tennesseeboy

Ah...the brilliant wit of PPP is among us!!

Lousy offensive line...he's got that. I'm not sure about his reservations on Fitz though. I didn't see him as any great scrambler or as a guy inclined to scramble (rebmember "happy feet" rob Johnson?). I think Fitz is a good solid qb but would not have opposed the author pointing out that Brady and Sanchez are head and shoulders above him at the moment. Spiller might be good, the receivers might be good and Fitz might be good, but unless we have an offensive line we are never going to find out.

Buddy... yeah chan? you think we can get a couple of those big ol fat boys to anchor our offensive line? Nah chan...we gotta get this little waterbug you wanted...Spiller..... Buddy? Yeah Chan? You think maybe we might get us one or two of those oversized veteran tackles available in free agency...? Nah Chan..we're going to get a wild card special teams qb......

Improving the offensive line didn't have to be a three year process. There have been two drafts and two free agency periods in addition to the possibility of trades. Using a tight end as a quasi tackle and failing to utilize a first round draft pick halfback because of lack of confidence in the o-line is not a way to build a team. With all due respect, we needed an offensive tackle more than we needed Spiller. The best way to compensate for a bad offensive line is to get good offensive linemen.

I am not convinced that we have all that depth at wide receiver. Do we have a lot of guys who wear wide receiver numbers? Yup...but Stevie is the only real proven starter. I would have kept Evans unless and untile someone took the job from him. I suspect that wouldn't have happened. Trading him was a mistake.

Geez...and I thought that video of Bush picking his nose was bad....

"The O-line wasn't as bad as some suggest." Now there's a ringing endorsement.

Thne offensive line sucks. "very good average interior linemen" is not much to build a team on. We don't have "very good average tackles" or even a "very good average tight end." and havent' had good players on the offensive line. Our only claim to mediocrity is two Jauron picks, Wood and Levitre and they aren't headed for Canton so far. The defensive line was even worse.

From today's washington times.... http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/aug/10/fatal-seal-mission-was-not-a-rescue/ a little different than the "troops pinned down" story that they were trying to feed us.

I['m kind of missing the good young talented guys we have that are going to replace Evans. Johnson is very good, Roscoe is a very interesting receiver, but I don't see any other receiver of Evans talent...come to think of it, I don't think even Roscoe is as good a receiver as Evans.

I'd have to rank us between 31 and 29 right now. We won 4 games last year and haven't played a down since. I didn't see any superstar signings in free agency or trades that would greatly influence the rankings. we suck until we prove we don't suck...that's the way it is. Nine wins and we will be on the upswing.

This Time article addresses a number of the concerns. http://battleland.blogs.time.com/2011/08/09/second-guessing-the-doomed-chinook-mission/ I'm still not impressed with the decision and certainly no one is satisfied with the outcome, but I'd like more on whether the rangers involved were actually "pinned down", and I'd like to hear more about alternatives to sending so many seals on a mission in one big target. We will see in the next few weeks.

i don't think going from a 7 win season to a 6 win season to a 4 win season is "headed in the right direction". I don't think this team is "particularly talented" particularly in relation to the competition (the Jets and Patriots for instance.) In order to make an omelet you actually have to have eggs to break, and I don't see the eggs in the Bills basket as of yet.

he took over a 7 win team and turned it into a 4 win team by changing the defensive structure to a 3-4 resulting in Schobel's retirement, failed to address gaping holes in the tackle positions, failed to get a quality tight end, over committed to a failing qb (TE) and produced little in the drafts to date to justify his administration.On the other hand he has made some quality pick ups in middle and later rounds (Byrd and Steve, for instance) and once he committed to Fitz provided some very good coaching in the latter part of last season. If he gets nine wins this season I'd be happy if they kept him.

Good point. I just don't understand why the military would not have anticipated that a Chinook going into such a trap was foreseeable. The Afghans have well over twenty years experience in shooting down Russian and American helicopters.Seems crazy to put so many highly trained assets in one oversize target like that.

Look... 4 win team stinks by definition. It isn't enough to say that are two or three teams worse than us and because of that we are fine. There are 12 "good team" spots and they prove themselves by getting to the playoffs. There are 12 "mediocre team slots" and you get there by having between 7 and 10 wins. The rest of the teams stink, barring an incredible run of bad injuries, suspensions, or other uncontrollable behavior. We have studiously been in the "stink" category at least since DJ (who was a lousy coach) left. Chan and Buddy need to prove that they can move from "stink" to "mediocre" pretty darn soon.

We go nowhere without quality tackles. End of story.

we won 4 games...we stink. In fact, I don't think we would be considered anything special if we won 7 games. Wanna not stink? win nine games.

apparently questions are being raised. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-14449165 HIGH RISK The usual American practice in Iraq and Afghanistan is for the QRF to be made up of US Army Rangers (less highly trained than the Tier 1 units) and for them to ride in one or two Chinooks, while the team carrying out the assault normally flies in a pair of Blackhawks. This way the Tier 1 men ride in two well protected helicopters, and the more vulnerable (and noisy) Chinooks are kept a little further from the target. On Saturday, for some operational reason, this usual practice was reversed and the Seals ended up flying into action as QRF to back up some Rangers carrying out a raid who had got into a heavy fire fight. British Special Forces commanders have long been dubious about sending an entire squadron into action in a single large helicopter like the Chinook. One SAS man told me that a raid he was on in Baghdad was cancelled because their commander did not want to take the risk of putting dozens of highly trained operators in one such aircraft. The SAS reluctance results in part from an incident during the 1982 Falklands war when a Sea King helicopter ditched, with the loss of 18 SAS men. In Iraq they switched to medium-sized Puma helicopters, two of which were lost on operations.

I heard we just traded Maybin for a fifth round pick to the Dolphins. Chan said it was worth giving up the fifth round pick just to get rid of him. Miami might have held out for a fourth.

Not really. President Obama insisted that we have two choppers on standby with troops in case there was a firefight. He knew what the military has apparently forgotten, that things go wrong and you have to have a back up. Apparently the military forgot the old rule about not bunching up in combat as well. I've seen enough choppers brought down by AK-47's to know that having one monster chopper going into a firefight to offload troops is not the best idea in the world.

you may be right...but remember chan and buddy started out with a 7 win team, went to a 4 win team and are showing no improvement. Sooner or later you have to set goals.

without solid tackles or a standout tight end? I don't think they are going to be explosive until they get those things right. Nine wins and I'm on the bandwagon.

Sully or no Sully we are hamstung by the people we have at tackle. We have to play the season in front of us, so I'd just as soon get a pro-bowler on his last year or two than the people we have. There will be fine tackles available in next year's draft so let's just go out and get someone who will be able to play the next 16 games.

There are still tackles out there. Matt Starks from Pittsburgh who was let go might be worth a flier. I agree that both tackles are vulnerable and the weakest part of the team. I can't believe we are going to open the season with the existing crop alone.