VJ91

Average.

First of all, I would hope the Bills never sign convicted felon Vick to play football for them. Secondly, why would it be so special for Owens, Evans, Parrish and Nelson to go out & run their patterns, turn around, realize Vick is running around in the pocket and taking off down the field, and have to find someone to block?? Are the sparks you refer to going to be caused by Roscoe Parrish laying a "crushing" block on a linebacker as Vick runs for 40 yards or something??

Um....yeah. Peyton Manning has been nothing but a class act since he came into the NFL 12 years ago. He has quietly built a Hall of Fame career including a SB MVP Trophy, all with one team. Obviously, after working with Tony Dungy so long, Manning is having a hard time, at this advanced time of his career, adjusting to his new head coach staff that he's hired. How on earth does this compare to Owens' and his "Diva" - career of the past 14 years?? Whatever kind of negative print or media Owens gets when he does something crazy, has been well deserved.

Now that is funny. When the stadium was first built in 1973, it was one of the first in the country to be named after a corporate sponsor, anyone remember the name: RICH STADIUM? But I have to wonder about that rumor to begin with. I heard the State and local officials voted to name the stadium after him, and he quietly agreed. Finally, this deal with Toronto earns Ralph about 9 Million a season. Selling naming rights, even if he would have sold them from day one back under the new least in '98, would only bring in about 1 Million a season, or maybe even less. And with the economy, who knows how many different names the Ralph would have had over the past 11 seasons....and how stupid would that have been?

Why would you include a link in your post that forces you to pay money to read then entire thing? Are you a salesman for that "premium" e-zine or something?

Biscuit Bennet. As fans out here today regret the Bills not signing Freddy Kaiho or Cato June to replace Keith Ellison, Bennet starred for 9 years at weakside OLB. There has never been another linebacker who could match his size, strength and speed, and to think he played opposite Bruce his entire career in Buffalo. When I think about Ellison lining up next to Kelsay opposite of Schoebel and Kawika Mitchell, I am so thankful my days of season tickets and the annual road trip or two were from 1987 to 1996!

There are no right or wrong answers with young QB's today. Not since 2000, when the Pats drafted Tom Brady as an after-thought in the 6th round. It is way more of a crap shoot then it was 15 - 20 years ago, when you gave a rookie QB 5 years to grow into the position. Look at Lost-man, he's only going into his 6th season, just about the absolute prime of his career, and it looks like there are 0 out of 32 teams that even want him as a back up. On the other hand, Joe Flacco walks into the NFL, yes as a first round pick, due to his pure size and arm strength, but from a lower division college. Nobody thought he would start from day one, and not only did he start from day one, but played way better then expected. Edwards is more in the middle of those two examples. Playing way better then expected drafted in the 3rd round from a bad Stanford team, yet not excelling as much as we would all love him to excell. No, this season is absolutely not "make or break" for him. But it would be great to see him stay upright and play all 16 games, and all evidence points to him having a break out season, if he can.

Why would anyone expect Owens to take the high road? And more importantly, who cares?? Let's be real here, when ESPN parades Tent Dilfer out there and refers to him as an NFL expert, credibility has gone out the window in sports reporting. Now we don't even need reporters. All we have to do is surf on over to T.O.'s "twitter" page, and get the answers from him directly. And ESPN pays Fran Charles to report that? Like I said, if T.O. can give the Bills those 10 TD's this season, I don't care if he twitters, blogs, texts, IM's and (God forbid) even talks on his cell phone to every football fan in America that he hates Buffalo and can't wait to get out when the year ends. When a players signs a one year contract, there really isn't much time or reason to worry about anything else he says or does beyond the 16 (or hopefully) more games he is under contract for.

The no huddle? What a joke. No team in NFL history ran a full time no huddle offense better then the Buffalo Bills from 1990-1996. In fact, I have to imagine that no other team in NFL history ever ran a full time no huddle offense for even 1 full season....ever. (I could be wrong, but I've never heard of another one doing it more then just as a change of pace.) Those great Bills teams won a lot of games and a lot of playoff games and zero SB Championships. Now comes DJ and Turk, the deep thinkers that they are, and they think: 1)Trend Edwards can match Kelly's lightning quick mind and cannon arm, running a no huddle? 2) Jackson, Rhodes and then Lynch can match Thurmans' uncanny pass catching and blocking skills as the feature no-huddle back? Can any or all of those three combine to even be as good as Kenny Davis was in the no huddle? 3) Any tight end can match Metzellars' blocking and pass catching skills? (Not much time to run tight ends in and out of the lineup when you run a no-huddle.) 4) That the Bills current roster of very talented wide receivers will be in good enough shape, and be able to block well enough to enable the no-huddle to function as well with the running game as it did in the ho-huddle glory days? 5) And of course the biggest riddle, they really think this offense line, with two rookies possibly starting, can come within 50% as good as that amazing line of the no-huddle glory days??

Coming back to the present: I only predict that 2009 will not be boring. I have no confidence in Jauron and his staff that he can bring all of this together and even snag that 6th spot in the AFC. On the other hand, the Bills seem to have enough talent to make a Dolphins-like run and maybe even steal the AFC East. I've been a Bills & NFL fan for over 40 years, and I don't have a clue how this team will finish!

I was pretty happy they bounced back well against the Chargers at home after that blow out loss to the Cards the week before. I was not convinced they had clinched the division or even a playoff spot however, because the NFL is a 16 game marathon. Teams seem to go on 4 game winning streaks and 4 game losing streaks in the same season every year. Anybody remember the 2004 Bills? Somehow they got hot and won 6 straight games to almost make the playoffs until they lost the last game of the year to the Steelers at home. So no, Skooby, I did not think the Bills had won squat at 5-1-0. Honestly though, I never saw the third straight 7-9-0 coming at 5-1-0 either. I was pretty much thinking 9-7-0, or maybe 10-6-0.

You could not be more wrong. There are 392 Division 1 & Division 2 college football programs that offer full scholarships in the USA today. If they average 70 scholarships per school per year, that comes to 28,000 student athletes playing football on full rides in the USA every season. Of those 28,000 per year, less then 300 get drafted into the NFL. That is barely over 1% of the players. Even if you knock that figure down by 50% to include just juniors and seniors, that makes only 2% of the all juniors and seniors playing college ball on scholarship today even getting drafted by NFL teams. I have to believe that the vast majority of the other 98% of football playing student athletes not good enough for the NFL, realize this fact, and try to get their degrees while their education is being paid for. Look at this another way. Let's say the top 125 college programs graduate only about 30% of their scholarship football players. That comes to about 6,125 players not graduating every year, using my example of 70 scholarships per team. However, let's assume the 267 smaller college programs graduate more like 70% of their scholarship players. That figure comes out to 13,083 players that do end up graduating.

I'm coming into this thread too late, so I know without looking the answer has been posted, but I will add the answer again: veteran linebacker Isaah Robertson was the first Bill to sing that tune in the locker room.

To borrow an immortal draft day phrase from the old GM of the Colts, Bill Tobin: Who the hell is Mike Florio? I would expect even the learned Mike Florio to realized this kid started all of 3/4 of one freakin' season at Penn. State, came out as a junior, and just might have a hell of a learning curve in front of him. Isn't it better for him to struggle with the reads and responsibilities now, in his very first full squad OTA, then when he makes his debut in New England in September?

I forgot all about 2006. But can you blame me? Lost-man himself forgot how to play that well half way through '07.

I like college football, but not nearly as much as the NFL. They do need an 8, 16 or even 32 team Football Playoff system. They could use the current bowl games to play them in, if they could figure out how to schedule these bowl games in a new weekly format leading up to the "Final Four" and "Championship Game." I don't care how much money the NCAA makes off the student-athletes, the education they earn should always be enough of a payment back to the players.

UFA Lineman still unsigned, that could contribute, in no particular order. 1. Ebenezer Ekuban DE - had 5 sacks with a lousy Broncos D last season. 2. La'Roi Glover DT - 14 year vet who had 30 tackles last year, good depth. 3. Langston Moore DT - Had 12 tackles & 1 sack for the Lions in 9 games last year. Plus, you can't have enough Langstons on your team.! - Still young. 4. Dewayne Robertson DT - Still only 27, had 1.5 sacks for Denver last season - good depth if he came cheap enough. 5. Josh Thomas DT - Productive back up DT for the Colts last year, 28 tackles - good depth at the right price. - 27 yrs. old. 6. John Thornton DT - Still only 32, had 30 tackles & 3 sacks for Cinti last year. Could challange Williams to start. 7. Anthony Weaver DT - 29 yrs old, had 45 tackles & 1 Int. for Houston last year. Could challange Williams to start. 8. Ellis Wyms DT - Had 2.5 sacks and 1 FF for the Vikings last year. 30 yrs old - solid depth player. 9. Marc Colombo OT - 4 year starter in Dallas, still only 30 yrs old. 10. Levi Jones - OT - Would be a terrific addition, if he was asking for sane money of course.

Lost-man will get signed during training camp, as QB's get injured or play their way out of town. As far has him becoming a starter in the NFL that can play 16 games with at least 2,500 yards, 15 TD passes and less INT's, and a steady passer rating over 80, forget it. He could not achieve that behind the Pat's O-line with Moss and Welker, in my humble opinion.

You mean if Norwood had made that kick, or....if Kelly would have called more running plays for SB "should have been" MVP Thurman Thomas, or....if Bruce Smith had knocked that ball out of Hostetlers' hand in the end zone and fallen on it for a TD instead of getting the safety, or....if Andre Reed had not dropped that perfect pass over the middle for a first down as the Bills were driving with a 12-3 lead but were forced to punt instead, or....if one of the 8 guys on defense who missed that Giants' receiver on their 3rd and 13 would have been able to tackle him forcing 4th down,......and the Bills would have won that game? If the Bills would have won that first SB against the Giants.....I could care less if they ever would have won another one, ever. Just one Lombardi Trophy for the Buffalo Bills is all I ever need to experience in my lifetime.

As I've said to all dog lovers and dog haters on all of these Vick threads, our ire is well deserved because running a dog fighting ring on your private property is illegal. He was tried, convicted, and is now just finishing up his prison sentence. Thus, Vick is now a convicted felon. I believe in our justice system, and when his sentence is over, and he's "paid his debt to society," of course he deserves a chance to earn a living. But not in the National Football League. For any team. Ever again. Playing in the NFL is a privilege, not a right. Just my opinion. Although I do love dogs, and most pets. I'm leaving emotion out of this. If an NFL player serves time in the big house, that is an automatic life time ban from the NFL. Period. If Goddell lets Vick back in he's crazy.

NFL-Bills - First game attended was 1968 at the old Rock Pile. MLB-Yankees - Since 1976, when they lost the WS to the Reds, but became relevant again with Billy Martin. NBA- Nuggets -Since they drafted Carmello Anthony after he helped Cuse win it all in 2003. **NBA- Buffalo Braves - I was a huge fan from day 1 with Elmore Smith & Bob Kaufman...through the glory days of: Ernie D, "That's two, for MAC-A-DOO!", Jim McMillan, Gar Heard & Randy Smith, (awesome starting 5), coach Jack Ramsey, & the "Mad Bomber" Jack Marin off the bench....through the last days of idiot John Y? Brown selling off the team to Boston, who then traded franchises with San Diego.** NHL- Sabres - Since day 1 in 1970. 1 NFL 2 NHL 3 COLLEGE FOOTBALL - (CUSE, UB) 4 COLLEGE BASKETBALL (CUSE, CANISIUS, UB, NIAGARA, ST. BONNA. 5 NBA 6 MLB

Gee, it sounds like that tourism money doesn't go back into the city, eh?....and that sounds like Buffalo politics, to me. Oh wait, Niagara Falls is just outside Buffalo...now it all makes perfect sense.

Well, at least he's not filming in Tonawanda. We know how much they hate him there.

Thank you Allen Iverson. By the way, nice job in Detroit this season. Maybe you should take practice more seriously as your age wall starts to get higher.

I'm not Shaun in Rochester, but KC Joyner should stick to his "need-a-life" world of keeping track of useless offensive linemen stats. If there was a hint of truth to his claim that Lost-man would be a Pro Bowler starting at QB for a team with more of a verticle passing game, then every team in the NFL that threw for at least 3,500 yards last season would have been competing to sign him as their back up QB this season. Last I checked, none of those teams have signed him, and in fact, none of the other 31 teams in the NFL have signed him yet either, including the teams that have lousy starting starting QB options. Let's see, in metrics-speak, I guess you could call that 0.00 FAI - (Free Agent Interest), for the future Pro Bowl QB, J.P. Lost-man.