A Few Positives During This Slide?

Fortunately this latest swoon has not bothered me too much, since I never really allowed myself to get too invested in the Bills this year. As you can see from my Fanpost before the opener:

http://www.buffalorumblings.com/2011/9/11/2418360/conflicted

For me, the clock starts on a rebuilding effort as soon as a Franchise QB is selected, which, in my opinion, should be within the first 40 picks of any given draft. Thus, since Buddy Nix has choosen against adding such a QB to the team, I refuse to believe that the Bills are building a Super Bowl contending team. Once that happens though, we can begin to move forward….allowing the choosen QB at least 1 year to sit and learn behind a decent placeholder QB in Ryan Fitzpatrick.

Even if this losing streak continues, I do not need to see Chan fired, although I would like to see some changes made. I do worry how a new Franchise QB would perform in Chan’s offense, as it seems the strength of the scheme is the ability to make a below-average talent QB thrive…so when we finally bring in an above-average talent QB, will the scheme maximize his talents or not? But that may be a question for another day.

If Buddy Nix decides to not address the QB position again within the first 40 picks of the upcoming draft, I will desire to see him leave. Plain and simple. I was extremely frustrated that the Bills passed on QBs the past two years, and can somewhat get behind the excuse that there was just nobody available that Nix liked enough to draft. (I have been on record as saying I would have taken Tebow with our first rounder in 2010, and Gabbert with our first rounder in 2011.) BUT, to do nothing again this year, when there may be as many as 3-5 really good QB prospects coming out, would be insane and too much to handle. (If a trade is needed to move up to select the QB Buddy most believes in, then I am on board and will not whine about the cost of such a trade.) In fact, I don’t even want to imagine a world where the Bills go into another season without a Franchise QB (with a 1st or 2nd round pettigree) to groom behind Fitz. Or else I will be writing the exact same fanpost come opening day next year.

My thoughts:

1) Your right, Fitzy isn’t a franchise QB. He looked like a good QB at the start of the season, but it’s obvious now that that was a flash in the pan. I however don’t expect Nix or Chan to go get another QB this off season. At least not in the first round, that is unless RG3 falls to us for some insane reason.

My logic for this is also because of the news that Sam Montgomery will most likely declare. Ans as much as I don’t like the idea of drafting a redshirt sophomore, the more i read about this kid the more I think that he’d be the best pass rusher coming out in this draft. Also he’s a very high character guy, very hard working, student of the game, which makes him fall in line with exactly the type of player that both Nix and Gailey love. So if he does declare, i think that he’s got a great shot of becoming a Bill.

But i definitely wouldn’t be surprised to see us draft a QB in the second. Because if one thing is clear, it’s that Fitzy is NOT the answer for the Bills. But I don’t think that the lack of a QB in this draft should equate a Nix’s or Gailey’s firing either.

2) George Edwards should be gone, and I’ll be shocked if he’s not. I also think that Wannstedt will become the DC (which mean that our D will probably still suck). If Gailey and Wannstedt are smart though they’ll hire an LB coach that’s a rushing specialist in the 3-4, like the Packers did when they hired Kevin Greene as their LB coach (although personally I’d like to hire Greene as our DC).

3) I agree that Chan is overworking himself. He needs a real OC, and I’d love to see a guy like Norv Turner or Todd Haley in that spot. neither make very good HC’s but they are both great OC’s that stretch the field both horizontally and vertically. but seeing that Haley fired Gailey in KC, I highly doubt that would happen. But you get my train of thought here. Chan needs someone with the same type of offensive vision as him that can share that play calling duties with him (because I doubt that Chan would ever give that up entirely).

What’s becoming clear to me is that Nix is a smart drafter and we do have the players needed for a solid foundation for a good football team. Spiller showed off the skills that we all hoped (and that some of us gave up) that he’d have. Using CJ as a scat back to compliment Freddy next year in the same way that CJ was used against the Dolphins could be scary fun to watch. On the D Aaron Williams is already showing that he’s a legit starter at CB and the heir apparent T-Mac’s starting spot next year. Justin Rogers is showing that he’ll be a good-to-great nickle/dime back. We have one of the best safety groups in the NFL with Byrd, Wilson and Searcy. And Dareus is a beast, plain and simple. Yes he’s making rookie mistakes now and then, but guess what? that’s because HE IS A ROOKIE!!!!

What we are missing is a good starting WR that can stretch the field opposite Stevie, another starting CB opposite Williams (T-Mac can still hold that spot but we need someone else that can step up because McKelvin has proven he’s not that guy and Florence shouldn’t be on the edge). More importantly we need a rusher!!! Oh god do we ever need a pass rusher. And we need a replacement for Fitzy, not necessarily a guy that can step in right away, but we need to find his replacement sooner rather than later.

The good news is that most of these issues can be handled this off season. Or at least 3 out of the 4 that I stated should be answered this offseason. If they are not, and if Edwards is not fired, then I’ll start losing my faith in Nix in buddy. It’s shaky right now, but it’s still there. But they definitely have a lot of work to do this offseason for my faith in them to stay.

I’m not at the point where I think Buddy and Chan should go because I really, really don’t want to start over again

This is so true. I think we’ve got enough of a track record to start forming solid opinions about Nix and Chan. I like a lot of what they’ve done. As much as I wanted Nix to draft a QB, I understand why they didn’t – the only guy I wish they didn’t pass on was Dalton in the second round – kid has game. At the same time, we are starting to get a real idea about their short comings – maybe there’s explanations for some of the questionable things they do (particularly Chan and his game planning and play calling).

In any event, we can’t even think about blowing up the FO and coaching staff yet. We have to let this play out for at least another season and give Nix a chance to build a solid foundation. If Chan is going to get canned, it can’t be until at least half way through next season.

But I agree with each one. Maybe Chan doesn’t need to stop calling the plays, but he most definitely needs to scrap the shotgun based, short passing game, and overall start calling better games. He’s been brutal of late.

If Nix gets fired, I wouldn’t be sad or upset at all…

… but where there’s smoke theirs fire.

Unless you have one of these: http://www.smokemachines.net/buy-smoke-machines.shtml

I actually believe the offense has enough talent to contend, with the exception of QB, and a speedy WR (with good hands).