JoeF

was a decent guy in his tenure with the B'gals, Defined as "was not accused or convicted of any felony offenses...." Sorry Stuck--had to do it...

Come on--its never too early...John McCargo -- damn bust...

If he indeed took the path of copying-- he picked a pretty darn good source.

http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20070...?tbd1043908.asp He does a decent job of providing an objective view of the pessimistic side of reality. I still believe we have an advantage with certain RFA's. If we target someone from a team that has little cap room -- we are almost sure to get them with a front end loaded contract....there likely will be picks involved -- but most likely our 3,4,6 or 7..to get a player that has established at least some playing record.

The unamoritized portion of the bonus accelerates and is charged against the cap the year the player is released or traded. Its often referred to as "dead money". In Kelly's example-- the $15m bonus is amoritized at a rate of $3M per year over the 5 years of the deal. If the player is cut after year 3--$6M of the bonus (the final two years ) remains unamoritized and is charged in an accelerated manner against the teams cap for the coming season, Since base salaries are not guaranteed -- no cap charge occurs for base salaries. In Moulds' case the $6M charge was unamoritixed bonus. There are some nuances around this..I am not sure if the rule still exists --but it used to be if you cut a player after June 1st that the charge for the unamoritized bonus was spread over two season...but the basic concept is the same--the team needs to eat the entire unamoritized bonus as dead cap money if they cut a player before the end of his contract.

wow, an F....lemme guess.....He really does serve a purpose---populating every option of the poll with at least one vote... Can't give a GM who doesn't do the financials of the cap an A -- but I would rate Marv a solid B.... 1) Good hire in Jauron 2) Nice Draft 3) A couple of hits in Free Agency (Fowler, Royal, A. Thomas, K. Thomas all good values--Reed, Denney both good retains; Bowen -- failed because of injury; Tripplett and Price--average to slightly below) 4) Changed the culture from top down to collaborative That rates a B

Because everyone is smarter than the current Owner, GM, Coach, Pro and College Scouting staff I guess....certain members can predict the future with 100% accuracy...that's why they are posting on this board.. Seriously, its okay to take the pessimistic approach...this team has a track record of disappointments and its just the Buffalo way to get beaten down and pick yourself up off the mat to get hit again. A lot of folks just go in thinking that there's no way any situation the Bills face will turn out well for the team and their fans...that's fine..TBD takes the tired, the hungry, the positive realists, the negative realists, the rose colored glasses crowd and the doom and gloomers.. I think we will end up with a couple of RFA's and UFA's who will fill the major holes we have; we will have a reasonable draft netting a couple of immediate impact players -- we will be worse against the pass; equal on 3rd down D (Still bad); better against the run; better at getting to the QB; more turnovers; give up more points; still great at Special Teams and on O we will improve our passing game; running game; third down conversion rate and score more points... We faced 7 of the 9 best defenses this year and we faced a murder's row of RB -- the schedule doesn't get any easier or much tougher--I choose to take the bright side of realism..

Marv didn't say we were going to quick or quit before the game starts.

To quote the infamous Senator John Blutarsky: "Did we give up when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?" --When the going gets tough.... To quote DeLuca's favorite GM in whole wide world: "When its too tough for them, its just right for us." I am amazed at the number of people who want to give up before we even see what moves are made in Free Agency and what players are secured in the draft and college free agency. We all scratched our head at the draft last year-and that didn't turn out so bad... Not asking for Rose Colored glasses but don't write off the season in February..wow...

You are dead on...we need to be better at pro and college scouting than anyone; we need to be better at developing talent than anyone; we need to be better at selecting talent that fits the system...I think there are strategies like looking for select RFA's whose teams are up against the CAP and ballooning first year salaries--that we can use this situation to our advantage--but it all comes down to us finding talent where noone else can... I hope Ralph has a travel budget for the scouts--I hear there is a 1 DT prospect in Uzbekistan...

Fundamentally agree with you. We need to spread available cap over all positions and get 2nd tier established players mixed with emerging talent who just hit the RFA or UFA market. I guess my underlying point is that will need to front end load contracts with high bases in the first couple of years and possibly play with gauranteed years to compete at all, even for this level of talent...It will actually help us when we are bidding against teams with RFA's that have little room against the cap. If we offer an RFA a salary in year one of $6Million and the team only has $10M of cap money --they will have to think long and hard about matching.

You have to rely on the cap rising and Ralph always spending to the cap--therotically one of the advantages of this system is that the Bills will always have room to adjust and adapt. They are eliminating amoritization as a factor so amoritized bonus payments trend to 0 and we have expanded room to pay base....you use the room you have in base salary to retain the players you want... Its not great but its where we have to go under this system..

Only the first two are gauranteed. If he gets a $20 M signing bonus the first two years anywhere else in essence paid $10M average....you have to be creative if you want to retain him.

I think we could actually compete with an offer like this.... Gaurantee the first 2 years of the contract and pay Nate--All in base salary or balloon roster incentives.. $12 Million (Y1); $12 Million (Y2); $10 Million (Y3); $10 Million (Y4); $6M (Y5); $5M (Y6); $5M (Y7) This has some tax advantages for Nate -- less withholding--other teams would hate it cause of the gauranteed years--but its Ralph's way to remain competitive... This still leaves us about $16 Million to play with (assuming we tender Greer and Hargrove and let Anderson and Shaud Williams go) -- we can address 2 of G, LB, DT with this....

Conner Bryne does a good job outlining the view that the Bills will not be competitive due to the cash to the cap strategy and that Marv has little touch with NFL reality. http://www.realfootball365.com/nfl/article...ence190207.html He actually uses factual statements from Marv's press conference and tries to interpret them. Interesting concept.

Thanks BR---the only question I have is does the $3 or 4M we will make in tenders to our own RFA's count against the $30M or have they already been accounted for as well...if they are not in there it probably buys us another player. Marv said we would sign between 4 and 5 guys in the RFA/UFA market...that means 1st year money of $6-7 Million per man--that will probably net us some decent players....

Just went....priest says he thinks it is an immaculate conception....

You have chosen to ignore all posts from: DeLuca1967. · View this post · Un-ignore DeLuca1967 Thanks SDS

Yawn--my work today is done here -- you tried to make a point that Chuck Pollock was a two bit writer for a two bit paper and again put your moron on display. This has nothing to do with the Bills--it has to do with you posting sh-- you know nothing about and not taking the time to educate yourself. What makes you think your opinions about Marv or the Bills are any more enlightened? Have a great life...Does the ignore feature still exist?

Chuck Pollock often gets picked up nationally....Pro Football Weekly beat reporter for the Bills, AP often uses his Bills stuff. He was the Bills Sporting News beat writer in the past. He is probably the best reporter covering the Bills right now. He has been recognized several times by AP for his reporting. Once again you fail to research before you post. Thanks for making it so easy to prove that you don't know what the hell you are talking about. Alaska Darin was so spot on with his post about you constantly jamming your legs down your gullet...its fun to watch -- cause you are so damn easy to bait..

Damn--I missed that....

They broke up--but Tom apparently left a legacy... http://wbztv.com/local/local_story_049131118.html Wonder what Bruschi thinks of this--time for confession Tommy boy--good thing you can go right to the supreme being to get your penance..

Gee Chuck Pollock's was written after the press conference and its also neutral to positive... http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=...62745&rfi=6 Wow....Chuck Pollock

Nice story.....I get the feeling its truthful -- also linked on TBD home page http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20070...?tbd1045644.asp

One of his opening lines in the press conference was relating what he told the players at the end of the year. This was "Our goal is not to get to the Super Bowl, but to win the Super Bowl." I guess I am struggling to figure out what else he needed to say...