Caste Football Looks at the 2007 Buffalo Bills

[color=red]pictured: rookie middle linebacker Paul Posluszny[/color]The Bills are unique in that more of their white players are on defense than offense; in fact far more — 12 on defense compared to 6 on offense (and two kickers). Although the number of whites on offense is quite low, in the NFL no one challenges the racial status quo very much and to see at least one team give a fair opportunity to whites to play defense is a a ray of light in a sea of darkness.Buffalo’s defensive starters are seemingly changing by the day because of injuries, but as of now there are five whites starting, more than any other team.Rookie MLB Paul Posluszny out of Penn State is a great athlete with tremendous football skills. Pencil him in for greatness for the next dozen years.Coy Wire was moved from safety to WLB after the black starter went down, but Wire then suffered a significant injury himself in the season opener. Wire played linebacker, safety and tailback while at Stanford.Jim Leonhard is now the starter at free safety after Ko Simpson was lost for the year. Leonhard had a dozen tackles in the opener and looks to state his case to remain the starter for good. He is another great athlete with superb leaping ability and quickness who was a record setting punt returner for Wisconsin.The Bill also start three whites on the defensive line. Right end Aaron Schobel, in his seventh year out of TCU, is one of the five best in the league, and annually ranks among the leaders in tackles and sacks but who (big surprise) is very under-publicized.The left end is Chris Kelsay, who keeps getting better every year and at just 261 pounds is trying to become an elite pass rusher in 2007.Kyle Williams from LSU in his second season is entrenched as the starter at right tackle, one of the few whites “allowed” to start at the strength-oriented position of DT.Tim Anderson backs up Williams, while Ryan Denney backs up Kelsay. End Ryan Neill is used mainly as the long snapper.John DiGiorgio from small school Saginaw Valley battled Posluszny for the starting MLB job all through training camp and should see quite a bit of action. Josh Stamer is the backup on the strong side.Rookie strong safety John Wendling from Wyoming is another freak of nature athletic specimen who should play a significant amount of time and has all the markings of a future starter, especially on a team that is being fair to whites on defense as whites have always excelled at all defensive positions and still do when given opportunities.Former first round pick J.P. Losman, now in his fourth year, is the uncontested starter at quarterback. He had a strong second half of the season in 2006 even though the Bills’ o-line left a lot to be desired, as did the receiver position after Lee Evans.Rookie Trent Edwards may be the quarterback of the future if Losman stalls in his development.Brad Butler won the starting job at RG at the end of training camp to become the only white starter on the o-line and the only one on offense besides Losman.Kirk Chambers and Jason Whittle are backup guards. Ryan Neufeld is the third string tight end.NUMBER OF WHITE STARTERS: 7APPROXIMATE NUMBER OF WHITE PLAYERS ON 53 MAN ROSTER: 20GRADE: D+

2007-10-31