"Pro Football Talk" preseason rankings

[Ramius]

LOL! For the record, Badol is a college fanatic who actually watches film. He attends every Bills game and studies the team/NFL like few others.

 

Your comments about the draft are partially true. We did need a safety and a DL. I don't think anybody has ever disputed this. The question that comes into play (imro) is did we need them at the cost of not taking at least 1 extra 2nd round pick as well as giving away a #2? Valid question or so I think.

 

Wrt the OL, it is almost always better to "grow your own" and select them often and early in the draft. The Bills refuse to do this, thus the losing record.

How many trades do you see for top LTs? Jennings was a good example of what it costs to sign a UFA LT. Not only that, Hutch set a new plateau as far as the cost of getting a top UFA OG.

 

Again, your post was funny, and raised valid points, but you failed to tell us how YOU would address the OL situation. Any ideas?   

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Responding to you and dave,

from reading his posts, i can tell that badol has quite a bit of knowledge on the game of football, but it would be presented much better w/out the whining.

 

As for the draft, we may have passed on acquiring an extra 2nd, but we didnt give away a 2nd. we gave a 3rd to chicago to move from 42 to 26. we still had 2 picks in the first 2 rounds. if the trade down rumors are true, then yes we passed on gaining a pick in the second.

 

For the o-line, i agree we need to draft and grow some talent,. preferrably 1st day draft talent, not 5th rounders and later. When i first saw the chicago trade come up on draft day, these were my exact words. "I really hope we snag mangold or winston justice, but we're probably going to grab mccargo."

 

Now i know marv didnt spend high picks on the line this year, but heres my take. Butler's Bills didnt properly stock the lines. TD's Bills didnt stock the lines. But i see Marv as separate from those 2. If in the next year or 2 marv isnt selecting linemen, then we can say he didnt stock the lines. but this was marv's 1st draft, and it is a different event than anything in the past. Marv has had 1 draft, and it isnt fair to lump him with the previous GM's. He spent picks on building a defense, and you cant go wrong with that.

 

As for me, i would fix the lines through the draft. If i was a GM, my draft philosophy would include these...always draft at least 1 lineman on day 1, and always draft a project QB in the 6th or 7th round. Every single year. But i also know that sometimes, to keep a good line together, you have to overpay for some of the players, be it a FA, or your own grown talent, and frankly, the bills cant be afraid to hand out 30 or 40 mil to keep some good talent. (if JJ wasnt so injury prone, i would have said he's worth every penny of the 35 mil contract he got)

[Ennjay]

  First off, they hired a retread head coach.  The media HATES retreads, and for good reason, they usually produce the same crap from stop to stop and keep getting jobs because they are nice guys who are just glad to have the job. 

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Absolutely. Look at the crap jobs Mike Shanahan, Jon Gruden, Bill Belichik, Dick Vermeil (St. Louis), Marv Levy, Bill Parcells, Tony Dungy, and Marty Schottenheimer (KC) did in their second times as head coaches.

[MadBuffaloDisease]

Am I the only Bills fan out there, and I say that to illustrate the point because I know there are some, many perhaps, but that just wishes that Ralph would pull his head out of his ass and just make some good decisions instead of always giving us fans a set of circumstances whereby we have to "hope for lightning to strike" just to be average and have a shot at backing into the playoffs?

Such as...?

[Pyrite Gal]

Jauron didn't do anything special to warrant this second opportunity. 

 

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There are three things which I think that Marv judged as special about Jauron:

 

A. He had achieved being named NFL Coach of the Year once. This does not immediately appoint him a supreme being or gurantee good performance but it is noteworthy and should not be entirely dismissed as it is saying "didn't do anything special."

 

B. He impressed Detroit enough to get hired as interim HC after Millwn engineered the Mariucci debacle. He has seen 2 different organizations up close and personal as an HC and even seeing a disaster like Detroit should provide good experiemce.

 

C. Most of all, Marv liked him and felt like he could work with him to make this Bills team a TEAM. He did not seem to take to folks like Sherman or the guy who was DC in GB and as Sherman gives all appearances from his public comments of being a legend in his own mind, I feel good that we passed on him.

 

Jauron may well not work out, but it does not strike me as supported by reality claim he is a definite loser with little or no chance of overseeing improvement of the Bills. Certainly his resume is no guarantee of success but it seems pretty adequate to give us shot.

 

As for your reach about Reyes and Fowler,

 

I like the Reyes/Fowler pick-ups for a couple of reason:

 

1. I think few would argue that the Bills have a better starting OL right now than last year.  I'm not arguing that this crew will be great, but just simply their prospects and past accomplishments are better than the actual performance of the 05 Bills OL.  This is the first step which must be taken in any case.

 

Does anyone out there want to argue that an OL which has MW, Anderson and Teague (and Villarial and Gandy) is likely to be demonstrably better than an OL with  Peters, Reyes, and Fowler  (and Villarial and Gandy). In fact, even if 1 of these players totally fails and the other two play at the level they have before, these 5 would still be better than the 05 OL crew where two of these players totally failed and Teague was adequate at best as an NFL starter.

 

The problem with the OL in 06 is likely one of having adequate back-ups as it is not unusual for at least one (if not two) of the 5 to suffer injury and/or performance problems.  Right now, the Bills have one potentially good back-up who even threatens to be an adequate NFL stater (Preston), one journeyman I will feel bad if we have to use him much (Jerman), one former player with potential which went unrealized (Gibson), some rookies and thats about it.

 

The good news for the Bills is that it is an easier task to turn these rookies and never-wases into back-ups than to turn them into starters which is near impossible to do.  We will need to get very lucky with injuries to not need a miracle, but if we get lucky with injuries I expect this OL to at least be better than last year's OL unit.

 

Being better than last years crew is not saying a lot, but it would mean we are at least going in the right direction and even if the OL is one day great rather than simply adequate you gotta walk before you run and I do not feel bad about Reyes, Fowler and Peters being better than Anderson, Teague and MW.

 

2. There is a credible strategy here.  One can simply chose to label the Bills OL strategy as going after back-ups if you wish, but actually I think it is a lot more than that in real life. Fowler and Reyes are not proven NFL studs of the OL in any way.  However, they share in common not that they are mere rejects and that is why their  former team passed on them, but it is the market that caused them to be available. 

 

In essence both played well enough last year (Reyes played well enough that even though Carolina wanted to go with Mathis, they could not do so because the OL was too productive with Reyes and Fowler was purchased by the Vikes as a plan C when Birk went on IR. Fowler took the job from Withrow and the team's brtter results coincided with this move) that the market was gonna give them starter money.

 

The Vikes did not have starter money for a natural C who would simply warm the bench behind multiple Pro Bowler Birk.  The Panthers did not have additional starter money for a G as the escalating contract of Mathis paid him starter money.

 

JMac and the Bills have acquired two OL players who are not simply rejects who could not cut the mustard last year (Carolina was productive with Reyes and MN pulled off a 6 game winning streak with Fowler at C), but have proven they can perform as NFL starters.

 

It may not work, but this is a reasomable strategy.  JMac had made this work before with even less well regarded FAs such as Glenn Parker and Dusty Z. tp the point where the unit built with them proved SB worthy. 

 

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As for good teams having depth, most good teams have good starters too.

 

 

 

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I see the starting situation for the Bills thusly:

 

CBs- NC and McGee are solid as NC deserved his Pro Bowl nod year before last and I think that McGee may actually be the better corner and certainly contributes more to this team with his KR work and his CB play.

 

Ss- I think many are missing the boat when they declare TV as gone as:

 

A. He led the team in combined turnovers last year.

B. The scheme is moving toward his strength of coverage and diagnosis and away from the area of fan complaint which is the run atopping tackling required of a safety in the zone blits.

C. The arrival of Whitmer as an immediate starter, Youbouty needing another year of seasoning to be the 1st round talent mentally he is physically, and Simpson is a well-refarded second day pick who despite the wished of the faithful is a second day pick not ready to start at S for us, makes TV all the more important as his presence as an on field coach and off-field character which led his peers to elect him NFLPA Pres will be of great value.

 

TV is just the SS we need and I hope he does not suddenly hit the wall as some older players do.

 

Whitmer may well have been a reach for us at #8 but who cares regarding our starting FS as the cost of not trading down was that we lost the extra pick we might have gotten. Whether we picked him at #8 or #15 (if he was still there at #18 the Fins would have gotten him) he was gonna be an immediate starter for us at FS. The expectation is he should be able to do this given his talent which saw him as a consensus first rounder.

 

Our safties should be adequate to the job on the field and supply additional benefits as well.

 

LBs- If TKO comes back at even 90% of his former level this should be the best unit on the team. TKO is clearly a Pro Bowl level performer. The complaints some posters have about Fletcher really come off as whining because like it or not he has been credited with more tackles in the last 5 years than any other NFL player. Hie is a couple of inches shorter than the NFL LB norm, but makes up for this with a constant motor (as shown objectively by his huge number of tackles), his good football sense (as shown in the real world by him being D captain even though TKO is a better player), and even the pass coverage complaints come off as uninformed whining as his consistent use as a returner of short punts shows how well he tracks a ball in space and handles it well enough to return kicks. The 3rd starter question after a disappointing season by Posey last year have answers not simply in hoping Posey recovers the form that made him a key player in a highly ranked D in 03 and 04, but Crowell after filling in well for TKO is ready to step up.

 

DL- This is the big problem area for starters to me. Schobel is solid at RDE and has the consistent sack #s in his career to show this and actually demonstrated good athleticism in called upon to pass cover in the zone blitz. It will be interesting and it is possible that in addition to him simply being solid if he performa like he has, that this year will see him go up to a new level as he devotes all his effort to pass pressure as the pass coverage duties of the zone blitz are no longer his.

 

LDE is a question as well since a good 04 from Kelsay was not followed by improvement in production in 05. Hiwever, as the Bills have Denney resigned these two players will compete to see who can be Phil Hansen adequate at the other DE slot.

 

The DTs are a total question mark as clearly we are gonna go with an undersized unit as used in the Tampa 2 by several team. If McCargo and Triplett can be the leading figures here, I have no problem with Anderson and Williams giving them a blow to make this work. However, this flat out depends on the braintrust making good assessments with their FA pick-up Triplett and 1st round draft pick MacCargo.

 

On D I esxpect at least 8 0f 11 starters to be adequate to very good and the 2 wildcards may turn our to be good (it can happen) or that is where the problems will lay.

 

WR- I think many assessors are missing the boat here as well. Evans IMHO is the only player who must perform at the level slated for him (a #1 WR) as we have no second option for this job. As far as the other WR sllots, I think there are 2 or more options and 1 of these players should do the job.

 

#2- PP is not good enough to be a #1 WR, but he has performed incredibly well as a #2 before and as long as the docs sign off on his eyes, having him man the #2 role for us (or even be useful for us as a #3 as he still will bring his speed rep to 3 WR sets either way is fine. It is unlikely that Parrish will step up to #2 levels, but he showed some good moves once he got over his inhuries and not unreasonable hands so he is a cabdidate though I think an unlikely winner of the #2 battle.

 

#3- Parrish should eassily be able to fill this role at this point in his development. Reed has plaed #3 adequately before as a rookie so he can offer some competition here though I think Parrish will win it. Reed does offer some good RAC skills he showed as a collegian which lend themselves to the short pass/big gain St. L O we apparently are going to run.

 

In addition some have talked about Davs as potentially being even good enough to take the #2 WR slot. I doubt this and I doubt he will be even good enough to take the #3 but it is nice to have options.

 

#4- Fiifure Reed and his RAC ability being the #4 when he loses out to Parrish. However he will compete with Aiken and Davis for being our #4 WR desingnee.

 

#5 and #8 )if we keep one)- Figure that Aiken (assunming he loses out to Reed for #4, Fast Freddy, the tall Nance and Wilson will give us 2 players fron these 4 who will hold down these last two slots.

 

I think we will have to cut at least one if not two former NFL vets to get down to our WR component.

 

OL- As said above, the starting 5 will be better than we had starting on OL last year.

 

TE- A lot of this depends on scheme. I doubt that Everett will suddenly become the next Tony Gozales as both Campbll and Euhus failed to be the standard quality TE our old O envisioned. However, Royal who proved to be a Joe Gibbs worthy blocker after two years of starting for the Skins can play the same blocking for tne most part role for us if that is all we demand of him.

 

The safetty valve in our scheme is going to be needing WM to step up to play a not as good ersion of the Marshall Faulk role in the St. L D. Being a lesser Faulk is not great but certainly will be fine in this O.

 

RB- The back-ups look questionable but I feel great about having the fastest Bill ever to reach 2000 yards rushing as my starting RB.

 

QB- I do not think that any of these three has a probability of being the QB we want and need this year. However, I think it is qute likely that one of these three whomever it is will be able to be the starting QB we want.

 

There are still a couple of uncertainties for starter talent, but as we have more than one option for most of these questions I think that the back-up issue is a much bigger uncertainty for this Bills team than the question of finding an adequate starter.

 

If we have a good year with injuries I think we will be OK, if we have bad luck with injuries it is gonna be ugly.

[C.Biscuit97]

Nall, McGahee, and Evans with no other WRs worth much isn't exactly Young, Rice, and TO. 

 

So you're saying that talent made Mariucci then?

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Yes to a certain extent. I think he is an above average coach but he also had some hall of fame talent. Jauron went 13-3 with the awful qbs, a solid but hardly dominant rb, and decent wrs. Our trio of Losman, McGahee, and Evans obviously aren't fully established, but they are 1st round draft picks and have shown flashes. Additionally, if you went player by player with the 2001 Bears defense, the Bills match up pretty well.

 

Again, I'm not predicting anything. But though most people find some reason to dismiss DJ, he went 13-3 with a lot of crap. I definitely believe there is more talent on this team than that Bears team, though most national media sources won't give us any credit. And again I ask the question, who was the better candidate? Personally, I willing to give the guy a chance as he has been to the playoffs & won a division so he is already ahead of our last two coaches.

[Dibs]

As for me, i would fix the lines through the draft. If i was a GM, my draft philosophy would include these...always draft at least 1 lineman on day 1, and always draft a project QB in the 6th or 7th round. Every single year.

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I agree with this draft technique(though I'd grab a QB every 2nd year to allow time for development).

Even doing this though, you still have to make picks who are going to become legit starters/stars. Also, there is an entire teamful of positions you must be mindful of as well.

 

Perhaps grabbing a FA OL who was a first day draft pick every now & then would be a good substitute for picking one yourself. Especially a young FA OL who has shown competence as a starter & has potential for improvement. Someone like Melvin Fowler perhaps.

[Mickey]

I didn't read the whole thing, but I can't see how anyone could rank the Bills lower than San Fran, Houston and Oakland.  There's just no way.  If I were ranking teams, the Bills would probably fall somewhere in the 25 - 29 range, so I don't mind much seeing us ranked very low.  But there is no way we should rank lower than those three teams based on last years results and this years changes.

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I think outside observers would tend to focus on the loss of "name" players like Moulds, Milloy and Adams as well as another "name" coming off of a very nasty injury (Spikes). Apart from Willis and Clements, there is hardly anyone left on the roster that anyone outside of Buffalo has ever heard of. They don't know the team well enough to be aware of how much guys like Milloy and Adams had slipped. To them, it just looks like we have ditched just about every decent player we had going back to Drew and Pat Williams.

[Nanker]

I think outside observers would tend to focus on the loss of "name" players like Moulds, Milloy and Adams as well as another "name" coming off of a very nasty injury (Spikes).  Apart from Willis and Clements, there is hardly anyone left on the roster that anyone outside of Buffalo has ever heard of.  They don't know the team well enough to be aware of how much guys like Milloy and Adams had slipped.  To them, it just looks like we have ditched just about every decent player we had going back to Drew and Pat Williams.

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I don't think Marv has Junked The Bills Ride in the same manner that TD Pimped The Bills Ride.

I think he's done with the tear down - unlike TD who drove every Bulter guy out of town as soon as he could.

[Ramius]

I agree with this draft technique(though I'd grab a QB every 2nd year to allow time for development).

Even doing this though, you still have to make picks who are going to become legit starters/stars.  Also, there is an entire teamful of positions you must be mindful of as well.

 

Perhaps grabbing a FA OL who was a first day draft pick every now & then would be a good substitute for picking one yourself.  Especially a young FA OL who has shown competence as a starter & has potential for improvement.  Someone like Melvin Fowler perhaps. 

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Agreed. I have high hopes for fowler and reyes. By bringing in draft picks along with FA's, you can let the draftees develop, and hopefully hit on the superstar. the problem with relying on FA too too much is that mnay of the top linemen never hit FA and then you have to outbid 30 other teams for their services.

[Bill from NYC]

the problem with relying on FA too too much is that mnay of the top linemen never hit FA and then you have to outbid 30 other teams for their services.

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Bingo!

 

Another problem is cost. Look at the recent contracts signed by Pace and W. Jones. Oh, and they received a "home team discount" of sorts by tagging them year after year. This will be more costly to do under the new CBA.

[C.Biscuit97]

Bingo!

 

Another problem is cost. Look at the recent contracts signed by Pace and W. Jones. Oh, and they received a "home team discount" of sorts by tagging them year after year. This will be more costly to do under the new CBA.

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But again, how often do this players come along? They are once in a decade type talents. The Bills thought they had one and they whiffed. And there are many teams who don't have name o-lineman - the Pats, Colts, and Broncos - off the top of my head that seem to do well. Also, why is it better than to have a rookie than veterans with NFL starting experience?

[Ramius]

But again, how often do this players come along?  They are once in a decade type talents.  The Bills thought they had one and they whiffed.  And there are many teams who don't have name o-lineman - the Pats, Colts, and Broncos - off the top of my head that seem to do well.  Also, why is it better than to have a rookie than veterans with NFL starting experience?

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Its a sheer numbers game. the more chances you take, the better your odds of hitting on a good one. Sure every draft pick wont live up to expectations. But if you have another waiting in the wings pushing your starter, then there wont be a dropoff when the first player is cut/leaves/etc.

[krazykat]

Yes to a certain extent.  I think he is an above average coach but he also had some hall of fame talent.  Jauron went 13-3 with the awful qbs, a solid but hardly dominant rb, and decent wrs.  Our trio of Losman, McGahee, and Evans obviously aren't fully established, but they are 1st round draft picks and have shown flashes.  Additionally, if you went player by player with the 2001 Bears defense, the Bills match up pretty well.

 

Again, I'm not predicting anything.  But though most people find some reason to dismiss DJ, he went 13-3 with a lot of crap.  I definitely believe there is more talent on this team than that Bears team, though most national media sources won't give us any credit.  And again I ask the question, who was the better candidate?  Personally, I willing to give the guy a chance as he has been to the playoffs & won a division so he is already ahead of our last two coaches. 

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OK, two things then.

 

First, how then would you rate Levy as a coach given that he ahd arguably even more talent overall than Mariucci did.

 

Second, suppose I give in to your argument about Jauron, either he's a miracle worker to do what he did in 2001 or there was some other reason, but given your assessment, you didn't paint the picture of a team that should have posted only 4, 5, 6, and 7 wins in the other four seasons, especially with a division that wasn't exactly one of the tougher ones in the league.

 

So how do you explain Jauron's other 4 seasons then?

[Bill from NYC]

But again, how often do this players come along?  They are once in a decade type talents.  The Bills thought they had one and they whiffed.  And there are many teams who don't have name o-lineman - the Pats, Colts, and Broncos - off the top of my head that seem to do well.  Also, why is it better than to have a rookie than veterans with NFL starting experience?

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>>>>>But again, how often do this players come along? They are once in a decade type talents. The Bills thought they had one and they whiffed.<<<<<

 

Not quite once per decade, but I do see your point. Ogden and Roaf were both great, and it seems Samuels is coming along, as is L. Jones. As for MW, he was a RT and I don't even want to go there.

 

>>>>> And there are many teams who don't have name o-lineman - the Pats, Colts, and Broncos - off the top of my head that seem to do well.<<<<<

 

Just because an OT is not Orlando Pace does not mean he is not extremely valuable to the team. Without looking at those 3 rosters, I would take T. Glenn in a second, and Klemm on NE was a 1st round OG. The rest of their line seems to be deep and talented.

 

>>>>>Also, why is it better than to have a rookie than veterans with NFL starting experience?<<<<<

 

Because teams simply will NOT trade these guys. Also, all OL are lumped into one category (unlike DL) for the purpose of "Franchise Tags," thus making them a little easier for a team to keep. Roaf was picked up in a trade, but there were said to be personal issues as I recall. Leon Gray was also traded in the Dickerson deal.

 

This could change in 07. Most of the Bengals OL are slated to be UFAs, and these guys can play. We can only hope to grab one of them.

 

Jmo.

[C.Biscuit97]

OK, two things then. 

 

First, how then would you rate Levy as a coach given that he ahd arguably even more talent overall than Mariucci did. 

 

Second, suppose I give in to your argument about Jauron, either he's a miracle worker to do what he did in 2001 or there was some other reason, but given your assessment, you didn't paint the picture of a team that should have posted only 4, 5, 6, and 7 wins in the other four seasons, especially with a division that wasn't exactly one of the tougher ones in the league. 

 

So how do you explain Jauron's other 4 seasons then?

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I love Marv and truly believe he a great man. However, I definitely won't say he is the best Xs and Os coach who ever lived. He definitely got outcoached in the first Super Bowl. That said, he also took his team to four straight Super Bowls. Mauriucci made the championship game once I believe. Big difference. Marv was able to take a team that had painful losses in the big game and have the team refocus, and then go back to the Super Bowl. Mauriucci couldn't hold Marv's tremedous jock.

 

Second, again my overall point wasn't to say DJ was the greatest coach ever. However, he was extremely successful more so than many coaches in their first coaching job. Additionally, his last year as the Bears coach, the team went 7-9 and he finished second in the coach of the year voting. That speaks to the talent that the Bears had. And you still haven't answered my question: After getting burned by two first time head coaches, who was the better candidate this year?

[C.Biscuit97]

>>>>>But again, how often do this players come along?  They are once in a decade type talents.  The Bills thought they had one and they whiffed.<<<<<

 

Not quite once per decade, but I do see your point. Ogden and Roaf were both great, and it seems Samuels is coming along, as is L. Jones. As for MW, he was a RT and I don't even want to go there. 

 

>>>>>  And there are many teams who don't have name o-lineman - the Pats, Colts, and Broncos - off the top of my head that seem to do well.<<<<<

 

Just because an OT is not  Orlando Pace does not mean he is not extremely valuable to the team. Without looking at those 3 rosters, I would take T. Glenn in a second, and Klemm on NE was a 1st round OG. The rest of their line seems to be deep and talented.

 

>>>>>Also, why is it better than to have a rookie than veterans with NFL starting experience?<<<<<

 

Because teams simply will NOT trade these guys. Also, all OL are lumped into one category (unlike DL) for the purpose of "Franchise Tags," thus making them a little easier for a team to keep. Roaf was picked up in a trade, but there were said to be personal issues as I recall. Leon Gray was also traded in the Dickerson deal.

 

This could change in 07. Most of the Bengals OL are slated to be UFAs, and these guys can play. We can only hope to grab one of them. 

 

Jmo.

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I definitely understand where you're coming from. Offensive line play makes or breaks teams. And you can't underestimate the value of them. D'Brick was the one guy in this draft who seemed like a can't miss product. I really like Justice but he fell quite a bit, so obviously the Bills weren't the only ones with concerns. Mangold also has that potential but we just filled that position with Fowler. My point is that why would it be better to have Mangold over Fowler? Fowler has played in the league three years. His entrance into the starting lineup resulted in Minny going on a long win streak. Coincidence, probably so. But it is interesting to note. Also, Minny has one of the best centers in the league. They wanted Fowler back but the Bills paid him starter money. So in a way, Fowler could be viewed as a draft pick. Plus the fact he has already played the center position (one of the most difficult in football) at the NFL level puts him way ahead of any rookie.

 

I also believe that on any line, it is best to build like this: start with the tackles, then center, and then plug in guards. This may be over simplify things but I think it is pretty solid. Guards have help on both sides. So in theory, you can get by with weaker guard play. Therefore, I think it is foolish to draft one in the first round unless you are convinced they're are truly special. So Reyes and Villy, with Preston as a backup, looks solid for me.

 

I'm not going to say the Bills have a great line by any stretch. However, IMO, I think it is much improved. Also, if a QB emerges and becomes a legimate threat, the line will also look much better. The line looked at lot better in Holcomb's starts than JP's because of decision making and teams not as willing to stack the box. So sorry for the long post but improved line + improved QB + bigger holes for Willis = happy Bills fans and Marv is a genius.

[DE Bills Fan]

Respect is earned and the Bills organization has done nothing to earn any of late.

 

  First off, they hired a retread head coach.  The media HATES retreads, and for good reason, they usually produce the same crap from stop to stop and keep getting jobs because they are nice guys who are just glad to have the job.  We hope Jauron is different, but he is what he HAS  been until proven otherwise and that is a coach with 5+ years of HC experience, a dreadful record and an unspectacular history as a coordinator.

 

  The choice of GM was a personal buddy of the owner who has never been a GM and is about 20 years past his expiration date for the job.  His free agent haul brought in nobody of any merit whatsoever and in terms of performance, they appeared to lose considerably more than they gained.  Their draft seemed to make little sense relative to their crying needs up front and the general belief that championship teams are built from the inside out.  On paper, they appear to be worse off as an organization than last year, when they ranked in the bottom 5 of the league both offensively AND defensively.  I mean, in a league of parity, the Bills organization looks as bad as it gets.  We hope they are wrong, but the media is justified in calling this team a mess.

 

Totally agree with everything you have said. RIGHT ON. AS a fan for over 30 years, I have never seen this franchise so low and feel they will battle it out with SF for the worst team in the NFL and well deserved based on all of it's moves (Front Office, Coaching, Free Agency and Draft). A total joke. I am embarrassed to be a fan of them and will not attend a game this year for the first time in over 10 years as I don't think it is right to give Ralph Wilson my hard earned money for the sham of an organization he expects me to support. Can we say Los Angeles Bills?????

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