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The one franchise QB yes but is that what your goal is as its an incredibly difficult thing to draft a franchise QB as well (just ask the teams which spent early picks on busts like Harrington, Akili Smith, Russell, Dilfer and B. Johnson. The last two are instructive as the actual goal is to win the SB (actually the for a decade unreachable goal for the Bills is to simply make the playoffs. What Dilfer, Johnson and others teach us is that the fools gold here is to bank so much on getting a franchise QB when actually there are first rounders and even two time loser players capable of leading a team to the SB.

However, is there really a high risk here if Bucky Brooks is correct and this contract is heavily incentive laden. If the incentives chosen are correct (and Bucky gives no details or even insights as to what they are) then the Bills only pay them IF Merriman produces. Bucky is simply incorrect in saying that the Bills are "all-in" with an incentive laden contract. They went all in on Rob Johnson with his guaranteed contract and when he proved to be injury prone we lost. Add to this insult the "injury" of Doug Flutie producing just as some Bills scouts predicted and hitting all of his incentives which then by contract were rolled into his base salary that the Bills were simply forced to sign Flutie long term to spread his cap hit out. This was all in and the Merriman situation is not. Perhaps one could make this case of the Bills being sorta all in if they were totally relying on Merriman to play OLB. Actually on the contrary as: 1. There had not been an FA period yet and the Bills might either sign additional OLB help and clearly are trying to resign Pos (whom I always saw as a better fit for us as an OLB based on his natural collegiate position rather than us having him learn by getting burned at ILB. 2. In fact, the Bills used their draft picks to heavily weigh toward rebuilding the D with the first 4 picks being D choices (perhaps providing the compliment Brooks says is needed for Merriman) and one of these was an ILB (again freeing up Pos to move OLB. Likewise they even picked a second ILB who is envisioned as making the team. i think Bucky makes a legit point that Merriman is likely done. However, he utterly fails to support the notion that the Bills are all in on Merriman. In fact, given the likelhood that the new salary cap expenditure minimum may well force the Bills to spend more on salary, this incentive laden deal is simply chump change at $2.5 million. RJ got a $5 million bonus and that was back in the day so the Merriman incentive laden contract really is next to nothing in terms of risk for the Bills.

It depends from my perspective as I really do believe that Tebow has shown signs of having IT, and being a big help and a leader in making a team win. However, I really doubt that Tebow would be able to pull off this magic anywhere and my sense is that looking at Tebow's skills and needs the Bills would likely be a death sentence for Tebow as a player. This I think is true because: 1. Tebow is a good player with real upside, but he is a youngster and like it or not needs at least an adequate OL in front of him so he is not called upon to run for his life every play. The Bills are at least a player and a half away from being even just an adequate OL (they need a starting RT and another reliable back-up so that even an adequate OL WHEN/if we get one suffers the nicks which always comes in the NFL and we need to plug in a reserve so we do not miss a beat. Tebow does need to learn some things and cannot be expected to run for his life all the time or are you gonna rely on that or do you want to rely on that? 2. Gailey is a proven O genius! However, he has shown zero success at training up a young rookie or near rookie QB into a winner. The Gailey MO has been to take a failed vet like Fiedler, Kordell, and even Fitzy to some extent and make it work with a failed vet. Perhaps if Tebow strings together a series of outputs like his OK but not great three starts last year for Denver and then gets cut, then perhaps gailey can make it work with Tebow but there is simply no record of success that I have seen to predict Tebow/Gailey would work. What evidence do you see. 3. Tebow is very good but ain't perfect and the area he needs work in would not fit well with the Bills and their limitations do not fit well. Tebow still needs to change his mechanics of delivering the ball and get rid of any delay while he throws it long. Our OL is substandard enough and Gailey has no record of successfully altering rookie machanics while at the same time requiring vet reads. I think Tebow may well end up a good one but not for the Bills with the strength/weaknesses or our team.

Way cool in that there are a lot of specifics offered in terms of how this gets done that it seems to be far more than usual fact-free opinions thrown around by the pundits. I also am quite hopeful that this will get done in that every day this does not get done there is money simply being left on the table never to be recovered by either the owners or the players. Both sides are dumb but they are not stupid. We might get er done.

Since I am an American who cares about democracy I already am a politician.

It is a safe conclusion in that it would have to begin with cutting the starter at team owner Mr. Ralph in order to truly make a difference. Unfortunately, only god can really cut him and like a cut of any player the real question is not who gets cut but who or what replaces him. I would really need to see who replaces a starter before dispensing with him. In addition, I certainly would likely demote rather than cut a starter unless there was a contractual reason why cutting him makes sense for us, The most likely cuts per se are actually the UFAs if we choose not to resign them. From this list likely Whitner is the starter not worth what the market will give him we can do without. He is a disappointment more because we wanted and expected a Pro Bowl level player. He is starter quality but no where near Pro Bowl quality. In addition Drayton Florence is a good player from my perspective but hits the free market at a position hard to fill and likely will attract more interest from the market than we can pay. 1st round pick McKelvin gets the shot. He actually is a pretty good cover corner but is quite infuriating to many as a punt returner so letting Florence go is regreattable but not a bad choice.

I think this gets to the point that the truly harmed aggrieved parties in all of this is the mewly drafted players. The newly drafted players are being treated differently in the somewhat free market of NFL activity than NFLPA members because the owners and the NFLPA have colluded to contractually allow a lock-out of players. The newly drafted players have not had nor do not have a vote in trading away their ability to sign contracts in exchange for the ability to sue (which Brady et al have exercised). There is a pretty blatant history of the NFL and the NFLPA colluding to take actions such as restricting adults from signing contracts until people born the same year as them turn 21. Their joint collusion to allow retired players to engage in activity which seems to at least coincidentally line up with later dementia is yet another example of their collusion which harms individuals. The courts seemingly have allowed this anti-free market, anti-individual ability and yes anti-American activity to go on as within this construct a game is provided. However, as contradictory activities such as the appeals court finding which reversed a lower court finding stack up (fundamentally it found in favor of a few rich guys over individual rights as the real goal of the courts seemed to be they wanted to find for the owners over the union. Individual rights are once again mere collateral damage in this battle between billionaires and millionaires. In general our courts have done their job which is to protect the rights and abilities of individuals. The courts however have told individual players in this case to go suck eggs as individuals because the players gave voted democratically to cede their rights to the MDLPA to negotiate on their behalf.

This whole thing strikes me as too clever by half. There is a human tendency to try to reduce complex multi-factorial influenced systems down to formulaic actions which be not only understood but replicated in any situation. However, life does not work that way. This is not to say that one should not try to understand what is happening through systemic analysis. One should. However, methinks the way to achieve success is not through some formulaic application but in using this formulaic approach to "merely" establish a common language so that a large group of people can talk about what they are doing and compare notes intelligently so they can actually abandon the formula and do the right thing in a particular case. Success is found not in how you follow the formula but success is found in how particular individuals at particular times abandon the formula and simply do the right thing at the right time. This formulaic approach laid out in the article strikes me as on the face if it falling short in a number of specific areas. 1. Timing of the evaluation period. One can look at the great ones like a Gretzky perform at a very young age (pre-teen) and see that he is going to be a great athlete as an adult. However, this is the outside rarity and young men at the age of 18-21 where the lionshare of direct evaluation and at least stats can be collected is still a time of mental changes and even physical growth spurts which can change adult output significantly. Even these changes can be predicted in a large total group. A good scout like any seasoned professional either tends not to be wrong in huge ways or at least can offer a prediction and give one a reasonable level of confidence that their prediction is right. However, even with these caveats there is simply significant variation which no rote system if going to reduce beyond significance. 2. What happens in life matters. Things happen in life which unfortunately have the most significant impact on whether a players succeeds or not. No system or formula is going to predict whether a player is going to get in a car accident, slip in the shower, impregnate some gal or something that is going to be the primary impact on whether a player succeeds or not. Once again, in general no specific things is going to happen for sure to an athlete and also virtually guaranteed there will be some setback and a good scout shakes the hand of a prospect and measures how they will deal with some adversity that is bound to happen. Yet, there is the Mike Williams example of a Bills draftee who had significant questions (his great numbers came as a college RT protecting the blindside of a left handed passer and we almost certainly needed him to switch to LT) but he in fact had a productive rookie year as a Bill. Yet, in his sophomore year the grandmother that raised him as a son died. He reasonably got excused in the off-season. Perhaps when Jauron shook his hand he could have judged Williams would not deal well with any likely adversity. Who knows maybe he was a jerk from word one, but the actual fact is the death of the woman who raised him coincided with a juvenile response to this tragedy and he put on a ton of weight and failed to work all off-season. Ironically, he proved to be quite maliable and Mouse MacNally did a masterful job of carrot and sticking him to a point that he was awarded a game ball in his third season for an outstanding game (by both objective measures of him being beaten and a widely held subjective judgment that he did a good job against a talented opponent. However, he failed badly overall and was a bust. This factor can be somewhat judged but overall reality sometimes defies systems. 3. The key is not simply how good a players is but how well he plays with others. Again this can be judged to some extent, but overall every year is a new year with new challenges and possibilities. A good scout must be able to convey a lot more that the mere static information of the rating system included. Sports is actually a lot of fun because it lends itself to generating tons of stats, but the stats prove to be mere indicators of performance at best and sometimes flat out wrong. If demographics were determinative Doug Flutie would never lead a team to victory. If drills and measures of speed were determinative then Aaron Maybin would be a pro-bowler. If even stats were determinative Eric Moulds would have been a bust after his first two years (he also would have gracefully retired when Evans proved to be a better go to guy than him. Again one can predict and not be always wrong but overall the statistical analysis leaves me cold.

Agreed there is a lot of work to be done to build an install a new system. Yet, in this case there would have to be so much work done to design that system (as we see even in the theorizing here) AND then an enormous amount of work done to actually install and make this new system work that on the face of it strikes me as prohibitive. A way to think about this (and the analogy is only offered to think about this because designing, reaching working agreement by all parties involved, AND then implementing it is small potatoes compared to this analogy, but I think it is worth using this because it is the same steps applied to the collegiate system) Think of the analogy of the steps needed to construct, get agreement, and then go to war to install the Declaration of Independence AND then construct, get agreement on, and then inatall the US Constitution. Again, altering collegiate athletics is "mere" small taters compared to building a new governmental system. However, one needs to understand that the process of designing, reaching agreement upon, and then installing our new collegiate constitution is a similar process to the effort made in forging a new world (though obviously much different in import. I just do not see how such an effort beyond the pleasure of mental masterstuff can result in real world change. The concept of working to achieve profit in our society. The question of how much $ is to much has no answer. I think if you agree to pay the players a little you will quickly get into discussion of how much is too rapidly down the slippery slope you will go.

I understand your thinking on this and much of it has an appeal to me. However, I think where this approach runs smack dab into reality is that the definition of "fair" is wholly different within two systems which our society pretty fully embraces. Ia fair value determined by what a student would normally get for their work time on a project? Is fair value determined by the amount an athlete would get in the open market? These two values are both "fair" by different legitimate measures. However, they are wildly different as the first value that a student worker would get is probably somewhere at or around minimum wage. However, what the market would likely judge to be fair for a student athlete (in particular an accomplished one) is going to be far orders of magnitude higher. I simply do not think a "fair" number which serves both these principles can be done. Is there some number you propose which is both doable in the long term or not insulting to the student athlete as an offer.

Actually a redo of additional info. A quick check of You Tube revealed an ESPN list featuring the top 10 blown calls. Luckett barely scrapped in at #10 with his missed coin call (it was confirmed for me however, that this was consequential in that Detroit took this gift and turned getting the ball first into a gamewinning FG.. The most humorous part of this whole episode was watching Jerome Bettis yelling no I said heads/tails as Luckect rolls along clearly thinking more about getting home in time for turkey than his job. In addition, Hochuli's blown call only made #6 on the list as his missed call while understandable in the fury of game action (this is one reason why the missed coin flip stands out for me as in this case Luckett really had one thing to do without any game distractions interfering in him doing his job right) it was also consequential as the game was decided by his miscue with not appeal for the losers. This call was given the credit (blame) for instant replay coming into the game. The winner btw was Jim Joyce flat out blowing the call and costing a kid a perfect game on what was clearly an out at first. In fact, the call was so egregious that Joyce himself was a stand-up guy and flat-out admitted he simply blew the call and cost the kid a perfect game after he worked so hard to retire 26 straight. Thanks ESPN for some good journalism on these stories and I hope the NFL did not beat your producers up too badly > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9pbgIgwuls < is the linky

This raises a question for me in terms of what of the worse blown call you have ever seen. The winner hands down for me was a ref blowing the coin flip in an OT game, calling the flip in favor of one team when the other team had correctly called it. I think it was Phil Luckett, and whoever it was actually got off pretty lightly in my view as he simply deserved to lose his job, but I remember vaguely this same ref blowing a regular game call in another game. Its interesting to me that it and I think other ref travesties do not get the often deserved repetitious TV rehashes because the network which owns the rights to the flub have no financial interest in being journalists about the story. Professional responsibility loses badly to money in these cases. Yet another example of these events merely being entertainment productions rather than real stuff meriting news coverage.

Exactly. It really is amazing how some folks seem to want to chose a side (pro or anti Mr. Ralph, pro or anti Pwgula or pro or anti Flurie, and then choose to pretend that the better things they did are meaningless because they did not do everything (or that somehow the poor things they did do not exist. The bottomline strikes me as this. Yes, DF never proved to be a winner in the big picture in the NFL. However, this truth does not invalidate his tremendous achievements in other lesser but still serious parts of the game. His TD thrown against Miami remains one of the best plays ever in college football and though others were essential to it happening, and dumb luck played a key role his play style, abilities and talent were the lead essential ingredient in this collegiate triumph. Likewise rational judgments of the failings of the CFL vs. the NFL are quite true but he consistently dominated the results in this lesser league in a manner which reality must judge to be singular. Finally, he did all this despite being a midget and having a son with severe autism Is everything? Nope. Is he anything? Yep! Based on his accomplishments I am darned impressed (and I am confident in saying that only a hard-hearted simpleton would claim his achievements can be dismissed. Pegula is spending a ton of bucks (which he has since he cleverly sold out a bunch of POTENTIAL oil wells to those interested in hydrofracking (interestingly a recent in depth report in the NYT indicates that getting oil out of shale is turning out in terms of production to be quite a bit more expensive and less productive that the early thoughts which brought Pegula so much wealth, but who cares as a hockey fan since he has the cash and is out of Dodge with the loot unless this turns out to be some Ponzi scheme he knew about, At any rate, rationality says he is buying players who based on their previous performances should add some goal scoring to a team which has achieved a bit (though not enough for most of us) due to solid goaltending and gritty toughness behind the mostly beloved Lindy Ruff. However, he has yet to own the team for a full season yet, a conclusions either pro or con Pegula are simply premature and probably stupid. As far as Mr. Ralph. He deserves the credit he has gotten for purchasing the Bills for a song and hanging on to it. Whether he was forced to or not because the AFL would not allow a team to be set-up in direct competition with the Lions, he played an essential role in bringing and keeping the team we love here in Buffalo, BUT blame who you want to blame for doing a bad job be it Jauron, Narv, TD, Wade, Butler, whoever, There us is one man who would be geing credit he probably does not deserve if we won some SBs. Instead he gets blame (which he does not deserve alone) for his team generating pathetic results over the last decade plusl Mr. Ralph is responsible not simply for undespending (I think this is a bum rap as a lot of spending levels are mandated under the CBA) but for simply making bad football judgments repeatedly when he and his team did. Only he can be blamed for the bad football judgment about how much Jimbo had left (whicb started a repeated series of miscues as we search for a new Jimbo. Even he escapes direct blame, the buck MUST stop with him as he made direct choices to hire the GMs and HCs who not only failed but repetitively have toxic relationships with Ralph. The problem is not that he is a cheapskate, the problem is he makes bad football judgments routinely or hires people not competent to make them for him. Thems the fair and balanced facts.

So you discount in a big way or completely his making the playoffs both years he HC'ed the Boys (this is a big part of why as noted above Jerry Jones has publicly said he wished he had a redo in canning him, He is a good coach exactly for the reasons you state that his work in charge overall translated into wins. Even as an OC with retread Fiedler QBing the team it translated into Ws and the team made the playoffs. Perhaps you want to simply declare that you are not gonna hop onto the bandwagon until after it begins to leave the station. That is your right to do so. However, it makes sense to call yourself a fair weather fan at best.

its not that you are crazy, but its clear from the manner with which both state and federal government handle their budgets that they are crazy. Actually, I do not think they are crazy at all. Government has a pretty consistent application of the Golden Rule- he who has the gold rules. As long as there are politically connected folks with a bunch of bucks they use to pull the strings of elected officials crazy things happen. Is it sane that our federal government is correctly having its feet held to the fire of not running huge deficits, but the folks making this demand also refuse to even discuss or think about reducing tax breaks for oil companies and for corporate jets. We are wasting billion (actually trillions federally so "merely" wasting millions on subsidies for rich NFL owners is really chump change.

Did I miss something in the article linked to but did it specifically talk about moving the Vikes being s solution to MN budget woes or alternately paying to keep them adding to the meltdown (I easily could have as it was a lengthy treatment on their issues). If not this seems like a theoretical explanation about a theoretical move which is simply just theory. I think JOhn Lennon did an album on all the TSW chatter about franchise moves, it was called Double Fantasy.

This was pretty strange as it basically makes the case that less preparation is bad for the Bills and good for the Packers. Well, how bout doing a little reporting instead of stating the obvious. Perhaps you want to present a series of "facts" as to how the Bills with learning Spiller, Fitzy and Dareus are in worse shape than the Jets with Sanchez et al. but even this more fact based reporting is tough because until there us a game there really are no new facts. I generally like Felser, but jeepers what a waste of column space.

Actually, for those who are already going through withdrawl because the usual Bills fix is not there, or for folks looking for nuggets as to what the bean counters (it certainly has not been the football guys who made judgments like Jimbo would get rewarded in his next FA contract which never happened) who really run the team. Its all really theoretical and hypothetical for us outside observers on this but I took from this "interview" that: 1. Mr. Ralph is pretty clearly still in charge. He made it clear that somethings are not appropriate for him to talk about and that Mr. Ralph is the decision-maker. In addition, it appears that he is steering clear of intruding in the boss's space not because he is afraid of some Alzheimer cover being blown and people will know that the beancounters run the store, but he pretty much gave Mr. Ralph credit for seeing how problematic the last CBA was when the team owners signed off on the deal. 2. On the small market/large marker issue he said clearly a couple of times that due to the success of the regional marketing strategy over the past decade (the St. John's Fisher work to penetrate Rochester and east and the # of S. Ontario season ticket holders which they obviously track means that the Bills market is one of the larger ones in the NFL. 3. The relationship with Rogers and Toronto is a good one and he had not problems declaring it a success so far. 4. He expects the labor dispute to be settled (he might have even said "soon" but he declined to make any predictions and I doubt he put a clock on it but would have to relisten to confirm- and though it is worth a listen by folks with the link above it clearly does not strike me as worth parsing his wording. He did "go out on a limb" though and declare it to be positive whenever the conflicting parties are talking and the current substantive talks are a positive sign. 5. He flat out said he expect the Bills to be in Buffalo for years (while no one can really predict when Mr. Ralph will die, it is interesting he was able to state this so flatly and without as far as this observer any apparent guile). 6. No substance on the team at all (it was clear that Simon and GR had agreed beforehand that they were not going to talk issues like free agency). That's what I think I heard which of import, actually the hypothetical (and what is really important which is why this interview was prompted more by keeping the unveiling of the new unis in the public eye) true meaning is unknown for sure. However, this is what I think what he MAY mean. A. Mr. Ralph has a succession plan which is unreleased or talked about, but given his age and if there was any insecurity at OBD that staying in Buffalo fully depended on Mr. Ralph being alive, one would actually see some sign of it the business deals, choice of schools for kids, home purchases and other more apparent long-term signs of the OBD infrastructure. The beancounters from the top on down are talking a "we are here for awhile" stance. Maybe they are all acting and fooling us rubes, but my sense is that the rats from a sinking ship action would show itself more if Mr. Ralph was actually showing signs of leaving, showing dottage, or telling the hierarchy do not plan for more than a couple of years for sure in Buffalo. Unless someone has real signs of the Bills leaving Dodge beyond the theory that there is more money to be found in other markets or that Mr. Ralph has publicly declared recently or even at all the team will be sold to the highest bidder (this is simply not true as any new owner MUST be approved by 70%+ of the team owners and if Muammar Dhaddafo was the high bidder he would not get the team as the NFL owners have a virtual veto over who will be a partner. B. The Bills place a higher value on cementing their hold on the Toronto market than they do on declaring small market poverty. They do both. Mr. Ralph s trying to get extra dollars from his NFL partner as a small market team. However, Brandon was quite clear that due to the regional strategy (with season ticket sales amid a horrendous record to back up this claim) the Bills are a larger market in the NFL. This is contradictory on its face but in terms of the business the Bills are presenting whatever face they choose in order to maximize the Bills take. So it is contradictory but also consistent. C. I think the large market argument is actually correct and in fact understates the fact that the true market is determined not by gate receipts but in terms of where the money truly comes from. Gate receipts (and related take such as local commercial sales, parking, beer, hot dogs, etc. is big money, it pales in size to the much bigger money of the TV contracts. I think the Buffalo Bills have a higher value as a connection to the original AFL than the 1/31st of the franchise money moving the team would bring. I think the Bills stay right here because this is where the money is (even if a new market brings new season ticket holders, new commercial deals, etc this benefit starts behind the eight ball of walking away from the cash produced by 45,000 season ticket holders (another metric Brandon is clearly aware of The rabid Bills fans actually do a lot to help the NFL tell a story and sale that story to new eyeballs in Mexico City, Tokyo, even Toronto and Beijing if we can do it. Alternately the NFL is going to be selling franchises to municipalities and selling them membership in an exclusive club while for several years the TV news is filled with stories of saddened and deserted Bills fans. I think that we see from the Sabres and the Maple Leafs that two teams (granted a different sport with a different history, stadium size, number of games etc) can exist in both cities at the same time. In fact, given the size of the Toronto market and the size of the WNY and the non-Toronto part of the Ontario market these areas could even make the fantasy case LA is making that it deserves 2 teams (it will not even have 1 as long as the blackout rules remain in place). Overall, the Russ interview made me feel more confident that the Bills are here to stay without regard to what Sully and Mike Florio are smoking today.

None, After years of training and experience in my younger days, I find that my body (particularly on Friday and Saturday nights seems to naturally produce alcohol. I found this out when one evening (night) I was winding down the road minding my own business (probably coming back from a church if it was Sunday, synagogue if it was a Saturday, or mosque if it was a Friday and I got pulled over. Not satisfied with my ability to walk heel to toe, do backflips, or count backwards from 100 subtracting by seven {the proper reaction is momentary confusion and non-aggressive resistance but then recognize that few do this perfectly so do not get flustered but keep going when you make a mistake). At any rate, not satisfied with my good enough performance the occifer did not believe my story that I was actually coming back from a religious service (sometimes we feel the spirit and the sessions last until 3am). At any rate he gave me a scienterrifc breathylyzher and despite the fact I had not imbibed (I even passed on the communion drink) I did register a .7. Fortunately this was .1 below the legal limit and I was allowed to go on my way. However, this was science based proof (and I do mean proof) positive that I don't have to have any and my bloodstream simply produces alcohol.

I once used to argue to a friend of mine that after a series of downright stupid snafus by the league (I think the refs blowing the coinflip in one OT game was part of the series of debacles) that clearly the game was fixed. She then made a point which I could not argue against. If it were fixed, wouldn't you make it more interesting. I had no riposte. If Nix had in fact tanked the season, they could do a far better job of thanking quite easily.

The idea that the Colts tanked the whole season to get Manning (or quite frankly any first round pick is ludicrous. Are you really offering a conspiracy theory which: A. Has to involve dozens (at least) of people conspiring together to try to lose without anyone finding out. B. Is a conspiracy that needs more people involved to have much chance of success or if fewer people are in on it this means they are screwing even more people who are trying hard to win. C. They launch this significant plot based on the idea of getting one player (or even two if you say either Manning or Leaf but the downside is in reality that you might have tanked a whole season to get Ryan Leaf. D. Indy did not have the first pick overall that season and you have tanked the season and run the risk that someone trades above you and takes Manning. E. Tanking a season clearly has implications beyond that one season as though Manning turned out to be great he led his 3-13 team that drafted him to a 3-13 record. Tanking a season for one player is simply a stupid strategy which depends upon the silence and co-operation of too many people for a speculative benefit. F. Even at that point the facts indicated against a first round QB choice delivering the team which drafted him an SB win as no first round choice since Aikman a decade earlier had led the team which drafted him to an SB win.

One of the keys to this choice is going to be chemistry and how well the OL plays as a unit rather than demographics like the size of a player or his tactics for doing well in a particular technique or skillset (such as a rep as a good handfighter). I'd rather have a player with less skills who is on the same page as the other Bills than have a player with better skills or more size but does not work as well with his fellow Bills.

I think in part its because Mr. Ralph really lacks credibility among even us Bills supporters. No one knows for sure what the strategy is (move in part or in whole to Toronto, do not move but re-emphasize its part of Bills territory to extort some cash for invading our territory from Rogers or whoever owns the Toronto team, move elsewhere, stay here, whatever. Despite the bleatings of legends in their own mind like Sully mo one know for sure so it is hard to comment.

Agreed that the rookie salary cap idea is beneficial to both the team owners and the vets as money set aside for rookies is money that will not go to the vets. I think the NFLPA though sees rookie salaries as providing a basis for contracts overall to continually be bid up so setting a rookie cap may not benefit players in the long run. However, since other items are secured like raising the minimum which teams must spend this takes away a method teams might have used to never divy up the take with the players.

Basically anything that the two sides can agree to is going to be "fair" to both parties since in the big picture both the owners and the players are making money off this that they do deserve. Get er done and pronto so as not to disrupt the season at all.