SuperKillerRobots

Come on man, it's not like there was some Bills-lovefest going on until you broke it up with this post. The OP made a good point about how the offense this year, to compensate for the poor pass protection, should employ more quick passes than in years past, which if you know anything about football and the way the Bills have played the last decade, seems like a good idea and something a lot of people have been calling for in the past. No need to change the subject. Some people want to talk about what the 80 players under contract for the Buffalo Bills need to do to be successful, other people want to talk about why they won't be successful. This thread is closer tot eh former than the latter. Why do you need to hijack it to beat a dead horse? I don't think the team is going to do great this year, but it won't stop me from thinking about and talking about what the current team needs to do to become successful. Maybe you need some more objectivity, because your post added nothing to this thread.

I liked the look of him at first too. I think it's presumptive to assume that he was affraid to get hit, which is what was causing him to throw short/checkdown. I think a lot of people don't fully appreciate the pressure he was under being a young starting QB running a new offense for a team with unreasonably large expectations and with a coaching staff that probably wasn't qualified to be in that position. I also think he was having troubel dealing twith the treat of being pulled from any of those games. It's not easy to take chances when one mistake could get you pulled or demoted for good. Obviously there are flip sides to these arguments, so I'm not trying to say that he's a great QB who was the victim of poor circumstances. In the end, I'm just saying it's tough to draw any conclusion fromt he way he played last year.

This is the most inaccurate statement about the Bills in the last 20 years - there were plenty worse players that Anderson and I used to make jokes about him all the time. These guys have been worse: Erik Flowers Mike Williams Billy Joe Hubert (sic) - the guy didn't read the playbook Chris Watson (who was a personal favorite of mine - he tried so hard, just had terrible luck and little skill) Larry Triplett

I wonder myself why I like the Bills so much. I was born in the early 80s and didn't really start watching football until the the late 80s, so I actually started when there were good Bills teams. I also liked the 49ers because I was a big Montana fan, but I never had another team in the AFC that I liked. Now there are other teams I respect in the AFC - like the Colts and at times I've been partial to the Chargers - but I really only like the Bills. For me personally, I like the fact that they are a consistant underdog, have a lot of tradition, still are in Buffalo (even though it's really OP), etc. If they ever win a title, it'll be one of the coolest things that I could witness.

So which of the four sucky assclowns on our roster are you pulling for to start against Miami week 1? The one with the best stat line is Brown - he hasn't had a chance to fall apart yet. Not to call you out on this, more just because it's freakin hilarious, but we are talking about starting one of the following QBs this year: a guy who had some chances, melted down, and never came back; a guy who was a high pick, cut in training camp, melted down in one game for us last season; and another guy who just isn't good enoguh (i.e. career backup) to have his bad games be called melt-downs because that's about as well as he can play. Toss in a 7th round pick from a small school and I have to know if it matters at all which one starts/plays/finishes this year. I think they should each get assigned a quarter of football int he game and whoever plays the best in their quarter can play the 4th....

This arm strength thing is killing me! I heard not too long ago Mark Guaghan from TBN state that Edwards has the strongest arm of the group. Is that true? This guy seems to imply that he has the weakest! Makes me wonder if any news outlets - TBN included - actually know anything about the Bills or watch the practices. I guess no one will know anythign until training camp starts and we all learn the pecking order...

I've seen a few write-ups that claim something similar to this. Don't get me wrong, I liek Wilson and thought he had a hell of a year last year, but I'd take either of Whitner or Scott on the field before Wilson unless you knew it was going to be a pass. Wilson is a fine player, but something tells me that if he started and the offense had some film on him, he wouldn't look as good as he did last year. Maybe I'm wrong... I do agree that I'd love to see Byrd/Whitner/Wilson in the sub package, but for the most part I think the guys in our secondary are good to the point that it doesn't really matter which of the top 7 or 8 players go in the sub package. To the idea of sub packages, I think to be effective this year on defense, they are going to have to put players in position to succeed based on what they do best situationally. By that I mean that if Wilson plays the pass really well, along with Byrd in centerfield, then he should play in obvious passing downs instead of whoever the "starter" is. This goes the same for all different situations and all the players. Back to your point in the original post about who should start, I don't think it'll make any difference because they'll all play. I would love to see the defense be ballsy enough to change the lineup slightly from week to week depending on who we were playing and what their strengths are (i.e. outcoaching someone for a change).

You gotta keep the hope alive, man.

I stopped being bitter about it sometime in the late 90s. Booze and loose women helped.

1. Top 10 rushing offense 2. Marked improvement in run defense (move up at least 10 spots int he league rankings) 3. OL will be better than everyone thinks and we will not lead the league in sacks against 4. We will record over 20 turnovers in total on defense 5. we will only have 3 players on IR all season

You cannot learn talent, so what you state here makes no sense. You either have talent or you don't. I think a big misconception is that the Bills have no talent. They have talent, it's just that those talented players haven't proven that they can play in the NFL yet. I personally like the TE, DL, and ILB positions on this team and feel they will be better than expected this year.

I think you could make the argument that SD was worse than we are now when that rebuild began. It mgiht not take 3 years here using the same plan. Hard to say until you see them play I guess. The one thing we will have answer to about half way through the season is the question: How terrible was Dick Jauran as a coach? I doubt it's just me that thinks this, but I don't think we're as far away from being a good football team talent/draft wise as our record over the past two or three years indicated. Obviously we haven't answered two of the biggest questiosn on offense - QB and LT - but we do have soem players with some talent at the other positions and you got the feeling watching the team the past two years that if the schemes/coaching were a little better they would have won a few more games.

I also wonder if the state taxes have anything to do with us having trouble getting FAs to come here. I don't think 90% of the players care what city they play football in to the point of taking any less money to play there. I could also see some players - maybe bigger DL/OLs not wanting to play in a hot climate because of their girth and the heat. I guess the bottom line is that it's probably not as clear cut as all we fans think it is and make it out to be. There's probably a lot more thought that goes into it than what we fans, sitting in front of a computer while supposedly working your desk job, can realize.

I agree with what you're saying because I do think it makes a difference to players that they go to a team with a bright future if possible. That being said, I think the bottom line for any player is money: If you throw enough of it at them, they will play for your team. I think the point you're making is that in order for the Bills to sign FAs to at market or below market deals they are going to have to win football games and look promising. That's basically it in a nutshell.

I think they're taking the approach that one of those two guys or Meredith are going to play this year and that's how they are going to learn - on the job. Admas might be better now than what we have, but he isn't the answer and since we're not going to be that great next year anyways, they're going to see what they have in house.

Vick's lucky to not be working construction right now. When you can get suspended for nearly anything, and considering all the things he did in the past, you'd think he would have a better handle on who comes to the party, so nothing like this happens.

What if he gets cut, not added to the PS, then rents JP's old house and starts picking up garbage around the city?

Starters: Matt Lienart Jake Delhomme Matt Cassel

I've often thought that his recent articles seem a little under-researched. It's like TBN is just so happy he's still writing for them (probably for next to nothing) that they just print whatever he sends no matter how absurd it is. Not only did no one ask for Parcells as far as I can remember, but he was still working for the Phins. I think there was a two week period where people speculated that he would not be retained until the owner came out and said he would be.

Beat me to it.

If he died today, or anytime in 2010, there will be no estate taxes. The tax twilighted at the end of 2009 and will come back in 2011.

This is actually true. It's how he stays so young looking - he actually invented football back in the mid-1300s then lived in a cave until the mid-1800s when President Jackson killed most of the Native Americans, thus killing lacross in this country and paving the way for American football. By the way, that's a great quote. Adams was always my favorite conservative.

You got a link to anything that says he was running the drafts as of 2002? I'm pretty sure that the GM runs the drafts and makes the final calls on the picks. That would have been TD, then Marv, then no one (maybe Modrak, maybe Dick, maybe Brandon), now Buddy Nix. THE SCOUTS CAN ONLY GIVE THE GRADE, NOT MAKE THE PICK.

You can't judge a scout - which is what Modrak is - based on picking the wrong player. You used only one example from the Inner Circle time, which is the only time he potentially could have had any important input into the actual selection. The other times - Clements over Brees, Williams instead of anyone, this past draft etc - were all when we had TD as GM or now Buddy Nix, who we have to assume made the final call on who we picked. That was the point of hiring a GM. let's assume however for arguements sake that Modrak ran the draft in 2009 when we took Maybin et al. If he gets dinged for taking Maybin instead of Orakpo, does he also get credit for taking Byrd in round 2? How abot Levitre and Wood? What about Nleson? Those look like good picks now. I think as fans, it's impossible for us to know the inner dynamics of the front office. We only know the overall outcome and product that gets put together - not who does what outside of the fact that it's all Buddy Nix's responsibility to make sure it works. If it doesn't then Nix takes the fall, not anyone else. With the Inner Circle approach, Modrak probably had more input than in previous years, so maybe some of those bad picks were his fault, but who are any of us to say that Dick, Brandon, or Ralph made those picks or at least had the final say? Personally I like Modrak's record - he has had consistant success as a talent evaluator during his career and is thought of well by others in the league - but as I said above, it's impossible to say he's the problem or not from our perspective.

I might be wrong on this, but I don't think troy Smith ever went into a season as the starter for the Ravens. In fact I don't think he's played in more than a game or two. I'm sure I'm in the minority, especially in this thread, but I don't think Smith could beat out Brohm for a spot on the roster. At this point, I'm pretty OK with letting the three guys we have duke it out for starts this year and focus on that next offseason. If you bring in another QB now, it makes it that much harder to get the other QBs prepared for the season, let alone Smith.