Utah John

Unless Ray Rice can guard or QB, why are we even having this discussion?

What I hope all this means is that Roman has enough creativity, and the players have enough talent, that the Bills won't be so darned predictable this year. They don't have to keep running the same plays regardless of the skills of the opposing defense. They don't have to run the same plays, game after game.

There are some plausible scenarios where Brown makes the team. First, someone else gets hurt. Second, someone else (Fred Jackson) loses a step or a couple of steps, and the Bills decide to retire him with all due ceremonies and honors. The point is that it's great to be deep enough at the skill positions (except QB) where a single injury doesn't cripple the team. Even if Brown gets cut this year, having him last year as an insurance policy paid off. And if either scenario above occurs, he could stick around and be a valuable member of the team.

It was a good trade at the time. CJ was hurt a lot over the years, and Freddie could have gotten ancient all at once, so we needed a good feature RB. Brown looked good, too, especially considering he was running behind Larry Darryl and Darryl. So we gave up a fourth rounder, which is pretty high for a non-star RB. There aren't that many open spots on the roster this year anyway. We might have been able to draft another guard or tackle, but we weren't going to get a game-changer. I think the deal made sense then and still does, even if Brown doesn't play another down in a Bills jersey.

It's hard to see that team with a winning record this year. Tank mode for the 49ers? Is there a superstar coming up in the 2016 draft, that collapsing this year would justify? Indianapolis did it (maybe not intentionally) to get Luck. And in the NFL, there's no draft lottery, not like the NHL.

If there's a WR on the bubble, I think it's Easley. Easley has turned into a ST coverage demon but he's never established himself as an every down WR. Hogan and others play STs well. I can see Easley being cut and the Bills going with Watkins, Woods, Harvin, Hogan, Goodwin, and Lewis making up the WR squad. At least until someone gets hurt. Then maybe they keep Easley. Or bring back Mike Williams, who's still available and might be tempted back to show the Bills what a fool Marrone was.

The Bills had the second-worst O line last year? Hard to believe. Hard to believe there was one worse.

The Bills will be pundit-unworthy until said pundits decide our QB situation is adequate. I think the Bills helped themselves in FAs but not much in the draft. I don't have any idea how well Miami improved overall, but I keep having visions of Suh blowing up every single play we run, taking McCoy down for 2 yard losses on every run and Cassel down for 5 yard losses on every pass. It's Eric Wood and an unknown guard blocking (?) Suh, for Pete's sake. Maybe Suh is why they signed the FA fullback...

I had the same reaction. He's a prototypical franchise QB, can make all the passes, great deep ball, good play caller. Are there really 97 players better than him? I don't even know who Aaron Donald is, for example.

I guess we're seeing the real McCoy. Sorry, someone had to say it.

Well, it's a little pathetic for the girl to do that. There are a lot of fish in the sea, as the saying goes. In the NFL, there are only 32 fish in the sea, and a lot of them don't have a position for a guy with the strengths and limitations of Spikes. I suspect the Bills gave him a low ball offer (still a lot more than any of the posters here make) and he said he would look for $ suitable for a full-time player. Maybe we get him back, just to protect McCoy and Jackson by not having Spikes tackle them.

You have to figure the Bills' inability to get into the playoffs causes the pundits to push them down a few positions every year. Their reputation precedes them. If they get in this year or whenever it finally happens, they'll get more positive reviews. But so what. Those reviews have no impact on the games.

And they'll be right. Because, if the Bills go 11-5, it means they've found their QB, and with a fairly young team that finally gels, the 2016 season will be fantastic. That's all assuming the Bills are 11-5 this year. I don't know how to predict some of the key games. We split with Miami last year. This year the fish have Suh lining up against Wood. Holy crap. McCoy averages -2 yards per carry. The Jets forced a win down our throats in NJ and they had to keep pushing because we kept declining extra helpings, and how they have Revis to take Sammy out of the game. Will anyone step up? The Pats ought to have gotten old by now but they keep winning somehow. And Gronk is back, and we have no one to cover him. (Who does?). We could go 0-6 in the AFCE. Or 5-1. Who the heck knows?

Reading the article, I assumed Brown's agent is the despised Eugene Parker. But no, he's represented by Drew Rosenhaus. So maybe common sense will prevail and both sides will avoid a lose-lose outcome.

This looks like a fair trade to me. Two good players who probably aren't quite as valuable (I didn't say as good) as people think. McCoy is an excellent runner, but lots of guys are behind a great O line. Alonso is an excellent LB but has injury questions. I think we should look at Kiko as the Bills having struck a little gold there in the second round, but unless he plays for another six or eight years without the injuries slowing him down, the Bills probably moved him at the peak of his value. Alonso is also going into the third year of his contract. GMs look at rookies as a cheap way to fill out the roster, and trading a draft pick would have hurt the budget a lot for 2016-17, when the Bills have other contract issues to worry about. Which would have included Kiko if he was still here. I was looking forward to seeing Kiko in a RR defense, but I posted several times late last year whether we should consider diluting the defensive talent a little in order to beef up the offense. (I got slammed too.) Barring injuries (though why would we do that? they happen every year) we have a really good group of LBs now. Just not a lot of depth. The Bills needed to improve their offense and the Eagles needed to rebuild their defense. This all makes sense

Ralph was generous in many ways, but was convinced by his bean counter buddy Littman that he didn't need to be when it came to coaches. I don't know if Littman could even spell "football" but anyone in the league knows good coaches and front offices are the difference. Littman's departure alone should equal 2 or 3 more wins per year. Probably a little less profit but I don't think the Pegulas are eating mac and cheese every night.

I think Winston is the latest version of Vince Young. Big, strong, athletic. Head case. Might do OK in the NFL for a while until defenses figure him out. The OP listed several FSU QBs. Besides Manuel the Bills have had Matt Flynn and Craig Nall on their roster at one time or another. These guys had the best NFL career stats of the bunch.

Having lived in the Bay Area, I can tell you that the 49ers and the Raiders are the yin and yang of football. Although it's true the 49ers have had tough physical teams and the Raiders have had excellent skill players, the core attitude that persists in both teams is that the 49ers are the glitzy glamour team and the Raiders are the maniacal crazed killers. That attitude largely comes from the fans. The Bay Area is very diverse, with tough, low income areas, nice middle class areas, really fancy areas, and people who worked in tough industries as fishermen, longshoremen, construction etc and the less physical jobs like writing, software work, factories, etc. The combination of the two teams energizes the two poles of the community. Losing the Raiders for the time they were gone was a bad thing for Oakland but also the entire Bay Area. Only one facet of the area's personality was left. When the Raiders came back there was rejoicing but also the team required Personal Seat Licenses which were too expensive for the average Raiders fan. (By the way, if the team leaves, will PSL holders be refunded? Hahahahaha silly question.) The best suggestion I've seen is for the Raiders to play in the 49ers new stadium, which isn't in SF by the way. If the Jets can play in Giants Stadium, why can't the Raiders do the similar thing? This would let more of the spirit of the Bay Area be brought out to play, more often.

I think the Chargers were in LA for just a year before moving to San Diego. Not a lot of time for a new team in a second class league (at the time) to develop support. The Rams were stolen from Cleveland when they were in LA the first time. Then stolen and moved to St Louis.

I'm a little concerned about chemistry. -- Freddy Jackson is a leader in the locker room and has been the team's #1 RB for several years. McCoy is obviously the #1 now. Jackson is a pro but this might be tough to deal with for him, or for other players to accept. If McCoy struggles behind the O line, I can see this situation dividing the team. -- Adding Percy Harvin could be a great move, with three outstanding athletes (Watkins, Harvin, and Clay) and a very skilled professional (Woods) challenging defenses. But Harvin has been poison for locker rooms. Last year Jackson would have taken him aside and told him what's what -- but with Jackson's role reduced, will that still work? Who will be the guy to keep Harvin in line? I'm also worried about depth. Kiko would have been a great fit in Ryan's defense. I get it that they gave up some defensive skill (a whole lot of defensive skill) to get a threat at RB. Also that we have really good starters across the board on defense, possibly excepting safety where Duke Williams still has to convince me. But no team gets through a year without injuries. I think we're lacking good depth at LB, DE, and even DT. When Dareus went out late last year, the D line was not nearly as good. Losing Mario or Marcel or Kyle would make the defense a lot less dangerous. Losing two of those three would make it pretty average or worse.

So if they're going to wear orange jerseys instead of brown ones, will they change their name to the Cleveland Oranges?

When the Bills left Fredonia, they said how great the facilities were there, just like people are saying the facilities are great at SJF. There's another aspect to this that's being overlooked. Fredonia and the other towns in the southern tier are full of nice small bars. The players and coaches used to get together at the bars. There's only so much that can be done on the practice field, but real team bonding takes place when guys are hanging together with a cold beer in their hand. I haven't been to SJF but I don't believe the bar situation is nearly as good as around Fredonia.

The nice words for Cortland were almost the same as the nice words the Bills said when they left Fredonia for St John Fisher. Fredonia went all-out to support the training camps and did a great job. The move north was just an attempt to sell more season tickets. And by the way the Bills haven't made the playoffs since the move. Coincidence, or the curse of Fredonia?

If Grayson can play guard, I'm all in.

I've hated the Patriots since 1963, but what they did was technically not cheating. It was sneaky and unsportsmanlike, but not against the rules. There's no reason to think they'll be punished.