what we learned from Jets-NE last night

[Big Hurt]

I totally agree with your analysis of last nights game. The biggest differences I noticed between Pats-Jets and us is their D lines vs. ours. No comparison. Their D lines are much more dominant than ours. They just have a lot better players than us at D line. And their O lines are just more physical. I am very puzzled as to why our O line is so passive. Football is a mean and nasty sport. I just don't see that in our O line. Maybe Butler can bring that to it. Our guys just do not play nasty. Peters, Dockery, Preston, Fowler, Walker. All way too passive. O line is attitude. Just don't see it.

 

Love the play of Dustin Keller. He reminds me of a young Tony Gonzalez, though not as big. Very fluid in finding open area to catch ball, and can run. We have noone like that on the roster. Though maybe Derek Fine can make some plays if used enough. I agree, we need better players. We have been too satisfied bringing in second tier guys who are not great athletes. I.e. Robert Royal, Dockery, Tripplet, Spencer Johnson. Even Marcus Stroud-who I thinks best days are behind him. The personnel dept. has to get better. Bringing in Faneca and Jenkins was huge for the Jets. We need a lot more difference makers which we do not have right now. Guys like Ellison, Kelsay, Denny, Royal, the entire O line have no upside. Why do we still only have one quality receiver? And our rookies need to start producing. We need some major changes in the offseason. I sincerely hope Brandon understands that.

 

Nobody wants to play for the Bills. So if they want to sign big free agents they have to over pay them.

My second point, Dockery, Tripplet, Spencer Johnson are all second string back up type players. You don't see the teams that lost them suffer any. Dockery plays very soft. He got his big ass pushed back on most of the plays. And he is the highest paid player on the line. That goes to show you Russ Brandon is in it way over his head. He need a real GM, not this GM by commity stuff. The bottom line is Ralph is too old to take risk and went with the safe choice. Levy quit on the team and should have stay to finish the job. Now the team has no leadership and no identity. A real GM would go after Cowher and make him the next coach. Our GM will stick with Jauron because he is a yes man.

[KD in CA]

Jets played with a ton of emotions........and their coach coached that way aswell

 

 

emotions? what are those and how could they possibly help a football team?

[K-9]

We learned more than anything that both defenses leave a lot to be desired and can be exploited if you take care of the ball.

 

GO BILLS!!!

[MartyBall4Buffalo]

What I learned is that whoever wins the afc east, just send money under the table to Bernard Pollard. When Brady comes back, and the pats are healthy next year. They're just going to steamroll through everyone again.

[Tcali]

Here's what I learned: Good football teams go out there and play football. They play hard and they take some chances. They try to play to the strengths of their players and create positive matchups on offense and defense. They try to anticipate what the other team will do and they use creativity to try to confuse them.

 

…Unlike the Buffalo Bills whose only strategy lately seems to be to try to suck all the life out of a game and bring the opponent down to their low level. Then they hope for something flukey to happen in their favor late in a close game to come away with the awkward victory.

well said

[Tcali]

emotions? what are those and how could they possibly help a football team?

yes emotionS --they were happy sad jolly mournful and very very angry.

[Dawgg]

Our division is going to be super competitive for the next couple years. We need to get stronger on both sides of the line, we need a TE and another line backer. We need to do that while improving the guys we have on our roster.

 

So... in other words....

 

Nothing has changed in the past 10 years.

[Ed_Formerly_of_Roch]

I see no evidence to support that. If that were true, players would let the Bills offer sit for a couple of weeks, to see if they can get an offer from another "high profile" team close to what the Bill's are offering, then only out of desperation sign with the Bill's if no offer comes. Dockery, Walker, Stroud signed within the first couple of days of the FA period, so they had no idea if they could have got a similar offer elsewhere. They signed because they wanted to be here and felt it was a good fit. Did they overpay for those guys, likely yes. However, there's a long list of about 31 other temas who also overpay for many players every year. The one excpetion I maybe would make is NE. The trouble the Bills have is other teams will spend tons of money so a couple of bad deals don't hurt them too much as they can just keep signing people figuring eventually they will get lucky. The Bills, per Ralph's guidelines can't/won't do that so they have to have close to a 90% succcess rate on FA signings to likely be able to compete with other teams who spend wildly. The odds of any team being right anywhere near 90% is slim. The reason many players are FA is because they aren't very good. Teams see their own players every day, they know who the good ones are, and those players never even sniff free agency. There are some exceptions where a team has a backup who is better than starters on many teams but can't get o nthe field with his current teams as there's a top 10 player ahead of him.

 

I'll bet if someone analyized it, they'd find the best free agent's in value were backups, signed with their new team for a decent $$, now became a starter and a star. Players that start for a team and aren't re-signed, aren't as good as they look, but get this huge FA offer, sign it and never live up to their contract.

 

 

Nobody wants to play for the Bills. So if they want to sign big free agents they have to over pay them.

[Ed_Formerly_of_Roch]

Ah... did you ever think that Ralph won't pay even half of what Bill Cowler wants. No GM in the league will decide to fire the coach without the owners buy in and the owners willingness to eat the salary, and most important, willing to pay millions for a new coach if he wants a top level coach.

 

 

A real GM would go after Cowher and make him the next coach. Our GM will stick with Jauron because he is a yes man.

[dubj04]

Problem is John - this front office is acting like finding/drafting/signing a pass catching TE is against their religion. I just don't get it. In our division, it has been proven again and again by teams like the Patriots, Dolphins and now the Jets that the middle seam is open for the taking. The defenses are not willing to give up the outside and the front to run. So that leaves a zone right past the run D zone where if you have a a guy open, you can pick at it all day. Plus that's Edwards' game.

 

You can find a top notch WR in the later rounds or even FA. But a good quality TE is a necessity in Rds. 1-3. The notable exception is Gates from San Diego who was a FA signing.

 

C

Of all the good TE in college this year who would you take in the draft.