2020 Our Year For Sure

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

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.