nucci Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 (edited) It really sucks whenever you lose your top two draft picks to injury before the season even starts. But I never expected Shaq and Ragland to be the saviors of this defense. I'm not sure how well I expected them to play at all. They're rookies, after all. If anyone is going to turnaround this defense, it's Rex. 2014 demonstrated how much talent we have. 2015 demonstrated how much coaching matters. If Rex learned the right lessons, this season's D will be good with or without Shaq and Ragland. If the Rex did not, this season will be a disappointment with or without our top two draft picks. It's a missed year of experience.....they'll be rookies again next year Edited August 10, 2016 by nucci Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blokestradamus Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 You go to the extremes - then come back to using words like "tempered, reality, decent" Now you want me to tell you what your expectations are. Again, I think you're a nice person - but you're the most confusing poster to understand. If you want my opinion on a matter, just ask me flat out. The rest of it is just my coping mechanisms. Stop trying to understand me. It'll be good for your health. I stopped doing it years ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John from Riverside Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 No, yours was lost some time ago when you declared war on and unleashed scorn upon Bills Fans. To call yourself a fan and spend untold time bashing other fans is bizarre behavior but I must say, original. To be fair....when you have fans telling you they are "realists" and your take is homer.....your gonna lash back. Whaley should get blamed for picking Shaq and Ryan to an equal extent. It seems that the team's biggest influence there was Ryan's unpaid/unprofessional son acting as a scout. If the team is stupid and foolish enough to ignore the very things that every other team yielded to, then it's on Whaley. When you take stupid risks, and there are plenty of them (Shaq, Watkins, Manuel to start), if the fruits of those risks play out you cannot expect a pass. I suspect that Whaley yielded to Ryan's preferences in this past Draft since there appears to have been little if any vision, again, in conducting it. Our WR situation was all but completely ignored as was our right side of the OL situation. So was our S spot and the big hurrah ILB that we did draft has no coverage skills leaving us with two Ss and both starting ILBs without even average cover skills. Idiocy. Then as an encore they draft a DT with no history of playing DE and put him at DE in the NFL. I mean at some point, literally, all you can do is sit back and laugh at the idiocy. It's like a Will Ferrell movie here in Buffalo. Whaley's lucky to still be employed at OBD. Outside of the Polian era this team literally has had zero practical success in over 30 NFL seasons. The Whaley era is not merely no exception, it's in the running for defining the problems. As to Ragland and Lawson, they are still subject to the odds of success in the NFL for drafted players regardless, missing most or all of this season does not increase their chances for success, particularly given their specific injuries, especially in Lawson's case whom I have doubts about to begin with. He wasn't even prolific at Clemson, he was very good, hardly top-notch as draftees go. Your stated view on camp ignores the conditioning part, which is what camp is all about, largely. The injuries would be much greater if the top-40 wouldn't participate. That's why many people say that the injury rates for players that miss camp are higher. I've not researched that myself, so I'll take their words for it, but it makes sense. Going cold into the rigors of an NFL season only screams trouble in that way. I can see where this is gonna go It is Whaley's fault for injuries now I know this is positive spin where non really exists but at least they didnt "chance it" with this young stud and possibly cause more damage......Reggie will be back next year just as Spikes is coming off his 1 year contract with us.....he will be in the film room while he rehabilitates.....and will be with NFL trainers and on a NFL weightlifting program as soon as his surgery heals Its not like he was taken out back and put down Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eball Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 Time to close thread, eh? See ya next summer, Reggie -- get well soon! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BuffaloMatt Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 Not sure how you see Spikes reborn...... you can't doom a season on one player but Ragland was expected to start, play a lot and contribute.....so it is a big loss Kiko was a beast at LB - minus the gift NE gave us that year we would have been 8-8. I appreciate that Reggie would have started but this does not make or break defense. Veteran experience will make up for youthful athleticism. Plus now he will not hit rookie wall. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uticaclub Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 In the last 2 years, we have 1 player from the 1st or 2nd round. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pine Barrens Mafia Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 To be fair....when you have fans telling you they are "realists" and your take is homer.....your gonna lash back. I can see where this is gonna go It is Whaley's fault for injuries now I know this is positive spin where non really exists but at least they didnt "chance it" with this young stud and possibly cause more damage......Reggie will be back next year just as Spikes is coming off his 1 year contract with us.....he will be in the film room while he rehabilitates.....and will be with NFL trainers and on a NFL weightlifting program as soon as his surgery heals Its not like he was taken out back and put down Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bills_fan_in_raleigh Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 Likely out for season, according to various reports. bills app on phone said surgery and out for rest of season Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillsVet Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 In the last 2 years, we have 1 player from the 1st or 2nd round. And on opening day, you hope they'll have 3 starting (Woods, Watkins, Darby) out of the 8 picks in rounds 1-2 from 2013-16. Ouch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
K-9 Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 It's a missed year of experience.....they'll be rookies again next year From a physical standpoint, yes, it's most important. But spending a year in an NFL program attending meetings and breaking down the game is not an insignificant thing. GO BILLS!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BuffaloMatt Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 It's a missed year of experience.....they'll be rookies again next year BUT without the rookie wall! AND a year into the playbook. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McBeane Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 From a physical standpoint, yes, it's most important. But spending a year in an NFL program attending meetings and breaking down the game is not an insignificant thing. GO BILLS!!! And the ability to go through the full offseason program is huge too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heitz Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 Everyone else needs to step up their game. Stay positive. Move forward. Go Bills. UNPOSSIBLE! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fadingpain Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 Sullivan is such an ass..he enjoys being miserable I hope Jerry Sullivan tears every ligament in both knees while falling down several flights of stairs... Wow, this is a low, even for Sully. Just stupidly tweeted back at him that i wish he covered a different team, which is probably exactly what he wanted anyway. I am not sure these comments are interpreting Sullivan's tweet correctly. His message is effectively positive in that he is saying the loss of Ragland is not as big a deal as many are making it out to be, and the team should be able to recover from the loss better than many think. This agrees completely with many posters in this thread who have said they were down on Ragland as only a 2 down player with poor coverage skills. Others didn't like the draft pick at all. Others have said it's a team game, and the entire D unit needs to play well, not just 1 guy. So how is Sullivan the bad guy here or saying anything many have not already said in various forms? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eball Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 And on opening day, you hope they'll have 3 starting (Woods, Watkins, Darby) out of the 8 picks in rounds 1-2 from 2013-16. Ouch. Kiko turned into Shady, so that's 4. Injuries to two picks. EJ was worth a gamble, particularly since they traded down. The only "bad" pick at this point was KuJo. Unreasonable perspective? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BarleyNY Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 (edited) @jeremywhite Bills DC Dennis Thurman on the loss of Ragland says... Its not necessarily a next man up scenario. Theyll have to make scheme changes. !@#$ Stinks. The only saving grace here is that I didn't have a very high opinion of Reggie to begin with, so I think the combination of Zach and Spikes may be an adequate replacement. Not having Shaq or Manny would be a much bigger issue IMO. Coming out of college there was disagreement about whether Ragland would be a 2 or 3 down LB in the NFL. I am still taking a wait-and-see approach to that, but I dug further into it recently. A lot could have to do with the defense he'd be playing in. He doesn't seem cut out to play much man and you certainly don't want to see him dragging a TE down the seam. He is a better fit in defenses where he'd be playing short zones. That essentially how you want to adjust for a player who's not strong in coverage. So now the defense is going to platoon the position with a run guy and a pass guy. Lots of teams do that. It's not optimal, but it could be worse. I feel for Ragland, but I wasn't sold on him as a 3 down LB yet anyway. Without him we will likely be worse off in obvious running downs, but even with him healthy we might be in the same or a better spot in pass defense. Edited August 10, 2016 by BarleyNY Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Big Cat Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 Meh. Tyrod is about 100 times more important to the success of 2016 than a rookie ILB would have been. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eball Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 Meh. Tyrod is about 100 times more important to the success of 2016 than a rookie ILB would have been. Fair. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BarleyNY Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 Meh. Tyrod is about 100 times more important to the success of 2016 than a rookie ILB would have been. Way to jinx him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coach Tuesday Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 And on opening day, you hope they'll have 3 starting (Woods, Watkins, Darby) out of the 8 picks in rounds 1-2 from 2013-16. Ouch. That's why Whaley is a goner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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