Forward Progress

Marcel, Super Mario, FredEx

Buddy seems to be patient bringing the rookies into starting roles, allowing them some time to develop as backups. I predict that Hairston will start in week 1, but Glenn will take over 3-4 games into the season. To offer the first rebuttal to my post, I'm not sure if the patience that I saw in the last two years was because the 2010 draft class wasn't outstanding and the 2011 offseason was reduced, slowing the progress of the rookie class. Isn't it great discussing position battles where we have more than one reasonable option. Like Chan says, we want competition at every position.

Buddy was the Director of Pro Player Personnel for his first year with the Chargers, but after Butler died, Smith was promoted to General Manager, and Nix to Assistant General Manager. Your challenge is fair - I can't say that Buddy pulled the strings, as he reported to A.J. Smith. I did read that Nix was one of the major draft-day decision makers for the Chargers, which would imply that it was a team approach, rather than a one-man show. In any case, he has experience in a winning program in San Diego, and I would love to see similar results here in Buffalo.

Buddy Nix has won over a lot of fans (myself included) by establishing what appears to be the foundation of a much more competitive football team. I became curious about the Charger's success in San Diego relative to the time that Buddy was making most of the draft-day decisions, so I did a little digging. The Chargers were pretty crappy when Buddy arrived, and continued to struggle for three more years. In Buddy's 4th year, the Chargers jumped from last to first in the AFC West and remained perennial AFC powerhouses for the next six years. Of the players that Buddy drafted in San Diego, 3 went to the Pro Bowl in 2005, 6 in 2006, 11 in 2007 and 8 in 2008 (source: Wikipedia). It feels like Buddy is taking us down the same path. I'm not sure if we're ready to leapfrog the Pats* this year, but the Bills are ready to make some noise. How cool would it be to have 11 Pro Bowlers on the Bill's roster? I've attached an image of the Charger's records relative to the Buddy's time with the team.

Southwestern Ontario, cheering North America's team.

Week 1 9/9: Buffalo Bills at New York WIN Week 2 9/16 Kansas City Chiefs at Buffalo Bills WIN Week 3 9/23: Buffalo Bills at Cleveland Browns WIN Week 4 9/30: New England Patriots* at Buffalo Bills WIN Week 5 10/07: Buffalo Bills at San Francisco 49ers LOSE Week 6 10/14: Buffalo Bills at Arizona Cardinals LOSE Week 7 10/21: Tennessee Titans at Buffalo Bills WIN Week 8: BYE Week 9: 11/04 Buffalo Bills at Houston Texans LOSE Week 10: 11/11 Buffalo Bills at New England Patriots* LOSE Week 11: 11/15 (Thurs) Miami Dolphins at Buffalo Bills WIN Week 12: 11/25 Buffalo Bills at Indianapolis Colts WIN Week 13: 12/02 Jacksonville Jaguars at Buffalo Bills WIN Week 14: 12/09 St. Louis Rams at Buffalo Bills WIN Week 15: 12/16 Seattle Seahawks at Buffalo Bills WIN Week 16: 12/23 Buffalo Bills at Miami Dolphins WIN Week 17: 12/30 New York Jets at Buffalo Bills WIN Great contest. 12-4 and an end to the playoff drought.

A- What's not to like? He plays fast, hits hard and has hair like Polamalu.

My biggest concern is that I have to wait 5 more months for the season to start. I'm so excited... and I just can't hide it... I'm about to lose control and I think I like it!!

Gregg Williams is suspended indefinately and Sean Payton is suspended for one full year. In addition, the Saints will forfeit 2 second round draft picks. http://www.nfl.com/news/story/09000d5d827c0dd9/article/nfl-suspends-williams-indefinitely-saints-payton-one-year-?module=HP11_breaking_news

The Jets play on Thursday the week before, so they will get an extra 3 days to prepare for us.

Scouting Zebras Here's a link scouting Ed Hochuli before a Pittsburgh game in last year's playoffs. Hochuli's crew throws a lot of flags, especially pass interference (both offensive and defensive) and roughing the passer. We can expect to hear a lot from |Hochuli on Sunday.

I'm feeling pretty good about this trade right now, since we picked up Hairston with our 4th round pick from the Seagulls. Hairston has looked pretty good when he's been able to play. Let's see if Nix can do it again with the pick from the Evans trade.

Another factor is that our switch from the Tampa 2 Defence (made up of smaller & faster defenders) to this year's 3-4 defence with bigger linebackers is affecting our coverage teams. I agree with Dan that building a stronger offence and defence is much more important than special teams. I am willing to relinquish our title of the best special teams team if we can score on offence and make more stops on defence.