Typical TBD Guy

It blows my mind how much misinformation is in this thread. You can't just haphazardly pencil guys in between 4-3/3-4 schemes and not expect some significant dropoff in production for one of the schemes. Few football players have this versatility at the pro level. Kelsay is the only 4-3 DE on this roster. Guys like Carrington, Edwards, and Johnson are too big and slow to play this position. Guys like Moats and Batten are too small. Davis and Sheppard don't have the range to play 4-3 OLB. Dareus, KW, Johnson, Heard, Barnett, Torbor, and Morrison are the only DL/LB players on this roster who I think have the ability to play somewhere in either formation without any trouble. Almost all of our DL/LB draft picks are specifically 3-4 guys. Look, we are in year two of the 3-4 transition. We are only 1 solid pass rushing OLB away from having a suitable 3-4 defense...2 if you assume Merriman will never return to form. One more draft + free agency period should take care of this. Maybe Coach Edwards sucks. But one thing we know is that his expertise is in the 3-4 defense, and he hasn't been given the full talent to run such a defense. Injuries to KW and Merriman haven't helped. Have a little more patience, people.

I would like to see the Lions get in. I think it's terrible for a franchise's fans to go this long without a playoff appearance. Just think of all the soon-to-be-18 teenagers throughout WNY who will conclude their childhood without having ever seen (or remember seeing) the local Bills in the playoffs. From a marketing standpoint, I think this is disastrous.

10 guys on IR so far: 3 of them are injury prone (Merriman, Easley, Parrish), so no surprise there. 3 of them are scrubs (Corto, Hall, Huggins), so who cares. 2 of them would have made little impact on the rest of this season anyway (Torbor, White). 2 of them just ran into bad luck, and their absence hurts this team immensely (Williams, Wood).

The Bills have had some great 4-3 defenses (mid 1960's, mid 2000's) and some great 3-4 defenses (early 80's, late 90's). They've also had some bad from each. Same is true throughout the NFL, past and present: good and bad from each. So historical precedents are meaningless in terms of which is superior. The bottom line is that you choose the system that maximizes your current talent and the talent you think you can acquire in the near future. For the 2011 Bills, the 3-4 appears to be optimal. Only three players (KW, Kelsay, Spencer J) remain from the 4-3 days. Of those three, only KW is worth building around. And KW proved to be a great 3-4 NT last year, when healthy. Meanwhile, the Bills have already drafted seven guys (Dareus, Troup, Carrington, Moats, Batten, White, Sheppard) with the 3-4 in mind. I know Dareus is versatile, but I'm not so sure about the other six. And when you switch again to the 4-3, you make it that much harder for those other six to make it as a Buffalo Bill. Of the free agents Nix has brought in for the 3-4, Barnett is a guy to build around and I'm not so sure he can transition well to the 4-3. Those clamoring for the 4-3 need to keep a couple things in mind: 1. When healthy, the only real weakness of the current 3-4 defense is at OLB. With a healthy Merriman and Kelsay, even this position wouldn't look as atrocious as it does now. 2. Who is going to play DE when the current defense switches to a full-time 4-3? Kelsay and who else? And Kelsay isn't that overwhelming a pass rusher himself, what with his 25 career sacks over 9 years. What about the LB spots? You run into the same pass rushing problems with the 4-3 switch as you do with the 3-4, but then you create more roster holes at LB. In summary: stick to the 3-4! Draft a 3-4 OLB in day one, another one in day two, and then grab the best available free agent 3-4 OLB assuming Merriman never returns to form (a good assumption).

Except the opposing TE still contributes nothing to the play because he is Shawn Nelson.

Remember that the greatest RB in Bills history and one of the top 5 all-time was declared a bust after THREE years. Then a new coach came in and figured out how to utilize him properly. The rest is history... I'm not saying that CJ is the next OJ; what I'm saying is that the Bills owe it to themselves to maximize CJ's effectiveness while he's still under contract. I like Gailey a lot as an offensive innovator, but I don't think he's doing a good job in the particular case of Spiller. Our base offense needs to put the most talented 11 on the field. Aside from Fitzy, the OL, Chandler, Johnson, and Jackson, I would argue that the next best two are Spiller and Nelson. If that means Spiller's new position is now some hybrid 3rd WR who only takes 25% or so of the handoffs in a game, so be it.

Here you go.

Most of us are, though.

The reality is that Scott Norwood has become the unfortunate scapegoat for a team that collectively choked a winnable game away. He missed a 47 yarder...hardly an automatic field goal for any kicker. Levy was badly outcoached, and the rest of the team spent too much time partying and getting drunk beforehand. The outcome of a game is determined by the sum total of plays and not by any one particular play. If you plan on booing Norwood on Sunday, then you should quit calling yourself a Bills fan because you are a !@#$ing disgrace to the rest of us who call ourselves Bills fans.

They shouldn't do this. It is well past Labor Day.

No, just a voracious appetite for rooster.

The Bengals are easily the most overrated of the teams with 2 losses. Their 4 other wins aside from the Bills came against the following NFL powerhouses: Colts, Jags, Seahawks, Browns. They lost to the 49ers and friggin Broncos. Here are my predictions... The 4 division champs: Pats, Steelers, Texans, Chiefs The 2 wild card teams: Bills, Ravens The 5 teams that will just miss the playoffs: Titans, Jets, Chargers, Raiders, Bengals The 5 teams that will "Suck for Luck:" Colts, Broncos, Jaguars, Water Mammals, Browns

It wouldn't be a problem at all if the folks at the Toronto games were rabid Bills fans. But they're not. It seems like a third of them are lukewarm Bills fans, another third are just fans of the NFL and are completely indifferent to the Bills, and the remaining third seem to be fans of the opposing team. I doubt we'd have this same problem if the game was played in Rochester. Sorry, but Toronto is a ****ty sports town. It's the LA of Canada. They can't support a mediocre to bad team if it's not the Maple Leafs (same thing with LA and their non-Lakers teams). Toronto will never get an NFL team, so long as the CFL is still around and new NFL stadiums are still expensive. Why can't all these potential diehard Toronto Bills fans just make the drive over to Orchard Park? The gameday experience here is so much better.

Son of a B word...

Good morning, dipsh!t. Yes, I do follow the team. I've actually been talking about the Bills here 8 years before you have. Bell still hasn't been cleared to practice, as of Friday. At this point if he does play, it will likely be only as an emergency backup. I don't care what Merriman tells the media. Gailey wasn't as optimistic about him playing. Who is, really? Jones is a key player. He is the lone deep threat WR on the team now that Evans and Parrish are gone. Spiller is an ok substitute, but he hasn't had nearly enough time to develop WR instincts. Show a little more respect for your fellow Bills fans in your future postings.