bluv

And Singletary's method will break bodies or lead to late season breakdowns as bodies breakdown! These "old school" mentality coaches don't realize that NFL football today is different than when they played because there is no off season so players don't have to get into shape at camp and with additional offseason programs and OTA's it wont take much to overwork players; its not like they are all young HS/college bodies with speedy recoveries.

I agree as I made a similar post on BuffaloBills.com. Wood could have came in and started at LG while either Chambers, Bell, FA acquistion, or draft pick competed for LT. That way we don't have 4 of our starters learning new positions or maybe being out of position. My biggest fear is that part of our season gets wasted away as the staff trys to make this lineup work or give it too much time to gel even if it is obvious that some are overmatched. Not saying or hoping it will happen but if it does I cant see them sitting Walker or Butler if they play bad; they'd have to painfully obvious or get injured to get benched in 09.

AMEN! The difference is playing for AMerica's b!@#$@ vs playing for a team like the Bills. If Romo played for the Bills )or if Trent had played identical the past 3 years for that matter!) he wouldn't be receiving all the blame as he would be overhyped; treated like he was a GOD! ALL the blame would be on his teammates and management not adding more pieces around him OR taking other KEY players to task who wilted as well (running game, D). Like Irvin said: anybody talking about trading or sitting Romo is just stupid (cocaine is a helluva drug but even a crackhead could see this!)

I know this topic very well as I have a LOUD @$$ boy who is a diehard 'Girls fan who is also enamored with Bsoe. He always acted like Bsoe was so GREAT and that he sucked because he played for the Bills and if Dallas had him they'd be in the SB again....he got his wish! And he still REFUSES to admit Bsoe shortcomings. Like the rest of the Yahoo article said: "While Irvin’s jokes were at a high expense to Bledsoe, the point was well taken. People forget that by Bledsoe’s last two years, his combination of clay feet and slow internal clock made him the target of pass rushers everywhere." My boy seems to overlook these traits. All you have to do is give him time he says. That is true for many NFL Qb's; even Mark Rypien looked like a stud when the Hogs were at their best! Yeah he threw for 3639 yards in his only season staring for Dallas but just like he did for us he started out strong and ended in a whimper once defenses caught on. The next season he played like crap in 6 games he started; especially against the good teams. That is why he got benched! Say what you want about Romo: if Dallas runs him out of town NEXT year and if Trent doesn't play up to expectations, if he were to come to the Bills some of the same fans that dis him now will be the same ones greeting him at the airport slobbing on him the same way they did Drew and the same way they did TO; he might even get the key to the city!

The same thing was said about a number of QBs; some such as this article suggest ended up in the hall of fame! And coaches as well as players can get better with time and experience; Belichek wasn't a genius in his first stint!

All I can say or do is quote Fassell directly from the article: ""Quarterbacks, all they need to do is fit in the right circumstance," Fassel said. "I can name a lot of Hall of Fame quarterbacks that at the end of four years, you'd be shocked at their numbers and where they were. You take Steve Young, who was at Tampa. You look at his numbers after four years. You look at Terry Bradshaw's numbers after four years, you look at John Elway's numbers after four years, and you look at Brett Favre's numbers after four years. And if I didn't have a name on those, you might've cut them. "Now that's after four years ... and my study is based upon having patience and the right circumstances with quarterbacks. And they didn't have great circumstances. Listen, Brett Favre got traded, Steve Young got traded or cut, I'm not sure. Dan Reeves tried to trade John Elway. And Terry Bradshaw was just playing on a frigging great team, OK? Three out of four of those quarterbacks were either traded or tried to get traded. And you know what? They're Hall of Fame guys."

With our current personell we wont got to a full blown 3-4; all they will do is use Maybin as a standup DE in key situation. The "elephant" position made famous in San Fran in the 80's by Fred Dean and Charles Haley is similar. They will use Maybin similar to how USC used Cushing and Matthews in their system; here is a good read: http://www.trojanfootballanalysis.com/usc_...nt_defense.html This won't become our base D unless Maybin is such a force from it that he cant leave the field. He could use his speed and athletism to play the run on the way to rushing the QB vs maybe struggling at the point of attack on the LOS lined up against huge OT.

Options are good but if it is not made a fixed standard then it will be hard to find anyone who would use it as it limits the game. I liked that it was a forced fixture on All-Madden on the earlier versions. The problem with those Maddens was that pass coverage was too good with DB's jumping 20 feet in the air, tackling the WR before they hit the ground and nano-blitzes combined with QB vision made it difficult to pass. In 09 pass coverage, especially on crossing routes sucked and blitzing is really ineffective as the QB is allowed to get rid of the ball quicker (a good thing I might add) and any WR can beat the jam. If QB accuracy wasn't so fine tune even for average QB's and QB vision was in effect on 09, if your initial WR wasn't open and you had a QB with a small QB cone then it wouldn't be as easy to beat the blitz and you would adjust your game accordingly. Just like in real life, you wouldn't blitz Manning as much because he could beat the blitz by quickly finding his hot read while a lesser QB would look confuse and panic and as a result more sacks, fumbles, and INT's. Without QB vision and more inaccurate passes, any QB in 09 can play like Manning. Year after year when they try to improve the game, they either make it a defensive or offensive game in which they make the DB's either cover too good or just plain lousy. They should try to emulate the running game on 2K5 but turn down the break tackle a notch, maybe %10, tinkering with the pass coverage/ WR getting open in 09 percentage, and overhauling QB accuracy as even the great ones don't make every throw like they do on Madden.

They haven't succesfully found a way to make the other ratings have a significant factor. Barry Sanders, Bo Jackson, and Cristian Okoye all had different running styles but on Madden Okoye's game couldn't be implemented as he would go down way too easy so to compensate they will give him great speed (which he had BTW!) Then he would be running like B Sanders cutting on a dime! No the QB vision has to be a fixed feature as if not no one would use it as it limits their game. That is why those who hated it HATED IT! They had to sit in the pocket and read defenses. They couldn't roll around and wait for anybody to break free. They had to go the progressions. I loved it because you'd have those slick types who'd try to guess where you were going with the ball and I like the chess match aspect of the game. If they combined the QB vision, with the new 2010 ratings, and the different throwing aspects that Tecmo Qb's had then it would create a unique feel to your QB instead of them all throwing the same with the same speed, form, and velocity. Every QB can't zip a ball in there but they can on Madden if they press the button hard. If they did it right, a QB such as Bledsoe or Mark Rypien could excel IF they had great blocking but fail if they had to make quick decisions. The speed rating reduction will not work if they just simply over rate good players and under rate average ones. McKlevin is one of the fastest Bills players but will only get an 89 speed rating in 2010 just because he is an unknown. You can give fast players their speed but just make the other ratings have much more of a factor. What good is speed if you can't utilize it on the field and you play with no awareness or sense of assignment? I want to see a combination of 2k5, madden, and tecmo Bowl! Give me the action/running game of 2K5 (as well as its ESPN shots!), the playbooks and passing game of madden (2K playbooks sucked!) and Tecmo Bowl way of creating uniquiness to a player or team and then you have yourself a game. I loved how in tecmo Bowl players ratings would go up and down in a game so that when bruce is possessed he would make SF OL fly like popcorn! This made every game an adventure so that you never know who would get hot or cold.

I think the biggest difference in this game vs 09 is that they will make good teams and players better and degrade average teams. Face it: speed means too much on Madden and the developers haven't found a way to implement the other ratings to make a true impact on the game. So in order to combat this, all they will do is make average players slower. Think about it, who will be in your Madden 2010 WR lineup: Parrish with 96 speed or Reed with barely over 80? No matter what the ratings are for route running, beating the press, catching, etc, who will have the biggest impact on the field? Until they can make these other ratings matter and become a bigger factor speed will always be a demon. They should make acceleration and burst mean more. Also in the real NFL WR run a lot of sight adjustment routes based on coverage; there are only a handful on Madden. If they had more of these type plays in which a WR had to adjust routes then you'd make awareness mean more in the game. That would affect your playcalling as you'd have a WR such as Reed run in the slot and find the open spot in the zone while a WR like Hardy you'd have him run simple routes; if you had a team full of hardy types then you wouldn't run a sophistacted offense. I also missed the QB vision. I know a lot of players hated it but it brought a 3rd dimension to the game. The way the game is setup now the only difference between a great QB and one that sucks is arm strength and accuracy. These are the only ratings that matter when you play against a human opponent as far as throwing the ball. With QB vision on, you could give JP losman a 100 throwing power and a decent accracy rating but his vision cone could be made so small that he could only be successful if the initial read was open; if protection breaksdown or he is blitzed he would get sacked or have plenty of inaccurate throws. I know in 2010 they have added ratings as far as how Qb's throw short, medium,long and on the run (who knows how this will play out and what affect it will have) but that QB vision could bring more strategy into play as you wouldn't run a West Coast offense with multiple reads with a JP Losman type QB! I am more of a strategy guy when it comes to realism and ratings and I want those factors to determine what plays and sets should be run, not just whatever gimmick play comes along. It takes the fun out of the game if I can use the same strategy and playbook for just about any and every team and have the same success.

This is just a case of a team playing to a schme and not its strengths. This team is clearly built to play a 4-3 with the addition of Raji.

Ellison is the Strongside LB (now don't ask me why!) and Kawika is the WLB in our scheme.

I don't know if the fast paced aspect of the KGun will work but the personell philsophy should as Trent plays better from 3 WR sets. The FB and TE positions don't add much benefit to the running game as we struggled when we tried 2 back sets. Passing from those sets were equally daunting as even though teams dropped the 8 man in the box they could double Lee and live with the other threat. Even with TO, the Fb doesn't add much and there is still not a proven TE passing threat. This team is loaded with talent at WR. If they run a 3WR look offense then they would FINALLY have an OFFENSIVE IDENTITY in which they have a personell set in which they can equally pass or run which leads to less PREDICTABILITY. I'm confident that both Lynch and freddie can run from spread sets especially when teams dropback to defend against Lee, TO, and company. Motion them out the backfield against nickle LB's and watch them shake in their boots. Now the O-line might not be up to task as I am not sold on Wlaker at LT but you never know. If they go with the 3 Wr set, allow Trent to actually pass more when behind center and run more shotgun draws,playactions, and screens then this offense will be less predictable and then on occasion when they have teams on their heels or want to lay the dagger go up tempo and crush the oppnents throats!

I wish they had brought Levi Jones in for a look early on (I know he is just a name but he is the best on the market). I know they want to build chemistry on the O-line; if he was brought in and looked the part the O-line could have got a jump-start on that chemistry. I know this is just on PAPER but an O-line of Jones-LG-Hagnarter-Butler-Walker looks much better to me as while Jones isn't on Peters level, this O-line maybe an upgrade as the middle of the line should be better with an upgrade at center and a better fit at LG for the scheme. Even if the O-line played at the same level as last year, overall I think the offense would be better with the addition of TO and maturity of Trent. Pass protection for the most part was not a big problem as our QBs had plenty of time to throw the ball, as I don't know how many times I can count on my hand I watched Trent pat the ball in the pocket waiting for someone to get open of JP just run around looking confused! While the running game lacked push up the middle, a lot of our lack of running came to lack of threat outside Lee and PREDICTABLE play calling that allowed defense to stack the box. Even with that, Marshawn still ran for over 1000 and averaged 4ypc. What I HOPE doesn't happen is that this reshuffling doesn't become a total jailbreak and bring back memories of the pre-Peters days when RJ, Drew, and JP would get blasted as soon as the ball was hiked! And I pray to god the front office doesn't become determined to try making it with the guys they have REGARDLESS of the results observed in practice and preseason. Then it will be too late to add another player or reshuffle the O-line and another season is thrown down the drain having Bills fans looking to next year as always. While Walker is a good RT, I don't feel comfortable with Walker playing LT for a whole season. They definitely will not put him on an island like they did with Peters. While I think Butler can make the transition he won't be much of an upgrade from Walker play at RT. Think about it: what if Walker and Butler can't hang at their new positions, you can't just threw them on the bench for they would be equal or better than the players at their old positions. This would make coaches reluctant to make changes for fear of ruining "chemistry" but at the same time Trent would be getting blasted while the coaches HOPE that, the line would gel and "chemistry" can be established. Then next year this time we'd be trying to hype up another LT prospect while Butler and Walker will be whipping boys and probably shifted back to positions in which they excelled! At least hopefully they'd do it with another coaching staff for as Jimbo said this is the playoffs or die for this staff.

Why did the Texans pick Mario Williams over Reggie and Vince Young? The NFL draft is a crap shoot and you can't evaluate until the players put the pads on, touch the field and get playing experience. If 3-4 years from now Orakpo ends up being a stud while Maybin is a bust then you can whine. Who knows, E Brown may be the best out of the bunch then a lot of us and the experts will act like they knew all along.

Exactly. Ask the Jets and ManGENIUS. His first year with the Jets they were up and coming and had solid players on D in Vilma, Robertson, and Ellis in their 4-3 scheme. They finish 10-6 and were on their way. What did ManGENIUS do? He felt his 3-4 scheme was the way to go and he OUTSMARTED himself as players like Robertson and Vilma while they were better than average DT and MLB in a 4-3 were average and not good fits as NT and ILB in a 3-4. Result: they finished 4-12 the next year and had to restart and rebuild all over again. You can't fit square pegs in a round hole; he should have adjusted his schemes to fit the players than the other way around. Same on offense. Every team can't run Bill Walsh West Coast offense or be a smash mouth 2000 yard rushing team. Remember how a lot of teams jumped on the Run-n-Shoot in the early 90's? It only worked with one team the Oilers. It wasn't the scheme it was the players. Now you can have an established scheme like the Pats have and if you draft well players that fit your scheme then you can give credit to the scheme. But it still depends on the players plain and simple.

Schemes don't win - players do. As a coach you have to find the best scheme to get the most out of your players. The debate for the 4-3 vs the 3-4 is ridiculous. It all depends on the personell. Right now this team is best suited to fit a 4-3 sceme. As a matter of fact with more teams shifting to a 3-4 there will be better players that fit our scheme available. Some players can fit any scheme. Bruce, while I think he would have been untouchable in a 4-3 still is the record sack king playing ina 3-4. Others such as Bryce Paup (for those who can remember that far back!) was a dominant Pro Bowl player in a 3-4 but an average LB in a 4-3. The hardest fill on this team to transistion to a 3-4 would be the NT as we don't have protypical NT. Stroud is an above average DT in a 4-3 but would be an average NT at best and behind him on the depth chart - Idon't even want ot go there! Honestly the past 2 years I give Fewell praise as he has overachieved with the talent he has had. Think about it: the year before we lost SEVEN starters to injury and while they gave up a lot of yards they still surrended about mid pack in points allowed. Last year after losing their best pass rusher, the D was not the reason we were 7-9; as a matter of fact it kept us in most games. With the return of Schoebel and hopefully contribution from Maybin or Ellis in pass rush rotation, the D has a chance to be good. Not dominant but good. It is up to the offense to step up its game, score more, and control the clock so that the oppositon will have to pass more, abandon the run game, and give our D ample time to rest. The biggest change I would make on D would be to allow McKlevin to play more man technique as he seems to thrive better in man than zone (Ditto for Greer but he is a Saint now so it doesn't matter!) and more blitzing as Kawika is keen to timing the blitz well.

Because there are more important things in life than football! I HATE the Cowboys but god forbid if any of their players had gotten hurt in that bubble bursting last week. Unlike some, I didn't care to see Brady getting hurt for I'd like to see us beat them at full strength with no excuses (and we still lost to them twice!). That is how I am: I'd rather see us beat a team with all their parts to leave no excuses, no just hoping for breaks! I still agree with some: if it had been Wilfork or Harrison I'd have little remorse as they are dirty players but at least they are paid. This guy is an unknown unlucky rookie and no matter WHO he plays for, any good hearted person would wish him well.

EXACTLY! This is an idea I pointed out before the draft. But I'll change up the lineup and have Gaines as the inline TE with Nelson being an H-back with Fine and Schouman as backups. If Nelson could block on the move or just get in the way on running plays then we might have someting as he would be a hard matchup for the pass defense ala Dallas Clark, especially if he splits out wide. If teams decide that they want to defend the run and match a LB on him then he should win that matchup; especially with both Lee and TO on the outside. If teams go to the nickle then he should be able to handle blocking a DB in the run game. If our O-line could run block then this personell grouping could be our base offense and gives us an offensive identity - something we haven't had since the K-gun days!

He could at the very least be a stud part of the BEST special teams squad in the NFL! All 53 guys can't start you know!

I have no touble with the player it's the trading up and the lost of picks I question. True the MIDDLE of the O-line looks good on paper. OLB and TE SUCK on paper and we could have used those picks to address them. Hopefully we can find a quality LB in free agency.

Too many get caught up in the stats and a game or two he played at LT. They didn't notice the help he got or the fact he does struggle against speed and that playing at RT with help negates that. The same were also blind to the fact that Peters played on an island with no help. It's like comparing Deion to Larry Brown! For a full 16 game season Walker will get schooled! Some will say Peters got abused last year. He was rarely beat but when he was last year it often ended in a sack and it was pointed out. Walker will allow constant pressure as he is simply not agile enough to play ON AN ISLAND at LT.

I agree wholeheartedly!

I think that was the most questionable move in the draft. You don't move up to take guy who unless you are sure he will start or he plays at a position in which he can fit into a rotation. I'm not against the drafting of Levitre but I hate the trading up for him. If he starts then great but if he doesn't while he might be great for depth you don't move up and lose picks on a team that needs talent for a non-starter. Even though he played tackle, he most definitely will not start for the Bills at either tackle position. With the drafting of Wood, I felt comfortable with our guards/centers - Wood, Hangartner, Butler, McKinney. Those picks we lost in the 3rd could have been used on WEAKER positions such as LB and TE.

I like Chambers or even Bell better at LT than Walker. While I haven't seen Bell play, I have seen Wlaker and I say leave Walker where he is at! He is a good RT but I don't think he can consistently handle speed rushers he may face at LT. Thate initial posters lineup looks Ok on paper - would look damn good with Peters manning the LT but I'm going to move forward and just like the Bills should handle Walker - leave that alone!