I’m sorry St. Louis Rams fans, your team is not the worst in the league. The Buffalo Bills took that spot when the Browns beat them 6-3 on Sunday. Derek Anderson went 2-17 for 23 yards and still managed to beat the Bills. Why are the Bills so bad? We look at the signings and the overall management of this team to find out what went wrong.
Two seasons ago, the Bills was thought to have a coming out party against the Cowboys on Monday Night Football. They made Tony Romo look like Ryan Leaf and the team looked like a team on the rise. Buffalo went out and signed some free-agents and wasted some draft picks since then. Dick Jauron hasn’t exactly gotten the most out of the talent either. Here are a list of some of the players on the team and why they haven’t lived up to their potential.
Trent Edwards – I don’t know why the weight of the franchise was ever on him. Didn’t anyone watch him at Stanford? He was only 10-20 as a starting quarterback and was injury-prone. He has kept up the injuries, but why draft this guy in the 3rd-round and tag him as the franchise quarterback? It was a horrible draft class for quarterbacks, you should just picked up Jeff Garcia and bought yourself a year and got a QB from the 2008 class.
Marcus Stroud – He was a beast in Jacksonville, but once he arrived in Buffalo, he was a shall of himself. He has done a decent job so far this year (27 tackles), but he is not the game-changer that you thought he was.
Marshawn Lynch – He had a nice year and a half with Buffalo, then some of the off-the-field problems started to happen. He’s still a nice back, but if he keeps it up, you’ll have to deal him. The Bills should probably try to get what they can for him this off-season why they can. If he gets in trouble again, it’s a bigger suspension and you’ll only get 20 cents on the dollar for him. Fred Jackson looks like a nice back, pay him and get rid of Lynch.
Terrell Owens – Really Buffalo? C’mon! You saw what he did to McNabb, Garcia, and Romo, right? He’s only useful when your team is winning. Buffalo couldn’t have expected to win the AFC East this year, so why even bother? I know you need to sell tickets or try to get Canada to all pinch in their maple leafs in and just buy the team, but this was just a publicity stunt. He’s going to have his worst professional year, he’ll latch on to some team next year and completely rip the Bills.
Josh Reed – This guy has the hands of Marvin Harrison, but probably the speed of Harrison Ford. He’s a very good possession receiver, why can’t you use him as a Wes Welker slot option? It seems like he could be a 60-70 catch guy in the right system. Buffalo is not the right system for him.
James Hardy – This guy should be your future at wide receiver. I’m not saying that just because he’s from my old stomping grounds of Fort Wayne. I watched him play at Indiana most weeks and he is a game-changer at that position. He took some of the best Big Ten secondaries to task. He has two touchdown receptions so far this season for Buffalo. The way things look, two might be enough to be the team lead for the season.
Jason Peters – You trade your starting left tackle to Philadelphia for a sixth-round pick? I know he gave up 11 1/2 sacks last year, but he’s better than anything you have. What is your thinking? Trent Edwards doesn’t need that much time to hand off to Marshawn Lynch? You sign T.O. and you leave your quarterback’s blind side vulnerable, a brilliant move there Buffalo.
Donte Whitner – He’s a great safety, but unfortunately he’s on a very bad defense. He has lived up to his potential, but he has to be counting the seasons left on his contract so he can get out of Buffalo.
Turk Schonert – You fired your offensive coordinator, Turk Schonert, right before the season begins. Was this a scape goat move by the higher up management or coach? You know the team is bad and you just need an excuse. “Hey, it’s not my fault we are losing, we had to fire the offensive coordinator right before the season.” That could usually buy you another year if your head coach wasn’t already on the hot seat. Oh yeah, you promote former back-up quarterback, Alex Van Pelt, as your offensive coordinator when you fired Schonert. He has only been out of the league for maybe three seasons, but now looks like a former offensive lineman. He probably gets winded just calling in plays to Edwards.
Dick Jauron – Finally, the head coach of the Buffalo Bills. I go against the common NFL fan laws and I am a fan of the Indianapolis Colts and Chicago Bears. I can usually get away with it, since they are in different conferences, but when they met in the Super Bowl, it was a rough one. Now to my point, I watch Jauron sink potentially great Chicago Bears teams into the ground. Some guys aren’t great coaches, they may look like one when the team’s talent surpasses the coach’s inabilities, but eventually Jauron gets hold of the team and just strangles it to death. I think after the third-straight season of going 7-9, the Bills would understand that they don’t have another Marv Levy as their head coach. I think Jauron needs to resign or the Bills should fire him. I don’t know who on their staff would step in, maybe defensive coordinator, Perry Fewell?
The Buffalo Bills has gone the entire decade of the 00’s without a single playoff appearance. The franchise used to be so revered and respected, but hasn’t had any success since Bill Polian left for Indianapolis. I used to like watching the Bills when Thurman Thomas, Andre Reed, and Cornelius Bennett made playing in Ralph Wilson stadium one of the toughest places to play. The team needs a complete overhaul in management and at a few main positions if they want to sniff the playoffs anytime soon. Could they possibly coax Jim Kelly out of retirement?
