joesz

Haven't heard if Sunday's game in Toronto is sold out. Hope it is so it will be televised. Joe

Edwards really missed Reed who is very good finding the open spots in zone coverage

I'll be very happy if Edwards has a career like Dan Fouts

I don't think the Bills have any intention of retaining defensive tackle Tim Anderson. They gave him a Restricted Free Agent qualifying offer in the hope that someone would make him an offer which would give the Bills a 3rd round draft choice if they refused to match that offer.

Maybe the remaining 2.5 million will be paid next year as a roster bonus. If so those monies will apply to next years's "Cash to the Cap" amount

If I understand the "Cash to Cap" concept, the total dollars from saleries and bonuses spent this year will not exceed $109 million, even though bonus monies are amortized over the life of player's contract years. So let me pose this question regarding the $20.7 million that is allocated to amortized bonuses from previous years in the Bill's 2007 Salery Cap. I got this figure for the BillsZone 2007 Salery Cap Page (link below) http://www.billszone.com/mtlog/archives/20...ry_cap_page.php Technically, this $20.7 million was already paid in the previous years of "Cash to Cap". So don't they have this year's $33 million of cap space PLUS the $20.7 million of amortized equals $50.7 million in Cash to Cap dollars to spend? The only care they would have to take is to make sure thay they balance salery and bonus dollars in such a way that it doesn't exceed $33 million in Cap Space. What is wrong with my reasoning?

I recall that NFL owners were supposed to have a meeting to resolve the revenue sharing issue this past Tuesday, January 23. However, I have not seen anything reported about this meeting. Did it occur? Was anything reloved? etc. Our new comissioner said he would step in and make a decision on revenue sharing if the owners could not agree on a formula on their own. I suspect he may have to do that because the big revenue teams appear to be dragging their feet (in the hopes that it will go away?). The future viability of the Bills future may be at stake.

It has been suggested that Thomas was retained over Gates for his all-around play. Thomas is a better receiver and accomplished blocker. With our offensive line still trying to mesh, a runner who could also help protect the QB is very valuable. With Gates in the lineup there is less predictability, since the expectation would be a run. With Thomas it could be anything.

As I remember it, in previous years season ticket holders received their tickets as individual game tickets became available to the general public, which this year was around July 15th. It is now about 2 week past that date, and I have not received my tickets. I would appreciate a reply if you have or have not received your season tickets. I'd like to know if I have to call the Bills to check if my tickets were mailed, or if they have been lost in the mail. Thanks.

If Moulds refuses to take a paycut, why haven't the Bills released him? I think it may have something to do with the CBA - if there will be a new Collective Bargaining Agreement of not. I base my thoughts on this from the strange events that have taken place over the past few days. When Moulds' agent said they would not accept a paycut this past Sunday, many "experts" were predicting that a CBA would be in place before the start of free agency on Friday. Why take a paycut with the Bills when a new CBA promised more big money for free agents? However, as the week progressed and the potential agreement fell apart, the big money disappeared. Without a CBA, more than a third of the teams would have difficulty getting under the salary cap and would not be players in the free agency market. A large number of good players would have to be cut on "Black Thursday", thus providing a lot more competition for Moulds. Those teams that had money to spend could cherry pick from this large pool of free agents, without having to spend big bucks. It was also expected that free agency would be hampered by the rules in the old CBA in the year prior to an uncapped year, eg the 30% rule, the length of new contracts, etc. I think Moulds and his agent have decided to keep there options open until the status of the CBA is finally decided - probably by tomorrow evening. Without a new CBA, Moulds might be better off taking a cut in pay down to published numbers of around $2 million because he likely would get much less as a free agent without a new CBA.

Note one important ommision in the 1986 draft - OT Will Wolford was drafted before Ronnie Harmon

Like many of you, I feel somewhat disappointed in the hiring of Dick Jauron. However, this hire has an interesting precedent in Bills history - Marv Levy. This was the way things were when Levy was hired in 1985. The Bills hired a coach who was 36-42 with one winning season when fired by Kansas City in 1982. Levy was very smart - at least intellectually. However, Levy really didn't show show his football smarts until he got his second coaching opportunity. At the time the Bills GM, Bill Polian, was a relative newcomer who hired someone he knew well. The Bills were in total disarray, coming off two consectutive 2-12 seasons. Levy was not reguarded an offensive geniuses - he was heavily criticized for his Single-Wing offense in KC. Does this mean that Jauron is the second coming of Marv Levy and a new Bills golden era is about to start? That is certainly a stretch, but we can only hope that Jauron can achieve half the success of Levy's coaching career with the Bills. However, at least there is some hope, given the success SOME coaches have had in their SECOND run as an NFL head coach. We wanted the Bills to hire someone with coaching expierence. The truth of the matter is that all the former head coach candidates available had warts - otherwise they would still be coaching their first team. I was strongly in favor of Mike Sherman until I saw some of comments made by the Packer fans on the Stadium Wall in the past week. They were generally complementary although there were some big BUTs. Not a good game-day coach, not a good clock manager, couldn't win the big games, didn't make adjustments during the game, etc. Didn't we hear these same criticisms in the past 5 years? I have been a Bills fan a long time - back to the start of the franchise in 1960 when I was a teenager. I've had my doubts for every coach hired, some justified, some not. Other than the second hiring of Lou Saban, the only time the Bills hired a coach with a good NFL pedigree was Chuck Knox. He had one good year the left. You never really know what you get until they get here and put their teams together. So we just have to wait and see - maybe Jauron will be another Levy.

If you check out the link, you will see the posting date of January 21, 2006.

Some time ago I remember reading in this forum that it would cost the Bills about $5.8M to put the Franchise Tag on Nate Clemens, based on what was heard on the national media (Mort?). Aparently that number was very wrong, based on the positional franchise tag just published on Ask the Comish. Ask the Comish Cornerback $8.816 million Quarterback $8.078 million Wide Receiver $7.768 million Offensive Line $7.424 million Defensive End $6.666 million Running Back $6.323 million Linebacker $5.95 million Defensive Tackle $5.134 million Safety $4.968 million Tight End $2.687 million Kicker/Punter $1.787 million If these new number are true, I seriously doubt the Bills will franchise Clemens, evn if they only intend to use the tag to trade him.

The Bills should apply for a roster exemption allowing them to carry 75 players on the active season roster instead of 53. That way we can pick up all the released players this forum likes.

Heard that the Bill-Packers scrimmage will be televised. Does anyone know if the coverage will be local and what channel will it be on? Thanks

Rather than leave things to chance, why couldn't Ralph Wilson take on a partner? The partner could be an individual or a consortium, and they could have a minority interest with an option to purchase Wilson's interest in the future. This way Ralph could still be the majority owner and still find a person or group who would be interested in keeping the Bills in Buffalo. And I would think this would be advantageous for his estate, because the payment Ralph would receive for the partner's interest could be treated as capital gains, at much lower tax rate than the estate. However, I'm not sure it could be Golisano, either now or in the future. Golisano cannot purchase into the Bills because he owns the Buffalo Sabres, violating the NFL's rule of franchise ownership in other sports teams.

The fact that the Eagles are trying to sign Henry to a long term contract tells me that the Eagles and Bills have settled on the terms of a trade, which would go through if an agreement on a contract is reached. What would the trade look like? Since Donahoe has insisted on a 2nd round pick, I expect the Bills to either receive the high 2nd round pick the Eagles got from the Dolphins, or the Eagles low 2nd plus another pick, either a 4th or 5th round pick. I think the latter is more likely, given the number of picks the Eagles currently have. The Bills could do something interesting with that lower pick. I really think the Bills would like to get Shelton from the Cardinals, given the fact that they seem interested in the Henry/Shelton trade, but felt they needed more, ie a swap of 2nd round picks. If the trade Henry/Shelton falls through, who is left that is still interested in Shelton. I wouldn't be surprised if the Cards would accept a 4th round pick from the Bills for Shelton. Of course, the Bills may decide to wait for June 1st to see if the Cards decide to release Shelton. If the Cards don't release Shelton at that point, a trade for a future pick would still be possible.

You are missing one important factor when you assign value to the position in the draft - the price expected for waiting a year to get the 1st round pick back. I have followed the draft for years and have seen teams pay a stiff price for a deffered draft picks. In the 1980s, when Bobby Beatheard was the GM for the Washington Redskins, he would trade a 1st round pick in next year's draft for a 2nd round pick in the current year's draft. In a sense, he established the value for deferred draft picks. If you look at it from that point of view, Donohoe got good value, paying only a 2nd and 5th round pick for getting a 1st round pick a year early.

When comparing the trade value of Henry, people often point to the Corey Dillon trade to the Patriots. The worry is that we will not get good value for Henry because nobody seems to be interested in a trade for the 2nd round pick the Bills want. But remember, the same thing happened last year to the Bengals when they insisted on a 2nd round pick for Dillon. During the early part of free agency, nobody would offer more than a 3-4 round pick for a player people thought could be a problem in the locker room. It wasn't until just before the draft (think it was about a week before) that Dillon was traded to the Patriots for the 2nd round pick the Bengals wanted. So we have to remain patient. I belive the same thing will happen with Henry - he will be traded for a 2nd round pick sometime before or during the draft.

If you are definitely planning to become a season ticket holder, I would do it as soon as possible so you can select from the best seats currently available. Existing season ticket holders have had to commit for 2005 by March 1st, so the Bills now know who will not renew.

This is probably going to be a very interesting offseason for the Bills. With the impending release of Bledsoe ($2.2M cap savings), trade of Henry ($1.0), likely release of Prioleau ($1.5), and possible release of Lindell ($0.5), Donohoe could end up with $16-$17M of cap space. He could even gain another $2M cap savings by converting Mike Williams' $3M roster bonus into a signing bonus, which would be spread over 3 years. You gotta believe TD has plans with this money. The projected salery cap space is about $5M more than he had in the 2003 offseason when he picked up Spikes, Adams, Malloy and others. It is likely he'll sign Pat Williams before March 2, for something like a 3-year $13.5M contract, that would include a $6M signing bonus and cap hit of $2.5-$3M cap hit for 2005. Jennings situation may depend on what happens before free agency starts on March 2. In fact, it may be tied in with the trade of Travis Henry. The Rams have already said they will franchise Pace, but what if Seahawks decide to franchise Shaun Alexander, the Colts franchise Edgerin James, and the Titans have to release Brad Hopkins in a cap savings move? That puts Jennings at least behind Walter Jones, Tra Thomas and Brad Hopkins and greatly reduces his bargaining power. At the same time, it would remove the two most attractive free agent running backs from the availability list, making Henry more attractive trade bait. It also might lead to a Henry trade to the Cardinals for OT LJ Shelton. That is why I think Jennings will not be signed before the start of free agency. And even if his asking prices comes down, the Bills may decide they have better FA options. Whoever they get, the LOT position will likely have a $3-$5M cap hit for 2005. There's a good crop of OG FA prospects - DeMulling (Colts), Coleman (Bucs), Rivera (Packs), Andruzzi (Pats), and Mayberry (Eagles) look like the best of the crop. The Bills should be able to get one for a $2-$2.5M cap hit. It is likely that the Packers will franchise their TE Bubba Frank, but others available include Becht (Jets), Wiggins (Vikes), and Jones (Cards). I like Wiggins who caught 71 passes last year. We should be able to get a TE for a cap hit of $1.5-$2M cap hit. If we make all these moves, we have used up $9-$12M of the $16-17M cap space we had available. Knowing TD, it will probably be on the lower end of the range. Without a 1st round draft choice, they will probably have to allocate about $2M to the draft cap. That still leaves $3-$6M available for a backup QB to replace Bledsoe and to lock in some of our restricted FAs. I know a lot of you hope the Bills can upgrade the PK, CB and DE positions. I'm not too concerned with DE - we got 6.5 sacks out of Kelsey and Denny in 2004, and I think Kelsey will at least double his sacks in 2005. We will probably add CB depth in the draft. With the likelihood that the Pats will resign Vinitari, I don't see any PK FAs I really like. Like most of you, I'd like the Bills to grab Nugent in the draft, but may require a high second to get him. Of course, there will probably be a surprise or two - knowing Donohoe.

The Bills will allow Jonas Jennings to test the free agent market. It is very possible that there will be a number of very good left tackles available. Seattle can only franchise one of their big three (Hasselback, Alexander, Jones), so Walter Jones might be available. There is some speculation that St Louis will not franchise Orlando Price this year. Which of Philadelphia's two major free agents Cory Simon and Tra Thomas will they decide to franchise? Thomas could be available. Then there are a number of second-tier free agents who could become available (I would put Jennings in this catagory): Kareem McKenzie (Jets), Barrett Brooks (Steelers), Adrian Klemm (Patriots), Stockard McDougle (Lions), Victor Riley (Saints) and Ryam Diem (Colts) come to mind. The point is the Bills do not have to overpay Jennings. They have plenty of options to replace him if they can't come to an agreement. They will offer him a reasonable second-tier contract and let him try to do better in free agency. It is unlikely that Atlanta will offer him a big contract since they are currently about $14 million OVER the expected 2005 cap. It looks like a buyers market to me