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I am not sure whether it is the raw speed he is showing in camp or maybe it was interpretation of his fight in camp shows some feistiness but my guess as to the major implication of the decision to cut Schobel while the OLB position is being hit with some real injuries is that this appears to me to likely be a sign that the braintrust is more confident of Maybin than they were a few days ago!

Same FO (Mr. Ralph and Brandon with Nix added to supplement demonstrated lack of football production rather than contract expertise) produces the same outcome of nickel and diming over biggest contract til the last minute.

Interesting to me to see the comparison between Buffalo and Chicago. I grew up in Chicago spending my first 18 years there before escaping to an Ivy League school where I met my lovely wife and after an intervening decade in DC where I did some fun work we came back to her hometown of Buffalo. Though it may be much to the dismay of the doomsayers on the TSW this turned out to be unequivocally the correct move to make. Like every place else I have ever visited (which is quite a few places since my trade involved a lot of travel and I actually have been to as I remember specific incidents in 46 of the 50 states). The general rule I find is that happy people are happy just about anywhere and sad people are sad just about anywhere. There generally is a glass half empty or glass half full anywhere and folks commentaries seem to say a lot more about their judgments which they make about whether to view things optimistically or pessimistically. While blind optimism or blind pessimism are equally blind. There really is a middle ground of optimistic realism which tends to hold the folks I know and like being with in good stead. All that being said, while Buffalo and Chicago have much in common (both call it pop and not soda, the Great Lakes, city with big shoulders and ethnic feel and division were quite familiar to me when I moved to Buffalo) but there also are real differences. To me the major economic difference seemed o be based on decisions made by the city fathers at the turn of the last century. Buffalo made an economic decision to sell off its water front to private businesses who used the water resource to build large steel mills, auto plants, industries and other manufacturing facilities. There was a lot of money to be made and Buffaloanians made it. Chicago on the other hand actually held most of its waterfront in public hands. There obviously are nodes of development (and an area known as the Magnificent Mile houses waterfront hotels, stores, etc) on the waterfront, but for the most part it is public lands with public access in the form of beaches. Buffalos made out like a bandit for a while, but as it happens plants age and close down and today the Buffalo waterfront is for the most part left with the shells of closed factories, toxic wastes which make the old steel land uninhabitable and the legacy of robber barons who have long ago taken the money to various villas and the jobs to cheaper sources of labor. Chicago on the other hand though it held its waterfront for public access is no economic backwater. Industry and retail are merely backed off of the waterfront by a block or a few hundred yards and the area prospered. Personally, I am quite happy that Bass Pro ain't coming because they actually had negotiated what appears to me what likely would have been an illegal gift of public dollars to a private concern for the $35 million Bass Pro had apparently gotten the City to give up. What should the City of Buffalo and the greater region do? Well, to me it starts with a commitment of the principle of public money for public things. The City of Buffalo should invest the millions of our collective tax # (the $35 million gift to Bass Pro is an indicator that even our poor town there are $ around) and this should be done as it is the way to build business. Businesses come where there are customers to sell things to. Industries relocate in places where their workers are happy to live and work. If Buffalo can make life a good place to live then people will want to live there and businesses will follow. Perhaps the typical American would not want to live in a scary urban place. Regrettable but fine. Like Toronto, Buffalo should open its town to immigrants. They may be funny colors coming from asia, south america, the mideast or wherever, but all of their money is green. Immigrants built this town once before and my guess is that they could build it again. If AZ wants to arrest and harass them we should welcome them. The business rule is buy low and sell high. As depressed as Buffalo and even more so Niagara Falls are it does not get any lower than this economically. We at the bottom of the barrel can compete economically in terms of low price (even any taxation amount which can be higher here is actually chump change compared to the cheaper priced housing advantage. Good riddance to Bass Pro and use public dollars to build more nice parks. Like leeches good businesses will pop up in areas near enough to attractive public spaces to sell stuff to users and visitors of these public spaces.

If this is true we are in big trouble because since I do not think we even have a player who has produced any tangible results that show he is a #2 quality WR, I have no idea which player you are saying are options to become the #1. If so what do you see as the objectives indicators of these players becoming a #1? I guess there are lots of fact free subjective opinions that this player or that player runs good routes like a seasoned pro. However, I tend to discount these fact free opinions when there are no objective data to support them. For example I liked the chatter which was given after last season about the work of rookie Steve Johnson at WR, but these subjective opinions hold much less weight to me than the simple fact that he regressed statistically last season in yardage, receptions, and playing time. Perhaps one might want to make the case that this regression happened because the Bills were gonna play Evans and TO regardless so his numbers went down. Fine. However, even if you accept this as a given, Johnson saw his production go down when clearly Parrish being in the doghouse gave him a shot at some serious #3 time if he was that good. The best players are simply uncoverable (particularly against the left over talent they faced after the opponent sent their best CBs after Evans/TO). Last years seemed like a perfect time for even a back-up like Johnson to beat out Parrish and lay the ground work for demonstrating he was a #2 talent and he did not even do this much less present a reasonable option for #1. Hardy also remains a disappointment that we hope can step up to be a reliable player (solid back-up would be a good step up for him so starter I am not worried about yet. Roscoe strikes me as a potentially solid #3 slot guy and maybe you want to make the tough case for him as a #2 but him being an option for #1 seems unlikely to say the least. I would not imagine you see rookie Easley as an option for #1 so I am just not sure who you are even hinting at.

The talent we have at RB appears to be awesome (Jackson- a real find as like Marv a Coe college guy who whatever people say about him subjectively, objectively he produced great all purpose yards in a record setting way as a Bill last year, Spiller simply was by many objective views hands down the most rexciting RB differencemaker in the draft last year, and Lynch though a total idiot in off field behavior is a youngster who whether folks like it or not deserved the pro bowl nod he earned). However, not only is this logjam of talent weird as the Gailey past activity (in part because his teams had no backup) has been to run one RB all the time. Even stranger about having this logjam of talent of RB is that many other skill positions (a bunch of potential #2s at QB, an OL which is disrupted to say the best, and a no player who has demonstrated in game production in the NFL the yards, catches, TDs to be a #2 WR. The basic question is what O scheme can the Bills employ to get even a requisite amount of consistent touches for these 3 men who arguably should be relied upon to play with consistent touch opportunities. The only way I can see this happening are pretty weird (but then Gailey has forgotten more than most of us have learned about effectively running an NFL O. My favorite unlikely candidates are: 1. We run a 2 RB set with Jackson and Lynch as our two RBs as our basic set. A. This has the practical advantage of both players logging PT such that both can be utilized and neither should be that upset. Like it or not one of these players will be relied upon by the actual play calls, but this will be determined by who is producing and the other RB should not feel overlooked if the other RB is simply producing. B. It appears that Jackson/Lynch have a good personal relationship so it may work well for them to share this role as long as the actual play calls are dictated by the actual production. C. With McIntyre as our only FB on the roster and Lynch showing good beast mode chops the 2 RB set-up as a base O makes some sense even though it is odd. D. The match-up problems this creates for the opposing DC are huge as Jackson has demonstrated he is both a functional runner and receiver and Lynch has demonstrated that at his best (which we did not see at all last year) he is a pro bowl quality runner who came with good pass catching chops from college (though Jauron never found an OC to make use of the collegiate talent he showed. Yet, as neat as this would be, it still leaves a significant problem in that the Bills spent a top 10 choice on Spiller. Spiller shows signs that the views of most pundits that the is one of the most exciting players in the draft on O and certainly at RB. However, A. His stature and past play seem to mitigate against him being relied upon as the workhorse back. B. Still since he is a threat to go to the house on every play having him out there on every play seems like the way to go. The solution which I see for this problem would be to try to plug Spiller in a wideout whenever one could do it. This configuration allows all three players to be on the field virtually every play and the match-up problems (with the raw speed of Evans and Spiller on the wings almost force the opposing D into the nickel or dime every play which then allows the RBs to run wild. We have no (I mean zero, nada, none) WR who had demonstrated with production in the NFL that they can play the #2 WR role. True. Johnson, Hardy, Parrish and even rookie Easley are all credible candidates to one day own this role. However none of them (I mean zero, nada, none) has ever produced as a #2 WR in the NFL before. Even worse, subjectively the best candidate Johnson of the 4 actually regressed statistically across the board last year rather than building on what seemed like good first year subjective hype. All in all the thing that disappoints me most about the failure to sign Spiller is that if the unorthodox move of using him as our #2 WR were to work getting him as many reps in closed practices and having him go in motion wide as much as possible from the RB position in practice would be incredibly useful. We simply are not doing this with him unsigned. Particularly given this contractual problem I am giving up on my dream of us finding a way to get all three on the field at the same time (as unorthodox as Spiller at #2 WR would be other alternatives that employ all 3 like the wishbone are even weirder). My basic question is how do folks see us getting all three players the requisite number of needed touches if the plan is not to use Spiller as much as possible (even if done it will not be shown this way initially if ever on the depth chart). It is easy for folks to simply claim it cannot be done, what I would love to see from us fans are ideas about how to do it.

This whole thread strikes me as looking at the easy part (duh, the Bills draft leaders over the past 5 year and actually one can easily expand the time since the results are 0-for the playoffs in the past decade)> Is there anyone out there who wants to make the case that our draft results are good for the past 5 years or decade? Oh please. The actual interesting question is what do you do about it with the players still on your team and of course the pretty impossible to answer question right now since Gailey is new on he scene what do you do about it in the future. The future question has to intelligently wait until at least we begin to see some real world results which will give us at least a sense of whether we are talking a top 5 pick or a middlin first rounder in the 2011 draft (I think unfortunately those are the realistic parameters though one can lead that fantasy argument if you want). In addition, before we get too hot in the pants about arguing about the 2011 draft I think we need to see at least a little of the real world 2010 college season, so I am willing to forgo the future draft argument for a few months and one can more reasonably turn attention to what should the coaching braintrust do right now with draftees still ion the roster and what do we fans think the prospects are for these players: IMHO they are: The following draft synopsis is as sort of complete as I can get it of guys currently on the roster playing key roles Aaron Schobel- worth mentioning because I think he is gonna be around. Like it or not a legit Pro Bowler talent who has simply both produced glitzy numbers at some points in high blown overemphasized areas like sacks and also has simply been around a long time. In that lengthy career he has shown the ability to produce good #s like consistent around double digit sack #s and has actually improved his game as he has both increased his strength and learned how to use it better at the point of attack (it was downright embarassing watching sometimes get pancaked as a rookie but this does not happen much as he has gained experience). The most impressive thing to me about his career is that the has improved his strength while at the same time tapering his weight and showing the athleticism to master the DL zone blitz role and do pass coverage in the short and middle zone. I think this is important because his future helping this team is gonna be as an OLB, There is potential if his health holds out that he has demonstrated the physical capability, skill, and determination as his play has always featured his determination rather than a dramatic first move. I think he has potential to actually be an outstanding OLB for us. One problem has always been that Schobel has always been very intelligent about doing whats right first and foremost for Aaron and has not always sacrificed himself at least contractually for the team (Schobel was Jason Peters refusing to attend voluntary OTA before Peters was Peters- the current retirement drama is not surprising). However, I hope he comes back and I think he will and I think he potentially could be outstanding. TD actually did well in the draft where he chose Clements, Pro Bowl making idiot Henry and Schobel on the first day. McGee- Arguably the best CB on this team and a legit Pro Bowler back in the day as a return guy. His pick was a real winner for a second day guy but in conjunction with the Mike Williams disaster which TD also oversaw it shows how much a crapshoot the draft really is but I think it is pretty clear the Bills ride the McGee horse as hard as they can and feel good that there are some well regarded CBs behind him targeted to replace him which though he is still solid is gonna have to happen likely sooner rather than later. Kelsau- Overpaid. Shifted to OLB after we abandoned the 4-3 as this unit with Kelsay in a central role simply underperformed what one hopes for from the DL. I think he was an OK pick as he has been a reasonable player, but the massive extension he received was way too much $ for his level of output. I have little belief that we will see much out of him with the forced switch to OLB. FO did fine drafting him but messed up badly with the extension amount. Evans- There seems little reason as a player why he should not be the Bills lock for the Pro Bowl #1 WR. However, the fact that he is not even an alternate Pro Bowler despite his speed, demonstrated ability to track and catch the long ball, and a willingness and even some demonstrated ability to make a circus catch in over the middle traffic there is little better testimony that the problems have been with the poor offensive structure and QB performance issues. The problem is that the clock is ticking and Evans has also demonstrated that unless there is a another WR at the #2 who can attract attention that he can be neutralized and not be a force. Unfortunately, it appears we will be fortunate to see any of the candidates for #2 WR, Johnson, Hardy, Parrish, or Easley perform even up to the standard of the getting old Peerless Price we had at #2 with Evans a couple of years back. Clearly the old PP had his deficits due to age and injury, but I would rather have a has been like PP at #2 rather than a never was like any of our 4 candidates. None of these 4 has EVER performed at a #2 NFL WR level before and even worse the most promising candidate of the bunch Jackson actually took significant statistical steps backward in his second year. Stats do not dictate performance (fortunately) but they are not an easily ignored indicator either. If I were Gailey (which thankfully for us all I am not) I would actually take the bad option of trying Spiller as my #2 WR over what I see as the worse options of calling on 4 guys who have no sign of being a #2 in real games as my option. However, the thing that worries me about the growing Spiller holdout is that if we were gonna pull off the hail Mary of having him line up wide consistently in order to create horrible match-up problems for the SC every moment of practice time is critical. Good draft pick but lousy coaching is the problem here. Parrish- A weird year as the Bills had no #1 (you could simply label Losman as the #1 pick since they traded away the 2006 pick to step up and get him in 2005. Again Parrish has not been a bad player in that he deserved the pro Bowl nod he received for being a very good to approaching great return guy, Add to his resume that he really has shown more ability to be a gamer and play well in the middle of the field than we should expect given his smurf like size and initial injury. I like Parrish as a #3 but we are asking too much to demand he perform as a #2. When you add to that Jauron was never able to make his O work as a scheme (firing Turk a couple of weeks before the season was actually his highlight) and again though the drafting has been hit and miss (like all drafting is at worst the Bills miss a bit more than the norm but not extraordinarily so given the crapshoot the draft is and the probs are even more likely to be the training rather than the scouting IMHO) Lynch- On field great. Off field an idiot. In the ned, you pay the GM and the draft team the big bucks to shake every potential top 10 picks hand and look him in the eye and assess whether he not only has the moves but the character to be a top 10 pick. The FO blew this one. However, reality does say that a mistake was made here as you observe, but actually it was a dumb mistake rather than simply a horrible stupid one for which there is no redemption. I would have been quite pleased and it would have made sense to me if the Bills simply traded Lynch away for something anything. However, IF Gailey has a plan for actually using two RBs (Jackson and Lynch) simultaneously AND then also has a O scheme which gets high priced draftee Spiller a significant amount of touches then keeping Lynch MAY be a very workable idea. I am not sure what that is (using Spiller as the #2 WR as much as possible strikes me as one unorthodox way of doing this- though it would be weird). Still there is a bottom line that on the field Lynch has not been a bust and on the contrary since he even slimed into the Pro Bowl once he is even a good on the field pick. However, his off field antics have been so numerous and even led to a suspension which took him off the field he is an OK but in a serious way flawed pick by the FO. This is a fun review for me to do but has been waiting unsent for a while so I will send what I got an try to get back to this as part of educating myself. Thanks for starting the thread even though the big problem to me is not bad picking but bad training and management of picks which were reasonable in an of themselves.

I hope Wood said this with a smile on his face as though it is clear to me by virtually amy measure that Maybin did not deserve the money he was [paid to play this boys game last year, by the measure of deserving the money based on what they give to society there are a whole bunch of firefighters, police officers, and folks defending us in the Mid-east who deserve a lot more compensation. Not only Maybin but Wood should be giving money back based on any real measure. If one instead chooses to forget about reality and judge deserving payment based on output alone, then to some extent Jrius Byrd deserves money be given to him and probably the overpaid Chris Kelsay and Maybin are dueling with each other for who should be giving money back (at least Maybin who through his holdout and relative youth "deserves" a pass on the output/deserves scale while Kelsay is taking advantage of the situation with a huge contract he did not deserve based on almost any rational measure of pay for results. Well, I guess Wood gets free pass due to injury but in the last part of the season even Maybin was more productive than Wood. This is a dangerous game to go to far with this thinking as is there anyone out there who does not feel all Bills deserve to give money back?

I think BBfan is right that making TE the starter is a no lose situation. Personally (and like all on this board I have been wrong bigtime before, my GUESS is that Brohm wins the starting nod by the end of the season. I say this not due to any great belief in Brohm (unfortunately). While I think the reality of subjective experience indiicates he has the talent to be a very good NFL player he appears to lack that often intangible moxie which can make a good athlete a great one. My sense is one of the main tasks confronting Gailey in using Brohm well is to actually restore some of his confidence. If he beats out TE in what Gailey calls an open competition he has taken the first step on the road to greatness. If he does not win the job no harm no foul for us, The reason I think TE will not win the job is NOT because I do not think he is a talented QB. He looked great initially against non talented teams. However two things happened: 1. Jauron with the fired Turk really had no offense to do a lot with. 2. In his initial two seasons Edwards proved to be injury prone which I define as missing significant PT 3 times in 2 years to different injuries. Maybe Gailey wizard that he has shown himself to be with an offense he can build us to fit TEs strengths. Maybe TE has matured enough physically that he is no longer injury prone, These two things can happen but I doubt they will and thus I think Brohm gets a shot,

An I told you so related to SJ is not going to be appropriate until he presents some tangible evidence that he has reversed the statistical regression he suffered from his rookie year as he took in fewer receptions has less yardage and forced his way to more PT his second year than in his rookie year. I think it was pretty expected he would be the #2 WR if only because the alternatives (Hardy, Parrish, Easley) were even more unlikely candidates to be real #2s than the regressed Johnson.

Among other things. First its been a lot more than 2-3 times he was relied upon for coverage work at DE. It was a lot more often during the Jerry Gray/LeBeau years but if anything one complaint about his DE play is that we had a tendency a little too much to use him pass coverage. As mentioned above his more LB typical playing weight is a negative reason to assign him to the OLB slot. Another negative reason is that strength at the point of attack was never his greatest strength so PLB which can take advantage of the unusual athleticism for a DE he showed and his clear diligence and good persistent motor may also tend to have him cover a lot more field as am OLB.

The watchers who do a great job IMHO of trying to keep TSW somewhat neater and cleaner may well fold this post into one of the couple of threads going on which seem to focus more on the soap opera aspects of his decision and whether dramatic issues of global significance such as whether so and so talked to his wife and can the source be trusted. This is not intended to be a thread about these issues which some find entertaining or whether some reporter got the true story 14 milliseconds quicker than some other hack, I mean this thread to be about the football issues and really would find it hard to care less about the soap opera or which reporter or confidant had the news first. I follow the NFL because I find the game entertaining and I hope this is what this thread is about, the football rather than the soap opera and I encourage the observers who keep the board clean to do whatever the deem useful to keep the conversation flowing, My questions is: Do folks see his highest and best use is as augmenting a DL at the RDE position which won him Pro Bowl honors or instead augmenting the LB position where the shift to the 3-4 makes getting competent OLB help a priority? Unfortunately, I see a difference between where I think Schobel performs best as a player and where I think the Bills needs are. I actually like AS best as an OLB where he has shown an ability to play DE at a weight more typical of an LB. He performed well in the zone blitz and showed the ability even as a DL player to drop back and pass cover in the short and even medium zone. Her was never a bulky guy who made the run difficult merely byhis size. He actually improved his stoutness even while losing weight/ The Bills appear to want a DE with athleticism and Schobel may fit this mold. He is getting older but given our thiness at DE may be the best we can do.

Actually the Jax plan to get the highest bidder is to auction off the naming rights but the company that purchases them gets to name the stadium after their main competitor who then gets saddled with weekly association with a stadium which mostly consists of tarped off seats rather than fans. Opponents prepare for games by turning their speakers to -11 and opponents have to adjust to playing in total silence.

At all? Certainly the situations and the people are different. Yet, this whole thing comes off as merely Schobel's version of the same is he retired or is he not scenario that the older Farve has played for years. It ain't the same thing but the simple fact is that NFL players learn from what they saw older NFL players do (for example Jason Peters saw Schobel play the Bills like a drum when he signed a new contract but within years saw how much the Bills were willing to pay a lesser talent like Kelsay. He started out by not attending voluntary practices and it became know publicly that he wanted a new contract. Lo and behold the Bills folded and let him have what he wanted. Peters tried the same game, and though the Bills saw fit not to fold up the way they did for Schobel, eventually they gave Peters exactly what he was looking for contractually even though it was Philly that paid the big bucks. I see this will he or won't he retirement game as being simply the Schobel version of the same game.

He has Brett Favre disease. Wait him out and if he wants multi-million dollars then he will have to be a Bill, if not then maybe his entry on the Wall of Fame is the next time we think about him. If he does come back then I put him in at LB. He demonstrated with the zone blitz that even with small DE weight he could pass cover in the middle zone and sometimes even did some deep zone work on a short field in the endzone. Get him to peel a few more pounds so he can do the full pass coverage duties of an LB and as an OLB in a 3-4 he can do his Bryce Paup imitation doing the pass rush. Maybin gets to back him up and learn from him.

I agree. It was fairly amusing to the sane fan to watch folks hyperventialting about TO becoming a cancer for the Bills based on their reading of his past actual events. A sane reading would have understood that TO has a complete history of being a total boy scout his first year and he can only split the team and fans if half of them believe in him. It was actually quite amusing watching folks declare doom even before training camp got underway as surprisingly TO showed up for voluntary practice but then skipped out (it turned out he long had had commitment to be in Philly to receive an award for his work with kids with the disease). The hilarious thing was watching folks declare any faux pas by him imagined or real as the end of the world when the reality was he was simply leading this team in recepts and yards. The sad truth is that though TO did not deserve to be a Bill there was a strong cadre in the media and among some fans that are even lower on the food chain than TO. The Cincy version of this dance will be fun.

However, the point of logic here based the assumption you correctly state is that a good dc will attack the point of weakness. The question of what will be the effect of the failure of a particular player on the fate of the team actually is measured most by how well will he be replaced. Application of logic is the factor which actually devalues the import of a guard failure as if any interior blocker has a weakness there is a player to both his left and his right who must and will compensate for him. If the RT has a deficit then it is true that the TE too his side will pick up for him (though if there is this need for max protect it harms the O receiving game. Failure by the LT is an even bigger issue as beside the guard to his inside there is nobody to help out on the wing and this is why often the best pass rusher on the DL is rushing to his outside. On the face of it logic tells one it is quite unlikely that the play of a guard is gonna determine the fate of even the OL much less the team. If one goes beyond paltry logic and looks at the actual case this reinforces the notion that Wood's fate does not determine the fate of the team. The Bills are weak for OL starters so its pretty bad options for all the plan Bs. However, if Wood does not recover, I actually am a lot less worried about back-up Chambers at the guard spot than I am about Meredith as the back-up to Bell at LT. Chambers had clear deficits at the generally more difficult tackle slot but at least he has an NFL start to his credit at Guard. I think Wood is a great guy and it has always been my hope that he would become our answer at C, but we need to see him move to C before our hopes and dreams fall on his shoulders.

Nah, I don't think so. I agree with those who make the case that wood MIGHT become critical to success if they moved him to center. However, i think on the face of it a Wood return to normalcy is certainly possible thanks to diligence and character on his part and good work from the surgeons. However, I think on the face of it, Hamgartner having an excellent years in terms of the variables of: 1. Recognizing odd blitzes and making good line calls, and 2. Building a rapport with whomever gets the QB starter job are far more central to the fate of the Bills than simply how Wood does in the G role. In fact, due to the zone blitz role across the league and the odd blitz packages, while the interior line like the Gs and cs are fundamental to the run game working, its the tackles who are the critical element (and even bigger question marks than the Gs in the fate of the OL. If Wood goes down and we have to turn to Chambers it is regrettable but the season ain't over. However, if neither Bell nor Meredith come through we are likely cooked. Wood is a great story but unless he moves to C he ain't the key variable in this dance.

I totally agree that they won and SB despite the SB and not because of him under Switxer. This is important though not as a comparison of Switzer to Jimmy J, but simply as an indicator that the evidence tends to indicate that the HC role for the Boys (be it Switzer or JJ) is pretty far from the key element in their victory. IMHO, I think JJ and his attitude were key elements to the Boys winning their first Bowls with him, but winning the second bowl without him I think is a pretty good indicator that a lot of what was key for this team in terms of their in game execution and control of the game was actually dictated by a fairly stellar group of onfield talent rather than by the dictates or direction of the HC. Ironically, I think that the critical elements that an HC is well positioned to bring to an SB winner which JJ did bring to the Boys was actually one of the few things a football stiff like Switzer could bring which was that he was a great college coach who did provide a rah centerpiece for the team to coalesce around. Both Switzer and JJ provided that. Switzer provided little else as he is not an Xs and Os guy that in the classic model you would want your HC to be. However, the Boys had enough stud players on the field and quality leadership from folks like Aikmsn and Emmit that they could rein in insane talents like Irvin or Deion even with an HC who was more of a liability than strength. The Boys won despite Switzer and my guess is that while Jj was a positive that they also likely would have won even without JJ as well and certainly he does not deserve the lionshare or all the credit for their SB win under his guidance. In the end, HCs get too much credit and too much blame, but taking fall for the blame and it is to be hoped graciously sharing the credit it part of the reason the job gets paid so much.

Two words in regard to it being all about Jimmy Johnson: Barry Switzer To some degree Barry benefitted from the legacy Jimmy left him, but in the end what the Switzer led SB win seems to show is that success for a team comes from it being a TEAM and not from any one individual. A lot of things may be necessary but nothing is sufficient in an of itself.

I tend to be a believer in depending upon competition leading to development of a player rather than coddling him and letting him play and make a bunch of mistakes to learn the game by doing. To me a player may not be the best right away, but assuming you are not hard up against the cap and can afford to pay for a vet and a developing rookie, my sense is that the best way to develop a player to be depended upon is not clearing the decks of better performing players and coddling the poor performer, but instead challenge him in practice and on the depth chart to be the best player on the roster he can be.

Unfortunately it may simply be the case that things need to get worse before they get better. Specifically: 1. The biggest clear place where we lost a major piece from 09 is at WR. Whether folks want to admit or not (many in the media or fans were ready from the start to signal the signs of TO becoming a cancer based on their reading of past actions when it was quite clear from looking at the past that TO spent his first year (or years) at a stop winning the hearts of some teammates and fans and then the meltdown came later- you gotta win devotees first if you are gonna be a cancer) the Bills lost and have to replace their WR leader in receptions and yards. The good news is that they have a number of candidates for the job but the bad news is that none of these individuals is a good bet to star. We could get worse here. 2. It has been claimed in writing that other teams back-ups look better than our starters as a whole. Probably not true but for it even to be said speaks volumes of what we may still have to go through as we learn this crew and they learn each other. I think we will get better but it easily could be worse for a while. 3. QB is in a position where I think one of these three athletes will prove to be an adequate winner of this battle but again this will take time and we will have one or two horrid performances before the third wins the job. 4. We are switching from a 4-3 to a 3-4 and players are shifting positions like Kelsay to LB and Stroud to DE and one has to expect it will get worse before it gets better And this is based on an assumption that it will all work out.

This the key for the Bills whether he is an upgrade over what they currently have. Based on the press he has gotten it seems likely not. However, it does not matter one bit whether he is another Texas wipebutt or whatever name one wants to call him, the key question is whether he is an upgrade over our lead candidate for #2 WR Johnson who regressed statistically across the board last year. Is he an upgrade over Parrish who I think has demonstrated he deserves a shot at the #3 job but I think is quite doubtful to be the #2 we need. Is he an upgrade over two time disappointment Hardy or over rookie Easley. Even though it is not harder to show more talent than any of our candidates, thee is a character question which can only be measured by shaking the hand and looking in the eye of the player (and not by some pronouncement from some armchair internet guru like us. Should we sign Williams if possible? Well we certainly have a large hole at #2 WR and it is up to Gailey and the braintrust to meet him when he hits FA and decide on whether he is an upgrade or not.

+1 on the thread starter here and I would add: 7. ST will tell a lot of the story in terms of whether each game is one where we are struggling to deal with the initiative set by the opponent or actually setting the tone ourselves and allowing Gailey to experiment with his new O. You gotta like the skill ST players as Moorman is quite the athlete and has a good head on his shoulders (I loved it when he qualified for an NFL skills competition which asked each player to perform several tasks which emphasized speed, or strength, athleticism, etc- Moorman simply blew off pushing a blocking sled taking a 5 second penalty but not wasting anytime pushing the sled and ran through the other items after forcing the judges in this made for TV duel to confer he knows what he can do and more important what he cannot do), Lindell after a horrible short yardage miss against Pitts years ago has become money in the bank for a lot of FGs. The Bills actually have multiple choices for Pro Bowl quality KR and PR guys. The final outcome will be determined by whether the loss of Bobby April and his replacement by retread Bruce DeHaven is effective. Both were effective in their stints with the Bills but Aprils attacking style and DeHaven's generally conservative style are opposite approaches which both were quite effective, If DeHaven can push the fundamentals and use them to liberate the talent we have this can be a unit which not only strikes with lightening but simply wins the field position battles making life a lot easier for the O and D. This is one area which I think is not gonna be readily apparent to the out of town pundit initially which might actually allow the team to wrack up a couple of Ws and come back quicker that the chattering class expect. 8. My sense is one of the major gaps on this team is the total lack of a #2 WR who has even remotely shone he can do that job in the NFL before. Folks are worried about the QB and LT (and OL across the board) positions but my sense is the lack of proven quality at WR is a much bigger O concern to me. I mean we were better off when retread Peerless Price was our #2 and good producing as a #3 but failed as a #2 Reed was what we had, Now we have Jackson who statistically backward last year, questioned as a #3 (falsely in my mind as I think he can be a capable #3 though not a #2 IMHO) Parrish, coming off of injurt and disappointment Hardy, and rookie Easley as prospects. The stakes are incredibly high as unless we have a #2 WR who is not merely adequate (simply achieving adequacy would actually be a step up for any of these candidates but there are enough of them I suspect one of them will meet this relatively low standard) but actually is a threat whom it is questionable to single team all the time with the a CB. Otherwise opponents will simply load up in the box to cancel out our strong runners and dt Evans. We need our #2 WR to step up when none of our choices has demonstrated he can even start in the NFL. I have gotten some grief for my answer to this quandary which is that you employ Spiller as much as possible as our #2, He certainly is going to utilized as a motion receiver from the backfield a lot anyway. He certainly does not have the collegiate experience as a WR to put him on the depth chart as a WR. However, he does have a rep as a good route runner with a good set of hands. If I was his coach he would be sleeping with a JUGs gun and I would not only not put him on the depth chart but I would use him little in pre-season as a receiver. In the first game I would confront the opposing DC with both Jackson and Lynch in the backfield (I might even line Lynch up wide and empty the backfield sending Jackson in motion). I have Evans and Spiller both out wide threatening to run fly patterns. I then require my QB to then pick which receiver has the slowest opponent on him and loft a pass out to this streaking player. I think this type of attack will help the blockers and help the QB.

I just think it is a little odd that JJ is so important to you that seeing him die in a way which would sidetrack the game in progress big time and then dominate sports news and talk for several news cycles is so worth it to you. From this Bill's fan perspective JJ is not worth the trouble which would occur from his prominent death. I guess different people and different things just float different boats. To each their own.

You gotta be kidding. Despite the pleasure you and others might gain from seeing his painful death, I for one would get much more enjoyment from watching the football game rather than having the game stopped while emergency personnel rush on to the field. Sure I would watch just as the fact that almost all of us slow down and crane our necks inspecting a car accident on the highway, but the annoying replays which would occupy sportscenter for the next week as they went into George Steinbrenner mode would make such a spectacle a horrible thing to have happen despite the pleasure it would bring you. Jerry Jones just is not that important to me. I do not see why you judge him as so worth your time and attention.