Can we finally upgrade the LINE!

[Gardinier]

If we go into next year with Tucker as a starting guard I'm gonna scream. This is the number one PRIORITY!!! Every year we say this. Please. I know our sacks were down from 2003 but we do not have a smash mouth line. I like Villarial and M. Williams(predict Pro Bowl in 05) but the rest is unsettled. What free agent guards are available as well as tackles. Any prelim. thoughts on where D. Baas from Michigan is rated.

[Fake-Fat Sunny]

This off-season I suspect the Bills have upgrading the OL as one of if not the top job. If Bledsoe agrees to a paycut and with Moulds commiting to restructure, if both happen it will be quite possible to team this with our substantial cap room to not only make a run at one of the top LTs who may well be available (Jones, Pace or Tra Thomas) but still have cap room to get one of the many LG candidates who apparently will be gettable in FA or the draft.

 

I however, have been cautioning the folks I know who care about this issue to not be shocked if the Bills decide that the OL can be upgarded by JMac leading the way to a similar level of OL improvement in'05 that he achieved with the same personnel we had in '04. Yes, Virginia, the Bills may well decide that they can both upgrade the OL and do so with the personel we already have despite many fans screaming if Tucker is still the LG.

 

I think a key point we will be able to see if whether the Bills in fact agree to resign Jennings after the 3/2 FA period begins. If, as I suspect the market is not going to produce a deal in the top 10 OL cap hits for Jennings it may well be the best deal he can get to resign with the Bills.

 

Again, its impossible to tell for sure because the market will not be set until we find out whether Jones is franchised again and whether Pace and/or Thomas get tagged. However, at this point I thinl Seattle won't tag Jones because they need to deal with Alexander and Hasselback and Philly will look to tag Simon rather than Thomas so the Jennings will not be the first choice among the few teams that have cap room,

 

When one looks at the many teams that have committed long-term big bucks to LTs (8 of the top 10 OL cap hits are LTs), look at the fairly pedestrian players like Clifton and Pettitgout who are LTs with long-term big contracts at LT, and look at the the teams who have LT needs but no cap room because of other big contracts (AT has devoted cap room to player like Vick and Peerless and will be cutting players to simply make the cap and not offering big contracts) it will not be shocking if the best deal Jennings can get is as little as $3 million annually. Whikle this "poor" contract does not compare to the money the market has given to previous LTs, it certainly will be a bigger paycheck than Jennings has ever gotten so perhaps it works.

 

What seems more likely to me is that the Bills will (maybe already have) offer him around a $5 million cap hit. If he signs for this much, it actually begins to put a premium on the Bills maintaining continuity as well as constraining how much they can devote to the OL (MW's cap hit already goes up to a bit over $5 million next year. When you combine that with a $5 mil JJ hit, it hard for me to see the Bills wanting to oer being able to devoted more than 1/8 of their total cap to 3 players in the OL and I doubt we shop beyonfd existing salaries for an LG.

 

If JJ resigns the question becomes whether JMac feels he can get additional improvement out of Tucker and the building of chemistry with JJ, or alternately whether he feels the huge jump Smith took in moving from the Ravens PS to being a starter for the Bills can be replicated for Smih in his second year with the Bills.

 

Neither alternative is a definite, but actually either is a possibility.

 

My guess right now is that we tesign JJ for less than top 10 OL money and when we do we will rely on JMac to upgrade the OL by working with Tucker or Smith. I'll be more excited if we get some new blood but can easily see how this may not happen.

[Tux of Borg]

With the Nuge lovefest going on in this board, I doubt if anybody has considered drafting one. I'd like to see us bring in an O-Line from FA.

[BillsNYC]

TRADE HENRY FOR A O-LINEMAN FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!!!!!

[Ray]

They will upgrade, but don't need to do much upgrading there. McNally has done a nice job with them. Bledsoe makes it tough on any line in the NFL. It is just the ways it is--the opposing D knows his lack of mobility and presence makes him quite vulnerable. Remember they said the exact same thing about the Pats OL with Bledsoe and then miraculously with a change of QB they were considered great when the number of sacks given up was reduced by about 75%. Same thing with the RJ being replaced by Flutie--sorry to bring that up.

[Pete]

Priority #1 should be canning Drew

[Rico]

Priority #1 should be canning Drew

228839[/snapback]

Yep. Priority #2 should be extending Nate.

Once those 2 goals are accomplished, you can look at the OL.

[Fake-Fat Sunny]

Yep. Priority #2 should be extending Nate.

Once those 2 goals are accomplished, you can look at the OL.

228848[/snapback]

 

 

I think the Bledsoe issue is not the biggest one in terms of making this team a winner. Looking back at last season I see the issues as looking like this:

 

1. Installing the MM method of playing football and running the team- I think the failure to all be on the same page was the main reason behind the 0-4 start, but that he and the braintrust stuck to their systems and got everyone on the same page with winning results, They did a number of things right that enforced their will to win on the team (jettisoning Shaw because through no real fault of his own he was not a contributor on the field and it reminded all players they had contribute), solving the redzone issues by playing defenders in offensive positions, setting a positive tone and commitment to change leading to a road win in Seattle).

 

I think there is still a lot of work to be done here and I think MM and the braintrust did not do the job in the Pittsburgh game playing not to lose instead of going for the jugular and seemingly hoping Pittsburgh without RoboQB and being locked into homefield advantage throughout the playoffs would simply mail it in for the game.

 

MM obviously learned alot and learned it quickly as he made the team fit his image and I hope that they will work to never let a performance like the Pittsburgh debacle where the O, the D and the ST all screwed up will not happen again,

 

2. I think settling things on the OL is probably the biggest issue on the offense. The issue of what to do about JJ is the big uncertainty and I think it will go either way depending upon whether he gets at least one offer which is higher than the Bills can or should pay for him. From what I see now, I don't think that a crazy offer will be forthcoming because there is no reason to pay him a top 10 OL cap hit as most teams are either already committed at LT by the past huge LT contracts, by the general lack of big cap money and there probably be at least 3 more desirable LTs on the market.

 

I think the Bills may well offer JJ more than he can get anywhere else on the market and that in fact if they do sign him they will be unlikely to pay big bucks for another OL player (such as the LG people want) because JJ and MW between the two of them will command about 1/8 of the team's entire cap room for these two positions both on the OL. They will recognize that the play of the OL must be upgraded in 05 but resigning JJ will committ them to depending upon JMac rather than new talent to do this.

 

3. I'm torn between the next three items in importance, but because of the importance of the QB from a business perspective I think you have to rank the Bledsoe question at #3. However, rather than canning him, i think the best outcome for the Bills is the unlikely one that Bledsoe will take a paycut to second team level pay. If he does, I think this is all to the Bills advantage because of the dumb extension TD gave to Bledsoe, the cap hit of cutting him before June 1st (which must be done to escape the bonus payment to him in March) really will harm this team. Folks focus on the Bledsoe cap hit being lower if you cut him than if you keep him, but if you cut him we will have to sign a back-up to JP who may well have to start if JP proves not to be ready to win yet. The deadspace of Bledsoe and the cost of a credible back-up will be larger than the Bledsoe cap hit most likely. If he takes a lower salary and thus acknowledges that he may lose the starting job to Losman and plays the same teamer positive role he played for NE in 2001 when a better QB took his job we will be in not bad shape at QB at all.

 

4. Fourth on the list I put the PW uncertainty. Anderson did not play much this past season and can't be counted upon. Edwards showed nicely as a reserve, but i still don't think he is enough of a player to be the starter. Adams apparently at least in part came here because he looked forward to playing with his bud Pat and with Phat Pat gone the middle of our DL becomes a question. The only one on a D with all the other starters returning but run stopping is so central to our D and the game these days the loss of PW may well be a big one.

 

5. With his miss of a chip shot in the Pitts game, Lindell has made PK the one big ST question. As much love as there is for Nugent and as big of a question as this critical miss and the obvious lack of confidence in Lindell beyond the 40 is, i think that his cap hit of rougly $600K in deadspace if he is cut, his outstanding performance on kickoffs with the kick coverage game and a nice job on a critical onside kick make it hard for me to see the braintrust doing him in.

 

I'm not worried about the Clements issue as his contract is not done til next year. Doing it early is a good move for the DM, but first things first is deal with this year's team.

[MadBuffaloDisease]

Remember they said the exact same thing about the Pats OL with Bledsoe and then miraculously with a change of QB they were considered great when the number of sacks given up was reduced by about 75%.

Uh, DING, thanks for playing! In 2001 Brady took the same number of sacks on average that Bledsoe did in his first 2 games in 2001. And once Willis was inserted into the starting lineup this year, the average number of sacks taken by Bledsoe went from 3.8 a game to 1.6, which translates to 26 sacks over a 16 game season, which is the number of sacks that Brady took this year with the Pats, his lowest since becoming their starter. Considering the Bills' O-line, WR's, and TE's aren't as good as the Pats', and neither was the Bills' running game, that's pretty significant, dontchathink?

 

Like I said, when the Bills can field an O-line that doesn't put Willis in the top-3 in rushes for losses, when they can find a reliable 3rd WR, and when they can get a decent TE and/or incorporate him into the gameplan, THEN we can start talking about how much Bledsoe held back this offense.

[KOKBILLS]

If we go into next year with Tucker as a starting guard I'm gonna scream.  This is the number one PRIORITY!!! Every year we say this. Please.  I know our sacks were down from 2003 but we do not have a smash mouth line.  I like Villarial and M. Williams(predict Pro Bowl in 05) but the rest is unsettled.  What free agent guards are available as well as tackles.  Any prelim. thoughts on where D. Baas from Michigan is rated.

228602[/snapback]

 

I doubt Baas is around at #54, but I would hope the Bills at the very least take an OG in the 2nd or 3rd Round. In general, good OG's slide and they can Start as Rookies...Personally, I would not mind seeing the Bills Draft an OT, and an OG by the 4th Round...But that's just me...Me and JP, and Willis, and...

[KOKBILLS]

Yep. Priority #2 should be extending Nate.

Once those 2 goals are accomplished, you can look at the OL.

228848[/snapback]

 

I'll give that a BIG Amen my Friend...

[Fla Bills Fan]

There will be a number of Quality free agent guards available. I think we should sign one of them as a priority. We then have options at tackle ( move Mike to L-tackle & draft a right tackle, Sign Jennings at a good price or another free agent L- tackle who won't break the bank).

[jarthur31]

If we go into next year with Tucker as a starting guard I'm gonna scream.  This is the number one PRIORITY!!! Every year we say this. Please.  I know our sacks were down from 2003 but we do not have a smash mouth line.  I like Villarial and M. Williams(predict Pro Bowl in 05) but the rest is unsettled.  What free agent guards are available as well as tackles.  Any prelim. thoughts on where D. Baas from Michigan is rated.

228602[/snapback]

 

According to some here, our only problem is the QB.

 

LOL.

[Nanker]

According to some here, our only problem is the QB.

 

LOL.

229000[/snapback]

 

 

Not the ONLY problem, just the BIGGEST one.

[Shameless Homer]

Like I said, when the Bills can field an O-line that doesn't put Willis in the top-3 in rushes for losses, when they can find a reliable 3rd WR, and when they can get a decent TE and/or incorporate him into the gameplan, THEN we can start talking about how much Bledsoe held back this offense.

228956[/snapback]

 

This is a curious point that I worried about also. McGahee is very good back, keeps his head up, unlike Henry, and got yards when they appeared not to be available, but VERY often had no holes at all.

 

McNally seemed to get more out of the O line as the year went on but the sack numbers falling seemed to have a lot to do with McGahee entering the line up.

This O line is improving but it needs 2 more better-than-average plaayers to be adequate.

[MadBuffaloDisease]

This is a curious point that I worried about also.  McGahee is very good back, keeps his head up, unlike Henry, and got yards when they appeared not to be available, but VERY often had no holes at all. 

 

McNally seemed to get more out of the O line as the year went on but the sack numbers falling seemed to have a lot to do with McGahee entering the line up.

This O line is improving but it needs 2 more better-than-average plaayers to be adequate.

My sincerest hope is that Wilson, Donahoe, and Mularkey give McNally carte blanche with the O-line, allowing him to make any and all moves necessary to make it a top unit. As I've been saying and is well-documented, it all starts with the O-line. Get one to open up holes for Willis, and he can get 1,800 yards. And since this is a run-based offense, it all will open-up from there. Then the Bills can concentrate on TE, 3rd WR, and kicker.

[njsue]

Tom Donahoe better do something. No matter what QB you put behind that slouchy oline wont produce very much. JP will get crushed.

They need a line that can punish the opposing defenses. A line like the pittsburgh steelers that totally beats up on the defenses.

[Nanker]

Tom Donahoe better do something. No matter what QB you put behind that slouchy oline wont produce very much. JP will get crushed.

They need a line that can punish the opposing defenses. A line like the pittsburgh steelers that totally beats up on the defenses.

229075[/snapback]

 

I'm much in favor of upgrading the talent level of our OL.

But a QB with some wheels will take a ton of pressure off any OL.

[njsue]

I thought the oline giving good protection was supposed to take the pressure off of the QB

[San-O]

Uh, DING, thanks for playing!  In 2001 Brady took the same number of sacks on average that Bledsoe did in his first 2 games in 2001.  And once Willis was inserted into the starting lineup this year, the average number of sacks taken by Bledsoe went from 3.8 a game to 1.6, which translates to 26 sacks over a 16 game season, which is the number of sacks that Brady took this year with the Pats, his lowest since becoming their starter.  Considering the Bills' O-line, WR's, and TE's aren't as good as the Pats', and neither was the Bills' running game, that's pretty significant, dontchathink?

 

Like I said, when the Bills can field an O-line that doesn't put Willis in the top-3 in rushes for losses, when they can find a reliable 3rd WR, and when they can get a decent TE and/or incorporate him into the gameplan, THEN we can start talking about how much Bledsoe held back this offense.

228956[/snapback]

 

 

We've been talking about how much Bledsoe is hurting the team for three seasons

now. He hurts more than he helps and absolutely disappears in big games.

 

He had a career year, 73 QB rating. That is his average.

 

Enough talk, he is done and has been for some time.