berndogg

As the OP, I just want to clarify that I do believe that QB is our #1 need, and is the most important position on the field. I just think McClain and Bulaga have a much better shot at being all stars at their position than Bradford does from watching them play and I'd rather have an immediate all star at LB or OT than a project at QB who may never make an impact. People that say any QB would suck with the Bills O line either are afraid to admit they were wrong about trent or have no football knowledge. Yes, a good O line is important and will make a good qb great, but guys like Rothlesberger and Rogers among many others throughout the years have put up big numbers with shaky pass protection. Trent and Fitz were not on their back EVERY play, and on the many occasions when they did have time they showed that they had no idea what to do with it. In fact, Trent struggled the most when teams would drop eight and make him find the holes in the zone. The fact is he can't read a defense, so if there isn't a guy one on one down the sideline he checks down because the middle of the field looks like a kalidescope to him. No O line will fix that.

I hate drafting for need. A top 10 pick should be a starter on your team for AT LEAST the next 5, hopefully the next 10 years. And who knows what our needs will be at that point. There's not a franchise qb in every draft and I'm afraid that that's the case this year. If we waste the chance to get a future all pro LB or O lineman to take a project qb who never pans out we will be kicking ourselves down the road. Obviously there's no such thing as a "sure thing", but you've gotta take the guy who looks the most NFL ready. IMO McClain and Bulaga are the guys

http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/mock-draft-version-1 9. Buffalo Bills -- Sam Bradford, QB, Oklahoma: Been here, done that, right, Bills fans? Long searching for the next great quarterback of Western N.Y. -- whether it be Rob Johnson, J.P. Losman or Trent Edwards -- the Bills take another shot at a potential quarterback of the future in Bradford. I'm told his shoulder should be fully healed by Draft Day. We'll know for sure after a few individual workouts. If both Clausen and Bradford are gone, look for Buffalo to scoop up an offensive tackle. I will be extremely pissed if we draft bradford with McClain and Bulaga still on the board. I know we need to address the qb situation, but Bradford is too big a question mark to take with the #9 overall pick. McClain and Bulaga both looked like they could've been NFL starters in 2009, both are at positions where we have a need, much safer picks in my opinion.

I would like one

Just because the bills are the bills i could actually see everything breaking so the bills could make the playoffs at 8-8 then losing to indy's 2nd string in a win and ur in game and finishing 7-9.

Exactly, this says more about college football than it does about brian kelly. The BCS makes every bowl game irrelevant, and takes away from the national championship. A couple years ago people were talking about Les Miles going to Michigan right before LSU played in the BCS title game and no one passed it off as non-sense. Then the guy who took the Michigan job was Rich Rodriguez, right before his top 5 ranked team was scheduled to play Oklahoma in a BCS game. I mean would anyone lend credibility to a report of Roy Williams leaving UNC before the tournament to accept a job with Notre Dame basketball? Would Sean Payoton leave the Saints during the bye week because Dan Snynder offered him a boat load of money to coach the redskins? I believe that the fact that this happens every year is the strongest argument as to why the BCS is a joke. The coaches of the teams don't even take the bowl games seriously.

http://deadspin.com/5423289/the-five-stage...amboroo-week-14 Stage #3 made me thing of TSW, even before the message board part. "3. IDLE DEMANDS THAT'S F***NG IT! I've had enough of everyone involved with playing for this team, coaching it, owning it, coordinating air and ground transport for it. I want them ALL fired. All of them. Every last one. I don't care that replacing an entire roster and coaching staff is a painstaking and inexact process that could do more harm than good. SOMEONE NEEDS TO TAKE THE F***ING FALL FOR THIS S**T! Or else I am DONE with this team. D-O-N-E. Forever. Completely done. No longer a fan. I SWEAR I'LL FOLLOW THROUGH WITH THIS. (calls talk radio station and repeats demands) (goes on team message board, reiterates demands)"

I do understand that hiring a big name coach doesn't guarantee anything. However, brigning in a guy who's well respected among the players in the league could definitely help draw top free agents. The one reservation I have about bringing in a shannahan/holmgren/cowher type would be that they already know that their legacy is secure and they might feel like they're doing buffalo a favor by coming in and if they can make the playoffs and collect a crap load of money in the mean time that's good enough. You know that an up and coming coach would work his butt off to prove himself and stop at nothing to succeed. That being said, I'd feel more comfortable with a guy who has proven in the past that he has the ability to coach a team into a contender because without the ability all the hardwork in the world won't get you very far.

Byrd has earned a spot, no question about it. When Whitner and Scott come back I think George wilson goes to the bench. While Wilson does get to the ball on passing plays and is pretty good in coverage, he is a piss poor tackler and doesn't provide much support in the run. I say Scott should take over the other safety position because he is the best safety on the team when it comes to run defense. I understand this shouldn't be the most important attribute for a starting safety, but with how soft our front seven is, they need some support from the secondary against the run and scott is the best one to provide it. Whitner being out of position or taking bad angles on running plays has cost the team too many times throughout is career. I know it's strange to have a captain and a top 10 pick on the bench, but right now I think scott an byrd are the best options.

If Leodis doesn't fumble, we go 3 and out and brady beats us at the end. Jauron finds a way to lose that one somehow, no doubt in my mind.

I would say north and central jersey are about 75% giants 25% jets. South Jersey is probably about 65% eagles

The Bills definitely won this game in spite of Jauron, not because of him. It's so maddening how this guy never learns from his previous mistakes. I get the feeling that he's one of these hard headed coaches who thinks he has a perfect game and perfect game management every week, but it gets screwed up by the players. Otherwise he would definitely take a look in the mirror and do things differently. Such a typical Jauron win, the other team shoots themselves in the foot just enough times that we have a chance at the end.

I know this has been beaten to death, but in the first half tonight Sachez threw three 15+ yard passes down the middle. One was incomplete, one he got bailed out by an illegal contact call, and one was a big gain to Braylon Edwards. Sanchez may be a bust, he may be a hall of famer, but the fact is he has 16 career starts college and pro combined and he's not afraid to take those shots. Edwards is in his third year and still NEVER attempts that pass. I mean literally, he hasn't done it once this entire year. Think how easy it must be for a defense when they know that they don't have to cover the middle third of the field.

I don't think the lack of parity is because of cheap owners as much as owners who want to do too much themselves. No one would call Al Davis, Jerry Jones, or Dan Snyder cheap. However, their franchises have been unsucessful for the better part of this decade because they are not great football minds and they want to make all the key personnel decisions. Green Bay, Minnesota, Indianapolis, San Diego, Charlotte, Tennesee, Pittsburgh and Denver aren't big markets that generate a ton of revenue that other teams don't, but they have had success because their owners aren't egomaniacs and they leave the football decisions to people who know what they're doing.

It's crystal clear now that Edwards and Jauron are not part of the team's future. So, the question is, does anything get accomplished by firing jauron and benching edwards right now? It's not like ryan fitzpatrick is the quarterback of the futrue. It's not like fewell or april is gonna lead us to the promised land next year. So, I guess I'm wondering what we can possibly do this year to help prepare for the future as far as the qb/coach situation. I honestly have no idea and am thinking it can't be adressed until the offseason. Does anyone have any ideas?

Wow, that message board under the jauron being fired article was eerily familiar right down to the part about how the owner won't hire a big name coach. But on the bright side, two years after they fired him they were in the playoffs and three years later they were in the superbowl. And that was without a big name coach or qb.

I think it depends on how you define "quit". I don't think players are making a consious decision to not play as hard as they can. However, when a team doesn't have faith in what the coach is doing it affects their confidence level and they don't play with the same intesnity, and I think that's what's happened to the bills. Sorry C.Biscuit, but even with all the injuries, the dolphins without pennington or porter aren't 4 touchdowns better than the bills talentwise.

I'm proud of you T.O., and I'mma let you finish, but Ronnie Harmon had the greatest dropped pass OF ALL TIME!

If that's not a veiled shot at the coaching staff, then I don't know what is. The bills have clearly quit on jauron, I don't care who replaces him for the interim, getting rid of DJ is addition by subtraction at this point.

I agree with that, but still, when Trent does have time, he seems not to do much with it. With the better qbs, it seems like if you give them a few seconds against a zone they'll eventually find someone open down the middle of the field. For Edwards, he just gets to go through all his reads before eventually checking down. The line isn't doing Trent any favors, but he's not doing himself any either. I've been waiting for a couple years for him to break out of this trend, but I'm now officially out of patience. Do you have any idea if the coaching staff has made it a point of emphasis to work with Trent on recognizing receivers deep down the middle of the field?

Brian is definitely a high motor kinda player. He's a blue collar guy who brings his lunch pail to work every day. He's very smart and savvy, almost like a coach on the field. He makes up for his limited athletic skills with his unmatched work ethic and heart. He's kind of like a cross between Brandon Stokely, John Lynch, Brian Urlacher, and Kyle Williams. I could only imagine what kind of player he'd be if he had the pure athleticism of Cedric Benson or D.D. Dorsey.

Very good points. After the saints game I was actually saying, "when's the last time you saw trent throw the ball 15 + yds down the middle of the field?" I'm not sure if this is a function of the plays not having enough routes go there or if it's a function of trent being afraid to throw into traffic. However, it does seem like a D coordinator can just have people cover the flats/sidelines and shallow ins and they're all set.

I think he's limited by the coaching, but not necessarily because of the play calling or because he's being "coddled" as the OP implied. I think that the Jauron mentality of not taking any chances and going for the safe play instead of the big one has worn off on him. Also, seeing J.P. make a lot of costly turnovers probably compounded this problem. I don't think there's any question that Trent has the talent, but checking down to the RB on 4th and 23 has nothing to do with talent or play calling. Not sure if a new coach would fix this problem or if that's just the way he is, but trent will never succeed with his current mentality.

Honestly, if it wasn't for jauron I wouldn't be that distraught about this loss. A young offensive line struggled and we missed some opportunities, but we held the best qb in the NFL in check. Even good teams have bad days some tmes, it happens. But Jauron punting on 4th and 1 after the defense was clearly winded and had gotten bowled over on the previous drive down two scores was so pathetic it's very disheartening. I do think that trent checking down to FJ on 4th and 23 is definitley related to the mindset Jauron instills in the team. This is now 4 years of the same crap, Jauron is a pu**y and a loser. Once again, mistakes on the field can be corrected, but a loser coach is a loser coach, and we've had enough time to see that he's not gonna change. Get rid of him TODAY.

That's huge for us. With the no huddle, the main concern that people had was that we were gonna have too many quick three and outs and the defense was gonna be on the field the whole game, so continuing to sustain drives is very important. On the other hand, even without three and outs, the T.O.P against New England was very lopsided, so if the offense sputters it could get scary.