BrooklynBills

/end thread

I think bringing in a GM/President who will evaluate Ryan and have the power to fire him whenever he wants is all they have to do. They need to hand over the football operations to someone who oversee all aspects of the organization.

I don't think Thurmann will be fired. Anything involving the defense starts with Ryan. He has already come out and said that he tried to incorporate too much of what we did last year and it did not mix well with what they were installing. Players will be switched out. To run a complex defensive scheme, you need smart defenders and the Bills do not have alot of defenders with natural instincts IMO. Also, the perceived connection to the defense we ran under Pettine was overblown. We were much more of a 43 UNDER base that season than anything resembling a 34 which Ryan likes to run. The defensive side of the ball has always been more suited running a 43. Dareus, Hughes, A. Williams, and Gilmore are scheme diverse players. Dareus can play 34 DE, NT, 43 DT. Hughes can play 43DE or 34 OLB. A. Williams can play FS, SS, and can cover both TEs and WRs if needed and can play in the tackle box close to the line or in center field. Gilmore can play man, press, or zone although he is a better man defender than zone guy IMO. But guys like Mario, Kyle, and Bradham do not fit into a 34 scheme very well. You can't blame Ryan, however. He knows his defensive system. He made a name for himself as a superstar DC playing his defensive system. He was hired as a HC because of his defensive system. You can't hire him as a HC and hand him players that don't fit. He has always had a pure NT, expect for this season. He has always had 2 identical safeties who are interchangeable(this is a big part of what he does in coverage) except for this season. He has always had a combo LB who can rush and cover, except for this season. If the Bills were supposed to make a push for the playoffs this year on the strength of their defense and improving the offense than Ryan was not the right hire. It didn't make sense as a one year move that Ryan would come in and improve the defense by playing a watered down version of his schemes. I think alot of people including those with the Bills overvalued some of the talent on D and their ability to play in multiple schemes. Nigel Bradham, for example, was drafted to 43 LB under Wanny, then was lost playing more inside under Pettine, and blossomed playing OLB for Schwartz. He is clearly a gifted player playing out of scheme. Anyway, I could go on. The blame needs to fall on who signed off that this idea would work because hiring Ryan and making almost no defensive personnel changes to help the team adjust was a big mistake. The guy to hire with this defensive personnel was Dan Quinn from SEA, but it remains to be seen if he would even have wanted the job considering the QB situation at the time which remember was regarded as one of the worst 1 or 2 situations in the NFL. At this point, the Bills need to go all in on Ryan's defensive scheme. There is no turning back. What's done is done. There really is no other option.

I would have no problem hiring Rob Ryan as a position coach. Some of the best position coaches in the NFL are failed OCs, DCs, and HCs. The Bills very own DBs coach Donnie Henderson, who everyone around here feared would leave last year when Ryan was hired and who is roundly praised as one of the best in the NFL was a terrible Tampa 2 DC with the Jets and the Lions. He hasn't been a great DC, but he's had some pretty good ones over his career. He'd be a voice in the room among many others, not the sole defensive gameplanner.

He will be LBs coach. We have two relatively inexperienced guys there right now in April and Rebrovich. Rebrovich is a holdover from last year and this was his 2nd or 3rd year in the NFL. I would imagine he won't be back.

He only cares about hating the Jets.

I only count 7 spots, 8 if we lose A. Williams. But some of those spots have starters there already but would prefer upgrades, like RG(Miller) and OLB(Lawson). UFA Safety Aaron Williams Gilmore Robey Darby Hughes UFA MLB Brown UFA rush OLB Bryant NT Dareus Watkins Glenn Richie Wood UFA G Draft RT Clay Woods UFA #2 WR Taylor/1st Rd QB Felton McCoy/Williams

I got to $39 million, releasing Mario Williams, Kyle Williams, Leodis McKelvin, Corey Graham, Manny Lawson, Dan Carpenter, Kraig Urbik, Anthony Dixon, Cyrus Kouandijo, Jarius Winn, Marquis Goodwin, Duke Williams, Chris Gragg, and Kevin Reddick. That doesn't include the savings from a possible restructure of Clay's contract(converting his $10 mil roster bonus into a signing bonus saves us another 7.5 million while raising his cap number in the last 3 years from 6.5 to 9; there is really no reason not to do this as the cap will always be going up.) If Aaron Williams retires, that saves us another 4.8 million. Also, Stephon Gilmore is slated to be an $11 million cap hit, which should go down some(anywhere from 3-7 million if he signs an expected extension) as I don't expect the cap hit on a new contract to be that high. So with just these somewhat obvious moves, we can get to $55-$57 million in cap space. Re-sign: Incognito: 5 Glenn: 8 Still going into FA with $42 million in space. UFA Needs - possible targets(how much money we should expect to send): WR Jermaine Kearse, Mohamed Sanu, Marvin Jones, Josh Gordon? (3-6 million) RG Alex Boone (3-5 million) RT (draft) NT - Damon Harrison (~6 million) ILB - Rolando McClain, Demario Davis (3-4 million) OLB - Courtney Upshaw, Nick Perry(2-4 million) FS - Eric Weddle, Reggie Nelson, (5-9 million) SS - Mark Barron (2-4 million) On the high end(unlikely to spend this much IMO), that's about $40 million, but I doubt we just sign starters at every position of need. I would expect us to spend most of the draft on adding offense, likely a QB, T, WR/TE with 3 of the first 4 picks. I would love to go out into free agency and sign Kearse ($4-5 million), Harrison ($5-6 million), Weddle ($10-11 million), Upshaw ($3-4 million), and Barron ($2-3 million). That still leaves us with $13 million in space. Weddle is probably somewhat of a pipe dream so if we replace him with Reggie Nelson ($5 million), we would have roughly 18 million left. Also, these are all salary averages so there cap numbers could likely be lower in year one. I don't see how we don't make major roster changes, especially on defense, in the offseason.

Ted Thompson signed an extension last year

What report?

that's not really saying much

They will address the defense with vet FAs and draft offense IMO. They could release Mario and sign 3 starters at NT, OLB, and S. I'd be targeting Damon Harrison or Terrance Knighton at NT, Courtney Upshaw, Nick Perry, or Vinny Curry at OLB, and Mark Barron at S. They already have their anchors at each level in Dareus, Hughes, and Gilmore. McKelvin, Bradham, and maybe Corey Graham will also not be back. They like Kyle Williams and he was playing well before he was hurt so I could see him back, but at his age I wouldn't be surprised if he is gone also. If they keep up their pace for the season, we will be drafting in the 10-15 range. I would bet 3 out of our first 4 picks would be on offense: QB, T, WR(not in that order). As soon as they signed Rex, you'd have to be very naive to think they wouldn't be changing things on defense. They just signed him. He's not getting fired. Get guys who can play in his defense via FA, keep your young scheme diverse talent on D(Dareus, Hughes, Gilmore, Darby, A. Williams), and draft offense.

Trent Richardson

Depending on how the rest of the Giants season goes, I think you could see Coughlin forced out, especially if Payton comes available. The Sean Payton thing could be very intersesting as he might incite a few teams to move on from their coaches to get in the race, namely Dallas, the Giants, and Cleveland. If he is fired, he will be the hottest coaching candidate to come along in a long time, probably surpassing the Chip Kelly nonsense of a few years ago. He has ties to both Dallas and the Giants and Cleveland is probably willing to just give someone the keys to the whole football team at this point. He will be the highest paid NFL coach.

He's had 3 drafts: He's missed on a 1st rounder, a 2nd rounder, a 3rd rounder, and 2 4th rounders. That's kind of a lot. He does not have the track record to simply say "oh, even the really good GMs have misses.". The really good GMs also draft Pro Bowlers and Whaley has not done that.

QUARTER BACK That is all.

The Doug Whaley love is out of control. This is now the 2nd coaching staff in which there are perceived miscommunication and friction between. His draft record is looking very mediocre. His 1st and 2nd round picks: EJ Manuel, Kiko Alonso, Robert Woods, Watkins, Kouandijo, Darby (2/6) 3rd/4th Goodwin, Duke Williams, Preston Brown, Ross Cockrell, John Miller (basically nothing; 2 JAGs) 5-7 Meeks, Dustin Hopkins, Chris Gragg, Cyril Richardson, Randell Johnson, Seantrell Henderson, Karlos Williams, Tony Steward, Nick O'Leary, Dez Lewis (a good backup RB and one of the worst starting Ts in football) That is not good. And 1 of his hits is a guy he traded an extra 1st round pick to get into the top 5 to get basically eliminating any margin of error(and oh, by the way, he might not even be the best WR taken that year). This team's best players on offense and defense were drafted by other people save Sammy Watkins and they were all massively overpaid to acquire (including Watkins) to the point that we are in a bad cap situation moving forward and we still have many holes all over the team. Please try and spin this draft record because I'm not seeing anything great here. Doug Whaley's strength is supposed to be in college scouting and we are getting nothing from the middle rounds of the draft and basically the 2nd round. We have 1 player to show for 3 year's worth of 1st round picks.

It's not deflecting. You're cherry picking. So can I.

1. Thats not a catch. 2. You fail to mention the terrible holding call on Andrews the play before when Blount scored. The giants lost this game because they failed miserably with clock management on that final offensive series inside the 5. One run takes you 2 minute warning. Another eats 5-6 seconds. A third eats 45 seconds. New England needed every second and the giants gifted them at least 30 seconds with their playcalling.

This is a good summation of what's happening and will happen. As soon as we hired Rex, I thought it would be the eventual end for Mario here. Too expensive for what he does and will be asked to do. Dareus on the other hand is a perfect Rex DL guy. Can play anywhere on the line. We need LBs who are sure tacklers and the David Harris rumors from the offseason make a lot of sense now. I would expect the Bills to go after a true NT which would free up Dareus to be a more multiple DL, a FS who can play centerfield, and a true inside LB. I would expect Mario's money will go directly into the OL. That's why I really liked the Rex hire. It allows you scheme and plug and play guys on defense(this is what NE has done) and spend your real money on offense where consistent talented personnel can lead to consistent results more so than spending the bulk of your money on defense where success varies year to year historically and it is harder to keep a great unit together longer.

Great defensive mind. Not a great HC. Bills special teams were a train wreck under Ronnie jones. BTW, wade coached under buddy Ryan for several years in the late 80s. Their defenses are similar.

Not signed after this year. Wonder what he wants on a new deal. Good fit for our secondary though.

If you just split division games versus equal opponents, give losses to road teams versus equal opponents, and wins over obvious teams: NYJ remaining schedule: @OAK(W), JAX(W), BUF(W), @HOU(W), MIA(W), @NYG(W), TEN(W), @DAL(L), NE(L), @BUF(L) BEST: 13-3 PROBABLE: 11-5 WORST: 8-8 PIT remaining schedule: CIN(W), OAK(W), CLE(W), @SEA(L), IND(W), @CIN(L), DEN(L), @BAL(W), @CLE(L) BEST: 12-4 PROBABLE: 10-6 WORST: 7-9 OAK remaining schedule: NYJ(L), @PIT(L), MIN(L), @DET(W), @TEN(W), KC(W), @DEN(L), GB(L), SD(W), @KC(W) BEST: 11-5. PROBABLE: 9-7 WORST: 6-10 MIA remaining schedule: @NE(L), @BUF(L), @PHI(L), DAL(W), @NYJ(L), BAL(W), NYG(W), @SD(L), IND(W), NE(L) BEST: 10-6. PROBABLE: 7-9 WORST: 5-11 BUF remaining schedule: MIA(W), @NYJ(L), @NE(L), @KC(W), HOU(W), @PHI(L), @WSH(W), DAL(L), NYJ(L) BEST: 10-6 PROBABLE: 7-9. WORST: 4-12 Our best case(loss to NE, split with Jets, win all other games), might get us in, but the Jets schedule is pretty easy and Pittsburgh gets Big Ben back next week.

This is pretty crazy because if Luck was available for trade the compensation would get much higher than 2 1sts. I will say this: Colts fans are nervous that Luck is going to want out of Indy because they have failed him on offense and the team has yet to protect him with an offensive line. IF Luck were to want out of Indy though, you'd probably have a few teams lining up to send multiple 1sts for him. Secondly, I would suspect the Colts to fire Pagano and hire an offensive minded HC to somewhat appease their star QB.

I don't think he's done an amazing job, but some of that can be attributed coaching changes and scheme changes.