2020 Our Year For Sure

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.

Schefter is a graduate of one of the top journalism schools in the country and has authored three books. Before NFL Network he was with the Denver Post and before that the Rocky Mountain News, and covered the Broncos for some 15 seasons. Sports Illustrated once named Schefter one of its "Power 40+," a list of the most influential people in or around the NFL. He is a former President of the Pro Football Writers of America. If he isn't reputable, I don't know who is. How about the San Diego Union-Tribune? How about another former President of the Pro Football Writers of America, Mark Gaughan? http://blogs.buffalonews.com/press-coverage/2013/01/chargers-liked-marrone.html "The San Diego Chargers had a strong interest in Doug Marrone and might have tried to sign him if their coaching search was in position to act, league sources told The Buffalo News over the weekend. [...] The Chargers are searching for a general manager and a head coach. The team has stated it intends to hire a GM first." "The Chargers had a Saturday night dinner with Marrone, the Union-Tribune reported today. 'The Chargers were extremely impressed with Marrone, [...] but he appeared to have already made up his mind by the time he met with the Chargers,' the paper reported." "The bottom line is the Browns had interviewed Marrone and all indications are they were very interested. Obviously, this doesn't mean Marrone is sure to succeed. Once upon a time Charlie Weis was a hot coaching candidate. But the Bills had reason to move decisively once they agreed Marrone was their man." Marrone also had a meeting set up with the Eagles that was cancelled when he agreed with Buffalo. While we don't know anything until the bullets fly, it would seem NFL executives with their reputations on the line have a high opinion of the Bills coach.

Yeah, really. Adam Schefter said as much on Twitter and numerous times on ESPN, and I venture to guess he knows a bit more about which guys teams wanted than you do. Russ' connection with Marrone from Syracuse probably had something to do with a sought-after coach actually choosing the Bills.

6'4 320 lbs according to bb.com. This site lists him at 6'5, 346. They say 19 bench press reps and a 5.49 forty at the combine, though they say he ran as fast as 5.22. Seems like he's slimmed down and could be a fit for the up tempo. http://www.fftoolbox.com/nfl_draft/profile_display.cfm?prospect_id=2276

It can be a bit disconcerting to learn that you can't necessarily trust your own thoughts. Very easy to slip into denial or put on the blinders.

Thanks Doc

There was a thread that got closed where folks were saying Rogers beat Gilmore today. Anybody know where that was reported?