krazykat

And if not it's a lot of money to waste.

I say that for the kind of money Fowler, Royal, Tripplett, and Price are getting, they had better step up big time. They are all getting paid extremely well at their positions given their experience, past performance, and general track record. Shelton, Williams, Wire, and Baker might not even make the team. No one on your list is making as much money as those four free agents. On the hotseat? I'd say Levy. If this team flops, he's not gonna be well liked as a GM.

Penalties don't move the ball. It's a good point but the question that needs to be answered is can this line blow opponents off the line and create holes for McGahee and protect our QB.

I enjoy watching my team play good football and that's just not going to happen this year. Last year was as boring as boring could be watching this team. I don't care if we go 4-12 if we're competitive and play well. When we get our ass kicked each week by almost every team and only seem to win by accident or against the worst teams in the league by playing less poorly than they do, then it's not fun. You sit there in the stands, maybe in the cold or rain, like the Arizona game, and say to yourself, what the hell are they doing. It's not fun.

Giambi's is beautiful. I bet that really relaxes his children when he puts them to bed at night. Not to mention that it looks like him. WTH would possess someone to get a tattoo like that. Then again, maybe I just answered my own question.

Everywhere you turn all the sites talk about our great linebacking corps. Obviously they're including Posey. Of course nonne of them are original and all say the same thing.

Poignant?

This coming from someone that caught 6 balls for 96 yards before being released last seaosn. Apparently Parcells didn't think too much of our highly paid WR's skills either. Bledsoe's arm strength may or may not be gone, but his acccuracy at times is appallling.

6-8? With all the newness? not a chance. consider yourself lucky if we are the same 5-11.

IMO a lot of it has to do with the backdrop that whoever's doing the assessing uses. For example, for anyone that's ever played flag football and played with an ex-pro on one team, everyone is astonished at how good that ex-pro is. Well, that's relative to us casual flag-football players. If that player were stacked up against other pros then he might not be so impressive. So we evalutate everything on paper. Then in camps where there's no real competition, hits are limited, etc. We see them and say "wow, they're fast," or strong, whatever. We see everything going swimmingly and read the same from those that cover camp. When a player's not playing well there's usually some rookie or other player that has never started that is the reason why. "This guy's gonna be good." Why? Because he runs well in pajamas? How does he play when he's chucked at the line and his route is disrupted? How does the QB react then when his primary or secondary is knocked off the timing? We hear about how great the offensive linemen are. But who are they blocking? Anderson, Denney, Kelsay? Players that didn't do much in the NFl last year and not playing 100% under real conditions in camp and definitely going out of their way to make sure that our own offensive linemen don't get hurt. Then we put it all together and say how great it's all gonna be. How everything's "coming together," but that's against nothing. The others realize all that and don't see anything that suggests that against the above average and maybe even the average players around the league, the best that we're gonna be is average in many spots if even that. They realize that just because Dick Jauron told them so that maybe it won't be so because all coaches talk like that but obviously they don't all produce winning teams. Then there's ignorance. I don't mean ignorance of knowledge. I mean ignorance of facts or likelihoods. Whenever a coach or player comes to the Bills fans want him to shine so they dismiss his past and hope and assume that they're going to see more from that player here. But does that make sense? For a third or fourth year guy maybe, but not for guys five or more years in the league. We know what they are now and the chances of any one of them improving by much aren't good But the glass half full types that you mentioned think and hope for the best. The problem is that when you hope for the best that new coaches, new inexperienced coordinators, a new system, new lines, a new starting WR, a new TE, a new GM, new DBs, a key player LB coming back off of major injury, new defensive linemen that are smaller and considered as pass rushers mostly when we couldn't stop the run last year, etc. It's like hoping for it all to come together at once when the odds of any one of those things happening are less than 50/50. And even if they were better than 50/50, the odds of all things working out well end up being very, very low.

OK, two things then. First, how then would you rate Levy as a coach given that he ahd arguably even more talent overall than Mariucci did. Second, suppose I give in to your argument about Jauron, either he's a miracle worker to do what he did in 2001 or there was some other reason, but given your assessment, you didn't paint the picture of a team that should have posted only 4, 5, 6, and 7 wins in the other four seasons, especially with a division that wasn't exactly one of the tougher ones in the league. So how do you explain Jauron's other 4 seasons then?

Nall, McGahee, and Evans with no other WRs worth much isn't exactly Young, Rice, and TO. So you're saying that talent made Mariucci then?

I understand. My point is that we had "those probowlers" last year and what did it net us. You're right, you never know. But using that to suggest that there's even a fair chance that it may happen isn't right. I'm sure the exact same situation has arisen many times in the NFL before this and while I have no idea what the odds are, I'm sure they're well below even nominal that they will. It just seems like many people are reaching to non-stable things for their hopes on this team. Am I the only Bills fan out there, and I say that to illustrate the point because I know there are some, many perhaps, but that just wishes that Ralph would pull his head out of his ass and just make some good decisions instead of always giving us fans a set of circumstances whereby we have to "hope for lightning to strike" just to be average and have a shot at backing into the playoffs? If fans keep supporting this, it's all we're ever going to get.

That's such a lame argument. Do you have any idea how many coaches had bad records that continued to have bad records even after that unlike Belichick. Meawhile, all that talent you say we have we had last seaosn. What happened then. Spikes may never come back and be the player he was and that's the likely outcome with him. He's also no spring chicken and not getting any younger. McGee's a returner that isn't good as a CB. We had a great return game last season and still couldn't cross the goal line. So no one's challenging the fact that he'll once again bring it in the return game. Litlte good it did us last season. As to the "talent that Jauron had in Chicago," you prove your ignorance there. He had plenty contrary to the party line on that. He had quite a few Pro Bowlers over there and one of the best MLBs in the game today. He definitely had more talent than he has here. So if that's your measuring stick, yes, we're in trouble.

San Diego is going to score on us even in Buffalo. Gates is going to have a huge day over Fletcher with Phillips pitching. As to our playing Chicago, check out how many TDs they allowed at Soldier field last season. Hint: You can count them on one hand. I hear what you're saying. You're right about going winless or 1-15. It's as likely as going 15-1 or 16-0 for a really good team. But when you discuss our opponents, the assumption is first of all that we are good when we're not. We have no talent really other than a few players. We don't have any talent where it counts, on the lines, and that's the difference. You also seem to assume that other bad teams have only gotten worse or were in fact worse off than we were last season. We only won our games almost by mistake. The Chiefs outplayed us but lost because Green had a rare off day. Our interceptions of him weren't great defensive moves or the result of pressure, they were simply bad throws. We lucked out in a Frerotte gimme fest too. The Texans in week one at home for us? We scored 1 TD and wasn't that a trick play to Peters? If we were even half good shouldn't we have been able to score a couple of normal offensive TDs in that game. Green Bay only won 4 games but one was Seattle. Another Atlanta. Detroit had a very tough schedule last season and lost a lot of games to playoff teams. You can't just assume that we got better, which is highly questionable, and that other teams all got worse and suck more than we do. Those teams look at us the same way. Throw in the fact that we only won one road game last year, a lucky win against Cincinnati, and it just doesn't say much. We haven't bolstered our lines like Minnesota and Houston have, or the Jets even. It would be stupid for anyone to say that we'll go 0-16 or 1-15 but IMO we're closer to 1-15 than we are to 6-10. In review, we have a questionable QB situation with no proven player there behind a line featuring two new players, maybe three depending upon camp. You need chemistry even with talent on the line. We don't have talent. On our DL we have two new starters next to Kelsay who isn't good with Schobel once more trying to provide most of our pass rush. Everyone's hootin' and hollerin' about our draft, but let's be real, how much are a bunch of junior DBs gonna do when our opponents don't even have to throw the ball to score 21 points? Can we even score 21 points in most games? Last season we scored 21 or more points in only four games. Meanwhile, our star and biggest defensive player is coming back from an injury that no one to my knowledge has ever come back from whose strength was speedd. Marino did it, but he didn't need his legs. Fletcher's getting older. Villarrial's a dinosaur by NFL standards for linemen. He's not even that good to begin with. McGahee's overrated in a big way. Evans can't do it all especially if our QBs don't have time to throw. Last season our biggest success was on short throws. Is this where Evans shines? Robert Royal? What can we expect from him? More than we got from Campbell? As a fan you have to hope, but at some point you have to also ask yourself what you're hoping for and what your hopes are based on. Essentially we seem to be expecting a group of average players with many that would be backups on other teams, and were yet who are now starting for us, to somehow play like a veteran good football team. I just don't see it. But right now, teams that were better than we were last season include all but Tennessee, Green Bay, the Jets, and Houston. Detroit was better, Minnesota was better, even Baltimore was better. Most of them have at least made some solid moves. We haven't. Most of the players that we've signed many Bills fans had never even heard of before they came to the Bills. Most were also backups elsewhere. Reyes was a starter, but only a marginal one. Fowler was a backup. Price was cut. Royal was a backup that had the dropsies. Tripplett was a backup. All of a sudden they're gonna play Pro Bowl ball? Not likely. Throw in a tentative QB situation. What's Jauron gonna do if the QB he selects to start the season goes 1-4 to start with our only win over the Jets and losses to Miami, NE, and Chicago all on the road and Minnesota at home? What if the Jets beat us too? Can't happen? Why not? They at least have a QB. Their line is also better than ours in spite of maybe only marginally so. By the time we play Green Bay we could easily be 1-6. And I wouldn't rule out a loss to Green Bay too. They're not good, but neither is our D. GB and Favre beat Atlanta, Detroit, and Seattle last year. Surely they can beat us. By the time we get to play Tennessee the season will be long over. Will anyone care? What if we're 2-12 by then? Will anyone be up for the game? Or will free agents like Clements and Fletcher just be looking forward to ending the season and leaving? A lot of what you throw up can easily be applied to other teams and their circumstances. And teams like Green Bay will be getting a lot from AJ Hawk by the time they play us. What will we be getting from Whitner who's not even old enough to buy beer yet on a team that can't stop the run? It's all gonna come to whether or not we can score though. While some fans seem to think that our line is improved, all that we have done is perform our usual backup shuffle there removing some failed formerly backup linemen with others. Will that iimprove the line? Maybe. But it could also get worse. And even if it does improve, by how much will it improve? Last season we scored 17 or fewer points in 10 games. We lost 9 of those. But you know what, even if we do win 5 or 6 games against teams that do happen to be worse than we are, is that a good thing? Is that anyone's expectation as a fan? Only to beat teams that suck worse than we do and hope that our schedule is full of them every season? Lastly, our analysis of the season doesn't factor in any injuries. Can you imagine if Schobel goes down! Word replaces him. Or McGahee? I know he's not as good as we hoped, but he's a solid starter anyway. Or Evans. And suppose Spikes is only 50% which would be typical for that injury. There are just too many questionmarks for this team to post a better record than last season. Just as PFT's ranking said, "But this organization has more question marks than the Riddler's longjohns, and for now it deserves to be regarded as the worst in the league." They're right. We may not deserve 32nd, but we deserve the bottom group. At that point who wants to argue whether we should be 32nd or 28th. Not me.

Your entire argument is based on assumptions that make no sense.

Wrong! Marv was against bringing Bennett to Buffalo. He's even said so himself. Polian was the man responsible for most of that. Marv was handed a Cadillac already running. If Marv were half the coach that everyone thinks he is then he would have won a super bowl. He also wouldn't have a losing record other than the four seasons that we did go to the super bowl and in 13 of his 17 total seasons coached.

Marv isn't as smart as he and many fans seem to believe he is. …a sensitive touch in dealing with the players…That is a trait that all good general managers possess. It is a difficult quality to refine, and there are many general managers – well qualified on every other count – who do not succeed because they come to be viewed by the players as being antagonistic. Those general managers who treat the players fairly, who tell them the truth, and who feel and display a personal interest in sincerely getting to know them individually are the GMs who succeed. How the hell does he know. Does he have a wealth of GM experience? I cannot find exact quotes but Marv is clear in his belief that young QBs should be allowed to develop slowly. A year or three learning as a backup is his ideal setup for a young QB. Let him learn the ropes without the pressures of having to be the savior. When Marv coached he didn't believe in any rookies playing much. You are correct. This also shows how out of touch he is today. Big money! For a guy with “potential.” That is too heavy a gamble to take. “Potential” is an imposter. Potential has gotten more coaches fired than injuries have. Potential has served to erode the credibility of many general managers. Yeah, much too risky! Marv's philosophy is to overpay guys that other teams didn't even bother to make an effort to retain and to give guys like Tripplet who couldn't hold down a starting job $20M for five years. Got it? Oh, and don't forget Fowler, another backup, $7.2M for 3 years at C. Robert Royal, a TE with questionable hands, $2M/yr. in an offense that is shaping up to be mostly a passing offense. But his philosophy is not to pay for potential. Understand? Marv's a fool. Really, he's a fool.

BTW, is that what makes you happy as a fan, making the playoffs and then getting killed in them because you had a weak strength of schedule? IDK, but my expectations are a trifle higher.

IDK, are the Bills going to have a schedule full of teams that finish with losing records? If so, then I suppose it can be 2001 all over again. Seems to me that we have at least half of the teams on our schedule that will finish the season with a winning record. NE in two games, Miami in two games, Chicago, Minnesota who finished last season winning 7 of their last 9, Indy, Jax, San Diego possibly.

Defense: Beyond the top five or six units in the league, defensive teams in fantasy football are generally a crapshoot. The Bills' defense fall squarely into this category -- it's "crap" and someone should "shoot" them. C-. LMAO We're not saying that the Bills will finish as the worst team in the league. There's too much that can happen, and due to free agency the difference between the best and worst team is much narrower than it used to be. But this organization has more question marks than the Riddler's longjohns, and for now it deserves to be regarded as the worst in the league. Hey, at least they don't have to worry about failing to fulfill anyone's expectations.

Ridiculous! Mariucci !Year TM | W L T | W L | +----------+--------------+----------+ | 1997 sfo | 13 3 0 | 1 1 | | 1998 sfo | 12 4 0 | 1 1 | | 1999 sfo | 4 12 0 | 0 0 | | 2000 sfo | 6 10 0 | 0 0 | | 2001 sfo | 12 4 0 | 0 1 | | 2002 sfo | 10 6 0 | 1 1 | | 2003 det | 5 11 0 | 0 0 | | 2004 det | 6 10 0 | 0 0 | | 2005 det | 4 7 0 | 0 0 | There's a thing called talent. We don't have any.

No need to apologize. No one wants the team to be poor. They're just acknowledging reality. I will say this, that we may be two seasons away from being competitive with NE and Miami, but that's only if we are managed properly. I would question that right now. For every young prospect we have coming on, and yet to be proven, we have at least one that won't be here or if he will won't be what he used to be. Spikes, Fletcher, Clements, McGahee, even Losman, Evans, could and will likely all be out of here for one reason or another. Further losing and mismanagement isn't going to get them to want to stay here either. It's gonna be a heavy duty balancing act. And if Levy proves to be clueless and Jauron posts another two losing seasons, they're not gonna have much support from fans and players just won't want to stay here. Meanwhile we've saddled ourselves with the burdens of big contracts for players like Price, Royal, Tripplett, and Fowler. Tell me, before this offseason, would anyone have said these guys were worth what we gave them?

The reality is that you assume that we are headed in the right direction. What you say about those other teams is easily said about the Bills. Houston and the Jets are both teams correcting their biggest problems. We aren't. Our biggest problems were the lines and we've done nothing other than bring in more questionable players for both. Your view doesn't see the reality of your own team.

An interesting post. Better thought out than the usual tripe of some. Allow me to respond to some of your points. "One of the neat things to me about the NFL though is that on any given Sunday one team can beat another team." That is a very cliched statement. While yes, any team can beat another team, this statement is thrown about as if the odds on any given game are 50/50 when that's far from the case. Let's take Pittsburgh and San Fran as an example. If the two teams played each other each week for 16 weeks, the way that you say that is that each team would win about half the games. But what's the reality? The reality is that San Fran might win one of 16 games if they caught the Steelers off guard. Otherwise they really and practically don't have a chance. As to your other assessments, you seem to ask why many don't think the Bills will win many games, but at the same time you don't really say why they will win more than what those people say. We suck. That's the default here. We didn't just roll of a season whereby we lost in the first round of the playoffs. We didn't even play competitively in most games. In 7 of 11 games we lost by 8 or more points. We lost 3 games by 21 or more. In the games we won we beat a bunch of teams playing poorly generally speaking. We also lost thoroughly to teams like the Jets, Saints, and Raiders. To assume that we will automatically improve is based on what? In your game analysis you say things like "Detroit is a goshawful team and has been for years. We are on the road and their ability to eat home cookin gives them a leg up. However, the Jarin revenge incentive should also be there and this will be a game even a bad team can steal unless folks have some reason to believe the Detroit story will be dffierent this year." Jauron revenge factor? OK, whatever. Meanwhile, have you actually looked at how Detroit played last year? Yeah, they were 5-11 last year which isn't good. But we play them on the road. They were 3-5 at home but three of those losses were to playoff teams Carolina, Cincinnati, and Chicago. They lost to Carolina by a point and to Chicago by only 6. After that, they lost to Atlanta and Minnesota, neither of which had a losing record. As to Houston, we beat Houston last year but it wasn't pretty. No one walked away from that game saying "what a great win." We struggled to score and move the ball. That was at home. We play them in Houston now. They've made significant strides in improving their lines whereas we have not. All we've done is swap out one batch of linemen that didn't turn out well for another that we hope will but who also aren't good. The Texans now have Moulds, and as long as you're talking about revenge... You say that you don't see Houston changing, but then you talk about how we will improve. Why? Houston's made better upgrades than we have big time. The Jets are bad but also moving in the right direction. I'm not sure that some fans actually realize how bad we really were last season. A handful of junior DBs aren't going to change that this year. Whitner's not even 21 yet. He can't even go out for a beer. He'll be a boy among men. He was our top pick. I mean everyone wants to be positive, and that's good, but we have been blindly rushing into the season screaming Super Bowl for years now. I think many fans just don't have much left and want to see some changes in this organization and Levy and Jauron aren't the kind of changes that they were hoping would come about. We'll see. But right now we can't win on the road. Our average road loss was by 14 points last season. So start there. Figure 1-7 on the road again. Then look at the home schedule. We're a bad team that's poorly run.