Yesterday, we spent a little bit of time discussing just how quickly Buddy Nix and Chan Gailey have overturned the Buffalo Bills' roster. In that time frame, the Bills have acquired (or re-signed) 61 of the 80 players currently on their roster, leaving just 19 holdovers from Dick Jauron's final team in Buffalo.
Things get even more eye-popping when examining the Bills' opening-day roster just a year ago. Does everyone remember the Bills' 15-10 loss to the Miami Dolphins on September 12, 2010, or has everyone sufficiently blocked that game from being properly recalled?
Take a look at last year's opening-day roster after the jump. Many of the changes to that depth chart took place during a tumultuous 4-12 season last year, and many more have obviously occurred since the end of the lockout. We'll leave it up to you to decide if the team has improved on paper.
| Pos. | # | Starter | # | Backup | # | Reserve |
| WR | 13 | Steve Johnson | 86 | David Nelson* | ||
| LT | 77 | Demetrius Bell | 69 | Jamon Meredith | 71 | Ed Wang* |
| LG | 67 | Andy Levitre | 68 | Cordaro Howard | ||
| C | 63 | Geoff Hangartner | ||||
| RG | 70 | Eric Wood | 60 | Kraig Urbik | ||
| RT | 74 | Cornell Green | ||||
| TE | 88 | Jonathan Stupar | 80 | David Martin | ||
| WR | 83 | Lee Evans | 11 | Roscoe Parrish | 19 | Donald Jones* |
| QB | 5 | Trent Edwards | 14 | Ryan Fitzpatrick | 4 | Brian Brohm |
| RB | 21 | C.J. Spiller* | 22 | Fred Jackson | 23 | Marshawn Lynch |
| FB | 38 | Corey McIntyre | ||||
| LE | 99 | Marcus Stroud | 92 | Alex Carrington* | ||
| NT | 95 | Kyle Williams | 96 | Torell Troup* | ||
| RE | 98 | Dwan Edwards | 91 | Spencer Johnson | 97 | John McCargo |
| SLB | 90 | Chris Kelsay | 93 | Chris Ellis | ||
| MLB | 54 | Andra Davis | 50 | Akin Ayodele | ||
| WLB | 51 | Paul Posluszny | 56 | Keith Ellison | 52 | Arthur Moats* |
| JLB | 53 | Reggie Torbor | 58 | Aaron Maybin | 59 | Antonio Coleman* |
| LCB | 24 | Terrence McGee | 21 | Leodis McKelvin | 26 | Ashton Youboty |
| SS | 20 | Donte Whitner | 43 | Bryan Scott | ||
| FS | 31 | Jairus Byrd | 37 | George Wilson | 47 | Cary Harris |
| RCB | 29 | Drayton Florence | 27 | Reggie Corner | ||
| K | 9 | Rian Lindell | ||||
| P | 8 | Brian Moorman | ||||
| LS | 65 | Garrison Sanborn |
Player names in bold above are, as you may have already surmised, players that are no longer with the organization (the exception being Torbor, who is currently on IR for a second straight year). If you counted up an astonishing 18 names - over a third of the opening-day roster - that is no longer with Buffalo, you count as accurately as we do.
Of those 18 players, six of them were removed from the team during the 2010 season. Marshawn Lynch was traded to Seattle for picks, one of which has already turned into tackle Chris Hairston. Trent Edwards, Cornell Green, Jamon Meredith, Chris Ellis and Cary Harris were all released, for varying reasons. The remaining dozen names departed through various means since the 2010 season concluded.
As we said yesterday: my, how things can change in one year.