For a new regime, they deserve a big fat failing grade for the 2006 off-season. Yes, there was a lot of work to do, there is no debating that. However, the new regime did such a terrible job bringing in new talent that I’m surprised they were able to compete for a playoff spot in mid-December.

I never got the impression that Jauron and Levy liked Losman. If that’s true, why didn’t they try moving on and getting their own QB? We’ve seen other franchises bring in new regimes that immediately wanted to get their own guys in here. We know Modrak liked Cutler last year, I guess nobody else did.

The free agent signings that year were simply putrid. There’s no other way to describe how bad they all were, both in the quality of the players signed and the deals they received. Bringing in scrubs like Melvin Fowler, Tutan Reyes and Larry Tripplett to start in the trenches was just a terrible judge of talent. They should have been doing everything possible to acquire more draft picks and rebuilding the lines that way. I guess since the roster was so devoid of talent, they had to do whatever they could to try to address the issues.

And then the draft….oy! I’ve said my piece on this one many times over. What a terrible job of using the first three picks (Whitner and two on McCargo) and not getting an impact player. Luckily, they were able to get solid starters in Butler and Williams in the 5th round, and contributing players like Youboty and Ellison, and I suppose Simpson later on. When a new regime comes in, they have to make a good first pick. They didn’t unfortunately. They got a solid player, but they needed more.

I wish they would have just gone into full rebuilding mode. I know at the time it wasn’t something any of us wanted to hear, but it’s what would have been best for the franchise. Instead, it seems they partially went into rebuild mode, and partially tried to win ‘now’. Sticking with the incumbent young QB instead of bringing in their ‘own guy’, one they really liked (if there was one, of course), as well as signing a bunch of crappy free agents may not have been the best of ideas. I also wish they had done more to acquire draft picks (i.e. trade down) and done more to rebuild the trenches. Seriously, Jauron, did you really need to draft 3 DB’s in your first 4 picks when you were starting scrubs like Fowler and Reyes on the OL? Yeesh!

It also seemed they never had much of a plan for the defense. Sure, they were converting to a cover 2/Tampa 2 D, but they never went out to get the players to fit their scheme. Where was the pass rushers? Where was the quick, speedy LB’s? Why did they need 3 DB’s so early?!?

I was at that Tennessee game. The plays I remember most were Vince Young running through the defense while sportingly giving every member of the D a shot at him on his way to the end zone…..and Royal not getting his feet down an a pass from, I believe, Lee Evans. To me the game was the season in a nutshell: Buffalo couldn’t stop anyone on the ground and it killed them.

While I agree with Kurupt that I don’t think Jauron was completely sold on Losman, I give the man credit for choosing his horse and riding him. We were all pretty well pissed at the Mularkey yo-yo QB situation and Jauron, to his credit, put a stop to it. When it became clear that Losman wasn’t getting the job done Jauron made the switch to Edwards, first via injury and then as the permanent solution.

Shuffling the offensive line during the off-week was a huge gamble and it paid off almost immediately. Granted, there still wasn’t enough talent on the offensive line—part of which was Jauron’s fault. Nick Mangold or John McCargo? It’s an easy call in retrospect, though again Jauron deserves some credit for trying to address what was a horrible run defense. Never mind that Jauron could have done that at #8 with Ngata or, if he really wanted a Tampa 2 type DT, Bunkley.

The list of free agents from 2006 is best viewed a little at a time. When taken together it goes beyond putrid and into the realm of decomposing maggot riddled flesh. As for letting guys go, Adams was a loss. He wasn’t there to make tackles; he was on the team to clog up the middle which he did pretty well. And wasn’t Teague lured to San Fran with a pretty sizeable contract?

Overall, I’d rate it a decent first year outing for Jauron. The draft could have been quite a bit better and the team could have done without any of the free agency ‘additions’. However, both of those were influenced—to an unknown extent—by Marv Levy, a Buffalo legend who deserves a lot of the blame for the draft and free agency failings. On the field, Jauron and a talent starved team put up 7 wins and almost pulled out an entertaining Christmas Eve game (I conned my relatives into meeting in Buffalo with extended family for ‘Christmas’ ,by which I really meant ‘Bills Game’.) against the Flaming Thumbtacks.

Most will say that a team is not built to be a winner via free agency. There’s usually a reason most teams don’t keep a guy who signs a lucrative contract elsewhere: his price doesn’t reflect his performance or he doesn’t stand that far apart from the crowd, or guys behind him.

I know we are all looking for “flashy” around here, but without this draft, the moves we made this offseason wouldn’t be possible. The defense is just about where they want it, and a lot of that is based on Whitner and Willams’ stability. There was enough trust in our defensive foundation that the Bills focused on offensive talent for once. (Maybin being available at 11 probably helped too). As much as the draft seemed “sub-par”, 7 of 9 draft picks are still in the NFL and with the Buffalo Bills. That is ridiculous. 3 of them are quality starters (cue boos) Whitner, Butler, and Williams. Ellison is between starter and depth material. McCargo and Youboty both have a chance still to put it together and at the least are quality depth. Ko Simpson is worth millions, hopefully to someone else, even he showed potential at one point.

That kind of depth out of one draft is ridiculous. Sure, they are lacking flash and “play-making” ability, but that might turn up with an offense that does its job. Especially defensive tackles, like McCargo and Williams, take years to reach their full potential. Williams is well on his way, and maybe McCargo is too.

Teams that are established never have this kind of draft retention, obviously, but on their way to being established they did. A draft like this, despite room for quibbling, is how good teams are built.

The free agents, however, were kind of a necessary evil when you have so many holes to fill. Sure, most of them didn’t work out, but how many free agents, especially big ticket guys, really are superstars with their new team? When they were signed, Royal and Tripplett made a lot of sense. Tripplett came from a defense of the same type of ours and appeared to be on the rise, as did Royal. We know now that pretty much all of these free agency signings were mistake. Their approach made sense – get younger guys that appear to have potential so in a few years we’ll still have them when we’re ready to make a run. By all accounts, could the Bills really have predicted these guys would all fall on their faces? Of course not. That’s our luck of late, not bad scouting. Besides Tripplett, I think the free agent that hurt the most was Fowler. If he was able to perform at least at an average level, we might have gone 9-7 this year instead of 7-9 (and if we managed to keep Losman off the field).

In the years preceding this draft and free agency, the offseasons were very chaotic. The new regime’s mission was trying to attain a stable, if unspectacular, foundation on which to build over the next few years. They accomplished that goal with flying colors. This core group of players was the basis of what we’re doing now. Without these guys, we’d still be looking to add “solid” guys to the defense and not taking a risk on Aaron Maybin. It’s because we have the reliability of Whitner that Maybin is here instead of another first round DB from “The Ohio State University”.

Well said SBF

But it would have been nice if one of them was any good. :-)

The draft was solid, if unspectacular.

The O Line shuffle is what stands out to me. I remember when it happened and it was a big deal to more than just Bills fans. They were talking about it all over the place. It worked out for them in the long run even if Peters was the only guy worth anything on that line.

Who were the second level FAs in 2006?

I know it sounds rather simplistic, but any year whose moves didn’t end in a playoff berth is a disappointment.
Sure, we got some players and “potential” out of the deal, but the 2006 season and offseason itself was bad because it didn’t get Buffalo into the hunt for the Vince Lombardi Trophy. I feel that we as fans have to draw the line higher than the team is setting it. The Bills are clearly building a team, but it’s on the fans to apply the pressure, keep underachievers on the hot seat, and root out those who aren’t 100% passionately in this for a Super Bowl trophy. And saying 10-6 with a playoff berth is the minimum for a fan’s approval — that’s actually setting the bar low. We can need to have the bar at that point, I believe — while keeping in mind that New England and Pittsburgh would be disappointed with that result, and rightfully so.

The year we make the playoffs — the next year the goal is the Super Bowl. The kind of standards a team sets is reflective of their inner view of themselves. If the Bills’ coaching staff or players should show signs of drooping expectations, The Bills fans can’t accept that.