hondo in seattle

Not one of Chris Brown's finer moments.

My wife is from the Philippines. She's college educated and an expert with an iPhone, etc. But, supposedly, her tribal ancestors - and not that long ago - were cannibals. I jokingly tell her that some day she'll get mad at me and throw me in a pot. But I guess Rachel Ray's family doesn't need to look to her ancestors for evidence of cannibalism. I feel bad for that dog!

When Jaws says other teams are "very scared," he's overstating it a bit. I don't think many teams are "very scared" of other teams - especially before the season begins. It's just not the mentality of most players and coaches to be "very scared" of good competition. Jaws was just using a little hyberbole to make the point that other teams in the NFL respect what Buddy and Chan have been doing. They acknowledge the progress. Apparently, there's something of a consensus in NFL circles that we're on the right track. Most of us here on TBD are very optimistic about the Bills. We know there's been a lot of progress. It shouldn't surprise us that the people working in the NFL are also noticing the positive changes in Buffalo. While it shouldn't surprise us, it is reassuring and - personally - it only reinforces my good feelings about 2012.

I realize now how important it is to keep up with the Bills media. There are always new revelations coming out. For example, I didn't know until now that Donald Jones is likely to be our backup QB this season. Here's an excerpt from Chris Brown: "Bills head coach Chan Gailey said Monday that Donald Jones is the early leader in the battle for the number two quarterback role, but Jones has been shuttled around a lot thus far with respect to his alignments and assignments." http://www.buffalobills.com/news/article-1/OTA-Report---Day-8/08128401-e45b-465b-b452-579fa9e739eb I've also learned that I've really been under appreciating Kirk Morrison's resume. I wondered last year why he didn't get more playing time. Now I'm really, really curious after learning that he averaged 1000 tackles per season with the Raiders. Here's the Buffalo News Headline: Morrison aims to show his true value Linebacker averaged 1000 tackles a season with Oakland

Rather amazing... McGee is approaching this offseason as if he has nothing left to lose. That was evident in February, when he agreed to restructure the final two years on his contract. In exchange for accepting a combined $5.1 million cut in guaranteed salary, McGee left open the opportunity to make much of that back by meeting incentives for playing time and production.

Puente did it. I mean, c'mon! Why else would he be looking at the QB entry in Wikipedia???

I don't think our OL "sucks" but I certainly believe it has room for improvement. Yards-Per-Carry is dictated by a number of things: * Ability of the OL * Ability of the backs * Play-calling/Offensive Scheme * Quality of the Defense I tend to believe that the gaudy YPC numbers of FredEx and CJ have more to do with their own ability and Chan's play-calling than the play of the Offensive Line. Our line isn't terrible but neither is it dominating. In obvious run situations, we didn't always see the holes we wanted. In 3rd or 4th and short situation, there wasn't always a lot of push. FredEx and CJ seemed to get their best results when Chan's play-calling had the defense on its heels.

Young didn't win any games over there. The defense won games. The coaches won games. ST won games. I don't recall him single-handedly winning any games. The team's W-L record was good. VY's own stats weren't stellar.

Will Coach Lee's coaching push Fitz's rating up 5 points this year? Did all the injuries to Fitz, FedEx, the O Line and the WR Corps cost Fitz 5 points last year? I think the comparison to Eli is a fair one.

There's a psychological phenomenon known as "the Pygmalion effect" which observes that people tend to perform the way their leaders/parents/teachers expect them to perform. People treated like winners tend to win. People treated like losers tend to lose. While Coach Lee may or may not know the term "Pygmalion effect" - I'm sure he knows the concept. Most good leaders and coaches do. So of course Lee's not going to say, "Fitz lacks the tools to succeed at this level." Bill Parcells notwithstanding, most good coaches will talk up the potential of their players to boost their self-confidence and self-esteem so the players work hard to live up to the perceived potential. I like Fitz and believe he can lead us to the playoffs. But I take the praise of coaches with a grain of salt.

If memory serves, the Marv Levy didn't win the time-of-possession battle very often with the K-Gun no-huddle offense. Yet we won a lot of games in those days. I'm not sure how much TOP means either. I'd go with turnover differential. Dominance of lines would be a good one, too, if more easily quantifiable.

In his pre-injury years, Merriman averaged about 13 sacks a year. Over the past three years, he's averaged about 1. So let's split the difference and say he gets 7 this year. I'm okay with that - especially because M. Williams ought to get 10+ and Anderson will push double-digits. Kelsay will get a few. Both K.Williams and M.Dareus are capable of 5+. And then the LBs and DBs may contribute a few more. If all these guys are healthy, what kind of blocking scheme can account for all of them? You can't double-team everybody. The Bleacher Report article, btw, was amateurishly written but I love the author's enthusiasm and the Dennis Hopper/Bruce Smith reference to close it out.

Hopeful's logic is irrefutable. A 'fully recovered' Merriman is a Pro Bowler. He's already proven in the NFL what he can do when he's 100%. The question is whether or not Merriman will ever fully recover what's he's lost. A fully-recovered Easley may be more productive than a mostly-recovered Merriman. My guess is that both Easley and Merriman are more productive this year than last (yeah, I know, ain't that a bold prediction!) but neither becomes a full time starter unless the starter gets injured. As Hopeful observes, Easley is still kind of a rookie. And Merriman has been on the sidelines for soooo long that it's hard to imagine him regaining his Pro Bowl form, at least not this year if ever.

This list worries me because there are some really good, important players here. If ALL these guys start the season 100% healthy, we'll be off to a great start! But if some of them heal behind schedule, or never fully recover, we could struggle again this year. Btw, I voted for FredEx. Despite CJ's good showing as his replacement, Fred was the catalyst of the offense last season when the offense was really rolling.

Anderson's mean was skewed by injury and playing time issues. His year with the Pats, I hope, shows what this guy is capable of when used properly.

Nobody that I know has ever suggested Kelsay is the second coming of Bruce Smith. In fact, I think fan opinion tends to fall into one of these three categories: 1. Kelsay is a solid, if unspectacular, well-rounded starter. 2. Kelsay is a good NFL backup. 3. Kelsay should have been cut. The fans in buckets 1 and 2 can make cogent, rational arguments. I think the fans in bucket 3 are reacting emotionally either because they're annoyed by Kelsay's big paycheck, or his failings as an OLB, or both. Personally, I can only commend the guy for uncomplainingly accepting the move to OLB. He's been a loyal Bill and that makes me a loyal fan of his. Anyone who has the attitude that he'll do anything without complaint to help the Bills win is a good guy in my book. Kelsay has been a starter most of his career here because he's been better than the back ups. Cutting him would have been a huge mistake. Looking forward, I don't care what side he plays on or whether or not he starts. I'm just happy he's in the rotation. We're a better team with him than we'd be without him.

I think it's more accurate to say he makes quick decisions. He gets the ball out quickly often and that helps keep the sacks down. But, yeah, sometimes you wonder what the heck he's doing. He'll never be a Brady or Brees, but I do think he can a contributing member of a playoff team.

Our D seems good on paper but I'm worried about injuries. We're hoping Merriman, McGee, and K. Williams all recover from serious injuries. And that no one else gets hurt. Not to be a pessimist - I'm usually not - but I really want to see some healthy bodies flying around in preseason for me to feel truly confident about our D.

Thanks for posting this on Memorial Day. Maybe not one of the best players in Buffalo history, but still one of the very best Bills.

I picked Miami because I remember the old days when the Bills hated the Phins and the Phins hated the Bills. The game was special both for the fans and the players in both cities. We don't really have comparable rivalry right now. You can call NE our biggest rival these days. But to them we're only a mosquito that gives them some minor, occasional irritation.

I was surprised Fitz had never received much coaching on his mechanics before. I can see that being neglected at Harvard. But in the NFL until now? The NFL is the big time and you would think coaching staffs would coach anything and everything that might help them win on Sunday. The other thing I thought notable about this article was that Lee is a technician. Some folks here speculated that Lee was hired by Gailey specifically to better implement the wildcat. Lee is far more than a wildcat guy. It's great to read that he may help Fitz become a more accurate QB with better fundamentals.

That's an impressive memory! I don't even remember what number I wore in HS, let alone the numbers of past Bills with a few, rare exceptions. OJ wore 32, didn't he?

+1 It was rather amazing how frequently he was in the right position and how frequently the pass was completed anyway.

I find it interesting that as bad a HC as Jauron purportedly was, he'd get us near .500 with very little talent to work with.