Cash

All of them, apparently. Our nickel/dime hybrid was ineffective against both run and pass. 38 carries for 200 yards on the ground (5.3/rush), 21-27 (78%) for 245 yards through the air. 3 passing TDs, 2 rushing TDs. I guess George Edwards focused the game plan around stopping Julian Edelman? If so, good job.

What was really stupid was taking the timeout as soon as the play ended. It was obviously close enough for either a measurement or a review, or both. At that point, you request a measurement, which temporarily stops the clock, and if you get the first down, take a time out, and if you don't get the first down, run the clock down and kick the field goal. Generally speaking, I think the move there is to go for it, but in our case, I was rooting for the FG, because that's how little faith I have in our O against their D. (Loser mentality, I guess.) We would've run it right up the gut, they would've known exactly what we were going to do, Wilfork would've collapsed the middle of the line, and Lynch or Jackson would've been thrown for a loss. But there's no excuse to kick a FG with 20+ seconds left when you could've kicked it with 4 seconds left.

Ryan Fitzpatrick is who we thought he was. If he had good accuracy, he would be a borderline elite QB. But he has bad accuracy, and there you go. But at least we were fun to watch. When was the last time you legitimately enjoyed a Bills game as a football fan with Edwards under center? San Diego in 2008, that's when.

If another McNabb-level QB becomes available in the trade market, I'm all for it. Do what it takes to get the guy. But assuming that doesn't happen, the next best option is to draft a guy high. Even if he's not "NFL ready". No rookie is NFL ready. Even when a rookie has a really good year for a good team (Matt Ryan, Flacco, Roethlisbathroom, and Marino, and that's the whole list), it basically comes as a surprise to the team that drafted him. Atlanta didn't expect to make the playoffs 2 years ago. Baltimore wouldn't have even started Flacco if Troy Smith didn't get hurt. It's hard enough to find a good QB without limiting yourself to only ones that can help you right away. Peyton Manning struggled mightily in his rookie year. Should the Colts have passed on him for a guy who was NFL ready? From what I've seen so far, Luck looks like the real deal, but I don't expect him to declare for the draft this year. Mallett is a little shakier, but possibly the real deal. Jake Locker is dead to me. And I haven't seen him yet, but I'm told Arizona's QB is maybe better than Mallett.

Bruce's listed weight during the Super Bowl years was 278, which would be considered light for a 3-4 DE these days. Of course, Bruce's game was really that of a 4-3 DE, he just happened to play in a 3-4.

I'll be shocked if Edwards can con yet another coaching staff into thinking he's an NFL QB. Especially since he's in the last year of his deal. Who's going to trade for a guy who doesn't know your offense, and isn't signed next year? That's preposterous.

Kelsay Close to Extension Deal I really hope this doesn't turn out to be true. How can anyone at 1 Bill Drive not see the same things that we all see? He can't cover anyone, he can't rush the passer without a hand on the ground (and even then, isn't very good), he's small, slow, and easily pushed around. I don't care that this band of losers keeps voting him their captain. If anything, that's incentive to get rid of him. This is the team that's been largely indifferent about losing for most of Kelsay's tenure. If that's the kind of leadership he's providing in the locker room, count me out. And for anyone queuing up that old chestnut, "they get paid to evaluate football players, you're just some armchair GM," here's my response: Yes, Nix et al are professional evaluators of talent, and yes, I'm an amateur. And yes, they have access to the coach's film, and know what Kelsay's assignment was on every play, and can watch practice, so they have a lot more information than I do. BUT! They are bad at their jobs, possibly incompetent. I'm not impressed by anyone's professional status unless it appears to be legitimate. If I was hired as the Bills' GM, I think the team would probably lose every year. But guess what? It already loses every year! I'm sorry, but you can't appeal to authority when that authority is a laughingstock around the league.

I picked up Aaron Hernandez and am starting him this week. Whitner is also bad at covering TEs, although swapping out Poz for Ellison helps our TE coverage a lot. The problem with Kelsay is that, as an OLB, he's extremely bad at both pass coverage and pass rush. He was unblocked on one of Rodgers' TD throws last week, but just wasn't fast enough to affect the throw. Granted, Rodgers is really good, but still, you'd think an unblocked OLB would be able to hurry the QB. Kelsay really does nothing well at the position he currently plays.

I thought Spiller's speed was supposed to make the O-line better. That's what we were told after the draft, anyway.

Hey, like Chris Brown said today, you can't fill all the holes in just one year. I'm not sure why they didn't bother to fill any of the holes this past year, but whatever. Clearly this is all part of the plan.

Win.

It's always the same for me when it comes to Whitner: I want to like the guy, but it's not quite there. I like the fact that he's upset about this, especially because I feel like not everyone on the team is. But then I come back to this: What's he going to do about it, and what's he ever done about it? He wants to be a team leader, and he talks a great game, but if he's one of your key players on D, your defense isn't going to be good enough to make the playoffs. He's a good player, but he doesn't make a big impact in any phase of the game, and he struggles to cover tight ends. Solid starter, that's about it. In fact, I don't think our D can ever be good as long as the two main leaders are Whitner and Kelsay. They are princes among losers.

You need to visit other sites besides this one. Reid's taken a lot of flack, and rightfully so. The whole point in trading away McNabb was that Kolb was both the future and ready to step in and play right now. Here's one article: http://espn.go.com/blog/nfceast/post/_/id/18799/out-of-character-move-for-the-eagles Here's another: http://espn.go.com/blog/nfceast/post/_/id/18806/andy-reid-makes-a-knee-jerk-decision Here's a third: http://insider.espn.go.com/nfl/insider/columns/story?columnist=joyner_kc&id=5602804&action=upsell&appRedirect=http%3a%2f%2finsider.espn.go.com%2fnfl%2finsider%2fcolumns%2fstory%3fcolumnist%3djoyner_kc%26id%3d5602804 And I only went to 1 site. There's dozens more floating around the internets. [EDIT: For the record, I think both coaches made the right move to play the better QB over the worse QB, but Reid's move really makes the McNabb trade look bad. Can Kolb ever gain the confidence of the guys in the locker room now that he's been benched? If you weren't actually ready to commit to Kolb (and you shouldn't have been, because he's not very good), you shouldn't have traded McNabb. At least Gailey can't hurt the long-term fortunes of either the team or any QB on the team by switching QBs.]

First, I would be tremendously pleased, especially since the Bills have never beaten the Patriots since I moved to Boston. Second, I would be almost as surprised as I was pleased. Third, I might reassess the team and bump them up a bit, but it would depend on how they won. Upsets do happen, and bad teams sometimes do beat good teams. Right now, I see the Bills as something like a 2 to 4 win team, but a win in Foxboro with some legitimacy might move that estimation up to 6 wins or so. My official pre-season prediction was 4-12, and I usually wind up within 1 win either way.

Great post. That's my main problem, too. I have no fundamental problem with taking your lumps and rebuilding, and Nix was fairly clear that this was going to be a rebuilding year. But what rebuilding have we done? What are we building around? From the end of last season to right now, there's been only 1 move of significance on the O-line (Cornell Green), and zero change at QB. No TEs or WRs of any significance were acquired. There were a few pieces acquired on the defensive front 7 (Troup, Davis & Dwan Edwards [EDIT: forgot about Torbor & Ayodele]), but they're pieces of the puzzle, not guys you can build around. Maybe Troup will be, but he hasn't shown it yet. Detroit was really bad last season, but their fans didn't mind so much, because they felt like they had 2 core pieces they could build around in Stafford & Megatron. The Rams are going to be terrible this year, but with Bradford under center, at least they & their fans feel like they've got something to build around. How about this Bills team? Who's our franchise player on either side of the ball? CJ Spiller is a change of pace back in a 3-way timeshare, so it's not him. What's our identity on defense? How about on offense? There's just nothing there. Nix was hired on New Year's Eve last year. In the ensuing 10 months (almost), almost nothing has been done to shore up the crumbling foundation of this team. That doesn't mean there's no hope for the future, or even that the current regime is incapable of shoring up that foundation. It's just depressing to know that the rebuilding was essentially extended by a full year because of this wasted offseason.

I'm into it. Still wouldn't pass on a potential franchise QB in the 1st, though.

Wow, that's tough. QB is the most important position by far, but elite pass-rusher is probably 2nd or 3rd most important. I love Jimbo dearly, but at the end of the day, I've always considered Bruce to be the best DE in NFL history, whereas Kelly is probably outside of the top 10 QBs ever. With a tear in my eye, I take Bruce.

The one thing I'll give the Bills is that at the time, they played a 4-3 scheme and felt that their #1 need was pass rush, particularly from the DE position. Mathews was only projected as a LB, never (at least that I saw) as a DE. And he's one of the most classic fits for a 3-4 OLB I've seen in a while. Wouldn't be nearly as good playing OLB in a 4-3 (moving to DE on passing downs). Still light years ahead of Maybin, though. Defensible pick at the time, bad pick in immediate hindsight, and unforgivable now that we've switched to a 3-4. Cushing is not much of a pass rusher, much more the 3-4 ILB or 4-3 OLB type, like Kawika Mitchell. Plus, it's hard to fault the Bills for passing on the dude until we see him do anything special without the help of steroids. What's Shawne Merriman done since being busted? I give the Bills a pass here. But passing on Orakpo to take Maybin? Orakpo was not really seen as a tweener, much more a straight DE. 260+ lbs. of solid muscle. Washington did wind up playing him at OLB on run downs, but he did most of his damage with his hand on the ground in pass situations, and he would've been an every-down DE for the Bills' 4-3 defense. And he still looks great as a pass-rushing OLB in Washington's new 3-4. There's no scheme in the NFL where Maybin could even come close to Orakpo in terms of on-field production. This is just unconscionable. And yes, there were some concerns at the time about Orakpo taking plays off, and the Bills have had some bad history with Texas players, but there were certainly plenty of red flags around Maybin as well. The bottom line is that these 2 guys play exactly the same position, but one is really good and one is really bad. The entire job of a scouting department is to figure out who will be good and who will not, and they royally botched it on this one.

Jake Locker is dead to me as a potential 1st-round pick. There's no way you can complete 4 passes in 20 attempts against any college defense and justify 1st-round status. I know Nebraska's D is very good, but you know whose is better? Every team in the NFL. Locker is looking like a possible Jevan Snead 2.0 right now. A friend of mine who watches a lot more college football than I do thinks that Foles is the best QB so far this year. I'll have to check him out.

It still bothers me that Chan Gailey needed to see 2 additional games of Trent Edwards before realizing what most of us have known for a while. Were there no available tapes of Bills games from the last 3 years?

Way too early for any serious evaluation of the draft class, but one thing does continue to surprise me: 2 picks (albeit 7th-rounders) cut in preseason and not invited to the practice squad. That's somewhat rare, especially when you consider that it's the first year of a new regime. Typically new regimes do some housecleaning with the roster, getting rid of a bunch of the previous regime's guys, and bringing in their own guys. Every draft pick is by default one of the new regime's guys, but 2 of them were unceremoniously shown the door. It's not really a good or bad thing, it's just unusual. And for what it's worth, DTs, especially nose tackles, usually take some time to develop. I like what I've seen of Troup so far, but he's not going to be an impact player as a rookie.

How is Lee supposed to fight for the ball? Hang around behind the line of scrimmage and try to rip it away from Spiller or Jackson?

If Marshawn's going to continue to get 3 carries a game, the Bills would be moronic not to trade him. What's the difference between 3 carries of Marshawn Lynch and 3 carries of Joique Bell? Maybe 2 yards?

The same idea occurred to me several times during Sunday's game. I say go for it. Maybe not 100% of the time, but why not have our base offense be reminiscent of the Single Wing? (Actually, we should probably just run the Wing-T, but it apparently takes a couple of years to really learn.) We can throw a QB out there in obvious passing situations or 2-minute drills, but other than that, let's go for the Triple Bison. What's the downside? We lose? We're already doing that! At least it's an attempt to shake things up. Plus, Marshawn & Fred have both shown some success on HB passes (I think Marshawn also had a few at Cal), and Spiller might have a decent arm as well. Who says we have to run every time? The main problem with this idea (besides the fact that no NFL coach is ballsy enough to try it) is that our TEs are crappy. If we're going to be running 90% of the time, we'd need at least 2 TEs who are solid blockers. Maybe we could have Meredith play TE or something. But there doesn't seem to be much point in having any non-Lee Evans WRs on the field.

Miami may not have looked good, but they beat us at home. So that's not a great argument for saying we're better than them.