Dan

The biggest problem with his antics is it disracts everyone from the real problem on this team... a defense that gave up 40points to a divisional opponent. Stevie was stupid to do it. Chan made a point, in a meaningless game, that his behavior wouldn't be allowed. But the real problem is... we finished another pathetic season with another pathetic team-wide effort.

In an effort to get thisthread back on track... thank god is all I was thinking at end of this game. Another craptacular season is finally over. I don't have to watch that team any more ...till next august. This game re-inforced several things for me: 49points! If there's any further proof that we need a huge makeover on Defense, starting with the Coordinator, I don't know what it could be. 21 points and moving the ball with Stevie. Nothing without him. Re-sign the guy! Also, get some other WRs that can actually catch and not tip the ball around. 1-5 in the division. Chan is on thin ice. He's just gotta do better. Period. I think its time someone tell him being the HC, OC, and DC is not working... higher some damn assistants. Fitz needs to work seriously on his downfield accuracy. Otherwise, next year should be his last year starting. It's hard when your receivers are better at bouncing balls around than they are catching. But he has missed entirely too many wide open WRs downfield due to being wildly innacurate. This team needs a solid off season, because after this year.. its gonna be damn hard to get excited about this team otherwise. Two years in... they still have a long way to go.

You're forgetting a standard TSW truism... Lynch is not on the Bills; therefore, he's a good player and we should pay extra to get him. Jackson is on the Bills; therefore, he's not even starter quality and we shouldn't over pay to keep him.

See now, you're completely making stuff up. Stevie's agent is on record as saying he wants $7.5mill/yr; not $10. But, ok, I'll play along... read below. Exactly. We're no where near the cap AND we have to spend considerably more just to get to the new league minimum. Who are we going to spend that money on? Let Stevie walk and hope to find a FA of equal or better caliber to spend the money on? Why not just pay the player that's actually produced for the Bills, has chemistry with our QB, and likes the other players and the City? Even if you have to "overpay"; what's the big deal. Until they start overpaying every player, we don't have a problem. Honestly, if Ralph is cheap... it's only because he's giving many of the fans exactly what they're asking for. Pay the man. (freddie too)

Exactly. As far as I'm concerned, pay Stevie whatever it takes to keep him. This team is better with him than without - it's really that simple. No, you're not. I've been saying that for a while. No, Poz is/was not the best LB in the league and perhaps not worth his salary. But, who cares? He was the best LB on the team in 2010. Keep him, let one or two of the other scrubs walk, and sign Barnett. That would have given us a much stronger LBing core in 2011. It's the same with Evans, and now Stevie. Keep Stevie, Nelson, and then add a decent to good FA WR and we're a better team in 2012. Let Stevie walk because he wants a million or 2 more, only to replace him and the team is no better than they were. Unfortunately, this has been the Bills for a decade. Let a good player walk rather than give him a new, higher paying contract; only to draft/sign someone to replace him. As a result, we've had the same holes on this team since forever. It's been the very definition of spinning your wheels. Now the new FO says they want to change that; they have a plan. They've re-signed a couple of players, which is good. If they re-sign Stevie, I just may believe that our FO is turning a corner. If they let him walk, regardless of the reason, then this FO is no different than the last several. IMO, signing Stevie means far more than just signing a player; it will show that this team is serious about trying to win. If they let him walk, regardless of his new salary, it just demonstrates that winning is not the most important thing to this FO.

Stevie is perhaps the best and most consistent player on our offense (outside of Jackson). The Bills are well under what will be the league minimum for total player salaries in 2012. Nix and company have stated they want to build through the draft and develop their players in house. If they don't re-sign Stevie, regardless of the price tag, then there truly is no hope for this franchise. Period.Pay the man. He is far more valable to the Bills than any draft pick/FA.

lol ... so true! *lowers head in shame and quietly sits in corner*

I'll admit... at the beginning of the season, I really thought Evans would have a huge year and really help to tramsform the Raven offense. Whether due to his injury, attitude, or whatever, I was wrong.I also, FWIW, really thought OchoCinco would have a career year with Brady throwing him the ball. Again, I was wrong.It reminds me of the old adage that free agents are more valuable to their existing team than to a new team. There is definitely some truth to that, despite the few examples (Sproles, for ex) of FAs really helping their new team. It's also Preseason thoughts like this, that remind me... I'm just a fan and no GM. So, like it or not, we gotta give Nix a chance to do his job and just hope he's better than a fan.

Perhaps not properly though. Dependind on the model, I believe most Honda cars are mostly made in OH. In the entirely screwed up world we live in, buying "American" car brands means American corporate owners benefit, but American workers lose out. Buying "foreign" means American wrokers have jobs, but the corporate profits go overseas. Nissan trucks, I know are made in MS. So if you really wanna be a good redneck, you need to drive a Nissan not a Chevy.

Here's what I don't think you're getting... I'm not arguing "worth". I'm saying that Stevie is our best WR. You don't improve the team by letting your best WR walk only to try and replace him with an unproven guy or some second chance FA. What difference does it make how much they pay Stevie? The team has the cap space nor is it my money. I want the team to actually improve. And to do that, you keep your better players and replace the non productive ones - regardless of whether our best players are the best players in the league or not. What half the people here seem to wish for is a continued spinning of the wheels. Similar to what we've done with the RB position. How many draft picks have we wasted because they simply refused to make McGehee happy here? Like him or not, he's still a fine back in Denver. But, everyone would rather rail on a guy, see him walk, then draft his replacement. All the while, the team keeps running in place. Letting Stevie walk, regardless of the pricetag, is completely unacceptable if you actually care about fielding a better team next season. I can see no scenario where this team is improved by letting Stevie walk.

I completely agree with that. We need another big time receiver bad. In particular, someone who can adjust on the fly and make circus-type catches on all Fitz's inaccurate passes. Not only does that make the team better, but it also means the burden isn't entirely on the shoulders of a young guy like Stevie to always produce the game winning play.

Bottomline is you do not build a winning team, with depth, by continually cutting your best players and keeping the backups. We did it with Poz.. let him walk and kept his back ups. How much better would we have been if they had paid Poz and signed Barnett, and let Davis or dang near any of the others walk. Same with Evans. Evans, Johnson, Nelson is a much better WR core than Johnson, Nelson, take your pick. And we could go to several other positions. Just face it, sooner or later we have to start keeping our better players, and yes.... gasp... paying them more money. Not ever player has to be the best player on then team. But I'd rather have an immature Stevie J. than a nice mature great guy like Donald Jones any day of the week.

I could not agree with you more. All analysis and talk about the offensive side of the ball is mute, until the defensive issues are addressed. Once again, the defense allowed the other team to march down the field at will throughout the game. Yes, they look better in the second half, but that's only because the other team has a nice lead and begins playing more conservative. Once you're behind by 2 or 3 scores right outta the gate, the entire offensive gameplay is thrown out the door. We've seen this week in and week out. You don't let Spiller run the ball when you're down by 3 scores in the second half. Edwards is horrendous as a defensive coordinator. We're missing 1 (KW) maybe 2 (Merriman) impact players from the defense. Yet everyone is out of position, late to the ball, undisciplined, and just generally apathetic. It's a horrendous defense playing far below their talent levels. If Chan doesn't correct this miserable mistake, then he needs to go as well. It's bad enough he hired him in the first place. Now, just man up, admit you made a mistake, and bring in a proven DC.

Maybin is the poster child for the Bills defensive coaching staff's ineptitude. He's the exact same player, same weight, same moves, same experience level on the Jets as he was the Bills. We cut him him because he's a complete bust and useless; a few weeks later he's getting it done as a Jet.The mantra here has always been we need players with more talent. Well, I offer Maybin as a prime example of the talent level being adequate. It's just our coaches are clueless in how to develop and properly use the talent. Face it... The Bills won't have a winning season until the defense improves. The defense won't improve until we get new coaches that can ....coach.

I like and respect you as a poster; however, this is a big FU post. Hence, so is my reply. I'm used to posters coming here the very morning after the Bills are officially eliminated from the playoffs... yet again, and posting how right they were to say the team sucked all along. I just never figured you for one of those classless jag offs.

You'd think after, what is now, 12 years with only 1 winning season, I'd be more accustomed to this team losing. But, I just feel more frustrated than ever with this team. And for the first time I my life... I guess I just don't care. Win... So what, they're scraping out a few more wins in another meaningless season. Lose ... So what, they're getting a higher draft pick that will do little to impress. It's just so damn frustrating week after week to see average to below average teams play us and look like they're going to Superbowl. We cut bad players just to have them go on and be good players on other teams. Other teams make coaching changes and turn around in a year... 2 at most. We can't even get to .500. I guess I should be happy our season lasted into November this year, as opposed to being done by mid October. But, I just can't. So someone, anyone, give me some reason to care about this team again. Why watch any of the remaining games. Just to see this pathetic excuse for a team take the field?

/thread

There's no way we're this lucky.

Maybin can't even see the field in Buffalo. With the Jets, he has 5 sacks already. If there's any clearer indication that our defensive coaching staff doesn't have a clue, I'm not sure what it would be. Add to it all the draft picks and FAs signed, and it's clear Edwards has no clue as to how to operate an NFL defense. It's a shame, we finally have an NFL caliber offense, but thy can't be expected to score 30+ points each week.

Last week I didn't watch the Bills game for th first Sunday since forever. Yes, I've seen every play of every bad snap for the decade of fail... One way or another I would find a way to watch. This past Sunday, however, I had to paint my house and being one of the few remaining warm days I had little choice. I checked in about mid-second quarter to get the score; turned the tv off, went back outside, and had a better day painting than watching this team. That's how bad they are. This Sunday I have to travel and will likely miss the game again. But ya know... It doesn't bother me at all. If the team is going to lay down like they have, why should I bust my rear to watch them. It's taken a a decade or so, but it's finally setting in; why watch a bad team.

This is yet another thread to prove that Ralph is not nearly as cheap as the fans that follow this team. Does it really friggin matter how much they pay Stevie? Is it your money? The Bills are well under the cap. They have the money to spend. The team is better with Stevie than without him. I don't care how much they pay him; just pay him and keep one of the few decent players on the team... on the team.

While I can agree with the idea of your post; I just dislike using the regular season as practice time for players. I'd keep Pears where he's at and see what Hairston can do in his limited playing time and during the off season, ala Reinhart.

Perhaps we're wrong; I certainly hope so. But, I have to agree. From where I sit, our season is done. IMO, Wood was the last straw. You just can't keep losing your best starters and continue winning.Add to that list of leaders lost, several starters (Bell, most notably) have or are missing significant playing time. That's just a lot for any team to over come; especially a young team in the 2nd year of a rebuild. There are still holes on this team; we all see them. I have to have faith that Gailey sees them as well. Hopefully, they get addressed this off season. Because as of today, I'd say the off season is directly where were heading.

What has Pears done to find a seat on the bench? Why would you sit the only guy that's played well the entire season at his position?

A dose of sensibility.. Very well stated.