Bob in STL

Age. Happens to all of us.

I had not heard that Brown was grading out poorly? I don't expect him to be Andy Levtire but what has not been solid about his play thus far?

The money should indeed go to the players and to the owners, coaches, and front office ... no problem there. At the same time taxpayers should NOT be asked to pay for stadiums or improvements, or PSLs, or any of that crap. Most other businesses pay for their facilities. The dollars we are talking about are insane. Why does it have to cost hundreds of dollars to go to a game? Especially with the TV deals of today. The average fan is priced out and the big markets are running the show. This is a shame and getting worse each year.

Yes, John Conner is a free agent but currently at large. Apparently still hiding from TheTerminator.

No you are right .. Chan's geniuswas merely myth made up by desperate fans. I mean, what is he doing these days?

His best play was for the Ravens and the Jets ... when he had better players with him. He could help us right now and that is a sad statement to make.

'01, '10 ...

Agree on your comments for the NE game. We need lots of yard from Spiller and lots of pressure from the DL to make up for many weaknesses. What's to game plan? Pats defensive game plan: Stop Spiller (8 in box) and make the offense throw Pat's offensive game plan: Protect Brady (stop edge rush) and pick apart the substandard secondary and LB's. Pat's Special Team: Do not do anything stupid

Yes, Whaley has a bigger imprint on this team than most "new" GMs. The lack of talent and depth is related to the amount of change we experience. Every new coach and GM brings in "his people" and gets rid of the players from the previous regime. Starting over all the time is what we are known for. So why not draft a Guard to replace Levitre? Or a corner to replace McGee? Because we have so many other holes I guess. Draft mistakes is a big reason we lack talent and depth. We have done a poor job in the draft for a long time. Heck, we finally drafted a franchise QB. What's up with that?

Hello All, I have not posted since the disappointment of last season. Still lurking/reading TSW and following the Bills. I have been a fan of this team since I can remember ... which goes back to about 1963. I will be in town for the home opener against the Pats*. I must say that this is the least excited I have been for an opening game ever and it is all because of the Manuel injury. My assessment of the 2013-14 Bills as we start the season: QB - I cannot believe that we are down to two rookie QBs and seriously face the prospect of starting an undrafted rookie in the opener. Manuel sure looks promising so I need to hold out hope that he comes back and develops. The front office gets a big fat F for bringing in Kolb and no other veteran. I know Fitz had to go given his performance versus his contract … I just wish Fitz would have re-signed for less money. OL – We really did nothing to adequately replace Levitre, our best lineman, and I think we will suffer for it. I am not saying we should have paid him the crazy market price given the situation we are in our perpetual rebuild. More could have been done to address LG. With Hairston injured our depth at tackle is gone. We are one injury away from another disaster at OL. RB – The best player on the team is Spiller so give him the damm ball. Freddy Jackson is a great guy to have around too. TE – If Chandler is healthy he is decent. The others are role players. (No not Butch Rolle). WR – After Stevie we are lacking experience but we definitely have speed and maybe some talent too. It takes WR’s time to develop so I expect a lot of confusion and broken plays this season. I am hopeful that this unit will be good someday. DL – With Dareus, Marion Williams, and Kyle Williams this group should be a strength for this team and I hold hope that the play of the DL translates into better team defense. Maybe Hughes is a player after all? LB – Alonso looks good so far as has Manny Lawson but overall this is not an impressive cast and we are very thin in the middle. DB – Corner is a problem with Gilmore out. Not sold on the safety situation either. An unhappy Byrd will not help. The secondary looks weak as a unit … How did the DB situation get so thin? Kickers – new guys replacing two solid vets (Moorman and Lindel). Coaching – I like Marrone and the new staff much better the previous cast of characters. He has a steep learning curve to climb. I like the youth and energy of his staff. FO – Brandon and Whaley need to get us to the playoffs next year. Other teams have turned around teams in less time. Assessment: Rookie QB, rookie coach, rookie OC, thin OL depth, thin at LB, thin at DB. One experienced WR on the roster. Sorry, but no playoffs. Reality tells me this will be a long and painful season. I want to see a competitive team and if Manuel has a decent season then there is hope for the future. Aside from the home opener I will be back for another home game and I will of course be at all the St. Louis Bills Backers events on Sunday at Lester’s. Someday we will get there, just not seeing it this season. Cheers, Bob

So you're implying Coach Marrone knows very little about Nassib? You should save this re-do and review it in three years. cheers, Bob

Ok guys we added some talent and speed for sure but lets not get too excited yet. There is a ton of work to do here. WR is one of the toughest positions to step into. It is hard enough to draft one blue chip WR and add him into an existing offense in a stable system. In our case we have a new QB (Kolb), a rookie QB (Manuel), and a new OC (Hackett) installing a new system. SJ is the only veteran left that is proven NFL wideout. Brad Smith is gone, the Bills are going to develop their picks. Graham is being challenged. Easley is not a safe bet to contribute anything. Then you have this mass of rookies all learning. This will be both exciting and frustrating to watch. At least this new core will develop together. I expect a lot of confusion for the offense in the early pre-season and maybe by week 5 things start to sharpen up. I just hope the OL continues to improve, we will really need CJ and Freddy. - Bob

TC, the theme of the draft was speed and they loaded up on that. They took a few guys with "character issues" that would have been picked higher otherwise. To me this is a good gamble. It is time to lose the choir boy image and get some intense players that hate to lose. Talley, Therman, Kelly, Bruce ... not always the most saintly remember? Some of these picks indicate a clear difference in direction with Marrone and his staff in there. Overall I am optimistic about this draft. Cheers, Bob

We have so many needs right now - QB, WR, TE, OG, OLB, ILB, CB, S, P and K. We are in worse shape now than when Buddy Nix started. Buddy is on his second coach and 3rd DC. I sure hope he "retires" after the draft and turns this mess over to Whaley.

I am so sick of hearing this crap about Guards being easy to replace. We spent 10 years looking for Guards and we had to use two high draft picks (Wood and Levitre) to finally stabilize the middle of our line. Rhinehart is not a great athlete but he was a decent backup. Levitre will not be replaced very easily.

Letting Levitre go will be a big problem that we will regret. By what Andy is saying it does nto seem like we are trying to work something out. I would rather we give him McKelvin and Byrd's money.

Wow - TSW Bills historians are being extra kind to Coach Knox. My opinion is he was the 3rd best coach we ever had. One full notch after Saban and Levy. Yes - He took a bunch of crap talent and made an exciting and winning team. Yes, I buy in that he could not overcome Ralph's cheapness and the inept GM work of Stew Barber. The rest of the reality is while Knox was a very good coach he never won a championship (beyond a division title) and his playoff record was not stellar. The Rams went to the Super Bowl after he left. I remember Bils fans complaining about his conservative playcalling (ground Chuck). His teams tended to play flat and lose big games. The Rams had the talent to beat Minnesota and get to the Super Bowl, which they did, after Knox. He was able to rebuild Buffalo and Seattle and is an excellent coach -- ok to that. Not better better than Levy or Saban. No way. cheers, Bob

DeHaven is a solid ST coach. The Music City miracle tarnishes an otherwise excellent career. Ok, maybe kicking it straight away was a better call in hindsight but every player on that kick coverage team will tell you that Dehaven tells them to "stay in their lanes" on EVERY SINGLE kickoff. Had he called a normal kickoff and the Titans returned it he would have been questioned for not squibbing the kick. The players and the refs blew that play.

Sign Levitre and Byrd. If there is room, then get a solid LB to help clear out the junk we have today. I stress, do not overpay for free agents. Sign our own first. Byrd and Levitre are both very good players.

Let just remember that the results are sketchy on most very high priced free agents.

I have had enought of one deminsional head coaches. I do not want an offensive minded head coach like Chan who left the defense to some very poor DC's. I do not want a defensive minded coaches like Jauron or Greggo either. Maybe he will prove to be a head coach that is a real head coach? That would be good.

Please think about what you are saying for a minute --- you are are totally discounting the fact he made it to a SB and to two NFC championship games. What did Gailey, Mularkey, Haley, etc., ever do beside lose? Name some coaches that won with bad QBs? I'll help you --- 10 years ago Gruden winning with Trent Dilfer, who was at least average; and 20 years ago Joe Gibbs won with average QBs. Who else? Take the great Bill Bellichek off the list BTW.

Agree with TC. This news gets better with age and as more details come out. I think Brandon has the tools to be a good President as long as he has a good GM and that he lets the GM run the football side. I think Whaley will take over at the draft. Nix always talked about this job as temporary, now he gets a graceful exit after he wraps up the scouting report and the evaluations. Remember the evalution and scoring of players is Nix's skill, not the actual selection process. A good GM seems to know how to pick the right guy when you have a board full of equally ranked players all at different postions. Up until this job as GM of the Bills, Nix was a grader, not a ranker and not a selector. Lets all hope that Whaley has skills needed to make better picks. Lots of coaches are interested in the Bills right now. That tells you that the buzz arround the league is a positive one for Brandon and for Whaley. Ralph turning things over is also a contributor to this. I am starting to get happy about this. I see this as a step forward and yet it holds "continuity" too. Next, we need Ralph to have a plan to sell the team to a Buffalo ownership group. cheers, Bob

True. Russ is in charge for Ralph. The record does not support this. Since Brandon has been around and in key postions the Bills are in their longest playoff drought in team history.

I don't know the guy but ... He appears to be a relentless hard worker. He displays fire and passion and on the sidelines. Two things that I suspect Buffalo fans would respect and relate too. He gets a lot out of whatever talent he has -- some years it was pretty lean out there. He took the lowly Cards to the Super Bowl and almost won it. He took them to the NFC championship game another time. He did it with ok talent that his GM could not keep or build upon. He is proabably the most capable coach we have had since Wade Phillips.