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Complaints about the details of EJs play are legit from us fans, because we are not paid to be rationale. However, think back to examples we all remember like an Eric Moulds who legitimately could not even appear on the field his first two years despite his being a first round choice at a "simple" position like WR. EJ was drafted as a PROJECT. He was taken in the 1st not because he was clearly Joe Montana (a 3rd round choice), Tom Brady (a 6th round choice) or Kurt Warner (I think Wal-mart picked him to be a boxboy) but because with at least one full season of work, and more likely approaching two full seasons of work he MIGHT perform like the quality of QB we want and deserve. EJ is on track right now in that he impressively is a legit starting QB as a rookie even though some basic fundamentals in his game need some work. Its like the old story Matt Suey used to tell about going camping with Walter Peyton. Suey would say how he woke up before 6aqm and found Paeyton already lacing up his tennis shoes and reporting to Matt that there was a grizzly bear inspecting their campsite for food. A wise Penn Stater, Suey said to Peytin, forget about your shoes you cannot outrub a grizzly over a short distance. Peyton replied, I do not have to outrun a grizzly, I just have to outrun you. The only question whether EJ is a better prospect than Geno Smith when determining his draft position. Even trading down they stretched o take EJ when they did but he was a legit PROJECT to take when the Bills grabbed him last year. Whaley/Merrone's goal were not to draft a QB who could immediately be a great. good, or even adequate performer as a starting MFL QB. The Bills QB record in the post Jimbo era were so bad (TC, Hobert, AVP, RJ,Flutie, JP, etc) were so bad the Bills had to take a QB in the first. EJ was the clear choice as even second legit choice Geno Smith would have been correctly greeted with tears and laughter. Its still to early to get your panties all up in a wad and throw EJ under the bus. The legit judgment to be made of the Bills braintrust is not whether they picked a good enough QB (that player does not exist in the 1st round of the last draft, but whether acquired folks in the next drafts, from FA, trades and developing our own to win even with an inadequate QB.

Actually, this poster identifies the correct answer to this question from a football proffessionals POV, there really is little reason for any Bills player to have t defend EJ's play as yes he has stunk so far, but I don't think anyone who really knows the game expected anything else from EJ that when the Bills chose him they knew full well he was a PROJECT. He was going to take at least one, and probably 2 full seasons of taking snaps (at least 16 games and probably 32) before he began to perform like the QB the Bills want and deserve. The conventional wisdom is usually wrong in the NFL, but one place where the CW is actually pretty correct is that one needs to see 3 seasons of play before a legitimate judgment can be made about whether an athlete is a true player or a bust. Us fans though pay for our tickets (or buy the cars, beer, and soap sold by the advertisers) so we have "earned" our uninformed fan view. EJ "needs" to be defended only against fan expectation (by definition unreasonable if we are true fans- but true fans still love the team despite a decade and a half of missing the playoffs) or are bloviators like Sully, Schoop, or many on TSW and really can be ignored after only 16 starts (EJ is actually a rookie for real assessment purposes) potentially 32 starts and honestly 48 starts until a serious judgment can be made. Quite frankly in terms of the "real" game, EJ is about right on track. When Whaley/Merrone picked him they already knew that he was an incredibly physically gifted and talented, hard working and boasting a bunch of real world achievements from his college career at FSU. They also knew full well that he was incredibly inconsistent as an NFL prospect because a lot of the things which brought him success in college (he was athletically superior to most of his opponents, and his teammates were men compared to the boys he faced were simply no longer true. Further, the defenses he would now face were designed by adults rather than the childlike level of even elite college football. Even among elite players, the norm is not BenRoesthnbergeresque or Eli Manning achievement, the norm is more like Todd Marinovich or in good cases like Eric Moulds. There really is no rational reason to have to defend a player good enough to start more than half a dozen games as a rookie QB. However, rationality is not why we are fans, so the usual platitudes must be given by the teammates and EJ himself, but for the most part complaints are simply best ignored by folks who really know football at this point. at this point.

Why on earth would anyone go beyond the usual platitudes that express general support for EJ since on the face of it, the offenses 0 for 3+ games is clearly not defendable. No one with half a football brain (including the Whaley/ Merrone braintrust) had envisioned EJ as more than a PROJECT. He was the best PROJECT at QB in last year's QB poor class. It was really a choice between Geno Smith and EJ as the Bills had to go QB in the first round, but no one with any football intellect expected EJ to play like the QB we wanted without at least a season (16 starts) under his vbelt. Quite frankly a season and a half or maybe two full seasons of starts were likely to be needed to iron put his game. The task confrontingWhaley/Merrone was not to draft a QB who would be where we want in his first season (or two more likely) Their task was o build a TEAM capable of competing for the playoffs with an inadequate QB as none was out there in the draft or FA. The disappointment so far many feel about EJ says more about their lack of understanding of the game than it does about EJ. He was drafted as an inconsistent PROJECT with more upside than Smith and he remains a PROJECT with more upside than Smith ot other young QBs.

The actual logic here is this: More money and non-relocation are actually the same thing for the true decision-maker her which is the NFL as a whole and is NOT simply the Trust, or any individual team owner and bidder. Many people (and apparently you) make a correct assumption that the ultimate decision will be made for the option which gives the decision-maker the most money. This is true! However, the mistake for your logical conclusion is not understanding that different options deliver different levels of money to the NFL as whole (the ultimate decision-maker in this process) or to the individual seller (The Trust in the Bills case) and the highest bidder (who definitely maximizes the $ for the Bills but MAY not also maximize the $ received by the NFL. To understand this, first take a step back and think about this logically rather than worry about the real world specifics in the Bills case (yet, because when you look at what is really happening so far the logic of the case I am making best explains this situation as we know it). It is clear that the Trust pretty simply makes the most money for itself by selling to the highest bidder and getting out of dodge with as much money as it can hang onto after capital gains and estate taxes. However, lets say the highest the highest bidder while giving the Trust the desired (and some have even claimed required) tons of money where does this leave the NFL. Lets say the highest bidder is someone anathema to the NFL either because he is an idiot or even worse hurts the product because his riches come from some unpopular activity (such as the big buck guy is some Saudi Arabian oil magnate who is actually an uncle of Osana bin Laden). Under the high bidder or Trust rules theory , the NFL would have no choice because what the owner wants is what rules. No. The NFL is not going to be forced to do something which huts its business merely because an individual owner says so )in fact we saw an example of this in another sports league, the NBA where the other owners grouped together and forced the owner of the Clippers pretty quickly to sell his franchise. Its even more clear cut in the NFL than in the NBA where Ralph Wilson (and thus the Trust) have agreed contractually that any new owner the Trust sales to must win the votes of 75% of the other owners or no deal. The NFL has an effective veto over who owns the Bills. Do you understand that the NFL is ultimate decision-maker here? Do you understand that the profit of the whole NFL trumps (not Donald but literally) the profit-making for an individual team. In essence, the Trust has already agreed by contract to give up its individual free market ability to do whatever they want because the individual teams long ago figured out that they can make more $ individually in a structure governed by the social compact of NFL team owners working together collaboratively. The big economic shift in the NFL began way back when with Pete Rozelle championing such anti-individual reward ideas such as giving the worst teams the highest draft picks. In a traditional free market the better performers would be rewarded by attracting the better players to their winning teams, the bad teams would simply die off in the free market unless they got better in order to attract better players. Instead of pursuing free market competition as the mechanism for improvement the NFL instead installed a draft/ FA, and waiver bidding system which rewards the worst performing teams on the field, but does help the overall product maintain equality. In fact, if there was a real free market which operates in the real world by roughly 50% of businesses going out of business in their first 5 years, the NFL simply could not operate and the true cash cow, the TV networks would not obligate the money they give to the individual owners. The real problem for the traditional owner model types came with the mid-80s labor dispute. The team owners so effectively destroyed the AFL-CIO types who lypes who led the NFLPA, that a talented tenth of players led by Gene Upshaw linked up with some smart lawyers and instead threatened to decertify the NFLPA as a bargaining agent. The team owners then realized that they needed to abandon any pretense of a traditional free market and signed the CBA which essentially broadedned the social compact which controlled the NFL tp include the NFLPA as partners. The TV nets then stepped forward and signed long term deals which gave the owners even more money as expansion of the social contract gave labor peace. The a few years CBA then called for renegotian after a few years, and even before negotiation Upshaw announce that the new deal would now extend the salary cap to all gross revenues and that the player share reflected in the salary cap would need to start with a 6. The final deal was negotiated by Paul Tagliabue and the NFLPA hired lawyers and gave the players 60.5% of the take (arguably making thm not only partners but the majority partners of the NFL. In the end, the NFL accepted this deal over the objections of only Ralph and the GB Packers. The 75& threshold was agreed to within this context. It matters what the Trust wants, but only 1/32 nd of the ultimate decision. As far as the JBJ group, this whole thing was a joke to those of us who feel we understand the economics here. For the Trust it might give them the biggest $ to take a bid from the CA group. However, for the other 31/32 that really controls this thing, the best fiscal deal is to have franchises in BOTH Buffalo and Toronto. The NFL not only wants to get more money they do not give away money. If the Bills left Buffalo they would be walking away from 45,000+ season ticket holders, the 25,000+ that routinely buy individual tickets, the millions from WNY advertisers, and 100s millons in corporate welfare which would not go to ON. Why throw this away when your avowed longterm plan is to expand and you can have BOTH Buffalo and ON momey. This team ain't gpoin no where

I think the ultimate answer to what the Trust does is that they do whatever the NFL an entity wants it to do. Ralph certainly objected to a lot of what the NFL wanted to do (as seen by him and GB being the only owners to vote against the renewal of the CBA) but the simple fact is that Ralph had contractually agreed to give up his individual ability to compete in the NFL as a traditional free market because the individual owners actually male tons more money from the TV nets working in a collaborative framework. Particularly once Ralph agreed that his and no other team would be sold unless 75% of all the owners approved of the new owner, the NFL effectively has a veto over whomever the Trust decides to sell to. Under this configuration it is a pretty good bet that the other owners will agree to approve the Trust sells deal which maximizes the other owners profits. It seems clear to me and I have heard no argument to contravert the idea that given a choice between a Buffalo franchise and a franchise in the larger market of Toronto (or LA for that matter) the NFL team owners clearly maximize their profits by having BOTH an existing Buffalo franchise and a Toronto franchise as soon as expansion allows. The Bills ain't going nowhere and will stay in Buffalo as moving the franchise would mean the NFL owners simply throwing away their share of 45.000+ season ticket holders cash, 20,000+ individual ticket buyers cash the Bills routinely bring in, 100s of millions from WNY advertisers, and 100+ million in corporate welfare from NYS govt. True this money will be replaced and even marginally exceeded by a Toronto franchise, but the NFL tends not to throw money away and there is no reason to throw the Buffalo money away when expanding the NFL (which all say is their plan to get more eyeballs and make more $)maximizes the amount of % the individual owners make.

No, as the Bills have already sold 45,000 season tickets 30,000 attendance would never be the official calculation of attendance. Even if the team played so poorly that 15,000 folks who already put down their cash are not drawn by a losing team, many attend the games for the soectacle and the tailgating which would still be there. In the big picture the great bulk of the individual owners $ does not even come from game tickets and concessions but from the TV networks. This is the real market and as money talks this is the thing that calls the shots. The NFL and the networks are guaranteed that the record of NFL teams cumulatively will be .500. Record does not make the big dfference, $ makes the big difference. Its why this franchise is not likely to ever leave Buffalo. Given the choice between a Buffalo franchise and a Toronto framchise, the NFL clearly will choose both. 15 years of no playoffs is a pretty clear indicator that the NFL would not walk away from 40,000+ in sold season tickers, millions of $ in local commercials sold and millions of $ in corporate welfare from local govts as moving the franchise simply means walking away from hundreds of millions of $. Moving to a new franchise, even a larger one like Toronto of LA would see the lionshare of the money generated by the new franchise simply replacing the now abandoned Buffalo money and even the larger franchise only improves the bottomline marginally.

Yep. By NFL rule and owner is prohibited from owning a franchise in different sport UNLESS its a franchise in a different sport but in the same town. Even this prohibition can likely be worked around. For example, Buffalonian Jeremy Jacobs is a gazillionaire who owns the Boston Bruins, but there was talk that if he wanted in on the Bills he might be able to sell his Bruins ownership to a relative or have a relative buy the Bills on paper while he in essence owned the team. There also was talk of him not owning the team but investing substantially in a new stadium which the Bills would play and practice in essentially giving him free reign to be around the team and be intrinsically linked financially while not being the titled owner of the Bills.

Is it being an EJ apologist to feel he is not an adequate NFL starting QB, but also feel I had no expectation he would be an adequate QB after less than a full season of reps. My sense or EJ when the Bills picked him was that he was a PROJECT when they chose him. He had great demographics as an athlete in terms of his size, good foot speed and was said to be a good guy amd a natural leader. That being said, he was a somewhat inconsistent performer who benefitted a llot from having an FSU team around him which was head and shoulders better than much of their competition. This last point was no rap on him as he led this group of great talent to a great collegiate record. Yet, it was pretty clear that the run and pass when you have to style which worked for him in college would need to get trained out of him as pro QB. The main things which spoke to the Bills drafting EJ (and probably early( was that the Bills had misfired on Fitzy and desperately needed a QB. Further, though there was no guarantee he would be like a Luck or Peyton Manning and be a likely star if he didn't get hurt, the QB draft class overall was pretty weak and EJ had more upside than Geno Smith the other potential first round choice. Most with any football knowledge knew going in that it would take certainly a full rookie season and probably then some before he proved to be the QB the Bills wanted. The key to competing for the playoffs with EJ as QB was NOT going to be how quickly he developed (which would likely take a couple of seasons, but whether the Bills could build a team with the talent to win with an inadequate QB and not whether EJ demonstrated he was a good QB which likely would not happen until the 2015 season. I am disappointed the Bills lost but EJ played as I expected him to.

the NFL blackout rule.

My sense is that you are right and EJ has some definite fundamental shortcomings in his game. He looks like (and is IMHO) a very talented athlete who actually still has less than a full season of reps due to his injuries last year. I flat out disagree with those who have their panties all up in a wad who want to declare him a bust already and move on. He is not where we would want our QB to be (yet, but EJ was always a project when he was drafted and clearly needs a season or three of reps before he will be the QB we wishhim to be. The question for the Bills competing for the playoffs this year is NOT whether EJ will perform like the leader at QB we want (and deserve as long suffering Bills fans). He almost certainly will NOT play at these levels. This youngster is too inconsistent. However, the Bills can still compete for the playoffs THIS YEAR if: 1. The D still puts up the great sack #s they put up last year with the addition of Spikes to stuff the run but with the unfortunate loss of Kiko 2. Sees the RBs remain with upper level production with the addition of Brown as a needed supplement to Jax, CJ 3. Good play developed from a talented OL with no chemistry yet 4. Imposing play from a set of 3 potential frontline WRs 5. Improved performance from the ST which does seem to have better athletes but has not yet shown good enough coaching. If one knows about football and cares about the Bills then you gotta get over our longrunning over fixation on QB play as EJ is a PROJECT who MAY turn into what we want after a year of reps )if we are lucky). EJ is not gonna be good enough this year but if the rest of the TEAM works out and we get lucky we can compete for the playoffs this year!

The Mayock reassessment that prompted the re-evaluation summary of several pundit views does as you point out correctly labels EJ as a project. However, I think it also correctly (c0mpared to the other QBs available in a lackluster year for QB draft talent) summarizes a few weeks before many pundits had EJ in the 4th round, but the concensus of pundit views had re-evaluated (as often happens with showcases like the Senior Bowl and the Combine that EJ was clearly a legit 2nd round pick. Further, if Mayock (not a professional scout but a guy who clearly got a lot more right than he got wrong in his articles had actually dubbed EJ the #2 to Geno Smith among QBs in the draft. I think that was about right also. Overall, the article asks the question looking at the Eagles situation or whether it in fact made more sense for them to take the project EJ in the 1st because the QB draft class was so weak. I think that this strikes me as a pretty sound assessment of the situation. The Bills agreed with this assessment and decided that: 1. Given Fitzy's implosion, the Bills needed to find at least one (and I think true from a football rather than a fan-based view) QBs. 2. No quality QBs were available to the Bills in the FA market 3. The bills needed to draft the best prospect available to them. 4. It was a lousy draft and if you wanna guarantee you get 1 if the 2 best QB PROJECTS in this draft you watch and when 1 (Smith or EJ) gets taken you do what you have to get the other. If both are still on the board when you pick then trade down. I think this was the right strategy to pursue. The bottomline is this. A: Yes EJ is a project as you point out. However, in this weak QB class every pick was a project. The real ? is whether EJ, Geno, or someone else was the best project. B: A project is gonna take at least 2 seasons and more likely 3 before he is good enough to carry and lead the team. c: Even though its gonna be 2 or 3 seasons before EJ is good enough to lead, can the Bills still compete for the playoffs with mere so-so play from EJ? Sure, if the rest of the TEAM is good enuf. The Bills braintrust knew full well that EJ was the best PROJECT available in his draft (not hard actually as all you needed was to have more upside than Geno Smith). Almost every rookie needs 3 seasons before you can reasonably declare him a bust or a star. The Bills braintrust had to know this was true of EJ as well. Its really only us panicky fans that demand a playoff caliber performance from a rookie or even a second year player. The question for the Bills braintrust (and anyone with half a football brain or who doesn't make money being a pro whiner like Shoop or Sully) is NOT whether EJ would be good enough in his first or even second year to carry his team to the playoffs. HE WILL NOT. He is a project and it is stupid for anyone to expect him to be that good that quick (I and other Bills fans hope he will be the next Jimbo immediately but even though that is my hope I am not stupid enough to expect that to actually happen.). The question for the Bills braintrust was whether they could make the rest of the TEAM good enough to compete for the playoffs with a PROJECT who needs at least two full seasons to become the QB we want to develop. Even this is a longshot but I have to give Merrone/#haley credit for a nice try (but already there are some tough breaks and challenges. It seemed to me the plan to carry a developing inconsistent EJ "led" team to a playoff berth was: 1. Build a dominant D- Got off to a great start last year with a record setting season for sacks and having 3 of the DL make the Pro Bowl and the 4th DL guy this year had double digit sacks. They lost Byrd but really have assembled us two deep at the other DB positions with good drafting, player development and pick-ups. The LBs gave up some big runs but the pick--up of Spikes allowing the, top switch the speedy Kiko outside looked great until the unfortunate Kiko ACL. Still should be good but we will see. 2. Use solid RBs Jax and CJ, but get back-ups because we will be lucky to have them both finish the season. Pick-up of Byrce Brown and development of Summers and even a #4 RB looks very good. 3. Build a solid OL- Not yet I am afraid as the best need to develop chemistry, but the individual parts with 4 guys with credible starting tackle talent and a cast of guys a couple of starting Gs need t o step up is a nice idea. We will see how it works. 4. Build a great WR brigade- If Watkins is as good as advertised (he sure practices good), Woods continues to develop like he did as a rookie and as EJs go-to guy so far in pre-season and 1st round physical talent with an 8th round brain Williams gets it together in this last chance ths threesome can be foreboding. 5. They got some potential good ST talent in FA and the draft, but need to show that they can coach well enough which they have not to date. With a lot of luck I like what they have done which is the only thing which reasonably they can do with EJ who ALWAYS was seen as a PROJECT a couple of years away from being good enough to carry this team if they want to be competitive for a playoff spot this year. Wish us luck as luck was ALWAYS this team's best option unless you have some reasonable alternative plan you want to share.

Thanx

I see little added pressure from Jimbo's comments as basically he stated the obvious that EJ's 0 fer 3+ gams driving for TDs. Kelly stated something I do not think anyone (EJ most of all ) would disagree with. He would be pressuring EJ IF he had said he did not think EJ was good enough or even if he expressed uncertainty. Actually, he endorsed the idea of EJ potentially becoming the franchise QB. Is there anything Kelly could say that would not put additional pressure on EJ. I think his comments were as much of an endorsement as h could make.

At this point the OL in a perfect world would have developed chemistry where because they have played together enough they not only make the same calls when they see how the opposing team is addressing the play they called, but they know how their teammates on the OL and entire O are likely to react. This is called chemistry. Not only would the addition of a possible (if not likely) starting talent would actually be a setback for this team for awhile (2 games, 6 games, 10 games, season) that it makes little sense in terms simply on field performance. AND then you add to this the off-field disruption as the entire team needs to decide how they are going to react and interact and simply find out the truth about what happened in Miami. AND then you add to this the uncertainty of what the impact of the year off (positive or negative or both) the year off has had on Incognito as a player. In general, a pick-up of Incognito now would essentially be an admission by Merrone et al. that he is pretty confident that their current players cannot cut it. Essentially this pretty much writes off the season before it starts and draws into serious question the first season of team building by Merrone/Whaley. Can someone describe to me how this is even supposed to make things better?

Politicos getting involved may well be the saving grace for those who want the Bills to stay here. I think this may well be true because the NFL's profits actually have something to fear if the guvmint stops giving the NFL business benefits that many free market competitors cannot get in a free market. Specifically, by law, the NFL enjoys a limited exemption from antitrust laws which allows them to collaborate with each other in the social compact of individual owners rather than simply compete with each other in a free market. It initially struck me as odd that elected municipal leaders in Cleveland who appear at least at feckless as NYS politicos from my discussions from friends in Cleveland to see the town force the NFL to let them keep the Browns after Modell shuffled off to Baltimore. Part of the answer appears to be that Ohio politicos made enough of a threat to mess with the NFLs limited anti-trust exemption that the NFL folded in this fight and Cleveland won. Not only would the NFL be undergoing a risk of political backlash if the only team which plays in NYS left, the other reason for the Bills to stay is that they have lots of chance that they can actually conspire with politicos to have NYS essentially ship hundreds of millions to the NFL in corporate welfare. The NFL has already pulled off this trick by getting Erie County taxpayers to spend the lionshare of the $100+ million charge for Ralph rebuild. I think if actually looks quite likely that the NFL can get Gov. Cuomo to help set-up an sports authority to fund the building of a new stadium in Buffalo. In general, new stadiums are actually a poor economic investment. However, though the financial benefit does not work, the political benefit of "saving" the Buffalo Bills would be so high for Cuomo, I have few doubts they will make this happen. Bad fiscal idea but gppd political idea.

The whole thing seems to be a case of the often business brilliant NFL for some reason still being anchored in 20th century thinking on this. The old business model was one which placed much greater import on local owners gaining the lead share of their profits from attendance at games. In this economic world, the blackout made some sense in turns of producing more gate sellouts. However, this approach seems at best outmoded in the 21st century business model where by far the majority of the profits come from the TV networks. The blackout rule is not only business stupid in choosing to pass on a 3+ hour TV commercial for your product, but actually the marker is not merely local ticket buyers but in fact are the TV viewers an NFL owner makes the big money from as the TV nets are all about getting the maximum # of eyeballs to watch the game so that the TV nets make more profits selling cars and beer to viewers. The blackout might have made a little sense in the old economic world but makes little sense in the modern NFL economic structure.

I am positive. I am positive the O performance has sucked

This is simply an example of why a winning team is not focused on one player (be it Bradford or EJ) but instead is focused on actually building a team. I think the Bills braintrust is trying to do that (they may not make it but this is the correct approach in my mind). The key to the Bills being good this season is NOT whether EJ is a great (or even a good QB. He won't be. When EJ was picked it seemed pretty clear that he was not likely to be a rookie wonder. Even worse, he lost a lot of reps in his rookie year. I do not think anyone should plan on EJ being an adequate QB performer until sometime next year. However, the Bills are correctly trying to build on their already top notch RBs (Jax and Spiller are proven productive , but the addition of Bryce Brown was essential given injury possibilities and FA issues. They also have assembled a massive OL with LT athleticism for most players. Further,,, they have a potentially great corps of 3 talents at WR. Its not that the Bills need EJ to be good to win (this almost certainly will not happen for a year and change, what they need to make the rest of the ream perform so they can win with only merely adequate play from EJ.

Actually, the Bills continually overemphasizing the sole importance of the QB role is EXACTLY the first reason the Bills have their decade+ record of missing the playoffs. It is truly ironic to me that the ultimate impact of the amazing work Jimbo did for the Bills is that the Bills and our Superfan Ralph continually have shortchanged building a playoff worthy team. one sees this in specific examples: 1. This fan was personally surprised in 1994 when the Bills did not acquire through the draft, DA, trade, or whatever a back-up QB to develop to succeed Jimbo. Jim was great. I saw no immediate need or desire to replace him. However, it was clear even to those of who loved his play that between his age, his bursa sac, and the possibility of "normal" NFL injury that setting up and acting on a succession plan at QB was an important thing for the Bills to do. It was actually a pretty weak QB draft class (trent Dilfer is the only SB winner I saw, but perhaps a FA. The Bills then doubled down on the decision to put all the eggs in the Jimbo basket by Mr. Ralph agreeing to an illegal handshake deal with Jimbo to not give him a new contract which might hurt the Bills management of the salary cap, but instead to reward him in his next contract. A concussion simply meant that there in gfact no next contract and the lengthy journey into the non-playoff night began. 2. The next year, it was so obvious we needed a plan B at QB that the Bills reached to get Todd Collins in the 2nd (many draft gurus had him going in the 3rd at best (ironically 1 QB available in the 4th round was none other than Rob Johnson. The bad thing about our addiction to doing stupid things to address our QB over-focus caused us not only to draft too early for Collins but we then rushed into a starter's role having him become our starter when he clearly needed to have a case of happy-feet trained out of him (if it ever could have). The TEAM paid the price. 3. Our desperation mounted as we then saw the Bills waste a 3rd round pick trading for Bill Joe Hobert. He was so bad we ended up cutting him in mid-seaspn. 4. Our over-focus on QB actually led to a good move in that Bills exec AJ Smith proved willing to take a risk to get Doug Flutie to sign a low cap hit contract with a ton of performance incentives and a promise to let him win or lose the QB job on the field. I wish all contracts were like this. However, our psychosis led Mr. Ralph to make a move that involved him signing a big check that only he could do. The Bills not only traded the big 1st round pick the market demanded for a QB (whether it was a good move or not) but even more football stupidly signed him to a guaranteed contract. This had the twin devastating impacts of guaranteeing RJs cap hit even if he turned out to be injury prone (which he was and could actually be seen in his brief early NFL career) and second, the size of the RJ deal basically assured him of being the starter and made our promise to Flutie a lie. When RJ got hurt as could have been seen as likely and DF performed as well as AJ Smith said he would, his achieved incentives not only rolled into our cap but also became permanent in his contract. We ended up with so much cap space allocated to the QB position we were forced to extend but eventually cut Flutie. 5. A series of the Bills trading draft picks, heavy pressure to be a savior (that no player is gonna make from Osman to Edwards to the pre-mature ordination of Fittzy proceed. The thing I likemost about the current regime is that they are focusing as much or more on building a TEAM as the flailing around looking for the perfect QB some want ton do 2. Th

If Peyton was here, it likely would have direct salary cap implications that would mean several players who are here would not be. For example I doubt we could pay Mario to be here as our current highest paid player if we had what it would take to sign Peyton. Not a horrible trade-off as I would prefer having Manning over Williams, but I think the extra points scored would not give us a ton more Ws as our D would be signifcantly weaker. PNs contract is big enough that in addition to having to pass on MW maybe we do not extend Jax, Kyle or some combo of players.

The answer is that we do NOT need a new stadium at all, but the NFL wants a new stadium because it is a great source for profits they can get apiece of. Even better for the NFL they are quite likely to get a huge corporate welfare subsidy from NYS to pay for this cash cow. In general stadiums are a bad fiscal investment. However the ruling factor here will not be economic logic but raw politics. Though the investment makes no sense for NYS it makes sense for WNY as it would receive all the collateral benefit while only bearing a small % of the cists ti taxpayers. Eastbrook also has this impressively correct in that he understands that the true customer is NOT the local market but the TV audience. Even if there is a choice btw Buffalo and Toronto the NFL choose both! The Bills will stay here. Bank on it.

Nope. We brought in 2 WRs both of whom have the physical talents (but not the experience yet in Watkins case or the head/heart in two previous outings to do so but it is not unreasonable that he should see this as a last chance. The OL includes 2 solid starters in Glenn/Wood, but again not unreasonable hopes of finding the other 3 from 3 physical talents that have not cut it yet (Williams, Henderson, Cujo) and a plethora of former starters and projects to compete). Will this work. Maybe/maybe not but in an NFL designed to keep even semi-adequate teams in the hunt until wk 12, the BillS HHAVE A SHOT. Anyone with any football observer experience should know even in a good year about half of 1st round choices are at #1 on depth charts at their position at the end of the year. It also seemed pretty obvious to most that EJ probably had greater long term prospects than other QBs in the last draft, but that he was a ways away from being a success as a rookie. The fact that injuries rather than transferring from his collegiate style to a pro style was actually his biggest drawback so far ain't great but in the reality of QB development is not bad. Panicking and making a final judgment on his pro prospects until he logs about 3 seasons is simply bad football thinking. I think it would be stupid jumping the gun to declare him the next Jimbo if the Merrone scheme works out and he produces well this year and stupid to declare him a bust at tthis point as well. Can the Bills compete for the playoffs this year? Yeah, if 1. The run game with the addition of Brown/Dixon when the likely injury knocks out Jax or Spiller produces like it did last year, and 2. The OL mix and matches the great talent and mental midgets it has to develop working chemistry from 5 guya 3. The WRs actually turn out to have 3 #1 performing talents (or at least 2) from Watkins, Woods, Williams. 4. Finally if EJ proves to be at least adequate as he moves to finally start 16. Patience grasshopper Patience. If this team pulls the plug on EJ now and goes casting off for some new QB of the week, then we are likely doomed to the same fate which saw us: 1. Bank on Jimbo lasting longer than he did when it seemed obvious to even me he was done, 2. Out of panic got us to stretch a round or so to get Collins and then to panic and give him the start while his happy feet tendencies were not trained out of him, 3. Reach stupidly for Billy Joe Hobert giving away a 3rd round pick and then having to cut this idiot when he did not prepare, 4. Trade vlue for RJ and then stupidly sign him to a guaranteed deal so that when he proved to be injury prone but Flutie performed as AJ Smith said he would we ended up with a ton of cap money locked up at QB, 5. Reached for JP and then totally messed up training him in our usual overfocus on the QN position 6. Edward screw up 7. Fitzgibbons debacle which again I trace to screwy way we over emphasize. The Bills strike me as doing the right thing with a good emphasis on building the rest of the O and with a little luck this team should be able to pit up some Os with merely adequate play from EJ as we will be quite lucky to get that from him for aat least a full season or more. Do you feel either that EJ is good enough to develop into an upper tier QB with less than a couple of years of starts or that there is someone else out there we should get instead. If so then who? The key to this team winning is not gonna be EJ suddenly developing quicker than the 3 years conventional wisdom usually requires of a QB its gonna be whether the rest of the TEAM builds chemistry and develops in a manner that the Bills can win with merely adequate play from EJ. He has the skillset and pedigree to potentially be a good one but simply is not there yet.

Exactly. Look, the reality is that EJ was not seen by anyone (including Whaley and Merrone likely) as having any likelihood of being an upper tier NFL QB in his rookie year (I am defining upper tier as the top 1/3 of QB starters). Does anyone disagree, and if so why? Quite frankly I had few expectations that any rookie QB fir us would even rank in the upper half of QBs. The key question for this year is NOT whether EJ is going to develop and show the skills necessary for a QB to lead the team to the playoffs (The answer is NO! EJ has not even started 16 games yet. The question is whether despite EJ's limitations at ;east til he gets more time, can the Bills acquire sufficient additional talent to get to the playoffs. The answer is maybe, but the vision as executed by the braintrust looks like a good try. RB- Great results last year and reinforced with good quality at both #3 #4. OL- Tough task but some high risk big return/low investment efforts like Henderson, Williams and even Cujo make this effort possible. WR- Stepped up to get consensus best WR, have a #2 who is among most exciting and got a high return low risk #3. Folks need to stop fixating on whether EJ is gonna be great (he ain't for a season or two at least and instead focus on how this team can win even if the QB is average at best as a youngster.

Even if this is the case it may provide some flexibility that can be useful to the Bills. In the past players/teams have used the appeals process in a way that though it does not allow the player to escape punishment, the CBA provides the player with the ability to appeal the result and thus stall off enforcement until the appeal is processed. Thus, I can see the Bills facing the loss of both Dareus and Bradhan with one game penalties that they reach an agreement where one misses the first game and the other misses the second game. It would be bad for the NFL in terms of damaging the team (and not just penalizing the miscreant player) if they forced both of these key players to sit out at the same time. If the routine is not to get in the business of having the NFL and the players flat out pick the point of punishment, then still either Dareus or Bradhan can chose to appeal just before the game and drop the appeal after the game and miss the next one. In the end, the NFL is an entertainment product and it simply is not good story telling to have the first games across the league all end up being hamstrung by multiple players all beomg jeld out.

I think the Bills are doing exactly what they have to do make this offense productive. This is NOT to base the scheme on the expectation or even the hope that EJ is going to turn out to be a QB at a level that he can carry this team to Ws through his own great play. THIS AIN'T GOnNA HAPPEN. It seem that the Bills scouts made the same assessment of EJ which other professional scouts and consistent EJ watchers made. EJ is a quite talented player, a good leader of his team, and a quality guy. However, his play is at best inconsistent and not only will he need to be trained up to get him to be more consistent in making good reads and reacting properly, but in essence trained down to not rely on the fact he is a superior physical player compared to many of his college opponents. In college he not simply get by, but even racked up a lot of Ws because he was so much faster than many LBs or stronger than opposing DBs, now in he big leagues, every opponent is faster and stronger than what he was used to in college. He needs to develop a play style which maximizes the output of his teammates. The Bills are not training EJ to need to become the player right now that he will be (with hard work, good training and luck) in 3 years. Many fans seem to have an expectation and even a demand that EJ produce like Roethensberger or Eli Manning in his first year. NOPE, he us not a good enough player to carry the team much. However, what the Bills braintrust's vision seems to be is: 1. Get a group of talented RBs as the primary thing this team plans to do well in run as much as possible. If this succeeds then there is far less demand on EJ to be very good or simply adequate in his bref career so far. 2. Good RBs are a must have for a dangerous running game, consistent production from a running game demands a top quality OL. 3. Ironically, one of the things which makes for a consistent run game is a huge pass threat. When the safties do not want to line-up 8 in the box because they are more worried about not being embarrassed by the passing game, then running is more productive. If when the O lines up in a spread offense that opens gaps in the interior then the run game prospers. The Bills have: A. One of the best run games in the league behind productivity from both Jax and Spiller. However, Jax's age and Spiller's high ankle sprain last year make it a bad bet to count of them to remain healthy. Enter Bryce Brown who shows capability to be a starter if necessary and eevn some signs of productivity from our #4 RB and the RB moves make a lot of sense. B. OL: Fespite the productivity of our RBs last year the Ol play was inadequate. However, an old OL guy like Merrone clearly has a plan and the Bills did a nice job of picking up folks recently judged as 1st round OL talent who were acquired later than in the draft for reasons which might be coached beyond. An acquisition of chemistry is needed, but the potential of a plan is in place. C. WR- O like the combo of Watkins, Woods and Williams as 3 legit WR starting talents when often recently the Bills did not even have more than 1 starter who was good. I do not expect EJ to prove to be much more than an adequate [layer on O but I like where we are with this O. If you count on EJ being a god then be ready to be disappointed.