White Linen

These two portions kind of confused me in your post. I think pre season games are extremely important. IMO the confusion centers around what are the games important for. Evaluating players is what pre season games are all about. Creating cultures of winning and things like that are not what pre season should be for. If they are you're desperate or you're solely relying on emotion to help you win. I would never discount the importance of a winning attitude or the idea that emotion doesn't help (especially in football). But what you need to win in the NFL is a QB good enough to beat the other team. To go beyond having a reasonable opportunity to beat the other team you build around that QB.

Saw him on Hard Knocks with the Bungals.

I am surprised Bart Scott has not been brought in. He'd be a nice run stopping LB to add to our team.

I'm always surprised that Nix gets maligned for bringing the guy in to talk. His agent got a call from SD talking big money and they took off in a hurry. That's the extent of our interest as far as any of us know.

He wouldn't sign here. Free agents only sign with contenders, a long history of winning, and good weather cities.

The QB battle isn't staged but the stage is being set the proper way. It would be grossly unprofessional for Marrone to share with fans, the media, or the players who he would like to see win the battle. If we could get a glimpse inside his mind or slip Marrone some truth serum I'd be disappointed if he didn't have a heavy lean towards his 1st round QB as he should.

McKelvin's contract is actually $4.25 mil per year the original report of 4 years $20 million proved to be incorrect. I disagree that he couldn't have gotten a similar contract in the open market. Us fans tend to be more critical of our own players especially first round picks that don't develop into great players. In saying that I do believe winning teams keep players or sign players of McKelvin's skill set. He's not a bum, he's a nice player and these kind of players are necessary.

No there wasn't the same energy with Jauron or Gailey, that's what I'm saying. They didn't have a 6'5" rookie QB that throws rockets. Don't get me wrong I like Doug Marrone but I think you'll be forced to agree, if it's Marrone and Kolb/T. Jackson fighting for the starting QB gig it wouldn't be the same. You'd like Marrone and the change he seemed to bring, but that fire you're feeling is coming from none other than EJ Manuel.

Based on your theory we would have kept Anderson who played only one less year with Mario than Manny but played with him much more recently. "Here's one for you, why did they release Barnett? Seems to me he was by far and away the best LB." Lumping the Manny discussion with Barnett is like saying we drafted Gragg to replace Donald Jones. I'll refer to SJBF on your football knowledge. "Barnett may have been miserable (hurt yourself there) but he lead the team in tackles. And for as bad as you say he was I'm glad that you view Lawson, Scott, White, Hughes, Brown, Bradham, and Pough as better. Or the rookies." Thanks for your analysis but I think I'll side with Pettine on this one.

A few thought for Lt. Dan. I think it's safe to say that anytime there's a complete change in the coaching staff there's inherently a change in culture and before playing any games it's usually accepted as positive. In saying that I'd revert my order of enthusiasm from first and foremost culture change and secondly EJ Manuel. This teams future will mirror the career of EJ Manuel. The energy behind the excitement about culture, young receivers, Kiko, Marrone, Pettite, Whaley, etc that anyone may have should be because of the opportunity EJ Manuel brings to this franchise.

Thank you for the compliment Saint. Here's the video where Marrone discussed it briefly. It starts at the 13:39 mark. http://www.buffalobills.com/media-center/videos/Doug_Marrone_on_Mario_Williams_Injury/d6e7b59c-1944-49af-beb6-d6b3b0c3c0aa

I don't think we can lump Nix in the "jaw dropping" crowd. Clearly he had an interest and also clearly he wasn't going to pay him what San Diego was going to as Meachem quickly left. I think Buddy was correct in showing interest and was also correct In not giving him that kind of money.

I'm going to disagree a little. The true test will be if he can apply the offense to the defense. Grasping the offensive concept at this juncture is a lot of memorization. That's why you hear players talking about going back to their rooms or working with a team mate on the cadence. Then the next level of offensive concept (what they're working on now) is applying those plays to the defense and understanding what the cause and effects are. Manuel has to show the coaching staff he's capable of doing that above Kolb to be the starter. That's why you heard Marrone say he's going to have to insert Manuel in those defensive situations Kolb has been in. "We're careful about what we're showing him and we have to get him in there where he's seeing more of the exotic things from the defense. (like Kolb is). EJ's in a good situation being able to watch Kolb in those situations, learn from it in the classroom, but we have to put him in those situatiions."

Seeing Meachem on this list just makes me feel good.

By the way I'm a Bombay Sapphire fan myself.

Everything I get from these folks is quality. They sell a lot on ebay too at often times better pricing, their seller name is fanatics too so easy to find. http://www.footballfanatics.com/

How do you predict something you've already seen happen? I get what you're saying I'm just jazzing ya.

Yes I'll take 8. How much and what's the best way to get them? I'm in Charlotte but have family up there. Thank you so much.

Thanks mrags. I'm trying to call the Blasdell Verizon location to see if they have tickets for Monday night the 5th. If I have no luck do you have any for that night?

Do you drive directly to SJF or take the shuttle? I'm an out of towner also and have only been to one training camp and took the shuttle.

Thanks. I didn't know about the waiting period but have used the "wait til someone else posts".

I've never liked the Eagles but never hated them either. They are quickly becoming a team I root against and this injury significantly sets them back. I assume you think he's glad he's holding out of OTA's and camp, but he should be thinking about working on a contract. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I hate that it clumps my posts together when I want to post two different things in the same thread.

But then it's too late to say it.

Yer just triing to use big words and puntuation to make it seem like you make $100K.

I guess no one wanted to play along with me extending the "false" joke.