Training Camp Preview: Buffalo Bills

[MDFINFAN]

More good reading material going into camp.

Training Camp Preview: Buffalo Bills (http://www.fanball.com/article.cfm/ID.1434)

[ublinkwescore]

I just read that article, now I have to go work out.

[Demon]

I really like this part from the article....


Keep an Eye On: Reports out of Buffalo are that Henry is in phenomenal shape and ready to build on last season's Pro Bowl performance. He has been maniac in the gym, trimming his body fat from 10.2 percent to 4.4 since February. (I'm not worthy.) The Bills want a more balanced offense this season, meaning more work for a back who carried the rock 325 times last year. Henry is motivated, jacked, and heavily involved in the Bills' plans


Looks like Henry wants to stay with us for his career and not be shipped out when McGahee gets healthy. If he improves on his season from last year, it will be very hard to deal him IMO.

Also with Price out and Reed/Jett/Shaw/Aiken still being question marks, it makes me feel a little better that Henry is doing all he can to improve from last season as we'll prolly run alot more this season.

[Jan Reimers]

A totally shallow and superficial article. The author misses the point completely on Price's departure, harps about our losses in the passing game while failing to mention that we are changing our offense to become more power running oriented, and gives little mention to our improved defense. What a waste of time!

[justasportsfan]

Thanks MD

[mybills]

Originally posted by Demon
I really like this part from the article....




Looks like Henry wants to stay with us for his career and not be shipped out when McGahee gets healthy. If he improves on his season from last year, it will be very hard to deal him IMO.

Also with Price out and Reed/Jett/Shaw/Aiken still being question marks, it makes me feel a little better that Henry is doing all he can to improve from last season as we'll prolly run alot more this season.

and Phil questioned me & PaulB for picking him to be the biggest surprise contributor in the other thread. lol.

[mybills]

btw, MD, are you Jaded's gay friend? Not that I'm calling you gay, just wondering if she got him to post on this site! :D

[justasportsfan]

Originally posted by mybills
btw, MD, are you Jaded's gay friend? Not that I'm calling you gay, just wondering if she got him to post on this site! :D

:rofl:

[MDFINFAN]

Originally posted by mybills
btw, MD, are you Jaded's gay friend? Not that I'm calling you gay, just wondering if she got him to post on this site! :D

No, don't know who Jaded is, gay and me defintely not compatible. Jaded\she???

Jan Reimes, I think, like most people, until they see your run oriented O, people only remember what you did last, you were defintely more pass oriented..You have to prove you're a running team on the field, not by words or intent. When Marino was QB all you heard was that we need a good running game, we went RB after RB..we even had a rb get a 1000 yards like Henry's, but we still weren't considered a running team. We talked a good game about the run, but you were probably one of the ones who was snickering, when we took the field. It never materialized on the field. So until you prove it, you will be labeled as a passing team, and with the departure of Price...your passing game seems rather priceless:D and could hurt you. After lamar started it and now Ricky definning it, Miami and the running game are no longer laughable.:D

Justa, I'll respond to your first post in this thread, your welcome:pow:

[Will McGahee Fast]

I cant wait to see Henry this year. I dont even know where to rate him. I usualy draft like so...

1. RB
2. WR/QB
3. QB/WR
4. RB

With all the good RBs this year I might have to slide a QB to round 4.

Ohh yeah incase you forget (like everyone in my leagues every year) Draft Marvin Harrison 2nd round. Nobody picks him in the 1st and he is worthy of it. I always take him 2nd round and he is always one of the top 3 wrs.

[TedMock]

Originally posted by Jan Reimers
A totally shallow and superficial article. The author misses the point completely on Price's departure, harps about our losses in the passing game while failing to mention that we are changing our offense to become more power running oriented, and gives little mention to our improved defense. What a waste of time!

and it wasn't "electric all pro for injured rookie straight up" at all. Realistically it was Price's departure that aided us in signing Spikes so it was Price for Spikes straight up. McGahee was a freebie. It may not work out but we had a little wiggle room to play with and take a shot. I hope it works out and I admit that I was as shocked as anybody else when we took him and not William Joseph but we did get Sam Adams so I'm pretty happy for now. Just need one of the DE's to become a starter. We're fine with depth in that position but we need a starter.

[WG]

TM,

I would say that the big issue w/ signing McGahee is the longer term effect of the signing. Adams may only be good for a year or two as may PW be. Both are will be in their 30s. No matter how you slice it, two things regarding McGahee; first, his presence creates a managerial "command decision" next season which if not properly made, can harm the team's L/T health! Secondly, McG, regardless of his healing from his last injury, is injury prone having been injured significantly in each of his last 3 seasons played! Talk about RJ! McG may be RJ as a RB. We simply don't know.


Originally posted by Jan Reimers
A totally shallow and superficial article. The author misses the point completely on Price's departure, harps about our losses in the passing game while failing to mention that we are changing our offense to become more power running oriented, and gives little mention to our improved defense. What a waste of time!

I'm totally w/ ya JR!

From the article: "Buffalo used the offseason to improve its defense with big names like Takeo Spikes and Sam Adams, but the passing game took a beating. Price, Centers, and Riemersma caught 45 percent of Drew Bledsoe's attempts last season. Josh Reed, Gary, and Campbell may match their 169 receptions this year, but I doubt it."

Here's another bumbling quote! The entire premise of this guy's piece, and which doesn't take a genious to figure out, is that we'll be passing as much as last year. Well, last year Drew dropped back almost 660 times and put the ball up 610 times. The FO and coaching staff is working O/T to assure us that we're gonna run more. Well, if that's the case, then we can fully expect not to put the ball up 610 times, eh!

I'll say that we need to cut it down by 20% in order to be as efficient and effective as we can be! So that "169 receptions" all of a sudden becomes 135. Add to that the Moore didn't start last year but still managed to catch 16 passes in an offense that wasn't big on the TE. Also add to it that if Henry is gonna be "featured", again, which I'll believe when I see, then he'll be sure to catch the ball some more.

I have absolutely no trouble believing that Moore can have JR's 32 grabs, Henry can add 15-20 recpts. to the 43 he had last year, say 17 for 60 total, and that Reed can easily get the other 85 or so grabs if need be.

The entire premise, which just about all of the mainstream NFL/sports media doesn't seem to be picking up on, is that we shouldn't be putting up the ball 610 times again but that 450-480 should be a more likely number of times to throw the ball. Especially given our backfield talent!

If that doesn't happen, then the issue won't be the players, it'll be the coaching.

[TedMock]

I agree with you Wys. I was actually very excited that William Joseph fell to us but then came the shocker. We definitely need to look at quality youth and Adams is no doubt a bandaid, hopefully for 2 seasons. That SHOULD be enough time but you never know. I'm not disappointed, however, with the McG pick because it was a pick worth taking a gamble on. It may not work out but at least we have some balls. We were in a position to take a shot. I'm not saying that we're "ALL SET" by any stretch but sometimes you have to gamble. Now we did put ourselves in a position where it's mandatory to get DL next offseason so hopefully there's a quality FA or draft pick out there. Maybe Bannon and Edwards get better playing behind Pat and Sam. It can't hurt to learn from these two. Health and LDE are my biggest concerns. I think PP will be fine at FS, I'm actually excited about him being there. He was a pretty good SS and now has a year at FS under his belt. I've mentioned it before but I'll say it again...depth at DE is great but we need a starter!

[WG]

Meanwhile, while every player can expect, on average, to see a 20% reduction in their catches, I'm not expecting Moulds to have less than he did last year, and if so, then not by anything significant. So he'll pick up the slack.

IF:

Moulds has his 100
Reed gets 75 (~20 less than Price had)
Moore gets 35 (~ the same as JR had)
Henry has 60

And if we actually do scale back the passing game as we're promised will happen, say by 20%, a very reasonable and IMO needed amount of 'scaleback', then all that's required out of the backup WRs, TEs, and RBs is to catch another 30 grabs!

So this guy's analysis is fatally flawed. Even if those numbers above are not reached, then so what, all of out backup players and FBs will have to catch what, 50 or 60 balls? Big deal! That would happen in a blink. It's only 3-4 catches/game.

We gotta remember, we can't react to the change in raw numbers from last season. Last season we had 375 completions on 610 attempts by Drew. Only a 10% reduction would mean numbers this year of ~ 340 completions on ~ 550 attempts. If we don't drop our passing attempts by that much, again, IMO it really won't mean that much more of an emphasis on our running game.

Last year, average NFL # of attempts was exactly 550 and average # of completions was 326. We have one of the league's top 5 RBs IMO, so there's no reason on earth why we shouldn't be able to cut our O passing production by at least 10% and by as much as 20%. Combine that w/ the agressive, intense, and IMO dominating D that we'll have, and it only reinforces that notion.

[WG]

Originally posted by TedMock
I agree with you Wys. I was actually very excited that William Joseph fell to us but then came the shocker. We definitely need to look at quality youth and Adams is no doubt a bandaid, hopefully for 2 seasons. That SHOULD be enough time but you never know. I'm not disappointed, however, with the McG pick because it was a pick worth taking a gamble on. It may not work out but at least we have some balls. We were in a position to take a shot. I'm not saying that we're "ALL SET" by any stretch but sometimes you have to gamble. Now we did put ourselves in a position where it's mandatory to get DL next offseason so hopefully there's a quality FA or draft pick out there. Maybe Bannon and Edwards get better playing behind Pat and Sam. It can't hurt to learn from these two. Health and LDE are my biggest concerns. I think PP will be fine at FS, I'm actually excited about him being there. He was a pretty good SS and now has a year at FS under his belt. I've mentioned it before but I'll say it again...depth at DE is great but we need a starter!

I won't say I'm "not disappointed", but I won't say that I'm happy w/ the McG pick yet either. It will definitely be a "hindsight" decision for me. TD's way too gambling w/ injured players IMO. I'd like to see some real bonafide "non-injury prone" players brought in next season w/o one single player who has an injury history. This year we got McG and Kelsay outta the draft. Sobieski too. He wasn't even a starter at Iowa. Then we got Jett, a huge risk given that he's a speed player, Reese, another injury puppy w/o a solid starting history, and then Jones, really last season's acquisition, but for this season, and Gary.

If we somehow ditch Henry after this year and rely on McG and he gets hurt again, there's gonna be an awful lot of second-guessing. As well, who's gonna give us much for a player who hasn't played in two seasons, has never played pro ball, and has a pro career's worth of injuries before he's set foot on the field?? Talk is cheap, but even a first round selection next year will have been worth a second this, and a guy like Joseph would have helped us not only into the future, but for this season as well and would have lightened the burden heading into next year's draft. What if Adams busts? Then we're in the same boat next year but we'll likely need to select a DE in the first round! Will the second round yield a DT better than Joseph?

We'll see, but the jury's definitely out for me. I don't know how it cannot be w/ everyone. We can all talk all we want about how good McGahee will be, but until he plays a season of 16 full games in which he; A. performs to the level of Henry or better, and B. doesn't get hurt, which he hasn't done since his Jr. season in H.S., it clealry remains to be seen what the result of this draft is.

I definitely agree w/ you on PP. I think he's a very solid S in waiting. He's still young, he's shown steady improvement, and he should be much better this year w/ a solid front 7!

At the DE position, I really like Irons and would wager that he'll be the starting DE on opening Day and make the most of it. Go to the official site and read his bio. He was a steal for how we got him. An injury I'm sure allowed that. But he was a force at ND.

[TedMock]

Originally posted by Wys Guy


I won't say I'm "not disappointed", but I won't say that I'm happy w/ the McG pick yet either. It will definitely be a "hindsight" decision for me. TD's way too gambling w/ injured players IMO. I'd like to see some real bonafide "non-injury prone" players brought in next season w/o one single player who has an injury history. This year we got McG and Kelsay outta the draft. Sobieski too. He wasn't even a starter at Iowa. Then we got Jett, a huge risk given that he's a speed player, Reese, another injury puppy w/o a solid starting history, and then Jones, really last season's acquisition, but for this season, and Gary.

If we somehow ditch Henry after this year and rely on McG and he gets hurt again, there's gonna be an awful lot of second-guessing. As well, who's gonna give us much for a player who hasn't played in two seasons, has never played pro ball, and has a pro career's worth of injuries before he's set foot on the field?? Talk is cheap, but even a first round selection next year will have been worth a second this, and a guy like Joseph would have helped us not only into the future, but for this season as well and would have lightened the burden heading into next year's draft. What if Adams busts? Then we're in the same boat next year but we'll likely need to select a DE in the first round! Will the second round yield a DT better than Joseph?

We'll see, but the jury's definitely out for me. I don't know how it cannot be w/ everyone. We can all talk all we want about how good McGahee will be, but until he plays a season of 16 full games in which he; A. performs to the level of Henry or better, and B. doesn't get hurt, which he hasn't done since his Jr. season in H.S., it clealry remains to be seen what the result of this draft is.

I definitely agree w/ you on PP. I think he's a very solid S in waiting. He's still young, he's shown steady improvement, and he should be much better this year w/ a solid front 7!

At the DE position, I really like Irons and would wager that he'll be the starting DE on opening Day and make the most of it. Go to the official site and read his bio. He was a steal for how we got him. An injury I'm sure allowed that. But he was a force at ND.

This is definitely a "hindsight" decision, no doubt about it. I don't think Adams will bust simply because he's here to plug holes and take up blockers. He doesn't have to make tackles or sacks etc.. But to answer one question, NO there will not be a DT as good as Joseph next year in any round. The guy's a beast. Like a said, we gambled. Sobieski, if healthy (there goes that phrase again), is going to be a steal. He didn't start at Iowa but only 2 of the 5 OL positions at Iowa had "full time" guys. They had the best OL in college using 8 or 9 different guys in alternating series. Before the injuries he was a starting tackle and played primarily guard last season. I hope he's healthy because he'll be a great utility guy if that's the case. He also would've been full time in any other program. I hope we don't ditch Henry right away next offseason. That scares me about the McGahee pick. I agree with you regarding Irons. I don't know if he's the starter come week one but I think he was definitely a steal. I usually don't like ND DL but he looked really good in the action he saw last season. My only concern with him is size. It scares me to have 2 small DE's but if it works, what the hell. Lining Posey up on the line could help eliminate that a little by spreading out blocking assignments. Overall I think we're in good shape for the next 2 years....all else being equal. I think we need to extend Winfield and maybe next year's increase in cap money will allow us to go "outbid" on some young DT studs.

[SamAdamsFan]

Sam Adams did just turn 30 this month, but he isn't that old for a tackle. Ted Washington will be 35 this year, and he still seems effective. Sam also is still very fast, and with a heavily incentive laden contract I think he will work hard this year and be effective. He only made league minimum last year with no incentives, and even though his contract would have ballooned this year in Oakland, he knew he would be a cap casualty. I think he did a lot last year for Oakland's defense. He is already getting in better shape this year. I am glad he is signed to a four year contract though because I conceed he may not be any good after four more years, but I think he will play through all four years effectively. I agree we should draft a good tackle next year if possible for the future, but Sam could be more like a medium term fix than just short term. Jerry Gray mentioned in an article a couple of months ago that Sam Adams was his favorite addition this year. Even though he is not as talented as Takeo, he fills a gaping hole in our DT depth. We will see, I guess he could be a flop if he is lazy and has lost a step, but I am really optimistic that he will combine with Pat Williams this year to stop Ricky Williams along with all the awesome LB help.

[ryven]

Imo opion Sam Adams is also good at rushing the passer he has 29 career sacks you dont get that from being lazy.

[TigerJ]

That article is in a fantasy football publication. That means they have a particlular slant in their opinions. They like offence. They don't care that much that Buffalo's defence got stronger. They only added up the receptions that Price, Centers, and, Remiersma got, ignored the late season problems the offence had and came up with a big negative. I do expect a modest reduction in Bledsoe's passing yardage this season, as well as yards per completion. I also expect an offence that will move the chains more effectively, and one that can still function even when a defence manages to take away one thing that it can do, unlike last year when Buffalo sputtered when defences took away the deep pass. I think the author's take on TH was right on.

[Earthquake Enyart]

TH can work out all he wants. He can even subsribe to BF1's bodybuilding magazine for all I care. But if he keeps putting the ball on the ground, Gary and McGahee will have good years.

[WG]

If Henry puts up 1,800 yards, 18 TDs, and has 500 receiving yards and another couple of TDs receiving, then he can lay the ball on the mat to lose it 6 or 8 times in a season.

I'd take that in a heartbeat over a non-dominating rusher who barely gets 1,000 yards, struggles to get 10 TDs and lays the ball on the carpet only say 4 or 5 times. It's not worth the trade off. We have to learn to look at the marginal differences, not some notion that we'd have 8 less TOs. Any RB is gonna fumble a few times at least. I'd say 3-5 is very average in this league. Obviously the more touches, the more fumbles usually for any given back. But 3 or 4 ditional fumbles not lost isn't worth throwing away an impact rusher the caliber of Henry. Not to mention that Henry may improve there as I'm expecting him to.

All this focus on Henry's FUMs is overblown given his ability to lead the league in rushing!

I'm far more worried that we'll trade him and that the exact same thing that's happened to McGahee in his past three seasons happens again, that he gets injured! Until, and not sooner, McGahee proves that he can string 16 games together w/o seriously injuring himself, a RB as good as Henry should not be traded or let go! So far, McG has proven that he can't even play 13 games w/o getting most seriosly hurt, and only 5 or 6 games in the two seasons prior.

It's funny, when RJ was here, he'd get an ankle sprain and be out for a game and everyone was up in arms. Now, w/ McG, he's had serious injuries in all three of his last seasons, and twice season-ending injuries in two of his last three seasons, and many are ready to trade Henry for this!

I simply don't get it! If McG is gonna be all that next season, then let's trade him not a RB who is close to leading the league in rushing!

As well, for as good as everyone pencils McG in for, he sure didn't play very well against the toughest three teams on the Canes' schedule! I think that's more of an indicator than how well he did v. some scrub D I-AA team somewhere!

I'll believe that McG's as good as everyone says he is when he logs 1,400 yards and a dozen TDs as a rookie on a team as talented as ours would be! Not before.



Originally posted by ryven
Imo opion Sam Adams is also good at rushing the passer he has 29 career sacks you dont get that from being lazy.

Perhaps, but we're no in 1997, we're in 2003. You can't judge today's potential on yesterday's performances w/ aging players.

20 of those 29 sacks were in Adams' first 4 seasons in the league.

He's had only 9 sacks over the past 5 seasons. He'll be good at doing what he was brought here to do, namely plug the middle and solve our rush D issues. That will open up Irons on the end opposite Schobel.

[MDFINFAN]

Originally posted by ryven
Imo opion Sam Adams is also good at rushing the passer he has 29 career sacks you dont get that from being lazy.

Come on Ryven, he's been in the league like what 10 years or more, he gets that any for just being in the league a long time, that doesn't make him a pass rusher..:down: