BillsVet

The Peters saga may be over, but the Bills are again faced with keeping one of their own, though a UFA and not under contract as Peters was. The point remains that Buffalo allows talent to walk out the door more frequently, and those players go onto success elsewhere. Fletcher, Peters, Greer, Milloy, and now perhaps Stevie Johnson without any replacement behind them. Each and every player was a salary purge, replaced then or later with a draft pick who cost considerably less. This sort of "team-building" doesn't work and is in place only because the true objective of the team is to be set up for maximum return on their sale. Jason Peters had many negatives, not the least of which was his agent Eugene Parker. That said, the team was not justified, unless this was a financial purge, of jettisoning a top player at his position. If Stevie Johnson goes, nothing has changed at OBD in spite of the new GM. Nothing.

As long as we're comparing teams, Cincinnati versus Buffalo is what I would consider equally difficult conferences, how about this: Points Allowed: Cincinnati 323 Buffalo 434 Points Scored: Cincinnati 344 Buffalo 372 Point Differential: Cincinnati +21 Buffalo -62 Division Record: Cincinnati 2-4 Buffalo 1-5 Playoff Appearances since 2005: Cincinnati 3 Buffalo 0 Team Record: Cincinnati 9-7 Buffalo 6-10 5 year team record: Cincinnati 34-45-1 Buffalo 30-50 Hard to tell if the Bengals turned it around yet, but they received solid QB play from a rookie, have a veritable #1 WR, and a good but not outstanding defense. All of this is in spite of an owner who is among the worst in pro sports. For the Bills to win, they'll need to follow this blueprint, but early returns give Cincinnati a huge edge at this point.

From 6-10 to 4-12 and back to 6-10 again in their last three seasons. Higher standards are in order and losing 9 or more games 7 seasons in a row is unacceptable. Nice job tgreg.

Rather than discuss Peters as a top notch OLT, an analysis of that trade is overdue. The Bills dealt their starting OLT for a late first, fourth, and sixth round picks. Those players turned out to be Eric Wood, Shawn Nelson, and Danny Batten. One of those players starts at an easier to find position (center) while Nelson is out of the NFL, and Batten appears to be a role player. The real benefit was that Buffalo got out from having to pay a large salary to one of their best players, and replaced it three relatively small rookie deals. It's been more than four years since the Bills signed anyone to big money. I'm referring to Dockery and Schobel. Since that time they've signed a some moderate guaranteed money contracts like Fitzpatrick, K. Williams, McGee, Stroud, etc. but nothing like what Peters was demanding. And now, he lived up to it as an All-Pro and people continue lambasting the player. The move was a salary dump and the trade did not bring equal value to the team in personnel. Yet another Bills blunder. Is Stevie next, and if so, when they get nothing in return, it'll be another purge of salary.

I think Chan should have 10 years. Ralph's had 50 and delivered so little, so it's not absurd to give a HC 10 before we pass judgement. After all, 160 games is a better cross section to evaluate than only 32 or 48.

This. How are the Bills replacing 70 catches and 1000 yards receiving next season? David Clowney, Marcus Easley, and whatever draft pick in all probability aren't doing it. They got a bonus when a 7th rounder hit. Now they're losing that because he's due a larger contract. One step forward and two back - again.

Please call Buddy Nix when UFA begins because he's either in bed or convincing RW not to spend money. If someone tells him perhaps they'll sign more than 1 quality starter per year.

Your reputation precedes itself. Some notable posters at their finest here. Some, not so much. Amazing how, despite 16 wins in 3 seasons, the song remains the same. Coward Gate/May 2009 TBD thread

Pierre Garcon stat line w/o Manning in 2011: 70 reception, 947 yards, 6 TD's. It's actually a better season without Manning in 2010 when we went for 67-784-6. To make the assumption the Colts were completely dependent on P. Manning for their entire success is short-sighted. He compensated for a staff led by a HC who was 26-63 at Wake Forest and had not been a HC at other than that experience and 2 years with the Colts.

Correction: I, along with others here, hate the way the Bills are run. I hate the results, now having lost 60% of their games going back to 2001. And I love this myth being perpetuated that Indianapolis was a 1 man team and everyone else was a retread. Apparently people forget that Dwight Freeney, Reggie Wayne, Robert Mathis, Dallas Clark, Jeff Saturday, and Pierre Garcon play for this team. No, it was one guy who got them 10+ wins for 10 seasons in a row. Just one and no one else. Couldn't be the coach, whose college record at Wake Forest was horrible, wasn't at fault. Nope, couldn't be it.

Team strategy is you find offensive tackles in the late rounds or off the street. No sense in wasting picks on a position so easily found with lesser resources.

Would you rather work for Bob Irsay or Ralph Wilson and his people who chop front office types off at the needs? Think about it for a moment. As someone noted, Indy isn't moving anywhere, has the #1 pick, the guy has the chance to name his own HC, a new stadium and building something. In Buffalo you're reporting to people setting the team up for sale. Indianapolis may not be a huge market, but the working conditions are better than Buffalo.

Fitz no longer has potential, he is what he is after 7 seasons as a NFL QB, 3+ as a starter. The HC has to game-plan around his physical weaknesses, resulting in a limited game-plan that defenses began to figure out around Week 4 this past season. Either that, or Gailey isn't as imaginative as some would have you believe. As to the issue of signing UFA's, does anyone actually believe this team is in the market for anyone but grade C types? Chan and Buddy don't hold the purse strings, which won't open up no matter what.

I disagree that a running game can overcome an inefficient passing game in this day and age. I say inefficient because they became predictable when the QB was not hitting deep down field. ESPN noted Fitz was hitting on (edit: 27)% of his passes beyond 21 yards, which must make a DC's job so much more easy when he doesn't have to drop safeties and floods the short zone with DB's. There were a few games, notably beginning with the home NE game when David Nelson simply disappeared (invisible in the 2nd half). To the point he wasn't even a weapon because defenses denied him that route over the middle. So much so that he never had more than 62 yards receiving after the NE victory. I've never been one who said the Bills throw too much or don't run enough. The blueprint just happens to be that teams throw, with most going downfield more frequently. Fitz, as demonstrated by the numbers, is poor doing that. And I don't think it's because his receivers aren't good enough, he can't make the throws. When's the last time this team threw a deep out? Sure, it's not their offense, but when you can't challenge a defense, it's a lot easier to prepare for a guy like Fitz. And Gailey coaches around his QB's shortcomings.

6.7 ypa is nothing to brag about. Fitz ranked 23rd in the league with that number. A team needs to throw deep with some degree of accuracy to have a balanced offense in the NFL of 2011. Kinda like going from a Tamp 2, to a 3-4, and possibly to a 4-3 in the span of 2 years. Teams don't turn on a dime and begin drafting without losing a lot in the transition. The treadmill to nowhere continues, but I digress. Teams win by passing the ball. Heck, NE threw it almost 700 times this year.

Even PR master Scott Berchtold knows enough not to admit anything when Buddy sticks his foot in his mouth and lets the cat out of bag. He doesn't have much of a filter as evidenced by his handling of two press conferences in December 2009/January 2010. And for the record, I'm not a reader of the D&C. Besides, Wawrow is an AP guy and I'm sure has sources.

The league's changed a lot since his resignation in 2004. He is a known commodity, but it's not a slam dunk he'll get the team in the top half of the league without better talent. And if they convert to a 43, it'll be difficult because they lack a RDE, SLB, and WLB, not to mention some players will be learning a new system for the third time in 4 seasons. It's not impossible that they'll improve. It's just a very tall order.

This came from AP writer John Wawrow's August article about the trade: "Nix didn't handle trade talks, leaving that job with Jim Overdorf, the team's salary cap specialist and senior vice president of football administration." Now, you can quibble about the meaning of this sentence, but when people like Overdorf survive this many regime changes, it makes me wonder who's got the power at OBD. Is he in Nix's chain of command, or does he take orders from elsewhere? Nix and Gailey took a 6-10 team, tore it down, changed defenses, and have improved it to 6-10 after 2 years. Their start is worse than Donahoe's (by a game) and Levy/Jauron (by 4 wins). They have a defense that just changed its coordinator after ranking near the bottom, and had a 1-8 streak to finish. If that's progress, it's hard to tell. More like a treadmill.

Say what you will about the player, but when Nix admitted he didn't have a lot to do with the Evans trade, it spoke volumes. New HC, GM, DC, ticket seller, whatever. It's still the same people with the marionettes. It would take a Ted Thompson/Kevin Colbert/Tom Dimitroff effort for the next 3 drafts to overcome that sort of interference from on-high.

If the GM standard is to be perfect, no one meets that nor will they. Every single GM has made mistakes, whether it be Ted Thompson in GB (Justin Harrell), Kevin Colbert in Pittsburgh, or Mickey Loomis in NO (Reggie Bush). In the transition from Bill to Chris, the team made internal decisions that hurt the organization, which I suspect is why Irsay axed the younger. He could get rid of one without sending the other out the door. To blindly say Polian's success was only because he had QB's is intellectually absurd and lacking in research. Someone, IIRC, pointed out that teams don't make the SB or deep into the playoffs with some defense. That's correct. And lost amid all this talk of Indianapolis and Buffalo, is his taking Carolina, a 2nd year franchise to the NFC Title Game in 1996. Is it a coincidence that he improved the fortunes of 3 franchises? Impossible. I'm not saying he's a saint or that he didn't make mistakes, but turning around 3 organizations is decidedly not a coincidence.

How about giving the HC confidence to call some 5 or 7 step drops? Maybe allow the QB to run play action and turn his back to the LOS? The play-calling is dictated more by the resources at the HC's disposal than we think. What is not seen is what the problem is with regard to the OL. Edge protection from good rushers is not good enough, despite the much referred to sacks allowed statistic. Fitzpatrick would be hit more frequently if it weren't for Gailey running an offense predicated on quick throws.

I think the world will end before Bill Polian returns to the Buffalo Bills. Someone made the point that he neglected the defense and I disagreed.

Is that why he drafted Bruce Smith, traded for Cornelius Bennett, drafted Shane Conlan, Henry Jones, and Phil Hansen? Walt Corey was a big reason that defensive unit wasn't outstanding, not Bill Polian.

That's the type of front office and coaching synergy that all teams set out to achieve. Now, where's that shovel? Nix, probably influenced by Whaley, probably pushed the 3-4 onto Gailey. We now see that it impeded rather than hastened the latest rebuild. I guess Buffalo really is redefining organizational ineptitude.

When were the Bills sold?