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All: The new Billszone site with the updated software is scheduled to be turned on Tuesday, May 21, 2024. The company that built it, Dynascale, estimates a FOUR HOUR shut down, from 8pm Pacific, (5pm Eastern) while they get it up and running. Nobody will be able to post in any forum until they are done. Afterwards, you may need to do a web search for the site, as old links will not work, because the site is getting a new IP address. Please be patient. If there are bugs, we will tackle them one at a time. Remember the goal is to be up and running with no glitches by camp. Doing this now assures us of that, because it gives us all summer to get our ducks in a row. Thank you!
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They make the defense relevant. My only concerns are o-line and Trent. But, I think we end the playoff drought this year. Not logically of course, just in my heart.
i dont believe the bills will sign levi and pisa. i think pisa gets signed and the rest of the cap room is used for the rookies and fred jackson. also i cant say the 2 rookie Olinemen are upgrades yet. they havnt played a down of NFL football. i can say that i like them both especially wood, but i cant say they are upgrades. wendall at best would be a 4th DT and rotate in and barley get playing time. even if he was going to be "good" again, it would take a year or 2 to get used to the speed of the game as it gets faster every year. that being said, if our new guards and tackles for that matter really, can get our RB's to a little over 4 yards a carry and we sign pisa and our pass rush comes back alittle with schobel and maybin contributing, i can see us winning ten games. our running backs start averaging alittle over 4 yards a carry and lee evens and T.O. are good enough to be open all day in the coverage schemes they will see.
Pisa's an upgrade, mostly because our current Will 'backers are either unproven or have proved to be worthless. No one knows if Levi Jones can play or if the injuries have gotten the best of him, and Wendell Bryant would take any job that anyone offered to him. He's been out of football since 2005 and most of it was spent getting ****canned and pissing away his talent.
And these are the guys to make us a relevant defense. Really?
their is always a shot at the playoffs with this team we always miss by a game or two it seems, the OL is unproven being a back-up is now a starting C he did decent as a fill in but starting all 16 games who knows, and 2 rookies a OG we don't know how they'll play in the nfl their experience is at the college level for now and the OL has to jell which usually takes more then 1 offseason in order to have any success, Trent has to prove he is our QB of the future, I believe he has the skills but has to stay healthy and he does have the weapons now, and imo Lee is the number 1 WR TO is #2 but either way if this team can come together I say we can go deep into the playoffs ofcourse I'm not sure about the coaching, I think Trent should be able to call the plays for he is alot smarter then any of our coaches I believe.
I think there is little chance that we sign all three. Tinoisamoa would be a positive pickup, Jones might be good for depth (but I think the FO is satisfied with Walker, Butler, Chambers and Bell), but Bryant? I think there is a better chance of McCargo coming around than Bryant coming back.
Should have known, way back in 1960 when we drafted Richie Lucas Number 1, that this would be a long, hard ride. But who could have known it would be THIS bad?
Do not tell me... Wood, Levitre, hartgartner are not gunna be better than dockery, preston, butler in regards to running lanes.
How do you know? Hangartner wasn't even a named starter and Wood and Levitre haven't even been tested at the NFL level. And we still have Butler. Change and improvement aren't necessarily the same thing.
In the NFL I have learned that no matter how good a team looks in paper anything can happen. And honestly I'm not even sure if we look good in paper lol, we have as usual to many question marks. So when I ask myself the question - "Are we playoff contenders?" I answer myself "No one in this message board can possibly know".
NOTE - Yeah, I like to speak with myself. I'm crazy muahaha.
In the NFL I have learned that no matter how good a team looks in paper anything can happen. And honestly I'm not even sure if we look good in paper lol, we have as usual to many question marks. So when I ask myself the question - "Are we playoff contenders?" I answer myself "No one in this message board can possibly know".
NOTE - Yeah, I like to speak with myself. I'm crazy muahaha.
If my stupid PC would let me, I would thank you for this comment--I totally agree with what you have said!
I have no idea whether this team will be able to make the playoffs or not. But, if the Bills sign Pisa Tinoisamoa, I think that it will help make the defense better. Mitchell, Posluzny and Tinoisamoa should make for a pretty good starting LB corps--maybe not the best in the league, but plenty solid.
I think having Schobel healthy, Ellis step up his game like a second year player should, and adding Maybin should make the pass rush better as well.
I'd be surprised if the Bills signed Bryant. I think they will give McCargo a chance to show whether he will respond better to having a different D-line coach. If he does, they won't need Bryant because they will have a reasonable four-man rotation at the position. If he doesn't, they may consider bringing in someone, but may well wait to see who is available during training camp.
The big signing, to me, could be Levi Jones. But, it depends on how healthy he is and how much he still has left (offensive linemen, if they stay relatively healthy, can give quality play into their mid-30s and Jones isn't that old).
The reason that I see Jones potentially being a big signing is that IMHO the offensive line is the biggest questionmark that the Bills will have going into this season.
Normally I would be very concerned about any team that fields a totally revamped offensive line. But, after reading KC Joyner's analysis of the Bills' offensive line last season, I'm actually not as worried as I otherwise would be.
According to Joyner, Peters and Dockery were the only Bills' offensive linemen to execute their point of attack blocks at least 80% of the time in the running game last season and Dockery just barely got over the 80% mark. The middle of the Bills' offensive line was downright awful statistically: as we all know, Butler, Fowler and Preston were pushed back from the LOS consistently.
Hangartner may not have been a starter, but he played enough that Joyner would have certainly mentioned him if he had played as poorly as Fowler and Preston. So, while he may not be an All-Pro, he still should be an improvement over those two. The question is whether the two rookies can step in and play better than Dockery and Butler at the guard positions. And, here's where Levi Jones comes in....
I think that it is fair to expect one rookie to be able to step in and play well enough to match or be an improvement over what the Bills had last season. Asking two rookies to do that, though, might be asking too much. It would be much safer to see what Wood and Levitre can do, but be prepared to have Butler step back into the starting lineup at OG should one of the rookies (probably Levitre) need a little more time to develop. But, unless the Bills want to go into the beginning of the season with Chambers starting at RT, they will need to have a better option than that.
Even if Levi Jones can only give them half a season of quality play that could be enough to make a big difference by buying the Bills' young offensive linemen more time to develop. With Jones stepping in at LT, Walker could return to RT and, instead of starting two rookies at guard, the Bills could go with Butler and the better prepared of the two rooks. If Jones breaks down or anyone along the line doesn't perform, by the bye week at midseason, Levitre and/or perhaps Bell should be ready to step up into the starting lineup. If necessary, Butler could then slide over to RT in place of Walker as well, should he not perform as well as needed.
While shifting around players during the season is not what any team would want to do ideally, neither is reshuffling the entire offensive line and playing guys out of position--which is what the Bills are going to be doing in any event. If you are going to shift players around, though, it would probably be best if you have a majority of them playing positions that they are used to playing. As it stands right now, only Hangartner would be playing the position that he is most used to playing. If the Bills were to sign L.Jones, they could start the season with Hangartner, Jones, Walker and Butler all playing the same position that they are accustomed to playing at that point. While Butler and Walker would still be weaknesses at those positions, one or both could be replaced at midseason if one of the two young guys has developed sufficiently. IMHO that would also make things easier at the outset for the rookie (probably Wood) who would be starting in that alignment.
Considering how poorly the Bills' offensive line performed last season, it wouldn't take much for the unit to be improved over last season. But, it is hard to see how it can be improved enough to make the offense better with two rookies starting and four of the five starters playing playing positions other than the ones that they are used to playing. IMHO adding Levi Jones could alleviate some of those problems, at least for half a season.
And, IMHO, that could make the difference between this team being able to win enough to challenge for a playoff berth or not. The Bills are at a point where, if their young talent matures as it should, they may have just enough pieces in place to be able to do that. But, a lot is going to depend on whether their offensive line will be able to get the job done consistently enough or not. And, I think that adding an experienced hand like Levi Jones certainly wouldn't hurt their efforts to achieve that.
Would adding Tinoisamoa and L.Jones be enough to make the Bills a playoff team? At this point, I agree with Turbo: I don't think anyone knows....
Those who do not learn from the past are doomed to repeat it. And, thus it was that they surrendered their freedom; not with a bang, but without even a whimper.
The Bills don't need and don't want Levi Jones, unless he comes cheap. They have options for LT should Walker not pan-out and signing him would send a message that they screwed-up the Peters situation. Plus I think he's still injured.
Bryant probably isn't coming either, since they would have signed him by now. Probably not a big deal either way. I would like the Bills to add another stout DT, and then I'd consider the off-season to be a smashing success.
Tinoisamoa will likely be signed today and be a HUGE upgrade for the LB'ing corps. He's better than Crowell and MUCH better than Ellison.
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