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2013 Buffalo Bills: which players are under the most pressure?

2013-05-20T13:31:09Z

As we discussed right after the 2013 NFL Draft concluded, the Buffalo Bills are in a situation where many young players at key positions will be under pressure to perform at a high level if the team is going to contend this fall. I thought that debating which of the many players on that list is under the most pressure this season would be a good way to shake off the cobwebs of a long weekend.

The easy answer here, of course, is rookie quarterback EJ Manuel. It's not even really debatable that he's under the most pressure to perform over the long haul, but the question contains the words "this fall" - and as Manuel may not even be the starting quarterback (right away), it brings other candidates into the conversation. Use the comments section below to pick the player that you think could make or break the Bills' playoff chances in 2013.

I'll start the conversation off by saying that I don't think it's Manuel; I believe Marcell Dareus is under the most pressure to perform at a high level this season. He's entering his third year at the NFL level, which is a time when many picks are expected to blossom into stars. He's also the only player within the top seven picks of the 2011 NFL Draft that has yet to make a Pro Bowl appearance; Cam Newton, Von Miller, A.J. Green, Patrick Peterson, Julio Jones and Aldon Smith are all considered elite young players in the league, while Dareus still toils in anonymity.

Most importantly, Dareus looks like the player that will be counted on to anchor a run defense that hasn't finished in the Top 20 in league rankings for eight consecutive seasons. The last time that happened was in 2004, when the team made a playoff push under Mike Mularkey and held opponents to 100.2 rushing yards per game, the seventh-best average in the league. Since then, they haven't ranked higher than No. 22 or allowed fewer than 121.6 rushing yards per game in a given season; in the two years Dareus has been on the team, the Bills have allowed an abysmal 142.4 rushing yards per contest. They'll struggle to contend if they can't make huge gains in defending the run, and that process starts with Dareus elevating his level of play.

But that's just my opinion. What's yours?

Buffalo Bills news, 5/20: new offense "easier than Florida State's" per EJ Manuel

2013-05-20T10:45:54Z

WGR 550 SportsRadio - What Should Bills GM Doug Whaley Do Next?

Jairus Byrd, a veteran cornerback, and Eric Wood top the list for Howard Simon.

Manuel says Buffalo’s offense is easier than Florida State’s | ProFootballTalk

"The funny thing is it’s easier to learn than the offense I had at Florida State," the 16th overall pick in the draft said, via ESPN.com. "It’s a true West Coast-type progression offense. That’s really what I wanted when I was coming through the pre-draft process. I wanted something that I could just go in and say 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, check it down and run it. That’s it, it’s that simple. I love it. . . ."

Manuel needs to be careful with talk like this. If he loses out on the job or looks bad in the opening few games, this will be brought to his attention. "I thought it was easy to learn, bud." It also must be noted that while the offense might be easier to learn, reading defenses in real-time will be more difficult.

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GBSHOF - Buffalo Sports - A Bittersweet History - YouTube
"In conjunction with our event at the Buffalo History Museum on May 17, 2013, I prepared this video on Buffalo Sports history. Many of the pictures come from the lens of Robert L. Smith the greatest photographer in Buffalo sports history."

Jerry Hughes eager to make impact - BuffaloBills.com
"The 24 year-old says he feels like the new kid at school. That certainly seems to be the case right now, as Hughes took most of his reps Tuesday in organized team activities with the second team as he becomes more acquainted with the new setting."

Mario Williams lawsuit saga already bad, getting worse - Press Coverage | The Buffalo News
Erin Marzouki's attorney speaks to why she would release these text messages now, and explains how his client has the case won "five different ways."

Poll: Buffalo Bills' rookie impact - AFC East Blog - ESPN
Robert Woods takes a commanding 55 percent of the poll, with Manuel nabbing 25 percent.

Buffalo Bills, Robert Woods agree to four-year deal, per report

2013-05-19T22:20:41Z

ESPN's James Walker is reporting, citing a source, that the Buffalo Bills and wide receiver Robert Woods have agreed to a four-year rookie contract. Woods has yet to sign anything, as he's been in Los Angeles for the past few days at the NFLPA Rookie Premiere along with new teammates E.J. Manuel and Marquise Goodwin.

Woods, a second-round pick in this past April's 2013 NFL Draft, will sign a contract valued very similarly to last year's No. 41 overall pick, Bills left tackle Cordy Glenn. His was a four-year, $4.865 million contract with $2.92 million guaranteed. Of note on that contract: Glenn received a $1.978 million signing bonus, and his base salaries in 2012 and 2013 were fully guaranteed.

The Bills have OTA practices scheduled for Monday, Tuesday and Thursday this coming week, so if Walker's source is correct, we're likely to hear about the signing in an official capacity in the very near future. When it goes down, seven of the Bills' eight draft picks will be under contract, leaving just two more contracts for the team to work out over the next two months: Manuel's, and Jairus Byrd's.

Buffalo Bills news, 5/19: the trials of being a general manager

2013-05-19T12:53:59Z

Inside the NFL: For success, Whaley needs to step it up - The Buffalo News

Mark Gaughan discusses what it takes to be a good general manager. Then he asks the question: "Is Whaley up to all that?"

Wiedmer: Nix picks right time to cut back | timesfreepress.com

Buddy Nix talks about his decision to retire with his hometown paper. He mentions his wife by name, saying he would spend up to six weeks apart from her.

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Bills-Patriots home opener sold out - BuffaloBills.com
"The Bills-Patriots game slated for Sept. 8 at Ralph Wilson stadium sold out during Saturday's season ticket holder individual-game early access period."

A crack in the old-boys network - The Buffalo News
"We can pretend it doesn’t matter to have a black GM in a mythical "post-racial America." But it does matter. It surely matters to people in Buffalo’s black community, who have watched white executives mismanage the team for more than a decade and waited since the brief James Harris experiment in the late 1960s for another black quarterback."

Bucky & Sully Show: Nix's legacy, Whaley's vision - Press Coverage | The Buffalo News
"News Sports Columnists Bucky Gleason and Jerry Sullivan talk Buffalo football during Friday morning during their weekly live show. Watch highlights below."

Quarterback gurus in vogue - The Buffalo News
"EJ Manuel had one clear goal in mind as he started his preparations for the 2013 NFL Draft. He believed he was the best quarterback available, and very much wanted to be the first one selected. To get there, Manuel did what so many of the elite quarterbacks at every level of the sport – high school, college and the pros – now do, and employed his own positional coach."

Should Bills worry about Mario Williams? - AFC East Blog - ESPN
"This is a tough thing for Williams to go through, especially when details of his personal life are being released to the public. Maybe the Bills should have a brief talk with him just to make sure everything is kosher. The Bills are counting on Williams heavily this year, and he needs to be sound physically and mentally."

Buffalo Bills' rookies can turn around misfortune - ESPN
"If everything falls into place, the Bills could have a franchise quarterback, a starting linebacker, at least two contributing receivers and a kicker from one draft class. Rarely does everything go according to plan in the NFL, but the Bills appear to have more hits than misses in this draft, which was not always the case for this struggling franchise."

Mario Williams is now licensed peace officer in Texas | FOX 26 | MyFoxHouston
"Buffalo Bills defensive end Mario Williams graduated from the Lone Star College Law Enforcement Academy in Houston on Friday. "He is now a licensed peace officer in the state of Texas," said Larry Stewart, one of Williams' instructors at Lone Star College, in an interview with FOX 26 Sports."

Bills vs. Patriots NFL Week 1 game is sold out already

2013-05-18T14:52:54Z

The new-look Buffalo Bills are scheduled to host the New England Patriots in each team's 2013 regular season opener in 113 days. Ralph Wilson Stadium has already sold out for that contest, per team president and CEO Russ Brandon.

Ralph Wilson Stadium will be electric on Sept. 8. #Bills #Patriots sold out!
— Russ Brandon (@RussBrandon) May 18, 2013

By way of comparison, on May 20, 2012 - in the wake of the massive free agent signing of Mario Williams - the Bills announced that the team's first two home games, against Kansas City and New England, had sold out.

As was widely discussed when the Bills 2013 schedule was released a month ago today, three of the team's first four games of the season will take place at Ralph Wilson Stadium, while just one game (December 22 against Miami) will be played at home after Thanksgiving. As a result, we're likely to hear about many more Bills sellouts this season, particularly if the team is competitive early and/or EJ Manuel makes it onto the field at some point.

Buffalo ended its home losing streak to New England in 2011 with a 34-31 victory, but were blown out last year by a final score of 52-28.

As a "bridge" GM, Buffalo Bills' Buddy Nix was exemplary

2013-05-18T14:30:02Z

Ever since Buddy Nix stepped down from his post as general manager of the Buffalo Bills earlier this week, I've felt compelled to write an appreciation of his time spent on the job over the last three-plus years. It was, however, difficult to know where to begin, given that his run in the position was relatively short-lived.

The full story of the yield of Nix's four off-seasons in charge - which featured free agent signings major and minor, waiver wire claims significant and run-of-the-mill, and four different draft classes that are still unproven nearly across the board - has yet to be told. Buffalo certainly did not develop into a contender on his watch, going 16-32 over the past three seasons. His first head coaching hire, Chan Gailey, had the lowest winning percentage of any of the seven different Bills head coaches since Hank Bullough headed up the team in the mid-1980s, when your humble narrator was born. The subject of how much Nix did or didn't improve the talent on the roster is thoroughly debatable.

Yet in my two decades of Bills fandom and more than a half-decade of writing about the team for SB Nation, Nix was by far my favorite member of the organization to cover and follow, and that's doubly true when it came to personnel men. In a business positively riddled with executives that are guarded to the point of inanity, Nix was always a charismatic interview, quick to laugh and remarkably straightforward - even in what he referred to as lying season. New GM Doug Whaley admitted in an interview with WGR 550 on Thursday that he won't be able to replicate Nix's success with one-liners.

His candor, relative to what is the norm for a man in his position, was something to appreciate - but it also doesn't define his legacy. What I'll appreciate most about Nix's run as GM has little to do with players or interviews, and everything to do with the concept of a bridge.

We talk about "bridge quarterbacks" all the time. Ryan Fitzpatrick - who will rate as one of Nix's bigger miscalculations, by the way - was supposed to be a bridge between the terrible quarterbacks of yesteryear and whichever franchise quarterback Nix would select. Now that role falls to Kevin Kolb, who may be asked to hold the fort until EJ Manuel is ready. Nix was a "bridge GM," in my opinion - one that filled a vital role in bringing credibility back to an organization that had very little when his job began.

When Nix took over the GM duties on December 31, 2009, the Bills' front office structure had been formless for more than two years. The previous GM, Hall of Fame head coach Marv Levy, had stepped down in 2007, leaving the team without a final decision-making authority on personnel matters. Instead, the team employed a "consensus" approach - instilled by Levy - and left the likes of Tom Modrak, John Guy and Dick Jauron to make personnel decisions between the three of them. The team was desperate for a more traditional power structure after Jauron's dismissal, and Nix was hand-picked by team owner Ralph Wilson to build it.

Nix delivered in a calculated manner. With the help of CEO (now president) Russ Brandon, Nix lured Whaley from Pittsburgh to be his Assistant GM. He re-tooled the scouting department, fired Guy and Modrak, and brought in his own men (Chuck Cook and Tom Gibbons) to run the pro and college scouting departments. With Nix and his new personnel department came a sense of process, of regulation that hadn't existed in several years.

Now, he takes a back seat as Whaley - who has already made front office tweaks of his own with the hiring of player personnel director Jim Minos and college scouting director Kelvin Fisher - takes the reins of a franchise with an established power structure, well-defined player evaluation processes and, most importantly, exponentially more respect around the league than when Nix inherited the team.

Put another way, Nix restored sanity to a football operation that had spun out of control late in the Tom Donahoe era and throughout Levy's tenure. Just as a bridge quarterback steadies that position in advance of the future, Nix did the same for the Bills as a franchise until Whaley was ready. That may not be enough for Bills fans to remember Nix's tenure as GM fondly, but it is for me.

Here's to hoping that Buddy Nix was a bridge between a meandering past and the future the Bills, their fans and the city of Buffalo deserve.

Gil Brandt: Bills' Nathaniel Hackett is "future head coaching candidate"

2013-05-18T14:00:06Z

The Buffalo Bills hired a 33-year-old offensive coordinator this offseason, raising eyebrows within the fan base. In league circles, Nathaniel Hackett is well-respected - and you can put Gil Brandt at the front of the line.

"I've known Bills offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett since he was about 8 years old, when his father, Paul, was a coach for the Cowboys," writes the former Dallas personnel man. "I think he's a very knowledgeable person - someone who has the look of a future head-coaching candidate - so I trust his opinion."

Brandt was referring to Hackett's opinion of EJ Manuel in the article, posted earlier this week at NFL.com. Paul Hackett was the passing game coordinator for the Cowboys from 1986 to 1988. Both left the team when Jerry Jones became the owner.

Buffalo hasn't lost a coordinator to an NFL head coaching job since Ted Marchibroda in 1992. Marchibroda had previously coached the Baltimore Colts in the 1970s, and was the offensive coordinator for three seasons before heading to the Indianapolis Colts. Two defensive coordinators - Wade Phillips and Perry Fewell - were promoted from within to the head job, with Phillips reaching that level again in the years since. Former offensive coordinator Steve Fairchild also left the Bills at the end of the 2007 season to become the head coach at Colorado State.

Might Hackett be the next coordinator to bolt? At the very least, it's telling that the rhetoric has already begun.

Buffalo Bills news, 5/18: team could add veteran cornerback to youthful roster

2013-05-18T12:12:44Z

Inside The Bills | Fan Friday 5-17

Chris Brown defends the Bills' offensive line, thinks cornerback is the most likely place for a veteran addition, and discusses Brad Smith's role as a receiver, Brandon Moore and Keith Pough.

Whaley preaching hard work, accountability - BuffaloBills.com

"It’s not about me," said Whaley. "It’s about us and this organization. From Russ (Brandon) instilling in this organization that this is a shared common goal to put this organization back to where it’s supposed to be, us competing consistently for championships, I buy into it. That’s my philosophy and that’s why we will all work well together."

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Inside The Bills | Whaley on EJ’s chances to start
"Time will tell," said Whaley. "He does have the work ethic and the leadership qualities that he’ll have a chance. But we believe competition brings out the best in everybody. Between him, Kevin Kolb, Tarvaris Jackson, even Jeff Tuel, we’re excited to see who comes out on top of that position battle."

Mario Williams: 'I'm too strong for ridicule and childish extremes' - Press Coverage | The Buffalo News
"Mario Williams isn't much of a tweeter, but the Buffalo Bills edge-rusher posted messages tonight seemingly in response to the allegations set forth in a Houston Chronicle article."

Eight in the Box: Returning from injury - AFC East Blog - ESPN
Mark Anderson's return from injury will be a big story this off-season.

EJ Manuel, Geno Smith among criticized rookies primed to shine - NFL.com
Glowing words for EJ Manuel and Nathaniel Hackett from Gil Brandt.

Bills’ Mt. Rushmore could get crowded | ProFootballTalk
Who should be on the Bills' Mount Rushmore? Go tell PFT.

Whaley takes his turn in long history of Bills GMs - Olean Times Herald
Chuck Pollack likes that the Bills hired another football guy to run their operations after watching businessmen and contract-writers get the job back in the day.

IDP Bets for Breakout - Nigel Bradham | ProFootballFocus.com
"Mike Woellert continues his IDP 'Bets for Breakout' series with a look at Bills ILB Nigel Bradham."