Inside The Bills

Bills on the radio

A Bills linebacker will be on the local radio airwaves Thursday morning.

LB Nigel Bradham will be making an appearance on the Howard Simon show Thursday morning at 7:30 AM ET on Bills flagship station WGR Sportsradio 550. You can listen online.

Bills on the radio

Here’s an update on where you can find the latest scheduled interviews for a Bills players on the local radio airwaves.

Bills top cornerback Stephon Gilmore will be appearing on the Howard Simon show Tuesday morning at 7:30.

Bills receiver T.J. Graham will be on The Fan 1270 AM Tuesday at 1:30 pm

Defensive staff meetings going very well

Bills defensive coordinator Mike Pettine has the luxury of having two former defensive coordinators on his defensive staff in Donnie Henderson and Chuck Dreisbach. That will a host of other top assistants has Pettine very happy with how their meetings have gone in the first couple of months at One Bills Drive.

Appearing on the Howard Simon Show on Bills flagship station WGR Sportsradio 550, Pettine shed some light on just how far along the staff is in completing the defensive playbook and how they took a fresh approach in putting all their concepts together.

“It’s a work in progress. Again I don’t think we’re going to dial in on it 100 percent. We’re going to highlight in our playbook what we do well,” said Pettine. ”So again it’s going to be more roster based. We have our base concepts that we’re going to run and those have been put in from a playbook standpoint, but we’re still trying to rebuild it.

“As a new staff we took what we built over four years in New York and then add the experience of the other coaches on the staff. We’ve basically hit the reset button on everything. I didn’t want to come in and say, ‘This is what we’re running.’

“Over time you accumulate a lot of tweaks and adjustments. We wanted to go back to the baseline and say, ‘Here is the way we’re going to teach it and then understand that these are all the variations of it.’ We still need to have a base way to teach it and we’ve had great meetings.

“I’m just thrilled with the knowledge and experience we have in the coaching staff. It’s a very open discussion that our guys have on there being more than one way to do it. It’s been very productive. I don’t think the playbook will be finalized until we’re ready to go to training camp.”

Obviously the coaches have to see what the players are able to execute consistently and effectively before deciding what stays and what goes and what’s used more often and what’s used less often in their scheme. Until they see their players’ level of execution they can’t finalize the playbook.

Pettine: Lawson an underrated pass rusher

Bills defensive coordinator Mike Pettine has not commented on any of the players he has on his side of the ball on Buffalo’s roster. He and Buffalo’s other coaches have understandably been reluctant to comment on what they think of their personnel, preferring to get on the practice field with them to see them up close before passing any judgment. The case is different however, with free agent acquisitions and after the Bills signed OLB Manny Lawson, Pettine commented.

Appearing on the Howard Simon Show on Bills flagship station WGR Sportsradio 550, Pettine provided his thoughts on just what kind of player they believe they have in Lawson.

“I think he brings a guy that has some explosive ability. He’s a tall, rangy guy, a set the edge type defender,” said Pettine. ”And even though we’re not going to be true 3-4 or 4-3 as far as we’re doing it. In our multiple fronts that we run we do need some bigger edge players. So I do think he certainly fits that bill for us. I think he’s an underrated pass rusher. He didn’t get as much opportunity to do that in Cincinnati as much as he did in San Francisco. But he’s a guy we liked coming out (in the draft) years ago and just admire the way that he plays, the effort, the energy, the passion he plays with from afar. So when the opportunity came up for us to evaluate the outside linebackers in free agency he was at the top of the list.”

Lawson barely rushed the passer in his two years with Cincinnati, but it sounds like that is going to change in Buffalo. Even in his press conference Lawson indicated that after speaking with Pettine briefly that he believes he’ll have the opportunity to get after quarterbacks, much like he did earlier in his career.

Buddy on players’ off the field issues

Linebacker is a position of need for the Bills this offseason, and a couple of the more highly regarded prospects have off the field concerns. Bills GM Buddy Nix was asked if such a player would be taken off of Buffalo’s board completely.

Appearing on WGR Sportsradio 550 Thursday morning by phone from Indianapolis, Nix said Manti T’eo and Alec Ogletree, who was arrested for suspected DUI last month, will not be taken off their draft board at this point.

“We’re still evaluating that process. We’re evaluating them as football players first and if there’s something habitual and continuous with their conduct then we’d take it into consideration,” said Nix. ”But at this point we don’t take anyone off our board.”

Ogletree also served a school-imposed four-game drug suspension while at Georgia.

Nix on McKelvin: We’d like to keep him

Bills GM Buddy Nix shared his thoughts on the team’s own free agents while out at the NFL Combine. Though Jairus Byrd and Andy Levitre are likely high priorities, in a perfect world he’d like to re-sign them all.

In a morning appearance on WGR Sportsradio 550, Nix stated a desire to keep all of their free agents including CB Leodis McKelvin.

“Leodis is a guy we’d like to keep,” said Nix. 

And while re-signing all of their unrestricted free agents would be fine with Nix, he also realizes that may not happen.

“We’d like to keep all our guys. There does come a time when you can’t keep everybody and it just doesn’t fit,” Nix said. ”If somebody else see their value as a lot more than we do then good luck to them and good luck to the player.”

AFC East foes add incentive in last 2

The Bills are out of the playoffs, but head coach Chan Gailey sees added incentive for his players in the final two games on the regular season schedule.

In his weekly appearance on WGR Sportsradio 550, Gailey admitted at this point self-respect is what you’re playing for.

“You’re playing for pride, professionalism,” said Gailey. ”That’s what you’re playing for. I don’t know of anything else that you play for at this point. I think that they’re division games and you want to beat division opponents. We don’t like people in our division in general and you want to beat them because of who they are.”

Buffalo is on the road this week at Miami, before closing out the season at home against the Jets.

Deep passes were dialed up

Very often this season Bills fans have clamored for more deep passes downfield. Buffalo had about a half dozen deep passes called, but could not connect on any of them in Sunday’s loss to Seattle.

Ryan Fitzpatrick just missed Stevie Johnson, T.J. Graham and C.J. Spiller on deep throws that could’ve dramatically changed the complexion of the game.

Head coach Chan Gailey in his weekly appearance on WGR Sportsradio 550 Monday morning offered comment on the game plan and taking deep shots down the field in the passing game.

“(Fitzpatrick) overthrew them just a little bit and we had two or three others called and they ran back deep with them so we dumped it off underneath,” said Gailey. ”We’ve done some good things as far as percentages of passes. Our percentages are up. We’re not getting some run after catch that people get, but sometimes our guys are not in that position and we’ve just got to work on getting better at the deep ball and hit a few of those. If you hit a few of those they make a difference in the ball game. The thing about it is we throw it great in practice, but in the game it doesn’t happen.”

Easley and Moats both suffered injuries

In addition to the loss to the Seahawks Sunday, Buffalo also lost a couple of special teams players in the game.

Arthur Moats was carted off the field in the first half after a kickoff play. Marcus Easley was also injured on special teams. Head coach Chan Gailey provided an update in his weekly appearance on WGR Sportsradio 550.

“(Easley) got a hamstring yesterday and I don’t know how bad it is,” said Gailey. “(Moats) had an ankle and I don’t know how bad it is either.”

Moats did have the left ankle immobilized after the game Sunday night.

It’s expected that the Bills head coach will provide an update at his afternoon press conference at 3:30.

Nix hurts for Bills fans

Bills GM Buddy Nix was taking calls from fans in his weekly appearance on WGR Sportsradio 550, and while a couple of self-proclaimed die hard fans made statements instead of asking questions it was clear that Nix feels for the die hards that he believes deserve more from their team.

“We haven’t won enough and I know how he feels and to be honest with you I feel the same way,” said Nix in response to a discouraged caller. ”I’m as frustrated as anybody else. When guys like the caller, and the folks that sit out there the 40 or 50-thousand sit in the rain and cold and watch the Bills play, they’re the very reason I came here to start with. It hurts me to see those guys.

“The fans that come just when you win and don’t come when you lose and don’t support you unless you win, they’re going to be the same, and it’s the same in every city. But the ones we’ve got that are the passionate fans that live and die with the Bills it hurts me more than anybody to not see them enjoy winning.

“We’re working at it. I know you get tired of hearing that and I won’t ask you to be patient again because it’s something you’ve heard for years. I know it’s hard to look at the roster and see that we’re better in every spot. We need one or two upgrades, I’m not going to get into what they are but we’re working to fill those spots and we’re working every day to get better in every area. I think we’ve made big jumps in the last three years (personnel-wise).”

Nix: WR is certainly on our radar

Bills GM Buddy Nix in his weekly radio appearance on WGR Sportsradio 550 was asked if wide receiver is a position they’re looking to upgrade this offseason. Nix didn’t mince words.

Nix was clear the team is looking to add a big wideout outside that can make plays with dominant physical size.

“We’re excited about T.J.. He brings something we haven’t had and that’s exceptional speed,” said Nix. ”Wide receiver is certainly on our radar. Last night I’m watching Cincinnati and there’s Marvin Lewis and he’s been there 10 years. I don’t remember their record the first six or seven years then they take A.J. Green and Andy Dalton and that duo has really turned them around and made them a playoff contender.

“I think you’ve got to have a guy that’s like Andre Reed was when he was here and Jim Kelly and Andre Reed and Thurman produced a lot. You need those three guys and we’re aware of that and we’re certainly looking at wide receiver.”

Nix admitted losing David Nelson as the primary slot receiver hurt the passing game, but gave indication that Stevie Johnson’s future might lead to more time inside as well.

“David had great height and was able to catch the ball and make something happen in the slot. We’re going to get him back and get him well,” said Nix. ”We’re going to put somebody else in there. Stevie Johnson is a guy that really fits the slot well. I think Stevie is a guy that you can play him in the slot or outside.”

“We need a big time outside receiver and T.J. gives us a lot of that, but you still need to get another bigger guy that can line up out there and catch the ball even when he’s covered.”

Nix: Time is now to move for QB in draft

Bills GM Buddy Nix has put together a carefully orchestrated approach to building Buffalo’s roster back in on both sides of the ball addressing the need for top flight talent as well as depth. He’s now at a point where he feels the team is in a position to make a bold move on draft weekend to secure a future franchise quarterback.

Making his weekly appearance on WGR Sportsradio 550, Nix laid out why making a bold move, presumably up the board, to land a quarterback they like is prudent now.

“There’s a time with the development of your team when you can move up a round to take a quarterback and I think the time is now for us,” Nix said. ”If a guy is there, and they’ll be one out there, if the guy is there then I think we’ll target, as I’ve said before, drafting a good quarterback. We need a good, young quarterback and we’ll do our best to get one.”

When asked if he would be against playing a rookie quarterback right away seeing the success of this year’s class of signal callers, Nix said he would be alright with that.

“I’m not afraid to play a young player and I’m not afraid to play a young quarterback,” he said. ”I think you really look at all these guys and normally the ones, there are exceptions always, but the ones that come into good teams have got a chance to be good. The ones that come into really bad teams, I watched two last night in the Cincinnati-Philadelphia game, one second-year guy and one first-year guy. They struggled some. The ones that have the best guys around them usually do the best.”

Bills on the radio

Here’s the listing of where you can find Bills players and executives on the local radio airwaves Friday morning.

The Howard Simon Show – WGR 550
Buddy Nix – 8:00 AM

Janet and Nick – Kiss 98.5
Shawne Merriman – 8:00 AM

Shredd and Ragan – 103.3 The Edge
George Wilson – 8:00 AM

The Morning Show w/ Mike Richards – TSN 1050 Toronto
Kyle Williams – 8:15 AM

The Bryan Hayes Show – TSN 1050 Toronto
Scott Chandler – 2:30 PM

Gailey on the goal for last 3 games

The Bills are not mathematically out of the playoff race in the AFC because they’re two back with three games to play. Still, with the postseason hopes dimmed considerably Gailey was asked in his weekly appearance on WGR Sportsradio 550 what the goal is for the team over the final three games.

“You’re right, the playoffs are out of the picture for us now,” said Gailey. ”So what is in the picture? It’s working to do your best and get better every time you walk out there and be a pro. That’s all I know how to do. You evaluate a lot of things. You try to get better. You try to become a team that improves upon last year. You try to improve your record from last year. And you’re trying to get better. That’s what you do as pro. That’s how I grew up. You work your rear off and try to get better every time you’re out there. That’s all you can do.”

When asked if they came up short this season Gailey felt they had.

“If you don’t make the playoffs it’s not a good season,” he said. ”I don’t like to use the word failure, but it’s not what you set out to do. You set out to get to the playoffs, that’s what you set out to do. Actually you set out to win the championship, that’s what you set out to do, but you’ve got to get to the playoffs to do that. So we didn’t accomplish our goal.”

Nix: A 1st round QB is not an automatic

A few weeks ago Bills GM Buddy Nix said they would look to land a franchise caliber quarterback in this coming spring’s NFL draft. However, he wanted to make it clear that Bills fans who are now expecting Buffalo to automatically draft a signal caller with their first-round draft choice in April are off the mark.

“I know we’ve discussed the quarterback many times,” said Nix in his weekly radio appearance on WGR Sportsradio 550. ”The fans are so eager for us to make something happen and they’re not anymore eager than I am. They got the idea I think that we were automatically going to draft a quarterback in the first round. That’s not necessarily true.

“We’re going to always stay with the integrity of the board. We’re going to try to find a quarterback. If one is there and he’s rated at the right spot we’re going to take him wherever that is. I don’t want people to expect that no matter who is there in the first round we’re going to take a quarterback because that’s not true. We’ll still take the best player.”

Nix also outlined that they’ve come to realize that to get a quarterback they think highly of outside of the first round they might need to take such a prospect a round early since that’s what the rest of the league seems to be doing with quarterback prospects.

“I think quarterbacks go a round higher than you usually have them,” said Nix. ”You look at a guy and you’ve done enough work on him and your scouts have done enough work and you really know where the guy should fall and you have a good idea on how long it’s going to take him (to be ready to start in the NFL), and that determines what round you take him. But quarterbacks are so scarce in this league that folks take them early and I think sometimes you’ve got to be willing to do that.”

Fan Friday 12-7

Hey Bills fans, here is the latest edition of your questions from AskChris@bills.nfl.net and @ChrisBrownBills on Twitter for Fan Friday. Keep your questions coming.

1 – Chris,

I wanted to address the “Fitzpatrick Situation”. A few weeks ago, Buddy Nix acknowledged the need to upgrade the quarterback position, which was in stark contrast to his and Chan’s position on the issue 11 weeks ago. My fear is this seems to be set in motion more by public opinion than cognitive thought and, given the incoming crop of potential rookie quarterbacks, a draft pick may be sacrificed to appease the fan base rather than invested on more pressing needs in the secondary and linebacking corp.

Thanks for all you do,
Rob

CB: Buddy actually addressed that very subject in his weekly appearance on WGR Sportradio 550 this Friday. Here’s what he said.

“I know we’ve discussed the quarterback many times. The fans are so eager for us to make something happen and they’re not any more eager than I am,” said Nix. “They got the idea I think that we were automatically going to draft a quarterback in the first round. That’s not necessarily true. We’re going to always stay with the integrity of the board. We’re going to try to find a quarterback. If one is there and he’s rated at the right spot we’re going to take him wherever that is. I don’t want people to expect that no matter who is there in the first round we’re going to take a quarterback because that’s not true. We’ll still take the best player.”

2 - Chris,

There’s been a lot of criticism of Chan Gailey’s play calling.  A lot of Monday Morning Quarterbacking obviously.  But the one area I feel the Bills are particularly weak is 3rd/4th and very short yardage (2 yards or less).  Aside from some game changing fumbles in those situations (Patriots home game going into the half comes to mind), the heavily criticized wildcat formations, and the failure in the four minute offense on Thursday against Miami, most egregious to me is why the team doesn’t ever use a QB sneak (particularly on 1 yard to go situations).  The interior of this line would seem to be the strength. And with Eric Wood and Levitre playing at All-Pro levels, and Fitz being a fairly stout guy, it would seem that calling a QB sneak behind Wood/Levitre would be a reasonable call. Yet I can’t recall the team using it in any key situations this season (or any situation for that matter).  Tom Brady will often race to the line and use a quick snap QB sneak. But even a traditional sneak would seem a reasonable play that they rarely ever use.  Why not?  Is it even in their playbook?

Thanks,
Jeffrey Suchocki

CB: Well we did see a one-yard sneak for a touchdown by Ryan Fitzpatrick against Jacksonville, so yes it is in their playbook. I also think you’re a bit off the mark regarding short yardage. Buffalo is 15^th in the league in 3^rd-and-1 conversion percentage (64.3%) and 16^th in the league in 3^rd-and-1 and 4^th-and-1 conversion percentage (64.3%). On 3^rd-and-short conversions they’re 18^th in the league (53.7%). It’s not great, but their success rate is respectable.

3 – Hi Chris,

Just looking ahead at the possibilities of the Bills filling in some holes with Free Agency and how active they might be this coming off-season. I would love for them to make upgrades at corner, wide receiver, and linebacker (quarterback too, but that would likely be addressed in the draft). How much cap space do the Bills currently have to work with in the off-season? I know that re-signing Byrd and Levitre will be top priorities for them, but once they’re taken care of, how much room will they likely have to work with, if any at all? Would love to see Dwayne Bowe in a Bills uniform!

As always, love the coverage you provide for us … please keep up the great work!

Paul

CB: Thanks for the kind words. I am not in a position to provide cap space figures, but I can tell you that Buffalo has a lot of young players coming up for contract consideration. You mentioned Byrd and Levitre. They’ve also got Kraig Urbik, Chad Rinehart to consider for their offensive line. Restricted free agents include David Nelson and Donald Jones. Leodis McKelvin is another unrestricted free agent of note. So very quickly just for the Bills to keep their own they’ll be eating into heavily into their cap space if they decide to do some long terms deals with any of the aforementioned players.

One free agent to be that hasn’t garnered much attention is Kyle Moore, who will also be unrestricted at season’s end.

That’s why the thought of Dwayne Bowe in a Bills uniform is a pipe dream. Buffalo is already heavily invested in the wide receiver position with Stevie Johnson. They likely intend to invest more with Nelson and Jones. So to try and add Bowe, who is looking for upwards of $10M a season, it’s just not going to happen.

Other veteran free agents of note include Bryan Scott, Corey McIntyre and Spencer Johnson.

4 – Chris,

Numbers don’t lie and it’s clear that Mario Williams’ production has spiked since his wrist procedure during the bye week.  Also, since it only took him 7-10 days to heal and be back at practice it’s obvious that this should have been corrected during Training Camp.  I’m wondering who, if any, should receive the blame for the failure to address this injury until after 7gms and a fine from the NFL related the Bills injury report?  Seems unfortunate because his current production could have really helped during the first half of the season.

Thanks,
Aaron from Brooklyn

CB: To clear up some confusion, Williams injured the wrist in the preseason finale at Detroit. Granted that was 10 days before the opener, but I think the parties involved likely made the decision to play through the injury since that’s what happened. After it failed to improve surgery was decided upon.

It’s very easy for hindsight to be 20-20 in any case like this. The bottom line is the next time there was a window of opportunity to Bills jumped on it.

5 – Hey Chris,

Just wanted to see what you thought of Crezdon Butler’s play against the Jaguars.  With the game blacked out I didn’t see much.  Did he fare well?  And if so, does that count for anything even if it is against the young receiving core of the Jaguars? 

Thanks,
Tommy of Pittsford

CB: Well he got 16 snaps in the Jacksonville game, 13 of those came in coverage. He did draw a flag in the game for defensive holding that led to a first down, but the biggest pass play he gave up was an 18-yard completion to Cecil Shorts. So all in all it wasn’t a bad debut performance in limited action.

Bills on the radio

Here’s where you can find Bills players and execs on the radio airwaves both locally and nationally Friday.

The Howard Simon Show – WGR 550
Buddy Nix – 8:00 AM

Janet and Nick – Kiss 98.5
Marcell Dareus – 8:00 AM

Shredd and Ragan – 103.3 The Edge
Shawne Merriman – 8:00 AM

Norton in the Morning – 97 Rock
T.J. Graham – 8:00 AM

Bernie Miklasz Show – 101 ESPN – St. Louis
Brad Smith – 12:00 PM

No huddle left on shelf Sunday

The Bills have had their share of slow starts on offense this season, which is why they had a tempo change planned for Sunday’s game against Jacksonville. But Buffalo never put that plan into action after posting a touchdown on their opening drive, in a rain soaked game where weather also was a factor.

Making his weekly Monday morning appearance on Bills flagship WGR Sportsradio 550, Chan Gailey admitted that the no huddle was a significant part of their offensive game plan for the Jaguars.

“We actually had our no huddle planned to go,” said Gailey. ”We had worked on our no huddle, shotgun stuff and it was ready to go. But it didn’t work out that way. All of a sudden our running game is going and we had a lead and so you just keep pounding it.”

Gailey acknowledged that the weather was also a factor.

Ryan Fitzpatrick is excited to use no huddle at some point this season, as it was to be something they intended to turn to a decent amount this year.

“I think that’ll be great (when we use it),” Fitzpatrick said in his weekly WGR appearance. ”It was something we talked about going in, definitely the first half the way the weather was it wasn’t going to be something we could use to our advantage so we held onto it. We’ll see where it goes as we go forward here and see who is healthy and who is not because with some of the injuries sometimes you stay away from that stuff and you want everybody on the same page.”

Bills on the radio

Here’s where you can find Bills players and execs on the local radio airwaves Friday morning.

The Howard Simon Show – WGR 550 (listen online)
Buddy Nix – 8:00 AM

Janet and Nick – Kiss 98.5
Leodis McKelvin – 8:00 AM

Shredd and Ragan – 103.3 The Edge
C.J. Spiller – 8:00 AM

Snap counts from Sunday

Courtesy of Pro Football Focus, here are the snap counts for the offense for Sunday’s game against the Colts for the Bills player by player.

What’s interesting is C.J. Spiller was in for 29 plays and Fred Jackson was in for 32 plays. Part of the reason why appeared to stem from Spiller’s struggle in handling a blitz pickup on the first third down of the game when LB Jerrell Freeman got by him to sack Ryan Fitzpatrick forcing Buffalo to punt.

Head coach Chan Gailey making his weekly appearance on WGR Sportsradio 550 Monday morning said it did have an impact on his thinking.

“The first third down he struggled to protect on that play so you start to wonder if that’s going to be a good day for him in pass protection,” said Gailey.

Of Spiller’s 29 snaps he was asked to block on pass plays four times. Of Jackson’s 32 snaps he was asked to block on pass plays 11 times.

Gailey did reiterate that Spiller will continue to get the majority of the work.

Offense snap counts
Cordy Glenn – 60
Andy Levitre – 60
Eric Wood – 60
Kraig Urbik – 60
Chris Hairston – 60
Ryan Fitzpatrick – 60
Stevie Johnson – 57
Scott Chandler – 53
Donald Jones – 48
Fred Jackson – 32
T.J. Graham – 31
C.J. Spiller – 29
Lee Smith – 27
Corey McIntyre – 8
Ruvell Martin – 5
Brad Smith – 4
Sam Young – 2
Dorin Dickerson – 2