A lot of talk about what we suck at

[VeggieMan14]

What about what we expect to be good at this year... Ii, for one think our pass defense has potential to be one of the best in the league what do you guys think

[ddaryl]

If we have some sort of pass rush our pass D could be pretty damn good and fun...


This offseaosn is going ot be interesting. My feeling is Chan is going to be a HC that can actually get this franchise to play liek an NFL caliber team

[TacklingDummy]

What about what we expect to be good at this year... Ii, for one think our pass defense has potential to be one of the best in the league what do you guys think
All depends on the pressure they get on the QB. Any secondary can look good with pressure. I don't have much faith in Schobel, Denney, Kelsay and Maybin to bring the heat.

[delectrolux]

All depends on the pressure they get on the QB. Any secondary can look good with pressure. I don't have much faith in Schobel, Denney, Kelsay and Maybin to bring the heat.

Yeah, but our secondary looked pretty good with absolutely no QB pressure the last two years... I actually think we're going to be good at stopping the run this year too.

[trapezeus]

even if these rookies take, the defense will be short of a real rotation. i have high hopes, but i won't be surprised if they are bad.

I'm interested to see how gailey plans to run with this bad line. I want to see how they get the QB's heads on straight. Iwant to see how the play calling is going to be imaginative after years of run run pass. how is he going to deal with 8 men in the box?

[The Spaz]

All depends on the pressure they get on the QB. Any secondary can look good with pressure. I don't have much faith in Schobel, Denney, Kelsay and Maybin to bring the heat.

Well Denney is gone.

[Prov401]

I think alot of people overate our secondary. McGee gets burned quite alot, and McKelvin is coming off a serious leg injury. I feel comfortable with our safeties in Whitner, Byrd, and Wilson. I'm very interested in seeing what Lankster does in training camp/preseason play. I think Florence should start opposite of McGee to start the year.

I really like our defense overall. I think we have the potential of breaking the top 10 this year, as we were 19th last year. I am really looking forward to this kid Carrington. I think he's going to be a force. I hope we get rid of Mitchell, but have a feeling we're not going to.

I think our starters on D are going to be: Carrington, Troup, Stroud. Davis, Poz, Moats, Mitchell. Whitner, Byrd, Florence, McGee.

[madness]

Run and stop the run!

[JCBills]

I think alot of people overate our secondary. McGee gets burned quite alot, and McKelvin is coming off a serious leg injury. I feel comfortable with our safeties in Whitner, Byrd, and Wilson. I'm very interested in seeing what Lankster does in training camp/preseason play. I think Florence should start opposite of McGee to start the year.

I really like our defense overall. I think we have the potential of breaking the top 10 this year, as we were 19th last year. I am really looking forward to this kid Carrington. I think he's going to be a force. I hope we get rid of Mitchell, but have a feeling we're not going to.

I think our starters on D are going to be: Carrington, Troup, Stroud. Davis, Poz, Moats, Mitchell. Whitner, Byrd, Florence, McGee.

Our secondary isn't only one of the best in the league, but we're deep across the board. 2nd in INTs (28) and TDs allowed (14). People will say this and that doesn't matter because teams just ran the ball on us, but that actually makes the team's INT total more impressive.

Opposing average QB rating for the whole pass D - 61.1 - 2nd best in the league.

Opposing average QB comp % - 56.8% - 3rd best in the league.

Only allowed 34 plays of 20+ yds as a total D - tied for 3rd best in the league, and only 5 plays of 40+ yds, also tied for 3rd best.

Teams threw the ball 519 times against us, about middle of the pack - only one D saw more than 600 passes thrown against them, so the numbers really aren't inflated. Teams actually threw at us more in 09 than in 08, and did much worse against us. They also only allowed 14 passing TDs in 2008, this unit has been solid for a while.

[Griff]

our pass defense was fantastic last year, we shut down just about every QB including Brees. We'll have 2 good backs, and 1 possibly good back (if he gets his head back in the game), and we should have a MUCH improved run defense. I think we'll have a low top 10 defense (9th ovr), and a mid range offense. We don't have an easy schedule so I'm expecting anything from 5-11 to 8-8. If we have a .500+ season, playoffs or not, I'll be very happy with the direction of the team.

[Griff]

good stats JC.

I think Byrd and McKelvin are key this year, if Byrd can avoid a sophomore slump we'll be great against the pass again.

[YardRat]

I'm more concerned about our secondary than I am our front seven at this point. I also think they are a little bit over-rated.

[EDS]

What about what we expect to be good at this year... Ii, for one think our pass defense has potential to be one of the best in the league what do you guys think

The big question there is where is the pass rush coming from? If Schobel retires then there are no proven pass rushers on the team.

[Pinkerton Security]

The big question there is where is the pass rush coming from? If Schobel retires then there are no proven pass rushers on the team.

in a 3-4 you never know where the rushers will come from, and thats the beauty of it!! WOOO!!!

seriously though, i think 3-4 helps manufacture pressure....id be willing to bet we improve our sack # quite a bit and if Maybin can step up as an OLB, i think we could drastically improve those numbers.

[Ron Burgundy]

You know what sucked? Having Dick Jauron as our head coach. At least we don't suck at that anymore.

We have a good stable of running backs that have the potential to be fantastic.

A little ray of hope: Buffalo is a really young team, and at least a few players are bound to develop well for us. Byrd, Levitre, Wood, McKelvin, Nelson, and a sizable crop of good prospects from a really deep draft class will all get a chance to show us something this year.

And our punter, as always, will be one of the best in the league.

[T-Long]

You know what sucked? Having Dick Jauron as our head coach. At least we don't suck at that anymore.
:clap:

[RoanokeVABillsFan]

We signed Dwan Edwards, the only really experienced 3-4 defensive end on the roster and one of the better available free agents on the market at that time, so in my opinion, he will be a starter. That means either Carrington or Stroud will be a substitute. We'll have to see how Stroud can play defensive end. Hasn't he always been a 4-3 defensive tackle? Maybe he doesn't transition, who knows...


I think alot of people overate our secondary. McGee gets burned quite alot, and McKelvin is coming off a serious leg injury. I feel comfortable with our safeties in Whitner, Byrd, and Wilson. I'm very interested in seeing what Lankster does in training camp/preseason play. I think Florence should start opposite of McGee to start the year.

I really like our defense overall. I think we have the potential of breaking the top 10 this year, as we were 19th last year. I am really looking forward to this kid Carrington. I think he's going to be a force. I hope we get rid of Mitchell, but have a feeling we're not going to.

I think our starters on D are going to be: Carrington, Troup, Stroud. Davis, Poz, Moats, Mitchell. Whitner, Byrd, Florence, McGee.

[JCBills]

We signed Dwan Edwards, the only really experienced 3-4 defensive end on the roster and one of the better available free agents on the market at that time, so in my opinion, he will be a starter. That means either Carrington or Stroud will be a substitute. We'll have to see how Stroud can play defensive end. Hasn't he always been a 4-3 defensive tackle? Maybe he doesn't transition, who knows...

I think DE will be heavily rotated. Most 3-4 DEs see around 400-800 snaps in a season. Dwan Edwards is definitely the starter, most likely at LE. I don't know how well Stroud will do at RE, he's not as quick as he was 3-4 years ago and has been on an obvious decline since coming to Buffalo. I think Spencer Johnson will be able to make the move easily though, he's probably better fit in a 3-4 than a 4-3. It could be him and Carrington in a good rotation on the weak side.

[wmoz11]

I'm more concerned about our secondary than I am our front seven at this point. I also think they are a little bit over-rated.

Byrd is overrated. He's really bad at tackling in the open field. I actually like McKelvin more than most people here, probably and although McGee is one of my favorite players, he's starting to decline a bit.

No doubt Drayton Florence had a really nice year for us last year.

[JCBills]

Byrd is overrated. He's really bad at tackling in the open field. I actually like McKelvin more than most people here, probably and although McGee is one of my favorite players, he's starting to decline a bit.

No doubt Drayton Florence had a really nice year for us last year.

With the front 7 we're piecing together, Byrd won't be as exposed against the run. When you have a turnover creating machine like him, everything else takes the back seat.

[VeggieMan14]

to me our secondary looks great... mcgee imo is still a good corner and mckelvin looked good last year before he got hurt. Florence also played very well. IMO we have one of the best safety groups in the league. Byrd is a beast and I think whitner is a lot better then what some of us give him credit for. George Wilson is also great depth and is almost liek a third starter

[Mad Bomber]

Without reading any more than the first post on this thread....I'll say that I think we'll have a very solid defense this year.

[psubills62]

Honestly, with all the guys we added who are strong against the run, I have a feeling that our run defense will improve significantly. We're really young and inexperienced at the 3-4, so I don't think it will be top 10 or anything, but we'll definitely be middle of the pack (which is better than 32nd or whatever we finished).

I'm really glad that Bob Sanders was brought back to coach the OLB's. Considering what he managed to do with Kelsay last year, I'm very interested to see what he can do for our pass rush in the 3-4.

Completely agree with Burgundy - having any sort of life form on the sideline, even a fungus, instead of Jauron is an improvement.

[BertSquirtgum]

one good thing to think about is...now that we have a real coaching staff......the bills might not look like a high school team out there.

[BillsOwnAll]

Our secondary isn't only one of the best in the league, but we're deep across the board. 2nd in INTs (28) and TDs allowed (14). People will say this and that doesn't matter because teams just ran the ball on us, but that actually makes the team's INT total more impressive.

Opposing average QB rating for the whole pass D - 61.1 - 2nd best in the league.

Opposing average QB comp % - 56.8% - 3rd best in the league.

Only allowed 34 plays of 20+ yds as a total D - tied for 3rd best in the league, and only 5 plays of 40+ yds, also tied for 3rd best.

Teams threw the ball 519 times against us, about middle of the pack - only one D saw more than 600 passes thrown against them, so the numbers really aren't inflated. Teams actually threw at us more in 09 than in 08, and did much worse against us. They also only allowed 14 passing TDs in 2008, this unit has been solid for a while.


just curious..where the hell do you find stats like this?

[jamze132]

One thing we will improve on... post-game press conferences. No more hearing "well we'll look at the tape and see what went wrong".

[JCBills]

just curious..where the hell do you find stats like this?

Those were from NFL.com lol, I either use their stats or PFF's. People like to dismiss metrics, but NFL.com and actually every major sporting league now uses the Elias Sports Bureau's stats/metrics. Hard to dismiss them now when the league and ESPN rely on them lol.

[justasportsfan]

Byrd is overrated. He's really bad at tackling in the open field. I actually like McKelvin more than most people here, probably and although McGee is one of my favorite players, he's starting to decline a bit.

No doubt Drayton Florence had a really nice year for us last year.
No doubt he has a lot to work on but 9 picks is over rated in his rookie year? the guy has a nose for the ball. Thats more than we can say about anyone we've had in the past decade.

[Oaf]

All depends on the pressure they get on the QB. Any secondary can look good with pressure. I don't have much faith in Schobel, Denney, Kelsay and Maybin to bring the heat. Which is why it would have been nice to draft another high level rush prospect to pair with Maybin.

[feldspar]

What about what we expect to be good at this year... Ii, for one think our pass defense has potential to be one of the best in the league what do you guys think

Buffalo already had the #2 passing defense in the league last year. Sure, that had something to do with the fact that we had the 30th rated rushing defense, but we have a very, very good secondary. We have great depth there, too. 28 interceptions last year. Only allowed 14 TDs and 184 yards passing per game.

If this 3-4 thing works out, meaning our front seven can stop the run and generate a pass rush, our secondary will look even better...a lot better. I'm about as worried about the secondary as I am about the Special Teams, which is not all at.