BillsVet

Even though the league can keep teams relatively equal in salary cap dollars, they can do nothing about the people who actually use that money. There's no question a chasm exists between the bottom feeders and those who regularly have post-season success. PIT, IND, and SD aren't big UFA users. NE hasn't signed a big UFA since Adalius Thomas in 2007. Yet all four win season after season. I chalk it up to talent evaluation in the draft, and they've all built long term successful organizations this way. I recall when Jerry Jones was spending big in the mid 90s and pushing cap jail off one more season. It didn't work. Now, teams realize success does not lie with spending more in UFA, but remaining far beneath the cap max and doing the due diligence before draft day. It is possible to rebuild quickly, so long as a team has the right people upstairs who can identify and draft talent. Atlanta and Miami did it, but not without their ownership looking in the mirror and realizing there was a huge problem. My problem with the Bills is on two fronts: coaching and management. There's no question talent exists on both sides of the ball, although not as much as I'd like in the trenches. 2009 should be interesting, but if they have a bad season, I'm interested to see how management beyond the coaching staff is addressed.

How many teams open the season 0-3 and make the playoffs? Starting 0-3 You'd better jump to conclusions after Week 3. Do the research first.

I was not at RWS during the final days of TD's tenure. But I've read and spoke with season ticket holders from 2005 that it was got ugly. It's still August and opening day isn't for another 3 weeks, but if this team starts off slow, I anticipate big problems at RWS. You can only hype a team so much before fans demand results. For three years the team has talked about the good things without really changing anything. Promising everything and delivering nothing is wearing thin among Bills fans.

DJ's biggest issue in nearly 9 seasons as a NFL HC is an inability to find good coordinators. No one he's hired as a DC or OC has ever been considered for a NFL HC job. Thus far, he's gone through six coordinators in 8 seasons of being a full time HC. None of them (Gary Crowton, John Shoop, Greg Blache, Steve Fairchild, Perry Fewell, and Turk Schonert) should be considered innovative or up and coming coordinators. If the man can't pick a coordinator, then I can't see him knowing his own players.

The front office has been essentially in place for the better part of the decade. They have not earned the benefit of the doubt, and waiting for them to deliver in personnel is worthless. In the last five season of AFC play, 4 teams (PIT, NE, IND, and SD) account for 17 of the 30 playoff appearances. Obviously the executives in those franchises, Kevin Colbert, Belichick/Pioli, Polian, and AJ Smith have it figured out. Another five teams (NYJ, DEN, BAL, TEN, and JAC) have been in the post-season twice. That means 9 out of the 16 AFC teams account for 90% of the playoff berths. Just four teams have not made the playoffs in the past five seasons of AFC play: BUF, OAK, CIN, and HOU. This front office is being schooled, especially the owner who isn't a Mike Brown, but still has his hands all over this failure. After three seasons, I expect more. This teams is 3 seasons removed from an almost total rebuild. They need to win now, not 2-3 years from now. And that means nuking the organization if they don't win in 2009.

Let's face it, the Bills aren't making long term plans because the owner is nearly 91. The stadium lease is up after 2012, the front office is eerily the same as it was when TD was around, and the HC couldn't get fired despite going 2-8 to finish 2008. What this team needs is something akin to what Arthur Blank, then owner Wayne Huizenga, and Clark Hunt have done with Atlanta, Miami, and KC respectively. They blew up the franchise, from GM on down and went into total rebuild mode. Except a funny thing happened to the first two teams last season. They hired competent front office people in Tom Dimitroff and Bill Parcells who brought a new attitude to the team in the wake of repeated failures. TD may have failed, but that's no cause to avoid allowing football people to make football decisions.

I definitely agree...in that the coaching staff has a propensity to place their own players into positions for failure. We used to say in the Army that people are either set up to fail or succeed. It's the job of the on-field managers, i.e. coaches, to know their personnel's strengths and weaknesses. I don't have the feeling DJ does, or he's unwilling to acknowledge it. How does a coach with 30+ seasons in the NFL not know what to do in pressure situations, or repeatedly make the wrong call? Personally, I believe he's just not that good and he knows it.

Starters versus starters last night was not encouraging. If we're to believe continuity is going to propel this team, then I expect more. The coaching staff remains the same, as do most of the starters on offense and defense, save the OL. Last night I saw a team with nearly a month of practicing and two preseason games regress from last week. For the record I like Edwards, but his last two games he's 17-21 for 124 yards. Losman used to have stat lines like that as well, although the OC has changed. It is indeed one preseason game, but teams should be improving during preseason, not getting worse. The "it's one game" argument carries no weight in my mind, preseason or regular season. I recall watching preseason in 07 and 08 with fans remarking that it was only preseason. Both of those years, it was definitely a foreshadowing of things to come. I firmly believe this season will be no different.

The Packers are in the midst of implementing a 3-4 defense under new DC Dom Capers. Trent mentioned that GB threw a lot of looks they weren't prepared for. I cannot help but remember him saying this, along with Posluszny last season. This is a trend with Buffalo coaches in that the team sees looks they're not prepared for. Unacceptable. Billboard Buffalo News I cannot comprehend the fact that the team didn't work against the 3-4. Their starting defense should be struggling, especially new 3-4 DE's and those OLB's like Kampman. But they didn't look bewildered against the Bills starting offense. Frankly I don't care how those second and third stringers play against their opposing backups. But in that first half, Buffalo clearly was beaten bad and after a month of practicing, I expect more. I truly don't think TO's presence would have changed much, but it's a convenient excuse to exempt the coaching staff from preparing the team. It's going to be a long season.

I have a feeling that as the season progresses there will more frequent max protect blocking called. I just purchased the 2009 Football Outsiders offering and their analysis notes that only the Chiefs went max protect less than the Bills. I just don't think they can sacrifice receiving options for blockers and there should be plenty of 2 TE sets. I do agree WRT to Elam, I wish Peters would have gotten a hand on the him. But it's absurd to make that play call, especially for a coach who's been in pro football more than 30 years.

It is such a subjective statistic, yet many fans who want nothing more than to malign Peters hang onto is as fact. Certainly pass protection schemes and other variables play into it, but tell that to those who flat out hate Peters and cite the 11.5 sacks allowed. I vividly recall Abram Elam running around Peters in the away Jets game last December. Yet how many OLT's are called on to block blitzing DB's? Not many, primarily because it's a mismatch.

That may be a stretch considering the schedule. 5-11 or 6-10 is very possible.

How many times does it take Turk and Dick to figure out the 3-4? Right, it's pre-season and they don't want to show too much. I forgot. Buffalo saw the 3-4 eight times last season and never developed a game plan for it. The thing which irritates me after tonight's performance is the GB put it into place just this off-season. We're not talking about NE's version here.

Playing timid? DJ and his coaches cannot help but impart a timidity onto many of their players. They coach scared, and it's no surprise some players, particularly TE, play scared. They don't take shots down the field, the defense won't blitz much, and physically they're dominated more often than not at the line of scrimmage. Conservative football is for the fourth quarter when you're up 21 points. The Bills seem to have a habit under DJ of playing that way until they're down big.

Jauron is a french name, correct? Because he's surrendering like a frenchman right now.

All right, I'm going to say it: Hamdan sucks. There's a reason he's never been trusted as more than a 3rd stringer. He has no touch on his throws, and regularly hoists up wounded ducks. May the chroisen ones now enter the fray.

It's decisions like this which remind me of when they started A Train over Fred Jackson. Or played an injured McGee at Miami last season. Or insisted on starting Losman late last season. Or refused to start Jabari Greer. This coaching staff refuses to make changes unless it's so obvious a blind man could see it. I'm not sure if it's a matter of pride, indecision, or just plain ignorance. Either way, I would think they'd know what they've got on the roster. Apparently for three years running they haven't.

They'd take one big cap hit, but I wouldn't be so sure they'd finish 7-9 with their schedule. Based on how bad the starters on both sides looked tonight, they could be 4-12. The nice thing about the cap is, it measures cap dollars, not actual dollars spent. I suspect the Bills wouldn't be able to cut those guys without surpassing the cap max.

I'm still amazed the team will start Schouman, who weighs about 230, at TE. Who's he going to block? Opposing DB's? If Stupar is the best blocker of the group, he'll be getting plenty of PT next to Walker and Butler and helping them block 3-4 OLB's.

I'm paraphrasing here, but didn't Steve Tasker say earlier in the telecast that the Bills believe Fitzpatrick can win them some games if needed. Sure, maybe at the HS level. Otherwise he's someone who should be joining JP in the UFL. It's the third preseason game, and the team has no identity, no attitude. They've never had that this decade.

Does DJ let Schonert have the QB throw the ball more than 12 yards downfield?

I thought this team was one of the most disciplined penalty wise in the NFL. Apparently that doesn't kick in yet. Special teams haven't been all that special this season.

Money talks in UFA. Unfortunately, the Bills aren't concerned about winning as much as they should be. Don't get me wrong, all teams' bottom lines are the number 1 priority. However, when you've gone 9 straight seasons without the playoffs, don't cry poor to me and expect sympathy. I recall people saying in advance of free agency that the team would definitely go out and spend money. They didn't, save for a released WR who they had no intention of signing before his release on 3/4. How is it that small markets in Pittsburgh, Indianapolis, and Green Bay win repeatedly? It's having a solid front office which replaces talent and keeps their best players. Buffalo does not have it, and 9 seasons of losing are the byproduct.

Make no mistake RW runs the team. And his personal advisor is the team CFO, Jeff Littman. Russ gets the little decisions, but this is a team run by a 91 year old and a financial guy who told RW to fire Bill Polian. This team's leadership from owner to HC is among the worst in the NFL.

He also got a 47 out of 50 on the wonderlic. So he's a smart guy. Nevermind that Carolina decided after one season starting they needed to spend a 2nd on Ryan Kalil. He's smart, works hard, was cheap, and had a name that wasn't Fowler or Preston. Otherwise, there's no change.