Orton's Arm

Yes, TD did cut Ross Tucker. MM wouldn't have had to employ the Jason Peters experiment if players like Mike Williams and Greg Jerman were doing their jobs. I still don't think Mike Williams is at 100%. The team began the year with 2 new starters on the line, neither of whom were with the team last year; and neither of whom should be with the team next year.

If you're familiar with the Giants situation, you'll know that immediately after McNally and the coaching staff were let go, the GM decided it was absolutely imperative to upgrade the talent on the o-line. Last year, McNally had Mike Williams playing by far the best football of his career; and in the second half of the season the line as a whole came together in a way we had not seen in quite some time. Of the five starters on this year's line, two are new, another two (Williams and Villarial) have battled injuries, and the fifth starter is Trey Teague. Do you think a player like Bennie Anderson is a good o-line coach away from being a quality NFL player? Do you think a better o-line coach could have given Teague the physical strength he needs to avoid being pushed into the backfield? Considering how little McNally has been given to work with, I think he has done a fine job here in Buffalo.

I disagree. We have one of the best o-line coaches in the league, yet our line can't block. One of the biggest factors in building a strong line is continuity, which TD hasn't provided. If you go the free agent route with your line, continuity is harder to attain. Take Villarial. He played well when he first got here, but old age is catching him all too quickly. Next year there may be a new face at right OG. And left OG. And C. And LT. And maybe even RT. Given that TD is in his fifth year, there should be at least one OL position which some guy has locked up with absolute certainty. There isn't.

New York paid a king's ransom to get Eli Manning. It turns out Manning was worth even more than what NY gave up to get him. So now San Diego has a ton of picks from trading away Manning, and the opportunity to get even more picks by trading away Rivers. Plus they have a bona fide QB in Brees. I'll take that QB situation over what TD has done with QB here.

QB wasn't the problem with the Bills' offense in San Diego. Our offense as a whole got dominated by their defense as a whole. What else is new?

With all the mistakes Butler made while here, and all the success San Diego has had recently, it looks like A.J. Smith is a far better GM than either TD or Butler.

A comment which could be made about just about every coaching staff in the league. I agree with you about the Tom Clements situation, and about upgrading Gray. But at least Mularkey picked good position coaches for the offense: Sam Wyche at QB coach, the guy who coached Anquan Boldin his rookie year at WR coach. But above all, getting one of the best o-line coaches in the league to take the unenviable job of coaching Buffalo's offensive line--or lack thereof--has to count as a coup for Mularkey. I mean, McNally was one of the most highly respected position coaches in the game, and coaching the Bills' offensive line had "career killer" written all over it.

You can have 53 men on your roster total, but only 48 can be active on gameday. There will always be a few players who have roster spots but aren't given the chance to contribute.

Take a closer look at TD's performance at the three pillars of a successful team: QB - Bledsoe (didn't work out); Losman and Holcomb (too soon to tell) OL - Nothing DL - Mixed results at best. Found Sam Adams in free agency, and some vaguely respectable DEs via 2nd round draft picks. When these three core areas are a mess, the successes you may have had elsewhere look a lot worse. You've got a WR who can burn people deep in the form of Evans, but the O-line can't give him the time he needs to get open deep. You've got a linebacker group which contains players who, in theory, have some talent at stopping the run, but the defensive line can't keep blockers off of them. TD's successes are being made largely irrelevant by his failures.

Um, if you didn't hear the guy's name called, that's a good sign. Ideally, your DBs would give perfect coverage every play, forcing the QB to always throw the ball away. Then you'd never hear any of your DBs' names called. If a DB makes a tackle on a pass play, it usually means the guy he was supposed to be covering just made a catch. So a DB with fewer tackles probably did a better job of not being picked on.

Clearly paying Williams the outlandish sum he's due next year is not an option. Paying him a large signing bonus to restructure is not an option either. TD should meet with Williams' agent to discuss the options that are left.

I hate country music. It's not music, and the recording studios are owned and operated by people who (as far as I know) aren't from the country.

I really hope Jerry Gray gets this job. And not because I'm a fan of the Rams . . .

The problem is that Evans doesn't have the height or weight of Moulds. I love the idea of throwing to Evans early and often. There's nothing quite like buring a defense with speed. But you also need a tall, big, physical WR to outmuscle DBs and catch passes in traffic. Evans can never be that.

I like the fact that unlike other people on this board, you're not trying to defend Losman by attacking Holcomb.

The conditions weren't the same. - The Bills' line improved with the benching of Mike Williams - It's often harder for a defense to stop an offense in the 2nd half than the first half due to fatigue. - KC prepared for Holcomb, not Losman Losman did well with the opportunity he was given, but I for one am not going to jump to the conclusion that he necessarily has a bright future in this league. As a rookie, Ryan Leaf engineered a come-from-behind victory against the Bills. One good game does not a good QB make.

An excellent point. Losman's other good game was against Houston. It's a little early to be annointing Losman the next Kelly.

Go a little easy on those "noodle arm" references.

No, he doesn't: While I agree with your suggestions about how Navy could improve the analytical rigor of his study, the fact is your advice would take a ton of time to implement. In the real world you don't always have the time to do as in-depth an analysis of something as you'd like; and you have to make decisions based on partial information. Navy never claimed nor implied his post was as statistically rigorous as it possibly could be. Rather than criticising Navy for the fact his analysis could be better, we should be thanking him for the fact he took the time to do the work he did. I wouldn't have realized there were at least 12 missed blocks had it not been for his post.

I don't know what you do for a living now, but you'd make an excellent sports writer.

The comments aren't the only reason T.O. isn't with the team. The bad blood began with T.O.'s ill-advised holdout, followed up by deliberately disrupting practice. You think T.O. came up with all this on his own? I don't. Those actions didn't add a single dollar to T.O.'s wallet, while making it so that T.O. would be given less slack when verbally stepping out of line. I agree with you that Rosenhaus can't be held even partially responsible for anything T.O. says in the heat of the moment.

Oh? I see. If he really was doing his job, T.O. would be doing his.

Maybe being doomed isn't such a bad thing. Face it, this team isn't going anywhere this year no matter what happens against KC. A truly bad record will help the Bills in the draft, while creating pressure for needed changes.

I hope you're right.

I liked the fact that the Monday Night Football announcers were able to mention Tedy's recovery without turning it into a circus. Had the ESPN crew been equally dignified, we wouldn't have seen this backlash. The funny thing is, Bruschi himself seems like a decent enough guy who didn't ask for all this hype. But apparently ESPN felt the need to hype up something; and Tedy's recovery presented itself as the best option.