AFC East: Pickups may give Bills an edge

[MDFINFAN]

NFL's Vic Carucci think the Bills may have picked up enough vets to have an edge in the AFC East..I'm not sure, but I do know you guys upgraded.

AFC East: Pickups may give Bills an edge (http://www.nfl.com/news/story/6469003)

[Tatonka]

i think you beat me to this post. nice work. thanks.

[MDFINFAN]

Originally posted by Tatonka
i think you beat me to this post. nice work. thanks.

Occassionally I can be fast...:priest: and helpful..afterall, this is football, I play by the rules of loving the game, no matter the teams...I'm just a phin fan by heart and nature, but I still love football.

[Jan Reimers]

You're probably a good person except for your FinFan affliction.

[TedMock]

Originally posted by Jan Reimers
You're probably a good person except for your FinFan affliction.

isn't there an ointment he can get for that? :sick:

[MDFINFAN]

Originally posted by Jan Reimers
You're probably a good person except for your FinFan affliction.

I'm defintely a good person in all aspects of my life, especially my Phins affliction. ;)

This article is Okay, I didn't get to comment on it too much because I was leaving work at the time I posted it. But I do have a couple of thoughts on it..

While Vic made the comments about the Jets losing Coles, Thomas, and Chad, he really didn't address the fact that Coles is replaced by Conway, who he only says can pick up coles paycheck, but is hurt. The fact is Conway is just as, well, almost as good as Coles. Nutten is replacing Thomas, I don't see a great drop there, and they lose a KR..they got Albert Johnson from us who is fast and won out last year for us on KR, before he got hurt. You guys have changed your O significately, I commented on this in another post here..I don't know what you're capable of right now..but to me Price, Jay Riemersma, and Keith Newman, and Centers is a lot to lose in my opinion. While Gash is a better blocker than Centers, Centers recieving skills from that position will be missing, and it's hard to replace the experience of Riemersma at TE. So the O we knew from last year is vastly changed, and until you prove that you're running team, you're not. The Pats haven't lost much and exchange safeties basically. But Brady threw for 28 TD's and over 3500 yards with Recievers who don't get the pub of the bills or Jets WR's and he had no real running game..IMHO, Brady's the real deal, so I wouldn't over look them either. To me your biggest upgrade is on D..but as I've pointed out, it might take them a couple of games to Jell. I can't talk to extensively about your draft, But Miami and the Pats had pretty good draft, based on Mini camp performance. Now we'll see how good when the pads go on. The Jets imo haven't really lost anything, and their D will probably be a little better than it was last year and Martin's healthy now. I think you guys increase your D at your O's expense, something like the Dolphins.

[WG]

Miami and Pats did have good drafts MD, but both were defensive. Fins are fine, but Pats will be hurtin'. Have you seen their schedule? I agree, Brady is the real deal, but there's no way he's gonna put up the kinds of numbers he did last year w/ Smith as the primary ball carrier. He won't have a good year, Smith that is. Brady's WRs are smallish too. They can't rely on their passing game against that horrendous schedule they play. It simply won't happen.

As to Conway being as good as Coles, we'll see, but I doubt it. He's 32 now which doesn't help when you consider his injury history. He's well past his prime while Coles is just entering it. As well, he's never had as good a season as Coles had last year in spite of usually being the #1 WR. In fact, he's only had 3 in 10 seasons w/ more than 1,000 yards, only once more than 1,100! He'll have to develop some chemistry w/ Pennington who's also for real. Morton will be incredibly tough to replace w/ equal talent as a returner.

I agree w/ you that "until we prove we're a running team, we're not", and more than you might imagine. I still have little faith in Gilbride not doing the wrong thing and trying to "hype/feature" Drew constantly even when it couldn't be more obvious that to do so hinders the team from winning. Having said that, it won't matter. If we don't change, we're not going anywhere anyway, so the losses of Centers, Price, and JR won't matter. JR didn't contribute nearly as much as a TE should have in a passing game IMO w/ only 32 grabs on the year. Henry will pick up Centers slack catching passes which will make the O that much more versatile and tough to defend.

Price won't be missed unless we live off of the big-play again, which would be stupid since it cost us more than it yielded us overall! Price will be up (v. poor teams) and down (v. good teams) in Atlanta. He won't be regarded as good as he was last year after this season. I doubt he'll exceed his numbers here. Reed will easily pick up the slack and if Gilbride has a brain, Moore (and/or Campbell) will be much more active in the passing game. The only problem, Drew's skills/talents are not exactly suited to a passing game making use of TEs in a short game or to RBs out of the backfield.

Pats will be lucky to finish .500 this year on their schedule. They don't get a break.

The talent w/in the division is all relative. Pats are very weak offensively and figure to be among the bottom third of the league offensively. Since they play many teams w/ Ds equal to or better than theirs, they'll struggle.

Miami is good and I figure will be the Bills biggest challenge to winning the division.

Jets have too many changes to come out like they finished last year. Their STs excelled largely b/c of Morton which won them several games including one against us.

They won two games they shouldn't have v. us largely b/c of Drew's 4 INTs and 5 total TOs vice only 1 passing TD. Take off those two gimme games and they're 7-9. They had a good draft but their FAcy they lost more than they gained. The rookies will likely only help on D this season. I'd say they're about the same as they were last year overall, if anything, a step down.

So I'm expecting the Bills and Fins to slug it out for the division title w/ injuries likely being the primary factor. For Buffalo otherwise, one of your assessments says it all; until they become a running team, they aren't! So that hinges largely on Gilbumble, not any other aspect of the team.

The talent is there for us to be a rushing powerhouse. The OL is there, the RB, the blocking TEs and FBs. And frankly, Drew shouldn't make all those bumbling errors that he has when he's only asked to play a role similar to that of Aikman in Dallas. The question is how will he handle such a diminished passing role??

Aikman averaged less than 400 attempts/season in his 12 seasons in Dallas. If we can get Drew down to ~ 480 that would be a 20% drop in his attempts from last season and IMO what it will take to make us be our best!

[Rude American]

Originally posted by Wys Guy
Miami and Pats did have good drafts MD, but both were defensive. Fins are fine, but Pats will be hurtin'. Have you seen their schedule? I agree, Brady is the real deal, but there's no way he's gonna put up the kinds of numbers he did last year w/ Smith as the primary ball carrier. He won't have a good year, Smith that is. Brady's WRs are smallish too. They can't rely on their passing game against that horrendous schedule they play. It simply won't happen.

As to Conway being as good as Coles, we'll see, but I doubt it. He's 32 now which doesn't help when you consider his injury history. He's well past his prime while Coles is just entering it. As well, he's never had as good a season as Coles had last year in spite of usually being the #1 WR. In fact, he's only had 3 in 10 seasons w/ more than 1,000 yards, only once more than 1,100! He'll have to develop some chemistry w/ Pennington who's also for real. Morton will be incredibly tough to replace w/ equal talent as a returner.

I agree w/ you that "until we prove we're a running team, we're not", and more than you might imagine. I still have little faith in Gilbride not doing the wrong thing and trying to "hype/feature" Drew constantly even when it couldn't be more obvious that to do so hinders the team from winning. Having said that, it won't matter. If we don't change, we're not going anywhere anyway, so the losses of Centers, Price, and JR won't matter. JR didn't contribute nearly as much as a TE should have in a passing game IMO w/ only 32 grabs on the year. Henry will pick up Centers slack catching passes which will make the O that much more versatile and tough to defend.

Price won't be missed unless we live off of the big-play again, which would be stupid since it cost us more than it yielded us overall! Price will be up (v. poor teams) and down (v. good teams) in Atlanta. He won't be regarded as good as he was last year after this season. I doubt he'll exceed his numbers here. Reed will easily pick up the slack and if Gilbride has a brain, Moore (and/or Campbell) will be much more active in the passing game. The only problem, Drew's skills/talents are not exactly suited to a passing game making use of TEs in a short game or to RBs out of the backfield.

Pats will be lucky to finish .500 this year on their schedule. They don't get a break.

The talent w/in the division is all relative. Pats are very weak offensively and figure to be among the bottom third of the league offensively. Since they play many teams w/ Ds equal to or better than theirs, they'll struggle.

Miami is good and I figure will be the Bills biggest challenge to winning the division.

Jets have too many changes to come out like they finished last year. Their STs excelled largely b/c of Morton which won them several games including one against us.

They won two games they shouldn't have v. us largely b/c of Drew's 4 INTs and 5 total TOs vice only 1 passing TD. Take off those two gimme games and they're 7-9. They had a good draft but their FAcy they lost more than they gained. The rookies will likely only help on D this season. I'd say they're about the same as they were last year overall, if anything, a step down.

So I'm expecting the Bills and Fins to slug it out for the division title w/ injuries likely being the primary factor. For Buffalo otherwise, one of your assessments says it all; until they become a running team, they aren't! So that hinges largely on Gilbumble, not any other aspect of the team.

The talent is there for us to be a rushing powerhouse. The OL is there, the RB, the blocking TEs and FBs. And frankly, Drew shouldn't make all those bumbling errors that he has when he's only asked to play a role similar to that of Aikman in Dallas. The question is how will he handle such a diminished passing role??

Aikman averaged less than 400 attempts/season in his 12 seasons in Dallas. If we can get Drew down to ~ 480 that would be a 20% drop in his attempts from last season and IMO what it will take to make us be our best!

too long yet again

[WG]

Sorry. That's for those who like to get beyond "rah-rah", "Bills rule."

:D