Hplarrm

Nope. Why panic and cut players who would be a great #3 disaster QB fror us if Tuel continues to play well enough to be our #2. Fans simply look like idiots when they call for unneeded cuts.

My guess is that JBJ has a number of good (helpful to the NFL's $ making interests) even though it is quite doubtful (at best) that JBJ is gonna be sold the team to move the franchise to Toronto. 1. By moving this bid as far down the pike as he can, JBJ concretizes his partnership with the CA folk, which helps him a lot since NO ONE thinks JBJ on his own has $1.? in liquid assets to make a bid. This alleged deal puts JBJ in the game even though on the face of it it will not happen. 2. My contention is simply that what drives the NFL is what makes them the most money (do you disagree?). I think also that what makes the NFL the MOST $ is not the truism of putting the Buffalo franchise in a larger market, but instead exploiting BOTH the already obtained Buffalo market AND the new likely larger (but as yet unrealized Toronto market. No alleged solid reporter has even explored whether the BOTH/AND approach is the more likely outcome for maximizing NFL profits. Reporters seem to delight in living in a world where they get to write easy stories about Andre Reed hating JBJ than instead exploring the harder to explain fiscal details that it would be a real hit (and just stupid) for the NFL to simply walk away from the 100s of millions of real $ which 45,000 season ticket holders, tens of thousands of previous individual ticket buyers, millions of $ from already existing local advertisers, and `100s of millions in corporate welfare NYS govts have been and appear willing to ship to the NFL. Why are these realities not even mentioned when for any logical reporter the NFL simply walking away from millions of real dollars is a rarity (in the past Modell or Irsay ran to $ for themselves even though it created huge disruptions for the NFL (the NFL ended up getting rolled by municipal leaders in Cleveland so that they had to send the next franchise back to Cleveland rather than the NFL collecting 100s of millions from a new municipality). 3. The NFL actually benefits a lot from encouraging the ultimately to fail bids from JBJ/CA (again the smart $ move for the NFL is to use JBJ/CA to fund a new franchise in a few years rather than simply trade already obtained Buffalo millions for divided shares of marginally larger millions from a Toronto franchise. Also, the quite frankly laughable Trump bid helps the NFL because they both have bidded up Pegula/Golisano to offer $1.3 billion for Buffalo (when the most recent real world cost was $1.1 billion for the larger Miami market with a stadium. The Trump bid is laughable on the face of it from this TV huckster who has more in common with Ron Popiel (the hair in a can guy) than Ralph Wilson. The JBJ/CA bid requires the NFL owners to walk away from 100s of millions in already obtained $ for as yet unrealized significant but as yet unrealized 100s of millions from a Toronto franchise. The journalism on this issue has simply been just bad to date in that some fairly simple conjecture has been ignored so the press can simply assume other conjecture (like a Trump did would not bring almost certainly fatal opposition or that a JBJ/CA bid necessitates the NFL walking away from 100s of million so someone else (JBJ/CA) can make $. This may not happen but it simply discredits the modern media that these issues are not discussed.

I find it hard to take any story seriously which talks about a Trump bid landing the team as: 1. It has to give his potential any serious consideration unless the article also does mere due diligence and explore whether Trump could achieve 75% approval as the current rules call for a bid to be successful. Maybe he does have enough money to bull through. I doubt it and this primary issue should at least be referenced. 2. Gambling drives NFL interest. From straight legal, straight illegal, fantasy games involving money but below enforcement concern to office pools gambling involves billons of dollars. The NFL lives with the illusion that everything is on the up and up though it pretends gambling does not exist. It lives with this illusion in part because it does not allow any connection with legal gambling whatsoever. Trump probably has sold his formal connections to Atlantic City, but obviously Trump developed whatever past strong business relationships and even friendships with folks still associated with gamblings and merely the hint of connection would make this a $ and cents risk which would eliminate his purchase. 3. Racial issues have in the real world invalidated rush Limbaugh from being an owner. Trump was the last high profile person left even publicly saying he had seen no reasonable evidence Obama was born in the state of Hawaii to an American citizen Mom. His public "no-nothing" stance appealing to the 20% oof idiots who will believe that Obama was a space alien if accused made him the public victim of derision the night before the US killed bin Laden. IF Trump ever became a serious possibility, the likelihood is that a vast majority NFLPA who are African-American would be fanned by Obama folks into opposing Trump. 4. Historically rich folk have played the game of supporting both GOP or Dems as it suited their overarching real desire which is to make a buck. Trump is a clear GOP guy and does the NFL as a business want to be so associated with a party that got fewer popular votes in 5 of the last 6 popular Pres elections? I think not. Yet, articles like the AP story above seem to live in a world where significant possibilities which make a Trump bid laughable are simply ignored. There is no need to buy any of these theories but to simply endorse the idea that potential reality does not exist is simply poor press work.

It was great to hear Andre Reed call for the team to remain in Buffalo in his induction speech! It was even better to hear the Canton Bills partisan heavy crowd give an extended standing ovation (which Reed allowed to continue). Those who misread NFL economics to judge that Toronto easily beats out Buffalo misread that the other NFL team owners actually profit more from keeping the team in Buffalo than they do from their 1/32 of the significant but in the end marginally higher team profits from selling the team to move to Toronto. The team stays here because the money behind the NfL makes more $ from the team staying in Buffalo.

It may well be that the Pegulas did not clean house of the folks from the Golisano/Quinn regime even if the record of competitive play and team building was that of folks who were simply bad at their jobs. Rhe acts of letting both Briere and Drury walk were in retrospect bad moves. It thus makes perfect sense that the result has now seen Pegula clean house and really start over at square 1 with Murray. If I was Littman, Overdorfer and any of the rest of the Bills braintrust I would be very afraid that a new owner would signal my demise, but the problem is not who buys the problem is the 0 for adecade +in making the playoffs is the problem not for who buys the team.

The reality which your post does not seem to reflect is that the Buffalo Bills as a legal institution fully owned by Ralph Wilson agreed in a binding and contractual way to give up on pursuing standard free market capitalism and instead agreed in a binding manner to operate in the social compact known as the NFL. By agreeing in a binding contract to not sell the team to any bidder unless that bidder is approved by 75% of the other owners the Bills and the Wilson trust effectively gave a veto over any purchaser of the team to the NFL. This is logical that this was done. This is completely consistent with what drives the decion-making of every NFL owner. What makes the owner the most money. Do you understand that even if the high bidder who would definitely guarantee the Wilson heirs the most money they could get, that this high bidder would get the team even if this owner cost the other owners money. If the high bidder was some rich guy from Saudi Arabia who easily has the $ but the other owners would now have a partner who was Osana bin Laden's cousin, then this high bidder would not get the team. You need to understand that what rules the NFL decision-makers is what makes them the most $. Th Wilson Trust might make more # from selling the team to a Toronto group or JBJ. but actually an individual owner's 1/32nd of the marginal added value to the Bills from abandoning 45,000 bought and sold season ticket holders in Buffalo, millions of dollars in non-transferable commercial deals with WNY business and hundreds of millions in corporate welfare from NYS governments in exchange for marginally higher but similar potential profits from Toronto. It is clear the biggest bucks for current NFL owners comes from keeping the team in Buffalo AND setting up a new franchise in Toronto in a few years. My sense is that in addition to the bigger bucks for current owners being not throwing away the real money which has made the Bills a billion $ business, but Ralph has done Buffalo a big favor by signing a deal that keeps the Bills here for at least 6 years. If the Bills move it guarantees a near decade of bad sad press that will piss off the TV nets the real cash cow. My sense is that the NFL will easily reject not only taking on a bad partner but a stupid one like Donald Trump. The NFL long ago gave up on free market economics when it signed the CBA rather than actually compete with each other financially for players. It simply makes little fiscal sense for a high bidder approach for the NFL, to do means making a lot less profit for a team owner.

All I know is that in the absence of confirmed facts (which we have few of which is mostly an indictment of the job the media is doing) I stick with what I do know: (in declining order of my confidence in these assumptions: 1. The individual NFL team owners will do whatever gives them the highest profit 2. The highest profit for individual owners comes from them pursuing a collaborative social compact rather than from operating in a competitive free market system 3. The NFL owners have made contractual reality of the two points above by agreeing to a CBA with the players by essentially making them partners with the original salary cap. They then agreed to the NFLPA arguably being majority partners of this effort by agreeing to a deal dictated before negotiations by NFLPA ED Gene Upshaw. Further by agreeing that any new owner must be approved by 75% of the owners essentially gives the NFL a veto over new owners (including who is an eligible applicant for the Wilson trust. 4. Given a choice between the NFL getting a share of the profits from a larger market Toronto or a smaller market Buffalo, obviously the choice would be Toronto, but in this case the choice is actually between throwing away the already captured profit realities for the probable but as yet uncaptured marginally higher Toronto profits. In this case the obvious answer would seem to be to take BOTH. 5. The JBJ/CA exercise seems to be a useful activity to A: Concretize the relationship between JBJ and CA. B. Build relationships with the NFL decision-makers on capturing a franchise. C. Benefit the NFL by helping bid up the size of bids for the Bills much to the NFLs delight. In the end, I remain pretty certain that the Bills will remain here in Buffalo because the team brings more profit to the individual NFL teams by giving the ability to sell mew franchises to join in the venerable NFL made up original NFL and AFL teams than to have their 1/32 of marginally higher profits from moving the Buffalo franchise to Toronto. Even worse, thanks to the contract left by Ralph, there was going to be at least a 7 year long death march of bad publicity while the City of Buffalo whines and cries about losing their team or even worse several years of near empty stadiums. Creating bad storytelling is actually one of the worse things the NFL could do for the true cash cow the networks. Are JBJ/CA lying. Nope, it would cost their business partners bucks for them to move and will not be allowed.

Its interesting me that he has not even picked an agent yet. What this says to me is that Spiller has likely made a calculation that one hires an agent to do what an agent does which is negotiate. There is nothing for his interests to negotiate right now and thus he has no interest in hiring an agent. I like this. Right now the only thing that matters to Spiller right now is how he does on the field. If he does well he is in better shape whether negotiating with the Bills or looking to go elsewhere. If he does poorly he is in worse shape whether negotiating with the Bills or negotiating to go elsewhere. This all sounds good to me as this player has all sorts of incentives to simply perform. From the Bills perspective to decision to extend Jax by a year is a marginal good thing as well. It simplifies the situation in that we simply do not have two higher stakes variables operating at the same time. I really like as a Bills fan that the team comes into the current reality with: A. A RB tandem which last year produced at a highest level both running and catching the ball even with fighting the Spiller high ankle sprain and the wear and tear on the seasoned Jax. We added Brown who has demonstrated signs that he can even be a credible #1 RB. Dixon should not be relied on but even he has potential as the #4 to step-up and might even be able to contribute from a bench role in specific real situations. Add to this the team has logical hopes at WR with the highly valued #1 Watkins, the impressive rookie performance of our #2 WR, and some good potential from our previously troubled at 2 other chances #3. Further, the OL has done a good job at assembling two legit talents in Glenn and Wood, a couple of possible #1 talents in Richardson and Henderson who went lower than many had them pegged if all it took was on their physical skills, and good competition the remaining slots. Last (appropriately but not leas in reality) Manual is looking like a talented athlete who cannot do the job alone, but the Bills braintrust has the plans above so Manual will not be asked to do things he cannot do. This has a reasonable chance of working and at least should provide a competitive product fun to watch. This should be fun.

Value and worth are two different things. Who do you value more Donald Trump or Mother Theresa? Who is worth more Donald Trump or Mother Theresa? Different answers to these questions shows that we are talking semantically about different things. Back in the day when the George Bush led economy was caving in in 2008, in conversation folks would ask me to explain what I thought happened. I finally came to answer that the truth was found on the back of the dollar bill where it says, "In God We Trust". Money is a funny thing. Thinking about it though its hard to imagine, folks are quite willing to give me real stuff like a meal at a restaurant or drugs which eliminate an infection which makes it difficult for me to breathe in exchange for me giving green colored pieces of paper (or simply transfer some numbers from my banks accounting to their banks accounting. Its crazy. In the end, what the financial system is all about is that as people we have decided because in God We Trust or for some other reasons we live in a world where most of us agree to trade real stuff for columns of numbers that we call dollars, yens or pounds (or bitcoin in some iterations). In the end it all falls apart when we stop trusting in God.

I think the mistake many folks are making is that they seem to assume the world consists of only binary choices and "clarity" demands one to pick one side or the other. I wish real life was this simple. It's not. Virtually by definition complicated issues are in fact complicated because there are three (or more) quite reasonable choices which can be made. Or reality may simply be that there are two (likely more) competing outcomes any of which are legitimate outcomes to pursue. An example of this in seen in "hot" button issues such as abortion/choice. Some folks seem to demand that a person must choose between one of two sides (I will not go too far into this as it quickly can drift off into something more appropriate for PPP, but I will reference the example here as I think that adds to clarity of the point). Actually, most "normal" folk want to both minimize (if not eliminate) abortions, AND also want to assure that the guvmint is not allowed into the bedrooms of adult women. Simple minds want us to choose one side or the other. Real people want both. So too with the Buffalo/Toronto fight. Simple minds wan folks to choose one side or the other. From what I see reality and the powers that be at the NFL actually want as much money as they can get. There might be constraints which make what I see as the obvious choice impossible, but NO ONE has yet to make a compelling case on TSW or anyplace I have seen that the NFL given a choice between exploiting either the Buffalo market or exploiting the Toronto market will instead choose to exploit BOTH. The clear smart move for the NFL overall would seem to be to get as many eyeballs with money to watch NFL games. People tend to watch when they have allegiance to a particular team which often comes when your hometown has a team. Th NFL has made clear statements over the years and taken action (WFL for example)to expand the NFL. Toronto and the 6+ million eyeballs that live in GTA is an obvious choice for at least one team. It seems clear to me that the obvious NFL choice here is get a franchise in Toronto as soon as you can, but that it would be a bad economic choice to throw away 45,000+ Buffalo season ticket holders. 20-30 thousand individual game ticket buyers when you put a good product on the field, millions of dollars in existing advertising relationships with WNY businesses 100s of millions of dollars in corporate welfare that state and local governments have proven willing to give the Bills to remain in Buffalo, merely to get similar largess from Toronto. It seems clear that the NFL can have both. JBJ/CA also are willing to shovel $ at the NFL for a team. However, again it seems obvious that the NFL can tell them to wait before the deal is done but to keep them moving forward and busy by having JBJ/CA cement their working relationship by putting together a bid for the Bills. In fact, it helps the NFL if the JBJ/CA bid is at a large enough level (let's say $1.2 billion) that forces actual bidders (Pegula) up to $1.3 billion he has from selling land for fracking. Who knows for sure but as I have been saying for several weeks it is not unreasonable to bank on the Bills remaining in Buffalo.

My GUESS is that JBJ would love nothing more than to be part of (and if possible the lead part) of an NFL ownership group. However, he has been forced to deal with the reality that even with a few hundred million he is willing to devote to fulfilling this fantasy, the likely market price of a billion or a billion+ is beyond his price range. Add to this challenge he will need to ingratiate himself to the NFL. Enter the Toronto folk. He knows that his group will likely be outbid by either Pegula or Golisano, but what does it matter when he joins in with the CA folk: 1. He gets to build his relationship with the serious cash cow the Tannenbaums and make the relationship real. Even better he has more star power than the Tannenbaums and thus can play the tiop dog in this deal even if the partners are putting up more cash. 2. This provides him with a chance to see the process at work and ingratiate himself to theNFL hierarchy which contractually carries a veto over whatever the Wilson Trust wants to do. Make no mistake it is the NFL team owners who control the process and the Wilsons want the biggest money they can get and Ralph o be revered. JBJ actually helps all these folks by even though he will not win and the NFL makes the MOST money if there are BOTH the current Buffalo franchise AND a separate future Toronto frachise the NFL loves having him involved in the bidding if only to drive up the Pegula Golisano bidding. 3. The NFL is gonna remain in Buffalo because this makes them the most money. The Wilson Trust is set-up to make it really hard for the team to leave for six years, but does have an out that allows them toextort paying for a new stadium with an NYS Sports Authority bearing the lionshare of the cost. The Bills and Erie County and maybe the poor City pay a little but only enough to justify NYS making this poor investment. Yet, despite the fact it will not pay more than the cost of investment it is still a good deal for WNY taxpayers because they get all the benefits (good but still limited) but the lionshare of the costs are picked up by NYC. If the Bills left and particularly if JBJ simply moved the franchise to the bigger market the NFL just walks away from the near billion that the Bills do for JBJ to get 1.5 billion they only get a part of. Everybody is happy with JBJ sucking up to Tor for a later franchise and the bills going to a high bid fromn Pegula or Golisano

No where and the NFL would never make such a statement because having Toronto based entities such as the JBJ/CA group interested and in play creates competition that bids up the price of the team. I (and you and no one else) knows fer sure what the outcome of who purchases will be, but amid all of our speculation the following things appear true to me, please tell me why if you think any of these things are untrue: The decision-makers on who will be the ultimate owner are 2 groups: 1. The Ralph Wilson Trust 2. The NFL itself. The Ralph Wilson Trust views are reflected in the public statements of his wife who is recognized legally as the current owner of the franchise by the NFL. His wife has publicly stated about yes, getting a good deal is what Ralph was all about, but not only about as the city of Buffalo was incredibly important to him as shown by the FACT he kept the team here throughout his life even though there was more money to be made elsewhere. Mary has not made the statement that the trust would only sell to an owner committed to keeping the team here, but then why would she as having as many bidders as possible is only helpful. However, she has made public comments about the importance of Buffalo to Ralph and the Bills franchise. SHE HAS NEVER SAID THAT THE STATUS QUO (the Bills in Buffalo) MUST OR WILL BE BROKEN IF THE HIGH BIDDER IS GOING TO MOVE THE TEAM OUT OF TOWN. I believe that the key to understanding this or credibly arguing a point of view is NOT the question of whether anyone in charge has made a statement that the Bills must stay BUT instead has anyone in the Trust or the NFL made a statement that the team must go or even that it will be sold to the highest bidder? The default is that the team remains here. No one and I mean no one has laid out a case of showing quote after quote from the Trust or the NFL that the team must or even might go. The default is the status quo and no one beyond some unsupported assumption that the team will go to a larger market has demonstrated the team will go. The IMPORTANT thing here though to understand is that long ago contractually, Ralph agreed to operate hand in glove with his partners in the NFL. Ralph did object strongly to the last CBA agreement and in the end only he and Cincy voted against the deal, but Ralph agreed contractually to do what the majority of owners voted to do even if he individually disagreed. Even more amazing Ralph agreed to follow the lead of not only a simple majority but contractually agreed that when his team was sold at his death that 75% of his fellow owners would NEED to approve the sale by his heirs (The Trust). Ralph agreed contractually to essentially give the NFL a veto over the potential partner chosen by his heirs. This only makes sense actually as lets say the highest bidder was Osana bin Laden's brother who is on record saying nice things about his bro. The other NFL owners simply can not be forced into a position where they must work with or justify a choice by the Trust based on the highest bidder or whatever reason. We see the same rule of reality working in other leagues where in the NBA all the owners vote unanimously to force Donald Sterling to sale his team because trying to defend his views or comments hurts the value of their teams. My judgment (GUESS) on this is that: 1. No one has laid out the quotes that show that the status quo of this near billion $ business will change. If you demand quotes that show the team will stay, this only shows a need for even clearer quotes showing the status quo will change. 2. The Trust in the form of Mary Wilson has made statements (if you do not remember I can try to dig them up but may not have the time) about the importance of Buffalo to her husband. Again, are there any quotes which indicate that the Trust is gonna move the team to some specific location. Changing the default is the proof that has to be given not the other way around/ The Bills well MAY move, but the only credible case that has even attempted to be made is the Toronto move (actual owners id'ed- the Roger/Tannenbaum folks). On the other hand credible proposals from two owners committed to keeping the team here, the Pegulas and Golisano have been id'ed. Add to this, that several significant sources of publicity and promotion (storytelling) who are invested in the team remaining here in Jim Kelly and other rich well-know HoF players would easily add their powers to a keep them here bid. There are also logical (maybe true but maybe not like the unsupported conclusion of many that the highest bidder gets the team) reasons to actually conclude the team stays here, that include: 1. How much bad storytelling would a move create and is storytelling important to the NFL and the real cash cow, the TV nets. If the team were to move it would make the upset created for the NFL product when the Mayflower vans crept out of Baltimore and when Modell abandoned Cleveland look like a walk in the park. If the team moved the NFL would have to deal with at least a year (almost certainly two) of the story of the NFL being all about how they abandoned Buffalo and the impacts on our municipality. Ralph has done Buffalo a tremendous favor by constructing a contract with Erie County which actually guarantees that the death march of bad storytelling would last for as much as 7 years (plus the 1 or 2 years of retrospectives). Add to this that another thing which weighs against a choice between a franchise either in Buffalo or a franchise in Toronto is that NO ONE has laid out a case why the NFL cannot have franchises in both Buffalo and in Toronto. In fact, it is simply obvious that the NFL wants to and can expand the number of franchises. Given a choice between two and given the sense the NFL always goes for the most money the answer is BOTH. In the end, the NFL spent 40 years building a successful near billion dollar business in Buffalo. Does anyone make a credible case that the NFL will simply walk away from the 45,000+ season ticket holders the 10,000s of individual ticket buyer, the millions in local advertisers who cannot go with the team, the 100s of millions in local tax subsidies, and to put at risk the limited anti-trust exemption as the NFL leaves no (zero, nada) teams which play in NYS. No one has made a credible case on the Stadium Wall or anywhere that the status quo is gonna change to a particular outcome be it Toronto or the equivalent of Microsoft Steve Baumer who last I checked is buying the Clippers but shows no sign of moving the team.

The NFL essentially has a veto over who is sold the team. They will require the new owner to make public statements of their intent to remain in Buffalo. Do I trust JBJ or the Toronto guys? No. However I think that: A. JBJ/CA will not be allowed to simply lie to their new businessmates. B.The NFL tends to do what makes them the most $. The NFL makes the most $ not from simply abandoning their share of 45,000 Buffalo season ticket buyers, 10s of thousands individual ticket buyers, millions of dollars in other already cultivated business ties for the NFL's share of building the same thing in the larger Toronto market. Instead, the NFL will almost certainly choose to have both. The NFL is clearly on an expansion track and my sense is would love to and plans to add franchises in Toronto, Mexico City, and figure out the timezone issues for franchises in Stuttgart, Tokyo, Beijing, etc. C. By leaving Buffalo, the NFL puts at risk its limited exemption from anti-trust laws. D. By leaving Buffalo (particularly if the deathmarch starts as soon as JBJ/CA buy the team because they give no concrete signing or contracting to stay, the NFL and TV nets do not want to make a sad story for years. Theteam stays in Buffalo even if JBJ/CA buy it.

Actually a growing concern has been not which accidents are predictable based on past incidence (this the scary stuff) but a growing amount of literature about more difficult to predict leaks that might occur du to terrorism. One need only to see the wind maps for a chlorine leak from the tank cars which travel along unguarded rail crossings on their way to the Blue Plains water treatment plant DC. Under prevailing wind patterns much of government would need to join Dick Cheney in some undisclosed location to survive. Terrorists have let us off lightly by focusing on "lil" things like knocking down the the World Trade Center when we are much more vulnerable to deadly attacks. The best way for the US to defend itself is to really remake society to rely far less on synthetic chemicals. This would take leadership willing to buck a lot of moneyed folks so it looks doubtful. Its possible to make this better but I am not sure we have the leadership to do this.

this thread has made me feel a lot better about Manual's prospects to be productive. The thread I would say generally has folks who are hopeful (but more because they are optimistic Bills fans rather than believers in Manual) but really is dominated by the stridency of folks who feel bad about Manual. However, what this thread has raised up for me is though there appear to be some real problems which have dogged Manual since collegiate days, the Bills led by Whaley and Merrone are taking tangible steps to counter Manual's shortcoming. Specifically. No one should ignore the reality that Manual was a productive and winning QB in college. However, the facts seem to be that an essential part of this success was that he had a ton of talent relative to his opponents. It would be dumb to claim this success was all Manual. Likewise though it would be dumb to discount Manual had a key role in leading the team and administrating the team to victories. The key here is whether the Bills braintrust is taking steps to assemble an O for Manual to lead which can produce results. One can now see the specific skills Watkins brings to the table which made them willing to give up next year's #1. Watkins has shown a magnificent ability to get quick separation from coverage. He does this because not only his physical talent and speed, but also he has talked about how he focused on varying his initial attack on the opposing CB in order to stop them anticipating whether he is gonna go on a fly pattern or break the route off. What Watkins specifically will do is make Manual's initial decision-making easier to make and create more room for him on initial throws. Even better, the Bills acquired Mike Williams as their #3. He is a former #1 level player who simply has not produced. However, this former Buffalo native is coming home in his change of venues and as a two time loser is really on his last chance. If he can utilize his talents in a less pressured situation of occaisional #3 action Manual gets another weapon in passing situations. These two receivers get added to our #2 Woods who really impressed in this role last year and arguably had the best chemistry with Manual last year. The other WRs like Goodwin, Graham, and even Easley have some mutant skills in particular areas which MAY give us the diverse threat we need. I am feeling even better about the Bryce Brown pick-up who is not there yet, but a potential starter talent that provides a lot of flexibility in how we deal with the past productivity of Jax and CJ The OL also provides interesting possibilities with solid guys Glenn and Wood to start, but the additional possibilities of first round talent in some eyes Cujo acquired in the 2nd. We also got Henderson who is seen by some as 1st round physical talent with a 8th round brain. Add to this competition with acquired FA Williams, converted T to G at Guard and old G Urbik we hope we can have someone to beat them. Its a lot of work but there are at least possibilities here. If the braintrust makes moves we have made and players we acquired work then Manuals limitations of inconsistency, decision-making or footwork can be overcome either by him through hard work or by the system the braintrust built for him.

I do not think it is a wholesale commitment to EJ for 2 years, but instead a statement that the y do not see his replacement if needed coming from the draft. My guess is that any intelligent GM/HC have a plan B in case a player simply stinks (unlikely with EJ) or gets hurt in a critical manner (not unlikely with EJ given his past history of missing some games through injury). My guess is that even w/o the draft option the plan Bs are: 1. Develop a player from within the team: I doubt this is a credible option beyond figuring the back-up talent we have should be counted on for more than a three game fill-in. Thad Lewis- has demonstrated he is an NFL ready back with credible game starts as a back-up for CLE (83 rating in the one game) and 6 GS for the Bills with 2 Ws and an 80 rating. These starts are little more than OK and mostly show he can fill in but ain't the answer long term. Jeff Tuel- has shown surprising talent in practice but simply sucked in his one game start. Continued growth shown in practice keeps him around but if this "disaster" QB plays it likely means there is a disaster. Dixon- Developmental prospect better seen than heard, However, the Bills have probably correctly recognized that if Manoal gets hurt or sucks so bad they need a QB that a 1st rd draft pick is not gonna do the job. However, they still have other options Trade- There are talented folks like Spiller whom we have a couple of options in house to trade if need be. As Spiller is an upcoming FA you almost certainly get some upcoming FA QB, but by definition we are desperate here. FA- In today's NFL loyalty does not last too long and some very good players at QB were simply cut and then signed with a new team with receiving/running resources and good W prospects. This happened with Manning and Brees. The prob is that while the Bills have some impressive O talent (Jax and CJ if he is around are top RB producers in this leage and the acquisition of Brown put a replacement on the roster as either of the two starters may be shorttimers. However, the acquisition of Watkins and Williams to go with Woods makes us more than credible across the top at WR. The acquisition of Cujo (considered by some a 1st rd talent we got in the 2nd), Henderson considered by some as a 1st rd physical talent with an 8th rd brain) Wood and Glenn are judged to be very good players. The team is expecting more than he has shown from FA acquisition Chris Williams and a competition is now on between last year's dubbed OK but not good enough starter Urbik and Chris Hairston who seems to hav adapted well from the tackle slot. If this group can become a unit this O can become attractive to an FA. However, the record is not the one Denver used to attract a Manning. This team must simply put Ws on the board if it needs to attract an FA QB to replace a hurt or bad Manual .

The article (if true- which maybe it is and maybe its not) it says a couple of things: 1. ED's future and immediate past development depend a lot on the Bills O and QB coach. EJ sounds extremely teachable almost malleable (almost anti-Jim Kelly like who clearly had his own mind about him such that it cost him a couple of Bills years as he went CFL instead of making a deal with the Bills). If the Bills brain trust makes a good assessment of him and trains him the right direction he has a very good skillset. 2. The Bills seem to be making choices consistent with this article.] A. The article talks about the importance of Manual having goo d players around him to make him productive. Well this is pretty consistent with the team lining him up like last year with one of the leading RB duos in the league last year, and in this year augmenting that with a Watkins who already shows signs of being a dynamic playmaker who specializes in getting quick separation (which eases decision making and early throws for Manual. In addition, they brought in as # 3 Williams who shows signs of also being a 1st round talent whose career went awry with possible hopes of rebirth in Buffalo. Add to that an OL which potentially will be greatly reinforced with Cujo in the 2nd (rated to be a 1st round talent by some who appears to have a good chance of starting) and Henderson in the 7th (thought to be a 1st rd talent by some- but with an 8th rd head so unlikely to pierce the line-up but a low risk potential high benefit pick. EJ will have offensive talent around him. 2. This analysis seems to feel EJ really over thinks thing and his physical talents (with honing of some of his fundamentals by coaches) should be allowed to lead. The attempt to install a very fast paced Bills O now makes more sense. 3. The injuries to Manual last year may actually be a blessing in disguise as the EJ habit had been to learn something, but then to see it go out the window as play resumed. However, for perhaps the first time in his career due to injury Manual has adopted a schedule of trying stuff then the next plays get put off by his recurring injuries. Again, if the Bills braintrust plays their cards right this may have been a chance to let Manual internalize these changes and be more consistent. We'll see but this article about the Bills prospects.

From my review of the many threads to date, the bottomline simply is that the team stays here: 1. Many observer seem caught up in a belief the team will (or even must) be sold to the highest bidder the Wilson trust can get. No this is not true. The Wilson trust has pretty clear bias to sell to someome vested in keeping the team here. Most important the NFL has several contractual vetos over who wins the bid and is almost certainly motivated by what makes the teams the most money. Clearly the most money comes to the NFL teams not by having the Buffalo franchise move to Toronto but by adding a new Toronto franchise AND by maintaining the Buffalo franchise. 2. Ralph did the region a favor by building in language that keeps the team here until roughly 2020. Even if a Toronto group buys the team in order to move they would have to lie to their future partners and engage in 7 year or so of incredible whining and bad publicity as the teams strategizizes and acts to leave. The true source of NFL money, the TV nets will hate this bad storytelling. 3. There appear to be viable local bidders in Pegula and Golisano who can bid high. 4. The team stays in Buffalo and one can pretty much take that to the bank.

Its these types of players who can actually make a QB look better than he is. The stats will reflect a high % of passes completed, but stats which may indicate a QB to be an accurate thrower but the reality may be that his WRs are good at fighting for throws which are up for grabs or perhaps even poor. In the end, it does not matter to me if the ultimate stat of getting Ws for the team bears out. The funny thing is that develop0ing a good rep can actually make a player a better player. Confidence is simply a big part of performance and results. When a player is confident and in particular if teammates have confidence in a player he tends to try to make plays rather than be tentative and WRs respond by not wanting to let the Q@B down. In addition refs are clearly influenced by past success and tend to give the many close calls to the better players and give more protection to the Bradys and Mannings of he world than to regular players. Finally, a players rep tends to impact opposing Ds and they noticeably back off out of fear of being embarrassed which ironically makes it easier to embarrass them. One of the reasons I feel it is likely for Manual to improve in his second year is that in his second year he should not only be more confident but that having Watkins an improved and bigger rep Woods and a situational player like Williams as his #3 looking to make big plays in fewer opportunities that a lot of tea leaves are out there than should line up to produce a few ESPN feature plays. Nothing succeeds like success and the Bills are set-up to make some plays which will be the ground work for the O to perform better than a limited imposing do of slick Stevie and unknown Woods produced. The WR talent and proven runners (with better blockers in terms of rep look very hopeful to me.

Perhaps the thing which impressed me most about your assessment is that you were able to pick-up Manual also finding fault that stood out for you with the groundball to Frank the Tank. Manual demanding of himself that he do better is the first necessary step to his making change. One easily might report a player makes a bad play any observer can see but then either shows no reaction or makes motions which either seem to blame the other player or falsely looks for some flaw in his shoe or the turf. Your report seems to reinforce Manual being appropriately miffed by a bad pass and showing frustration with himself rather than with his teammates. I do not demand every play to be perfect, even Brady or Manning make mistakes, what I do want to see is Manual moved by his errors, correctly diagnosing them, and improving his play. It sounds like he was doing this from your description.

Yep we could if we are tough. The NFL has clearly shown they can bebat. The threat we would have to be led in Congress by Schumer in the Senate and some local GOP member of the House. The NFL has a limited exemption from antitrust laws which allows them to collaborate and break laws other US businesses operate under. Merely a serious threat to force this business to operate inmore of a free market system scares them. I know most folks know that Buff municipal leaders are fools but I understand from folks I know in Cleveland that their city leaders are similar idiots so this threat is a real tool. Also in the first renegotiation of the CBA Gene Upshaw key final outcomes even before reneg and they rolled the NFL in this reneg. They can be beaten even by idiots.

I voted yes in the poll for this question not because I have some great belief in the honesty of the JBJ/Canadian group but because I have fairly strong belief that the NFL team owners will virtually always do the thing which makes them the most money. We have seen a real world demonstration of this a couple of times: 1. In the mid-80s, the owners basically destroyed the NFLPA AFL-CIO style leadership when they locked out the players and hired replacements which broke the Ed Garvey led NFLPA. However, this created an opening for a few adult minded players like Gene Upshaw to team up with smart NYC lawyers and push through an approach of threatening to decertify the NFLPA. When it became clear to the team owners that this move would force the team owners to actually compete with each other in an economic free market and ultimately make less money than if they reached agreement with the NFLPA they ran kicking and screaming to agree to a CBA with the NFLPA. Given a choice between the relative freedom of the capitalist free market or the likely bigger money for all from a social compact with the workers (and the greater certainty of bigger bucks from the TV nets, the individual owners voted to enter into a contract for the bigger bucks from the social compact. 2. A second clear step was taken when all the team owners (including Ralph) voted to require 75% approval of all team owners for a sell of the team. 3. This was further displayed when Gene Upshaw dictated before negotiations that the CBA had to A. Have a salary cap based on total gross receipts rather than designated gross and that B. the player cut of this gross had to start with a6. The final outcome in fact was for the players to receive 60.5% of the total gross. The bottomline on this is that in order to be declared the winning bid, the JBJ group will need to guarantee to 75% of team owners that they will give the current team owners the maximum profit for them. The maximum profit foe current team owners almost certainly involves keeping the team here. 1. Particularly to the source of the big bucks, the TV nets, the NFL is an entertainment product which involves telling a story well. If the Bills were to move in 6-7 years, the story told will be so maudlin and sad as the municipality of Buffalo whined and went on this slow death march it simply would be bad story telling. 2. The NFL strategy driven by the big cashcow of the TV nets seems driven by getting more eyeballs. Why not only tell a bad story but simply walk away from millions of dollars by moving the Bills to Toronto when the NFL can have its cake and eat it too by opening a new franchise in Toronto AND keep the Bills franchise alive in Buffalo. 3. Why then would the JBJ/Canadian group go through the effort of bidding for the Bills team you are cannot move? The answer is that even though this bid will ultimately fail to buy the Bills, it does add a bunch of reality to organizing the JBJ Canadian bid. By launcing this effort the JBJC group organizes its funding and becomes more familiar with the NFL decisionmakers which will allow it to hit the groundrunning hen the next round of NFL expansion happens sooner rather than later. I guess 2-3 years with Toronto, Mexico City, LA and some yet to be determined likely dot.com driven city bing the next four. I do not trust the JBJC group, I do trust the NFL/IV nets to want to maximize eyeballs and thus maximize money from car/beer/other companies. If you disagree you may be right or you might check yourself and think how is the NFL going to go about making even more money in the future. The answer is likely getting more eyeballs and also not throwing away the millions you have earned with the Bills as an original AFL team. Why toss away this real money when you do not have to and when tossing it away really messes up your story telling?

This anger folks feel about moving is part of the reason I am confident the NFL will force any new owner to keep the Bills here. Ralph did the locals a great favor by forcing any new owner to have to spend seven years wallowing in a death march if he decides to move the team and the Tv nets which provide the lionshare of the bucks to the NFL owners would find the whining which we Bills fans would do a horrible piece of storytelling. This and the fact that any move simply means throwing away the money of 45,000 season ticket holders and all the other cash streams which are birds in hand for even a new larger cash stream from a bigger local market is not without cost. The Bills will almost certainly stay and Ralph avoids the Modell fate.

My question is den't it seem most likely for the NFL not to simply move the Bills franchise to Toronto but instead to both gain the benefits of a Toronto franchise while also maintaining the substantial benefits of maintaining the Buffalo franchise. It simply seems nonsensical to me to simply walk away from the assets and income which created the Buffalo Bills when it is not necessary to do this while gaining the profits which come with a Toronto franchise. In fact the elimination of the Buffalo franchise strikes me not only as a risk there is no need to take to get the benefits, but in fact by moving the franchise the NFL guarantees going through the death march of the Bills abandoning Buffalo. It simply is a different NFL than the one which saw Bob Irsay take the Mayflower vans out of Baltimore and Art Modell take Baltimore's money and leave the NFL to get rolled by Cleveland municipal officials.