Chilly

I completely disagree. A player has to be *way* better than someone we have to bring him in at this time of year. He'll be way behind everyone else learning the schemes.

Sam Aiken couldn't make it in the NFL? Better tell the Pats*.

Lol jack, I did it a couple weeks ago. Didn't want to spent the cash for two trips, so I'll be watching the opener here in tx.

Wish I could be at the opener this year... those ribs were great last year. Oh well, I guess taking a trip and getting engaged instead of going to Buffalo is worth it.

I had no idea they were mutually exclusive!

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I'm not typing who I'm replying to in this post, but I can pretty much guarantee that everyone can figure out who I'm talking to based on the content of my post.

Agreed, Buftex. I'd love to see a 2 or 3-year deal with him, and let the young guys develop behind him (and hopefully pass him in a year or two). He's a possession receiver, so even once he starts to decline, he'll be useful in a more limited role.

ESPN3 isn't a channel, but it is awesome.

I'm sure he's going to want more than a 1-year-deal, though.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=5529209 Wonder how much he'd cost.

Doh! i was posting from my phone last night while waiting waiting for people to show up to watch college football, and avatars don't work on the mobile site!

jealous of what, exactly?

Maybe we can also trade for the rights to the car dealership that cheating !@#$ scammed at

I think so. I have high hopes for that offense!

I'd make all the choices you listed the same way. I absolutely love the team. Nice job.

They're pretty standard, and were explained great by the guy right above me, so I'm not going to do it again. However, I would recommend reading this book: http://www.amazon.com/Take-Your-Eye-Off-Ball/dp/1600783910 To the OP, I would *LOVE* these charts if you have the time! Great info!

I did see it on one play, but outside of one, I didn't see it happen too much vs the Bengals.

I like the team, but you need more RB depth. Maybe trade a WR for them? BTW, I like Spiller as a #2 RB in a PPR, but when he's been taken there's been other, more sure things available in my drafts.

I mainly focused on the offensive side of the ball this game. Here are my thoughts: - Trent Edwards: Overall, I was pretty surprised by his performance. Trent's not a guy that is going to blow you away with amazing QB play, but if he plays this well I think he'll could be a QB we can win some games with. I do think he'll eventually need to be replaced to get the team to the next level, but I think this is a guy you can improve the team with in the short-term, while you get other pieces in place. I thought he looked a lot better than I've seen previously. He's stepping up into the pocket now which is giving him time to throw. Those very same plays last year would have been sacks. Amazing what a focus on fundamentals can do. I also thought he had pretty strong decision making. There was only one potential pass where a DB jumped the route, but other than that, he seemed to find receivers in space with chances to make plays. I thought he was also very good at executing the screen pass tonight. He also did very well recognizing the blitz most times. I saw him switch back to old habits a couple of times. On one throw to Lee Evans (I think) on the outside, the route was jumped, which if the defender was in a better position could have been a dangerous pass. He tends to throw the ball away a little bit late, and needs to be more decisive when running out of the pocket. He also locked onto a receiver for a whole play at least once. If he does that in the regular season, that's going to cause turnovers. - CJ Spiller: Boy, I love the way this guy runs. His vision is tremendous. If he sees a hole open inside, he'll take it, but if not and there's some room outside. he'll bounce it out. He always seems to find where the best place is to go with the football, then quickly accelerate through that hole. I love that he always has his vision on his linemen. I remember one play in particular where Spiller was supposed to take it between the tackle and the guard, but the hole wasn't there. However, Spiller was looking at his tackle, and as soon as the tackle's head got to the outside of the lineman's helmet, Spiller bounced it outside and turned it into a pretty good, 10+ yard gain. It was a thing of beauty - he kept watching the block until he figured out where the hole was going to be based off of the tackle's positioning, then took it right through. He also has tremendous edge speed, I loved the TD run where he just beat everyone to the outside. He's definitely going to make this offensive line look better than it is. However, Spiller flat out sucks at pass protection. This isn't surprising, as he's a rookie, but he's got a lot of work to do. He was regularly beaten when he was in to pass block. This is a pretty big deal, as it really hurts what the Bills can do with him on the field. They aren't going to be able to count on him to pass block, so they're going to have to run 20 & 21 personnel with him a lot. That's not necessarily a terrible thing, as I really like McIntyre's pass catching ability, but I don't know how much they'll want to use Spiller in 10 or 11 personnel groups. I just don't think he's going to hold up there this year. Hopefully Chan will be creative and use some 20 and 21 personnel, but detatch Spiller before the play starts (either line him up in the slot or send him in motion), to keep offenses guessing. I also like Spiller a lot out of the Wildcat. - Steve Johnson: I think Steve is a decent receiver. He's not a guy that is going to burn you, or overwhelm you with skill/talent, or anything of the like, but I think he can be a solid possession receiver. He's a weak spot on offense, for sure, and I think he's more suited to a WR #4 role at this point, but my hope is Roscoe will make up for his lack of playmaking skills. - Lee Evans: I hope it's just pre-season, but I was really disappointed with his run blocking in this game. There were a couple of plays that could have gone for decent yardage, but were stopped way short because his man got to Spiller. I haven't watched his run-blocking much the past couple of years, so I can't comment on whether this is normal or not. I can say I was expecting more. - Jonathan Stupar They didn't really use him in the passing game all that much, which I thought was a little surprising. He had some decent blocks though, and wasn't a liability in the blocking game, so overall I was decently pleased with his performance. - Offensive Line Cornell Green seems to get driven back on a lot of plays. I'm not really happy with his performance at all. I think he's okay at steering his guy wide on pass protection, but sometimes he gets beat by a quick step to the outside. He also doesn't have a lot of strength on the inside either. Demetrius Bell also has a tendency to be driven backwards by strong pass rushers it seems, but not nearly as bad as Green. Of the two tackles, I thought Bell was clearly better tonight, but I wasn't a huge fan. Hangartner, for all the beatings he takes around here, was pretty dang solid. He never really let anyone rush straight by him in pass protection, and always had the middle blocked for Trent. I thought he looked pretty good overall. I thought the guard play was somewhat poor at times, but it could be that the communication wasn't totally there. One play in particular that sticks out in my head was a run which the Bills did some angle blocking and pulled Wood from the right to left side. Levitre somewhat whiffed on his block, which caused Wood to try to seal off that guy when he got there. Unfortunately, Levitre didn't try to pick up Woods guy, but rather they ended up double-teaming the same lineman, leaving a wide open run defender to stuff Spiller. - Defensive Line I didn't watch the DL too closely, but it did look like they were eating up space rather well. I don't think this group is going to get a ton of QB pressure, but they should allow the linebackers the space to make plays. Unfortunately..... - Linebackers I thought our LBs were terrible. Andra Davis had a couple of nice plays, but outside of him, I wasn't impressed by anyone. I saw Poz run past the run gaps straight into some run blocks, letting Benson get a couple of decent gaines. Poz also didn't seem to do very well when he was blitzing. Maybin got pressure once, and Kawika Mitchell had a nice run defense on an outside run by Peerman across the field, but that was about it. Granted I stopped watching in the 3rd quarter, but none of the LBs outside of Davis seemed to make any big plays. I was highly disappointed in this whole group. - DBs Got beat on a few plays, but overall probably the strength of the defense. They need to work out their zone coverage on Cincinnati's first touchdown to Gresham. It felt to me like George Wilson was supposed to cover Gresham, but I'm not 100% sure on that play. Cincinnati has some good receivers who made some catches despite tight coverage, which sometimes you just can't do anything about from a DB perspective - you need the pass rush to force some mistakes. Still, I thought they played decent, but not the best I've ever seen them play. - Special Teams What happened to this unit? I hope it's just the preseason, because they look absolutely terrible. From Moorman shanking punts to the coverage giving up huge runs, I'm not sure what happened here. - Coaching What an improvement from last year. You can see how Gailey is using short middle routes with Evans and Parrish to beat the zone blitz. There were a couple times when Gailey called a perfect route over the middle of the field right where there was space in a zone. One was on Roscoe's TD catch, the other was on a first down play to Evans where the DB that was covering Evans took off in a blitz, Edwards read it perfectly and fired the pass to Evans, who had plenty of space to beat the LBs and grab a first down. This is such an improvement from previous years, it's refreshing. I also love that the Bills don't seem to be taking a lot of drive killing penalties on offense. That was a huge problem last season, and the Bills didn't have ONE offensive penalty on the starters in the first half. Such a great turnaround. I hope the defense catches up, but I think they need a lot more talent on that side of the ball, unfortunately. Overall, I think we're going to enjoy watching this team more than we have the past few years, simply because the offense is way better. I think they're a team that, with some luck, they could finish right around 8-8. I do think we need a lot more talent at LB and OT to really take the next steps, with LB being a huge key to the defense. I think they are also going to need to build defensive depth, get another solid WR (hopefully Easley), possibly sign some special teams stars, and see what happens at the QB situation before they can really make it over the hump. Given all of that, they are a decent ways away, but it's still better vibes than I felt last year from the team.

Mccoy was always going to take a while to develop. Texas doesn't run a system that makes it easy to transition to the nfl, and I've never been impressed with the way he read defenses. He's also rather small, and looks a lot smaller in person than he does on tv. I think he may end up being a solid #2 guy in the nfl who can spot start for a few games, but he needs a long development period to get to that point. The ceiling on his game is probably a guy who can be an accurate, short pass guy in a west coast offense, but he isn't going to light the world on fire with deep throws. it makes sense from the holmgren perspective given he could fit that style of offense, but I don't think he is going to develop into a franchise qb. I also think he is going to always struggle reading complex defenses, which will limit him to a backup role.

I think that's a very good team. Ray Rice is money in a PPR. I would also put McCoy in at #2 RB. I think Michael Bush is your 4th best RB. Only person I don't like a ton is housh, but he does have potential.

A QB who makes a lot of stupid plays, and a couple plays that make you think he's pretty good. He's the next.... Drew Bledsoe?

I wasn't saying that they were equal to complement Trent. I thought some of Sanchez's INT problems last year were being caused by not seeing plays develop correctly, and the other part was because he was such an inaccurate QB. While I agree with not putting much stock into pre-season games, I can say that I saw Bradford put the balls into some really tight, impressive holes. Whether he would read that correctly with regular season D schemes or anything like that, I have no idea. It was impressive though.

Jack doesn't miss it. Learn to read. (Just kidding)