BobChalmers

I agree completely.

No, I agree - they can't possibly be counting on him yet. Hopefully they will get him there during the season.

You used the same logical flaw the national nit-wits have been using - and you did it really quickly. When the Bills opened against the Pat's last year, the OL did fine. They had their starting five. When the Bills faced the 'Skins in P1 this year, they were back to missing three out of five starters, and Edwards was running for his life. The last two weeks, they've had their five starters on the field, and the offense has looked worlds better than last year. Unless we lose 3/5 of the line again, then no, the same OL are not back. +1 And which of those guys is playing D-line? If you haven't had a chance to watch them in preseason, it's pretty obvious our worries that Kyle Williams couldn't cut it as a NT were unfounded. He is a beast at his new position, and plays pretty big as a 305# NT. A slimmed and fit Marcus Stroud is a very large and powerful DE. Dwan Edwards is also very large and has the measurables to continue playing 3-4 end as he did when he was here in Baltimore. Our LB's aren't big enough? Huh? We have converted DE's on the outside. Andra Davis is plenty big. Poz may be a question. The real concern may be the mental conversion for the defense, especially the LB's. Again, we have converted DE's now playing OLB, and it's not clear they have the lateral mobility and instincts outside of pass-rushing to do it.

And aside from last season, he went on to play pretty well in the regular season. Last year he struggled in pre-season, and went on to a mediocre 73.8 rating. The year before that, according to you, he looked great in preseason, and he looked really good in the regular season finishing with an 85.4 rating which is not shabby for a 2nd year player - even though he did struggle a lot after having his brains scrambled in Arizona. The season before that, he was down at 70.4 for the year - no idea how he was in preseason. I don't know how he or the rest of the team will ultimately do - I do know that there is a lot in what we have seen in the performance of the #1 offense that is dramatically better than we have seen in years, and there's good reason to believe that will carry over to the regular season. Preseason final scores are a meaningless joke. Preseason performances by the #1's against other #1's are actually a really good indicator. The only positions that have me worried on this team are the LB's as a whole, and ORT where Green has not looked too good.

+1 Apparently people don't feel like watching the games before complaining about Edwards. He was running for his life week P1 against the 'skins.

Trent Edwards is one year younger than Leinart, but has put up better stats than the USC bust (aka Sanchez-West) EVERY SEASON since he's been in the league. QB Ratings - Edwards vs. Leinart 2009 TE 73.8 ML 64.6 2008 TE 85.4 ML 80.2 2007 TE 70.4 ML 61.9 2006 TE ---- ML 74.0 And that's despite Leinart playing on a generally better team that's consistently had better receivers - arguably the best receiver tandem in the league over that period. But sure - be a troll and scream how the Bills would improve with this complete stiff.

You know, looking at his stats, I stand corrected - Anderson is also pretty bad. And yet, he was better than and will be starting over Leinart - why do we want Leinart again? Because we can have our own slightly older version of Sanchez?

Mega weak on the lines?? Don't see it. Our D-line is a real strength. Williams conversion to NT was a worry but has been playing like a total animal at NT. Stroud lost weight and has looked grat as a 3-4 end. Edwards has shown me nothing bad. Sorry - worries about our d-line are speculation from the Spring - not reality in September. The O-line? They looked fine when they were in there - Green at RT is the only one who looks weak. You want to call Wood weak? Levitre? Bell has been very good when he's been in. Hanny's adequate. This is now an average O-line (if they stay healthy). Not mega-weak. I'll buy that the LB group is weak - probably the big weakness on the team right now. Special teams coverage needs to improve in a hurry. As for the tough division - wow - did we suddenly move to a new one?? Seems like they've been an almost .500 team for years now playing in the same exact division - just like Miami and the Jets for that matter. The distinctions from writers between the three teams not called the Patriots are group-think nonsense from lazy writers reading each other's stuff. Bills will finish 2nd this year - it won't even be close, as we are the only team in the division except NE with a decent QB. Sanchez (aka Leinart-east) sucks out loud. Henne is not much better.

You're kidding, right? Derek Anderson has taken the #1 spot and he's better than Fitz by a good bit.

3/5 OLinemen against Redskins were backup scrubs - kind of like last season half-way through - hey wait, maybe that's why the offense struggled last year??? Cripes - do any of you people watch the games before complaining???

In a sense they do, given how much $$$,$$$,$$$ the NFL rapes DirecTV for. And yeah, DirecTV would lose most of their customers w/o the Sunday Ticket. I actually was pretty happy with DirecTV in the past - the problem I had was I moved somewhere with a lot of huge trees in the way of my SW view of the sky. I've got enough view for most of the channels, but not enough to see the satellite they broadcast the HD stuff on - regular def doesn't cut it anymore - I'm spoiled now.

If I remember right from last year (I had it) the trick was it wouldn't work when there was any other game on in your area. So, you can't use Game Rewind while the Monday night games were on - which was pretty annoying.

+1 That's an incredibly important point the naysayers on this board want to ignore. Our first team offense (yes folks - the one TE has been running) has been getting it done against the other team's first's. Even in the Bengals game, where they pulled their offensive starters early (after whipping our Defense) the Bengals were still using their first team defense while our first's were out there. This is a complete reversal of last year, and unlike preseason final scores, the performance of the 1's vs. the 1's is a real indicator of the status of the team going into the regular season.

Agreed! The protection _schemes_ look like they have changed some. The 70-yard TD from TE to LE was in max-protect. It was setup by success in the running game. Gailey knew how to set that up and when to call it. Dick did not have a clue. Not to mention our O-line was devastated by injuries last year. I really don't get how people can't grasp that - even here where everyone watched enough Bills games last year to know it. "Our O-line is the worst in the league because they sucked over the course of last season and we didn't bring in any high picks or big names." the reasoning goes. But our starting O-line didn't play most of the games last year, AND they are young as heck. Levitre and Wood are two developing stars. Hanny's fine. Bell looks fine when he's healthy, and what he does wrong is probably teachable (penalties are teachable, his combo of size and athleticism is not). Green's not great, but he's not an embarassment. Most of the guys who were playing O-line for the Bills last year most of the season are not playing this year. It's true - and you raised an excellent point. That doesn't translate to "Brohm > Fitz and Edwards" or some such thing, just that the fact that he didn't stick in GB isn't the end of the world.

Everything I see of the Jets on Hard Knocks makes me think that is a team in for a serious collapse. They are old all over the place, except for their QB who looks both stupid and just generally bad. They are getting pumped up about ancient hand-me-down players like LT and Jason Taylor. Jason Taylor??? The Dolphins have already dumped him twice with a Redskins stint in between! How should he scare anyone at this point? Kris Jenkins is supposed to be scary, but he also looks old and washed up. All I see from the coach is a lot of energy (which is good), but not so much brains, which seems to translate to the players he brings in. I realize I could be biased - but someone tell me what I am missing that makes this NYJ team look like a real SB contender this year?

If that's true, the SJF/Bills security crew really blew it by not throwing them out promptly. The stuff I heard last week didn't include any profanity that I noticed, anyway.

I was there for two sessions last week. There were about 3 idiot teenagers heckling Trent then too - probably the same 3 morons. I almost went down to tell them to shut up myself but had my family with me and decided not to. DARTH, normally I agree with your premise that the fans have a right to express their displeasure, but keep in mind this is a free practice session, not an actual game. The Bills could close the thing if people are disruptive - not saying they would or that it would be smart - I'm saying the fans' "right" in this case is not nearly so clear. As for your own tireless (and tiresome for the rest of us) obsessive whining about Edwards, honestly, think of something else - you've become an adjective and a punchline around here, rather than a valued contributor. Anyone who has watched them last fall or this summer can't really be serious thinking Edwards is worse than Brohm - certainly not so much so that heckling the team over the coach's choice makes any sense.

So wait, you're saying the Bills would have been better off paying Clements the $10M/year he got from SF? And what exactly did he do for them? You really weakened your argument including him on the list, not that the otehrs are much better. Pat Williams was Donohoe's mistake - he was wrong to believe someone could still have so much time left in the league at that size. That was an age (mis) judgement, not a money one. Flecther also hung on longer than expected, although that was more a complaint about style from a dumb coach. Milloy was on the downside of his career - he was old when we brought him in as a FA.

And you can bet the national idiots are all predicting the Redskins to go from 4-12 to winning 8+ games this year, with a new coach, a suspect O-line and receivers, a switch to 3-4 (and less defensive talent and worse special teams than we have) and most of those idiots wouldn't even answer right if you asked who had more wins last year - Buffalo or DC.

Probably everyone who watched them on HBO last night is having the same reaction I did: They are really obnoxious and full of themselves. Starting with that fat doofus of a head coach, who btw can't go 5 seconds without swearing, apparently he thinks that makes him sound tough. Really, the guy is just a fat Gregg Williams who got on a good playoff roll last year, as far as I can tell. BUT my second reaction is: Wow, the Jets are seriously freaking OLD. And they are sooooo not as good as they are being hyped to be. They're all excited about having LT? And Jason Taylor??? Are you kidding me? Why don't they pick up Emmitt Smith and Deacon Jones while they are at it? Seriously - they are the perfect team for the morons in the national media to overrate - lots of over-the-hill stars that everyone has heard of. Never mind that the teams these guys became famous on didn't want them anymore - in Jason Taylor's case, the fish have let him go twice already. Third reaction was: Sanchez is not a bright young man. Brian Schottenheimer seriously looked like he was talking to a kindergardener. And all of Sanchez's swagger? What's that about again, Mr. 63.0 QB rating?? Seriously - that team is in for a HUGE fall - they look like a 4-12 team in the making.

Yup - Nottingham's is the local (Howard County, MD) place for sure these days - definitely a better setup then some in the past. Welcome to HoCo - Ellicott City/Columbia area was justed rated #2 place to live in the country by Money magazine, btw! I actually grew up around here, and it's changed quite a bit (population/housing boom) but it's still great. (And the hometown of Aaron Maybin...)

Yeah - he's pretty much been the #2 since OTA's, and I'm happy about it. My son's been a Steve Johnson fan (probably the prior dreadlocks) since he first joined the team - are they selling his jersey locally yet? We're coming up for camp from Maryland this week.

Which tells us all we need to know about the stupidity of the QB === WINS theory, right? Sanchez was horrible. Good QB's are very valuable, but teams with great defenses + running games win in spite of their QB.

2009 AFC East QB Ratings: Brady 96.2 371 565 65.7 35.3 4,398 7.8 274.9 TD:28 INT:13 Henne 75.2 274 451 60.8 32.2 2,878 6.4 205.6 TD:12 INT:14 Sanchez 63.0 274 451 60.8 32.2 2,878 6.4 205.6 TD:12 INT:14 Edwards 73.8 110 183 60.1 22.9 1,169 6.4 146.1 TD:6 INT:7 The Jets are going to win the Super Bowl, but the Bills are among the worst teams in the league because they didn't improve at QB. Whatever.

That's just not a smart comment. There is almost nothing similar in the two situations. Peters was under (his second) contract for OVER TWO MORE YEARS REMAINING when he held out. Spiller was not under contract at all. He was letting his agent work out his first contract. As we later learned, the main sticking point wasn't the total $$ but how to establish Spiller's incentives, since he may be playing in circumstances that get him more receptions and return opportunities but not a really large number of carries and rushing yards.