Virtually everyone who makes preseason predictions, myself included, has deemed the Buffalo Bills a lock to finish fourth in AFC East.

The Bills are not offended.

We know this because, as the Bills lugged their TVs and toys and linens into the St. John Fisher College dorms Wednesday, they were asked.

"If you take our record from last year and say we had a lot of problems going into this offseason -- quarterback, offensive line, new defense -- I mean, why wouldn't you say that?" Bills linebacker Paul Posluszny said.

Running back Fred Jackson was equally unbothered prognosticators consider Buffalo the division's worst team, but claimed the team feels confident it can exceed outside expectations.

"We haven't done anything for them to pick us any different," Jackson said. "We're very confident that we have the capabilities to do what we can do. I don't think that we feel that way by any means.

"For us to get respect, we have to go out and make the people respect us. A lot of guys are thinking, in terms of being picked [fourth in the AFC East], the only way to change that is to go out and win ball games."

Defensive end Chris Kelsay noted being taken for granted has its advantages. Kelsay is entering his ninth season with the Bills and has experienced only one winning record, when they went 9-7 six years ago.

"I'd rather kind of sneak in through the back door and surprise people than to be placed in the limelight right from the get go and then maybe not play and live up to those expectations," Kelsay said.

"It doesn't bother me one bit whether people are talking about us or not because at the end of the day it doesn't matter. The only people that can control what we do are the guys within this organization, everyone from management down to the players."