Around the AFC East, Part II - Buffalo Bills

Buffalo Rumblings: SB Nation's Buffalo Bills blog

Shooting the gap is Brian G from SB Nation's Buffalo Bills blog, Buffalo Rumblings.

tommasse: Do you consider this a "rebuilding" year? When did rebuilding begin? Will Bills fans become impatient if there's not enough progress, and how much progress is enough?

Brian G: Bills fans have been impatient for nearly a decade. The team's last playoff game was the dreaded Music City Miracle (January 2000), for crying out loud - not exactly one of the proudest moments in franchise (or NFL officiating) history. Progress is a word that has been used far too often over the past seven years. Unfortunately, we're still there.

Yes, this is a rebuilding year -- a year I like to call "Rebuilding 3.1". We had version .5, where Wade Phillips crapped out. That took us to version 1, where Gregg Williams' dictatorship flopped. Version 2 saw Mike Mularkey quit on a franchise -- a move which left him festering as the Dolphins' tight end coach (ha!). Last year, version 3, saw some of the quicker progress this team has made under Marv Levy and Dick Jauron. Year two is version 3.1 -- and more progress is not only expected, but pretty close to demanded.

The difference between this rebuild and previous versions is that we're doing it around young players (JP Losman, Marshawn Lynch, Donte Whitner, Paul Posluszny, etc.), not washed-up veterans (Lawyer Milloy, Troy Vincent, Sam Adams, Mike Gandy, etc.). The young nucleus of this team is far more promising than any team we've had in recent memory, despite all of those "off-season defections" that "experts" like to point out. That's why I and many more Bills fans are confident that version 3.1 will be one of the last rebuilding efforts for quite some time.

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tommasse's retort: I think someone in Buffalo finally has some idea how to build a team. Unfortunately for Bills fans, as Brian G notes, previous regimes have left the current caretakers with little to build on. This might be the last rebuilding effort for years, but it will take years (at least two or three) before Bills fans can expect satisfactory results. Like Jets fans, they're going to have to be satisfied with steady improvement. (Honestly, I didn't know the were getting that impatient. I mean, they should have known what they were getting into with Milloy and Drew Bledsoe, right?)

OK, it's your turn. Step up to the Pulpit and say your piece. And if you have a question you want me to ask next week, email me, and I'll pose the best queries to our friends at Buffalo Rumblings, The Phinsider and NY Landing Strip.