Some thoughts with training camp around the corner

[jahnyc]

Some thoughts below:

 

1. I am really pleased that Chan Gailey will be running the offense. It has been too long since we have had a competent offensive coordinator, and I like CG's experience and creativity. Our offense has been horrible, and I do expect some improvement, even assuming the o-line is a problem and the wide receivers after Lee Evans are marginal at best.

 

2. I do not understand how the Bills go into the season without more veteran bodies on the o-line. Bell is coming back from injury and who knows if he can be an effective LT. Green at RT is a step down from Butler. There are no back-ups at guard or center with real NFL experience and we do not know if Wood will be able to play at a high level with his recovery from injury still in progress. I do not know if a team needs a pro-bowl caliber LT to make it to the playoffs on a consistent basis, but it is clear to me that the Bills need significant upgrades and both offensive tackle positions.

 

3. I like the switch to the 3-4 and the infusion of fresh talent at linebacker (i.e., Davis, Torbor, Moats and Batten), with the usual caveat that I do not believe that the Bills have the right guys at outside linebacker, end or nose tackle. We will see how many of these guys are on the roster next season. More than a little worried about Maybin.

 

4. I hope that we will see a reduced number of injuries. New strength and conditioning coaches and the change to the 3-4 will hopefully make a difference.

 

5. I am excited about the season, just like I am every year, but I think we are at least a few years away from fielding a strong team. I do not think that we will see this team become a consistent playoff team until we have a QB for the long term and better offensive tackles. Since it is difficult to find a QB without drafting one at the top of the first round (good QBs are rarely free agents and would be too expensive for the Bills), I hope there will be a QB available for us next year in the draft. I just do not believe that the Bills will develop any of the QBs currently on the roster.

 

6. I really like our secondary. Great depth and young talent. Hopefully, this is the year that McKelvin becomes a top CB.

[BillsVet]

Some thoughts below:

 

1. I am really pleased that Chan Gailey will be running the offense. It has been too long since we have had a competent offensive coordinator, and I like CG's experience and creativity. Our offense has been horrible, and I do expect some improvement, even assuming the o-line is a problem and the wide receivers after Lee Evans are marginal at best.

 

2. I do not understand how the Bills go into the season without more veteran bodies on the o-line. Bell is coming back from injury and who knows if he can be an effective LT. Green at RT is a step down from Butler. There are no back-ups at guard or center with real NFL experience and we do not know if Wood will be able to play at a high level with his recovery from injury still in progress. I do not know if a team needs a pro-bowl caliber LT to make it to the playoffs on a consistent basis, but it is clear to me that the Bills need significant upgrades and both offensive tackle positions.

 

3. I like the switch to the 3-4 and the infusion of fresh talent at linebacker (i.e., Davis, Torbor, Moats and Batten), with the usual caveat that I do not believe that the Bills have the right guys at outside linebacker, end or nose tackle. We will see how many of these guys are on the roster next season. More than a little worried about Maybin.

 

4. I hope that we will see a reduced number of injuries. New strength and conditioning coaches and the change to the 3-4 will hopefully make a difference.

 

5. I am excited about the season, just like I am every year, but I think we are at least a few years away from fielding a strong team. I do not think that we will see this team become a consistent playoff team until we have a QB for the long term and better offensive tackles. Since it is difficult to find a QB without drafting one at the top of the first round (good QBs are rarely free agents and would be too expensive for the Bills), I hope there will be a QB available for us next year in the draft. I just do not believe that the Bills will develop any of the QBs currently on the roster.

 

6. I really like our secondary. Great depth and young talent. Hopefully, this is the year that McKelvin becomes a top CB.

 

Well written jahnyc. I don't think it occurs to most fans how inexperienced the OL is. More concerning is the lack of depth, where there is no one at guard with much NFL experience. Chambers has logged time, but didn't impress at guard (at NE 08 comes to mind). I really think they were shocked when Butler retired, in that he was their only serviceable OT.

 

Gailey is undoubtedly a better offensive minded HC than DJ was, but it's going to take a lot to get the offense going without a passing attack to keep teams honest and more importantly quality along the OL.

 

I hate the fact that a complete rebuild is happening, given the owner's age and instability of the franchise. Do the Bills really have 3-4 years to perform a rebuild?

[jahnyc]

Thanks, BillsVet. I am also very concerned about how long this rebuild of the team will take given the circumstances of the franchise. I must admit to having an underlying stress about what happens to the Bills in the future. I have not lived in Buffalo for 30 plus years, but I wonder how ready the community is to fight to keep the Bills in Buffalo. I hope there have been meaningful preparations for the inevitable change in ownership.

[Dan]

IMO, saying that the Bills are facing a 3-4 year rebuild is a bit premature. The problem, as I see it, is we have a lot of players that have had little playing time due to injuries. So, it's really hard to determine how good or bad they really are. Pretty much the entire team (expect the rookies and newly acquired FAs) have seen significant time missed, which makes it hard to draw and firm conclusions for me regarding guys like, Poz, McKelvin, Wood, Bell, Hardy, etc.

 

So for me, one of the key things this season will be to see how healthy the players can stay; then how talented they may or may not be. So it'll be mid-season, probably longer, before we can say how long this rebuild is going to take.

 

Two things, however, I think we can all agree on right now - the OL and QB need upgrades. The question regarding the OL is are our current guys the future backups or starters? It's a little of both, I'd suggest. With the QB, I question do we have someone serviceable until the future is drafted or are we completely screwed? Every other position, IMO, is up in the air until we see how they play this season.

[Hplarrm]

+1 on the thread starter here and I would add:

 

7. ST will tell a lot of the story in terms of whether each game is one where we are struggling to deal with the initiative set by the opponent or actually setting the tone ourselves and allowing Gailey to experiment with his new O. You gotta like the skill ST players as Moorman is quite the athlete and has a good head on his shoulders (I loved it when he qualified for an NFL skills competition which asked each player to perform several tasks which emphasized speed, or strength, athleticism, etc- Moorman simply blew off pushing a blocking sled taking a 5 second penalty but not wasting anytime pushing the sled and ran through the other items after forcing the judges in this made for TV duel to confer he knows what he can do and more important what he cannot do), Lindell after a horrible short yardage miss against Pitts years ago has become money in the bank for a lot of FGs.

 

The Bills actually have multiple choices for Pro Bowl quality KR and PR guys.

 

The final outcome will be determined by whether the loss of Bobby April and his replacement by retread Bruce DeHaven is effective. Both were effective in their stints with the Bills but Aprils attacking style and DeHaven's generally conservative style are opposite approaches which both were quite effective, If DeHaven can push the fundamentals and use them to liberate the talent we have this can be a unit which not only strikes with lightening but simply wins the field position battles making life a lot easier for the O and D. This is one area which I think is not gonna be readily apparent to the out of town pundit initially which might actually allow the team to wrack up a couple of Ws and come back quicker that the chattering class expect.

 

8. My sense is one of the major gaps on this team is the total lack of a #2 WR who has even remotely shone he can do that job in the NFL before. Folks are worried about the QB and LT (and OL across the board) positions but my sense is the lack of proven quality at WR is a much bigger O concern to me. I mean we were better off when retread Peerless Price was our #2 and good producing as a #3 but failed as a #2 Reed was what we had, Now we have Jackson who statistically backward last year, questioned as a #3 (falsely in my mind as I think he can be a capable #3 though not a #2 IMHO) Parrish, coming off of injurt and disappointment Hardy, and rookie Easley as prospects.

 

The stakes are incredibly high as unless we have a #2 WR who is not merely adequate (simply achieving adequacy would actually be a step up for any of these candidates but there are enough of them I suspect one of them will meet this relatively low standard) but actually is a threat whom it is questionable to single team all the time with the a CB. Otherwise opponents will simply load up in the box to cancel out our strong runners and dt Evans. We need our #2 WR to step up when none of our choices has demonstrated he can even start in the NFL.

 

I have gotten some grief for my answer to this quandary which is that you employ Spiller as much as possible as our #2, He certainly is going to utilized as a motion receiver from the backfield a lot anyway. He certainly does not have the collegiate experience as a WR to put him on the depth chart as a WR. However, he does have a rep as a good route runner with a good set of hands. If I was his coach he would be sleeping with a JUGs gun and I would not only not put him on the depth chart but I would use him little in pre-season as a receiver. In the first game I would confront the opposing DC with both Jackson and Lynch in the backfield (I might even line Lynch up wide and empty the backfield sending Jackson in motion). I have Evans and Spiller both out wide threatening to run fly patterns.

 

I then require my QB to then pick which receiver has the slowest opponent on him and loft a pass out to this streaking player.

 

I think this type of attack will help the blockers and help the QB.