thewildrabbit

This is exactly what bothers me most about this owner as he has played it so close to the vest all his years of ownership in fear of not making enough money to support the team. Like Bill Polian tried to teach him is... that the only way to make money is to spend money, plus the fact that he is not really in a small market. RW reminds me of Ruben Feffer ....who is so afraid to take chances because of his insurance background. Clearly the Buffalo Bills have a huge devoted following shown by the fact that the stadium is always filled even in losing seasons, in which that following would grow even larger should the team ever become a winner again. All it would take is for this owner to relinquish the presidents seat and hire a young and up and coming VP or GM to to give this franchise some proper direction as president. Even Buddy Nix himself stated he wasn't the smartest guy in the room to a bunch of media types, and looking at the mistakes he made his first year I'd say that was an understatement. He boldly stated he was going to get some sleep when free agency opened last year, the result was bringing in FA RT Cornell Green for 3 mill a year Nix got exactly what he signed, a big FART. Lets hope he is not sleeping again this year when free agency opens As an owner you can't scrape garbage cans and expect to find diamonds, Nix and Gailey might be likable and grand fatherly, but I sure as hell would never hire my grandfather to run an NFL team and expect to win. Hire a consulting firm if you don't know who to hire as president. Or just steal from the best , Patriots, Steelers when looking for a pres or VP, let someone run the team that knows what they are doing. Don't hire some bum that just got fired from his last job either! Spend the money and hire some people with talent, then you might just find you will also have talent on the field as well as the sidelines and FO.

Your smoking crack if you think that last years Buffalo Bills team would have made the playoffs with Payton Manning at QB, he would have been knocked out of the season early on because he can't escape a pass rush once the pocket breaks down. I'd say he would have been toast by game 4 against the Jets. Fitz was the leading rusher in that game....Manning would have been taken off on a stretcher. Both Manning and Tom Brady had a 1.0 yards per rush avg, in 18 attempts he made 18 yards, yea that's right a 1.0 YPR avg. Fitz had a 6.7 YPR which was as good as Mike Vick From what I saw the Bills O line was one of the worst in the NFL last year so don't even try and compare the lines. Did Indy have 4 different players at RT, and did they have to find them off the waiver wire? Not to mention how bad that Bills defense was, the opposing teams MO was run the ball till they have a lead and then pin their ears back blitzing Fitz. Last time I looked Indy's D was 25th against the run, not worst in the league, worst in the history of the Buffalo Bills I honestly don't know why your on this crusade to crucify Fitz, the guy probably won't stay healthy and play every game this season with the current O line players. Once he does go down then you can really start bitching about his replacement. Then next year you can B word about the rookie the Bills draft that will get killed because this staff of morons still didn't upgrade the line.

What gets me is that Al Davis moved his team out of Oakland to LA and they played in the coliseum which held over 100k people, he thought 100k+ seats = more money. But he couldn't make it work so he went back to Oakland. There is just to many things to do in LA, and if the team falters and has a losing record people will find something else to do. OTOH Buffalo has a very large devoted following and keeps the stadium filled no matter what their record it seems. For the life of me I can't understand why so many flock to the stadium year after year despite the constant losing. Is it that unlike LA there simply isn't much to do in upstate NY ? In my view anyone who buys the Bills when Wilson passes and then moves the team away from Buffalo is an idiot, I don't care how rich they are. If Buffalo can sustain a losing franchise for the last decade imagine what they could do with a winning franchise. Its Wilson and his close to the vest policy's that has kept this team in Buffalo, but also kept them from realizing their potential.

ahhh the frustration of being a Buffalo Bills fan Yelling at your fellow fans is not the answer, just hold on for another 3-5 years or so and things should certainly change

In reality Jay Glazer of Fox sports announced that the NO Saints were upset at Buffalo ( who refused to return their calls ) because they wanted Lynch for a run at the playoffs because all their RB's were injured and were willing to give up a 3rd rounder. Instead the old fart was napping and missed the calls, he went on to trade Lynch to Seattle for a 4th rounder this year and a conditional 5th next year.Something he could have gotten done the day of the draft because that is what Seattle initially offered Buffalo during the last years draft http://msn.foxsports...m-Buffalo-Bills NO Saints http://profootballta...e-been-a-saint/ Then considering Lynch made that terrific run to end the Saints season in that playoff game I'll bet the NO FO thinks the world of Buddy Nix This is the type of stuff that happens when you hire a man who was retired at age 70, and then promote him to a job he has never done before.

This marks the difference between a great team and a bad team, look back at the great teams of the late 80's early 90's. Then head coach Marv Levy who was not only smart enough to find and hire an experienced offensive coordinator in Ted Marchibroda. He also had enough confidence in himself to feel secure enough about his position as head coach to hire someone smarter and better then himself to run the offense. Marv had a special teams background and was clueless about the offense, for proof he tried to run a wing T in his stint as HC of the KC Chiefs. Although winning a few Grey cups as HC might have shown he knew how to be a "winning" head coach. The point is that Marv hired Marchibroda, ex- HC of the Colts who had tutored QB Bert Jones, and the only reason ole Ted wasn't in greater demand was because his Colt teams couldn't get past the Steel curtain of the Pittsburgh Steelers and Terry Bradshaw. This man taught Bills QB Jim Kelly to call his own plays, setup the old Redskin "counter trey" running game offense with Thurman Thomas and had enough perception to see that Jim Kelly was at his best in the 2 min drill. So Ted then setup the hurry up "no huddle" offense that Kelly ran the entire game, and not just at the end of the half's. You might be right about Buffalo's current "unattractiveness", but then the Bills were coming off back to back 2-14 seasons and were certainly not the toast of the NFL at that time. My take is that neither Jauron nor Gailey felt secure enough in their position as head coach to hire anyone capable of taking their job away from them. Right now maybe Wannstache is the only guy that even comes close, because if Gailey goes, so will his entire staff save one or two people.There also might be monetary reasons as to why Gailey hired a bunch of college coaches. Anyway, right now this looks like a CF and a mistake to hire an retired ex head scout and promote him to a GM position. Then another mistake for him to hire a good ole boy like himself to be the head coach.and more mistakes in hiring inexperienced college coaches at many positions. I suppose this is what you get with a 92 year old owner who is the acting president of the team.

What don't you guys get about watching film and evaluating talent, it doesn't take a season or even a few regular season games. Every player on the team should have been watched on tape from the previous season and had a grade on them. If that is the case, how do they enter the season with Cornell Green starting? Then not have an adequate back up player behind him. No excuse for a professional team to do things like that! I know Lynch and Spiller were both injured in preseason, Jackson's hand, Lynch's ankle. What bothers me is the fact that Gailey named Spiller the starter and the kid was clueless on how to do his job. When a coach puts a player on the field and that player doesn't know how to do his job, it tells me that the coaches don't know how to do their jobs. This isn't some rinky dink UFL league or even the CFL league, this is the NFL and these coaches have to go head to head with Bill Belichick and Rex Ryan. Doesn't look good to me, but keep making excuses for them.

Jebus, the excuses you guys make for the ineptitude of these new coaches....just because they are new to Buffalo doesn't mean they know what they are doing. Why didn't he watch film from the previous years on Edwards, considering he did nothing to reinforce the O line. In reality Gailey made the line worse by starting Green at RT, how does that waste of space even make the starting lineup much less the field Almost everything I read on the guy previous to joining the Bills said he was worthless, yet the Bills sign him for 3 mill per year and start him. Named Spiller the starter for the opener and the guy literally didn't know what he was doing out on the field, this was the RB that was supposed to "make the line block better". what a freaking joke that is because the rookie RB didn't know how to block at all. Fred Jackson needed to come into the game and play with a cast on his hand. When was the last time you saw a RB play with a cast on his hand... he had to because the starter couldn't do his job. When was the last time in the NFL you saw a head coach groom a QB in preseason, stick up for him when he was getting booed in training camp and then cut him after 2 games, utterly moronic. C'mon guys, wake up! This coaching staff is worse then Dick Jauron's staff, hard to believe I know, but true.

What does that say to you when the bullets fly, what you see on film when he plays? It tells me they guy can't cope with the amount of pressure allowed by the line. So there are things you can do as a coach should you decide to go with the guy who is more susceptible to pressures, like drafting to help the line, get a freaking good blocking tight end If Gailey watched film at all from previous years then why waste time on him in preseason? Gailey is a tool!

You seem fixated on Edwards ability to throw deep, who cares? You are missing the point. Where are all those coaches that JP played under, where are all the offensive players he played with? Is any linemen that played on the same teams as JP played on still with the team? That's my point. Go back and look at the Knox - Levy Era, they had some of the same linemen with the Bills for 10-15 years or more. This Bills team has sucked for a decade,bad coaches,bad players, the offensive schemes stunk. Bad talent evaluators. How can any rookie / new QB develop properly under those conditions. You seem to have tunnel vision where all you see is the QB, its a team sport. You look at the QB, I look at the team, the players, the coaches, the FO. Guess what, this current team still sucks! Even tho Fitz started to look 1/2 way decent in some games last year he will probably get beaten up just like JP & TE behind that makeshift crap O line. With no TE, no running game, one leg injury and Fitz is done...stick a fork in him. But then everyone will say he always sucked.

The only thing history has shown me is that the team around Edwards sucked, the head coach sucked, the OC sucked . They all did get fired didn't they? Where is Turk Schonert now, not even in the NFL anymore and thats how bad he was! Did the kid play on a good team, with a good supporting cast or did he play on crap teams where the QB was forced to try and carry the load because the running game stunk, the defense stunk, the O line stunk? When QB Kyle Boller failed with the Ravens it was entirely all him, no question. They had a great defense, great running game, great O line. Plus the previous QB McNair took the team to a 13- 3 record. Not making excuses for all the failed QB's in the past...don't let your hate for ex Bills QB's cloud your mind and think a min. Look at the Detriot Lions and their decade of futility, was it all their QB's sucked or was it the team, or perhaps both. They drafted QB Matthew Stafford with a #1 overall and he has shown flashes of being great when he was on the field. The problem is that their line is so bad he has been injured more then he has played. How many hits does it take to screw up a #1 pick? How long will it be before the Lions fans start saying Stafford sucks, how many concussions, how many shoulder injuries before his arm is a limp noodle?

Since when does it take an entire year to find out whats on the roster?If those two can't watch tape and figure out if a player is good or not....then they are in the wrong business. Well shoot, HTH do they determine if a college player is good or not, they draft him and watch him for a year and then see if he is good? Stop making excuses for the two bums RW hired! 2 more bums in a long concession of bums

No offense to you, how do you know that? He kept getting hit and regressed instead of progressing. Bill Walsh also stated it takes about 3-4 years of playing in the same system, same coaches, same scheme to develop properly. If anyone in the world should know what it takes to properly develop a QB, it would be him. Even though Edwards was in a West coast system in college he started to show flashes with Buffalo that he could be really good. In 2008 the Bills were 4-0 and looking good as Edwards had comeback wins over the Raiders-Rams and Jags. Then the Bills went to Arizona and allowed a safety to come untouched and concuss the QB knocking him out of the game. Although the Bills would win the next game against the Chargers with Edwards as QB, I think that concussion in Arizona started to have lingering effects. BTW, Edwards stood in there and delivered that pass in Arizona, even tho he knew he was going to be slammed... he completed that pass. The guy had balls, its just a question of how many times do you get kicked in the balls before you decide to start avoiding those kicks in the balls We know for a fact that 5 concussions can kill a career, ask Joe Montana- Steve Young-Troy Aikman, Edwards suffered 3 while with Buffalo, 2 were severe causing him to miss more then one game. In my opinion Jauron and his band of clowns ruined both JP and Edwards by allowing them to get beaten up behind crappy lines. Even tho JP had Jason Peters at LT, that didn't help at the center position where they had 6 guys in 4 years. Mark Sanchez and Joe Flacco both have great lines and great running attacks to help them develop, Bills QB's haven't had that. . You can't expect to draft just any QB and then try and force him to fit the system, especially behind bad lines with little or no running game, no TE. Stats say the Bills have a semblance of a running game because now and then I see someone posting how good Buffalo is at running the ball. But the reality is that the Bills can't make a first down in the red zone running the ball when they really need to. With the game on the line the Bills can't control the LoS or control the clock by running. Bottom line is the Bills haven't had a decent O line since the Kelly era, haven't had a decent tight end since the Kelly era. The Bills keep bringing in QB's, 8 QB's in 10 years, and they keep failing at winning because every new head coach they hire decides that they don't need a top line to win. When you look at a QB's like Joey Harrington, David Carr do you blame them for not succeeding or do you blame the team they were on and how they were developed? Carr took so many sacks in his first year he set a new record, his fault or the teams failure to establish a decent ground game to support him and a decent line to protect him.

This board just doesn't get that, and never will! Bell was still coming off an injury at the start of last season, and if you can believe it, they were swapping him in and out of plays, so it was tough to gain any sort of continuity. Still he was just as bad as the 4 RT's last season for allowing hits and pressures, Not good! That line is still a mess and they haven't shown they can hold up against a really good team with Fitz holding the ball more then 3 seconds. This staff chose not to draft any help for the line for 2 years so they must think they can win with scrubs... To the OP question, Should Fitz sustain a leg injury of any kind he will be very susceptible to any kind of pass rush. What saved his a$ last year was his uncanny ability to scramble and make first downs with his legs, Fitz was as good as Mike Vick was at 6.7 yards per attempt LT Bell-injury prone- LG Levitre OK- C Wood OK RG- Urbik scrub- RT Wrotto scrub TE Martin scrub 2 decent- one always injured- 3 scrubs, a recipe for another disastrous season. The Bills will be drafting a QB next draft.

And to add, the galactic-ly bad talent evaluators in Buffalo forgot when they drafted Edwards, was that he was injured often while at Stanford behind some very bad lines there. So the thought was, hey, he took a pounding at Stanford, lets see if he can take more behind some bad lines in Buffalo. He did and the result was another lamb for slaughter. Edwards at Stanford played in a west coast system and they tried to turn him into a 5 & 7 step drop QB in a Mike Martz type offense, all they did was try and fit a square peg into a round hole....that's what you get with moronic coaching Shhhh, you will rile up the homers They don't wanna hear the Bills hired another bum, even tho he was fired in his last job as OC in KC. The Bills have a policy to hire people who get fired and then hire them AND promote them to a higher level. Wilson did the exact same thing with Tom Donahoe as president.

Jeez guys, memories faded that fast? Marshawh Lynch hurt his ankle in preseason, Fred Jackson hurt his hand in preseason and it was in a cast, so CJ Spiller was named the starter for the opener. That lasted about 3 plays because the rook was clueless about how to do his job, he didn't know the blocking protections, couldn't find the hole, didn't know his routes.. Don't you guys remember that Miami game at all, Edwards tried to dump the ball off to Jackson early and it hit his hand, tough to catch a ball with your hand in a cast. That didn't stop Edwards from throwing it to Jackson tho. Both Jackson, Spiller and Lynch all saw playing time in that first game. The story out of the FO is that Spiller had ball control issues, so he was benched as the starting RB, plus 7 rush attempts for 6 yards might be the real reason.Chan Gailey had Edwards in constant shotgun 18-34-139 1 TD. Trent actually outplayed Chad Henne in that game but the difference was Miami's defense was so much better, so was their running game. The Bills O line was horrid at the start of the year, RT Green was a complete waste and should have never seen the field as the starter, but the Bills had nobody behind him. Plus the Bills were swapping Bell in and out of plays at LT because he was still recovering from his injury. Is it any wonder as to why Edwards looked so bad and the dolphin Defense looked so good. If I recall correctly about the middle of the next game against the Packers Gailey finally decided to stop throwing the ball with Edwards in shotgun, daring the defense to stop the passing game and started to run the ball more. Lynch got most of the carries because Jackson's hand was still injured and Spiller was useless. Lynch was more effective against the Patriots with Fitz as the starter in game 3, still tho, the reason Lynch was getting most of the workload early was because of Freddy's injured hand and Spiller's inability to block.

I get a kick out of the posters that condemn Fitz for the 2 INT's, and yet give the player that was stripped of the ball to lose the game a pass For F's sake, you guys are comparing a perennial playoff Ravens team filled with top players to a horridly bad Buffalo team. I'd really like to see Joe Flacco try and perform as well as Fitz did behind that Buffalo line Consider the defense the Bills played against that day, IN Baltimore! That game sure opened up my eyes on just how good Fitz can be.

There are still many fans out there that still don't realize just how bad the entire team was last season and the only reason the team looked decent in some games was Fitz

...... Again, My point was, what will people think of the man after his passing and the team is moved by the new owner... when he could have easily set something up before his demise to ensure the team stays in Buffalo.

Baloney, he could take steps to ensure the team stays in Buffalo just like Tom G did with the sabres, sell for less money to an owner who will keep the team in Buffalo. Wilson is basically stating he will not do that!

So nice of you guys to nit pick and miss the entire point It will still be sold to whoever offers the most and is approved by all the other owners. Again, My point was, what will people think of the man after his passing and the team is moved by the new owner... when he could have easily set something up before his demise to ensure the team stays in Buffalo.

Just because some stat sheet states the Steelers graded as the team with the worst O line doesn't make it true, their biggest problem was injuries and not incompetent players like it was in Buffalo...... Huge difference! Your entitled to your opinion, but to compare Flozell Adams who started and played in all 19 games and because there was "talk" of replacing him ....to some complete scrubs that Nix was forced to pull off the waiver wire to fill in on the line is ridiculous. ""the Bills simply could not find an answer at right tackle despite giving four guys the opportunity to win the job. Erik Pears (-0.3), Cornell Green (-4.5), Mansfield Wrotto (-10.8), and Cord Howard (-19.5) all played 60+ snaps but their combined play put them third to last of all tackles."" http://www.profootba...-buffalo-bills/ Not to mention the tight end position which should be considered part of the O line because they both block for the running-passing game and greatly help relive pressure from the QB by being an outlet when they get in trouble! The Steelers actually have really good tight ends that are infinitely better players then anything the Bills currently have. Same thing with the RB position also has to do with blocking and protection schemes as well as outlets when they get in trouble. As well with the receivers blocking the DB's, its a team sport and the Steelers fielded a better coached team in every aspect Green Bay is also supposed to have a bad O line because of all the pressures and sacks they give up. Its the same thing, their QB holds the ball and scrambles around BEHIND the LoS like Big Ben does. So because of that it makes the stats for the line look worse then it really is. . The veteran experience alone by most the players of both those teams counts for more then the inexperienced bad players the Bills fielded. Not to mention the 4 different scrubs the Bills tried to fill in at RT. Fitz HAD to scramble for his life and had a 6 YPR avg, Fitz HAD to get the ball out in 3 seconds or under or he was drilled. There is a huge difference between QB's sliding around in the pocket, scrambling around trying to make a play vs running for your life because you have no pocket This link put in by the OP the article also goes on to say :"" With Ryan Fitzpatrick still at quarterback they at least have a guy who knows how to avoid sacks."" http://forums.footba...howtopic=594145 So basically what he is stating is the line graded better because of the play of the QB, you even say it yourself in your last sentence

I highly doubt it will be sold to the lowest bidder My point was, what will people think of the man after his passing and the team is moved by the new owner... when he could have easily set something up before his demise to ensure the team stays in Buffalo.

Its been common knowledge for years that the Buffalo Bills will be sold to the highest bidder once he dies ""Wilson said the team will be sold on his death, not bequeathed to his wife or his daughters. And Wilson knows he can't guarantee that the buyer will keep the team in Buffalo:"" ""Wilson said it's possible that the next owner could be someone who would want to keep the Bills in Buffalo, but he's not willing to speculate beyond that."" ""For all the uncertainty currently surrounding the Bills' future in Buffalo, the specific circumstances haven't really changed much in the past five years or so. Ralph Wilson still owns the Bills and he still refuses to sell the team as long as he's alive or to guarantee that the team will be sold to a Western New York-based owner after he's gone, so the possibility still remains that the Bills could eventually move to Toronto or Los Angeles."" http://www.aolnews.c...ph-wilson-dies/ http://sports.espn.g...tory?id=2906872 http://www.thegoodpo...r-how-long.html

Some of us can still recall the deer in headlights look Losman had in his last season in Buffalo, and in particular his roll out fumble that gave the victory to the Jets when all the Bills had to do was run out the clock. That play was a clusterfuk between OC Turk Schonert and Losman. The previous plays Marshawn Lynch had made first downs running the ball and all Schonert needed to call were safe hand offs that the Jets had shown they couldn't stop and it was a win for Buffalo. Instead Schonert called for a roll out that was perfectly played by the Jets and they caused him to fumble, they recovered and scored a TD to win the game So many Bills fans have much built up hatred for Losman and Edwards, and to a degree they deserve it and to a degree they don't. Both those players needed a stalwart O line for protections and a decent tight end as an outlet, and they didn't have either in Buffalo It would be remarkably stupid to bring back JP Losman to a team that has an inferior line to the one he played behind in his previous stint here.