simpleman

The past few games the bright spot I keep noticing is how well Felton and McCoy seem to be working together. I wondered if anyone else has been impressed with Felton the past few games. Is it just me, or does he really seem to be a shining contributor to our run game recently? Watching the games on TV it is hard to really follow his play. Has anyone with All 22 ever noticed his play? I'm curious just how much an impact he really has been having.

Agree on the general concept, but not sure who they would be. Marrone fit the bill, but he was arrogant and inflexible. We need coaches that take the players we already have and design the system to fit them. Not force the team to rebuild to fit their system. No more disruptive rebuilds, just tweaks to the roster to get it right.

The sad thing is you appear to be right. Are the Pegulas really that stupid? Or do they not have any pride in Buffalo Region and respect for we fans? For Ralph it was all about the money. What is it all about for the Pegulas?

But there are too many people in that organization right now thinking about surviving 2016...No one on Rex's staff is thinking about what is best for next year...Or what is best for Cardale... This has been a problem in the Bills organization for years. And they hired REX knowing he was the pinnacle of a person thinking about his own self interest first and foremost. Lack of foresight has been the problem in the organization for years. Lack of planning and being reactive instead of being proactive. The next season effectively started after the last loss. This is already the 2017 preseason, but the organization is too stubborn to accept it. Wasting time and effort on the lost cause of the 2016 season instead of working positively for future success in the 2017 season is typical of the dysfunctional Bills organization.

I know people want easy answers. But they don't want real answers. They just want a quick easy out. A scapegoat that they can say just get rid of him and everything will be bright and sunny again. Sorry, there are no easy answers. I don't think any coach or player has been there 17 years. The cancer has been there so long and spread so much and so deeply, it is in the DNA of the organization. There are no easy answers.

As a sports fan its not the money I worry about. It's the rich guys money, not mine. I worry about the cap hit not allowing the team to bring in the talent to make the team competitive and give me a good show for once in almost 2 decades.

The problems start at the very top. And there is nothing anyone can do about it, anymore than we could during the Wilson era. Owners can do whatever they want with their property. And it has been proven that we the sports entertainment consumers in the Buffalo area will do nothing to change that. We accept decades of habitual losing, futility and mediocrity. The only way change will occur is if the fans do not support a business that fails to deliver. And Buffalo fans have clearly signaled that we will accept pretty much any crap that is tossed our way. Brandon is responsible for marketing and business financial success. That is his job. He is just doing it. He has a long successful record of keeping the team successful business wise and marketing wise. In a healthy sports organization there are suppose to be individuals to counterbalance his push for sound financial and marketing decisions. If ownership has not created an atmosphere and a structure where there is the proper balance available to promote the needs the sports side of the equation and being competitive, that is not his fault. If ownership gives too much emphasis on his side of the equation, that is on them, not him. Considering Whaley, I don't know who actually determines clauses in the player contracts and the terms of player contracts in the Bills organization. Is it he as GM, or someone on the business side of the organization that deals with contract detail nitty gritty? The bad contracts are someone's fault. Hiring Rex, and the even worse decision of retaining Rex after last season were definitely someones fault. Was it Whaley who made that bad decision? Or ownership? Hiring Rex knowing he wanted a 3-4, while Buffalo had a top rated defense based on 4-3 personnel, was a recipe for disaster. Not to mention it meant we would loose a winning D coach by hiring Rex, who wanted to put his personal mark on the Buffalo D. And retaining Rex meant we then had to rebuild our defense and use our draft on acquiring the pieces to build “Rex's” defense, while our suspect offense and right side of the O-line was a glaring concern. Our weaknesses at WR, were also glaring beyond Sammy. Safety, beyond AW, whose longevity was in doubt after his severe injury, was also glaring need. None of them were addressed in FA or the draft. Was it Whaley's choice to give Rex his choices in the draft, or was told to do so by his bosses? Our gambles on FA the past few years had already put us in a precarious position where FA was not a viable option. Was it Whaley who negotiated those contract terms, or someone on the business side? He went after legitimate talent to build a winning team. He did his job there. The problem was the terms of those contracts. Who negotiated those terms? Giving TT a huge new contract while he was still under contract was a huge gamble, considering he still had a lot of questions to answer, and needed to prove a lot to deserve it first. Although I do give Whaley credit for taking a gamble on Jones. I just hope we give him a shot to see what he has in a real game this season. We have had too much hesitancy on cutting bad QBs loose. Draft em, give em a shot and quickly move on till you find one. QBs are the toughest gamble to win. The more deals of the deck you get at QB, the faster you will finally get a winning hand at QB. Holding your cards too long just delays finding the winning hand. We already know EJ & TT are what they are. Let's see what Jones has, and if it isn't enough, lets move on looking for our starting QB. Is Jones a potential starter, a potential backup, or just potential roadkill? Sitting on the bench does not show you a QB's potential. You can only tell under live, real season conditions, playing against real NFL starters. Now is the time. Loses the rest of the season are actually wins when it comes to rebuilding the team through the draft, so it is a win either way. Jones shows he has potential, we win. Jones tanks, we have better draft position to draft the talent we need to rebuild in the spring. And if TT gets seriously injured in the last three games, doesn't his contract next year automatically get guaranteed, and our cap takes a big hit even if he never plays a game again for the Bills?

Isn't it over a month late to think about this. Couldn't happen until next year now if everyone even wanted it to happen.

:thumbsup:

While you have slept through the past few years, Medical MJ has been legal in NYS. Not sure of his use of it in this case, but it could in fact be legal.Not disagreeing with your statement about league rules, but he is not against the laws of NY if he is using it in NYS and he is acquiring it properly for medical usage. This may be strictly a simple labor dispute, rather than a legal violation.

Does anyone think we would be having this conversation if Dak had been drafted by the Browns? The Oline, the rest of the O and the D all make a difference. And the coaches are another factor. It isn't how unlucky we are that we didn't draft Dak. It's how lucky Dak was to be drafted by Dallas and not by a team like Browns or the Bills without the coaching and the cast to allow him to grow, develop and shine.

Dallas has rallied around Dak, but I don't see the precision and beauty in the passes I see in Romo. Does Romo still have that magic after the multiple injuries? That is what the Cowboys staff have to determine. Would we as Bill's fans rather take a chance on Romo or Dak if we could choose one? Do we have a clue what we have in Jones? Dak seems to be a competent game manager, but can he improve and become a Romo in his prime? How many think Dak is that much better than TT? Both are just competent game managers. Dak just has not shown his ceiling yet like TT has. He is still a shiny new toy with a question mark for his ceiling so people can dream that it is higher. TT no longer has that question mark for a ceiling to dream of. I don't think it was the genius of Dallas choosing Dak. It was just a lucky roll of the dice. I would like Buffalo to spend the post bye with Jones as #2 to see what he has. We know who and what EJ is. He is also history after this season. Time to put the time and effort in to trying to develop Jones to see if has enough potential. Time to cut our loses after the season with TT and Gillmore. As it stands now both are just not worth their cap. We have too many holes to fill and too little money. We need to find an affordable middling vet QB caretaker next year or until we can find our elusive Franchise QB in the draft. We need to find out if Jones is worth the effort to develop while looking for our Franchise QB. I am not saying bench TT, he is here this year, but is not worth the cost of keeping him with his current contract next year. The Bill's pulled another Friz, extending a questionable QB too soon when they were under no pressure to do so. Two horrible gambles that crashed and burned. This time we lost cap space on TT we desperately needed to address our critical needs. Getting a QB like Dallas did on a gamble requires you to take a chance. The Bills took a chance on Jones too, we need to find out if it was a successful gamble and take an even bigger gamble again next year and possibly the following year on a QB. Dak was a successful gamble, just how successful will be determined next season. How many rookie QB flashes have come along like RG3.

Thank you both for legitimate information in answer to my question. I appreciate getting information from individuals on this board who are here to talk about football and do not just speak to hear themselves speak.

With Special Teamer Colt going on IR, any word of Easley? He has been on PUP for a long time. Is he actually working with the team rehabbing?

If and when the Bill's chances of a winning season are clearly gone, I would like to see Cardale move to #2. The only reason I see to have EJ as #2 is because he is the most likely after TT to give us a chance at a winning season this year if TT is injured. I see no future here after this year for EJ. EJ is what he is, nothing left for him to show us. If the season is toast, I would like Cardale to get as much practice time as possible with the 1's to further his development and give the team a better chance to find out what they have in him (without throwing Cardale to the wolves as #1 too soon before he is ready). If the season is toast. EJ loses all importance for the year and the future. A number 3 QB gets minimal time with the 1's and with the coaches. Make Cardale #2 and give him the greater time and the attention a 2 gets. If the season is toast, give him the opportunity to learn and develop as the #2, there is nothing to loose and everything to gain.

I will not get into the debate of what comes first, the chicken or the egg. Success breeds stability, stability breeds success. I used the recent mention of the Patriots by this weeks opponent as an example of how NFL coaches view the value the flexibility, not as an endorsement of the Patriots.

That is exactly what I am stating, that it is not stability at coaching that is most important. It is exactly those qualities that is most important. And as you mentioned, once you have those qualities. you then have the luxury of building on them. But you need those qualities first and foremost.

You just in fact shot yourself in the foot admitting you didn't even bother to read my post. If you had read, and were able to comprehend, you would have read that it was not about stability, but about the the ability to adapt, adjust rapidly, being flexible, making an effort,and having a catalog of available practiced plays to choose from to create a weekly game plan. Something that the Patriots do. You might have thought, "Maybe that is why the Patriots have been so successful for so long and their coach has been there so long, because those qualities contribute to winning. Winning coaches tend to stay longer than losing coaches. Of course it also helps to have a QB like Brady,lol. But success is more than just about a winning offense, ask Denver.

With the recent firing of Roman we hear team spokesmen and TBD posters preaching the supreme importance of coaching stability. I do not believe that the turnover in coaches is the problem with the Bills over the years. Yes, a stable Offensive and Defensive scheme from year to year gives vets time to learn and practice those schemes, to get comfortable in them. But that is not the true sign of a winning team in the NFL in 2016. Yesterday I read a quote from a Miami coach about playing the Patriots. He said you watch 4 different New England games and see 4 completely different NE teams. Their offensive and defensive schemes are tailored specifically to the strengths and weaknesses of the team and the players they are playing in that particular game. And that even in a game, the Patriots adjust the schemes during the game according to what is happening during the game. Flexibility, adjustment and preparation are what makes coaches and teams great. Great teams and coaches look at their own team and select and design schemes and plays that build on the strengths of the players they have and attempt to hide their weakness. No one is perfect, not even million dollar NFL pro stars. Truly great coaches and teams take the time and make the effort to look at the opponents that week and do the same with their game plan. They scheme to exploit their opponents team’s and the individual players weaknesses, and try to protect themselves from their strengths. And they plan alternate scheme adjustments if their original scheme does not work. You don’t blindly follow inflexible fixed schemes game after game or try to put square pegs in round holes when plugging the players you have in your positions of that scheme. Success as a NFL team in the current NFL requires competent coaches, HC, OC & DC down that are able to design their schemes around the talents of the players they have to maximize the team’s ability to win. They have to be willing and able to put in the effort each game to evaluate the opponent that week to scheme the best ways to defeat it. Both the offense and the defense need to have an available catalog of practiced plays to choose from when designing those schemes. And be ready to adjust by swapping out the other plays from that catalog each week during the game if they selected the wrong plays. Rex is the opposite of that, he is arrogant, lazy and tries to follow his own plans no matter what. We wasted a draft dismantling a top defense to remove players that didn’t fit his scheme and drafting players that did. In doing so we left intact an offensive line with a whole questionable right side. And it is not just Rex. Management has to look for and recruit young smart coaches that are creative and flexible who have shown they have the ability to adapt and adjust their schemes to the players the team has, rather than try to adjust the players to their predetermined fixed inflexible scheme.

On a positive note, this was an away game and you didn't have to pay to see it. Imagine paying to see it live at the stadium, drinking warm overpriced beer and expensive crappy stadium food.

I don't see any concrete reason to have faith in Henderson. Forget his very questionable health situation. I see his ceiling as a serviceable backup LT, RT for a couple of games a season if he can overcome the odds with his health. No way he has ever been a quality starting tackle for an NFL team that does not have very low standards for starters. This is Miller's year to sink or swim. I have hope he will swim, but not a lot of faith. I hope he proves me wrong. We have a top quality left side, a decent center and dumpster fire on the right. If Miller can even arise and become an average G this year, it will still not be enough for our team. There is no solution on the team at RT. The RG will also have to be good enough to carry the weakness of the RT to secure the right side, or it will be the downfall of the offense this season.

This would not surprise me. Although I don't think it was ever about him taking it to the next level. He always has been good, his effort has been good, his talent good. It is just that his body is just too fragile to be an NFL player at the level he needs to be capable of playing. There is really nothing he can do to change that. He does not have an NFL body, and no amount of devotion, training, and weight room training is going to change it in his case. It is like a WR who can do everything right. Has speed, great hands, runs great routes, has great football smarts and instints, but he is 5'6". You can't make your body grow certain ways. If you have the body structure, you can bulk up, gain strength, lose weight. whatever. But you need the genetics to build on. Goodwin just does not have it, at no fault to him.

If you recall the changes were discussed, does that mean this same policy is suppose to apply to the whole field now, regular field sidelines as well as the end-zone? Except all end-zones are already automatically reviewed, while a coach challenge would be needed on the sidelines? This is not an end-zone only rules change?

Not an EJ fan but glad we took him instead of Nassib.