2020 Our Year For Sure

For what it's worth I'm 27 and skeptical of Rex.

Thanks for the tweets fellas! Encouraging stuff. Great to hear Bush one-cut and GO. There's room for Powell if he's serious. And wouldn't it be something if John Meeks became a player?

That is profound, Bandito. I could say more but I won't bore you with my philosophy. Nice post! You too Nihilarian, thanks for bringing your perspective and the logic and thought behind it. Oh to be a fly on the wall at OBD...

Thanks, I see where you're coming from now. To the bolded, no doubt Brandon, being the ticket salesman and a savvy one at that, has his ear to the ground and is aware that Bills fans everywhere want to hear that he's not involved with the football side.

its an interesting conversation and its pretty on-point with the thread topic. Personally I can't take everything the Master Marketer says publicly as gospel. Do you think he he's always 100% honest with a microphone in front of him to the point where his words can be held up as actual proof? Not that I 100% believe Rodak or Leroi either

above: Johnny Williams, Jim Dray, Robert Blanton, Kolby Listenbee, Sterling Moore, Dan Carpenter below: Leonard Hankerson, Greg Little, Shady McCoy, Reggie Bush If a guy isn't a natural hands catcher its a difficult change to make at this stage for Hankerson/Little. On the flip side, Listenbee is, and I think he contributes. Shady I'm thinking about the same as last year and not anticipating much from Bush (there's a joke there somewhere). Carpenter I think has become underrated.

If I'm honest, I would be surprised if they kept 5 halfbacks, but if they can find a way to do that then I'm not going to complain. If Bush can still go he brings a skillset most of the others don't and my main man Roman can do some things with pass-catchers out of the backfield.

If that winds up being the case then I have no problem with it.

Also possible he does it because his passing game is just limited and not his top priority.

Also while he was Director of Pro Personnel under Nix he found starters like Kraig Urbik and Scott Chandler that nobody else wanted.

If they promise him a roster spot (which has been reported if I recall?) then they are making those decisions now.

I think I'd rather keep Gillislee or Wilder.

Its good to be able to laugh at yourself. Sounds like you're a lucky man.

Fight the power

I'm skeptical this year but somehow I'm still crazy excited. Go Bills.

Thanks again

I almost forgot how you educated TSW about Jairus Byrd's shortcomings when me and just about everybody else thought he was Superman. Fitz could hardly complete a 10-yard out let alone a 25er on time from the far hash though he was a clever, feisty little fella. Perfect fit for Chan but would be a terrible fit for Roman. Now maybe Roman scaled back some things for Tyrod in his first year as a starter. But looking at his tenure in San Francisco, it wouldn't seem to be a drastically different, far more balanced offense than what we had here last season. His passing yardage ranks from 2011-2014 were 29, 23, 30 and 30. Maybe there will be some evolution but how can one anticipate a significant leap forward? I think its a shame because by being one-dimensional we make winning harder than it needs to be. (over-simplification: if the defense fails, we lose). I'm not saying its impossible to win with defense, running, play action and ball control, just that there are coaches who can win that way and a totally different way, and we don't seem to have one of them. I also have to question, if Taylor has the potential to blossom the way a Cam Newton did, would we see that come to fruition in such a simple passing game. How can he achieve greatness when the coach is incapable of asking him to be great? Hopefully the defense is really good and we can grind out wins, because that seems to be the only wins we can get.

He and Ed Reed gonna have a rap session with that one. Cool

Did you know he went to Harvard?

astute observations.

you specifically asked why some FANS are not confident in Rex and want him out if he does poorly this year, and I answered you.

Firstly I want to let you know I have high regard for your thoughts on this game because I know when you watch football you see things I and others do not. For example I was way off on the proper way to evaluate arm strength until like 7 years ago, the first time I saw you break down the telling nature of the 25-yard out. Then there was the 1,000 attempt test and on and on. So I thank you for engaging with me and sharing some of that with us. I should've been more clear but my first point about them prioritizing chewing clock over scoring points, I was thinking about no-huddle situations. Its not a real complex thing, relatively speaking, to run a hurry-up. Just about every QB that steps on the field in the NFL is able to operate that way when prepared by their coaching staff for the situation. The Bills had a disturbing habit of huddling up, sending people in motion, declining to use timeouts and burning the entire play clock when they clearly had an opportunity to score, and more urgency would've increased their chances. A couple of examples would be the comedy of inefficiency at the end of the 1st half against Dallas and the end of the first half against I think it was the Colts week 1. If I recall Karlos Williams scored on a 30+ yard handoff with about 30 seconds left in the half, essentially a give-up play. The inside straight draw hit on the river, and by all means celebrate it and enjoy it to the fullest when it happens, but that fortunate result doesn't mean I'd want to play the hand the same way going forward. I don't know what to think about the defense this coming year I'll be honest. They had a confused, messy game against Washington Football Club as late as week 15 with the season on the line. But I agree it was generally better late in the year. I have concern the complexity of what we do may continue to work to our detriment in year 2 but only the future knows. I think we'll at least be nasty against the run with Ragland aboard and make teams one-dimensional. Re: versatility of the passing game, Roman was 1-2 with SF when opponents scored 30+ points and an ugly 0-5 in such games last year with the Bills. I don't think its an offense built to come from behind or win shootouts (which is more important than it used to be) because the passing game can't stand on its own. When they make plays in the passing game its usually out of a run set and off play action, fooling the defense. Its tough to win a game with only that when you get down multiple scores. I know many put the above on Tyrod, maybe I have a higher opinion of Tyrod than some others? I think if you put him, Watkins, Clay with coaches who know how to spread the field and flood deep zones with run n shoot, these players would be good enough to give us more of a chance to win those types of games. Like even in year one I think Mike McCarthy would've had days where we just slung the rock and were unbeatable because of it, even if our D wasn't great. The confusion...I hope it goes away. And I hope the 46 defense or whatever he's up to this year can work in 2016. GO BILLS

He doesn't want to focus on scoring points rather than using clock, seems unable to simplify his defense in the face of higher roster turnover and drastically less preparation time, and doesn't have an offense with a passing game versatile enough to give his team a chance when his defense fails in a league that's set up for his defense to fail. He also took over an all-world D-line that can win matchups and was unable to adapt to his defense in a way that allowed the dogs to hunt, as Nihilarian's avatar notes. On the third point I'm not saying its impossible to have a Broncos-type defense but its a lot more difficult than it used to be. Also the snap is coming faster than ever and he can't consistently get the playcall in on time to allow his defense to be ready in his complicated scheme.

I don't think anyone is saying the Pegulas are awful people. The perspective you say you don't understand is not very complicated in my opinion. In an ever-changing arena, Rex has failed 5 seasons in a row and wears his unwillingness to adapt on his sleeve. Some of us don't believe in him as a Head Coach anymore. Give me a coach I can believe in or at least can reasonably give the benefit of the doubt, and I'm happy to both preach and exercise patience. Very few fans here wanted Marrone, for example, fired before he resigned. There was enough gray area to give him the benefit of the doubt, and nearly all of us did so.

In some ways it will be very telling.