The mess that is the Buffalo Bills

The Buffalo Bills have been pretty quiet so far in free agency. It seems their plan is to pick up a few players who are familiar with a 3-4 defense, a defensive scheme that they will switch to in 2010, and wait until the draft to address their other concerns. New Head Coach has his hands full on this one. He has to determine who will be the starting Bills QB, find a few receivers to replace Terrell Owens and Josh Reed, switch over the defense, and rebuild the offensive line.

The Bills have three QB’s: Trent Edwards, Ryan Fitzpatrick, and untested Brian Brohm. It does not appear that any of these three are the long term answer in Buffalo, and Brohm was beaten up in a 31-3 loss in week 16 in 2009. Gailey will have to use one of these guys as a stopgap until this team can draft or trade for a new QB.

So far in free agency the Bills have added OT Cornell Green. He will step in and be a veteran presence on a young Offensive line that has a lot of growing up to do. They took two O linemen in last year’s draft and will probably have to add a third with their first pick in the 2010 draft. Since they need a RT with the surprise retirement of Brad Butler Trent Williams seems like a logical choice.

Since they are going to switch to a 3-4 defense, they signed free agent DE Dwan Edwards who played with the Baltimore Ravens in a 3-4 scheme and added LB Andra Davis. These are pretty good moves, but not home runs. The Bills have a lot of holes and Gailey and the front office staff are doing what they can to begin to fill them. I am skeptical of the decision to move to a 3-4 scheme with no nose tackle on the roster, and other NFL teams doing whatever they can to protect their NT players. To run this scheme a tam must have a dominant NT and the Bills simply don’t.

Related Links:

•Buffalo Bills news and notes
•2010 NFL Free Agents
•2010 NFL Mock Drafts
•MTR Football.com