2020 Our Year For Sure

Dareus is a great fit for the 4-3 nose tackle, which actually plays off the nose and attacks the gap between center and guard. Like the wildly successful 49ers and Ravens defenses, I expect Pettine to field a defense that looks like a 3-4 but functions like a 4-3. This gives us the opportunity to be deceptive like a 3-4 but also allows Dareus, KW, Anderson and Carrington to do what they do best-- attack, penetrate, and make plays, rather than staying at the line of scrimmage and reacting to the offense. Pettine has said he wants to be aggressive and dictate to the offense; I doubt he'll play a true 3-4 a majority of the time, as that would mean his athletic DL is holding the line and reacting rather than attacking. Especially when we don't have a real 3-4 nose tackle. This isn't a comment on the weight issue, just saying Dareus at "nose tackle" makes sense IMO.

KOK makes a good point and to some extent I share his concern. Maybe most of the time, though, they're not asking Dareus to be a traditional 2-gap (3-4) NT. While the Branch signing probably means they're looking to mix in some 2-gap, as the league gets more pass happy it is trending more toward 1-gap, allowing linemen to penetrate rather than be only run stuffers. Some 1-gap (4-3) fronts have only three linemen with a hand in the dirt, so to Chris Brown or another outsider might look like a 3-4. So they think there's a true nose tackle when there isn't. If we're playing a lot of 1-gap (which in a pass happy league with no true NT, would make sense) then Dareus wouldn't play a whole lot of DE. Whether he's a better fit at DT as a 1 technique or a 3 technique I don't know, but it sounds like 1 technique (A-gap between the center and guard, the 4-3 "nose tackle") may be his main spot, probably because he's the strongest one. Bottom line is Dareus' assignment the majority of the time doesn't need to be all that different than it was under Wanny. Even if he's at DT he'll likely be penetrating most of the time rather than trying to be Ted Washington. At the same time, Pettine will mix his fronts and may ask Dareus to function as a true NT on a fraction of the snaps simply because there's nobody else with the strength to hold up at NT. This means if Dareus added weight without losing quickness, it would be helpful. We can only hope...

He's too good of a pass rusher to waste clogging the middle but if Branch isn't a NT who else is there? I guess Kyle was alright at NT in a non-traditional way.

That's probably true, though Sylvester Williams went this year. Maybe Marcel will be so good on the nose this year that it becomes irrelevant, I just always saw him as a perfect 3-4 DE.

Nose tackle or corner. While you'd always love to add a pass rusher, Mario alone gives us more pass rushing ability than Pettine ever had to work with in Jersey, plus Mark Anderson, I don't see it as a desperate need. I think we're fine at OT and the skill positions. A good nose tackle or corner could help our D out significantly.

If the Bills were to win the Superbowl this year, the changes made in the offseason would have something to do with it. The fact that we've been fooled before does not render coaching changes, free agency, the draft, and training camp completely meaningless. I understand saying I've been fooled before and I have no confidence in my ability to tell false hope from legitimate improvement so I'll wait and see. But not everyone will share your lack of confidence in their own evaluation. If Marrone is destined to be a wild success, that process has already begun. If Marrone is destined to be another failure, that process has already begun too. Either way we'll be able to look back and say 'we should've known right away because of x and y.' I completely understand people trying to get a jump on that and forming an opinion at this early stage on what we have here.

Awesome

Whatever Moats Your Boat

That's not what I saw last year. On runs to the middle he was the furthest man back which doesn't set up well for attacking the box, but he did a good job if the ball reached the last line of defense (though early in his career he took some poor angles and missed runners). Runs outside the tackle to his side are where he shined. The strong safety trails the play across the middle allowing Jaybird to go downhill. He made aggressive plays vs. the run last year despite having deep pass coverage responsibility on a vast majority of snaps. I really hope he at least comes in for this year because I wanna see Pettine move him around, let him blitz sometimes, let him play in the box more. I know he gets INTs Wanny but that's not the only thing the guy can do.

Absolutely. Both are sound tacklers and need to be accounted for on runs outside the tackles.

Byrd's run D is very underrated on here. Guy has no problem flying up to the line of scrimmage and dropping an RB. Darren Woodson and current Steelers safety Ryan Clark were asked on ESPN to name the top 5 safeties- Woodson put Byrd third and Clark put him 5th. He's comparable to any safety in the league IMO.

Jay-Z also got Robinson Cano and Victor Cruz, he's no joke. Cano may soon get one of the biggest contracts in sports. Supposedly athletes came to him for help in finding income beyond their particular sport and that's how he got started in this. He's more intelligent than your run of the mill rapper.

Haha I'm just seeing this now. Had to be done. So much potential for this offense.

Thanks for helping me see where you're coming from. Personally I think the more Whaley learned in Pittsburgh about how to build a winner, the better. I don't see much problem in his telling us the Steeler way is to commit to winning and accept nothing less. It seems almost laughable right now that a franchise like the Bills could achieve the stability that the Rooneys have that you mention, but doesn't that still have to be the goal? Building something stable has to begin somewhere. It would be counterproductive for Whaley to take the GM post and not have the goal of building a successful regime that will withstand the ownership transition and compete for championships. When Marrone put the Lombardi Trophy on the wall some laughed at him; in reality it is always a good thing to state your goals, especially in public, because it creates accountability and sets a no-nonsense tone.

I don't think there was a poor choice of words. He was directly asked by a reporter what he learned in Pittsburgh that would apply here. In his answer he didn't wax poetic on his time there but pretty much said they commit to winning from top to bottom and so will we. Not exactly putting the Steelers on a pedestal, and zero practical information about our strategy was given away. How would you have liked him to answer the question?

Personally I think Marrone had a huge say in this thing. http://www.buffalorumblings.com/2013/4/24/4263542/2013-nfl-draft-rumors-doug-marrone-likes-ej-manuel

And the Bills could use a young running back in the pipeline to eventually take Fred-Ex' role. Spiller will always be a guy who should be complemented.

How does removing your best receiver who few cover men on the planet can shut down one on one create better matchups?

The beat writers' job will be tougher. Nix was relatively open and chatty while Whaley mostly sticks to his message. You could ask Doug three different questions and not get much more than "it takes a commitment from top to bottom, we're excited." I don't envy those trying to get quotes out of him, he doesn't budge.

I agree with the latter part of your post but it was Nix' responsibilty to acquire the players, not Gailey's. They wanted to upgrade at QB but Nix goofed in the draft by underestimating how early QBs would come off the board. I'm not looking to bash Nix, I agree with those who say he left the roster better than he found it. But we went 16-32 because he botched HC and QB.

Honestly Gailey did a good job as an OC. It isn't his fault he was saddled with a quarterback with poor deep accuracy and erratic mid range accuracy. It's impossible to design a killer offense when you don't have the quarterback. I think Gailey's downfall was the same as what will be Rex Ryan's downfall, that is taking control of one side of the ball and having nothing to do with the other side. The best NFL head coaches find a way to get their tentacles into every aspect of the game, unifying the locker room rather than compartmentalizing and potentially causing dissension. The skillset to be a HC is on some level the opposite of what it takes to be a good coordinator. While coordinating is all Xs and Os, a head coach needs to be able to inspire and lead.

It's a guy dressed like Peter Pan, what in the world is gross about it?

Tashard Choice...can you imagine? Goodwin gets my early vote, not only can he outrun the roadrunner but he seems adept at setting up and using the blockers in front of him. Could be Brad Smith too. I'd keep McKelvin away from the return game assuming he's a starter.

Now this I can agree with, good post John.

An extremely reliable and well-connected football journalist disagrees with your statement. That's plenty of reason for doubt in my book. I made a post several pages back calling Marrone the hottest coaching candidate on the market. You challenged that statement, so I backed it up. I never made any attempt to say Marrone being the most coveted coach would make him a successful coach. While Kelly certainly generated the biggest buzz, I don't see any "obvious reasons" to think Kelly was the most coveted coach in the league behind closed doors. I do however see an obvious reason to think Doug Marrone was: a reputable journalist directly reported it.