The Buffalo Bills Are Taking Shape
The Buffalo Bills are taking shape in more ways than one. We all know about the big name free agents. Percy Harvin, Charles Clay, LeSean McCoy. They have captured the headlines and gotten everyone in Western New York excited.
But there is something more subtle going on.
The Bills last week signed free agent fullback John Conner who is affectionately known around the league as “The Terminator”. The signing is not all that big a deal really. Certainly not on the scale of McCoy or Clay.
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Conner is a journeyman player who is best known for his appearance on HBO’s Hard Knocks as a member of Rex Ryan’s New York Jets. They even named a special teams play after him called the “Terminator Trap”. But, let’s be honest, John Conner is nothing more than a fullback who’s bounced around the league for the last half decade.
Or is he?
Why did Rex Ryan bring in Conner? Because he’s a great fullback? I don’t think so. I think it’s the same reason he brought in Richie Incognito. For the first time in a long time the Buffalo Bills are going to have a personality…an identity. When the Bills walk out of the tunnel there is going to be something different. Like it or not, this team is going to take on the personality of their coach.
And if they don’t, he’s going to find players that will. Hence John Conner is now taking part in off season workouts in Buffalo, New York.
It goes back to his dad Buddy Ryan. Wherever Buddy Ryan roamed a sideline, there was a tough (sometimes dirty), take no prisoners team that was going to hit you and get in your head. Rex’s dad found players who wanted to (and enjoyed) playing his brand of football.
His brand of football is what Buffalo needs right now.
Rex Ryan is bringing more than coaching to Buffalo. He’s bringing an attitude, a style, a swagger. The current roster better buy in. They better understand that they are part of team that is going to punch the other guys right in the mouth. John Conner and Richie Incognito have been brought in to do just that. Incognito may have cleaned up his act off the field and in the lunch room but, you can bet that Rex is going to encourage his aggressive (yep, sometimes dirty) play on the field.
Conner was brought in to show a team that has been kicked around for 15 years just how to “knock-out” the other guy on a kickoff.
What do I think about it all? I say…Finally! Will it work? Who knows. I do know this… I’d prefer Rex and Buddy’s style of football to getting my teeth kicked in like it has been done the last 15 years. If we have to go down, let’s go down swinging.
I say welcome to Buffalo John Conner and Richie Incognito. It has been horrible watching the New England Patriots dominate this division with Tom Brady and Bill Belichick snickering each time they’ve walked off the Ralph Wilson turf as they just handed Buffalo another humiliating loss.
The days of taking it laying down appear to be over.
Next: Buffalo Bills Circling The Wagons - May 16th Edition
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