2020 Our Year For Sure

Too bad you weren't DC last year. Sounds simple, doesn't it?

Pettine actually had a package last year where he'd line up his best edge rusher Calvin Pace at middle linebacker. He also likes to bring 7 or 8 right up to the line of scrimmage. He'll do whatever it takes to confuse the offense in terms of who's coming and who isn't. This is gonna be like night and day from Wanny's "only linemen with their hand on the ground can rush" system. Welcome to the new millennium, Buffalo Bills defense, so glad you could join us.

Interesting name for a boat.

Is it Brian Merman?

I also don't watch Syracuse and don't know how they lined up, but when Hackett was hired I remember reading a number of articles talking about Syracuse's quick passing game. It may or may not have been the traditional WCO you speak of but it utilized those concepts. Here's a piece (worth a read) that highlights the similarities between Paul Hackett and the way Nate is doing things. http://billsmafia.com/2013/05/17/bills-oc-nathaniel-hackett-utilizing-fathers-philosophies/

Thanks for posting that, I'm a fan of Stephen Naismith. He's an NBA guy all the way and doesn't have the pure football knowledge of many on this board, but he has a logical and balanced sports mind (unlike his counterpart there, sometimes). I think Smith's delivery/personality turn some people away. When he first popped up on the scene I could hardly stand him, but if you actually follow his points, he's an intelligent dude. I'm not surprised he's unpopular here though, he is not really a Buffalo kind of guy. Brash, loud, loves LA, loves rubbing elbows with the rich and famous. But again underneath that crap is a good logical thinker. To his point, the Bills don't have to immediately run the exact offense they plan to run when Manuel is in his prime. IF Manuel isn't ready to go through three or four reads in a traditional dropback offense, there's still a decent chance that we can cater the offense to what he Is ready for (simplify the passing reads, use his athleticism), and still have a better chance to win than we'd have with Kolb. Was it you Buftex who made the comparison to early Vince Young? If there's any way that Manuel can take the field and give us a better chance to win than Kolb, that's what has to happen. We can always expand the offense during the season or next year.

I completely agree, and it should be. If there's a quarterback I want in the draft I'm not passing on him for anything. Nobody wins anything in this league without strong QB play. Then if I had the worst defense in football, that would be the next thing to think about. I am concerned about the offensive line. Though I'm not at all surprised they didn't take an OL the first three rounds, I did not expect the Bills to go the entire draft without selecting one. I was surprised they let Chas Rhinegold walk and even more surprised at how they didn't seem to pursue Brandon Moore very much. None of that changes the reality that our QB situation and our defense were far worse off than our offensive line. It also doesn't change the reality that we have a head coach who has done some excellent work in the past with NFL offensive lines. If we have to pick a spot to wait for next year, it makes sense to me to pick a spot that we're confident will be well-coached and that actually performed fairly well last year. It is regrettable that Levitre is gone and no brand name replacement has been brought in. We're taking a gamble that someone will step up and Marrone can get these guys where they need to be. With the amount of holes we had, we simply had to take that gamble somewhere. We're doing the same thing at CB, and maybe not by coincidence, that's the other position that we can be pretty confident will be well-coached.

More importantly we'll have to wait and see what we have at quarterback. We were going nowhere with a Ryan Fitzpatrick or Kevin Kolb, time to throw or not. The downfield passing game is only going to be one element of our offense. At Syracuse, they used mostly a quick passing WCO offense. You might've seen the quotes from Hackett awhile back about how he wants to run the ball a ton. Additionally we have a quarterback who can make plays with his feet. If Marrone and Hackett can hack it, they'll be able to use the quick passing game, running game and the QB's athleticism to slow the pass rush in order to attack downfield.

So the offensive line was the second best unit on the team, and my actual point still stands. When 2012 season ended we were looking at an offensive line that was solid but unspectacular, a hopeless quarterback situation, and maybe the single worst defense in football. We also needed to add weapons to the passing game. Even while I agree with you there are legitimate reasons to be concerned about the OL, it's easy to see why OL was far from our top priority this offseason.

THIS. In 2012 the O-line was arguably the best unit on the entire team. QB play was inadequate. Stevie was very good but other WR play was awful, Spiller was excellent but Jackson and Choice were awful, so skill positions as a whole were decent but needed improvement. D-line was inadequate, LBs were awful, DBs were half-decent. Quibble with the above if you want but the point is it was a far higher priority for the Bills this offseason to 1a) find a damn quarterback already and 1b) do what was needed to field a competent defense, and 2) improve the WR position. Addressing any problems the OL has was correctly put off until next year. Hopefully Marrone can work some magic and keep the OL playing decently. If they're not good enough improvements will be made next year. Without a QB or a DEFENSE we had little choice but to do it this way.

Well anything may happen. Personally I don't see Brandon, Whaley and Marrone as particularly neurotic. The trading deadline is what, week 6? IMO they'd have to be a pretty panicky bunch to be unwilling to wait and see if Jairus comes in by opening day.

If he comes in by week 1 I don't see much reason to trade him. Even going by your assumption that the Bills aren't willing to pay him the going rate, they can play out the year on the tender. If he struggles due to missing preseason they can let him walk next offseason, if he plays well they can franchise and trade him.

Intoxicates even while it saves lives. Sweet nectar of the Gods.

LOL maybe too early to be following that closely. With this team it can be bad for my health to get too fired up. I can't help jumping on the Kool-Aid wagon though. I believe in what this coaching staff is building, and I'm hooked. "I get on my knees and prayyyy we won't get fooled again!"

Marrone didn't make a point of acquiring Syracuse players. Many thought he'd want Nassib, we take Manuel. Many thought he'd want Shamarko Thomas, with Thomas on the board we take another SS nobody was talking about. Many thought he'd want Alec Lemon, we draft two WRs and add multiple undrafteds, no Lemon. I'd keep Zach Chibane in mind as a dark horse at LG. Marrone is most likely high on this kid.

Watchin the film, On all day, Watchin the film all day!

Fair enough, I've said my piece. In the end it worked out for the best regardless.

If he took less in Tennessee than we were offering him, that is not a lowball offer. It means we offered a better deal than anyone else in the league. I don't believe we were thrilled with the idea of having him, rather that we were willing to live with him in the Kolb role to avoid dead cap. He doesn't have to be stupid or vain to catch wind of the phone call and then in short order inform the Bills he won't be accepting their offer. Fitz' boss disrespected him for the world to see. His ability to lead (to do his job effectively) was undermined.

Thanks for the info. Isn't $10m of our current 19 actually rollover from last year, which is ineligible to be rolled into 2014? Minus about 1.5 for Manuel, we can rollover about 7.5m? Then in 2014 we lose 4m due to the increase in Fitz' penalty, leaving about 3.5m, plus the 7.5 rollover, plus I believe the cap is expected to increase about 2m, equals in the neighborhood of $13.5m in total cap space for 2014. Or am I missing something?

Is it so hard to see his posts and not respond? How many threads are we gonna let this one troll have to himself.

We have $19M in cap room for 2013. $10M is rollover, and we'll lose $4M when Fitz' cap penalty increases from 3M to 7M. Meaning we have $5M that will carry over to 2014, before we decide on whatever contracts are expiring. If Fitz had agreed to a restructured contract in the neighborhood of both what he got in Tennessee and what Kolb got here, our 2013 space would be 22M instead of 19, and our 2014 space would be 12M instead of 5.

Where are you getting the bolded from? It was widely reported the Bills were trying to restructure. Then when they couldn't get it done, they gave Kolb about the same pay that Fitz got in Tennessee. Seems like they would've been willing to give Fitz the pay he ultimately received, in order to avoid a sizable cap penalty.

It wasn't harmless though, if it's true that the recording influenced Fitzpatrick to reject a restructured contract. That seems likely because he left Buffalo where he'd compete to start, for Tennessee where he is the backup. Seems like we have $7M dead money on our cap next year because of this. I know he wasn't taking us anywhere but he's not much better or much worse than Kevin Kolb, except we had to burn cap to switch to Kolb.

Ah man I had hopes for Kearney