Utah John

Too bad he didn't go to an AFC team, chewing up their salary cap and sitting at home.

This is a worse situation than we've had in the past. If Rex stays, the Bills will lose all their FAs. No one particularly on defense will want to play for him, and they'll take good offers to go to teams that can make the playoffs. C-ya, Gilmore. Glenn and Incognito will be gone as well, and the progress made this year on the offensive line will be lost. The Bills are headed to an absolute disaster next year if Ryan stays. When Marrone left, it was sort of the same old thing we've seen before, but we've never had players itching to get out of town because of a coach before. This is a a franchise-saving or franchise-killing decision point. If the Bills let Ryan stick around and try to rebuild the defense his way, the outflow of good players when their rookie contracts expire will never allow them to restock. They will hit rock bottom next year, with no O line, no defense, McCoy getting old without anyone to block for him, Watkins getting hurt, Taylor running for his life. The Bills will draft high in 2017, possibly first overall, and might then get the QB they want, who will be ready in about 2020 to lead them, but there won't be a team around him. The alternative is to can Ryan, preferably now but more likely at the end of the season, and to bring in a coach who doesn't want to fix things that ain't broken. Hire Schwartz as defensive coordinator. Magically the Bills good players will decide to re-sign, and the team can move ahead. We can either sink with Ryan, who will get canned in a couple of years, or can Ryan now, and rescue the situation. Ryan gets paid that $27M if he doesn't get another job, but there's a sucker born every minute, and an NFL owner willing to hire a marquee coach for advertising reasons will swallow the same bait the Pegulas did. So I don't think the full $27M will be lost. And $27M is peanuts compared to the agony of watching their $1B+ investment go down the tubes.

The Bills have bigger problems. Disgust with Rex is going to keep all our FAs from re-signing. We're going to have to replace Gilmore, Glenn, and Incognito, and no one good will want to come to Buffalo. The 2017 draft is where we should be shooting for. Our defense will be even worse next year, and without an offensive line our expensive talent will be wasted. We'll go 2-14 next year and have a shot at the franchise QB you want. OR, the Bills could realize the expensive disastrous mistake they made, and fire Ryan NOW. Hire Schwartz as interim HC for the rest of the year. Next year hire another HC and have Roman and Schwartz as coordinators. Suddenly we'll be able keep our FAs and attract others. The key is, Ryan has to go before he drives away all the talent the Bills have accumulated. It's a lot easier to replace one loudmouth arrogant jerk of a HC than to rebuild a defense like we had in 2014 and 2013.

The Pegulas spend. They'll buy him out if they think that's the right thing to do. This isn't Ralph Wilson's world anymore.

Trading Mario will be impossible. No team will want to pay him the salary that his contract calls for, and if everyone thinks the Bills will release him, they can sit back and make a more affordable offer. Maybe Williams will want to become a Patriot and not only make the playoffs for a change, actually get a ring. I am afraid the Bills won't be able to re-sign any of their good FAs particularly on defense, because they won't want to stick around such a disaster, and watch their careers wasted in futility. In any other job, a guy who drove an excellent organization into the ditch in only one year would get fired. NOW. Not at the end of the season, NOW. Bring back Schwartz as interim HC to let the players know they don't have to leave Buffalo to win.

I've been a Bills fan since the early 60s and this is the most disappointing season. Ever. The team was in place to excel. All Ryan had to do was keep Schwartz, and let his new offensive coordinator -- who actually knew what he was doing, compared to the high school coach they had the past couple years -- use the new talent. Ryan had a choice. He could be a hero and lead his team to the playoffs, or he could be an egotistical jerk who destroyed a powerhouse defense, because the round pegs that worked so well the past two years didn't fit into his square holes. Guess which one he chose. So now the city and Bills fans all across the world have to suffer because of this egotistical, arrogant jerk. No coach in the league could stop the Bills defense. Except Rex Ryan, who's completely neutralized it. Thanks Rex. Back to the drawing board, and hoping the stars align again three coaches and eight QBs into the future. And maybe even a new owner and a new city into the future. The damage this guy has done is incredible. And guess what, he's just getting started. Ryan will want to tear this house down to the studs so he can rebuild it in his image. I'm just disgusted, and what's worse, for the first time in decades I don't think next year will be better.

Yes, bring him in as an unsigned wannabee, so the comparison with TT shows how much better TT is. If Bradford wants to be a minimum pay backup, he'd be a better option than EJ.

I watched the Dean Blandino clip for this week just now. He specifically mentions the Bills-Eagles non-call on offensive pass interference as being correct because the contact between the receiver and Corey Graham happened at the same time as the catch. I was able to stop that playback with a picture showing the receiver hitting Graham while the ball was in the air. By Blandino's explanation, that should have been OPI. If someone can tell me how to do a screen capture of this, I'll post it. Or you can do it yourself. It's at the 3:01 mark of the clip. You need to start and stop repeatedly to get the image showing the foul, but with some patience you can do it.

Just wondering if the NFL has acknowledged the refs blew the call on the Ertz play, where offensive pass interference was not called, giving McKelvin a chance to dance with Ertz for 41 yards down the sideline to set up the winning field goal. Seems like almost every game the NFL has to apologize to the Bills for blowing a key call late in a game with devastating results for the Bills. I will agree that in most cases the Bills could have overcome the ref's bad call with a good showing on the next play, but that's no excuse for the bad call in the first place.

This was exactly my thinking when they announced the trade with Cleveland. Why else pay such a high cost to move up a few spots -- obviously to get the premier talent in the draft. I remember many pundits suggesting Mack should be the top pick, over Clowney (and he's turned out to be a better player than Clowney, too). I did think Watkins was the best receiver in the draft, to be honest, and I still think he's going to be a great player, I did not see Beckham developing like he has. Of course he has Manning throwing to him so that's a big advantage also. Also Kiko has not figured out the pro game, or offensive coordinators have figured out how to beat him. On the Bills TD run on Sunday, Kiko was in position but overran the play. How many times did we see him do that for Buffalo?

Overall Whaley has done a very good job at picking talent, but not so much at picking character or intelligence. Sometimes a questionable character pick, say, Incognito, turns out to be a really good player who just needed to grow up a bit to become a valuable contributor, yesterday notwithstanding. OTOH Jerry Hughes is either stupid or crazy or some body part south of the waist. This past week Ryan was interviewed about the Shady trade, and he said something to the effect of, we needed a running back and we weren't sure what would happen with CJ Spiller being a free agent. Not a word about Fred Jackson. Granted FJ was not the most explosive back but Ryan and Whaley completely disregarded the effect leadership has on a player's worth. Mario is a highly talented player and he wants to be in a scheme where he can use his talents. There are a lot of people like that. The problem is that he's now in a scheme where his talents are wasted. He does not play hard most of the time, and everyone sees it. This is not leadership. It's not really poor character, it's more that his personality doesn't bring that out. He's a great player, don't get me wrong, but that part of the package isn't there. Dareus plays well but not to his full capacity. That's a shame. The Kyle Williams injury and the FJ release cut the two great leaders of the team out from under everyone. Who's going to step up? TT? I wish he would, but I get the feeling the Bills FO isn't sold on him and so the other players aren't all in either. I'm beginning to think Sammie Watkins is looking around for teams to jump to when he becomes a free agent, since like Mario Williams he isn't being given a chance to shine, ether, at least in his eyes. That will be two first round picks walking out the door when that happens. Anyway I don't see Sammie showing the kind of leadership the offense needs. The leader probably should be McCoy but here again he seems an on-again, off-again type, not the guy the others listen to.

Time after time yesterday, the refs made questionable calls or non-calls in favor of Philly. I think they just get their eyes glued to the Bills and don't watch the other team. Several times this year the NFL has admitted the refs made bad calls that cost the Bills chances to win, and I think the refs are tired of being embarrassed. So instead of improving their own performance, they hammer the Bills. The non-call on the offensive pass interference on the 41 yard gain that set up the winning field goal was just the worst example. I am not sure that all the neutral zone infractions against the D line were actually in the neutral zone. The D line would sometimes move but I think were far enough back not to actually enter the neutral zone. But the Eagles O line, Jason Peters in particular, would immediately jump up whenever this happened. Up to a few years ago, there was no penalty for defensive players causing an offensive player to jump out of his set. Then they changed the rule basically to protect offensive linemen who wouldn't have to sit still and be whacked by the guy across from him. But it's gotten so extreme that defensive linemen can't jump at all, even if they stay outside the neutral zone. I think the Eagles O line has been coached to act this way, which is actually smart under the current rules, but I think the league should be considering changing that rule again. Speaking of Jason Peters, did anyone hear the announcers mention he was a former Bill?

Every player on the field could be crippled on every play. It's the nature of the game, and it's only because most of the serious injuries are to limbs or are slow-progressing like brain damage, that we shrug and hope the guy is OK, then forget about him. The gruesome, crippling injuries to the nervous system are rare. If I had Aaron Williams' athletic ability, I don't know if I'd play pro football in the first place, considering the risk and the fact that I want to be a healthy mobile old man some day. But since I don't have even 1% of Aaron Williams' athletic ability I can't put myself in his shoes. So if he makes the choice to go back out on the field, who are we to tell him it's a mistake?

I looked at Mulligan as a shorter version of Scott Chandler. Also less talented, which some may find impossible to be.

Shoot, half the people in Philly are standing in line to complain to Lurie about Chip's offense. DeMarco will have to take a number.

I am optimistic about Glenn. There are better OTs out there that should command the most interest, but he's done well for us this year. I certainly would welcome him back for less-than-top dollar. I think a deal is doable. Incognito ought to be an easy signing. He HAS to be grateful to the Bills for getting him back in the league, and I think he likes playing for guys with Rex's and Kromer's attitude. He's worth pretty big money. But he's a guard, not a tackle, so there ought to be a limit there too. I don't know what to think about right tackle. Two draft picks from last year who ought to be striving to improve, and neither one is grabbing the job. RT is often a stretch for a first rounder, but it won't be a particularly high first rounder so it could make sense. And, what other areas of need do the Bills have at the moment? Depending on what FAs they lose, they might have a hole to fill, but they have no other big weaknesses. I would like to see another talented WR, but that's about it.

Any outcome for the final four games, from 4-0 to 0-4 and everything in between, is possible. Seems to me we should be hoping for the Jaguars to win their division, since we have the tie breaker with both Indy and Houston for the wild card.

OK, there's still a chance to make the playoffs. There's a grab bag of so-so teams following the three good ones in the AFC, and why shouldn't the Bills be one of the teams that gets in. Also, OK, there's a chance that Ryan really knows what he's doing, and he sees that the Bills defenses the past two years were really good but not good enough to win (not that I buy that at all) so he's blowing up the defense to bring in the players he needs to fashion the modern defense he knows (yeah, right) is the right approach to win. Really, though, Ryan isn't that smart. The Bills defensive collapse (no Mario, no Kyle, no Gilmore, no McKelvin) will take them to the division cellar next year, and we'll be a bottom five team going into the 2017 draft. Still not bad enough to get the QB we need for the long haul. And Shady will be old or cut and still using up salary cap space. Here's to 2020 when the next three-year plan will come to fruition.

The fact is, Rex Ryan took a defense that was near the top of the league the past two years, returning most of its players and adding a rookie CB who exceeded all expectations. And he ruined it. It's a below-average group that can't stop anyone now. The players can't use their abilities and they're asked to do things they're not good at. And it's December and they still don't say they understand what they're supposed to do. The offense is much better but than under Hackett, thanks to Roman and not Ryan. So if the only thing saving Ryan's job is fear of starting over, that's not much to go on. Better to pitch Ryan than to pitch all the talent and money invested in the defense, before he gets to work during the offseason getting rid of players like Mario Williams who don't fit his way of doing things. It takes a lot longer to assemble a powerful defense like Pettine and Schwartz used so well, than to bring in a coach who isn't too arrogant and stupid to take advantage of the players he had available.

I saw this article about how the Washington players are holding each other accountable for mistakes during practices: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/dc-sports-bog/wp/2015/11/30/after-a-players-only-meeting-the-redskins-are-in-first-place-theyre-also-ticked-off/ I wonder if this kind of professional, tough, demanding environment would help the Bills avoid mistakes, penalties, etc. Also as we're talking about maybe running the table against easy teams to get in at 10-6, remember the other teams including Washington are looking at the Bills as an easy win too.

Does anyone know what kind of training the refs go through at the start of a season? Is there any kind of camp where they go and explain to everyone what each subjective rule means and how to interpret it? It would be less bad if they were all screwing up the same way all the time, instead of what appears to be a personal interpretation by each guy. The league could bring in current or retired players, or college players, and have them run through plays where one of the guys is supposed to break a rule, and all the refs in training would make the call. Do the refs get together once a week by Skype or similar technology, to go over all the bad calls, to discuss trends the league has noticed, etc? I would really like to be a fly on the wall if Gene Steratore had to explain to his peers, by Skype or in person, how the heck he made up a different rule about where to place the ball after an inadvertent whistle. This would be an uncomfortable situation for the guys who had made mistakes, but when you consider what's at stake for players and coaches, who could miss out on playoffs or get fired, I have little sympathy.

This is absolutely not on Whaley. He brought in the talent, making a lot more hits than misses. I think he has the salary cap under control for the next several years. He's doing everything in his power to build this team. It was the Rex hire that looks so bad in retrospect. Just destroyed a dominant defense, and doesn't use it to its full advantage. With a decent pass rush, Alex Smith does not hit all those long passes. The Bills were rushing four and sometimes three most of the game. Seriously? Is that how you take advantage of a O line with three starters hurt, two of whom are out? STUPID. STUBBORN.

My question is, does anyone doubt that Jim Schwartz's defense, plus Greg Roman's offense, would have any problem making the playoffs? Last year the Bills had a High School-grade offensive coordinator. This year they have a real one. And they have a good QB, Shady, Sammy, Clay, and an O line that is doing a lot better than anyone expected. The offense is making plays and sustaining drives. The defense is crumbling at the worst possible times. Last week Ryan looked really good against the Patriots. Brady was confused and needed a couple of breaks to beat the Bills. Is Alex Smith a better QB than Tom Brady, so that Ryan was afraid to try the same tactics he used against the Pats? Seriously?

The guy's a freakin' genius, I tell you. First he figures out what no offensive coordinator could do the past two years, neutralize the Bills' pass rush. Now he figures out what the KC defense couldn't, how to shut down Sammy Watkins. Pure genius.

I'm not completely sure Schmidt was hit on that play. It looked like the Patriot player slid underneath while Schmidt was in the air, and to avoid the Patriot, Schmidt fell forward. It's possible that there was contact between the two of them, but I couldn't really tell one way or the other. The official was right there watching, not that that would have been enough to prove anything for that crew.