Dawgg

Bill From NYC: Whitner is not good ---> Whitner is the Man ---> Whitner is not good ----> Whitner is the Man ---> Whitner is not good

Thanks Donte, for stopping by

Hmm... of course this has nothing at all to do with the fact that the Bills had a powder puff schedule in the first half of the season, featuring the likes of the Rams, Raiders and the Seahawks. In fact, it was Bryan Scott who did a masterful job covering Antonio Gates in the San Diego game. Whitner was very much in the game last week against Denver and got school repeatedly by tight ends, consistently arriving late as he so often does. He was also blatantly beat for a touch down by Anthony Fasano in the Toronto game. Good players come up big against the best competition. Whitner comes up small. I will be rooting for #20 this Sunday just as hard as any Bills fan will... but I'm simply telling it like it is.

The joke's on you pal. Plenty of people pointed out specific instances in which Whitner was beat. That you're too busy stroking your #20 jersey's on you. He has shown throughout his career that unlike true impact safeties in the NFL, he does not have a nose for the ball. He's loves to talk and put on a show when a microphone is in front of his face. But when the lights are on, he comes up small. Fred Jackson, Terrance McGee, Leodis McKelvin, Josh Reed -- those guys are gamers. Whitner isn't even close. Yes, I did. And Scott's play far exceeded that of Whitner in the Denver game, as it has the entire season.

Donte has had numerous opportunities to make plays. He just hasn't made them. It's as simple as that. The Bills botched the pick. Smarter Bills fans knew it was a bad pick the moment it was made. The lemmings spent years justifying it... now the tides have turned.

Donte came up big against the Bengals. A true superstar in the making. Does that explain why he gets beat consistently by tight ends? Does it explain why he couldn't make an INT with 2 hands on the ball against Denver? Does it explain why he has been a liability in the passing game all year? Most importantly, does it explain why a free agent safety we picked off the street (Bryan Scott) is playing significantly better than Whitner? Didn't think so Committed, yes at least in talking the talk. Is he getting consistently better? NO. Watch highlights of the Monday night debacle against Dallas when Whitner stood around watching, allowing Dallas to recover an onsides kick. That is indicative of his heart. If you want to gush over a player who busts his tail and brings it every week, talk about Terrance McGee. Talk about Josh Reed. Talk about Fred Jackson. Talk about Leodis. Whitner is not in that category and it's not even close.

I have a hard time believing that franchising Greer will be effective. Greer is simply not an upper echelon cornerback. Sure, someone will pay him the money, but there won't be the same level of interest that Nate generated in his free agent year. The time to franchise a cornerback was with Nate Clements. Like most of his other moves in "rebuilding" this team, Marv screwed it up. This is just one of those things where you let the man walk and call it a day. The Bills have promising youngsters at cornerback and they should focus on taking offers for their first round pick so that they can move down and acquire as many picks as humanly possible.

Do you forget that there have been multiple years of losing seasons? Figures you would.

I'd put Chris Johnson in the higher category. That dude is SICK.

A $67 million mutt! Thanks, Marv for driving this team into the ground.

Bill, I think you've put too much rum in that egg nog. Whitner has been flat out bad this season. He has missed tackles, taken bad angles, and has been flat out beat a number of times. Yesterday, he got 2 hands on a ball that should have been intercepted. Par for the course, he left a big play on the table. Such is the norm for Donte Whitner. He provides some emotional leadership for this team and is a great talker. His play paints quite a different picture. Bryan Scott is a better player than Donte Whitner.

1 game changing play in a season... not bad.

Big surprise. #20 can't make a play for his defense.

Umm... his life is quite normal and cushy now, collecting a $300K pension and walking without help. He just can't play football on sundays.

The problem is with the front office. If the Bills had Freeney, the front office would deem him too expensive so they would franchise him for a year, then let him walk for nothing in return. Then, to fill the DE hole, they'd find a mediocre, overrated DE free agent that some team is elated to let go of and sign him to a big contract.

It's the personnel department that's the problem. They are the ones who dole out exorbitant contracts to sub-par players and they are the ones who draft sub-par players (like Whitner) using premium draft choices.

It's a moot point. Had the Bills kept the pick they gave to Dallas, they would have chosen an undersized receiver, a cornerback, or a safety.

Coy Wire

Most of the fans on this board will gush in support of any move the Bills' FO makes, no matter how amateur it is.

In today's NFL, being good at evaluating talent isn't enough. You need to understand talent and how it works in the context of your salary cap. You have to place the appropriate value on players and understand what you are paying them relative to their open market value. Marv openly used to talk about how he didn't know anything about that "cap stuff" which is one of the reasons he was such an awful GM.

Of course, but fortunately or unfortunately, the QB is held to a much higher standard than anyone else on the field. In his fifth year, JP has to know better.

That joke was funny the first time. It was also funny the second time. At about the 10,000th time, it ceases to be funny. Peters would not have made any noise about his contract if your hero Marv had actually drafted linemen instead drafting sloths like McCargo and overpaying for marginal ones in free agency. Now that he is the 3rd highest player on the line, he feels underpaid and justifiably so.

I agree that it was a dumb play call. But a quarterback HAS to know that you must take care of the football at all costs. Instead, as JP often does, he tried to make a play when nothing was there. I give him an A for effort... but when you are playing with the lead, you don't try and make a play when it's not there. The moment he sees that defender break free he should have just curled up into a fetal position and protect the ball. Instead, he held the ball out in such a way that it was ripe for the taking. JP screwed that play up, that's the bottom line and he was man enough to admit it at the end of the game.

They have played well by Buffalo Bills standards, which is pathetically low. Yes, the line has stepped up its game since the Cleveland game, but the bottom line is that Dockery and Walker aren't consistent enough to justify their exorbitant salaries. You say that drafting linemen is hit or miss. Drafting anything is hit or miss -- but when you have a good scouting department, the chances of a miss diminish greatly. Look at Carolina and see how they built the key components of their line.

I won't even discuss Whitner. For argument sake, I will agree with you that Whitner is an all-pro caliber player The defensive end position is worse off today than it was when Levy took over. Re-signing Chris Kelsay to a big money deal forced the Bills hand into resigning an aging Schobel with 3 years left on his deal. No wonder the Bills can't get a pass rush. Both those moves were big mistakes. For a team limited on resources, devoting such heavy resources to a player like Chris Kelsay is the epitome of the amateur-like moves made by the front office. Levy's hard-on for Poz cost the team a high third round pick. In doing so, he moved up in the draft to nab a player who has yet to distinguish himself as a premier player. Granted it's early in his career, David Harris of the Jets, who was taken just a few picks later in the same draft, has shown far more athleticism and ability than Poz has. The defense was better off with London Fletcher manning the middle, despite fans' eagerness to run him out of town. The McCargo pick set this franchise back significantly. When you trade up in a deep draft, the pressure to hit on the pick increases exponentially. McCargo has been an abject bust and the Bills have paid dearly in the form of shoddy DL play. Stroud was a nice acquisition, but it was a move that had to be made in order to fix the mess Levy created. The Dockery and Walker signings were flat out stupid. To say that Levy addressed the offensive line by signing Dockery and Walker is like me justifying the purchase of a Honda for the price of a Ferrari. Good teams in small markets spend their dollars wisely. Dockery is simply not a dominant interior lineman, yet he is paid like one. It's no wonder that Jason Peters is upset with his deal. And it's no wonder the Bills haven't sniffed the playoffs in 9 years. Marv Levy's strategy: Ignoring the offensive line in the draft, then following that up by overpaying marginal players. Not a winning formula. The product on the field speaks for itself. Fred Jackson, Marshawn Lynch and Trend Edwards are impact players and represent bright spots from the Levy regime. Aside from that, Levy has done little to improve the outlook of this franchise.