FLFan

By the way, the "crappy" pick the Bills made in the 4th was OT Chris Hairston. Pretty good take in the 4th in my opinion. As for Evans being "one of our best players" evidence from the last couple of years would suggest otherwise.

The only chance Denver has of scoring on Pittsburgh is with turnovers deep in Steelers territory. Then, a field goal may be possible. The Tebow miracle is over.

You can argue stats, but you cannot separate the reality of the situation when evaluating his performance. Fitz has limitations and will never be an elite QB, but you want to ignore the discontinuity of the offensive personnel on this team, which were not elite in most positions to begin with and is now relegated to the level of a scout team, in determining he is "below average". Perhaps Brady or Rogers could have risen above this mediocre mess and posted a couple of wins along the way, but Fitz is going to struggle with the subpar OL and new receiver of the week environment they are in. Virtually any QB would. Not excuses, but a fact. I personally did not see him play much before he came to Buffalo, but I know what I have seen since then, and stats do not tell the whole story. As for accountabiloity, he stands up there and takes responsibility each and every week so that the turds he is playing with do not have to. It is not denying accounatbility to say he is not solely responsible for the offensive mess we have witnessed for the last seven weeks, just recognition that he is not solely, nor even mostly, responsible for it.

Fitz is neither as "good" as he looked in the first half of the season, or as "bad" as he has looked since. Fitz is not Rogers or Brady or Brees, but with the right offense and some consistency in the players around him, he has shown he can perform very well. Some people want to ignore the injuries on the Bills offense as "excuse making" but you cannot ignore them. They lost 3 of their top 4 receivers going into the year fairly early. They have Brad Smith starting at WR for crying out loud - he was sixth on the depth chart at that position going into the year. They lost their best offensive weapon in Jackson and now Chandler for the last two. Hello! Any QB needs some talent around him, and perhaps more importantly, some consistency in the lineup. The group of receivers he worked hard with in offseason and training camp to develop chemistry and timing are mostly gone. The bigger issue may be the OL. Wood was the glue that held the whole thing together and it is no coincidence that the offense has been completely out of synch ever since he went out. You see missed blocking assignments and other mistakes you just did not see before. The revolving door at LT has not helped and neither is having to play Urbik at center as he was better at RG than his replacement. OL depth should be a major priority this offseason. The lack of execution on the OL and lack of timing with ther receivers are the big reasons for Fitz's drop off in performance in my opinion. Yes, he is not Brady, or Rogers, or Brees and never will be, but even they would be struggling with the issues the Bills are facing on offense. Fitz has shown he can produce at a high level - he did not suddenly lose the skills he does bring halfway through the year. That does not make sense. By the way, one thing to love about this guy - he has never made an excuse for his play although he could come up with many. He takes responsibility and acts like a leader. He is just not getting any help out there.

Don't spoil people's conspiracy fantasies.

I agree with you but I doubt you will find much support amidst the lynch mob that is TSW. Nix moving aside for Whaley would make sense, as would a makeover of the Defensive staff, but anything beyond that would be taking a step backward yet again. This year has been disappointing but not the casue for panic or proof posiitve of the same old, same old as some here clearly believe.

Respectfully, you are wrong about Poz. They had no option prior to FA. As for Whitner, I think Wilson has played far better this year at SS than Whitner ever did, and I think Byrd is a better FS. Not sure I understand your comment about locking Whitner up before the impasse. The impasse was about him over valuing his services and voluntarilly cutting off negotiations to wait for FA. By the time he signed, the Bills had already locked up their plans with Wilson. I think they are better for it frankly. Stevie Johnson may walk - we shall see. Perhaps someone will offer him a bloated contract he cannot say no to. I do know this - if he wanted to be here as he says he does, he would not have cut off negotiations. He has stars and $ in his eyes. He will be with the Bills if he wants to be, but I would not be surprised if he gets an offer well beyond his value. Should the Bills over pay to keep him? I am not so sure, although I woould like to see him stay. Yes, an arguemnent could be made over developing players I suppose, but I would not use Whitner. He is a decent player, over drafted at number 8, who I think reached his limited potential when here. As I have already said, I think Wilson has outplayed him by a mile. Evans has contributed nothing to the Ravens. It was unfortunate that he had to endure such a revolving door of bad coaches and worse QBs in Buffalo, but those are the breaks. No problem with the Bills letting this one trick poney go. There was no way to predict that 3 of their top 4 receivers would go down with injuries fairly early. In hindsight, it would have been nice to have Evans obvioulsy, but I have no problem with the decision to cut him loose and go with the youth. As for Maybin, I am not sold. I still think he sucks frankly. He is not an OLB or a DE and a major whiff that high in the draft. The jets were able to pick him up off the street and make some use of him for a minimum salary, but there is no arguement to be made the he was a good investment of that high a draft choice. I hope McKelvin is next on the list. How much more evidence do you need that he cant play CB? Should we be extending him? If his contract is up, good riddance. If not, give him one more chance to contribute at the position. He is no better than the 4th best CB on this team right now. Spiller is not going anywhere.

They tried to negotiate with Whitner but he felt he was worth much more money than the Bills thought he was worth so he waited for free agency. By the way, he did not get what he was originally asking for as he found a relatively soft market for his services. This is all well documented. The Bills were restricted in negotiations with Poz before his contract expired due to rules set by the CBA with respect to extension offers and percentagtes of existing salalry. I do not recall the specifics of the dollars, but again, this was well documented and you can look it up. When FA started the Bills immediately made what Poz's agent referred to as a very competitive offer. He chose to play elsewhere. You need to look elsewhere to justify your arguement. The Bills have acted to lock up key players this year. They resigned G. Wilson in FA and Florence. They signed Fitz, Williams, Pears. They extended Merriman before the season started. They tried to sign Stevie and negotiated with Fred as well. Those players rejected initial offers and decided to wait. You may disagree with who they have extended but it is hard to argue they are not trying to lock up players they feel are essential to their plans, at least under this regime. I am not interested in past behavior under Donahoe or Levy as it is well past the point. The big problem with this team is the misses in the draft over the past 10 years, the past 5 years particularly. Since you mentioned San Francisco, here is another stat they mentioned during last night's game. SF has 11 players on their roster drafted in the top 10 picks of the draft, 8 of whom they drafted themselves. The Bills have had as many opportunities, but have whiffed. Free Agency is a great way to fill in a few good players here and there but means nothing if you have not built a solid core through the draft. Evidence abounds in the league to support this. I think the jury is still out on the last two drafts but they have picked some decent to potentially very good players. Some are strating caliber and some are decent depth. They clearly need a few more. I would love to see a stud receiver, they must have a pass rusher to fill at least one of the gaping holes at OLB. They clearly do not have even one starting quality outside LB on the current roster. They need depth on the OL at least, but a real stud at LT would be sweet. This year has been awful but this team is closer than everyone thinks.

Well reasoned, cogent post, that happens also to be true. How dare you!

They must have missed the starting center sitting out there after week 11 of the season just waiting to be picked up, taught the offense, schooled in all the line calls and made ready to paly for the following Sunday. What a bunch of screw ups.

Seriously? What evidence has Jackson ever given you in his time here to suggest he would lay down on his team that way? By the way, he has a chance to lead the league in rushing and all purpose yards and make the pro bowl. I am sure he would be ouit there if he could. Yes, I am sure old Mr. Smithers in his wheelchair up in Detroit is scheming how to make a few sheckles by holding out the Bills best player. Wow! I have heard some half baked conspiracy theories in my time, but this one takes the cake.

Unfortunately, this game is likely to be over in the first quarter. The Bills do not have the horses to compete with the Jets at this point. This will be another week of humiliation I am afraid. I hope I am wrong and the team somehow rallies and plays over their heads, and the Jets come in so over confident that we can surprise them, but I just do not see it. I would be surprised if they could stay within 20 points.

This is the most reasonable post(one of the few with ANY reason) that I have seen so far today. Way to go.

This is exactly the Bills problem. They are unable to get sustained pressure with just 4 rushers and have been largely ineffective with the blitz as well. The last two games in particular, Sanchez and Romo have literally had all day to stand back there and wiat for the recivers to open. They always will given enough time, against any secondary. In games where the Bills have had pressure, not necesssarily sacks, the secondary has performed, as the interception total would indicate.

Bills 27 Jets 16 Close in the first half, Bills get ahead in the second and force Sanchez to throw, leading to turnovers. I had a dream.

Personally, I cannot wait to see Fred Jackson put Maybin on his back when Maybenot runs one of his patented "speed moves" on a blitz. Maybin does not get near Fitz on Sunday. Count on it.

This guy actually did an impressive analysis, and one I would not disagree with. My sense watching the game was the real problem was Beck. I am not taking away from the Bills effort on D, but clearly there were plays to be made by a good QB. I think this really highlights the success of Fitz in the Bills offense. He recognizes coverages and rush schemes, understands where to go with the ball, and makes quick decisions. Beck's performance Sunday reminded me of Trent Edwards - the polar opposite of what we have in Fitz right now. I cannot believe that Shanahan thinks this guy gives them the best chance to win.

Exactly. Gailey outcoached Haley, the Bills got up early because they cashed all their opportunities where SD botched them last night, they stuffed the Cheif's running game, and when you force Cassell into passing to catch up, they are simply dead. Neither San Diego or Kansas City are impressive teams to me. People here have written off the SD road game, but I think the Bills win that game.

Yeah - I am going to have to go back and review all the games to see how the Bills have managed to average over 30 points per game with only one player. I guess Fred Jackson has been disguised as other players all year. Who knew. I hope the Bills destroy this POS team and their POS coach. Although any win would be great, a beatdown would be sweet.

The Bills have as many injuries, perhaps more, than the Skins. They have lost two LTs, 2 of their top 3 WRs, a starting LB, a starting pro bowl NT. What this game showed to me is that the Bills are far ahead of the Skins with respect to talent and depth, and that Gailey at this point is a far better coach than Shanahan.

This is exactly right. Small market teams like Buffalo or MN do not survive without taxpayer help on the stadium infrastructure. I am not sure what the issues are in MN or if the team there is being reasonable, but in the case of Buffalo, unless the State and County pony up to keep that stadium at least competitive, there is no franchise in Western New York. They do not need a Jerry Jones style palace and are not asking for one - the local economy could not support it even if the team built it - they are asking for enough improvements to keep it viable long term. Of courwse, the taxpayers can "rebel" and chase them out. How would that be for the local economy and psyche?

Your clarification does not make any more sense than your original post.

The bills game is a 4:15 start.

This is unfortunate news albeit not unexpected. For those who have been paying attention, while he has not had the sack numbers, the Bills run defense has been considerably better when he was in the game. He played his position and held the edge on his side consistently. He has also had a termendous impact on the teams attitude, exhibiting positive leadership, and as others have pointed out, was a solid recuriting influence. Make no mistake - he will be missed on this defense. Hopefully the long delayed surgery will enable him to come back healthy. As for the preposterous comparisons to Maybin being made by some posters, this is like comparing water to wine. Incidently, it would take a similar miracle of turning water to wine to make Maybin even a fraction of the football player Merriman is. Hopefully the young outside backers the Bills have can learn to play the position nearly as well, but at least in the near term, this is a big loss.

Some pass rush on this drive would be nice to see. Manning just has way too much time. Sack n TO