silvermike

I know what you mean: the Bills-Miami rivalry has suffered lately through a lack of personalities and of course, a lack of both teams being good at the same time. But they do have the Tuna now, so that's someone to hate, even if he's hiding up in the press box all day. But who else? Ricky Williams is more funny than loathsome, Chad Pennington is a decent QB but a generic personality, Ted Ginn is only funny because of Brady Quinn...

Miro Satan didn't really have much in the way of BS like Mogilny did, he was just a guy whose effort was questionable and play was streaky. There are thousands of those guys. And if Richard Smehlik is one of the most hateful players in local sports, you can't really have been paying much attention. He was a career +62, with only two negative seasons out of nine in Buffalo, both only -9. Also, congratulations for not liking players who the Bills drafted highly that were unsuccessful in the pros!

From the comments there. A third of our salary in those three guys, one of whom is cut, one of whom just got his replacement drafted, and the last a guy who was injured most of the season. I don't blame Schobel for getting hurt, but when your team gets minimal production from three of its top six (paid) players, you're in for a bruising.

I don't think we can scheme our way out of trouble here: The problem is that we have remarkably little talent to work with: Schobel and Stroud are good players, but neither is really a consistent defensive star. Then next to them, you have two roleplayers in Kelsay and Williams, a group of solid if unspectacular LBs, and a good secondary. No matter how you scheme it, it's going to give you average results. And let's not forget that in the front 7, the only viable depth player is Ryan Denney. Ouch.

There is a mention about Fewell running the 1-5 Creep defense on some passing downs - it appears to be an unusually innovative scheme, though I don't know how effective it really is. But the bottom line really seems to be that the more you can throw different looks at an offense, the better you are. There's only so far you can get specializing in any form. If anybody watched Dollhouse (given the ratings, unlikely), Bill Belichick is the Alpha of NFL coaches.

Timmy would have done a fine job. But so will Boomer, I'm looking forward to it.

I remember DE Ryan Denney streaking towards the endzone with a pass from Brian Moorman on its way.

Yeah - I think great coaching is less about great schemes than it is about great playcalling. It's knowing when to blitz, not developing a new kind of blitz. It's the chess game that counts, except in very rare cases where a wholly new scheme is invented and laps the league before people can catch up. That all being said, reading this over, I really like the zone blitz, and I think we could make more use of it as a complementary scheme to the Tampa-2, since it would take advantage of our smaller, speedier DLs dropping into coverage.

Breaks down the 4-3, Tampa-2, 3-4, 46, zone blitz, and all the rest. http://subscribers.footballguys.com/2009/0...el_idpguide.php It's LONG, but thorough, and completely worth reading through to get a handle on what the hell everybody's doing out there.

So this is ranking quarterback and running back play, in the context of offensive line play and wide receivers. Or in other words, how many yards the RBs are going to run for and how many yards the QB is going to pass for. You know, "offense"

Have you been assuming we're a playoff team in the past decade that you need to make this declaration?

Man, that team - both teams in that game, actually - are almost too good to comment on. What do they do? Well, the lines block for the QB, so he has time to throw, the QB finds an open receiver, the receiver hangs on to the ball, and adds yards after the catch. We have to start doing those things. I wish it were as easy as "oh, they use a 3-4" or "the no huddle always wins!" Not to sound like your JV basketball coach, but good fundamentals are everything.

http://proxy.espn.go.com/chat/chatESPN?event_id=26570 Any of you guys Shaun in Rochester?

The difference between Ngata and every other player that we theoretically could have had is that for a month before the draft, everyone on the board was talking about how much they wanted Ngata. Then on draft day, everyone talked about the odds Ngata would drop to us. Then once he did, people were thrilled that we were going to take him. Then we didn't. Then he turned out to be a superstar. This isn't 20/20 hindsight exactly: this is the player the board wanted clearly being superior to the player the team picked.

Man, TO might totally mess up this cohesive team of superstars and role-players we've put together over the past five years, denying us a chance to extend our playoff run by one more year.

Man, Owens seems to be having a great time in Buffalo so far, anyway. Let's hope it translates into wins, but he certainly seems excited to be here. That counts for something, and he seems to enjoy being the only celebrity in town.

Is Art Wander still alive? How old is he now? When I first started following the Bills in the late 80s, he already seemed to be at least a million years old. Granted, I was six, but still...

Yeah, Rhodes is the confounding factor here. We can roll three backs next year, keeping all of them fresh, but sadly, lacking in statistical dominance. Do we have an Earth, Wind, and Fire like the Giants did?

60+ TD passes from Trent! Suck on it, Marino, Brady, and Manning.

That game was the one real highlight of the past 10 years.

Your friend is messing with you.

It says something about the NFL vs. other sports when the Bills price matches (roughly) the Boston Celtics'. Yeah, football games have a premium since there are only 8 home games, but still.

I'll note that this team gets much better if you allow for UDFAs, as you remove Edwards and Louchey and replace them with Pat Williams and Jason Peters. But even so - this is *FIFTEEN YEARS* of Bills' drafting.

Golly, I wonder what happened around February 4th, 1993 that would cause our drafting to get worse. I can't imagine... But quick and dirty, here's our all-drafted team since that day: QB: Trent Edwards RB: Marshawn Lynch, Travis Henry WR: Eric Moulds, Lee Evans TE: Jay Riemersma OT: Jonas Jennings, Corey Louichey OG: Reuben Brown, Brad Butler C: Dusty Ziegler DE: Marcellus Wiley, Aaron Schobel DT: Ron Edwards, Kyle Williams LB: Sam Cowart, Paul Posluszny, Angelo Crowell CB: Antoine Winfield, Nate Clements SS: Donte Whitner FS: I honestly can't come up with anyone. Ko Simpson? Eric Smedley? That's probably not a playoff team.

So let's see, how often do we keep top picks lately? 2001: Nate Clements - Franchised, lost; Schobel - extended; Henry - extended, traded; 2002: Mike Williams - cut; Josh Reed - extended; Ryan Denney - extended 2003: Willis McGahee - traded; Chris Kelsay - extended; 2004: Evans extended; Losman - left in disgrace 2005: Parrish extended;