Gray Beard

I have a gut feeling that Chan will put "his guy" Choice in and White will not get a fair chance. Spiller may not either. It may be too soon this week since Choice has only been around for about two days, but for some reason I think Chan will be quick to use him. I would find that very interesting.

The Twelve Stats of Spiller 12 rushing attempts 11 passes thrown to 10 fake handoffs 9 times tripped up 8 times in motion 7 attempts to block 6 yards per catch 5 yards per carry 4 long pass plays 3 kickoff touchbacks 2 fumbles lost and 1 touchdown on a power sweep

Wisconsin offensive line is usually a safe bet. Ohio State used to be a good place for DB's. But I agree in general, the SEC has been the most dominant division for the past several years. Get your talent from the schools that play the hardest schedules!

Looks like Choice is on the field. I wonder how soon Chan will put him in if Spiller doesn't produce. And I wonder if Johnny White finds himself deeper on the depth chart once again.

Here's a question that I have had for a while: The "Ralph is Cheap" concept is often used to refer to players. However, there is a salary cap, and I'm pretty sure that the Bills are not the cheapest team in the league (although they are near the bottom). What about other facets of running a team? Coaches, facilities, equipment, assistants to the assistants, computers for analyzing film, etc. How much of those second and third level aspects of running a successful team are the Bills underspending on, and is this causing the team to be at a disadvantage? And yes, strength and conditioning coach is part of this.

I shake my head at the people who write these articles because they always say things like pressuring Sanchez is a key to the game. OK Captain Obvious! Most quarterbacks get rattled if they are hit or intercepted a few times (one of the things I like about Fitz is that he is a little harder to rattle than many other quarterbacks). Now all the Bills have to do is play like they are in Toronto against the Redskins! How hard can that be? Every week it is the same story.. Hit Sanchez, Hit Romo, Hit Brady, Hit Dalton, Hit Moore. And every week but one, the Bills have been unable to do that. My bold prediction: the Bills will not rattle Sanchez sufficiently to get him to play poorly.

Half the people post and say that the Bills should dump below average players and go get somebody else. Half the people post and say that the Bills can't keep trying to replace the old talent with new unknown talent. I believe that keeping serviceable talent and adding new talent is the way to go. The new talent should be better, but at least it offers depth (you can't always guarantee that the new talent will be as good as anticipated).

Suddenly my optimism just took a big hit. I think you are probably closer to being correct than I wanted to believe. We could debate some of the positions, such as left tackle. Right now there are is a pretty good one who is injury prone, and a rookie that may or may not turn out to be ok. In that case it may be drafting for depth. But I agree that defensive end and cornerback are probably bigger needs than I wanted to admit, especially if McGee is a lost cause. And I don't know what to think about receiver. If there is a beast available, then he should be taken. If it is just another late round flier, then what's the point, the whole receiver corps is late round fliers (or undrafted).

Ralph isn't going to fire Nix, and Nix isn't going to fire Chan. That's appropriate. Give Chan some time. The injuries this year were too much for anybody to be able to fix with coaching. The good news is that other than linebackers, the next draft is for depth, not for starters. That gives them freedom to go with BPA and see if the team can weather an injury storm next year.

Trent Edwards for running out of bounds as time ran out. THROW THE BALL!!!

You stole my line.

How long did Houston people follow the Oilers when they moved to Tennessee? Probably not much. Just like Bills people won't care anymore if the Bills move and change their name. Unlike Houston, Buffalo will not get another team. I'm thankful for the Bills in Buffalo.

You forgot to say that the next week you will do it all again. Even if you are convinced that it doesn't matter anymore.

I like the OP's frame of mind. If Ralph has to die in order to make the team successful, that is a level for morbid thinking that makes me uncomfortable. If the team moves it won't make sense to call it the Bills anymore, and within about three years nobody on the team or on the coaching staff will have any connection with the old Buffalo team. If you want a winner and don't care if the team moves and changes its name, then why not start rooting for the Packers or whoever else is the best team for any given year? I am thankful that my "local" team is the Bills, and if they leave the area, then my "local" team will be the Jets. That would suck. GO BILLS!!!

Can say the same thing about the AFC East.

Chandler ain't terrible. Not great, but not terrible (a common description of many Bills players).

Hard to argue with this. I like Fitz, and I believe his value is based more on his ability to read defenses and get rid of the ball in 3 seconds or less when he has to (which is most of the time). It takes a long time for a QB to be able to do that with any effectiveness. Brohm couldn't do it when he came in last year, and Thigpen couldn't do it when he had to either. I was mad when he threw that second interception in the Giants game, and I find it hard to be too enthusiastic about him after that game. I believe he is the least of the team's worries now, and will be fine for a middle of the pack team for the next couple of years. I hope they try to get a long term prospect in another year or so, because I believe Fitz has peaked, and that he isn't likely to get the team too far into the playoffs even when the rest of the pieces are in place.

There was some story going around about a running back who lost his helmet on the sidelines during a superbowl... Obviously he was one of the greatest players ever, but that was a WTF situation.

33 Corto, Jon S 6-1 206 27 4 Sacred Heart 81 Easley, Marcus WR 6-2 221 24 1 Connecticut 36 Hall, Bruce RB 5-11 206 26 1 Mississippi 15 Huggins, Felton WR 6-2 189 28 2 Southeastern Louisiana 22 Jackson, Fred RB 6-1 215 30 5 Coe College 19 Jones, Donald WR 6-0 209 23 2 Youngstown State 24 McGee, Terrence CB 5-9 208 31 9 Northwestern State 56 Merriman, Shawne LB 6-4 264 27 7 Maryland 11 Parrish, Roscoe WR 5-9 175 29 7 Miami 53 Torbor, Reggie LB 6-2 254 30 8 Auburn 51 White, Chris LB 6-3 242 22 R Mississippi State 95 Williams, Kyle NT 6-1 301 28 6 LSU 70 Wood, Eric OL 6-4 311 25 3 Louisville

Will Chan use Choice and we still won't know what CJ (or Johnny White) can do? That would clearly indicate that Chan has no faith in the guys that were drafted during his tenure. I would hate that.

That's not possible now. Whole new team. Nobody knows what to expect. The announcers won't even know who will be on the field. They will be studying the roster as the play is being run to try to figure out who is involved.

In early October, people were praising Nix and Gailey. Now people are not so gracious. I still think they are better than anybody the Bills have had for the last decade or so, but lately some of their actions are drawing criticism (justified, in my opinion). Let's see how they do this week with a whole new offense. Will the plays make use of each player's unique abilities, or will they just expect a different group of backs and receivers to run the same predictable offense?

Will Choice play this week?

I bet the Jets film on the Bills is useless. Other teams have had the Bills offense figured out for the past few weeks. It's a whole new offense starting this week. New backfield, new receivers. I would assume that Chan will have new plays and tactics, and nobody will know what to expect.

To me this is all about Chan now. He has Spiller, White and McIntyre in the backfield. What can he design in the next couple of days that plays to their strengths? Every running back is different, and none of them will be like Fred. Fred could block, run and catch. What if it tuns out like this: McIntyre can block. White can run. Spiller can catch. How is Chan going to make this work?