Sisyphean Bills

The discussion has value as it does frame the value that Tom Modrak has brought to the Bills organization working with multiple coaching staffs and war room panels. Of course, a few would rather not have that put under the microscope quite yet as Modrak is still with the Bills. As far as the lines go, Gailey is an old-fashioned coach that would prefer to line his guys up and blow the opponent off the ball. Part of the reason the team is worse this year is that this change in philosophy wasn't well suited to the roster Jauron built, which was the opposite approach of having smaller, faster players that could outflank and play in space.

Edwards is not exactly a "rookie" DC. http://www.browsebiography.com/bio-george_edwards.html However, I totally agree that firing him to promote the next "Alex Van Pelt" type to DC would be moronic. How many times do some people have to see the promote from within philosophy blow up anyway?

There is no reason to believe it wasn't a concensus sort of decision like every other in the Levy/Jauron era. It's really hard to believe that Jauron made up his own draft board taking players off the bottom of the pile and re-ranking them unilaterally. Modrak even spoke very highly of Maybin immediately after the draft. By the way, this is hardly the only example of a war room with Tom Modrak taking a flier on a pick. Whitner? McCargo? Parrish? Losman? McGahee? Williams with the caveat that he could easily switch to LT? Freddie Mitchell? Todd Pinkston? Even his reputation establishing pick, Donovan McNabb, has his doubters, including his own boss Buddy Nix! I'm sure Brandon had his say in the concensus as well.

Who are these star players that the Bills found later in the draft exactly? For the last 2 names you list, is the problem really that they were scheme players or that they are bad football players? Because I don't recall those 2 playing a lot in the scheme they were drafted for either. The first name even lost his starting job to a rookie. Why does your list not include busts, non-achievers, and blink-and-he's-a-goners like JP Losman, Mike Williams, Roscoe Parrish, Willis McGahee, Josh Reed? You see, when a team drafts a lot of drek, it's a scouting problem. If it works.

Yes. I heard him say so.

The bolded is factually incorrect and distortion on the real situation. Wilson, Brandon, Overdorf, Littmann, Modrak, ... all these people were and are still involved. The only changes were Nix got promoted, Whaley replaced John Guy, and Darrell Moody filled Nix's position as National Scout. There were a few minor changes in the scouting department with Matt Hand getting a promotion. C.J. Leak also got promoted and Michael LaFlamme gets to cover both his old job as well as Leak's. Seriously, the only substantive changes since Nix was promoted was the firing of what was left of Jauron's staff and the hiring of Gailey and his staff. Oh, and the jettisoning of team captain Trent Edwards after 2 starts.

Meredith was too small and too underpowered to be a RT or G and too slow footed to be a LT. I do like Howard, but I don't think he is the long-term answer. Of course, he can always get better and that would be a good thing. He's smart, tenacious, has pretty good feet, decent functional power, and is the most experienced starting OL in Gailey's offense on the team. Announcements of his impending greatness are premature, however.

One has to wonder if that series of clips were all the scouts and Jauron needed when they gave Maybinot the .

The Bills started the season with Bell, Wood, and Green all gimpy. They've already cut the swing tackle that was here all off-season and the 2 draft prospects were (1) injured and (2) cut. Maybe Wang and Bell can share legs or something...

It's not very often you see a guy that is a red shirt sophomore and backup to start the college season, start less than a season's worth of college games, and become the #11 overall draft pick. Probably won't see it again for a long time, I bet.

Just lovely...

I never said cut Maybin immediately. I never said go out and throw big money at a big name free agent. I had no idea what you meant when you said the GM had said he was against bringing in better talent over the long haul, but gathered you must be referring to his claim he wasn't going at big name free agents. Someone should tell Buddy that big name free agents aren't interesting in coming to Buffalo. The fact is Torbor is ahead of Maybin on the depth chart and he was a free agent signing. He played in the last game and here is the link. http://www.nfl.com/liveupdate/gamecenter/54954/BLT_Gamebook.pdf I never made any claims about "Torbor greatness". Again: ?!? I'm not "defending" him. Your assessment that he "sucks" does nothing to dispute the points that he is ahead of Maybin on the depth chart and a free agent signing, which blow any argument that the Bills won't upgrade Maybin's position via free agency completely out of the water. You came on here and argued that I wasn't using "sound thinking" with respect to Aaron Maybin when all I argued was that it doesn't make any sense to play a bad player and that Maybin is playing his way off the team. Arguments that the Bills spent (wasted) a lot of money on him and that he is young are irrelevant to playing him. See: JaMarcus Russell or other big busts. Arguments that he's got a good attitdue, a quick first step, and is "athletic" really don't support the contention that he would be an upgrade at LB nor that he could be moved quickly to TE. You haven't made any plausible argument as to why the Bills should play a bad player over better players, haven't explained why Maybin would be a better player if he stood up at the snap of the ball, haven't explained why the Bills should keep a roster spot available for an inferior player over a better player long-term, and haven't defended why the Bills should do everything possible to develop Aaron Maybin because he was labeled as a talent by someone. Those were the talking points in discussion, not the army of straw-men. Hence: What the !@#$ are you talking about? Instead, you agree with my original point that Maybin should, at best, ride the pine and prove he can do something on a football field to earn his playing time. And, if not, then the Bills should cut their losses and move on.

It's usually best to work on the things that are under your control. By the way, just having the #1 pick overall doesn't guarantee a good, successful selection. Nor does it fix lousy scouting. Nor does it make up the talent drain which resulted from a decade of bad scouting and drafting in one fell swoop.

Thanks for the info, Steve. Yes, it is pretty clear what they think of Maybin's talent and where that train is headed. It's a shame you didn't get to follow up on the Modrak questions. It seems surreal that a team would employ a VP of College Scouting and then the HC would ignore all of his input and make up his own draft board. Maybe Jauron just called Kiper to get the "good vibes" on players or something. And they gave all this power to a guy that was a walking disaster at shopping for groceries in Chicago? Nothing (and I mean that) would really be that surprising though.

A lot of people thought Jamon Meredith was the answer too.

"All analysts" is factually incorrect. What the !@#$ are you talking about? The GM has already ruled out getting better talent? Got a link to that? What sort of moron GM says he's not going to upgrade talent on an 0-6 team?!? OK, you mean Nix said he's not going to bring in top free agents. Big deal. Reggie Torbor was a free agent, not a top free agent, and he's already well ahead of Maybin on the depth chart. So, your point doesn't hold any water whatsoever. But, no, I didn't mean go out and go crazy in free agency just to replace a guy that is 50-something on your roster. Why do that? An undrafted free agent might actually be an upgrade to Maybin at this point. Is it not clear that he's playing himself off the roster? And, that UDFA doesn't have to come today. I never said that Maybin had to be cut immediately. I have nothing against him coming to practices for the rest of the season. If he improves, fine. If he doesn't, well, he's a bust, which I said he probably would be minutes after he was drafted on this board. None of that means he gets a free ride into the starting lineup though. What the !@#$ are you talking about? The only important thing about his contract is the guaranteed money, which he will make no matter what -- that's what they mean by the word guaranteed. But, that's for damn sure not a reason to rush him into the starting lineup. Unless you're an ignorant tool who is trying to lose games and the confidence of the rest of the team. Sure. That's the only reason he is still here, btw. Nice to have you on board. You're making **** up here. I never said cut him today. But, it is totally clear that the guy was given chances by this coaching staff to prove things to them. They tried him at OLB with his hand off the ground and he couldn't do it. They tried him as a DE in pre-season and he couldn't do it. The tried him as a pass rushing specialist and he couldn't do it. They played him on special teams and he couldn't do it. And, yet there are still people that think if the coaches would just line him up with his hand off the ground, which they tried in training camp, he'd instantly be a good player. Talk to me about "sound thinking" there. The die for this season is cast. We're past the trading deadline, etc. It is ridiculous to just give Maybin chances he hasn't earned and doesn't deserve. There are other players on the roster named Moats and Coleman that deserve to get a shot. Moats, in particular, has been working his ass off in practice and improving.

Sure? No. I am sure that George Edwards has sucked so far. Maybe he'll figure out how to hold any offense below 30 by the end of the season though.

Being the #1 highest paid 31 year old OLB in the NFL is a lot of money for a bad player.

Oh, I got the point. I think you fail to understand that there have been two coaching staffs that have tried to develop Aaron Maybin and both of those staffs concluded that he sucks.

Wrong. The Bills top priority should be winning the Super Bowl and building a football team to accomplish that task. That means replacing anyone and everyone that can't contribute to that mission with players that can. Including Maybin. You are actually advocating that and suggesting it is the primary mission of the Bills to behave as a farm team and develop young kids that can't play the game into more viable players in their first contract so that they may be able to help some other NFL team when they hit free agency. That's ridiculous. Maybin can learn to play football in the CFL, UFL, AFL, or at someone else's expense.

Actually, it wasn't "officials". The linesman signaled touchdown when Ben's helmet broke the plane of the goal line, but the backjudge (?) was actually in perfect position and saw the fumble all the way and did not call a touchdown. But, once the linesman came racing in prematurely and blowing his whistle, assuming that a touchdown that he had absolutely positively no way of seeing, must have happened and that he needed to blow the play dead quickly (afterall the runner was a QB and they have to be protected), the play became secondary to the controversy of how to resolve his blatant error.

Pretty much. The guy had one trick in college: get up the field from a sprinter's stance quickly and disrupt the play. It worked against Coastal Carolina. Against USC, he looked like a boy playing against men. In the NFL, he looks like a toddler in diapers playing against gorillas. There is a lot more to playing LB in the NFL than being 6'4" and 230#. I know! Make him the QB. He was drafted high in the first round and has a good first step.

There is a way. As bad as Kelsay is, and he is terrible, he is actually BETTER than the zero trick pony Maybin.

Think Wade will come back as the DC?

Same stuff that made Pat McAfee think it was a good idea to swim in a canal and tell the cops he was wet because it was raining. In Argentina.