IronyAbounds

I think NE starts out 0-4, plus the Bills beat them at home, and yet NE will still win the division at 9-7 while the Bills end up 8-8 and miss the playoffs yet again. The out of division schedule, other that Jacksonville and the Browns is fairly rough. And Ryan is the Head Coach, so they start with that deficit from the get go.

The standing Buffalo - too cool to be fazed by anything. But then, I have a soft spot for all the old AFL logos. I so wish the Titans had allowed Houston to keep the Oilers name and logos when they left for Tennessee. The Oilers logo was cool and I think the expansion franchise would have used Oilers if allowed. I like the old Pats logo far more than the crap they have now. The Broncos might be the one exception, but then the Broncos experimented with vertical stripes on their socks, so they were kinda goofy anyhow.

Just another unfortunate incident for a team that has known little else for a very long time. None of us are doctors, and none of us examined Lawson or looked at his medical records, so no one on this board is capable of knowing whether or not the Bills' medical team screwed up or didn't screw up. I do know not all medical teams are created equal. Back when Amar'e Stoudemire became a free agent after playing with the Suns, the Suns' medical team took a good long look at his knee and they chose not to resign him because they felt his knee would give out after a year, maybe two at most. Lo and behold, Amar'e had one good year with the Knicks and ever since then he has been a shell of his former greatness and missed loads of time because of his knee. Apparently the Knicks don't have good doctors. It does seem clear that if Shaq Lawson could injure his shoulder enough doing a swim move on a tacking dummy, he wouldn't have lasted long at all against real live NFL talent. Better to find out now rather than in August when he would have been out for the year. Hopefully the bad news doesn't escalate and we find out Ragland's enlarged aorta really is a problem.

They clearly have a need at WR, but really, it is not like they are stocked at every other position. And, what good is a WR if you don't have a QB. 3, maybe 4 picks at WR, but 5 is just silly.

Bills don't need to draft a WR, just wait until the Browns cut three of their 5 WR draft picks. Sad the Browns franchise is so screwed up.

As much as I bagged on Scooby above, the bolded language is just so wrong. The guy was a tackle machine in his sophomore season when he was healthy the entire year and he almost never "got caught up in the trash" as you state. His biggest problem in the NFL would be pass coverage. He wasn't asked to do much if any of that in college and any tight end or running back with any speed would blow right by him.

I love Scooby Wright, he's a great kid and I watched him play at Arizona and he was great there, but I fear he is too slow to be an NFL linebacker and he would be useless in coverage. I think a better alternative is Blake Martinez from Stanford. He is quicker, has great instincts and can also contribute on special teams.

Frankly, anyone who sees the kinds of hits that professional football player absorb throughout their careers and doesn't think there is a very high likelihood that it has a negative impact on their brains has to be a bit on the slow side. The human brain and skull structure simply isn't designed to take that kind of punishment.

I was born in Buffalo and was a fan from the beginning of the AFL days. The Browns were my team in the NFL at the time and I still care about the franchise, so I know the cursed feeling.

I didn't need another reason to hate Ryan, but I'll add this one to the list nonetheless. Just goes to show, stupid people do stupid things.

If as now appears likely Incognito departs, the OL will be worse than last year, and there is little cap room to bring in quality free agents. But, more than anything else, Rex Ryan is the head coach of the Buffalo Bills. So, 7-9 or 8-8 is most likely, with the drought continuing. The only question is whether Rex gets yanked off the stage after another disappointing season. With that said, I HOPE I am completely off base and the team finally breaks through and we get to see the Bills in the post-season.

Ummm, because Rex really is so self-absorbed that it has to be about him and HIS defense, the personnel be damned. He described 2015 as a mixed scheme on defense, but it really was a matter of trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. The defense showed in 2014 it was very well suited for the 4-3 defense, but Rex could not leave well enough alone and had to impose much of his system on personnel that weren't well suited for it. His lack of success the last 6 years as a head coach speaks for itself.

It wasn't Levy, it was Jim Kelly who went to the pass rather than the run, or so says one of the O lineman from that team, who shall remain nameless.

Great if she's good at the job, and I couldn't care less about her gender, my only concern is that with so many ex-Jets players and coaches, why should Bills' fans expect the Bills to be any better than the Jets the last four years of Rex's reign.

I'd love to be able to spend half the year in Buffalo. Even though I only lived there my first 8-1/2 years I still have relatives living there and feel a strong bond to the city. Anyone remember Jet Doughnuts?

I certainly hope you're right, however, if there is no public money for the stadium, I don't think it gets built, and the NFL will be pressuring the Pegulas to move since The Ralph will be deemed inadequate for the plutocrats who run the league.

Ding Ding Ding Ding, we have a winner here. The team's personnel fit a 4-3 defense to a tee, and could have done the same this year.

The NFL's greed and indifference to fans other than the super rich is just disgusting. Wait and see what happens if Buffalo and the State of New York aren't willing to cough up big bucks for a new stadium. It will be the London Bills, the Mexico City Bills, the Las Vegas Bills or the San Antonio Bills once the onerous prohibitions against moving expire in the current lease.

If this thread constitutes an ugly discussion, I only wonder how to characterize the heated discussions that take place on the web concerning Trump, Obama, Clinton, Cruz etc. I mean, nobody has called Rex a commie Kenyan muslim.

pretty much summarizes my opinion, although I think 4-12 is a tad pessimistic. I think the team is talented enough to get at least 7 wins, although the schedule, to the extent that this year's results are indicative, will be tougher than this year's.

Any time you question any decision about a coaching hire, a play call, a draft pick, etc., you are asserting that you know better regarding that particular hire, play, draft pick than the person(s) whose made the decision. Using your argument, you should never question a draft pick because you do not have all the information needed to make that pick. And yet you have, I have, virtually everyone on this board has questioned those types of decision. You constantly have offered your opinion that the Bills need to get Taylor out of the pocket more. Are you saying in that case you did in fact have all the information needed to make that decision? Frankly, only a lobotomized fan would just nod and agree with everything their team does without question simply because they aren't an NFL executive. It's the nature of being a fan. And I don't think it is necessary to be an NFL Executive to conclude that Rob Ryan likely wouldn't have been hired by another NFL team as "Assistant Head Coach/Defense" unless his brother happened to be the Head Coach, which makes the hire suspect in the extreme.

Have you never questioned a team's draft pick? Or coaching hire? Or a coach's decision? When a team hires the coaches brother after the brother has completely flamed out in all of his latest three or four coaching gigs, I don't think its a stretch to question that decision, and in fact I think it's odd to simply say "well they must know what they are doing since they are in the NFL and all the fans are not" which in essence is what you are saying. I stand by my assertion that Rob's hiring could strain the coaching relationships among the Bills' defensive coaches. I may not be an NFL executive, but I have observed interactions among teams of people for many years. I genuinely hope I'm wrong about this hire and about Rex being a complete blowhard incompetent when it comes to being head coach. I desperately want the Bills to succeed again, sooner rather than later, and I'd love nothing more than to eat a bucket full of fried crow after the Bills are successful under Rex. Just not expecting it to happen.

Two Asshats instead of one. Yeah, that's the ticket. Another point, however, is that whatever his title and whatever his role, Rob's presence will be looming over Thurman and the rest of the defensive coaches and can very easily create a lack of trust between Rex and the other coaches (e.g., the other coaches constantly worrying about Rob encroaching on their responsibilities or talking behind their backs to Rex). This is just another appalling move by Rex, and one that should have been nipped in the bud by the Pegulas. Unfortunately I do think they are over their heads in terms of running a football business.

In no way can a win after a team is eliminated from playoff consideration be considered a great win. A good effort, perhaps, a satisfying win, if you dig being a spoiler, but a great win? Simply not the case.