wilcoam

Continuity only works when you have something tangible from which to want to continue Like our current run game And our our former #2 D unit Which is why I worry about the change in our blocking scheme Who do so many NFL HC's and OC's decide to change things that are already working Should they not focus on what wasn't working and leave what is, alone? Which by the way looking back most BBMB fans did NOT want to continue with Marrone after 2014 and were very very pleased when he resigned Back then winning 9 games was apparently not good enough, lol I wasn't one of em and I can now say playing Mon morning QB his resignation really messed up our program Now folks seem poised to be truly excited about winning 6-7 games? I love the current mgmt changes but its still hard to be excited considering where we were at by the end of 2014 The what ifs aside, hiring Rex was abut the least continuous hiring of the century The turnover required to run his sub par D system was a complete waste of time In the process we unfort lost several solid players that he decided were not a fit, Searcy, Cockrell, and Bradham included I was one of those who argued against his hiring in the first place and that he needed to be booted after the first year I was drowned out, called silly names, and my football acumen was challenged Everybody knew better... Worse many wanted to give him a 3rd year claiming 'continuity' I've began to despise the word, because in Bills lexicon, it means, continued mediocrity Fingers crossed our owners made a better choice this time through jc

2 owners, and 3 HC's, with numerous different OC's and DC's obviously foster a humungous bi-annual roster turnover And this is normal even with continuity when one side of the ball isn't producing I mean you really have no choice but to try and change schemes and or coaches to make it more effective However what will alway burn me is that our Bills didn't consider continuity on the heels of a #2 overall D rating IE - When a unit plays that well you do everything you can to keep it intact including scheme, coaching, players, and depth That would have included re-signing Spikes and Searcy and trying to get Schwartz to stay Sorry but hiring Rex and letting him do what he did has to go down as one of the dumbest owner moves in recent NFL history jc

I get to play the devils advocate and be the lone wolf here, I don't mind the signing, and I like his height, and that he's been a healthy contributor, but I'm also not buying the off season hype, IMO he's a solid legit NFL #4 WR, and by getting signed with team with WR issues he has a rare opportunity to get more snaps than he should Besides, there's a reason the Raiders went out and got two better WR's and allowed him to slip on the 4th on the depth chart, and then didn't try to re-sign him, and there's a reason why we tried to sign Macklin, because neither our Bills or Raiders see him as anything more than he is, depth not a starter, regardless of coach speak and fan, media, and Bills app camp hype If he can replicate Hogan's old production I'll be thrilled, but I am not expecting much more, sure I don't disagree than any NFL player can play beyond expectations if given a chance, I'm still not buying the projection that Holmes is anything more than a solid 4th, sorry, and I'm betting he's not even on our roster come 2020 jc

Remember the popular 'myth' on the old BBMB that Marrone would never be a HC in the NFL again? Folks were dead wrong jc

I agree with Scott Law, if our Bills win 9-10 games this years fans can point to the consistency of the off season message this off season as having planted a structure for continued success However if our Bills only win 6-7 games, these posts are going to look uber foolish, because all those media interviews will have amounted to absolutely nuting, except they made you, and others, fully buy in to a program which only yielded a lousy 6-7 wins in its first year Just saying... Then most fans, with football acumen, will realize having talent on the field supersedes the media message and will demand this team go and get talent not just offer a concise structured message, lol jc

Myth - The Bills had a great off season in 2017 Truth - The Bills are mostly projected to win 6-7 games in 2017 - If true, it is inconsistant with the notion that they had a great off season, as teams with great off seasons tend to win more games that year, not less, and certainly not the same jc

I find its funny the thread narrative is that mgmt is actively looking or players to improve the team as is this is the first Bills regime with that objective, lol, the fact is there are very few players remaining in FA that can do that, improve us, up our projected win total, and so far the two they have pursued, Tre and Macklin choose other teams Yes the over/under by Vegas and most pundits remain at just 6 wins, not saying I or others here agree with that projection, but surely the 6 wins is based on having lost more talent in the off season than gained, coating inexperience, and skepticism on who we gained in FA and drafted, especially in the D back 7, where right now we are counting on 75% of our secondary to be manned by players with a humungous lack of NFL starting exp, and our MLB is a unknown rookie True, White/Ragland/Hyde/Poyer/OLB could all collectively play above their lack of NFL starting exp, and our D could surprise everyone, and Zay could surprise and instantly replace Woods, but its asking alot, which includes staying healthy, an impossibility in today's NFL, of which the D depth looks, well very very very thin Look, if we win 8 game plus, NFL pundits will heep praises regarding our MGMT makeover this off season and all their moves, and fans will surely be giddy about the 2018 season, however should we only win 6 games I wonder how many folks who insisted we made great moves this off season will cling to that erred opinion, reality check please, unfort IMO the real opportunity to have picked up better talent was in Mar, not Jun and Jul, sorry.... jc

I'd be curious to find out, in both cases with Tre and Jacklin, did they simply choose other teams, are the Bills just not an attractive landing place for FA's, or did they player feel another system and coach was a better fit, or were they both just money decisions I just know we could have used an upgrade at one of the starting safety positions with Tre, and the same with Macklin, feel bad we didn't acquire either, as IMO they were both great fits, and likely at a decent price jc

I can't buy into that report Wayne, I mean I keep hearing that Sean HC has been the defacto decision maker since the day he was hired, so if that's the case, it was Sean's decision not to go higher on Gilmore, and Robert, and or not sign Zach, and Sean's decision on whom we ended up singing in FA including Lorax That said, of course we are going to miss Gilmore, how could you not, well maybe not the 2016 first half of the season Gilmore, but the other Gilmore, lol Look every solid D scheme still needs great players, especially corners, who said it didn't? Then again if Darby can return to where he was at in this rookie season, in which according to PFF he outplayed Gilmore, and White develops, and Seymour comes along as the nickel guy, it will mitagate the loss of Stephan, and at much more reasonable and fixed salaries Besides I am much more concerned about our safeties than our corners jc

Sorry, I think just about every NFL expert. pundit, and media, disagree with you that we are really good at WR That's fairly laughable In fact I'd venture to say we are better at QB than we are at WR This year and last year Bur whatever... jc

Kolby was a message board legend this off season no more or less than all the hype that surrounds the 5th backup wide outs folks are so sure are legit #3's The reality is we lost our #2, #3, and #4 WR's over the past 2 years, while our #1 played injured Drafting Zay is a start and signing some 'healthy' depth backups while rejigging the position isn't a bad idea However we are still missing a legit NFL starting WR in comparison to most of our opponents who have 3-4 plus a Zay jc

I don't know about 'history' but the worst more recent cut was hands down Russ Cockrell Thanks Rex Fingers crossed Corey Graham does not join the list jc

The interesting thing about all the off season predictions is does anybody ever go back and see how correct or incorrect they are, its the same with message board prognosis, without knowing that, its hard to react to the predictions I do know the Bills message boards I belong too mostly talk about what a great off season we've had so fans surely think we are winning more games than last year, or at least the same, and not the 4-6 games the media, pundits, and Vegas predict After-all a great off season would equate to winning more games, as it's illogically impossible to both have a great off season and lose more, unless of course the collective acumen of local fans has been overtaken by kool aid and hype and in fact we are not having as good as an off season as folks claim, and in fact HC Sean moves have not improved the team, short term jc

Post draft, Las Vegas and alot of other doc called expert pundits are saying 6 wins, now PFF is saying only 3-4 wins, and just about everybody has us being 4th or 5th worst team in the AFC We will find out soon enough if they are bang on or not, if they are, its gonna be an awakening for those here who insist we've had a great off season, and this and that rookie or FA is easily gonna replace whom we lost, or changing of scheme's is automatically worth X wins And if we should only win 3-6 games, its gonna be real interesting to make a convincing argument, from Jan 2018 forward that all these management changes have put our team on the 'right track', when in fact the W-L record says something completely different, lol Please don't get me wrong, I was calling for replacing Rex from the start, and I thought it was time for DW to go, and I love each new hire here, but at the same time I'm just not that convinced Sean's first off season has been all that successful in terms of acquiring talent necessary to win more NFL games that the team he took over, so far I not impressed whatsoever by his GM skills, though I'm sure his coaching skills are way better Meanwhile fingers crossed Vegas, the pundits, PFF, are all dead wrong because us fans deserve watching our team win 10 games sometime this decade jc

I'm not sure, as fans, watching our divisional opponents make management changes, and then instantly win 10 or 11 games, all without so called franchise QB's, why we have to have patience, temper our expectations, while we bottom out, and take 4 years? We're not coming off back to back 3-4 win seasons, we are a perennial 7-9 win team, honestly I am cheering like crazy for Sean and Beane to succeed, but if takes them 4 years to build a contending team, than I can say with certainty they may not be the right folks for the job jc

We're just fans, lifelong fans, we really have no choice but to be 'all-in' Look I hated the Rex hiring from day one, never thought we could succeed with him, especially after both firing Schwartz and rejigging a D that didn;t need to be re-jigged, but I was still cheering for us to win as many games as possible under Ryan, and you especially learn how to put aside your negative opinions when you are winning games just a easily as you can turn it back on on why your team never should have hired the clown in the first place when you are losing... And I love the new hirings, in theory, and so yes if we go out and win 10-11 plus games this seasons, there will be no detractors, cleary Pegs will have won over win fans, media, pundits, and skeptics, because winning cures all On the other hand if we go out and only win 6 games this season, its gonna be fascinating to see who rabidly defends only winning 6 games as still going in the right direction, lol, or who defends some of this years off season moves, which if you only win 6 games clearly didn't work, and or improve the on field talent, detractors will emerge, as they should, same thing applies if we only win 6 this season and say only 6-8 again in 2018 Because at the end of the day you can cheerlead all ya want, and post pretty things about the changes Pegs have made, but if you don't start winning 9-11 games plus a season, or minimum one season, than the totality of the moves didn't actually amount to much We will just be having the same conversation we were having about Rex and DW this past Dec in say Jan 2019 about whether HC Sean and GM Beane deserve a 3rd year together, just saying... jc

Fingers crossed that new mgmt turns things around here but the irony is for those who complain that the Bills have a low draft pick retention rate - it should be noted the very first thing HC Sean did with our roster was not retain a number of our existing draft picks, lol jc

6 pages of utter nonsense because the 'news report', nor any single fan post, didn't care to mention which opposing NFL GM, an employed one, who wants to stay employed, is giving up a future first rounder, for an impending FA, coming off an injury? Suddenly its the sound of silence....... But the over/under on the thread is likely 29 pages jc

I think the OP laid it out nicely but I disagree with his/her conclusions I don't see the upgrade in talent for this season I see the potential for the upgrade longer term, 2018 and beyond, but just not in 2017 I just don't see all these rookies, and or FA's, collectively stepping in and being instantly better than who they replaced on the roster Its unrealistic and that's b4 injuries start occurring I call it off season post draft itis Everyone thinks we are always a better team after the draft, every year, but history hasn't shown this to be the case Plus there is not a lot of continuity roster wise between last year and this year Looks more like a transition year to me and that makes sense considering we have also changed schemes and coaches I do agree at some positions we have better overall depth And upgraded at K and FB However our back 7 on D has radically changed and is still a work in progress And I would argue we took a small step back in terms of on field quality, and experience, amongst our 22 starters I see an argument that scheme will cure all but there could be an adjustment period b4 that kicks in jc

Did DW sign those players, I thought HC Sean as making the moves, lol Is Rodak 100% correct that cutting those players b4 week 10 makes then vanish from the formula? I had not previously ever heard this I am not saying Rodak is wrong, but I thought after Jun 1st, the over the cap formula all ended? I never thought any of these marginal signing amounted to much anyway The 19 page hoopla about a Raiders guy who once caught 40 passes 4 years ago notwithstanding A backup safety who only started 6 games in 4 years included Of course a 3rd or 4th rounder is better long term for our Bills But no way they release Dimarco, he is a stud blocking FB, integral to a running game Tolbert maybe jc

I will absolutely be one of those apologists... Lack of player retention is not just attributed to quality of drafting and or the GM, if you continually change coaching, and schemes, players don't get retained, in this regard, Rex Ryan was a disaster for us, especially on D, he outright released Cockrell, and was instrumental in not trying to resign both Searcy and Bradham, 3 players who didn't fit his scheme, we could all really use this year NO offense to HC Sean, but he just did the same thing with our impending FA's this off season, min 3 of em were draft picks, so another change in coaching isn't helping that stat, time will tell if he's right or wrong That being said, yes DW had some misses draft wise which helped that stat, including busts, and a tendency to draft players with health and off field issues, with were contributory Ownership should have take their share of blame, Wilson didn't wanna pay em, Pegs hired Rex, and created a structure whereas he gives the HC more license than usual to turn over roster, that creates a year to retention problem beyond just draft picks, the last couple of years has been roster crazy, we have gone through 2 D scheme player makeovers, its the offense which has stayed consistant player wise jc

Well I think mgmt thought Tre Boston was an upgrade, lol, we have no idea what they see in Poyer in the first place so its hard to say what they would think anyone else is an upgrade, I mean they thought Poyer was an upgrade over Graham, who was a top 32 NFL safety, but the media and pundits are posting to our safety situation as being worrisome jc

The article isn;t telling the whole story, or gossip, according to what I've read, again its just gossip The rift is more between Sherman and Pete Carroll The offensive captains and the defensive captains The story is Carroll demands a very high level of excellence on his D, which Sherman feels they give him, year in and out Then at the same time Carroll coddles the offense, demands no such excellence Sherman is fed up with the inconsistency of his HC regarding the way he treats the two sides of the ball And thus wants to play for another coach and another team that is more appreciative of his unit's collective play He say's its not about his play, its about his team mates and unit being treated equally, and with more respect jc

I like the signing too but like Scott I am on the fence being cautious of off season predictions of a top 10 D To me the whole key is Ragland at MLB Our biggest problem is currently our run D so if Ragland can help limit it we are on our way However he's just a rookie and our back 7 is still in huge transition Poyer potentially being the weak link Just wait until some starting D players come up injured Our depth is scary weak as noted by a a number of NFL pundits and publications jc

I got the OP's point, the fact is it was a bad draft day trade, always will be because regardless of what Sammy does in a Bills uniform, we lost another potential high profile player, plus the OP forgot we also lost a 4th rounder, on top The same could be aside for all of DW and HC Sean's trade up's, in each case we lost another player to get the one they insisted fit their system, yet the majority of these trade up's never amount to much, we will see what happens this year, and while might be monday morning QB'ing after the fact, in each case we might have been better off taking a lessor player plus the pick we traded away I sure like the extra 1st rounder in 2018 though, and wish we'd have moved back like every year, or every 2nd year, and have all these potential extra young players jc