hondo in seattle

I'm not sure I'm ready to plunk down $70 but I do appreciate your detailed review so I can make an informed decision.

Yeah, Potter's leg is an interesting issue. Do you keep one less OL? One less LB? What positional depth do you sacrifice for long kickoffs? Gailey probably won't give up the #3 QB position which is unique. If the NFL is going to allow you suit up an extra player on game day as long as that player is your emergency (#3) QB, then you ought to take advantage of that. We cannot call Potter or some RB the #3 QB. The NFL wouldn't allow it. The #3 QB has to be an actual QB. That's why Nix quickly went after Brad Smith and paid him a pretty penny. We get a guy we can legitimately label our #3 QB but will get on the field in other ways. I'm really impressed that the Bills immediately understood the possibilities of the new rule and took advantage of them.

I saw this in a football magazine once (forget which one). The combined record of the NFL was something like .600. I wrote the editor to ask if the NFL was now playing games against the CFL that counted for record.

This solves a lot of Chan's problems. Now he knows what players to cut since Madden rating are always accurate. Seems Thigpen is out (even Brad Smith is rated higher). Hagan and R. Martin will stick as WRs while Namaan is on the bubble and TJ will be cut.

Yeah, when you go 4 wide, I think you need 6. And when you put 4 WRs out there at the same time, you know you'll have some injuries. Seems we need to start the season with 6.

I'm not sure those who want to cut Smith understand the new NFL rules. THe #3 QB is not simply the third string QB. It's a special position in and of itself. The NFL now allows teams to dress and play an emergency #3 QB but this player does not count against your team total. In other words, if you designate someone as a #3 QB, he's an extra player on game day. So what Gailey wants is a #3 QB who can actually contribute in other ways since he won't see the field as the QB leading your offense unless #1 and #2 both get hurt and that's not likely. Last year - the first year of the new rule - most #3's simply sat on the bench in their pads and did nothing. Smith actually played and contributed. Smith can return kicks, play WR and run the wild cat. He might not have been great at any of those things but at least he contributed on the field. If we made VY our #2 and Thigpen our #3, Tyler would sit on the bench and do nothing for the team because he's not a multidimensional player. At best, he might contribute by holding a clipboard. There's no point in having a conventional QB as your #3. If we did have some QB injuries and had to go down our depth chart, it wouldn't be hard to find a street FA of Thigpen's calibre to come in and help us. But your season's screwed in any case if you've lost both your #1 and #2 to injuries. If the NFL allows us to dress a #3, we might as well dress someone who can do other things. What FA QBs out there can do more things than Smith? I'm happy we have a coach and GM who understood the implications of the new rule quickly.

I think we should do whatever Nix thinks we should do. Buddy knows far, far more about Troup's ability and medical status than I do.

All this stuff used to annoy me, too. But maybe because I'm gettting old, I now only laugh when NFL players, coaches and commentators butcher the English language. After all, language exists to communicate feelings and ideas and while many in the NFL may not be elegant in their communication, we get what they are trying to say. It would be a more boring world, actually, if we all talked the same without slang, neologisms and mixed metaphors, and only with the best of grammar. I may not be entirely sure what a "down hill runner" is but it's more colorful than hearing again and again that a certain back is a "straight-ahead runner" who's "best between the tackles."

I was thinking the same. I hope Eddins is great at rushing the passer but at that light weight, it's hard to imagine he can shed blockers and make plays in run support.

I hate to say this but JP and even TE threw better deep balls than Fitz. And I say that despite being generally happy with Fitz as our QB. Fitz has enough skills to take us to the playoffs. But the deep ball isn't his forte while it is TJ's. I wonder if Fitz's work with Coach Lee will improve his long ball any??? Let's hope.

"And behold "And, behold, there came a man named Jairus and he slew the Philistine named Brady and with his unvanquished brethren smote all their enemies on the battlefield." Hondo 8:42 You could conclude people are just ignorant. But Jairus is an unusual name while the -ius ending is common in Latin/Roman names such as Julius, Marius, Demetrius, and so on.

I'm not a Madden guy but I noticed only 5 players have higher ratings. It's good to see he's not underrated, as Kyle Williams - for example - often is, just because he plays in Buffalo.

I think you might give him too much credit in the article but he was an active Bills booster and I'm thankful for that. It wasn't his fault he was injured for so long, nor was it his fault that he couldn't successfully transition to a 3-4 DE at this point in his career. Nix will roll the dice sometimes and this time it didn't work out. I wish Shawne luck where ever he goes. He was a classy Bill if never a very productive one on the field. Incidentally, here's what Nix had to say about Merriman: "He can play. He did everything. He's been healthy since OTAs. He hasn't missed anything. He's very attentive in meetings. He's worked hard in practice, and he's played really good in spots in the games. He's a hard worker and he's done everything he could do. We think we've been patient, but there comes a point where we felt like we needed to move on and look down the road so these young guys will get a shot."

I'm actually not that frustrated. I was not expecting a storybook season with us winning all our preseason games and dominating the AFCE to earn a home game in the playoffs. We have some talent but not yet enough for a fairy tale season. I expect us to struggle, have problems, but hopefully sneak into the playoffs anyway. My prediction for impact players is mainstream. I think Mario will do great on defense, though our D will have some other stars too. And I think Freddie is the engine that drives the train on Offense.

I'm assuming Merriman was released early so he could catch on with another team while the Bills had become convinced they would keep Kyle Moore instead of Merriman. Here's Mark Gaughan's article on Moore: http://www.buffalonews.com/sports/bills-nfl/article1004799.ece?two-bills-drive In summary, Gaughan says Moore was misused in Tampa as a 3-4 DE. He's a better fit for a 4-3 and has "looked good" in camp. Gailey says: "He has done a good job, He has to learn to play every aspect of the game. That is his thing right now. Kyle can rush the passer. We have to make sure everything else is in sync with our football team." In other words, it seems Moore isn't as good against the run as he is pressuring QBs.

I had heard Kyle Moore has looked good but thought it unlikely he'd beat our Merriman, especially this early. Shocking.

Top Ten Reasons the Bills Make the Playoffs 1. Dominating D Line 2. New Def. Coord. 3. Chan's an offensive guru 3. Two running backs who both average over 5 ypc 4. Superior teamwork. These guys are committed to the team and their common goal: make the playoffs. 5. A QB with good leadership skills who understands the system. 6. We're much improved vs 2011 simply because we don't have a dozen key players on IR. 7. A good secondary. 8. The Jets and Fins don't look like contenders. Even the Pats have vulnerabilities. 9. Although lacking star power, our WR Corps is very deep. 10. This is the time of year for optimism.

It's only preseason but it's good to know our competitors are having their own problems. From PFT... Sanchez, Tebow both struggle in loss to Giants Posted by Michael David Smith on August 18, 2012, 10:39 PM EDT Mark Sanchez didn’t do anything against the Giants on Saturday night to deserve to keep his job as the Jets’ starting quarterback. But Tim Tebow didn’t do anything to deserve to take the job from Sanchez. Both Sanchez and Tebow struggled, and the Jets’ offense could get nothing going all night, as the Giants won easily, 26-3. A quick glance at Sanchez’s numbers might suggest that he had a decent night: He did complete nine of his 11 passes. But he was throwing short, easy passes exclusively, which is why he had just 59 passing yards. And he threw an absolutely terrible interception that the Giants’ Jayron Hosley took back 77 yards for a touchdown. Tebow completed just five of 14 passes for 69 yards. Tebow was in at quarterback for the Jets’ only scoring drive, and unlike Sanchez Tebow didn’t throw any interceptions, but Tebow threw plenty of ugly, inaccurate passes. The quarterbacks weren’t getting a lot of help; with Santonio Holmes out, the Jets’ receiving corps was missing its only proven playmaker. And the Jets’ offensive line was lousy, with the Giants’ defensive ends repeatedly bringing pressure. Jets right tackle Wayne Hunter remains a huge liability. Overall, the Jets’ offense looks like a mess. Rex Ryan better be right that the Jets have a Top 5 defense, because their offense is going to be a problem.

The Comeback game clearly has to be mentioned but I have it on DVD and saw it live on TV when it happened. So I would choose the time the Bills beat the Raiders 51-3 in the AFC Championship game in 1990. I was deployed to Iraq at the time and have never had the pleasure of witnessing that beat down. Also, I'm not sure what game I would choose but watching OJ run was pure joy. I think he's underrated and underappreciated by the Gen Xers because obviously his reputation has been soiled by his post-Bills activities. But man that guy could run. I'm not sure he was better than Jim Brown but he was better than any runner since. Fans would jump to their feet at Rich Stadium when OJ had the ball. By the way - for those too young to remember - the Oilers had a very good team the year of The Comeback. In fact, we lost to the Oilers the week before in the "House of Pain" in Houston 27-3. This was a critical game, as I recall, because it got the Oilers into the playoffs and knocked us out of 1st place in the AFCE. So we had to play the Oilers again in the first round of the playoffs. By halftime, we had suffered 6 consecutive quarters of painful futility, managing just two FGs while giving up bucketloads of points. And Kelly and Thomas both got hurt. If the first-teamers couldn't reach the endzone, how could Franck Reich? The Comeback was incredibly unlikely when you know the circumstances which made it all the sweeter when it happened.

The OP said we could clone the guy. If we had 50+ Jim Brown clones running around today with our modern knowledge of training, nutrition, etc., they'd be beasts.

Good point.

I don't think anyone is making the point that our wildcat was good last year - though it was reasonably effective in the beginning of the year at running for 1st downs. But last year had a lockout-shortened offseason and Chan wasn't able to implement his enitire offensive package nor practice it to the point of executional perfection. Additionally, we have Coach Lee on staff now and he's supposedly THE wildcat guru. No one wants to return to last year's wildcat. Some of us are interested to see what we can do with it this year. And remember, the Wilcat's effectiveness can't be measured solely by it's production. Part of the idea is to make opposing defenses waste practice time on it so they spend less time practicing for our base offense.

I wouldn't mind a 2 year plan with Potter. Let him do kickoffs this year but work with him to improve his FG kicking. And next year we make a choice to stick with Lindell or go with Potter. We give up a roster spot for an extra kicker just for one year. Lindell is only getting older and Potter might have enough upside to be our guy in the future.

Yep. On a typical running play it's 10 vs. 11 because the QB is just staying out of the way. With the Wildcat, it's 11 versus 11. You've just increased your manpower by 10%. Also, the Wildcat is schematically very different than the Bills normal O. Assuming we could execute the Wildcat well, other teams would have to game-plan for it thus reducing the amount of time they game play against the normal Fitz-led Offense.

America likes underdogs. Nothing wrong with it. And this guy was a freak of nature. Huge, but surprisingly agile. Of course he elicited interest and conversation. Personally, I was hoping Jasper would turn out like Peters. A late draft pick with raw athletic ability but low-level skills who gets coached into a good NFL player. But I can't say I'm surprised it didn't turn out that way. It only rarely does.