ganesh

When they picked Williams in Rd 2. it definitely is a good indication that they are not going to re-sign Florence, even though he had outplayed McKelvin. Last year Greer signed something between 3.5 to 4M a year with the Saints. I don't know if the Bills will be willing to pay that much. I think it is time for the Bills to cut McGee and re-sign Florence, even though they will not do it. Florence was by far the best DB on the field last season.

They made it to the Superbowl because they have an outstanding defense run by Dick LeBeau and a great QB in Ben Rothelisberger. Having a QB like Ben allows the Steelers to get away with a mediocre OL. I watched every single Steeler game and am surrounded by Steeler fans everyday at work, so have a good idea of that team. We don't have the luxury of that team because our QB is not in the same league as Big Ben. Even in our glory years, Kelly bailed us out with his play when our OL was weak after the departure of Wilfork. The point was that our OL is better than people give credit for, minus a RT. Every team does not have all-pros on all the 5 positions at the OL. We have two very young guards who are likely to have above average careers and a questionable LT who may just be able to turn it around and an average Center. The one difference I will give is that the good to excellent teams have Outstanding Centers and that is something we have not had since departure of Kent Hull. Adams Struggled in Pittsburgh mightily and there was even talks to replacing him. The only consistent player on that line was Pouncey and his impact was felt when he could not play in the Superbowl. Another example to support the theory is our own team. When Edwards played the first few games, the OL looked really really bad...However, when Fitz came in, suddenly there was time to pass and make plays. The OL suddenly did not transform into a different entity.

Other than Pouncey, everyone on that line was horrible including Adams. Jonathan SCott was cut by the Bills because he could not be the 3rd replacement at LT the previous season. Again, my point was that no team in the NFL has outstanding players at all the 5 positions on the line. The Steelers made good use of the available talent and game planned, something Gailey was not able to do with Spiller and Jackson in hand.

If we could have picked Dalton instead of Williams in Rd 2, I would have been real happy. Andy is supposed to be a very accurate QB and could be NFL ready in a few years. Williams is not even going to start @ the position he plays. The Bills Keep reaching for these above average DBs in the top of the draft....Whitner, McKelvin, Byrd and now Williams...You don't win in this league by having above average CBs.

The line is what it is. Most of the teams have average lines. The steelers had a line that was worse than ours and yet made a deep run. Your arguments regarding Fitz are weak. Nelson was never a contributor when Fitz was having his good days...so I am not sure he counts...The same goes for Parrish. Parrish was gone more than half the season. Lee Evans was a shadow of himself...so losing him at the end of the season was really a minor issue. Marshawn was pretty much invisible last season, so I am not sure how he contributed to Fitz success and how him not being there caused Fitz to fail. Actually Jones and Nelson stepped up and had good games at the end of the season. Fitz threw horrible INTs and fumbled the ball. The focus was just not there @ the end of the season.

You have to agree that Fitz performance tailed off in the final 4 games and he was very average to downright awful in those games. I still don't have full confidence that he can win consistently for us.

NBA cashed in on the Jordan-Johnson era and doled out guaranteed contracts that were huge at that time. Once the product got diluted due to the fading of their super stars of the 90s (Jordan, Pippen, Ewing, Miller, Stockton, Malone etc), the stadiums stopped filling up and the bloated contracts given to people like Alan Houston, Howard (Washington, Orlando) killed the sport. Sure the Lakers won 3 more championships, but without the rivalry in Chicago, New York and Houston, the NBA suffered @ the big markets. The NBA has realized (and Baseball will too) that you need to maintain salary balance for the sport to succeed. The NFL had done the right thing and had it going (except for a lack of hard-salary cap for rookies). The NHL went through this a few years ago and the players realized that the teams were just not making enough money to pay them the huge salaries....And look what happened....The NHL is enjoyed some of its best years with a salary cap and the super stars are coming out...and the good teams like the Penguins know how to win consistently.

This is the interesting dilemma this team has faced this decade. On one side you have an underachieving player who has not raised him game to be a super star. However, on the other hand, there is no suitable replacement in the FA market to replace him. The Bills hands are pretty much tied in keeping Poz and re-signing him to a above-expectation contract. The leverage is all in Poz's hands. Do the Bills do the same as let Clements, Williams, Winfield walk after their rookie contract and get the wrath of their fans or sign Poz to an exaggerated contract like given to Kelsay and Lee and have to continue to under perform. My bet is that the Bills will re-sign Poz to a rich contract extension and will continue to get average play out of him.

He is responsible for getting his draft picks on the field. Unfortunately, none of the 8 players drafted last year started for the Bills consistently. That is on the coach and his staff. If Chan really wanted a 3-4 defense, then he should have hired someone who is well versed in it or at least kept Fewell back. Instead, he chose Edwards who has been horrible.

Nelson was suspended for the first 4 games and could not play the final 6 games with his severe migraine headaches. That leaves 6 games, in which he saw action...I think it is too harsh to judge someone in 6 games.

I think both are about even. In critical pressure times, both Brady and Manning have had their problems...What has separated NE is that their defense has bailed them out especially those 3 super bowl runs. The only time their offense was far superior than their defense was the 16-0 run, but then they lost to the Giants. Both are great QBs. It is the same as the debate in the 90s...who would you rather have...Kelly, Marion, Young or Elway. Each had their own strengths and short comings. All were great QBs who went on to become HOFers.

Another curse.... One thing though..these naming rights have really gone awry....Rich Stadium was so coool.....Now we have stupid names such as M&T Bank Stadium or Invesco Field....Gillette Stadium...crap.... The one I like is Heinz Field...with the Popping Ketchup Bottle pouring Ketchup everytime the Steelers are in the RED zone....Why can't these commerical comapnies come up with cute names the represents them as well as provides a non-drab name.

Fair points. TD was the biggest problem, especially when he decided not sign Pat Williams (Again fault was with Greg Williams who wanted to run a 4-3 and felt Williams was a lazy fat boy) and never addressed the OL in the draft. He did get Bledsoe, but failed to convince Dick LeBeau to stay and sign as DC. However, the Jauron-Levy combination really blew this team away. One of the 7-9 record was due to facing the weak AFC West in one of those years...They overpaid for Dockery and Walker and picked Whitner ahead of Ngata, Picked McCargo instead of Mangold and continued to invested 1st and 2nd round picks in McKelvin, Byrd, wasted a 3rd pick for Craig Nall, who was then not even given a chance to compete. Inability to re-sign Peters. Ten years of Futility with everyone equally responsible. I hope Nix and Wahle can resurrect this once proud franchise...though I have doubts with the current regime... 1. Picking Spiller when we had so many other needs and then giving away Lynch for a 4th rounder. 2. A horrible Defensive Coordinator and we continue to mess up. I wish Gailey would have learned and put Wannestedt in charge. This team needs some experienced folks running the offense and defense. 3. The inability to have the 2010 draft picks get on the field inspite of a horrible team that finished 4-12. 4. Inability to find a TE who can be involved in this offense.

Completely agree...This line could not provide any penetration especially in goal-line situations. They could not dominate and punch it in as evident by the # of Rushing TDs we had last year.

what bothers me is the lack of consistency...1 TD in the final six games...Was it a case of the Bills being just bad or Steve losing focus. The Bills need two good WRs who can play consistently on a week to week basis. Something I have seen the past 10 seasons in Pittsburgh...Whether it was Hines and Plaxico or Hines and Holmes or Hines and Wallace, they have worked in tandem and you need that to not have the opposing defense focus on one player....I hope Lee will wake up from his 3-4 season slumber and have the same impact he had the year with Losman and the prior year with Bledsoe.

Totally agree...The same was said about Big Ben...Came in Started after the starter got hurt....went on to have a 15-1 season and AFC Championship game and then wins the super bowl, where he had a so-so game... But those steelers needed exactly that kind of QB...a game manager who did not make big mistakes....They won with their running game and Defense...But still needed a threat at the QB position so that teams couldn't stack up the LoS. In fact, the year they won the SB, it was Ben's initial onslaught against the Colts and Broncos that set up them to run the ball and close out the game. It was so evident the difference for this Steelers team between when Ben was the QB and when Tommy Maddox was playing....The teams could stack up the line and stop the Steelers run when maddox was in. I see Sanchez doing exactly the same...being surrounded by a great Defense and excellent running game....and the guys makes the plays when it matters... There isn't even any close comparison to Henne and Sanchez. BTW, Fitz reminds me so much of Tommy Maddox....Tommy resurrected his career with the Steelers, when they were not going anywhere with Koredell Stewart...However, besides putting some points, he could not get that team to win consistently. I think Fitz will be just that and it is imperative for the Bills to find that Franchise QB in the next draft.

Regarding Double coverage, that is not true. Most of the games, Lee was matched on 1-on-1. Actually, when Steve got hot, it was he who was double covered and yet he beat both the defenders to make catches.. Jones is a very underrated player and I think he will emerge this year like Stevie. Jone actually was the smoothest catching the ball last year. Evans is a good player, but a one trick pony. I have never seen him make the kind of juke moves Johnson made last year to go for the catch. Everytime, Evans has run the curl route to come back for the ball has resulted in INTs.

The NFL has had two problems with Player Salaries that has caused this labor dispute. 1. Not having a real rookie salary cap, especially in the up front Bonus money department. Giving a 50M signing bonus to a player who has never played a down in the NFL is just insane and it kills the team having to pay that money in providing a better salary to the players who have earned it. 2. The imprudent spending of the Jerry Jones and Dan Snyders of the world, in overpaying for all the overrated free agents and thereby setting the bar high for the rest of these players. This marks teams without the necessary revenue to overreach for that one star player and there by shooting down the rest of the team. Thank God that at least Belichek has no interest in signing players that need huge signing bonus....Otherwise, Kraft will be part of this party too.

Yes for the entire article (It includes all the AFC East team). However, the insider snippet that is exposed for the non-subscriber has the full Bills analysis.

Kpers Summer Audits: AFC East

Freddie is a good work horse back. However, the biggest problem I have had with him is his inability to get in the end zone. Even two seasons ago, Marshawn had a lot more TDs compared to Jackson and that sort of continued into the 2011 season too.

Another Michigan Flame out.

We also lost Kawika Mitchell in this experiment. I am also not sure if Spencer Johnson with his small size is fit to play the 3-4 as a DE. The "Out of Position" comment does hold some truth, especially considering that we did not have a Dom Capers or Dick LeBeau to run this 3-4 defense. I am sure either one of them would have got something out of Maybin instead of keeping him in street clothes. How does Trent Edwards decision fall on Nix? That was purely a Chan's decision based on spring training and summer camp. I partially agree with the 3-4 in that the team actually played more of 4-3 than 3-4 after figuring out that Stroud cannot be a DE and Kelsay cannot be a OLB. I am still suspect on his draft class from last year.

Just one of the N other killer finishes for the Bills...

It all starts at the Center of the line. We have not had a dominating center since Kent Hull Retired. Far too often the pocket has collapsed from the middle rather than the outside. There has been no push from that middle in the running game. All great teams have had excellent centers, who understand the game and have the right attitude. This has been a recurring theme for the past 16 years.