I had Maybin as the most overrated player in the draft that year,{didn't think he had the natural power needed to play the position} the projection of this player by the experts going into that draft confused the hell out of me.. Thats good news for us...
If he doesn't play, this is what will make a difference. Our defense should be stout against the run this year. Whether Lynch or Jackson play shouldn't matter too drastically. However if Buffalo is missing one of their key pieces of that talented secondary things get easier. I agree with Wagon Circler that this game won't be easy. No game in Buffalo ever is.
my personal observations on just a few players. cj spiller has some game breaking potential and it will translate to the pros. helluva run for a TD early in the game where he deked out three colts defenders for a 40 yd or so TD run edwards hit a deep pass to evans but it was a busted coverage where the db bit on the cut. overall i thought brohm looked a bit better although it was against 2nd stringers. he seemed to be playing with a bit more energy. i think they keep brohm to backup edwards and if edwards craps the bed i wouldnt be surprised if brohm becomes the starter somewhere down the season paul pozlusny looked bad the couple plays i watched of him. got beat by joseph addai on a 15 yd pass and missed a couple of open field tackles the offensive line looks poor. the defensive line looked surprisingly good and the secondary is excellent. linebackers are a problem however
Buffalo always starts the season with a lot of energy...especially at home. Sure the fins have the capability of taking care of this one easily but the bills also have the capability of making it close.
I can only think of 1 or 2 teams at best that are worse than the Jills going into this season. Who ran the draft for them? Stevie Wonder? Pretty soon, Canada will lose interest. At least there is an old lady that invented hot wings that is up there....or did she move north?
Wow. Some of you guys in this thread are hellbent on jinxing us. The Bills have the same defense that held us in check in Buffalo last year and if Chan Gailey can just get a bit more of offense out of one of those QBs they will be a tough team to play. I hope those of you saying we'll win easily are right. Me, I'm not so sure. First games of the season have been tough for us since 2006. Remember, everything the media is saying about the Bills right now was said about us after the 2007 debacle. And the Bills won 6 games last season.
No, they don't. Aaron Schobel has retired, Jairus Byrd is injured, and they've converted from a 4-3 to a 3-4. If Chan Gailey gets anything out of those QBs, it won't be in week 1. Fitzpatrick looks like trash, Brohm is looking like the same bust he was in Green Bay, and Edwards can't beat out either one of those guys. They've lost Terrell Owens, have not improved their offensive line, and two of their three running backs are hurt.
I don't take any game for granted but Buffalo just seems like a franchise without any direction or purpose other than simply existing. There is no creativity on either side of the ball. I thought they made the blandest, most uninspiring coachiong hire possible, and they have refused to upgrade their o-line even when presented with several opportunities to do so over the last few seasons. In short, they are going through the same re-build as us, except are doing everything backwards, like Came Cameron would've done it. We should wallop them in Week 1.
I think Gailey as an OC can make chicken salad from chicken !@$@. He got Miami to 11-5 with Lamar Smith, Jay Fiedler and a hobbled, dink-N-dunk OJ McDuffie.
CJ Spiller will probably be good and Evans is all right. That's two guys. I don't like your QB's and hate your o-line. When you are rebuilding, you don't take a RB in the first round. You start up front. Taking Spiller is no different then when the 'Fins took Ginn in the 1st when they clearly had other, more important, needs. Maybe the 'fins won't wallop the Bills but I expect them to win, and relatively easily.
And still managed to get fiored right before the pre-season. Everything about Gailey screams "average". His teams in both the pros and college were always average. He never developed any QB's. He is average in every sense of the word. Apparently, that's what the Bills are going for.
All good points. And if you look back, I agree that Byrd being out makes an impact. More so than either RB they are missing. I just can't shake being nervous about the Bills. Especially in Buffalo. I hope you guys are right, and we destroy them.
We'll see. Your running game wasn't all world last year. While spiller can make some plays on his own, we'll see if he can be a 25 touch per game guy. What QB's has Gailey developed? Kordell Stewart? Outside of that i'm failing to find an all-pro QB he has molded. His QB's were average in the NFL (Fiedler, etc.) and non-existent while at GT. Can you even name one of his GT QB's?
He didn't compare the players, he compared the necessity (namely, the lack thereof) of their selections. Unfortunately for whatever talent you have in the backfield, rushing proficiency does not translate to winning in the NFL. You were near the bottom of the NFL in passing YPA last year, and it showed in your W-L record. (Showed in ours, too.)
Didn't we take Ronnie right after the 'stache quit and Satan took over to "rebuild"? Teams that have to rebuild have holes everywhere, so I imagine you just take BPA or whatever player is highest on your board. And I'll think we'll be kicking ourselves for taking Ginn over Pat Willis for a loooong time. I'm very concerned about week 1. Not because of the opponent, but because we've started so flat the last couple seasons.
We did, and for as much as we love ronnie, it probably wasn't the best pick. Aaron Rodgers should've been the pick in hindsight. Or Ware or Merriman. The point is, you can find a RB. when you are rebuilding and have holes along your lines, that's where you start (or QB)
True...but for whatever reason Rodgers stock just plummeted..some say it was size and arm strength issues. Most teams would kill to have a QB with his "issues" Could you imagine "IF" Ronnie had been healthy throughout his career so far though? We know how special he is when he is healthy...it would make for a great discussion. Anyway..I just hope we come out amped up for this game. Last year against the Bills we should've stomped them out, and our guys looked so flat after Ricky's INT.
Jay Fiedler had only small responsibility for those 11 wins, it was our defense. But I do agree that Chan is a very good coordinator, gets the most our of his players. he's just a lousy head coach.
The dolphins "D" deserves most of the credit for that year. and yeah, he put Fiedler in a position to win games by being average. Great. Fiedler never took the next step because he didn't have the talent and Gailey has never drafted a QB (or recruited one in college) and had that guy turn out to be more than average. If that's all you're going for, then Gailey was a great hire. If your expectations exceed average, then you are going to be disappointed. And lets not get nuts on spiller just yet after one pre-season run. I like the guy, but John Avery had a big play in pre-season once too.
It killed me last year watching them go up against those backups to sneak into the playoffs... It almost hurt worse than our 'phins losses.
Rodgers was seen as a "Tedford" QB who was just a system guy. If we had taken him, he might've busted since he would've had to play early. He sat for 3 years in GB.
Beat both us and the Bills. They had the fewest pass attempts in the NFL, though, so I don't really put much stock in their YPA. And yes, Sanchez had one of the worst rookie QB seasons I can think of. You realize he's talking about passing YPA, right? The Bills as a team did not average 6.3 yards per rush. No one did.
Isn't it amazing how the national sports media seems to ignore that, despite all the talent he had around him? Boggles the mind.
They see an AFC Championship Game. They don't see the QB rating. What passes for football analysis on TV is some of the most misleading, uninformed crap you'll ever see. Not really. IIRC, the Jets had the same team YPA as the Bengals, and the Bengals were a terrible team down the stretch. That passing game completely fell apart. Sanchez had an all-time great playoff game in the wild card round against the Bengals, a mediocre game against the Chargers that the Jets defense managed to win, and then a very good showing against the Colts.
LOL I was serious you guys. He beat out Kellen Clemens for the starting job. Yes, the Kellen Clemens. JETS-Ring-of-Honor Kellen Clemens.
And you'll note that playoff teams are scattered all throughout that list. That means rushing is not a reliable indicator of likelihood of victory. Sorry, but Spiller doesn't automatically make you more likely to improve on that 6-10 record.
After watching Spiller at Clemson for the last few year I can honestly say that he scares me. CJ is a beast when he is not being nagged with hamstring or turftoe issues. Hell, he was still a threat with those issues. I hated seeing him go to a division rival.
IMO week 1 will be tough for a few reasons. First, it's the NFL, so every team is capable of beating every other team. Second, this is a division game which makes it even closer. Heck, even the years when the Patriots were being dynastic they usually split with a clearly inferior Miami team. Third, while Miami is the better team, the Bills have a dangerous player in Spiller. He's the type who is always capable of stealing a win. Fourth, Gailey has proven he's able to win games with mediocre talent. Fifth, Miami has a tendency to start slow of late. Now, I still believe Miami should/will win this game, but I know anything is possible. I also am not among those that believe that any game week 1 is a must win.
Yep, although the outcry would have been "OMG HOW DARE THEY TRY TO REPLACE ZACH THOMAS!" I wouldnt call your QB stable average. Maybe average at best.
All true , but winning game one before going to the dome for the Vikings home opener and return of the prodigal Brett Favre would go a long way to a realistic chance for a sucessful season imo. We have a tough tough first half of the schedule , I would much prefer to win the games we should ( for whatever that is worth ) win and batlle hard for the contested ones. I HATE slow starts and that is a huge wish for me , that we alleviate that this year . Please
Spiller is going to be a stud in Buffalo. I've said it a few times before and some people don't agree, but IMO, Chan G. has a stud for his offense.
The reason I never believe that game 1 can ever be a must win is that you have to be assuming other games are losses. Theoretically, the Dolphins could lose the first game then end up 15-1. Or say they lose the first game and go 10-6 or 11-5 by winning one of those games that some people marked as a loss. In those cases that first game probably ends up being irrelevant. The "any given Sunday" thing plays both ways. And IMO Miami has as good of a chance (or an even better chance in most cases) of beating any team on their schedule as Buffalo has of beating Miami week 1.
I'm not sure about that. There wasn't much complaining when Parcells released Thomas. Zach also seems to take a back seat to the Jason Taylor love train, a phenomenon I've never understood. And in retrospect, any outcry about replacing Zach Thomas would have been preferable to the three years of poor play from Ginn plus the overdone jokes about Ginn's family and in which direction the thumb needs to go.
It depends on the circumstances though. A week one matchup against a conference and DIVISION rival is as close to a must win in week one as you can get. Every time you lose a divisional game, it pretty counts as two losses on some level. Losing to the Atlanta Falcons in week one last year was much less of a big deal.