Shawn & Chidi ?

[H2OBFLO]

Are these players the answer to our D-line problem?
If we start getting to the QB, the answer will be clear!:deadhorse

[lordofgun]

Time will tell! They sure can't hurt! I don't think they're a long term solution, but they may be a good stopgap for this year.

[casdhf]

I don't they skill wise they're any better than what we have. They aren't as green and are blue-collar hard workers. They'll make a good band-aid until our young guys get up to speed. I say about midseason, we'll be seeing alot more of Edwards, Robertson, Bannan and co.

[kgun12]

Even if they aren't, they both have alot of years in the league, they can't help the younger guys find their way. There is nothing like experience. Chidi said the other day on Empire, that the minute he walked on the field for his first practice the younger guys started asking him question about his moves. He also said that he has been telling the youngin's that in this league you never take a play off and go 100% on every play. THAT WERE THESE SIGNINGS WILL PAY OFF!

[H2OBFLO]

We're young and talented, a little leadership and more time to gel will bring the sacks. We can't afford to let them stand there and pick us apart like Minn. did.

[casdhf]

to get pressure, we need to blitz. I still haven't seen any blitzing

[JefftheBillsfan]

yeah....i think once we turn our LBs loose...we will get some more pressure..we need to stop the run.

[kgun12]

casd Don't look to hard tommorrow night either. The Bills aren't going to show much other their blitz packages for other teams to get a look at them on film. Very basic in preseason.

[TigerJ]

H20BFLO: "We're young and talented,"

I'm not trying to be down on the defensive line, but I'm not sure it's a given that they are "talented."

Look at how they came out of college:
Schobel - 2nd round draft choice
S. Price - free agent?
P. Williams - free agent
R. Edwards - 4th round draft choice
Robertson - 7th round draft choice
Office - free agent
Cotton - went to CFL first
Fisher - low round draft choice (6th or 7th)
Denney - 2nd round draft choice
Bannan - 5th round draft choice
Ahanotu - ?

Occasionally you have a guy who was not well regarded coming out of college and developing into something special. Pat Williams has done some nice things, far exceeding what you expect of an undrafted free agent, but you can't count on it fromo every low round draft choice and rookie free agent. Shobel played like a second rounder last year, which is to say he was pretty good. But so far everyone else has been playing about to the level of where they were picked, or not picked. So are we really talented?

Whatever the level of talent, these guys are the guys we have, but I think it's pretty obvious that the personnel people have to spend some higher draft picks on defensive linemen in the next few years or sign some big time veteran free agents, or our line just isn't goint to be very good. Next year the highest we can take someone is the second round, but I'm hopeful there might be someone available who is a little higher caliber than Denney has proven to be thus far.

[PA Season Ticket Holder]

I can't even believe some people are all excited about this. I've read stuff from a lot of people who think this is a major upgrade.

Shawn Price has never done anything, and Chidi had 1 good 10 sack year, a long, long time ago.

Will these guys play better than what we currently have? Yeah, but not majorly.

Will they improve our pass rush or run defense? A little, but don't expect anything special. We might only give up 165 yards instead of 181 yards rushing to the Dilloness Bengals.

These guys are a dime a dozen. That's why they were still available for the vet minumum in late August. It's not because they were holding out for a better offer.

[John Doe]

This is not an upgrade in talent. This is an upgrade in experience.

[casdhf]

Chidi is a good player. That year of 10 sacks was a fluke. But, he's a good run-DE anyways.

[WG]

PA's got it right.

Neither of these guys is anything other than a dime-a-dozen player. Let's face it, if either were any good anymore, then they'd have been signed.

We blew it. We could have had 5 times that talent at twice the price had we moved earlier. I was just reading an article, forget which one, but the author seemed to have felt that Denney is playing so poorly that he may get cut. While I doubt that will happen, we traded some good picks down to the 2nd round to get him. So apparently high picks aren't the answer. I was wondering why we drafted a guy that high that wasn't on anyones draft lists.

I'm starting to scratch my head somewhat at some of our decisions. Many of us saw this coming and stated that we needed to sign a DL-man this offseason. Why didn't the coaches/TD.

CA and SP had 8.5 sacks between them over the past few years and had 2 apiece last year. Heck, any starting DL-man will get one or two by default of starting.

Let's face it, our D is gonna reek this year. I'd say we'll be lucky to be in the top 25 overall. Whatever success this team has this season is gonna be due to Drew and Henry, and they'll only be as good as our OL is.

While Drew's played well in the PS so far, we haven't exactly played tough teams, A, and B, it's only PS and has been for a couple of drives. It'll be much more of a challenge when we're down 21-17 at the half and the ToP at the half is 21/9 against us.

Teams are gonna run it down our throat to what I predict will be the worst rushing D ever by any Bills team in history.

The DL was neglected, reprehensibly IMO. I don't see how if that is the case, that TD/GW cannot be held accountable. Excuses can often be made for things and scapegoats found/created. But I feel sorry for John Levra even though it would be totally unreasonable for him to have to shoulder the blame w/ the talent he's been handed by TD. He's been given a roster full of has-beens, busts, and projects and asked to do something with it.

Unfortunately, no cinderella story for our DL will occur this season. So we'd all better get used to the idea of consistently giving up 150+ yards to what will end up being some of the best rushing teams in the league this season.

[HenryRules]

Wys, I disagree this will be the worst rushing D ever. While we will be bad, there is no way that we are not improved over last year.
LE - Schoebel 2nd year vs. Schoebel 1st year. 2nd year should win, if not its not the fault of TD. Its the fault of the coaching staff.
DT#1 - Pat Williams vs. Pat Williams - a sawoff. TD can't be faulted for this either.
DT#2 - Price vs. Price. Again a sawoff.
RE - Chidi vs. Phil Hansen. Again a sawoff.
Difference is, I like our depth on the DL this year vs. last year. No more tying up a roster spot hoping Flowers improves; Office, Edwards, and Robertson, each have a year of experience and Larsen is probably beaten out for a job - when one of your top reserves is beaten out for a job while he's still young, that implies improved depth.
LB's - Newman vs. Newman - sawoff.
Fletcher vs. Spoon - huge upgrade. Shouldn't even compare these two out of respect for Fletcher.
Robinson vs. Foreman - another huge upgrade.

While its not what we all would have dreamed of, and perhaps not as good as it could have been, the running defense personnel is definitely upgraded over last year and to say otherwise is simply misrepresenting the facts.

[WG]

The only problem w/ that is that we face 3 times the corps of RBs this year that we did last.

Last year we faced hardly any good RBs and the decent ones had heydays. This year, Tomlinson is in his second year, Williams is on Miami, Martin is Martin, Smith is in his second season w/ N.E., Thomas, Green, Holmes, last year's leading rusher, Dillon, heck, even Michael Bennett was made to look like Walter Peyton.

No, it won't be pretty. I don't think we've gotten worse, I also don't think we've improved a stitch. Sure, our secondary is tighter, but that won't help. We're also one or two injuries away from disaster and being far worse than we were last year.

Schobel really hasn't shown me anything in two games in PS this year. Plus, teams will easily be able to control the clock against us which will not improve over last year either, thus also allowing for more running opps against us.

So if you are talking in terms of talent irregardless of score or outcomes, then I would possibly agree w/ you. But if you're talking in terms of statistically, rated against other NFL teams, I would strongly disagree.

We'll see. Maybe there'll be some surprises tonight. This should be the game we give it all we've got. Next week we'll want to rest and not risk injury to our starters. Not to mention that Indy's the best team on our PS schedule. They also haven't played well in PS. So it'll be imperative that we give it what we've got and put forth a great showing.

IMO what we have after tonight, is what we can hope and count on opening the season with.

[colin]

We are for sure better on D this year.

Clements is better now, Winfield did not get any worse.

Schobel got better, Newman and Robinson are both versed in the D and a better combo than last years guys. Our on the cusp 3 of Roberts, Edwards and Office should produce on OK player. Price is better (healthy) and Chidi is an upgrade over Hanson in a bad year.

Our safety play is WAY better than it was last year, Pearson Preloux was good late, and he will be in there all year, and Jenkins/Wire is a huge upgrade over Hill.

We may be soft against the run, but I expect a top 15 D overall, and our O is gonna put big pressure on teams to score quickly, helping us get turnovers.

[HenryRules]

I disagree with the statement that going into this season, our rushing opponents are drastically tougher than last year's opponents. Yes, they may be slightly better, but look at who we were supposed to face last year:
Ricky Williams - coming off a 1000 yard, 4.0 ypc season
Edgerrin James (twice) - coming off a 1700 yard, 4.4 ypc season
Jerome Bettis - coming off a 1300 yard, 3.8 ypc season
Curtis Martin (twice) - coming off a 1200 yard, 3.8 ypc season
Fred Taylor - coming off a 1400 yard, 4.8 ypc season
Shaun Alexander - coming off an impressive rookie season that earned him the starting job over a top-level RB
Garrison Hearst - coming back from injury, but a guy that has never really had a bad season

That's 9 games against guys that we knew coming in were one of the top-10 or so at their position. Not including the game against Ladanian Tomlinson, one of the highest touted rookies. Nor including the expected game against Jamal Anderson, a guy coming off a 1000 yard, 3.6 ypc season.

My point is that last season's rushing opponents were supposed to be pretty much as tough as this season's. We got lucky with some injuries - which I am willing to wager that we will this year. Let's not get too excited about our opponents though, as we are still weeks, if not months, away from playing against most of them.

[Buffatexas]

All these negative vibes about Chidi.....Here is my take on Chidi, he is a solid de and how bright was his star going to shine while playing on a defense with Warren Sapp, John Lynch, Ronde Barber, Derrick Brooks and Hardy Nickerson. I think he will be the winner of the Bill's defensive unsung hero award and may surprise some people. He was the only one on the Bucs at the time who was not afraid to expose Sapp as the jacka** that he is, and when he voiced his opinion, he was let go.

[WG]

The guy's 32 and his production has slipped dramatically over the past few years.

Pipe dreams. He's a warm body as a starter at best. He's on his way down at worst. He won't be any worse than what we have. He's not gonna be "what we're missin' " either. Otherwise he wouldn't have been a FA for so long.