Fan in Chicago

These last two weeks have made it obvious that all these 'trust me, we know football' decisions since the beginning have caught up with the team. Here are decisions which were justified for one reason or the other at the time and are now looking to be a series of miscues: - Hiring George Edwards: At the time of the hire, there was no indication of why he would have been good - Picking Spiller with the #9 pick: Was supposed to be a playmaker. ANd yet in 1.5 seasons has done no more than we expect out of a 5th or 6th rounder. BPA he was not - Letting Poz, Whitner go: Not saying these were great but created holes where we did not have to. I can excuse Poz as we replaced with a better LB in Barnett. However, we seem to just create holes and patch up instead of re-building - Trading Evans: I reconciled at the time saying he wasnt getting open and we wouldnt be able to use him as we dont have the OL to sustain blocks. However, seeing Stevies' underwhelming numbers this year, it is becoming obvious that Evans' presence was helping Stevie (and the Bills) a lot. The fact that he is injured now does not excuse the decision to let him go as it was not known he would get injured at that time - Letting Hang go: Sure he looked 'weak' but he would be a good swing backup as G and C. Nix has blown smoke for a while now. 'Build through the draft and keep your own' ? Really ?

It has http://forums.twobillsdrive.com/topic/138614-von-miller/page__st__40

I am saying that he did very well against us. 70+% completion if I remember correctly. He may suck but we suck so much on D that we even made him look like a very good QB. Sure the Jets beat us as a team but my point is that we Bills fans laugh at his incompetence when the Bills did little to slow him down.

Nice post and from someone knowledgeable about the game. I agree with you on most points. Despite said lack of talent on the OLB/DE position, I think the current unit is underperforming. In fact, I had even forgotten we still have Andra Davis on the roster till you and Simon reminded me. With the personnel we have, a competent coach with the right schemes could get a lot done. We need a Chan Gailey type on the D side of the ball. I have high hopes for our picks from last year and hope AWilliams does well at CB so we dont have to draft another one high.

And yet, the dude continues to kick our rears with great regularity.

I am here and I was worried about his size. Yet the Bills FO would have drafted him if Newton and Dareus were gone. The Bills had to make the safe pick this year after blowing so many #1s recently. Given that, I would have rooted for Dareus even if we were picking #2 cos all scouting things being equal: (1) Our run D was a top priority this year (2) We needed more size in the front -7. (3) Dareus is versatile - can play nose or DT. So, yes Von Miller has looked but I have no regrets with our pick. Also, note that having Dumervil on the other side helps Von Miller immensely as opposing Offenses have to pick their poison. Denver's overall D is very good and we are going to have trouble when we play them.

Thru 9 games, he has 44 catches for 531 yards about half of what he did last season when Evans was around. He only has 4 TDs so far. He is a productive WR for us and fits in the Bills' system. However, we need a deep threat who can get open and has good hands. (Evans had the speed but could not consistently get open and was not versatile). We absolutely have to draft/acquire one who fits this description. I think Stevie will shine even more in that situation. Having said that, I don't think he is a top flight #1 WR. I want him on the Bills for a long time, but not to be paid top 5 money due to his limitations. Maybe top 10 money.

Limitless petered out after a promising beginning. Source Code on the other and, was terrific and a great followup to Moon by Duncan Jones. We need more such creativity in the SciFi/Action genre

"When after all It was you and me..."

Okay, I will bite. - More running. Mix in FJax with CJ and the rookie White. Make balance at about 60-40 runs. Need passing to keep defenses honest - Relegate Jones to #4 receiver slot, elevate Nelson to #2 and Roosevelt to #3. Cos Jones flat out sucks and makes multiple mistakes while Nelson always shows up - Convert CJ to full time WR and add the missing vertical element to the passing game. He dropped a key pass yesterday but continue to give him chances until he convincingly proves us otherwise - Tinker with the OL once Bell gets back to get our best combination of strength and agility. As I stated in another thread this may involve Bell at LT and Hairston at RT - Give Fitz the mandate to be careful with the rock.

That is a fair question. While Pears has not done 'bad' per se, the future OL needs to hold blocks longer to allow deep plays to develop. Even before these injuries, the OL was unable to do that or Chan did not have the confidence in their ability to do so. I want to see if Hairston can bring strength to the RT position that transitions us to the line that we want.

Per Chan, that is right. Hairston back at LT and Bell to begin practicing. I think if both come back, we may not be in as bad a soup as it first sounded. Bell-Rinehart-Levitre-Urbik-Hairston should be the line once Bell comes back.

I am curious - who is which in your opinion ? I attribute much of our D woes to coaching rather than a lack of talent esp with players being out of position and schemes not countering opposing O's. What are you thinking ?

Dooomed ? I think so. http://twitter.com/#!/JasonLaCanfora

Couple of points he makes regarding the weak OL and lack of variety in WR is something that NOT too many people were saying early in the season when we were winning. Even today, there is little acknowledgement that there are severe limitations on the O side due to these two factors. The fact that we were masking them early on does not mean they did not exist. We just had a novel approach which won us several games till opposing DCs caught on.

We have given GE adequate time to show progress. There actually is none. Last year we sucked in run D to the point where our passing D was not tested much. Between last year and this year, we added a lot of front 7 players who significantly out-weigh the Jauron D. I think due to Kyle Williams and Dareus, we have limited the runs up the middle. But what we are now seeing is not a lot of missed tackles but players simply out of position or vast empty spaces . Romo converted 3rd downs at will as they pretty much knew the middle of the field would be open. This shows a lack of D scheme which entirely falls on GE. There is no opponent specific plan or even in-game adjustments. Trent Edwards and Lynch lost their position with the Bills mid-season. There is NO reason for the coaches to be protected till the end of the season. Esp when we have Wanny who has previous experience. At worst, he will be a transition DC but I doubt he will be worse than GE. The switch should have happened at the bye week. Do it now and spare us the misery of his joke of a D.

SHould have taken the points

If I had to explain, you wouldnt understand. I will let ieatcrayonz do that task.

I dont know what he is saying but us 'losing him' has won us 5 games. So, the question is, is it a loss to us if we win more without him ?

With Mike Singletary ? Bills were 0-8 at this time with Whitner at this time last year, and the same coach as now.

I am going to flip the table on you, Bill. I, for one, am not entirely convinced we have an OL that can hold their blocks for an extended period of time. Our current offensive philosophy compensates for some short comings. But, to make our offense multi-dimensional, we need to add a vertical threat and make sure our OL is good enough to allow the deep plays to develop. The O is limited in their range right now. Wood, Levitre and possibly Hairston are excellent. May need upgrades on the right side.

I think we will end up picking in the mid round. If there is a QB available at that position, I am (almost) sure the Bills will pick him. Here is why - as someone else said, the rookie salary structure will allow us to invest moderate to high amount of money in that position. In fact, i think the rookie structure is exactly why the Bills got the Fitz deal done - it does not preclude them from drafting a QB high purely for money matters. While I like Fitz also, his penchant to throw INTs and not be able to transcend the talent around him will hold him back unless he can fix those problems. We saw last season and it is beginning to show up again - the slow regression of his performances. I agree we are short on talent on the O side but then why the early success followed by lower levels of performance ? Once opposing D's catch up to our schemes, the average overall talent (on OL, WR) does not allow Fitz to overcome pressure and coverages. So, in short, when we pick in the draft, we can go BPA out of QB, WR, OT and pass rushing OLB.

Not as bad as you state it. If Hairston comes back and plays out the season, I dont think we will miss Bell much. Merriman wasn't contributing much anyway so no great loss Kyle will always be missed.