Good season fellas!

[DaBills]

Nice try today fellas. The team took us to a level we didn't think they'd end up under a rookie coach after 0-4. Good job to the team. They worked hard to get to this point today. An improvement over last year at least.

This was a case of the D bailing out an O and ST giving them great field starts if ever there was one, even though they came up short. But hey, how can you expect our great D to stay out the on the field the whole game if the O won't match opponent's scoring. The O was stagnant too long today to overcome Pitt. Penalties killed us too.

Next year:

Defense wish list:

1) Need a shut down corner period to replace Toast McGhee, who may have position on WRs at times, but he doesn't have the size to jump with them and gets burned on coverage way too much. Move him to ST where he dominates.

2) Need a monster DE pass rush specialist. (Like a Peppers, a Kearse). I'm not saying Schobel and gang aren't good. But Adams and Williams could be that much more effective if we had a DE that drew double teams. Look at the pass rush after Clements TD INT on Pitt's next drive. Maddox had like 5-6 secs? How can DBs' stay with their guy that long? Seems like we are compensating for a lack of that impact player on the end by relying on blitz packages using different players constantly.



Offense:

1) Get JP in there. I don't think the year would be lost either. We have more weapons to surround him with than say Manning has in NY.
Drew's roller-coaster act had his three years and it's old hat. Time to move on if you can't beat a second-string defense in your own stadium, much less give them the game.

If we wait another year to see if Drew can win it all, that's one more year of WM, Moulds and Josh Reed's skills being wasted while JP's in the wings? For what? Drew's shown us what he can do with a very soft schedule and some premier offensive talent: 9-7.

2) Draft a TE

3) Resolve Travis Henry's situation before it becomes a distraction. WM is the starter no doubt.


ST:
1) Draft/sign a deep-kick threat and/or another FG kicker. Period.

[Bufftp]

any season without a SB win is a failed season.
Think otherwise and you will be a loser.
because losing will become acceptable.
-Buff

[DaBills]

any season without a SB win is a failed season.
Think otherwise and you will be a loser.
because losing will become acceptable.
-Buff

Are you being serious? I always think we'll win. I'm giving credit to the team as a whole because it's just to easy to jump on the 'Kill Drew' threads out there.

:shocked:

[Bufftp]

Are you being serious? I always think we'll win. I'm giving credit to the team as a whole because it's just to easy to jump on the 'Kill Drew' threads out there.

:shocked:
yes.
I said nothing about thinking you'll win, I spoke to just winning.

[LifetimeBillsFan]

Without a first round draft pick in a draft that many experts consider to be one of the weakest in some time, I think that we need to be realistic about what can be done to improve the team during the coming off-season. I think that Travis Henry's health and whether the Bills will be able to trade him for a decent draft pick will go a long way to determining what they may try to do in the off-season--especially on defense.

DEFENSE:
I think that it is highly unlikely that the Bills will get either a shut-down corner or a monster DE in the off-season. They will need to spend their draft picks to bolster the offense and aren't likely to have enough free cap space to bring in a proven FA DE if one is available. More likely, the Bills will try to re-sign Nate Clements before he becomes too expensive for them to keep and make a decision about whether to keep Pat Williams or let him go.

The decision about Pat Williams will likely hinge on how ready they feel R.Edwards and T.Anderson are to step into the starting line-up. While Edwards has shown some flashes of brilliant play during the season, I would not be surprised to see the team make a serious effort to bring back Pat Williams for a season or two.

Considering the price that top flight CBs are commanding and the fact that this was T.McGee's first year as a starter, I expect the Bills to try to develop McGee some more under T.Vincent's tutelage and try to lock-up N.Clements while they can.

Even though the Bills don't have a dominating pass rusher at DE, considering the fact that the Bills defense will have amassed one of the top sack totals in the league and that they have invested a lot in Kelsay and Denney, I would not expect the team to go out of its way to acquire a pass rushing DE. If they are able to pick one up late in the draft (and there may be some pass rushers who may fall late into the draft this year) or as a UDFA, they may bring a young one in to see what he can do, but, otherwise, I just don't see them wanting to spend that much more on this position.

For the most part, I think that the Bills front office will look at their defense and say that, since they already have a pretty good unit already, they really don't need to do that much to help this unit. So, unless they strike it lucky with some UDFAs--like they did with Baker and Greer this season--I doubt that you will see many changes on this side of the ball next season.

SPECIAL TEAMS:

"With their first pick in the third round, the Buffalo Bills select Mike Nugent, kicker, from Ohio State University...."

Despite their disappointing performance against Pittsburgh, the Bills special teams were amongst the best in the NFL this past season--except in one area--and I would expect very few changes in the key positions in the offseason, especially with J.Smith and S.Williams on the roster and capable of stepping in for either McGee or Clements.

The one area where the team needs to improve its special teams and will help its offense if it does so is at kicker. And, with a weapon at kicker like Mike Nugent coming out in the draft, I would love to see the Bills spend a draft pick on him. But, even if they do not draft Nugent, there are, I believe, a couple of other kickers coming out of college this year who have been very accurate from long distances during their college careers. I would expect the Bills to bring in at least one rookie kicker in the off-season to challenge Lindell, whose lack of range has been a problem for the coaching staff at times during the season. I think that this is a must and something that Mike Mullarkey will probably want to address as well. Other than that, however, I see very few changes on this unit other than those brought about by personnel changes to the back-ups on other units of the team.

OFFENSE:

The three biggest questions are 1.) will the Bills be able to re-sign J.Jennings; 2.) will the Bills trade or keep T.Henry; and will E.Moulds be willing to re-structure his contract or will the Bills have to cut him for salary cap reasons?

If the Bills cannot re-sign J.Jennings, they will have to fill a hole at LOT either through free agency, the draft or from their roster. Even though there are other decent OTs that may enter free agency who might be capable of filling Jennings' spot, they will not come cheaply and, then, the question will be whether the Bills will be able to afford to sign one of them to replace Jennings. I would expect there to be a considerable amount of on the Bills offensive line in the off-season. I would not be surprised to see J.Peters and J.Bannan working full-time with the O-line and making a serious run at roster positions there next season. I would also expect the Bills to draft at least one and more likely two offensive linemen, starting with their second round draft pick. And, I wouldn't take any bets on who will be starting next season at any given position on the offensive line: I strongly suspect that J.McNally is going to look to seriously reshuffle the talent that he has on the O-line, especially if the Bills lose J.Jennings to free agency and are unable to replace him with another FA OT.

As well as Willis McGahee was able to run the ball this season and as much as the Bills offensive line improved over the course of the season, the offensive line was barely adequate and, along with QB, was probably the team's weakest area overall. I would be very disappointed if the Bills did not concentrate on trying to improve their talent level in this area by drafting a couple of young O-linemen and bringing in a FA offensive lineman if they lose J.Jennings. I remember a young TE named Paul Seymour who became a great OT for the Bills, so I wouldn't be surprised to see J.Peters successfully make that transition as well--although it appears that Peters is a much slower learner than Seymour. If I were running the team, this would be the area that I would want to have perform much better than it did this season and would make every effor to improve.

With the injuries that he has suffered the last couple of years, I have a feeling that it may be a lot tougher for the Bills to trade T.Henry than a lot of Bills fans think. While the Colts will undoubtedly franchise E.James and Seattle may try to do something similar with S.Alexander, the emergence of J.Jones in Dallas, the availability of R.Johnson, D.Blaylock and A.Thomas and some good RBs coming out in this year's draft will greatly lessen the demand for a RB like T.Henry who isn't a breakaway threat and has some serious mileage on him. It could be hard to get a second rounder for Henry or even a third and, given the ever present concern about how well Willis McGahee's knee will hold up, the Bills may decide to hold onto T.Henry rather than trade him--even if that means that they lose him to free agency after next season.

As much as I love Shaud Williams, if the Bills trade T.Henry, they will have to consider picking up or drafting a RB to replace him because S.Williams has shown that he simply isn't big enough to get the tough yards in short yardage consistently when he has had to step in for McGahee and J.Burns hasn't been the answer in that situation, either. The Bills might be able to pick up a back who will be adequate as a back-up RB in the third or fourth round of the draft, but that would almost negate whatever draft pick they would get for T.Henry.

The Bills could look to pick up a TE in the draft, but I doubt that they will pick up the kind of "game breaker" or deep threat at that position even if they do because I doubt that they will spend a high draft pick on the position when they have M.Campbell and T.Euhus--who were effective when used--and have a greater need on the offensive line. This is an area where the Bills may try to pick up a less experienced athelete with size and speed and try to develop him rather than spend a lot of money or a high draft pick on.

A lot of what the Bills will be able to do in the offseason will be dictated by what happens with Eric Moulds' contract. If he doesn't restructure it in the offseason, the Bills may have to cut him to save salary cap room. I don't think that the Bills would want to do that or that Moulds be able to command the kind of money as a FA that the Bills would be able to give him in a restructured contract, but, if Moulds decides not to restructure and the Bills are forced to cut him, they will have to find a WR who can replace him and that won't necessarily be easy to do--especially since he has proven to be a very good mentor to both P.Price and L.Evans. If the Bills can work out a new deal with E.Moulds they will have to do it in such a way that they do not hamstring themselves financially in the future. If they can do that, however, they may have enough money to bring back J.Jennings and/or bring in another FA offensive lineman (or keep P.Williams, etc.). So, what happens with Moulds will have a ripple effect on what the team is able to do to improve itself in the off-season. Hopefully, Moulds will see the sense in restructuring and will come to a reasonable deal with the team that will allow the Bills to keep or acquire those players that they are going to need to move to the next level.

And, speaking of moving to the next level, the Bills are going to have to make a decision about what to do with Drew Bledsoe in the off-season. I've come to the conclusion that Bledsoe doesn't have what it takes to be consistent enough to take the Bills to that next level. At the same time, while I like what little I've seen of JP Losman, I'm not sure if he is ready yet to take over as the full-time starting QB. But, whether Losman is ready or not I think is a moot point because I seriously doubt that, as long as Drew wants to continue playing, M.Mullarkey and T.Donohoe will have the courage to make the move that M.Lewis made by replacing J.Kitna with C.Palmer this season in Cincy. So, unfortunately, I expect D.Bledsoe to be the Bills QB once again at the beginning of next season and to remain so unless he gets injured badly enough that he has to be replaced by Losman. However, I do expect JP Losman to be ready to step in for Bledsoe if he does get hurt or if he struggles the way that he did early this season and against the better teams on the Bills schedule.

Will M.Mullarkey have the courage to replace D.Bledsoe next season if he struggles the way that he did at times this season? I doubt it. Will the Bills be good enough as a team to overcome Bledsoe's mistakes and make it to the playoffs next season? I believe that they will be, but that it will be a struggle for them because, for all of his talent and experience, Bledsoe simply has a penchant for making the worst possible plays at the worst possible times against the teams that a QB can least afford to make mistakes against. And, that, I think, will hold the team back from fulfilling its real potential. Unless Bledsoe gets hurt or plays so badly that the rest of the team begs the coach to change QBs (not likely to happen), I don't see JP Losman becoming the starting QB next season. And, unless D.Bledsoe has a magical lucky season or gets injured and is replaced by Losman, I don't see the Bills making to the Super Bowl next season, although I do expect them to make the playoffs.

Finally on the subject of QBs, I do expect that the Bills will either draft a QB late in the draft or pick up a young FA QB to develop as a third-string QB behind JP Losman next season. I seriously doubt that Shane Mathews will be back, although I think that he did very well in the limited time that he played for the Bills this season and, at times, would have done better than Bledsoe in certain games (I would have put him in for Bledsoe in the Baltimore game and the second NE game when it was clear that Drew was rattled--Mathews certainly couldn't have played worse than Bledsoe in those games!).

What happens with J.Jennings, T.Henry and E.Moulds will dictate a lot of what the Bills will have to do and be able to do in the off-season. Beyond that, they must address and improve their offensive line if they intend to be the kind of power running team that they showed that they want to be--and I expect that they will. Unfortunately, however, I seriously doubt that they will address their other primary weakness this season, which was the poor play that they got at times from the QB position--barring injury, I think that, like it or not, we're going to be stuck with another season of hoping that the rest of the Bills will be good enough to overcome the mistakes of their inconsistent and, at times, below average starting QB. I think they will do so to some extent, but not enough to please a lot of Bills fans or keep them from getting frustrated with the team's QB.

[ArcticWildMan]

Without a first round draft pick in a draft that many experts consider to be one of the weakest in some time, I think that we need to be realistic about what can be done to improve the team during the coming off-season. I think that Travis Henry's health and whether the Bills will be able to trade him for a decent draft pick will go a long way to determining what they may try to do in the off-season--especially on defense.

DEFENSE:
I think that it is highly unlikely that the Bills will get either a shut-down corner or a monster DE in the off-season. They will need to spend their draft picks to bolster the offense and aren't likely to have enough free cap space to bring in a proven FA DE if one is available...................................


:hail:

[DaBills]

Without a first round draft pick in a draft that... from getting frustrated with the team's QB.

Dude, how about a hard return in there somewhere? Joke.

I think Moulds needs to decide if he wants to sit it out and wait to be better utilized under JP than he has been with Drew. The Bledsoe to Moulds combo has not developed as thought. Will JP be the guy to resurrect Moulds? Don't know yet.

As for making the all-important decision of not starting Drew, maybe Mularkey is off the hook on this one. After all, the Drew trade happened on under GW and TD, not MM. Donahoe can take the difficulty out of the decision by simply saying he's over riding MM on this one. Mularkey then has his out on that one.