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The bottom line on all of this remains that the NFL owners make more money with franchises in BOTH Buffalo and Toronto than they make having one franchise in one place or the other. The NFL has both consistently expressed or even made failed moves like he WFL to add more franchises. The franchise remaining in Buffalo has already captured 46,000+ season ticket holders, routinely sell another 20,000+ individual tickets to games, has millions from ads from commercials, and has already obtained and is perched to add to 100s millions from various NYS governments. If the team mves, while all of ths can be replicated and then some in the larger Toronto market, why would the NFL simply walk away from this real money. We have already seen in hockey franchises in the same sport can exist here. o In fact the Buffalo franchise not only adds value to the next owner but the entire NFL. Leaving is simply committing to 6 year of sad stories about the NFL killing Buffalo which is simply years of bad press that is not good for selling the product and also the NFL subjecting itself to years of lawsuits and endangering there govt granted exemption from antitrust. THE BUFFALO BILLS WILL REMAIN AN NFL FRANCHISE!

I hear he went to the University of Mars.

I liked SJ for the most part as a player, and was surprised at the trade because I could easily see how he could be a nice complement with his unusual route running skills with the demonstrated great hands and superior YAC performance in college of Watkins. Yet, upon further thought. I was quite pleased with the seeming well-developed chemistry between Robert Woods and EJ. Perhaps we might move forward with multi-year 1000 yd producer, bain of top flight CBs like Revis SJ as our #1 and growingly reliable Woods as our #2. However, the braintrust had a vision. They knew they needed three WRs to be outstanding in the NFL. Also, though SJ was a proven productive player, he like the rest of the world is not perfect. He was a reasonable #1 but not a 1200 yd drop dead #1. Further he did have a history of doing well but had a number of high profile fails as well. His style is that he is virtually impossible to shut down. However, his style is that it is hard for a DB to predict will do and thus to cover him. However, his herky jerky style makes it hard for not only a Revis to cover him but also hard for EJ (or any other QB) to develop a chemistry with him. The Bills braintrust chose another vision. They felt Watkins had the hands, breakaway speed, and also the discipline to practice different releases and get separation. They felt Watkins could easily make EJ's job simpler by getting quick separation but also unlike SJ who needed a little time to get his separation with unpredictable route running but Watkins is unpredictable in which route he is going to run for the DB (the fly patterns and curls look the same until the DB chooses to sit on the curl (but he and the QB have predetermined the run the fly or the DB turns tail to run the fly but EJ/Watkins have predetermined to run a curl. Not only did the Bills plan call for the developing reliable Woods as our #2, but they also decided to go after #1 round physical talent Williams to come back to his hometown of Buffalo with the hope he would deal with the fact he had shown a round 8 character in his first two failed stops. By trading SJ for a pick which ended up being Bryce Brown the braintrust has a plan that looks credible and well executed. I like SJ but I love the potential the O has particularly the potential it has to be productive with EJ being merely adequate because it is too earl in his career to expect reasonably he will carry the team on his tslented but young shoulders.

It will be quite interest to see the actual results of the next census. I suspect we will see a significant but not huge (yet) rise in population due to several factors: 1. Apparently Forbes magazine recently id'ed Buffalo as one of the most affordable places to buy housing in the country. From an economic standpoint it is logical to think ths will draw some folks 2. The less expensive housing has drawn the attention of Washington which each year settles a nit insubstantial # of approved immigrants as refugees. Over the last several years there has been an increasing # of folks settled here by the feds putting a federal program in place supporting increased immigration 3. The City of Buffalo recognizing an opportunity also is building its capacity to attract immigrants. 4. Predictions have id'ed Buffalo as a likely refuge from global climate change impacts

I think the article is actually quite simplistic in its analysis and really misunderstands a number of things that I think one can quite comfortably label it as a nice try but pretty fundamentally wrong. For example, on the key issue for this website Gaughan (and many others actually) really misread who the customer the ultimate decision-maker, the NFL is answering to here. Gaughan others seem to adopt an view of how the NFL actually operates and profits in the current economy that began to be put to bed when Pete Rozelle became the NFL Commissioner and finally died with the adoption of the Comprehensive Bargaining Agreement between the NFL and NFLPA in the late 80s or early 90s. The businessmen who ran the NFL simply destroyed the AFL-CIO types led by Ed Garvey who ran the NFLPA in the mid-80s and threatened to go out on strike unless the NFL agreed to give the players 52% of the gross receipts. The owners instead hoodwinked them as any sharp businessman would and locked them out and essentially broke the union. However, what a few smart players and smart NYC lawyers did was use this moment when traditional labor unions were discredited in the players eyes and convince the players to threaten to decertify the NFLPA. This move would have forced the owners into a true free market system where they signed individual players to personal service contracts. Instead the owners ran kicking and screaming to reject the free market and instead reach agreement with the NFLPA to restrain the rights of individual rights to live wherever they could get the best deal but instead work within constraints of free trade like the NFL draft. The owners agreed to pursue this social compact system rather than the free market because the individual team owners stood to make more money from the TV nets working in a stable system with labor peace than they stood to make in the current social compact system of the NFL. The real deal here is that the NFL almost certainly was never gonna leave Buffalo as this would mean that the NFL would be walking away from the alresdy captured cash from 45,000+ season ticket holders, the already usually obtained $ from 20,000+ game ticket buyers, the millions of $ from local advertisers and the 100s of millions in corporate welfare from various NYS govts. Not only would this money NOT travel to another municipality, but in particular with a Toronto franchise the NFL has an avowed strategy of expanding into new markets and ending up with a Toronto franchise did not mandate giving away the millions from a Buffalo franchise. The actual decision-maker is not the Ralph Trust but the NFL as an entity as Ralph contractually already agreed that 75% owners must agree to any sale. The market is not whether you go Buffalo or Toronto, but instead the NFL clearly would and can have both. Another flaw in the Gaughan analysis is that taxes are the seemingly sole or even lead item which guides business decision-making. This is simply not the case. One can certainly make a generalization that might be accurate in a plethora (though not a majority of a marginal number of cases. However, issues such as tradition, family, weather, employment levels, buzz, and whatever make the difference in a lot of particular cases. If you want to make a claim that one particular item is the lead factor you really need to present a lot more factual evidence to support this claim rather than simply throw out some piece of conventional wisdom. Even if one accepts Gaughan's unsubstantiated with a lot of stats or facts claim it is taxes, then a lot of analysis needs to be presented to identify whether taxes should be cut to reward wall St. stockbrokers,increase the earned income tax credit, destroy home rule and the multiple locdal elected officials it supports or something else. In the big picture, Gaughan also seems to make an assumption that NYS is like one big economic pie with fairly equal distribution of incomes and taxes. NOPe. In fact, for us WNY residents, it seems quite possible where the eventual solution is the building of a stadium to paid for in large part by A NYS Sports Authority. Generally stadiums are a bad investment which does not pay for itself. However, a NYS authority would see NYS borrow the money at far better rates than a private business would get. Further, the lionshare of the costs of borrowing would be borne by NYS taxpayers as a whole which by far is taxes on NYC folks rather than WNYers. Further, while a bad investment overall, the relative spending benefits would be in th downtown Buffalo wasteland so the marginal benefit is higher and the costs get distributed. Bad fiscal investment by NYS but fiscal payoff for WNY and NYS politicians would do this as they stand to benefit with this giveaway to the 2nd largest concentration of voters in the state where NYC folks and suburban NYC folks balance each other out.

I guess that insisting that the team keep a name that like it or not leads to a lot of heated discussion about this non-sports issue is not interfering with on field decisions like the roster or depth chart. However, it seems pretty naïve to claim that the high profile stance taken by Snyder has no impact on the football operation. Snyder's current loudmouthing about the Deadskins name controversy is by all means his right to do so as an owner and even as an American. However, though it is his right, I think the stance he has taken and the way he has gone about is pretty far from the right thing to do if one is committed to the football operation. There seems to be a sharp distinction between the way the Kansas City Chiefs are handling this controversy and the way Snyder is handling it. Last I checked both teams were maintaining their historic names, but by insisting there will be no change no matter what anyone else thinks (like it or not Dan you gotta care what the customer thinks if you are running a successful business, particularly when your business represents a municipality). It is also true that the customer that actually pays the bills in the biggest way are the TV networks which again like it or not is driven by selling the product of watching competition between various football operations. Snyder has shown every sign on the main issue the Redskins have become known for in discussion of the team in the media instead of discussion about how they are playing football. I do not see how you can reasonably argue that Snyder cares more about doing the right thing for his football operation when he clearly seems to care more about his right to do what he wants without seeming regard for what a significant chunk of his customers (the TV nets, DC politicos who are gonna jump when someone complains) at least want to be listened to even if you disagree.

Might be known already, but ESPN just said no Cam Newton tonight. I had heard there was some doubt after off-season ankle tightening, but actual given the Bills DL pass rush hold him out makes sense.

Many Bills fans (and some loud whiners in the media) are almost psychotically addicted to trying to find the next Jimbo. Sorry folks, but the QB draft of 83 is a rare thing. Lucking into a Jimbo or a Tom Brady just isn't something one should expect to happen. Actually getting too addicted to expecting your QB to be the next Peytin Manning tends to result in teams getting Ryan Leafs. The Bills story is actually one of Ralph being a savior who deserves a lot of credit for keeping the team here, but also reasonable analysis also sees that Ralph suffered from the same QB over addiction and led to him A. Making a handshake deal with Jimbo to reward him "off the salary cap books" in his next FA deal only to misread how long Jim would last and having to give him a million buck gift. B. His and Butler's misread of how much Jimbo had left made them wait a year too long to get a replacement and then have to stretch to pick Todd Collins a little early in the draft and then forced the Bills to start him too early in his career as "happy feet" needed to be trained out of him (if it could). C. The Bills then overreached and traded value for Billy Joe Hobert who it turned out was worthless. D. The QB addiction then saw the Bills not only trade value for him when their own scouts also signed Flute and promised him a fair shot as starter and agreed to an incentive laden contract. However, they then in a fit of QB addiction Ralph had to sign off on they advanced RJ a contract that forced them to lie to DF. RJ then proved to be injury prone and DF hit every incentive which rolled into his base contract. Since they had already taken the cap hit for advancing RJ they then were forced to extend Flutie and still have far more allocated to the QB cap than reasonable. This then led to overpayment of folks like Fina and the eventual demise of the team. E. No need to go into reciting the detail our series of reaching for QB talent and then screwing up their high pressure high stakes training . I like what the Bills are doing with their O player acquisition because the Bills clearly are commiting to be a run first team which demands mostly of EJ that he hand-off, but also took big risks to get the best WR in the draft and a physically talent two-time loser originally from Buffalo to join Woods in being an opportunistic pass game. EJ is almost certainly not gonna be a great or maybe even consistently very good QB in his second year. However, they are building with the hope of getting enuf Ws from EJ merely being an adequate player.

No joke at all. So you think that Whaley/Merrone had a plan that they saw EJ as being an immediate success carrying the Bills to playoff contention last year. Nope. I think they were on at best a two year plan to compete for the playoffs and a realistic plan of making the playoffs in year three of their reign. The did reach up to get Merrone to take EJ in the first but did this because they saw no QB in the draft last year that had a reasonable chance of carrying the team to the playoffs. They picked EJ not because they expected immediate or even short term payoff from him, but that they felt he had the most upside long term of the available QBsw last year. I think overall, the braaintrust found EJs year disappointing because he lost a bunch of time to injury, but overall they were pleased because they have another year of development in mind for EJ before they see him developing into the QB they want. That being said the future is now in the modern NFL. You can see they still believe in EJ because if they did not they likely would have made an attempt to either get a vet QB in FA or draft a project QB at least. The Bills stood pat on QB so it seems reasonable to assume they still believe. What they did do however, was clearly to aggressively try to bolster the O so that they could compete for (and maybe even make the playoffs in '14 if lucky. The aggressive effort saw them draft O players with every pick except one and make FA pick-ups for a #3 RC, for a #3 WR, and a variety of low risk high return OL players. What other alternative do you think makes any sense? They believe EJ is the man who can carry this team on his own? Nope, there is no way they would have expended all the resources they did on O unless they thought EJ needed a lot of help. Alternately, do you think they decided EJ is not gonna be very good one day? Nope, if they have given up on EJ then I think they would have not stood pat with Lewis and Tuel. On the face of it, the Bills actions cry out that they judge EJ to be good and deserving of endorsement in the long run but that they know he needs serious help. The Bills actions smack of a braintrust not afraid to take risks (drafting their chosen QB early last year, and also trading away their first rounder next year. Their plan may not work but it seems to me to be the plan. Do you hav evidence of some other theory?

Actually this post does get at a key question important to understand what the Bills braintrust is trying to do. There is pretty much zero chance the Bills coaches are going to roll the dice for their future on EITHER: 1. Banking on EJ turning out to be a player capable of carrying this tem on his back to a playoff berth (this outcome is incredibly unlikely that any QB can be so great in his first full season is not a good bet. Particularly when EJs failings are pretty obvious to us outside observers. 2. Instead trading for Orton or some other QB who has failed elsewhere after admitting with this move that this braintrust missed badly in assessing EJ is sillier. What seems more logical in terms of what Bills leadership is doing is that given EJs injuries last year and the simple fact that the health of no NFL player can be assumed Merrone/Whaley and the crew are actually planning and implementing how to win enough games to make the playoffs even if EJ gets hurt (again) or is not ready for prinmetime yet (as many of us already conclude or at least fear) The key too the Bills strategy is: A. They have invested significantly in the O such that their is a credible chance that an already productive run game despite injuries last year and now reinforced by the acquisition of Bryce Brown if/when Jax/Spiller gets nicked. The run game will be the bulwark of our O approach and does not demand EJ be one of the best QBs in the NFL. We devoted substantial resources for the best WR in the draft who has demonstrated strengths with YAC (demanding only short passes from EJ), great hands and a demonstrated success in college in gathering in jump balls (again lowering the demand in EJ to be great) and also he is focusing on getting quick separation (again lowering demand on EJ). Further, we got a twice failed #1 pick coming back home in a last chance for him to be our #3. Further, our #2 Woods is a youngster who looks good. Again the emphasis for the Bills is not whether EJ is a top 10 NFL QB (he almost certainly will not be) but instead how can we win with a mere adequate QB. On OL things look positive with 2 solid starters (Wood/Glenn). 3 players judged 1st round talents physically but slipped due to other issues (they will either work out or be cut), and for the ones who get cut, then current Biils OL players, Pears, Urbik, and Hairston are competing to step up or back-up. B. The D took a blow with Alonso going down but the DL has great potential and run stopping problems were helped out by the FA acquisition of Spikes. C. ST is the biggest unknown with the braintrust having not previously shown positive production but they did get some players with good ST talents so we will see. The key to the Bills prospects are not whether EJ plays great Ih almost certainly will not) but whether the Bills have acquired the talent and are employing it in a way that will let them win enough games with merely adequate play from EJ. I like what I see so far.

No one has explained so far why the NFL would so blithely walk away from the 100s of millions of dollars that would not be able to follow the franchise to Toronto. This is particularly the case when the articulated strategy of the NFL is to expand the product and the NFL can have both the already captured millions from the Buffalo franchise AND the likely but as yet uncaptured $ from a Toronto franchise. Why would the NFL which clearly is motivated by getting $ walk away from the already captured 100s of millions from the Buffalo franchise?

+1 The bottomline is that the BUFFALO Bills are a business which has the $ generated by 45,000+ season ticket holders, the $ generated by 20,000+ individual ticket buyers, the $ generated by millions of $ from local advertising, and hundreds of millions already contracted and lkely to be spent in corporate welfare to keep the BUFFALO Bills here. If the NFL were to move the franchise then none of this money goes with the team. Sure, with a lot of work this money gets replaced + with Toronto folk, but why give away these Buffalo billions for marginally bigger Toronto franchise hen you do not have to and the NFL can have both. The NFL has a veto over whether any buyer is eligible. The NFL is having to provide life support to keep the Toronto bid alive and is only doing so because it keeps the price of the Bills being bid up. Pretty much bank on it the franchise stays here. the NFL would simply be giving away $ when it does not have to. The NFL don't give away money.

On the contrary, even an outside observer like me can see the a plan that the Bills are trying to execute. 1. They can see what we can that EJ is not ready this year to carry this team to the playoffs. However, they also can see that there is no QB talent which is reasonably accessible to replace EJ who can carry this team in a Jim Kelly like way. Therefor this team has tried to generate O productivity sufficient to allow this ream to compete for the playoffs by putting substantial resources into improving all other facets of the O so that they can get Ws with EJ simply having to be adequate rather than great. Specifically, these acquisitions are: A. The RBs (Jax and Spiller are a clearly productive strength when healthy and even pretty good when one is badly nicked. Given Jax's age and Spiller's inconsistent dynamism, the Bills braintrust have nicely augmented this talent with getting Bryce Brown who has shown indications that he can be the real deal as part of running attack if either Jax or Spiller goes down. Another nice piece of strategic implementation with the run game is that it even appears our #4 can step up to be a #3 if needed. B. Both Jax and Spiller have nice chops as receivers as well, but the braintrust clearly has shown they have and have succeeded in implementing a strategy to improve the passing game. It appears clear to me why they made the gutsy step of trading significant future resources for Watkins. Watkins is pretty clearly a gamebreaker talent with good YAC ability and great hands and jumpball ability. Even better Watkins comments since draft indicates he has ability and is focusing his work on getting immediate separation from coverage. If successful at this, it should make the job asked of EJ much easier. The #2 WR is Woods and he has both shown talent and also that he and EJ have developed good chemistry. Where your vision question comes in is that the braintrust did not stop at simply getting Watkins, but also plucked up two-time character issue loser but former #1 physical talent Williams as our #3WR. One clearly should not bet on Williams to be your #1, its a not unreasonable effort to lower pressure on him by simply demanding #3 performance and spot production from him. even better, William's past problems clearly show a lack of maturity and bringing him to his hometown where we hope his Mom will reign this child/man is not an impossible thought. On OL there is clearly a plan to try to find 5 starting talents and 1 or 2 swing guys. I like the talent being assembled on the OL: Wood and Glenn- solid starter talent: Cujo (1st round talent injury fear dropped to 2) Williams (former 1st rd pick by Chicago who failed, but seems to have stopped falling as Ram starter who we got as FA), Henderson (1st round physical talent with 8th round brain). doubt we get 3hitsd here but at least 1 and maybe two. Add to that we are looking to upgrade current roster but those players Pears, Urbik, Hairston will be given a chance to compete and improve their play (unlikely) or learn new positions and be not unreasonable plan B swing guys (I think doable in Hairston's case. Ai any rate I think they can find the needed 6 or 7 guys from this crew. The D they are counting on to do well even w/o Alonso (quite possible though tough. The big assumption in mind is that the braintrust has acquired better ST talent but Crossman has show no talent for ST coaching yet. I feel pretty good about the O even though I am pretty sure EJ is not the player (yet?) one should expect to carry the team. Will this strategy work. No guarantee yes, but I like the run they are taking at.

Definitely he should not be coddled, but going to an opposite extreme and playing mind games on him does not sound like it would build team confidence in his play. AS long as Merrone plans to play in regular season give him as many snaps as possible. Benching him is a bad idea.

Agreed. Folks seem to want to simply apply business rules which certainly apply well for considering whether to buy a Taco Bell or a Maconald's franchise or invest in the market. However, to do this is the same as applying the same rules for a purchase of a car, a house or a lottery ticket. None of the three is a good investment under some circumstances, but really only the house is actually bought as an investment vehicle. A car depreciates the minute you purchase it, but really its more lik buying a toaster that has the side benefit of impressing friends, relatives, neighbors and yourself. By all means do not buy a car if you want to invest, but if it impresses the gal you want go for it. The lotto ticket is also simply stupid as an investment, but compared to a movie ticket its a great purchase. $1 vs. #7. Extra costs for popcorn and a coke which may approach the price of the ticket vs. maybe you get more than twice the rush from buying two Lotto tickets (its more twice a stupid investment strategy), but it may give you more than 2 hours of entertainment if you get to spend as much as several days entertaining yourself with fantasizing how you are going to spend some huge mega prize (some like the drug like rush and disappointment of instant prizes, but sales really go up when the Mega drawing tops $100 million and you may even be able to get the communal bennies of buying tickets with a group. Again, the stupidest of investment strategies but god fun with a group on Friends. Houses are traditionally considered a sound investment but we learned from the last market crash that even this is not always true. At any rate, the lesson here is to realize that all the blatherings about EBITDA sound and are very learned, but really buying a normal business and buying an NFL franchise are simply such different things that the rules of one do not necessarily apply for everyone to the other. The Bills bidding process is better analyzed and understood I think in terms of the goals of the participants rather than in applying analytical tools which are accurate when they apply but do not apply to this case in general or some bidders at all. This strikes me as far from a three ring circus (except maybe this describes the mind of the Wall St. journal columnist who does not understand. Consider John Bon Jovi. He is a Jersey Boy who happened to hit it big with his music to the extent he now has a net worth over $300 million. Cool. He likely has this money out working for him in standard investment tools (which one hopes is diversified, he takes advantage of the benefits of time and compound interest where he can, and he avoids management costs of churning to the best extent practicable and minimizes tax bites to the best extent practicable. The end result is the vast majority of these assets ain't liquid but kick off enough income that he gets to play and have fun. Still the new car he wants is an NFL team. He MUST have one if he can. A basic problems is that an NFL team markets for about a billion and he has a third of that (even in non-liquid assets). Even tougher. if you want to parade around as the lead partner you need to own at least 30% of the franchise (a number not possible even with your substantial worth. However, this is real life so there are things as JBJ I might do. Toronto wants a team and there is a cash cow known as the Rogers family which wants in. They have the problem of not being American (different accounting for TV viewers and the fact the real cash cow are American TV networks makes this sort of weird) (Even worse Americans define themselves as an exceptional country and even though the Rogers are rich and fortunately are not Muslims they also ain't Mercans). The desire of the Rogers for a franchise though and their huge cash reserves (and heavy liquidity with a lot of cash sloshing around from the regular cable subscription checks from the market) provides a great opportunity for Jersey born American celeb JBJ. If he can foster a business relationship which really is controlled by the huge Rogers cash but the numbers are presented to the NFL and the world (with appropriate NDAs) that JBJ is an eligible lead partner, he gets the big asset problem solved and Rogers really controls the deal with their large cash reserve, but JBJ gets to be the American front man. A big goal for JBJ in all of this and Rogers is to build their business partnership and personal trust. In addition, the JBJ/CA entity is bidding to be a partner in the NFL social compact. A bid allows for building these relationships. One thing which appeared neat and convenient at first has actually now become a problem. JBJ wants to own (or appear to own and someone else puts up the needed 2/3 of billion he does not have) an NFL franchise. Jersey or NYC or even Philly would be great but ain't gonna happen. Buffalo initially appeared to have the advantage of being a franchise unpredictably though likely to happen soon on the market when the sole owner died. However, it is pretty clear to those who think about it that though Toronto is a bigger market than Buffalo, the lionshare of increased profit goes to the Toronto owner and not the NFL owners beyond their 1/32 of higher than Buffalo profits. The NFL owners want are simple. The maximum profit from any individual move, and overall to expand NFL profits by selling the product to more eyeballs to increase the amount of $ the TV nets pay the NFL. This being understood, the best choice for the current NFL team owners is not whether you get profits from Buffalo OR bigger Toronto. The best choice is to get money from both. Look, the bottomline is that the NFL (which holds a contractual veto over who the Wilson Trust sells to) is for the NFL to get profits from BOTH (the already acquired profit the Bills produce AND also the potentially larger than Buffalo profits a Toronto franchise will produce. The NFL ain't leaving Buffalo as this would mean simply walking away from the 100s of millions from the 45,000+ season ticket holders (they can be replaced but ain't moving to Toronto, the routinely 20,000+ individual ticket buyers, and the 100s of million in local advertisers (again they can be replaced but ain't moving to Toronto, the 100s of millions of $ in corporate welfare local, county and NYS government has and will pay for the Bills to remain (which MAY be replace in CA corporate welfare but the NYS money ain't moving. The bottomline is that it actually is better for JBJ/CA to be involved in this deal (they build the partner experience between JBJ/CA and also build relationships and experience with the NFL which will be (swiftly we hope) realized when the NFL expands again. The 3 ring circus of limited bidders in fact works to JBJ's advantage because he gets to do the NFL the favor of creating a bidding battle which forces up the Pegula price. However, the best outcome for this for JBJ to lose the bidding battle to Pegula. He builds his working relationship with the Rogers, he an the Rogers get an inside advantage with the NFL over other potential Toronto buyers when they emerge and actually the NFL owes him for bidding the Pegulas up. JBJ wins, the NFL wins and the only loser if Pegula but again when you just sold an asset that gives you $1.3 billion sitting around you want to invest, buying an NFL team is a singular life defining investment you can make and really the EBTAblahblah rules do not apply to making th8=is judgment. Perhaps if I was using a home equity loan to chose a McDonald's or a Taco Bell they are relevant, but the big benefit of becoming a Ralph Wildon in the WNY community is a life defining thing which appears on no balance sheet and ultimately determines the true value of this investment to me.

I think that the Bills braintrust agrees that EJ alone is not the answer. However, they also know that there likely is no veteran QB out there (Orton wants to play some other sport I hear and the huge contract the Bengals just gave Dalton shows that there is not anything out there at QB such that Cincy was willing to overpay him at QB because there was so little available out there even for the huge #s Dalton got to keep him out of FA. The Billa brainrust are more well aware of EJs limitations as anyone. Thus they gave him not only the stud productive RBs Jax and Spiller but given the unlikelihood of both lasting all season they acquired Bryce Brown. The Bills are also loaded at WR with the pick of Watkins and the signing of Williams (1st round physical talent with a round 8 brain) who is now home with Mom to administer discipline to this child/man) to team with the much impressive Woods. The Bills also loaded up with OL talent. The Bills to me clearly do not expect EJ to do this alone and have loaded up with offensive talent in the hope of making EJs job as easy as possible.

RJ defined the word injury prone for me. He not only was often sacked, but when sacked would miss a game or few with an injury. He made me realize what injury prone actually meant in that he not only would go on the DL to miss games when hurt (unlike Jim Kelly whose bursa sack did a couple of times force him to give up the reins for starts by Frank Reich including the Greatest Game Ever Played) but he went out for a series of different injuries (I think it was a broken collar bone that gave Flutie his chance, but I also remember an arm injury, a thigh contusion and most strangely he got sacked and fell on the ball in a manner which forced him out for a game or so with a bruised sternum). RJ defined injury prone. On of the biggest mistakes Ralph ever made was signing off on paying RJ a big contract up front as an FA. If the Bills had instead either waited half a season they would have had to pay him more to get him to sign mid-season, but they would have realized how injury prone he was. RJ was available because he had started one game and did wonderfully for his previous employer (SD I thnk) but then was injured and missed the next game. The big contract for RJ not only locked him into our allocation for the QB position under the salary cap, but actually created a contractual reality contrary to our signing Flutie to a small cap hit contract with make good incentives if he played well. Under the CBA, when a player hit these incentives, they quite fairly were rolled into his base contract. When RJ got so badly damaged, DF inherited his the QB role for several games and not only played marvelously but hit every incentive. Because Flutie performed exactly as AJ Smith (the Bills scout who identified him for us and encouraged us to sign him) we ended up owing him not only $3 million or so against our cap for the next year, but $3 million for the incentives hit, We already had $3 million + allocated to the QB slot already paid to RJ as a bonus whether he played or not. The end result ended up being that the Bills were forced fiscally to sign DF to a long term deal in order to allocate the wad owed to DF over several seasons of cap. DF was clearly the better QB when he led the Bills to enough wins to actually qualify for the playoffs early making the last game against Indy meaningless for us. DF was made to sit (to this observer his little body though an outstandingly productive for that Bills team needed the rest). However, the result of this was RJ got to start) apparently at Ralph's insistence as it burned his but to pay RJ to sit on the bench. RJ was fabulous in the start (My recollection is that Indy went into a complete shell as an opponent after one of their best players suffered a season ending injury in the first quarter and by half time it was not only in game reality impossible for them to make the playoffs, their main opponent for a playoff berth was winning and making the playoffs was numerically impossible. RJ impressed but was playing opponents who were not taking any risks of injury so he stacked up enough stats to get the start in the Music City Mi..(Homerun Throw-up) game. It was contract mismanagement and Ralph and AJ Smith being on different pages which caused our QB/salary cap issues.

The key is not whether EJ becomes the QB Bills fans want (he cannot because what we want from our QB is not possible for any second year guy to achieve). However, the good news is that though one QB cannot make his team achieve the Ws, it is possible for an entire TEAM under good leadership with a variety of players doing their small part to get enough Ws to make the playoffs. For this fan my big requirement of EJ is not that he make a bunch of outstanding Jim Kelly like plays all the time. A couple of go plays so he gets a rep bigger than his actual play is fine with me. I just need EJ to minimize errors (and injuries) because I like the team Merrone has built. The O has a good set of RBs with Jax showing grit and good (though not great) results as both a run or receive threat. Spiller though particularly with the ankle sprain last year also is not proven great he has shown demonstrations of brilliance that if healthy he might be great. Jax's age and Spiller's history make them a bad bet to be healthy enough. However, the pick-up of brown and even the disaster possibilities of our #4 makethe RB talent a good bet. The WR talent also bodes well with the gamebreaker talent of Watkins making a stiff trade cost look probably reasonable. Steady Woods looks like a real #2 talent, and even better FA pick-up Williams look like a #1 physical talent with an 8th round choice brain. The fact he is a 2 time loser who is down to his last chance and his Bills chance brings him home to Mom where he seems to be childlike in his need for oversight and discipline makes him potentially a very good #3. The OL features not bad athletes to build around in Wood and Glenn. Better we picked up two guys with potential 1st round physical talent (Cujo in the 2nd due to injury and Hemderson due to an 8th round brain). We have not unreasonable competitors in Hairston, Urbik, and another FA with potential who failed elsewhere that the OL has potential. All of this comes with a Spikes reinforced D looking good with a Pro Bowl DL even despite the loss of Alonso. The ST looks problematic in terms of coaching but the team has picked up what appears to be good talent. If have little faith in EJ to be the savior folks want. In fact I pretty much guarantee he will not be the player at QB the Jim Kelly addicted fans want. However, I have watched too much football over the decades to not feel better about a good team withb the right set of skills to get the Ws we need as long as the QB is simply adequate and does not make a lot of mistakes which come with players trying to do more than they are capable of. I hope EJ is a manager fir us because if more is demanded it likely will not go well for this TEAM.

As best as I can tell JBJ is doing this fir specific goals: 1. He knows he does not have the wealth (and certainly not the liquidity) to achieve his goal of NFL ownership. Thus, he has id'ed the Rogers crew as potential partners with not only the walth but no where near the fame he has to provide the needed cash, and allow him to meet (it will take him time to liquefy to the extent needed) to meet NFL requirements of a 30% stake. By forming a business partnership now with Rogers he gets to concretize his partnership with Rogers and it actually helps they have no chance of winning the bid. 2. As an official bid participant he gets a chance to get to know better and ingratiate himself to the NFL decisionmakers and again it does not matter whether they win the bid or not. JBJ is playing his game for his needs and winning the Bills team is neither necessary for accomplishing his goals. In fact, since the strategy which maximizes profits for the NFL is to BOTH retain the Buffalo franchise AND expand with a new Toronto franchise JBJ launching an unsuccessful bid fits well with NFL strategy and for the immediate bid pushes up the price Pegula/Golisano pays. As best I can tell things are moving along well for JBJ and most importantly for the true decisionmakers, the NFL (and the TV nets that pay the Bills). Pretty much bank on the Bills remaining here (and a new franchise being set up in Toronto ) because the NFL maximizes profits with franchises in BOTH Toronto and Buffalo.

I agree in that my first reaction to looking at Manning's body language in the photo is that he looked like he had a constipation issue. I know one of my favorite Joe Montana stories was how the game stories was how one playoff game came down to crunch time and making one big play. The 9ers came into the huddle and looked to Joe Montana for that moment of leadership of the anxious team around him. Montana beant over to be heard but then looked into the crowd in the endzone. He then asked the team. "Is that John Candy sitting with that cute blonde in row three? Apparently, it was just the right thing to say, lightened the moment and the almost freezing debilitating fear which made performance in crunch time choke time for many. The bottomline is that reading static photos of folks for body language is generally totally void of the context of the situation. Even one sees the context of watching the game, we outsiders often can have no idea of what is the most appropriate or effective leadership to be displayed on the field. A demonstration of lack of concern or lack of intensity might actually be just what the team needs after a bad play.

The comments folks are making on the particular downfield fly to Watkins simply features commentators making assumptions they cannot know. Such as: 1. Was there an overarching strategic choice the O braintrust made to air it out to without concern about whether it was caught or not to establish for opponents we would go long? 2. Watkins has already talked about the importance in his game of varying his first steps and releases in order to not show a standard release style to what extent was he working on release and pattern variables. 3. To what extent are the Bills O braintrust and/or players not showing what they plan to in regular season by NOT performing as they plan to in regular season. 4. A zillion other variables you either do not wanna show in pre-season or alternately they are efforts you are overfocusing on. The end result is that sure everything should be open to analysis but drawing any overarching conclusions on what any one particular play is just foolish!

Yeah and we should have drafted Tom Brady in the 5th round the year he came out and Joe Montana in the 2nd (or even in the 1st would have been justifiable IF a lot of key things would have happened the same way except they were different). This type of woulda/coulda/shoulda is pretty worthless as a consideration.

The key to the Bills actually being good enough is not only finding quality starters at QB or any other position but also having reasonable plan Bs for every position because no one knows in the modern NFL when an Alonso is gonna blow out his ACL (and even worse our Plan B Bradham is gone for a game due to an unprofessional action). The braintrust does have some limitations due to the salary cap for having the needed plan Bs for every position due to the salary cap, but the answer is NOT just willy nilly to cut any player who is not capable of starting, but instead find a plan B who is capable of starting or at least least being better than our failed starter. We should only cut Manual IF we have a better option. As much as people may hate Manual I do not have enough belief in Tuel or Lewis that I think we want to give up on Manual.

Your worry says more about you as a fan than it does about the Bills braintrust. My sense is that the problem you mention of "letting Glenn go" has little to do with the reality of how the Bills or any intelligent NFL team operates and more to say about the annoying inability of many of us fans to endorse endorse more than one option at a specific position. What it seems to me reality is all about in the NFL and being successful is having good chemistry from your starting unit and having reasonable plan Bs when the inevitable injuries or nicks and scrapes that happen over the course of a 16 game (or more if you are good)season. The key for the Bills is to find the best collection of players to make any unit work as it is to be hoped a superior group. Thus, in the particular case of the OL here, this fan does not care if the starting five features, Glenn, Cujo, Henderson, Wood or whomever. I simply want the best five (whomever they are as individuals) to start. My criteria are rather simple. This group should be a near flawless band in protecting Manual not allowing vicious sacks and giving him not perfect protection (as the reality is this will not happen in the modern NFL) but enough time on every play that Manual proves good enough to diagnose things and make an aggressive effort when Watkins, Woods or Williams gets quick separation from their DB and Manual is not all fired great (a goal no youngster is going to achieve) but actually achieves the small goal of getting the ball successfully to the receiver who then does a YAC thing that actually makes it easier for the team to work because DBs are playing back on their heels. The OL is a fearsome tool actually not so much because they are flawless in giving Manual time (though this is a necessary side effect of their play) but actually because they excel at their first jpb which is that they prove as a unit to be a powerful force run blocking. Ultimately, my observations of NFL play over 4+ decades of watching is that the best thing blockers can do to make the passing game effective is to actually present such as foreboding running game that opposing Ds are so worried about the run they are leaning forward on each play or cheating a half yard forward to be in the box to stop the run that our YAC oriented receivers get past their DB qauickly and burn them. The DBs then respond by taking a step back so as not to get embarrassed and the Bills running game becomes more effective. And so on. One key for this if the team pulls of the miracle of putting opposing Ds on their heels, is that our team has good plan Bs for each player when they get dinged like an Alonso or simply slowed a lot by nagging injury. This is where it is simply stupid that we fans do not seen to have the bandwidth to root for these solid plan Bs but instead advocate or fear us "letting Glenn go" or cutting Thad Lewis as one post foolishly opined after Tuel had an impressive outing last night. Whaley and the braintrust should not cut any player they do not have to because as the season goes on sadly an Alonso will be lost for the season or a Bradham will bbe unavailable for a game. I think we should have no real requirement that we cut Preaton Brown because he looked like a rookie out there (the reason for this actually Beuller is that he is a rookie) but nstead for the coaches to coach up this plan B because he is gonna be our starting Will in week one because Alonso is out and a drug problem is forcing us to actually have a working plan C. Glenn should not be let go because Seantrel Henderson actually plays like the first round physical talent he is rather than the round 8 brain he apparently has. Even if Henderson steps up this merely means that Glenn needs to show some flexibility to step in anywhere along the OL needed. This what our O braintrust is doing. If not Glenn then they are training Hairston to be both and effective guard if need be in addition to him being an effective tackle. Cutting or letting go a good player simply because he does not show starting chops would be dumb.

It seems that you do not understand that the NFL is a lot more than a simple collection of rich folks (mostly rich old white guys) who do whatever they want as individuals. A real understanding of the economics of the modern NFL sees that perhaps back in the day of George Halas closer to WWII it was a bunch of rich individuals and the dollar and willingness to spend it defined the league. However, with the hiring of Pete Rozelle the league rushed toward a business model based more on the collaboration of the owners social compact than a traditional free market system. In the conventional free market the amount of dollars you have and willingness to spend to get the best players would rule. However, the individual owner actually stands to produce a better product and more competitive product through systems which for example rather than rewarding success and lots of folks coming out of college want to sign to become part of the success of NE, the NFL instead rewards mediocrity by giving the sole rights to sign the best player to the worst team getting the first draft pick. The NFL made a last gasp for the conventional business model when the owners outflanked and kicked the butt of the NFLPA and the AFL-CIO types liked Garvey whom the players hired to lead them. By locking the players out the NFL businessmen destroyed the NFLPA and the proud players crawled back to work. However, the NFL hoist itself on its own petard by milking the colleges to pay for training athletes rather than the system in most other major sports leagues where pro teams pay to own or operate minor league teams and buy players with speculative contracts at the age of 16 or so. By not gaining control of NFL players until they are 21 or older, a talented 10th of these players are actually men and make adult choices. A few folks like Gene Upshaw were smart enough to listen to smart NYC lawyers and used their personal stature as great players and adult intellects to buy ideas like threatening to decertify the union. The traditional AFL-CIO types lost the respect of the players when the NFL owners kicked the player's butts in the lockout. This gave Upshaw and others the opportunity to sell the decertification threat strategy to their fellow players. If the NFLPA went away, it would have thrown the owners into a more traditional free market. The resulting tumult would have turned some owners into winners but others into losers. The tumult also would have made it harder to have the stability which allowed the TV nets to sign long term contracts delivering tons of $ to the owners. The owners ran kicking and screaming away from the conventional free market and signed the CBA. This essentially not only rejected free market principles as the operating strategy of the NFL but acknowledged the players as partners with the owners. The promised labor peace quickly resulted in unprecedented wealth for the owners from the TV nets. When the CBA came up for renewal, Upshaw simply pre-empted negotiations by announcing prior to talking that the designated revenues making up the salary cap (which saw teams like the Bills reduce their ticket capacity by 5,000 but increase their premium seats which were designated as outside of the salary cap) to a system which instead looked at all revenues. Upshaw also announced that the final cap # needed to start with a 6. The final agreement which gave players 60.5% of the gross revenues arguably defined the players not only as partners but in fact the majority partners of the new NFL. Further decisions like the one Ralph contractually agreed to such as any new owner needing approval by 75% of the owners effectively gives the NFL a veto over who buys the team (even a high bidder). It is simply wrong to assume that JBJ/CA will do whatever they want once the ink dries on the deal. You have to understand that the NFL historically whatever generates the most $ for the individual owners in total. The NFL makes a lot more $ not from having the Buffalo franchise leave behind millions in 45,000 plus season ticket holders, 20.000+ individual ticket buyers, millions from local advertisers, and millions from NYS govts incorporate welfare for the Bills in exchange for marginally higher similar payments from a bigger Toronto market. The NFL clearly benefits the most from a result which allows them to BOTH keep the Buffalo $ and add new franchises which include the Toronto market. I simply doubt JBJ/CA are going to lie to their new business partners in the NFL and pull an Art Modell and leave the money of Buffalo behind so that JBJ/CA benefits but the NFL is left cleaning up the mess.