Take the 2005 Bills, and add the following

[TC in St. Louis]

Takeo Spikes, Kevin Everett, full season from Roscoe Parrish, Triplett, Fowler, Bowen, Peerless, and the guys chosen in the draft. Having Everett and Parrish is like having 2 extra draft choices, except they've had a year learning the system.

 

Add a veteran, smart coach and an explosive offensive coordinator.

 

Subtract Mike Williams, Fat Sam, Moulds.

 

Mularkey, whose play calling was horrible, with the exception of the first drives of the game....he's in Miami now. Cool.

 

This team will surprise some people. We are very underrated.

[AJ1]

Takeo Spikes, Kevin Everett, full season from Roscoe Parrish, Triplett, Fowler, Bowen, Peerless, and the guys chosen in the draft.  Having Everett and Parrish is like having 2 extra draft choices, except they've had a year learning the system.

 

Add a veteran, smart coach and an explosive offensive coordinator. 

 

Subtract Mike Williams, Fat Sam, Moulds. 

 

Mularkey, whose play calling was horrible, with the exception of the first drives of the game....he's in Miami now.  Cool. 

 

This team will surprise some people.  We are very underrated.

723361[/snapback]

 

The naysayers keep repeating the fact that new coaches and new systems installed is a negative. Like they were good last season????? They are completely missing the point that the last regime was a ship of fools.

 

And we have key?? losses? '05 to '06 we have NO key losses, only key additions which have gone under the radar.

[JoeF]

TC -- I love your optimism...I will be happy if we end the year with:

 

1) One of the three #1 QB candidates stepping up and prove they can lead the team to being a top third of the league offense in 07 and the future.

1a) An offensive line that gives up less than 40 sacks (still very high) and with Willis can get us to an average of about 110-120 total yards per game rushing..

2) A defense that figures out how to stop the run consistently--at least moves to the top half of the league...

3) A special teams that stays where it is...

 

I also think we will surprise with our competitiveness but it may not show up in the W column just yet....

[Rubes]

I'll just be happy if JP can finally learn how to finish a play without taking a blistering hit from a linebacker.

[king bucko]

I think if we don't get adequate play from either Nall / Losman / Holcomb we'll be drafting their replacement pretty high in next year's draft.

 

I don't care which one steps up, but someone better.

 

If we can somehow keep Clements past this year, man we could really have a dominant secondary over the next couple of years if the Whitner and Simpson pan out. I really like how Levy used one draft to potentially shore up one part of this team. Hopefully next year we can do the same for another group (OL / DL).

 

Also, is billsdaily.com pretty plugged in? They have Holcomb as the starter on their depth chart, was there some kind of announcement of the where everybody stood pre-training camp, or is that their prediction?

[BillnutinHouston]

Takeo Spikes, Kevin Everett, full season from Roscoe Parrish, Triplett, Fowler, Bowen, Peerless, and the guys chosen in the draft.  Having Everett and Parrish is like having 2 extra draft choices, except they've had a year learning the system.

 

Add a veteran, smart coach and an explosive offensive coordinator. 

 

Subtract Mike Williams, Fat Sam, Moulds. 

 

Mularkey, whose play calling was horrible, with the exception of the first drives of the game....he's in Miami now.  Cool. 

 

This team will surprise some people.  We are very underrated.

723361[/snapback]

 

OK, I forget. Just how many games has Fairchild actually called plays in?

[Astrobot]

It doesn't matter. Fairchild has been around Martz, and the players are buying into it:

 

From KFFL:

Greg Pogue, of the Daily News Journal, recently interviewed Buffalo Bills QB Kelly Holcomb. He asked Holcomb to comment offensive style of offensive coordinator Steve Fairchild and Holcomb replied: "He's aggressive. I think he is going to be a little bit more run-oriented than Mike Martz was. But we'll have to see. Time will tell. You have to be able to run the ball in Buffalo when the weather gets bad. I think he is more prone to do that. But I also think he is very aggressive. In practice so far, he sure has been. This offense, you can make some plays. He gets the ball down the field. He's not scared to take shots. He wants you to force balls into some holes that sometimes in other years you might not think. But he knows what he is doing. He has been in this offense for a while. And I really enjoy it. I like it so far."

[Rubes]

Well, in order to get the ball down the field the QB has to have time to drop back, set, and heave it when the receiver is open. If Fairchild believes we have the line to do that, more power to him. I'll believe it when I see it when the guys are under fire, though.

[AJ1]

Well, in order to get the ball down the field the QB has to have time to drop back, set, and heave it when the receiver is open. If Fairchild believes we have the line to do that, more power to him. I'll believe it when I see it when the guys are under fire, though.

723682[/snapback]

 

If the line can hold their blocks for 2.5 seconds we'll be in great shape. We had a couple of starters last year who couldn't sustain .5 seconds. I'm optimistic because those failures are gone.

[Miyagi-Do Karate]

This team will surprise some people.  We are very underrated.

723361[/snapback]

 

If we win more than 3 games, we'll shock most of the so-called pundits.

 

If Takeo is back to 100%, we'll have a top 5 defense, top 5 special teams and will win at least 7 games. If we have a mediocre offense, add 2 more wins. And we will have at least a mediocre offense, because I can't see both JP and WM regressinhg any further than they did last year.

[OCinBuffalo]

I'll just be happy if JP can finally learn how to finish a play without taking a blistering hit from a linebacker.

723369[/snapback]

 

That depends on whether we throw to RBs and TEs(rather than the mickey mouse plays from last year) to beat the blitzes I am sure we are gonna see. Once again, Troy Aikman quote: "I would retire from this game if I couldn't throw to Novacheck anymore." That was an experienced(i'd say) guy talking about the need for an outlet to his tight end. And before you start saying "Yeah but Novacheck was pro-bowler", how do you think he got there? Because plays were designed for him? Yeah, that's it. They had Micheal Irvin but they designed plays whose first look was Novacheck, BRAY!.

 

And also, if a HOF QB says this is important why the hell didn't we see it as important last year, when we were starting a rookie? How many designed outlets to the TE did JP have last year again? I think I saw 3. That kid was set up to fail because the coaches didn't have the stones to design and call plays that were about players making plays. Instead, JP inherited a system designed for Deadslow.

 

They chose to call conservative(read: silly) plays that were beneath JP and WM's ability(and just right for Holcomb's, btw)in an effort to "control the ball" - hard to do when you throw, designed because the System says so, 8-yard passes on 3rd and 9. No wonder KH threw that infamous pass last year on forth down, he has the creative ability of a treestump - I am not saying he doesn't know how(so don't start with that again Holcomb's Arm), I am saying he doesn't have the physical ability to be creative. However, I am sure the System was pleased with that play.

 

And oh yeah - I almost forgot "WM don't you dare bounce an occasional play outside so that you can stiff arm little DBs! No, No, run up the middle so that your knee can take another shot from a linebacker". Another poster that nailed this one down definitevly.

 

So we proceeded with our ridiculous plan.

When that didn't work they got out the Statue of Liberty play from my family reunion game.

When that didn't work they largely blamed JP, and spent two minutes talking about the need for improved OL play.

 

We have the people we need to be competitive. There are OL questions but we have plenty of ability at the skill positions to make up for that. We must rely on the coaches to do their job this year and get a plan that works based on who we have and letting their ability win games(especially WM on third downs - exceedingly hard to "control the ball" from the bench), not on "the System is all knowing, we must please the System so that it favors us", Frankenstein football.

[AJ1]

That depends on whether we throw to RBs and TEs(rather than the mickey mouse plays from last year) to beat the blitzes I am sure we are gonna see. Once again, Troy Aikman quote: "I would retire from this game if I couldn't throw to Novacheck anymore." That was an experienced(i'd say) guy talking about the need for an outlet to his tight end. And before you start saying "Yeah but Novacheck was pro-bowler", how do you think he got there? Because plays were designed for him? Yeah, that's it. They had Micheal Irvin but they designed plays whose first look was Novacheck, BRAY!.

 

And also, if a HOF QB says this is important why the hell didn't we see it as important last year, when we were starting a rookie? How many designed outlets to the TE did JP have last year again? I think I saw 3. That kid was set up to fail because the coaches didn't have the stones to design and call plays that were about players making plays. Instead, JP inherited a system designed for Deadslow.

 

They chose to call conservative(read: silly) plays that were beneath JP and WM's ability(and just right for Holcomb's, btw)in an effort to "control the ball" - hard to do when you throw, designed because the System says so, 8-yard passes on 3rd and 9. No wonder KH threw that infamous pass last year on forth down, he has the creative ability of a treestump - I am not saying he doesn't know how(so don't start with that again Holcomb's Arm), I am saying he doesn't have the physical ability to be creative. However, I am sure the System was pleased with that play.

 

And oh yeah - I almost forgot "WM don't you dare bounce an occasional play outside so that you can stiff arm little DBs! No, No, run up the middle so that your knee can take another shot from a linebacker". Another poster that nailed this one down definitevly.

 

So we proceeded with our ridiculous plan.

When that didn't work they got out the Statue of Liberty play from my family reunion game.

When that didn't work they largely blamed JP, and spent two minutes talking about the need for improved OL play.

 

We have the people we need to be competitive. There are OL questions but we have plenty of ability at the skill positions to make up for that. We must rely on the coaches to do their job this year and get a plan that works based on who we have and letting their ability win games(especially WM on third downs - exceedingly hard to "control the ball" from the bench), not on "the System is all knowing, we must please the System so that it favors us", Frankenstein football.

723712[/snapback]

 

How did Mularkey have any measure of success in '04???? Inherited the offense of the fired guy? He was incredible in his mismagement mis-ability. The root of all evil of course was the complete fool who gave him the job in the first place. TD either has lost it all or never had it in the first place and took credit for underlings' achievements in Pitt. I favor the latter theory.

[Bob in STL]

Takeo Spikes, Kevin Everett, full season from Roscoe Parrish, Triplett, Fowler, Bowen, Peerless, and the guys chosen in the draft.  Having Everett and Parrish is like having 2 extra draft choices, except they've had a year learning the system.

 

Add a veteran, smart coach and an explosive offensive coordinator. 

 

Subtract Mike Williams, Fat Sam, Moulds. 

 

Mularkey, whose play calling was horrible, with the exception of the first drives of the game....he's in Miami now.  Cool. 

 

This team will surprise some people.  We are very underrated.

723361[/snapback]

 

TC - I agree that we are on the upswing but lets face it, we have an unproven QB, many unproven players on the OL, and not much experience at DT.

 

I am not sure was have it in the trenches to run and stop the run.

 

I watch the games at Hot Shots in St. Charles. I hope to see you there.

 

- Bob

[BEAST MODE BABY!]

Anyone here hear of the Stockdale Paradox?

 

All you optomists are going to be screaming come mid-November.

 

 

All those who say the Bills will be good, it's just I have no idea when will be much better off.