Pyrite Gal

Play by play can give you some indications which are good of how the game went, but given that the key last night was how the players and team looked rather than the outcome, the indications taken from it can lead to missing a lof of the story. One can gather a bit of that from the posts above and from the general chatter. The main thing though is that the week 2 and week 3 games will tell you alot more about how the players and the team are doing rather than this first week stuff. Its important as you only get one chance to make a first impression and production in the first weeks says a lot about how folks will produce over the next two weeks, but the play-by-play simply misses alot. Particularly I would be careful in assuming that a player getting a lot of PT in game 1 or even performing well means that the player is a leading candidate for a position. For example, I think DiGregorio did get a lot of prominent PT yesterday, but more than likely this means that because he did and Lindell connected well on some long FGs and a PAT that it makes DiGregorio a more likely candidate for the PS than it means long time NFL long snapper Schneck is in any danger of not making this roster. Given Lindell having a much improved year in real games with Schneck last year and Schneck making the Pro Bowl with Moorman last year, its hard to see the Bills throwing him under the bus for an unproven player who did well in pre-season. If Degregorio shows any chance of being an eventual back-up position player at C or G for the Bills this would do a lot more for him making this team on the PS than his pre-season long snapping performance. QB gets a lot of attention for the non-pychotic fan of the Bills, but his and KH's performance mostly indiciated to me that JP remains the likely starter as KH despite his greater experience is no threat. However, he should not be designated the starter yet because he did nothing to grab the position by the throat and merit the reward. His performance did seem to be early mental issues and he clearly settled down as the game went on and the Panthers went to more back-ups that indicate JP may well be adequate as an NFL starter, but giving him a bunch more reps this week will not make that happen. KH simply sucked in his performance last night. However, both the fact that Nall is a great unknown and JP has not taken the job as his own yet, means that Holcomb will actually get a serious amount of time next week and a good amount of focus in practice as the battle for #2 Bills QB is underway in earnest assuming Nall is back in shape.

Great question. I would not assume that just because Geisinger was in at back-up C though that it means we have given up on Preston as the answer if Fowler cannot answer the call (a real possibility as he has suffered a series of injuries that cost him gametime in his brief career). I think Fowler has demonstrated with is play taking the job from longtime Vike Cory Withrow last year, getting kudos for improved play by tthe Vikes with him in front of Culpepper, pulling off a great win streak with him doing C for Brad Johnson and then interestingly the Vikes doing the elfoldo coinciding with his injuy that Vikes played well with him in and poorly without him last year. I think this (and also a nice feature about him during the Bills game) indicates he is the real deal as a starter player and not simply just a Vikes reject. However, his injury hiostory makes having a Plan B at center a definite need. Given that Preston also gets the first call if/when Villarial goes down and CV is well enough into the backside of his career it probably is a question of when, we really need an answer at back-up C as it will be impossible for Preston to be in two places at one time. The key I think is that the Bills run game was productive in the second half and the question was who was in there during this run. I assume it was Gesinger and if he is worthy of being a back-up that will be good news for the Bills. I am confident (even with some questionable play by Reyes last night) that the probable Bills OL starters this year are better than the starters last year (if anyone wants to defend Anderson, Teague or MW feel free). The question (even for those who judge being better than last year's crew as not meaning you are good enough) the key for the Bills is to develop plan Bs for the 5 OL positions. At this point Preston, Gibson and Butler looks like it but this is a pretty shaky crew as far as back-ups because Preston is the only one of these three I even feel good about as a back-up.

I agree with this summary since as usual I did a long-winded post as I thought this out. I'm glad that my musings were cogent enough and I thank you for taking the time to slog through them to be able to briefly summarize the result of that thinking.

I doubt it because I think that JP definitely starts against the Bengals as stated. I hope (and actually expect) that he will move the teams well enough to nail down the starting QB job and as soon as he gives that performance that Jauron is smart enough to sit him down and allow Nall and KH to have an open competition for the #2 slot. If this occurs like I hope and expect, JP starts game 3 and gets extended time with the starters as the Bills really try to work on getting our offense regular season ready (it simply remains to be seen whether everything can come together to make this so). However, being optimistic, they do and in game 4 JP starts again but plays only as long as it takes for him to end pre-season on a good note and then the final pre-season game sees serious competition between the back-ups to remain on this team and between Holcomb and Nall over who will be the #2. I think the big mistake that some folks will make is of thinking that last night's performance means that JP now gets all the reps and that Holcomb is simply thrown under the bus. I would disagree with both these moves as though I think JP is the starting QB, I do not think that additional reps in practice this week or beyond a start of similar length to Holcomb's start will make any difference in JP's QB performance for the Bills this year. He will probably be an adequate QB but it is doubtful he will even reach the level of being a very good NFL QB. A weeks worth of reps will not change this outcome. However, we can take a serious look at how well Nall has recovered and whether the has the stuff to be our #2 and to judge whether KH has enough trouble with this O given his career long history of inconsistent play that he either worthy of being our back-up or Nall shows something an relegats KH to the disaster job.

This consideration is interesting to some, but really this outcome is step R and we are still on step C, so consideration of this possibility while interesting is so dependent on how events happen that it is impossible to say anything beyond the above post which started out with I dunno, that has any accuracy attached to it. I think the lead possibility if JP falls apart and proves worth giving up on (and the experience of SB winning QB Brad Johnson says that even this determination may mean little in the big picture) then the Bills should be in a cap position where they can buy an FA with prospects of being the next Matt Hasselback. The possibility of drafting a QB who would become the next Jim Kelly would seem like such an unlikely possibility as to be foolish, Even if Brady Quinn for example proved to be the next Peyton Manning it means you still go through a horrendous 2007 which after the horrendous 2005 that happened and the horrendous 2006 that this thread assumes because JP turns out to be a dud, there is no way that the Golden Boys commit to having yet another horrendous year in 2007 trying to develop a rookie QB. I think if JP fails then we end up using a bunch of the cap room we will likely have next year to buy an accomplished QB on the FA market and we attempt to also catch lightening in a bottle such as a Doug Flutie, or UDFA like a Jake Delhomme or World League guy like Kurt Warner in a bottle as a back-up.

Hear this out and IMHO opinion understand that while I agree with Marv that if you have a battle between two starting QBs, you probably do not have a starting QB. In addition to that last night's performances really intensify the battle for #2 QB and that is likely going to lead to Nall getting some accelerated looks after his injury and Holcomb getting some serious looks to determine whether he can function even adequately as a QB in this system. I think the QB take should be something like this: 1. As expected by many JP is clearly the likely starter at QB for this team. He still needs some PT in real games because the rate-limiting factor in his performance is in his head. The 0 completions in his first three throws and a horrendous thow where the pass plowed into the dirt several yards short of an outside reciever in the next series are not physical problams interfering with good work from him but mental problem. The good news for JP is that with some gametime and against the #2 Panthers and lesser players, he began to show some real production with the O and was calm enough to pick his spots and be productive. The best thing I saw from him last night was that he not only showed the escapability which attracted us to him, but in general he hung in there rather than opt-out and go running as if he was behind the Tulane OL too quickly. Sometimes, his hanging in there until the last moment resulted in him getting off a nice pass as it simply took a little time for Aiken or another WR to break free (the play where the Panther DE was right next to him but he stepped up a small amount and got the pass off was great to see). Other times, he did get sacked. Often he pulled off some great escape move where he hung in there and the Panthers even got a paw on him, but he managed to get out ran around and get the ball off. Last year, JP would have flown the coop and been out of there at the first sign of trouble. Yesterday, he hung in there and depended on his teammates. The startubg OL oes not have chemistry yet, so they cannot be fully depended on to do well, but the really good news is that even though we were not initially producive JP did not react by trying to take it on himself alone to produce in some worthless pre-season game, he hung in there and gave the team the practice it needed to learn how to play together. 2. Holcomb simply sucked. He showed no command and prodcution with the O against the Panthers starters. His INT was either simply a horrendous throw on his part as he seemed to fail to read that a DB was right there and he never should have tried the ill-conceived play or he saw the DB and made a lousy throw. However, folks need to realize that this is the NFL. Injuries happen way too often and for weird reasons (ex. Losman himself going out a few games as a rookie because TV pushed him). The major QB take from last night was not simply that JP needs some PT to become the starter we want, but that KH was so bad, the #2 role is there for the taking if Nall can come back from injury. Holcomb has played for too long amd demonstrated over the years that he is a pretty good back-up QB though he never has shown the consistency to be a starter. With last night's horrid performance in a new D, we need the answer to the question whether this occured because of a burp in KH's play and that with a week's practice and focus he gets it, or alternately is his production in a new O so problematic and Nall has come back from injury enough that he can take the #2 job. I know that many posters have their panties all up in a wad over the question of who is gonna be our starting QB. However, I think that is an obviously importnt question but is one which A). It really is already decided as it has been for quite a while that JP is the likely guy to be our starter, and B). his getting a few more reps in the 2nd pre-season game is not gonna make a huge difference in how quickly or well he gets to his maximum productivity and potential as a starting QB. JP demonstrated by his play last night that he has the tools to be an adequate NFL QB right now, but it is really doubtful that he will become a great or even very good NFL QB without a year (or more of work). Instead, what is a more important question which hangs in the balance as to what the Bills should do is whether Holcomg has enough problems that he can be surpassed by Nall as our #2. This question is really unclear now as Nall is essentailly an unknown because of his injury and Holcomb's poor production last night and inconsistency in practice last week raise serious questions as to whether he is even good enough to be a #2 in our system. Ironically, I think that the Bill's planned schedule of playing QBs next week fits our needs. it will be interesting to see how players are able to do work in practice this week. From what I understand and what I would do if I were Jauron/Fairchild (which I am not fortunately since our chances of winning though small are still much higher under these professional than they would be under me or any fan) is: 1. JP remains my likely starter as he always has been all things being equal and the Bills having KH being first on the depth chart. Yet, as before I still talk about this as a n open competition between these three and talk about JP as showing he still needs to develop given his initial poor performance but that he has firnly shown he is on the right track with his performance against the Panthers's back-ups. He gets alot of significant reps same as before at QB and easily the most of any player at QB on the team. However, he does not get all the reps or even a majority of them combined to the combined total of Holcomb and Nall as giving him all the reps this week would not make him a great or even very good player yet and giving no reps with the starters to Holcomb or Nall would really damage the prospects of this team if the unpredictable happens (which it always seems to in the NFL). 2. KH is on the hot seat for me now as he is at risk of being designated in my mind certainly if not publicly of being my #3 disaster QB. If I think he can respond I am going to make him my disaster Q, I probably still leave him as #1 on my deopth chart because I want JP to take the #1 spot from him with a great performance and not win the #1 slot because he was simply better than a really bad KH. I also want to motivate Nall that he still has shot at being my $1 because KH is almostt certainly gonna give up the slot and since I have not anointed JP as my starter yet, he needs to know that all things are in play. KH is on the hot seat because despite his lousy play Saturday night he gets a chance this week, but he needs to either show some production with that chance or face the possiblity that Nall performs and he is reduced to the #3 role. I feel great about my plans because last night KH started but JP played the bulk of the game. Against the Bengals, JP will get a chance to play with and against the starters and if he proves to be productive, I sit him most of the game declare him starter after an adequate performance last night and a good short performance against Cincy. This would be great because JP then gets a chance to start and play a bunch in my 3rd pre-season game which traditionally is when the team really works of in season production and the starters all play well into the second half. In the last game the starters start but it is to be hoped are productive in their first series and sit to avoid injuries. KH is planned to get the bulk of the reps in the 2nd game and that is my intent. However, KH should suck or Nall looks good in practice this week, i move quickly to Nall and let him prove himself. The bottomline for me is that JP demonstrated he is the best among the three, but given how badly KH played and Nall's injury this may not be saying much. The key for me and the Bills is now to decide whether Nall has any chance of being a real starter (I doubt it, but given I do not think JP will be a very good starter without a year of work. sitting him to get a good look at Nall or a revived KH is not much of a loss for this team). I think the bottom line is that JP played well enough to not be under pressure of getting demoted by not so well that the Bills can ignore the possibilities that Nall maight be better than we expect or that Holcomb can be simply thrown under the bus at this point. Some might argue that JP simply proved he needs PT against real opponent to improve. I agree, but does anyone out there seriously think that whether JP gets all the reps in practice and in the 2nd pre-seaspn game will make the difference in whether he is an adequate player or a very good player. I think the key for the Bills getting Ws this year is to do this with merely an adequate QB. I simply do not see JP being more than an adequate QB this year and a bunch more reps this week will not make him a very good QB nor will the absence of those reps make him a bad QB.

The most disconcerting thing was that in addition to the 3 incompletions to start, he also missed a couple of passes early where he was not under pressure but simply misfired on the throws, He perfomed better as the game wrnt on but to what degree this was due to him facing lesser talents it hard to say. Jauron seemed to stick with him a bit to make sure he had some success against the scrubs to build on. He did this and showed some good pocket precense and an ability to hang in there (with good results some times but with sacks other times).

He was X-rayed in the locker room and the broadcast here in Buffalo reports no bone break. However, there was no impact offered on if a soft tissue injury to the lower leg will cost him any time.

It was announced on TV via the game coverage on the Bills TV Network (Tasker and Gus Johnson) that Bowen was X-rayed and the results were negative (a good thing meaning there is no bone break). They laid the non-specific title on it that it was a lower leg injury but there was no time unable to play mentioned (as would be expected as generally any swelling must go down before a more accurate sodt tissue diagnosis and assessment can be done.

A quick note before a bud comes over and we head out to pick up some grub to watch the first pre-season game over. I also was a bit surprised that someone found your points to be personal attacks because after reading them I was pleased to see some banter about football substance after many you and what army comments. I think folks may be a little overprotective of TKOSpiked because they like his post and want him to hang around and post on TSW. I aggree that his post and take on things is great to have, but I also found your disagreements with his point fairly substantive and you did raise specific football points , so I hope and assume with time folks with lighten up and just keep on posting. When I get back after the game I hope to comment on both some of his and some your points as well. I love the football season and I love the football banter!!!! OOOhhhh yaaa!

Boy you must define getting love in some Willis McGahee baby momma kind of way if being better managers and coaches is going to get them to the kind of "love" which the Pats, Fins and Jets "enjoyed" from ESPN from the PTI crew.

I think that the fist priority of Ralph and Marv is to WIN NOW! I think this is the case for several reasons: A. The Golden Boys will not be on this planet forever- There are no signs that either will die tomorrow or this season. However, one would be a fool to count on even a pretty rational three year plan as a mechanism for reaching the SB and fully expect to make it. I think they recognize the reality that life is not fair and no matter how nice and deserving we Bills fans are it is quite unlikely we will even make the playoffs this year. However, I think the priority goal for the Golden Boys is to win this year because they see that as the best way to achieve a win next year. I think strategies which involve a rational approach like rebuilding the OL through the draft which may well be a good approach, are simply flat out rejected on the Giolden Boy timeline and folks who may believe that is the best way to do things also need to recognize and acknowledge that this approach is simply unrealistic, will not and cannot happen in a world controlled by the Golden Boys time schedule. They can rail all they want about this being the best way to do things, but the concept is meaningless if one is hoping to catch lightening in a bottle because it is simply silly to assume you will still be here anywhere past 80 or that you will be able to enjoy the team. B. The business demands you put butts in the seats now- The goal for any operating business is to maximize profit for the investors (in this case Ralph and see item #1). While it is logical (and in fact essential) to think about return on investment over the long run if you want the business to be sustained. In our system judgments are made each quarter on the profit produced by the investment. The Bills were in the best position possbile to rebuild after the end of the Butler era as ongoing decision to rob Peter to pay Paul of extending contracts like John Fina and the "handshake" agreement between Jimbo and Ralph paid players beyond the time they played a useful role on the field for the Bills. However, with the payoff of 4 straight SBs and the love built for the Bills in this community we were in a position where a season could obviously be thrown in the waste basket for rebuilding. Even under these conditions the default team goal was to make the playoffs and to some extent the braintrust and players needed to at least fool itself into believing or the team would give up before or early in the season and the gate would be affected. So to is the case now, except the decision on whether to toss off a season of marginal investments to gain 3 or 4 wins in favor of longer term rebuilding that builds an SB winner means ditching this season being over a decade since our last SB berth and even 6 years of failing to make the playoffs. The businees simply cannot afford to win a few more games as fast as it can and potentially luck into the playoffs rather than discard this season to focus on building for the future. I am not arguing that chalking up this season as a lost cause or focusing on a bigger gain down the line rather than a few more wins this year is irrational or even a bad idea. I just think that given the ages of Ralph and Marv and the business requirements of our society, the Bills certainly cannot say or even give the impression of writing off this season for the long term gain. One need look no farter than Marv's own book Right Here, Right Now in which he simply says flat out that an HC building for the future is essentially building for the next HC. It is quite doubtful to any logical observer (not that us fans are logical) that the Bills will make the playoffs this year, but I am pretty convinced that Marv and the team will try to win now and make that a clear priority over building on even a very fast three year rational plan.

I tubed into Pardon the Interruption yesterday and was initally concerned if not pissed that in their listing of topics to be covered, three of the first 4 were AFC East teams which were a focus on the Pats, then the Jets and then the Fins. Ahh I thought, once again the conspiracy against the Bills rears its head as we were the only AFC East team judged unworthy of coverage. I ended up amused though because if there is an ESPN conspiracy involving the Bills reflected in PTI coverage it definitely is a pro-Bills conspiracy. The three stories were: 1. Will the Pats even make the playoffs this year as they lost McGinest to FA and now have lost Bruschi for at least the pre-season due to injury (since we get them for the starter, I expect Bruschit will wear a cast and play but this injury cannot hurt our prospects). They also noted that 3rd stringer at best Deion Branch is their best WR. They concluded that the Pats would likely still make the playoffs because rebuilding teams the Fins and Bills were not there yet (tough to argue with that prediction) and the Jets were laughable. However, it ended with me feeling glad not to have my hopes hitched to the Pariots wagon this year. 2. I can't remember which story came next, but the piece on the Jets focused on the training camp run by wunderkind HC Mangini abd featured them dogging on his psychotic camp practices and saying they seemed rooted in his own insecurities as a young coach to show he was in charge. The cited quotes like one from Pennington that he had no idea how he was even doing as the camp seemed focused on working out individuals rather than building a team (the over-focus on individual measures like what's his 40 time and individual assessments rather than focusing on whether a TEAM is being built is seen here on TSW by whines such as those who focus on how many Pro Bowlers we have). I don't think they even focused enough on how bad the impact may well be since Curtis Martin situation is showing signs of falling apart. The end product was to make me very happy that my hopes are not resting on the Jets performance. 3. The Fins report focused on the set-to between last year's 5th round draftee on the DL Wright who was bublicly reduced to tears by the chastising of Nick Saban in practice and now has asked to be released because the situation is not working out between player and team. The report focused on Sabans response that they want to offer any support and help they can give to a team member who has a personal problem (Wright like Raider Barret Robins apparently suffers from clinical depression) but if a player refuse that assistance then he cannot choose to run out and the Fins will not release him. The report focused most on appropriate franchise response to these medical issues, but in the in it made me happy that my hopes were not tied to the Fins as well. This quick survey and demolition ended with me being quite happy the Bills were not covered beyond a passing positive mention we are at least on the upswing and rebuilding though not there yet. If there is a Bill's based conspiracy on this show, it is definitiely pro-Bills. I'm usually in the just spell the name right school, but no new is good news when it comes to PTI and ESPN besides reporting the simple game situation.

Thanks also as this was a neat post to read. I think one of the most interesting implications from this post relates to the writer seeing 3 step and no more than 5 steps drops from the QB. If this read, decide and quick release model is the general method of operation for the QB, then the concern expressed by some of KH not being able to throw the long bomb may be misplaced. If he is looking to hit a WR whose maximum distance down the field when the pass is released is a far as the WR can get after one says one..two...three to themselves the need to consistently throw it deep is not likely to be there. I suspect that KH like any NFL QB will be called upon even in this type of approach to take a longer drop and set-up 2-3 times a game, but there is a big difference between this occaisional requirement and what is required of a QB who needs a Bledsoe like rocket if he is called upon to throw it deep every series or merely offer the threat throwing it deep any series. I'm fine with anyone classifying KH as a rag arm (if his arm were that bad then I think we would have heard this complaint a lot before the current QB starter battle broke out and fans who desperately care that JP win out rather than those of who don't care who wins as long as that winner is an adequate QB) because as long as the QB is beyondBilly Kilmer status, I think even a rag arm can throw it deep 2-3 times a game though he does not have the strength to do this consistently. In addition, this analysis notes that the QB needs to have decided who he is going to throw to before the snap. If so, doing good reads and not getting fooled by fake coverages is going to be more important to making this O work than athleticism or escapability. The nost troubleing thing about KH's performance so far is an apparent inability on his part to hit the short pass. I think the deep pass concern is really overblown.

Actually, rather than cutting JP (or any other player who does not denonstrate for certain that he is dominant by the 2nd pre-season game) I suggest rather than cutting them we simply shoot them. If the Bills were to not get caught doing the assasination, then potentially we might get an exemption from the accelerated cap hit because the player is dead. The precedent for this is from college where if your roommate committed suicide then the student got an exemption from taking final exams and passed the course. Some might say that this exreme measure would be silly. However, it is only slightly sillier than the idea that we cut JP right now because we are wasting our tiime.

I think that last year they were so caught up in playcalling that did not have to work around Bledsoe's weaknesses (but the flipside is that they also made use of his strengths which were a rocket arm, great ball handling skills gathering in errant shotgun snaps and pitches from WM, and a ton of experience which though he could not translate tthem into improvising he could do programmed trick plays well). I think they had done some things in 04 which were essential to deal with his being a prime sack target as a statue. Even though no would mistake him for Elway they improved on Kevin Killdrive's inability to adapt by running DB occaisionally on plays like delayed QB draws which forced the LBs not to sell out on the sack and mind the middle of field rather than take outside angles on blitzes. MM loves trick plays but they became almost the norm for DB as the team needed to fake the WM run and have him pitch back so the LBs and safties came in to tackle in order to give the WRs single coverage deep. Liberated from this need, the Bills D seemed to go to far in relying on JP's escapability to avoid sacks. Even worse they took a vicious WM stiff arm out of the game by running him mostly between the tackles as they wanted to pound the ball. In the second half of the season when they found they were behind quickly because the D could not stop the run, they abandoned calling runs on early downs and would sit WM on third down. Part of WM's drop in production in the second half of the season was that he seemed to wear down a bit from all the pounding between the tackles and because he had bulked up weightlifting he was carrying a few extra pounds. However, part of the downturn in production was simply caused because the rushed him fewer time in second half of the season games where we fell behind and he logged less than 10 rushes in a few games. Part of this was due to WM not being as effective but part of this seemed to be a choice of poor play calling on our part. They clearly plan to get the ball into WMs hands more this year, but rather than slower developing planned plays like screens, i think the vehicle for getting the ball into WMs hands on the outside will be greater use of him as a checkdown receiver as a safety valve alternative when the fleet wideouts are covered by deep zones from the opposing D. Many Bills fans hate checkdowns after the KH 2 yard pass to Moulds on fourth and seven, but this would be a different beast as I really look forward to situations where by definition the other team's DBs are back in a deep zone for the WRs and if WM gets the ball in the flat if he makes one guy miss he will go a long way til they bring him down.

You may be in the minority of folks recognizing that TD had some good (to actually great in some aspects) GM skills but I hope you take solace that the minority is correct in judging that there have been far worse GMs. I probably do not agree with this totally as some may see some contradiction with the fact that overall I think TD sucked as a GM (I make this statement because the real measure is W/L and playoffs made and by that measure it is hard to reach any other conclusion of the big picture that TD sucked in this prime GM responsiblity). However, many people spring from this correct result to make the claim that he simply sucked in all aspects of being a GM when actually I think an examination of the facts of his record shows that he did a good to great job at these aspects of being a GM: 1. The business side of managing the team- Part of TD's duties was not only to manage the team in the traditional GM role, but he was given the expanded GM title of President of the Bills and had responsibility for also managing many if not all parts of the business side of the franchise. From the big move to St. John's Fisher from Fredonia, to the overarching implementation of the regional business strategy to compensate for Buffalo being a small TV market, to helping move the a franchise that until recently stored an cataloged will call tickets in shoe boxrs , TD oversaw the move of the franchise business practices belatedly into the 20th century and beyond by pioneering the compurerization of many aspects of the business. 2. Managing the cap- Some folks belittle the accomplishment of his getting us out of cap hell at least a year earlier than most (if not all) pundits predicted as he dealt with John Butler's (correct IMHO) activities of robbing Peter to pay Paul as he gave long term deals and distributed the bonuses of old Bills as he attempted to keep the team together. Though I do not fault Butler for doing this as he dealt with the impacts of some horrible decisions by Ralph and him regarding the QB which weighed down the cap, though with the exception of the 97 season he kept this team competitive for several years longer than it reasonably could have been. We woulda/coulda taken a smaller cap hit if the team had reloaded and cut deadwood in 96 or so, but it would have been tough if they had timed the demise of folks careers correctly to boot stalwarts llike Jimbo, or the Big Three when their production merited it. Ge mortgaged the future to hang onto a core connected to the SBs but I can't fault him for that and the caphell that was coming was obvious. That being said, some folks say how tough is it to cut folks and what TD did in his first year was simple, but one need only look at the teams which have continually had cap problems or look at other great franchises like SF which had ownership issues leading to a cap butchering they still have not recovered from to see that it ain't rote and simple at all. Add to that TD having a clear record of successfully negotiating with Pro Bowlers like Sam Adams to get them for what is seen as less than his market price and also attracting Pro Bowlers like TKO to this small market when he could have gone lots of places as an FA. Like Ralph and Butler, TD also has a clear record of mangling the QB cap situation, but along with these personnel boners, TD left Marv and outstanding cap situation to deal with. 3. I think he did pretty well with the crap shoot known as the draft- There is the notable exception of the massive screw up of selecting MW, but I am a real heretic in that I think a look at the actual picks shows TD have drafted a number of players that were great assessments to join with the boners to make his record with draft crap shoot better than most draft managers. I think many of us fans thanks to wall to wall coverage of ESPN and the interest in fantasy leagues simply place to much emphasis on the draft imports, As far as I know TD's contention that 50% of first round choices turn out to be disappintments AND even busts is not controverted by any statistical or objective analysis I have seen. In fact one of the smarter things TD seemed to realize was that in general it is a better idea to trede away your 1st round choice rather than give that player a slotted big contract only to have 50% not deserve the contract. TD did a good job trading away the first rounder to satisfy more immediate needs, There may be a legitimate complaint about his work that his second day choices did not generally yield top quality players (besides McGee) when we Bills fans were pretty used to getting nuggets like Andre late in the draft. However, even this contention would need to show that other teams as a whole routinely do get these nuggets on the second day and I have seen no evidence beyond attempts to claim a Terrell Davis choice is more of a rule rather than the exception it probably was. I think TDs draft work was pretty good and I am happy to see anything beyond the usual virtual fact-free or mere episodic rants that claim he was bad. 4. Trade olanning and implementation- One of the best aspects of TDs work is the job he did pulling off trades like getting a 1st for PP, getting anything for Travis Henry, trading down as mentioned before and still getting the 1st CB in the draft, and other deals. Some of his plans were not good plans, but TD always had a plan and worked it through trades. Generally, he did not panic such as when his seeming plan to trade Henry fell apart as 3 RBs went to his likely trade partners in the first round, but rather than panic he still made a deal for Henry which got the Titans a player soon suspended for drug abuse/ Still, all these good aspects of his work are dwarfed IMHO by the big factor that TD seemed to be most motivate either conciously or unconciously by making sure that he was never fired again by an HC he hired as Cowher did in Pitts. I think he allowed this motivation to cause him to hire GW instead of getting Fox or Lewis and to be passive/aggressive with his management of the GW to the detriment of the Bills winning. Finally, he seemed to choose to use 05 as a training session for JP instead of working to give the team a better chance of winning (even if it was a bad chance it was better than JPs play) by playing out the results of his stupid move of extending Bledsoe (he should not have extended him after his horrendous 03, but once he did he should have stuck with that choice. The overarching mania of making sure he could defend himself from his HC is what I think led Ralph to correctly fire him. However, though you may not share my same final conclusion, i would join you in recognizing the many good aspects of TD GM work.

This is generally my analysis but people are not stupid and you have to balance things. We people have little brains and like things reduced to one of either two choices. Either we play totally for now which mans sit JP or we play totally for the future and sit Holcomb. Nope. The real world is more complicated than that (despite the leadership of this country trying to reduce every complex international dispute to a fight vs good and evil so therefore every evil thing we might have to do is really good) and this decision about QBs needs to deal in the real world where the first call is to win now, but building for the future is taken into account so we do not take stupid chances or pass up good opportunities. Nuance is complext but it is simply the real world. The mistake TD made last year was that he seemed to attempt to chose force us into a situation where we gave JP the learning season that might well be good for him because the alternative was to go with a QB who had never been consistent enough to even start in the NFL for ten years and who was on record saying he was comfortable with being a #2. If DB had been kept, any chance JP has of having his training season would have meant a decision to keep a former SB QB on the bench while he went through growing pains. TD attempted to make a unilateral decision to go against our financial interests (the accelerate cap hit of cutting DB) in order to assure we would choose to give JP practice rather than go with a journeyman. Yet, the feeling among players who have a limited shelf life in the NFL, the coaches who are judged pretty much on what have you done for me lately and the fans who desperately want a winner was still for the present and wanted KH for the most part once it was clear how much learning JP really needed to do. Perhaps if this team was as bad as Indy was when they chose Manning of moving up from 3-13 without him to 3-13 with him we could have gotteen away with making last year a painful learning year for the QB. However, we had the #1 ST in the NFL and the #2 statistically ranked D, TD made the same mistake many make of being willing to build for the future when there is even a snowball's chance in heck of winning right here right now. Even with a worse team overall (by statistical measures) in terms of our prospects coming into the season and better reasons for commiting first to learning and growing pains this year as we have a new braintrust, the fact that the NFL has made worse to first more possible than ever before (even though it is unlikely to the point of being impossible for this team) means the first priority for the Bills has to be win right here and right now. I do think that Holcomb gives us a better chance to win certainly that the most recent JP Losman we have seen against real opponents. However, the good thing about JP is that he showed tremendous upside which got him drafted in the 1st round. He also has yet to play even close 16 games as a starter so there is a chance that this upside will begin to make itself apparent quite suddenly. I agree with where the Bills are right now. Holcomb is our starter and #1 on the depth charts. However, this by no means says he gets all the reps or even is a declaration that it is his job all things being equal. It seems the height of fairness and a good approach for the Bills to have an on field competition and make decisions as the schedule demands as to who is the starter. We avid fans want a decision made right now. However, the Bills braintrust should tell fans politely and in a way which still makes them happy to spend their nickels on the Bills to shut up about decisions (though talk about the team all the time and tell WGR to shut up talking about the Sabres). My guess is that by the end of the pre-season (actually after the second pre-season game or at the latest after the third pre-season game) all things being qual actually JP would get the nod. I doubt career back-up Holcomb or injured Nall will show enough to make things unequal. The is a small but still signficant chance that JP will stink up the place so bad that all things are not equal. However, I think he wil show enough potential and Holcomb will not be such a stud that we end up choosing KH to remain as starter. It is interesting though, on the face of it, I think KH is just the type of player to do well in what we believe will be the Fairchild O with the players we have obtained. I think folks who feel KH's has a rag arm and cannot through the ball long constantly as a Rams East offense requires are likely just plain wrong about what our "Rams East O" will look like. I think it will be Rams like in that it will be pass-happy, but folks need to understand that just because we will throw deep does not mean we will throw deep all the time (KH does not have the arm to throw deep all the time), What my understanding of the Rams O is that it throws a lot but the vast majority of the passes are actually relatrively short passes which go to speedy WRs who get quick separation because the play design uses slants to get speed demons open and crosses to set picks we are not called for and because the speed forces Ds into zones (if a take from 34- or others differs on this point I will be checking this thread and will respond here if they are nice enough to copy their points which I missed in other threads). KH will need to go deep a bit, but really only a relatively small number of times to stretch the opposing D. If one believes that KH has a bill kilmer like arm that can never go deep or have any zip under any circumstances then he cannot run a Rams style offense. However, I think he can throw a good deep pass a lmited number of times per game (2 or 3 times will do). He actually can throw a deep lofting pass which still stretches the D by being able to read that the D is in a press and is not playing centerfield with a deep zone and simply lofting the ball up to an agreed upon point and depend on a speedy WR to run underneath it. In addition, KH can stretch the D by throwing a ball which does not have enough zip to be completed in tight coverage, but which goes incomplete out of bounds or well downfield. In addition, one can stretch the D by sending the reciever so he proves to the DB he can beat him but the QB throws underneath. The effect is that the DB chooses to give the WR a bunch of cushion lest he be beaten again and this time KH is lobbing it deep. What JP will need to show he can do to win the starting job is show the he is mastering the ability to read plays and actually to quickly dump the ball off when his reads show that the D is covering the deep threat. We all know that JP can throw the ball a mile with zip deep. We all know about his escapability and ability to improvise he learned running for his life behing a Tulane Noffesive Line. However, we will know he is a pro QB when he demonstrates he has also learned how to make good reads and to dump the ball off effectively to a WM who will now be an athlete rather than just a runner. I think JP will win the QB battle because it is easier for him to do what he has to do which is do less and stop trying to run around than it is for KH to do what he has to do which is to do more with his limited skill set. However, JP has yet to show in games against opponents that he really has begun to master doing less and slowing the game down for himself so he can produce more by trying to do less on his own.

The difference I would guess between believing in this (rank speculation as you call it) and the reality of how the Bills braintrust is approaching this is likely: 1. The speculation has as its goal producing a winner in 2007 or 2008 when through a TD like careful management of JP's development he becomes a savior who leads the team to the playoffs. 2. I perceive the brainstrust has no illusion about the poor prospects we have for making the playoffs this year, but they have a goal of producing a winner in 2006 rather than focusing their efforts on building for 2007 or 2008. I think from Ralph and marv on down they simply refuse to mortgage results in 2006 to build for the future and any strategy which has as its lead or only goal this outcome is flatly rejected. I think that one can comfortably say this is true because: A. The Golden Boys are old geezers and since neither is in charge of this planet last I checked, whille they hope to be around and actively in charge of the team in 2007 or 2008, there advanced age simply make it stupid to engage in a strategy which tries for another payoff beyonf right here and right now. The are not stupid people, so they are not willing to totally throw away building for the future actions in a vain hope that they will get lucky this year, but it would simply be stupid to have as a primary or sole goal making decisions now with only an eye toward making the playoffs in 2007 or 2008. While they hope it us unlikely, they cannot ignore the possibility that in 2007 or 08 they will be dead or drooling in some home. B. They run a business which must put butts in the seats right here and right now. If it became apparent or was even much of a hint that their goal was to build for 2007 or 08 rather than provide the beat product they can provide in 2006, then fans would make the correct choice and deliver the same relative level of attention to the Bills in 2006 that the braintrust is delivering to winning and making the playoffs in 2006 versus 07 and 08. The business of the Bills football team has no choice but to go for it now AND build for the future also because if they sit players now based on some potential woulda/coulda/shoulda then in the competitive American entertainment environment they will suffer fan lost to folks going to gamble at Niagara Falls, taking their 4 year old to see SpongeBob on Ice, have sex with their loved one or some anonymous stranger for cash. or something else. The Bills played with fire once because TD got full of himself and his brilliant judgment and forced MM to play JP last year to give him 2005 as a learning experience rather than play Bledsoe who had little chance of QBing a winner, but had a significantly better chance than the young JP of doing this. The team gamely tried to win with this set up which looked to the future, but they simply had to experience JP not being there yet in our win to start last season over the worst team in the league. My sense is that the team lost its edge and people began to look out for themselves rather than pull to support each other like a winning NE team did when they saw the braintrust led by TD was not doing everything they could to win right here right now. A decision by the braintrust to pursue this same TD like too clever by half thinking in sitting the better player JP the first couple of games to protect his tender ego would be the same kind of death warrant for this team.

This is exactly the type of stuff that people need to know to credibly make the claim that olcomb is in fact a cancer. Since if one could not provide evidence of these occurences which you obviously can or your thought would be nothing more than the usual fact-free opinion and blather then you can be the source for the quotes and objective evidence of Holcomb's perfidy. I look forward to you providing this objective evidence so I can join you in heaping blame on Holcomb for being a cancer. It will be great when you guide us to this objective evidence since afterall if you can't provide it then the appropriate response to the contention that Holcomb is a cancer is simply laughter.

Let's step back a second and figure out if we are talking about the same definition of a cancer. I think folks may define it differently and thus come up with different names from each other not because they disagree about assessing the player but are talking about different things. I think of a player being a cancer as more of a locker room, and newpaper thing defining attitude that makes the team not a TEAM that pulls for each other and in fact fights against each other. A player may be divisive because the team divides up and chooses sides, but a player becomes a cancer in my mind when he eggs players on or stokes that battle. I actually like watching Doug Flutie play and I do not fault him at all for getting the biggest amount of bucks he can find because unlike those miscreants who stupidly claim that food is being taken out of their obese kids mouths, Flutie has a kid with an incurable disease and every dime he can raise to find a cure or to buy his wife whatever trinkets and baubles she wants to ease her burdens of daily childcar is fine. However, I would say he was a cancer because he had been looked over so many times due to his height and lies like the one Butler told him that he would get a chance to compete for the job only to have it contractually really given to RJ, he stoked the flames of being a cancer and dividing the town and team. I do not count guys such as Bennie Anderson a cancer because who cared about him and everyone agreed he sucked. I would not say Trey Teague was a cancer because he was overmatched at C but he did try hard and thats all you can ask. Moulds come close becaise he should have been a leader of this team and his what about me attitude in the middle of a game really let everyone down so no one came to his defense when he was suspended. I think it hard to label any of the players as a true cancer because actually like fish starting to rot at the head. I think its hard to label anyone as really creating dissension like TD did. Some may dislike the play of a career back-up like Holcomb as a starter, but though I might label him a poor player for choosing to throw a 2 yard pass on 4th and seven, I think he has always said he is comfortable being a back-up and is not creating and supporting team division like a cancer does.

TD rather than a player. I think in the end it seems clear that he was motivated either conciously or unconciously by wanting most to be sure an HC he hired did not fire him. Once he made the decision to turn last season into a training camp for JP rather than giving the chance their best (even though it was a bad) chance of winning by keeping Bledsoe at QB the rest of the team followed his lead and gave up on getting to the playoffs last season. The team gave JP and TD the benefit of the doubt, but after they saw him win with a so-so performance against a horrendous Texan team, they lost the edge necessary to win games. Even though you asked which player was a cancer who dragged down the others, the disease started with TD and the decision to chop Bledsoe for JP.

I don't think this is surprising at all given that Holcomb is first on the depth chart due to his ending last season when we were playing real games as the best performer at QB on the team. JP has certainly proven to be a better peformer in the 1st week of camp practice, but one of the most refeshing changes with the Bills of life without TD running things is that now performance on the field against real opponents is going to weigh heavily in the coach's decision about who is the #1 QB for the Bills, I think the most surprising thing about this is how many TSW folks seem happy to return to the days of TD when the front office made these decisions based on what they thought without or even regardless of input of on the field performance. I think ultimately JP will win the job as the difficult thing he needs to do is actually to press less and try to do less on the field on his own, rather than the usually impossible task of doing more when you are already doing as much as you can. However, as JP said last year, wionning the starting job as he did over Bledsoe from some front office assessment of how the players practiced rather than on the field is the wrong way to win the job, Fortunately the Bills braintrust is ignoring fans such as many here on TSW and instead requiring JP to win the job on the field.

There are several reasons he would not want to release such a player: 1, Assuming that there is some mental medical issue like depression, the team offering to hang in there and help and not let someone run away from their problem mrely because then you get to wash your hands of it is the tough and correct thing to do. I doubt that this corporation is thinking very much about what is good for a human being, but playing that game is part of the rationale. 2. Given a bow to the PC points there are a number of mercenary reasons for doing this which begin with the team does not want to get in the habit of letting guys become FAs by throwing a hissy fit or having a problem, This is why Saban is saying if there is a problem we'll help you deal with it, but if you refuse help we are in charge and you are not. Control of corporateassets is ley for the business. 3. I do not know how well he performed last year, but if he has any trade value whatsoever you want to nip in the bud for this player or show the league that you do not release guys routinely that they want to sign. Its why the Bills said very nice things about miscreants like Travis Henry and Eric Moulds who clearly now and it seemed strongly at the time they were not gonna be Bills that upcoming season. However, they kept a line out there that the player was valued and would be kept and that was the only way the could trade them. 4, Saban has a problem here if the knows that a player wil not sign with him, but Wright did. Perhaps he thought he might not last, but even this seems doubtful as it was actually a post-signing embarassment that makes him want to leave the team. Saban may have made a bad read on his character (it happens to many teams in the draft and we misread Whitner for example on the issue of getting to camp quickly) but I doubt he envisioned Wright imploding like this. Even if he did, it really was just a second day draft pick which really is assigned far greater value by fans than by teams. Even if Saban took a risk it was a pretty small one. Wright's days as a Fin appear to be numbered, but the Fins have drawn a line that says that his daus in the NFL will likely be numbered as well unless he shapes up. If the Fins do not let him go until after this season, even if he has talent a UDFA who has not been polluted by another system (without Wright even having the benefit of a lot Fin reps to show for it) will be less desirable to a team than a UDFA who is not as talented as Wright but a couiplr of years younger when the average life span of an NFL player is only about 5 seasons.

What I take some folks mean by Rams east is that it is a version of an O which generally fits the Rams model: 1. Heavy reliance on the pass but the pass actually sets up significant use of the run. You have to be able to do both to be successful at either for the most part. 2. The reliance on the pass does mean significant use of the long pass but certainly not constant use of the long pass or that is your first option. I think the Rams O and the Bills will both make far greater ise of the shorter pass with RAC being the primary method you gain big yards. However, the consistant use of the long pass means that it will consistently be used as a change-up threat. The key is not that the Bills will use the long pass a lot or even more than a few times a game, but that they may use it on any given play. I think the Bills can be productive with the QB only throwing over 20 yards 2 times in a game IF: A. The speedy recievers run fly patterns and beat their coverage at least once per series. Even if the QB does not throw the ball deep, if the DB knows that the WR can burn him deep and this just might be one of the two plays where the QB hrows it deep then the DB better give a bunch of cushion all the time because this may just be one of the plays. B. The QB and the WR successfully complete the deep pass early, Nothing suceeds like success and if there is a completion deep early then the short pass will be open all day. A good read will be when the QB feels the DB leaving less cushion because there are too many passes being completed to a WR who cuts off the route and then you go long and stretch the defense again. C. The QB/WR realize that in certain coverages which are man to man and there is nobodt playing a deep cover or centerfielder role than even a rag arm QB can do deep by lofting the ball out to a yardage both he and the WR know but the DC does not. If the the DB has his hands full merely keeping up with WR and cannot backpedal to watch the flight of the ball but must turn and watch the receiver, then the speedy receiver can go a pass with little zip the rag arm has thrown while the DB at best is focusing on the speedy WR trying to read whether he will cut off the route or is about to catch the ball. If you have speedy WRs, the read is good so you are going up against single coverage, and the WR has enough experience not to telegraph his catch (a skillset Price has, Reed should have, and Evans is developing and may have) then your QB need not have the Bledsoe bazooka arm to throw long. 3. Significant and good use of the checkdown dump off to the RB. I knoe that KH throwing a2 yard pass to Moulds on 4th and 7 drove many of us nuts, but one sign the QB is really running the system well will be if he dumps the ball off a lot. The difference will be that rather than him doing this to a WR (Evans, Parrish, and Price better be exploiting the D downfield bigtime) we need to develop WM as a Marshall Faulk like tool who is the short dump off guy who then with his running talent and his powerul stiffarm turns these passes even if they are initially behind the LOS into significant gains. Recievers must run routes which get the first down with the pass and at worse a couple of steps on 4th down but the dump off will be a key sign this O is working. 4. The big thing I think anyone with a sense of reality means by the "East" in calling our O style Rams East is that it will be the basic Rams approach of short passes with RAC, and use of the RB in a run/pass balanced checkdown role, BUT it will be an east coast outdoor version. Just as a high-flying often pass happy attack like the K-Gun could be devastating in Nov. and Dec. in Buffalo, I think a Rams East attack which uses the same basic approach as the Rams attack but alters it to fit however much pass catching ability WM shows, greater use of the TE as a checkdown which Fairchild will apparently do more than the Rams did. I feel very comfortable with us using this form of attack which I think is easily styled as Rams East.