VJ91

I don't think they are that slow. I have to throw this out to Perry Fewell's "gap" 4-3 defense, as much as the Bills' LB's looking like they are slow. Watch the Pats game, most plays the LB's run to exact "gaps" depending on the call, and in effect, take themselves away from the play before they even see where it is going. The result is to make it appear that they are either two steps behind or over persuing, when in fact, they just filled their gaps and the play ended up being a cut-back, or mis-direction play.

I don't think DJ planned on making Turk-ey a scapegoat. I think Turk-ey's ego got the better of him and refused to admit his schemes and packages and multiple formations were too much for young Edwards and the young OL to digest. I think DJ gave him as much rope as he could, and Turk-ey refused to bend. Even Turk-ey admitted it in his interview himself, telling the world arrogantly that DJ wanted a Pop Warner offense and was on his case all summer. Well, at least Schoenert doesn't have to worry about any stupid Head Coaches getting on his case this fall. And now I think DJ will instruct AVP to dumb things down so the young guys have a chance to succeed, and AVP will, because he is smart enough to know that simple can win from his back up days back in the mid 90's behind Kelly. Scapegoats are not called for before the season opener has even kicked off. Besides, if the Bills suck, DJ will be gone himself, and none of this will matter anyway.

First of all, I don't believe for one minute Polian used that word to descibe his bosses daughter, and I challange you to prove it. Secondly, if he did hate her that much, and we all know he had a quick temper, that was his fault, since no matter how great a GM he was for the Bills, and he was, nobody can put down the owners' daughter, and win. Polian's current boss, Jim Irsay, thanked the Lord when he won the SB. Do you think this devout man would allow Bill Polian to call his daughter a c... and get away with it? Polian should have controlled his temper, despite his young age, back then, and continued to lead his great Bills to a SB WIN, before he quit or got fired.

Yeah, its' great to see Palmer make the team despite playing great in the preseason. Too bad we can't say the same for Copeland Bryan and Jon Stupar, huh? At least Stupar made the practice squad.

Turk-ey's ego showed through despite saying the very opposite in the very next sentence that I omitted on purpose. His offense was not different, but he absolutely put his over coached over schemed over packaged stamp on it all right. Like I said last season after he basically nailed 6'5 Hardy to the bench after the kid caught that nice pass in the corner of the end zone to beat the Jags, how stupid could Hardy really be on 3rd and 4, to not be able to run 5 yards, turn around, and catch a pass too high for any one else on the field to catch for the first down? The sad mis-use of James Hardy was all I needed to see to write Turk-ey and his offense off long ago. AVP said all the right things this weekend. Now we can only hope he really is different from the ego-maniacial OC's in today's NFL who think winning is all and only about their schemes and packages.

Good points all, and this is always a good lively debate. You fail to mention one small fact however. Jason Peters came out of his selfish holdout in time to play 15 of the 16 games, and despite his "11.5 sacks he allowed" (and that to me is a stupid stat anyway), he was named to his second consecutive Pro Bowl. Everyone in Buffalo that hates Peters for his selfish behavior seems to blow off that second one as some kind of B.S. conspiracy run by the other NFL players in the league that voted for him, soley for him to be able to have more leverage in his fight with the Bills, or something. How else can you Peters haters be looking at that second nomination?? All the players that voted for Peters were either stupid, or wanted to help him get a bigger contract, right? Because we fans know better, and we all thought that Peters sucked royally that season, right? Well it just doesn't work that way. Reality is sometimes hard to swallow, and the reality of the situation was that the players that voted for Peters thought he deserved it, plain and simple. So we all have good points for and against Peters, and the Bills keeping him, or him just plain not wanting to continue playing for Buffalo. Personally, I really wish Bell's back would heal, because he could be our next Jason Peters in waiting. And I just hope he has as much talent as Peters had, and he takes over from Walker at LT sometime this season. Wouldn't it be fun to watch this whole situation rise up again, and see what the circle jerks do with their 7th round project coming from nowhere to take over LT, maybe even get voted into a Pro Bowl, and then start asking form more money?? Now that would be hilarious.

Come on, every sports writer or reporter has made stupid "suggestions" in their careers. That's why they are sports writers, and not GM's or scouts! You know, they still rate that amazing pass from Flutie to Phalen that beat Miami on the last play of the game as one of the top 5 college plays in college football history. On top of that play, along with leading BC to a terrific season that year, Flutie also won the Heisman Trophy. I'm sure Felser was not alone in Buffalo thinking that Doug Flutie might have been an interesting choice as the number one pick that season. Lord knows, he would have put thousands into the seats coming off their first horrible 2-14 season. Even Hall of Fame owner Ralph Wilson comtemplated drafting Flutie. So reasonable minds prevailed (thank you Bill Polian and staff), and the Bills made the wise choice to draft Bruce Smith. But please find me the sports writer who suggested to Scott Pioli to draft Tom Brady in the 6th round of the 2000 draft. You won't find a one who was impressed with that pick. I read Felser during the Bills glory days, and he was terrific. So what if made some stupid suggestions over the years. He was a great writer, and I always looked forward to his columns all those seasons. In addition, he was the Bills representative in the Hall of Fame voters, and was extremely respected nationwide.

I agree that Bryan deserved a place on the final 53 man roster. I think he did all he could do to earn it. I also think he could have played at least as well as Ryan Denny or Chris Kelsay, despite his lack of experience. Good post.

Excellent post, brutally honest, but basically 100% correct. I do have one thing to add though. Let's see how this season turns out before we completely give up on the DJ era. (error?) All evidence points to the Bills falling back to about 3-13 this season, right about now. But I really like the addition of T.O. as long as he still has 10 TD passes left in him. I really like Wood and Levitre, although Levitre might need longer to come around then Wood. And I really think Maybin may be one of the steals of this draft. This kid could be special. So I'm willing to wait out this season before I get into total "rebuilding" mode for the 5th time since Marv retired.

Oh, so I can't add some sarcasm to your perfectly "rational" post huh? It makes perfect logical sense to write; "It's sad and it will probably never change until we eventually run this team out of town for good." Now, are you saying it would be better for Bills fans, that they would be less pessimistic people overall, if you "ran the team out of town for good?" Come on, I have re-read, and it still says the same stupid things. It says that Bills fans and WNYers in general are very pessimistic and never skip the chance to run someone out of town or into the ground rather then band together for a collective effort. It does say that right? Now to me, that sounds like revolutionary talk if I've ever heard it. (thanks, I used spell check). So now that I've re-read, and used spell check, your post is still very stupid. The fans of WNY are optimistic enough about their team to have purchased over 55,000 season tickets this year. And those businesses that are so horrible you mention? They still manage to purchase the majority of the luxury suites and premium seating too. Not to mention the optimistic Bills fans who even purcahse over-priced tickets to the annual Toronto bowl rip off regular season game. None of that sounds all that pessimistic to me.

I think Larry knows football, but I also think he's jumped the gun on Edwards. It was funny to read how Turk-ey complained how frustrated DJ was at his complicated multi formation 1,000 play playbook. I always thought it was pathetic for Turk-ey and his egotistical predessesors the past 10 years, to try and make their offenses memorize so many different keys and reads for every single play, when we all knew Edwards or whoever the QB was, was only going to either get sacked holding onto the ball too long waiting for his receivers to read their keys, or check down to a RB or TE. Every now and then Bledsoe or Lost-man would hurl a long one with their rocket arms that Moulds or Price or Evans would run down for TD's. But most of the time, it was get sacked or throw short. Think about it. Now I think DJ may have finally made a good decision. (wink wink, since we all know about that meeting Wilson had with him the day before he fired Turk-ey!). In any case, whoever really made this change, it might work out. AVP was Jimbo's back up in '95 and '96. Both of those seasons were playoff years, and the Bills were still going mostly no-huddle back then still. And we all know Jimbo only called about 6 or 7 different plays the entire game. AVP can use that practical experience and dumb this whole thing down for Trent and the talented targets around him, knowing damn well that simple works! So I don't think we have to throw Edwards out just yet. We'll see how this season ends up first. Besides, as Felser pointed out, there are a number of good QB's that will be available for the Bills to draft, especially if they suck bad enough to be in postition to draft them without needing to trade up.

Wow. This may be the all-time stupidest post I have ever read on TSW. Who is "we" when you talk about the revalutionary change coming in WNY after "we eventually run this team out of town for good."?? "We" will run the horrible Buffalo Bills out of town, and then all ex Bills fans and WNYers in general, will become optimists, and "band together for a collective effort." Well if our government and our businesses will change overnight after the moving vans empty out OBD, then by all means, get "We" together and drive those life sucking Buffalo Bills the hell out of town!

I have no problem with more Jason Peters threads, and seeing them certainly doesn't piss me off. I always get in on the thread and defend Peters and state my reasons why the Bills should have just paid the guy his money. And I think the Bills screwed around with Peters just as much as he screwed around with them. After his holdout last year, Russ and the circle jerks promised him they would seriously work with his agent on the new contract. Obviously they never did, because he was never re-signed was he? And I don't care how much Brandon says he offered Peters, and I don't care if it would have been the biggest contract in Bills history and blah blah blah, the Eagles paid him more after they traded a first round draft pick for him. The Bills only had to pay Peters his money, and not trade any picks for him. You think the Eagles are a stupid organization? Obviously you must, to trade a first round pick and pay all that money for Peters, who is this lazy malcontent greedy selfish bad teammate, right? Here is my point I've always made about Jason. He comes in as a free agent rookie tight end. He works his way all the way to starting left tackle and then gets picked as a Pro Bowl left tackle. While all this is going on, Marv Levy and Russ and Ralph and the jerks decide to pay out 7 Million dollars a year to Derick Dockery, and 5 Million dollars a year on Langston Walker, neither of which had ever been voted to a Pro Bowl between them. That's what started Peters feeling as though he was screwed, despite his nice renegotiated contract he had recently signed paying him up to around 3 Million a season, from his rookie minimum he signed for. And Peters knew that Dockery sucked, because he played right next to the slug. And he knew that Walker was not as good as he was, since Walker came in and took over at right tackle from Mike Gandy, instead of competing for Peters' left tackle position. You know what, I would be pissed too, if I was Jason Peters, and watched my team spending all this money on the line around me, while I was obviously the best player on the line. Anyway, bringing Dockery and Walker in for more money then Peters was getting paid is why all of this crap started in the first place. And this won't be the last time we will see this either. We all want Edwards to have a break out season right? If he does, and gets the Bills into the playoffs while throwing over 25 TD's and less then 15 Ints., compiling over 3,000 yards while tossing 12 TD's to T.O. and at least 8 more to Evans, if all of that happens and we are all thrilled......do you really think Edwards is going to come in next season under the same contract terms? You think quiet, smart respectful Trent Edwards won't be holding out for more money?? Oh well, who cares right? Jason Peters will be voted to his third consecutive Pro Bowl this season, barring serious injury, and as I said before, I only hope whoever plays LT for the Bills this season, doesn't suck too badly.

Ah, Jason Peters. I really had thought you had run your sour grapes course on the guy, and lo and behold, another bashing post. Terrific. Please allow me to once again defend Peters, as I have from day one of his first holdout: Here's another quote from your link: Furthermore, Peters said he believes it's true that he's the best. "Of course," he said. "Everybody thinks they're the best when they step out on the field, whether it's left tackle, quarterback, whatever position. That's the mind-frame you have to take to be the best." Please show me one Buffalo Bill (other then T.O. of course), that has come out and talked about striving to be the very best at his position. How ironic, that Peters happens to be the only Buffalo Bill to be named to the last two consecutive Pro Bowls, isn't it? Stop writing these whiny "Peters sucks" posts on this board already. He will be named to a third straight Pro Bowl by seasons' end, and who the hell knows who will be playing LT for the Bills by then? Walker, Bell, Duke Preston off waivers? Of course, I'm sure whoever ends up starting most of the games at LT for the Bills this season will be nice and quiet and shy and respectful of the Bills organization....and will of course suck, too. Thank God the circle jerks brought in Wood and his bad-ass attitude, maybe he can become our next Pro Bowl caliber OL.

So let me get this straight. Rhodes won't get signed by any other team right through the end of week one. Then, he'll sign a two game contract with the Bills, play those two games, and then he'll leave again when Lynch comes back. If that's as much respect as Dominick Rhodes has left in the league, he should retire and take Ross Tucker's place on NFL Radio. I will make the bold prediction right now, Rhodes won't be available for this grand money saving scheme to work after week one.

Well I was replying directly to a post saying that Jackson only has to go 3 games without getting injured. I was pointing out to that poster that Jackson didn't even make the 15 possessions of this preseason without getting injured. My point, in defense of the Bills keeping Rhodes, was that you never really know when injury can strike, now do you?

Since when does Richard Seymour no longer fit any NFL defense's "system"? I think this was a bonehead trade by the Pats, of course that makes me very happy this close to the opener. The only way I would be happier is if the Bills pulled off another "Lawyer Malloy" and made the trade for Seymour themselves. (If I was Brandon, I would have thrown in Kelsay and our number one pick for this guy!) Remember, Scott Pioli is no longer in NE. You cannot assume every trade made by the Patriots is "ingenious" anymore. Way to go Raiders, best play against the Pats since you were screwed in the infamous "tuck rule" game in a blizzard 9 years ago!"

The Packers can look at their own pick a few years ago of Aaron Rogers. It was thought that he could actually be chosen ahead of Alex Smith by more then a few draftnics. Instead, the 49ers rolled the dice on Smith early, and Rogers fell all the way to the late 20's before the Packers finally snagged him. 4 or 5 years later Alex Smith still can't earn the starting job in SF, while Rogers has filled the enormous shoes of Favre in Green Bay and seems to be well on his way to Pro Bowl form.

Well, I will be watching Cuse this year and its' only because...I am a lifelong Cuse fan and watch every game I can that they play every year, my friend. And GP or no GP, I am happy they brought in Doug Marrone, and ex-player who claims that this is his dream job and bleeds orange. Like I said, I will have much more respect for Paulus if he is not forced to miss plays due to getting slammed by the Penn State defense next week, and suffering injury. Forget his "leadership", this week we find out about his heart and his toughness.

Yeah, they could always pick up some CHEAP running back on waivers, right? Now that they cut expensive Rhodes.

Either you work as an accountant under Litwin and Overdorf for the Bills, or you really hate Dominck Rhodes. You want to talk about overwhelming odds? Jackson didn't even make it through the 15 possessions the starting offense played in during the 5 preseason games this year, without suffering an injury, much less three full speed regular season games where he will be expected to take the vast majority of snaps now that X-Man is his backup.

Great research. Obvioulsy, I did not do my homework. I think I read somewhere that Rhodes had a better average yards per carry then X, and I ass....umed his stats were better too. But as I said this was not ever made out as a competition between Rhodes and X anyway! Rhodes was brought in to work with Jackson until Lynch got back. Omon is still young and unproven. Rhodes has always produced in real NFL games, and of course X will perfrom well in preseason games against other teams' back ups. I have a feeling some team will get some quality playing time out of Rhodes this season, and I can only hope Jackson and X find the holes and catch the passes these first 3 games that COUNT in the standings.

Gee, you think that's why Peyton Manning has been so successful for the Colts all these years, including having a SB WINNING ring on his finger, while Rivers has quite a ways to go yet? I feel sorry for Rivers, and every other QB out there that has to memorize those 60 plus plays with different formations and packages and schemes. Rivers certainly seems to do pretty damn good at it, looking at his stats from last year. But Jim Kelly is in the Hall of Fame, and lost 4 consecutive SB's. Obviously, the voters were forced to look at his entire body of work beyond those 4 mostly bad games. He ran about 6 plays, as Manning said, PERFECTLY, for so many years out of that no-huddle, that he was able to convince the HOF voters he deserved membership. And in order to lose 4 straight SB's, you have to be 4-0 in 4 straight Conference Championship games. Rivers has to get his Chargers into those games and win a few of them, before he can hope to gain as much overall success as Kelly and Manning. It's an interesting debate. If asked, I'll bet Dan Marino and John Elway would tell you their offenses were much simpler then what the ego-maniacial OC's are forcing down the throats of today's lesser talented QB's in the NFL.

Nothing can ever shock me with the Ralph Wilson Bills anymore. They signed Dominick Rhodes to a very fair veteran running back 2 year contract, because he would be outstanding insurance behind Freddy as Marshawn sits out his 3 game suspension. Then, Jackson gets injured during the preseason, forcing Freddy to sit out most of the games, making Rhodes even more valuable, and the Bills, for once, looking even smarter to sign Rhodes. Then, the Bills cut Rhodes. I wish I could be a fly on the wall at OBD, and listen in to the truth of what goes on between Brandon, Wilson and Overdorf on the subject of money. Allow me to throw out a guess here: Wilson is upset that he has to eat this year's salary of Schonerts, so he told DJ to save him some money on the 53 man roster. How else can you explain this cut? It's not like DJ told us Rhodes would be coming in to compete with the X-Man for the third running back spot, and X-Man won the competition fair and square. Rhodes had a better preseason then X, although he did fumble a couple of times. But come on, Rhodes is not some 7th round draft pick fumbling in the preseason. No other Buffalo Bill currently on the roster was in line for a SB MVP trophy, as Rhodes was, in the Colts SB win over Chicago a few years ago. Well, maybe he wasn't a serious contender for MVP, since Manning had gone over 10 years before finally winning the big one, and he did have a nice game. But unheralded Rhodes also had a nice game in that SB, rushing for over 100 yards. So you tell me. How could the Bills cut this veteran who has a history of perfroming in the biggest games, and was very happy to sign with Buffalo despite knowing Lynch was the number one guy, and the Bills love Freddy Jackson as a number 2 guy? Money? That's great. Nice cash savings Ralph. If Jackson gets hurt before Lynch comes back, I'm sure you'll enjoy that cash savings while Xavior Omon becomes your only viable running back after cutting Rhodes. As I said, nothing can shock me anymore with the Bills. And oh by the way, I'm sure Ralph will continue to love watching Kelsy and Denny make zero plays near the line of scrimmage, while Copeland Brian gets the chance I feel he at least deserved to replace one of those two stiffs, with another NFL team later this fall.

Final Score: Gophers 23, the Paulus Orange 20. Biggest play of the game: Paulus forces a stupid pass into triple coverage that is interecepted easily in the end zone, leaving his team scoreless on their first OT attempt. All Minnesota needed to win was a field goal, which they got. So allow me to correct your Number 5. point above: Paulis is a LOSER. So far, his college record as a QB is 0-1. And all he had to do was throw the ball into the stands after rolling out all over the place on that stupid pass, and his team would have had a 25 yard field goal to take the lead. Sorry, but Paulus did remind of Doug Flutie in one respect, he let his ego lose the game for his team at the end. It's scoreboard my friend. This program needed a win over a decent Minnesota team. Instead, just another loss to hang their heads on, as they head to Penn State to get blown out and start another season 0-2. And oh by the way, Greg Paulus does not appear to be very big or strong. I thought he was crazy to come off a 4 year baskeball college career and then start for a major college football team at QB, due to not taking any hits in 4 years. Regardless of his passing stats next week against Penn State, I will be most impressed if he just finishes the game at all. If he is walking healthy off the field after playing every down he is supposed to play next week, I will gain more respect for him and this experiment of his. Because he will get hit.....hard.....next week against the Nittnay Lions, Paulus fan.