Buffalo Bills Review

I know it’s early to be talking specifics about this year’s Bills.  We haven’t really seen them play yet.  We’ve seen a mini camp highlight or two, and heard lots of great in-depth reports from Chris Brown, but it’s not close to the real deal yet.  (You know, sometimes it seems like even pre-season is not the “real deal”… you never know what’s going to happen until they get out there, put the pads on and bang heads!)

That said, I am feeling more excited than recent years about our offense!  I can’t wait to see them in (real) action!  I’ve come up with at least five reasons to be optimistic about the 2007 Buffalo Bills offense.

1.  New Offensive Line
A lot of folks want to bash the moves the Bills made this off-season.  I have heard many complaints that either the Bills overpaid, or just got average guys, or both.  In fact, heard it yesterday on ESPN’s NFL Live.  But if Bills fans will remember … after Dick Jauron and co. switched up the entire O-line last season at the bye week, our line steadily – and vastly? – improved.  Allowing WAY fewer sacks, giving JP time to hit the deep ball, even opening holes for the running game.

The addition of a big tackle, Langston Walker, and a big – and the Bills staff feels, talented – left guard in Derrick Dockery, we’ve certainly solidified an already improving, and I’d say a decent line.  So now (according to the depth chart here at BuffaloBills.com) we have from left to right, Jason Peters, Derrick Dockery, Melvin Fowler, Duke Preston, and Langston Walker.  And for depth we have Terrance Pennington, who did a great job at RT last year as a rookie, and the new guy Jason Whittle, who is apparently a “utility” player (able to play many different positions.)

Add to those guys some players we got last year who will likely be improved this season, Brad Butler and Aaron Merz, and the line seems pretty strong to me.  Granted it’s unproven, and I believe that’s where the “experts” see our line as a weakness.  Of the five starters listed above, Walker and Fowler have the most NFL experience at 6 years.  So it’s definitely a young line.

But it’s a beefy line.  Look at these stats!

• LT – Jason Peters: 6’4″ 340lbs
• LG – Derrick Dockery: 6’6″ 330lbs
• C – Melvin Fowler: 6’3″ 310lbs
• RG – Duke Preston: 6’5″ 326lbs
• RT – Langston Walker: 6’8″ 366lbs

Holy cow!  That’s a lot of beef!!!  And throw in Terrance Pennington off the bench at 6’7″ 331 lbs just for more pummeling.

With supposedly one of the best OL coaches in the league, a strong finish to last season (constant improvement) and a few solid additions to the line, I think this is one great reason for offensive optimism this coming season.

2.  New, More Open Scheme
From a few Chris Brown reports from OBD, as well as a confirming report on NFL Live yesterday, all signs point to a wide open, perhaps even no-huddle, very “Rams-like” offense from one of their former coaches.  Fairchild seems very happy with the acquisition of Marshawn Lynch, who seems to fit the mold of Marshall Faulk very well.  Very shifty, great moves, and even better… great hands out of the backfield.

We saw the offense open up a bit (I think in conjunction with the improved O-line) last season.  Losman to Evans was a fun combination.  But let’s not discount the other receivers so quickly.  Price and Reed made some clutch catches last season.  (Remember that play where Reed caught one fairly deep down the middle and just blasted through three Dolphin defenders into the endzone!??)  And Roscoe Parrish is obviously explosive when we can get him the ball.  Add to that a decent core of TEs (the coaches seem very happy with these guys…) and we’ve got a good amount of weaponry at Losman’s disposal.

3.  Consistency From Last Season
Now I know I just finished saying that the #2 reason for optimism is our new offensive scheme, but one thing I keep hearing the players say (and it makes complete sense to me) is that a big reason to be optimistic is that most everything is the same.

If you’ll recall, Bills fans, we have not seen much of that in the past several years.  From revolving free agent players, to revolving coordinators, coaches, and even the GM… the Bills have seen MORE than their share of “turn over”.  But this upcoming season the only real difference is at RB, where it seems to me we’ve made an improvement.

The offensive system is familiar.  “The players know what to expect,” said Coach Jauron, “and they know what we expect from them.”  All of the coaches are returning.  Most of the players have been here now through last year’s transition.  There is a great level of consistency, and I think, a great sense of team. (Maybe even akin to the Buffalo Sabres, who have done very well with a young, unproven cohesive team.)

As the system has become more familiar, the players can just do what they do.  And probably that has opened up the full throttle offense as well.  This is a very good reason for optimism, in my opinion!

4.  Marshawn Lynch vs Willis McGahee
As I mentioned above, I do believe we have made an improvement at the RB position.  I really have nothing against Willis.  I don’t recall ever publicly bashing him here or anywhere.  I definitely thought he had great potential, and as I said in my last article, when you wear the uniform, you’re a Buffalo Bill.  Period.  So I cheered for Willis, as for everyone else.

That said, I am so glad he’s gone, and we seem to have a kid in here who is ready to work hard to help the Buffalo Bills.

The one detractor (in my opinion) for Willis was that (even if it’s not true) it seemed that he was always taking plays off.  Always.  I don’t remember a game where I thought, “Wow, Willis played a complete game that time!”  Maybe in 2004, when he made his debut?  All I know is that he was certainly characterized by a less-than-100% effort.  At least by all appearances.

Bring in Marshawn Lynch.  Compared already to Marshall Faulk (and I’ll throw in Thurman Thomas?) he is a bit of a different runner.  And, he’s a great pass catcher.  AND… he’s at mini camp!  🙂  Coach Fairchild said on that NFL Live piece that it helps so much having Lynch here, able to fit into the passing scheme more.  From what I’ve seen of Lynch, he definitely seems committed to being the best he can be for the team.  That’s a big improvement.

With the improved offensive line, involvement in the passing game, and a confident QB… I’d say Lynch could bring perhaps a significant improvement over the running game from last year.  I think he only needs to average 3.9 yards/carry to top last year’s production from Willis.  🙂

5.  J.P. Losman
I left this one for last, but maybe it’s the most important one.  Flashback with me to 2005.  In the off-season, Drew Bledsoe is let go, and JP Losman is named the starter.  Just like that.  Never played… he’s just the starter.  They bring in Kelly Holcomb for back up, and “competition”.  Losman starts and wins his first game… against Houston.  Then the wheels fall off.  Mularkey’s job is in trouble, so he benches Losman… playing with his head.

Skip ahead to 2006.  This new year brings an entirely new front office and coaching staff.  Losman and Holcomb and Nall compete for the starting job.  (At least, he wasn’t just handed the job.)  Losman wins the job, and starts every game.  He was shaky at the beginning, but not horrible.  Then, after the bye… kept steadily improving.

By the end of last year (minus a poor showing in the finale in Baltimore) Losman had become an entirely different QB.  He finished the season with the 11th best QB rating in the NFL at 84.9.  Perhaps it was that game in Houston where he not only hit those TWO 83 yard bombs to Evans… but came from behind to win it in the waning seconds of the game on a pass to Peerless Price?  Perhaps it was just growing comfortable with the system, or himself as an NFL QB.  Whatever it was, it started working.  Losman began believing in himself (as did the rest of the Bills, and Bills fans) and now he has that momentum coming into this season.

He ended the year a bit miffed at not making the playoffs.  One detractor from Losman’s play to end the year was how he quit after the Tennessee game.  He was not mentally/emotionally in the game in Baltimore.  But right after that game was over, he was ready for 2007.  He took a little time off, but has been hard at work this off-season, prepping for the upcoming football year.

Another great thing about JP is that he is a team guy.  His teammates seem to love him, and he loves them right back.  He engages everyone, and seems from my vantage point to be a willing and capable leader.  Isn’t that what we want from our QB?

I believe one of the best reasons for optimism regarding the 2007 rendition of the Buffalo Bills offense is J.P. Losman.  He’s entering his 4th season – second as a full-time starter.  There’s consistency from last year, but a more open approach.  A new weapon in Marshawn Lynch.  And carry-over confidence from a steady improvement through the end of last season.

Look out NFL defenses… here come the Bills!

If you’ll permit me, I’d like to share some football stories from the weekend.  They are certainly Bills-related, but not the norm for my column here. I really wanted to write this article last night.  But I just couldn’t.  I was exhausted.  The weekend was packed full of greatness, and a good bit of it included Buffalo Bills, or at least former Buffalo Bills.  It was a Bills fan’s dream!

We headed into the weekend knowing we’d be having dinner with Kelly Holcomb and family.  They have been part of my in-laws’ church since moving to the Buffalo area a couple years ago.  My in-laws had them over for dinner once and asked them if they’d come back so we could meet them.  We have kids about the same age, and as you know from me writing here… I am a Big Bills Fan.  So, they’re leaving town soon, and the only time that worked for everyone was a family birthday/graduation party we had planned for this weekend.  The Holcombs happily agreed to join us.

As I was making my part of the meal for the weekend I thought to myself, “I’m making this Skyline Chili for Kelly Holcomb!!!” Needless to say… I was excited.

So were my boys.  We play football all the time, and they couldn’t wait to catch some passes from Mr. Holcomb!

But the bonus event happened on Saturday.

If you read the boards here, you’ll recall that Brian Moorman had a Family Fun Event to raise money for his PUNT foundation (I forgot to ask him what that stands for….) 🙂  We were given some tickets to that, and were more than happy to squeeze that into our already busy weekend.  And it paid off!

We arrived several hours into the event, and got to see some fun stuff for our boys (ages 8 and 5).  There were lots of inflatable football fun things (like you would see at Bills’ training camp at St. John Fisher starting in late July) as well as some other events, like an exotic animals show.  That was great!

But the best part was as we were strolling through the Fair, we noticed a volleyball game happening, and Mr. Hawaii was out there, along with some of the staff for the event.  In fact, as I was scanning his side of the court, I recognized another familiar face… Rian Lindell!  So we headed over to check it out.

Almost the instant we arrived, the game was over, and they began to break up and go separate ways.  A small crowd (really small… like 8-10 people) formed around Brian, so the four of us headed over to join it and meet our Pro Bowl punter.  He graciously signed some stuff for our boys, and we chatted briefly, but it was not really any different than any other public gathering where you meet someone that everyone else knows.  It was over quickly, and we were going to move on.

As we were leaving, I noticed the Bills’ place kicker standing out on the volleyball court still, juggling the volleyball with his feet, much like a pro soccer player might.  I asked my family, “You guys want to go meet Rian Lindell???”  (silly question…) to which they excitedly replied, “YEAH!!!!”  🙂  So we headed over to say hello.

As we approached him, some friends of his were also heading out to say hello, but with us being the strangers, he looked up and just introduced himself.  He chatted with me, and our boys, but didn’t have a pen, so no autographs. (Until some more fans joined us, and loaned us their marker!)  The best part was that it was so relaxed!  There was no line… it felt like there should have been, but there wasn’t.  So we just got to hang out for a bit.  Our oldest son was wearing his Travis Henry jersey, so Rian told him he needs to get a new one before next season… “Get a #9 jersey!”  🙂  Ian will be turning 9 this year…. so…  🙂

Well, we hung out for a bit more fun.  Ended up meeting Kevin Jobity, as our boys were playing with his son (he’s a former Niagara Univ basketball player, and now plays in Dubai).  But before we left we thought we’d chat with Brian Moorman a bit more, just for fun!  He was standing right near our table, so we went over for a photo and just to chat. 

The thing that was so great about both these Buffalo Bills kickers was that we met was just how easy it was to chat with them.  They were happy to spend time talking with us, though we’d never met.  They weren’t in a rush to be somewhere else.  It was a blast.

I had one more opportunity to chat with Rian Lindell, so I told him that he’s pretty much a legend on our show.  On our very first show in 2005, my then co-host decided to rip into Lindell for missing a kick, giving him the nickname “No Foot”.  Well, it was hilarious, and it stuck, despite Lindell having a pretty good season that year.  In fact, we made up some “No Foot for the Pro Bowl” t-shirts!  He hasn’t made it yet, despite an even better season last year… but we keep the weekly “No Foot” Tally on our show.  So I told him all of this and he got a kick out of it.  (Ha!  Kick!)  He sent a little message to “Uncle Josh” (the originator of the moniker) as well… which I’ll post to our site later today.

Skip ahead to Sunday evening…

The family had gathered, the food was ready, and we were just waiting for the Holcombs to arrive.  It was just about time, but since they weren’t there yet, I was heading out to toss the football around with my boys and my nephew.  Right then, they show up, and the first thing my five-year-old says is, “Can you throw the football to me?”  🙂  Kelly smiled and agreed to do that later…

We all said hello, and got to know names… and I think it was a mere 5 minutes later (maybe less) Kelly was out there tossing passes to three of my kids, two of his own kids, my 9-yr-old nephew, and … me!  🙂

Mostly he threw to the kids, and as he did, I asked him questions that you’d never get to ask at a training camp meeting, or at an autograph signing, or some other public venue.  Again, it was just relaxed and informal.  We’re about the same age, with kids about the same age, so I asked questions about his family, and moving, and how he liked Buffalo vs. what he has seen in Philly so far.  (The area, not the team.)  I asked if he knew (or had played with) any guys on the Eagles before he got there… besides Takeo.  I asked if he likes moving around – getting a new start.  He said no.  “It’s getting old.”

At the dinner table, we talked with them about their various football experiences in various towns.  Did you know he played for the Barcelona Dragons of the old World League of American Football?  (WLAF, now NFL Europa… just … different.)  We talked about how he’s an Indy race fan from his days in Indy playing behind Jim Harbaugh and then Peyton Manning.  We talked about the Sabres, and how he’s a hockey (specifically Sabres) fan now, from his time here.  We talked about 400 yard passing games in the playoffs.  He smiled when remembering those… 🙂

We also talked about his chances of at least making the playoffs with his new team.  I said even though I really don’t like the Eagles, if he makes the team, I’ll be rooting for them up until the Super Bowl, when I will of course have to root for the Bills.

(Hey, the season hasn’t started yet… leave me to my wishful thinking!  We’re tied for first place still!)

After dinner we went back outside to play football… this time my 19-year-old nephew joined us, and we had fun just running routes, and mostly helping the kiddos have fun playing football with AN NFL QB!!!  He was great, and just kept tossing balls to tiny people.  Even lining them up in formations, and going through a cadence.  Too fun!

So, near the end of the time, I had to get in on the action.  🙂

I lined up against my nephew and said, “Try and cover me.”  I ran an out pattern to the sidelines, 15 yards up the field (um… my in-law’s back yard…) and Kelly threw a strike right to me… but my nephew closed on it and batted it down!  (He’ll remember that one for a while!)  Kelly complimented him (I don’t think he thought my nephew could get there!)  So we went for it again.  I tried the same play, and this time… I DROPPED IT.  MY BIG CHANCE to catch a pass from an NFL QB, and I DROPPED IT!

Kelly said, “Well you gotta catch one!”  So we lined up again.  This time I beat the defender with a little move inside and took off straight up the field.  Kelly launched a 35-40 yard pass and I gave my best burst of speed to catch up… but… it was three inches past my finger tips!  ARGH!  Some NFL WR I would have made!  I think Kelly made some quip about me ruining his QB rating…  🙂  But we were going to connect at least once!

The final route was a little inside slant over the middle, and… a fifteen yard completion!  He hit me in stride, so I kept going for the TD.  🙂

The Holcomb family was great.  It was so fantastic to spend an evening with a Buffalo Bills QB.  (NOTE: I realize he’s an Eagle now.  But as he was leaving I said, “I know you only spent two years here, but once you wear the uniform, you’ll always be a Buffalo Bills QB to me.”  He said, “Thanks.  I appreciate that.”)  Our kickers are also great guys.  It was a blast to just get to chat with them this weekend.

After yesterday, I must say… I can’t WAIT for BILLS FOOTBALL.

And I wish I would have caught those passes!  🙂

Greetings!

Some of you may know me from the BillsInsider where I write semi-regularly. Based on the feedback I receive half of you like my writing and opinions/reporting on the Buffalo Bills and half of you think I should jump off a cliff or something. Well like it or not Greg and Dave were good enough to give me permission to contribute to this site as well.

I didn’t want to simply post the same articles on both sites (although I may do that sometimes too), so I thought I’d take a bit of a different approach here. I will be doing a position by position breakdown to start with as we follow the team through the various minicamps and training camp.

Its still early in the off-season and over the next few days many teams will be cutting players to stay under the cap. As a result, the Bills are likely to pick up a few more free agents before camp officially starts and will likely cut a few of their own as well. Because of this fact, I thought I’d start off by talking about the Quarterback position as it is the least likely to undergo changes prior to the season. (Barring injuries of course)

As it stands right now, the Bills have J.P. Losman starting with Craig Nall as back-up and newly drafted Trent Edwards as the 3rd stringer. The Bills will probably bring in a 4th scrub QB for camp who has no chance of making the squad. The top three will definitely make the team however.

Many media pundits and other assorted idiots have jumped on the sensational story that the Bills’ drafting of Trent Edwards is a sign that the team doesn’t have confidence in J.P. Losman. This is essentially ludicrous. NFL Football is a dangerous sport and all teams carry 3 QB’s on their active rosters as a result of that fact. Bills fans might remember several years back where injuries to the top 3 QB’s on the Jets led to Punter Tom Tupa playing the Quarterback position. Players get hurt, starters go down, and teams need not just 1 backup, but two. Still, drafting Edwards in the 3rd round when the Bills had other needs seemed a bit surprising. Many fans felt that a corner to replace Nate Clements could have been acquired with that pick. Not likely. The Bills would not have been able to get a Corner that would have been able to contribute any more than their current stock of guys, if he even saw the field this season.

Edwards is certainly an insurance policy against injury and would have to have a spectacular camp to even break into the number two role. Lets not forget that Losman took every snap last season so there is not a lot of reason to think that either Nall or Edwards will see the field unless there is a disaster. But a disastrous situation is always just around the corner for the Bills (and every other team in the league). It’s also true that the typical NFL player only lasts 3-5 years, so its not safe to assume that Losman will be here for the next 10 years. The Bills have to be constantly planning for the future. Where would the Patriots have been if they didn’t have Tom Brady when Bledsoe got hurt? It could happen to the Bills, but lets hope it doesn’t! Nall and Edwards are both completely unproven in the NFL. Edwards has yet to even put on the pads and Nall has never taken a snap during real, regular season play. (yes, he’s taken snaps but they were all during garbage time after Favre had already won the game.)

The main reason the Bills don’t want Nall or Edwards to have to hit the field during the regular season is J.P. Losman. The kid is playing really well at this point. Sure he can always improve, but I don’t think he has that much to prove at this point. Lets look at his stats from last season:

Losman finished ranked 11th in the NFL behind Peyton Manning, Huard, Brees, Mcnabb, Romo, Palmer, Bulger, Rivers, Brady and Brunell. Oddly enough, Bills fans seem to think that Eli Manning and Ben Roethlisberger are better Quarterbacks who can easily beat the Bills this season. Eli was ranked 18th and big Ben was 21st. Losman’s QB rating was 84.9 while Eli was 77.0 and Ben was 75.4. Losman completed 62.5% of his passes compared to Eli’s 57.7 and Ben’s 59.7. Losman had 14 INT’s to 19 TD’s while Eli had 24 TDs but 18 INT’s and Ben had 18 TDs and 23 INTs (worst in the league!). The Only QB in their draft class who out-performed Losman was Phil Rivers who got to walk in and play with arguably the best team in the league. Its got to be easier to play QB when your running back is LT. The reality is, based on QB rating, Losman is more comparable to Tom Brady than these other clowns. Considering that Roethlisberger was playing for the defending Super Bowl champions, its particularly bad that he was one of the worst in the league last season. I have also heard many say that Eli had an off-year. Huh, when did he have an ON year? Oh right, he didn’t… But Losman is the guy with something to prove right?

If you look at Losman’s 2006 campaign, he compared with the upper third of the league despite the fact that his Offensive Line allowed him to be sacked 47 times! This will be a reoccurring theme in the offensive positional breakdowns, but in 2006 it was not a coincidence that things improved when the offensive line was reshuffled. With the talent added to the line this off-season, it stands to reason that the team should play even better. Robert Royal came on strong at the end of the season because he didn’t have to stay back and block on every play. Kevin Everett didn’t see the field because he is more of a receiving tightend and the Bills couldn’t afford that luxury last year with their poor line play. Things will be different this season. Losman will have a lot more time to throw the ball. This means more passes will go to the 2nd and 3rd receiving option because the play will actually have time to develop to that point. Not to mention the upgrades at running back. All of the Bills current backs are also good receivers.

I watched the old Bills/Oilers comeback game on the NFL network last night and a few things really stood out. 1. There were backups playing most of the key positions in that game but it still felt like the Bills had super-stars at every position. 2. Bills receivers were making huge plays despite not being particularly large/tall. They made plays by getting open, not by out-jumping the other receivers. 3. Nate Odomes is under-sized for a corner but still made huge plays. There were other things about that team that reminded me of the current Bills, but the Beer is fogging my memory.

Looking forward to a big season (at least on offense) for the Bills. Send me your comments to bplewak@yahoo.com . Which position do you want to hear about next?