2020 Our Year For Sure

Are we really gonna take Merriman off the field every time we go into the nickel? Would it be better to line him up at DE?

Clearly someone high up in the organization harbors some love for Chris

Most excellent

Should be #31. To quote Gene Hackman, "I need the ball. GO GET ME THE BALL!" We're rootin for you Jairus

I used to think the guy was crazy. Now I can see his nuts.

Got to see Dareus' sack, I thought Merriman had more to do with it than he did, but both of them look really good tonight! Dareus had pressure earlier on at least one other play I saw. Can't wait to see Merriman's double dip! These are exactly the two guys on defense you'd want to see have some success in preseason, that is just awesome.

Dareus

I don't think they need to be "big spenders and freewheelers," but I wish I had an owner who sees Ed Wang as the second string left tackle as being as unacceptable as I do.

You don't "open a roster spot" for Naaman !@#$ing Roosevelt by getting rid of the most accomplished player on your entire roster when his value is the lowest its been in his entire career. How can people not see this?

I like the text under your avatar, hell of a show! And the "build through the draft" thing makes little sense to me. As I saw someone say in another thread, what does that mean exactly? That we weren't putting every effort into drafting successfully before, but now we are? Ralph Wilson doesn't own the Chargers.

Last year I thought Troup really struggled but I thought Carrington had a decent showing for a rook. He's got that long frame which is why they had him add weight thinking he won't lose speed. He is really quick for a man his size which you want from a 34 End. Troup by reports has undergone a bit of a physical transformation, which he needed after being pushed around. We've made him now one of the key players on D, gotta keep the fingers crossed. This has and will continue to be said by others but a 4th rounder is just too low for Evans. Why are we desperate to get rid of the most accomplished player on our roster? It doesn't destroy us or anything but it makes us worse than we were yesterday.

Chan was a good hire for this team at this time, within the budget. With a quarterback everyone had always seen as a career backup and a below average offensive front, he put a passing game together and made this look like an offense. Whether he's a success or a failure has a lot to do with the defensive coaching. If Edwards should falter even with Wanny here, Gailey and Nix NEED to get it right this time. Gotta think we'd get Wannstedt, we could do worse. Fitz is pretty darn good. Can a guy get more accurate through sheer practice and willpower? I see people talk about young QBs like accuracy basically is what it is and won't get a whole lot better. But if he does improve that accuracy he'll cut the interceptions and start to get a lot of attention. very crafty, very tough. Knows the value of getting the ball out of his hand quickly and completing passes, yet always stays aggressive. I think being coached by Martz in his rookie season was good for his mindset out there, and helped put him on the same page as Gailey. He is very much what we needed. Please, CJ, don't be as worthless as Bill says! Maybe someone will correct me but I don't remember hearing of Spiller making a ton of plays in training camp last year. He seemed to have a little better feel for when to cut north with it later in the season. I'd hope the good reports coming out of St. JF would mean he's over the initial shock of encountering defenders that are almost as fast as he is, and that he's figured it out and is ready to break 'em. Shouldn't worst case scenario here be a Reggie Bush? Has there ever been a prospect at RB like Spiller that didn't make it at all? With the O-line its not the fact that Bell, Urbik and Pears are in the mix to start that gets me-- I understand we had a plan to fix the defense first and let Gailey carry us for awhile on offense. But I don't like how those three guys are handed starting jobs with so little competition. We went into camp with Ed Wang as the second string left tackle! There had to be linemen within budget that could've strengthened our depth and provided another option. I'm thinking of the Marcus Price signing awhile back, anybody who's shown they belong on a roster. A duplicate of Erik Pears would've been great, this line needed more legit options and competition at those positions than it has gotten. Of course there's the draft next year but I'm disappointed nothing has been done in terms of veterans to help now, though we still may get something. But while Brad Smith is a useful player and I'm looking forward to seeing what Chan does with him, its tough to overpay for him while this is going on up front. With the first two picks of the 2012 draft I'd think we would target O-line and Linebacker in either order, value permitting. If these positions had more talent we'd have a higher ceiling this year. We do have interesting prospects at both positions and hopefully guys will emerge between now and then. But I don't see other positions where we need help as badly. Tight end is bad but less important, root for Chandler! David Martin gives you a floor to stand on. I hope Wannstedt can somehow mold Kelsay into a respectable linebacker, but if not the question will be increasingly whether they outright refuse to take him out of the lineup in favor of a Coleman or Batten or Moats or Torbor no matter how obvious it may become that we'd benefit. There's something off about this Kelsay thing. Someone reading this has a better idea what I'm getting at than I do. The thing I'm most excited to see about the 2011-12 Bills is the defensive front. I LOVE the depth we could end up having if these guys pan out, and camp reports have the progression going well. Dareus, K-Weezy, Troup, Carrington, Dwan, Spencer and Jasper has a chance to be a FORCE as a rotation. Troup is extremely important. No Bill is more important than Dareus. This is the kind of competition that will bring out the best in every guy that goes on the field. This unit will obviously be improved over last year's play, just how improved will go a long way in deciding our record. It's possible Nix has crafted a masterpiece that will line up and bully other teams around. Could be our best defense since Donahoe's free agent mixers. Its strange that Carrington is getting a package as a linebacker after he gained 20 pounds to go over 300, prototype size now for his main position. It is possible that he lost absolutely no quickness, hope so. I wouldn't be surprised if they deal Lee Evans considering the depth at receiver. It makes no sense to do this now when his value is the lowest it's been since he came into the league but there you go. We could use his deep threatability and his experience, but there's clearly a lot of guys at WR they like. I'm not in favor of the move but it seems like something they've been moving toward. Meanwhile is there any limit to how good Steve Johnson can get? The biggest hole on D is the linebacking but there's a lot of youngsters here with a lot of potential, so much so that I'm concerned about who they'll cut. This was a good season for Wannstedt's arrival, thats for sure. The upside of the young defense offers hope. After so many years in a row people assume this is another loser and we're still x many years away. Don't lose sight of the absolute fact that every single team in the league has a chance to make a run every single season, and the Bills are no different. Our odds are always slim, but they're better this year than they've been in awhile with a proven competent quarterback and a defense with a chance to be good. GO BILLS I may reply here as more pops into the noggin

That says it all. Smart handing each of them a starting job on a platter.

Good stuff, thanks Kelly

You're going to be WWE Champion? ...REALLY?

Does anyone know how quickly they put the games on-demand after they're finished? I'll be working Saturday night during the game...this thing would be worth it if I could watch the game that night soon after it ends. But if they won't have it there basically until it airs on NFLN the following night then there's no point.

We can meet back here and discuss Fred Jackson's ypc after the first four weeks

The offensive line was pretty dreadful man. As bad as the defense, no. Thats not saying a hell of a lot. The running game was lousy (Jackson failed to reach 1,000 yards and scored only 5 touchdowns despite appearing in 16 games; Spiller and Lynch faired even worse), and Gailey/Fitz designed and executed a passing game to literally work around never having pass protection. It was ugly. People talk about Fitz throwing too many interceptions...try putting a hand on a pass rusher before he crushes your most important player. One encouraging thing I've found is that Jackson went from 3.8 ypc over the first eight games to 4.4 over the final eight games. Its possible thats a sign of legitimate improvement. Personally, looking at the personnel, I'm expecting the running game to struggle mightily again when the season opens. We have 2 good offensive linemen, as of now. Nobody else has shown anything.

Thanks for this, just got 20 bucks off my MW3 pre-order. At least this thread was good for something!

The ridiculous scary deep/best QB depth chart comments aside, good thread. Preseason results are meaningless but I can't wait to get a look at some of the key players to this years campaign-- Dareus, Spiller, Troup and Merriman most of all. Cannot wait! Go Bills

No, but you can get Harvey to shut up, which is far more valuable.

Boy would I love to get a decent offensive lineman

Wilson is solid, I agree better in coverage. Whitner is still a slightly better overall player, and I'd take him back for 3yrs/$8M or so

He clearly was NOT our worst defender, as bad as he was at OLB in the 34 in the beginning. Over the second half of the year he actually got his pass rush going as a DE, and played his best ball since he, Denney and Schobel actually provided a decent punch. Granted he was still mediocre last year even at DE, but mediocre was FAR from the worst player on that tragedy of a defense.