Amstel Posted June 2, 2011 Share Posted June 2, 2011 I have nothing against Fewell. However, the defense he ran and players he ran it with were different. I think hes a great DC. I am also happy to see a departure from the "small quick Tampa 2" defense. As far as this nonsense about Marcell Dareus....please. I'm no pro scout. I played the game for over ten years. This guy is a beast. Maybe its just highlights but all the film Ive seen hes a four down player. His attitude and "want to" his seemingly love for the game....Von Miller maybe a phenominal LB. Any LB short of LT is not worthy of a top 3 pick to me. There are times I hate this board for the nonsense and pettiness but this is one of the times I love it.....we all have our opinions Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nucci Posted June 3, 2011 Share Posted June 3, 2011 Yes, Dareus was an awful pick. We should have traded down and picked him early 2nd round. I don't think he was rated as a 3rd overall pick. Again we get awful value. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillsVet Posted June 3, 2011 Share Posted June 3, 2011 What a terrible article. First, he did not give Cornell Green a lot of money, he gave him average starter money and then immediately cut him when he didn't play well (not to mention that half the reason he was signed was because he was a veteran and three of the other starters were basically second year players. Second, Nix moved our best defensive players so much out of position that they had their best years? Kyle Williams and Paul Posluzney? Jairus Byrd from free safety to free safety? The move to a different defense was imperative, and he knew it was going to take more than a year to restock the mess that Jauron left with the Tampa -2. Everyone knew that. The fact remains that Nix elected to sign Cornell Green. Making that move is not mitigated nor forgiven by cutting him. Same thing with Trent Edwards. Those were two huge offseason decisions that failed. The decision to move to a 3-4 without close to adequate personnel also demonstrates a lack of foresight, which is puzzling given all the years he's been working in a NFL front office. So there's three poor decisions in one off-season, not to mention that his first round pick garnered less than 500 yards from scrimmage and the 2nd and 3rd round picks struggled to get on the field in the first half of the season. I would think that Buffalo needs to win 8 games in 2011 to demonstrate their rebuild is in the right direction. Anything less and some serious questions need to be asked of Buddy "we're not that far away" Nix. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ganesh Posted June 3, 2011 Share Posted June 3, 2011 I hadn't thought of that before. It's kind of funny that a coach went from the worst team to the second worst team. I guess Fox is a climber. Good points about players out of position. I think Kelsay and Stroud were the only players truly out of position. Kelsay and Stroud playing next to each other was a bad experiment. KW went from a 3 technique DT to a 1 gap NT and played great. Poz went from a 43 MLB to a 34 ILB (an easier transition than the reverse) and was just as bad, his tackle totals notwithstanding. I just don't think Poz is starter material in the NFL regardless of front seven alignment. GO BILLS!!! We also lost Kawika Mitchell in this experiment. I am also not sure if Spencer Johnson with his small size is fit to play the 3-4 as a DE. The "Out of Position" comment does hold some truth, especially considering that we did not have a Dom Capers or Dick LeBeau to run this 3-4 defense. I am sure either one of them would have got something out of Maybin instead of keeping him in street clothes. The fact remains that Nix elected to sign Cornell Green. Making that move is not mitigated nor forgiven by cutting him. Same thing with Trent Edwards. Those were two huge offseason decisions that failed. The decision to move to a 3-4 without close to adequate personnel also demonstrates a lack of foresight, which is puzzling given all the years he's been working in a NFL front office. So there's three poor decisions in one off-season, not to mention that his first round pick garnered less than 500 yards from scrimmage and the 2nd and 3rd round picks struggled to get on the field in the first half of the season. I would think that Buffalo needs to win 8 games in 2011 to demonstrate their rebuild is in the right direction. Anything less and some serious questions need to be asked of Buddy "we're not that far away" Nix. How does Trent Edwards decision fall on Nix? That was purely a Chan's decision based on spring training and summer camp. I partially agree with the 3-4 in that the team actually played more of 4-3 than 3-4 after figuring out that Stroud cannot be a DE and Kelsay cannot be a OLB. I am still suspect on his draft class from last year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rpcolosi Posted June 3, 2011 Share Posted June 3, 2011 Cue the "who cares what some anonymous scout has to say" responses. If this team wins less than 6 games next year, are folks going to start questioning whether Buddy knows what he is doing? Or will the grace period be extended? I see so many "Buddy and Chan are turning this thing around" posts, and God I hope it's true. But so far, I haven't seen it with my own eyes. At all. (Cue the "Go away doom and gloomers" responses...) 1.) the contract: 3 year, $9 million deal (includes a $2 million roster bonus) and a base salary of 1.5mil for year one (of which he's only paid the pro-rated portion). Total contract after termination: 1 year at 3mil. 2.) NFL Veteran Minimum: 10+ years (he has 14 years) is $820,000 for salary. 3.) Conclusion: his roster bonus puts him over but his annual salary is not a large increase over the veteran minimum. 4.) why give him a $2mil bonus? Why sign him to 3 years? - the bonus is probably higher than he deserved based on his poor play, the 3 year contract means nothing as there is no guaranteed money beyond the roster bonus. i'd suspect the 3 years was negotiated by his agent in hopes he'd be paid decently if he could play beyoned year 1, but obviously the Bills didn't think this as they gave him no roster, workout or reporting bonus for years 2 or 3. I've commented on this before, but too many people get hung up on the Cornell Green signing. Read the contract - 3 years, 9mil with 2mil guaranteed. They paid a guy to basically help through 1 sesason. they needed someone who had some experience on the line to at the least help a guy like howard or wrotto out. The plan was likely NOT to keep him past year 1, otherwise you'd give him a guarantee for years two or three and disburse his bonus money (ie guaranteed money) to lower your cap - see aaron schobel's extension. Again, if you understand the nature of his contract and the nature of his dismissal, it is 100% evident the plan was to use him as a stopgap while we found younger, cheaper and developmental talent (same strategy used in SD)... Read between the lines - he was always signed to be a 1year stop gap. A bad one at that, but a 1year, 3mil stopgap. significantly less money than Orlando Pace got with Chicago (and not much worse results). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillsVet Posted June 3, 2011 Share Posted June 3, 2011 How does Trent Edwards decision fall on Nix? That was purely a Chan's decision based on spring training and summer camp. Buddy and Chan talk multiple times each day, or so we're told. This decision to bench and then cut Edwards wasn't made in a vacuum, and I'm willing to bet that it being the QB, this was consensus. Both GM and HC screwed that up by not realizing they could not change a guy who was too shell-shocked to be a good starting NFL QB. Besides, Nix hired Chan and depends on him and his staff to get the most out of the players the front office acquires. In an ultra-competitive league, teams can't afford to make bad personnel decisions on the field or from the front office. Buffalo did plenty of that last year, namely wasting 2 games going with the wrong starting QB. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
San Jose Bills Fan Posted June 3, 2011 Share Posted June 3, 2011 (edited) In an ultra-competitive league, teams can't afford to make bad personnel decisions on the field or from the front office. Buffalo did plenty of that last year, namely wasting 2 games going with the wrong starting QB. Again, in the name of perspective… it was Year One of the regime. The Bills are rebuilding. Those two games cost us what? Edited June 3, 2011 by San Jose Bills Fan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UpperDeck Posted June 3, 2011 Share Posted June 3, 2011 Those 2 games possibly cost us the 5th pick overall instead of the 3rd we ended up with. I wouldn't be surprised if Nix and Gailey decided to bite the bullet and make the changes they wanted right away knowing that a bad year would likely be even worse. But this would pay dividends down the line knowing who could play in their system and also giving the players a year of experience playing in it. As a side benefit we also might've had a shot at picking Luck this year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buffalo Barbarian Posted June 3, 2011 Share Posted June 3, 2011 http://www.profootballweekly.com/2011/06/02/insider-patriots-targeting-veteran-wideout • "Did anyone wonder why Denver passed on Marcell Dareus? What you have to remember — one of John Fox's best friends is (former Panthers DL coach) Sal Sunsieri. He coaches (linebackers) for Alabama now. Fox took the best pass rusher and emphasized how he will be able to contribute on every down. He did not think (Dareus) would be a three-down player. … (Buffalo GM) Buddy Nix apparently did. Or maybe he just missed it, like the huge mistake he made giving the oldest right tackle in the league (ORT Cornell Green) a lot of money. How well did that work out? About as good as flipping to a '30' defense and moving all of their best players out of position. Buddy knows how to fool (owner Ralph) Wilson." Dareus hasn't even played yet and you are complaining about him already?! Listen Denver (idiots) did us a huge favor because Miller will not be great and Dareus will be and he will easily be an every down player so get over Miller not being here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Turk Posted June 3, 2011 Share Posted June 3, 2011 http://www.profootballweekly.com/2011/06/02/insider-patriots-targeting-veteran-wideout • "Did anyone wonder why Denver passed on Marcell Dareus? What you have to remember — one of John Fox's best friends is (former Panthers DL coach) Sal Sunsieri. He coaches (linebackers) for Alabama now. Fox took the best pass rusher and emphasized how he will be able to contribute on every down. He did not think (Dareus) would be a three-down player. … (Buffalo GM) Buddy Nix apparently did. Or maybe he just missed it, like the huge mistake he made giving the oldest right tackle in the league (ORT Cornell Green) a lot of money. How well did that work out? About as good as flipping to a '30' defense and moving all of their best players out of position. Buddy knows how to fool (owner Ralph) Wilson." Right, because Nix is the only GM in the league to sign a free agent bust the past few seasons...gimme a break Guess the Titans and Vikings signing Moss who basically did nothing was a great move by their GMs... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coach Tuesday Posted June 3, 2011 Share Posted June 3, 2011 1.) the contract: 3 year, $9 million deal (includes a $2 million roster bonus) and a base salary of 1.5mil for year one (of which he's only paid the pro-rated portion). Total contract after termination: 1 year at 3mil. 2.) NFL Veteran Minimum: 10+ years (he has 14 years) is $820,000 for salary. 3.) Conclusion: his roster bonus puts him over but his annual salary is not a large increase over the veteran minimum. 4.) why give him a $2mil bonus? Why sign him to 3 years? - the bonus is probably higher than he deserved based on his poor play, the 3 year contract means nothing as there is no guaranteed money beyond the roster bonus. i'd suspect the 3 years was negotiated by his agent in hopes he'd be paid decently if he could play beyoned year 1, but obviously the Bills didn't think this as they gave him no roster, workout or reporting bonus for years 2 or 3. I've commented on this before, but too many people get hung up on the Cornell Green signing. Read the contract - 3 years, 9mil with 2mil guaranteed. They paid a guy to basically help through 1 sesason. they needed someone who had some experience on the line to at the least help a guy like howard or wrotto out. The plan was likely NOT to keep him past year 1, otherwise you'd give him a guarantee for years two or three and disburse his bonus money (ie guaranteed money) to lower your cap - see aaron schobel's extension. Again, if you understand the nature of his contract and the nature of his dismissal, it is 100% evident the plan was to use him as a stopgap while we found younger, cheaper and developmental talent (same strategy used in SD)... Read between the lines - he was always signed to be a 1year stop gap. A bad one at that, but a 1year, 3mil stopgap. significantly less money than Orlando Pace got with Chicago (and not much worse results). I could care less what they paid him. My problem is that they didn't have any backup plan at RT if Green didn't pan out. Fine, so they signed him a 1-year stopgap. You usually do that if you're grooming a young replacement, but the Bills didn't have one on the roster last year. So what was the freakin' plan? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spiderweb Posted June 3, 2011 Share Posted June 3, 2011 I could care less what they paid him. My problem is that they didn't have any backup plan at RT if Green didn't pan out. Fine, so they signed him a 1-year stopgap. You usually do that if you're grooming a young replacement, but the Bills didn't have one on the roster last year. So what was the freakin' plan? The plan was simple, 2010 was a year the Bills weren't going to be immediately competitive, but a year of transition. During the year a number of players were picked up off waivers and practice squads. Urbick looked like a very good move until he got hurt. Reinhart showed some meanness and ability. Chandler at TE may actually be a decent player (better than Stupar at least). Pears, while I'm no where near as high on him as Chan & Buddy seemed to be, was a big improvement over Cornell Green. Nix said it wasn't likely to happen that the rebuild would happen with a splash, but through hard work, and paying attention to who may be available. As the year played out, I liked what I saw. Yes, we still have a big ? at RT, but in this regard, I do believe we are heading into 2011 (if an agreement is reached) with a better set of possibilities. Offensively, if Fitz can be accurate on a more consistent basis, we should again be much improved, and I don't suspect that Nix & company will stop watching rosters, cuts, waivers, etc this year either. Progress may be slow, but I believe considerable progress is being made. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thewildrabbit Posted June 3, 2011 Share Posted June 3, 2011 (edited) First of all, I could shiv a git about what some anonymous scout thinks. Buffalo was so lucky this year that Darius fell into their laps, thank you Denver and thank you Carolina for saving the Bills from another 3 year project at QB, even if Newton does turn out to be great.... I highly doubt he would have in a Bills Uni. Carolina so reached for a need at QB, the guy wasn't even the top rated QB this year and had a mid first round grade ...btw did I say Thank you! They didn't even draft one of the top 4 graded players, Is Modrak secretly working for them ? To think, if Carolina had drafted Darius, Denver takes Miller, Nix had Darius and Newton at the top of the Buffalo Bills draft board according to NGU. Buffalo got Mike Mayock's highest rated player in the draft with the 3rd pick, and whats crazy is Denver needed a DT a hella lot more then they did an OLB as they run a 4-3. Mayock does have some accountability because people remember what he says, besides I think he is a better talent evaluator then anyone Buffalo has had since Bills Polian. John Elway is calling the shots in Denver, and even if it was Fox's decision they still screwed themselves by not taking a much needed DT with their second pick either. I love the Darius pick, he and Kyle Williams should be a force in that middle when they do a 4-3 package. The Bills should stick with the 4-3 until they can obtain an OLB besides Kelsay... 215 rushes. like 6 pressures....lame To counter the OP article I found this ... http://bleacherrepor...-2011-nfl-draft P.S. Even if Gailey and Nix don't last past this year, the Bills will still have Darius Edited June 5, 2011 by Harvey lives Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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