hondo in seattle

Ralph has owned the Bills for 50 years. In the old days, they won the AFL championship a couple times with high priced players (before the merger and Super Bowl). The Bills of the 90s (Kelly, Smith, Thomas, Reed, et al) were hardly underpaid. Sully's Ralph-is-cheap mantra is 'proven' by the fact that the Bills have been under-cap for the past 3 years (about 6% of the Bills history). Like most any team, the Bills spending has gone up and down over the years. Ralph's biggest shortcoming has been with GMs. He's hired some bad ones and chased some good ones away. Our problem right now in 2011 isn't that Ralph is cheap. I think the Bills would happily sign a good tackle at market price if that was an option.

I lived in the East Bay near Oakland for 10+ years and never carried a gun. In any case, he was arrested in Florida on the gun charges.

Patulski actually suited up and played. He hardly played like a 1st rounder but he got on the field and made some tackles. He was a far better pick than Maybin. So was Terry Miller. Miller rushed for 1,000 yards his rookie season but then developed problems with his peripheral vision and was never productive again. Can't blame the FO office for that. Even Erik Flowers - a truly miserable first round pick - cracked the starting lineup a few times. It's hard to think of a Bills 1st round bust as completely catastrophic as Maybin.

If both his injuries had been the same knee, I'd be worried. Considering his last injury was a wrist, it doesn't strike me as a fragility injury. Anyone can injure a wrist and I doubt he's likely to reinjure it. And the wrist injury allowed the knee to fully recover and then some.

The original post, I think, is accurate. Our front 7 might not be great. We may not send multiple defenders to Hawaii. But it's easy to be more optimistic about this front seven than last year's. We went 4-4 down the stretch with last year's bandaged, talent-poor, out-of-position squad. Let's hope for better than .500 with this one.

For those too lazy the click on the link: Barnett has been an impressive linebacker for the Packers for years, but the reason he is of particular interest to this free agency period is his 2009 season. I was one of many that questioned Green Bay’s transition to the 3-4 defense, working on the basis that is was a lousy fit for their best players (Aaron Kampman and Nick Barnett) in the front seven. Well, I was half right. Kampman struggled with his hand out of the dirt and was clearly a more natural pass rusher when he could coil in a three-point stance. Where I was wide of the mark however was with Nick Barnett, who flourished in the new system as well as he ever did in a 4-3. In 2009 Barnett was our 3rd ranked ILB, narrowly beaten by Ray Lewis with only Patrick Willis putting any distance between them at the top of the rankings. Barnett was able to score well in all phases of the game, blitzing well, covering well and showing strongly against the run. He registered pressure every 6.5 snaps blitzing (a very good mark), allowed 68.5% of passes into his coverage to be complete (5th among full-time starting ILBs) for just 7.4 yards per completion (3rd). His 52 defensive stops were also good enough to place him in the top 10, as was pretty much every number we record at PFF. Far from struggling in the new system, it seemed Barnett was actually highlighted because of his versatility.

Didn't a few people complain about the incompetency of the Bills organization a few days ago when we didn't make an effort to sign Gaither?

It's interesting that the Jets didn't make a counter-offer to keep Brad Smith because (according to reports from NY), they needed to save cap space for Asomugha. Well, the Bills grabbed Smith and the Jets lost out on Asomugha. At this point, I don't envy the Jets' free agency.

Seems like Jets fans and beat writers were sad to lose him. That's a good sign. Smith wasn't a need signing but I can see him making at least one big play this year that gives the Bills a "W". Also seems like he'll be a good locker room guy.

Seems to me that great OLs have one or two Pro Bowl caliber starters and the rest are solid. We have maybe 4 solid starters and not a ton of depth. Wondering if Wood will emerge as a Pro Bowl type player at center??? I'd be feeling a lot better if we had bagged Clabo.

I agree that they probably won't go after a CB. But they did already pursue Clabo who was a top free agent. I wouldn't be surprised to learn they are pursuing others as well.

Like many others, I'm disappointed that the Bills haven't yet signed any help for the Offensive Line. How confident are you guys in a line that probably looks something like this (see below) right now? Bell - Levitre - Wood - Urbick - Pears

The Bills may or may not have a reputation for being tight. But it doesn't make a difference. When someone like Clabo receives an offer for $5 million a year, he doesn't care about the reputation. He'll assess his offer on its own merits. The Bills were not tight with Flo or Smith or Thigpen. Two of these signings addressed important needs. The other gives us a playmaker. Like everyone else, I'm still hoping to see some OL help come via free agency as well. You are probably right that the Bills' losing record discourages some FAs. Others see the Bills as a franchise now moving in the right direction. Thankfully, not everyone thinks as lowly of Ralph and One Bills Drive as you do.

I think one of the points of this story is that NFL players are human beings. And we homo sapiens are a diverse lot with diverse motivations. Many players will prefer the media attention of NY. Other will be drawn to the party scene in Miami. Some love the snow. Others hate it. When we are spurned by a FA, we may never know why. But some FAs out there might prefer a smaller city like Buffalo, whatever their personal motivations may be. The only thing Buddy can really do is lay the money on the table.

First person in NCAA history to throw for 8,000 yards and run for 4,000 yards. In the NFL, he's been a backup WR, a great KR, and has run the Wildcat very successfully. This guy can throw, catch, and run. Gailey would find ways to use him.

Btw, we just overpaid to keep Florence and we're offering more for Clabo than he's really worth. Or wait... maybe it's really less than Clabo's worth and that will be why he signs elsewhere.

One of the best posts ever!

here's the link to the interview: http://www.wgr550.com/topic/play_window.php?audioType=Episode&audioId=5399306 The interview was not very illuminating. Nix was extremely vanilla - unwilling to say anything detailed or insightful. But let's be fair to Buddy. Nix inherited a team without any great players. He believes primarily in building through the draft, like some good teams do. Building through the draft takes time. It seems to me, it's still too early to judge how this is going. And I'm willing to give him time. I don't see a "laissez faire" attitude. He's been very clear that anything less than a Super Bowl is a failure. He's hot to win. Let's wait to see if he's capable. Losing Poz is not evidence of a sinking ship.

I'm one of the people on this board who likes Poz and really hoped we re-signed him. But at $7 mil/year? For a good-but-not-great ILB? No way. Roster money is limited and you have to reserve money like that for impact players. I was really upset when I read the headline that we lost Poz. I was far less upset when I learned his new contract. Poz apparently wants to play in a full-time 4-3. God bless him. Nix doesn't care? C'mon. You know that just isn't true. And of course Nix said we have players who can step up. What's he supposed to say? That our ILBs are all weak little sucker-sucking girls? Google "Pygmalion Effect" and read up on it. People tend to perform as they are expected to perform. People perform best when their leaders believe in them. Nix would be an idiot to say he doesn't have confidence in our LB Corps - even if he doesn't.

I need to eat crow because I predicted he'd stay. Sounded like he wanted to stay and Nix would make a competitive offer. I was wrong.

Sounds like Nix is willing to make him a competitive offer (did you listen to the Nix presser today?). Given that Poz wants to stay and the Bills are willing to pay him market value, I predict he stays. It will be the right "career decision" under the circumstances.

Nix has said since he got here that he believes in building through the draft. Just because the Bills won't sign a bunch of big name FAs doesn't mean they aren't committed to winning. Nix and Co. are just philosophically opposed to it. Many great teams are built primarily through the draft. Hopefully Nix can make Buffalo one of them.

My 2 cents: Poz will be back because the Bills want him back and he wants back. He will start, despite his shortcomings, because he's the best we have. We should be thankful for Poz because the alternatives are worse. He plays hard and loves the Bills.

We were 4-4 in the 2nd half of the season last year. Why wouldn't we continue at .500? Free Agency is still a wild card. Interested to see who we will lose and who we will sign. But we do have some up-and-coming younger players who should perform better than last year with added experience. This will be our second year with Gailey's offense and Edwards' defense. Both should function better. And it's our 2nd year with our new S&C coaches who will hopefully reduce the injury rate of the DJ years. We also have Wannstedt to help on the Defense - a needed addition. At last one of this year's draft picks should contribute right away. All in all, 8-8 seems like a safe prediction.

Actually this is quite capitalistic. It's not unusual for a big company to maintain a presence in a market even when that presence costs them money. For example, NFL Europe survived for several years, despite huge losses, because the NFL hoped to build a fan base in Europe that would eventually create another revenue stream. Jerry Jones supports helping smaller market teams simply because it's in his best financial interest to do so. By maintaining franchises in a selection of cities (and not only in mega-cities), the NFL maintains itself as a national brand with widespread relevance.