As Requested by Bill in NYC Current Bills who Suck

[Fake-Fat Sunny]

In another thread which I could not remember which it was Bill in NYC asked me whether I thought any Bills sucked, It was interesting food for thought since I realized that there were any number of Bills in the GW era that I thought sucked, there actually were fews named that sprung to mind on today's team. I name my candidates below and the good news is that even those I think do suck do have a chance IMHO to potentially redeem themselves through better performance if they worked out hard this year.

 

Certainly in the GW era when we were going through the rigors of cap hell and it took less skill to make this team a number of players sucked in my eyes. Horrid moments when we picked up GW recommendations like Robinson or Jenkins who were done, escapades like when we asked Chidi Ahanatou to be Jevon Kearse in the GW 4-3 (he was probably a reasoable back-up but he sucked in a starting role) and even taking a player who I liked as a back-up but he simply sucked as a starter like Sean Moran the suck quotient was pretty high in the old day and we has the 3-13 record to prove it,

 

As time went on and we escaped cap hell the team and the players improved. I think that we finally had a winning record because MM not only does a better job of not getting players who suck but he tends to use them well also.

 

I think my comments have been more positive because the players are better and also because many post do not seem to recognize this and declare players as sucking when they don't (Ryan Denney for example sucked so badas a rookie he could not even be played, but his play has improved by leaps and bounds as last year it allowed the Bills to go with only 3 DEs ina defense that used a lot of DL rotation) or not recognizing that players were a mixed bag (For example , Bledsoe sucked so bad in 2003 he clearly deserved to be cut and TD stupidly did not do this, but in 2002 he played well enough to deserve his Pro Bowl reserve nod {if you disagree then simply say who deserved to make the team that year who did not} and a real assessment of his play needs to acknowledge both these realities rather than investing in the fantasy that he always was a god or he always sucked).

 

At any rate, I feel even better about this Bills squad because a lot fewer players than in the past suck.

 

Current Bills Who Suck (IMHO)

 

Firat off- This list is limited to players who were on the Bills last year and does not include my sense of new players who for the most part are draft picks or camp fodder.

 

1. Sam Aiken- This is a player who I hope pulls a Dusty Ziegler or a Ron Edwards who are both players who I had initially as sucking (IMHO) who really turned their games around or I looked at the their play more closely and was actually impressed. Sam Aiken is not there yet and my guess is that he will never be. He did do a few thing right toward the end of last season but was unable to finish even on thse few good plays. Between him and Reed, as disappointing as Reed gas been after a good start I think Aiken is the more easily cuttable player.

 

2. Drew Haddad- I hate to say this about a UB grad but he really has done nothing as a regular season pro and he simply sucks and is an oft-injured player with tender hammys

 

3. Rian Lindell- It is with some reluctance that I make this statement as I think that the virtually unanimous posts which have called for his head actually fail to acknowledge that he did not suck at kickoffs last year but was actually excellent. I think the casual observer of the game may get fooled by the notion that deep kickoffs and toucjbacks are the true or only measure of a kicker, but I think it is the combination of the kicker putting it where he is supposed to put it and with a reasonable amount of hangtime that is the true measure of a good kickoff. Performing this feat in the variable and often severe winds of the Ralph is even tougher to do and the record of the Bills ST in givng up no TD returns and even few long returns is a tribute not only to good tackling but really a tremendous job kicking off by Lindell. Add to that him being called on for three onside kicks last year and he simply did everything as well as it cpo;d be ddone when he recovered his owm kick after halftime to seal one game and actually made a great onside on another that Rashard Baker had a shot at (all you can reasonably ask of a kicker) and failed to recover.

 

All this being said, missing a chip shot FG at a critical point in a game which could have got us into the playoffs simply sucked. I also am moved to add him to my list because oa positively stupid statement by TD that good kickers are a dime a dozen when he cut Steve Christie (who is still kicking well enogh today BTW). Jake Ariens play, Shayne Graham getting cut and now doing well, the failure to be able to maintain a sustainable relationship with Mike Hollis and the huge contract Lindell signed which he has not yet lived up to all make this player simply suck. I have defended him because many refuse to acknowledge the full record but the bottomline is he has sucked.

 

4. Josh Reed- I think he gets another chance because the cap imvestment will make the Bills inclined to keep him all things being equal and in his career he has been a workout warrior and showm well in practices even in the year he had the droppsies in the regular season and got hurt in regular season. He has been productive before as a pro with Moulds and Peerless and there is no reason he cannot do the same with Evans in the PP role but until he does he sucks.

 

5. Coy Wire- I like the fundamentals about him because he is a big hitter, with good enough speed for his size and he is a bright boy who graduated from Stanford. He has been active and a community booster in the time he has been here. However, I think GW and the gang totally mismanged his development throwing him into a starting role at safety when he had never played the position at any level of organized ball and shifting him all over the place to get him on the field when they should have trained him to become the next Steve Tasker right from the start. I think unfortunately he is done due to this lousy management.

 

Well, this is who I think sucks Bills and I am curious who folks might add to this list or who they might disagree with my assessment. Overall, this also needs to come with recognition that this is a fans view and that even a scrub in the MFL is infinitely more of an athlete than us normal folk will ever be. However, us fans can say what we want and they are paid the bib bucks for us to judge them whether it be with fact-free opinions or whatever.

[Arkady Renko]

I am disappointed that you did not touch upon TEs.

[MartyBall4Buffalo]

Starters Who Suck.....

 

1. Mark "Cement Shoes" Campbell- other than blocking his skill set is very limited, and I'm not even that convinced he's that good of a blocker, certinally not on the level of a Jason Dunn or Mark Bruener. He's not a good receiver, he's slow as a slug, and I don't like him as a safety valve especially with a young quaterback. I value speed and good hands from the te position. Blocking is important yes. Mark Campbell would be a good #2 te, from my #1 te I want the ability to stretch the seem, or go underneath and the ability to run. Campbell doesn't offer this. I'm leaving Euhus off this list cause it's unfair to judge him right now.

 

 

2. our dline- No not everyone can have the dlines of the panthers/jets/patriots but I believe the lack of even one real threat pass rusher hurts us. We rely so heavily on the zone blitz to make up for the lack of a pass rusher that it actually hurts us especially against teams who can expose the lapses in coverage during the blitz 3 teams have done this against us very effectivly. The Pats, The Jets and Kansas City(03) They don't really suck, They're good against the run, at least in the interior, and schobel is a steady reliable player. Kelsay should improve, but as much as we lack a receiving threat at te. We Lack a true pass rusher at defensive end. The fact we don't have the dline of the pats/panthers/jets is also a huge reason that re-signing Nate Clements is a must.

[AKC]

Starters Who Suck.....

 

1. Mark "Cement Shoes" Campbell- other than blocking  his skill set is very limited, and I'm not even that convinced he's that good of a blocker, certinally not on the level of a Jason Dunn or Mark Bruener. He's not a good receiver, he's slow as a slug, and I don't like him  as a safety valve especially with a young quaterback.  I value  speed and good hands from the te position. Blocking is important yes.  Mark Campbell would be a good #2 te, from my

 

IMO pre-injury Campbell had become a VERY efficient blocker taking excellent angles in space and excercising decent leverage inside. The "ideal TE" you presuppose doesn't appear to me to be what this offense is asking for at all. In fact, Campbell had become a near model of the type of TE our offense seems to want: a player who can get out on the edge and seal the second level of the D, be counted on to effectively chip the big guys, and occasionally expose a defense who takes him for granted by pulling down spot throws with some level of reliability.

 

Sure a NFL Primetime TE making Tony Gonzalez catches downfield is a tempting concept, but if you look around the league you'll be hard pressed to name 4 of them you'd pay huge money for. Campbell may be extremely vanilla, but in the strategy of the power running offense we've been building he might just be a perfect value proposition considering what he had been contributing before his injury and what he costs us come payday. If he returns at less than 100% of what he was though he could very quickly become a liability.

[Fezmid]

Cambell has very good hands. Yes, he may be slow, but I can't recall many (any?) drops by him. Remember week 2 vs the Jags in '03? He caught the ball, was DEMOLISHED by the DB, and held on.

 

He also had a 3TD day this past season.

 

Yeah, he's slow. And yeah, he (was?) held in to block a lot. But I think he's a good (not great) TE.

 

CW

[Fake-Fat Sunny]

I gave some though to adding Campbell to my "they suck" list but did not do so because:

 

1. He may well suck after his ACL injury as this injury has been known to end some careers and the 30 year old Campbell who was never fleet-footed to begin with fits this description. However, I think we should wait and see before we make the judgment.

 

2. I perceive you judge Campbell to have sucked even prior to the injury and I disagree.

A. He was better than what we had at TE when he was acquired as he came in after the end of the Remeirsma era and we needed help here. Advocating an upgrade is something we always want to do, but is less relevant when there is no apparent upgrade and the choices are between a player who sucks and several who suck worse as starters (Neufeld for example). One can advocate diping into the FA pool, buteven that choice for going for a better player like Bubba Franks has implications for not spending the cap $ elsewhere that need to be discussed in a serious proposal.

B. I think Campbell actually showed the potential for some good stuff prior to his injury. He was actually second on the team in receiving TDs last year bouyed by his 3 TD day. One might assert this was a fluke, but boy what a fluke and Ds are simply forced to cover our TE so the fluke does not happen to them. In addition, the two other TD receptions and several cases where he caught downfield passes and did not cough up the ball after vicious downfield hits are indications to me that while he is no Ben Coates at all, that he does have some receiving use and before his injury was not an unreasonable bet to improve his game.

C. He has a rep as a soild blocker and it is difficult for us outside observers to really parse this out based on observation on TV and even worse at the game. Instead, I think that results are the best way for us observers to try to guess about his blocking skill. The results rushing for TH in 03 and WM in 04 and improvements in the pass pro in 04 over the 03 results with Bledsoe indicate that the OL with Campbell was doing something better and even right.

 

Regarding our OL- i would say yes they are inadequate but in addition to this thread being about assessment of individuals rather than groups (though the group thing is actually more relevant from a football standpoint). I think our OL was clearly inadequate but did not suck. The two things they have to do is be productive run blocking and providing pass pro. The OL has been a part of stacking up some yardage with TH and with WM and I think one has a hard time labeling their run work as even inadequate much less simply sucking.

 

There is a better case to be made that the pass pro has sucked since the 2002 season, but other issues like the repetitive play calling of Killdrive and the relative lack of mobility of Bledsoe are easily factors as much or probably more than the pass pro blocking failings.