Things are beginning to look too familiar for the Buffalo Bills.

So, another year, another Buffalo Bills season without the playoffs. The Buffalo Bills finished 7-9 for the 3rd straight season. I thought the point of the NFL was to try to constantly improve on your team, not stay the same. I mean, I can understand the New England Patriots not being able to finish 16-0 every season, but 7-9 is terrible. The Buffalo Bills and the Detroit Lions are now the only 2 teams who have not made the playoffs since the 1999-2000 season (The longest playoff droubt's currently in the NFL). Now, Ralph Wilson Sr. has decided to stick with the current coaching staff, and hope to build on a team, that is just one or two things away from being a contender.

 First of all, the Buffalo Bills need depth. I believe the wide reciever spot is what beat us this year. Josh Reed, although I do like him a lot, is not a number 2 wide reciever...he was a number 3 for the Pittsburgh Steelers before he came to Buffalo, and he should be a number 3 now. We should have worked more on James Hardy during the course of this season. James Hardy is a very skilled wide reciever, who some experts ranked higher than DeSean Jackson. The Philadelphia Eagles had a greatly improved wide reciever core this year, with the help of the young rookie. Also, we should be putting Roscoe Parrish in the slot...I can not think of a linebacker who can keep up with someone as fast as Roscoe is. Our offensive play calling was terrible this year. In the offseason, there was talk of us opening up our offense, letting it go. I didn't see that on the field at all...there were times where it looked like the offense was confused, and it looked like the defense knew exactly what was coming at them. I don't mind keeping head coach Dick Jauron, but maybe we should look offensive coordinator Turk Schonert. I know that it is his first year, so maybe it is better to keep him, but I want to see improvement, not the same 7-9, almost good enough for the playoffs, that Buffalo Bills fans have unfortunately become used to.

The next thing I think needs to change, and most fans will probably disagree, but I think we need to get rid of a big distraction. I am sorry, I know that Jason Peters is our only Pro-Bowler, but he has been more of a distraction this year, than anyone is worth. Also, the money he is asking for is crazy, I mean, football players get paid enough as is. We all know Buffalo tries to handle things quietly, Lee Evans had a contract issue that needed to be resolved last year, and what happened? Lee Evans showed up to camp every day, and the Buffalo Bills and Lee Evans worked out a new contract. The Bills are not good enough to handle a distraction by one of our "so-called" team leaders. Look at the distraction Terrell Owens brought to the Dallas Cowboys. The Cowboys are much more talented than the Bills, and still the distraction was enough to help the Cowboys miss the playoffs. These distractions should not be tolerated...the offensive line did fine in week 1 against the Seattle Seahawks, without Jason Peters.

 These are just two of the things that the Buffalo Bills need to work on during the off-season. These problems need to be resolved. It is a shame that such a great start to the season, 5-1, led us nowhere. I am not sure on the numbers, but I am sure that if you look up how many teams started 5-1, and missed the playoffs, it would be a short list. Now, the Buffalo Bills have joined that list.