DazedandConfused

The fact simply is that if Lindell makes the two kicks against SF we lose 10-9 instead of 10-3. Once could make the case that if only we were closer in the game we would have scored again, but this fantasy approach can easily be taken by someone claiming that if the score was closer SF would also had more incentive to score. The simple mathematical fact is that if Lindell had made 2 three point FGs we would have had 6 more points.

I am not sure who will be around in a few years when Jauron's contract time goes down to a level that Ralph would be able to stomach eating the remainder. Like it or not, Jauron is the man for the time being.

I do not think the main problem is that the HC does not provide the motivation an HC can provide (in many ways we have seen poor performance by the HC provide the motivation players need by being so bad they join together as a unit to protect themselves as was the case with Barry Switzer with the Boys and even a great tactician like Belicheck who (inadevertently unless he is smarter than I think) mishandle the Lawyer Milloy situation so badly the players came together under this jerk). The problem is that there is not a core of seasoned and successful player leadership the motivates and leads each other in a refuse to lose attitude. For the Bills of old, this was a group of leaders like Kent Hull, Darryll Talley, Tasker, Thurman, Jimbo and even Bruce (who was no rah-rah motivator and was a very selfish person but he led by example of just being good and self-disciplined. The HC is key as in the case of a delegator like Marv, but this team strikes me as missing an element that someone who has been there before like a Favre and someone who is just scary good like a Tony Gonsalez can bring. If one wants to fault Ralph for sitting on lots of cap room and not opening his wallet, one need look no further than this team deciding to go with Royal rather than paying the draft choice price for Gonzales and deciding to go with the benched Edwards and the FA Losman instead of Favre.

Wanted: A FA this off-season who can provide the on-field leadership necessary to put this team over the top. Actually, it is going to take several players to do this based on what has worked for the Bills before (Kent Hull, Talley, Tasker, Thurman, Jimbo and even Bruce in terms of simply being great) had their roles. My sense is that a big part of the problem here is that the Bills have invested in acquiring some very talented players in assembling the youngest team in the NFL. They seemed to have the idea that somehow behind the character of Dick Jauron (a quality guy I think) they could mold a team like they wanted. It does not work that way in terms of NFL success and the braintrust needs to go into FA looking for several versions of players who can bring with them the respected refuse to lose sense that Favre has brought to the Jets,

The salary cap forces Ralph to dish out a set amount of salaries whether he likes it or not (if he does not like it he can make a free choice not to be an owner and to make the huge profits which come along with labor peace). HC salaries however simply come out of the enormous profits. Thus he seems happy to leave the details of player salary amounts to someone he trusts (though he has folks he has trusted like Butler, Wade-O, and others before so we can see how far his trust goes), but reverts to his old skin flint habits when it comes to HCs.

The argument I have heard is that the $70/hour number is simply based on bad math by an author published in the NY Times. The # supposedly is derived from taking all the costs wgich the Big 3 pay out to labor both working and retired and then dividing it by the number of hours current employees work. This # does show the amount of money the Big 3 agreed to pay their current and past workers. However, it does not reflect the current contracts that the Big 2 pay. There is a difference between the two in that the Big 3 have no ability to change the past unless they declare bankruptcy and escape the contracts they agreed to in the past (by welching on the past agreements and shifting as many costs as they can to the taxpayers who will pick up a substantial portion of their past deals if they go bankrupt). Even if one wants to live in a world where you define the $70/number as true (even though it has no reality for the current pay of employees) it ertainly has no relevance for how they are gonna squeeze water from a stone to somehow ignore reality.

I agree that almost certainly the Bills choose McGee over Greer if that is the choice that a Greer contract forces them to make (which I do not think it does so putting the question this way is a bit of an illusion from what I see). Yep. Greer has shown a lot more than folks expected as he finally has proven able to match some outstanding pre-season work he showed early in his career with some good regular season production. However, McGee has shown a level of athleticism which earned him a Pro Bowl slot as a return guy and his CB work has varied between him showing early promise, followed up by good play which made the Bills comfortable in late NC walk, a downturn as he learned the Cover 2, and a recovery after a benching that saw him earn the #1 CB role for the Bills. he is not a superstar at CB and the Bills were quite comfortable in going after McKelvin rather than filling a more pressing need. However, as impressive as Greer has been he still is a youngster who has suffered some injuries and the Bills almost certainly are not going to show him the money he will likely get on the market. Its a smart football move if they treat it this way.

Are we so strong at WR that we are willing to give up even potential assets there in exchange for the contributions of even a second round choice at WR? I do not think so. The simple facts are: 1. You would have McKelvin playing PR, KR and with his strong showing Sunday CB and I do not see the Bills doing this or it being intelligent to depend on a single player leading three units. 2. Parrish has not taken the world by storm at WR, but the lack of QB playing consistently at the position for anywhere near a full season has to have some role in this. Its not like Parrish has not proven anything (he is an inconsistent put powerful threat at #3, he is a proven PR performer, and despite his small size and injuries has proved willing to brave the slot. It comes off as the usual fan panic to want to throw him away and simply bad football to do this with no proven alternative for him in a working passing game.