Peters holdout lacks a cheering section

[MRW]

They play them to get a look at the rookies, get some practice in, make a little extra coin and to get people like you all googly eyed over a full dress scrimmage.

 

It is meaningless in terms of predicting success during the regular season. The worst preseason teams the Bills ever had were their best regular season teams.

 

The point is that it would be utterly ridiculous to make long term, critical decisions based solely on a fistful of preseason games.

 

I am not reading much positive or negative from the preseason, the other guy was. I just pointed out that preseason doesn't mean much (a universally accepted axiom by the way) but if you are going to make a big deal out of it, you might want to take note that it wasn't all beer and skittles.

I'm not making a big deal of it, but I do think it's worth pointing out that in previous years pitiful offense in the preseason has presaged pitiful offense in the regular season. It's nice to see that change this year at least; if the offense had come out as flat in the last two games as it did in Washington I think people would be concerned and rightly so.

 

As far as whether preseason is meaningless - yes, if you look at final scores and base your hopes or fears on that it absolutely is. But I don't think it's unreasonable to look at how the players who will be starting opening day perform. (And where you see axiom, I see cliche.)

 

Please refrain from trying to cast me as some woolly-headed optimist. I don't know what I've posted that you're basing that on, but it's pretty obnoxious.

[jimmy griffin]

by trade they lost willis mcgahee. and they lost london fletcher, a GREAT player. pat williams was good too (not to go too far back) but all in all, they havn't lost many good players. goes to show you how thin and bruttal their talent was and is.

 

 

 

Correction. It was a problem for the team under Donahoe. If you want to blame Ralph for that, go ahead, but at least he realized his mistake and corrected it. Since that time, covering the past three offseasons, tell me how any reasonable person could come to any conclusion other than the Bills are markedly more talented on both sides of the ball.

 

 

Please tell me you're not this obtuse. What did I mean? It's pretty obvious. The Bills have more good players now than they did three years ago, and the ONLY good player they've lost is Clements.

 

 

You'd mention them out of context, since the complaints being leveled at the Bills have to do with the way the current administration is running things. Donahoe made the Winfield and Williams decisions.

 

 

How coy of you. The truth is the Bills aren't losing good players under the current regime; they're gaining them.

[eball]

by trade they lost willis mcgahee. and they lost london fletcher, a GREAT player. pat williams was good too (not to go too far back) but all in all, they havn't lost many good players. goes to show you how thin and bruttal their talent was and is.

The Bills wanted to trade McGahee, and there's not a person outside of Brian Billick and Ozzie Newsome who believes Baltimore got the better end of that deal. That's not "losing" a good player.

 

London Fletcher was not great, but he was pretty good. I'll give you that. Washington also overpaid for him.

[Mickey]

I'm not making a big deal of it, but I do think it's worth pointing out that in previous years pitiful offense in the preseason has presaged pitiful offense in the regular season. It's nice to see that change this year at least; if the offense had come out as flat in the last two games as it did in Washington I think people would be concerned and rightly so.

 

As far as whether preseason is meaningless - yes, if you look at final scores and base your hopes or fears on that it absolutely is. But I don't think it's unreasonable to look at how the players who will be starting opening day perform. (And where you see axiom, I see cliche.)

 

Please refrain from trying to cast me as some woolly-headed optimist. I don't know what I've posted that you're basing that on, but it's pretty obnoxious.

You didn't "just simply point out...." I posted a response to someone else's post that preseason doesn't mean much and if you are going to put stock in it, you might want to note that the offense didn't put up many points. That is when you jumped in attacking me for being critical of the offense, referring to my observation that the offense didn't score a lot of points as being "meaningless". That moved the discussion from debating whether preseason was meaningless to my opinions being meaningless. You personalized it so I don't know why, having taken us down this road, you are upset at where we are.

 

I am willing to give you the benefit of the doubt that your post came off harsher and more personal than intended and leave it at that.

 

Preseason is like watching a practice, you can see the abilities some players have, like watching Leodis' speed on his returns.

But other than that, it just doesn't mean much and using it as proof that we are all set at this or that position is going overboard.

[MRW]

You didn't "just simply point out...." I posted a response to someone else's post that preseason doesn't mean much and if you are going to put stock in it, you might want to note that the offense didn't put up many points. That is when you jumped in attacking me for being critical of the offense, referring to my observation that the offense didn't score a lot of points as being "meaningless". That moved the discussion from debating whether preseason was meaningless to my opinions being meaningless. You personalized it so I don't know why, having taken us down this road, you are upset at where we are.

 

I am willing to give you the benefit of the doubt that your post came off harsher and more personal than intended and leave it at that.

 

Preseason is like watching a practice, you can see the abilities some players have, like watching Leodis' speed on his returns.

But other than that, it just doesn't mean much and using it as proof that we are all set at this or that position is going overboard.

But it really is meaningless to cite what the offense as a whole scored during the game and use that as an indication of how the starting team performed. I don't intend that as a personal attack against you, but in my opinion you're simply not making a good argument here. I'd be equally dismissive if the Bills had put up massive point totals in the third and fourth quarter and someone was trying to present that as evidence that the offense would be an unstoppable juggernaut this year.

 

"Preseason is meaningless" is an easy phrase that gets thrown around entirely too much in my opinion. Let me ask you this, if Trent went through this preseason and went 5/20 for 30 yards with 2 picks, would you or would you not be concerned? Isn't the fact that he did considerably better than that worthy of some notice and possibly some cautious optimism? Preseason doesn't tell you everything, but it tells you something.

[Pine Barrens Mafia]

You have a point, but as an avid fan, I am still not totally sure about what seperates winning teams from losing teams. It would seem to me that the biggest factors would be both lines, quarterbacking and coaching.

 

In this sense, the Bills range from painfully thin (OL), hopefully good (DL), and very shaky (head coach). Few teams are, but the Bills, because they use their best resources on defensive backs and/or gadget players, are totally unprepared to lose their best blocker. In this sense, at least we can all hopefully agree that it is good that he didn't tear an ACL in pre-season while holding out.

 

I think that the Bills could be very competitive this year, or, they could fold like a house of cards. Again, the Bills were thin up front with Peters. I think that Edwards and Lynch are good but they are kids, and really do need a top LT like Peters to play up to their potential.

 

The Bills have sucked at LT for the better part of 15 years. Fina was God Awful at the end, yet was making 5 million per season, and was even designated the "Franchise Player." There should have been an outrage, but we are the most loyal of fans.

 

If Peters never plays another game in a Bills uniform, don't count on Jauron to replace him. Even if he trades him for another 1st round pick, look for him to select a safety and another corner. This is of course if he is our coach next season, and I am not banking on this by a longshot.

 

Well, aren't YOU just a ray of sunshine?

[ndirish1978]

Loved that article, thanks. I've been saying the same thing for a couple days now. Namely, after missing the installation of a new offense, how much help can Peters actually be? Sure, he's an excellent athlete, but he will NOT be able to hit the ground running.

[Bleed Bills Blue]

"Preseason is meaningless" is an easy phrase that gets thrown around entirely too much in my opinion. Let me ask you this, if Trent went through this preseason and went 5/20 for 30 yards with 2 picks, would you or would you not be concerned? Isn't the fact that he did considerably better than that worthy of some notice and possibly some cautious optimism? Preseason doesn't tell you everything, but it tells you something.

 

Well said, and quite right. Remember last year's pre-season, when the offense looked out of joint the whole way? Even Jauron commented after the final PS game that he wished the offense had more time to work things out. Guess what, the offense we saw during pre-season was the same offense we got all year long.

 

By contrast, this year's offense has often looked sharp and confident, and has shown the ability to sustain long drives, a luxury last year's defense rarely enjoyed. It has also shown a knack for scoring touchdowns occasionally, rather than constantly settling for field goals.

 

Remember, despite the lameness of the offense last year, we didn't need to convert all that many field goals to touchdowns to alter the outcome of a number of games we lost. I think this year's offense has already shown they have the potential to do just that.

 

GO BILLS!

[tbonehawaii]

i liked the article too. graham capsulated all the important inforation in there -- nicely. i especially liked how he pointed out that peters dropped his old agent to hire parker -- the ball buster to get him more money. pure greed for a guy who is lucky to be in the league. what a fool.

 

if wilson caves in a pays $8 mil i will loose respect for wilson and the is front office. the case is clear cut that peters is in the wrong and must conform before money will be spent. he needs to proves his value past what he has -- which wsa he was rewarded for in 2006 -- with $3.5 m.

Even after he come sback they would be nuts to not re-sign Evans first. Why reward bad behavior and punish good?

[otisly00]

They play them to get a look at the rookies, get some practice in, make a little extra coin and to get people like you all googly eyed over a full dress scrimmage.

 

It is meaningless in terms of predicting success during the regular season. The worst preseason teams the Bills ever had were their best regular season teams.

 

The point is that it would be utterly ridiculous to make long term, critical decisions based solely on a fistful of preseason games.

 

I am not reading much positive or negative from the preseason, the other guy was. I just pointed out that preseason doesn't mean much (a universally accepted axiom by the way) but if you are going to make a big deal out of it, you might want to take note that it wasn't all beer and skittles.

 

 

you are correct, i was reading quite a bit of positiveness from our offense this preseason! Why shouldnt I? we have sucked for 9 years. our offense has been awful. we havent had a decent line or QB since SB years. If you think everything single play, drive, score, TD, turnover, tackle, INJURY etc is meaningless in the preseason and wont carry over in any way to production (or non) in the regular season then why are you even on this board discussing the team and preseason and how we are going to be this year? with our w/o Peters? Peters hasnt been here, hence our line has had to shuffle, and for the minimal amount of time they have played in 3 games, they've looked pretty darn good.

 

now if thats wrong, then i dont want to be right.

 

GO BILLS

[ChasBB]

Be nice if the Bills could get the Evans deal done. Would send a message that they will deal with players who are here. But seems to be taking a long time to get that done. Anyone know what's taking that deal so long? Evans risks injury every time he steps on the field, so would just be a great gesture for Bills to get this thing done.