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Fired a week before the start of the season as the Bills' offensive coordinator, an angry and confused Turk Schonert said the problem in Buffalo was that coach Dick Jauron wanted "a Pop Warner offense" -- an offensive playbook as simple and uncreative as possible, and that Schonert's schemes were too complicated to fit in with Jauron's plan.

Now five weeks in to the season, having committed nine (NINE!) false start penalties Sunday in losing one of the worst offensive games in sports history to the previously winless Browns, the Bills are playing as if to prove Schonert right.

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FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- If Terrell Owens was upset at how few throws came his way in his first game as a Buffalo Bill, he wasn't saying. He wasn't talking, wasn't tweeting and wasn't complaining -- to anybody who might hear and make a big deal of it, at least. In Buffalo's heartbreaking loss to the Patriots on Monday night, Owens didn't catch a ball until there was 4:43 left in the third quarter. In all, he caught three -- two that counted in the final stats and one that was nullified by his own interference penalty.

But the VH1 reality star didn't have a thing to say about his night, or his team's. He sent a locker room attendant to fetch his clothes so he could dress out of sight and escape without doing interviews. And his Twitter page offered no insight.

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Amid all these NFL predictions flooding the web this week there are few certainties. But if recent history is any indication, we know for sure that at least one of this year's division winners will be a team that finished in last place a year ago. At least one team has turned the trick every year since the NFL went to the current eight-division format -- 10 teams total in six seasons. The Dolphins did it last year, the Buccaneers the year before, and the Eagles and Saints the year before that.

The reasons for this phenomenon are obvious -- overall parity, four-team divisions, a scheduling system that (basically) makes life easier for the teams at the bottom and tougher for the teams at the top. The only question as the 2009 season dawns is which of last year's last-place finishers will be among this year's division winners. We ranked all eight of them in order of their chances to continue the trend:

The NFL season is a little more than four weeks away, so FanHouse is at Bills training camp today for Stop 4 and Mile 768 of Dan Graziano's five-camp, 1,100-mile road trip.

PITTSFORD, N.Y. -- While the Bills were enjoying an evening practice under the lights at St. John Fisher College, star receiver Terrell Owens was back in the trainer's room, tweeting about the sprained toe that kept him from being on the field.

"Just finished treatment!! Done 4 the day!" Owens tweeted just before 8:30 p.m., in his first injury-related tweet of the day. "Every day is a good day. I'm definitely tahnkful." (Give him a break. It's hard to type on those things.)

The NFL season is a little more than four weeks away, so FanHouse is at Bills training camp today for Stop 4 and Mile 768 of Dan Graziano's five-camp, 1,100-mile road trip.

UPDATE, 6:05 p.m. -- The Bills just released this statement from coach Dick Jauron: "Terrell Owens will not participate in tonight's practice due to a sprained toe. I will address his status in more detail following tonight's practice session."

That session is scheduled to run from 7 PM to 9 PM ET, and I promise FanHouse will update you at that time.

PITTSFORD, N.Y. -- Showed up here this morning hoping to talk to Terrell Owens, but when I went out to the field to watch the morning walk-through, No. 81 wasn't there! And I wasn't the only one who noticed. The regulars pressed the Bills' PR staff for an explanation, and that proved difficult to get.

The weather's hot, there are morning and afternoon practices on the schedule and Terrell Owens is getting along with his quarterback. Don't look now, people, but I think it may be the first day of training camp.

This morning in Rochester, N.Y., the Buffalo Bills became the first NFL team to open its 2009 training camp. And as you might have expected, their chatty new wide receiver was the focus of the attention.

Not that you asked, but...

...Only the Lions could find themselves in this position -- owners of the No. 1 overall pick in a year when neither they nor anybody else really wants it. It's such a Lion position in which to be. The consensus is that there's no Orlando Pace in this draft -- no clear-cut, impact, franchise-changing No. 1. And the Lions need so much help that they'd love to trade down and get three or four useful players instead of one. But since nobody else seems to know who they'd take if they traded places with the Lions, nobody's lining up to do it.

Personally, having watched a lot of college football last year, I'm an Aaron Curry guy. For me, he's the guy Mike Ditka would be trading his whole draft and putting on a wedding dress for if Ditka were still in charge somewhere. He's the all-around game-changer type in this year's draft. But since he's not a quarterback or a mountainous offensive lineman -- not necessarily a guy who'd even be on the field on third down -- nobody feels like they want to spend the top pick on him. Fair enough, I guess. Seems to me he's athletic enough to do whatever they'd need, but they know better than I do.

There's a lot of football to be played in 2007 but with Lovie Smith finally pulling the plug on Rex Grossman in Chicago let's turn the clock forward to 2008 for a moment. Grossman's contract is up after this season and, unless he pulls a Lazarus, he won't be signing another one in Chicago. His career won't come to an end, though. From Jim Plunkett to Trent Dilfer to Vinny Testaverde, football history is laden with quarterbacks who failed at their first stop only to find success at a destination down the road. Some coach will look at Grossman's powerful arm and give him another chance to run an offense. Who might roll the dice on Rex?

Tampa Bay - Jon Gruden always finds the grass greener on the other side of the quarterback fence, even if Jeff Garcia is off to a good start in pewter. Garcia has another year on his deal but is 38 and might not have a lot of football left in him. The con is that Gruden's offenses are predicated on accurate, efficient quarterback play and no one will ever mistake Grossman for one of those.

Miami - Adam Schefter of the NFL Network reports that Cam Cameron recruited Grossman while he was the coach of Indiana and could look in that direction again if John Beck isn't ready and/or Trent Green suffers another concussion or two.

I was blown away to see that the Ravens gave up three draft picks, including two third-rounders, to Buffalo for Willis McGahee. It's nothing against McGahee, he's an okay running back. It seems to me, though, that running backs are the most easily-replaced players on the field.

Clinton Portis goes down for the Redskins, Ladell Betts steps right in. Denver gets ridiculous production from their running back position every year, no matter who's back there. Every year, there's a handful of rookies or backups who step in and produce. Guys like Chester Taylor, Ron Dayne, Julius Jones, Travis Henry, Marion Barber ... all averaging over 4 yards a carry.

My point is this: if your team doesn't already have a guy on the roster who can average over 4 yards per carry, then your GM has probably screwed up pretty badly, either at the running back position, or leaving some other glaring deficiency with the offense. And unless it's one of the elite running backs in the league (and there definitely aren't more than two or three of those), it's not worth giving up a ton of money and/or draft picks to get someone else's running back. It's not hot. You can fill that hole somewhere else.

Let's look at the situation for the Browns, who gave a ton of money to Jamal Lewis ... I just wonder, what is Jamal Lewis going to give them that Reuben Droughns couldn't? No, Cleveland couldn't run the ball, but was that Droughns' fault? When Jason Wright or Jerome Harrison got in the game, they couldn't run, either.

Could it be that Cleveland's anemic passing game let other teams sell out on the run, limiting Droughns' room? And Jamal Lewis, in Baltimore, behind a better line and in a more balanced offense, got 3.6 yards per carry. I'm expected to believe that the difference between Droughns' and Lewis is worth any kind of substantial investment?

Cleveland, like any other team who invests a ton of money or draft picks for a running back, could have spent that money better elsewhere.

Buffalo Bills cornerback Nate Clements is probably not going to be a Buffalo Bill next year. He announced today his plans to explore free agency, and while it's still a possibility that the Bills could bring him back, Clemens will be the best corner available in free agency, and there will be teams lining up to throw money at him.

He says he wants to be the highest-paid corner in the league, and I tend to believe he'll get the money he's asking for. There are a lot of teams with cap room out there this off-season ... and most of them are a little more free with a buck than the Buffalo Bills. That's not necessarily a criticism, but ... Buffalo has a certain reputation.

He wants to be paid like it, but is Clements actually the best corner in the league? Probably not, but ... he's close. He'll just have to settle for being the best corner available, which is often the more lucrative option. He's got great size, is fast, and has excellent technique at the line of scrimmage and on the ball. And as you can see from the picture, he's got a firm, well-shaped bottom. Scouts love that.

He'll get his money. And at the age of 27, playing a crucial position, he wouldn't be the worst investment in the world.

I'd like to paint a prettier picture for the people of Buffalo, but ... realistically, what are the odds? It's a small-market team with a reputation for not paying anyone big money, and if they can't offer Clements the same type of paper that other teams are offering, it's not like they can rely on the comfortable climate and popping nightlife of Buffalo to keep him around.

Say your goodbyes, Bills fans.