JohnC

I apologize if my resopnses on this topic come off as being excessively harsh. I have very strong feelings on the mind-set of a particular fanbase. I respect excellence, especially long term excellence; I have little tolerance for long-term ineptitude, especially in a system designed for parity. With respect to Pats not adding enough young talent to their roster this year they added 13 rookies to the roster. Not sure if some of them went on to the practice squad or if all made it to the active roster.

Just to buttress your point: ask yourself why do all teams have two or three people signaling in plays (all but one a dummy signal) ? It is also a common practice in the college game. Why is it standard practice for a HC to raise the clipboard to his mouth when talking to the qb on the sideline? That also happens in the college ranks. Nothing new is going on that the opposition isn't aware of. The Pats stretched the boundaries of a common practice. They got caught and paid a hefty price. What they did had little to do with the outcomes of any games. If anyone wants to talk about cheating in the pro and college game then a bigger issue is faking injuries to slow down the game, and sometimes make strategic substitutions. This will become a bigger issue as more teams run a faster paced office, such as Kelly's at Philly.

Jimmy Johnson seeing footage of the Bills practicing screen plays had absolutely nothing to do with his team's domination of the Bills in the SB. If he didn't see that footage the game outcome would have been exactly the same. They were the far superior team that steamrolled the lesser opponent. The screen play that he happened to see footage of was probably the same play that the Bills ran during the season. If there was a variation to the play it is the same miniscule variation that all teams make during the season. All teams are aware that the opponent is reviewing their tapes. Most teams stick to what they do best with a slight adjustment. That is part of the game. What truth are you pursuing here. The Pats were involved in an infraction. That is acknowledged. You are promoting a theory that it made a difference in the outcomes. You say it did and I disagree. You are criticizing me for the same thing you are doing. We are both giving our opinions on an issue. There is no relentless pursuit of truth here because there is nothing more to discover about the issue. Now we are at the opinion stage. We simply disagree. If you are comfortable with your position , that is fine. I'm comfortable with my position. You can tirelessly continue to pursue the truth as you see it. When you catch it let me know what the outcome is. Odds are that it is too elusive to get a firm grasp.

Kraft has a high regard for Belichick and his opinion. There is no doubt that he has a lot of authority within the organization. What both Kraft and Belichick believe in is investing in the scouting department and having quality staff. Parcells's approach was more of an old school strong man approach. Belichick has a more sophisticated approach toward building and running an organization. Kraft and Belichick understand that managing a franchise is a wide ranging endeavor. They have created a system where all the parts have an understanding of what the Patriot approach is and they do their best to act within the company philosophy.

This thread is the same thread that repeatedly occurs. The general tenor of the responses is the same. It rarely changes. The basis for the majority of responses is childish jealousy. It's fans from a historically losing fanbase knowing that they have little chance to succeed throwing stones at the franchise that is a historically winning franchise. If you believe that cheating was a major factor in the Pats winning SBs that is your prerogative. I don't accept that notion. There is no doubt that the Pats will eventually have to contend with the down cycle of their successful run. The trajectory is moving downwards as Brady gets older. That is the nature of the cap and parity system. No franchise is immune from escaping the cyclical nature of the system. What is remarkable about the Pats is that they expanded the time frame of the cycle and remained near the top for so long. They are a good organization that when faced with the inevitability of the downcycle won't stay there long like the generationally bad Bills. Sometimes the broad brush accidently covers the small detailed section of the wall. The military calls it collatoral damage. Unintended consequences. As I have repeatedly stated in this thread I find the responses in general to be the same type of loser-minded responses against a successful franchise that knows how to run a high quality operation. I find it not only embarrassing but also very sad.

There were a variety of reasons why Parcells left the Patriot organization. One of the primary reasons why Parcells left was due to the fact that he wanted to have a strong man system where he was the controlling person in personnel matters. Kraft wanted to build a strong organization, top to bottom, without the HC controlling all aspects of the operation. I read an account where Kraft told Parcells that he invested a lot of resources in the scouting department and that he wasn't going to have a system where one man controlled the operation. Parcells wasn't satisfied with that type of approach. There was another aspect to the Parcells departure. Kraft was put off by Parcells dismissive attitude toward him and his wife. In an interview I watched on TV Kraft spoke about the Parcells period. Kraft responded to the interviewer's question regarding Parcells with a great deal of intensity. He told a story when he first took over that he was on the team's charter with Parcells, his wife and the banker who financed the purchase of the franchise, also a friend. On that particular flight he described how Parcell's was rude toward his wife and couldn't be bothered when Kraft introduced the banker to him. In telling the story you could see how angry Kraft was with that memory. The bottom line is that Parcells was never going to be a long term employee with a Kraft own business. Kraft is a believer in building an organization with the best people you can find and then providing the support to help them do their jobs. He believed in Belichick and he hired him. He has been rewarded many times over for that hire. Compare the caliber of people who have worked for him to the caliber of people who have worked for the Bills? Do you think he would have considered Levy or Nix to run his football operation?

What is being discussed and how it is being discussed in this thread is a far cry from critically analyzing a winning team. For me, not for a lot of others, the notion that the Pats cheating was a major contributor to their success is an absurdity. What makes their stunning achievement incredible is that the parity and cap system make it very difficult to have sustained success. They have been going strong for nearly a dozen years. They are not the model that a fan of a losing organization should be criticizing but a model that should be followed. You can criticize the successful Pats organization all you want. What is there to criticize? They have a quality owner, they have a quality organization and their coaching staff is excellent. They are a very stable organization. They do lose staff but mostly because other organizations hire them away. This thread is not a one year thread. It repeats itslefy yearly and multiple times within each year. What bothers me the most about this topic is the delight taken in any problem associated with this most successful franchise. Being jealous is not an attribute that I find very appealing. I'm sure you may find my attitude a tad bit sanctimoneous but I prefer building oneself up rather than knocking the other guy down. When your favored team has had losing seasons in 9 out of the 10 past years and your team has been out of the playoffs for 13 and counting seasons I find it small minded to be critical of the success of others. That's just me.

The man upstairs decided that you needed to do more penance before answering your prayers. If you lived a more righteous life maybe the Bills would have better drafts.

Take care of your own business. Build yourself up Don't worry about the opposition. Without a doubt there is going to come a time when their qb fades and the well anchored staff moves on to other endeavors. That's part of the life cycle for all franchises. We went through the same replacement cycle with the Kelly era. But for us this franchise never got back into the fray. That extended period of lassitude is not going to happen with the Pats because they have a more competent owner and stronger organization. Brady is still playing at a high level but he isn't quite the player that he was at his peak. When the time comes for him to move on you can be assured that the Pats won't go through a full generation like the lame Bills did without finding an acceptable replacement Who knows maybe Ryan Mallett is the potential replacement for Brady? At least that is the player that NYC Bill is invested in. LOL

This topic regularly comes up. It is embarrassing. The essence of the discussion is that the losers rationalize why winners win and make excuses why they lose. It's pathetic. Over the past dozen years the Pats have had the best overall record in the game with multiple SB wins. Over the same period of time the Bills have had one of the worst records in the league without even qualifying for a wild card playoff game. Tom Brady's record against the Bills is a stunning 20-3. These games are important games for the Bills but are inconsequential games for the Pats. For them these games are not rivalry games.There is too much of a disparity between the two teams for it to qualify as such. What is remarkable about the successful Patriot run is that it is done in a system designed for parity. Winning teams have less advantages than losing teams in drafting , scheduling and positioning for selecting waived players. Yet against that added adversity the Pats still succeed. What is painfully apparent, especially compared to the Pats' organization, is that the Bills are such a second-rate operation that they still can't compete when the system is tilted in their favor. Maybe the best approach Bills fans should take when commenting on other successful teams is to stay silent until their own lackluster team gets better. Otherwise the commentary comes off as baby crying from insecure and jealous fans. It's pathetic and it's sad.

I agree that the three players you mentioned wouldn't have made it to our 2012 roster. But as I stated in the prior posts all three of these players were clearly on the downside last year. And it showed in their performances. Hall was not going to be kept this year unless he took a major cut. He did. Fletcher should have retired this offseason and gone into broadcasting. He had some enticing offers that he put on hold. There is no doubt that the Bills run a different shop than a lot of other franchises. Tough! Sometimes in life you have limitations that others don't have. You make the necessary adjustment and deal with it. That is a challenge when you have an organization more known for its staid and plodding style than for its innovative and creative approach to the business. One way you can better compete with the big dogs is to put a lot of resources into the scouting department. By drafting better and being more judicious in the mid-tier free agent market you can make up for the lack of $$$ resources. For the past half dozen years the Bills have not been too adept in their player evaluations, mostly in the draft. That has crippled them more than the money issue has. What fool organization would draft Donte Whitner over Ngata? You don't think drafting Kaepernick instead of Aaron Williams wouldn't have had a dramatic upbeat affect on this franchise? Taking Russell Wilson over TJ Graham in the third round certainly would have had a profound positive affect for this franchise. The bottom line is that the limitations of its third rate staff has handcuffed this franchise more than the money issue has. .

I wasn't a Shanahan fan when he first came to Washington. He is a control freak who has less than a warm personality. He is not the type of coach who tolerates dissent within the ranks. Fat Albert Haynesworth tried to screw with the HC by doing his own thing by playing outside the system and giving little effort in practice. Shanahan went gangster on him and eviscerated him. He not only went out of his way to castrate Haynesworth but he did it publicly so that he would be humiliated. Shanahan has a very simple to understand concept with respect to practice: If you don't practice hard, you don't play. Haynesworth felt he was too talented to waste his energy on practice. So Shanahan played him very sparingly. You make the contrast that the Bills, unlike the Skins, are more inclined to wave the more expensive veterans when their skills start to diminish. I have no problem with that approach except with the Bills they make the cut without having a credible replacement ready to fill in the created hole. Some people get very upset when the issue of Buffalo's more stringent business model is brought up. But it is a reality that has handicapped this franchise. This more restrictive fiscal environment could still work if this franchise drafted better. What helped turn around the Skins franchise was Shanahan's uncanny ability to hit on lower round picks. Nix's record on that score was dismal. From a record standpoint this upcoming season will not be too satisfying. But from a rebuilding standpoint it will be intriguing to watch how this draft class turns out and how EJ develops. If on both issues it works out then I will be somewhat optimistic that in a few years this franchise will be back to being relevant. I still believe that at least three draft classes have to go by before this franchise can find enough talent to compete at a high level. What is frustrating is the realization that six years of talent acquisitions have been squandered by the prior regimes. I'm hoping that this younger and more innovative staff can do a much better job than the outdated prior staffs. Fresh air is certainly better than stale air! The three players you mentioned are basically out of gas. By the time the season gets to the halfway point all three players will either be injured or replaced by younger and fresher players. The replacements are already on the roster and ready to move up.

Maybe you haven't read the accumulation of my prior posts. I'm more familiar with Shanahan's approach than with Seattle's approach. There is a stark contrast between the Skins compared to the bumbling Bills over that same three year interval. Nix was simply out of his depth. His selection by a clueless owner made little sense. As I have already stated Shanahan fairly quickly cleaned out the overpaid veterans and replaced them with younger and cheaper/better valued players. Gailey was a retread HC hired by an unimaginative GM. Nix was a checkers player playing in a chess tournament. What Shanahan did markedly better than Nix was evaluate talent. His record for selecting productive lower round picks was quite impressive. Nix's overall three year draft record was not very good. It doesn't matter how good your plan is if you can't execute it. It all comes down to evaluating players. The western NY franchise was poor at the most essential endeavor that determined success. When Shanahan traded for McNabb it was understood that it was a stop gap measure. It didn't take long for Shanahan to realize that McNabb's skills were eroded. He traded him away for a pittance. Nix's three year qb search involved Levi Brown and Fitz. What was infuriating over that time span was Nix passing on very good qb prospects. One can fairly criticize Gailey for his record as a HC with the Bills. But the bottom line is no matter how good of a HC he was he never stood a chance for success because of the caliber of qb he had to work with. The central point I wanted to make with the Seattle and Washington examples is that if you know what you are doing you can in a three year period transform a hollow team into a serious team. It comes down to drafting well and finding a credible qb.

Let's start off where we agree so we don't continue talking past one another. The organization finally drafted a qb at a high position that they believe will be their franchise qb. They put a lot of effort in vetting the qb prospects. Was this a Nix pick or someone else's? Whaley put the draft board together but Nix was the GM at the time, so whether he was meaningfully involved or not is irrelevant. Ultimately it is the result that counts. They got someone they believed in and only time will tell whether he is the right person. I like the selection a lot. We also agree with the installation of the new coaching staff. I believe that Marrone was a Brandon/Whaley selection and not a Nix selection. This retrograde franchise needed to get away from the tiresome retread approach to hiring staff. Your characterization that this is not a complete rebuild is probably a better characterization than my version of a total overhaul. But my position is that the incoming staff, along with Whaley, doesn't believe that they are at the point of turning the corner of being a serious team. The team is still under construction with draft picks with no major impact free agents brought on board. Lawson-Branch-Legursky type players are role players who are simply fall in the category of being fillers. Where I demonstrably disagree with you is that I get the sense that you felt the team was closer to moving up the ranks than I do. This team is going to be built up mostly with their draft picks. So I believe that it is going to take another two drafts to get the roster shaped the way it needs to be shaped. I don't know how you feel about this draft but my sense is that it had different feel from the prior Nix drafts. Maybe I'm reading too much into it??? As I said on prior occasions I believe that this is a three year project. Whether it falls within your definition of a rebuild I can't say for sure. But for me having a three year plan falls within a rebuilding project in the NFL of today. EJ is not an Andrew Luck or RGIII or Russell Wilson type prospect who was more pro ready and was going to have a more immediate impact. EJ is a rawer qb prospect who has a lot of tools but will take some time to become a more finished product. If he develops at the rate of the standard good qb prospect he should be primed to go when the roster is more of a finished product than it is now. In my estimation another two years. In other words a three year rebuilding cycle if done correctly.

You are putting too much effort is discussing players such as Rinehart and Wilson. Both are inconsequential players who make little difference whether you have them on the roster or not. The Bills wanted to keep Fitz as a backup and at a lower salary. He said no. They went to the garbage heap to fill the gap. Kolb is what he is; the team got him not to be a starter but to be a backup. Assuming that he is healthy EJ is going to be the starter. That was the plan right after the pick was made. You are characterizing the Bills as if the inherited roster was close to being a playoff team. It was not. It was a garbage roster that with a little boost could be a 7-9 and 8-8 caliber team. Improving to be merely mediocre is not my idea of having an ambitious goal. Whether you want to accept the fact that the Bills are rebuilding or not is your prerogative. They simply are. If you want to inflate what the inherited roster contained with players such as Rhinehart and Wilson then you are the one being fooled. Although not obvious to you but to me what is happening now is undoing what the bumbling Nix and his predecessors did to this franchise. They badly maimed this franchise. Now the rehabilitation process is going on. The reality is that this team is closer to being an expansion team than they are being a playoff team. If you can't handle that reality now you will be forced to face it when the season is in play. It's going to take time whether you like it or not.

Because I live in the Md/DC area I'm more familiar with the Skins situation than I am with Seattle's approach. The owner, Dan Snyder, is not now interfering with the football operation and is allowing Mike Shanahan to have full control of the operation. What Shanahan did is the opposite of what you are suggesting. He didn't add to the payroll, he stripped it. He made a very concerted effort to get rid of the high priced and poor valued players for younger and cheaper players. Over the last two years he was working under a $36 M penalty cap hit, split over two years. The spending splurge for outside talent has dramatically been toned down. His roster is now younger and cheaper than when he took over. How did he do it? He did it mostly with his own draft picks. He got his franchise qb by trading a boatload of picks for a dynamic qb that was the propellant for changing the fortunes of the franchise. He also did it by hitting on a number of lower round picks. Another way of looking at his process was that he was immensely more proficient in his player evaluations than the laggard Bills. When you have people such as Jauron/Levy/Brandon/Nix making the personnel selections you end up getting the output that one would expect from mediocre people making the selections. Are the Bills one of the more frugal franchises in the league? Of course. This is a Ralph Wilson run business. Tell me something that I don't already know! The main problem that has crippled this franchise is that its buffoon owner hired incompetents to make hundreds of million $$$ worth of decisions on his behalf. How smart is that? You advocated for boldness in remaking this franchise. We don't need bold maneuvers to get back to respectability, and then beyond. What this franchise desperately needs is not decisions made out of desperation but it needs to routinely act compentenly. It's not about hitting the big one. It is having an organization acting on a regular basis with intelligence. There is no doubt that both Seattle and Washington elevated their rosters in general. But what made both of these franchises make the quantum leap was the acquisition of a talented qb. That in itself was the most essential ingredient that transformed those respective frachises. You might not be receptive to what you consider to be the rebuilding blather but for the Bills it is a reality. Undoing the wretched work of the prior regimes is the start of the rebuilding process. Whether you like it or not that is what is going on right now. If EJ turns out to be a good qb then the process is accelerated. If not, then back to the drawing board. .

I usually find your take on the Bills very reasonable and well thought out. However, on some of your posts on this thread I have a very much different view from your assessment of the roster. I get the impression (maybe I'm wrong) that you sincerely believed that the Bills were close to being a playoff team and that with a few more judicious moves this roster would be able to compete for a playoff spot. For me that is an absurd position to take. What the Bills have demonstrated over the tenures of Levy/Jauron/Brandon/Nix is that this roster is too flawed to compete with good teams. Their record against teams with winning records was in the 20% or lower range. Eking out wins against bad teams is not a sign that the roster is close to being a serious team. There shouldn't be too much time spent on David Nelson for the reason that he is a marginal receiver. He can catch the ball but he can't go anywhere after that. The receivers who were drafted in his place are immensely better than he is, and they offer the offense a greater degree of flexibility in play than the limited Nelson has to offer. Nelson is a marginal talent who can't play beyond his physical limitations. You lament that the Bills didn't act more forcefully in the free agent market. They did sign some mid-tier free agent players but they didn't go full throttle in the market for a very reason reason: They are in a full rebuilding mode. Players such as Rhinehart and Wilson are inconsequential players who have little impact on the quality of the roster. Levitre is a good player that this organization simply didn't want to pay a premium price for. There is a reason why the Bills are so much under the cap and not showing an urgency to spend money. This staff has objectively concluded that this roster is a few years away from completing the arduous task of rebuilding a Nix roster. So why spend so much money money in the embryonic stage of the rebuild process? Look at how much cap space that is unused. Take a look at Seattle under their GM, Schneider, and take a look at the Redskins under their actual GM, Mike Shanahan, and see what they have accomplished in three years. They both reformulated their rosters and most importantly they both acquired their frachise qbs. Now both of them are serious SB contenders. What should be learned from both of those franchises is that if you know what you are doing you can take a flagging franchise and build a winner in a relatively short time. There are some Nix suporters who stand by him and the job he did. I consider him to be one the standard Ralph Wilson weirdly incomprehenisible hires. The best thing that recently happened to this franchise is that the owner stepped aside and put Brandon in charge of the football operation. As a one year GM hired by the owner he was another one of his laughable hires. Who is crazy enough to put his marketing man in charge of the football operation? Do you laugh or cry? As a GM Brandon was not equipped for the job. But as the head of the franchise I give him a lot of credit for establishing a credible staff on the football side of the business. I liked the dignified and diplomatic way that he moved Nix out and elevated Whaley. I like the Marrone hire and the staff he has assembled. This year's draft had a different feel to it compared to the prior years. Be prepared for a very difficult season. There are problems with the starting line-up but that isn't going to be the major problem for this team. The core problem this year will be related to the thinness of the roster. The lack of depth is going to show once a few injuries happen. Then it's going to get ugly on the field. This year is mostly about EJ. If he demonstrates that he is a legitimate franchise qb then this franchise is moving forward. If he doesn't, then the rebuilding process will be a more extended and frustrating process.

Some guys you root for because their journey was full of more obstacles than others. Can you imagine how discouraging it must have been to have your career in jeopardy because of a heart ailment or to have a season put on the shelf because of a broken leg? All these things happening before he was able to establish himself as a player in the league. Furthermore, Easley was entering the season with a new coaching staff that had little attachment to the inheritied players and he was on a team that drafted two receiver with early picks. The numbers certainly weren't working in his favor. The bottom line was that he earned his roster spot by outperforming the players he was competing against. If Rogers would have demonstrated more focus and consistency odds are that this new coaching staff would have kept their rookie selection over him. But Easley simply beat him out and forced the staff to select him. Let's not get carried away on how good he is. At this point he is probably the sixth receiver on the roster. But he is the type of player who when given the opportunity will work his way up the ladder. He needs to be more consistent in catching the ball. However,without a doubt he is the type of person you root a little harder for.

Prior to the draft a number of teams interviewed him realizing that they weren't going to use a high draft pick on him. They wanted to get a feel for him as a person. No team decided that he was worth a draft pick. What does that suggest to you? I remember one draft commentator saying that his unimpressive interviews solidified their position that he wasn't worth a pick. I get the impression that he lacks the mental discipline to stay focused on the field and comprehend the complexity of the game. In college you can rely on your physical talents but in the pro game you have to know the offense and make rapid adjustments. Don't get me wrong I'm not suggesting that he is a bad kid but at this point he is simply overmatched by the mental side of the game. Maybe in time he will be better prepared to utilize his physical talents. My sense is that he won't be added to our practice squad. At least that is how I see it. I'm hoping that WR Kaufman and OLB Keith Pough make the practice squad. Both are developmental type players that you can invest in and get a later return.

Everyone understands the sentiment as to why AH shouldn't receive workout money. Many people, understandably, after witnessing what has so far transpired (even within the innocent until proven guilty concept) want to see a change in the NFLA contract. But sometimes creating a solution to adress a "rare" incident creates additional unforeseen problems with respect to the adjustment of the labor agreement and its interpretation and enforcement. The best way to handle this case is let the union and management contest this issue and let the chips fall however it falls. It would be a mistake to re-open the labor agreement and try to come up with language that addresses a nebulous concept such as defamation to the team and league. That would open another set of labor/management problems and unnecessary rancor. Contracts and the law are rarely perfect. Focusing too much attention on the aberration very often detracts from dealing with the norm. Whether AH gets the bonus or not he is probably going to spend the rest of his life in jail and whatever wealth that he has accumulated will be exhausted when he is finished with his mounting criminal and legal cases. There is no need to be concerned with him getting over on anyone. Eventually he is going to be held accountable for his acts.

There are strong indications that our defense has major vulnerabilities on defense. Running a fast paced offense with a suspect OL, a rookie qb and very inexperienced receivers is a taking a big gamble. The longer this defense is on the field the greater probability it is going to be exploited. The first two preseason games normally don't tell you much as far as what your team's capabilities are because too many substitutions are made for the purpose of evaluating players. EJ is probably going to have the typical rookie struggles that most rookie qbs undergo. He is far from being an Andrew Luck, RGIII and Russell Wilson caliber of rookie qb who will quickly adapt to the pro game. The Skins game is an indication of what a rebuilding team can do to itself when it trys to out gimmick the opposition. The staff needs to re-think its offensive strategy or the Bills are going to be frequently pummelled. Sometimes trying to outsmart people ends up outsmarting yourself. Keeping it simple makes more sense at this point than trying to get ahead of oneself.

Getting complaints for offering a better deal and a more genuine environment. It's like someone complaining that their discounted meal should cost more. Hey waiter you charged me too little for this delicious meal. Where is the manager? I want to express my outrage! No one begrudges anyone preferring the more formal environment of the Statler. It is a good place to hear the company line.

I agree with your comments. The HC, OC and qb all recognize that the play calling and the qb's approach to the game has to change. A lot of the "public spilling of thoughts" have to do with this issue. RGIII is a smart guy (although he has diva tendencies that I find unattractive) who has acknowledged,as has the HC, that the qb has to tone down his game and make himself less vulnerable. . In the prior post I was responding to a poster who diminished the role of the qb in the team's success. I'm very comfortable in my position that the qb was the most important reason why that team took a quantum leap forward. He is a dynamic player who needs to play smarter.

The late round draft pick used by the Skins to select Morris was acquired in Shanahan's trade of Haynesworth. There is no doubt that Morris had a superb year last year but the player who catapulted that team into the playoffs was RGIII. In three years Shanahan dramatically overturned that roster and has put it in position to be a SB competing team. Shanahan and his staff have done a tremendous job in rebuilding a very flawed roster that they inherited three years ago. You might not want to give him much credit but I do. Compare what he has accomplished to what the Bills have accomplished in the same time frame and then make a judgment as to how good a job he has done?

Bill, You are one of my favorite posters but you have me stumped. I realize that you didn't extol the virtues of Searcy but being kind to him while being hyper critical to our best DB (Gilmore) has me mystified. Your infatuation with the sluggish Pears also has me perplexed. With respect to your observation that the Skins are better than the Colts and Vikes it is interesting to note that Shanahan started his rebuild at the same time that Nix started his rebuild with Buffalo. It all comes down to evaluating talent, both college and pro players. In the comparison of the two franchises they showed how to remake an old and expensive roster into a younger and better valued roster. Not only did he overhaul the roster but he made a bold move to procure his franchise qb last year. It's too early to make a judgment on Marrone. I was impressed with the way he conducted himself at the podium after the game. However, putting Spiller back in the game after he was on the ground was asinine. That made no sense. I'm also very troubled by the quick pace offense. Until the offense is better staffed the race horse pace is frought with danger. It places too much stress on a defense that has major vulnerabilities. Sometimes being innovative is not being very smart. This year isn't about the record so much as it is about developing players, especially the qb. There is no option other than being patient unless one prefers to be in a constant state of peevishment..