hondo in seattle

ChanOverChin, this is a good way to look at this. The team we field on opening day 2012 in New Jersey will be very different than the team that produced such dismal results during the second half of the 2011 season. But it won't be 30 (31) players different. Some of the guys you listed won't be on the squad opening day. Nonetheless, I don't think the national sports media fully understands how devastating our injuries were last year. It wasn't just the raw number we had on IR. It was who we had on IR. There was often a huge difference between the play of the starter who was injured and the back up who lined up in his place. And then there was Fitz who never missed a game due to injury. Yet toward the end of the season he had a banged up line in front of him, back ups and street FAs running routes, Stevie playing at half speed while hurt, FJ on IR, and his own ribs torturing him with severe pain. Yep, this year looks to be much different.

Yeah, you are right. Sully doesn't seem to have many contracts inside the Bills organization and rarely tells us anything we already didn't know. Tim sometimes will have some interesting tidbits. Back in his prime, Larry Felser was able to dig up good info.

Letting Rusty Jones move on was a huge mistake. Our new (Gailey era) S&C coaches seem to have good resumes but didn't have a chance last year to really implement their program. It will be interesting to see if they can successfully cut down on injuries this year.

I used to use Roland Hooks as my avatar. Braxton had a couple hundred yard games as I recall, despite being OJ's fullback. Bobby Chandler was my idol because I was a slow receiver with good hands.

I remember last year about this time, some folks here thought the Pats were brilliant for signing Chad and the Bills were asleep at the wheel. Yet look how it worked out.

Although I'm no Sully fan, I can't agree with this. Unfortunately, I've never been able to develop the ability to read minds and just don't know what they think. I do know I like to read what Tim has to say about the Bills and usually avoid Sully's whinings.

One thing we heard in the Levy Super Bowl years was that the Bills were good at Special Teams because we made it a priority. We drafted for ST and spent a lot of practice time on ST. I also read a comment once from some other club once that went something like this, "Look, April is a very good coach but he also has really good players. They make it a priority there." Looking at this draft, I wonder if the Bills are making ST a priority once again. Taking a kicker supposedly just for kick-offs is an interesting hint. I was really concerned when the Bills dropped from #3 to #27 and felt like BF68 that maybe the NFL was passing DeHaven by. But we made a nice improvement last year.

Bills ST Rankings... Bobby April 2004: #1 2005: #1 2006: ? (top 5) 2007: ? (top 5) 2008: #1 2009: #3 Bruce DeHaven 2010: #27 2011: #11 Bobby April since leaving Buffalo has been #2 in both his years with the Eagles.

Sully can find a cloud even on the sunniest day and some of us have grown sick of his whining. There are times when Sully says stupid, negative things seemingly just to be controversial. Tim, on the other hand, takes a more even-keeled, grounded, balanced approach. He's also better informed. Tim ~ welcome back.

How is everyone feeling about special teams? I read Chris Brown's article today discussing the special teams ability of this year's draft class. Do we have the right talent on special teams now? Do we have the right special teams coach? I thought Bruce DeHaven did a remarkable job with special teams when he worked under Marv Levy. But the Bills special teams were ranked 11th last year by the Dallas Morning News. This, of course, is better than the league average. But Bobby April was pretty much always in the top five as I recall and had us #1 more than once.

Thanks JW. Well-written and it's a good story. I hope the kid makes the team.

With Florence gone, I hope we don't get a rash of DB injuries in training camp. We could end up missing him.

I had forgotten this. Amazing.

This argument seemed to make some sense but turned out to be wrong. Inexperienced speed is probably better than experience on aging legs at the CB position. And the younger players need playing time to improve.

I was upset when the Bills let Evans loose last year. This move is similar... cutting a classy guy who's got something left but on the downside of his career. I'm wondering, why now? Are we giving Drayton an opportunity to hook up with another team? Or making cap space available for an imminent signing/resigning? I'm not surprise Florence was cut, given the younger talent we have in the secondary. I am surprised at the timing. I thought Nix/Gailey/Wanny would want to watch these guys in training camp for a while before making the final decision about who needs to go (even if they suspected from the beginning Florence would be the odd man out).

Si yo creo. Tengo mucho confienza en mis Bills este año!

This is a good way of looking at it and you're right: Fitz (whether or not we all agree he's a "franchise quarterback") is indispensable at present. If Fitz got hurt, I'd be afraid to fire up the TV on Sundays to watch Thigpen lead our offense.

Thanks for posting the link. His accuracy is impressive!

10-6 We'll be in the playoff hunt until the end of the season. There's a lot of potential on this team but injuries, unaccountable mistakes and unexpected losses are part of every season. Nonetheless, I'm excited about the season, some of our new players, having Wanny as DC, getting some guys back healthy, etc. My prediction splits the different between the Insane Optimists on the one hand and the Negative Nancies on the other (no offense intended, Senator!).

This posting is a bit long for my short attention span. But I agree with most of the observations and opinions. Good analysis!

+1

I'm a Bills fan more than a NFL fan and don't spend much time examining other teams except when they play against the Bills. So I couldn't honestly give you a 1-32 ranking of safety tandems. But what I see in the Bills secondary is only average. I'd like to see playoff calibre strength everywhere. Advanced NFL Stats rates Byrd #18 and Wilson #30 amongst NFL safeties. http://wp.advancednflstats.com/defenderstats.php?year=2011&pos=S&season=reg. When neither of them is rated individually in the top half of the NFL, there's no way as a tandem they can be in the Top Five. I really hope 2012 proves me wrong. I don't always agree with eball but I agree here. QBs are getting knocked out of games all the time. A backup is important. If we had a quality backup last year (say someone like Frank Reich), we would have presumably sat Fitz when he broke his ribs. And probably won a couple more games.

Metzelaars, you may be right about the pass rush. I think our safeties could be better because there were times that opponents could pass at will against us. Seven or eight opposing QBs passed for 290 yards or more. Even Jason Campbell topped 300 against us and Andy Dalton almost did (298). We certainly couldn't stop NE's TEs. Gronk had 109 against us in our first NE game. Both Gronk and Hernandez went over 100 in the second game. And sometimes our safeties either being out-of-position or flat-out-beat was part of the problem. Wilson is a great story - converting from WR to Safety - and maybe he's still improving. Byrd had all those picks his rookie year but often looked lost. I actually think he played better last year. So it seems he's also still improving. But personally, I wouldn't rate this tandem Top 5 in the NFL - not by a long shot - not based on last year. Just my opinion. Maybe the addition of a pass rush and the chance to work with some good young corners will enable our safeties to reach new heights. I hope so. Safety is hardly our most pressing need but I personally wouldn't have minded if Barron wasn't picked by Tampa and we took him at #10.

I'm also thinking that Nix is doing a really nice job. But there remain many holes and questions... WR. We have a lot of good backups but only one proven starter. QB. Our starter is less than sensational and Thigpen really worries me as the backup (there's a reason Fitz started after cracking his ribs). OL. Let's see how it all works out. Last year, despite some of the stats people quote, our line wasn't dominating. LB. Not sure how our LBs will fair in the 4-3. S. I think Wilson/Byrd is an okay tandem - nothing great.

When I was in my early 20s, I also considered suicide. I read all sorts of depressing literature (e.g. The Sorrows of Young Werther) to reinforce and justify my depression and the decision to kill myself. I got so far as to put a .22 in my mouth when a vision of my weeping mother made me give up the thought. 30 years later, I do now consider suicide stupid and selfish. I would never consider it. I'm a completely different person now, and thankfully so. But despite calling suicide "stupid" and "selfish," I can only empathize for Seau. Despite all his fame and money (or perhaps partly because of it), he was obviously in a very bad place. Too bad someone couldn't have reached them there and pulled him out. If Junior could have resisted the urge to pull the trigger, he would have eventually realized the error of that kind of thinking and become a better, happier man.