So this post is a week late from when I promised it, but hey, better late than never. To quickly recap my first few posts, I think there are three things the Bills need to figure out by the end of the season in order to have a competent idea of our immediate needs and to give us a jumping point for our long-term plan.

1. Is Trent Edwards a game-changing quarterback?

No.

More seriously, the hope that Edwards could evolve into more than a game-manager has very quickly evaporated since the first few weeks when he looked rejuvenated in our now defunct no-huddle offense. The guy had a 94.5 QB rating in his first 4 games, since then, it has fallen to a pedestrian 74.1. He looks lost, and though he's not totally to blame for this team's failures, it seems as though he's regressed to the point of being unsalvageable, at least in the short term. Now everybody's looking for our QB of the future, so I'll go in a bit of a different direction - for the last 2 quarters of the season, I'm changing this question to be: Which free agent or college QB can give us the greatest chance to be competetive next year?

2. Will the inexperienced offensive line prove that they're all starting-caliber players, and will they gel into an effective unit?

Well as far as gelling goes this offensive line has gelled about as much as the Jello shots I left out in the sun yesterday. To be fair, with all the injuries they've suffered, a cohesive unit has been impossible to keep around for a week, let alone an entire season. So let's look at individual players: Wood and Levitre are the best young pair of guards in the NFL, at least according to the NFL Network's Mark Mayock. Hangartner has been unimpressive thus far, though I do think he's an upgrade over Fowler. Everyone else has been too in-and-out of the lineup to make a fair judgment about their play over the past 5 weeks. Something we do know is that we desperately need reliable tackles, arguably more than any other position on the team save quarterback. Since continued focus on the issue I initially presented seems redundant, for the last 2 quarters of the year I'll be continuing to take a cursory glance at our current O-Line, but will also be looking at tackles that can help us next year, through free agency or the draft.

3. Who will emerge as our defensive play maker?

Well, I think we all know the answer to this one as well. Man these questions got answered a lot more quickly than I anticipated. Aside from Mr. Byrd, a more unsung player who has really stepped up his game this year is Chris Kelsay. In 9 games this year, Kelsay has almost matched his total stats from last year. Check out this comparison:

2008: 16 games, 47 tackles, 33 solo, 2.0 sacks
2009: 9 games, 40 tackles, 26 solo, 3.0 sacks

Kelsay is on pace to match or surpass his career highs from 2006: 61 tackles and 5.5 sacks. The entire defensive line is playing better than last year, thanks to new coach Bob Sanders, and that has helped to mask some frustration about Aaron Maybin's lack of production. I will continue to look at this question for the remainder of the year, to see how possible play makers like Poz and Whitner finish off the season.

Now that these questions are all but answered, we can begin to look ahead to the future of the team. Thanks for reading, and share your thoughts in the comments!