Sisyphean Bills

Flutie didn't make the line any better. There were still plenty of jailbreaks when Flutie was in there, but he was just truly gifted at avoiding the rush and turning broken plays into non-negative plays. Johnson and Losman had the opposite talent -- turning plays that should've just went for naught into complete disasters. Last year's line wasn't great (the C position was bad), but it was relatively better as it didn't require a greased, over-clocked magician at QB to make any sort of play at all.

Pretty much sums it up. Gotta like the way some posters connect the dots. He's already prone to make a pre-snap read and get rid of the ball before anything can develop. With a new line and new receivers, the window gets smaller. So, the practical thing to do is to run the hurry-up offense, of course.

Not mentioning Evans by name is "going off the deep end"? I thought other Bills fans wouldn't need me to spell out his name. Yes, it's Lee Evans. Why would anyone that is not a dingledorf make a big deal about it?

Taking a stab in the dark, it must've been a killer neighborhood.

Well, we always have Fitzpatpatsack in the wings. He had a pair of excellent WRs last year to throw to and came out looking like a steaming cow pie. The olfactory assault lessen over the season (or people bought nose plugs) as he led the Bengals to the most ineffective passing game in the modern era of professional football. But, hey, TO and anybody are clearly balls better than Ocho Cincho and Whosyourmama.

Taz me bro.

It could absolutely, positively get worse. But don't let that slow the trumpeting of slogans that starting over from scratch is "an upgrade."

Well, we are talking about Dick Jauron and the Bills. I guess "one in a row" is good enough.

One can look at how Polian approached 3 different teams to get an idea of what his strategy is: Buffalo, Carolina, and Indy. In all 3 cases, he built a team by getting a franchise QB. He either had or got protection for his QB and went after an elite pass rusher. His philosophy is laid bare with the Panthers clean slate, when he drafted a QB, CB, LT, and DE with the team's first 4 picks. The team did not draft a S until after he was gone. He got a good versatile back and a productive WR. In both Indy and Carolina, Polian started with the offense and publicly stated they'd round out the defense with "savvy veterans" and others until they could address it down the road. The concept is to get a strong core: a QB, a QB protecting LT, a QB crushing DE, and a shutdown CB together and put ample weapons on the field so the QB can succeed. Not once did Polian start a rebuild by taking a pint-sized SS. While Marv Levy's tenure as a GM is once and only 2 years (absurdly short), he most definitely started his rebuilding with the defensive secondary. Other than a few really bad free agents, he did nothing with the offense other than wishful thinking that JP Losman was the answer. They didn't even address the pass rush on defense; instead, deciding they needed to trade up to get the last good 3-technique in the draft who, they thought, could fit the new system they were putting in. In year 2, after they decided Willis McGahee wasn't suited to their Mike Martz system, they decided to go out and get Marshawn Lynch and signed a couple of pedestrian lineman, like Walker, to fat contracts. In Dockery's case, the biggest contract in Bills history -- for a guy that was the 3rd or 4th best G in free agency according to some. Trent Edwards wasn't even somebody they were targeting; he was just a player they liked that fell in their lap and so they took him.

Is that all you got?

How do they expect to be any good? Oh wait... When is the last time the Bills went after and destroyed a weakness in someone else's defense?

Jeff Fisher is doomed without a great QB.

It's tough to win in the NFL. And, statistically we had a good chance of making it. Rian had a good day of practice of Friday.

We'll trick people this year for sure.

He dominate in the box.

The OP was kidding, right?

You can continue to cling to the fancy that Belichick's first go around in Cleveland was unsuccessful.

There you go! And, the players should all be wrapped in a minimum of 8 inches of bubble pack from head to toe. What about tagging guys down with lasers that the coaches can activate with a joystick up in the booth? That might keep players from breaking a nail and ruining an expensive manicure!

Outlawing collisions in football seems like a worthwhile pursuit.

I don't know. A friend's father was a mercenary in Africa for a few months years ago. Curiously, he didn't take the family with him now that I think about it. Sam just kept showing up at the HS. Oh well.

32.

When a team's offense has all the lethality of a squirt gun in a fire fight, other teams are content to kill the clock and play their own offense fairly close to the vest. Teams like the Patriots are going to save their best tricks for the big games. The Bills played a lot of poor teams -- 2nd easiest schedule in the NFL -- and still gave up 121 yds/gm on the ground. That's not in the horrible range (Browns, Rams, Chiefs, Raiders, and Lions), but it is 22nd overall and in a cluster of teams that were below average.

It means we were ranked in the bottom 3rd in points and average plays. 23rd and 26th, resp. Oh, and the Tampa-2 defense was playing as designed.

Never saw that one coming.

Just taking the starting 11 on every offense and defense for every team in the NFL, then the average team, statistically, should have 6.875, call it 7, players that rank in the top-10 at their position. Using scribo's list, he called out Owens, Lynch, Whitner and (as he put it "on the bubble") Evans, Stroud, and Schobel. A hair under average. Sounds kinda 7-9-ish.