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As of late is the key quote here. It was Mr. Ralph who initiated a history of making lousy football judgments in regard to the QB when he made a handshake deal only he could make to simply ignore the salary cap and he promised to pay off Jimbo when he signed his next contract because of the cap constraints we had in the era when we decided to overpay the likes of John Fina. There was no next contract as physically Kelly was done. This led directly to the Bills overeaching in the draft to take TC and then rushing him into the starting role while he clearly still had happy feet. Mr. Ralph seemed to be quite active in exercising his right to control his team and likely he made the decision to guarantee a bunch of money to the previosuly severely injured for Jax RJ. AJ Smith and the other coaches clearly believed in Flutie as a winner and promised he would have a shot on the field to win the starting job, but the big guaranteed deal gave to RJ. When RJ proved injury prone and Flutie prvoved to be as effective as Smith thought he would be, by rule when he obtained all his incentives they rolled into his base contract and we were forced to extend him since we now had two QBs raking in the big bucks. Maybe it was Ralph or maybe it was Littman but their futile search for the next Jimbo started us down a fatal QB path. Butler obviously was pissed at Mr. Ralph for some reason and his exercising his right to meddle (an thus causing the coaches to go back on their word with DF) is my guess for him mismanaging his relationship with Butler (as he did with Polian, Wade Phillips and Malarkey as well. I am happy that Mr. Ralph has kept the Bills here but he is pretty clearly the man in charge of our 0 for a decade plus record of missing the playoffs.

In general the Bills have several models of operation for drafting their QB of the future: 1. Trade up to get the guy they want- They used this method to acquire Losman as by trading up to get second first round choice they nabbed Losman who was judged by the NFL consensus to be a shade behind the top 3 QB choices that year (Eli Manning and others) but almost certainly a better prospect than any of the QBs likely to go in the first round the next draft. As it was this method failed either because the Bills braintrust failed to make a good assessment , or our coaches were not good at developing talent. or the Bills succumbed to media and some loud fan pressure and rushed him along or whatever. I think the bottomline is that the Bills are unlikely to be able to properly develop a first day pick into our franchise QB. 2. Use a middlin pick to get a guy who is not top tier but looks good to them= They used this method to get Edwards when he fail to round #3 and Bill Walsh recommended him. This method also failed for some combination of the reasons stated above. Again, I think the bottomline is that it seems unlikely to me the media and fan base here will have the patience to properly train any pick we make in the first half of the draft. 3. Use a late round pick to try to catch Tom Brady like lightening in a bottle. To pull this off seems pretty unlikely that a player who is of the quality of Brady will be passed over by everyone in the NFL 5 or 6 times, but to me this unlikely scenario would seem to be the best option for the Bills using the draft to get our franchise QB.

Perhaps you do not see spending a first on Losman or a 3rd on Edwards as being an an attempt to invest heavily in a QB who was generally regarded as a better prospect than any of the QBs in the next year's draft or Edwardsw who had the Bill Walsh reccomendation. My sense is that the Bills FO has proved to be so poor at evaluating talent and the coaching staff has been so poor at developing talent that it is spending heavily on draft picks who get anointed as the new savior which is getting old to me.

Because the mediocre QBs we have on the roster have pretty much zero chance of being the answer that we want. Though the mediocre QB from Seattle also has little chance of being the answer, this minimal chance is slightly more than the chance VY or Thigpen have of being the answer. The key to this is what's the question that Gailey is seeking an answer for. It is not who has the goods to be the starting QB the Bills want. Gailey and the Bills have already answered that question to their satisfaction as shown by signing Fitzy to a huge deal. The question is who can be a credible back-up for 3 or so games if Fitzy gets hurt? Thigpen has shown with his less than productive play last year and so far in pre-season that he is not the answer. VY showed with his two picks against the Steelers scrubs that he also is not the likely answer. Is Tavaris Jackson the answer? No if you are looking for a season long consistent starter. However, is he a better bet than VY or Thigpen to be a reasonable short-term back-up if needed. Yep, if only because our two current guys present no real chance and a former starter who has shown an inability to close in his previous failed attempts at being a consistent starter has at least better possibilities than our two guys.

My GUESS is that what this trade likely means is a large devaluation of the hope that VY or Thigpen is a hoped for answer IF Fitzy goes down AND for immediate use as a back-up for Smith in the Wildcat. Does anyone disagree with this after 2 INTs for VY against Pitts? Getting a former starter in this role only likely makes the team better so whats the problem here with this? The best thing to hope for here is that Gailey sees some specific main problem with Jackson's game that the thinks he can solve (word is that Jackson hangs onto the ball too long and perhaps Gailey will work to have Jackson adopt a 1.2.3 clock in his head and it is emphasized he is better off throwing an incompletion than holding onto the ball after a count of 3 fixes this problem.

The problem with a next QB draft class strategy is that to invest in it means we are going to miss the playoffs at least next year and probably 2014 as well until a rookie you draft next year learns the position. Sure some QB drafted on the second day next year is going to turn out to be a player, but who will this be and how could it possibly be sane to select a strategy for this year based on the unpredictable event next year. The bottomline is to give yourself the best chance to win right now. Your team is more likely to catch lightening in a bottle trying to find the next Tom Brady rather than plan on trading a 1st for Losman is going to work.

The Bills do not need to either cut or keep Smith. I do not see a particular decision to do either thing as making the difference for whether this team wins or loses as long as the actual starters (Fitzy at QB backed up by VY, VY learns to run the Wildcat effectively, Donald Jones remains healthy and turns out to be the #2 we want, and/or the plethora of talents we have to watch the ball sail over their heads for a touchback on kickoffs remain healthy or do not fumble or do not foolishly try to return the ball). The reason why you keep Smith is that though it is unlikely that any particular one of these things will happen or make the difference for this team if they break badly for us, when you keep Smith you have a credible (not great but credible) plan B for all these desires. The key question here is if you keep Thiggy over Smith, what is your plan B for the Wildcat, plan B (or maybe C) at #2 WR, and plan B or C on KR. The simple fact is that I would rather have Smith sit on the bench as my disaster QB than have Thiggy sit on my bench as my disaster QB. Smith gives me the plan B or plan C I NEED at a variety of positions (but hope I do not have to use) rather than keep Thiggy and roll the dice at a variety of other positions. Why the man-love for Thiggy as yiour disaster QB?

What you say is easily said but incredibly hard to do. My sense is that the Bills have followed exactly the strategy you endorse, the problem is that they have picked the wrong guys (Losman, Edwards, Fitz (though he is still a maybe though probably not). Is there a specific person you would have picked instead that amounts to more than 20/20 hindsight. Yes, the Bills made a huge error in not picking Tom Brady with a mere 5th round choice when he was drafted, but do you really want to excoriate the Bills for their really stupid choice in joining the rest of the NFL in passing on picking the best player in the NFL 5 times? The Bills problem is having invested fully in the strategy you advocate but making bad choices and investing too much in the strategy you advocate (trading a 1st rounder for Losman, takiing Bill Walsh's advice and investing in Edwards). My guess is that the Bills more likely would have eeked into the playoffs (and then gotten thrown out after one round because they did not have a franchise QB, if instead of wasting their time in the futile search for the next Jimbo, they instead had invested in building in the trenches instead. Who do you specifically advocate the Bills should have taken to be their franchise QB, or are you virtually mindlessly whining?

This thread seems based on an odd premise in that it extends from an assertion that the Jets #2 QB (and thought or at least hoped by many Jets fans to be their #1) is a better passer than our #3 disaster QB. Well duh. I agree with the poster above who says this is much more an insult to anyone who wants Tebow to start rather than an indictment of Smith. In fact the idea that our #3QB is anyway comparable to the #1A QB says a lot more about the problems the Jets seem to face and points toward the potential of the Bills being in a nice position with Smith around. It seems to me that Gailey is doing exactly the right thing in having his QB coach Lee work on making college QB Smith a more effective passer (much as he is trying to do the same things with Fitzy, Young and Thigpen). Will he suceed in making Smith into a credible potential @1 QB? In a word NO. However, to think this is the goal would simply be stupid. The goal in making Smith a better (not make him great and in fact not even make him good because he has never shown the consistency to be a good NFL starter at QB. The goal here is to make Smith an even more effective rusher (though its hard for him to be more effective since he proved to be like perfect money in the bank the too few times we called on him to wildcat on 3rd downs last year). However, one of the reasons why he was so effective in 3rd down wildcat last year was that this former college QB starter was a credible threat to pass when the Bills went into a third down spread offense and we direct snapped to Smith who clearly has demonstrated he is an effective open field runner in the NFL. The trick of having this fairly accomplished open field runner take the direct snap and pick his hole will only work until it works. The obvious counter to he always runs on wildcat plays is to stack the box with LB tackler types and have your DBs cover WRs in the spread one on one. The two keys for the wildcat this year is going to be when the opposing DCs goes with more defenders in the box because Smith runs everytime is going to be one of the spread WRs is gonna be Graham. The major area where Smith will be asked to improve is going to be making reads to ID whether the opponent defends with a spread D (if so he runs) or by stacking the box (if they do then Smith's job is to read the coverage of Graham. If the opposing DB backs way off then Graham cuts the route off (he must go past the first down mark and then faking the fly turns it in). Smith needs to be trained with Graham that the pass must go to a point just past the sticks and get it to Graham in a manner which allows him turn and make one move on the oncoming tackler. If he beats the one tackler he is off to the races. If Smith/Graham read the DB is playing tight on Graham then he goes to the fly and Smith and Ghrahm develop chemistry for Smith to arc up a throw and allow Graham to run under it make the catch and then he is off to the races. The good defender (lets say a Revis for the Jets) has the speed and the football coverage niftiness to play with middlin depth on Graham and making his own reads of what might happen, he is good enough to either fly with Graham or check down with him to cover the first down depth throw. However, the Revis is not only few and far between in terms of the most talented DB opposing us, but even in the Revis case that now means he is guarding Graham and Stevie Johnson (who proved to be such a great route runner he undressed Pro Bowler Revis for a ton of catches now gets to feast on their #2. Why do we keep Smith? Because with the acquisition of the Graham skillset we hope to see next year be one not simply where Smith runs fir the 1st down everytime but sometimes passes for a TD to Graham. Add to this he is a back-up WR on a thin WR squad that allows you to keep 5 WRs instead of 6 Imaybe this gives you the freedom to keep an extra LB for ST or back-up for your thin LB corps or it allows you to keep instant touchback guy Potter. Add to this your disaster QB actually contributes beyond being a clipboard holder. Add to this KR is not part of your expected benefit due to the shorter kickoff required by Smith is a proven reliable KR catcher and if their kicker errs he can expected to take advantage of it. You keep Smith because he easily covers three (and maybe 4 or 5) roster spots depending upon how you use the other talents you have and also the vagaries of injuries. I think if one understands much about football this is not a question.

My sense is that Smith is a keeper not simply because of his intellect or leadership, but actually due the onfield flexibility he gives Gailey. Though Smith is not great at any specific aspect of the game (he probably did his best work in the past as a return guy but KR work has been greatly devalued in the current NFL as moving up the kick-off line has greatly devalued the return and the Bills realize the import of this as they may well devote a roster spot to simply getting a touchback on every kickoff. However, Smith provides the team with great flexibility freeing up a roster spot as the disaster QB, but also being a threat to be prepared for as Wildcat QB, back-up WR on a thin WR team and if necessary a back-up QB willing/able to risk injury on ST. Gailey likes having a lot of toys to play with and having Smith simply gives Gailey a lot of options (particularly when the unknowables of what injuries might happen. As far as the others, I think McGhee might be most at risk. one of the real values he added was a great KR option but the rules have changed and a back-up (even one who earned a Pro Bowl berth with his KR talents is a lot less valuable these days. Also if Moats wins the starting OLB job he is a nice guy and inspiring episodic player but mostly this will be a sign that our D is in trouble.

The thing which many posters seen to ignore is that these types of misses can be very important good things for the production of the Bills O! When Spiller makes an attempt to release and go deep, even if Fitzy misses him the opposing DC and DBs remember that they got beat deep and then adjust their coverage by lining up a step deeper or by biting on a fake that Spiller might go deep on a play because he is lined up like a starter or set out a step or two wide. All it then takes is for the defender to take a step back or even be perceived as leaning backrather than pinching in at the snap and as long as Fitzy and Spiller make the sane read or the Fitzy audibles from a pass to a run then Spiller can carry the ball into a hole that might not have been there before if the DC/DBs first thought is to expect a run. I for one do not mind misses much at all early on as long as the receiver simply beats the DB as this is gonna be helpful for run productivity throughout the game.

In fact, I think the conventional wisdom that one should see at least 3 years results before drawing a real conclusion is the right thing here (after two years the results clearly showed Moulds to be a bust but he then went on to become clearly the best athlete on the team and a legit perennial Pro Bowl WR, Likewise Mike Williams had an impressive rookie season but it became clear when he reacted so poorly to the second season death of the grandmother who raised him as a soon that he actually was a bust despite good reviews his first year). TJ might be the first year performer we all want based on his performance so far (next to nothing in reality after one pre-season game) and though we may all have comments as he goes along none will be legit conclusions until after 3 years of data.

The search for the next savior is one of the continuing frailties of us humans. One would think that Bills fans who lived and breathed the great early 90s Bills teams should be among the first to realize that though a lot of the winning ways was about Jimbo, the thing which made this team a TEAM was far more than the starting QB. How can they ignore the pivotal role of HOF'ers like Thurnan, Bruce and Marv Levy and perennial almost HoFers Tasker and Reed. Add to this that many fans found the difference makers to be folks like Kent Hull or leadership types like Darryl Talley or episodic contributions from consensus MVPs like Paup. Finally, for those who want to insist it all started with the essential role of Jimbo then please account for Frank Reich leading the team to victory in the Greatest Game Ever Played. It simply makes a mockery of theory that it is all about the play of one QB. Gailey has demonstrated in multiple other gigs that his O can vastly improve the production of a formerly thought to be wahed up QB. This is by far the best hope this team has of making the playoffs. The neurotic and often psychotic quest for a franchise QB at any clear reason for many failure over the last decade plus.

I am still beating it from time to time when I keep seeing posts like one which said we would rue the day we passed on taking some very nice QB but instead to Williams at CB who disappointed in the first pre-season game. The best way to get a franchise QB through the draft has worked twice for an SB win in the past 20 or so years. Indy took Peyton which did deliver some nice playoff appearances but exactly 1 SB win under his guidance and Pitt taking RoboQB which proved to be the winning supplement to a team which was led by a host of solid vets. The problem for the Bills and the reason why spending a high draft pick or even crazier trading up for the right to Harrington be your bust instead of Williams be your bust is that our team has zero ability to take the time even a great QB like Peyton Manning needs to become Peyton Manning. The at least neurotic (if not psychotic) need some have to do everything possible to get this year's Akili Smith (or a host of other failed early picks) when the truth actually is that SB winning QBs can be found through FA, trade, and even Aisle 8 (Kurt Warner's last job before becoming a franchise QB- ironically he was then picked by AZ for an SB appearance by another team smart enough to know that drafting though the best theory was not the best realistic option for them. I am happy to agree with you that drafting your franchise QB is the BEST way to do this in theory. However, I think you should also be able to agree that this theory does not fit the Bills reality at all, due to a variety of factors such as a press mostly interested in column inches blather and selling radio ads driven by a few loud voices such as yours which keep demanding an application of a good theory which does not fit our reality.

He probably said something like: Under good circumstances the best way to build a team is draft a franchise QB and develop him yourself choosing a player you think has the skills to run the O style you want and building the team around the talented franchise QB! However, the Bills around double digits in failing to even make the playoffs are not good circumstances. The lead rule in the Nix regime will be we are not going to draft a QB in the first 4 or so rounds because there is no way with the fan base and intensity we have and the whiners like WGR and Sully that there is any real hope we will be able to do proper development of a franchise QB. Even if we drafted a player of the quality of a Peyton Manning, he took his team from 3-13 when they drafted him to a meteroric improvement to 3-13 with him as a strarter. Even worse you might end up being forced to take a Ryan Leaf drafted one pick after Manning. We almost certainly will not take a QB in the draft higher than 6th as look to catch a Tom Brady level perforner who some how falls late into the draft. The route to take is to get an HC who has had good luck reviving the careers of vets (like a Chan Gailey) and get a bright FA who can win even with marginal talent (much like Fitzy. Worse comes to worse we get some FAs QB who failed elsewhere and build an O based upon revival of this failed FA (much like a Thigpen or a Vince Young). Fitzy, Young and Thigpen all struggled Thursday but simply get used to it! Unless someone wants to seriouslu advocate that we likely would have given some specific rookie adequate time to develop it is simply a fantasy to claim that our reality should have been to draft a franchise QB. This is not how the real world works in Bills world and Gailey is doing the best we can with what we got!

And this statement probably summarizes why it was probably intelligent strategy for us not to spend a significant draft pick 4th round or higher on a QB because the lust for what folks hope will be a franchise QB virtually guarantees that we will not take the time needed for a drafted QB to develop into the player we need. Once we hit double digits in play off free years, the idea that fans would give more than a couple of years for a high draft pick to develop into a contributing player and starter was simply not gonna happen. Even though we have examples right here of players like Eric Moulds who had a couple of zero production years before he developed into the perennial Pro Bowl candidate he was I really doubt a high draft pick is going to get more than a season before he better start or folks are gonna be disappointed in him. Some of these folks like Maybin or Mike Willams were true busts (and the Bills braintrust from Mr. Ralph on down deserve our dismay for some bad choices). However the reality remains that even in a strong draft class my research shows only a little over half of the first round picks were #1 on the team's depth chart at their position as their second year began. This team has been so badly managed from Mr. Ralph on down (please tell me how the relationships with Polian, Butler, Wade, TD, whathisname who walked away several million $ when he resigned as HC, the vacuum that existed at GM pre Nix did not all end so badly that there is little question the problems start at the top) that particularly after the team mismanaged the cap situation at QB with the RJ/DF debacle that this team simply made it impossible to draft a franchise QB high and then develop him. Do you seriously want to advocate that this team would have drafted a Dalton and then developed him even at the pace he is taking. We almost certainly declared him a disappointment as you are declaring Williams after 1 preseason game in his secomf year. If this team had traded up to draft the equivalent of a Peyton Manning this player would have been run out of town if like Manning he led the team from 3-13 when he was drafted to 3-13 after his first year. We would have Brad Johnsoned him and likely have Johnsoned Dalton as well if we had picked him. There simply is no logical way the Bills will rue he day they did not use any early pick on a alleged franchise QB since we likely woulf have developed him properly in our circumstances.

I also really appreciated your detailed insights and descriprions of one players actions! Many thanks. I wonder whether we on TSW might try to organize this approach as a means for covering the whole team. My sense is that the set-up might be to ask folks to sign up to watch a specific player and the organizing effort would be to make sure on a game which is broadcast to make sure that at least every player was covered. It would be fine (and actually quite desirable IMHO) to have multiple folks sign up for the same player (as long as all the players were covered) as observers views of actual play can be quite colored by the suppositions they brought into the game. If SDS or one of the administrators were nice enough to take this on as a organising task and the sign up list was pinned to facilitate folks signing up, this might be a real addition to player analysis during pre-season. I am sure folks are quite busy though so I more than understand if organizing this approach is not taken on. I for one would be happy to take an assignment (actually, one person might take as many as 3 assignments as they watch one particular Bill on the defense, 1 particular Bill on our offense and 1 particular Bill on ST plays. At any rate I really appreciate the breakdown John from H provided on Glenn's play in this game!

Much depends on who is in charge. The folks who worked on the last Toronto bid did a fairly good job and really reached out to the broader public. From what I could see from this side of the border as one who would deal with Torontonians from time to time, even though the bid failed the area got a lot of benefit from having the various parties involved learn how to work together for a common purpose, If one is committed to being in this for the long term and it is more than simply and episode to win the bid, if the bid fails you still have something to show for it. However, I have real doubts that we Mericans would approach this from any standpoint other than whats in this for me. Such an approach more or lesses forces people to choose to be for it or agin it. This decision to be more individulistic rather than collaborative is a big part of why it is really hard to get things done on this side of the border. The Peace Bridge Expansion is a good example, the folks in charge at the Peace Bridge Authority never took seriously really collaborating with anyone and surprise when the Community Foundation for Buffalo sponsored a real public involvement process the PBA take it or leave it approach got voted down 30 somethinh to 1 (the 1 being the Buffalo Chanber of Commerce representing the PBA view. Likewise when the PBA got sued by the Buffalo Olmsted Parks folks, and the judge in charge urged the PBA to settle for a 75% win and they refused demanding a 100% win, the judge shot them down and gave them nothing. Ironically, not expanding the bridge based on a 20th century estimate of truck usage proved to be the best thing the community ever decided not to do as the reality of 21st century product distribution makes the bridge expansion proposals pretty off-point and stupid. If this is a good idea then them in charge will need to collaborate to make it a reality. Alternately, any attempt to make Buffalo a major stakeholder will fail if the folks in charge choose to do what they want without regard to what others want. It would be hoped that like the Peace Bridge Expansion it will simply be the best thing that Never happened!

I doubt we see this from DeHaven who from what I have seen is great DT tactician but generally tends toward the more conservative side in terms of using ST as high risk/high reward effort. I gave no problem with this approach and I think we are going about this well emphasizing getting good ST players (Both Badham and Brooks built their college reps by being solid ST guys rather than as position players. The Bills are clearly committed to using roster spots for specialty guys like Potter rather than getting solid back-ups for the starting position players. However, we better be lucky with injuries or it is gonna be tough.

While Wade laying the blame on the Home-Run Throw-up on DeHaven was incorrect, my sense is he did this because it was demanded of him that some head roll and actually the head that was at fault (I cannot say for sure whether Wade knew this or knew it but did not admit it publicly) that the fault lay with Mr. Ralph, his beancounter and his GM Butler. The real problem here was that the front office chose to manage the cap by paying more than market value for folks like John Fina (a good guy worth a lot of money but not the Tony Boselli size contract we gave him to keep him. This stemmed from IMHO the front office deciding to give both a guaranteed contract to RJ and a make good contract to Flutie. When RJ proved to be predictably injury prone and then Flutie performed as we expected him to, the cap got destroyed by having to pay 2 huge QB salaries. They then made matters worse by investing heavily in an OL to protect their QBs blindside. They then paid for this by only being able to afford youngsters making the NFL minimum to play ST and these youngsters did not do the elemental thing of staying in their lanes on the kick=off and we loss the season. Yep it was wrong to blame DeHaven but the actual fault lies with Ralph and Littman as both Butler and Wade made the Bills pay for making them force DeHaven to walk the plank.

All this talk of bro love reminds me of the old Jim Stafford song, My Girl Bill.

Correcto! The advantage here is not only that the TE gets taken out of the pass game as a primary receiving option but also depending upon how inventive Wanny is at disguising which side LB may be coming he also takes the RB out of the O plan as a receiver first and blocker may be. If the Bills can force an opponent into a nax protect mode we gain the initiative even when we are on D.

Of course as I think is the case for most teams it really starts in the trenches. If you show control there your D sets the tone for the game even though your opposing O gets the advantage of calling the play it wants. If you at least have adequate work in the O line then your playmakes can use their talents but if not they simply have to run for their lives and you end up making a great play once in a while. For the 2012 Bills the key is likely to be the ability to perform in all three areas which make up the game and this should lead to success in the game overall. Specifically: 1. It all start with the D-line and due to some nice drafting, and player development, and supplemented by a couple of big FA purchases, there is good reason to estimate hope that our DL will set the tone for the game even against the best Os in the NFL (NE). Even with a quick decision maker with accurate passing and running options like NE under Bellicheat, the reality is that they must account for at least 3 Bills DL players who demand a double team (Mario, Williams (assuming his health returns) and at least on run plays highly drafted Dareus who demands a d/t when his area is the point of attack but also he had demonstrated that its bad news to single him when he rushes the passer. The need to assign 6 players with a serious responsiblity on 3 rushers basically forces even a great opposing O to take the TE and a runner out of the passing game as potential blockers on the 4th Bills DL player (who might be acquisition Anderson who probably commands a dt himself on passing downs and one of some questionable but potentially quite servicable LBs. The Bills look incredibly deep in the DL trenches and seem likely to set the tone for the game with it. In addition to the marginal LBs they will have a great D in history as an HC Wanny in charge and a demonstratedly opportunistic and deep DB grop picking up detritus from this talented DL. 2. O- This could reasonably be judged a problem (and it may well be) but it clearly has a ton of strength at RB, potential but lack of depth at WR, potemtisl but lack of experience at OL, and even potential at TE, and management potential though lack of demonstrated skill at QB. But most of all an O wizard running the show in Gailey who has demonstrated ability to get production from an O using the tools he has at hand. My sense from watching too many decades of football is that Gailey SHOULD be able to make this work IF his OL proves to be a force on run plays that really not only holds the line on defensive attacks but actually forces the D onto its heels in the face of furious blocking and interesting skill players. In my mind, the key is the offensive line which actually performed better than I expected last year given the average at best starters and then tremendous series of injuries. Ironically, the injuries last year may prove beneficial to the Bills OL as their replacement players got wondeerful game time. It looks like we have two choices at LT where Hairston held his own filling in for the now departed Bell. However, he does not seem the long term answer and even in the immediate can he really be expected to be the positive force we need. Cordy Glenn might. I like the flexible LeVitre at guard. Wood simply does need to comeback from injury but early signs indicate he will. Urbik at the other guard and Pears at RT though nothing special seem to be adequate. Rineheart and whoever loses the LT battle provide back-up but this unit needs to perform at its maximum or we will be not running up yards but running for our lives. A lot of Fitzy's INT problems last year struck me as coming from his making bad decisions while under pressure. The good news is that as the Bills look to improve this outcome, they have two areas to work on to produce improvement, Fitzy making better decisions OR the OL keeping him under less extreme pressure, I doubt we will see improvement in any one of these areas to make a huge difference. However,I do not see it as unreasonable that we might have marginal improvements in both areas which result in significant improvement in results. ST- I feel good about the potential for us to see improvement in a number of facets of the ST game: 1. More talented personnel- One of the most impressive things to me in the Bills '12 draft is that they really seemed to emphasize getting players who had some demonstrated achievement in the ST game in college. Bradham- some say he is a likely ST monster who was not apparently drafted for a particular starting LB role but because he can back-up multiple LB slots, Brooks- Speedy guy seen by some as making primary immediate contribution on ST, Carder has a rep for exceling at everything he does despite a lack of over the top speed and a solid tackler which great instincts. This yells ST wedge guy on returns and solid stay in his lane guy on kick coverage to me. We also clearly seem to be looking for a specific type of player with all the FA acquisirions, tryouts and cuts of marginsl players. We cannot tell from the outside what the plan is but it does seem to be the case the Bills likely have a depth chart not only for position players but one for gunners, wedge busters, blocking set-up guys and other specific special teams roles which are part of the "DeHaven" system which has been producing consistently topped ranked ST units for years. 2. An ST system- This speaks directly to the Bills ongoing and tangled history with Bruce DeHaven as Bills ST guru. He was here forever and the Bills ST performance showed the benefit of his work while he was here (and also the benefit of having two of the most outstanding ST players of all time here- knocking on the HoF door Steve Tasker and many felt a more valuable player than Tasker Pike)! Still DeHaven paid the price wirh his job for miscues like the Homerun Throw-up and actually the Bills did not miss a beat with Bobby April coming in an again producing extraordinary results on the field. DeHaven coming back actually provided the Bills with the surprising chance of losing a wizard like April but still seeing the ST unit remain top flight but even potentiallt even perform better. DeHaven is actually a bit more conservative than the innovative April from what I see. However, DeHaven's longtime familiarity with Littman and the front office guys seems to have combined with an alliance with HC Chan Gailey to see the Bills make a significant strategic commitment to drafting and also resigning ST assets. 3. Great ST skill guys- You see this in a virtually unprecedented commitment to getting guys with a history of production at ST skill positions. Like it or not (many are frustrated that the Bills never seem to go for it on 4th and whatever anywhere near the redzone( but part of the reason they do not is that Lindell is simply the most accurate PK in Bills history. Whether the overall results for the team end up being average or bad, Lindell has been like money in the bank on place-kicking. Add to this that he has consistenetly kicked the ball the exact distance, in the exact direction and with hangtime the Bills coaches have requested and its easy to see why he has been a success story on a series of poorly managed or designed teams. Add to this Moorman who is a known commodity in the NFL as an unusually athletically gifted punter with a great brain for the game (he once won the an NFL skills competition against other pro bowl qualifying athletes by figuring out that if he strategically attacked the multi-skill course designed to demand skills in running, blocking, ball handling etc, that by simply skipping aspects which demanded great bulk and taking a 5 second penalty rather than spending double digit seconds completing the task, he best out the TEs and more skilled at multiple facets of the game players. Sure it was not a demonstration of multiple physical skills which was the design but a clear demonstration of being a great gamer and a smart guy. The Bills are now starting to challenge Moorman with younger players likely more physically adept but he shows all the signs of a player that will hang around for a few extra years by squeezing everty ounce of productivity out of the skills he has. Sanborn at long snapper is in many ways a Bills secret weapon. Many of the most reliable long snappers in the game are former OL position players who make the jump as their careers wind down into also having LS skills. Sanborm is a relative rarity in that he has held down a pivotal LS role since his high school days and identified quickly in college that his best (if not only) road to the pros was as an Long snap specialist. He Florida States long snapper his entire final two years in college and despite being a relative youngster He has played all 16 games in the last three years as a Bill and is the LS guy for punting, Fgs and PATs. He even has begun to show some good tacking ability. KR is a weird part of the game right now as by moving the kick-off line a mere 5 yards they have created the double penalty for KRs of more touchbacks and 5 less yards to run to cover kicks. Still PR returns are a possible game changer and between the newly added Graham, and a host of past productive return guys (including the much hated because of some positio play errors and leaving the ball on the carpet in a couple of notable episodes, McKelvin, the Bills have some potent possibilities here. I like this ST unit and expect it to lead us to a couple of wins this year mostly through winning the field position battle.

I agree that they should draft a player capable of becoming our next QB in the next draft. However, I doubt that we can draft that next QB if we are looking to replace Fitz next year or even in 2014 as even for a first round QB choice the draft is such a crapshoot for QB (and even most other position) development. Most posters simply overvalue the draft as a producer of immediate help for a team. I feel this way in general and confirmed it with an intensive statistical review of a draft class generally judged to be a pretty strong one (I think it was the 2009 or 10 class). At any rate, I looked at the first round picks at the beginning of the next season and even with this strong class only slightly more than 50% of these first round picks were starters at their position for the teams which drafted them the year before. Is the draft a good source of players? Yep. Good players come from somewhere and good players tend to get drafted. However, in the real world, a player who falls to you in your specific area of need might turn our to be Mike Williams or another idiot taken at RT by Minnesota with the next choice. Both were big disappointments a players. Anecdotally this seems even more true for QBs where with every Peyton Manning there is a Ryan Leaf judged by many professionals at the time as pretty close to Manning as a prospect. The simple fact is that if Fitzy fails it is pretty unlikely that the Bills will be able to stumble onto Aaron Rodgers in the draft as his replacement for 2013. The key for the Bills if Fitzy deserves to be cut after this year is likely to entertain multiple options like FA signings, or development of internal talents lik VY (or even perhaps Thigpen if he shows a sudden development which saves him from getting cut in favor of VY . but he has shown little to avoid such a demise so far.

The thing that is hard for me to see in regard to all the vitriol on Fitzy that the whole view to me misses key points like: 1. Be it an objective rather than selective choice of stats (which I think you rely on heavily- to my mind the stats might give one a good indication of the the truth but rarely PROVE anything, Fitzy is not to this point anywhere near a top echelon QB in this league. However, he is a relatively young player who has shown incredible brightness and is a bit more athletic than many would expect from a smart seeminly whitebread kind of guy. He clearly has been inconsistent, but definitely shown moments of glory which have given his teammates, coaches, and a lot of fans feel good about him. Is he gonna be a great QB? Doubtful. Is he a horrible QB? Also doubtful. 2. Can the Bills win the SB without a great QB? Nope. However, it is extremely doubtful this teams wins the SB even with a great QB. Please. Having a great QB is a great thing, but in an of itself it does not guarantee anything in this game. The big deal here is that what the Bills should shoot for is not to win the SB right here right now, but "merely" just make the playoffs. 3. Can the Bills make the playoffs with a not so good QB? You bet. In fact Gailey has demonstrated in his career that he has been able to have productive teams and his teams can bring better performance to not so good QBs (like Fiedker and Kordell. It simply is a pretty nonsensical question to worry about whether Fitzy is a top echelon QB. He ain't but that likely does not matter if the Bills do well what they are trying to do: 1. Run an exciting Gailey O which maximizes the production of marginal players and gets good production from the sprinkly of good talent they have. 2. Line up a game controlling D behind a talented front and some talent in the back 7. 3. Have some demonstrated skill players and good prospects on ST. In this league right here and right now this QB thing is an important side show, its a critical sideshow as this player handles the ball on most (but sifnificantly less for our wildcat O). If this team performs like it can on O, strategically (and often luckily) as this team seems set up to be, then even when the so-so part of Fitzy leads the team they still can win and one of the results ironically will be that Fitzy gets deckared a top echelon of NFL QBs