Luxy312

Excellent point!

Classic flawed arguments. What Michael Vick did should be socially acceptable because he grew up around it and it's not worse than other things. Unfortunately, that has no bearing on peoples feelings that he did something morally objectionable. He knew it was illegal because he hid it. Yet he did it anyway for years and years. If he's so damned stupid to not be able to see that as a grown man, that's another reason to not like him. Stupidity is not a defense.

He's getting his second chance with Phily. Other than that, I don't owe him anything. Do child molesters deserve a second chance because they get caught and do time? Murderers? Rapists? At the end of the day, this wasn't one random act for which he did time. He engaged in this activity for almost 6 years. The courts decided how long he would spend behind bars. While he's exhonnerated legally, he's not necessarily exhonnerated from the moral judgement of others that see what he did as a cruel, heinous, senseless act.

People love to ignore simple facts from this very good prior post. If Wilson goes on to do anything in the NFL, it will be against the odds. It's easy to sit back today and say that Bills should have drafted "X". There is no question that they needed a WR. I don't think there's any doubt that Gilmore was the right pick in the first round and that passing on Glenn in round 2 would have been a huge mistake. That leaves them moving up to grab a position of need. They did not need a project to sit on the bench for a year with the possibility that they might need a QB next year. If you actually go back and look at 3rd round WR's drafted over the last 10 years, you will see lots of guys that have had success in the NFL. A far greater amount of success than 3rd round QB's. In this case, Carroll said himself that he's being unconventional. Normally the starter for the season starts the first 3 quarters of game 3. In his words: "This is about competition. That’s what we’ve always been about. If somebody doesn’t see it that way, then they just don’t understand us.” Wilson isn't necessarily the starter for the regular season. This is just a chance for Carroll to see what he can do against a first team defense, which he hasn't faced yet.

Jacksonville wouldn't do it. Lame idea!

I don't understand why people get so upset and personalize what is ultimately a business decision. No one on here is personally attacking Troup or trying to put him down. Very simply, there's 6-7 DT's that are performing above his level of play right now. There will be no room for him when the rosters get reduced. Regardless, he's only making $490K this year, so it's not about the money.

The pass defense is fine. I'm much more worried about the lackluster effort at linebacker. They have looked pretty bad in preseason games against teams that aren't even supposed to be that good running the ball. Concerning is an understatement.

Stealing? He renegotiated his contract to take substantially less money than he was supposed to get to stay on the team. Your characterization of "making a mockery" of the team is way off base. McGee has been a stand up guy his whole career with the Bills.

While it's true, it obviously didn't work that well. Linebackers collectively looked awful in that game.

Starting rookies doesn't bother me if they're playing the best. Right now, based on everything I've seen, the best CB's are Gilmore and Brooks. I would follow that up with Williams and McKelvin in nickel and dime packages. In his prime, I loved Terrence McGee. The problem is that he's not in his prime anymore. He'll be close to 32 when the season starts and just doesn't have that explosive burst that made him a good cornerback in his youth. Given his size (barely 5 foot 9), he simply cannot cover bigger wideouts without it. It's good to hear that Rogers and Miller are coming on strong as well. If McKelvin continues getting burned, I would be fine relegating him to special teams duty and letting the younger guys play. The only way you truly learn is by being on the field, facing opposition.

I'm with you there. I think he gets quite a bit more than that even. I would say that barring another season ending injury that threatens his NFL career, that we'll be watching this kid NEXT season as well and go from there. Let's all not forget that we let the Posluzny experiment go for 4 years before the team finally realized that he just wasn't good enough to play the position.

When all is said and done, Cordy Glenn looks like the LT that this team has needed since Jason Peters departure. The good news here too is that he doesn't have to look like an all-pro in his first year. Fitzpatrack was STILL sacked less than any other QB starting 16 games last year due to his quick decision making. Let's hope that decision making gets a little better this year and the interceptions come down. Maybe having that extra 0.5-1.0 second will help. I will say it's fun being optimistic this time of the year. For the most part, this is the time when we see no flaws in our rookies and all of our free agency moves are still "brilliant".

Great article. None the less, I am worried about the linebackers. Thus far in the preseason, it has seemed that teams can still run the ball down our throats. I like the pass rush, but it won't matter if we can't keep teams in third and long situations.

I would not feel better about this team if Vick was the QB. You can't simply separate an athletes abilities to play the game from their character. At some point those things have to come together. Putting that aside however, I have issues with Vick's just the same. Let's start with his fragility. In 9 seasons, he's managed just 1 complete season. Even discounting his first year in Philadelphia (where Kolb was starting), he's only been on the field for 71% of possible games or about 11 games per season. Those wanting to use the "if healthy" argument don't have much history to be able to make that leap that he'll be healthy. Let's extend that to his accuracy. Fitzpatrick hasn't had incredible accuracy at 59.2% for his career. With the Bills, it's 59.4%. Certainly not great or anything to fawn over. Vick isn't any better at 56.0% for his career. He's been a little better with Philadelphia at 60.2%, but that's with far superior receiving options than the Bills have had over the same time period. I don't think anyone would disagree that you can't just take a QB from one team and put him on another and expect them to play the same. Unless that QB is Peyton Manning of course. People can tout his arm strength all they want, but if he isn't accurate enough to get it in the vacinity of the receivers, it won't matter. I appreciate Vick's abilities when it comes to scrambling. Let's not forget though that THAT's the reason he's been hurt so much. He's always looking to take off and that has gotten him in trouble on several occasions. Vick does not have the size and durability of a Culpepper or Newton. So for the instances where he extends a drive here or there with his legs, you are almost guaranteeing that you won't see him for 4-5 games a season. The trade off just isn't worth it. Back to the combination of ability and character, I don't have one doubt in my mind that he'd still be fighting dogs if he hadn't been caught. I don't owe him forgiveness though just because he's served his time. The moment the Bills signed Michael Vick would be the moment I turn in my fan card. Regardless, he's at the end of his career anyway and we don't have to worry about that happening. Our worst case scenario at this point is that Fitzpatrick doesn't progress this year and we're looking at Matt Barkley or Landry Jones in next years draft. While this thread is pure fantasy, that's a little more realistic.

It may just be my opinion, but I think Kyle Moore has looked like the 3rd best player at the position, behind only Williams and Anderson. Definitely something to be optimistic about.

At the end of the day, he's turned over almost half of the roster in 3 years. This is exactly what was needed after 12 years of mediocre teams. Plus, it's not instantaneous. It takes time.

The biggest reason for me right now is the play of the linebackers. When the first team has been in there going against the opposing first team, they're just not doing their job. They've allowed teams to march right down the field and score. I really don't put much into the play of the second and third string. On the offensive side of the ball, we really haven't seen anything yet. They're working on aspects of the offense right now and not trying to win games. This is what they should be doing at this point. We won't see the finished product until the last preseason game, and that could be limited just the same. I am definitely concerned with the linebackers though.

Let's face facts. Merriman is not the same player now that he was before his ACL troubles. He's a bit slow and getting outplayed by other younger healthy guys. You don't pay a guy $4 million (which they would have had to do) for the possibility that he suddenly might be able to stay healthy after 2 years of injuries. While I wanted him to be that "lights out" guy he used to be, that simply won't make it a reality. Hopefully, Kyle Moore continues to play at a high level and can spell Mark Anderson as needed.

This. Vince Young is garbage. When you put garbage in, you get garbage out.

Most of the game was second and third string against second and third string. Neither team was playing with any sense of urgency and simply working on their playbooks. To simplify it for you, let's take our 4-year Superbowl team of the 90's. In any given preseason, they won either 0 or 1 game out of 4. All they did is work on certain aspects of offense and defense. It's not even close to the reality of what games are in season.

We've seen him play college football against college level talent. That's it. Like I said before, I wouldn't trade away core solid NFL players and a young stud WR for someone that may anchor the franchise but also that may just flame out. On the last point, I could honestly care less. The Colts are not trading Luck any time soon and the Bills haven't even made the inkling of a gesture that they would want him. This is just another pointless thread that's only close connection to reality is the reality of the next Madden game.

How is it likely? He's been on and off the IR for the last 4 years running. He's only been able to start 10 games out of the last 32 (2 years). He certainly hasn't been very good in practices and scrimmages that would lead us to believe that he's "likely" to show us how he used to be good 4 years ago. Same as before. I like the optimism, but it should be tempered with at least a pinch of reality.

Great question. I tried to search for it, but came up empty of even a discussion. He's not big enough. I was talking about the first team defense. It was pretty bland stuff and didn't include a single blitz. Second and third team really doesn't matter much.

Hmmm....go back and read the start of the thread. That point has nothing to do with it. The fact is that for what they've been asked to do (which isn't a lot), that Brooks is still outperforming McGee. But what he's doing right now in just one preseason game and in no-contact scrimmages is not necessarily an indicator of what he'll do when the regular season starts. Optimistic? Sure, but not getting ahead of myself. At the end of the day, how many teams front offices are saying that any of their projected starters look awful? How many front offices are ready right now to concede that the rookies they drafted probably aren't good enough to start at some point? The answer to both of those questions is a resounding NONE.

Pretty simple concept actually. Basically it's a limited playbook to allow players to get used to the schemes and formations. For example, defensively against the Redskins, the Bills didn't run a single blitz. Not one. They didn't call any of the more complex defensive packages that they'll be running in the regular season. The Redskins on offense didn't run any of what will be more complex route packages. No team shows their hand in the preseason of the things they're going to try to do in the regular season. Hopefully that helps elaborate on what I was trying to say before.