Got_Wood

I agree that Spags, Nolan, and even Del Rio would be a good upgrade for this team on Defense.

I just want to bump this thread to see what people have to say about it.

Both would be big long shots. But you have to at least TRY. I would think these guys would want a shot at an NFL job. Why not use this as a stepping stone to get a head NFL coaching gig?

I actually just put Dwan in the "see ya later" category. Very disappointing, slow, and has provided ZERO production. Sheppard has been incredibly promising. With Kyle Williams healthy, and some better OLB's in the supporting cast, he could be very good.

This is Buddy Nix's call. He needs to make the move and do what's best for them team. If he can't see the problem, then I question his leadership.

I hope he does. The key is, we need depth whether he makes it back or not. We can't bank on him being healthy. I would love to see us draft a pass rusher in the 1st two rounds, and then another guy in maybe round 4 or 5.

You can't start from scratch. We need depth while we build this team. Good point, I somehow missed Rinehart. He is now added to the "keep around for another year" list.

Every team has a set of players that they build around. Some teams have a better group of talent than others, but regardless each team needs to hold on to players that make them better. The Bills can't afford to lose anymore talent, or make lateral moves that keep them in a perpetual state of mediocrity. These are guys that the front office MUST keep around, like it or not: QB: Ryan Fitzpatrick OL: Eric Wood, Andy Levitre, Kraig Urbik, Chris Hairston, Erik Pears WR: Stevie Johnson, David Nelson TE: Scott Chandler RB: Freddy Jackson, CJ Spiller FB: Corey McIntyre DL: Marcell Dareus, Kyle Williams, Alex Carrington LB: Nick Barnett, Kelvin Sheppard CB: Drayton Florence, Aaron Williams S: Jairus Byrd, George Wilson, Da'Norris Searcy 2012 Free Agents and others deals that need to be signed ASAP: - Stevie Johnson: you may not like his attitude, but he is talented, works hard, and loves the city of Buffalo. We can't lose our #1 guy, even though he may end up being a #2. - Freddy Jackson: give him a 3 year deal like Frank Gore's, that guarantees only two of the years. He is a stud, and an extremely valuable player that needs to be rewarded as such. - Scott Chandler: great surprise this year. Dependable, good size, good hands. We need another solid TE, but Chandler is also a keeper. - Andy Levitre: his contract runs into 2013, but he is hands down the most valuable player we have on our offensive line. Lock him up. Players worth keeping around for another year: - Arthur Moats - Shawne Merriman - Kirk Morrison - Spencer Johnson - Torrell Troup - Bryan Scott - Leodis McKelvin - Justin Rogers - Chad Rinehart - Demetrius Bell - Naaman Roosevelt - Brad Smith Players that need to be cut/traded, and will make this team better by doing so: - Chris Kelsay: he's been rewarded for years of mediocrity. If we're truly moving to a 3-4 defense, he doesn't belong here anyway. - Terrence McGee: I would hate to see him go, but the injuries are getting too frequent. Great guy, but time to move on. - Roscoe Parrish: Lots of potential, but too small, and too injury prone. - Donald Jones: not a bad player, but not good enough to keep around. - Reggie Torbor: mediocre player, and not a long term solution. - Reggie Corner: talented, but undersized and inconsistent. - Dwan Edwards: slow, unathletic, no production. Coaching changes: Subtractions: - George Edwards needs to go, and I think everyone knows it. - George Catavolos is a good guy, and the players like him. But he has not gotten the results we need out of some high draft picks. Time for a change here. Potential D-Coordinators: - Dave Wannstedt: he is likely the front runner for the job because of his position and relationship with Gailey. Although, I'm not sure it's the best move if we're still planning to transition to the 3-4. - Keith Butler, linebacker coach for the Steelers. It would be really tough to pry him away from Pitt, but maybe Whaley can work some magic here. - Gary Patterson, TCU: One of college football’s top defensive minds. Would be a huge addition to this team. - Bo Pelini, Nebraska: Another top defensive mind in college football. - Potential coaches available due to being on bad teams this year: Romeo Crennel, Mike Nolan, Steve Spagnuolo.

I know KollegeStudnet, it's getting old hoping that we somehow become a good team one of these years. It's worn thin on many people, and who knows how much longer people keep their allegiance to this team. It's already started showing in season ticket sales. Before long, it will be a ghost town. CSBill, I agree that we need to focus on more big-time school talent in the draft. We can't draft the Torrell Troup's of the world in the first few rounds of the draft. This year was an improvement. But it needs to continue.

Completely agree on this. Catavolos has been around a while and players like him, but he's not getting results out of a pretty talented group of guys (high draft picks). This defensive staff needs a complete overhaul.

Point taken, and you're right that he's certainly had his hands tied to a degree. But he has lacked the creativity and nimble ability that many of his peers around the league take advantage of. Such as the ability to make moves in the draft. We've had the opportunity to move up and down in the past couple years, and have stumbled. We could have traded Evans during the draft and had a guy replace him in the lineup THIS year. Not rely on Easley who had a rough injury history already. It would help if Wilson at least sold a portion of this team to setup some kind of future buyout by a group that can keep them around. And potentially a group that is willing to spend some money. But that's a lot to ask I guess.

I like what Nix has done with the front office for the most part. Nix has some guys in there that know football, and brought in young talent from Pitt in Doug Whaley as his eventual replacement. The structure for the most part seems sound. But there are some serious flaws in their management of talent and player depth. Too many important positions were left up to chance. See the following questionable decisions: 1. O-line: - We decided to rely on unproven Demetrius Bell as our starter at LT, when he has a history of inconsistency and injuries. His only backup has been 5th rounder Ed Wang last season, and 4th rounder Chris Hairston this year. That's an interesting way to treat one of the most improtant positions on the team. - Geoff Hangartner was cut even though our only backup interior O-lineman were an unproven Chad Rinehart and terrible Colin Brown. And our starting Center Eric Wood had a recent horrific leg injury and no experience in the NFL at Center. Pretty bone headed decision making if you ask me. 2. OLB/DE: - The only proven OLB we carry on the roster is Shawne Merriman, who hadn't played a full season in years and was a huge risk to play again this year. To completely bank on this guy when your only backups are Arthur Moats and Danny Batten is just irresponsible. And on top of that, Kelsay doesn't belong at OLB (he's a 4-3 D-End) and Moats started the season at ILB. Baffling. 3. Wide Receiver: - Nix decides to make a big statement and trade away our top WR Lee Evans for a 4th round pick. That's fine, but instead of supplementing this group of uproven, undrafted receivers with more talent, he decides to gamble that one of these guys (outside of Stevie Johnson) is going to step up and be a star. Another ridiculous decision! The players are outraged that the team lets go of Evans for nothing, and then they do nothing to replace him. The stupidity is outrageous here. Especially when guys like Brandon Lloyd were made available via trade early in the season. You can't just passively rebuild a team that has struggled for the last decade. This team needed a big jolt in fee agency, and more aggression in the draft. If you look at why teams like Detroit and San Francisco have drastically turned things around, it's because they AGGRESSIVELY went after talented coaching staffs and made BOLD moves to improve their player talent/depth. If we think we can just slowly build through the draft and bring in a decent journeyman player to fill needs going forward, we're going to be in loser purgatory for another decade. And potentially no longer in the city of Buffalo. If Nix wants to make an impression on the fans (which is important, believe it or not) and keep his job a little longer, I suggest he start making some bold moves.

We can still use these guys and run Freddy 30 times. Spiller and Smith WERE actually involved early in the season. For some reason we abandoned them. I suggest we not only use them, but make them part of the offense. Give Spiller around 8-10 carries and 3-5 passes. The guy needs to see 10 touches a game. Freddy should get 20-30 touches. We've got to mix it up. Lining up in shotgun in a spread throwing to receivers in man coverage isn't working. The Jets will beat us up. It's our turn to stomp on these guys.

No excuses, let's just beat these cocky a-holes.

The Jets have an aggressive front seven, and a secondary that is constantly locked in man coverage. Defensive lineman tend to over-pursue in their efforts to get at the quarterback and key in on the RB on running plays. Defensive backs are always locking in on their man and trying to read the QB's eyes. So what does this mean? 1. Misdirection can create confusion with the front 7 when they are playing so aggressive. Option plays, reverses, and play action can get these guys mixed up and open up lanes. 2. When you run a spread, you can send all of your receivers deep and leave the flats WIDE OPEN. Watch the first play on this video of last night's game (Broncos vs. Jets) when Tebow ends up throwing it deep. The flats are open for 20 yards from sideline to sideline. This means that you can run delay routes to Tight Ends and Running Backs, and they will have a ton of space to run. Especially when they're being covered by slower linebackers. 3. Wildcat gives your offense an advantage, especially when the QB is a threat to throw. When all of the Jets players are keying in on their assignments, if the QB can run it leaves an extra blocker for the offense. Tebow was effectively avoiding the rush, and easily getting outside the tackles with a ton of space to run. In addition, he was able to run option plays with only one man to beat. If he sensed that he was going to be tackled, he had a guy to pitch to in space with little resistance. I hope this team comes out and uses guys like Spiller and Brad Smith to create these types of mismatches, and misdirection plays. We've threatened to use Spiller on reverses before, but never actually used it. I'd make it part of the play book, try it multiple times in the game. And when Fitz is in there, don't just play into their advantages. Don't drop back to pass and throw right into man coverage with a strong pass rush coming right at us. Use delay routes to Chandler, Freddy, and Spiller. Roll Fitz out of the pocket and allow routes to develop. And create mismatches with their slower linebackers. We can beat these guys. Their offense just isn't that good. Our defense is another problem in itself that I would get into.

If we keep Spencer Johnson and Alex Carrington at OLB, we will get the crap kicked out of us. Those guys can't hold outside contain against a running back or Tebow. That's what Tebow is capable of, buying time and the threat to run outside the tackles. We are TERRIBLE at defending teams that are capable of this. Our best bet is to play a 4-3 with Kelsay and Moats at defensive end, and Dareus and Spencer Johnson in the middle at DT. Our best linebackers are Sheppard, Barnett, and Morrison (or possibly Bryan Scott at OLB). Edwards has failed in trying to build a 3-4, so this seems to be the only chance we have going forward.

You're right, the defense needs to be better. BUT, this stands out to me... Buffalo had 3 offensive possessions that ended in 3 and outs. On ALL THREE of these possessions we dropped back to pass on ALL THREE downs. On every other drive when we used Freddy in the first 2 downs, we successfully made it to the red zone every time, and missed a field goal on one possession at the Dallas 34 yard line. So we were able to get into scoring position every time Freddy ran the ball within the first two downs. I think that's worth noting.

Great breakdown Hopeful. Thanks for clearing that up. I really hope Chan takes a hard look at his philosophy so far this year, and makes some serious changes.

Great post. Especially your point of Chan's idea that a low percentage long bomb is the solution to our short passes being shut down. Talk about lazy play calling. It doesn't take a genius to figure us out as a defensive coordinator. And you're right, even though I despise the Patriots, it was pretty amazing watching them run over the Jets the way they did on Sunday night. Even when the run wasn't working, they mixed up their plays to keep the defense guessing. In my mind, our biggest playmakers on offense are Freddy Jackson, Stevie Johnson, and CJ Spiller (he should be). They need to see more looks and touches than anyone else. In addition to them, David Nelson and Scott Chandler are dependable possession receivers and red zone targets. So, we need to utilize them in 3rd and 4th and short scenarios. No more fade routes on 4th and 2 yards. These guys are tall targets with great hands, and we should recognize that. I don't want to see Donald Jones or Naaman Roosevelt be a significant part of our game plan at all going forward. Poor hands, poor speed, and average athleticism will not win us games. I sincerely hope Chan takes a hard look at his game plan this week. This is a must win game against Miami, who is suddenly a dangerous team.

Thanks for talking to me like some ignorant child, and ignoring what I actually said in my original post. You have to establish some kind of balance in order to keep the defense guessing and actually move the ball down the field. I didn't say we should run the ball exclusively even if it doesn't work. I said we need to ESTABLISH the run in order open up the pass. It doesn't matter if we're down 21-0, if we're predictable on offense we won't get anywhere. If our O-line can't protect the QB when we're in a spread formation, we need to either bring in an extra TE or use multiple running backs to help protect Fitz. We've got some guys that are injured, and we need to make up for that by giving the QB some help. Not by giving our QB 3 seconds to come up with the same short crossing patterns and screens. Another point I want to bring to the table: Donald Jones was targeted 10 TIMES against the Cowboys. For someone just coming off an injury, with mediocre hands, and limited athletic ability, Chan Gailey sure leaned on this guy a heck of a lot in our offensive game plan. Think about this, an undrafted, should be backup WR gets more targets than Stevie Johnson, dependable receiver David Nelson, and our 9th overall pick CJ Spiller. What kind of game plan is that??? He rewarded us with a tipped ball interception, and a two yard route on a 3rd down play when we needed 3 yards. Pathetic. Meanwhile, CJ Spiller gets ONE touch. What did he do to get this kind of disrespect from Gailey??

The defense is bad right now. But I don't think the personnel is as bad as George Edwards makes it look. We have far too many guys playing out of position. The defensive ends are too big and slow, and our defensive backs are playing 7 yards off of receivers. We're playing stupid football and we're soft. That's a bad combination.

There are a few problems (CB included), but the one glaring issue is our lack of athleticism at the OLB/DE position. We get no pressure on the quarterback AND we can't seal off the edge on run plays. Our guys are either too big and slow (Spencer Johnson, Alex Carrington), or too small and weak (Danny Batten, Arthur Moats). Name one guy on this team that comes even close to a Julius Peppers, Lamar Woodley, Demarcus Ware, or Jared Allen... That's right, no one. The closest thing we've got in size, strength, and speed is Chris Kelsay. And that's just sad. We need to bring in at least two new bodies in the offseason to improve this area. George Edwards should be fired for building the defense the way he has, and Buddy Nix needs to be reprimanded for settling on Shawn Merriman as our only true pass rushing threat.

He averages 6.3 yards per carry, and only has 18 carries on the season. He has breakaway speed, and is one of the only legitimate athletic threat this team has on offense outside of Freddy and Stevie J. He needs to be more involved.

I call BS that we only have one talented running back. Chan supposedly didn't trust Jamal Charles in KC. He leaves and all of a sudden Charles becomes one of the best backs in the NFL. Use CJ Spiller, or get rid of him in the offseason. The guy is talented, and he's shown us that when he gets the ball as a RUNNING BACK.

1.) This is true, and it's something we need to improve in the offseason. High draft pick or free agency signing. 2.) Not true. Our line has done very well, BUT teams are stacking the box. There are more defenders rushing the passer than we have lineman to block. You combat this with a stronger running package. 3.) This is part of the problem. If this is our entire offensive philosophy, all the opposing defense needs to do is blitz Fitzpatrick and defend the short pass. WAY too easy to figure out. I explained this in my original post. We'll keep getting beat badly if we keep this mentality.