hondo in seattle

There are a lot of backs on the roster but I wouldn't want to lose any of them. I'm glad Rex is planning on using Fred and not just letting him keep the bench warm. As an AFCE guy, I'm sure Rex has an appreciation of Fred's worth. As for Rex calling out Brown like that, it might have been more effective if he had done it in private. I'm not sure he's even met Brown yet. For a player to read about his coach dissing him like that, it could be demotivating. Leadership is about creating relationships that bring out the best in people. You start by building mutual trust and respect. I'm not sure this was the best way for Rex to start building a productive relationship with Brown. Hopefully Brown takes it the right way and commits himself to ball security like never before.

It's like asking me if I would prefer broccoli or brussel sprouts. Can't I avoid them both? But if forced to choose, I would take Cassel over Fitz. Cassel at least had a Pro Bowl season once when surrounded by a good cast. It would be hard to imagine a scenario where Fitz would be invited to PB. And I agree with qwksilver, when defenses figured out that Fitz couldn't throw deep with any accuracy, they started sitting on the short routes. Cassel at least can kind-of, sort-of make all the throws an NFL QB needs to make. Defenses will, I think, need to defend more of the field when Cassel is under center. This is funny. The best QBs make tossing a football 60 yards down field look easy. Fitz, on the other hand, exerted every muscle in his body and grunted like an Olympic shot putter when throwing 30 yards.

Yolo, thanks for posting! Great stuff! Nothing Rex said surprised me except the comment about Brown. When the rumors were flying around about cutting Fred, I thought he might be the odd man out. And it would make sense, given Fred's age. But I think Fred still has gas in the tank and his leadership contributions shouldn't be underestimated. In any case, it seems Brown is the one who has to prove his worth. Given Rex's history as a player's coach, I thought it was odd Rex would publicly call him out that way.

You make a legit point. But until we've proven that we have an effective OL, we keep drafting offensive linemen. Having a good OL is too important to rely on speculation and wishful thinking.

Yeah, I'm with FireChan on this.

Somewhere I read that the Ravens weren't happy with Taylor's accuracy. I wouldn't be surprised if we did some sub packages with him but I'm expecting either Cassel to start or EJ to beat him out by making a leap forward this year. We need a QB who can distribute the ball to Harvin, Watkins, Woods and Clay. Otherwise, ground-and-pound will see nothing but 8 man fronts. And our OL isn't good enough to handle that.

Somewhere I read that the Ravens weren't happy with his accuracy. I wouldn't be surprised if we did some sub packages with him but I'm expecting either Cassel to start or EJ to beat him out by making a leap forward this year.

The weaknesses of this team, as it stands right now - are OL and QB. So the defense will attack the weaknesses. They'll come after it with both run and pass blitzes. They'll aim to overwhelm the offensive line. At least, that will be one tactic attempted.

Joe Rose was really enthusiastic about Clay in that interview with Murph. Considering that Rose used to be play TE in the NFL himself, Rose made me enthusiastic. And the highlights back him up. Clay isn't just beating LBs, sometimes he's beating CBs. And while not super-fast, Clay has a combination of speed, agility and strength that make him dangerous after the catch. Thanks for the links!

Cassel did go to the Pro Bowl in 2010. In the right system, with the right cast around him, he can be effective. And he may have that here. And, then again, EJ may step up in Year Three. A fan can always hope. As an answer to the OPs question, this a reasonable guess.

Mercy, Mercy, Here comes Percy... finally!

Overpaying is not necessarily a bad thing as long as you don't do it all the time. If we offered a market-value contract to every FA we wanted, we wouldn't sign many. Some team or another is usually willing to overpay a name FA. So to be competitive, you sometimes have to overpay a few FAs while searching for value elsewhere. It's like going to a fast food restaurant. You might order a few things from the value menu but you might also overpay for one of the premium items to get the meal you really want. The bottom line is the Bills have a lot of talent on offense, defense and special teams and stayed under the same salary cap that Miami, and every other team, has to fit under. Overall, we seem to be spending wisely. If we could only find a QB to spend on.

This is a good point. Except that top-to-bottom the Bills probably have more talent than the Pats if you ignore the QB position. While I'm not sure how I feel about the Clay contract, and we're still searching for a QB, overall I think DW is doing a good job building this roster.

Despite 8 guards, I think, on the current roster I'd be looking for help for the offensive line. Other than that, I'd really try to stick to BPA. In the long run, it's better to draft the BPA than stretch for need players.

Didn't Whaley say Clay is "special"? I haven't watched Miami that closely but I don't recall a TE so special that he deserves $38 million. What am I missing?

I'm not a bettor so maybe someone can explain this. The Bills are now at 33-1. Considering there are 32 teams, the Bills now have an almost perfectly average chance of winning the SB. If every team were equal, every team would have 32-1 odds. Well the Bills were already an above average team last year - we finished 9-7 after all. And our off-season moves only made us better. So shouldn't our odds be better than 33-1? Granted 33-1 is better than the 75-1 earlier this year and the 200-1 we've seen in previous years. But I still think we're somewhat better than 33-1. Maybe I should place a bet on us.

I agree it's a very good thing. I hope he finds so much satisfaction in this great act of kindness that he does more good things.

As I mentioned on page 1, Schaub had tendonitis in the elbow last year. While he claims it was a new problem, he might have just been trying to put a positive spin on things. http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2174653-matt-schaub-injury-updates-on-raiders-qbs-tendonitis-and-return The question is he truly recovered or is his elbow permanently shot? I'd be wary.

I'm sure MD took real joy in helping out the hometown kids. But the timing is interesting. There might have been multiple motivations at work.

Shaub's arm seems like it's shot. Ongoing tendonitis maybe? I guess we could fly him in and kick the tires... but they might fall off.

This is all true. But you wonder what good play-design and coaching might do for these guys. Then again, while wondering that, I'd still love to see the Bills sign/draft another guard and tackle.

I guess I can't support Patrick Willis then until Cookie Gilchrist is inducted. Cookie's greatness was compromised by knee problems. Who knows what his stats would have been like if the NFL had let him play straight out of high school and he didn't waste his best/healthiest years of his career in the CFL. Still the man managed to produce a 5.0 yards per carry as a professional and helped the Bills win their first AFL championship. Some fellow players thought Cookie - in his prime - was as good as Jim Brown. Hall of Famer, Billy Shaw, called him, "The greatest football player I've ever seen or been associated with." The man was virtually unstoppable.

Chris doesn't ever publish unreleased insider information. My guess is that he's not allowed to leak anything until it's been officially allowed. He is allowed, however, to mention reports from other sources. Because he does work for the Bills and is privy to certain things, I usually think that if he's citing a source, it's probably a reliable one who's putting out information that Chris knows (or suspects) to be true.

I don't care about EJ versus Tannehill. I care about EJ versus Cassel versus Taylor. I'm hoping EJ becomes better than Cassel ever was. Or I'm hoping Cassel has his best year yet. Or I'm hoping Taylor was a diamond buried in a depth chart.

I didn't find this article very biased. But I also don't find Rodak to be very informative either. The facts he gets right were usually published somewhere else first. And he doesn't always get his facts right.