Sisyphean Bills

Sounds like a Dave Wannstedt defense ... oh wait ... You really need to practice puff-and-pass...

No worries, the Bills young corners and weak LBs will flip the switch and out "intense" the opposition all year.

Now with Wanny as the DC, it would be good to see the D out on the field for 3 quarters.

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I think I see. I didn't mean "space eater" in the sense that one has to be a massive human being lined up at NT. (In fact just being huge doesn't mean a guy is really a good nose, IMHO. Jasper was huge but got mauled.) It is no revelation to me that Dwan did not play NT. I meant it in terms of the role they (should have) played in a 3-4 defense, which is to clog things up and occupy blockers so that the LB corps can make plays. (I don't think of either of them as cat quick guys that roam sideline to sideline chasing down plays.) Still, it never really worked that way under the George Edwards "3-4" here either.

Not sure why you think I equated the two players. Edwards is not a NT and Heard isn't a 5 technique. Nonetheless, they are both better suited to a 3-4.

I thought Kellen Heard flashed some ability last year as a space eating nose tackle when he got his shots. But, the Bills are now running the Miami 4-3 defense, and space eaters like Heard and Dwan Edwards are just systemic casualties of the switch. Good players caught in the wrong, new system.

Milk him for golf tips and cut him...

Kind of expected though, when you draft for the 3-4 and switch to the 4-3.

Yet, strangely, there can be as many as 16 teams a week that win games during the season.

There is 1 big difference between last year and this year. Last year there was a lockout and this year there wasn't. Early in the season last year, I recall many talking heads exclaiming about how scoring across the league had really jumped, but some of the better analysts were cautioning not to draw too many conclusions before defenses across the league got their legs underneath themselves. As the season wore on, this warning showed prophetic as overall scoring went up by about one half of a percent from 2010 to 2011. PS: I'm not sure Fitzpatrick ever "looks good". Maybe it is a shaggy beard.

Not sure counting QBs that started due to injury as attempts to find a franchise QB makes any sense. Still, if a team is serious about winning a Super Bowl, they have to have an excellent QB who can lead them there. Fearing the unknown is not a plan for success. Nor is it moving forward to be paralyzed with worry over how many mistakes the franchise has made over the years under other leadership.

It's true. Having a guy that can take a knee in the endzone on kickoffs is invaluable.

It's preseason. If the terrible doesn't count, then neither should the great.

Or the Bills could have stuck it out with Dick Jauron, gone 6-10 or 7-9 the last few years and drafted in their annual spot as destined by the football fates, the 8-12 range of each draft.

Does Levi Brown count as an attempt? You're correct that the Nix era has been remiss in addressing the QB position in the draft. They have instead focused on other areas, including building a 3-4 defense that has already been scrapped. And it does raise questions about the direction and plan. As to Cam Newton, they may have indeed been interested in him. He is a complete athletic freak, maybe even a Jim Brown sort of player (if you don't know Jim Brown think Michael Jordan). If they really wanted Cam Newton and had fallen in love hard for the kid, did they pursue trading with Carolina? Secondly, if they are waiting for athletic freaks to fall to them in the draft to solve their QB talent deficits, then isn't that being a little too picky? To say that you will only spend time developing a once in a lifetime freak talent as a rookie because you'd rather ring whatever blood was left in the turnip that just fell out of the reclamation wagon seems a little disingenuous, no?

Good arguments, Dog. Talent evaluation has been questionable for the Bills for quite some time. Hopefully, that is getting better but one should really wait for the results to come in before counting the hanging chads. Still, why is it that Nix and Gailey continue 3 years into putting their finger prints on this team to bargain bin shop for QBs and stick with a retread that never showed enough to beat out Trent Edwards for the starting job? One might think that an offensive guru and former college QB would be at the front of the line wanting to work with and mold the best talent at the position, talent that he could use to explore his innovative offensive concepts in new ways. As opposed to always trying to work around the limitations of a retread QB that has failed to "click" in multiple other NFL stops. Do they hand out trophies and rings for getting more out of a limited QB than other coaching staffs? The Kordell Stewart Award or something?

I found the comment about TO and giving him the key to the city pretty funny. Sad and true, but funny.

Losman wasn't helped out by circumstance, that is true. On the other hand, he is nowhere close to being as good a player as those other 3. I mean he can't even find a job as a backup and its not like there aren't teams totally desperate at the position. Want more examples? John McCargo is nowhere close to being as good a player as Ngata, either. Posluzny can at least get on the field, but he isn't as talented as Patrick Willis. If the board is set with groups of players as "equals" but your team is always drafting the Maybins of these elite groups, something is very wrong. My point was simply to echo my signature line. The Bills drafting was terrible for a decade. Almost as if they wanted to suck. But that's not to say they didn't have other problems as well. Edit: With regards to Losman, they also felt that his group was better than all the QBs coming out in the next class. So, they had Losman rated higher than Aaron Rodgers. I mentioned Posluzny above, but I don't think that is quite the same. It is one thing to draft players that can play, albeit maybe not quite at the level you project them to be as a scout. It is quite another thing to get your projections completely upside down and project guys that cannot play as possible future Hall of Famers.

Your presumption is incorrect. Jackson was brought to Seattle because he was already familiar with the Vikings offense and the Seahawks had just brought the Vikings former OC on board. OTOH, just because he had familiarity with the system doesn't mean the other 10 guys on offense had a clue. On the third hand, Russell Wilson seems to be picking it up rather quickly.

The pilot just came on and said not to worry about that wing ripping off. Apparently, he's got a few more switches in the cockpit.

Well, when Losman was drafted the Bills told us he was right there on a par with the rest of that draft class' first rounders. Eli Manning and Big Ben have won Super Bowls and may some day be in Canton. Phillip Rivers has carried his team to the playoffs in the past and is the undisputed leader of his team. The other guy that Modrak rated in this group is the one the Bills traded up for and he's out of the NFL, though he might get on a roster as a disaster QB. The good news is Modrak is now at BLESTO, so the Bills aren't the only ones reading his scouting reports.

Talent alone is not enough at this level. You have to work well and play nice with others.

OK, let's see if I'm getting the humor. Dick Jauron drafted 3 starters in 2009 and he's comparing 2009 draft classes and showing several other teams got 2 or 3 starters. That's the knee slapper, right? So, the 3 starters drafted by the imbecilic Dick Jauron was actually a pretty good draft. And those guys are much better players than the 1 starter, the 6th pick, that was drafted by new regime that replaced dumb Dick in 2010 as well. I was thinking of a more apples to apples comparison and thought of the Seahawks since they also went with a new regime in 2010. Their 3 top picks are all starters with the 4th being a fringe player who might not make the team. Hilarious, is it not?

What was Nix doing the year before? He was National Scout for the Buffalo Bills. Was he just cashing those checks and watching the Jerry Springer Show? With a title like National Scout, you'd think he'd be watching a ton of film on prospects from all across the nation. To imply that he had to go completely with Modrak's opinion on everything suggests that he either wasn't doing anything in his position as National Scout, he couldn't form his own opinions, or he was completely passive when he assumed his leadership role to the point of leaving the rudder in the hands of someone else.