1billsfan

One thing that sticks out is this..."He must be willing and eager to run on designed plays and when the opportunity presents itself on called pass plays." With the solid backup Orton on board, I do hope that EJ is being told that it's ok to run when he sees an open field (which with the RBs and WRs we have should be almost all the time). This is something that would probably catch the Bears completely off guard and might be the Bills' x-factor to put a couple TDs on the board early in the game.

Least of our problems? They haven't even played a game yet...LOL Can we hold off until after the Chicago game at least?

I think this calls for a BBQ "burger flipper" end zone TD celebration.

Ask yourself this question...would Briggs take monday practice off of game week to open a new BBQ restaurant if he was playing the Patriots? You may think stuff like this doesn't bother players, but that Jets game last year is proof to the contrary. If there are any Bills players on this team that this doesn't bother regardless to which degree, then I don't want those players on the Bills. It's not a huge deal, it's just the principle of being disrespected like that.

This stuff does not go over well in opposing teams locker rooms. It's seriously a real sign of disrespect. The week of the season opening Bills game and Briggs skips a practice? You feel that confident bro? If Marrone has any clue he will use it as motivation for the offense and the team in general. Parcells and Belchick certainly would. Heck, they'd make stuff up to get their players going. This is downright "in your face" disrespect.

I look at this Bears game and if I'm a player on the Bills, I want to win this game because I honestly think that we're better than them. You want to win every week of course, but if I'm a professional player I'd get extra pumped playing as underdogs to teams I feel we should beat. That Bears defense has key players who are old. There's no way that a 33 year old Tillman can stay with Watkins. Jared Allen? I want to see him try chasing down Spiller. Make their old stars pay the price for being old. The Bills defense vs the Bears offense should be a stalemate I would think. If the Bills put up 24 points they should leave with the win. If you can't score 24 points against this Bears defense then you have a major problem.

I have a feeling that this Bills offense will run through Sammy Watkins. In the way that the main focus on offense is for Green/Bengals and Megatron/Lions. The Bills gave up next year's first round pick for Watkins, so that makes things crystal clear to me. I know there are many here that want a run first grind it out offense, but that really flies in the face of what they did in the draft. IMO, the RBs will be used in a supportive role to Watkins' leading man role. I'm very excited for this game against the Bears because I'm hoping that Watkins makes a huge and immediate impact. Though I guess how much he's used in the Bears game depends on his rib injury.

Preseason games? You sure about that? I actually think that Nick Foles is the perfect guy to judge EJ Manuel by this season. The Bills need to see a somewhat dramatic rise in QB production given the weapons he has and this being his second season.

Sammy Watkins scores a touchdown this season.

You wouldn't have said this at this time last year. You're basing that off of his second season under Chip Kelly. Until the real games were played, Foles was considered nothing more than a placeholder till Kelly found "his" QB. With that being said, Manuel does need to show big improvements this season just like Foles did in his second year. Manuel has no excuses. I'm not expecting Foles numbers (because Kelly is a genius), but I am expecting to see a big jump from last year that will solidify his starter status. This team is not going to wait even a half season for Manuel to settle down with Kyle Orton sitting on the bench. The Bills need to look like a team that will be real contender right out of the gate and that falls squarely on Manuel's shoulders.

Manuel and Foles have almost exactly the same stats for their respective rookie seasons. The only one which is drastically different is that EJ had a much higher winning percentage than Foles. Now add to this that EJ had a rookie HC and OC coming from college, while Foles had long time NFL offensive coach and head coach Andy Reid. If you want to be fair, then you must give EJ Manuel at least few games into his second season before pining away for Nick Foles. BTW, if the Bills had Chip Kelly this season, EJ Manuel would have the same season this year that Nick Foles had last year. Hackett is a joke compared to Kelly. Hackett has just as much to prove as does Manuel.

Manuel would have had a 5-5 record as a rookie starter (under a rookie HC and OC) were it not for the butter fingers of Johnson and Chandler in that Falcon game. You make it seem like he was 2-8 last year.

Let's see what EJ does in the Bears game. I have no idea how good or bad EJ is currently, given the very vanilla preseason play calling. You seem to have taken his play in preseason play to heart, while I see his very lackluster preseason as the Bills coaches holding back a whole lot of what they want to do. This Bears game will tell us a lot about whether the preseason offense truly was just the Bills just playing possum.

Well EJ Manuel WAS drafted and billed as a raw QB who probably needed a year on the bench but would be pressed into action early. So it stands to reason that his position towards the back of the pack of starting QBs is understandable and no surprise. No? Is it too much to ask to give this 2nd year QB, who's only started 10 games, and who's played exactly as was predicted, at least 6 more games before making a final judgement and calling him a hoax?

I think he's worried that the Bills have a real team on the rise and his Steelers are in a downward spiral that will last past Ben's "sell by" date. Rothlesberger has nobody other than Antonio Brown to throw to and the defense's best player will be a rookie. That's not a good sign.

I'm not so sure about that. Unless you're the Seattle Seahawks, in today's NFL your QB's passing TD totals = Wins and Playoff Appearances for the most part. Especially with the new rules of actually calling a lot more pass interferences. IMO this goes for single games and season long totals.

That's why I referred to it as a guideline. Nothing's set in stone in terms of whether he's seen as having had a horrible game all the way up to a great game since football stats never tell the whole story. Obviously (sorry), the bold would garner him huge amounts of credit for those TDs.

Against this Bears not so good defense, that would make me worry that nothing has changed in regards to not scoring TDs in the red zone. I'd take the win, but the feeling good level would not be very high.

This is just purely a stat goal exercise and has nothing to do with intangibles and/or turnovers that don't show up on a stat sheet yet account just as much for wins and losses sometimes. Before this first game, I want to just put it out there what my expectations are for Manuel given the state of the Bears defense, our skilled position players, EJ Manuel's current point on the QB learning curve and this game being on the road. I think it's pretty safe to say that the Bears will have a bottom 3rd defense in the NFL. It's also safe to say that while Manuel is far away from a franchise QB, this is his second year as a pro QB and the expectations for production do increase. IMO in regards to EJ's stats at the end of the Bears game...a bad to horrible game would be 0-1 TD, an ok to good game would be 2 TDs and a great game would be 3 TDs. I don't mind a couple of interceptions as long as they are on deep passes in accordance to an aggressive vertical attack throwing the ball downfield 6-8 times in the game. Given our WRs, the Bills should at least break even with TD to INTs in that department. The reason I posted this is because I think it's important to have a guideline of expectations now that the rosters are set. It may seem obvious, but I think that there's been so much constant bashing of EJ Manuel here, the expectations of what he can or will do against the Bears are much lower then they honestly should be. I would hope that Manuel looks at this Bears defense and believes that he probably will end up having 2-3 TDs by the end of the game. I think the Bills offense should score between 20-28 points on the road against this defense. However, this being the first game it might end up being a lower point total due to opening day jitters. BTW, this is all based on the offensive line doing at least an average job in run and pass blocking.

With the QB position settling down, I do hope the Bills at least consider adding FA Matt Scott. The guy's a gamer and he pukes better than Kelly ever did. It seems like he'll never be considered a viable option as an NFL starter, but he could actually win a couple of games on sheer grit and competitiveness. I wonder if the Bengals are playing possum by letting him go early and hoping to add him to their practice squad.

Hackett needs to look in the mirror because he definitely shares some blame in Manuel's "too afraid of not being perfect" mindset. Hackett talked out of both sides of his mouth. In that same interview you are referring to, Hackett said that he tells Manuel to "just take what the defense gives you" (meaning checking it down) because you NEVER want to have any turnovers. Which is the worst advice for the QB you drafted to be your franchise QB. You need to let them throw a few interceptions deep down the field so that they know what they can get away with and what they can't get away with. Both Mannings went through this, Luck went through it. It's a right of passage for a young, 1st round selected QB that EJ Manuel seems to not be afforded the latitude to do by his OC (which means that Marrone is probably on board as well). I still have a lot of faith in Manuel becoming a great QB, I hope that these coaches let him throw it deep 6-8 times a game even if it costs them a few early games in the season. If Manuel ever gets in rhythm for the deep pass with the WRs we have on this team, WOW...these Bills will start breaking Kelly and Co's offensive records.

So true. IMO, with the 24/7 barrage of Buffalo Bills coverage here over a prolonged 5 game preseason which included hundreds of linked stories and twitter feeds and commentary...it actually feels like the Bills have already played half of the real 2014 season. It has been kind of mentally draining in a way, seeing drip by drip, the hope turn to despair over these last 6 weeks. I truly don't think our brains were built for the kind of micro over-analysis this training camp and these preseason games have provided. I will be very happy, but also be laughing my ass off if the Bills roll over the Bears. I don't blame the pessimism, just observing the extreme downward mood change without a real game being played.

It's sad but very understandable that the spirit is so low around here. I watched a lot of preseason games this year and I did not see many NFL starters look all that good. So it would stand to reason that Manuel would look even rougher. Having said that, my take away is... 1. preseason is still BS 2. EJ Manuel is getting the full effect of Bills fans tired of the raw QB's "growing pains" without any real games counting and he's basically given no rebuttal points for EJ supporters 3. if he is ever going to be a good one then this heated atmosphere will hopefully forge him into true NFL QB steel at a much more rapid pace 4. lastly, everyone needs to remember that not every bad thing was on Manuel given that line play, penalties and drops where also big contributors to the 1st string problems 5. hey, at least we should be able to enjoy watching a very good defense, yay! My excitement has been diminished, but I still hold out hope that the Chicago game will be one of those stunner upsets that happens each year on opening day.

I recently watched a Hackett interview on the Bills website and he irritated me with his discussion of Manuel. He actually stated that he's been instructing Manuel to check it down and "just take what the defense gives you" because we never want any mistakes or turnovers. This is the worst possible advice for any young NFL QB because you make your franchise QB bones in this league by challenging defenses. Hackett would have LOVED Trent Edwards. I think Hackett is either too cautious or just plain ignorant, either way, if that's how he truly feels then he doesn't know what he's doing. Bill Parcells once told Simms that if you aren't throwing any interceptions then you aren't trying hard enough to become a great NFL quarterback. You have to allow you QB the latitude that it's not the end of the world to throw interceptions. EJ Manuel will never progress into a franchise QB until he's given the breathing room to throw deep. Jim Kelly threw a bunch of interceptions trying to shoe horn the ball in, but that's part of what made him great. Defenses feared him because he was more successful than not when challenging the defense. The Bills have the WR talent to challenge defenses deep. What I heard from that interview is more dump offs to Spiller and Jackson and seam patterns to Chandler. So IMO there's a serious concern right now with Hackett and I'll just have to wait to see if that interview was him just BSing.

I would take the opposite approach and throw deep for points early and often. With the Bills secondary, I think you can almost guarantee Cutler, Marshall and Jeffrey will put up at least 21 points. I think they score between 21-28 points. The best way to win on the road is to hit the home team early in the first quarter with a touchdown. It puts a nervous energy in the building and that filters down to the team usually. I'm not saying don't run it, just that if they plan on the "ground and pound" attack then they can plan on a definite loss. Sorry, but our DBs just aren't good enough to support that kind of game plan and win the game. We have the WRs to have a passing attack when we need it, and what better time to find out whether the Bills have a real QB. Go for the win, don't just try to keep it close and steal one in the closing minutes. That's a Chicago's own, Dick Jauron kind of game plan.