TigerJ

Royal is not an elite TE by any means, but he's OK. I think Shelton is in serious decline, and the Bills need to address the FB position in the next offseason.WM has had some terrific blocks in other games. I think in the Miami game he took on two rushers on the same play and saved JP's hide. He also had the now infamous wiff on a block that may have cost the Bills the Jets game. He's got to get more consistent. He was very good in the Vikings game, and I hope that begins a trend, but you need more than one game to make a trend.

The Bills' strength and conditioning coordinator doesn't have the experience of Rusty Jones, but he's a solid guy who is a follower of the methods that Jones is so good at. He's not the dufus that Mike Mularkey hired last year.

I was flabbergasted to see you say all those things about Chicago's dominance, and then see your prediction for a Bills win, 17-14. That's classic homerism. The Bears are very solid. They played at the top of their game versus the Seahawks. They also just barely beat a Minnesota team that the Bills also beat in a close game. It's possible that if everything goes right for the Bills and the Bears do not play up to their potential the Bills could win. I'm not predicting that though. I'm expecting the Bills to lose, but hoping they will "show up" and at least give the Bears a tough game. It is an advantage for the Bills that Perry Fewell, their DC, was a Chicago assistant last year.

Donahoe drafted both studs and duds. Overall, I'd give him a "C" for his drafting. The problem is he often did not address needs in his drafting. Josh Reed was a luxury pick who took too long to produce. Roscoe Parrish was a luxury pick. Ryan Denney took too long to produce. They are all becoming productive, finally. Marv Levy's draft was exceptional. The Bills got two safeties who are starting immediately and performing at a high level, two DTs who are getting plenty of playing time and other players who look like they may be productive players in a year or two. Levy drafted studs who also filled needs. If he can keep it up, the Bills will be a dominant team as soon as next year, and certainly by 2009. I agree that Donahoe's worst blunders were his coaching hires. They set the team back at least three years.

I like JP and I think he is going to be a solid QB for the Bills for many seasons. But I think we need to give him a season to really get comfortable and prove to the league that he is an upper echelon NFL QB. Right now, the Bills are still game planning with the idea that he's a young QB that needs to be protected, much like the Steelers did with Rothlisberger his rookie year.

I'd much rather the down and distance were just posted at the top of the screen. I thought a good share of the time the announcers botched their estimate of the distance to a first down. They would be better off to shut up. They were bad.

Dick Jauron was asked about the rule after the game. He said that to his knowledge the rule does not specifically require the players from the kicking team to refrain from catching the ball if a fair catch signal is called. If the Vikings player that had made the lame and illegal fair catch signal had continued to move toward the ball instead of backing off, the Bills player would have had to move away and let him catch it. As it was, it was a bogus call, and could have been critical to the outcome of the game.

Good QBs often throw into double coverage with success. I don't fault JP for that. The problem was that he was off ballance when he made the throw. In his own words he felt pressure at the las moment and threw off his back foot. That led to a wobbly pass that could not cut through the windy conditions. JP needs to develop a little more anticipation to know when the pressure is coming and to make adjustments before the last second.

Willis ran very well. His blocking was. . .well. . .inconsistent. Losman completed lots of passes. Made some good reads. Yes, he had one terrible pass picked off and had the two fumbles, but they don't make the good things he did stop existing.

Before the season started, I think most of the projections that had the Jets in the AFC East basement were discounting a Chad Pennington comeback. He does not have much of an arm, but he is very smart, makes quick decisions and accurate short range throws. The Jets are way better when he's playing and playing well.

Reading a few more of that guy's posts, I'm starting to wonder if it was intended to be tongue in cheek.

Bflodan is right on this one. Don't read too much into this. The only thing I might add is that players get hurt, even punters. The personnel department of a team would not be doing its job if they didn't have a database of players who could be signed in an emergency at every position.

Yeah, I didn't know Christ Villarrial was a two way player. I don't know if you can call it a mistake per se, but while the article mentions Troy Vincent missed the Miami game, they mentioned nothing about him going on IR, leaving the reader to think he might be back at some point. And I recall when Ryan Denney came into the league, he was definitely NOT known for his speed. I don't know if that has changed.

I never saw any clue in his posts that there was a ticking time bomb inside of him. There's no way to understand it or to excuse him.

I'm in a survivor pool and I went with Baltimore over Oakland. I don't have to worry about the spread, but I don't think they'll have any problem beating that.

He'll be on the injury report tomorrow. "Til then the Bills are staying mum. That much has not changed from the Donahoe regime.

Probably water, fruit juice, or a little soda. Yeah I know you hard drinking types think I'm a wimp.

Tell us a little about him, Promo. How tall? Yards per catch? Yards last season etc?

As far as the Bills are concerned, yeah it was sneaky move, but teams and coaches tend to do whatever it takes. If there is anyone who was truly wronged in this, it was Jonathon Smith. I'll bet he was paid very little for his time with the Patriots. There is at least a chance that had not NE signed him, another team in the league might have signed him. When NE took him off the market, that other mystery team (if there was one) may have gone another direction, leaving Fast Freddie without a job. If I were Smith, I would be mad enough to file a grievance with the union. It's basically about unfair labor practices.

The Bills could cover. I couldn't bring myself to predict an outright win. But if they do, the Dolphins immediately are in trouble next week, and the Bills could exceed anyone's expectations for the year.

I think the offensive line might survive one injury to an interior lineman, especially if it is only for a short time. I think Duke Preston is at least adequate as a guard or center. The Bills are dead meat if an offensive tackle goes down for half the season.

I don't know that JP Losman "unceremoniously earned" the starting QB spot this season. It looked to me as if there was a lot of ceremony to it with the preannounced competition and all. There wasn't a day of training camp went by that Bills fans everywhere knew what the completion percentages of Losman and Holcomb were that day, and how many long passes JP attempted and completed versus Kelly "Dump-off" Holcomb.

We may never know all the details and behind the scenes stuff but it would be fascinating to trace the descent of the Bills into the toilet last season. Maybe someone could use it to write a book, "How Not to be a Head Coach."

I really don't think many fans here think the Patriots will overlook the Bills, and the posts here confirm that. I don't think they will.