silvermike

I'm not convinced that the Bills won't bail on the 3-4, depending on the talent out there this summer. We made a step in that direction last year, but it's not like we sold the farm. Troup could be a one-gap NT in a 4-3 system, with Williams next to him. Carrington would make a solid LE, and if we can grab a top DE in the draft, that's a solid 4-3 front. Kelsay could go back to his natural LE position too, spelling Carrington, and Stroud would be a rotational threat. Davis could roll outside, Poz inside, and Torbor on the other side. That's not any worse than they would be in a 3-4. Sometimes you have to cut your losses, and it's not like they cut their star 4-3 players; the only real loss was Schobel, and he retired anyway.

Oh, and speaking of DCs - there's a reasonable chance that Marvin Lewis gets canned at the end of the season. He's run some really bad defenses in Cincinnati, but he certainly has had some success. And his DC is Mike Zimmer, who worked with Chan in Dallas. Should he be available, I'd say the smart money is that Zimmer is our DC next year.

The Bills might well be able to hire John Fox as a DC this winter. And if Mike Holmgren cleans house in Cleveland (today notwithstanding) Mangini and Rob Ryan would be available. And there's always the imminently-fired Wade Phillips.

Ryan Fitzpatrick really, really wants to win the !@#$ing game. I wonder how much he really gets more out of the offense just by being that guy in the huddle and on the field. Trent must have huddled the team up to talk about post-game dinner options.

Franklin will be available, I'm not sure why KFFL missed him. But that's definitely an option. I'm guessing any top-level DL is going to start at $9M/year and go up from there. Is that a position that's worth breaking the bank for in a 3-4?

And the sack was for zero yards, mostly as Ray Lewis got to Ryan Fitzpatrick after he decided to scramble, but before he quite crossed the line of scrimmage. That wasn't on the line.

The line as a whole did very well. Cordaro retired Cornell Green, I can tell you that.

Carrington might just need to take a mulligan year - he was considered a very raw prospect, and it's not shocking he's not getting game reps as a rookie. If he shows up in year two, I wouldn't be surprised. I'll wait and see. Maybin, though man. He may have played his last snap as a Bill.

Take a look here: http://www.kffl.com/static/nfl/features/freeagents/fa.php?option=All&y=2011 The site is not 100% up to date; it takes them a long time to process in-year extensions. But using this as a starting place, I think we've got a lot of good options: QB: I'm not convinced there's anything there that would be better than Fitz (Kolb has since been extended; and Brady, Favre, and Manning obviously wont be on the open market). Shaun Hill has been playing interesting football, but I'd say we go #1 overall on Luck or else just keep Fitzpatrick in charge. RB: Stay out of this pool, Buddy. WR: The WR corps played extremely good football today, so I'm on a bit of a buzz for them. Beyond that, I think Legadu Naanee would be an interesting option in the #4 spot, but that's not a priority. TE: Owen Daniels, and Zach Miller would be terrific acquisitions. Ignore Kellen Winslow and Vernon Davis; both have been extended. OL: How old is Matt Light, anyway? He'd be a great veteran presence on the line here, though I'll bet he ends up a Chief. Ryan Kalil pushed Hangartener out before, maybe he could do it again, and past that, I'm sort of out of ideas here, though I don't know much about other teams' linemen. DL: Richard Seymour might well hit the open market. Expect $10M/year if you want him. I'm not convinced it wouldn't be worth it. And if you like big money NTs, Haloti Ngata will be a free agent, unless the Ravens franchise him. That could be a $12M/year man. Past that, I think there's a lot of solid depth, if we're not getting anything from Carrington all year, etc. But I don't see a lot of solid starters who aren't going to break the bank. LB: David Harris, Tamba Hali, Chad Greenway, Manny Lawson, Ben Leber, Kirk Morrison and LaMarr Woodley are all in contract years. A lot of them won't hit the market, but the Bills have a chance to really spend on a defensive leader this year. DB: I think we can retain Florence and Whitner and keep this unit on back order for the season, but if we want to add to it, the talent out there seems mostly to be in the senior veteran category.

And the Bills offense earned those 34 points, too. It wasn't a special teams play and a few turnover-shortened fields. 72 yards in 6 plays; 91 yards in 12 plays; 82 yards in 6 plays; and the two-minute-drill from their own 9 to force overtime. Man, our defense and special teams isn't giving us anything to work with.

And to think, we already had a good starting SS back then named Lawyer Milloy, who's still playing well in Seattle.

The Bills' offense is actually very close to being where it needs to be, at least, if they can keep doing what they did today. The line isn't great, but they're showing flashes now. They desperately need depth, but they're surviving right now, and they held up strong against an excellent defense. The WR corps is in good shape, now that Johnson is looking like a starter, Evans is making plays again, and Parrish is finally being used right (with D. Nelson as a 4th). McIntyre is good, the RBs are good, and they just need a TE. The defense, though, is an absolute wreck.

The close calls all went against the Bills today, but I think most of them were correct, or at least, not obviously wrong. Corner didn't get two feet down. The Bills were inches away from winning this one, but teams that don't win, just don't win.

Nix DID address the front 7, he just did so with questionable results. Andra Davis, Torrell Troup ,Alex Carrington, and Dwan Edwards from free agency and the top rounds of the draft. That's four attempts; we're still waiting to see how well they work out. I'm not sure if it's better or worse for him to ignore it or draft busts.

The Bills are 6-16 with Garrison Sanborn. The stats speak for themselves.

I think the only trade the Bills really are in a position to consider is investigating the return on Lee Evans. The right injury today could turn him into a 2nd round pick, but I think that's still likely a big stretch. After that, I'd say everyone on the roster is worth more to us than they would be to another team. Is there anyone who would return more than a 5th round pick? And are we in need of more 5th round rookies?

Perry had Aaron Schobel. Take a mediocre defense, subtract the best pass rusher, and it's going to drop a step. Honestly, the best thing for the defense is to be good enough to play both 4-3 and 3-4 depending on the situation - the Patriots did it in their best defensive days and the Ravens have done it before. It's tough from a talent perspective, and needs a real coach to run it, so I don't think we're there. But our current talent is so muddled between 4/3 and 3/4 I don't really care which one we choose, as long as we go with the goal to get good at it. Ideally, we could have Mike Singletary or John Fox running the defense next year.

Fitz isn't anything like a long term solution, but he's probably giving us the best QB play we can ask for between now and September. Brohm hasn't shown anything more than scraps, Levi Brown is barely a professional player, and anyone else is currently out of the league. So we've got a replacement-level QB and we can see what we have around him this year. Next year, we can argue about the merits of Fitz vs. the Jason Campbells and Matt Moores of the league, but in no way should his presences dissuade us from Andrew Luck or any other major draft prospect.

Congressman Shuler doesn't seem to be facing any stiff opposition for re-election this year, so he's probably going to keep that job and ignore Buddy's phone calls.

I hadn't thought of this. I'm not sure they would have gotten a third (and we can see what hte Vikings get), but a 4th seems reasonably likely. That said, the Pats aren't poised to lose many other UFAs -Kevin Faulk and Fred Taylor will either re-sign or retire, and that only leaves Matt Light and Jarrad Page as departing free agents. I wouldn't be shocked to see the Patriots reload next summer with more UFAs than they'll lose, nulling out the compensatory consequences altogether.

I don't really see how Brady Quinn has any more upside than Ryan Fitzpatrick. I'm not interested at junking one replacement-level QB to bring in another who's probably worse. If there's a real project out there, I'd be interested in ditching Levi Brown for him - maybe Graham Harrell fits that bill. But Quinn's in his 4th season, and he's got about as much upside left as Trent Edwards.

I'd not really sure why the Rams would start trading the future for the present, given the fact that they're really in year one of a rebuilding plan.

I don't have a huge problem with Whitner. He's not a star, but he's starter-caliber. It's not his fault we burned a top 10 pick on him. I don't think he's worse than George Wilson, and I don't think there's any reason to spend more money or draft picks on the position.

There is no reason right now to think that George Edwards is a legit NFL defensive coordinator. He hasn't done it before, and he hasn't done it in Buffalo. Any thoughts on who's out there? Any defensive coaches likely to be fired?

If the top QB on the board is a legit franchise QB prospect, you draft him if you're in or position. Period. Only if you have real doubts - which I think is possible if Luck stays in school - do you turn to other positions. At that point, I think our front 7 becomes an urgent concern.