thewildrabbit

I don't blame either Levitre or Rinehart for wanting out of Buffalo given the situation of the last 14 years, and that they just didn't seem to be valued that highly in Buffalo. I just don't get why this team puts such a low value on the guard position. The fastest way to the QB is right up the middle, if the guards and center are bad it won't matter how good the tackles are. If the guards are bad you won't be able to run the ball effectively. I do think that this year the Bills actually proved that guards are definitely not a dime a dozen. Hopefully now the Bills will move to upgrade that line early in the draft. It stinks that they now need to address the LG position again so soon. http://www.sbnation.com/nfl-mock-draft/2013/10/3/4797418/2014-nfl-draft-guard-rankings

This was never about my choices for players, or my evaluation of talent. A Bills fan has a difference of opinion with you and suddenly they need to change teams or leave the forum? I never said I hated the team, and since when is stating facts pissing and moaning? Show me where I posted something that was incorrect. I was honestly hoping this new GM, HC, and his staff were somehow different from the previous losers, and I haven't completely given up on Marrone or Whaley yet either. Just his OC and ST coach, and even then I was defending this staff up until the Chiefs game in week 9. I happen to think that because Buddy Nix was the GM thru the draft and still is a special assistant with the team as a consultant. That Nix probably had quite a bit to do with Whaley trusting some of those players. Brown, Rodgers, Young. http://espn.go.com/blog/nflnation/post/_/id/75473/bills-gm-buddy-nix-guard-not-a-need I also happen to think that Whaley did a good job with the draft this year. Kiko, Woods, EJ. Goodwin. If you read thru a lot of my posts you would see that I've defended Marrone, Whaley, and EJ quite a bit this year, just not the OC. As I think that Hackett is going to ruin EJ with his bad game plans and schemes, and CJ is not a pound it up the middle type back IMO. I was just having a discussion, If you want to defend them, that's fine. Just don't start bossing me around, telling me what i should do. If this is how you react to someone who doesn't agree with you, I'll gladly stay away.

Spiller has been dealing with the dreaded 'high ankle" sprain since week 4, which takes forever to heal, and is very difficult to play with. What made CJ so great last season was running from the 4 WR shotgun spread offense. This year Hackett has CJ running mostly up the middle from shotgun formation with a single back set, or 2 WR, single TE pro set. Huge difference between running in those sets, as the spread makes the defense cover a WR with a LBer, which is crazy good to throw against. Or the defense takes a LBer out to cover the extra WR which allows the RB to be covered by a DB. Either way the offense usually creates a miss match and usually wins. Plus, the spread offense makes it more difficult to stack the box to stop the run because if the LoS is spread out across the field, its one missed tackle and off to the races. Then you need to consider the difference in the players on that O line. The Bills let Levitre & his backup Rinehart walk and replaced them with scrubs that they ended up cutting outright after week five. CJ will always be CJ, meaning he will try and bounce it outside to make a big play rather then 2 yards up the middle. CJ Spiller is a special back, and his forte is not running up the middle as a power back.

My take is that was all Buddy Nix, and his half-assed philosophy of "guards are a dime a dozen" that allowed Levitre & Rinehart to walk, while then employing the very worst replacements in the league. This from Nix a week before the draft, "Our roster in house is better than I think we get credit for especially offensive line. We’re pretty deep there. We’ve got six guards and we think a couple of them can play.” Apparently, they couldn't! http://espn.go.com/b...uard-not-a-need Buddy Nix and his moronic moves are still stinging this team IMO. I'll breath a sigh of relief when Nix is finally history from this org, as I think Whaley will do alright without Nix. Whaley stated after the draft that it was "his'' draft and his job will depend on the players "he" drafted to preform well. Judging by this last draft, and If he learns from the mistake at guard this year. Then builds the line properly with the draft / free agency instead of the waiver wire, then he will be far superior to Nix. BTW there are 3 OT's graded in the top 10 this year, and 4 in the top 15.

You do know that Buddy Nix was STILL the GM thru the draft, and STILL is employed by the Buffalo Bills in a consultant capacity as a "special assistant!

I voted for EJ, who had a miserable first quarter to bounce back and have a really good game. Without him playing well the Bills don't win.

Meddling owners FTL! Jerry Jones, the Cowboys owner, CEO, president, GM. Seriously, what a total power freak this man is... He watched Jimmy Johnson do it, so now he thinks he is smarter then anyone else on the planet. I love it that the Monte Kiffin move is screwing him over....almost as good as the Cowboys trade first-, third-, sixth-round picks to Detroit for Roy Williams, seventh-round pick: all those picks for a total bust. keep it up Jerry, it softens the pain from those two losses.

Hey Homey! To me, its not so much that Levitre wasn't worth the money he got. Its more of the fact that the Bills didn't adequately replace him after letting both him and Chad Rinehart leave. Last season PFF (pro football focus) graded Andy Levitre as the best O lineman on the team. This year after 5 games Colin Brown was graded as the very worst player in the entire NFL, and his backup was just as bad. I mean seriously! The two replacements at guard in Colin Brown & Sam Young were both benched and cut by the team shortly after week 5, what does that tell you? Now the backup guards are right off the waiver wire. The player brought in to be the backup center is now the LG. The Bills not only failed in replacing Levitre, AND his backup. It was a disaster causing several loses, many sacks in those first 5 games, and EJ literally running for his life in that first Jets game. Anyway, I look at Tennessee with OC Chris Palmer calling the plays, and setting the offensive game plan. (Palmer wouldn't be my choice for an OC) With Fitz at QB because the starting QB in Tenn, Jake Locker has been oft injured. There has been great discussion in Tennessee about RB Chris Johnson and if he has been utilized effectively the last few years. (sound familiar with another RB we all know?) The Titans owner and 90% of the fans think NO! http://www.musiccity...s-johnson-wrong Levitre is not the biggest concern of that Titan O line. "Rookie center Brian Schwenke graded at -1.7 as a pass blocker due to his surrendering five hurries on 68 attempts. Warmack had his issues in pass protection as well, surrendering a sack to outside linebacker Matt Shaughnessy on a stunt in the middle of the fourth quarter to go with two other hurries. He also got pancaked as the lead blocker in the run game at the 11:18 mark of the first quarter as LB Daryl Washington put him on the ground. Finally, Stewart was the worst of the bunch grading at -2.1, as he gave up the two quick pressures from Campbell to go with three other hurries." https://www.profootb...titans-week-15/ 68 pass block attempts compared to only 18 rushing attempts tells me the Titans aren't even attempting to run it much, only 3 first downs rushing. Fitz played well for them against Arizona, as the game went into OT 36-58 for 394 2 int's 4 TD's and 23 first downs passing. IF Titans HC Mike Munchak keeps his job after this season he needs to fire his OC. JMO.

No offense but this is the same type of excuse that fans gave for Jauron, for Gailey, and neither ever fully built that line properly. My fav is the one I read so often in this forum back in 2010, that Nix / Gailey get a pass the first year because they need to evaluate the talent on the roster. What complete and utter BS that was. Any coach worth anything does his evaluating of talent of the roster when he takes over. They study the tape on each and every player and make the proper evaluation on them and then give them a grade. When a coaching staff fails in this regard it shows that they are simply not very good at their jobs. How does a professional football team choose let their best graded player leave and then replace him with the very worst graded player, and not know the difference? This screams ineptitude at me! This wasn't just with the starting LG, it was also with the backup guard. The backup CB in Justin Rodgers. Currently the Bills really have no decent, reliable, viable depth for the line as most have recently been plucked from the waiver wire. That is the wrong way to do things in my view. Here we are at the end of 2013 and left guard still needs to be addressed in the upcoming draft and free agency period, as does RG & RT, and depth. Do you now have any trust at all in this teams evaluation process other then then a high profile draft pick or free agent? I know I don't!

The Bills defense under DC George Edwards & Dave Wannstedt made sub par QB's look like HoFers.

From what I saw, the Bills OC started the 1st QTR horrendously by trying to force EJ to carry the team again like has in so many in the past. Somewhere in the 2nd QTR the Bills offense started to get it together, run the ball more, and finished the game with 44 rushes for 198 yards vs 24 attempts passing for 168 yards. 12 first down rushing, a 5.1 avg gain. This wasn't a meaningless win as the Bills needed to gain some insight in how EJ is progressing, and if they can win with him at QB, I think they did that. Although the Jags do have the 29th ranked defense.

Seriously, the hottest team in the NFL? Considering they were 4-9 and won 3 straight against Houston, Cleveland, and Houston again? Houston is 2-12 BTW. Then considering the Jags were without their best RB in MJD and WR in Cecil Shorts. Few outsiders gave the Jags much chance to win the game because of all the injuries they have. Then the backup G Mike Brewster who was subbing for another injured player broke his ankle in the first half. I credit the BIlls OC for removing his head from his posterior long enough to call 44 rushing attempts vs 24 passing attempts (thus not forcing EJ to shoulder the game) for this Bills win Doubt it is good as last year with 6 O line players drafted in the first 11 picks Anyway, the Bills would need to actually draft some for it to be applicable to them.

That won't happen if Buddy Nix instilled his O line philosophy new GM Doug Whaley. That OG's are a dime a dozen and anyone can play guard. That if you have a OT, they can be moved to guard and the position fixed. No need to waste a first round pick on any O linemen as they can be found in the later rounds. In my view this entire season was wasted and the rookie QB's progress hindered because this team failed to properly fortify the line last season. The lose the best graded player on that line by not signing him, and then try to replace him with the very worst graded player this season. This move was totally disconcerting to me because this HC in Marrone is supposedly a O line guru, as he was an ex NFL OC, an ex NFL O lineman, an ex NFL O line coach.

yep, its just too darn bad that Hackett didn't do this more often this season. Meaningless win to some, answered some questions about players / coaches to others

I think it does. EJ played much better when the run game is working and he isn't forced to carry the team by himself.

Isn't it up to the HC to realize what he has to work with before he enters a season? This entire situation with the line should have been corrected in the off season. If Marrone was worth his salt he should have seen what he had on the the line by watching tape on those players. The mere fact that the Bills started the season with Colin Brown at LG, and Sam Young as the backup guard and both were benched and then cut shortly after week five tells me he didn't. Or if he did, then he certainly doesn't know how to evaluate the O line players. The HC has the ability to go to the GM and state this situation with the players on the line isn't good enough. Current LG Doug Legursky was brought in to be the backup center*, and not the position that he is now playing. This was one of the points made in my previous post about the stupid mistakes made by this coaching staff that cost the team wins this season.

39 rushes vs 24 passes, Hackett finally gets it

nice play

Man, my thoughts exactly, and well stated in the entire post. The bolded part just reinforces the questions that remain unanswered, as Marrone was also the OC in New Orleans, and was an O line coach with the Jets. So how he could have made such horrendous errors with that line this year is very perplexing to me. Some fans would have you think that the O line is just fine, and as good as last years line. Which is lame because I didn't think the line was all that great last year either. I mean what good is being #6 overall in rushing if you can't make a first down on 3rd and short by running or controlling the LoS or clock? In that sense the line is as good as it was last year, and like last year it doesn't win many games if you can't make the 3rd and short by running it or control the LoS or clock. The team exceeded my expectations in several games (Chiefs & Bengals) and could have had a much better record if not for some really stupid mistakes made by this coaching staff. which is very unfortunate because the team could have easily had the talent to make the playoffs if not for the O line and back up QB situations. Does this coaching staff get a pass this year like all the previous staff that have been continuously rebuilding the team for 14 years? You would think that the ex NFL O lineman, ex NFL O line coach, ex NFL OC in Marrone would build that line asap instead of letting its best player walk away. This years off season will be very telling for the future of this franchise.

ROBY!

good stuff!

Whaley isn't the problem as I see things. Its the CEO Russ Brandon (Ralph Wilson's minime)that is running the team in my view. I honestly don't know how much freedom Whaley has to do anything, and in particular if he has any power at all over the coaching staff. Because the hiring of Marrone looked like it was all Brandon. After this last draft I have complete faith the GM and scouting dept have improved dramatically. Its the coaching staff that is the major concern here, and more importantly will they ruin the first round draft pick at QB?

oh yea, great O line...

What I see this year from last year from the Chargers, and their new coaching staff is that they addressed some of their biggest team needs in the draft and free agency. Phillip Rivers has done a 180 from what we all saw last season in terms of turnovers with 15 fumbles last year, and only 2 this year. 3606 total passing yards, and already has over 4000 yards this year. 2013, 28 TD's vs 9 INT's, only 26 sacks and 106.9 QB rating. He was sacked 49 times last year. I think that adding RT JD Fluker & WR Keenan Allen in the draft really helped that offense.

Ya know what I get from this? The HC making excuses as to why his team is 4-9, and throwing some unnamed players under the bus. Good coaches mold the team around its best players and don't force players into specific roles where they don't excel. What I also get from this is that instead of making the proper coaching changes at OC & ST in the off season he is going to get rid of some players. I should have known by some of the moronic decisions made by this coaching staff early in the season that this is another staff of losers. I really wanted them to be winners, I really did. Sooo, Marrone then bench the players you think are hurting the team and see if that wins some games for you. I highly doubt it will because among others the OC & ST coaches really stink.