Koufax

Don't you mean "He's won too soup or bowls"? And isn't it supposed to be "Leave Brittany Alone"? I don't think there is going to be too much that can be said between now and Sunday that isn't repetitive, so I am going to dedicate myself to forum literacy in the meantime.

I'm going to give you a pass on the "it's" (it is) vs "its" (belonging to it), but this sentence is substantively wrong as well. Pre-season wins and losses may be relatively unimportant, but pre-season play, development of players, etc. is important, especially for a team coming off a disaster of an off season and learning new schemes. To have the first unit as successful as they were speaks volumes about the personnel and the coach's ability to get them moving and productive. A lot of what we have seen this pre-season has been positive and indicative of good progress and a team that is more talented than people think.

1) Hmmm...I'm QB optimistic, but respect your decision not to be. But I think we got Fast Freddie past 1000 with a million line issues, no passing game, and he was coming in as a backup. Then we added the top running playmaker in the draft. I don't know how we don't have an established running game by your measure. 2) Spare parts? Is that a slight on Cornell Green (my least favorite Bill)? Or are you really thinking Eric Wood is spare parts, Levietre spare parts? Do you really think that Bell is that terrible based on what you have seen of him, what his situation is last year, his athletic ability, and what the coaching staff seems to think? He is still not a certainty, but I don't think he is a spare part and nothing more than a Cornell Green. 3) Defense might continue to have a learning curve, but I think that is a little bit of a lame excuse and I expect them to perform. We have some personnel issues we will address in time for next season, but I think these guys are going to be better than last year really quickly, and won't need the "learning new system" excuse for long. 4) Can this really be separate from the previous one? We were last against the run, than how is learning the new system going to make that worse? Or do you think our pass rush will actually be worse than last year? And do you think our secondary will somehow stumble around like they are trying to speak German as tourists? 5) I like Stevie Johnson and I like Roscoe and I like Spiller. Chan + Checkdown + Spiller + Roscoe isn't going to be a powerful weapon? I still miss the intermediate pass and am not completely sold on Stevie, but I think that Chan can get some cool offense out of two crazy quick guys and someone very accurate in short passes, while Lee keeps them honest long and Stevie tries to learn how to be a middle of the field possession receiver. Again, I think we are likely going to be drafting in the teens. I'm hoping it is #19 or so and we snuck into the playoffs, but also know it could be #13 or so. But I really have a tough time seeing the 2 or 3 win stuff so many people see. Chan is trying to win now while building, not just throwing in the towel and taking a year to get his guys and his schemes. I think this team is much better than last year's team, and the teams in the division are not as amazing as people are saying. Let's get to 1-0 against the Fish and see how things are looking from there...

But the point I bring up often when these types of arguments are made, is looking at our schedule in September gives you very little idea on the difficulty of these games in the changing NFL. Remember that in 2008 we would have been looking at Seattle and Jacksonville at the start, two playoff teams coming off 11 and 10 win seasons, and penciled in in September as super bowl contenders and losses for us. Then of course we beat both of them and they won 4 and 5 games (each a worse performance than we have had since 2001 I might add). So don't think just because our schedule looks tough based on 2009 performances that it will play out how it looks on paper or anything even close. We will face teams much stronger than we expect, and we will face teams much weaker than we expect. That shouldn't stop anybody from doing their best guess and stating their expectations, but I see presented as certainty all the "we have no chance in that game" stuff which really doesn't hold any water at all as the season plays out. EVERY season in recent years, we have beaten teams that you would have penciled in as a loss before the season started (and unfortunately lost ones you would have expected us to win). It is the nature of the NFL, and why 2-14 or 8-8 right now doesn't mean much, and also why Vegas generally ends up with different lines on week 13 games than you would pencil in today.

"With the 16th pick of the first round, the Buffalo Bills take linebacker/offensive tackle/defensive end/other best player available John Doe, university of ToBeDetermined" sounds a lot better to me than "With the 4th pick of the first round, the Buffalo Bills take Andrew Luck/Jake Locker, Quarterback Stanford/Washington" So while I am happy to hear about all sorts of top players who might be the best player available wherever we pick, I don't think the fixation on a future potential #1 pick like Brohm/Quinn/Clausen is a good thing for anything other than curiosity. I'm pretty excited to see Trent emerge with the support of Gailey, and try to get to 1-0 against the Fish! Go Bills!

+1 to the grammer police. Some typos can happen in posts, but it would be nice if new threads would avoid the top four or five grammer mixups and avoid text message shortcuts. Otherwise it might be: thyme 4 u two re-sign from hear and leave the literate wons too enjoy there piece and quiet.

Some of the shallowest analysis I have seen. Feels like Clayton. I would like to see the grades of another team by comparison, so can you give us your take on the Dolphins please? You give an F to the quarterbacks because you aren't happy with the situation or optimistic, not because you can reasonably think they are there. Otherwise why not just give them a G or an H, because this one goes to eleven: since Trent has been completing a lot of his passes, not getting sacked a lot, and hitting on the bombs, why grade would you give our guys if those things weren't happening? Or is this a grade for last season? Not clear why you think that Lee, Stevie, Roscoe are really a D? If our QBs are really Fs then the production these guys have had in the preseason would be more impressive? Or if our receivers are really D receivers then wouldn't you expect F QBs to be even less effective? Linebackers, I'm just going to skip this one. You haven't mentioned the transition to the 3-4 which is their biggest obstacle, and a D- is a pretty ridiculous grade and represents a detachment from reality. Cornerbacks at C+ is pretty cool. Giving this unit a B- would have been a gross overestimate right? It was only our B safeties fault that we were second only to Revis's Jets last year right? Your Analysis Grade: C-. I should have given you lower, but it is obvious you are new here, and so I am grading on a second grader scale, not a college level. But please do give us your grades on the Dolphins so we can cross reference a little both before and after the game.

Not a good pick overall. Going with the conventional wisdom/need instead of best player. The same that would have us picked Clausen or Bulaga at #9 this year. However swinging and missing on a high second round receiver doesn't damn the decision makers by itself...remember in addition to the #41 Hardy, we also cut #36 Chad Jackson which New England picked and it didn't work out. I was pulling for him, but was a little skeptical at his inability to get involved and make a difference. It never seemed like a Roscoe situation of being misused, just him not being a very good football player.

Uh oh...I now remember thinking Pennington was going to be a useful player...I guess in light of this I will downgrade my Bell enthusiasm until he shows something in the regular season.

Remember, the line is not what Vegas thinks the result is, but the spread Vegas thinks will get even money on both sides. And as for the comment by this genius...if I were going to give football betting advice to the public I would try to have more sources of team strength than John Clayton's "they don't have a qb or lt" blog. The Bills are not going to win it all, but we also are not one of the worst teams in football.

Maybe more than Reggie Bush and less than Chris Johnson?

Way too soon to know what these opponents are going to look like each week. The pessimists say "that team sounds pretty good and was good last year...no chance" when we don't know what injuries and the ups and downs of the NFL season will bring. And the optimists say "that team sounds pretty bad and was bad last year...we win that easy". As examples, I give you the 2008 game against the Arizona Cardinals. Penciled in as a win by EVERYBODY, especially after we started 4-0. Was an embarrassing loss at the time, but then it turned out, wait, Arizona was a Super Bowl team... And our 2008 opener against the Seahawks and Jaguars were supposed to be tough with those being 10 and 11 win teams contending for the super bowl...but then they turned out to be 4 and 5 win teams in 2008 that we beat. So don't think that because you think you know how good a team was last year or is supposed to be this year that you can read our schedule and check off "easy win" and "no chance". The NFL just doesn't work that way. You can still guess what you think the outcome is, but I've heard way too many "You are crazy if you think we have a chance to win against XYZ". Go Bills

+1 I would rather have every win we can get regardless if it is the first the 5th, the 10th. Regardless of how it affects our draft order. Winning football games is good for me as a Bills fan and good for the Bills players. I know there are 1-15 to 10-6 turnarounds and Peyton Mannings, but there are a lot more 7-9 to 10-6 turnarounds and there are a lot more Jamarcus Russels and Ryan Leafs. Losing as a solution seems pretty dumb to me, especially for the frustration that the 40 or so returning guys will feel. And losing also sure makes the actual season less fun too. I'm just excited about getting to 1-0 against the Fish and going into week 2 in first place! Go Bills!

We don't have the #31 QB, and even Clayton's criticisms focus on the O-Line and the non-Lee weapons. We also aren't the #31 team as some rankings have. But I have no problems starting off low in the national spotlight, and earning respect for being better than they thought. I think Trent can progress solidly into a middle of the pack QB, and would not be #31 on an end of the season ranking, but he hasn't shown anything that counts yet, and I think will have to earn any national media respect starting in a week and a half. Starting 1-0 with a win against the Fish will certainly help get us out of the #31 talk, but what matters is the team continuing to improve, play well, and winning football games. I don't think we are very likely to make the playoffs this year, but I think we have a pretty good shot of still drawing up "scenarios" in the last month of the season ("If these four teams lose out, and these two teams tie" ;-) ), and having a fun ride. And you never know how the ball will bounce in the quick-turn-around NFL, and that is part of the fun being a fan, especially as we have a much more competent coach and a new exciting playmaker (two if you count Roscoe who was lost for a while). Go Bills.

Who is this Parrish character? Never heard of him when Juaron was here. Maybe a new guy Chan brought in?

I'm not quite sure why I'm feeding the troll, but to think that the only way to judge a football player is the final score is just silly. It is a team game. The team accounts for the final score. Each player does his best to help achieve the result. I'm sure you would ask Kelly and Marino to give their yellow jackets back so Trent Dilfer could have one to wear and an extra in his closet just in case. And can we please get Barry Sanders's back too? Independent of what you think of Sanchez's future, the Jets backed into the playoffs at 9-7 with help despite poor QB play most of the season. They then beat an okay Bengals team with great D and so-so QB play. They then stunned a good chargers team with BAD QB play all day except for an important 2yd touchdown pass in the 4th quarter. They did this with the #1 D and the #1 run game. I don't think Sanchez can be evaluated based on the Jet's success, but instead should be evaluated based on how he played. If you liked his play and think it was enough, or you see lots of signs of talent and room for improvements? No problem, I respect your differing player evaluation and wish to have you in my fantasy football league draft (just kidding, I don't actually play). But his using his team's limited overall success along with one big win in which he performed badly as you basis for evaluation just seems silly and missing the point. I happen to think that Trent would no necessarily have done better for the Jets, because his inability to throw the intermediate pass would have had teams stack the box more and the run game would have suffered. Regardless of which team Sanchez was throwing to, he threw the ball in the middle of the field, and lots of defensive players wanted to be there to catch those balls (like the five the Bills caught in NJ), and took their attention away from the run

I'm going to give your little rant some attention. Here are seven games you are not willing to list as a maybe? I guess that is expecting every team to be just like last year because there are no ups and downs in the NFL. But I think these seven "no"s without any of them being maybes represent a big lack of understanding of how football works. But for the record, you think the BEST case for this team is what was considered a disappointment under Jauron, that somehow we have gotten worse in that time. And for the record we have failed to win six games exactly twice in this miserable decade while winning at least 6 games in eight of those painful ten years. So you go and figure out who you want to pick with your top 5 pick next year, and the rest of us will actually watch the football games and the progress of this team. So call it like you see it, but don't call out someone with 8-8 optimism as "kidding", "blind", or "stupid". I think this year is very unpredictable and that 2011 will be the season where we can _expect_ to see solid results. But a lot of good things can happen as well if the ball bounces our way and injuries work in our favor or players grasp the new systems faster than you think.

Not such a big deal to me all the way around. 1) The fans heckling are probably a little silly...doesn't really seem the place for it. I suppose if you really care about the Bills and you really think that Brohm over Trent is a crucial decision that not waiting for the season to start and expressing that opinion in any venue possible is fine. 2) Chan didn't attempt to silence or censor the fans. He merely indicated that their insults of one player were insulting to the whole team, which I think is a positive, and that they would not be doing something nice for the section where the insults were coming from. Seems reasonable and not a huge scandal. No freedom of speech issue here, no egging someone's house, etc.

Possibly, but hoping people slide isn't necessarily a great gamble. But yes, if you think you can have Troup + Clausen + Trent + Brohm then my equation isn't valid and you have to look at Clausen's marginal value compared to Trent/Brohm related to Carrington. But given that three other DTs went off the board between our 2nd and 3rd picks, I think that Troup likely would have been gone, even if Kiper and others didn't line it up that way.

Not sure on Clausen and I wish him the best, but given who was already on our roster: Troup + Edwards + Brohm > Clausen + Edwards + Brohm. Not sure Clausen will be better than Trent in 2010, but even if he is, I don't think by a margin that makes up for not having Troup on the roster at NT. So in terms of building a winning team for 2010 this seems like a no brainer. If Clausen excels over the next few years and Edwards and Brohm don't, then we might be disappointed with the selection in the future.

Much like Whitner at #8 this was a terrible pick for our franchise given his abilities, experience, our needs, and players available. I agree with you here, and whole heartedly am against giving any high fives to anybody involved in making that decision. Like Whitner he now needs to be evaluated independently of his draft slot and we need to see if he can help this team win as he evolves. I don't have much confidence in us ever saying "what a great pick he was at #11", but I think he can develop into a good football player who helps us win games. Whether or not he does has nothing to do with June 2009-August 2010 (what we are judging him on), but on what happens next and how the coaches work with him. I'm optimistic he will exceed the current general feeling out there and not be cut. But obviously it is unlikely he lives up to expectations as a #11 pick.

Yep. I think the biggest hole in Trent's game is the ability to step up in the pocket and hit a 10-20 yard pass. It is something he has done very very rarely over the last couple seasons, and did not do last night either. His pass to Lee was beautiful, but there was no pressure or coverage. I mentioned before the game that I am hopeful and optimistic with Trent, but will not be fully on board until I see some 10-20 yard completions over the middle, and we did not see any of those last night.

He completed some passes of 10-20 yards, including over the middle. The current established weakspot for Trent. While I was encouraged by Trent overall, mostly it was one bomb to Lee (a great one) and more of the same. If he didn't complete that single pass or Lee dropped it, etc., I think we would be very down on Trent right now for his otherwise disappointing 4-7 for 23 yards. Obviously that bomb helps his cause, like when JP hit the two 83 yard bombs against the Texans a few years back, but it might be the outlier of an otherwise disappointing game that did not reflect any real progress on his part. I'm still happy with the points on the board and it was nice to see him bounce back from the hit he took. And Brohm failed to get in the end zone and was playing against backups. But in terms of actual plays and actual throws, I was more impressed with Brohm.

My thoughts: D.Bell did well against Freeny. Our LT play will be better this year than expected. Edwards didn't complete an intermediate pass over the middle, and I was not impressed other than one deep ball to an open receiver. But 14 points are 14 points. I thought Brohm looked good and we will end up letting Fitz go. If Brohm had got a TD out of the 1st and goal and Trent had overthrown Lee I think we would have a depth chart controverfsy, but absent those two hypothetically different snaps, Trent stays at the top. Next week will determine the season starter with Brohm having to significantly outperform trent to leapfrog Trent. Even though we are progressing slowly, I like Chan calling the plays, and think he will get points out of Trent, Lee, Spiller, Roscoe, etc. Very nice to see some smart calls. The defense is still progressing at the front seven, but I don't think we will be a step back from last year, and I expect progress through the season. I am worried against the run as we learn, but think we will get a better pass rush, and like what that could do for our already strong pass defense. So no 0-16 doom, and I am glad that is behind us, and a fun exciting team to watch grow. Still some bumps ahead, but it should be fun.

Well, we could have had Bulaga...I mean...luxury pick that we don't really need...I mean...GO BILLS!!!!!!!