SB Nation User Blog: Teaters33

Blocking TE Option

Teaters33 — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 16:53:07 -0000

Chris Brown reported that the Lions cut TE Michael Gaines and wondered if he would be an option for the Bills to bring in for extra TE depth during training camp and OTA's. After reading his report it made me think of that option as well.

He's a good blocker with a decent set of hands and I would have rather had him last year then Royal. He's durable and is a veteran of the league, as well as knowing the coaching staff and their schemes. We've all seen how Schouman gets hurt quite easily and he would even been a good tutor for Nelson on blocking.

Your ideas?

McShay says Bills were 1st day WINNERS

Teaters33 — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 11:27:33 -0000

Todd McShay has given the Bills the best grade of day one! He said we took the best edge pass rusher in the draft as well as 2 of the best interior lineman and one of the best zone coverage / ball skills corner.

Watching the draft I wanted to pull my hair as I watched Maualuga drop and dop and drop just wishing the Bills would pull the trigger. Obviously that didn't happen so I sure hope they grab a LB on day 2.

Overall, I think they did a great job. I have a feeling they may trade a few more late round picks to get back into the 3rd to pick up a TE or a LB. In my opinion those are the last 2 positions we need to try and find a starter. The rest of our draft picks should be taking the best player available and building depth.

Just as a long shot...I wouldn't mind seeing the BIlls taking WR Ramses Barden...6'-6" baby!!!

Pre-Draft Roundup

Teaters33 — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 14:45:16 -0000

I've been reading a lot of the fan posts lately and have noticed there are tons of opinions floating around about TO, Lynch's suspension, Peters' contract and so on. Well I decided to throw my 2 cents in and see what kind of discussions we can bring up.

Free Agency started out with a boom when the Bills signed Mr. Diva himself. At first I was mad and suprised at the same time, but thinking about it and taking in all the "experts" opinions I LOVE it! He's going to bring a dynamic option to our offense that Buffalo hasn't seen since Reed and Lofton teamed up with each other. I also think it's a good risk signing him to a 1 year deal. If he performs as we all expect, the Bills will be a better team and will be able to compete for a change. If it fails, then oh well...we get another high draft pick, hopefully a new coaching staff and TO moves on.

Even though it's going to suck not to have our #1 RB for the first 3 games of the season he deserves it. I am a huge Lynch fan but if you're going to put yourself in that kind of situation then you deserve to pay the consequences. I admire The Commish for sticking to his guns as various player personnel issues arise. Hopefully Lynch will live up to his words and change.

I'm pretty happy with the additions of Fitzpatrick and Hangartner. They're both veteran players with starting experience. Fitz will obviously serve as a back-up and mentor to Edwards and Hangartner will most likely bring his versatility and experience to the starting line-up. Drayton Florence is an ok pick-up. Obviously he was a huge disappointment for the Jags last year but hopefully in the nickel and dime packages he can return to his old Charger form and contribute consistently. McKinney is also a versatile addition that helps bolster our depleted O Line. I would have liked to see the Bills add one of the various LB's to the team that toured the facility but it doesn't seem like that will happen. I also think they need to add a RB via FA and get someone with experience to help ease the load from Jackson as Lynch is out. In the limited action Omon saw last year, I am pretty confident he's not our answer.

The hot button as of late...I'm not going to go on and on about Peters I'm just going to put my opinion out there and end it. TRADE HIM...yes he's a good player but is inconsistent (Jets game...sack...fumble...TD...loss) and isn't worth the problems he's causing or the negative media attention he's drawing.

I absolutely love the announcement of the NFL schedule. It gives me the chance to plan my trip from Pittsburgh (boooooooo) to Buffalo to see my 1 Bills game for the year and go to the Bar Bill in East Aurora for wings and beef on weck.

And my post will end with my draft needs list. In the 1st round we need to address 1 of 3 positions...OL (if Peters is traded) DE or LB. Depending on which one is addressed the remaining 2 fall into the 2nd round for consideration. Round 3 - 7 is usually filled with developmental players and hopefully a diamond in the rough or 2. In those rounds we need to address a possible starting TE as well as depth at OL, LB, DL and we all know Jauron will draft at least 1 DB.

So there you have it...my opinion of the Bills offseason to this point. Thank you for reading and fire away!

LB June signs with Texans

Teaters33 — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 12:31:16 -0000

For those of you who were hoping to have June as a post-draft option to fill our OLB need, that won't happen.

As reported on NFL.com, June signed a 1 year / $1.5million contract that could reach $2million.

I don't see many FA options available to fill our need and I feel that Ellison CANNOT be our starter come opening day or we'll be in for another long season (not playoff long). Hopefully the Bills Brass will be able to draft a starting OLB within the first few rounds.

Yahoo.com Mock Draft Rds 1-3

Teaters33 — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 21:34:09 -0000

As I was bored at work today I came across Yahoo.com's most recent Mock Draft and to my suprise I'm actually pretty happy if it would go this way...

Rd 1: Robert Ayers, DE Tennessee

Rd 2: Duke Robinson, OL Oklahoma

Rd 3: Shawn Nelson, TE Southern Miss

I am still very torn between wanting a LB or a DE in the 1st round. I think Chris Ellis will contribute more in his 2nd year and we can probably get a player like Hunt out of Houston in a later round. I would absolutely love to see Ray Maualuga strap on a Bills helmet and we all know Ellison is not starting material for ANY team in the NFL...and I even mean for the Lions :-)

Can you say Pathetic?

Teaters33 — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 21:24:34 -0000

Ask any Bills fan and all of them will say that this afternoon's game against the NY Jets was a crucial game in our hopeful season. After the outcome, I'm sure many Bills fans are irrate!

I would like to point out, in my opinion, the 2 biggest problems our beloved team had today...the O-Line and Perry Fewell's defensive calls.

Anyone else thing we've done better w/o an offensive line playing at all today? We couldn't run the ball and Trent was running for his life. Yes, Trent did hold onto the ball for too long a few times but overall he had no time what so ever to make something on offense happen. Langston Walker and Derrick Dockery are the 2 best lineman we have thus far. Peters is underacheiving like no other and our back-up RG and C are proving to me why they're back-up's. For the love...the Jets rushed 3 and Edwards had less then 2 seconds to get the ball out of his hands! The O-Line consistently got blown off the ball, allowed holes to be clogged for our running game, and gave Edwards no time what so ever to make plays for this promising team.

And now for Fewell's defensive calls. Brett Favre is 39yrs old...why did we not pressure him the entire game!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! Blitzes were working great in the 1st quarter and the Jets could not get anything going. Why did Fewell change his play calls up the rest of game. On crucial downs we were only sending our 4 D-Lineman and Favre had all the time in the world to pick us apart. Our run defense was stellar in the 1st 3 quarters but then disappeared in the 4th when it mattered the most. We have amazing talent on our defense and they're just playing up to their potential and I'm going to point the finger at Perry Fewell and his conservative and often times pathetic play calling. Greet made an outstanding play to help keep us in the game but again it was our run defense who allowed our team to be gashed in the final minutes of the contest.

I sure hope they pull their heads out of their butts for next weekends game against the Patriots because we cannot afford to go 0-3 in the division!

Where's the D?

Teaters33 — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 00:05:09 -0000

Another week goes by and still another game that the Bills defense cannot cause pressure on the opposing QB. Our D-Line/LB's does a fine job stopping the run...we know this already; buy why can't we pressure the QB? We've blitzed in previous games to cause pressure and it's turned out relatively good for us in either a sack, pressure, and even forced fumbles!

I was very disappointed in Fewell's approach to this week's game in terms of pressuring the Dolphins. He only dialed up about 2 blitzes and Scott was able to get a sack on one of those. If that's what it takes to pressure the QB don't you think that is something we should do more often? 2 of our 3 LB's are phenominal and are able to put pressure on the QB if they're allowed (excluding Ellison because he's a bum!)

McGee...WTF? Why was he even allowed to give up 160 some yards to Ginn Jr? Why wasn't he taken out earlier in the game when it was obvious he was having coverage issues? I've noticed it for a very long time that he gives up too much of a cushion making it easy for WR's to run hooks and sprint screens. His play today was very questionable. His heart/mind was in the right place but swallow your pride and let the coaches put someone in who can play 100%.

Those were the 2 major issues I had with todays game. This was supposed to a way to ease into our divisional games, instead we got embarrassed by a mediocre Dolphins team. We've always had Pennington's number but for some reason we couldn't pressure him to save our lives. If this is the way our Defensive Coordinator is going to continue to put together gameplans then this promising season is going to come in for a crash landing!

Rebuttal to previous post

Teaters33 — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 03:34:27 -0000

Earlier I had posted a blog about how terrible of a game Losman played this afternoon in the absence of Edwards. I know this is not the biggest issue that we had today, it was just one of many we can point out. Obviously some people had a problem with even bringing his name up in the debate when there were bigger issues to discuss. Well, here it goes then, my opinion of what went wrong today outside of Losman's performance.

Defense: This has been a consistent problem through the entire season, not just today, but our defense cannot tackle well (outside of a few standouts like Youboty and Poz). Our defense is usually in position to bring the offense down for a short gain or even losses and they are constantly breaking away for extra yardage. Our front 4 consistently cannot get pressure on the QB w/o extra blitzers. They do one hell of a job against the run with Stroud anchoring the line but are pathetic when they need to rush the passer in any situation. The one time we got pressure on Warner was when Mitchell was blitzing and ended up bloodying his chin. He's almost 40 yrs old...why in the world did we not blitz him more? I know it leaves the DB's on an island but nothing else seemed to work today so why not try it? I was very disappointed in Fewell's adjustments, or lack there of, after halftime and even on the fly. Our defense was flat and played with no emotion.

Offense: I believe, as most others do, that it all begins up front. Our O-Line is the same as last year but they're playing like they just met each other. Peters' is consistently getting beat, causing penalties, and overall they're not making any holes for our running game. Thank goodness that Lynch and Jackson are hard runners because they have to fight for every yard they gain. I would have to say that I was most impressed with our WR's today. They made nice plays and really bailed us out of some touch situations. Evans provided the only spark of the day showing us once again that he is a great deep threat. You could tell the game was all but over once Edwards got knocked out. There was no emotion from anyone but scared defeat.

Special Teams: We didn't get many good returns but I'm going to give huge props to McKelvin for at least trying to make plays on kick returns. Most people would think it's crazy for a returner to bring the ball out of the end zone from 7 or 8 yards deep but I'm going to praise Leodis for that because it seemed like he was the only one who tried to turn the momentum of the game.

It was an overall disappointment and I know it would have been a great shootout to watch if Edwards was able to stay in the game. My faith in Schonert is still strong in regards to play calling (except for all of the draws he runs out of the shotgun formation...seriously...way too many), we just didn't have the right QB running them. I'm glad the bye is coming when it is. Edwards will get an extra week to recover, our O-Line will get another week to gel, and hopefully our defense will learn how to wrap up and tackle because LT is not going to be easy to bring down. The Bills have a pretty decent record after their bye week so hopefully we'll get healthy and bring together an awesome gameplan to move to 5-1!

Losman played like Losman

Teaters33 — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 23:53:42 -0000

Today's performance is the exact reason why JP Losman was benched last year and should become a FA at the end of the season. He is TERRIBLE and I've said it since day 1!

Yes...I will give it to him that he had a very nice play to L. Evans and they have good chemistry together; but besides that one play he is pathetic. He held onto the ball way too long, took too many sacks, and of course had a few turnovers like he usually does.

I was really hoping to see Hamdem put in the game. True, we don't know what he has to offer in a regular season game but I'm sure he can't be any worse then Losman.

Crowd Noise

Teaters33 — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 03:01:01 -0000

I'm so glad I picked to go to this game as my 1 for the year! The drive home to Pittsburgh is much better after a Buffalo victory.

I have never seen/heard the crowd so into the game as we were in the 4th quarter. We were beating on the bleechers, screaming, clapping...it was amazing! Needless to say I have no voice what so ever left but it was well worth it. You could tell that the team fed off of our energy especially when Stroud and Whitner kept giving us motions of pumping it up!

Trent was poised in the last few drives, the defense came through when they needed to, and Ryan finished the deal with a sweet 38yd field goal to win it! 3-0 and atop the AFC East...oh it's a great day to be a Bills fan!