OvrOfficiousJerk

Eddie Robinson? Jeff Posey? At any rate, yeah none of TD's FA signings was completely mind-blowing. I'll give him London Fletcher and Takeo Spikes, he'd get a lot more credit for the latter if not for Spikes' injuries. On the flip side, there were a couple respectable names like Chris Villareal, Larry Centers (who got a Pro Bowl invite w the Bills), Izell Reese (not to forget the rando preseason FA signings like Olandis Gary, James Jett) -- somewhat recognizable names but who were caught a couple years too late to really be considered a "splash."

+1 I saw that point made in the comment section of a Bflo Rumblings article on Shawne Merriman and it like blew my mind. OL can't expect to do well agst. top-notch LB corps (which the rest of the AFCE has had as of late) without seeing it on a regular basis during practice -- Practice needs to be bloodless battle, battle needs to be bloody practice sort of thing (Flavius Josephus I think).

Why not Flozell Adams? I hope his stock is dropping as he stays on the open market and we can get him at a bargain.

My concern isn't just about the front seven.... it's about the front eight/nine/ten/eleven. We ended the season with six-some LBs on IR, plus Dwan Edwards. Wanna know why close losses earlier in the season became blow outs toward December? Not having a stable of serviceable LB reserves has something to do with it...

"First Niagara Arena" does have a nice ring to it... But yea, FN has been expanding rapidly. They snagged a Philly-area bank at a fire sale a couple months ago; kinda nice to see a Buffalo operation being the hunter instead of the hunted.

Again, we're pretty stacked at WR this year so we won't need him. However, even if we started the season with Justin Armour and Chris Brantley at WR1-WR2, with Kwame Cavil, Avion Black, Reggie Germany as the reserves, I would say PASS on Braylon Edwards. His butterfingers didn't get the same press because he was in Cleveland (versus, Caldwell or Gaffney w/ the 2006 Pats), but seeing him drop so many sure TDs or missing out on clutch first downs was just painful.

And basically what it comes down to is medicating these traits when they are amplified start to affect one's quality of life. I don't know if he was just using it as an alibi, but it sounded like Marshall was deeply affected by Darrent Williams' death, and that turned a diva (like many football stars tend to be) into a BPD patient.

http://www.nationalfootballpost.com/Wilson-Williams-death-a-reason-Brandon-Marshall-wants-out-of-Denver.html Not surprisingly, a psychiatric diagnosis after a traumatic experience in life. I must admit, psychiatry can be a lot of hand-waving sometimes, but when there's a history of traumatic events (e.g., losing a teammate soon after you saw him alive), you can't ignore a possible detrimental effect on a person's psyche. That's definitely unfortuante for Marshall, it's an extremely difficult diagnosis to live with. I'm not sure what the locker rooms were like on the teams he was on, but people with BPD tend to "split" -- people are either good/great/fantastic to them or bad/terrible, there's no middle ground. The BPD might explain his modestly acrimonious departure from Denver. I hope the best for him.

I wouldn't be surprised if he had a similar career arc as Kawika Mitchell -- good veteran presence, fresh off experience with a deep playoff run, but not necessarily providing eye-popping production.

+1. Granted this guy is a couple years older than Poz, but the injury-prone history doesn't especially bother me (Poz definitely kept UB orthopaedics in business when he played here). Also we just really needed a stop gap till the young guys get on-line. Great signing.

$10 says they really cooked the books on that one, they probably used the whole of Canada to get that number. Talk about throwing another small market under the bus...

I've been modestly worried about this, the season ticket drop was huge from 2009 to 2010 (then again 2009 was a near-record year) and because there were only four sellouts last year. I'm not sure if he's just saying "they've been good" because that's what businessmen do, but hopefully that means they haven't been abysmal. With yesterday's news maybe many people were so desperate about the prospect of no football that they'll open their wallets with the lift of the lockout.

Not to turn this into a Sabres thread, Gumby is actually not half-wrong 1) As far as meddling goes, Golisano won't be confused with Jerry Jones anytime soon -- he didn't use a royal fiat to play and/or keep pet players and personnel that were obviously underachieving. You could argue that maybe Regier was someone he had kept beyond his expiration date (the free agent exodus of 2006-2008 will be an indelible mark against him), but versus the Bills' FO at least Regier had a decent track record (the playoff misses from 2002-2004 were more due to the Rigas' stripping of the franchise and bankruptcy more than anything else). The only requirement was that they stayed within a budget, which is not necessarily unreasonable for a small market franchise. 2) Before and during the Troubles (the bankruptcy crisis), weekday night games at HSBC arena regularly drew circa 10,000. Within just a few years they became the hottest ticket in town again, with no small credit to the pt/au/ag/bronze/value set up. There are worse things than losing home field advantage to a bunch of Maple Leafs fans, especially when the Leafs haven't given us problems since Clinton was in office. 3) The teams that were put on the ice during his tenure were, if nothing else, entertaining. Not to speak ill of the "hardest working team in hockey" (or the French Connection, as I was not alive at the time), I would put the 2005-2007 Sabres the most entertaining teams I've seen. The central point of those who think Golisano would be a great owner for the Bills is not that he'll do anything to put a championship product on the field, because July 1, 2007 certainly suggests otherwise. However, he'll be a great owner because he has a history of turning a moribund franchise on the cusp of relocation/contraction with a dwindling fanbase back into relevance. Say what you will, that sounds like a dead ringer for the Bills franchise right now, and if Golisano rides on his white horse up from Florida to save the Bills, I'm falling in line.

Pretty solid work, a couple missteps here and there but hey he's still young. Pro -Agree pretty much with #1-#5 -Nice breakdown of the Beebe forced fumble on Lett. -Remembering the post-Super Bowl XXV rally, Super Bowl XXVIII. I can barely remember what I did yesterday... -Loved the shoutout to UR -- "I think the University of Rochester is a lot more highly regarded than anything the University of Tennessee could do." Con -I liked the inclusion of the abject MNF failures from the recent past, but I would've also included Lindell's "Wide Right" agst. Cleveland in '08 in terms of nation-wide embarassments. -He did drop the ball on the dual ownership - an owner can own two franchises in different leagues as long as they are in the same city (which is why Kronke had to sell off his share of the Avs to own the Rams).

I remember Matt pretty well: long hair out the back of the helmet, made a few key plays/interceptions in his one season here and also the fact that he was cut pretty abruptly. It was surprising to see that he only had played one year with us, but I saw him plenty when he bounced around the league (Philly, Wash, etc.) so maybe that's why I thought his career here was longer. Even though it was 15 years ago, I was modestly surprised when he was waived because he had a respectable first year. The failed drug test explains that I guess. Hopefully he gets some mobility back with the device, all the best to #23 Matt Stevens.

+1. I thought it was the Buffalo homer in me who didn't think Gregory was measuring up but it sounds like someone else feels the same way. I follow Gregory on Twitter for old time's sake, but jeez, the transition from Russert to Gregory is reminiscent of Bills' post-Kelly QB situation. Times 100.

What were you expecting of the man? I podcasted Meet the Press religiously: he raked everyone over the coals regardless of station or political affiliation, asked insightful questions and teased information out from his guests. That's what was expected of him. If you want someone who challenges the system, pick up a copy of Artvoice. If you want someone who challenges people in power, that was Tim Russert. Guess which option is more constructive? Russert did his job and he did it extremely well, and was an impeccable embodiment of his hometown and his football team.

Authentic jerseys don't have silkscreened numbers. I don't have an authentic one myself but I've seen them in person, and it looks like those have pretty nice sewn-on cloth numbers. Admittedly, I've paid the full $80 for replicas on a couple occasions (on T.O. no less, but also for a white throwback Poz which isn't as bad). My one non-replica is a Kemp throwback, I think they call it "Premier." The numbers are sewn on (but they're a plastic-like material) and the jersey fabric is a bit higher quality (a step up from the mesh they have on the replica).

Here we go brownies here we go woof woof Living 3 hours down Lake Erie has had an impact on me...

Probably explains why NFLshop.com dropped the prices on our current jerseys...

Doing my daily window-shopping at NFL.com, I noticed that the Bills jersey prices have been cut all across the board. Except for the Kelly/Thomas/Reed authentic throwbacks, all of the jerseys are on pretty solid discount (~50%), and not only for guys we let go or are planning to let go (and even those are dirt cheap -- $10 for Edwards jersey, how could I go wrong???). While I can see dropping the price on Whitner, the fact that CJ and Poz are also reduced is telling, as are the CUSTOMIZED jersies, which is the real tell-tale point for me. After a rather unscientific poll, I determined that other teams are not subject to this jersey discount. And, the fact that the rest of the Bills memorabilia (including the aforementioned high-end throwbacks), precludes the possibility of the NFL predicting that something nefarious is afoot. Indeed, the featureless jerseys (rather than T-shirts that explicitly say "Buffalo Bills") would be the most likely to remain the same should the team move. Does anyone have any inside information as to whether or not this means we'll have new duds come September?

+1, Right on PTR. There's a quote in a 2009 Buffalo News story from the stadium manager, pretty much saying what PTR said. http://findarticles.com/p/news-articles/buffalo-news/mi_8030/is_20090327/bills-anxious-stadium-funding/ai_n43024270/ It'd be hard for a new owner to argue for a new stadium when someone within the organization said right out that it's just fine for the forseeable future. Man, I love living in the City of No Illusions...

A fantasy football site quoting the LA Times.

Seriously, this whole situation smacks of an ultimate letdown. Everything is laid out for a favorable outcome for the Bills yet somehow they snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Choose your metaphor: 1990, 2000, 2004 or basically any close game involving DJ (btw, as a quick aside, Harbaugh totally Jauron-ed the Ravens on Sunday night by making Flacco pass on 3-and-medium with a late fourth quarter lead, echoing 2007 Dallas and 2008 NYJ). Here, we have two franchises on the verge of giving the City of Angels a return to the NFL stage, yet I still have a sinking feeling that the Bills are the ones that will end up as the LA Kardashians. I don't know why, but this situation doesn't end in our favor. Call it two decades of psychological conditioning, but until Pegula or Golisano or Rich or Jacobs or a combination thereof have established a three-deep succession plan to keep the Bills in OP, I will cherish every down of Bills football as if they're packing the Mayflowers when the season's over.

I feel I can extend your post: There's a couple categories to the guys we let go - 1) Deserved to walk - Clements 2) Talent you could never have predicted - Banaan, Haggan, and it seems Leonhard 3) Should still be in a Bills uniform (okay, maybe not now, but at least for a couple more years) - [Not necessarily the stereotypical names of Williams and Winfield] Spikes, Fletcher, and heck I'll throw in Lawyer Milloy. Though seemingly at the end of their rope, these veterans formed the nucleus of one of the best defenses in the league in 2003-2004, and were let go soon thereafter despite still having many years left in them. While they probably couldn't be a long term solution, these were class-act veterans who could've coached up guys like Poz/Crowell/[insert marginal LB here] or Whitner/Scott/Simpson. If there's any reason why you see Whitner miss tackles, or why we don't have any LBs wrapping up RBs at the line of scrimmage, losing those three players would be it. Do we have a decent defense from 2006 on if they were extended by two/three years?