BillsVet

Funny thing you neglected to mention about Chris Johnson's 2008 campaign: He carried 251 times for 1228 yards and 9 TD's. He also caught 43 passes for 260 yards and 1 TD. By my math, that's almost 300 touches from the LOS in a standard 16 game season, or about 19 touches a game. Spiller after today has 39 touches from the LOS in 6 games, or about 6 per game. That puts him on pace to get almost 100 touches by the end of the season. No, Spiller isn't a bust and isn't even close. But if the HC can't involve the 9th overall pick more than 6 touches a game from the LOS, something is seriously wrong. Aside from that, the offensive put up some great numbers today against a formidable foe. Now, if they can only carry that through the rest of the season.

Buddy's comments about being asleep when UFA began tell a lot of the story about this team's belief in UFA. A lot has to happen between now and free agency, but I think their perspective is that if Donahoe's spending on Fletcher, Bledsoe (trade) and Spikes didn't work, why continue that. Of course we know that with good coaching, a mix of top UFA's can take a team to greater heights in less than 3 years. But someone will then chime in that no one wants to play in Buffalo and therefore the Bills will never be able to sign anyone. Takeo Spikes 2003 anyone? People forget that SD did try their hand in UFA back in 2001. They signed Marcellus Wiley, Steve Christie, and a couple others at the outset of their rebuild. If Buffalo is quiet at the outset of the next free agency period and the PR spinmeisters begin repeating the build through the draft mantra, it's a complete cop out. Buffalo needs no less than 2-3 good UFA's next year so long as there's a new CBA. They don't have a huge payroll to preclude them from doing so in 2011 either. Not spending money on more talented players tells me they talk a game, but won't back up their collective mouths.

On Point 1: How does Troy Polamalu or Bob Sanders do it? Both of those guys are in the 5'8-5'10 range and they're not victimized nearly as much. The reason is, IND and PIT both have a pass rush that allows them to make more plays in the secondary. Buffalo does not have one consistent threat to pressure QB's in their front 7. But I still don't see TE's scoring 7 TD's against Buffalo's secondary in 4 games. A lot of fans love to cite the tackle statistic as indicative of a player's success or failure. I would argue that DB's making a lot of tackles are doing so because the front 7 is so porous and/or the DB is bad and allows plenty of catches. For my money, I'll draft pass rushers and get myself squared away there before even thinking of drafting a DB. We can see after years of the DJ regime that DB's without a pass rush are almost worthless in coverage. No pass rush and 4 HOF'ers in a secondary would be hard to stop average passing teams.

I think Whitner's frequent Twitter posts have made his hands worse than they already were. He couldn't catch a cold if he tried.

Here's the tale of the tape: Ravens GM Ozzie Newsome (with owner Steve Bisciotti) versus Marv Levy/Russ Brandon/Buddy Nix (with owner Ralph Wilson) One proven GM who drafts well each year with an owner who doesn't micromanage. The other team featured 2 GM's who had no business being GM followed by a formerly retired Pro Personnel Director with a micromanaging owner.

The biggest myth on TBD is that the draft is a crapshoot. It's an argument made for two reasons: 1) Suppress criticism of the team for drafting poorly by highlighting each mistake other teams make. No team, not even Indianapolis, is faultless in the draft. It doesn't make Buffalo better. 2) Because some posters are intellectually lazy and seek to apply a blanket label to a subject with nuances and which is addressed better by some GM's over others. Teams that draft well typically are better. Teams that don't usually dip to far into UFA and used to get into cap trouble. And then there's a team like Buffalo that drafts poorly and signs bad UFA's.

Wow. It took about 75 posts in this thread before someone made a weak attempt to discredit the writer. Back in 2008 or 2009 it would have been about 5 posts before this happened. Tells me the attitude of most fans have changed drastically with an 0-5 start. Then again, the homers will rise again, and it'll happen the first week of January when their season actually begins.

I'm more concerned with Carrington not being on the field because he's a 3rd rounder not ready to play in the NFL. I don't care which scheme they're running, 3-4, 4-3, 5-2, 0-11, it doesn't matter.

Twenty five years ago, RW unknowingly hired the best GM in modern NFL history. That lucky move enabled Buffalo to go from bottom dweller to perennial NFL power in 3 seasons. Now, the team's future is in doubt and we're making comparisons to a time when RW was a spry 70 and had a legitimate NFL GM? Not even close. Buffalo remains a doormat, because unlike 25 years ago, someone had a cogent vision for the future. Now, the future is in the hands of a 92 year old man. Different scenario entirely.

I reject this idea that the league step in and remove the owner simply because it creates a bad precedent. Buffalo's situation can only be changed with fans who stop showing up and getting home games blacked out. Now, they'll be some homer who says that's how the team gets moved, but fans who root for a team out of fear have serious issues. The failures this season have focused more attention onto the front office than they'd like. Not surprisingly, the GM hasn't been available for comment and is now traveling in search of the next starting QB. I think all we're asking for as fans is for the team to stop the hype, admit they stink, and put their money where their mouth is. At least Schein will say it for them.

A rookie cap may be in place for next season and it may not. For argument's sake, what if the team has to spend big money on a top pick a la STL with Bradford or DET with Stafford? Does anyone really think this franchise at this point in their owner's life will commit to 50M+ to a guy who hasn't played a down of NFL football? As has been said millions of times on TBD, the team does not begin a turnaround until the team is owned by someone new. And even that may be fatal to us Bills fans.

Boy things are bad when fans line up to credit Buddy "I sleep during free agency" Nix with not actually trading for Jared Gaither during the off-season. It was obvious that Gaither had a host of issues, namely a back injury, demotion from LT to RT, and wanted major dollars. The Bills aren't a team looking to add payroll, unless it's draft picks. I doubted they wanted anything to do with Gaither for this reason and the fact Baltimore would demand at least a 3rd round pick. Buffalo would rather use their 3rd rounders on guys who don't dress anyway than have an injured malcontent.

I guess if there were any homers left, Adam Schein would be target #1 for them now. Maybe it'll take an 0-16 before some fans wake up and recognize that the entire organization is really messed up and almost beyond repair without better ownership who want to win AND profit.

Least talented team in the NFL easy this season hands down. I would consider re-signing Posluszny for the right money, but Florence and Youboty aren't worth extending. Then again, Kelsay is an absolute waste of money too and they kept him around for some inexplicable reason. With all of their needs, if they don't sign 2-3 solid UFA's next off-season, you can read between the lines and see their strategy. Even with Posluszny, they'll need help at ILB eventually, OLB, OT, C, WR2, QB, TE depth, and don't look now, but S.

TD made some bad picks, but he also provided the Marv/DJ/Smithers regime with most all of their best players: Clements, Schobel, McGahee, McGee, Peters, Fletcher, and Evans. It's been so long since the front office was even mediocre drafting that people forget that there were some decent picks from 01-05. Not saying TD was great or even average, but the drafting from 06-09 is so bad it makes TD look good. And for the record, it's been 5+ years since TD ran a draft. If the team can't recover after 6 off-seasons, the problem runs deeper than most realize at OBD. How can anyone trust RW to make choose the right people to run an organization that's 0 for 2 this decade in rebuilds? Color me doubtful on a 92 year old man knowing what he's doing in the NFL of 2010.

I think the Bills started their slide into bottom feeder football when they hired Marv Levy as GM who of course hired DJ. Sure, TD was bad, but by now those Levy drafts should be paying dividends. Yet, they're left with almost nothing from 2 draft classes: Whitner, Williams, and Posluzny. Three starters from the two drafts supposed to have started the last attempt at rebuilding. And even after Marv left, the 08 and 09 draft were underwhelming.

We're frequently told that things will change or have changed. Have they really? It's the same decision makers up there, except now it's Buddy and Chan out front rather than Marv/Smithers and DJ. As long as RW is picking the GM's and the only one authorized to fire anyone, nothing changes. I was a proponent of hiring a consultant to find the next GM/HC rather than entrusting that function to Mr. Smithers. Predictably, the search was a huge tease and we're left with a massive rebuild which the owner assures us will take 3 years. This for a team looking at 11 straight seasons without a post-season and have lost 99 games since 2000. What really gets me is how RW is still micro-managing personnel. He demanded Lynch in 2007 after McGahee made his comments, he liked Edwards when it was clear he'd lost the locker room in 09, and finally it wouldn't surprise me that he wanted to keep Kelsay for his ability to provide post-game comments. RW will never understand that paying a little more to front office types would win a lot of points across the league and result in better draft picks and more wisely spent UFA dollars. But, it's a business and that sort of thing would only hinder the bottom line Littman is striving to achieve.

Buffalo leads the NFL in moral victories since 2006. It's how homers explain away garbage football when they've got nothing left to argue with against the realists.

Pastabelly out at ESPN Teflon Tom Modrak will need to leak his info to another place Lenny P. works. Funny how Modrak doesn't want to be GM, but he's so awesome at picking future Pro-Bowlers. With his manufactured resume, you'd think teams would be lining up for his services as a GM or college scouting director.

As others have said, just call it the 2010 pre-season slate of 20 games. Ironic the team didn't mention Green's injury, just that he'd be out indefinitely. It's probably a means to protect themselves from looking worse for wasting 9M dollars on a journeyman former Raider who wasn't re-signed. Cordaro Howard is playing because they've got no one else plain and simple. If he doesn't draw attention to himself and plays better than Green, great. But when you look at the OL, they've got issues at, in this order, LT, RT, and C going into 2011. I don't think Howard could be any worse than Green and besides, offensive genius Gailey recruited him to GT.

Spiller is unproven but exciting, Evans is the 9 route king, Wood has been so-so since the injury, Bell is backup/cut material, McIntyre is the FB and plays ST, D. Nelson is a backup, Williams is high-effort but overmatched as a 3-4NT (and part of many bad run defenses), Troup is unproven, Poz is average, McKelvin was a backup to start the season, and Byrd has one year under him. Stewart, D. Williams, Beason, Kalil, and Gross are all proven NFL commodities. None of those Bills have 2 or more seasons of above-average play. Buffalo has average players at the secondary positions (ILB, CB, S, G) and is woefully talent-less at the important ones (QB, OT, pass rush). That's how they're 0-5 on the fast track to 0-6.

Whining doesn't cure anything. Then again, all the whining hasn't gotten Tom Modrak fired yet, although there's never been a bad pick charged to him so college scouting is fine as it is.

At least those teams have one or two solid guys, Calvin Johnson in Detroit and Nnamdi Asomugha in Oakland. Buffalo has not one established game-changer opponents plan around. Yeah, and in 2008 the Bills traded for their big DT in Stroud. Their big UFA acquisition in 06, Tripplett, had just been cut, McCargo was in the fast-lane to bustdom, and the team had allowed more than 120 rypg in 06 and 07. So much for smaller quicker. That strategy is killing their transition to a 3-4, which BTW is allowing 185 rypg now. I can't imagine having Ngata in the middle of a 3-4 or 4-3 with decent LB's free to make tackles.

Not only do the Bills fool the draft experts, they fool the people in the draft. With time, the front office is exposed as having no clue then and now.

Polian his the Ralph Wilson landmine. Both teams stink, although my money is on Carolina getting better faster. They've got some building blocks in Jon Beason, Jordan Gross, Deangelo Williams, Ryan Kalil, and Jonathan Stewart among others. Buffalo has nothing established to speak of.