All_Pro_Bills

After last night's defensive atrocity I have a hard time believing this team can win any games. So I'll say 3 wins, a new coaching staff, and the top pick in next year's draft.

You score only 7 points and you're going to lose. The offensive play calling was mind-numbing conservative. You think TT is a franchise level QB you're willing to potentially pay big money then you let him throw the ball around and take some chances when necessary. They had favorable match-ups with the Bills receivers against the Ravens secondary but refused to try and take advantage of it. That's what good coaching staffs do, take advantage of an opponents weaknesses. Playing scared is how I saw it or at best unprepared on offense for the start of the season. Rex's call right before halftime to let the clock run out rather than take about 40 seconds of time to give the offense at least a chance to pick up 3 points said it all to me. That's all I needed to see for the day right there. Next up is the Jets. You have Fitz coming in and the Jets which is a big contrast to the Bills. Maybe Fitz is erratic and inaccurate at times but the coaching staff shows some confidence and guts to open it up a little. The Bills need to do this with TT or the season will be over after the first 4 games.

A bye for only the regular season conference champion might eliminate some of the practice of resting starters and having that factor into the results of games that last couple weeks of the season. An extra wild card might mean either 3 games on both Saturday and Sunday or 2 games on Saturday, 3 on Sunday, and a Monday night playoff game. I'd take one more step and say if the 1st wild card (the 5th seed) has a better record than the 4th division champ (the 4th seed) then the wild card gets the home game on wildcard weekend. No tie breakers to decide this just record vs. record where the wild card team's record must be better with ties going to the 4th seeded division champ. I'll wager that would add another level of interest and unpredictability which would generate a lot of attention.

I'd like to see the league add 1 more bye week so each team gets 2 bye's in an 18 week schedule and also start the season a week earlier. And possibly eliminate 1 pre-season game bringing that down to 3 per team. Maybe its because I have absolutely no interest in fantasy football but to me 22 weeks is way too long.

OJ's number is retired for what he did on the field. What he did off the field is despicable. But un-retire his number to appease the political correctness movement? No. Give these goons looking to control the language of society an inch and soon they'll be demanding we rename Washington DC too.

I think that's it. The Eagles traded up to pick Wentz with the plan that he'll be their franchise QB in the future. Bradford knows that, Wentz knows that, the Eagles know that, in fact everybody knows that. There's nothing wrong with what the team is doing just maybe how the situation played out. Bradford gets a big 2-year deal, they sign Chase Daniels for around $7m per season as a back up and then decide to pull the trigger on the trade up to #2. So the 2nd overall pick in the draft is the 3rd string clip board holder? How may reps is he going to get in practice. What does this mean to Daniels? To me it appears they were done addressing the QB position and investing a lot of the cap to do so. But with the trade up in the 1st round there was a major shift in thinking that occurred somewhere between Bradford's deal and the draft. I'm sure this took Bradford by surprise and others too inside the organization. Maybe they should have informed Bradford of the teams intentions and the change in direction before they went public with the trade up deal? Maybe Bradford should have reacted differently? Probably, he should have kept his thoughts between the Eagles and himself. I can see his point in being PO'd but there was certainly a better way to handle it than what came off as a public temper tantrum. A private face to face all cards on the table man to man discussion between the QB and the GM would have accomplished a lot more and done a lot less damage.

The Bills big problem with the draft is a piece-part of the franchises biggest problem and that is a lack of organizational consistency and identity since the great Super Bowl teams of the '90s. Every 3 years or so their approach changes. Its the 3-4 on defense, then its the 4-3, the same thing on offense. Look at the successful franchises. They have an easily recognizable identity and consistent approach to the game and their drafts reflect that approach and consistency. Teams like the Steelers, Patriots, Packers, to name a few. Describe the Bills offensive and defensive identity over time. How can you possibly be successful with the draft in finding players to 'fit' your system when your system changes every couple years? That said, I think Whaley's performance is marginally better than his predecessors but to this point it hasn't been enough to get the Bills out of this funk and into contention. Find 3 starters with the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd picks along with some developmental types and I would consider that to be a good draft.

Most times how your fare in the legal process is directly dependent on much money you have to spend to defend yourself and how 'good' your attorney is along with whether or not they believe your 'story'. I've seen people charged with more severe offenses get a lighter sentence than others charged with lessor charges because of what I concluded was how much they could afford to spend. If this was you or I against the off-duty cops we'd have be facing felony assault charges the day it happened.

That is true to this point in time. The suspects, still not charged with any offense to this point, have kept quiet. That is smart. I've read police reports that state the officers followed every process and procedure to the letter and the suspect was clearly guilty. But when the statements were examined in light of the available physical evidence, available video of traffic stops or other sources, phone records, medical reports, and testimony from witnesses, the officers, and the suspects, etc., there were a large number of contradictions, omissions, and misstatements in the police report. Sometimes enough to get the charges dropped completely and much more often enough to get them significantly reduced. That's what I expect here. A reduction in charges for the entering of a guilty plea to a lessor offense rather than a very public jury trial. While its nothing official, reality is a prosecutor can be more motivated to acquire a conviction or a guilty plea and less concerned about the severity of the sentence and punishment. They might deny this but they'd rather get a 'plus 1' for a conviction or reduced guilty plea than taking a chance on a verdict of innocent from a jury trial. Most defense attorney's will also advise their client to settle for a reduced sentence when weighed against the risk of a jury trial unless they are certain they can select a jury that will be sympathetic to the defendant and that's not going to be easy in most cases.

I believe it was Bill Parcells that said these draft experts are mostly 'information gatherers' and not talent evaluators. That seems like an accurate assessment to me. Otherwise you'd think they would be working for some team that A+'s its draft every season..

Interesting the hear that feedback from a trooper. My guess is he's spot on. And I suspect the same, maybe these guys pull this off all the time and this time were charging their tab to Shady's party and they caught on to the scam and confronted them. The off duty cops got an attitude of so what, we're cops so what are you going to do about it? And then things got out of hand. So now the cops and the DA are holding back on the arrest warrants until they can come up with some kind of cover story and get everybody involving singing the same song.

According to EPSN, no arrest warrants are expected today. This looks iike it might take longer than the Warren commission investigation into the Kennedy assassination.

I suspect the poster meant #1 and from my experience and observation I agree. And perhaps the off duty officers got the crap kicked out of them because they tried to pull a number 1 on somebody that didn't quite see things that way?

That is likely true but the advantage of a 911 call is there a recording of the conversation that can be presented as evidence. Calling the station directly may or may not be over a recorded line so some potential record may be lost. Another option would have been for the off duty officers to make an arrest on the scene. Generally, police departments have an off duty code of conduct policy which describes the officers responsibility and authority when off duty. Not being familiar with Philadelphia's I can't say for sure but generally when an off duty officer witnesses a potential felony crime in progress they are compelled to act. The fact they choose to do neither of these, call it in or make an arrest, will raise questions from a competent defense attorney about the event. Perhaps their active participation in the brawl or intoxication led to their lack of action? But I speculate here.

And why are 'off duty' cops always in strip clubs?

Yup, as I suggested earlier, a $50K donation to the Philadelphia PBA and some compensation to the injured and it goes the way of an undisclosed out of court settlement.

And to expand a bit, a good lawyer will question the off-duty police as to why they didn't call for on-duty assistance. Or call 911. This might seem trivial but it is very important. Given their professional training of what a crime is and what a crime isn't why didn't they call the police immediately after the altercation? The defense will suggest they determined no call to the police was necessary because they felt no crime was committed. Maybe they were too drunk to know what was going on? Maybe they didn't want their wives knowing they were at a strip club? Were they guilty of DUI in driving themselves to the hospital? And the scene was wiped clean of physical evidence and there is no video from inside the club. Sure there might be eyewitnesses but how reliable are they and what did they see or hear if anything?

If the league suspends Shady for charges which are either dropped or he is found not guilty the players association would certainly appeal. And have a good case against the league. That said, McCoy is guilty of one thing for sure and that's bad judgment. The team would be wise to evaluate their financial and on-the-field commitments here.

My experience with the legal system is your chances of winning a case are directly proportional to how good your lawyer is and how much you have to spend. I suspect McCoy will be cleared and will not be suspended for any number of NFL games. A $50K donation to the Philadelphia PBA will probably take care of everything. In a month or so, the police will recommend the prosecutor drop the charges and he will do so.

My take on Manziel is he's got talent and potential to be a decent pro QB. In college he didn't have to try too hard because those abilities and the players around him were superior to most opponents. So he pretty much could goof off and still win and outplay most opponents as evidenced by his current activities. In the pro's things are much different. Everybody is a superior athlete, big, fast, strong. Also lots of them grew up poor and driven. So you get superior athletes that are willing to make the sacrifice to be the best and that's not going to be topped by some priviliged kid with talent who won't put in the work. Simply, right now Manziel doesn't appear willing to put in the work and effort up to this point. So he's getting the crap beat out of him on the field and his off the field antics make him look stupid. Maybe he wakes up and figures it out, or maybe somebody close to him give him a good slap in the face and he realizes he's wasting this opportunity. Or maybe he follows his current path and he ends up a total bust and a big time loser. It's pretty much up to him to decide if he wants to party or work.

All of that and they still only won by virtue of a missed XP. If not for that the media might be saying how a beaten and battered Brady overcame it all to lead an OT comeback win. That said, New England losing has put a smile on my face the whole day today.

If NE wins by less than 14 pts. I'll be surprised. The Bronco's got lucky beating a Steelers team without their best WR, down to 3rd RB, and a QB with 1/2 a throwing arm and still had to sweat it out into the 4th quarter. They should devote their time to preparing for the game rather than wasting it talking to the media and sending out tweets.

Since ultimatums without a realistic plan rarely work, I would rather hear the owner gave the GM and HC some direction to put together a plan that detailed exactly how they are going to make that happen. A plan TP would review with Whaley and Ryan by the end of the month that identified what went right, what went wrong, what can we fix, what can't we fix, what are our constraints, etc., and what are the steps the organization is going to take, and when, to get things right. I don't know anything about Pegula's business philosophy but if my suspicions are correct and he's approaching this as a business problem then I'll wager this is what he will want to see.

Whatever the schedule the BIlls will have to beat good teams to make the playoffs. They went 1-5 against teams that are in the playoffs this season. That just isn't good enough. To me the biggest positive going into next season is that QB is no longer the team's number one need. Sure they could upgrade the spot if the opportunity presents itself but there is no sense of desperation and resources can be focused elsewhere.

The team should release Goodwin. He's fast but injury prone and the roster and position spot can be better utilized.