Via BuffaloBills.com

Head coach Chan Gailey has chosen not to dress Spiller simply to rest him up for the regular season. With Fred Jackson and Marshawn Lynch out the past two weeks, Spiller has endured a heavy workload as the primary back in each of the last two preseason games. Gailey would like to rest his top pick for the season opener.

Tonight is the final preseason game for the Buffalo Bills as they travel to Detroit to face the Lions. While the starters are expected to only get about 12-14 snaps, the game itself cannot be deemed meaningless. They are a few skilled players on the Bills squad that have to go out tonight and give it their all, because for many, there may be no tomorrow.

‘Must Perform’ players include:

On Offense:
Joique Bell – Bell has shown some explosive stuff so far this preseason, and leads the Bills with 142 rushing yards and 2 TDs. He will need to improve his special teams skills if he wants to increase his chance of making the roster. With the rumor of Marshawn Lynch seeing extended playing time tonight, Bell is going to have to make the most of his opportunities.

James Hardy – It seems that throughout Hardy’s young career, his name is showing up more on the injury report, than it is in the box scores. Although there aren’t too many ’stand-out’ wide receivers on the team, there have been plenty of impressive preseason plays made by the other WRs, including Roscoe Parrish, David Nelson and Chad Jackson. It’s going to be tough for Hardy to make his case in one game, but perhaps he will show enough to make the cut.

On Defense:
John McCargo – McCargo has had one of his strongest camps this preseason, and may have already made his case to be the seventh defensive linemen to make the roster this season, but a strong game tonight definitely wouldn’t hurt his cause.

Chris Brown of ‘Inside the Bills‘ also reports that Ryan Fitzpatrick will not suit up tonight, leaving the QB rotation to look like this: Edwards, Brohm, Brown. Seems as if the coaching staff has seen what they got in Fitz so they perhaps want to give Brohm a final rehearsal before making their cuts.

Detroit Lions

The Lions are a team that after many losing seasons, finally look like they have found the right coaching staff and players to turn this franchise around.

And much like the Bills , Lions fans are extremely excited about what they have in rookie running back Jahvid Best.

Zac Snyder of SideLionReport.com has this to say about Best:

Lions fans were excited about what Jahvid Best could bring to the offense as soon as they landed him with the 30th overall pick last April. Best’s preseason performance has done nothing to temper that enthusiasm. In fact, he has been even better than advertised.

The Lions have lacked explosiveness out of the backfield for a long time. Just a handful of carries into his NFL preseason carry Jahvid Best ran the ball wide and turned the corner against Pittsburgh’s first string offense. That just isn’t something we’ve seen in Detroit, unless it was from the opposition. One carry for 51 yards and one catch for a first down was all the Lions coaching staff needed to see in the third preseason game. The staff cited stiff legs as the reason for the light workload; it is scary to think what he is capable of when those legs get loose.

Hopefully fans will be able to see C.J Spiller and Jahvid Best try to out do one another in Week 10, when the Lions come to Ralph Wilson Stadium in a regular season match up.

Tonight’s kickoff starts a half hour earlier tonight at 6:30pm, due to the Jay-Z & Eminem concert taking place near Ford Field.

As reported by various media outlets, including the esteemed Paul Miller on our own page, the Bills have been rumored to show interest in Cardinals’ QB Matt Leinart. While buffalobills.com reported that the Bills have not been in any discussions on Leinart, it would be foolish for the team to announce on its own web site an interest in a player they may not acquire. ESPN has cited that two sources have reported the Bills have indeed had ongoing discussions this summer about acquiring Leinart. ESPN also reported the Bills are less likely to take on Leinart due to his $7.36 million salary next season. However, I think that they need not look further than his ability to be an NFL QB to rid themselves of any ideas of acquiring the Cardinals’ backup QB.

Leinart is rumored to be on the trading block because he has not been able to outshine former Pro Bowl QB Derek Anderson. Upon further investigation, the guy Ken Whisenhunt has been starting ahead of Leinart is the 2009 backup QB on a 5-11 Browns team, who completed 44.5% of his passes last season, throwing 3 tds and 10 ints in eight games. Bills’ fans may remember Anderson’s impressively terrible 2 for 17, 23 yard performance (amazingly in a 6-3 victory) against the Bills at The Ralph last season.

At least the bench in Arizona is warm...

This has not been atypical for Leinart. He had every opportunity to win the starting job in his rookie season with the Cardinals, starting for the first time in week five of his 2006 rookie season for the 1-3 Cardinals. Warner, though difficult to remember now, came to the Cardinals after being let go by the Giants, and led the Cardinals to a 5-11 record the season before. Leinart lost his first two starts, but showed some promise throwing 4 tds and just 1 int, almost toppling the undefeated 5-0 Bears on national television, before letting them off the hook. Leinart threw just 7 tds and 11 ints the rest of the season, and ceded control of the offense to Warner for the past three seasons.

This preseason, Leinart felt he did “everything…they’ve asked me to and more,” to retain his starting role. He led his offense to three consecutive three-and-outs against the Tennessee Titans in the Cardinals’ second preseason game, those possessions being his only three in the game. If that’s more than Leinart expects of himself, I don’t think his expectations are quite as high as he perceives them to be.

Let’s compare Leinart to QBs on the Bills’ roster in terms of career statistics:

Matt Leinart – 29 games, 340-595 (completions-attempts), 57.1%, 3,893 yards, 6.5 yards per attempt, 14 tds, 20 ints, 70.8 rating, 7-10 record

Trent Edwards – 32 games, 506-826, 61.3%, 5,498 yards, 6.7 ypa, 24 tds, 25 ints, 77.9 rating, 14-16 record

Ryan Fitzpatrick – 28 games, 424-734, 57.8%, 4,104 yards, 5.6 ypa, 21 tds, 27 ints, 67.7 rating, 8-14-1 record

So if the Bills were in the market for a backup QB, Leinart might make sense without his inflated rookie contract. The other teams rumored to be interested in Leinart, the Giants and Raiders, are looking at Leinart for that specific purpose. Personally, I don’t see the need for a $7 million backup QB with Fitzpatrick and Brohm as possibilities.

Take into account that Leinart has questionable arm strength, and completed only 57 percent of his passes in all the inclement weather Arizona encounters. Then, factor in his desire to hang out with the likes of Paris Hilton, and get his picture taken while he’s out partying, and Buffalo becomes that much worse of a fit for Leinart. You thought Willis McGahee was unhappy here? Bills fans should hope Buddy ‘Nix’es this one.

There has been some chatter around the Internet that the Bills are one of three teams that may be interested in trading for Matt Leinart.

The first report came from Adam Schefter Twitter account:
@Adam_Schefter: Three teams have discussed trading for QB Matt Leinart — Bills, Raiders, Giants. Now we wait to see if any pull trigger by this weekend.

Leinart has two years remaining on a six-year, $50.8 million deal and hasn’t had much time on the field in the past few seasons, as he’s been forced to watch on the sidelines as Kurt Warner lite up the scoreboard.

But before you panic about acquiring another QB that hasn’t proved anything yet in the league, Chris Brown of Inside The Bills quickly put this rumor to rest.

Buffalobills.com has confirmed that the Bills have not had any discussions with the Cardinals in regards to Matt Leinart and aren’t anticipating any in the future. The report is simply not true.

With all the preseason talk that Chan Gailey was happy with the QB’s the Bills currently have on their roster, it is definitely interesting to see the Bills linked to the first ‘disgruntled’ QB of the year. With an abundance of talented running backs in place, perhaps a RB/QB swap isn’t far off in the Bills future.

Even though this offseason has been riddled with injuries, the Bills may not be in the worst of shape when it comes to week one of the regular season. It appears as though many of the walking wounded appear to be on the fast track toward making it back onto the field. Here is the latest news on a few of the preseason and camp injuries:

Fred Jackson: Freddy has returned to the practice field and shed his cast. It sounds to me that Coach Gailey feels that Fred will be ready to go in week one, but only on a limited basis. This makes me feel pretty good about where Fred is at. I figure if C.J. Spiller and Marshawn Lynch were not on the team, Fred might be able to take on a bigger role in the offense. With the Bills’ RB depth, though, it seems Gailey will take an intelligent approach and ease Jackson back.

Marshawn Lynch: Lynch appears to be at 100%. He was back on the practice field at full speed, and is expected to play in the Bills’ preseason finale Thursday.

Byrd is a player the Bills can't afford to have on the sidelines

Jairus Byrd: Byrd is probably the most important casualty the Bills need to have back by week one. Byrd has not yet returned to the practice field after having surgery on his groin. The pass defense has looked very suspect in his absence, as FS is probably the only position in the defensive backfield the Bills have questionable depth. Gailey has said that Byrd is “on track” to play in week one, but it’s difficult to know how realistic that is until he gets back on the field.

Ed Wang: Wang seems to be healing from his thumb injury rather quickly as his initial diagnosis was 4-8 weeks, but I generally expect injuries to last until the higher number. Wang has returned to the practice field, but is not ready to play on Thursday. Wang likely would not have seen too much action early in the season anyways, as he is really only the 4th or 5th tackle on the roster (though that doesn’t mean you won’t be playing on the Bills, as we found out last year).

James Hardy: Hardy played limited snaps against the Bengals, and even managed to make a 30-yard reception along the sideline in that game. I expect that he’ll be ready to see a lot of action on Thursday, and hopefully show some signs that he was worthy of a 2nd-round selection (not holding my breath on that one just yet).

Derek Schouman: The Bills’ TE is likely to miss another 2-5 weeks with a knee injury he suffered against the Colts. He also may be a little behind that schedule as he has struggled to stay on the field all offseason battling injuries. Gailey has hinted that Schouman will need more reps on the practice field before being ready to be too involved on Sundays.

While Marcus Easley and Danny Batten are out for the year with their injuries, if the Bills can get Jairus Byrd on the field, they should be in pretty good shape for the Dolphins game. Hopefully the Bills got the majority of their injuries out of the way early this season, and won’t suffer a repeat of last year’s injured reserve parade.

Of course going into the season, every NFL team starts 0-0, but that doesn’t stop the ‘experts’ including ESPN in drilling their own opinions about how teams and players will play this season.

It first started this morning on Sportscenter where the Monday Night Football crew sat around and predicted how many games each team in the AFC East will win.

When it came time to talk about the Bills, the questions was: Will the Buffalo Bills win more or less than five games?

Ron Jaworski answer was less because “Chan Gailey needs a little bit of time to get his type of players in that organizations.”

Jon Gruden was the next to answer and although he didn’t answer the question directly, he certainly made his feelings on the Bills well known:”They’re just not as good as these other teams in this league is how I see it, Jaws. C.J. Spiller, though, he’s the best player in this year’s draft.”

To read the rest of their AFC East predictions click here

Next Up came ESPN’s John Clayton’s QB Rankings on ESPN.com entering the season and can anyone guess where Trent Edwards ended up?

31 out of 33 with only Matt Moore and Jake Delhomme behind him, and here is Clayton’s explanation.

“Analysis: Call it deja Bills. When Edwards entered the league in 2007, the Bills were a bottled-up offense desperately looking for receivers who could pull coverage away from Lee Evans. Edwards’ lone target remains Evans, but the offensive line is now much worse. Chance of being elite: 0 percent”

To see the rest of his rankings, click here

Of course we shouldn’t expect the Bills to be ranked anywhere but last due to their lack of success throughout the years, but day after day of hearing the hate gets old real fast. I only hope Chan Gailey forces his players to read all of the negativity and use it as added fuel to turn some heads in 2010.

There is a certain buzz around the Buffalo Bills for the first time this offseason. While the Bills generally manage to do enough in the offseason to generate excitement among the most fiercely loyal of NFL fans, it has taken a while to set in for the 2010 season. This season, it took some good old-fashioned results on the field, not some big name signing, to create a buzz in Buffalo about their Bills. While it is nice to have something to get excited about, let’s try and maintain our realism, and see this team as it really is.

Gailey seems to have a handle on things so far, but hopefully that's not just by Dick Jauron's low standard.

For the offense, there has been more signs of life than at any time since perhaps 2002 (the last time they didn’t finish in the bottom quarter of the league). BUT…Trent Edwards is coming off an atrocious season in which he was 2-5 as a starter, throwing just six touchdowns and seven interceptions. I’m sure Dick Jauron’s philosophy was to stay conservative, but when Ryan Fitzpatrick was in last season, he seemed to think that some plays were designed to go for more than three yards. Edwards has exuded confidence we haven’t seen in a while, but opposing defenses are not yet throwing in their exotic blitz packages and coverages yet. Trent seems to have a particular difficulty against the 3-4 defense, which everyone in his division implements.

C.J. Spiller looks like an explosive runner out of the backfield, and we’ve all heard about his ability as a returner and receiver. BUT…he does make an awful lot of negative plays trying to make the big play. He has not yet had NFL defenses keying in on him and trying to take him out of the offense (though I know Cincinnati was stacking the box early). He only averaged 15 carries per game at Clemson, so the rookie wall will be a concern to watch out for as well.

Roscoe Parrish appears to be a member of the offense this year, as he was Edwards’ most effective target against the Bengals in his last outing. BUT…in five previous seasons with the Bills, Parrish’s catch totals were 15, 23, 35, 24 and 3. He has been in the league for quite a while without producing at a respectable rate as a receiver. While he may not have had a great coordinator at any time, he certainly has had a few, all of whom have been unsuccessful in making him a threat to opposing defenses.

The offensive line finally appears to be healthy. BUT…Demetrius Bell, Eric Wood and Andy Levitre are all still young inexperienced players with under a season’s worth of experience. Geoff Hangartner comes from Carolina, where he only started after they suffered injuries. I didn’t hear one Bills fan ever pine for the days when Cornell Green would be holding down the fort at RT until they signed him (and that still isn’t many). This unit will need to gel and continue to learn on the job.

The special teams has been a strength of the team for many years and has consistently ranked at the top of the league. BUT…boy do they miss Bobby April so far. The coverage units have been atrocious. There have been no real threats to break any big returns. I know Bruce DeHaven is a respected coordinator, but it seems his units were much better when he had Steve Tasker and Mark Pike running down kicks. While talent is obviously required for any coach to be successful, you also have to wonder how much of DeHaven’s success was due to Marv Levy’s due diligence during his time with Bills, as Marv was a former special teams coach himself. Hopefully DeHaven is just working out the kinks, but he has a lot of work to do.

The defense is switching back to the 3-4, which should help to create more confusion for opposing offenses. BUT…it is a transition year for the defense, and they probably do not yet have all the right pieces in place for this scheme just yet. If preseason is any indicator, they do not. The defensive backs will have to adjust to more man-to-man coverage, and one of the linebackers is going to have to show that they can generate a pass rush. I still need to see Maybin beat starting-caliber offensive tackles. The secondary is also licking their wounds after that Bengals aerial assault.

Luckily for the Bills, this is the NFL where unexpected teams (teams with no scheduled prime time games, good news) always seem to come from nowhere to make the playoffs. I also am enjoying watching an offense that isn’t lifeless and can stay on the field for more than three plays at a time. But let’s just remember that this is a 6-10 team that hasn’t signed any top-tier free agents. They’re a young team playing in perhaps the toughest division in the NFL. Let’s just hope they continue to improve upon the aforementioned areas of weakness, and remain competitive throughout the season. Hopefully, this will be the kind of young, talented team that lays the foundation for future success, even if they only win a handful of games this year.