hondo in seattle

Forbes ranks the Bills as the 30th most valuable NFL franchise. Back when Ralph bought the Bills, Buffalo was a major, thriving city. It's now a second tier metropolis and it's relative strength as a market is declining. Regardless of TV ratings, the franchise would have more value somewhere else. On the other hand, I'm really hoping Ralph instructed the trust to sell the team to a party willing to keep the Bills in Buffalo. Hopefully we hear that in the next few days. Some other considerations. The purchase price of the Bills will be maybe $900 million. But anyone considering moving the Bills will have to pay $400 million to break the lease and a maybe $200 million relocation fee to move the team. That brings up the price to 1.5 billion - perhaps a little discouraging to an owner from L.A. who would also have to win a 3/4 vote from the owners just to purchase the team. There are hurdles for an out-of-town buyer if the trust considers that option.

The argument isn't whether or not Britt is better than Stevie. He's not - or at least, he's never shown it. The question is whether or not he's better than the worst WR on the roster. Would he make our WR corps better - at a reasonable cost?

He's a McGill University student and McGill is sometimes called 'The Harvard of Canada." It's a very good school so, yeah, he's a very smart kid. Good luck to him!

I don't like when people use the expression "dirty Sanchez." Maybe I'm wrong, but it sounds racist to me. I personally don't care what race he is. Nor do I care about a lot of the complaints I've heard about his personality. I think some of those complaints are overstated. But I do care about his stats. Sanchez completes only about 55% of his passes with a modest 6.5 yards per attempt. His QB rating is a humble 72. In this day and age, you really need more from a starting QB. So if we'd sign him to be a backup - and he's certainly well-qualified to be a backup - the question becomes what kind of mentor would he be for EJ?

Britt certainly hasn't lived up to his collegiate promise. But given the state of our receiving corps, don't you think he's worth a flyer? Let him compete and see what happens.

Funny joke.

A lot of NFL players - and coaches - start to show their worth in their sophomore years. Marrone, Hackett, EJ, Kiko, Woods, Goodwin and others are entering their sophomore seasons. It'll be interesting to see if they all take steps forward.

Mallet's completed 1 of 4 NFL passes and has thrown 1 pick. http://espn.go.com/nfl/player/stats/_/id/14037/ryan-mallett

A Raider fan told me the reason Oakland was so bad last year wasn't their coaching, it was something like $30 million in dead money. They'll get to go on a shopping spree this year.

I think the Bills go BPA at 9 (disregarding QB). But I do expect an OT amongst the Bills' top 2 or 3 picks.

Stevie has flaws but I don't see how getting rid of the only proven WR on the team is a good idea. We desperately need more good receivers, not less.

Been wondering the same thing.

What a fantasy! But I'll play... If Kelly won all four he'd be a legend. He'd become the epitome of playoff success, the role model of big game performance. People would say things like, "Manning is a great QB but when it comes to big games, he's no Jim Kelly." We'd hear Kelly's name in all kinds of conversations. But Kelly still wouldn't be greatest of all time. Regular seasons matter. And as much as I respect Kelly's skills, there are other guys who are more accurate, read defenses better, etc.

Cool find. I love NFL historical stuff like this. By the way, 1921 was the same year Buffalo was cheated out of the NFL championship.

As an econ major, I wonder if Schwartz is into analytics.

As I recall, Pettine's contract with the Jets had expired. He choose to come to Buffalo rather than renew it.

If true, I think it's a good deal. We're not standing in the way of O'Neil's promotion but - at the same time - we're preventing our defensive staff from being gutted. I think the greater coaching community would consider that fair. We want to be seen as a good place to coach.

Apparently, a lot of Lions were sad and/or angry when Schwartz was fired. In the words of Joe Fauria, "He loved us and we loved him back." http://www.prideofde...eact/in/5015389

Good find. Confirms what many of us have been saying - the guy's produced pretty merely average results. I'm not sure what Marrone sees in Hackett, Crossman, or Schwartz. Nothing in any of their resumes screams "winner."

Is it too late for the mods to break this into two threads? One about Schwartz, one about Downing. I'm easily confused.

I wonder if the Analytics Department provided Marrone with any feedback regarding Schwartz's resume. Most of us looking at his past stats are unimpressed.

I like the "Yards per Drive" stat when looking at DCs because some offenses force their defenses to be on the field a lot so, of course, those defenses are going to give up more total yards than a defense that only faces the opposing O eight or ten times in a game. Here's how Schwartz's Titan D was ranked in yards per drive when he was last a DC: 2001 26th 2002 16th 2003 13th 2004 26th 2005 18th 2006 29th 2007 5th 2008 5th Overall, it's a mediocre record. But at the end of his tenure in Tennessee he finished 5th twice in a row. Was there an influx of talent? Or did he become a better DC? I'm hoping it was the latter.

The Bills offense was 26th in average drive length. Too many 3 and outs. Yet our defense was #1 in average opponent drive length! And that was in Pettine's first year with the Bills. I'm imagining that he would have done better statistically overall next year. http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/drivestats I don't know what kind of HC Pettine will be, but he was a good DC and I was looking forward to awesome things from the him and our D in 2014.

In 2012, the Bills gave up 5.0 yards per carry. In 2013, the Bills gave up 4.4 yards per carry. More work remains but Pettine made huge progress in both run and pass defense. Some of the progress is obscured by the fact the Bills 'D' was on the field so much. The Bills D faced the 7th most scrimmage plays in the NFL because our offense didn't sustain long drives. Naturally we gave up more yards than some other teams. But Pettine's D only gave up 4.9 yards per play - one of the best averages in the league. By comparison, Denver gave up 5.3 yards per play and they're in the Super Bowl. Pettine's loss is only good news if we hire someone even better. But there aren't a lot of better guys available. Most of the better DCs are already employed.

Crossman retained; Pettine lost. I'm not liking the postseason so far.