Utah John

Larry Felser had a lot of clout among the pro football writers. It was Felser's campaigning that got Billy Shaw into the HOF (that, and the fact that Shaw was a great great player). None of the current or recent writers had that same amount of clout, and no one has taken on the challenge of getting Sestak the recognition he deserved.

The Bills have a very deep and talented receiver corps. Davis is a burgeoning star and he's better than the people who will replace him if he can't go, but those replacements are very, very good.

I watched an analysis of last year's performances by Singletary and Moss in pass protection. Moss was far and away better than Singletary in that aspect of their games. Singletary is probably a slightly better rusher, but Moss's superiority in pass pro means he should be starting whenever the Bills play a team with a strong pass rush.

I wore the lucky sweatshirt I wore all last year starting after the Hail Murray loss. It had a great winning streak but is 0-2 in its last two games. Out it goes.

This is how the Bills are built, pretty much across the board. One guy who's outstanding or even elite, and the rest that are all very good to excellent. Teams can afford this under the cap. When teams start getting two or more really topnotch guys at a position, they end up with holes in other places in the roster.

Very nice job. I have a question about terminology. Dont Stop and lots of other writers say that points are unanswered when in fact they ARE answered. The Bills scored 23 straight points, and the Steelers answered the Bills points with a TD of their own. OK, that aside, I think the only way Rousseau doesn't get headline billing after this weekend is if Roethlisberger does nothing but three step drops and release, whether the receiver is open or not. If Ben tries to stand in the pocket, he'll be dropped in the pocket. The Bills weakness last year -- lack of a pass rush -- couldn't ask for a better chance to get healthy. Most likely the Bills will try not to blitz much out of respect for Harris, but with the good front four the Bills have, blitzing won't be necessary. If the pass rush gets there, they'll need to keep Harris in to block, a big win for the Bills. And if the Bills get up on the scoreboard, that's another way Harris becomes less important.

It's hard to believe it was only a year and a half ago when the Bills played the Texans in the playoffs. How quickly they fell.

What I'd like to see is predictions based on simulations where each team loses five starters throughout the year to injuries or other multi-game absences. It would have to be a lot of simulations because there are so many scenarios. What if a team loses three O line starters? Two CBs? The starting QB? Factor all THAT in and I think the Bills are in better shape than anyone else. They have the deepest roster with players that all range from good (only a few) to very good to excellent to outstanding to elite. The Bills' distribution of talent level across their roster is more balanced than any other team I can think of. Most really good teams have a few more stars than the Bills but a lot more ugly ducklings the GMs are hoping turn out to be swans. If those ugly ducklings have to play a lot, their team will be laying an egg or two.

Great idea, letting people know. Besides getting in very early lets you see a lot of the pre-game activities.

Could happen. Trubisky is on a one-year contract and hopes to parlay his Bills' experience into a starting job somewhere. I thought Jake Fromm might be the eventual replacement but I don't think he has the arm for the job, and Davis Webb looks way too inconsistent. So the Bills will likely be in the market for a veteran backup next offseason. He wasn't successful but that was against a great Jags defense that almost carried THEM to the SB.

I was born in the mid-50s and that's my favorite opener too.

As time went on, Manning went downhill like almost everyone does. Brady hasn't yet, which is remarkable. Your observation that Brady was better than Manning after a certain point is accurate, but take into account that Manning is older and reached his peak before that time. That's a good point about winning regular season games vs playoff games, and which guy would be better in each situation. Most QBs struggle in the playoffs compared to their regular season performances (ref: Allen, Josh so far) and Manning was not an exception. Again, here's a point where Brady is clearly better than anyone else I can think of. Brady is just as effective in the playoffs as in the regular season.

I agree completely. Good analysis. And it does put the Brady v Manning comparison into focus. Manning peak five years or so were amazing. Brady continuing to win also amazing.

Memories are short. When Montana retired, John Madden was all over anointing Montana as the best ever, and at that point (about 1999 if memory serves) maybe he was. Then there was a stretch where Peyton Manning was better than anyone ever. Brady was playing great at the time but Manning was better. Then Manning got hurt and got old, and some younger fans think the Manning of the last couple of years was all that the guy had ever been -- and at the same time Brady kept on going. You can make a good argument for any of those three as the GOAT. My opinion is that Montana and Brady both excelled in offenses designed to maximize their good points and avoid things they didn't do so well. Manning OTOH just went out and balled. IMHO Manning is the best ever.

All that he said about the Bills (and the Titans) is that they haven't shown (yet) they can beat the Chiefs. Well, OK. Let's play the games, shall we? I think he just wanted to set up a nice neat pyramid so he came up with some factor that might not reflect this year's versions. He says the Browns have the best roster 1-53 in the league. I don't think so. They have a good roster 1-22 but I question their depth, and maybe that should be 2-22 because they clearly don't have a better QB than several other teams.

Here's a related question. If a player has guaranteed money in his current contract, and the team waives him, the player takes that contract with him if he's claimed from the waiver wire. Which team is responsible for the guaranteed money? If the player is released (a four year player) his contract is ended. I assume the team that cut him is responsible for paying any guaranteed money in future years.

The thing about Zimmer used to be, he was competing with Harrison Phillips, who is a fan favorite in part due to his commendable off-field activities. The Pats game last year was a big boost for Zimmer's reception here, and now it turns out that both Zimmer and Phillips are on the roster and will be called on for important duties. I agree with this completely except for the part where you said it was underrated. It was HUGE and we all knew it. At that point, the old Pats curse seemed to be kicking in. We've seen the Pats beat the Bills in so many diabolical ways over the years that this looked like yet another disaster. Zimmer really save the day.

Good for him. He's a couple notches better than most of the guys who bounce around the league. Honestly I would have preferred to keep him instead of Sweeney.

In any other context, they could say they were sacked. Not so much, in football.

My biggest concern for this year, aside from injuries and other absences, is that the OCs and DCs around the league will have been studying what the Bills do, trying to figure out some way to attack us. Fortunately (for us if not for them) both our OC and DC are both very creative, and they keep adapting and building. If there's an NFL coordinator out there who learns anything from fan boards, that guy needs a new job. They all know so much more than we do.

Our roster is so strong and deep that it was impossible to keep some players that are better than the guys on other teams. I'm actually happy to see the players we cut get picked up by other teams, partly in consideration of the player's career and partly as validation that we have so many good players. Success breeds success. There were long stretches of years where the only way the Bills could get good FAs was to overpay them. Now it seems McBeane can get the players they want -- they just don't want many because the guys here now are all keepers. Seriously, which players on the 53 are weak links? NONE. It wasn't long ago we were filling O line spots with Vlad Ducasse and similar lumps. Now, up and down the roster, they're all keepers. Not all are the best at their positions, which I think is OK with McBeane, perhaps even by design. The team is built to have everyone at least a B+ player by NFL standards, with most of them A-. We have a dozen A players and three or four A+ guys. This is how a team can afford to have strength and depth across the board, while staying under the salary cap. Teams with too many A+ players do so at the expense of holes in their roster.

The Bills just got finished making cuts including of some quite good players. They have built a roster that makes sense for the moment. When injuries inevitably come, if they're mostly in one position area, then McBeane might make some moves.

The Dolphins have a pretty good team with a handful of good to better players. They almost made the playoffs last year. The biggest thing holding them back is not having a franchise QB. They gave Ryan Fitzpatrick a shot while they were at it. Sound familiar? That describes most of the Bills teams over the drought years. How many times did the Bills go chasing a QB, thinking that getting that one missing piece was going to solve all their problems. Now it's Miami's turn in the ark, grasping at dust in the wind, thinking it's a sign that dry land is right ahead. He's the AFC's Dan Snyder. As much as I dislike Jerry Jones, his teams did win a couple of Super Bowls. Snyder on the other hand has completely screwed up the Washington Football Team.

Who's got the cash to fill up those 60 suites? I realize that's a big source of money for other teams but will that work in Buffalo?

I'm not going to read through pages and pages of comments about how bad Cam is. But has anyone considered that since he doesn't have to go through waivers, that this is simply a way for the Pats to get another player through the cutdown and onto the 53, so he can be IR'd and then bring Cam back?