PDaDdy

Dan Marino's neutered corpse you mean. LOL.

Of course they can draft a good one. The best example of this is first round QBs. They are almost always given the start and 4 - 5 years to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that they suck as bad as most fans know after 2 or 3. Doesn't mean a TE will never catch a pass man. LOL. It just means that in reads and progressions they aren't at the top of the list.

Simple answers: 1) Gailey doesn't make use of the TE much so no sense getting one. 2) Getting a good OT would mean admitting that we screwed up our tackle positions by letting Peters and trying to make Langston "the road grader RT" Walker a LT. Langston was better at RT than anything we have had since. It would also be an admission that the junk we have been trying to get by on at OT is not good enough. 3 years wasted at those positions.

We aren't going top suck but our line is NOT solid. Fitz made it look better than it was last year. We are still trying to pretend that Jauron and the previous front office knew what they were doing when they screwed up LT by trading Peters and then screwed up RT by trying to make Langston Walker a LT and then cutting him. We still haven't recovered from that. Eric Woods is a a good lineman but we could have drafted him instead of Maybin and we would have been all set. For those that don't recall Levitre was a straight up second round pick that had nothing to do with the Peters trade.

It is and has been our luck for the last I don't know...8 years? We always have multiple highly anticipated draft pick or 2nd or 3rd year guys that we are expecting this will be the year they take it to the next level that are being considered for starting roles that get injured in camp or in the preseason. It's part of football but it does seem like we are hit more often that other teams. So far this year is turning out to be no exception. I hope this year IS an exception in that we don't lose guys to IR. Some bumps, bruises, pulls and a few days or maybe a couple weeks missed is one thing. IR is another. The week to few week injuries are just huge right now because we basically haven't had an off season to this point. Lost time means a lot more this year.

How many tackles and sacks does he have so far this year? I think universally every Bills fans wants the old Merriman to show up week 1 on the field but many of us are skeptical given his injury history and performance in 18 games the last 3 years. As has already been stated many of us will wait until he starts racking up stats when the season begins. For that crowd we hope our hearts not our heads were right and Merriman becomes a valuable contributor if not a difference maker.

It proly doesn't have much to do with size. With the addition of Shawne Merriman somebody had to move inside or to a backup role. Kelsay is probably thought to be a better run defending veteran that is more trusted. I wouldn't be pissed to see him replaced but that is probably their thought process.

DUDE!!! I was pissed when we pick Mike Williams over him. If the draft day talk was correct...little known fact McKinnie never gave up a sack in college. At least this guy is still in the league and in the conversation. Might be way to late to right an old wrong though.

I am sort of of the same mind. KW has proven me wrong his whole career and I now consider him a great asset instead of a guy that we needed to find better than. That being said I think that he made the most noise in the 4-3 alignment. He is a penetrating disrupter where as traditionally the 3-4 NT is a 2 gap plug the middle type guy. Even though he excels at his position in the 4-3 or the 3-4 I would like to see a bigger guy like the long shot Mike "Man Mountain" Jasper or a bulked up Torell Troup play the middle and have Kyle Williams and Marcell Dareus at the end positions. Can you imagine a defensive front left to right of Dareus, Jasper and Williams?!!?!? I am skeptical as hell but throw in a healthy Merriman on the edge....MY GOD! Forget about it!!!

Good question. At one time in the not so distant past a 300lb O-lineman was unusual. Now it's basically the standard.

Great points. He was WAY over 400lbs I believe. At that weight, which by all accounts was mostly fat, he was not as an incredibly dominant beast. Shaving down to a much more svelte 390, lol, he should be mobile enough and have improved his strength. I wish the kid all the luck in the world. His success will be our success.....that is until he makes the probowl and then Ralph refuses to pay him fair market value and he gets traded to another team

I agree we can't expose him to the waiver wire. We drafted him for a reason. I would rather have this guy on the opening day roster over a lot of names I could mention like Maybin. This guy is the definition of physical freak. I mean 390lbs?!?!?!? Might not translate to the football field right away or at all but keep a hold of this kid. Sorry to open old wounds but if we gave Trent 4+ years on the active roster this kid is worth a year or 2.

Not trying to get the hype machine rolling on this guy but it's the "planet theory" as I believe it is called? 6'4" 390lbs, 32" vertical..etc...etc??? There are literally only a handful of guys on the entire planet that can do those things. I have no idea who this Joel Bell is but 6'7" 315 is not really that out of the ordinary for an NFL football player. Not sure the comparison is even remotely valid.

I agree with the sentiments of the original poster. This is a win win. We got a better guy for much less money. Are you kidding me? It's a no brainer. Great job Buddy!!!!

If Micheal "Man Mountian" Jasper is capable of throwing guys around and driving the line of scrimmage back I would much rather see him listed on the team 3rd string anywhere than go to the practice squad. Given his ridiculous athleticism for a man of his ridiculous size he could be one of those specialty players. Short yardage on defense or even offense for the matter. Could you see this guy on field goal attempts basically falling over and taking out the center of the opposing line allowing all manner of Bills to get a hand up to block a kick? I'm not saying this guy is going to know it all or be a complete technician and student of the game yet but sometimes in some situations you basically just have to kill the guy in front of you and drive him back to his home stadium.

It's been said recently that Gailey uses the TE's as little or less than Mike Martz. I doubt we will spend money on a TE whose strength is pass catching over run blocking.

Free is a LT. Clabo a RT. Position makes a huge difference.

He didn't satisfy short or long term. We'll have a lot more than that as we recoup money from players we may release and money we won't spend on signing Poz nas Whitner. I would be fine with spending that much on two players that would be difference makers for us. Fill the other spots with underpaid average guys instead of the usual over paid average guys. Throw in some veteran minimum guys and we are all set.

Unfortunately our line was also average at best as a whole.

Poz was a solid lunch pail type player but he was nothing special AT ALL. That being said he was one of our better LBs. I think Nix's opinion is consistent with that statement. No big loss. I'm sure we have plenty of guys on the roster that tackle down field, don't have sideline to sideline speed and can't cover a TE to save their life. Not trying to be a jerk about Poz but we can replace him or do better for less than $7million a year.

No assumption. I really would like to know if there is any correlation between success rates for teams with a high variance in salary vs teams with a low variance in salary. What do I mean by that? I imagine there are some teams that comparatively have more highly paid difference making players relative to their position and a bunch of low paid role players. Other teams with a low variance would have a bunch of middle range guys and no well paid stars so to speak. Maybe those teams are the Saints, Packer, Patriots etc. I don't know. That is why I would like to know if there was ever a study done. I would imagine a team with difference making stars and low paid role players would ultimately be more successful than a team comprised of average to slightly above average guys across the board being overpaid for what they do. Could be completely wrong but it's an interesting question.

Is this guy really a free agent. I don't know that bringing him back would be worth anything even for a low low salary. That being said, when he was here he was a completely serviceable RT and was pretty good in the run game. The regime that shall not be mentioned screwed that whole line over getting rid of a probowl LT and screwed over RT as well by moving Walker. They were delusional and thought he could be a LT. Fans even bought into it and then turned on him when it became obvious that he couldn't fill Peters' shoes. They hated Peters and thought so little of the probowler that anyone could step in and do his job. ANNNNNH! Walker was a mauling RT not a fleet of foot LT. We are still feeling the effects of that gaff and have yet to solidify either tackle position. Unless Bell makes a quantum leap in consistency and skill the fans will soon turn on him as well or blame the coaches for not being able to replace Peters.

When you overpay for ramen noodles it's tough to exceed your shopping budget. By the way it has also COINCIDENTALLY "only landed us" the 3rd worst record in the NFL I am speaking to a general philosophy that we employ. I know you can understand the logic of what I am saying. It's really pretty simple. If you overspend for average you don't have as much left to spend on great! As we spend more money to gear up for this year we will end up near the bare minimum an NFL team can spend on it's roster. That roster can be filled with try hard high motor average to slightly above average guys or it can be filled with some difference making superstars and journeymen supporting cast members. I have often wondered about the salary break downs of successful teams vs unsuccessful teams. As I have somewhat stated I would rather have some difference making stars with supporting cast members that get the job done than have a team full of well paid average guys with no stars that can make a difference to win a game. I would love to see salary break downs of say the Patriots, Jets, Saints and Packers vs teams like ours. My wild guess is that you have a few people making a LOT of money and a vast majority of other guys making modest salaries. By comparison I would imagine our team is filled with guys that are making better money than their average to slightly above average play would seem to dictate with no high paid "stars". I am of course somewhat discounting early first round draft picks as their salary is based almost entirely on the slotting system not performance.

Honestly I think Fletcher was/is better. Some seem to forget that a large contingent on this and other boards thought that Fletcher was over rated and not worth the money. They thought that he made all of his tackles down field. Etc, etc, etc. I think the criticism of Poz is fair in that light. I don't think Poz was an upgrade at all and we spent draft picks to move up in the second round to get him. No love for Fletcher. Nothing but dry eyes and oh wells when he couldn't get his pay day. Why would anyone shed a tear for Poz whose only advantage is youth if not durability? As I said I wouldn't mind seeing Poz try OLB if we didn't have to overpay to keep him. IMO the best ILBs have sideline to sideline speed, can cover TEs and are stout at the point of attack up the middle. These are NOT Poz's strengths.

No disagreement here if those are the two choices. Unfortunately in the NFL every penny matters. If you over spend on player X you have to "under spend" on player Y. Such is the salary cap. I don't care about a balance sheet but I do care when we over pay for mediocre and supposedly can't "afford" difference makers.