Are the Bills following the Sabres lead?

[matter2003]

One thing that I am very pleased with is the way Marv has gone about adding free agents and also in the draft. He didn't get us the flashy, glitzy players that put up highlight reel moves or make circus catches, but then when the games on the line drop the ball or fumble it, or run the wrong route. He got good, solid football players. The kind of unheralded players that win you football games. Similar to how the Sabres went about and added Teppo Numinnen and Toni Lydman in the offseason...nothing flashy, just solid players.

Over and over again, it has been shown that these are the players that will win games and eventually championships. you need look no farther than the Patriots-Rams Super Bowl...or even back to Bills-Giants if you want....

Again, we got a minimum of 5 of these players in the draft...hard working, intelligent, high character guys who are solid players...These are the type of players that beat the flashy Reggie Bush's of the league more often than not.

Now all that is left to see is how the coaching staff meshes these players together. I think we could be better than a lot of people believe this year... I don't think playoffs but maybe 7-9 or 8-8...definitely heading in the right direction...

Matter2003

[LifetimeBillsFan]

In a way, I think they are going in a similar way. I just posted a thread showing what the Bills' defense could very easily look like in 2007: very young and very fast.

While you never know what you are going to get with young players until you see them play, the Bills have put together a young group of talented defensive players that could be the core of a very good defense that could sustain a championship run over several years as they grow as a unit, if, of course, they stay healthy and develop as projected. Now, there's no guarantee that they are all going to be great players, but they don't all have to be great--just some of them--as long as they are all average or above and grow together as a unit. Being talented and hard-working--which all of them are noted for being--that should be possible for them to achieve.

Having put together the core of a good defensive unit, Marv can now concentrate on fixing the problems on offense, once he gets a better grip on what positions, other than offensive line, need to be addressed. He will find that out this coming season and can work to fix that next off-season. With the talent that the team already has at some positions on offense and a young defense coming into its own, it should be possible for the Bills to put a team on the field in 2007 that will be able to stay in its games and win enough to be at least close to challenging for a playoff berth at the very least and be good enough to do better than that by the end of the 2007 season--as the kind of surprise team that the Sabres have been in the NHL this year.

The thing about the Sabres is that they are a young team that should be able to continue to get better and keep challenging for a Stanley Cup title over the next several years--and, that looks to be the kind of team that Marv is assembling, at least on defense, now with the Bills. It's going to be interesting to see how it works out.