hondo in seattle

I really don't care how much national attention or respect we get. I only care about how many games we win.

If it's not really a crap shoot, why do even the best personnel departments miss so often? I've heard scouts say that virtually no college players are NFL-ready. The challenge is to predict which will develop the skills & attributes they're missing and which won't. Predicting the future is always tricky business. Look at Brady when he was at Michigan. He had flaws in his game and in his physique. He overcame both. Not everybody does. Or look at Thurman Thomas. His ACL injury in college created serious enough concerns about his future that every team passed on him in the 1st round. Yet he ended up in the HOF. ALL misses are for a reason. But despite spending millions of dollars on scouting, no team has yet figured out how to avoid misses entirely. Hindsight is 20/20 as they say. But foresight is 20/200. Hopefully Goodwin finally starts living up to the potential our scouts saw in him. He's a good guy with awesome speed.

McCoy, age 26, just strained his hammy. Sux getting old.

Listening to Sanjay Lal, I think he will. Lal rates Sammy as #1. Woods and Harvin are maybe tied for #2. Hogan isn't far behind.

I respectfully disagree. My memory is that he still threw with velocity and accuracy at the end of his career. Maybe he was less mobile, and maybe there was a little less velocity but I remember watching him pass and thinking he was still getting the ball to the right spot pretty consistently. The team around him wasn't quite as good and the stats suffered. But I think he remained a capable NFL starter till the end. I remember thinking at the time that the reports of his fading skills were overstated.

From what I've seen and read, all 3 QBs have been about equal this off-season. So I want to keep EJ because he still may have some upside. Cassel doesn't. But obviously the coaches have far, far more data points than me or anyone else. If they cut him, I gotta trust their judgment.

I'd feel better about his chances if he was going to be the starter. I don't know how he can prove he's a franchise QB this year when it looks like he'll sit the pine. I voted 1-25% because there is a very small possibility. I wish his odds were better.

I didn't grow up in a Bills household even though we lived in Cheektowaga. My parents and older brothers just didn't care for football. The first football game I ever watched was a come-from-behind upset victory for the Browns over the Cowboys. I've been somewhat of a Browns fan ever since - though I never got attached to the new incarnation of the Browns since the old Browns packed up the moving vans. I hope the Bills embarrass the Browns with superior talent and toughness during these joint practices.

I think Rex already has an idea and will know for certain after the 2nd preseason game. I think it will become obvious to Bills fans sometime later as we get reports about who's getting the snaps with the starting offense.

You're right of course. But as a fan who sees some potential in EJ, I'd love to see him work with the ones. In fact, I'd love to see all three work with the ones. I'm getting the feeling that won't happen. It seems Rex and Roman have seen enough to narrow the QB race down to two.

I'd love to see EJ start the 3rd preseason game so all three QBs have a chance to work with the ones. Unfortunately, I've heard as-of-yet unsubstantiated rumors that Rex doesn't give a pile of poop about my opinion, but I really want the QB competition to appear fair to all three guys.

I'd love to keep the 3 QBs too, but I'd hate to cut an extra WR. There's a lot of talent there. And I bet Roman would hate to cut an extra TE given how he likes to use TEs.

Great analysis. Thanks! I'm getting more intrigued by TT because he seems to have a legit shot at winning the starting job. When we first signed him, I considered him a long shot. But you gotta guess Rex is putting him with the ones this week to see how he looks as a starter.

Lal, the receivers coach, tends to rate him with Woods and Harvin, but a step below Sammy.

Another great article by Tyler Dunne http://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2015/08/15/rex-ryan-bills-may-inviting-trouble/tjOLjBWGVdD3U8CG4oQGrI/story.html Dunne is starting to grow on me, writing the kind of optimistic - but not unrealistic - articles that fans like me want to read. Plus, I learn new things from Dunne while Sully only rarely tells me anything new. Tyler is actually talking to players, attempting to get to know their stories. Reading this article about Harvin makes me think about him a little differently.

Why remove EJ's long pass? If you remove Shady's long runs from his career stats, he's a mediocre RB. Stats are like that. Maybe more fair would be to add in yards for the dropped passes. And more for the bad snaps.

This is all overblown. We do have some characters on this team. We have some guys who have misbehaved. But we don't have the criminals that some other teams have. The Bills have 5 player arrests in the past 5 years which is below the NFL average of 8.1. 22 clubs had more arrests than the Bills. The Vikes had 18: http://forums.twobillsdrive.com/topic/179776-nfl-bad-boy-rankings/

Especially if the QB is feeling the need to get the ball out in 2.5 seconds or less. Between our Pro Bowl front four, and Rex's exotic blitz packages, we should be able to make QBs feel nervous and/or get rid of the ball quickly more often than not. On most plays, Gilmore will only need to stay with his man for less than 3 seconds. That doesn't require Revis-like lockdown ability.

Who started the Revis-Gilmore comparison? I vaguely remember some article wondering if Gilmore could be the new Revis for Rex. But I don't recall anyone on this board projecting something similar. Maybe I missed it. A lot of teams win a lot of games without a Revis quality corner on their team. I'm with the herd on this one. Gilmore isn't Revis, but he doesn't need to be. He's a good CB who's going to play behind a great DL. Someone posted that Rex's defenses depend a lot on CB play. That's true to a point. Rex often leaves his CBs in man coverage and if the QB isn't being pressured, this could be problematic. But Rex's pass defenses are really predicated on pressure and we have the personnel to generate a lot of pressure.

It was good to see our QBs play well. But let me ask... Which QB is the best at intermediate to long passes? The old adage "You have to run the ball to open up the pass" has been turned upside down in recent years. Now you have to pass to open up the run. The better a team is throwing the ball downfield, the less guys the defense can put in the box. Tyrod is more exciting with his legs than his arm. This brings more players into the box. MC is better at short passes than long. This doesn't push anyone out of the box. Could it be that EJ offers the best complement to Roman's run game? I'm just thinking outloud.

Here's another point in Andy's favor. What if the RBs combine for 20 carries and 40 yards but the Vick-like QB scrambles 5 times for 60 yards? The stat line will say 25 rushing attempts for 100 yards. Not a terrible Sunday for the OL and backs - according to the stats. But the running game really averaged 2.0 years per carry. I'm a traditionalist and don't want to give up the traditional method of keeping stats. But it would be nice for the stat geeks to produce more sophisticated analyses of the run and pass games. A full evaluation of a passing game, for example, would include penalty yards both for and against, sacks, and scrambles. A full evaluation of the running game would include penalties, but not scrambles or kneel-downs.

Please, no more EJ threads!

It's about time NFL folks talked to this guy. But the caveat in the middle of the article is spot on... Of course, just because it’s been an effective strategy for one high school doesn’t mean it would be an effective strategy in the NFL. Punters in the NFL are far better than punters in high school. And the talent gap between two high school teams can be huge, which means that Kelley’s offense might convert a lot of fourth downs just because his players are a lot better than the players on the opposing defense, not because his strategy of going for it on fourth down is inherently correct. During my junior year in high school, our team didn't punt much. Then again, we had two RBs averaging over 10 yards per carry. Pro teams don't have offenses like that. Still, I think a statistical analysis of the NFL would show that most teams are too conservative on 4th down.

I don't agree but I love when people aren't afraid to publicly make bold predictions! On the flip side, I hate when people gloat about being right when they never actually stated anything truly definitive in the first place.

I'm with section122 all the way on this. I want EJ to be good because he's a Buffalo Bill. We pretty much know what MC is as a QB. I'm hoping EJ becomes something more than that. Alex Smith had 5 mediocre years in San Francisco from 2005 to 2010. 49er fans started calling him a bust and wanted him replaced. The year before Greg Roman became his OC, Smith had a 82.1 QB rating - the best of his lackluster career thus far. Smith's first year with Roman, he passed for more yards in Roman's run-oriented offense than he ever had before. And his rating jumped up to 90.7. The following year under Roman, Smith's rating rocketed up to 104.1! Why is it so impossible for some to conceive that Roman might help EJ get better just like he did with Smith? I'm not predicting it, but I sure am hoping for it. EJ's career rating is 78.5. Roman improved Smith's rating by 22 points over two years. If he improved EJ's rating this year by 10 points - to 88.5 - it would be awesome. I think it's fair to predict the Bills are going to the playoffs if our starting QB has a 88.5 rating. This is not an unreasonable hope.