Why Fix The Bills' Defensive Line First?

Well done, I enjoyed this.

To me the Steelers are the model we are emulating. Their front 7 is consistently good and they take the stop the run first approach. They draft and develop many of these guys using meat and potatoes picks. Over the last 20 years they’ve had their ups and downs on offense and the QB position (pre Big Ben), but they were almost always relevant because of their defense.

Great read. Your posts are always so reassuring!

You build your team through the O and D lines. And a great QB of course makes it all the better. Brett Favre and Peyton Manning have proven that they can make their receivers but their LINES make them. Its proven, the Colts are doing everything they possible can to keep Manning upright by drafting O-Lineman. I have been so frustrated watching our Bills keep drafting RB’s with our first round picks. I can finally say I really loved this draft. Whether this works for us or not is still a big ’if" like it is every year, but at least we went and addressed positions in need and that are very valuable positions. Good job to Nix this draft. My only complaint is our total lack to address the O-tackle spot for years now. And it is frustrating to hear Gailey say….“we lack depth at Tackle” uhhh duh! But other than that, I love our picks this year and im looking forward to see if our D improves

let me say, a tremendous job! Well done.

Not surprisingly, I am one of the one’s who takes issue with Buddy’s approach. It’s true when you say,

There are arguments both ways

And for me “both ways” is the key. There needs to be a balance. I disagree with “all D” these 2 years and we’ll work on the “O” later. I understand your point and you may be right, but, you look historically at franchises who have “rebuilt” and I’m hard pressed to find one that did one side of the ball almost exclusively and went back and did the other 2 years later.
It fits Buddy’s “in your face”, FU demeanor, but, is it an effective plan? Time will tell. Last year certainly wasn’t a step in the right direction and, yes, I get the “give it time” mantra.
I frankly wouldn’t have an issue with 5 years IF the approach was balanced. By the time you get around to the “O” your defensive stars will be URFA! This is the NFL not wack-a-mole.

if it is necessarily a conscious plan to address d-line before the other positions because that’s how the front office believes a team should be re-built or because of the fact that we had a roster devoid of 3-4 linemen and Jauron and co. spent a lot of picks on DB’s.

I think this year, they really didn’t have much choice but to pick a defensive player (Peterson, Miller, and Dareus as far as I’m concerned, and Miller was gone) unless they wanted to reach for an offensive player. I think it was more necessity than anything else that has caused the FO to go after d-line players. We’ll have to wait and see how Dareus and Troup play this year, but knowing what we know so far we still don’t have a true 3-4 NT on this team (unless Troup proves otherwise and/or Dareus fits in there somehow).

Not that I’m disagreeing with the philosophy. I think we should’ve been rebuilding both lines, not just the D-line. I’m still very lost as to what they are planning on doing about the dire need on the o-line for quality depth – especially because we haven’t exactly been injury-free. Either of those tackles go down and Chan will have to dig deep to come up with schemes that put touchdowns on the board.

I still think Buddy has made some mistakes — there were a couple of good OT prospects avilable in FA that he did not go after as aggressively as one might wish, for example — but J2 is absolutely right that the effort to rebuild the d-line has been skillfully done and was absolutely necessary. Everything J2 says makes excellent sense.

Good read, and refreshing to see good and positive points about what the front offices visions are for this franchise. I see it the same way. and even if some of these picks don’t work, I like to be optimistic more than I like to be miserable.

 Another thing, and I don’t mean to get off topic, and it is way too early to bring up, but I think we will be drafting Oline heavy next year if the guys we have on the Oline fail this year.

I think that guy is going to be good. We just need a couple of o-tackles.

That pretty much sums up the Jauron era: accumulating DBs while mostly ignoring the run.

One thing to point out too:

While the Bills could try to do a little bit of both at the same time, it makes sense to me to fix defense as a whole first.

A good defense can keep you in games when your offense isn’t clicking. More of a basketball law, but it applies to football and most sports in general.

1) The Jets/Pats ran against us because we were often times way behind in the game therefore negating any reason to pass against us. Like you said running the ball takes time off of the clock and reduces the risk of turnovers.

The key thing is though, the Jets/Pats were not running the ball to win the game, they were running the ball to end the game because the game had basically already been won.

2) Many many studies have shown that passer rating differential is one of the most important stats to determine how good a team is. Ability to run the ball / stop the run is not nearly as important

3) Running the ball to control the clock and therefore limit possessions is not a good strategy to be done by a team that theoretically has a talent advantage. The more possessions there are, the more chances that talent advantage has a chance to show itself. The only time limiting possessions makes sense is when you are already in the lead and want to limit the amount of time the other team has to comeback.

I guess my major point is that you do not run the ball to get ahead, you pass the ball to get ahead and then you run the ball to stay ahead.

They played against a weak Buffalo defense 2 times a year. I agree, the defense had t be taken care of first. Not doing so would be madness.

ive had similar thoughts to these (particularly on the troup/carrington hard work and development thing), but i havent articulated them nearly this well. rec’d

First I will echo everyone else’s sentiments that this was a nice post.

I think it was an interesting angle that you took regarding the time it takes for a D-lineman to develop versus an O-lineman. If that premise is true (I’m not sure I buy that), then I guess Buddy is trying to setup a situation where the DL and OL gel at about the same time in our rebuild (which would be next year or the year after). I guess we will know if that’s his plan if he takes an OT or two higher than round 4 next year.

Good post. One could argue the offensive line was the first to start the rebuilding, with the drafting of Wood (#1 pick) and Levitre (#2 pick) under Jauron. The OT’s have not been addressed, but the interior line was improved somewhat when Nix arrived.

but if you cannot stop the run, passing is SUPER EASY…….

because you have great 2nd and 3rd down options………

a team that faces 2nd and long and 3rd and long struggles to
pass…..

a team that cannot get off the field, because they cannot stop
the run, well…….

last year, and previous yrs, is all we need to know…..

and in the 4th quarter, when the game is on the line, and you need
to get the ball back, but your defense cannot stop the run………

it is all over….

as for pass rush, a great run stopping team will have a good pass
rush precisely because they can play better pass defense because
they get teams into 2 and 3rd and long situations……..

i have no problem with the bills loading troup, williams, dareus,
edwards, kelsay on the line (5) with merriman coming from the
outside (6)…..

this defense is going to surprise alot of people this yr…..

hopefully the offense will get on the field more, with better field
position, and help the defense stay rested as well

Ravens: Rough night for tackles raises questions
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Posted: Saturday, August 13, 2011 12:15 am
By Aaron Wilson, Times Staff Writer | 0 comments
OWINGS MILLS — The Baltimore Ravens’ suspect offensive line resembled a group of teachers trying in vain to prevent children from bolting into the schoolyard for recess.
Bullied, bull-rushed and befuddled, the Ravens allowed six sacks and numerous quarterback pressures during a 13-6 preseason loss to the Philadelphia Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field. It was a shaky performance that raised eyebrows around the NFL and prompted more speculation that the Ravens need to sign a veteran offensive tackle.
It’s a good thing that rookie quarterback Tyrod Taylor is the sturdy sort as he emerged with no injuries despite being sacked five times and getting drilled in the back late in the game.
There were numerous penalties, including an illegal formation call on left tackle Michael Oher that ended one drive.
Whether it was Oher, Oniel Cousins or rookie third-round draft pick Jah Reid, all three of the Ravens’ top offensive tackles struggled mightily.
“I definitely went through some growing pains out there,” said Reid, who’s competing with Cousins for the starting right tackle job. “I definitely have a lot of room to improve. I need to keep the gears in motion and come out this week just looking to get better. And that’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to watch the film and see my mistakes, my inconsistencies in my techniques that I need to work on.”
It was his professional debut, but Reid didn’t make any excuses for a performance that included a pair of false starts. At times, though, the 6-foot-7, 336-pounder held his own in single-blocking situations.
“It’s my first NFL game and there are going to be some jitters, but football is football,” Reid said. “Just because it’s my first game doesn’t excuse mistakes or having bad plays.”
In his second season at left tackle, Oher wasn’t expected to have this much trouble against Eagles defensive end Trent Cole, one of the faster pass rushers in the league.
Yet, Cole sacked quarterback Joe Flacco and decked running back Ray Rice for a loss of six yards with Oher missing those blocking assignments.
“I’ve got to get better from week to week,” Oher said. “You have to build on it and learn from it and go get better from week to week. We just have to get it down and be conscious of it and get off at the snap. The first preseason game, the second preseason game, you know where you are game by game by seeing different opponents.”
Oher got annoyed after the game when he drew criticism via his Twitter account.
“I’m glad I have skin like an armadillo,” Oher wrote.
The Ravens’ quarterbacks needed to have thick skin, too.
They were taking a beating out there.
Whether Cousins lined up at right tackle or left tackle, he had problems.
During one sequence, Eagles defensive end Darryl Tapp delivered a double-handed punch to Cousins’ chest, knocking him off balance.
Then, Tapp disengaged from the 6-foot-4, 325-pounder and dashed toward Taylor to pummel him to the ground.
“I felt like I did some things pretty good,” Cousins said. "I wanted to work on my hands. I’ve got heavy hands so I wanted to work on my technique with my hands. I thought my hands were overall better.
“I’m just going to try to improve and work on some little things. I’ll watch the tape with my coach and move on. They’ve got some good players. They’re pro football players. They get paid just like we get paid.”
If neither Cousins or Reid can get the job done at right tackle, the Ravens could shift right guard Marshal Yanda back to right tackle and look to acquire another guard.
Other than the penalty issue, which he acknowledged needs to be cleaned up, Ravens coach John Harbaugh didn’t seem alarmed by the offensive tackles’ difficulties.
“I think we did OK out there,” Harbaugh said with a straight face. “The pass protection was pretty good. A couple of the false starts were a problem, and that’s got to be corrected. I thought they did pretty well for themselves for their first time out there.”