maryland-bills-fan

I haven't been on this board for quite a while, so sorry if this topic has been posted here a bit. I'm hearing that people are impressed by his footwork and lightness on his feet, which implies that it is unusual for big guys >315pounds or so. Therefore his spot might be offensive tackle, where he has to mirror moves by a defensive end. If he can do that, he is not going to be beat by fakes and speed rushes. He has the size to withstand any bull rush or swimm move and the dude has long arms, which means that when he extends them, the DE has to run an extra 2-3 feet to get around him and he can push the guy away and off balance. (look at the bouncing the medicine ball agaisnt the wall(forearem shivers) and throwing the medicine ball into the next zip code (pushing the DE down). I think he would be good at Nose Tackle but would be wasted there. I hope, I hope I hope he turns out!!!

I'm releaved that von Miller is not absolutley tearning up the league, because it makes our taking Darius a better pick. Nix obviously (from his fist pump when Denver took vMiller) wanted Dairus and a lot of people did too. He is not an every down impact player like a DT and was a bit on the light side.

He was okay as a special teamer. I think he was cut because he never looked like he could be a starter or good backup at safety or LB. You want to at least have that possibility with the ST, because there are only 53 roster spots.

Thanks. I think we don't see the Bills in-season practices so Jasper has disappeared into a black hole for the rest of the season. If Inkman has any real information, he should share it rather than just making snide stuck-up comments. At least we put ourselves in a position to develop another big offensive tackle, who seems to have a lot of exceptional physical tools. If it doesn't work, we have wasted a 7th round pick and a PS position for a year or two. If it does, it might be a worth a free top 10 1st round pick.

But a sprint down the sidelines still has to be defended. You can not leave a CB naked against superior speed, where he has to exactly counter every fake and still be able to have a cushion against a deep strike. If this speed is on the field, then a cover-safety has to be kept back. Blabber all you want, raw speed still has a role and with the pass interference and non-contact-beyond 5 yards, there is no other answer.

On the practice squad is: 69 Jasper, Michael OL 6-4 383 25 R Bethel College (Tenn.) I first heard about the the man mountain a couple of years ago when trolling a Raiders board. I've found that at:: http://www.footballsfuture.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=440281. I think its an interesting story about how the Bills have manage their approach to getting and keeping him. I think this is what happened. A scout became aware of him and kept an eye on him in Bethel College. Other teams were sniffing around him but pretty much told him they were dismissing him because the insisted that he had to lose 150pounds or so to get a look. The Bills scout kept low key, gave him encouragement on a lesser weigth loss target and became a mentor to a significant degree. He went back to look at him late (and probably quietly) prior to the draft and things looked good. http://www.buffalobills.com/news/article-2/NT-Jasper-brings-gigantic-intrigue/1441bfd2-c3b5-4aae-a893-c2872093c105 Now I think that the Bills liked him as an offensive lineman more than a nose tackle, and already had Williams and Troup in house, but had lost Butler and Peters in the last couple of years. They drafted him in the 7th round to not risk him to another team as a FA and to earn his additional appreciation and trust. They worked him out in preseason as a NOSE TACKLE, where he didn't show enough right then to make anybody's 53 man roster, and kept him from displaying any abilities in practice or preseason games as an OT. (I think this was a deliberate ploy to help get him thu free agency). He didn't make the 53 man roster and became a free agent. At that point he was available to anybody to sign to their practice squad BUT, the Bills already had his loyalty and attention and his OT capability was undemonstrated to the rest of the league. He signed to the Bills practice squad and nobody can touch him unless they are willing to keep him on their 53 man roster for the year. (Also the Bills can preempt that by signign him themselves to the 53 man roster. In addition, if the other team were to drop him, the Bills have first rights at him). Now we have a year to get this 385-350? pound man mountain ready for offensive tackle for next year. Want to speak about DRIVE BLOCKING? Anyway, in my opinion the Bills were clever and sneaky in working this guy into our future. Imagine if we use a high first round on OT next year and bring this guy up and he succeeeds. Ouch!!! Watch this workout. also see http://www.wivb.com/dpp/sports/jasper-sizes-up-the-bills

fear the beard said I have a "but" for that line of argument. Gailey/Nix are smart people. They are getting the best out of the combination of Freddie/Fritz & the o-line. If something changes (Freddie goes down or whatever), they will adjust and find a different combination of players and schemes to get the best out of what they have. The line would play different, the players would play different. It might even be a better combination that they had not trusted before.

8PM Tuesday

C runch!

Brad Smith runs 4.42 40 yard dash. He would have ranked 13th out of ~45 wide receivers in speed (and 7th amoung CB) in the 2011 combine. He has the speed to be a deep threat or at least a deep decoy. Spiller is about 4.27. We do have players who can stretch the field and I think if Gailey wants to do that he is smart enough to get them on the field.

I have mainly been posting on a different board and was getting disgusted by all the negative nancies bashing Buffalo, the coaches, the front office and the players. After sticking up for this year being different, starting late last season when Gailey's methods started to bear fruit and getting bashed for it, there has been a sudden bandwagoning. Some are still looking for negatives, some smirkers are still ready with their digs and some are manning up and rooting for the Bills again. What is most irriating are a number of posters who were negative bashers as late as the preseason are now claiming that they were on the bandwagon all along and hooting about how right they have always been!! Its not just on this board!

Thanks for that.

Another guy who coming in was considered a TE/OT dual canidate. Big horses move the other team backwards. Have you noticed our QB sneaks this year compared to the last years. Before there was a standoff pile at the original LOS and we hoped that the QB sneaked into a crack and wiggled forward. Now it is like sending 3 angry big hogs through a shute- the pile moves downfield 2-4 yards and the QB just leans on one of the interior linemen. I wonder if we could do that 35 times in a row from the opening kickoff and score a TD that way?

With our heavy outside linebackers were are basically playing close to a 5 man defensive line- 3 guys in the middle and two hybrid LB/DE's. That clogs a lot of holes, soaks up blockers and (sorta) seals the edge. A result is that the interior linebackers an safeties usually don't have a hat on them and are freer to come up and make the actual tackle. Some poor defenses have high tackle numbers from the safeties because they are the last defender. I think with our defense it is by design.

Obviously, we should be trying to lose the close games to make the negative nancy's comfortable.

Some defenses use the defensive linemen to penetrate and make tackles, whereas others use them to soak up blockers and plug holes so the the ball goes in other directions towards defenders who don't have a hat on them. The individual's stats come out different. Sorta like a wide receiver. Some WR have a 17 yards a catch average and others have a 5 yards a catch average. You have to look at how many throws went in each one's direction and how many total yards each gained and when to see who is more valuable. Another thing that you might have noticed is that on several of the turnovers, the Bills got the ball because they had a lot of players in the area of the football. The ball that was caught, ripped out, kicked and went to Barrett was intercepted because we had multiple players around the ball. The "interception" that Byrd "caught" by taking the ball away from a receiver, was "caught" because he could risk going after the ball. If he lost the tackle, there was somebody else there to put the guy down on the ground. Another ball was tipped and caught by a guy diving to the ground. Against the pasties, Brady threw a ball into Darius's helmet, when he jumped up. Against the iggles, Carrington surprised the QB by being in his face when he spin around to throw a blind screen. All of these plays are indirectly the result of either having extra players on the ball (afforded by the d-line play) or having d-linemen literally in the way of the offensive's moves. I disagree with the idea that our d-line isn't doing its job- the results are just not as directly simply obvious.

With the salary cap coming and better college scouting we are going to see teams coming out of no where more often. I think that teams can not afford to stockpile good depth players anymore because they have to clobber together teams from a combination of very high paid stars and cheap young players. If you look around, you will find a lot of rookie offensive linemen starting on teams that are usually powerhouses. For example, Dallas got rid of a couple of old allpro type offensive linemen to save money. If a team drafts high for a few years, they can get the superstars cheaply at rookie salary rates and make a run before their contracts get into a redo at higher money. I think Cinci and Buffalo are examples of teams stocking up with reasonablly priced but very good players at the less expensive positions as an alternate approach to the [superstars & bums} approach like new england and the colts.

Why all the talk? We don't need to say anything more then 199 replies saying: WFAN SUK!! Accurate, succinct, and to the point. QED.

I baked a batch of wings on the bbq, smothered them in Franks Lousie Sauce and chugged beer, because the game was on the TV. Bellick is a smart football guy and an actual football guy who doesn't seem to have an agenda like the guys who majored in communications in their ivy league club school and are trying to climb the corperate ladder. A buzz turns their talk into gibberish. Go there, Get there. Instruction tours are available at a reasonable fee. (you bring the beer)

Some of these guys have a point. Who really cares about the final score, the object of the game is to give up few yards of offense than the other team? Winning on the scoreboard is so old school and corn-pone. How about working on the following agenda: forcing the other team into a high number of risky offensive plays, when they try to keep their offensive series going?

Come from Dallas?

Maybe I'm old, but WTF is a "high angle sprain"? I never heard the term when I was active in sports. Where are the torn ligaments/tendons/blood vessels? What is swelled up? Where are the connections between the lower leg and ankle and foot damaged? Is there a "low ankle sprain" that is something different? Just asking. I always explained it as "my ankle is f'ed up and it needs to be taped here because it hurts" and then got to watch the swelling and colour changes move around.

I think the media is a couple steps behind the changes in the NFL that are going on right now. I don't expect any of the successful coaches to explain it to them.

What I think is going on is the Bills front 5-6 are clogging the run and getting hands into the passing lanes. Some passes are completed, but fairly often they are being thrown either to a receiver who has two defenders to wack and try for the ball, or into a passing line, where there shouldn't be a DL or LB defender, but there is. So the defense is getting a hit-or-miss flavor, which gives up yardage but also makes big plays. Remember that the league does not grant points on the scoreboard for yarage gained between the 20's.

Yea we got a terrible defense. Brady played something like 432 games without an interception and threw four against us. Vick threw 4 interceptions. Get a clue loser boys, there is more than one way to stop an opposing offense. I know we just were lucky 8 times in those two games. We are one missed field goal away from being 5-0 right now. Cinci is 3-2 and right now has one of the best defenses. I wouldn't be surprised to see them give aging Pittsburg and baldemore a run for their money this year. That was not a bad loss. Remember that we beat the Eagles even though our starting slot receiver is out for the year, our starting left offensive tackle was out and our starting WR went down in the first quarter. If we lost, then the whiners would be saying that they were expecting to hear a bunch of excuses about our poor luck. Where is the praise for winning despite these subtractions?