all of this is right

I don;t know who to blame

J.P. for fumbling or Turk for calling that ridiculous play

Well, you’re right about just every point you make imo, especially concerning Donte Whitner being a mediocre safety. He never makes any plays, he talks the talk but NEVER walks the walk. If he continues to be as pathetic as he has been for the last three seasons, I could seriously see a new coaching staff seriously considering moving him, also now with us having Jairus Byrd that can actually make plays and lots of them.

The one other topic I would have loved for you to mention is Perry Fewell and how he still has a lot of flaws to his game. I think we all agree that Perry has a very bright future in this league, but looking at the tape (Thank God for NFL Game Pass), it’s evident that he lacks a lot still.
An example is with blitzing – he’s not at all creative in that departement. It’s always Poz and Kawika that are blitzing and with the same result every time – no pressure on the QB. Maybe, he could actually consider blitzing Bryan Scott or Donte Whitner as well or use some more stunts for his DT’s, because our pass-rush was unbelievably pathetic.
We’d all better hope and pray that Aaron Schobel being back fully healthy, a new D-line coach in Bob Sanders and Aaron Maybin will make the difference, because we are not going to stand a shot at the playoffs, if we don’t do a much, much better job at getting to the QB than last year.

just disheartening

I agree with a lot of what you say, but I take issue with two things:

1.

I love watching Marshawn Lynch run. He’s so tough to bring down in the open field. I just wish we’d get him the ball more in that capacity. Fairchild didn’t do it, and neither does Schonert too often. Where are the outside pitches to him, the screens, the stretch handoffs??? He’s so wiggly and quick with his cuts.

Yet above you said:

I sure hope our offense this year doesn’t revolve around dumpoffs to RB’s, TE’s and the occasional WR.

This is how this type of offense gets the RB the ball in space, short passes and checkdowns. That’s not getting the RB the ball in space?? If the defense is fixating on stopping the long ball, this is where the QB goes to pick up the yards.
Now, in one sense I’m with you, I’d like to see a better variety of running plays, and frankly, this coming year, the strength of the Oline may very well be up the middle rather than wide. We’ll see.

2.

Derek Fine is a better athlete than we give him credit for.

No, Dereke Fine is a better athlete than you give him credit for. Many of us have known all along what a good athlete Fine is. Last year he was injured for a significant portion of the offseason and the beginning third of the season. When he came back, he came back strong and impressive. If he stays healthy, he’ll be even more impressive this year.

This article has me excited for this year…based on how we should improve and the possible fixes we’ve implemented

I sure hope our offense this year doesn’t revolve around dumpoffs to RB’s, TE’s and the occasional WR. Trent needs to go downfield and can’t just do it when it’s absolutely necessary. The WR’s need to help him out by actually getting open too.

Better get used to it. We will not be a stretch the field vertically type team…..we are not built for it and the coaches don’t like it. I am not saying we will never throw the deep ball, and with a suspect O-line, it might take awhile before Trent has that kind of time. The good news is YAC, which is where I suspect the majority of our big plays will come from. Expect to see more balls delivered in time and in stride. It is this type of offense where Trent should excel.

(Side note: why haven’t we heard about his appeal yet? Did he appeal? I forget. His suspension has to get reduced, right?

I think we are waiting for Roger to make a decision. This is actually something I have thought about writing a fan post about, but have been to busy. Did the Stallworth situation make it less likely Lynch will get his sentence reduced? How close was Lynch to being in the same positon (or worse) than Stallworth? 1 sec? Would Lynch still have fled and how much worse would that have made the suspension? Who else would have been dragged into the situation? If I remember right, “Scuba Steve” was rumored to have been in the car. As it is, Stallworth is looking at at least a year suspension.

I don’t get the Brett Farve hate thing. The Packers screwed him and he wants to make them pay. I hope he gets the chance. Brett isn’t forcing anyone to play him. I think the man has earned the right to do whatever he wants.

I agree with the rest of what you wrote:-)

Where are the outside pitches to him, the screens, the stretch handoffs???

I totally agree, except for the screens. Schonert ran some last year and Marshawn had some really bad drops. I hope we give Jackson some chances on screens this year, but Marshawn is one more dropped screen pass away from me never wanting to run him on a screen again. Lynch dropped a ridiculous 8 passes last year and I’d bet that 3 or 4 came on screens. I have no clue why we don’t run outside more though. The lack of playaction is also confusing.

J.P. Losman stinks, but it’s still somewhat hard to believe he received no interest on the open market.

I was convinced that a vertical offense would give him a decent contract to be the backup based on his success in 2006. I still think a solid UFL season will land him a role somewhere next year.

Donte Whitner can’t cover anyone.

I actually think Whitner is pretty good in zone coverage. Since the Bills run a cover 2, I’m assuming that Whitner spends a decent amount of time in deep zones, and I don’t remember him getting beat over the top at all. And after I went through the Bills play by plays to see where Whitner made his tackles, I noticed that he made a lot of tackles near the line of scrimmage on passes to RBs. I do think he is pretty terrible in man coverage though. When he is lined up over a TE, he gets beat consistently.

Wow, Leodis McKelvin sure looked terrible that day

I didn’t think McKelvin looked particularly good at any point last season (other than kick returns). I thought he got beat up pretty bad against Miami and was just OK in some of the other games.

j2 – the NFL isn’t about book smarts, unless you’re a QB or a center, where you have to transguise a lot of information. What made Deion Sanders the best CB of all time? His ridicolous athleticism, instincs and toughness, and those three components are possessed by Leodis.
He is going to be a fantastic CB for many years to come, mark my words.

I’ll take ability over smarts any day