hondo in seattle

Let me tell the story of a NFL head coach who first made his name years ago when he was a DC and helped lead his team to a Super Bowl victory. That victory earned him a chance to become a NFL HC and he's been labeled a "defensive guru" ever since. But do the facts support the reputation? 4 times in the past 6 years, this supposed defensive guru's defense finished in the bottom half of the NFL! Clearly the game has passed Bill Belichick by. Because a good defensive coach will get his team in the top 5 each and every year, regardless of the circumstances.

I wasn't swayed by TaskersGhost original post. And his subsequent posts were not always written in the friendliest manner. But in there amongst the vitriol, he does make some valid points. But as a Bills homer who's always looking for reasons to be optimistic, let me present a different POV. TG suggests that as Rex removes the last vestiges of Schwartz's D from Buffalo, we'll see linemen dropping back into coverage even more often and the Bills defensive metrics drop in the rankings even further. But I don't think Rex is saying his D struggled last year because the holdover elements from Schwartz's D held him back. I think he's saying that his attempt to marry Schwartz concepts to his own failed. I think Rex would probably agree that it's better to either go all Schwartz or all Rex - just don't combine the schemes because the combo doesn't work (at least the way Rex attempted to do it). Rex was a good DC with Baltimore. He was the architect of a good defense his first few years with the Jets. Several successful ex-players have a lot of faith in his abilities. Then again, his defenses at the end of his tenure with the Jets were not good. His experiment with the Bills last season failed. TG praises Schwartz yet Schwartz's own track record has similar ups and downs. Schwartz certainly has not been successful every year either. Both Schwartz and Rex have proven they can truly suck at times. Both have proven they can succeed in the right circumstances. Let's wait and see if DW and Rex have created the right circumstances this year.

One of Buffalo's first NFL superstars was Ockie Anderson who played both QB and RB. He was second in the NFL in scoring in the inaugural 1920 season. In 1921, the year of the Staley Swindle, he led the NFL in TDs. Anderson's head coach at Buffalo in 1920 and 1921, Tommy Hughitt, was also his teammate and fellow superstar. Hughitt played QB, RB, WR, punter, and place kicker and was also one of the league's leading scorers in those early years. Led by the dynamic duo of Hughitt and Anderson, the Buffalo All-Americans were virtually unstoppable: In 1920, Buffalo went 9-1-1. In 1921, Buffalo finished 8-0-1, 9-1-2 if you count their 1-1 record in exhibition games. The NFL, at the urging of George Halas, counted the exhibition games. In both years, Buffalo was the highest scoring team in the NFL and had the biggest margin of victory. Both years, NFL leadership chose the champion and chose a different team amid controversy. Neither Hughitt nor Anderson were elected to the HOF. The curse of Buffalo goes back to the earliest days of football. History at its best.

Reading the articles about Corey, I'm not inspired to crack jokes. I'm just inspired. I really hope the Bills give the kid a shot. Incredible passion. How can you not root for this kid?

I was an archaeology major in college. I like to know the beginnings of things. But Ken Crippen knows 100x more than I do.

More Bills trivia: The Buffalo Bills played in the All American Football Conference from 1946 to 1949. We even played in - and lost - the AAFC Chamnpionship game in 1948. In 1950 the Cleveland Browns (AAFC Champs) played against the Philadelphia Eagles (NFL Champs) in the "World Series of Football" - a precursor to the Super Bowl. The Eagles were a great team and everyone considered the NFL to be the far stronger league. But the Browns won in a shocking upset, 35-10. But that was the last gasp of the AAFC as it had run out of money. The NFL agreed to accept three clubs from the AAFC into the NFL. Both the Browns and the 49ers were obvious choices. The Bills should have probably been the third choice. They had a fair team, did extremely well in ticket sales, and Buffalo was a big market in those days. The problem was that George Halas - who screwed the Bills with the Staley Swindle - still hated Buffalo and got some other owners on his side. The vote was 9-4 in favor of accepting the Bills but the vote needed to be unanimous. Baltimore - a smaller market back then with a less successful team - entered the NFL instead. The Bills ceased to exist until Ralph started a new Bills franchise in 1960.

In 1921: "Tonawanda didn't drop out either, although they played only two games because they could find no one to schedule." There's a good article on the 1921 season - and lots of other cool historical info - on the Professional Football Researchers Association website. The article mentions both the Tonawanda team and how the Buffalo team was cheated out of the championship. http://www.profootballresearchers.com/articles/Once_More_With_Feeling.pdf I believe the president of the PFRA, Ken Crippen, is a Buffalo guy. He wrote a book about the original Buffalo Bills (played in the 40's) and another about a Syracuse football club that played in 1890s.

Yep, I know about this. NFL history is fascinating. Did you know that the Buffalo All Americans were cheated out of the 1921 NFL Championship? There was no championship game back then so the team with the best record was crowned champion. Buffalo finished the season undefeated and in first place with a 9-0-2 record. We dominated that year but unwisely agreed to 2 exhibition games after the season concluded without all our star players. One of those games was against 2nd place Chicago Staleys. We beat Chicago in our one scheduled contest with them but lost the unofficial exhibition game. George Halas convinced the league to reinterpret that exhibition game as a championship game and Chicago was awarded the championship. (Halas was better connected than the owner of the Buffalo squad). In Buffalo, we called the turn of events the "Staley Swindle." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1921_NFL_Championship_controversy

Back in the Jim Kelly days, I couldn't care less how Frank Reich looked in practice. In fact, I didn't care much how Kelly looked. Practice is just practice. Timing might be off, skills might be rusty... that's why you practice.

I agree. We're all prognosticating TT's 2016 season on a relatively small 2015 sample. He just hasn't started many games and it's hard to know how much he'll grow and progress this season. One national media guy's opinion doesn't matter. I didn't even bother reading the Prisco article. I did read Dunne's article when he interviewed a panel of experts (3 former NFL QBs, 2 former coaches, and a teammate) about Taylor. That was interesting (link below). Personally, I remain in a wait-and-see mode. http://bills.buffalonews.com/2016/01/16/is-tyrod-taylor-franchise-material-nfl-expercts-make-the-call/

You can blame Rex for the drop in sacks and overall defensive ranking. A coach has to be accountable for his results. But dropping defensive linemen into coverage is not new, or unique, as many have observed. Maybe my memory is flawed, but I think I recall see Bruce Smith in coverage a couple times. And Rex dropped linemen into coverage the year he lead the NFL in defense with the Jets. Dropping linemen is not new nor unique nor necessarily a recipe for failure. I guess it might be interesting to measure how often Rex's defenses do it versus other defenses. Personally, I don't care very much about that. I just care about the results. Rex proved with Baltimore and in his early years with the Jets that his 'multiple' defensive approach can work in the NFL with the right players. Obviously, he has to continue to evolve his defense to keep up with offensive innovations. Does he have the right players this year? Has he kept up with the offensive changes implemented by our opponents? I don't know. I do know his 'hybrid' approach didn't work last year. Let's see what he can do this year with a pure Ryan D and a roster better suited to his philosophy.

Greg Rosenthal of NFL.com is predicting Gilmore finally makes the Pro Bowl this year. 6. Stephon Gilmore, Buffalo Bills cornerback: Ronald Darby, Gilmore's tag-team partner, is also a good candidate for his first Pro Bowl after finishing second in the Defensive Rookie of the Year voting. Still, it seems wrong for Darby to make it before his veteran teammate who also plays a physical style. http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000666098/article/nine-players-that-could-make-their-pro-bowl-debuts

"As a player in that system, you can see when power is taken away from a guy. It was evident in that situation and you saw what the turnout was because of it." Seems there's some truth to Rob's story. Then again, you have to wonder why Payton took Rob's power away in the first place. Rob says Payton wanted to run a Seattle style defense. Apparently, Payton had more faith in that than he did in Rob. So you have to ask: how did Rob lose Payton's confidence? Given his track record, I certainly would not want Rob as a DC. But I'm open-minded to seeing what he accomplishes in his current role.

I hope they include some of OJ's best Bills highlights. He turned out to be a POS as a human being. But he was transcendent with the football. To understand OJ's fame and reputation, the viewer needs to understand his grace, speed, power, & magic on the gridiron.

26CB, thanks for all the updates! I think it's cool that I can keep my fingers on the pulse of the Bills even though I'm thousands of miles away.

I'm not sure why we care about this ranking. Prisco is just a media guy. He doesn't, as far as I know, examine every snap of every game. That doesn't make him stupid, lazy, or evil. He gets paid to entertain people with what he says. And what he says only has to be moderately informed to be entertaining. We all know better than Pete what TT did last year. Still, none of us know what TT will do this year. Let's wait and find out - and hope for the best.

This was short but good. Bell is a physical therapist with a lot of experience with athletes. And she's relatively optimistic about Sammy, emphasizing the Bills need to be cautious about exposing him to sheer and stress forces too soon. She also mentioned the Bills have begun using 'blood flow restriction training' which could help Sammy. If you keep watching, she talks about Shaq Lawson's injury. She expects it'll be a 6 month recovery.

From jw's article: "Herman said Henderson has gained about half of the 30 pounds he lost since being listed at 331 pounds last season." My math says Henderson is now 316 lbs. How worried should we be about Henderson's weight and conditioning? There are a lot of vets on OBD. Thanks to all of them! I gotta say - in the belated spirit of Memorial Day - I was moved by the selflessness of my fellow soldiers when I served. Not all of 'em were angels, of course, but nearly all were willing to put their lives on the line for their buddies. I remember when football players competed more for the love of the game than the money. Loyalty to team and teammates was more prevalent back then. I miss those days.

No offense to you, John, but I linked that vid intentionally just to remind us how uninformed the media can be at times. Many years ago, I was leading a number of soldiers into a war. A well-regarded journalist from a famous publication visited us and asked a bunch of leading questions about the foolishness of the president's actions, trying to stir the pot. When that failed, he simply read a couple of incendiary quotes he composed BEFORE visiting my soldiers and asked if anyone would be willing to have one of the quotes attributed to him. One of my young privates agreed and became famous for a sentence he never actually uttered. I've taken what I read in the media with a grain of salt ever since. Media guys don't always know/tell the whole story nor do they consistently tell accurate stories. Thanks, btw, for your Henderson story which seems to capture what's actually going on better than most others.

I think Syndney, Australia, would have been more fun. Though I'm not sure why the game still exists. I haven't watched in years. NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy told Eric Adelson of Yahoo Sports in April three other cities had shown interest in addition to Orlando: Honolulu, Houston and Sydney, Australia. http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2641269-nfl-pro-bowl-reportedly-moving-to-orlando-latest-details-and-reaction

From what I understand, he has two documentaries in the works as well a scripted movie. The article is guessing he's retiring from CTE concerns because he's been tweeting about concussions. But the guy is enthusiastic about the film business and may have retired just as much for that.

Jason Cole of NFL.com puts together a video clip to tell us absolutely nothing (reliable) about Seantrel. http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2643472-insider-buzz-bills-have-long-term-strength-weight-concerns-with-henderson I'm hoping his agent is right and he'll be ready to play... but his agent is an agent.

As a team that went 8-8 last year, you'd expect the coverage to strike some kind of balance between positive and negative. Yet it seems to skew negative. Then again, the Bills haven't been to the playoffs since the Olympics were in Australia. It's natural, I suppose, to become jaded by this point. I avoid reading articles that are just opinion pieces (e.g. anything written by Sully) and search out the pieces that actually provide new information.

I just don't think we know enough about what's going on to judge how the Bills are handling the Seantrel situation. At one point Herman, the agent, said, "nobody has called him" but then backtracked and said the medical staff has been monitoring Seantrel's progress and some players have reach out. Herman might not be the best source. DW seems to be in the loop and Rex only said he hasn't personally talked to Seantrel. None of us are entirely sure exactly what the CBA says about coaches talking to players this time of year or what the Bills own policy might be. And nobody on this board knows what's going on behind the scenes. I'm giving Rex a pass on this one. I'm just glad Seantrel's prognosis seems to be good.

You may be right, but as Wayne noted, some coaches may reinterpret the rule to mean 'no contact at all' until OTAs just to be safe. It seems like the Bills medical staff may have been keeping up with the situation. And they probably/possibly kept Whaley and Rex up-to-date. But it seems crappy that a CBA rule may have discouraged the coaches from being caring human beings. The agent says Seantrel lost 20 lbs. I wonder what he's up to now. Herman is optimistic. He recently spoke to a top specialist in the Crohn's disease field who said that Henderson is "good to go" and "this should not impact his career whatsoever."