the prediction, absolutely right that the "Jets nation won't sit back and let Sanchez keep them from what they perceive as their year to win the Super Bowl". Unfortunately Sanchize has stepped up this year, while another young QB (Edwards) never did. Sigh.

While I'd debate the not matter part, as I think that Kelsay is a fundamental weakpoint on our team, since we've got lots of them I'm willing to let a good locker room influence stay. We've been a losing team for a long time and it'll be difficult to shed that stink. He can still be cut in the future should we manage get three players that are better than him (two OLB + swing OLB). Right now, I think we have no OLB that are better than him which was why he was extended. Also IMO the fact that there's no better OLB than him is a significant contributing reason as to why we're 0-4.

Two comments, is your signature line your draft? If so it doesn't quite line up to your post. Secondly, IMO it's SO hard to do mock drafts early since in the draft you're really picking people and your belief in their talents. Of which we have so precious little information on. So the best many of us can do is to look at positions. Looking at it from that eye, We're so desperately in need of tackles (RT for certain and quite possibly LT, not to mention swing tackle) that I think we have to take a stab at one or two later in the draft at a minimum. Also, we have maybe two competent LB on our team. Possibly one or two of our 6th round small school guys will pan out but it's uncertain as both are injured. I don't rate TE position very high to draft and we've thrown a few of draft picks at the position in recent years, and we've got little to show for it. So I'd rather pick up an outside LB than a TE, and hope that Nelson is worth a hoot.

Yep it was. I'm not a huge fan of Sully, but he was right. Good for BB and Nix to immediately address the issue. Others seem to have different opinions (often negative regardless of how right the move was), but it seems to me that this new group addresses problems pretty quickly and decisively. Trent proved he couldn't play despite his obvious talent so they released him. Sully rightfully points out that Nix hasn't been heard from and later that day, he speaks. Sounds good to me. My fingers remain crossed that they can right the ship.

That's an interesting thought. I'm a little confused though. My understanding of the world is that digital broadcasts use the same broadcasting equipment (towers and power), it's just that the signal itself is encoded differently. So instead of the manipulations of the signal being decoded in an analog method, they are interpreted digitally. But the EM waves are still the same... So therefore it should still have the same range...? Is there more to the story?

Considering our weak crew of LBs, having our best run defender hurt sure doesn't help us.

I think that many of Peters critics complain about him not living up to his enormous capabilities. I personally believe he could have developed into one of the top 5 LTs in the game. But he seems to coast off of his talent rather than pushing it to the maximum and he SURE seems to care about money a lot more than performance. His attitude is not what a losing team needs to shake free from being a losing team. Not only did we not have a good Plan B, we killed off our only other competent tackle by releasing Langston Walker. While Walker wasn't a LT and especially not a no-huddle LT, he was a pretty decent RT. Our line still hasn't recovered from this.

Dang man, almost got me in trouble at work! (not that I wouldn't have deserved it, but that's a different point of view that's not my favorite) I certainly don't think that everything Sully says is worthless, but it sure is close. I DID like the line about showing up and proving he wasn't the smartest guy in the room. I'd be shocked if Nix wasn't PO'd about how poorly we've looked, just like the rest of us.

Heck our entire offense doesn't seem to hit 20 plays much less one person. As our offense gets more successful, he'll get more touches. As I recall from some previously posted stats, he was on the field more than the other two runningbacks. But we're using him now more as a receiver. But he's a liability on 3rd down because like most rookie RBs he can't pick up the blitz well. Spot on.

Setting up a trust to manage the ownership of the team after death is Standard Operating Procedure. Any additional language in the trust as to how the team gets sold (it's been widely reported that his family is not interested in running the team) is pure speculation. The most common suspicion is that the team will go to the highest bidder. This is the way ALL items typically get sold. Wouldn't you want to sell something to the guy who gives you the most money?? But, a sports team which also represents a geographical area isn't a typical asset. There is lots of emotion from lots of people also tied into it. But if Ralph wants to get the most for his family, to the highest bidder it goes, and I can't argue much. As for what happens to the team depends on who buys it, and how much they have to borrow to do so. The more that they have to borrow the more likely they will move the team. This is because they will need to pay a LOT of interest and the Buffalo area probably can't support a massive increase in ticket costs and other revenue sources. The man built this organization and helped build the NFL to what it is today. It's been a part of his life for what 40-50 years? It's his and he enjoys it and wants to own it for the rest of his life. Sounds reasonable to me, I would do the same. Okay, this is lunacy. the difference in your example is $200 MILLION dollars! What do you mean it doesn't f'ing matter?? Of course it matters.

Seattle didn't have a 3rd rounder in the 2010 draft (traded to Philadelphia) NOR does it have a 3rd rounder in the 2011 draft (traded to San Diego). Seattle NEVER offered us a 3rd rounder. They didn't have one to offer. This is why (essentially) the best we could get from them was a 4th + another pick(4-6 rounder).

I don't think I'd take a 3rd for Marshawn. Maybe, just maybe a top of 3rd, but that's pushing it. I think it'd take a 2nd rounder for me to move him. He's a good player even if flawed with a good contract. Keep him if nobody will give us the asking price. No reason to give him away.

Spectacular post. Very well said. I also fear for the new guard, although the old guard had it's share of bad apples who were out only for themselves. *cough* Al Davis *cough*! Hopefully we can survive the next batch. Although the level of greed that seems to permeate the NFL these days is pretty staggering.

Can't forget Moorman. Solid punting in the rain. So our two best players were two special teamers and QB who really can't play QB.

No we didn't shore up our biggest weakness of QB. Our other biggest weakness of LT, we have a young lineman who's showing signs of growth. He may be a good one in the future(fingers crossed). He's raw and still makes a bunch of mistakes, but if he continues to get better it looks like he can be quite good. Two regimes think he can be. Again, fingers crossed. Yeah our QBs suck. I along with many others hoped that an experienced offensive coach could turn the talented but flawed Trent around. Clearly he couldn't and the Bills have already gotten rid of him. This was a good move IMO. There wasn't that many choices for a new QB last year. The free agency had one good QB out there who we tried to get (McNabb) and the rest of the lot was not just bad but REALLY bad. If they didn't like our choices for QB in the draft (Clausen) then what were our options last year? I disagree completely that that's shooting from the hip. I think that it's just the opposite. To me, they are saying that we have too many holes for us to fix at once. We have only so many draft picks, and only a couple of those are highly likely to pan out, so we'll pick the best player available, period. Meanwhile, we get a chance to evaluate everybody else on the roster first-hand to see what we have. Remember this is almost an entirely new front office and a new coaching staff. Film study only tells you so much. Nothing about attitude, talent ceiling, how coachable a player is, etc. I think you feel that the risk-reward gambles that they are taking (and must take) are shooting from the hip, and I very much feel that they are not.

I think there's a chance we could be better with Donahoe than where we've been lately without him. But he did a lot of very bad things too. In Ralph's eyes and mine as well, the good that he was bringing did not outweigh the bad that he was conjuring up. It'll be interesting years from now to compare him with what we now have in Nix/Whaley. As many have pointed out, he did such a bad job here that he's not gotten a new job anywhere else. He did have a pretty good reputation, but it's definitely taken more than one hit by his reign of terror here. IMO he's not the only one at fault. There was definitely a style clash between him and Ralph, and he did a pretty amazing job of antagonizing fans from the GMs chair. This is pretty hard to do. Yes he had a season with a winning record, but just barely at 9-7 which can be accidental as much as anything. Remember that season we ended by getting creamed by Pittsburg's 2nd and 3rd stringers to prevent us from being a playoff team, which we CLEARLY did not deserve. I do think that he as a GM was slightly better than what's happened since. But I think that's more damning with faint praise. Marv was a great coach and a good motivator, but he's not a good front office guy. He's got good company as many, many good coaches haven't done well as a front office guy. We have no hind-sight for the Nix/Whaley (& Chan) era, but I like a lot of what I see so far. Football people are again in charge and hopefully they can work well with the owner and other management folks. Everyone in the boat has to row the same direction if we're to get anywhere.