Fine tuning this great team

I don’t think I agree with any of these, though the Lynch/Jackson thing, I should point out, is already happening to an extent.

The saying isn’t “If it’s flawed, fix it even though you’ll risk breaking it”. We’re 4-0. The best way to “fine tune” the team is to simply play better, consistent football, especially in the first half.

Sorry, but you don’t make all those moves on a 4-0 team. That’s borderline ridiculous!!! You work to improve areas of weakness, not give up on some guys and completely blow any building cohesiveness…

1. I do agree here though, but I’m not going to bad mouth Schobel here. He hasn’t gotten any sacks since week 1, but he has gotten some pressure. He missed a few sacks yesterday, that in year’s past he got, and did harass Green some. Sure, we need to get more pressure, but it isn’t happening with these guys. That’s why we blitz our LB"s and DB’s so much. If anybody should be questioned, it’s Kelsay. That guy is straight up bad, IMO. He made a few plays early, but other than the Russell sacks, he’s been non-existent in games. Schobel has been rather stout against the run, but Kelsay is usually nowhere to be found. As for Ellis, I want him activated because I’m sick of seeing Copeland Bryan on the field defensively. He’s overmatched and quite terrible there. On the Avery TD, he completely blew containment on the edge despite the fact that he should have known something was up as Avery was lined up at RB. He’s given us nothing else on D, and really hasn’t done anything on ST’s either. He’s not a good enough ST player for us to keep Ellis inactive. I’d be working hard at getting Ellis ready to play on ST’s and a handful of plays on D. It’s worth a shot and he can’t be any worse than Bryan.

2. Nothing like trying to put a player in place, and continuing to slow his and the line’s development. Yeah, he’s been pretty bad thus far, BUT you don’t bench him now and make it even harder for him to continue improving this year. He simply needs the playing time to get back to where he was. He was abused on the Chris Long sack, that was bad, and the holding penalty hurt, but he was pretty solid otherwise yesterday. Langston Walker was getting beat a lot yesterday, which is more concerning to me because he’s been in camp and had all the reps he should have needed. I think his growth was stunted a bit because of all the time he spent at LT, now he’s trying to get back into it on the right side. Putting Chambers in and moving Walker back to the left is NOT going to help things, and would probably make it worse in the long run. The OL needs to continue playing together and getting the reps. Messing around with that is not what needs to be done.

3. Jackson already gets a ton of reps. He lines up in the slot, we have both in the backfield a lot, what more can we do here? I would get him more involved in the passing game again, but the rotation/workload’s seem to be working fine at this point. The OL needs to help these guys first and foremost. Lynch was slow getting up yesterday, but he was working hard and taking some hits. He got his normal workload, so I don’t see where the problem is. Omon has been inactive for a while now, so not sure what you meant there.

4. Not sure what benching Fowler for Preston is going to solve. We’ve seen enough of Preston over the years to know he’s even worse than Fowler. Plus, his major issue is a lack of upper body strength, correct? He’s not going to do much for us getting push either. Why do you think Preston is all of a sudden much better this year??? Fowler’s a major problem, but Preston isn’t the answer….The answer is the first day of next year’s draft, unfortunately….

5. LB depth has been an issue all season. I’m not sure we’re going to find anything out there at this point that would help. We have those guys on the team now because they are solid ST’ers. That’s about it. IF there was any other options, I’m sure we’d have pursued those by now…..

The solutions to our ills are not found in benching starters. It’s being more consistent, playing smarter, and for some, continuing to get reps and experience (Hardy, McKelvin, Peters…)….

… I used to think OL depth was biggest vulnerability, but the backups proved me wrong. Now I think linebacker depth is biggest concern, but I agree with Kurupt … what are you going to do about it now? Trust me, every team in the NFL has an achilles heal or two.

Dude I almost lost it when I read this post. These are not fine tunings, these are some major roster moves that you just don’t make to a team trying to gain consistency.

1. First off, if you watch the games (sober), you would see Aaron Schobel getting a ton of pressure on the QB. He hasn’t been getting the sacks, but he’s consistently around the QB. I don’t mind the idea of activating Chris Ellis instead of Copeland Bryan, but obviously the staff does not feel he is ready.

2. Simply put, benching Peters is STUPID. He’ll come into his own, but he’s not going to do it on the bench.

3. Playing Lynch and Jackson at the same time is a good idea, but you can’t overplay your hand, because when they are both in there you have one less blocker. And it’s not like the Bills have been lighting the world on fire with both of them in there anyway.

4. I think Jason Whittle would be much better at center than Duke Preston (especially run blocking). But the coaching staff is comfortable with Fowler for a reason. If they felt there was something better on the bench I’m sure they’d be in there.

5. John DiGi provides solid depth at all 3 LB positions, so there will only be a need to sign a vet if in fact one of our starters goes down. Ellison has played well, anyways… he’s actually been a better tackler than Kawika Mitchell.

Rotating Spencer Johnson in less because his run defense is disgusting is a fine tuning… not wholesale roster moves. In most of the big run plays given up by our defense, I have seen Spencer Johnson either lying on his keester or pushed out of the play. He does excellent on pass downs as he showed yesterday, but I would make a case for McCargo to get more snaps because I see him knifing through the line at least a couple of time per game with limited reps. And big props to Kyle Williams, dude is playing out of his mind next to Stroud.