When the Buffalo Bills selected C.J. Spiller with ninth pick in the 2010 NFL Draft this past April, he was perceived to be a luxury pick considering the Bills already had Fred Jackson and Marshawn Lynch in the backfield.  It was unclear then and still remains unclear now how the Bills plan to use all three backs and how they’ll distribute the workload.

Now, after both Jackson and Lynch suffered injuries in the Bills’ first preseason game last week against Washington, Spiller suddenly finds himself at the forefront of the Bills backfield.

Jackson will miss 4-6 weeks with a broken bone in his left hand after getting injuried on the Bills’ second play of the game last week against Washington.  Lynch will be lost for 3-4 weeks with a sprained ankle.  With Buffalo’s season opener against Miami less than four weeks away, it remains very much in doubt whether or not Jackon will be ready to go Sept. 12.  It appears Lynch’s timetable to return is a bit more promising compared to Jackson’s, however ankle injuries aren’t the fastest to heal from quickly and can easily be reaggrevated if not fully healed.

With the Bills suddenly thin backfield after just one preseason contest, Spiller inherits the starting reigns quicker than expected.  He, along with backups Chad Simpson and Joique Bell, will see rapidly increased workloads for the duration of the preseason.  Both reserve backs will have an excellent opportunity to lament roster spots.

In his first taste of NFL action, Spiller rushed for 16 yards on four carries, with the bulk of his rushing yards coming on an 11-yard run.  But, it was Simpson and Bell who outshined their fellow rookie.  Considered two of the few brightspots in the Bills’ 42-17 drubbing at the hands of Washington, Simpson rushed for a team-high 67 yards and helped set up the Bills’ first touchdown in the third quarter.  Bell registered 52 yards on five carries, capping his impressive night off with a 28-yard touchdown run in the early moments of the fourth quarter.

My initial reaction to the Bills and defensive end Aaron Schobel ending their nine year relationship last Thursday wasn’t one of shock or disappointment.   Essentially, it is what it is.

He spent nine seasons rushing the passer for the Bills, starting 107 straight games.  His 78 career sacks, second only in Bills history to Hall of Famer Bruce Smith.  Schobel led the Bills in sacks in eight of nine seasons.  Along with Smith, Schobel is the only other defensive player in Bills history with four seasons of 10 plus sacks.

But by the end of last season and as he began talking about his possible retirement shorty after the conclusion of 2009, I knew Schobel’s last game in a Bills uniform was the season finale victory against the Indianapolis Colts.  The writing was on the wall.  The Bills completed another miserable season and were facing the prospects of trying to rebuild back to respectability yet again.

From that vantage point, it didn’t make much sense to me that Schobel would return.  He’ll be 33 next month and he’s in the twilight of his playing days, and while he’s never gone public with demands or expressed his full displeasure with the organization these last nine years, I fully believe Schobel when he said he was relieved that the Bills decided to move forward without him.

Schobel never struck me as a guy who would walk into Buddy Nix’s office and demand to be traded or released instead of coming back to what could be another long, losing season in Buffalo.  Certainly in nine years, I’m guessing there was a time or two Schobel felt like demanding to head for the exits.  But that was never his way.  His mouth never did his talking; his play on the field did.

You won’t find me complaining about Schobel because there’s nothing for me to complain about.  He never made off the field headlines with strip club altercations, domestic disturbances or drug charges.  He was a very good player for the Bills, not a game changer or cornerstone, but a player you never questioned whether or not he was going to show up on Sundays.

For too many years during his tenure in Buffalo, he was the Bills’ only legitimate pass rushing threat.  There’s no denying that Bruce Smith will go down as the one of the best defensive players ever in Buffalo and the NFL.  Schobel came to the Bills at a time when Buffalo was looking for the slightest pass rusher who could even get to the quarterback, let alone rank second all time in history in sacks. But nine years later, now it’s the rest of the Bills’ roster looking at one another wondering who’s going to pick up the slack Schobel left behind.

Indeed, there were numerous things that Tom Donahoe did very wrong, but giving the devil his due, Donahoe got this one right.  Schobel was the second pick under the Tom Donahoe era and in a decade where the Bills have had way too many draft misses, Schobel turned out to be a hit.  Even if the teams he played for didn’t.

Schobel will probably be viewed as a good football player who played for a bad bunch of teams, and it’s hard to argue if that’s your opinion.  He witnessed only one winning season with the Bills in 2004 and he’s never tasted the playoffs.  From the Monday night debacles, rebuilding projects and losing seasons, Schobel’s play probably deserved much better than the outcomes he’s been around for.

He’s one of the few Bills who experienced the only victory they’ve had against the New England Patriots in 2003.  Ironically, as dreadfully brutal the Bills have been against the Patriots, Schobel’s 12 sacks against Tom Brady are the most by a defensive player in the NFL.  His only career touchdown came in last season’s opener at New England when Schobel picked off an attempted screen pass from Brady and returned it 26 yards for a touchdown.

Schobel’s best season in a  Bills uniform was in 2006 when he recorded a career-best 14 sacks, which was the third highest total that season.  He made his first Pro Bowl appearance and was rewarded with a lucrative 7-year contract worth $50.25 million shortly after the 2006 concluded.

Last season, Schobel returned to his consistent, playing form after a disastrous 2008 season in which he missed 11 games because of a Lisfranc foot injury.  He registered 10 sacks and forced three fumbles, and again proved to be the Bills’ most consistent and threatening pass rusher.

I still think Schobel has some football left in the playing tank, and my guess is that he’ll land with a team that has a chance to make the playoffs and beyond.  It’ll be weird not seeing No.94 on defense for the Bills, but for the best defensive player Buffalo has had for nearly 10 seasons, he deserves a chance to get a taste of what playoff football is like.

Best of luck to Aaron Schobel!

After using the 4-3 defense for nine years and seeing little results, the Buffalo Bills have decided to revert back to the defensive scheme that led them to four straight super bowl appearances in the early ’90’s under Marv Levy.  Wade Phillips, who succeeded Levy on the sidelines, used the same scheme from 1998 to 2000 and the Bills finished sixth, first and third in the NFL in defense.

Times have changed and unfortunately these aren’t the glory days for Buffalo anymore.  The Bills are working on five straight losing seasons, a decade long playoff drought and have turned over the front office and the roster again.  Unquestionably, the Bills are facing many challenges in 2010 and their conversion to the 3-4 defense stands to be one of their biggest ongoing storylines to watch.

Perhaps the biggest issue the Bills will encounter with their new 3-4 defense is a collection of players better suited to play in the 4-3 than in the 3-4.  Added to the defensive mix in the offseason were free agent defensive end Dwan Edwards and linebackers Andra Davis and Reggie Torbor, along with new defensive coordinator George Edwards.  Those additions will surely help aid in the transition process, but success on the defensive side of the ball rests largely on the remainder of the roster adjusts to the different and unfamiliar responsibilities.

Change for the better?

It would seem that the Bills are living proof of the old adage that defense wins championships.  In the past five seasons, the Bills have finished no higher than 22nd in defense, posting losing records all five years.  Ironically, the last time the Bills ranked in the top 10 in defense and had a winning season was 2004.  A direct correlations between defensive success and winning?  I think so.

By the end of last season, it became crystal clear that a change was badly needed on the defensive side of the ball.  Buffalo boasted the 2nd best defense against the pass in the NFL, but were especially embarrassing against the run.

The Bills ranked 30th in the league against the run, allowing 156.3 rushing yards per game.  One of the lowlight marks of the 2009 was the Bills sheer inability to stop the ground game of their division rival New York Jets.  In two games against the Jets, the Bills surrendered a staggering 567 yards rushing.

Recent history could suggest that the Bills’ switch to the 3-4 might lead to a better run defense.  A prime example can be found just a season ago.  The Green Bay Packers were the top team against the run last season, which was their first year in the 3-4 defense.

Nose tackle is key, OLBs endure toughest challenges

The coverages, nuances, terminology and responsibilities will be like night and day for the players, and it all starts with the man in the middle.

The nose tackle is the centerpiece of the 3-4 defense.  Your prototypical tackle needs to be quick off the snap and even faster at the point of attack because he’ll often encounter double, even possibly, triple teams of lineman.  Usually, your nose tackle is a mountain of a man (think Vince Wilfork, Kris Jenkins and Kevin Williams) but that doesn’t always have to be the case.  Dallas has had success with a smaller-type nose tackle, Pro Bowler Jay Ratliff.

In the offseason, the free agent cupboard was bare of nose tackles.  The likes of Casey Hampton and Vince Wilfork were kept off the market with lucrative long term contracts from Pittsburgh and New England respectively.  Buffalo flirted with the idea of adding Jimmy Kennedy, but he chose to re-sign with Minnesota.  That leaves the Bills with Kyle Williams and rookie Torell Troup, both smaller nose tackles.  Williams checks in at around 305 pounds and the Bills bypassed the mountainous Terrence Cody for the smaller, yet quicker Troup in April’s draft.

The Bills’ secondary won’t see many drastic changes, but there will be differences.  Under Dick Jauron, Buffalo played mostly zone in the Tampa-2 scheme, but now under Gailey and Edwards the Bills will play a lot more man-to-man coverage.  It will give the secondary opportunities to play closer to receivers and get a faster jump on the ball.  If the corners can eliminate the underneath routes and checkdowns, then in turn the pass rush is alotted more time to get after the quarterback who has dwindling options.

The outside linebackers face the biggest test and they’ll have to be the jack of all trades.  Aside from Torbor, the Bills’ collection of newly transformed outside linebackers have been their entire careers in the 4-3 defense, so this change will come as a culture shock.  They’ll be responsible to provide the primary pass rush, aid and support containing the run, and also dropping back into coverage against the pass.

Will it all come together?

The 2010 season promises to be an ongoing work in progress for Buffalo on defense.

It would be foolish to think there will be few growing pains and struggles along the way, particularly in the early portion of the season.  In their first six games of the season, the Bills will face four playoff teams from a year ago (Green Bay, New England, NY Jets and Baltimore) ; the Jets are the only team out of those four who the Bills will play at home.

Whether or not the Bills have the right personnel on defense to play in the 3-4 this season remains to be seen.  Admittedly, it could take a few seasons for Gailey and Edwards to completely makeover the defense to where it needs to be.  And for every success story of transitioning from the 4-3 to the 3-4, like Green Bay did a year ago, there is a Kansas City who struggled mightily all season.

Once the Bills strap on the pads and get rolling, we’ll have a better idea of where the defense is it, where it’s going and what’s to come.

The one area where the Buffalo Bills are stacked with talent is the running back position. They have last year’s star 1,000 yard rusher in Fred Jackson, 2008 Pro Bowler Marshawn Lynch and rookie C.J. Spiller. Heading into the 2010 season, many would believe that head coach Chan Gailey is going to have a field day with such weapons standing behind the Quarterback, but Matthew Berry of ESPN has put together some interesting stats on Coach Gailey’s past that would beg to differ:

The chart proves that Gailey isn’t a huge fan of splitting carries between running backs.  Although, I’m not sure that Gailey ever had two running backs on his roster who have both already proven themselves as capable to successfully handle the load, as well as a promising rookie.

Coach Gailey can either take all this talent and find a way to use their skills together out on the field, or he could have history repeat itself and pick one clear starter.  Doing the latter will turn the running back situation into one of the biggest training camp battles to watch out for.

The Date: Thursday, July 29th

The Place:  St. John’s Fisher College  in Pittsford, NY

The Storyline: Buffalo Bills begin 2010 Training Camp

With just over two weeks away, we’re about to embark on the Buffalo Bills 2010 NFL season.  They say that hope springs eternal, but I say that summer evokes optimism.  Whether you’re the reigning Super Bowl champion or you’re the team that had the first overall pick in the draft, in July we’re all looking through the same rose-colored glasses.  In July, everybody’s a Super Bowl hopeful.

But soon the infatuation of training camp wears off, and the real world NFL will come calling again.  How exactly these Bills will measure up in 2010 largely depends on how many questions they’re able to answer (or not answer) about themselves.

It’s fair to say that the majority of the football media aren’t enamoured with the Bills, their new regime, their offseason and their draft.  Whether right or wrong, whether you agree or not, the public perception of the Bills isn’t flattering.  And maybe in return, the Bills aren’t a flattering team , so this probably works to an extent in both ways.

If you’ve viewed any preseason power rankings or write ups, the Bills won’t be found on the first page with the usual suspects Indianapolis, New Orleans, Minnesota, New England and San Diego.  The Bills are placed near the bottom of the heap, some going as far as ranking the Bills as the worst team in the NFL.  I can remember mere days after the 2010 NFL Draft concluded that ESPN”s Todd McShay already had the Bills selecting No.1 overall in the 2011 draft, so that right there probably tells you all you need to know about the perception of Buffalo and what to expect in 2010.

But this is the world we live in.  The court of public opinion wields a lot of power and influence, and they’ve told us the Bills belong in the four-or-five-win-club along with fellow cellar dwellars in Cleveland, Oakland, Tampa Bay and Kansas City.

It’s very hard to use the phrase contender and Bills in the same breath.  The popular view is that the Bills have three quarterbacks, which suggests they don’t have any.  They’re converting to the 3-4 defense with still largely 4-3 player personnel and the tackle spots remain in flux and the Bills failed to address the position in the draft. If you go a step further, Las Vegas has told us that the Bills are 20 to 1 odds to win the AFC East and 100 to 1 odds to win the Super Bowl; St. Louis and Tampa Bay are also 100 to 1 odds.

The tasks for the Bills in 2010 won’t be for weak and weary, and much like the draft philosphy, the Bills will plug holes in 2010 but it’s foolish to think all their problems are solveable in one season.  But they have to start somewhere.

They need to find out once and for all if Trent Edwards fits into their plans going forward as a quarterback, or whether Brian Brohm is capable of being a starter in the NFL.  They must find a way to conquer their New Englad demons; the Bills have lost 13 straight games to the Patriots.  The Bills’ consecutive losing seasons stands at five, while their playoff drought is at 10 years and counting.

Sure, it’s only July and there’s plenty of hope in the air.  The pigskin, the pads and the helmets are about to reappear.  But in a couple weeks, simply hoping won’t be good enough.  When camps breaks, and July turns into August and August morphs into September, the Bills will need  wins to accomplish their tasks and elevate out of the AFC basement.