Little doubt our O-Line is the NFL's worst now

[sllib olaffub]

Adding a comment here is like trying to talk at a Rolling Stones concert... but, There is something disturbing about watching this team, and it is this: it seems like, and I've heard it mentioned by players, that they believe they are prepared and capable going into a game, and then bang! they look totally outmatched and incapable of competing. Not only does it look like our O-line is the worst in the league - and we knew it was terrible after last year and nothing was done to change it - YET THEY DRAFT TROUPE IN THE SECOND ROUND WHEN WILLIAMS IS ON THE FIELD MOST OF THE TIME!!!! AND SPILLER IS ON THE SIDELINE SAVE FOR A HOPELESS THIRD DOWN DUMP OFF THAT EVERYONE SEES COMING!!! - but, our QB is also perhaps the worst - and it's obvious to we the fans that he is hopeless, yet the coaching staff refuses to let someone like Brohm try to light a fire under the butts of these players. And, it is beginning to look like the recievers on this team are also the worst in the league - Tampa Bay looks like it has better recievers than us.

 

Now, either all this is true and we should more or less scrap this offense and start over with about 70% of its personnel, or something else is wrong. Why do we look so terrible? Would another coach, like Sean Peyton or Bellicheck, or Shanahan be able to do a lot more with this? I'm beginning to think Wilson is the real cancer of this team, that he meddles and limits the freedom of the F.O. to get players - there has to be more than just shear bad luck happening here - it's been going on for too long to be otherwise. I was pretty happy when we got Nix and Gailey because I thought at the very least they'd make this team be tough and give us a fighting chance. But now it looks sickening that these two allowed this team to go into this season with the weaknesses we have. What do they think, that the fans are going to sit around for three or four years while they hope the guys they draft fill in more holes than the guys we lose? And even if that strategy did work, and we had a good team in three or four years - THREE OR FOUR YEARS! - who wants to wait that long?, but in our NFL you have to be better than good to win it all.

 

I just don't see any hope right now of this team ever being Great, and that is what the NFL and being a fan is all about - you don't root for mediocrity or for a good team. You root for great players that do great things that we can remember and I just don't see that Ralph Wilson is even thinking about that - rather, he appears to consider this as a business, and one that is solely here to make money - and as long as he's making a profit then he's happy. WE know that is true. Come on! If the Bills were great again there'd be no shortage of fans and jersey sales nationwide and there'd be no need to sell the team or for it to go elsewhere - Ralph uses the sale of the team as leverage to make the fans continue to support a half #$^@#'d team that isn't intended to win, but is intended to be profitable.

 

I'm sick of the Bills - we need to see some glimmer of desperation - I know it's only the second game, but this team looks pathetic and we still have hope in the form of Brohm, in the form of maybe the coach firing some of these guys who aren't doing their job - make a statement, man. What's to be afraid of? We're set to lose every game anyway - I mean, the teams we thought we'd have a chance to beat on the schedule - Miami, K.C. - for instance, look like they'd lay it on us.

I'd like to see a reality check on this team.

[The Big Cat]

I'm with you up to the last paragraph. Then sorry, I think you're far too generous to the WR, the OL, and the rest of the players and units on the team.

I think there's a chicken-and-egg thing here. I've yet to see a Bills receiver in the last few years reliably pull in the tough throws. I don't see Bills receivers challenge the defender for the ball, or even successfully keep a ball they have their hands on much less do the sort of "instant transition to DB" that saved Kelly many an INT. Trent threw two INTs that should have been completions with the sort of receivers who can make the tough completions you enumerate. I'm not giving the QB props here, mind, just questioning your certainty that the receivers are so much lower in suckitude. And don't get me started on the OT situation.

 

Well, let's say that receivers make those tough plays 50% of the time. Since Trent NEVER puts them in a position to do so, I won't argue that they do in fact have the ability. I'd say there's simply not enough of a sample size to determine whether or not they're up to the task. And I find that extremely frustrating.

[Orton's Arm]

Get over yourself. You don't have to be a GM or a coach or an announcer to figure this out. The Bills Oline has been bad for the last 10 years. And yet during that time, QBs other than Edwards HAVE been able to get the ball downfield to Evans, or Owens, or Parrish.

 

Losman, a QB who is now out of the league, threw for 300 yards behind a horrible offensive line. Fitzgerald, a QB who should be joing Losman soon, got the ball downfield to the Owens better than Edwards, and he played behind a similarly horrible offensive line.

 

Those guys are NOT good QBs, and yet the COULD make plays downfield playing behind a bad offensive line. It didn't result in many wins, but they were able to catch lightning here and there, unlike Edwards.

 

And finally, when you look at good QBs, like Roethlisberger and Rodgers, who were sacked more than 50 times in a season, you see what a GOOD QB could do behind a bad offensive line.

 

It's idiotic to believe that Edwards needs the entire offensive line to be staffed with good to great players before he can become effective.

 

As the QB, he should bring something to the game. He should be able to raise the level of play around him. Hell, Shaun Hill threw for over 300 yards today against the Eagles for the powerhouse Lions. That's something Edwards has never done, not in college, and not in the NFL.

 

Edwards deserves to be thrown on the trash heap of Bills QBs from the last 10 years. He brings absolutely nothing to the game.

I think Edwards could be a decent backup QB, but I agree I haven't seen much from him lately which would make me think of him as a starter. I'd like to see the Bills add a starting QB in the first round of the 2011 draft.

 

That said, I'll address your bolded statement. Later on in 2006 (when Losman threw for 300 yards), his offensive line consisted of Jason Peters as a Pro Bowl LT; when he was having his Pro Bowl year. The rest of the line was less good than that. But the pass protection provided by that line as a whole was much better than what we saw last year or the first two games of this season.

 

Again, this is not to make excuses for Edwards, a QB whom I feel needs to be replaced (at least as a starter). But the line is abysmal, and has clearly gone downhill since 2006.