Utah John

There's a reason we get to see Taylor's limitations as a passer -- his excellent ability to escape the pass rush. Put a better passer who can't escape into the same lineup and you'll just get a busted QB. That might have been a big part of the Peterman fiasco. Peterman started out hitting Benjamin on a tough pass, put in exactly the right spot. The our FB tipped a well-thrown ball to a defender and we were behind, and then Bosa and the other guy started having Peterman sandwiches. Taylor goes in for the second half and is back to his old self -- miracle escapes from the pocket, and passes that are just in the wrong place. Anyway the point is, if we don't fix the O line and the blocking schemes, drafting a great rookie QB is just a waste of everyone's time.

Here's another thought. Build an O line like Dallas has, and THEN draft your stud QB later. Taylor is adequate and is not the reason the Bills usually can't play defense. Keep him around while the immense holes in the lines, LB, and WR get patched. Take the QB in 2019 and let him excel behind a strong O line.

Lately that's true, but that's more due to the O line than to Tolbert. Even Shady has been stacked up a lot.

Beane and McDermott had nothing to do with Gilmore leaving. The Bills liked Gilmore but as much as Gilmore likes Gilmore, so Whaley let him walk. The Pats paid an awful lot for a pretty good CB.

You know if Belichick was doing this we'd be screaming about him cheating. So the Vikings figured out they shouldn't reveal their D until after the clock got to 15 seconds. 24-7 Vikes

The Bills did blitz a lot and the Chiefs didn't handle it. Smith was the reason -- he missed wide open safety valves, and he failed to see some wide open receivers in the areas our blitzers vacated. This WILL NOT WORK against Brady. At least not all the time. If all we want to do is punish Brady but lose by 50 points, blitz away. Could be worth it.

I hadn't seen that clip before. Did number 78 for the Jets really get a penalty for having Brady walk into him?

Gilmore's chickensh!t non-tackling is one reason to play Tolbert instead of Cadet. Although I'm impressed with Cadet. Tolbert might have Gilmore stepping out of the way instead of attacking.

We've been waiting since Flutie left. Let's face facts.

The only thing that's going to work is to sign Doug Flutie. That's the only way the curse gets lifted.

A 4 yard reception? Yes. Also a first down. How many times has this year's team gotten 8 or 9 yards on first down, and ended up punting?

A team with a winning culture and a good chance to go to the SB every year is like a bonfire. Throw another log on, and it will burn. The Bills had that in the early 90s and did everything they could think of to ruin things. Firing coaches, firing brilliant GMs, having a game each year in Toronto to make some extra cash. Keeping Littman and the rest of Ralph's inner circle in control of operations. Horrible waste of a great situation. A team with a losing reputation, that's not going anywhere that year or next year, is like a pile of wet logs with some kindling mixed in. You'll get a little heat but mostly smoke. Players want rings. They want endorsements and glamour. The reason Watkins and Darby were traded was they would never have re-signed here, and it was better to get something for the future than watch them leave like Gilmore, Gillislee, and Hogan. Who all went straight to the biggest bonfire they could find when they had the chance. At least we don't have Brady passing to Watkins to worry about. Since the rules are different now than when Polian built the 90s Bills, the only way to get the fire going is to bring in a lot of young, good players at once, before the guys here now reach the end of their rookie contracts and walk away. So stockpile a lot of picks and hope most of them work out. In two or three years, these guys are strong veterans and the team is winning consistently. The approach the Bills are taking is the ONLY way out of this mess. There's no guarantee they're going to succeed and considering how badly they usually draft success is a long shot. But it's the only shot we've got.

That's not called for. Taylor isn't the guy for the future because he has consistently failed to move the offense. He never throws receivers open. Since Watkins left, he can't hit a deep pass. He has this pride thing going where he insists he'll be a pocket passer when that's not what he does best. Taylor has God-given abilities no other QB does, but he insists on trying to be a square peg in a round hole. He needs to use his strengths and overcome his weaknesses as a passer. He's just on the wrong track.

He had two wrong answers to choose from, and picked a wrong answer.

These are interesting ideas that won't go anywhere in the hidebound NFL, unless the league's masters at CBS and Fox tell them to do this. My point is that you can usually tell when Bills fans recognize another year has slipped away, when their focus turns from the Bills to other topics like this one. Not blaming anyone or criticizing, but this seems to happen every year.

We all expected a crap team this year, going in. So much talent traded away or lost to FA, and no reason to think the replacements would be good. We had a pleasant surprise as they showed the "on any given Sunday" theory still applies, but now we're back to the team we expected in the first place. Would you be "done" if they had been playing like this from the start of the season, as we expected, and maybe now at this point started to play better? I really like the posts from K-9 and vorpma. Hang on and let things get better in time. There's no magic pill that leads to overnight success.

As true as that is, you'll go crazy playing that game. Instead of drafting Torrell Troup, they could have taken Rob Gronkowski. Every QB the Bills have had since would have suddently become much better, and the Pats wouldn't have had the same range of weapons. OTOH, this year they traded down in the first round, picked up the Chief's first rounder next year, and still got the CB they wanted. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. We just lost too many. Out of all the first and second rounders the Bills have ever drafted, only six remain on the Bills roster, and three of them are from this year. THAT'S where the problem is. Too many poor picks, too many picks useful only for a coach who isn't here anymore (Ragland for Wrecks), too many good players who left as FAs. THAT'S why the defense is so thin, why the DL is so weak, why the OL is floundering, why we have no WRs that demand special attention. And as far as we know, that great QB we need is still not here.

Want to know where our horses are? Check the barn door. Here are all of the players the Bills took in the first or second round, who are still on the Bills roster: TreDavious White Zay Jones Dion Dawkins Shaq Lawson Cordy Glenn Eric Wood That's it. Three from this year and three from past years. The first two rounds are where your stars are supposed to come from. It's no wonder the Bills can't compete, or that their D line went from lions to pussycats, or that their O line is old or hurt or not very good, etc etc etc. They didn't draft well, they made mostly bad trades, and they didn't keep the right players from leaving as FAs.

I just KNEW there was something like that going on.

The player the Jags have looks like the player the Bills had, but he's not really the same guy. The guy who was here was lazy, pampered, self-entitled, and arrogant. The guy the Jags have is motivated, just like he was when he was here in his contract year. Dareus has all the talent in the world. He might turn out to be HOF player in time. He wasn't going to get any better while he was here. And the guy we traded wasn't the player who was in his contract year, trying to impress. He's the fat dumb and happy guy who had his millions and thought the struggle was over.

I'm pretty sure one of the Bills was wearing 666. It's the only valid explanation.

I think they were worried that Darby would follow Gilmore out the door in free agency, and we'd get nothing in return. Also he did have a less good year last year compared to his rookie year. He's playing OK for Philly but keep in mind he's playing behind a much better, more aggressive D line that puts a lot more pressure on QBs. I don't know what kind of influence he was in the locker room. Could be he simply wasn't committed to Buffalo and may have let out that he'd be leaving when he could. As to the overall team, they're pretty bad, but this is exactly the team that we thought we'd have at the start of the year. It's only because they played over their heads and got some lucky breaks that we started thinking playoffs this year. That was never the expected outcome for the year. It was fun while the mirage lasted, but that's all it was, a mirage. The Bills are being built to win in 2019 -- get through this year, draft a ton of good rookies and pick up FAs next near, and have a good team ready to win in 2019. It isn't wait until next year, it's wait until the year after that.

The Bills simply don't have enough great players. They have exactly one, McCoy. Possibly Haushka. All their draft picks that should be paying off now, are gone. Watkins plus the guy we didn't draft in order to get Watkins. Dareus. Gilmore (although I never thought he was really that good). Darby. Woods. Hogan. Gillislee. Karlos Williams (not the Bills fault there). Manuel. So many busts or guys who lacked the professionalism to strive to win. So where are we? The O line good players got old this year, and the bad players aren't improving. The WRs strike no fear, so the box gets loaded and the running attack can't get past the first wave. (OK, McCoy got a couple of holes today and showed he still has it.) The D line that was so outstanding a couple of years ago, which was so deep it could roll two complete starter-quality D lines out there, is down to an aging Kyle Williams, a double teamed Jerry Hughes, a wannabe Shaq Lawson, and some guys none of us can name. None of the LBs seems to have the ability to understand what gap they're supposed to fill and to stay there, or to defend against passes over the middle. The DBs were playing above their talent level but apparently the other teams have figured out what our safeties are doing, and they're running routes to expose them. 6-10 or 7-9. Take your pick. The difference is where we draft. The only game we really should win is next week against KC, to hurt their record and improve the position of our extra first round pick. After that, tanks for the memories, 5-2. The good news is we got to November before blowing up. The bad news is we've done that before and never made a step forward the following year.

There are four reasons the rushing attack has fallen apart. First, lack of credible receivers lets defenses put another player or two in the box. Second, Taylor was not running as much as he used to, and his yards made a big difference in the rushing rankings. (Who's fault is it that Taylor isn't running? His, or the coaches? I don't know.) Third, the O line is not as good. I fear that both Wood and Incognito are falling off the age cliff, before our eyes. Glenn is still hurt a lot, and the right side is still a disaster. A lot of the problem could be traced to Castillo, the O line coach, or could be due to age an injuries. Either way, the O line is not as good as it was. Fourth, coaching. Dennison simply didn't want to carry forward what was working before. In his defense, he could have noticed the first three reasons I mentioned and realized it wasn't going to be good enough to keep doing the same thing. One other reason -- Tolbert is just not as good as Gillislee.

Rob Johnson looked great in his first start too, leading the Bills to trade for him. The point is, it takes a while to evaluate what a QB can do. It's good the Bills are taking a look now.