BobChalmers

Florida State, baby!

This part is totally reasonable btw.

I seriously have NO idea what your point it supposed to be - other than you are tossing hyperbole all over the place, which is generally referred to as "trolling". Since the Bills liked him as the best prospect on their board, it's clearly a good thing they traded down and still got him - certainly that's better than taking him at 8 and not getting Kiko in the bargain, right?? Manuel was a raw prospect QB - not a ready to go QB. EVERYONE knew that last year. Unless you believed in Geno - who proved to be about as bad as his pre-draft detractors claimed, there were ZERO ready to start QB prospects in the draft. Glennon did better than expected but almost noone had him as a 1st rounder. None of the other prospects some here were high on even cracked the lineups of their teams. There are multiple better QB prospects this year - and as much as I like EJ, if the Bills manage to grab one of the top guys, I'm fine with that. From early accounts though, the Bills would have to trade up to get one - I don't think Manziel even makes it to 9 - my guess he goes 8, but I wouldn't be shocked if a good combine or something sends him to Houston. Burtles and Bridgewater will be gone too.

Actually, I'd go with Vick in Atlanta - they improved almost immediately after his departure.

Why do people insist on spouting nonsense that's so easy to check? Even if you don't count Marrone's 5 years as an NFL player, their NFL coaching experience is pretty close - 9 years to 7, but with much of Pettine's time spent in some pretty small roles - assistant DL, Outside LB... http://en.wikipedia....ki/Mike_Pettine http://en.wikipedia....ki/Doug_Marrone

Yes - it really was #8 not #7 - maybe I am predicting good things for Sunday! I think the sack count and INT's are especially impressive given how weak the offense has been and the overall record - teams have not been forced to pass by the scoreboard. It IS a passing league, so the pass defense is rightly more important than the run defense, much as that goes against the grain of us old-timers. I'm not all that surprised in one sense - they have steadily improved over the year - partially from getting healthy, but also for learning the new system. They could well be utterly dominant next year. Here's hoping!!

Hard to believe - or maybe it isn't - but with one game to go, they've become a top 10 defense! #7 overall allowing 330.1 yds/gm http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/nfl/stats/totals.html

Comparing Marrone to Gregg "Kobra Kai" Williams is utter nonsense. Marrone - NFL playing experience followed by assisting on multiple successful NFL teams and respect from multiple players and H/C's around the league - the guy's been part of NFL success at multiple stops. Greggo - HS experience, followed by an "in" with a friend onto the Titans staff, working his way quickly up to DC then riding top talent and dirty play to a stupid head coaching hire by the Bills that no other team repeated. Maybe the players whining about Marrone's attitude are the ones who need to go because they aren't all-in on winning?

That's a really good way to get started - hosted/narrated somehow?

What a pile of nonsense. Manuel 8TD 4INT QBR 82.1 0 rushing TDs 3 fumbles - 6 turnovers in 7 games. Smith 8TD 16INT QBR 65.1 3 rushing TDs 8 fumbles - 20 turnovers in 10 games. Please tell me the tale of these two rookies and how they are remotely similar??? Manuel is a promising young player, the other looks like crap.

THIS

Yeah - Gilmore definitely looks much worse. Still crossing my fingers that he's just not all the way back (mentally anyway) from being out with the injury. Yeah - and in fairness, we really can't complain too much about what Chan Gailey got out of the offense, right? Offense also clearly worse from the loss of Levitre w/o an adequate replacement.

LOL - that WAS a mistake!!! I don't know the stat-line for "uninformed comments by NFL color announcers" but it's got to be a huge number.

Do you understand this is a false statement? I won't go over every game, but the KC game was just 2 weeks ago, and the DEFENSE only allowed 9. Jeff Tuel - who any number of people on this board wanted to start over Manuel - gave up the other 14 pretty much by himself.

This will be an issue eventually - it was already publicly stated that Pettine wanted a chance to get out from under Ryan's shadow so he could eventually be a head coach, but too soon now. The 19th ranked defense is an improvement but not enough of one to have him at the top of coaching hire lists. If they continue to improve next year, then losing him in 2015 is a real possibility.

How about he sucks so badly I think I'd rather have Donald Jones back? Is that a fair reference point?? They can win 10 in a row, that won't make Graham any better. He's starting on this team, that means win or lose he needs to be a better WR than half a dozen other guys on the roster. What does he show in games to give you that impression?

They're nuts (and generally stupid). Bills are going to win in a laugher. I'm betting none of those idiots knows Manuel will probably start.

Tuel, Graham, and HACKETT played(coached) their way off the team Sunday, IMHO. None of them had shown much prior, and the three of them combined to lose what would have been a huge win, that THE REST OF THE TEAM HAD IN THE BAG. No, I don't really expect any of them to be gone any time soon, but I can hope. +1 This has been a consistent problem for Hackett all season - too "clever" for his own good. He's a real problem with this team now.

Probably not really the worst EVER - but no question that was a pretty bad call. I was cussing my head off at the screen on that one. Hackett is not impressing me, to say the least. While we're at it, why is TJ Graham on this roster again??

What better time then to trade him? They aren't going to the playoffs this year and they don't want to pay his asking price in FA next year.

Really showed how important Lawson can be to this defense - great FA acquisition.

Except that Kyle - and I love him too - is the one common denominator over this time they have struggled on run D. Sorry - it's not an unfair question. The way to answer it is to go over the game film - not just the team stats - but the stats correlating with his presence make the game film worth a look.

10 game winning streak, no? As I said - they seem like an 8-8 or 9-7 team this year if they get some breaks - which so far, they have not. But I was specifically highlighting the "13 years" business - which should matter to fans and our frustration, but should have damned little to do with the play of this team, this season, and how many wins they can get. If you really believe that 13 years of failure means they can't do better - then give up now. Fortunately the team probably won't! That kind of attitude in fans is all I can guess leads to silliness like these "4-12" predictions. Hey - I suppose they could suddenly start playing much worse, but with two games against zero win teams and two more games against one-win teams remaining on their schedule, anything less than 6-10 would involve them playing worse with Gilmore in the lineup than they already have been playing w/o Gilmore. There's no logic in that - just fans thinking about 13 years of frustration.

I am curious why you think that matters to how they will do this year? Other than Moorman who has even been on the team most of that time? So you have them doing better that they have in nearly a decade, but then expect the coach to be fired and call that rinse and repeat?

Right - Atlanta is no fluke at 1-4 - they have serious problems and belong down there. Losing Julio is near fatal with White already broken. People (fans, fantasy geeks, press, etc.) who were counting on Steven Jackson to make an impact got a joke whose punchline came early this year - of course he is injured - he gets injured EVERY YEAR! I love all the optimism, but with the nearly criminal schedule that had 6 (SIX!!) Bills opponents get extra rest before playing them, it's tough to see them get past 8-8. My scenarios that had them finish 10-6 had them 4-2 right now with 2 wins against NYJ/CLEV/CINCY. Losing all three I don't see how they get there. 4-12 on the other hand is just silly negativity considering they still have Pittsburgh, Jax, and Tampa. When you consider how tough the defenses they've faced have been - all in the top half of the league, most in the top 10 - they have really looked pretty damned good for such a young team. When Gilmore recovers properly, noone is going to want to play them, that's for sure. Bengals were exploiting the heck out of his bum arm with all those WR screens, etc.