Like every team in the NFL, the Bills have a lot of decisions to make about players whose contracts have just expired. I do not have the full list, but according to walterfootball.com (the most up-to-date list I could find, which was last updated in July), that list includes:
My question to you all is simple: Who do you expect the Bills to bring back? If you'd like, you may also tell me who you would like them to keep, but I'm more interested in predictions for the purposes of this post. Also, if you have more names to add to the list, please mention them as well.
I'll post my yes or no answers in the comments below.
I finally got around to watching this game yesterday, and I took some notes.
The highlight of the game, for me, was definitely Randy Cross trying to explain "hidden yards." If you don't remember, he began by saying "Hidden yards are really simple to explain," and then basically muttering incoherently for about 30-45 seconds and then finally giving up. Attaboy Randy.
Watching Marshawn Lynch, he can absolutely still be a feature back in the NFL. He'd be a great fit on the Packers.
The "Kuuuuuu--hhhhhhnnnn" chant that happens whenever John Kuhn touches the ball is great.
Chan's gameplans really seem like they lack subtlety, don't they?
Whitner is not as complicated as I've always thought he was. The reality is that he looks good against bad and below average players, but against good players he gets lit up. There's a word for that: average.
Aaron Rodgers has a silo at his house where he keeps all his extra pocket presence. The man felt every blitz and pressure Buffalo had.
What is Torell Troup doing on the kick return team/ Is that the most terrifying image ever?
This was the matchup from hell for Trent. You literally couldn't have scripted a game that would show him in a worse light. Watching Aaron Rodgers constantly moving and making plays, having Clay Matthews sitting on the back of his helmet every two or three plays...
I don't understand why anyone ever runs the prevent against Trent. Also, it's not hard to understand why he succeeds against it: it's designed to stop the one thing he never attempts to do. That'd be like if we had 8 in the box the whole game against rodgers.
How is this the 1st time I'm hearing about this 300 yard game streak? It's shocking.
Spiller should return every kickoff from here on out. With three guys who need touches, we've got to get him the ball on special teams.
I hope that Trent running out of bounds instead of taking a chance on 4th down is the last play he ever runs as a Bill. What a fitting ending to a horrendous career in Buffalo.
The Packers put that the "you need a power running game to win in the cold" myth to rest. For that matter, so do the Pats. We should build our team exactly how they did. Get your QB, then go find passrushers. A great quarterback and a rabid passrush is going to end up near 10 wins even if everything else goes wrong.
Hey gang. I bought NFL Game Rewind this year, so I'm going to watch our game again in the next few days. I was wondering if there was anything people would like me to focus on while I watch it. I think Ron will do his line stuff, and there will be more general reviews of each unit, but I was thinking I could watch a bunch of smaller things and report back.
Wondering how many times Troup got on the field? Or how Ellison fared after Poz got hurt? Or whether McGee pressed his man with any regularity? Anyway, I don't have anything off the top of my head, so I'd love it if you guys could tell me what you'd like me to look for, and then I'll write it up in a fan post later this week.
"His release might be a little low at this point, but a lot of people talked about Philip Rivers' delivery too before he was drafted, and look at what he's done. I've heard all the supposed [negatives]. But I watched [Tebow] on the field and his velocity is good enough, and so is his accuracy. As far as his learning, you don't have to tell him anything twice. And he's a student of the game. I recommended that he watch some tapes of Steve Young, and he said, 'Oh, I've already done that.' He wants to be good. He wants to succeed. And he will succeed."
There was a discussion recently about Terrell Owens, and whether or not the Bills should try to bring him back. For the most part, it seemed like the consensus was that, since the Bills had too many holes to fill (pre-emptive TWSS), they shouldn't bother giving TO the multi-year contract and millions he will likely demand when they could spend that on someone who...you know...isn't 36.
This got me wondering. I've always fallen on the "we need too many pieces" side of things, but I'm also usually wrong. So I decided to look at the most notable recent turnaround, the Miami Dolphins. The team went from 1-15 in 2007 to 11-5 in 2008 after blowing up their front office and coaching staff. Do we have more pieces in place than they did? How many pieces can a team possibly acquire in only 1 offseason?
Some of this is obvious. Some of this is totally subjective. But I needed to get it all off my chest and I didn't think I could do it by commenting on other people's posts. We'll be discussing 3 things or so.
With two moves, the Bills have confused the hell out of their fanbase. For months, every indication was that the team wanted to win now. They have a coach who clearly must win this year or he's fired. They signed Terrell Owens. They drafted guys who they thought could play right away.
For a while, it certainly felt like they were doing everything they could to let Trent Edwards take this team to the playoffs this year.
Then, within the last week, we got some serious mixed signals. They fired the architect of their new, exciting No-pointsHuddle offense just days before the first game of the season. Then a few days later, they cut their only real veteran on the offensive line, a guy many felt was the best performer on the unit a year before. In his stead they stuck a 7th-rounder from a year ago. Demetrius Bell has not only never taken an NFL snap, the last meaningful game he played was in the Southland Conference. And we haven't even addressed the fact that he never played high school football.
This has been taken by many to be discouraging, a proverbial white flag. I've come up with a few reasons (after the jump), why these are good signs for the year ahead.
Cowboys coach Wade Phillips and owner Jerry Jones will discuss releasing wide receiver Terrell Owens as the team looks to improve chemistry in its locker room, EPSN.com is reporting.
This is not an article advocating that, if this were to happen, the Bills should go out and break the bank signing Terrell Owens. However if the price is right, I think the Bills should consider it.
I don't think that the "right price" even has to be bargain-basement low. It's got just got to be enough that we aren't prohibiting ourselves from spending to get a premiere defensive talent, like a Suggs or a Peppers or a (I hesitate to mention him in the same breath) Berry.
Without a doubt, TO is an aging, whiny, clubhouse cancer. He makes enemies everywhere he goes. He could very well send Trent Edwards up the wall. He is the anti-Chris Kelsay. His teammates hate him, he's not "good in the lockerroom" and he cares a heck of a lot more about TO than he does about his team.
I believe he's exactly what this team needs.
He's a red zone threat- The Bills don't have a dynamic, red zone threat, and when you settle for FG's, you lose football games. With 9+ TD's in every year but 2 since 1998, TO puts the ball in the endzone.
He can be 1A to Evans's 1- I love Lee Evans. I think he's a great football player. However I don't like him as our #1 receiver, for reasons that Brian talked about earlier in the season. He's a 3-5 catches, 60-80 yards kind of guy. That's great production, but he's not a possession receiver. He's not the guy we hit on 3rd down. TO is. And maybe we call TO 1 and Evans 1A, because TO would like that, and I think Evans wouldn't care.
He's tough- Yeah, the Cowboys folded this year. But TO didn't. When the team needed him the most, week 17, he had over 100 yards receiving. I think we all remember the super bowl he had with the Eagles while playing on 1 leg. I think the Bills were soft this year. TO wouldn't let that happen.
Trent is smarter than Romo- This is pretty subjective on my part, but I believe Trent is smarter, and mentally tougher than Tony Romo. I think he could take TO's antics, of which I'm sure there will be some.
Fire- Aside from being a brutally tough player, he quite simply doesn't tolerate mediocrity. I am willing to accept that I might be reading too much into Jauron's passive nature (and mediocre career record, his comfort with his DE's, with Anthony Thomas, his many 7-9 seasons), but it seems that the coach isn't going to get on his players for being average. TO wouldn't accept that. Plus, you'd get the added bonus of seeing your frustrations vindicated when he yapped at somebody on the sideline (tell me you don't want to see jauron look angry, just once!).
Obviously there are a lot of reasons not to do it. Spending on a 35 year old WR is rarely a good idea (though signing a 33 year old James Lofton certainly was). His intangibles (which I'm suggesting would help the Bills) are a main reason the Cowboys are thinking about dumping him. I think the fact that he could drive Edwards up the wall is a legitimate problem.
But at some point the Bills need to just go for it if they're going to be the team we all want them to be. We've had solid drafts, but we've fallen woefully short on finding impact talent. If it doesn't work out, you cut him, pay the signing bonus, and forget about it.
I think never taking a risk would be a much, much bigger mistake.
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