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Yeah, I like Marrone. I like his resume. I like the messages he's been sending. But the Crossman hire stinks of cronyism. Here's an excerpt from a recent BN article about Marrone and his coaching history: That led to a job as offensive line aide at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, coached by Bill Schmitz, who had coached with the Monarchs. “He offered me the job, and it might have been $7,000 a year,” Marrone said. “I took it. He was shocked. He made me sign a napkin. That was my first coaching contract, on a napkin at some restaurant in New London, Conn.” Marrone immediately cut his salary in half, giving $3,500 to good friend and former Monarchs teammate Danny Crossman to join the Coast Guard staff. Crossman is now the Bills’ special teams coach. http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130713/SPORTS/130719545/two-bills-drive-1004 Crossman and Marrone go way back and maybe Marrone feels he owes Crossman a chance. But as the old saying goes, the best predictor of future success is past success. Crossman doesn't have a lot of past success and it won't excite me to see him on the Bills sideline.

Any predictions or worries based on the track record of the "past 13 years" are spurious. We have a new GM, HC, OC, and DC. And as San Jose points out, there's been huge changes to the roster. I'm not sure yet what this is, but it isn't the Bills of old. And I don't get how on paper the Bills look like a "disfunctional [sic] mess." Other than the big question mark at QB, they look a lot like most other NFL teams: some good players, some not-so-good.

+1 Well said.

If he's good, he gets his first HC interview 2 years from now and departs within 4 or 5 years. If he's bad, he gets fired within 2 years. If he's merely mediocre, he lasts 3 or 4 years. Some of this depends on Marrone's tenure. If we get a new HC, Pettine probably gets replaced at the same time. Too many variables.

I guess your point is that even if Kolb excels in preseason, we should still start EJ. If we don't, it proves our coaches don't have balls. I disagree. Never forget - JaMarcus Russell was a first round draft pick. I don't think we should hand the job to EJ just because he played well in college and got picked in the 1st round. Just like preseason, that proves nothing. Lots of collegiate stars crash and burn in the NFL. When Marrone said it was an open competition, I think he was honest and I think he was right. I don't want us to pull an Al Davis and start EJ for 3 years just because we used a high pick on the guy. I want EJ to earn the job by beating out Kolb. If he can't beat out Kolb in a fair competition it probably means EJ just isn't NFL material. On top of that, EJ won't earn the respect of his teammates if he's just handed the starting job. They'll rally around him, though, if he earns his starts.

Kevin Kolb has only 21 NFL starts and has been injured much of his career.. Effectively, he's a NFL sophomore. I don't think, given his paucity of playing time, we can yet assess his ceiling with absolute certainty. I think he's done enough good things in his limited experience as a starter to at least suggest the possibility that he's capable of more. EJ is a rookie. Like any rookie QB, even 1st round rookies, his chances of NFL stardom aren't great. But there is a chance. Kolb and EJ - combined - give me something I haven't felt in a while: HOPE. We knew what we had in Fitz. We knew his strengths and we knew his weaknesses. Unfortunately, so did our opponents. We really don't know what we have in Kolb and EJ. Maybe both end up failing, who knows? But I'm beginning this season more hopeful in our QB play than I began last season. And for that I'm grateful.

I know lots of people are expecting CJ to have a great year this because Chan won't be under-utilizing him anymore. But I'm not convinced CJ was significantly underutilized by Chan. CJ had 1244 yards rushing last year and 459 receiving. With 1700 yards from the LOS, Spiller was highly productive in Chan's offense. And the Bills finished 6th in the league in rushing. None of these stats scream COACHING FAILURE. And it's not like Freddy is chopped liver. Obviously, Freddy was hurt last year and there were times when Tashard Choice was in for CJ and those moments were hard to understand. But if Marrone or Hackett pulls CJ out for a breather to let Freddy play, I won't cry. Freddy is a great back, too.

Good questions, one and all. Given the available options, signing Kolb and drafting EJ was about the best course I could imagine. Not to say it will work out, but I'm ever hopeful.

I know it's not popular to defend Kraft but I think he's being genuine here. From the article... "No one in our organization was aware of any of these kind of connections. If it's true, I'm just shocked. Our whole organization was duped." Calling Hernandez a "most likeable young man," Kraft painted the picture of a player who often said the right things but had trouble following through in the end. Hernandez impressed the Patriots after the 2010 NFL Draft by sending a letter asking for trust and agreeing to bi-weekly drug tests throughout his rookie season. Hernandez went on to convince Kraft that his goal was to be a role model in the Hispanic community. "I believed him," Kraft said. "... He knew how to push my buttons."

Really? How? I've watched many on the internet (primarily on JustinTV) but some Sundays I couldn't find a rebroadcast of the game.

Interesting chart showing both projected most common line up and quality of players. Based on this, our glaring weaknesses are WR, LG and CB. Anyone disagree?

#23 Buffalo Bills: (C.J. Spiller, Stevie Johnson, Fred Jackson, Robert Woods, Scott Chandler) Not to be a homer but I would rate us better than #23. The only weak link here is Robert Woods who is 'weak' only by virtue of being unproven at the NFL level. Chandler is an okay TE, CJ and Freddy are a great RB duo and Stevie is an elusive WR who finds ways to get open. If a 2nd WR proves himself (Woods, TJ or whoever), the Bills will be in good shape at non-QB offensive skill positions. The weaknesses in the roster are elsewhere.

A national sportswriter is a jack-of-all-clubs, master of none. But Kirwan is better than most.

Sorry, Doc, somehow I missed that. Pat fans are mesmerized by the AH case like we Bills fans were transfixed by OJ's fall from grace.

We've seen so little of many of these guys, I don't know how to form an informed opinion. I'm just hoping a few of our WRs are as good as we hope.

Actually, Pats fans are - not surprisingly - even more obsessed with Hernandez than we are. Try this link: http://www.patsfans.com/new-england-patriots/messageboard/10/patsfans-com-patriots-fan-forum-page2.html There are several threads regarding Hernandez. The original is over 70 pages long, but there are many others too. The one about Bill Polian's comment about Hernandez being a draft risk runs 40 pages. There's a 14 page thread about Matt Light never embracing AH's beliefs. Mario William's AH comments runs 6 pages. Etc.

Travis Henry trivia: * Has more children (11) by more baby-mammas (10) than points on the Wonderlic (7). * 5th leading rusher in Bills history (just behind Fred Jackson and just ahead of Wray Carlton). * His place of birth wouldn't suggest a career as Buffalo Bill: Frostproof, Florida.

Maybe the mods can figure out once and for all who really designed the charging buffalo logo.

I agree about Brown. I never really understood all his Pro Bowls. And I voted Byrd for underrated even though he was not underrated in his time. But I think young fans don't realize how good he was. Even I barely remember but some of his stats speak for themselves.

http://www.nfl.com/n...errated-players NFL.com is running a survey asking who is the most underrated and overrated Bill of all time. Right now - early in the voting - Bledsoe is winning the poll as most overrated Bill ever. Aaron Schobel, to my surprise, is winning the most underrated Bill vote. Personally, I voted for Butch Byrd as most underrated though there were some other worthy names on the list.

Throws guys open: Drew Brees

With 139 votes tallied so far, the average fan is predicting about 7.5 wins (weighted average). Of course, the numbers are skewed by the CIBEBOs out there. Seven polled fans are projecting 13 or more wins! CIBEBO = Cognitively Impaired By Excessive Bills Optimism

http://www.thewrap.com/movies/column-post/oj-simpson-movie-american-mystery-star-charlotte-kirk-nicole-brown-simpson-exclusive-100 Sounds like they're taking the angle that the murder is an unsolved mystery and OJ might be innocent.

Exactly because we have a new coaching staff and QBs.

I watched my first NFL game about 44 years ago. It was Dallas versus Cleveland. When I turned on the set, the Browns were getting spanked so, like any other little kid in that situation, I started rooting for the underdog. The Browns came back to win and I was hooked. So at a young age, despite growing up in Cheektowaga, I was as much a Browns fan as a Bills fan. But when I went away to college in the late 1970s, I started identifying more with the Bills as my hometown team. And when the Brownies moved to Baltimore, my remaining connection to them was forever severed. I've been a die-hard monogamous Bills fan ever since.