Mark Long Beach

man. I had to go back and look closer, but yeah, we had some good people back then. Not quite so clearly better though. QB is a significant downgrade, Goodwin hadn't turned the corner, and our linebackers were okay, but slow. (and too many were miscast in the defensive realignment) Aaron Williams sadly broke and depth behind him stunk. Miller, Mills and Adolphus Washington ranged between almost serviceable to dreadful. But I definitely agree, we should have gone a lot farther than we did, and the reason was the coaching staff.

No Browns the same, and only 3 Bills. LeSean McCoy, Jerry Hughes, Lorenzo Alexander. But then again, both of those teams stunk 3 years ago. So there SHOULD be a ton of turnover. The sum was definitely not as good as the parts and the Head Coach definitely has the biggest slice of the blame.

They should have plied the media with food and alcohol.

The introduce the new players press conference has been delayed for hours. Getting this signing done is what we're hoping is the cause.

f5

Brown is also insurance that Foster can't make a step forward. My hope is that our other receivers blow the doors off and make Brown (who's an NFL quality receiver) unneeded after this year. How good would it be to have too much talent at WR. [In the long run I worry about his catch %]

One more competent player to have going into training camp competition. I'm totally fine with it. I was underwhelmed by our young running backs last year, and I suspect we'll throw a low draft pick this year. But we don't NEED to this year. This is the Bean way, have a team before the draft. Not rely on the draft to get a team. Are we a little better? I think so. Massively better? probably not. But why all the hyperventilating? We have to sign 40 people to bring us to 90 for training camp. We have to sign a LOT of people and Gore played well last year. As someone has already said, this was agreed to a while ago. This isn't taking up any of our time or money to chase other players.

I know I always wanted to believe that it was a forward pass. Credible witness with good view states it definitely was. What could have been. Alas...

For the masses, they mean the same thing. For people who analyze data to extract meaning they represent different concepts. The point of the data analysts is to say that the answer isn't the cut-and-dried "he's inaccurate" because his completion % is low. He's not spraying the ball all over the place, but it's all of the other factors that go into completion % that heavily influence why his % is so low more than the ability to throw the ball to a specific spot. The generalists are only looking at the bottom line. His % is low, and it has been for him historically. Therefore he is inaccurate. full stop. As someone who has managed data professionally, I relate more to the analysts. To me, I see that there's a lot of reasons that add up to low %. Because my eyes show me a generally accurate QB with some fantastic passes, I have hope that future Allen will get better. As people have pointed out in this thread, because he's throwing low quantity of throws, only 2-3 more catches per game will cause a huge jump in his %. Just learning how to checkdown to his RB alone could reach those couple catches per game. I watched time and time again that he'd use his magic escape powers and run around looking for a downfield play. Time and time again checkdowns to his RB were available, but he'd rather escape looking downfield. (God I love that he looks downfield) I felt TT was inaccurate. He was safe and only threw to truly open receivers. But consistently the ball was all over the map and prevented Run-After-Catch yards. I initially was very disappointed with the draft pick of Josh Allen because I only saw the bottom line. But as I looked at the details, and eventually got to watch him QB my Bills, I am THRILLED he's my QB and I have real hope that he will continue to grow into a great QB. Is he a finished product? No, but there sure looks like there are many "easy" opportunities to continue to get better like he did in the second half of the season. An argument can be made that analysis of the data supports this belief even with a low completion %.

CJ spiller needs space provided by good blocking, or by planned dump-offs into space. We generate NO blocking, nor good dump-offs. CJ Spiller would be a disaster for us.

Nope. I love and admire my father but for some strange reason he always loved the Raiders and that loathsome toad Al Davis. We moved away from Watkins Glen when I was 13, and being a Bills fan helped me stay loyal to my childhood. Although... I was a pretty good kid, what did I do to deserve this?!

OMG I grew up in Watkins Glen! I would so love to make it but I'm now out in L.A. But I love the sudden blast of fond memories! Wish I could go!

Have you watched Pettigrew? I only remember him have a couple drops this year, not so many in the previous two. I hope that our QB (singular!) can help our receivers out more than they did last year.

But not us. Have you forgotten the horror show of our TE drafting in the last 15 years? Let me remind us all: 2013 -7- Chris Gragg 2009 -4- Shawn Nelson 2008 -4- Derek Fine 2007 -7- Derek Schouman 2005 -3- Kevin Everett (medical miracle, but terrible NFL tight end) 2004 -4- Tim Euhus It doesn't get much better for the 10 years before that with 8 tight ends drafted "High"lights: 1996 -7- Jay Riemersma 1994 -2- Lonnie "fricken" Johnson 14 tight ends drafted in 20 years with only Jay R worth a hoot. Since we got Chandler we've only had to throw 1 7th round pick away in 4 years. I'm quite happy having Mr. Chandler thank you very much.

I'm pleased. One less spot to worry about. Chandler had a couple rough spots this season with a couple of bad drops and being tragically misused in the beginning of the season. (I thought I was going to break my TV whenever we sent him out into the flat for a 0-1 yard pickup) He can't juke my trash can, but he has good hands and gets open in the middle of the field. Seriously, he's not a run-after-catch kind of guy, why flair him out into the flat for a 1 yard gain???? Thankfully they stopped throwing to him on that route. But he's a competent Tight-End and better than what we've had in YEARS.

UM, KIKO ALONSO HAD 4 INTERCEPTIONS in 4 GAMES! Just imagine how many he'd have if he played 16! Oh wait, he had 0 in the last 12 games. Is 7 fumbles bad? Yup. A cause for concern? Yup. Would he be amongst the worst? Likely. HE's a BACKUP level player. Is anyone arguing this? Nailed it.

Yeah Hopkins won the competition last year, but it was a competition between two new guys. The fresh draft pick always gets an edge in such competitions. Now we'll see how much he 'won' last years competition. Carpenter had a _fantastic_ year. edit: really? He beat out Lindell? I thought we got rid of him earlier. So much for memory. Yes Carpenter's not great on touchbacks, but then again our coverage was just terrible, If I was the other team I'd tell my returners to run it out from half deep in the endzone.

For one of the first times in YEARS, we're actually a pretty desirable place for a linebacker. He'd play behind THREE pro-bowl defensive lineman (plus a 10 sack guy), alongside a Defensive Rookie of the Year runner-up LB, and a reasonable likelyhood of a probowl safety behind him for at least a year. It isn't a wasteland at cornerback either with both starters high first round draft picks. We've got lot of talent in our defense. Great players want to play with great players.

Well, I think you are vastly oversimplifying this. The Wide 9 trades off a weaker up-the-gut run defense for stronger pass pressure (not necessarily sacks which are a little more randomized). It's biggest run defense weakness is actually draw plays and QB runs up the middle. But I'm happy to let the QB run up the middle if I can take his head off. Modern NFL yardage is gained 2 to 1 via the pass, so it's not unreasonable idea. The _actual_ pass defense is much more independent of wide9. It's designed to give more pressure faster on the QB and make him make decisions faster and therefore more error prone. But if your corners suck, they suck. Defensive lineman can't run fast enough at the QB if you can't cover. As for Philly? If you're a sucky Defensive Coordinator, it doesn't matter what scheme you're trying to implement. Schwartz has shown he's not a sucky DC. Unlike our Special teams Coordinator.

I didn't see this posted here, and enjoyed this article and learned a bunch. Even though it's very long, and gets hung up in details that we don't care about (Vikings personnel) it's got some really good stuff on it's theory and it's strengths/weaknesses, and how players can fit into it. http://www.dailynorseman.com/2013/5/16/4316146/should-the-vikings-switch-to-the-wide-9 One of the bottom line quotes: After reading this, I feel better about using it, as long as it's not the only thing that you do. Creativity and adjustments out of it is still required, and supposedly Schwartz has it: A post in Buffalo Rumblings also addresses use of adjustments to the wide9 by Schwartz: http://www.buffalorumblings.com/buffalo-bills-analysis-all-22/2014/2/13/5407624/jim-schwartz-defense-wide-9-43-under-adrian-peterson

Yep, I'm not sure the love for TJax. He's a career backup who has been given up on by at least 4 different staffs and likely won't get any better than that. We were only going to keep one mediocre veteran backup QB and the coaches liked Kolb better. Sadly he was too brittle and is done. Thad is very much like TJax but unlike TJax, he hasn't proven he can't do it yet. I'm happier with Thad, and he will very likely that he'll have a better career than either of those new guys mentioned. Hopefully Thad will get better than the Fitzpatrick zone of "just good enough to get you beat."

Ouch. The truth hurts.

I wouldn't put it past them.

We are in the dreaded net-loss area since we signed as many as we lost. Because the comps are limited to 32 picks we're at the mercy of what all of the other teams have done. We may get a 7th rounder, we might not. This made me flinch when we signed Branch because we now couldn't get a good pick for losing Levitre. But, on the other hand, we got good stuff from Branch (and Lawson). Probably better than a 5th or 6th rounder.

Mr. Wilson was an investor in my company (through a VC fund). We didn't help him out there. Sorry Ralph.