thewildrabbit

His next move will be out the door...

Like I've stated in other posts I feel the Bills have drafted so many DB's the last decade because they want to try and counter that awesome Patriots offense with Brady. To date 30+ DB's acquired and they have not even slowed Brady down one bit. Basically because they pass rush has been less then stellar. Even when the Bills had a decent defense they never really stopped the Patriots offense both games. The one year the Bills fielded a top 5 defense (#5 in Pts & #2 in yards) they beat the Patriots 31-0 in the 2003 home opener. Not to worry tho, the Patriots paid them back at the end of the season by beating the Bills 31-0 in the final game, and the Bills finished the year 6-10. It just goes to show that a top 5 defense alone will not win games. Kevin Gilbride was the OC as the Bills were 30th in offense. Should the Bills draft another DB this year it will simply show that nothing has changed at OBD

We are kinda saying the same thing. My comments were born out of the fact that before they signed Kolb all they had was Tavaris Jackson on the roster. One singular QB that several teams have given up on and traded away. So now that they have Kolb ( who fits the system) I simply don't see any reason for the desperation they had previously with just Jackson at QB. Now they can see how the draft unfolds without having to reach for an uncertain player at #8. Although, In my view QB would be the highest priority if they had draft access to an elite QB like Andrew Luck or RG3, they don't. Buddy might be spewing stuff about several Franchise QB's in this draft, but its all hooey in my eyes as there is no immediate starting top shelf QB in this years draft. Besides, I wouldn't trust Buddy to find one of those three he thinks are franchise players if his life depended on it. So another position other then QB will take top priority and be drafted at #8. JMO. To the others posters listening to what Jon Gruden has to say, they should stop. He is a media hound now and if he were worth a darn as a HC, he would still be one. This is the man who would try and force young QB's to learn an unending amount of offensive plays in case he decided he wanted to use one obscure play to fool the defense. All he managed to do was fool and confuse his young QB's. Kinda why he is an TV announcer now.

You contradict yourself! QB is the #1 priority, and yet its OK to not take one at #8.... which is exactly what I said, O line or WR #1 and QB at #2. If QB is their highest priority, then why wouldn't they make it a 100% certainty to grab the QB they want at #8?

I look at the last 3 years of drafts and have to think that Nix isn't the one I'm counting on to get the "franchise" QB issue resolved. If anyone, it should be Marrone / Hackett doing the evaluating of this years draft class of QB's. Buddy Nix / Chan Gailey, and their first pick back in 2010 was all Gailey because Chan had coached against him in college, and knew how dynamic Spiller was before they drafted him. This years draft may hold the same type of vision for Marrone, although he isn't talking about his pseudo "water-bug" months before the draft like Gailey did. Just food for thought: the orangemen played against both USC & WV last year. While they beat the Mountaineers in a bowl game 38-14, and Geno Smith played poorly. Syracuse lost big in week two to USC 42-29 Matt Barkley threw SIX TD's against Syracuse with a QB rating of 188.4. Plus, Barkley was very well versed in a "pro style" offense while at USC, and he is probably more NFL ready then any other QB in this years draft. While not having prototypical NFL QB size and arm strength he has enough arm to make every throw if he is set properly. Smart QB and knows how to read a defense, set protections. That said, the Bills signing Kolb tells me that a QB is no longer their main priority in this years draft. This whole thing might be a good old boy smoke screen to nab the guy they really want. Since they allowed OG Levitre to walk and haven't really replaced him, they cut two starting WR's and haven't replaced them either. I'm thinking WR or O line with this years first pick. Matt Barkley with the 2nd.

Exactly. If Marrone hopes to run his k-gun successfully he needs two more proficient WR's, a better TE, help on the O line in G & RT plus a decent QB to groom Almost the entire draft could all be used on offense in any order WR2x TE G RT QB

yep

I see your point. The thing is with the Bills K-Gun is that they ran more then they threw it most of those glory years. Just like the WCO they ran Thurman to move the Lbers / Safeties up to stop the run and then threw deep behind them. Something can sorta be said about the Saints "Gulf coast" offense which is a variation of the "run and shoot", and also relies heavily on a power run game to make it work. Kinda why the Saints have a bevy of RB's Mark Ingram, Pierre Thomas, Darren Sproles. Otherwise Brees gets knocked around way to much if they don't run often enough. Anyway, this season should be very interesting to see how Marrone / Hackett utilizes both Spiller and Freddy. Which will be the feature back and which will be the 3rd down pass catcher like Sproles. I'll bet Marrone could have really utilized a back like Marshawn Lynch as his full workload back and then just use Spiller / Freddy in different passing / running packages so they both stay off the IR. Then the Bills need two more proficient WR's, and a better TE.

Dunno about three pretty different things as the Gulf coast is very similar to the WCO, and the K gun simply adds the no huddle / hurry up offense to the mix with a TE instead of a 4th WR. http://www.buddynixon.com/analysis/the-kgun-offense-beyond-no-huddle Interesting read as it just reaffirms my thoughts on Doug Marrone's new Bills offense.

Or made a huge payoff, AKA Ray Lewis

Huge difference in that under Marrone the Bills should be more run centric while still passing quite a bit. They should now run on 3rd and short instead of constantly forcing the broken QB to throw the ball up in the air for any down and distance. Plus, don't forget Fitz used to get the ball out so very quickly that the O line never had to protect for more then 2-3 seconds, and even then Fitz took a lot of hits after the ball was out. Gailey couldn't get his O line to make a 3rd and short running to save his life. I think Marrone will build a power running attack for his offense, instead of Gaileys smoke and mirrors. At least I hope so. The way it works is they throw short to move the linebackers & safeties up, and then when they move up, the QB would throw deep. Also, don't forget Jerry Rice used to lead the NFL in YAC, yards after catch. So he could take a short pass and make a big gain out of it. "Coach Walsh had predicated his offense on controlling the ball through an opportunistic running game and timed high percentage short passes. As the opponents geared themselves up to stop it, Walsh's teams would have opportunities for the big strike down the field. "Nickel and dime offense"? It Works!" http://www.westcoastoffense.com/history.htm

wow, charges dismissed... http://www.rotoworld.com/headlines/nfl/259542/daquan-bowers-felony-gun-charges-dismissed

all ya gotta do is Google west coast offense.... http://www.westcoastoffense.com/ Basically its passing scheme that is intended to be a form of short passes replacing the running game for ball control. Many NFL teams now utilize some form of the WCO and it has become a pass first offense. http://en.wikipedia....t_Coast_offense Just check out Bill Walsh and his coaching tree, it is amazing. http://en.wikipedia....football_coach) Just some food for thought. Trent Edwards played college ball at Stanford and was well versed in the WCO. The Bills drafted Edwards and then tried to have him run some form of the Mike Martz passing scheme which called for more deep passing plays. (square peg, round hole) That Martz deep passing offense with 5-7 step drop-backs doesn't work well unless you have a very solid pass blocking O line. (which the Bills didn't) Martz originally drafted Ryan Fitzpatrick and he learned the Martz offense while playing for him at St Louis. Probably why Fitz adapted to the Bills offense so quickly at first. Then when Gailey went and changed to his spread offense, which I think was overly complicated passing wise. So much so that the majority of the Bills WR's never got it, nor did any of the other QB's besides Fitz. Brian Brohm, Trent Edwards, Vince Young, Tavaris Jackson, Brad Smith, Tyler Thigpen, Levi Brown. If Marrone and Hackett are going to run their version of WCO. Then they already have two QB's on the roster who can run it in Kolb and Jackson. That said, Matt Barkley could be the logical choice with that #8 pick.

The OP has every right to be dismayed as a Bills fan. 13 years running and the cycle just continues coach after coach. So now an unproven college coach that barely had a winning record in college takes over from a HC that made things worse then the man before him. Sorry guys, but things just look worse and worse with no end in sight. Still rebuilding after 3 years of rebuilding under the same GM. This is the man who stated three years ago.... "It doesn't matter what kind of splash we make today. What matters is two years and three years down the road, if we have this thing turned around in the right direction and we're winning," Nix said. "I know before I'm asked this, you're going to think I'm crazy, but we're not that far away." http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=4785461 Here it is three years later and things have gotten worse under Buddy Nix, no question. Now we all need to pin our hopes on an unproven staff of coaches, and another backup QB.

You mean like Marino had with the Marks Brothers? Mark Clayton, Mark Duper or the Redskins with the smurfs, Gary Clark, Rickey Sanders? The Bills keep looking for their Plaxico, and all they do is keep shooting themselves in the leg . Marcus Easley - James Hardy

Gailey? Look at his overall W/L record man 16-32, any HC is only as good as his record indicates. I think Gailey came in with the attitude that the Bills players were lacking in toughness, and were coddled by Jauron with TV's in the training rooms ETC. What Gailey didn't realize was that Jauron was loved by his players as he was a "players coach", after all he was an NFL player at one time. The Bills players under Jauron played their hearts out for him in horrible schemes. Not to mention all the injuries that occurred for whatever reason. Gailey was a moron, just not a complete moron as his offense did manage to put up some good numbers with a mediocre QB. Gailey thought he could avoid the injury bug by hiring 3 trainers. nope, didn't work. Anyway, Marrone will only be as good as his supporting cast, the schemes he runs, how the players perform in those schemes, and his game planning. Let's be realistic here tho, as much as we all love Marrone for the moment, the man might not be able to overcome the morons above him running the team or the obvious lack of player talent at different positions.

Yea I saw that when I went looking at the 2nd round draft order. They lost it due the scandal, bounty gate

I see the Saints needing an OT and perhaps may want to trade their #1 at 15 to move up to #8, also giving up their #2. I can see them Yep, why on earth would the Bills trade down at all, and or often? This is Buddy Nix you are talking about! You know, they guy who loves HIS picks like his children. Anyway I'm hoping the Bills go offense this year with that #8 OT / OG / WR

Not sure what you are talking about... Joe Ferguson had the electric co O line, OJ to hand off to. Jim Braxton at FB. WR's Bobby Chandler & JD Hill. Paul Seymour at TE. Pretty freaking good team if you asked me. That offense was ranked #1 in the NFL in points AND yards in 1975. The problem was the defense was horrible 21st in points allowed, 24 in yards allowed. It wasn't until 77 that the Bills drafted CB's Mario Clark and Charles Romes that the passing defense got a whole lot better, but then teams just ran on them. Knox changed that with Smerlas, Haslett, and Shane Nelson AKA the Bermuda triangle

Or a bad pass. It was tough to watch him play pre Chuck Knox as he seemed so discouraged all the time in the late 70's when I watched him. But then I suppose when you never beat your biggest rivals in the Miami Dolphins the entire decade of the 70's you have a big reason to hang your head. Once ole Chucky got there in 78 it was a 180 degree change for Fergy. Loved him after Knox changed up the offense back to Fergy handing off as winning every game was no longer on his shoulders. 388 passing attempts to 588 rushing attempts in 1978 Chuck Knox changed the entire Buffalo Bills scouting dept with Norm Pollom, built up the O line again, fixed the defense and got all those young players to believe they could win. Fergy had been with the bills since 73 and had OJ to hand off to along with the electric co the first few years, Joe never passed for more then 3000 yards at Buffalo before Knox. That happened only 2x in his career. He was basically a 50% completion QB.

1) I do recall the Ravens at first listing Suggs as an OLBer rather then a DE so they don't have to pay him DE money, thus saving about 800k. Pretty shrewd on their part, just sayin. Buffalo, a small market team paying 100 on a FA player other then a QB kind of restricts what they can pay other free agents. Especially this years FA period when there was at least a dozen decent pass rushers on the market. Notice how Peyton Manning was available last off season and yet the Bills showed no interest afaik. Would the Bills even be able to afford a both a Peyton Manning and Super Mario? It might be hindsight, but it just shows the constant dysfunction of this org in obtaining proper players. 2) Seattle went thru many progressions looking for a QB and didn't stop until they found their guy. Unlike the Buffalo Bills GM who thought a career backup QB was good enough until he was forced to fire his choice for HC. I highly doubt any choice Nix makes at QB this year or next will make his all his moves look much better. The man is on record to be on of the worst ever Bills GM's. Now I even question his supposed scouting acumen to find decent players at any position. (read JohnC post) The only players that appear average or above average that he drafted are first round picks. Besides Spiller, even then I think Spiller was all Gaileys "water-bug" idea. I think the dysfunction cycle continues with Nix still the GM, a money man in charge of football operations.

Amen brother. Its why I was touting someone like the Seahawks GM John Schneider or the Falcons GM Thomas Dimitrofff (who trained under Belichick) for president of the Buffalo Bills rather then a money guy already on the payroll as vice president of something or other and who is now is the CEO. Which wouldn't be so bad if he weren't also team president of football operations and has no idea whatsoever on how to build a team of quality players. Well, he has an idea, and some semblance of an idea because he was de Facto GM with Dick Jauron. But he is no where near the level of the Ravens Ozzie Newsome (who trained under Belichick) or Dimitroff or Schneider. You simply don't see knowledgeable GM's paying 100 million dollars to one player / pass rusher unless he is a QB. Russ Brandon allowed Jauron to pull the trigger on Aaron Maybin. Allowed Buddy Nix to hire Chan Gailey / George Edwards / Dave Wannstedt and switch from a 4-3 to a 3-4 and now back to a 3-4. Dunno why this owner thinks he is qualified to run the football operations...oh yea, 10 mill per for the Toronto deal. Interesting to note that John Schneider took over as GM of the Seahawks the same year as Buddy Nix took over the Buffalo Bills. While there is no super elite QB in this years draft class. I think there will be a few serviceable QB's who will become NFL starters provided they get drafted by the right team, and developed properly. I wouldn't trust Buddy Nix and the Bills scouting dept to find them tho. If anything they will find a nice backup. Here is hoping Doug Marrone / Nathaniel Hackett have the wherewithal to get it right, despite the clowns running the team.

I'm hoping the reason they signed Kolb was so they wouldn't be hard pressed to draft a QB at #8 this year. Particularity in Geno Smith, a QB who had distinct trouble when his team was down in points against some rather average defenses. Smith might be graded as the best in a very average class of QB's that Kolb is already better then. If Marrone has any say at all he is going to want to build that offense the right way, and that entails starting at the O line. Weakness at RT, C, OG. That said, the Bills could immediately solve several problems at once by drafting one of the top 3 OT's in the draft this year. Then move Glenn to RT and thus allowing them to move players to OG.

With the world acknowledging the fact that there isn't a QB in the top 15, you can bet your last dollar Buddy Nix will draft a QB at #8. "IF" Russ Brandon overrides him and makes his own choice for Wilson it will be a DB. "IF" Buddy Nix decides to give his new HC, the first choice will be an OT, Joeckel, Fisher, Johnson, OR an OG in Warmack, WR in Patterson. What might be an idea to do is trade that #8 to a team like the Saints who might covet one of those 3 LOT's and trade the #8 for the #15 and a their 2nd round pick. Then drafting OT Fluker @ #15, then with 2, #2's drafting either Lbers, Ogletree, Tio, Brown,and QB Ryan Nassib with the other #2. Thus filling some needs at ROT, LBer, QB.

I agree. But with so many teams looking for a LT I'd say there is no way Fluker lasts past pick 15. Chiefs #1, Cards #7, Chargers #11, Dolphins #12 , Buc's #13, Panthers #14, Saints #15. All these teams need an OT / OG. I would truly hate it if the Bills take another DB while the Dolphins end up with Warmack or Fluker. Like I've stated in other posts I highly doubt Buddy Nix will trade back. That said, I can only hope that Marrone has some say in this draft and recognizes that there is some great talent to be had for the O line this year. Draft one of the 3 top OT's or Warmack. Plus, If Marrone / Hackett are as good as their peers state they are, I think those two could develop Tyler Bray into a top NFL QB.