silvermike

Spiller got hurt early. Chan's off the hook for that one.

Yes, and yes. Romo was Parcells' guy, he's long gone, followed by his successor. It might not be wise to burn a #1 overall pick on a QB there, but I wouldn't be shocked. And a 2nd round pick who has shown little won't stop you from taking a franchise-saving QB, especially since it will also be a new coach in town. Most recently, the Lions took Stafford after having just spent a #2 pick on Drew Stanton.

Once in a while, there's a QB who migrates from team to team as a backup, then gets his shot at starting in the pros and becomes a star. Rich Gannon, say. Kurt Warner. Even Doug Flutie. For each of those guys, there are 10 guys who get cut, migrate from team to team as a backup, and get a shot starting in the pros only to prove everyone right who kept him on the bench. And dozens more who never get a chance to start in the first place.

Remember that the top pick goes to the team with the easiest schedule, not the hardest. Go Dallas, Go Carolina!

Fitz isn't the reason we're losing - give him a running game, pass blocking, a defense, and special teams and we'd be winning some ballgames. But so far, he hasn't been good enough to overcome those many flaws, and he gets blame for that, especially because recently, he's almost been good enough to overcome those flaws, and his letdowns come at key points in close games instead of at the end of blowouts.

I really forgot how crummy it looks in SD.

All this being said, Merriman's due about $1.5 for the balance of the season. Absolute-worst case, we're forced to cut him because he acts out and Ralph's out the cash. If he's ineffective, well, we pay people more for less, and we would at least have an offsetting chance at a compensatory pick.

If the Bills want any kind of value from Merriman beyond him playing for us, the only thing they could do is franchise him this winter, then trade him. Seems unlikely.

Win #1 would be great, I'd settle for INT #2.

Fitz is not Peyton Manning. But it's looking like a safe bet that Jake Locker won't be either. And Ryan Mallet comes and goes. If Andrew Luck stays at home, I don't want to roll the dice on a QB who has a good chance of being worse than Fitz when we could go for a surer thing in places where our current talent is miserable. A franchise DE does an awful lot for your team too.

The Bills are bad, but it's true that the schedule isn't doing them any favors. If we'd had Seattle, Cleveland, Denver, Carolina, Dallas, San Francisco, and Arizona on the schedule so far, we probably wouldn't be 0-7. But we wouldn't be 7-0 either.

Yeah, the playcalling was terrific everywhere except between the 40s. Not sure what happened - may have just been a string of bad luck in terms of how the plays were executed. The intentional grounding was a disaster - at least take the sack and let the clock run!

Kyle Williams is the best player on the defense, and possible the only one worth building around. I'm glad we implemented a scheme he's totally unsuited for.

Hali's a great rusher, but Howard looked like his own grandmother out there today. Those guys can't block.

Edwards had less heart than any Bills QB I've seen play. He had the physical abilities - he can throw the ball at least well enough to be a starting QB; there are successful QBs who don't have the deep ball. And he generally had the brains. So in practice, he could hit all the passes. In fake games, he could do as well as anyone. But when everyone else turned it up a notch on game days, he just didn't bring anything else to the table. He never cared enough to be a real NFL QB, and thus he would always just sort of do the minimum. Fitz wants to win. I hope he gets one soon.

He's a whipping boy for sure, but I think Keith Ellison could be a depth/role player for some time.

It looks like that site actually ran ten million simulations, and then just counted up the results. So it's not super accurate at the point where teh Bills earn two ties. It also looks like it gives us about a one-in-a-million chance overall of producing three ties on the balance of the season. Awesome! Ha! The simulator spat out at least one scenario where the Seahawks win the NFC West at 5-11.

Because sometimes coaches get fired because they're scapegoated, not because they suck. Sean McDermott is a very good defensive coach, and Philly would be moronic to fire him because of a bad quarter against the Titans.

JJ's going to want the Arkansas man Ryan Mallett, isn't he? But Romo wasn't playing badly pre-injury, so I think it's still going to be a tough sell.

"Very late #1?" Do you mean that it's never worth spending a first ROUND pick on a linebacker or right tackle, or just the #1 overall?

Spiller should have protected the ball better. That's true of most fumbles. But this thread is ridiculous. 40 seconds on a kick return to midfield? CJ Spiller runs 40 yards in 4.3 seconds. Obviously, it's not quite that quick in live action, but he's not going to be running back and forth a dozen times. He was looking to make one cut and head upfield. That's max, 12 seconds off the clock. 1st and 10 and the 20 with time short in the half, the Bills probably just hand of to Fred Jackson. If Fitzpatrick was intercepted, you'd be complaining about that play call too.

Spiller's not a bust and he's not yet on pace to be a bust. But he's having a very frustrating first season that looks more like a great 4th rounder than a top-ten pick: some change of pace success and special teams excitement (matched by some mental errors). But through six games, he has not yet justified the front office's decision to draft him.

It helps that the Bills give up the most scores. He's 16th in return average. Nothing special.