Inside The Bills

Jets injury report

The Jets injury list is considerably longer than the Bills heading into Sunday’s game. New York’s defensive line had a couple of starters limited in practice Wednesday. Here’s the full list.

Did not practice
OL Dennis Landholt – right knee – OUT
TE Dustin Keller – hamstring
S Eric Smith – hip/knee

Limited in practice
RB Joe McKnight – hamstring
OL Brandon Moore – hip
LB Bryan Thomas – ankle
NT Sione Pouha – low back
DL Mike Devito – calf
LB Nick Bellore – shoulder

Full participation (coming off injury)
WR Chaz Schilens – ankle
WR Santonio Holmes – ribs
DB Ellis Lankster – quad
DB Laron Landry – heel
LB David Harris – ankle
DB Josh Bush – concussion

Stevie limited in practice

Stevie Johnson was a limited participant in practice as his groin had the Bills playing it safe Wednesday.

Johnson has not missed any time in the past three weeks, but still doesn’t call his groin 100 percent.

“Yeah, the groin is good, 90 something percent,” said Johnson. ”I only say 90 because no one is really 100 percent unless you haven’t been playing at all, you feel me, but I’m good.”

Johnson didn’t appear to be restricted in any way as he ran routes during the media viewing portion of practice. It sounds like the Bills are just going to be smart and not over tax their top receiver to ensure that his body holds up better throughout this season than last season.

Rex unsure Wildcat will slow Bills pass rush

Jets head coach Rex Ryan has insisted that they will use their version of the Wildcat package with Tim Tebow this Sunday against the Jets, despite not revealing any of it in the preseason. While Ryan is confident in the package with Tebow, he’s not sure it’s going to neutralize Buffalo’s pass rush.

“I don’t know about that,” Ryan said on a Wednesday conference call. ”With Super Mario over there, that’s gonna be tough. There’s no question. Clearly this team can really rush the passer. They added Mark Anderson as well, and the other guy too that I always think is underrated is Kyle Williams. We voted him to the Pro Bowl when he was healthy. I’m happy for him to see him back out there, but I wish he could have waited a week because he is a tremendous player. So that pass rush is definitely going to be tough.

“How the wildcat comes in? David Lee, I have so much respect for David Lee, I think he’s a tremendous quarterback coach and a football coach in general. He was with Tony (Sparano) and they put in the wildcat and brought the wildcat to the league. Clearly we know that Buffalo is going to see it and practice against it with Brad (Smith) there. But of course we’re gonna run some. We like Tim running that Wildcat, so we’ll see.”

Smith very limited

Bills QB/WR Brad Smith was a participant in practice Wednesday, but didn’t do a whole lot.

Dressed in his white receiver jersey, Smith caught passes in the warmup lines where receivers move at half speed. He then joined the quarterbacks for individual position drills, but did not attempt a pass. Suffice to say Smith was very limited in his return from a groin injury last week.

Head coach Chan Gailey said the plan is to work him in a little bit more each day this week to hopefully have him ready for Sunday.

Pears fully expected to play Sunday

Bills starting RT Erik Pears has missed most of the preseason with nagging groin problems, but he practiced Monday and is slated to practice in pads today. It’s left head coach Chan Gailey very confident that he’ll have him for Sunday’s season opener.

“I fully expect him to play Sunday,” said Gailey of Pears. ”I think that he’s progressed well. Today we’ll be in pads and we’ll find out even more today. I think as the week goes on he’ll either get stronger or weaker and that will tell us how much he’s going to play.”

Pears, who signed a three-year extension late last season, is a valuable veteran presence on Buffalo’s offensive line. Whether he’s fit enough to go 60-70 plays after missing the last two preseason games is an unknown at this point.

“He’s a really good player,” said Gailey. ”He was very good for us last year, did a lot good things. And you need your good players back. The more you can have experienced players on the field the better you are as a football team as long as they’re good enough and he is.”

Bills know what they’re in for with Jets

As we move into Week 1 the Jets become the focus, but they’ve been the focus of the Bills in practice since last week. A familiar division opponent the Bills know what they’re in for facing New York on the road Sunday.

“They create a lot of problems defensively because of their multiple blitz packages,” said head coach Chan Gailey. ”Their offense, they have added the (Tim) Tebow package so you have to spend time doing that. You do not know exactly what it is, you have an idea, but you do not know exactly what it is. So there are a lot of unknowns going into our first ball game. I think probably the things that we know the most about are their defense and their kicking game because they have the same people there.”

Buffalo is practicing later today (2 pm) to get a head start on the practice week. We’ll have full coverage on Buffalobills.com.

Report: Pats ink TE Shiancoe

The New England Patriots just added more talent to their already loaded tight end position.

According to multiple reports the Bills AFC East rival signed veteran free agent TE Visanthe Shiancoe. He visited with the club last week. The 32-year old is coming off a season in which he had the fewest receptions since 2007, his first of five seasons in Minnesota.

The speculation is that the club wanted some veteran depth at the position knowing how much the tight ends are featured in the Patriots’ offense and backup Daniel Fells has not participated much at all through the offseason and it’s believed he could have a serious injury that’s keeping him off the field.

Shiancoe’s best season was in 2009 when he had 56 catches for 566 yards and 11 touchdowns.

AFC East record must improve

As we pointed out in #18 on our Top 25 Questions until training camp series this weekend, a big reason Buffalo has not made the playoffs since 1999 is due in large part to their lack of success in the division. Since the Bills made the playoffs in 1999, only one other time have they posted a winning division record (2007) and only three times in those 12 years have they been .500 or better. Below is a look at the timeline.

Here is a list of Buffalo’s division records by year back to their last playoff season. In parentheses is their final overall record that season.

2011 – 1-5 (6-10)
2010 – 1-5 (4-12)
2009 – 2-4 (6-10)
2008 – 0-6 (7-9)
2007 – 4-2 (7-9)
2006 – 3-3 (7-9)
2005 – 2-4 (9-7)
2004 – 3-3 (9-7)
2003 – 2-4 (6-10)
2002 – 2-4 (8-8)
2001 – 1-7 (3-13)
2000 – 2-6 (8-8)
1999 – 6-2 (11-5) AFC Wild Card

Bills AFC East outlook

As we profiled in our feature story on Buffalobills.com today (Saturday) the Bills need to reverse the trend of performance in division games. After winning their first division game last season against New England, they dropped the rest of them. They also went 1-5 in the division in 2010. Here’s a look at how the division matchups shape up as the season unfolds.

The first division test comes quickly as they’re on the road to face the Jets in Week 1. It’s a chance to get a leg up right away on the Jets and the rest of the AFC East. The only issue here is the Bills won’t know exactly what the Jets have up their sleeve with respect to Tim Tebow, but there are two sides to that coin.

Buffalo then gets to host New England in Week 4 before having to face them again in Week 10. Knowing the Patriots will have two weeks to prepare for the second matchup coming off a bye, the Bills have to take the first meeting to help their chances of posting a winning record in the AFC East.

The Bills last three division games are arguably easier in terms of opponent and venue. They get the Dolphins at home, albeit off four days rest from the road game at New England (far from ideal) in a prime time game, and then travel to Miami in Week 16 before hosting the Jets in the season finale. It’ll be real interesting if Buffalo and New York are still fighting for playoff position in Week 17.

Herm picks Bills as AFC Wild Card

ESPN NFL analyst and former Chiefs and Jets head coach Herm Edwards was asked to pick his AFC Wild Card favorite and for him it came down to two teams, the Jets and the Bills.

Edwards picked the Bills to finish ahead of the Jets in the AFC East.

“This year in the offseason they did a great job of acquiring free agents,” said Edwards of Buffalo. “I’m talking about Mario Williams and Mark Anderson. That will allow them to get to the quarterback. This offense is a very productive offense. Fitzpatrick is more like a point guard in basketball, he distributes the football. They will battle the Jets in my opinion as a Wild Card team in this division. I think New England is still good enough to win the division. I think the Bills have a chance with their schedule to win nine games and maybe get into the playoffs.

“I think the Bills have an edge offensively in this sense, they’ve been together, the Jets have a new coordinator and a new system. They want to ground and pound and that’s fine, but you still have to be able to throw the football. The Bills can throw the ball. They put you in space, they run a lot of shotgun spread offense and have skill players that can catch and run. Their offense is a little ahead of the Jets offense right now.”

Ocho goes home to Miami

Released New England wide receiver Chad Ochocinco will remain in the division after signing with another Bills AFC East rival.

Ochocinco signed a one-year deal with Miami as reported by ESPN. The 34-year old joins a receiving corps that lacks much in the way of proven weapons outside of slot receiver Davone Bess.

Though there was speculation there’s no reason to believe the Bills had any interest in the veteran wideout. Bills GM Buddy Nix has stated more than once that they want players on their roster that are still on the ascent or peaking. He does not want to add players on the decline. Ochocinco is not the same player he was three to five years ago.

Moore not Tannehill at QB for Fins?

The Miami Dolphins drafted Ryan Tannehill eighth overall in last month’s NFL draft, but according to team owner Stephen Ross he’s expecting his veteran incumbent to start under center in 2012.

Ross told NFL.com at the league’s spring meetings in Atlanta that Moore will probably be the starter come this fall.

“I don’t think they’re going to rush (Ryan Tannehill) into anything,” Ross said. “He’s going to have to win the starting job. I think Matt Moore will probably be the starter, and I wish him the best.”

It’s not exactly a shocking development. Moore showed he was very capable at times, especially against Buffalo’s defense. Two of his top three passer rating performances in his 12 starts in 2011 came against the Bills with ratings of 133.3 and 122.3 in the two meetings with Buffalo. Those were only trumped by a 147.5 rating in a win against the Chiefs. Here are his combined stats against the Bills in 2011.

Record: 2-0
Passing: 24-40 (60%) – 377 yards – 5 TDs – O Ints
Yards per attempt: 9.43
Pass plays of 25 yards or more: 5
Rating: 130.9

In all likelihood the team will not throw Tannehill to the wolves in his rookie season unless the Dolphins season goes up in flames in terms of wins and losses. If and when the team shows it can’t contend expect to see the Texas A&M product on the field.

Bills hold best hand in AFC East

Taking a look at the picks held by the clubs in the AFC East it looks like the Bills and Dolphins are holding the best cards with Day 2 and Day 3 to play out while New England uncharacteristically is devoid of picks.

The Patriots have just two draft choices remaining in the entire draft. Both of them are in the second round. Pick 48 and 62. New England’s two moves up the board in round one to get Chandler Jones and Dont’a Hightower took away their other remaining picks.

The Jets and Bills have the most picks remaining of the AFC East clubs with nine apiece, but New York only has a pair in rounds 2-4. Buffalo has four. In fact six of the Jets’ remaining nine choices are in the 6th and 7th rounds, including four compensatories.

Miami has seven picks remaining, but five of them are in the top 150, which gives them very good value for Day 2 and Day 3. The Bills however, hold the most valuable cards with six of their remaining nine picks in the top 150.

Pats to move up?

Just about every team in the AFC East has now been rumored to be interested in moving up. Yesterday it was the Jets, this morning it was the Bills and now the Patriots, who could be looking to move up close to where the Bills are at 10.

According to NFL.com, New England is looking for the opportunity to move up to 12. Among the players the Patriots are rumored to be interested in are Alabama S Mark Barron, LSU DT Michael Brockers and DE Quinton Coples.

I wouldn’t be surprised if they take a chance on Coples. Bill Belichick has a way of getting players with attitudes or work ethic issues (see: Randy Moss).

No bye prior to Thurs. nighter

In recent years the NFL has often scheduled a bye week for teams playing in Thursday night games. But with the Thursday night schedule expanded to 13 games this season to run from Weeks 2 through 15 apparently not everyone could be accommodated and the Bills are one of the teams on the short end of the stick.

After playing on the road at New England in Week 10 (Sun. Nov. 11th) they have to travel home and get ready for their primetime home game against the Miami Dolphins four days later.

It’s bad enough they have to play two games in five days, but to make one of them a road game, and to make both games in the five-day span division games didn’t do the Bills any favors at all.

Weeks 4 thru 10 might say it all

The first three weeks of Buffalo’s 2012 schedule are fair, but after that the slate of regular season opponents gets considerably more challenging.

From Week 4 to Week 10 the Bills have four games against defending division champions (Patriots twice, San Francisco, Houston) with their other two games against second place clubs  from last year in Arizona and Tennessee.

The combined records of those five teams from 2011 was 52-28 with no team finishing last season with a record under .500.

They say playoff teams are made in November and December, but Buffalo will have be very good for that seven week stretch from late September through Halloween to stay in the hunt and contend.

Nix’s take on Tebow

In the wake of the Jets’ acquisition of Tim Tebow, Bills GM Buddy Nix during an appearance on SiriusXM NFL Radio Monday was asked what he thought about Tebow now being in Buffalo’s division to face twice a season. Here was Buddy’s response.

“We’ve got respect for Tim and I worked hard on (studying) Tim and probably spent more time with him than my wife when he was coming out because he’s a guy you like and you want him to do well,” said Nix. ”We’re going to have good players in that division all the time and Tim is just another one of them so we’ll just approach it like everybody else.”

Tebow now in AFC East

The New York Jets have pulled the trigger on a trade for Tim Tebow putting him in the AFC East.

New York parted with a fourth and sixth round pick for Tebow and a seventh from Denver. It’s widely speculated that Tebow will be utilized in much the same way the Jets used Brad Smith, who is now Buffalo’s multi-dimensional threat.

Should make Jets week interesting twice a season.

Manning won’t play in AFC East

A day after landing prized free agent Mario Williams, the Bills got more good news as Peyton Manning will not be playing in the AFC East in 2012.

NFL.com is reporting that Manning has informed the Miami Dolphins that they’re out of the running for his services. That leaves Denver and Tennessee as the two options remaining. If Manning chooses the Titans the Bills would still face the perennial Pro Bowl quarterback in Buffalo. The Bills are scheduled to host Tennessee in the 2012 regular season.

AFC East player rankings

ESPN AFC East blogger James Walker is listing his top 40 players in the division. So far he’s counted down from 40 to 21 and there are a handful of Bills players on the list.

Here’s the rundown of who has appeared on the AFC East Top 40 player list from the Bills.

Below is where the Bills are currently ranked from 21-40:

• No. 38 P Brian Moorman
• No. 32 RB C.J. Spiller
• No. 29 QB Ryan Fitzpatrick
• No. 27 C Eric Wood
• No. 25 DT Marcell Dareus
• No. 23 OL Andy Levitre