BillsVet

Russ Brandon in January on Buddy NIx: "When you look at where we are today compared to where we were three years ago, it is unquestioned that our personnel and our roster is in a much better position than it was three years ago" So why should it take more than a year after the team president himself assured us the team is much better?

Nothing like being a win-later team after 13 seasons without winning double digits and through 4 separate rebuilds. Was Whaley allowed to make decisions from February 2010-April 2013 when he was Nix's understudy? It's hard to tell.

Or perhaps the people supervising the personnel department are not giving them the tools to build a roster. Several coaches and GM's before Whaley and Marrone have not succeeded in Buffalo. Some were clearly not good or worse, but failure does not happen in a vacuum. There needs to be more focus on the people at the top, many of whom have been around for much or all of this decade plus of no playoffs.

We're talking about 2 different things. I'm referring to how management equips their personnel department for success. You're a step lower in the food chain discussing decisions that the personnel group makes. This off-season has demonstrated that financially the team is making the same types of decisions. Letting Levitre go, not coming to terms with Byrd on a long term deal, and to my knowledge not initiating talks with another offensive lineman leading to his walk year. How is that different than previous years when they franchised Clements and got nothing for him? Letting Fletcher go. Letting Jabari Greer walk for nothing. Trading Peters for a late first. The team didn't have a decent replacement on the roster for them, and it's happening again. That tells me that regardless of who the GM or HC is, it doesn't matter. Other people are immersing themselves in the decision making process and those decisions aren't all that much different than they were years ago. What's changed? When talent walks and the team uses the draft to replace it, you're not building. You're hopefully maintaining, which is what the Bills have done by keeping themselves in the bad to mediocre category.

So you believe that Russ Brandon's management of the organization will be different than a Ralph Wilson led franchise? If so, well, you're entitled to your opinion. I have a hard time believing that it will differ much and Brandon would not have risen to his current position if he didn't learn how the boss wanted things. Problem with the Bills over the lost decade is they've never built a roster. Now, they add a QB, but then let their best OL go and haven't opened negotiations with another former high draft pick. And they're unable to come to terms with one of the best safeties in football. So yeah, they took A QB. But have they ever built a team from top to bottom? It's always add a piece, lose a piece, stir interest with a big name UFA signing now and then, wash, rinse, repeat. That, IMO, is how you remain a 4-7 win team for 8 seasons. And there's nothing like resorting to insults to back your point up.

Nice straw man argument there. For the record, I wasn't enthused about the Kolb signing given his doing almost nothing in the NFL and injury history. But true fan-hood apparently now means you don't criticize the team, we're not supposed to come down hard on the franchise. There's apparently new management in charge and we should give them time before offering an opinion. Kolb was the latest in a long line of cast-offs brought in by this franchise who somehow were going to resurrect their careers. Holcomb, Fitz, VY, Tarvaris, and Kolb. At what point do people start questioning the QB decisions the franchise makes at the most important position? Based on the evidence, it appears the Bills don't know what they're doing at QB, despite having a new GM and HC. EJ had better be good and healthy because there's nothing behind him but UDFA talent and Matt Leinart.

"New" regime. Same old bad decision making,

Tarvaris wasn't available?

At some point the personnel on the DL need to be questioned. With all the supposed talent there, I would think they could stop the run, which no Bills defense has done in almost forever. And regardless of it being pre-season, the Pat White/Rex Grossman trio should not be beating you through the air like that. This will be a season of growing pains and that's precisely what happens when you have so many rookie or 2nd year players starting like Buffalo has. But what's more concerning is the DL should be a strength and yesterday it wasn't. I guess I should apologize in advance for my negativity.

We'll see how much different, spending-wise, the franchise is with President Russ versus the previous regime. Something tells me it'll be more similar that many expect or want.

Just really busy this time of year. Following the team, but from a marked distance for the first time in a while.

"The 2010 Draft: Results of a Top 5 Talent Evaluator" When does the book come out?

Nix made mention of the size of some of the OL guys he's acquired, particularly PS pickup Urbik who goes about 330. I don't recall him saying this, but if his OL picks in the draft are any evidence, he subscribed to the bigger is always better mentality of OL. Glenn is 345, which most NFL tackles aren't even close to while guys like Asper, Colin Brown, Pears, and Sam Young and others are not what I would call nimble and mobile. Besides, teams move college tackles to guard because they can't handle the speed of the NFL. Or they move them to guard as a last resort because a player they thought could play OT actually couldn't. It's looking like Glenn fits into the latter category despite what the team is saying now.

Neither do I. As we saw in this years draft, teams are going with the athletic guards early and often. Who'd have thought Kyle Long would go where he did anyway? There's a shift toward more mobile guys playing a position where dinosaurs like Nix thought he could insert plodding types who don't move well but win in the phone booth. One of the common denominators over multiple GM tenures has been an unwillingness to draft and retain their offensive linemen. Not doing so means that the shiny parts like their high picks at QB, RB, and WR don't function as well. Did all of these GM's and HC's have the same philosophy about building an OL or is someone else making decisions?

Well isn't that just special.

Let's not conflate the argument. The team has won no less than 4 games and no more than 7 since 2006. Both times the team showed any level of success in the past 8 seasons it quickly petered out after week 8. It's skepticism at this point to express some concern about this franchise given the track record, not the widely used negativity explanation. Is it negativity to think the team will struggle with: a rookie HC, a rookie OC, a likely rookie QB, 1-2 rookie WR's, the loss of their best OLineman, a new defense being implemented, a rookie ILB, and at least one new starter in the secondary? Does that lend itself to success? And is it reasonable to predict they're will be growing pains given these facts? And you forgot to walk back your unsubstantiated allegations about my presence on this board.

The old "throw it against the wall and see if it sticks" method. Why don't you try proving that I wasn't around early in the 2011 season before alleging it? Then again, this isn't the first time you've conducted yourself this way. I recall you saying I said the Bills 2010 UFA signings were bad, which I hadn't. I then asked you for evidence and you couldn't/didn't respond. It's the skeptical people who've been justified more often than not on this board. Of course, that skepticism angle is magically changed by some here to seem as though we take pleasure in saying that. I've been here for going on 7 years, but I'll be sure to bow to your omniscience and unsubstantiated allegations.

What does the decision to fire Cameron have to do with hiring a young inexperienced OC? Cameron was bad and experienced. Hackett is an unknown entity at the NFL level and has no experience coaching positions. Terrell Suggs was a former DPOY winner who suffered a serious injury, returned, and was only partially effective. Byrd is healthy, not quite a DPOY winner, and is not at camp due to a contract issue. The Ravens invested resources into their OL as someone else has pointed out in another thread. Glenn has 1 season and is still very much a work in progress. Wood an above average center, and Urbik is a RG that can win in a phone booth but offers little mobility, hence his playing RG not LG. What is the correlation? Anquan Boldin and Torrey Smith are proven NFL receivers. T.J. Graham is not, nor is rookie Marquise Goodwin, although they may be with game experience. Johnson remains the only proven NFL receiver on the roster. Spiller and Ray Rice are different types of backs. The former is a more outside the tackle runner, the latter being a more all-around talent. JaMarcus Russell had a big arm as well, and arm strength is often overrated. It's not a comparison of Russell to EJ either. Chandler is a short to medium range type. Smith is strictly a blocker, with Caussin, Gragg, and Provo complete unknowns who've taken few to zero NFL snaps. I'm speechless on this one. One is a future HOF'er with multiple All-Pro appearances and the other hasn't taken an NFL snap yet. Perhaps.

One of the hallmarks of our 21st century society, as demonstrated on this message board (and specifically in this thread), remains a complete intolerance of contrarian opinion. Those fans who aren't excited about the "new" Bills are deemed negative, told to get another team, and roundly criticized for questioning the happy training camp talk we typically see this time of year. We're left with ad hominem attacks precipitated by those who won't deign to understand why people don't think like them. Brandon can say what he wants, but talk is cheap. Didn't someone once say to show us the baby first?

Brandon, at the very least, had a huge hand in picking Marrone. And so, the new team president needs the new HC to win or it reflects poorly on him.

Here is the latest and greatest straw man argument whenever the topic of re-signing players comes up. Well, has anyone ever attempted to answer why players don't want to play in Buffalo? Is it because they're not offered market value for their services? Is it because they feel there isn't a good enough chance to win? What is it? Basically, anytime someone doesn't re-sign with the Bills we can use the "he didn't want to be here argument" as a means of covering for the franchise. Awfully convenient for those who can't bring themselves to blame the team. And anyway, I don't recall the team making an offer to Levitre, or what the offer to Byrd was, or whether they've engaged Wood in negotiations yet.

The debate about whether or not to retain Levitre boils down to having a suitable replacement on the roster when the player is about to leave. The Bills didn't and now they're signing lower tier UFA's (Caldwell and Legursky) with types like Colin Brown (who's started 2 NFL games). But this is a common denominator of Bills team-building from 2001 to the present. Quite often a player is let go and no one's been groomed to take their spot, unless you count the unproven options the team drafts that year or a player with limited playing experience.

Across multiple GM's, the Bills haven't and aren't investing in their OL. When they do it's out of sheer desperation and not proactively. Instead, a player leaves or is let go and they are in a panic to replace that person. Case in point was the 2009 draft. People here told us they were willing to invest given the drafting of Wood and Levitre, but that's not accurate. In fact, Dockery had been cut, meaning they needed a LG and the move of Walker to LT meant Brad Butler went from RG to RT. So they almost HAD to take interior OL high. Fast forward to the 2012 draft. Bell was gone and the team needed a LT, so they drafted Glenn and plugged him in. Glenn was the first OT the team had selected in the first 3 rounds since Fat Mike in 2002. 10 years without drafting an OT is absurd. At least at the OL position, the Bills are consistently a step behind in stocking their talent. It makes for a more difficult transition and means QB's are running for their lives and/or having to get rid of the ball faster.

Dareus has put on a decent amount of weight since leaving Alabama. I figured he's shed some going into camp this year, but he doesn't look any smaller. Oddly enough, he seemed more effective against the pass last year versus the run.

What was Dallas doing cutting him after 1 season and why did the Bills start him 4 times in 2 seasons?