cage

I don't think Bradham will be cut, but to me Sanders is gone and could be added practice squad (maybe). I was at training camp over a week ago and Sanders looked awful. Only 7 OL could be an issue too...

I would like to thank the 9 teams drafting in front of us in the 2nd round this past draft for not taking Glenn. I shudder to think whether we would have taken Martin if Glenn was off the board. In all the hoopla leading up to the draft, I was hoping that we don't end with Martin

Thats right,... its no different than a bunch of talk about Michael Irvin pushing off started leading to offensive pass interference penalties and James Harrison of the Steelers getting very little leeway on Personal Fouls. It makes no difference what we think. Once you start getting a rep for something the refs are itchy with the trigger. BTW, Homerun Throwback was a forward lateral........................................see that made no difference, they still lost the damn game!

I love Stevie's enthusiasm, effort and his love for being on this team. I can't believe that he's searching for new ways to celebrate. Thurman Thomas needs to sit him down and talk to him about what Levy told him after his first TD celebration... "you need to act like you've been there before"... if this team is going to be serious on becoming a winner, TD celebrations need to be de-emphasized. I used to love TTs simple flick of the ball to the referee. It basically said... no big deal, I'll be here 2 more times today!

Certainly the comback game was pure exhiliration. I remember a huge, wild pile-on in the bar I was watching it in... Here's another... back when the Bills / Dolphins rivalry meant something deep... we retired Don Shula in the playoffs http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NFL_playoffs,_1995-96#AFC:_Buffalo_Bills_37.2C_Miami_Dolphins_22

Which is exactly the point that Gailey's hoping for. When the Dolphins did it, Ronnie Brown couldn't credibly pass. When we did it last year, there wasn't sufficient training camp practice/prep due to the lockout to install it with Brad Smith. This season will be make/break for it. If they can pass from the formation, its a huge weapon if they can't its effectively useless and I agree w/ the poster that they're better off giving it to Freddy...

You make good points. The formation is meant to confuse. To me, in order to do that you would have to run it with 3 TEs and a reciever so that you're totally disguising whether you'll run or pass. If they overload for run, then you have to be able to pass out of it with TE mismatches, otherwise you have 9 blockers helping the QB pick up the 1-2 yards that are needed.

I agree completely... was thinking of Tebow too as I went down this thread... in this context, he could handle everything except OL/DL

Not to disparage Mr. Ferguson, but I guess that tells a lot about Zebrie Sanders. I'll predict practice squad for him now

Hmm,... OK, I hadn't seen that. The media guide still has #97 as Dotson. So I guess I'm talking about whoever was wearing that #.

I attended training camp first time on Sunday. I was with kids so I can't give some of the exhaustive analysis that others have done but here's does some general impressions... Players that jumped out at me positively.... -- TJ Graham, several nice catches -- Chris Hairston, really held his blocks at LT and RT -- Cordy Glenn, looked very strong -- Scott Chandler, absolutely catches everything -- Vince Young, several nice plays including a nice run, starting to question why he wouldn't just run wildcat? -- Lionel Dotson, several good pass rushes Players not looking so good.... -- Zebrie Sanders, hmmm, not sure about this guy, got blown up by Dotson on consecutive rushes -- Brad Smith, I like innovation in Wildcat, not sure I saw him complete a pass (maybe 1) -- WRs, seemed to be too many drops, including Stevie, even before the rain Others,... -- Torrell Troupe, stands out as to how large he is. No way he makes team under current circumstances. He should go to IR and be given last chance next year as he needs to fully heal -- John Potter, is interesting, very strong leg and interesting in how they were practicing onside kicks Intangibles,... -- Several players very gracious in taking lots of time for autographs after being soaked for 45 min, including Fitz, Stevie, Moorman and Chandler! That's it,... hopefully this adds to the data others have been reporting

Why didn't we fear this pair when they were in the same roles w/ Dolphins??

You're not allowed to introduce alternative scenarios.... just go with it

Lets take it back to Carmon Ragusa,... we did sign him today. Long live the Great Ragu!

I agree too, we're not as bad here as imagined. Both David Nelson and Donald Jones have upside yet to attain. Donald Jones in particular suffered some enough injury last year that his grade is still incomplete. He had some tough catches during the season. The two of them along w/ Graham, should give us a 2nd choice that emerges. These guys are all young and can still benefit from the experience of last season and the off-season work they weren't able to get based on last year's lock-out. We'll be better than people think...

Really love the new rules. The nonsense that went on before was wrong on every level. This is the way that it has to be for rookies

Hope he makes it as there's definately a lot of fun to have with his name! I still get a laugh at someone referring to him as Gucci Onabagel during one of last year's back/forths...

Bruce has been up there for 2 years now, hasn't brought us any luck....

Recognize a year or two ago when TBD changed the picture on the home page back to Bruce as there weren't any Bills worthy of gracing the slot. But now, I think its time to bring it current... any combination of Stevie, Freddie or Mario should do the job!! What about it?? I'd go with all three as they represent the building through the Draft, UDFA and Free Agency. They build the Superbowl Teams through a combination of all the tools and hopefully are on that path again!!

Yeah,... I would have expected they release McGee rather than Florence.

I think my conclusion from looking at the list of round 1/2/3 draftees that Nix faced is that I understand how he backed into Fitz as his solution, but I still think his fate will rest with Fitz' success or failure regardless. As a fan, of course, I hope they have a big year, but Fitz still has to prove it to everyone...

I'm actually not advocating that he should have done anything differently. I'm happy with the direction of the team and generally agree with his logic. I'm just saying that he has put all his eggs in the Fitz basket and it will become the basis of his success... or failure. So, is there anything else he could have done? Lets look at history... 2010 -- Tim Tebow picked by Broncos w/ 25th pick on a surprising trade-up to get him, widely rumored that Bills would have picked him with their 2nd round pick that year 2010 -- Passed on picking Jimmy Clausen in 2nd round 2010 -- Passed on picking Colt McCoy in 3rd round 2011 -- Picked #3 and passed on Jake Locker (Titans/#8), Blaine Gabbert (Jaguars/#10), Christian Ponder (Vikings/#12) in 1st round 2011 -- Picked #34 and passed on Andy Dalton (Bengals/#35), Colin Kaeperniak (49ers/#36) in 2nd round 2011 -- Picked #68 and passed on Ryan Mallet (Patriots/#74) 2012 -- Picked #10 and passed on Brandon Weedon (Browns/#22) 2012 -- Picked #41 and passed on Brock Osweiler (Broncos/#25) So those have been his chances. Ignoring the most recent draft, the only outright misses on this list is Andy Dalton (2011/2nd round) and possibly Ryan Mallet (2011/3rd round). He's also made some notable decisions to ignore Clausen and McCoy when he had reasonable shots at them and these seemed to be good choices. By and large its hard to argue with where we're at. QB is a tough position to call and looking at the history above, Nix is batting well over .500 on his decisions...

I think we should rethink the definition of draft success. We also can't penalize Butler for subsequent front offices not resigning a player. The average NFL player has about a 4 year career and when you look back at the retrospective redrafts that are published every year at draft time of what "should" have been picked 4-5 years ago based on how the players actually performed, there's nearly a 50% bust rate in the first round. That rate gets high, of course, is subsequent rounds. Anytime you bag an 8-10 year starter in the league, then you HIT on that draft pick and the selection was a good one, given the information they have at the time. The highlighted players should all be counted as successful draft picks. -- Fina had a 10 year career as a starting LT -- Burris was a starting CB, electrifying punt returner and was signed away by Colts to a rich contract -- Ruben Brown and Eric Moulds you've already declared a success -- Antowain Smith, did have 2 1K years and had a productive 10 year career at RB, he's a bit iffy -- Antoine Winfield has long been a top notch CB in the league So I think we have to give him credit for hitting 5.5 out of 9 (A. Smith I counted as a 1/2)

I think the jury is still out. The longstanding hallmark of a long-term successful run is the stability of a franchise QB. He's put all his eggs in the Fitz basket. So far we've been able to say that the team around him hasn't been good enough. With the attention to D this past offseason and Jackson/Spiller on the verge of becoming a dynamic duo we'll find out if this is a good call on Nix's part. I would submit that his legacy will rest on this strategic decision. If Fitz plays well all year and the team follows suit then he'll be Executive of the Year. If Fitz fails and shows he's no better than a competent back-up, then the rest of the improvements will be irrelevant and Nix will hang with him as patience will run out with developing a rookie QB from the next draft. I don't think he would be able to pick a round 1/2 QB next year and tell everyone that he'll need 3 years for him to develop.

Are we really putting Batten and Eddins at DE? They should be LBs...