BobChalmers

He bulked up to that for the 3-4. He was a pass rushing DE out of college. If our staff had any forsight, Carrington would have been playing OLB at his old weight instead of poor DT Spencer Johnson being stuck out there. I would be OK with that - assuming they resign Bell. Hairston looked fine as a part-time rookie, they extended Pears (who I don't love) and IMO, the Bills have one of the best interior OL's in the entire league with Wood (hopefully healthy) Levitre and Urbik. Lock those three up long-term and don't worry about the interior OL for the next dozen years.

Spot on! The ONLY thing that has ever made the Indianapolis Colts at all "sexy" is the one thing they are about to lose - Peyton Manning. With him gone, that franchise sinks to the bottom of the league. Not just in terms of wins (as we saw this season) but in terms of any sort of national interest. Yes, even lower than the Bills. They stunk before Manning was there too. Remember when they had Jeff George?

Anyone else here remember when the Rams switched to a 2-5 "Eagle" defense? If I recall correctly, it was because they were so injured on the DL they basically ran out and had to play LB's instead, so they decided to actually scheme for it rather than line up LB's out of position. It sort of worked - didn't catch on though, obviously. Not true for most "standard" 4-3's. Remember Gregg Williams' 4-3 that was what the Bills abandoned their decade-long use of the 3-4 for? Williams left his CB's on an island all the time - that's why he drafted Clements and Winfield as 1st-rounders. It's the same thing the Titans run, and the Saints now. The Tampa-2 (Jauron's style - and the Bears, Bucs, and Colts) does put less pressure on the CB's because they have those "2" safeties back most of the time. It's _a_ 4-3 scheme, but not one people were too happy with here just a few years ago. We don't have the LB's for it anyway. That was also the scheme Haloti Ngata was "too big and slow" for, we were told. Wanny is not a Tampa-2 guy, to my knowledge - he's a base/big 4-3 guy.

That they've failed to get far with that talent in that weak division is pretty bad. I'm surprised they are still there - particularly Turner who has no particular record of success as a HC.

It does make them likely better than a lot of players prior Bills GM's have drafted who are not starting on ANY NFL team. Besides which player(s) do you have a problem with as only being good enough for the Bills?... Dareus? Aaron Williams?? Justin Rodgers??

UNLESS you don't have the players to execute any play call. Remember, the other team's defense is getting paid too. You said there were receivers open - and frankly, our receivers aren't that fast - so that would seem to put it ALL on Fitz if he isn't executing. As for this entire thread - Fred Jackson was leading the NFL in rushing or very close to it when he went down. I don't care what % of plays were called if that's the result - they were running the ball plenty when that's the result.

LOL - I was wondering the same thing on the OP.

FALSE Which is why they let him go. He was #4 at best.

Stats aside, the OP bottom line is spot-on IMO. Come back healthy and add two OLB's and a WR and this is a playoff team - even with Fitz's problems. I'd be more interested in both stats over the last few weeks - I suspect the YPC is down a lot - but had a long way to fall from the earlier lofty heights. Being way freaking behind a lot tends to limit your ability to rack up any carries in the 2nd half of games, which is also why carries/game and win/loss tend to be correlated, though the causality is not bi-directional.

But that's all been in decline since Fred Jackson and Wood went down. It started declining when both Bell and Hairston went down and Levitre was shuffeled all over the place. Freddy was leading the league in rushing before he was hurt. Based on however many carries, you can't possibly have a problem with that stat.

And better than that prior to the injuries to Freddy and the OL.

I guess you like the state of your economy up there, eh? Keep voting for higher taxes on business. Enjoy the results. I don't care what party it is - there are Democratic state legislatures/governors in other states who have enough sense to know they are competing with other states for business investment. New York just isn't one of them. Voting one-party for years on end gets you corruption. In New York's case, it also gets all the emphasis being placed on NYC's success over the rest of the state.

I imagine Spencer Johnson agrees with you.

Yes. "maddenboy" is aptly named for his football knowledge, apparently. Spencer Johnson is a fine 4-3 DT or 3-4 DE. It's not his fault the coaching staff has stuck him out of posititon as an OLB. And just stop with all this FA's don't want to come to Buffalo. That's BS. They go where they can play and where they get paid. Man, I guess I am glad I don't live in Buffalo anymore - it's clear something about living there puts a nagative spin on everything. The poll on the Bills someone ran a few weeks back really said it all. Most of the grumpy haters were the locals. The spin from ex-pats like myself was far more positive on average. Too bad - was just there in October, and it's really a beautiful place as far as I'm concerned. He certainly is playing a lot in space - backpedalling into a zone or sliding for run defense far more than a DE ever would.

Agreed. He may or may not be successful, but they are absolutely going to give him another chance.

Correct. I said that while I was watching the game. The announcers were going on about it - it was clearly a fumble. Helps Kelsay's stats. Doesn't hurt Johnson too much - he still gets a TD at least.

One of Steelers/Ravens will. Pats are contenders but no way favorites - and they will flat-out lose ugly to Packers.

I only have a problem with it when the fans now want a guy who they'd have been screaming was a "reach" or a "luxury" later. Anyone other than Dareus, Peterson, or Green would have been a reach at #3 last April. I'd have been fine with any of them - Dareus was the best fit for the clearest need. They snagged Aaron Williams in the 2nd who looks pretty good. They were hoping for Easely to emerge so they gambled against WR. Compare this with those of us who screamed the moment Whitner was taken over the OBVIOUS choice of Ngata. Everyone in the country had Ngata pencilled in for us - he was an awesome player at a major position of need. That was a stupid pick and a ridiculous reach by arguably the worst GM in the Bills' history (our beloved coach Levy). There is nothing wrong with ragging on his tenure for that mistake (as well as numerous others). That is complete nonsense, sorry. I believe Jauron did do a lot to ruin Losman - but he's a few notches below Rodgers no matter how you slice it. Remember, Losman was widely considered a bit of a reach when they took him.

Soooo very very true!!

Ravens and Patriots. Ravens have Flacco (1st rounder) now - but that was after their Super Bowl. Pats took Mallet this year. They didn't build up to where they are with a QB - they inherited Bledsoe, and eventually replaced him (with a 6th rounder) after Drew was hurt. OTOH, I could name a whole bunch of rebuilding teams that took their "franchise" QB, and never did rebuild "successfully". QB is the most important position on the team, if you have one you believe in available in the draft - you grab him - but there is no iron clad rule that you must or must not to succeed. It's a team game, and you need a lot to win. Having said that - it is statistically true that a significant majority of Super Bowl teams did have a 1st rounder as their QB. Brady and Brees (nearly a 1st rounder himself - he was the first pick in the 2nd round) are very notable exceptions.

Agreed - except I don't know we need a DE unless we are swithcing to a 4-3 full-time. Bills need LBs something awful.

Could be a stud WR if the right one is there - I wouldn't cry about that if they come back in the 2nd and/or 3rd to address OLB. Must say Kelsay looked like a player today though. It was nice to see poor Spencer Johnson get lucky with that pick 6. It really stinks the way they've stuck that poor DT out at OLB to be abused every week. Agree the win was needed. With DC and Cleveland both collapsing, the Bills really had no chance at one of the top QB's. WR and 2 OLB's.

Yes, they really do need a fast WR, which is what he meant. I'd take that over OT any day, assuming the right QB isn't there and it's too early for the best OLB. Perfect might be trading down for the right OLB, though that's not Nix's style.

This just in: However long you've been waiting and hoping for the Bills' success, Mr. Wilson has been at it longer and more passionately than you ever have. Sorry, if the Buffalo market doesn't get him the sort of stupid box seat revenue he'd need to be a free agent idiot like Dan Snyder, so we could have the same sort of success they do here in D.C. It doesn't mean he doesn't love his team and want them to win. If that's a problem for you - don't blame RW, blame yourselves for voting lopsided Democrat every year awarding you one of the most anti-business states in the union, with all the lovely destroyed economy to go with it. At least demand they stop screwing you over for the benefit of NYC. As it is, it's close to a miracle the team is still there. That they actually started to show some real game this season before the injuries did them in is a fantastic sign for the NEAR future. Patience is justified. I believe Nix is going to address the OLB position (finally) amd if they do, they're going to be a whole different animal for 2012.

I'm sure he did mean fast WR's. We have exactly zero right now who can make it through half a season. People here can be serious jerks though. Let's assume for their sake Ralph Wilson meant a HS girls' 4x100 relay team Fitz can coach after thay cut him.