PDaDdy

As stated credit obviously has to go to both but I think it has become more apparent to me that other than Woods and Levitre our offensive linemen are system guys so to speak. I hate the comparison but it is the excuse that all the Maybin haters have been using regarding his performance. They claim that Maybin only puts up the number he is because of the Jets system and take away credit from the player. In the case of our offensive line I think that there is merit to that line of reasoning. The players own testimonials seem to indicate that the QB is a very large factor in their performance. The system is designed to get rid of the ball quick. Fitz makes the quick decisions and does get the ball out quickly. On top of that as any smart QB should, Fitz gets the protections called out right and makes the necessary changes to help the o-lineman do their job and keep him on his feet and open holes. Obviously the lineman have to execute but they seem to be very reliant on Fitz's play and his leadership for the success they have. As another poster stated I also believe that if JP Losman, Trent Edwards or a number of other guys were playing behind that line in a different system the whole thing would look a LOT different and the line would give up sacks and negatively impact the run game. Does anyone know where you can find stats on QB pressures given up by the o-line? Sacks and hits are probably the only things that you can put a solid number on but I was wondering if there is a site somewhere that tracks pressures?

This debate has raged on at times regarding the o-line or Fitz being the reason for the low sack totals. All would agree it's a combination of both. I believe that the teams success has had more to do with scheme, Fitz's quick decision making and getting rid of the ball. Another point also made by Levitre is that Fitz is really good at calling out the protections and getting guys in the right place. Here is a nice little article with comments from the actual players regarding their low sack totals. The lines developing chemistry and second year in the system are important factors but it would seem to me to indicate that Fitz and Gailey's scheme are more important than the actual talent level on the line when it comes to low sacks. http://www.buffalonews.com/sports/bills-nfl/article688857.ece A stat I compiled from NFL.com regards sacks per hit on QB. Sacks of course don't tell the whole story on QB pressure and number of hits and pressures tell more of the story. The stat says nothing more than what the numbers say so you can draw your own conclusions. The odd thing that shook out of these stats is that Buffalo is tied for 1st in the league with 21 sacks but is 31st in the league in hits per sack at 3.1. In other words for every sack Fitz takes he is actually hit 3.1 times. What this stat says to me? Fitz is good at getting rid of the ball just before he is taken down. It also says to me that Fitz experiences considerably more "hits" and likely pressures despite the low sack total. Again draw your own conclusion. Team Sacks Hits H/S 1 Minnesota Vikings 47 73 1.6 2 Arizona Cardinals 52 83 1.6 3 Denver Broncos 39 64 1.6 4 Green Bay Packers 38 64 1.7 5 Jacksonville Jaguars 41 72 1.8 6 New York Jets 38 67 1.8 7 San Diego Chargers 31 56 1.8 8 Chicago Bears 42 76 1.8 9 Miami Dolphins 51 93 1.8 10 San Francisco 49ers 41 75 1.8 11 Carolina Panthers 33 61 1.8 12 Pittsburgh Steelers 40 74 1.9 13 Tampa Bay Buccaneers 30 59 2.0 14 St. Louis Rams 52 110 2.1 15 New Orleans Saints 24 51 2.1 16 Houston Texans 30 64 2.1 17 Cleveland Browns 37 80 2.2 18 Kansas City Chiefs 33 72 2.2 19 Detroit Lions 34 76 2.2 20 Dallas Cowboys 33 74 2.2 21 Indianapolis Colts 32 72 2.3 22 Philadelphia Eagles 30 70 2.3 23 Seattle Seahawks 45 105 2.3 24 Baltimore Ravens 32 76 2.4 25 New England Patriots 28 67 2.4 26 Cincinnati Bengals 24 58 2.4 27 Tennessee Titans 21 51 2.4 28 Oakland Raiders 25 63 2.5 29 New York Giants 26 66 2.5 30 Washington Redskins 40 107 2.7 31 Buffalo Bills 21 65 3.1 32 Atlanta Falcons 26 83 3.2

We may never truly know but just sign the damn guy as soon as the season is over. Apparently nothing is happening until then but it shouldn't take more than about 30 seconds to sign that bad boy if that is truly all that Stevie is asking for. We are all arm chair GMs but I would have made sure I had Stevie signed before I got rid of Lee. You've got to have you best and young WR under contract.

A little premature gloating I would say. Lee has been hurt all year but played through some of it. No off season to practice the new offense he is learning and develop chemistry with Flacco. By the time he had even gotten on the field Flacco had already developed chemistry with Torrey Smith in addition to Boldin making Evans a 3rd option at best. Given that our #2 WR for the last several weeks has been a backup QB Brad Smith and our #3 WR was #6 on the depth chart to start the year I am STILL disappointed that we let him go.

Those statements aren't inconsistent with their desire to get rid of Lynch. Basically it's all after the fact conjecture from source from who knows where that said their team would have given more. Trading away Lynch before the draft would have increased the likelihood that people would peg the Bills for drafting a RB allowing other teams to potentially move up for him. Not entertaining these supposed offers allowed them to keep it close to the vest as you say they like to do and allowed them covertly to get their guy and get rid of Lynch as they intended to do all along. I think we should look at it more in terms of "touches" including the receptions. Both have been utilized in the passing game very heavily depending on the game plan. Fred is going to be 31 next years so I would say 20 touches for Fred and 20 for Spiller. Fred has been playing FOOTBALL that long. Although not all of it in the NFL they are still footballs years and take their toll.

You did realize that they were in the process of getting rid of Marshawn before that draft started right? As I agreed with another poster I would have preferred keeping Lynch and Jackson and going another direction with the Spiller pick. Unfortunately Lynch's transgressions brought out the torches and the pitch forks and his days were numbered. The decision to get rid of Lynch was made BEFORE the draft not AFTER they got Spiller. They needed a young stud RB to help and eventually supplant the aging Jackson. If you didn't see that one coming I guess I can see why you would think Spiller was a luxury pick. For the people that knew what the plan was Spiller made sense and as DrD said was by far the BPA and at a position of need due to the hole the front office knew they were going to be creating by getting rid of Lynch. Oh and DUMMY!.... Grow up dude.

You still don't get it! How is something that you need a luxury?

You need to make a clearer point then. So are you the guy that said "he was a luxury pick" or were you the guy that said "as the season gets longer I'm afraid that he's(Fred) gonna break down. He's never carried the load for a full season so I'm hoping Gailey starts mixing in CJ a bit more." How about you get your thoughts straight in your head first then post? This way you will come across as much less confusing and won't seem to contradict your self. Nope I definitely haven't forgotten because people constantly bring it up when you even mention Lynches name and his performance ON THE FIELD. Like salve for a wound they repeat his transgressions to justify running a good, weekly highlight player out of town. +100000 DrD

Lynch was jobbed on that whole deal anyway. Plax shoots himself in a club goes to jail and gets a 3 game suspension. Lynch was not convicted of anything by the actual LAW yet the almighty Goodell thinks his actions deserved a 3 game suspension? He was sitting in a car with some friends he probably shouldn't have been hanging out in a place where he shouldn't have been hanging out and made a bad choice. Obviously Buffalo didn't see in him what the Seahawks did. I look at the draft picks as a consolation price not a bounty to be thankful for.

Sadly we aren't smart enough to keep them. Fans are more than happy to run guys out of town for being less than perfect human beings. Lynch and McGahee seem to be doing just fine. So much so that Lynch is on sports center every freakin' week with high lite runs. I'm glad for the guy but man I can't believe the criticism the guy used to get. Some people just have no clue that you can have more than 1 good RB. Simple concept I know but it is just beyond the comprehension of some.

I'm with ya on that one except for the fact that fans helped run him out of town. Sadly his days in Buffalo were numbered before the draft even started. I honestly would have preferred to keep Marshawn and Freddie. Same deal though you have these idiots that always think it has to be one or the other and can't be happy that we have two good guys.

You are one of those guys that just flat out doesn't get it. It's not Fred vs CJ. They are both good players. They should both be signed and playing on this team. The fact of the matter is that no matter how much you love your honey bunch Fred he is 30 and will be 31 next year. I know you still see the lovely young RB you fell in love with but to people with open eyes they know that his time is numbered. We can extend Freddy's career and incredibly valuable contributions to this team by not running him into the ground just by using a weapon that we had sitting on the bench. It has taken time but CJ is getting the pro game. It seems like you are pissed that he is because it might mean your snookems won't get as many touches.

Now that you have the benefit of seeing how that draft played out exactly who would you have drafted Captain Hindsight? You get best player available. Spiller wasn't a reach he was a TOP ranked player. He is showing it now and getting better every week. That being said I normally would be 100% with ya on OL and DL but we knew that the Bills weren't drafting OL. Some genius GM with half a brain thought they could make another Jason Peters out of 7th round pick Bell at LT. D-line I'm not sure who we would have gone after either since they might have still been considering Maybin a possibility. I had no problem whatsoever with the Spiller pick and he is showing how good he can be. Don't fret we can still draft LB, DL and OL in next years draft. Spiller with his speed and quickness COULD be special. Time will tell.

Thanks for recognizing my superior intellect. If it weren't for Spiller in addition to our THIRTY YEAR OLD starting RB we would be watching who?

What's the difference? We wouldn't play him. Fans would call him a bust. He would get moved to another team and would start to look like a star. There are actually fans on this forum that are doggin Dareus. Are you kidding me? The kid is out performing Suh this year without too much help.

BUT BUT BUT...He's a luxury pick bust!!!!! Don't you know he sucks!

We should look at his last year in Buffalo and look for progress from one year to this year. Let's not forget the lack of an off season, second year in the system, etc.

He is not that bad. He is 8th in the league in completion percentage(accuracy) and was looking like a probowler early in the year. He even did this without Lee Evans, Buffalo's previous #1 WR for about 7.5 years, getting traded away from him and before the injuries started to mount. He is playing with WRs that were bagging groceries or on practice squads with an often nicked up SJ. When he does miss he seems to miss big though. Throw in the revolving door of below average play at the LT spot and the penalty machine Pears at RT killing drives and he's done pretty well. He isn't nor is he supposed to be a guy that carries a whole team especially when the defense can't stop a nose bleed despite MD's honesty REALLY good rookie year. I seem to recall some other vital offensive component that seems to be missing. OH YA! Fred Jackson. You know the guy that was basically 50% of the entire offense? How about missing by far our best offensive lineman, their leader and center Eric Wood? I know this will seem like a laundry list of excuses but they are all VERY significant factors in the lack of continuity, chemistry and inconsistency on offense. That being said Spiller seems to be doing pretty well and improving every week for the "he's a luxury pick bust" premature assessment whiners. He has lessened the loss of Freddy.

You do know that draft position is based upon last years schedule right?...Just checking. The BAD team that had that record from the previous year DRAFTED in the 3rd spot. If you are looking to quibble over good vs bad at the time of the record vs the draft vs preseason vs early regular season(when they did suck by the way) that is just silly. Don't waste our time. I think it was you that said divine intervention...clown. the only thing anyone is proving is that you are putz. Not even sure what to say about that load of crap you just spewed. Seriously. I have no idea what your point is. Oh wait. I'll use your tactic. Thank you for proving my point so perfectly. Kyle Orton SUCKED. He sucked for them in 2009 when they earned their #3 overall pick and he AND THE TEAM sucked to start the season. Aces buddy. Thanks for making me look sooo good. The coaches made a move that was forced by the fans which they were PISSED about and ran Tebow down week after week in post game pressers. Ya they made a great move with intelligence and vision regarding their potential future star at QB. LOL. The fans left your awesome coaching staff no choice. Your coaching staff if they had their way would have made the Broncos a WORSE team. So how did the coaching staff that was in place before the draft make the 0 - 0 Broncos a better team? Speculate all you want but they didn't produce any results on the field and maintained the status quo until the fans demanded Tebow. If you never heard this before you are what your record says you are. Their record for 2010 was horrible. Their record for the 2011 season which had yet to begin was 0 - 0, undefined. Have a nice day!

Denver was a bad team which is why they drafted #3 overall this year. With a coaching change, a QB change, a lot of luck and their defense improving they are winning games in one of the weaker divisions in the league. Many teams have turned it around in one year from absolutely terrible for whatever reasons like giving up on the coach, losing vital players making a QB change etc. Sounds like you already knew that your argument didn't hold water as you already mentioned one of those reasons yourself, Tim Tebow. Just because you state it as a "cue the blah blah blah" doesn't mean that it isn't indeed a legitimate contributing factor to their turning it around.

Bills fans are idiots. We run good players out of town every other year and complain about the good talent on the team.

True the exception must invalidate the rule. Atlanta had to give away almost their entire draft to do it but you get a gold star for finding the 1 in 100 exception. So basically, "almost without exception", elite draft picks are picked by crappy teams that earned their high draft pick.

Why would you like to see him play at that weight? He seems pretty fast, strong and agile to me.

Not "disappointed"? LOL Don't heap all that praise on him at once. The kid is a rookie who has been switched from DE to NT and moved around due to KW going down. 5.5 sacks for a 330+ lb big guy? Pretty damn good I would say. That is without Merriman who was never going to contribute and without our only probowler Kyle Williams. I say A+ . MD has 38 tackles and 5.5 sacks. By comparison Suh in his rookie year had 49 tackles and 10 sacks playing on a GREAT Detroit defensive line. This year Suh has 33 tackles and 3.0 sacks. Considering Suh's suspension he and Marcell are performing at almost the exact same statistical level with the slight edge to MD who also isn't an idiot drawing penalties and fines. Hopefully we won't try to run this guy out of town like every other 1st round draft pick we have done it to.

The one thing I have noticed is that our DBs don't go up and challenge the ball in the air. Opposing WRs do to our DBs what our WRs should be doing to other DBs. Our WRs/TEs go anywhere from 6'3" to 6'7". How can they not catch those balls that Fitz throws high where only they could get it over a 5'10" corner?