BillsVet

Seems like there are about 8-10 teams going all out to win this season. And then there are the rest. It's obvious this is a win now move, but NO has a decent amount of room in cap space, with more than 24M. For the record, only KC, GB, TB, MIA, and NO have more cap room than Buffalo according to Peter King in his MMQB column today.

Krazy, you have 72 posts and counting today. That's 3x more than anyone else today. We get that you prefer JP more than Trent. Fine, everyone's entitled to their own opinion, but stop bludgeoning us to death with them.

With facts like these, who needs opinions? For the record, Ikegwuonu was a first round talent before his ACL tear, even with his background. Your brilliance is noted.

Go check the game stats against Wisconsin and CB Jack Ikegwuonu who completely shut down Hardy.

You fail to recognize that not all front offices are created equal. Ever wonder why NE, SD, IND, GB, NYG, PHI, JAC, and SEA have success nearly every year? It's because their FO knows what it's doing. They know who to get and how to prioritize their draft. GB's pro scouts had their sh** together and found Grant. Pro Scouting is on the endangered species list in Buffalo, where the department is run by a guy with more failures than the HC. In the Michael Lombardi article on this board, he was spoken to by Bill Walsh, who told an excited Lombardi that there are generally about 8 teams competing to win the SB. It's no different this season. Most teams are pretenders. GB is not, despite the Favre fiasco.

I say this in the context of every GM in the league knows what the Bills holes are. They're as obvious as the sun. In 07 they went RB and LB after trading McGahee and letting Fletcher walk. In 08, they went CB and WR, two huge needs, considering they'd let Clements walk in FA two years before and that the Peerless Price experiment failed so miserably. Guys who get paid to do what we only talk about on this board know the tendencies of people like DJ, especially considering Buffalo has no bonafide GM. Check those drafts from about 94-00. You know, the post-Polian years. Overall, they were dreadfull and didn't result in much more than one contributor from each draft. If you like the guy enough to draft him and he works out, why let him go to FA? Good teams don't do this, why does Buffalo? You said he needed to go. From a contract perspective, he had no leverage. Ultimately, the Bills did not have to deal him. All they had to do was call his bluff and super-punk Drew Rosenhaus had very little to do. You can hate him as a player (he's a jerk), but the Bills opened up a hole by trading him. Imagine having McGahee for one season, and then using the first to move around in the first round. Replacing RB's happens quite frequently. Right now, it's unclear what this team's long term strategy is. Marv talked about character players, though months after his retirement, the Bills FO has eschewed that in favor or risky characters.

The trading of McGahee in turn forced them to select a RB in the first round. Talk about predictable, it doesn't take Nostradamus to realize Buffalo telegraphs their top picks year after year. More than likely draft picks do not help a team win in their rookie season. Think about what the Bills might have done with that first round pick had they kept McGahee. Two thirds and a 7th are nice on paper, but what they generally offer on the field isn't as much. That's why unused draft picks are worth more than a player. It's why first rounders aren't part of too many trades for veteran players. This is not an argument about whether or not McGahee or Lynch are nice guys or not. It's not even whether one's better than the other. It's about allocating resources. Buffalo's spent 2 first rounders on RB's in five years. This in turn prevents them from addressing other areas, like OL and DL.

It should be noted that Jeremy Green wrote this article for ESPN, and his opinion is practically worthless. The real question on offense is whether or not DJ will let his hand-picked (and only interviewee) OC run an offense that scores some points. In two seasons, the DJ's Bills averaged 17 points per game, which as we've seen will not be enough to win. I'm not convinced DJ will allow Schonert to be aggressive, but will revert to his style of the last two seasons that takes less chances and offers little reward.

Surprised no one's said anything about McKelvin. I see him winning the nickel corner job and eventually working his way into the starting line-up. I'm especially interested to see if he can put to rest the talk that his ball skills are sub-par. The team has said he won't return kicks, but he's proven so good at it in college, it'd be a waste for him not to.

7 DB's picked in 3 seasons versus 8 total picks on the OL and DL. McCargo is the highest picked OL or DL. No OL before the 5th round in three drafts. Buffalo has used as many picks (8) on offensive skill positions as they have on their OL and DL. And yet, there's an issue running the football and stopping the run. So much so that the braintrust at OBD decided to give up a third and a fifth on a DT (Stroud) who has had a hard time remaining on the field. And we can't forget giving up a 2nd and 3rd to move up to select McCargo just 2 years ago. Don't forget spending 17.5M on a DL tweener in Spencer Johnson. From a resource management perspective, the Bills attempt to patch up rather than solve problems, particularly on the DL is not the answer. The OL features 3 FA's, none of whom lived up to their contracts last season. Donahoe's way of finding cheap OL and DL has been followed by Marv and Dick's method of spending big on FA OL and DL to focus on more DB's and RB's. Just like the Colts, Chargers, Giants, Jaguars, Pats*, and Packers do. Donahoe's reign of error is eerily similar to what's going on now, albeit with Brandon playing the role of GM. The result is the same however-no playoffs.

As nice as it seems to be ranked #3 in the NFL by ESPN, Buffalo will need to be absolutely flawless on ST this year in order to make the playoffs. This team will win or lose based on defense and ST.

Donahoe was ridiculed for selecting too many skill players while ignoring the OL and DL. And even with his dismissal, the same trend is taking place once again the past 2+ years. In this instance, it's not WR's and RB's, but DB's. It doesn't matter which skill positions are continually drafted, the result is always the same: offenses that can't protect the QB and defenses which are not good enough to put pressure on the QB and stop the run. That's the problem this team has had for years now. Good teams draft well, and find quality lineman, whether they're early, mid, or even late round picks. Three teams in the league have not made the playoffs since the 20th century. Buffalo, Arizona, and Detroit. All of them have a tendency of using picks on players who line up away from the ball. Check the drafts of those teams. Using FA repeatedly on lineman because you can't or won't find them in the draft hurts a team's cap hit. That's the price (along with missing the post-season) of selecting skill players. It's not much different than what Donahoe was doing 5 years ago.

What was the Bears record in 99? And there are several on this board who can tell you 01 was very fluky. Mike Brown scoring TD's in the waning moments of games clearly helped their offensive showing that year. Neither season resulted in post-season success. Perhaps you know that none of the three OC's DJ has employed in his seasons as HC (not incl Detroit) are in the NFL. Well, I guess you can't find that on pro-football-reference.com.

JfH I hope you're being a tad sarcastic with that one. Whitner and Simpson benefitted greatly from Clements and McGee giving them the freedom to learn and make mistakes two years ago. With that in mind, I need to see more from Simpson before we think the FS position is a strength.

If the DL puts some pressure on opposing QB's this year, McGee, McKelvin, Greer, James, Whitner, et al. will look a whole lot better than 27th best. If not, it's going to be a long season.

Drafting DL and OL early and often is a proven strategy. Unfortunately, Buffalo's front office doesn't think that way. They'd prefer to build from off the ball with DB's, WR's, and RB's. Not surprisingly, the Bills have been dominated at the LOS for almost a decade. An argument against Donahoe was his fascination with drafting the skill positions. With the exception of an OT bust in 2002, he chose too many guys who played off the ball and not enough on the line of scrimmage. Translation: 31-49 record in 5 seasons and his firing. Now along comes the Levy/Jauron era and essentially the same thing is happening, though by new people who are bulletproof from criticism for their previous success. (In the example of DJ, Marv picked him, so he must be good) The current front office has chosen exactly one OL or DL in the first two rounds in three drafts, despite serious issues on both lines. So much so that they've signed two players to large contracts on the OL and traded for a big DT they've lacked for years. Amazingly, the top 3 DE's and our Pro Bowl LT were developed during the Donahoe years. The Levy/Jauron additions at LG, RT, and C in FA haven't lived up to the contracts they received. Homegrown talent usually is better than the FA game.

Hope springs eternal, especially in the summer. I don't think the offense will be dynamic, especially considering DJ is the HC. His teams are never offensive juggernauts. This team will win or lose based on the defense.

Don't exclude John Guy, Jim Overdorf, and the other Donahoe holdovers in the FO. Jauron has a lot of pressure on him no doubt, but this franchise must hire a real GM soon. Modrak's director of scouting, and the Bills have no one with bonafide experience handling the duties of a GM. Brandon will always be a business/marketing type.

I might understand a first rounder not signing, but Hardy, Ellis, Bowen, and Omon being unsigned this deep into the summer is slightly concerning to me. I know there are franchises that haven't signed their picks, but I'd expect the pace to pick up in the days leading up to camp. Hopefully.

Once again, you're missing the point. Bill Walsh took that SF franchise from being 2-14 to winning a SB just a two seasons later. He was HC when the team drafted those players you mentioned and this ability to find talent is nearly unmatched in the past 30 years. He invented the WCO, found the players to fit it, and can count more than 25 head coaches who either worked for him or his assistants. DJ has a career .427 winning percentage with multiple franchises. I don't see anything happening now to change the way he is.

Neither McCargo or Spencer have a deep NFL resume, but one of them will start. Williams is depth. The Tripplett signing was heralded by this franchise as one that would be important for the team's development. Two years later he's gone, the first bad decision DJ and ML made. Hopefully the team redeemed itself with Stroud, but it was a big gamble. That said, the DL will need to be better than 22nd in the league for this team to make the playoffs. It'll need to be stellar to make up for an offense that will need all the help it can get. That includes a pass rush, which was non-existent last year.

Not to mention working as a QB coach with multiple franchises over 10+ seasons, yet never serving as an OC. DJ was convinced though and despite all the encouraging things being touted by Schonert, I think the DJ effect will take place and the offense will be relegated to the plodding style so prevalent on DJ coached teams of the past. Just a hunch.

How many years in the free agency era of the NFL must a team have to rebuild? Buffalo's been doing it since Donahoe was fired, and reasonable fans would like to see something this decade. We all know on paper how difficult the AFC might be this season. One team always rises out of nowhere, but I have a sinking feeling that Buffalo will go 9-7, miss the postseason, and some fans around here will call this progress and demand DJ have another season.

The question should be: How much team talent does Dick Jauron need to make the playoffs? At some point, a coach has to raise the level of play for their team. I know that if someone cites lack of talent as a reason for not making the playoffs that few will buy it.

This is the same mentality that we all had last season at DE with Schobel, Kelsay, Denney, and Hargrove. Within a matter of a few weeks, DE became a position of weakness and the likes of Al Wallace and Copeland Bryan became the depth. On paper, DT looks strong, and while team depth looks solid, the Bills are very still a very young team. Particularly at LB, CB, and S on defense. Being conservative with the cap is a fine fiscal policy, but ultimately not one that always gives coaches the benefit of decent depth. Our OL is a perfect example, specifically the tackle position after Peters and Walker. There, the drop-off in talent is precipitous.