2009 NFL Preview: Toronto Buffalo Bills

By JFein:

Poor 49er16. It seems like I get all the good ones. Or I guess, I better re-phrase it, I get to re-discuss the teams that the media will never shut up about. On second thought, that would more or less be poor me, wouldn't it?

Anyways, the Buffalo Bills enter this year with a major new acquistion. His name: Terrell Owens. His game: sabotage the team as much as possible. Will he be enough for the Bills to overcome the AFC East or will he screw around with Buffalo just like he did in San Francisco, Philadelphia, and Dallas?

T.O. Gets A T.O. From The Media: From T.O.'s perspective, there is one good thing about being Buffalo. It is a small media market and he does not have reporters following him around everywhere and his minor blow-ups or what not are not as big a story as they would be in the larger sports markets such as his last 3 teams. But T.O. seems to like the spotlight, and in Buffalo, there may not be a lot of that. That being said, with the exception of a year and a half in Philly, we have not seen a whole lot of T.O. in extreme cold so it will be interesting to see how he adapts to Buffalo.

Is Trent Edwards Nothing More Than J.P. Losman Version 2.0? Trent Edwards has been inconsistent at best for the Buffalo Bills. At times he has looked like a decent QB, but other times, er, make that most times, he seems to just be a Losman clone. But now he has something that he has never had before: Terrell Owens. Will that help Edwards or will the constant pressure that T.O. puts on a QB when he does not get 10 catches and 150 yards each game be too much for him to put up with and will he subsequently crumble right before our very eyes? One thing is for sure, if Edwards stinks up the joint, don't expect T.O. to claim that that is his QB. It would be too embarrassing.

Schedule: The Bills, if they can muster it, actually have a pretty decent schedule that will work to their advantage. Sure they have a few tough games such as 2 against the Pats and the Colts and the rest of the AFC South, but they get a gift in that they face the NFC South, which aside from Atlanta, I expect to have a down year. Their other 2 games are Kansas City and Cleveland, which if they are going to contend at all this year, should be easy to deal with. Hey, wait a minute. Buffalo vs. Cleveland has a warm spot in this blogger's heart, as that was the first live blog ever done on this blog. Good times....gooooooood times. Even though I had no idea exactly what I was doing then (some might say that that part has not changed).

Video: The last time the Bills were in the playoffs (yes, it was this long ago).



Prediction: 8-8/3rd place AFC East. I feel like I'm being generous for some reason. I do not get the feeling that this is a team that can legitimately contend for the playoffs, but then again, given their schedule, 8-8 is definitley a doable record, and who knows, maybe they can squeak by. I doubt it, though. I know I'm foreshadowing a bit here, but in my view, the AFC East is not the best division this year (as some say they might be). Instead, that division is the AFC Souch and going back to the Bills and their playoff chances, do not be surprised if we see 2 wildcard teams from that division.