What has been done to improve our team this off-season?

[OpIv37]

We added Bennie Anderson, Mike Gandy, drafted Parrish and Everrett (who's injured).
We lost Jennings and Williams.
Some will argue that dumping Bledsoe is addition by subtraction.

That's it.

So, are we playoff contenders now? Was our team good enough last year that those minor changes will put us over the top? Somehow, it doesn't seem like enough to me.

[Crisis]

We didn't need much to do this off-season.

We lost an overpaid LT, and an aging DT, as well as a QB who is as mobile as a 25-ton steel cage.

Our youth players (Evans, McGahee) gain more experience and in McGahee's case recovers even more and gains speed. We get a back-up QB who I'd have over Bledsoe any-day-of-the-week, just in case Losman gets injured again.

I think the progression from the last year from the core of the team (Clements is one who really jumps out to me as progressing) will be enough to put this team over the top very soon.

A big off-season wasn't needed.

[Jan Reimers]

We've also added a quality backup QB in Holcomb, a good backup RB in Lee and some other draft picks and UDFAs - King, Preston, Geisinger, Gates, Leonhard, Gause, Ezekiel and Goldsberry to name a few - who can add depth and ST play.

Don't forget, too, that Kelsay should really be settling in at DE in his 3rd year, McGee should be comfortable as a starting CB, and we should have the veterans Milloy and Vincent at the safety spots for the whole year. Backups like Greer and Baker should be better with a year under their belts.

Evans and McGahee should be looking at breakout seasons. If Losman can get the job done, we may be looking at a very nice season.

[mysticsoto]

One thing that is being overlooked is Special Teams. With some of the people we have brought in including from the undrafted, our Special Teams might even be better than it was last year - if that's even possible!!!

[Ed]

People have to remember that we had a new HC last year and a lot of new assistant coaches. It's always going to take time for new coaching staffs to adjust, implement plans and gel, especially for a first time HC. I don't think you can just look at last years record and say, well we just missed the playoffs so we need to make a couple moves here and there to get us over the edge. We were a totally different team in Novemeber and December then we were in September and October. In those first 4-6 games our offense wasn't clicking at all and McGahee wasn't starting, except for the Miami game, which we won. Think how much more prepared our coaching staff is going to be this year. That has me more excited then the addition of any one player could have. I mean we had a rookie HC last year and still managed to win 9 games in a tough AFC.

I agree that we really didn't need to make a lot of moves. The only move I felt was really neccessary was replacing Bledsoe with Losman. Even though Losman is still an unknown, we were never going to win a SB with Bledsoe.

We're still going to have a championship caliber D and ST's. With an improved McGahee and more options at QB, I think we're more then ready to improve on last year. You can't always look to free agency to improve the team. If we really want to get better we have to have faith that the younger guys are going step up and continue to get better.

[BillsRockSOMUCH]

We added Bennie Anderson, Mike Gandy, drafted Parrish and Everrett (who's injured).
We lost Jennings and Williams.
Some will argue that dumping Bledsoe is addition by subtraction.

That's it.

So, are we playoff contenders now? Was our team good enough last year that those minor changes will put us over the top? Somehow, it doesn't seem like enough to me.
I don't know, I think our offseason was pretty much a wash but we definately have the potential to be a playoff caliber team. Last year was our coaching staff's first year. Mularkey and co. had a rough start but now they have more experience now and by the end of the year they proved they can win a coaching matchup. Losman instead of Bledsoe? I really don't know. A big question mark, I have no idea how Losman will play. We'll have a full year of McGahee. Some players entering their prime, some leaving their prime. A lot of tiny differences this year. I really don't know how we'll pay but we definately have the talent. We'll just have to excecute and get off to better start than last year to contend for a wild card.