hondo in seattle

PTR, no worries.... I'll be happy when we score 40 points a game this season. Since LB isn't our best position, I guess it's great we only have field 3 of them this year rather than four. I have a feeling that these 3 will look better under Wanny's leadership than they looked last year under Edwards. Having some hefty, talented guys in front of them will help.

Chris Brown's article made me start to wonder if 2012 would be a break-through year for the O Line. I was not overly impressed with our O Line last year. I'm one of the guys who thinks that our gaudy sacks-allowed total had more to do with Gailey's quick-hitting offensive scheme and Fitz's fast decision-making than it did was pass protection. And that the impressive yards-per-carry average of our backs had more to do with play-calling and the talent of our backs than it did with rush blocking. Yet, I'm also starting to think that this line could be very good. IMHO, our biggest O Line problem last year was, obviously enough, injuries while our second-biggest problem, debatably, was LT. About the former: last year our players didn't have the advantage of working the full off-season with our good trainers and S&C coaches. I'm looking forward to fewer injuries this year. In regards to LT, when the QB is taking 3-step drops, there's less of a need for a good LT than in an offense with a mad-bomber QB. Nonetheless, it's easy to imagine the offense being more productive with a better LT than Bell and his 2011 post-injury replacements. Bell was still learning the position and maybe he'll be a superstar in Philly - but he wasn't for us. I'm really hoping Cordy Glenn proves to be an upgrade at LT. I'm trusting Nix/Gailey when they say he's a Tackle, not a Guard. I'm also intrigued by Zebrie Sanders who was runner up for the Jacobs Blocking Award for the most dominant offensive lineman in the ACC. Good for us he had a bad Senior Bowl. Another consideration is there have been lots of analyses that correlate O Line productivity with continuity. Our interior linemen have worked together now for a while. Altogether, I'm hopeful that this will be our best O Line in long, miserable time. Here's an excerpt from Chris's article: “It’s really big for our offensive line just having continuity bringing those guys back. We have a good solid group of interior guys that have been working together for a couple of years now with a lot of us starting a bunch of games,” said Eric Wood. “We all trust each other and all know each other’s strengths and weaknesses and the numbers proved it last year.” Buffalo’s offensive line led the league in fewest sacks allowed (23) and ranked fifth in yards per carry average (4.9) all despite using three different players at left tackle and four different players at center in 2011. With Rinehart and Urbik, both restricted free agents, back with the club for 2012 valuable continuity can be maintained. “It definitely counts for something,” Urbik told Buffalobills.com. “Chad started 12 games and I started 13 and we’ve got Eric (Wood) and Andy (Levitre) back so we definitely have a lot of experience in the middle. It’s going to help us out a lot jelling together as an O-line whether it’s Chris (Hairston) or Cordy (Glenn) at left tackle starting this year.”..

Thanks for posting the link. That was a powerful, moving video. The mom's ability to forgive was impressive. For those who want to more about Casey, here's a good link with a nice article and a different video: http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/columns/story?columnist=forde_pat&id=6021619

Most national media types know a lot about the NFL but aren't experts on individual teams, except maybe a few of the perennial contenders. And since the Bills haven't been contenders for about as long as Obama's been a father, it's rare to read/hear anything intelligent about the Bills from the national media. Kirwan just proved to be an exception. He didn't tell us anything we didn't already know, and we may not all agree with his projected 2012 starting defensive lineup, but he showed he understands what's happening here. Thanks for the link, eball.

I so disagree. Koonce is telling us that financial wealth doesn't equate to emotional, psychological or spiritual health. Koonce still had wealth after football. But he lost his happiness and because suicidal. If this isn't "compelling" to you, don't read the article. A lot of ex-players suffer after the NFL. Maybe the concussions have something to do with it. Certainly, the sudden loss of admiration and adulation after becoming accustomed to it will have an impact. It's only human. You seem to want Koonce to be more like us and be happy with less. But Koonce is like us. Most of us would probably suffer emotionally if suddenly we were a football star and then with equal suddenness, we weren't. Those are hard transitions for the regular guy. Duerson and Seau committed suicide. Koonce considered it. Go out and get a heart, fellas.

Yeah, the part about Mario playing LDE is old news. But imagine it. Right handed QBs will have Mario in their face coming after them. He might get less sacks at LDE but he might be more disruptive. I thought I ready somewhere that Kelsay could rotate with Anderson at RDE, depending on Merriman's recovery. It's good, though, to read that Merriman is looking so good. Weird that DE seems to have been transformed from a weakness into a strength in just one year.

Well, we don't have studs at every position but at least most of our starters deserve to be NFL starters. We've had years when I didn't believe that.

Depressing... but true.

Thermal, it's hard to disagree. An offense should be built around the best players and Fredex and CJ are our best players. I'm just not convinced that Chan will change his scheme. This unit is virtually unchanged since last year so I expect him to do what he did last season. But maybe Chan's had an epiphany and I'm wrong. And maybe a better defense that keeps opposing scores down will allow Chan to call more runs. As to the dominance of the Offensive Line... I remember the Chuck Knox years when defenses would put 7, 8, 9 players up near the line of scrimmage to counter "Ground Chuck." Gailey, however, often has defenses guessing - and often guessing pass instead of run. Obviously, that makes it much easier on the linemen and backs. I admit that, like a lot of fans, I tend to watch the player with the ball. I don't have a good read on how often individual linemen won their one-on-one battles. But in obvious running situations, I didn't see the same forward push or gaping wholes that I saw on other downs (or on other teams, or on some previous Bills squads).

I'm not opposed to running more but I'm not sure we should expect it. 1. Chan uses to passing game to open up the run game. 2. We don't have a dominating O Line. Our two backs averaged over 5 yards a pop partly because of #1. With the exception of maybe a new starting LT, we're going into this season with the same players we began last season. So my guess is that what we saw in the first of last season is pretty much what we'll see this season. That seems to be Chan's formula for maximizing the talents of this group. But Blood's comment is valid. Hopefully we can run more at the end of games because we have a lead.

Here's how I think about loyalty. Chan needs to loyal to the whole team and all the fans who want to see the Bills win again. So if Powell is the better punter, he gets the job. Loyalty to the team and fans outweighs loyalty to one player, even one who has been good & loyal to us. That's why Bill Walsh dumped Montana in favor of Young.

I voted "yes" because Brees is clearly better than Fitz. We could draft and groom a future QB while Brees leads us to the playoffs a couple times. But this is all just pointless speculation. N.O. won't trade Brees. Even if they did, the asking price would be too high. I wouldn't be willing to mortgage our future to get a QB who's probably going to soon slide beyond his prime.

This is right on. Nix and Polian are both getting old and so their successors are important. Polian in Indy was unofficially partially retired and had already begun handing over the reins to his far less capable son. If the choice is as it seems to be - Nix/Whaley versus Polian/Polian - I have to go with Nix/Whaley.

As I said, I'm not a betting man. You and Papazoid helped clarify things for me so thanks. Given that I have to bet $140 just to win $100 for the "over" it seems more bettors are expecting more than 6.5 wins than think less. It turns out to not be such a great bet after all. But it wouldn't have surprised me that the betting nation underestimated the Bills this year. We haven't been over .500 in a looong time and unless you follow the Bills or NFL very closely, I doubt if the expectation for this year would be high either.

You are right... sort of. Tanney was listed on the team's 90 man roster. He participated in a weekend-long day tryout.

I'm not a betting man. But I'm tempted to make an exception this year when I hear the Vegas odds-makers have the Bills over/under at 6.5. Apparently, there's not a lot of optimism for the Bills outside of Buffalo.

Somebody who watched him play at South Carolina says that's just the way he is. Likes to keep his emotions inside. Rarely smiles. As long as he plays hard, who care?

Mr. Weo, really? You think the fear of the Bills moving is just a myth? Geez, NFL teams are valued at or near a billion dollars. Buffalo is something like the 44th biggest metro area in the US. Worse, we keep falling in the population and TV market rankings as other newer, more vibrant cities pass us by while moribund Buffalo hardly grows. So what businessman would prefer to put a billion dollar investment in Buffalo rather than LA? Ralph is not the one drumming up the fear of a move. It's simple economics. I personally think regionalization is a great idea. As previously noted, small-market Green Bay did it with some success. If the Bills can persuade TO and Rochester to embrace the Bills, our chances of retaining a NFL team are much improved. Remember what happened to the Braves? And. Weo, you seem to admire the Patriots organization. Do you remember they used to be called the "Boston Patriots." Even Boston, a much bigger city, had to regionalize their franchise to guarantee it's tenure in the city. If I could dream, I would wish the Bills were sold to the people of Buffalo and WNY. Since that isn't likely, training camp near Rochester and a game in TO is a small price to pay to help secure our team in Buffalo.

Yep. I was thrilled when Marv came back but it didn't work out. I wouldn't bet on Polian working out if he returned (though the situation isn't exactly analogous). Despite Polian's track record, he's burn a lot of bridges over the years and I doubt if he's as driven as he used to be. I doubt he feel he has anything left to prove. Nix seems to be doing well and we have a hand-picked successor in Whaley. As I recall, Peter King bemoaned the fact we didn't hire a young hotshot like Whaley as our GM when we hired Nix. Well, we got the best of both worlds. An old dog with mountains of experience and a new hotshot on the rise.

+1 It seems Fitz has to put everything he's got into a hard or deep throw. Some other QBs can make it look easy. Maybe because Fitz has to try so hard to get the velocity, he loses something with accuracy. I cringe every time he sets up to throw deep because it seems like he's throwing for distance, not accuracy, and just putting it up for grabs.

Speculative praise is fine but I greedily eat up the kind of praise that comes when your team is winning! Here's hoping for some of that later on.

Polian says that his two best moves were the signing of Kelly and hiring of Marv. These two should be #1 and #2 on the list.

As much as I hate it... Better one home game in TO then all the home games in LA.

I suppose I'm a Fitz fan. I really like the guy and loved the way he ran the offense during the first half of last season. But ultimately I'm a Bills fan which means I'm a Vince Young fan too as long as he wears a Bills uni.

I was in my home (at that time) in California with my wife (at that time) watching the game on TV. My wife wanted to do something that day and was bugging me to leave when the score got out of hand. I told her, "They can come back." She asked, "Has any team ever come back from a score like this?" Like a sad sheepdog, I replied, "No, never." But then added, "But anything is possible." I continued to watch the game but wasn't actually very hopeful. I was like an addict doing his drugs even though I knew full well this wasn't good for me. As I recall, the Oilers had dominated us just the week before in the final regular season game. So here was 6 consecutive quarters of pain leading to a 35-3 deficit in a playoff game. Houston was a good team and seemed to have our number. With Kelly being hurt, life was pretty grim there for a while.