TigerJ

I was very encouraged in the Detroit game to see Losman appearing to be comfortable in a very conventional role, that of drop back passer. We all know he's very athletic, can move around and scramble. Those are important tools in his arsenal, but a lot of very athletic QBs just don't function very well when asked to be conventional. Try taming the legs of Michael Vick. Why is it important for Losman to have success in a conventional role? Versatility! If you can be a consistent drop back passer, and you are a great athlete, able to move around and scramble, defenses have a much tougher time. If they focus on taking away one thing, the versatile QB can make plays some other way. If Losman never learned how to run a controlled passing game, you can bet that defensive coordinators could render him ineffective by stopping the deep pass and containing his movement in the backfield. It's too early to say yet that he is going to be a great all around QB, but we've seen some encouraging signs in this traibning camp.

Generally speaking, unless the Super Bowl champions lose a lot of players to free agency, they don't have a lot of holes to fill. When it comes to the draft, they can afford sometimes to draft college underachievers or raw college players who supposedly have lots of talent, like Harris and Jacobs on the chance they might suddenly blossom. They may have had no room on the roster at QB and DT for the plodding, reliable players you often get late in the draft anywayt, so they took a couple of flyers.

With what little actual information dribbles out of the bowels of OBD, I do get the impression that both Shonert and Van Pelt have been working with QBs in general and Losman in particular. I saw the blurb about Van Pelt and learning the playbook, and the Buffalo News article about Shonert helping with footwork. Whatever works, baby!

Losman was a little lucky on the first pass. Otherwise he was perfect. All QBs, especially good ones get a little lucky on occasion. The offensive line blocked pretty well and the running game was solid.

Aiken makes the team. Two cuts will come between Wilson, Davis and Jonathon Smith. I think Smith is a goner and it will be between Wilson and Davis.

He's very good, but he has very tough competition from Shane Lechter in Oakland. Lechter has had to top punting average, or tied for top punting average (with Moorman in 2005) for the last three years. One can argue that Moorman punts more in tough weather conditions, but one still has to give Lechter props for his consistency. I'm glad Moorman is a Bill though.

I would not mind a Ryan Fitzpatrick at all, but I don't know that a guy like him fits in with Buffalo's thinking.

Volek won't want to make a lateral move. He would not want to come to a team where he's only going to be a third string guy. No, there's no way he'd be a second string QB in Buffalo not having gone through training camp and learned Buffalo's system.

Did he make the mistake of saying Kliff Kingsbury was cut by the Bears, or is that your mistake? I listen to him quite a bit and he doesn't move me much one way or the other. ESPN radio likes him in part because he's loud and make outrageous statements. That generates controversy and controversy translates to good ratings.

You could be right. A lot will hinge on Culpepper's abililty to make a comeback from a terrible 2005 season with the Vikings. He will have to answer questions about why that was, but no one argues about his arm or his athleticism. He has a cannon and he can move like a running back while carrying TE size. That is a formidable combination. Chambers, McMichael and Brown are all more than solid at their respective positions.

Wimbley was a first round draft choice and a very good pass rusher. He was also considered significantly undersized for a DE. Maybe Royal got caught off guard and wasn't expecting Wimbley to show as much talent for rushing the passer as he did. One time I can accept, but Wimbley does not have a weight advantage on Royal and should not be able to consistently beat the athletic Royal in a pass rush. A pattern can get his QB killed and he had better make sure he stays on his toes.

I've been figuring on 7 or 8 wins this season, so an 8-8 season would not be disappointing. In 2007, I'm thinking the Bills just might be ready for a playoff run.

I'd think about if the offer was made after the season.

Last year the debate was over whether Mularkey should have handed the starting job to Losman (which he did until he took it away again) or let Losman and Holcomb compete and win the job. You were no doubt among those who thought it was a mistake to hand the job to Losman, and you may have been right. When Jauron was signed as head coach and proclaimed a QB competition with Holcomb penciled in as starter until or unless beaten out, you were know doubt among those who cheered. Losman would not be given a job he had not earned. Holcomb was the better QB. He would win the competition hands down. Well, it didn't work out that way. In the OTAs the competition was close, but in training camp it soon became evident Losman was not the same confused player he was in the regular season last year. He gained confidence from one day to the next. If he didn't always have the highest completion percentage, he was the QB who was throwing the ball downfield, getting chunks of yardage Dick Jauron made clear he was looking for. Meanwhile Holcomb appeaed to become more timid, checking down on most plays and almost never attempting anything longer than 15-20 yards. Most passes from Holcomb wer 3 or 4 yard dumpoffs. The same thing happened in games. In seven or eight drive starts Holcomb led his team to one first down (on an 18 yard pass completion). Losman has made his mistakes frowning several interceptions and fumbling the ball. He has to fix that stuff, but he's showing courage, he's reading defenses better, he's continuing to make big plays and he is even completing short passes at a better percentage than Holcomb. So what are we hearing from Holcomb's supporters? "But last year Losman wasn't any good and Holcomb played better." It is getting tiresome.

I believe if he's on the PS, a player is fair game for other teams, and a team (for example the Bills) does not have the right to sign a player (Martin Nance for instance) to their active squad if he is offered a contract by another team to avoid losing him. I think PS players are treated like free agents. They must be signed to a contract. They are not claimed (like waived players may be). Thus, if for some reason a PS player did not like a given team, he would not have to sign with them. The reality is you're paid only peanuts to be on the PS versus even a minimum rookie contract. If you are on a PS and you are offered a contract by anybody, you will jump through hoops to sign it. That's just the way it is.

Jim Leonhard is a player, but who else is going to be cut? Not Donte Whitner. First round draft picks don't get cut the year they were drafted. Besides he's going to be a good one. Not Ko Simpson, not with his star potential. Not Troy Vincent. I know he's a player that fans love to hate, but the coaching staff respects his experience, and he apparently plays a valuable role in the eyes of coaches and teammates alike as a player coach. Not Rashad Baker who has played well when he was pressed into a starting role and has the flexibility of playing both strong and free safety. Teams rarely keep more than four safeties. If they keep extra DBs, the extras are usually CBs because they are oftern more athletic than safeties. Covering WRs one on one is after all more athletically demanding. Coy Wire is probably on the buble this year despite being ahead of Leonhard. So is Bowen. I think the odds are growing that Bowen will bo on IR, but if not, he's not going to be cut. Jim Leonhard is a football player, but he's also the shortest and slowest safetie in a group that got a whole lot deeper and faster over the past offseason. I just think he is a victim of numbers and is staring the "turk" right in the face. If special team ability does not save Coy Wire, it definitely won't save Jim Leonard. If special team ability does save Coy Wire, it probably still won't save Jim Leonhard.

I think Nance is still a promising player, though I think Davis had enough of a chance and didn't do enough with it. With Nance, I think the Bills simply decided they had enough good receivers with some experience and wanted to decide which of them they would keep. Nance was the victim of the proverbial numbers game. Chris Brown ecchoed my thoughts in his blog when he suggested Nance might end up on the PS.

I don't think Davis has done enough to make the team (and I rooted hard for him). I don't think the fact that he played a short stint for NE will do him much good.

Funny thing is, I had no problem understanding "flotsam" (not that I agree with him, but I had to think for a minute about "wang."

The bottom line is that fans are the pawns in this corporate chess game. The corporations are using us to try and get the upper hand, but the don't really care about us.

New England's running game worries me. They will be tough to stop on the ground.

The older you get the more you appreciate practicality and the less you worry about flash and dash. I like Dick Jauron. I wouldn't mind if my friends saw me on a moped either.

I don't get how that leaves Buffalo thin at QB. Nall was a solid, long term backup at GB and Kingsbury has been on and NFL roster, plus I think Ochs is still under contract. I still don't know what his injury was.

Poor Marv, poor Ralph Wilson Stadium. They're doooooooomed!

Donte Whitner is faster than Simpson and probably a little better technician. He also scored quite a bit better on the Wonderlic as understand it. Simpson is taller and obviously has a nose for the ball and a knack for the big play. I think he dropped a little on draft day in part because of the Wonderlic scores. I think it usually falls to the free safety to make the coverage calls on the defense. For that reason the free safety is usually a pretty bright guy. For that reason also, I think Buffalo might be a little more patient about moving Simpson into a starting position than some of y'all would prefer. They will want to make sure he knows the defense and the secondary calls backwards and forwards before they put him into a position where he's going to be making mistakes. Troy Vincent may not be as physical as some of you would like him to be, but I'll bet he's everything Simpson isn't at this point when it comes to knowing what to call and when to call it. That's why the coaching staff isn't so eager to dump him. I do think Simpson will get more playing time as the season wears on, and Troy will likely ride off into the sunset once the season is over. Whitner is playing a little catch up, but I think once he's up to speed I think he will grow into one of the better SSs in the league, more of and Ed Reed or Troy Polamalu type than a Roy Williams. He's going to be a good one. Buffalo is set at safety for 10 years if they can keep the labor relations happy with these two guys. Rashad Baker is a good player and probably could start, but I think Simpson and Whitner both have star potential.