4BillsintheBurgh

I agree we have a couple more players to acquire, especially on offense. If I remember correctly, Chan has not had great offensive talent to work with, I think Aikman was probably the best qb. I think Buddy's goal is to have established starters and young talented players learning as backups. I believe he thinks he is there on defense (maybe one FS), but not on offense. With the attempted Meachum pickup wr can be looked at as well as qb. Buddy has said he'd like to draft one every year, and while it is the most important position, I agree with what he's doing in the sense that he needed to rebuild this roster first to get a baseline of talent and then add a top qb to the mix. It will allow the qb to develop faster and be more effective. I know a lot of people are okay with our oline, but I don't think it's there yet. I think they are good enough run a three step offense, but not good enough to go betond that. I think the right side needs some help, but we'll see what they do the rest of the year. As far as buddy and chan being on the same page, I will say this. I believe if they were not, you would have seen a big bruising tailback taken in a later round by now. I think Buddy is smart enough to know he needs to get the players that Chan needs to make his offense go, not what he thinks is needed because he is not coaching. Once Buddy thinks he has given Chan enough talent to win and Chan doesn't, Chan will be gone. I think that's going to be at least one more olineman and a wr. Depending on how Fitz plays, it could also be an early round qb. Depends on how long Buddy/Chan are going to stick with Fitz, and I think that will depend how how much improvement there is this year, if any.

I continue to wonder why Brad Smith doesn't get any touches. You wanted him, use him!

So by saying you guys agree with Rodney, you're on board with this obviously - "They don’t have a franchise quarterback." , but also with these statements - "The Patriots will always dominate that division. The Jets will always be second. " as well as him implying the Bills won't be competitive week in and week out? For 6 years, the length of the contract? Really? After one game? Okay. Rodney is just blowing his hole to get a reaction, but if you want to agree with him, be my guest. Can't see how you could stand to watch the games though, but whatever. We need some more players yet, especially on offense, but I'm not ready to agree that the bills will not finish better than third place in the division for the next 6 years. This team got plenty of publicity after the 5-2 start last year, which will happen any time we win some games. We have some talent on this team, it's time for the coaches to get the most out of it.

Seems like we only had four wr's who caught the ball regularly. Chan was pretty pissed when a couple of the second tier guys got their chance and didn't perform. With this development I'm guessing none of them turned the corner enough to be more valuable than someone at another position.

I hope Mario will help with this, I'd like to see him stunt to the middle (or Welker's side) and swat the ball out of the air. It didn't seem to me that they tried the mush rush much in the second game though, I was a little disappointed since it was pretty effective in the first.

He's better than Williams

Just fyi - I signed up last night through the twobillsdrive link and they have taken $5 off so with the directv coup it was under $13.

That's motivation for them. After the issues we had last year I'm guessing the coaching staff has harped on everyone that if their number is called they need to step up. Chan's pretty pissed if it doesn't happen when the opportunity is presented.

I think Carrington is on the bottom of the three you mentioned. Johnson played OLB last year and Carrington couldn't even though there were a few reports he was practicing for that position, which seems to be telling me Johnson moves better and therefore has more value in this D. And they (Chris Brown, Wanny) seem to mention Edwards as a solid defender. One thing that could keep AC here is if he plays well enough they could trade Edwards. I don't know how solid Brooks is. One thing I like to do is check out the offensive highlights and see who the defender is getting burned. I saw his number a few times early but hopefully he will step it up. Unfortunately he may not have seen enough of the field in college to be trustworthy on the field yet. We may have to take the chance with the practice squad.

Sweet!

I remember edwards, fitz and brohm getting equal reps at the beginning of the off season and eventually it became reps between fitz and edwards through camp. OBD in its entirety said there was an open qb competition that year, over and over again. That is certainly not the case this year. It is Fitz's year to lead and prove the faith that chan has in him. And that begins well before training camp especially now that there is less coaching involvement with the new cba. I know it's been a while since we've had one, but a qb is a team leader that makes plays and rallies the troops. It is difficult to have the leader changing with the wind. It would be difficult for Fitz to demand excellence from his teammates if they're not sure he's the man. You've seen established qb's do this on other teams, and it's time for fitz to gain the confidence to do it here. In the end, we need Fitz to take control of the team if we are going to see the playoffs this season. That's mainly on him and also on Chan. If a backup qb has to win some games due to injury hopefully he can. If fitz can't get a lock on the job, it's not good for anyone.

I say send him up now. If we can get him going fast enough and the rock is far away, it could just be enough. I think it's worth a shot.

I guess I don't see it quite that way. VY is here to compete and win the backup qb job. OBD feels they can win games with him running the offense in that capacity. With the oline not quite there yet and obviously thigpen is not seen as the answer (or we wouldn't be having this conversation), VY is an insurance policy against injury. I don't think he's going anywhere this year because of the one year deal, and I'd be surprised if they keep him for longer even if he does well unless he can run something more than a gimmick or watered down offense. OBD seems like they are going all in on making the playoffs, and getting a decent veteran Qb who can win a few games was on the to-do list. Hopefully Chan and the coaching staff can make Buddy and his OBD elves look like geniuses.

What Chan does well is assess the strengths of a player and put them in situations to maximize their talents. He did this with Kordell, he allowed Kordell to play to his own strengths, run the ball when required etc. I also thought at the time he had simplified the offense to the point where Yancey Thigpen was the primary read and if it wasn't there progress to check down or start running. When Thigpen got hurt productivity went down. It didn't help that the other receivers were dropping balls either. Over time Kordell did not improve his accuracy or his decision making and the Steelers let him go. I think it is a good sign when qb's under a coach have career years, it says the coach can bring out the best in a player. I think Chan has that track record, and I look forward to what he can do with VY. I think OBD are probably looking at VY as a poor man's Cam Newton; if they can make him into something in a year great, if not they move on. That's another nice feature of our good ol' boys north; if you can't play you're not going to hang around.

Week 1 9/9: Buffalo Bills at New York - W Week 2 9/16 Kansas City Chiefs at Buffalo Bills - W Week 3 9/23: Buffalo Bills at Cleveland Browns - W Week 4 9/30: New England Patriots* at Buffalo Bills - L Week 5 10/07: Buffalo Bills at San Francisco 49ers - W Week 6 10/14: Buffalo Bills at Arizona Cardinals - W Week 7 10/21: Tennessee Titans at Buffalo Bills - L Week 8: BYE Week 9: 11/04 Buffalo Bills at Houston Texans - L Week 10: 11/11 Buffalo Bills at New England Patriots* - W Week 11: 11/15 (Thurs) Miami Dolphins at Buffalo Bills - W Week 12: 11/25 Buffalo Bills at Indianapolis Colts - W Week 13: 12/02 Jacksonville Jaguars at Buffalo Bills - W Week 14: 12/09 St. Louis Rams at Buffalo Bills - W Week 15: 12/16 Seattle Seahawks at Buffalo Bills - W Week 16: 12/23 Buffalo Bills at Miami Dolphins - W Week 17: 12/30 New York Jets at Buffalo Bills - L

This draft, more than any in my recent memory, will test our coaching staff. Most of these guys seem to have potential written all over them, especially Glenn and Graham.

Nice. I hope he wore his helmet, that doesn't look easy to stop. I'm guessing you prefer to fly???

1: Ryan Tannehill QB - Miami 2: Michael Floyd WR - Cle 3: Courtney Upshaw OLB - SD 4: David DeCastro G - Cin 5: Luke Kuechly LB - Det

Link? Cause then I'll know it's true. And Peter Pan proves NOTHING! NOTHING I say!

I think at this point the bills have put Carrington at dt. Seems like they don't think Carrington is quick enough to play DE. Not suprising since they played Johnson more at olb last year instead of AC.

There were insiders who thought Jason Pierre-Paul would be a bust too. It's been proven that "insiders" don't have the best track record either. Plus, there is probably more agenda in letting these comments go out than anything else. Maybe the Pats* would like a shot at him?

This. The pass rush should cause more mistakes by their qb's and lead to wins. Greater depth this year should cause less of a drop off when people do get hurt.

The only thing I'd mention is the second tackle may be 6th or later. I don't know if you have the room on the roster for him so he may need to be on the practice squad. A fourth showing promise may get poached, especially later in the season. I'd rather use those higher draft slots for depth/competition elsewhere on the roster (esp the 4th's) and use rounds 6, 7 and udfa to pick someone up to develop at OT. We've been able to do that pretty successfully over the last few years, we should try it again.

Thanks for putting this together Astro.

Sure, they're thories but there has to be some basis on team needs because we don't know draft boards etc. of other teams. The one thing we can look at is our needs compared to those around us. Another trade down scenario could be that the best pass rusher (on someone's board) in the draft falls to us and we don't have the same grade on him but someone wants to get him before Seattle. Then it'd be a question of the parameters of the trade being acceptable to Buddy.