BillsPhan

That's a funny misspelling...my gut thinks my obvious solution will never happen! But my obvious solution is that Andy Levitre go back to RT where he played most if not all of his college career (or left tackle, I don't remember) in college, and Levitre gets replaced by one of the young back up guards for the rest of this season. I can't credit Nixley with football intelligence, because I don't know who Nixley is. As for Buddy Nix, I am questioning his reasoning for ignoring the OL and QB positions since the day he walked in as the new GM last January.

I would be willing to bet that any second string OT on the Packers bench (or any team's bench for that matter) would be an upgrade over Green. I have no problems with the Bills taking their lumps keeping Bell at LT all year. This kid can be special down the line, but Green must go. I would love to have big slow Langston back over this Cornell Green stiff!

The Bills could not run the ball because our new head coach decided to pass the ball. It is really that simple. Unless Chan thought his starting OL were Kent Hull, John Davis, Jim Richter, House Ballard and Will Wolford, because he came out in the freakin' "K-Gun" formation and tried to run out if it like Thurman used to. Unfortunately, Chan's real OL wasn't quite good enough to run block from a half-stance "shot gun" formation. I bet it looked real nice in practice though. With this talent-challenged OL, Chan will have to put away his fancy shot gun spread formations, put the guys in regular three point stances for leverage, and use the TE and FB as much as possible before they will ever be able to run the football with any success. And oh by the way, even if the Bills had run better out of the "Chan-Gun", they would have had to average an eye popping 9 yards per carry to equal the Dolphins' 130 total rushing yards, because Gailey only called 14 lousy running plays to begin with. Most great running teams today have 14 carries by half time.

That's an awesome goal, and I wish you the best. Especially if you are an equipment manager at your college - nothing like learning every aspect of a football team from the ground up. Unfortunately by the time you work your way up to being hired by an NFL team, chances are high that the Buffalo Bills won't exist, unless that mystery group Jim Kelly talks about really does outbid other cities for the Bills after Ralph dies. And your ideas are good, as are most of the ideas fans bring up out here. But none of us are GM of the Bills, Buddy Nix is, and Buddy Nix ain't tradin' for players like Logan Mankins in this lifetime. Why wouldn't he have simply made Alan Faneca a deal he couldn't refuse if finding a real NFL starting caliber OL was on his list this past spring and summer?? Of course Mankins is younger and better, but Fanaca is still a good OG and was an UFA that Arizona signed about 5 minutes after the Jets cut him. As Buffalo Bills fans we are all screwed these days. It's obvious Ralph is keeping the payroll costs down more then trying to win the elusive SB in his 5th try before he dies. Now things could be 100% different if Shannahan or Cowher would have taken the GM and or HC'ing job Ralph allegedly offered to both men. Lord knows those guys would not work for an owner who was not committed to winning now no matter what they thought the cost would be. Then again, we know Brandon and Wilson met with Shannahan in Denver, and maybe the parties did not agree because of Wilson's "budget" demands for payroll, who knows? But looking at the current OL and QB situation that Nix has allowed to happen after being on the job since last February, money is obviously a huge consideration in Buffalo these days.

I'm pleased by all this? No, I'm very pissed off at the way Gailey allowed this winnable game to slip away and also in the process ruined a terrific game played by his defense. Now let me answer just "this one" and the other two questions you ask above: (1): Of course I don't have Gailey "pegged" for the season. Where exactly did I say that?? This one post was about this one first game of the season. What, am I supposed to wait the entire 16 games before I'm allowed to make comments about Chan Gailey?? Question (2): No, my predictions were certainly not proven correct after this one game. How stupid I was, to predict the Bills to come out in a power running mode and for "Earth, Wind and Fire" to combine for at least 150 rushing yards on 25 to 30 carries. Chan certainly had me fooled, huh?? (3): I was certainly NOT sure "we" were gonna suck. I thought the Bills would play a good game, but lose it in the 4th quarter by making one more mistake then the more talented and experienced Dolphins made. I had no idea Gailey would make it so easy for the Dolphins to win a game they only scored 15 lousy points. I had no idea the Bills defense would play well enough that Gailey and his offensive mind should have won this game going away. You may think my BillsPhan screen name is an "oxymoron" all you want, but I am a die hard Bills fan, and Chan Gailey and his game plan (for this one game), ended up being the moron today!

B.S. - when a head coach who calls his own plays runs only 17 lousy times the entire game with three good running backs, out of a shot gun formation most of the time where his OL has their elbows resting on their knees in half stances instead of being down low in full stances, that head coach has decided to "trick" the other team by passing more then running. New coach, new coach-speak, same old garbage on game day. I know it's only one game, but you only have on chance to make a good first impression, and instead of just lining up with Edwards taking snaps from the line of scrimmage and running 34 times with 17 passes mixed in, like Gailey basically promised the fans he would do with his "run-first" preaching, he allowed his big ego to rule the day. It was more important to him to be able to spread out the offense and have Edwards run out of the shot gun all day then to establish C.J. Spiller right from the first play.

So Chan Gailey is an offensive whiz who coaches to his players strengths, huh? Chan Gailey believes in "toughness and discipline". He will run the football, and coach Trent Edwards up enough to allow him to finally succeed. Yes siree. The O-Line strength is in the middle and run blocking, and their major weakness as we all know, is pass blocking, right?? Freddy Jackson, C.J. Spiller and Marshawn Lynch would carry the offense while Edwards would take advantage of Gailey's offensive mind with high percentage passes down the field - good old fashioned ball control offense, right??? Now on to the reality: Gailey called: 17 running plays and 34 passing plays. Somewhere out there Dick Jauron, Turk Shoenert and Alex Van Pelt are laughing their asses of.

I have no idea what a "Caligula type situation" means, but yes, you guessed it, Chris Kelsay is being counted on by Gailey and George Edwards to put heat on the QB. I'll believe he can do it when I see it. And I don't understand what kind of athlete Maybin is, every time I see him he looks skinnier. I swear the way he hot dogs it whenever he piles on late for a half sack or assisted tackle, the kid looks like a coke-head who doesn't eat and stays up all night or something. He has got to be the strangest DE / OLB I have seen on an NFL team - ever? I don't know, but if I've seen a stranger looking one in my 40 plus years of watching the Bills and NFL football, I can't remember him. I've seen wide receivers that look more solidly built then Maybin carries his "255 pounds". (I bet he's down to 230 if he weighs an ounce!) So there is your answer. Chris Kelsay and Aaron Maybin. Makes you wish Ralph Wilson had a sudden flash back to 1987 and told Buddy Nix to get Julius Peppers no matter what the cost, doesn't it? I'll never forget how Bill Polian pulled off that trade for Cornelius Bennett from the Colts. Those were the days, when Wilson trusted his football guy to spend the money necessary to win. The Colts wouldn't pay Biscuit, so Ralph Wilson did. Oh well, back then the best free agents weren't demanding $60 Million either, so you can't blame Ralph for staying away from those insane contracts. We'll see if Peppers give the Bears defense that spark to become one of the elite in the league again.

It would be fine with me if the Bills signed him. But I just don't see it happening. Wang is the man to back up both tackle positions (not to mention Jamon Meredith had a pretty good preseason), and unless Wang can't make it back from his injury soon enough in their opinion, I don't think Nix and Gailey think they need any extra OL depth. Of course, if the OL starts going down with injuries like they did last year, they might regret it if big Tony signs with another team first.

Yeah, you're right again Fair and Balanced Dog. Here's one thing I'm feeling positive about regarding this Sunday's opener against the Dolphins however: I'm positive the Bills will play a hard fought football game against a team with more talent, but not way more talent. I'm positive Chan's offense will be fun to watch and they'll score at least 20 points. And unfortunately, at this point, I'm positive the Bills will find a way to lose the game in the 4th quarter when everything is on the line and cooler heads prevail. However, if I'm wrong and the Bills win handily or they pull out the close victory, then I'll be one happy sarcastic, negative (realistic) Bills fan. My realistic prediction: Dolphins 28, Bills 24.

OK, for the "whatever it's worth department"....here's mine: 09/12 MIAMI DOLPHINS-L Bills use the element of old mistake-prone habits and lose late in the 4th quarter loss 0-1 09/19 @ Green Bay Packers-L Packers just too good for the Bills, especially at Lambeau Field. 0-2 09/26 @ New England Patriots-L Pats streak over Bills continues. 0-3 10/03 NEW YORK JETS W Bills win. Bills win. Bills win! 1-3 10/10 JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS W Bills blow Jags out, starting to play better. 2-3 10/17 BYE 10/24 @ Baltimore Ravens L Ravens beat Bills easily. 2-4 10/31 @ Kansas City Chiefs W Bills take the Chiefs down. 3-4 11/07 CHICAGO BEARS (Toronto) L Bills lose another regular season game in Toronto. 3-5 11/14 DETROIT LIONS W Bills are better then the Lions.4-5 11/21 @ Cincinnati Bengals L Good game, plenty of scoring, but Bengals have to much O. 4-6 11/28 PITTSBURGH STEELERS L Crunch time closing in, Steelers need every win they can get, Bills not good enough yet. 4-7 12/05 @ Minnesota Vikings L Bills get blown out. (No argument here.) 4-8 12/12 CLEVELAND BROWNS W Bills blow out Browns, end 3 game skid at home. 5-8 12/19 @ Miami Dolphins W Bills get their one great win on the road over Dolphins fighting for playoff spot. 6-8 12/26 NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS L No way Pats make same mistake as Fins the week before, but Bills make it close. 6-9 01/02 @ New York Jets W Jets rest many starters with division or playoff spot wraped up, and Bills play hard anyway to get Chan extra win over last season. 7-9 Overall, despite yet another losing season and no playoffs, I expect this bunch to play better as the season wears on, and I expect the offense to be NFL quality and much more watchable. 2011 can be their big move up year, if they play football in 2011 at all!

Wow, a Stadium Wall poster stating facts...what a concept! I could not have stated this better, the only difference is, if I would have, my "friends" out here would have flamed me for my negativity. (I've always felt that my sarcastic negativity is more sarcastic reality.) Anyway, I don't share your optimism about the "job" Chan has done so far, since we don't know what he's done yet. You said it best though, wins will tell us how improved the Bills are, and nothing else.

I was at that game, it was awesome right down to the end! Three more opening games spring to mind as even slightly better then that one for me: #3) Bills at Miami, 1989: Kelly scored the winning TD on a 5 yard QB draw right up the middle as time ran out. That ended a crazy 4th quarter comeback that came out of nowhere in a game it appeared that the Bills had no business winning. #2) Bills at Patriots, 1973: As a 14 year old die hard Bills fan, I had yet to enjoy my first winning season cheering for them. I was too young to remember the '64 and '65 AFL Championships, and I first started going to the games and became a fan of them around 1968, at 9 years old. (Yes, that's when the games were held at the entire stadium known as the "Rock Pile", not just one section of the stadium. If you younger fans think the Ralph is "old", you should have gone to games for a few years to that concrete junk pile named War Memorial Stadium!) Anyhow I digress. 1972 was an improved season for the Bills, with Lou Saban beginning to "turn on the Juice" behind the Electric Company. I was hoping for a good start to the '73 season, but never expected to watch Simpson run for a then single game NFL record of 250 yards rushing as the Bills surprisingly blew out the Pats something like 35 - 14! #1) Sorry to be un-orginal here, but the 1980 opener against the Dolphins, when the Chuck Knox led Bills beat them to end 10 years and 20 consecutive games of defeats, was my favorite Bills opener of my 40 plus years as a fan. This was not the same old Dolphins "No Name" defense holding O.J. or Roland Hooks or whoever to 68 yards rushing while methodically beating my beloved Bills to a pulp. This was the first game of the eventual #1 NFL defense-led Bills pretty much dominating the Dolphins from the opening gun. And it was the first game of Fergy throwing to rookie Joe Cribbs out of the backfield 8 years before Kelly started tossing those passes out to Thurman! I charged the field along with my crazy friends and actually ripped up a piece of the turf, I was so "excited" (and a tad drunk.) Fortunately, security was nothing like it is today, and I didn't get arrested. But that was my favorite opening Bills game memory. 21 years old with season tickets and nuts, and the Bills had become GREAT again! Life was indeed good that entire fall and winter of 1980.

Yeah, it would be nice to see all of that. But really, the Bills have to win this game if they plan on winning more then 5 games this season, don't they? If they plan on "proving the experts wrong", they really do need to beat a Dolphins team coming off a bad year in their first home game don't they?? Tough schedule, beatable Miami team within the division to start things off, sold out Ralph, fans pumped up - what more can Chan ask for? On the humorous side, after watching 3 years of DJ coaching, I hope the Bills win the T.O. battle too....the "Time Out" battle, that is!!

You are forgetting every team has a Pro Player Personnel Manager, or Director, such as Doug Whaley with the Bills. I'm sure Whaley knew Rosenfels was in play before the trade came down, or he was not doing his job. If Nix wanted to get in the mix, he could have, in my humble opinion.

Well it's like this. When a whole new "regime" comes in and goes through one full winter workouts, the main free agency signing period in March, the draft, mini camps, the second free agency signing period after June 1st, training camp and preseason, and comes out of all of that with the exact same weaknesses they had the previous year under different management and coaching, most expert NFL people would say the new guys SUCK at their jobs. And now on top of all that, the team is also saddled with learning new playbooks, schemes and formations. Bottom line, the experts predict the team to be worse. Sorry true blue Bills fans, (of which I am one), when your top free agent signing is a defensive end with injury problems who failed two other teams' physicals during free agent visits, the experts are not going to look upon you with very much favor. When your number one draft choice is a potential super star and yet nobody is impressed you drafted him because they don't think your offensive line is good enough to keep him in one piece, they are not going to look upon you with much favor. When your second and third round draft picks are good need position players, but played at lower level colleges, the experts are not going to look upon you with much favor. And finally, when Trent Edwards is still your starting QB, the experts are really not going to look at you with much favor!!

Of course you're not the only one who would have preferred Justin Hartwick to Urbik! Hartwick was the Steeler's starting center. But because of that fact, he would have cost Ralph more money, so of course, despite how desperately we could have used his experience and upgrade along our stupidly inexperienced line, Nix added yet more stupid inexperience instead.

2nd or 1st in AFC East? Make the playoffs? Thanks, I needed a good laugh!

First question, who is Urbik, other then an OG who got cut from another NFL team? You are suggesting this guy is already good enough to step in for Wood, so Wood can start getting "groomed" for LT? I thought Bell was our franchise LT, according to Nix and Gailey. If anything, Wood should replace Green at RT, if he is moved to OT at all. And oh by the way, in my humble opinion, Wood should already be our franchise center, and we should have already signed a quality free agent guard or drafted one this past draft, to replace Wood at guard, and Hangartner should be planted firmly on the bench as a good C-G back up. So as far as moving Wood out to tackle, I cannot imagine that ever happening.

Well, I'll give Nix some profs for picking up Martin, a 10 year career back up (although he did start almost the entire 2007 season for the Dolphins). But Urbik fits right in with his profile, a young vet with almost zero NFL experience....no surprises there.

Excellent thread! My heat-felt vote was 8 wins. My head tells me more like 5 to 7, and either way, of course they don't make the playoffs this season. In my humble opinion, there will be no Dolphins-ish 1-15-0 to 11-5-0 turn around over one off season for this group. The offense looks like it will be better, but this switch to the 3-4 defense, and the fact that all of a sudden Edwards (Georg of course), is showing some 4-3 looks, makes me think it will be a bad year overall for defense.

Who cares if there is "no longer a cap", and who cares what half the other teams in the NFL did? I am a Buffalo Bills fan, and looking at this roster built by first year GM Nix and first year coach Gailey, I don't see very much more pure talent then the team that went home from their miserable season last year. And the fact that there is no salary cap for this season, makes this roster look even worse, don't you think??

Buddy Nix may be the best GM in football for we know. But he is locked into the Cash to Cap budget set by Ralph Wilson until Ralph passes. Sure he may pick up some "depth", but it will be young vets with virtually zero game experience or rookies that he ends up signing - in my humble opinion. And if they are no better then the three OL's he cut, I will wager that overall they will be less expensive, anyway!!

Yeah sure - kudos to the "cash to Cap" cheap budget set by Ralph Wilson, you mean! Personally, I would have preferred 5 free agents signed way back in March, being on the team right now, instead of these 5 over-achievers who may end up having nice NFL careers, but made the Bills mostly due to the lack of talent on the squad!