BillsVet

Biggest difference? The pass rush by a mile. The 34 outside backers have not been able to replace the rush provided by Schobel in a 43. As a result of lacking pass-rush, the team has allowed 14 passing TD's in 6 games. And I haven't even started with the rush defense, allowing 174 ypg.

Ernie Sims was traded to PHI when DET went away from the T2. Johnson is simply amazing, but he's a #2 and they'd busted on enough around that point. If you exempt the 09 picks who look good, the only top pick from 2000-06 still on the roster is Backus who's OK at LT. That team had more huge busts than anyone in the NFL.

see Lions, Detroit 2000-2009 1st rounders 2000 Stockar McDougle, OT Oklahoma 2001 Jeff Backus, OT Michigan 2002 Joey Harrington, QB Oregon 2003 Charles Rogers, WR Michigan State 2004 Roy Williams WR Texas Kevin Jones, RB Virginia Tech 2005 Mike Williams, WR USC 2006 Ernie Sims, LB Florida State 2007 Calvin Johnson, WR Georgia Tech 2008 Gosder Cherilus, OT Boston College 2009 Matthew Stafford, QB Georgia Brandon Pettigrew, TE Oklahoma State Exempt the 09 picks, and that's one thin crew there.

There's a huge difference in the morning and drive time shows. The former is more entertainment than information (incessant arguing with Sullivan) and uses inane polls to build a topic for the day. In the afternoon, there are more guests who participate longer with much less arguing, especially with between the hosts and Sullivan. Media cater to the lowest common denominator and as is evidenced by TBD, there are plenty of goobers who eat up these polls that ask "if you want the Bills to win?" Quality of programming will always take a back seat to ratings if the former inhibits the latter. I'm actually surprised the afternoon duo got Aaron Schatz from Football Outsiders on each week given that Schatz is more an analyst of certain metrics rather than someone espousing the popular opinion, like most commentators at ESPN, NFLN, et al.

Hard to talk about hidden gems when most of the candidates haven't taken the field or play sparingly. Moats, Batten, Carrington, and Troup aren't seeing enough PT to even know if they'll be productive. It's not their fault, but I'd like to see these guys play significant time before anointing them hidden gems because personnel genius Buddy Nix drafted them. That said, Kyle Williams is the only defender picked beyond Round 3 who became a decent player since the last rebuilding commenced in 2006.

Homer fans want to feel good and will highlight anything and everything to facilitate this. Feeling good and hope are more important than reality and the pain that can come with it when things don't work out for your favorite football team. I guess they'll have to finish with 2 or fewer wins with a few more blowouts to even begin convincing the hardcore homers how bad it is.

Preseason talent evaluator. Now in Game 10 of 20.

It's OK. PTR's been wasting people's time for a long time now. I will be very interested to see how opponents defend Fitz with his "newfound" arm strength and accuracy. KC's secondary is better than Baltimore's, and I'm sure the KC defense will be ready. If Fitz and Gailey score points this week, I'll give them the credit for it.

I would expect him to go into political speech and not painting a false picture a la Gregg Williams in 2001 in saying the team could win the SB. That's simply non-sensical for someone to say something so blatantly incorrect. Sometimes confidence is exuded through less talk, not more. As for players, they had film on them, namely Edwards. It was a matter of being arrogant and thinking they could reverse him, which turned out to be totally wrong. The issue is how long fans want to wait. For those of us committed fans who've been watching the past decade, the time us up. Fans who've begun following the team in the middle of their downslide and/or are dedicated homers don't seem to care if they ever win so long as hope is still there. Either way, their time is running short with this third rebuild in a decade. Other than the Lions, who does that?

One career game and there's talk of a contract extension for a guy whose deal doesn't expire for another year plus. Wow.

No one wanted to work for this organization, and it shows in the coaching hires. I'd argue no one wanted to be GM, hence their "whirlwind" search in December when it came down to Nix and the soon to be fired John Guy. The paucity of candidates probably demonstrates no one wanted to interview. Same goes for the HC and staff hires. I don't think many of them would be in the NFL without a 3rd rate franchise like Buffalo. But hey, even Oakland gets calls about their HC openings. What did you think "not that far away" really meant? Going 0-6 to start the season after 6-10 last year? Or was this a relative statement, in that it hasn't been that long since Buffalo fielded a playoff team.

Hope his knee isn't as serious as the mysterious knee injury suffered by Cornell Green. Then he'd be out indefinitely. BTW, who's his backup if he can't go or plays PT on Sunday? Depth at OT is a minor concern.

One moral victory and everything's fine. Homers. Still 10 games remaining in year 0 of a massive rebuild in which they've started 0-6. Right on Dante.

I thought Buddy said in January that they weren't that far away?

I see them getting a top 3 pick in 2011, season or no season. But I'd also say that word circulates around the league above the HC and GM level among coaches, scouts, agents, and executives about which franchises are places you want to go. That being the case, I think the Bills dysfunctional organizational structure doesn't lend itself to getting great UFA's. So, it becomes by default all about building through the draft as ole Buddy says. That top pick needs to be an instant impact starter and not a KR/part time player at an easy to fill position. If they're not crazy about the QB prospects (provided Luck remains in school) then it has to be a pass rusher. I'll take another season of Bell (can't believe I said that) to find the top guy who can rush the passer and play something of a hybrid role in a 34 or 43. Next to QB, the pass rush is the most important thing a team needs. A pass rush makes the defense infinitely better

CB97 you're a self righteous type who sees nothing wrong with settling for less as long as someone promises you hope. What after the past 4-5 seasons do you cite as demonstrative of impending success? And don't tell me you expected a rebuilding season, because that wasn't your perspective in the off-season while you groveled at the feet of Nix, Gailey, and Wilson. Winning is the only thing and even Chan espoused that mindset after the game. Your response here to take the moral high ground and cast me as miserable and thus undeserving of being a fan is your ONLY retort when things are so bad. You've got nothing else to offer in response to my criticism. And for the record, Tim Couch, JaMarcus Russell, Aundray Bruce, Jeff George, Courtney Brown, and David Carr were #1 overall picks. What's your point?

Well, it is 1986 all over again if... Ryan Fitzpatrick turns into Jim Kelly Chris Kelsay becomes Bruce Smith Paul Posluszny becomes Darryl Talley Steve Johnson becomes Andre Reed and most importantly... Buddy Nix becomes Bill Polian Yep, just like 1986.

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.