Buffalo Bills: More Questions Than Answers As OTAs Open

(Photo by Rick Stewart/Getty Images)

BUFFALO, NY – In 2006, the Buffalo Bills finished with a 7-9 record under then first-year coach Dick Jauron.

In 2007, the Bills struggled to an 0-3 start but rallied to become a late-season factor in the playoff chase again finishing 7-9.

In 2008, the Bills raised some early playoff hopes by sprinting out of the gates to start 4-0—only again to finish...you guessed it, 7-9.

Seven and nine.

To say the bar has been set for Jauron—after three straight 7-9 seasons at the helm and nine years for the franchise without a post-season appearance—just might be an understatement.

But this franchise which has endured such a turbulent offseason—the passing of Jack Kemp, its quarterback during the 1964-65 AFL Championship era; the off-field legal issues of Marshawn Lynch, Donte Whitner, Ko Simpson, and Corey McIntyre; the fan uneasiness of having another regular season game taken from Ralph Wilson Stadium and placed in Toronto’s Rogers Centre and the general uncertainty of the team’s long-term viability in western New York—faces more questions than just its win-loss record.

As the Bills open their first of 11 scheduled OTAs beginning Monday—with the Terrell Owens reality show and three-ring circus now in tow—the goals are clear for Jauron and his staff. Merely breaking the 7-9 ceiling won’t be enough to stick in Buffalo.

It won’t be easy.

The Bills will likely be without Lynch, their leading rusher (1,036 yards, 8 TDs) who is suspended for the first three games of the season—though it is still pending appeal. Lynch was arrested in March in Culver City, California on a felony charge of possession of a concealed weapon.

It was his second off-field incident which earned his suspension by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.

They’ll open their season on a Monday night in Foxboro against the New England Patriots—Tom Brady’s first game back since his knee injury—in front of a national television audience. In fact, the Bills schedule ranks as one of the most difficult, with an opponents’ winning percentage of .512 from last season.

And then there’s Owens.

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