Circling The Wagons: Your Buffalo Bills Newsletter

[Ron_Codpiece]

Hello, welcome to the inaugural edition of Circling the Wagons, the official newsletter for your Buffalo Bills. After a promising but disappointing season last year, the ownership changed, bringing in fresh blood and a new perspective on the roster and front office. Billionaire astronaut and Nobel Prize winner Ron Codpiece purchased the team and has vowed to keep it in Buffalo. "Ralph Wilson tried to found the team in Miami, but Buffalo has been part of NFL tradition for over 50 years, I am not looking to change that." he said. He added, "but we are looking to change the losing tradition in Buffalo. It's been over 20 years since The Comeback, it's time for some more positive Bills memories."

Bringing about this change began yesterday with the NFL Draft. The new regime inherited what they believe to be a talented roster. Sam Bradford and Bryce Petty will battle in preseason for the starting QB job. Petty has more upside, more raw potential. A stronger arm, but Bradford is a seasoned veteran and a more accurate passer. If the Bills can get any sort of run game, Bradford will likely be the better candidate. If not, maybe the Bills would rather have Petty's arm under center.

Beyond QB, the team is pretty set offensively. McCoy at RB, Watkins and Percival Harvin at WR. Clay is a stud TE, and the offensive line is solid. The offensive line will be under a lot of pressure to open some holes for the run game. On defense, the team is loaded up front with what the front office thinks are four studs on the defensive line. The team will run HC Rex Ryan's traditional 3-4 though, so someone will be coming in for relief duty, and some LB shuffling needs to be done in preseason. On the back end the team is young but talented.

To improve upon this, the team attempted to address a couple roster flaws in the draft. In the first round the team was disappointed when their original intended pick went a couple spots before 12th, but have since fell in love with CB Chris Mason. "He's incredibly fast, has great man coverage and press skills for a rookie. He'll only get smarter as he gets more play time". He's now penciled in as the Bills starting corner opposite star player Stephon Gilmore, as today the team released longtime starter Leodis McKelvin. "We wish Leodis all the best, but it was simply a business decision. We still have a few needs to get the roster set, and the previous regime left us pretty strapped for cap space ($50k). The few million we get from releasing him will bring in three or four other guys".

In the second round the Bills snagged another starter, RT Delbert Roberts. He's currently listed as the starter at RT, but this is apparently another roster battle that will be tested in the preseason. The team picked up a MLB in the 3rd round, who they will test at ROLB in the preseason. "Stark is a good young player with great speed at LB and good coverage skills. I see him playing all kinds of positions on the LB core".

After this is when the team began to reach a bit for players, showing the front offices lack of experience. They had two picks back to back in the 4th and selected a TE and a FB. The TE, Duante Randle, is a giant of a man at 6'6. He has good speed at TE, but is only a decent catcher and above average blocker.

Then you have BJ Parker. Sources tell us the team was ready to select one of two other fullbacks but Codpiece pulled the trigger on Parker. A disaster, Parker is slow, cannot pass block worth a damn, but is a pretty skilled pass catcher. "If we could somehow break down the FB and TE we drafted and create some sort of super player in a lab, that would be amazing" Codpiece told the AP, much to the horror of the NFLPA.

Fullback BJ Parker arrives for rookie minicamp​

To close the draft the team chose WR Marty James, who was a solid pick late in the 6th. With great speed and an amazing jump ability, he'll just need to work on some of his catching. The team only has four receivers, so he should see a lot of play time.

The FA process has begun and the team is looking to add a little more CB depth and for God's sake a real FB. Game one of the preseason is scheduled for today, we'll see how the new squad looks. Thanks for reading.

 

[Lyric4christ]

A disaster, Parker is slow, cannot pass block worth a damn, but is a pretty skilled pass catcher. "If we could somehow break down the FB and TE we drafted and create some sort of super player in a lab, that would be amazing" Codpiece told the AP, much to the horror of the NFLPA.

funny. i cut a fb yesterday so there should be at least one guy capable of running between the tackles for you. funny. you foolish...

 

[georgiafan]

Great writeup

 

[Ron_Codpiece]

BILLS START STRONG, HOLD ON FOR 31-21 WIN IN CLEVELAND​

The 1-1 Bills faced off with the 1-1 Browns today. It would be the first game outside of the division for Buffalo in the young season. They did not look good in either previous game, getting blanked by the Kellen Moore led Patriots (sorry, I just vomited in my mouth while writing that) and then squeaked by a Miami squad thanks mostly to Miami's own horrid play calling. But in their first user game they got a taste of how exciting the offense could be.

Buffalo won the toss and kicked. The Browns methodically drove down the field and got into long FG range before coming up 2 yards short on 3rd down. The long field goal was no where close, clearly lag was an issue. "It was a huge problem on both sides of the ball for both teams" the owner said after the game. It presented major communication problems for us later in the game, calls trying to shade guys one way or another were instead read as QB spy and blitz, resulting in guys streaking down field wide open".

But back to the game. Buffalo took over and it wasn't pretty at the start. Incomplete pass on first down, 5 yard loss on a second down sack. On 3rd down though Petty had all the time in the world and found TE Clay deep for a 38 yard strike. One play later Shady McCoy would rumble in from 23 yards out, 7-0 Bills.

Cleveland received and began trying to establish a run game. Mario Williams was having none of it though, and the Browns had a quick 3 and out. Buffalo was equally ineffective on offense, going 3 and out as well. After a 1 yard run and 6 yard drag route by Hawkins, Rice would get just enough on 3rd down to move the chains. A deep PA drop was costly on the next play though as Mario Williams ate Mettenberger up for a 12 yard loss. But a good screen call would move the chains. A big strike to the TE put the Browns in scoring range, and a deep comeback route off PA to Bowe would net them their first points, 7-7.

It did not take the Bills long to answer though, as after McCoy was stuffed for a one yard loss, Petty dialed up his own PA and found Harvin deeeeeep crossing with only one defender on him and Harvin toasted him for a 65+ yard TD, 14-7. Another Mario sack would begin the next Browns drive, followed by two errant passes that would force another punt. It would be short, giving the Bills the ball on their side of the field.

The run game continued to be weak and ineffective, gaining one or two yards here, losing one or two yards there. The passing game was able to dink and dunk down the field and at least give the offense short to go situations. Inside the red zone the run game opened up a bit more and the Bills eventually had it first and goal on the three. A quick pass to Clay on a post route singled up in man coverage would give the team a 21-7 lead at the half.

Bad offense and some good defense would result in multiple punts by each team to start the second half. It wouldn't be until 3 minutes remained in the third quarter before more points were scored, by Buffalo, on 2nd and 7 in the redzone via rookie WR James on an out route, 28-7. Cleveland would answer though, thanks in part to a PI call that gave them the ball on the 3. Mettenberger would run it in on a QB sneak to cut the lead to 14. Both teams would punt, and then the Bills would get a big play on 2nd and 2 around midfield on a PA pass to Clay crossing the field which got them inside the redzone. The Browns would make a big goalline stand and force the short FG, 31-14.

The Browns would go into no huddle mode down 17 with under 3 minutes left. They faced multiple 3rd and 10's and even a 4th and 10 but continued to convert and eventually scored another TD to cut it to 10. The Bills wanted to get in a position to run clock, and McCoy would bust a 71 yard TD run, but it was called back by a flag thrown... 2 seconds after McCoy was already long gone. Oh well. Facing 1st and 20 the Bills look to run clock. On 3rd down Petty sees Woods on a corner route and thinks he can squeeze it in but Joe Haden thinks otherwise and snatches it out of the air, giving the Browns the ball inside the 40 looking to make it even closer.

They would drive it inside the 20, and then thanks to a defensive holding call, inside the 15. Hughes would sack Mettenchops for a short loss, bringing up 3rd and 13. Browns would no huddle after the sack, but at the snap, Hughes would shrug off the lineman blocking him and come charging towards Mettenberger, forcing him to panic and scramble deep right, throwing off his back foot on a fade to TE Reggie Jackson. The throw was off target though, and Gilmore picked it off to seal the win for the Bills. GG.

Petty finished 11/18 for over 260 yards with 3 touchdowns and the 1 INT. A much better showing than the two CPU games. McCoy had an average day on the ground, a couple longer runs really skewed his average and made it better than it was. Mario Williams continues to be a force on the line, alongside Dareus. Shoring up some poor LB play will go a long way towards making the defense better. Buffalo has a bye week before welcoming the Steelers in week five.

 

[mycaddy]

nice and I was laughing at billionaire nobel prize winner Nice write up

 

[5StarTA]

Good stuff man! Was a fun game as well!