hondo in seattle

Agree!

People prosecuted in federal courts get do indeed get convicted about 90% of the time. If I was one of the guys who recorded Nix, I'd be worried about now. http://en.wikipedia....Conviction_rate http://www.nytimes.c...ction-rate.html

I agree with both these comments and would add this to the later: it will be interesting to see how good our secondary will look under Pettine. While none of these guys have received a lot of accolades in their NFL careers thus far, there is a lot of athleticism in our back end. Not only do we hope Pettine can generate a pass rush, we also hope he can put players in places to make plays.

We'll take a linebacker with the 14th pick.

Kent Austin, GM and Head Coach of the Hamilton Tiger Cats, says he'll be watching the Bills cuts closely.

26, thanks for this! It was great to watch the segment on the '64 and '65 Bills. We were once champions.

Thanks for the support! I used to run 40-50 miles per week including 20 mile Saturday runs on mountain trails. Now I'm a freakin' fat, sedentary couch potato! But the doc says that, although my range-of-motion will be somewhat limited, I'll otherwise be able to eventually return to a normal life. My surgery was "transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion" (TLIF). I'm not sure what type of surgery Troup had other than it was spinal fusion. Bone material is placed between two vertebrae and after some time those two vertebrae will fuse together. Docs don't want you to do much until the fusion is solid. My doc says that at this point my fusion is like glass - seemingly solid but actually fragile. Titanium hardware holds the vertebrae in place until the bone graft sets. Bears WR Johnny Knox had spine fusion surgery after getting hit by ex-Bill Anthony Hargrove. Knox never played again. I hope Troup has a better recovery. He seems to be doing well.

Players don't win games, teams do. Tebow has only completed 47.9% of his NFL passes. That's scary low. His QB Rating is 75.3 and his QBR is 34.3. Those numbers don't scream "Franchise Quarterback." Tebow's faith and celebrity aren't the fundamentals reason he's unemployed. It's a shortage of skill.

Last year's squad won 6 games. This year's squad hasn't won any yet. So those calling the OP "premature" are perhaps understating it. But, like CodeMonkey, I love the optimism.

Yep, Troup had spinal fusion. I've had the same operation. The recovery period is long. I had my operation 6 months ago and my doc still doesn't want me running on hard surfaces, lifting heavy objects, or otherwise stressing my back. But eventually I'll be able to do all those things. Troup will be able to come back. I guess the question is whether or not he had enough talent for the NFL in the first place. I suppose we'll find out this year.

You have a point but, c'mon, don't you get tired of hiring the same verbiage over and over? "He's got great range." "High football I.Q." "A lot of upside." "Plays well in space." I'm guessing he's using "friskiness" to mean a creative, uptempo offense. I like it.

Pettine/Ryan did great things with the Jets. Really creative, effective stuff. It will be exciting to see what Pettine does here. Marrone/Payton did equally great things with the Saints. Both Marrone & Pettine had their units in the top five of the NFL. Needless to say, having Drew Brees helped Marrone in NO, though Drew wasn't nearly as productive previously with SD. I'm excited to see what Marrone/Hackett will do. Hackett seems like a smart, enthusiastic ("hyper" & "giddy") guy. I'm drinking the Kool-Aid.

Brian Galliford has spent a lot of time watching NYJ video, trying to figure out Pettine's defense and how he may apply his defensive philosophy to the Bills. I thought Galliford's analysis - in a series of articles - made for good reading. The first link might be the most illuminating... http://www.chatsport...media-2-7912241 http://www.chatsport...media-2-7912241 http://www.chatsport...media-2-7912241 P.S. Bobby Chandler, congrats on your 5,000th post (even if you closed my last thread)!

Brian Galliford has spent a lot of time watching NYJ video, trying to figure out Pettine's defense and how he may apply his defensive philosophy to the Bills. I thought Galliford's analysis - in a series of articles - made for good reading. The first link might be the most illuminating... http://www.chatsports.com/buffalo-bills/a/Buffalo-Bills-news-523-Mike-Pettines-defense-fascinating-fans-media-2-7912241'>http://www.chatsports.com/buffalo-bills/a/Buffalo-Bills-news-523-Mike-Pettines-defense-fascinating-fans-media-2-7912241'>http://www.chatsports.com/buffalo-bills/a/Buffalo-Bills-news-523-Mike-Pettines-defense-fascinating-fans-media-2-7912241 http://www.chatsports.com/buffalo-bills/a/Buffalo-Bills-news-523-Mike-Pettines-defense-fascinating-fans-media-2-7912241 http://www.chatsports.com/buffalo-bills/a/Buffalo-Bills-news-523-Mike-Pettines-defense-fascinating-fans-media-2-7912241

I sympathize. Fortunately, my Dan Manucci tat is somewhere where no one can see it.

The Bills are young enough already; there's no need for a youth movement. No one will be cut solely because of age. Players on your list may be cut because they get beat out and declining skills could have something to do with it. If Freddy looks better this preseason than all the other backs (other than CJ), do you really think Marrone will say, "Freddy is awesome, but I prefer a younger back who's not nearly as talented"? That's insane. The best players will make the roster, regardless of birth dates.

As a guy who's had disc fusion surgery, my sentimental pick is Troup. But of the guys on this list, my rational brain tells me AC is the most likely to have a career break-through this year. It would be exciting if under the guidance of new and (hopefully) better coaches, several players have break-throughs this year.

6.5 seems fair enough. The Bills have to be one of the most difficult teams to project this year. New HC, DC and OC. New offensive and defensive schemes. 30+ new players (as of right now). Not sure who the QB will be opening day but it's definitely not last year's QB. A serious, realistic bettor might have to play the under. As a fan, though, I find reasons to hope for better. BBF's time-warp prediction of 11-3 sounds good to me.

You are right, of course. So I'll let you figure out a way of calculating the odds that's more precise and not (1) subjective, or (2) a royal pain in the ass. My point was only that the odds were long. But what a great year for the Bills if we had either ROY.

There's 1 chance in 32 of the OROY being a Bill. There's 1 chance in 32 of the DROY being a Bill. So there's 1 chance in 1,024 of both the OROY and DROY being Bills. It would be awesome if it happened.

I doubt if this article accurately predicts the Bills O in 2013. There's been talk coming from OBD of elements of the K-Gun and a lot of West Coast looks and the author doesn't mention this. Nor does he talk about Marrone's offensive tactics at Syracuse very much. But the article does present an exciting case for the options Marrone does have. IF guys live up to their potential, Marrone & Hackett will be having fun this year. So, too, us fans. Iron Butterfly, thanks for the link. It was a good read.

Stevie didn't tell you anything really dramatic or shocking. Nonetheless, it's good to hear he's jazzed about the new offense and WRs. I thought it was cool he watched tapes of the 90s teams. Not every player will do that. Shows he's identifying himself as a Bill and not just as a guy stuck in Buffalo and toughing it out just for the money. Thanks for posting!

If the playbook is indeed simple (maybe EJ hasn't seen the whole offense yet) then it's probably because Marrone and Hacket want something simple enough that they can execute it to perfection. The simpler the offense, the more likely you can execute it well. The more complicated the offense, the more you (theoretically) confuse defenses. Every coach finds his own balancing act. Lombardi, for one, was on the simple side of this continuum because he wanted flawless execution. I don't think Marrone is dumbing down his system for the sake of a rookie QB. I think he may instead be philosophically against overly complicated offenses. But it's too soon to say.

Good research... but not sure what conclusions we can draw.

These are all good points BUT... Whaley has brought in two guys from outside the organization for leadership positions. He's also said he will implement a new process. While he may continue to use BLESTO and the old scouts, he intends to have a process that makes them more effective. These may not be the wholesale changes we saw in the coaching staff. But they are pretty significant. Regarding the scouts, he might want to evaluate how well they implement his program before replacing them.