Sisyphean Bills

What Easley makes on IR depends on his contract. It's quite possible he signed a split contract and because he has been perpetually on IR this has saved Ralph a little money.

I wonder if that's what Jauron thought when he hired Schonert and Van Pelt.

Want to start FireDavidLee.com ? Got to sort of wonder about a QB coach who's claim to fame is the Wildcat offense (which features not using a QB). OTOH, Chad Henne has developed nicely.

The team with the closest total number of rushes was the Arizona Cardinals. Like the Bills, they had a #1 back that got the bulk of the work in Wells. The backup backs for the Cardinals accounted for (roughly) 28% of the load. Taking the original figures from above, the Bills split was only 10% of the load by the backup RB before Jackson went on IR. I realize Tashard Choice didn't factor into the mix until later, but if you ignore that he took (more than) 21% of the load off Spiller in overall rushing attempts. Comparing the situations, one might wonder who LaRod Stephens-Howling was and ask if the drop-off between Wells and Stephens-Howling wasn't at least as significant as Jackson to Spiller. The data means that Choice subbed for Spiller more than twice as often as Spiller subbed for Jackson and the Cardinals subbed Wells almost 3 times as often as the Bills did Jackson. That seems significant enough not to be coincidence. In other words, the ratio of carries would support what fans that watched the games often questioned. That the Megamind offense couldn't really figure out how to get the guy they considered the best player in their first at bat in their first draft involved in the offense until injuries at WR and then RB forced him into the rotation. When he was finally used, he seemed to play well and then the GM proudly claimed that he knew it all along. There was the Trent Edwards issue and this year a lot of discussion on the Aaron Maybin issue, especially in contrast to a total lack of ability to put any pressure on a QB. It's pretty unlikely fans will stop wondering and posting about some of these moves. The Packers were the next closest team in terms of gross number of rushing attempts on the regular season. To say their offense favored the pass (and for great reason) would surprise no one. They split the carries almost exactly 50-50% between their top 2 backs however.

How many threads were there about Chan abandoning the run?

Perhaps the Bills inner circle is looking to put together the modern era version of Juice and the Electric Company once again. CJ Spiller and the Paper Towels?

I've seen this theory repeated often and don't buy it at all. If they truly were totally committed to trading Lynch, then they may be the worst "salesmen" in the NFL. Effective salesmen aren't called "The Information Black Hole" by the market they are trying to sell. It is a good theory though if you ignore when and how the deal actually was made. The whole thing was like a customer waiting at the counter of a store for someone to come out so he can make a purchase, yelling "Hello!" into the back of the store over and over again, then opening the "Employees Only" door and shouting "I'm taking this! I'll leave 20 bucks on the counter!" and getting a muffled "whatever" back out of the dark.

Teams surely feel pressure to "keep up with the Mannings/Bradys/Rodgers/Breeses" in today's game. The rules do favor the offense and the passing game in particular. Interestingly, all of the top 5 passing offenses made the playoffs and 2 of the bottom 5. Only 2 of the top running offenses and 2 of the bottom 5. 4 of the top 5 defenses made it in while 2 of the bottom 5 did as well. The one thing that comes out of that is that a great passing offense can make up for a terrible defense -- simply outgunning the opposition on the scoreboard -- as well as a lame rushing attack. If a team isn't elite in its aerial bombardment, then they must have a stud defense with an upper 1/3 sort of running game -- which would sort of fit with the concept of holding the ball, keeping the score down, etc. The Bills finished between the Redskins and Bucs in average passing offense in the middle of the NFL pack. So, it seems they'll either have to discover a top defense (overtaking 2/3 of the NFL) and grinding running attack or vault into rarefied air in their passing game to make the playoffs next season.

Just to follow-up a bit more: when a franchise is bad, and the Bills are, they need to make decisions that increase the overall talent and take some calculated chances. To the first part, the Bills have made some decisions to get rid of veterans rather than to pay them as insurance and depth. There are many factors involved there, but the bottom line is that it hasn't improved the team as the W-L record shows. In some sense, it's like watching someone try to patch a flat tire by cutting a little rubber out of the inner tube in spot A and gluing that piece to spot B, then pumping like mad for 16 minutes only to discover the tube won't inflate because there is a "new" hole. To the second part, the Bills have taken chances such as Merriman and drafting Spiller. In the first case, there was an obvious risk and they decided to go without a backup plan (Spencer Johnson is not an NFL OLB). In the second case, they wanted their cake and to eat it too. Spiller was the BPA (by their own admission), but they weren't willing to go all-in with him and wanted to keep the two other backs on the roster rather than make a trade during the draft for more picks. They finally put him on the field and say "I told you so! He just needed an opportunity." Hunh? Then, there is the argument that there are specific risks that are worth taking because they are multipliers rather than small epsilon fluctuations. The reward of taking a risk on a QB far exceeds the reward on taking a risk on a CB or WR. It's not just the Bills. As everyone knows, Matt Millen kept drafting WRs until he drove his team to 0-16 and never connected those dots, yet he was the second highest paid GM in the NFL (though to be fair, he did at least try with Harrington).

No, it's not fair. OTOH, the 49ers have a pass rush and Whitner still isn't very instinctive in coverage. He's even gotten caught in no man's land on multiple occasions, giving up huge plays. (No, I did not write he's the worst player ever, etc.) There can be no question now though that his selection was high risk for a new GM and HC to try to build a team around. That gamble failed. He came nowhere close to delivering a Troy Polamalu/Bob Sanders type impact, as Levy and Jauron hoped, for a bewildered franchise.

Yes, I know that. This is precisely what I meant. Taking a pair of stiffs in the draft (or in free agency, Buddy did that too) hardly solves problems.

Nope. There are clearly examples where the Bills missed chances to take better football players in the draft and instead whiffed. Do you not agree? There are thousands of old posts about discussing that topic, if you want to argue the point with others on the board. Secondly, one of the common themes in the past has been drafting college players based on projection. One example is Aaron Maybin, who they decided could bulk up and become an every down player and learn to play the run. There are many others. These are not mutually exclusive points by the way. Picking a kid that had a great combine but didn't look so great on film and projecting him to a new position based on the combine numbers are scenarios that actually play out in the NFL draft. What does that mean? Glad you asked. It means take the best players and BUILD YOUR SCHEME around those players and put them into the best situations to win football games. That's what great coaching is all about.

You're wrong. Read the title of the thread.

The OP was lamenting about drafting a LT to replace Bell. Hence my point about the draft and what Nix has said about the draft the last two years. Get it? Here's a non-subliminal hint: think Draft not free agency.

Miles said at halftime that he felt like they were beating themselves with penalties and not executing. The "adjustments" did seem to be little more than to hope for the best. Not sure why they left Jefferson in there if they weren't able to trust him or get it going in the passing game when Lee stood there on the sidelines.

But, it would be Billsian to pass on the better football player in the draft because there is some other guy with a half-millimeter height advantage or some such. Projections like that are what made Modrak all that money.

On the other hand, Buddy has mentioned addressing the offensive line every off-season and hasn't done anything via the draft other than Hairston.

I kept telling the guys that Studrawa should call a few more runs wide into the strength of the Bama D. BTW, there were plays in the passing game there for the taking, but Jefferson was terrible and maybe they didn't trust him at all. On the other hand, Bama has some serious talent in their front 7 and it's hard when the O-line is getting their tail kicked up front... not that all the horizontal stuff was helping an iota.

Exactly.

Gregggg Williams has a bigger rolodex though.

Of course, that wasn't the point of irony. CB mentioned that Erickson's team was out of control in a post promoting Osweiler and the very last game played, the football analysts, etc. were using Osweiler's stunt (whether you agree with it or not is wholly irrelevant) literally as a talking point about the inmates running the asylum. The facts of what happened and some people's reaction to it are, in fact, less disputable than you being a fan of ASU -- though personally, I don't doubt you are. Reggie Ball.

Nice call.

Phil Simms thinks Demaryius Thomas went to Central Florida. Moron.

http://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/W/WattRi00.htm Yep.

The sounds of improvements being made in free agency?