LAST SEASON: 3-13, 5th in AFC East
PROJECTION: 4th in AFC East
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| Bledsoe is hungry to show the NFL he still has it. |
That parade Bills fans threw for Bledsoe's arrival will be the last one they have for a while. But the new QB will provide some hope -- and a much-improved 7–9 record.
STRONG SIDE
QB: Drew Bledsoe's passed for 30,000 yards, played in three Pro Bowls and started a Super Bowl. Not bad. But consider -- he's never had the talent at wideout he has in Buffalo, he's angry at being dissed by New England, he's still only 30 and he's playing in an offense geared to go downfield. No matter how bad the Bills D turns out be -- and it could be really bad -- Bledsoe will keep most games close. Take a look at last year's AFC championship game, when he came off the bench after sitting for four months and threw New England's only TD of the game. The guy's always had game. Now he's got a new reason to prove it.
WEAK SIDE
DL: Somebody forgot to put defensive line on the list of things to fix in the off-season. The front four -- Aaron Schobel, Pat Williams, Kendrick Office, Tyrone Robertson -- combined for just 13 sacks, or about two months of Michael Strahan's season. Overall, the Bills had just 34 sacks, which ranked 13th in the AFC. And against the run, they really stunk, allowing 133.3 yards rushing a game (26th in the league). Where's the beef?
OTHER UNITS
RB: Buffalo's RB Committee -- Travis Henry, Shawn Bryson -- won't scare anyone into playing Drew Bledsoe honest. But pass-catching FB Larry Centers might. The 12-year vet owns the NFL record for catches in a season (101, 1995) by an RB. He could break it as Bledsoe's security blanket.
WR: In a word? Loaded. Eric Moulds caught 94 balls when Rob Johnson was his QB. Double him, and Peerless Price (4.3 40) roams uncovered 50 yards downfield. With rook Josh Reed -- who, at LSU, was college football's best WR in 2001 -- in the slot, Bledsoe won't have enough balls to go around.
OL: The good: Adding 370-pound RT Mike Williams and free agent C Trey Teague could upgrade the 22nd-ranked rushing O. The bad: Teague was Denver's most inconsistent lineman -- that's why it let him walk -- and Williams is raw. Don't count on this unit gelling for at least a month.
LB: Except for landing Bledsoe, signing ex-Rams defensive signal-caller London Fletcher was the Bills' biggest off-season move. Fletcher hasn't missed a game in four seasons. He replaces Sam Cowart, who missed 19 of the past 32 games. Given the porous D-line in front of him, Fletcher will top 150 tackles.
DB: Big-play CBs Nate Clements and Antoine Winfield combined for 5 INTs and 2 TDs, plus they hit like safeties. Given that new starting safeties Billy Jenkins and Pierson Prioleau had only two starts between them in 2001, Clements and Winfield will get plenty of traffic.
ST: The Bills lost four games by three points or fewer, so they added K Mike Hollis, a career 81% guy. Charlie Rogers was seventh (9.8 ypr) and 11th (22.4 ypr) in the AFC in punt and kickoff returns.
This article appears in the September 16 issue of ESPN The Magazine.
