simpleman

I think you are not reading what the OP said "He puts his faith in a QB that never should have been drafted in the first round (Was part of that decision), had many knocks against him and all the experts questioned why we took him in the 1st let alone to build this franchise around." He did not say Whaley drafted him, he is saying that by putting his faith in EJ this season and not adequately addressing the QB issue, despite all the major questions about EJ, we are in the poor position we are now at QB this coming season. Plus giving up a first this year for Watkins he limited our options to properly address the QB issue not only for this season, but next season as well. That is all on Whaley.

I thought of this in the Dallas playoff game. Forget the "non call" that put them in the position to make the play. 6 minutes left in the game, about mid field, behind by 3, 4th and long, Dallas went for it. A coach like Hackett would have punted, and lost that game. I don't want a coach that plays not to loose, but a coach and a team that plays to win.

I really would like to hear the story behind Mike Williams. If it truely was Marrone's ego and a grudge I would like to see the new front office approach him and say we are sorry how Marrone treated you and we want to give you another chance to prove yourself here if you are interested. Of course if it really was not a Marrone issue and Mike just didn't have it anymore, then I would leave it alone.

Learning a playbook designed by Hackett is about as useful and productive as reading a trashy romance paperbook. And we all know what happens when a team sacrifices during an already losing season and strategically loses on purpose to build for a future... Look at what happened when the Colts "Sucked for Luck"... will they ever recover? Oh wait...

You beat me to it. Our needs at guard and tight end could be better and more reliably met in FA than in the draft. The defense here is already at it's SB peak right now, it will soon be going downward with the inevitable loss of players to FA, injury and age (KW). Getting an offense that is ready to play next year is critical. Anyone you draft is generally for the future, unless it is a high, sure thing, 1st round pick, which we don't have. I'm not sure about the QB position though. Maybe a Bradford or a Cutler might work, but neither may actually be available for a reasonable cost. Not a lot of QBs available in FA seem that much better than Orton and EJ. And neither Orton or EJ are good enough. I don't have much hope of a playoff spot, even with FA upgrades at OL and TE without a major upgrade at QB. With no 1st round, I don't see much help next year via the draft. This draft will by necessity be for the future, while with the right FA additions to offense, the Bills defense is poised to make a legitimate playoff run now.

What are the NFL and contract rules about VOLUNTARY non-contact off-season training? Can the team provide voluntary training, conditioning during the off-season? For instance, could a QB work with the QB coach on mechanics? Could the QB and a WR work on getting themselves in sync with one another? I realize they can do so on their own, but can the team assist players in any way, pay for trainers, or provide facilities?

I was never a fan of giving up a 2015 1st for Sammy. I was for trading down in the 1st and chosing a WR deeper in the draft. I was for a TE in the 2nd and a OL player with the 2nd round 2 pick from the trade down. My miss would be Beckham. I would not have taken him at 10. I had him late 1st, early 2nd round.He was not even my #2 rated WR. My WR pick would have been with the late round 1st in the trade down, he would have been long gone by then. I'm confident Sammy will not be a bust, but never thought he would be worth the extra 1st.

Exactly, Spiller is not an all purpose back, he is a situational back. If you design plays to get him in space he is a exceptional talent. If you plan on using him as a bulldozer back up the middle he is quite useless. Either get coaches that design their offense around the strengths of their players rather than simply design plays and expect to plug players into the assigned generic roles, or let Spiller (and others) walk. This coaching regime is not able to adapt and be flexible. They believe that you make a plan and simply plug and play the players in the generic scheme reguardless of strength and weaknesses of the individual players they actually have, rather than they wish they had . They expect players to be all purpose at their position. Not as special talents that can have plays designed that take advantage of those special talents. If Spiller is matched with the right coach he will be an All Pro. Unfortunately I doubt that will happen here in Buffalo.

Putting down Carr by calling him a Dalton type. I would take a Dalton over EJ any day.If Dalton was our QB this year with this defense,do you really believe that the Bills would not already be a lock for the playoffs? Dalton > EJ, Dalton > Orton.Give me a Dalton type. Carr may never be a top 5 QB, but he is good enough to get this Bills team into the playoffs playing in his rookie year. EJ has been with the Bills two seasons now and has shown just how ready he is to take the Bills to the playoffs. Carr has shown his skills and earned his coach's confidence on a horrible team his first year, and is still the starter. EJ has stunk it up repeatly on the Bills over two seasons and has failed to earn his coach's confidence enough to even start over "train wreck Orton". Do you really believe Orton > Carr? If the Bill's believe that this year Orton > EJ, who would be starting this year if Carr was a BIll?

If we are looking back at draft time, we did not know Bradham was about to have a breakout year. If the management didn't feel the need for upgrades at LB, why did they sign Spikes and sign Rivers after Kiko went down? And why did they spend the higher draft pick on Brown. Management felt a real need to get not one, but 3 new linebackers. I would not say getting 3 new linebackers is "not needing anymore linebackers". You may say we needed offensive weapons, but remember that after we drafted Sammy we traded Stevie. And we might have drafted Ebron instead. They thought he was going to be an offensive weapon. They also could have drafted another WR later. I can think of at least 3 other WRs drafted after Sammy that so far have been more effective than Sammy this year. And if we had not traded up, we could have had a 1st round this year to use on a QB prospect to develope for the future.

When evaluating a HC you also have to look at how disiplined the players are about not taking bad penalties. The Bills are very undisciplined and take a lot of stupid penalties. I'm not talking about the ones where that are the result of being too agressive, the refs are always gonna call some as a reult of being too aggressive, it is the ones that are just pure bonehead. There are way too many of them. You have to blame the coaches when there are so many of them on numerous different individual players.

Love this. Forget the original setup and just say "Cutler, Orton and EJ are drinking in a bar during training camp. The three get into a fight to see who will start." Your answer is the perfect punch line! "Cutler misses Orton and hits a random person (INT), Orton just throws a bunch of air punches missing everything, and EJ just stands there until he gets knocked out because he is unsure who to hit first."

Exactly!

I still believe our best option is Bradford if he is released. RGIII has not shown enough besides his running to prove that he is a Franchise QB, and I was all in on him the year he was drafted. Bradford has everything it takes to be the Franchise QB. The only question is does he have the durability to play in this league? He has two strikes on the same injury. Will it ever heal enough to allow him to stay healthy?

I think Orton has better instincts than the OC and has the knowledge and the smarts to run the no huddle. But I question his drive and his fitness to run it for more than short periods of time. Kelly had the skills, the toughness and the smarts to do it. Orton has not shown the toughness or the consistent accuracy to make it work over a whole game. As a situational tactic, a firm YES! If we loose the GB game, the season will be over, so we have nothing to loose anyway. It's going to be like an early preseason time to see what we have in the rookies and experiment. So either give EJ one last chance the rest of the season to prove he deserves to be here , or let Orton run the no huddle (not the hurry up) and see what happens, at least it might be more entertaining!

That is a whole different thread, but I just don't see a lot of very good OGs out there that will be cheap, I don't even see too many upcoming vet free agents that are very good and won't break the bank as far as the cap will allow. I agree we need to get a good guard out of free agency, but think we can't afford two cap-wise. The draft might need to give us a 2nd. And without a QB better than EJ or Orton it really will not matter, neither is good enough. There just isn't a QB in the draft we have a shot at with our draft position who even has a shot at taking us to the playoffs his first year, and we need to think about now as our defense is already at it's peak and already it's time is waning. (Kyle Williams can't last forever and we can't keep them all together at their current level for very long waiting for the offense to catch up) If we go out and get a FA QB like a Bradford or a Cutler, and we can resign our own like Dareus and Hughes I don't see a lot of cap left. Who would you suggest that might be an affordable OG that is very good and will be a FA that we should pursue?

It has become obvious to me that the NFL is becoming more and more like the WWF. It is not just the obvious bias of the refs, it is the TV networks not showing replays of the bad calls and those calling the game not calling out the refs about their bias in games. Unfortunately it is in the NFL's and the network broadcasters' best interest to get the right demograhic matchups in the post season with the teams, players and matchups that will be the most popular and generate the highest viewership and post regular season revenue. There is a real bias in the way the refs and the rules are helping to mold the flow of the game toward the best playoff/Superbowl matchups.Like the WWF the game is becoming more and more about being an entertaiment product to be maximized for business purposes, and less and less about it being a true sport.

There have been discussions of who everyone would like as our next Head Coach, but little discussion of who should be our next Offensive Coordinator. Who would you like as our next OC? Be realistic.

I can't believe there are many Bills fans who are also true fans of football as well that could disagree with the NFL on this. We still like Bradham and support him, his hard hitting style of play, the effort and the heart he brings to the team. He just needs to be more careful to "keep it clean". I hope he learns positivily from this without losing his winning intensity we all appreciate.

The defense has played absolutely out of their minds this year. Considering that the raw talent level this year is the best we have had in a decade, we SHOULD have the best season in a long time. Just using the low bar we are used to, and saying winning 7 games is "The Best" does not work for me. Considering we have a Super Bowl quality defense and the best raw talent in over a decade, I expect more out of this team. What are the stats on the offensive side this year compared to the same point in the season over the past decade? Schwartz is the DC coach pulling the rest of the team up. Whaley brought in the talent. Personally I believe that Marrone, Hackett and the Marrone's buddies are actually dragging the team down in spite of the abundance of new raw talent and outstanding defense.

I'm not sure Bradford would go for it, but I would be willing to offer him a top 10 QB contract that was heavily incentivized. If he reaches clear levels of performance, pay him the big bucks. Pay him incentives for things like completions, games played, passing yards per completion, TDs minus ints. If injury is the concern, build it into the contract so it does not affect his cap hit. Does a big injury insurance policy paid by the Bills that pays him if he can't play due to injury and achieve the incentives count against the cap as far as the payout (beyond the obvious premium payments)? If he can stay healthy, I believe he could take the Bills well into the playoffs.

Just another example showing that a good offensive coach can make an average QB look good, or a bad offensive coach can make an average QB look like garbage. I don't think there are very many that don't know how good the Eagle's coaching is.

No, No and NO! I would not trade Mario, period. And if I traded for QB, I would take an A Smith over a Kaepernick first. As House said, that style of QB just has a terribly short self life due to the beating they take. I see the NFL love affair with the Run Option QB as a gimmick that will lose it's luster after a brief time

It does not seem that we really have that many special plays or gimmicks that Pettine would not easily see from just viewing the regular scouting video like every team uses. He might know a little about individual tendancies after being with the team for a year. Knowing about FJ might help, but the other RBs are different, he probably knows Woods, but the other WRs not so much. With the Ol being such a mess, other than staying away from the left tackle, what is there to know against the OL? There are a lot of different faces on offense. I would be more concerned about his inimate knowledge of the D players than of the offense. He may have enough info to help counter our defensive side, but not the offensive side. I ask this of the game pros out there. Other than abandoning the hurry up from last year, does our offensive game plan really appear to differ that much from the 2nd half of last season, other than the players filling the roles in it? I'm really asking the question, not making a statement.

Goodwin has the speed, the hands, the talent to be good. He has the right attitude and works hard. Unfortunately his body just can not handle the abuse required to play in the NFL as a full time WR, or even special teams. He is too "fragile" for the NFL. There is nothing he can do to change that. I would like to have him around next year with another OC and HC to see if he could shine in a limited situational role, if he had the coaches who could find the right way to use his talents. But I'm not sure if this team can afford to do so with it's current leneup and so many other pressing needs. If not, I hope he lands somewhere with the right situation where he could make signifigent contributions to a winning team.