ax4782

I think perhaps you are a bit optimistic. Schobel is definitely a player and his numbers show that he is a solid DE. Even last year, with no DT push in the middle, and with Double Teams every play, he still had 6.5 sacks. Not bad for 2 on 1 every down. Chris Ellis is going to be very good in the rotation and Kelsay will play better with the increased play in the middle from Stroud, McCargo and Johnson. Taylor is not going to last three more seasons. Where was he last year? Their defense was so bad a pee-wee squad could still have put up 21 pts per game, and Taylor was no where to be seen. As for how many times he's beaten the Pats* over the past few seasons, IIRC, Miami hasn't beaten them in their last eight tries. So to say that because Taylor got a sack on Brady once or twice, doesn't mean the FO should be dumb and waste 8 mil on a guy who is approaching washed up at an extremely high rate of speed. I'd rather they spent that money on resigning Lee Evans, who is now reaching the prime of his career and could be a real difference maker for this club. If Buffalo went after every old-timer with a name, we'd be the New York Knicks of the football world. All the old time talent with none of their old time skill. Just cuz the guy was good once, don't mean he's good now. Just pass on Taylor and let someone else get ripped off by the Dolphins.

Pass on Stewart. He wasn't good when he started for the Steelers all those years ago, and he'd be even worse now. He'd be a slower, dumber version of JP Losman.

I have to completely disagree. Baseball is boring to sit and watch, though I'm becoming more of a fan living in Detroit. That being said, the reason most people think that Soccer is boring to sit and watch is three fold. 1. They don't understand the game. Most people don't understand the strategy or the complexity of upper level professional soccer. A lot more strategy goes into soccer than in a number of other sports. Also, soccer has a number of rules that people do not understand which they think only slow the game down, when in reality, they are part of an exceptional team's strategy. 2. American soccer is sub-par. MLS is NOT a premier quality soccer league. Sorry for you MLS fans, but it isn't. MLS has been getting better, but none of the current teams could compete in any of the European top-quality divisions. Period. That being said, US Soccer is on the rise. The sport is getting more fans to their live games and their TV audience is growing significantly. With World Cup qualifying starting this summer, the Confederations cup in 2009 and the World Cup in 2010, the US National Team is going to get a ton of exposure. They are likely to have a significant increase in terms of fans and viewership. 3. American's don't get to see quality soccer. Most of the European league games are very interesting and are much faster paced than the MLS and National Team contests. If people were able to actually watch a Premier League Game or a UEFA or Bundisleagua game, their opinions about the game would likely change.

I agree with your sentiment. I believe that it would be worthwhile for the Bills to bring in Gandy and see if he still has what it takes to play the position. If he can play, see if he is better than Fowler or not. If he is, let him start. If not, he's a better functional back up than Duke Preston at the C position. The only reason Preston is still on the roster is that he is a backup who knows the schemes and can play at both guard and center. If Gandy came in, Preston would be a third string lineman, which is better than our current situation.

I think he has remained on the roster for health insurance benefits reasons. Obviously football players are covered by top of the line coverage, and with all of the hospital bills he had, the team probably wanted to help him out. He might have a multi-million dollar contract, but those medical bills would likely have eaten up all of it. I think once he is really in the clear, Buffalo will cut him an injury settlement check. We'll see, but this is my best guess as to why he has remained on the active roster.

Agree. Justice and Pollack would have been great additions. Unfortunately, we didn't get them. I like the Ellis signing though. The kid looks amazingly talented out on the field. That being said, C is now the top position of need on this team.

Gandy might be a worthwhile addition. He would give us some good competition at starter and would be a good backup option and possibly starter for us. The TE situation, IMO, is something that OBD has finished looking at for this year. Don't know why, but their rhetoric leads me to believe that they are done with that position for right now.

I tend to agree. He made a lot of tough catches last season for us and he has been forced to play out of his natural position for most of his career in Buffalo. He is much more naturally suited to the slot. He has not, however, been able to play there due to the lack of a true #2 receiver. His numbers last year were much improved and he seemed to be catching more passes that came his way. I think as a slot guy he will be very productive this year. Also, if Hardy goes 29 for 300 and 5 TDs, that's fine with me. That shows that the Bills are utilizing his best skill, the jump ball in the endzone. If he can add five offensive TDs on his own, that would likely help win us another two or three ball games next year. Factor in that Evans is likely to have a much more productive year thanks to Hardy, and the passing game looks to improve dramatically.

I can understand the concern about the fact that he was a UDFA. However, there are a lot of factors that contribute to that fact. First, the FB position in football is one that the majority of teams aren't utilizing much any more. Most teams are using the HB or are going to a two-back system. Thus, the need for a primarily blocking FB who can knock people off the ball is shrinking. In the early 90s when the FB was a huge part of most teams' offensive sets, a guy like Schmitt would have been gone in the third round, and Hillis is likely gone early fourth. Viti likely would also have been drafted in the sixth. However, that isn' t the case anymore. Viti is a very strong lead blocker. Many draftniks rated him as a better lead blocker than Schmitt. He's also stronger and is a bit more compact in terms of size, which gives him excellent leverage against bigger linemen and linebackers. Exactly what you are looking for in a true FB. Also, while he isn't going to rocket down the field after the catch, he does have decent hands and is a good option for the third and one scenarios and on the goaline where a guy who can get low and run with power is a must. I'm not saying he is going to be the best fullback ever. I hope that's not how it came across. I do, however, think he will be the starter this year for the Bills. There have been a lot of great FBs who have come in as UDFAs. There have been a lot of great players at other positions that have been UDFAs. We already have another one on the team now in Jason Peters. Maybe I'm wrong, but I hope Viti is as good as his tangibles suggest he could be.

Not only did I like what he had to say, but it seems to me that he's a pretty high character guy. I think the alleged character issues are going to be a non-starter. When he said that Buffalo was his family now and he was going to do everthing in his ability to help us get better, not only as a football team, but to help the community, I was really impressed. This seems like the kind of player the Bills need to lock up as a franchise player as soon as they can.

Or he wanted to make sure that Edwards didn't get back in there too soon and reaggrivate the injury. A lesson he learned in Chicago through the rocky QB years you described. Also, none of those guys was really a bona fide NFL starter, and he was able to cobble together a 13-3 team without a legit starting QB. Imagine what he might be able to do in Buffalo with the team he and the FO have finally put together. Give him a chance. Getting rid of coaches too soon has been a huge part of what killed this team over the past seven years. Too many coaching and FO shake ups. Time for some stability. Jauron has made the Bills competitive again. Give him another couple years to really get this team going. I have a good feeling that we will be in the hunt for the WC this year, and if the Cheatriots are having an off year due to a loss of talent, we might have a shot at the division.

Viti is a beast. The guy benched an Army school record 470 lbs at his workout. The guy is as good, if not better, at lead blocking as Owen Schmitt. Viti is going to make the team, and I wouldn't be surprised if he was the starter. He is the next generation of Sam Gash and Lorenzo Neal.

Could be any number of reasons, including flight issues. Hardy will be in Buffalo for his showing this weekend, and they'll probably do something for him like they did for McKelvin.

Normally, I would say that it would be a five year 18 mil deal for McKelvin and a five year 12 million dollar deal for Hardy. However, there is a problem with negotiating the new contracts this year and for the next two seasons because of the CBA situation in 2011 and the potential for a lock out or a strike. Any of those possible scenarios has be addressed in the new contracts, which could make the negotiations take a little longer. Either way, I think they will both sign and hopefully for as long as the Bills can possibly do so.

Yeah, because Jeff Otah would have been a way better pick than McKelvin. Guess we should have been like the Lions and wasted draft picks to move up and take Cherolius, or whatever his name was.

I think there is one guaranteed STARTER from this year's crop of UDFAs, that being Mike Viti. I can see the guy starting at FB this year. FB stock is way down, and in the early to mid-90s this guy would have been a fifth or sixth round choice, but because of the decline of need at the position, do to the new pass happy nature of the NFL, their stock is really low. Watcho out for this kid. He's going to be a beast.

Again, Butler is an option at tackle, but he has NEVER played left tackle, not even in college at Virginia. He did play right tackle, which is again why we only need eight or nine linemen on the team because many of them are versatile enough to play multiple positions in the event of an injury.

Brad Butler is a Right Guard, not a Left Tackle. The positions he has played for the Bills are RG, where he played most of the time last year, and he played a bit of RIGHT Tackle, which is the other position he played in college. Right now Butler is projected to be the starter at Right Guard and the line looks like this from left to right: Jason Peters Derrick Dockery Melvin Fowler Brad Butler Langston Walker

Article about him in the Buffalo News said he has decent hands, but he isn't much of a runner. He could be good on a flair route to gain two or three yards on third and short, or as a surprise on a screen, but mostly he is a blocker and short yardage ball carrier. Imaging Mike Alstott, but a bit slower.

Buffalo will have ten DBs on the roster and will then probably have two more on the PS, just in case we get super low like last year. In a league that is becoming increasingly pass happy, you need a lot of good DBs who can come in and cover teams that go five wide on third and long. James will NOT BE CUT. He is the biggest corner we have plus he signed a multi-year deal. The Bills think he has some years left and that backfield is in desperate need of a veteran leader, which is exactly the type of player that James is. Some say that 10 DBs is too many and we won't have room for people at other positions where we lack depth. As far as I can tell, the positions shape up like this. 1. O-Line-8 Players Jason Peters Derrick Dockery Melvin Fowler Brad Butler Langston Walker Duke Preston Kirk Chambers Jason Whittle 2. D-Line 10 Players Aaron Schobel Marcus Stroud John McCargo Chris Kelsay Chris Ellis Kyle Williams Spencer Johnson Ryan Denney Jason Jefferson Al Wallace 3. LB 6 players Kawika Mitchell Paul Pozluszny Angelo Crowell Keith Ellison John DiGiorgio ROOKIE 4. WR 6 players Lee Evans James Hardy Josh Reed Roscoe Parrish Justin Jenkins Steve Johnson 5. RB 4 Players Marshawn Lynch Fred Jackson Dwayne Wright Xavier Oman 6. FB 2 Players Mike Viti Damien Barnes 7. QB 3 Players Trent Edwards JP Losman Luke Drone 8. TE 5 Players Robert Royal Courtney Anderson Teyo Johnson Derek Schouman Derek Fine 9. CB 6 Players McGee McKelvin James Greer Youboty Corner 10. S 4 Players Donte Whitner Ko Simpson John Wendling George Wilson 11. P 1 player Brian Moorman 12. K 1 player Rian Lindell That is a total of 56 players. Three of them won't be starters and may be relegated to the practice squad. Further, it is likely that Al Wallace may not re-sign with the team, thus you have 55 players. Two won't be here. So, can the Bills carry 10 DBs on the roster and be successful? Absolutely. Against pass happy teams like NE and Cleveland, you need those talented DBs to go out and stop teams on third and long.

Looks like that problem child not signing here really worked out well for us. The FO handled that situation perfectly, and the picks we got for him from Chicago have turned out pretty well.

You make a good point, but the Bills did try to go for the jugular against Dallas. On first and goal from the nine they called a passing play to LE, something they didn't do much during the season, trying to put the score up to 31 to 7 at the time. The route got intercepted and Newman ran the ball back. Jauron wasn't involved much with the play calling on offense. That job was left to SF and he mangled it for any number of reasons, none of which were all that good. This year, however, I don't think that will be the case. Jauron has done a good job as coach, and with everything that happened last year, 7-9, and still in the hunt for the playoffs in week 15 was a heck of an accomplishment. At the start of the season, with everyone healthy, as you said, we were a five hundred team. After the thirteen injuries to starting players, the quarterback shuffle and the Kevin Everett tragedy, I'd have said we would be lucky to win 3 games at that point. We had players who had walked onto the practice squad starting in the secondary, and UDFA's playing linebacker. To say that Jauron's coaching had nothing to do with the team being remotely successful under those suggestions is essentially to be an ostrich with its head in the sand.

Yeah, that's what this organization needs, yet another coaching change. I hate to break everyone's DJ is a bad coach bubble, but to keep that team last year in playoff contention with thirteen starters out with injuries in key positions was one HELL of a coaching job, whether you like the guy or not. The fact is, the problem was DJ let Fairchild run the offense, and make the calls. It's terrible that he lets people do the job their getting paid for. SF was a bad OC, that's why he would have been fired had he not taken the job at CSU. Schonert and Jauron seem to be on the same page. This is really the first year that Jauron is coaching a team filled with players he WANTS, rather than trying to plug in leftovers and bad talent from the Donablow administration. Give the guy a chance to succeed before we turn this team upside down with another administration change. Notice, teams that have very few coaching changes are the ones that tend to do well. Consistency is a huge part of pro-football and making teams, even those with talented players, learn a new system every three years with a new coach doesn't do anyone any good. Jauron will the coach for at least another two seasons before there is even a chance at his being replaced. And that's the way it should be.

I think our offense will improve greatly this year, probably finishing in the 21-24 range, but our D should be top ten. I think Viti was a huge steal, and is very likely to be the day one starter at FB. No way the team cuts Preston in the offseason. He is the only O-Lineman who can backup Fowler at Center and is valuable as a back up guard, b/c Whittle is also the second backup tackle behind Chambers. Likely Whittle would only play right tackle as a backup, but if Peters and Chambers get hurt, he'll have to play LT as he is the only person on the team that could handle the job. Don't forget, the Bills did add a Tackle in the seventh, though he is likely a practice squad guy, and another guard in UDFA. Again, likely camp fodder or practice squad, but they might be good to have around in case of emergency.

Buffalo has more than enough money to sign LE right now if they wanted too. However, no deal will be done until the end of the season for two reasons. LE won't sign unless he sees the offense actually improving and his numbers going up. The Bills aren't going to hand over big money for a WR unless his numbers go up. Also, if the seasons ends and there is no deal done, have no fear. Buffalo can always franchise the guy for another season and work out a deal then, or trade him if they see fit. I want LE to stay, but if there is a chance that the Bills could get enough leverage for him to get Michael Crabtree in next year's draft, odds are any deal would even out in a wash.