Sisyphean Bills

It's not really to the Bills credit that they can get rid of guys that play much better elsewhere and years later but are able to replace a player that graded out a 50 with a player that grades out a 51. Nice try though.

Speaking of Colts, Bill Polian anybody? AJ Smith and much of the Bills old scouting department in San Diego.

Leinart does look pretty impressive holding the end of the bench down, though.

Is that an entire defense? Thank goodness we went to the Tampa 2!

He's just doing a Whitner immitation. Pretty good at it too.

You forgot special teams.

I'd give McCargo and Youboty incompletes. Players that can't get on or stay on the field because of injuries just do not help a team, regardless of whether or not people speculate they may or may not have talent. Finding 5 average players in a draft is pretty good, although not exactly the foundation to build a contender around.

The 2009 Buffalo Bills: Want athletes executing well? Watch our cheerleaders.

Here is an example of hyperbole. "The Buffalo Bills are the best run franchise in football, and because they unquestionably have the best scouting department in the NFL, make shrewd moves in free agency that always pay dividends, and have innovative, proven coaching that's won everywhere it has ever been, the Bills are clearly the unanimous early favorite to win the Super Bowl next year." Your opinion that Jason Peters is just another average talent doesn't mean that other reasonable fans can't disagree and think he is the team's premier talent at his position. This discussion reminds me of when Pat Williams was sent packing by Donahoe and fans were applauding that move because Williams was done, average, overrated and easily replaced.

I don't know. Some Bills fans seem to think the Bills are better off by going out of their way to piss off and undermine the motivation of certain players, while rewarding mediocrity with others. Some fans think it is wise and applaud the creation of gaping holes in the lineup every year. Those fans want and deserve a bad team, do they not?

It seems the point is to "save money" but not paying Peters, because "he hasn't proven anything". The hole can be filled by throwing a top dollar contract at a FA or by a guy that got beat by Joey Porter for 2 sacks in 3 snaps. Make sense?

Hyperbole? OK, if it is obvious extreme exaggeration, then you should be able to list, oh, 20 to 30 Buffalo Bills that are better than Jason Peters at their positions off the top of your head. (The 11.5 sacks is, obviously, not a good looking stat. On the other hand, some of that can be attributed to bad scheme and bad adjustments; i.e., bad coaching. For example, on the infamous Jets sack, fumble, TD play, Turk Schonert explained that it wasn't Jason Peters assignment in the first place.)

What can the Bills get for Trent Edwards? He had some really bad games.

Since the Bills made no progress or efforts to resolve the Jason Peters situation, the chances are excellent that he'll hold out again (or be traded). That may impact whatever improvement there was. BTW, the Bills have virtually institutionalized the tradition that their OL will start out a season playing like garbage and slowly come on and start playing better. They've been doing that since Jim Kelly was under center.

Sorry, if anything he's less suited to play DE in the 3-4 than DT in a 4-3. The fact that he can and does play at an All-Pro level as a DE in a 3-4 should only make Bills fans beat their heads against a brick wall harder and faster. Whitner was the wrong pick.

So, let's recap. 1. In developing good young players, continued bad coaching is better than great coaching. 2. Injuries excuse. It's not Dick's fault that he has had a major role in overhauling the roster with his own guys and coaching up the depth on the team. 3. Bill Belichick was quoted as "loving Dick Jauron". Meanwhile, Belichick sprints off the field rather than shake hands with coaches like Coughlin or Parcells. 5. QB myopia. Who were the football people that decided to go with an unproven Edwards and a bad Losman again? Oh, that's right. Dick Jauron and rookie OC Turk Schonert. 6. Ralph is only 90, we can wait for the right coach to come along in time. 7. Lack of talent. See 2. Also, we know several games were lost by bad coaching decisions, not lack of talent. But, you got it right with 4. It would cost Ralph money, time, and energy to try and fix the holes in the hull of his ship. Far easier to give the bilge pumps a little more time and hope for better luck.

Nothing new, the Bills just put the cart in front of the horse. They rush to re-sign a coach that no other team would want before the season is up and they can do a proper evaluation, and they let their most talented player, a player that 31 other teams would be interested in, twist in the wind on his contract for over a year. Sheer genius.

So, a silent protest -- other than a few posts on a message board -- "works best." Well, OK.

It is sort of Hollywood though. If you want to effectively protest, you have to do it in a more publicly visible way than dropping boxes off at different UPS and USPS places. Organize a Bills gear burning. Organize a "Dump your Bills gear" collection site in Buffalo. Of course, if only 4 people show up, then Ralph gets an answer other than what you intended...

Think dartboard.

Link?

Agreed.

Not sure what you mean. Mike is pretty famous for having a highly dynamic system that he is constantly changing. His system is based on Zampese's system, but he doesn't put himself in a box. If you look at the old Rams offense, it is patently obvious that the principles of that offense was quick strike, vertical, and going over the top. They didn't pound it a lot with Faulk back in the day, but they did draft Steven Jackson later and he can pound the middle. (Edit:Faulk had 3 seasons with over 1300 yards rushing, so I'm not saying they didn't run the ball; rather, it wasn't a Joe Gibbs style pounding.) The OP was trying to say Trent Edwards was injury prone because of "Martz' system" and that he'd be better off in a West Coast offense. Obviously, that makes no sense because Edwards wasn't sacked a lot nor did the Bills challenge the back end of the defense much at all this season -- even when WRs went deep and were open, the QB went short. I'm sort of inclined to just call their passing design a clusterpuck, actually. Schonert said he was going to keep the terminology and try to be more creative with it. I suspect he was trying to blend aspects of a stretch system with aspects of his West Coast-like background. Because the Bills offense really didn't seem to have any identity, the philosophy is muddled -- and perhaps not just to the fans in the seats. BTW, just because the West Coast system is designed to be a short, ball-control passing system doesn't mean that one can't use other elements such as a power package or going over the top. Indeed, in the NFL, being versatile and being able to exploit the weaknesses of the defense is an obvious advantage over locking into a particular rut.

Buffalo Bills: It works on Fridays! Buffalo Bills: Hate your job? Watch Dick and the cluster at work.

Better yet, donate it to Goodwill and write it off on your taxes. Then you can fax the receipt to the ticket office with a big