Sisyphean Bills

You may be on to something with that Fitz not having his name written in Sharpie on the depth chart seeing as the Bills were caught sniffing around the Packers practice squad again for another QB. On the other hand, Thigpen is a dumpster fire.

It was all probably just a favor to Jake Vermiglio.

Barkley finished the year playing extremely well.

That's true. Of course, there is a different feeling between making slow positive progress and having the trapdoor spring open underneath you.

A better analogy might be invading a country to leave the dictator and his cronies in place while you haul away the dictator's wife's milner and his horse's groom.

The Bills are still making money. Isn't that the definition of highly successful?

Unfortunately, true. The Bills defensive rebuild is stuck in the mud.

FWIW, the man's name is spelled Littmann. Here is some rant feed: http://www.buffalobills.com/about-us/front-office.html

On the other hand, the system is designed for parity, so in theory every team starts out with an equal chance of making it. It's not altogether different than some of the posters here that argue that if they took a poll on this board as to who to draft on draft day, they'd have done a better job than Modrak had over the last decade or so.

Very persuasive argument, Robo. Fire the secretaries too.

Regardless it was/is not exactly seizing the moment, was/is it?

Pretty much. The only thing to add is that if they were had a football woody for a RB in that draft and were totally convinced he was a huge upgrade over what they had, then taking that RB isn't necessarily a mistake if they had already done the leg work and knew pretty much how they could turn around and parlay their stack of talent at the position into more picks. (Draft day trades don't just fall out of the sky.) Then, they upgrade the RB position AND strengthen another position of weakness. But, they hedged their bets when they took Spiller and tried to talk around the idea that they were being innovative and ahead of the curve because their offense was going to use a 3 RB system. The 3 back system never materialized, Spiller lost the starting job after 1 game, and they traded Marshawn and his 1st rounder contract as the trading deadline approached. The team did not get better in 2010 as a result. Indeed, unless Spiller suddenly turns into a better back that Marshawn, it will continue to be argued that this series of moves were mistakes.

Well, the primary purpose of the post was to ask the question if there was a term other than "bust" that was preferable for a player that contributes nothing because of injuries. You seem to suggest that "bust" applies regardless, though I know that many would disagree. I've had discussions in the past about Steve Emtman, for example, not being a bust because his football career was cut short due to injury, not a lack of talent. Just saying... Anyway, the point about injury is that every team has injuries. Every team. It is a part of the game and a well managed team knows this. They may not know exactly which players will go down during a season, but there is plenty of data that indicates that players will go down and which positions have the most susceptibility, etc. The Bills mode of team building is simply to go 0 to 1 players deep at positions. About the same time every year, fans roll out the injury excuse threads and start clamoring for new strength and conditioning coaches. It's like clockwork and very predictable. Merriman is a prime example of bad planning. Because of his history, it was a near certainty that he would go down at some point and he did. Again. The Bills took a risk on him. Fine. I don't have any problem with rolling the dice at times to get better. But the Bills brain trust put together a backup plan that consists of having a defensive tackle play OLB, a guy that can't set the edge to save his life and is absolutely atrocious in space. Now the regurgitated pablum to explain the lack of depth all away is that it takes 3 years (maybe more?) to really do anything and besides they're busy completely gutting the roster, etc. In the first case, there are plenty of counter-examples that it doesn't take 3 years for a new regime to show simple progress, that one doesn't have to go backwards to go forwards. There have been plenty of discussion points about the Bills not using free agency in the modern NFL, not re-signing players past their rookie contracts, and salary dumping veterans as soon as possible. As to the second leg, the Patriots have more than "completely" gutted their roster in the same time frame and yet they continue to be in the hunt for the playoffs and win games. Yes, the Patriots have Tom Brady, but they also have football management such that when their starting C goes on IR for the season, they have someone that can snap the ball to Brady. It is just another fact that every team has roster churn every year. The better teams are able to mesh the players and adapt their systems to put those players in the positions to perform at the utmost of their abilities. The bad teams pound square pegs in round holes, strike out on draft day more often than they lay down successful late round bunts, and crash around in the dark room hoping to get lucky and find a light switch. So, yeah. Were you really expecting the Bills to be injury free across the board all season long?

Correction. These are your words, not mine.

Really? Did you have any sort of hunch that Merriman might not last the entire season, for example? While some may argue the term "bust" may not apply to Troup because of injury or his very short career to date, I am curious if there is an accepted term for players that are brittle and never contribute squat that does apply to these situations? Something like "brittle glass baubles" or "damaged goods" perhaps? McCargo was another DT this team drafted high, who had a bad back such that the Colts refused to complete a deal for him as damaged goods; and, he never really did a thing. Drafting a player that can't contribute, whether it is because he sucks or because he's a perpetually injured brittle glass bauble, sets your team back just the same.

Cool. My metaphor was dead on for this D.

Note that I was pretty clear in blaming the coaching staff in general and not Edwards completely. I also realize this is a catch-22 argument. If the front office is stocking your cupboard with garbage, then your casserole will be garbage. Of course, if the chef is a moron then regardless of the quality of the ingredients the casserole will be garbage.

Gotcha. Somehow, I don't think this train wreck should be pinned on Sanders though, hence my confusion on where this was going. The entire defensive staff isn't really doing an outstanding job. No pass rush. Inept LB play. Completely blown coverages. Bad technique. Guys out of position all over the place. The defense is rife with confusion and chaos at every level. I'm not sure I'd stop with just Edwards. The head coach needs to get these sorts of things under control; it's his team.

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Which hiring are you referring to? Bob Sanders?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dom_Capers#External_links

They could hire Larry Coyer and go back to the Tampa-2.

Agreed. It is simply moronic to play guys physically unable to play LB at that position just for shins and grits. Seriously though, good luck talking Buddy into officially going back to the 4-3.

Nah. Make him coach the TEs.