timtebow15

From last night Roman looked better than any OC I can remember, even those guys who were limited because they were too focused on certain types of plays. Even though we were vanilla last night the sequence of play calling in the first half was great. Taking advantage of the difference between Cassel and Taylor for example. It looked like we could run all types of plays and well. The solid OLine play was a big help too. Everything has to work together but when done well a good OC can make a QB much better than what he may really be. I guess Cassel's play in NE is a great example of that way back when.

Good for Rex. Clay looks great and we need a really good blocking TE and I'm not sure any of them can block. All except Clay looked bad last night. Even when Manuel underthrew O'Leary (yes, bad pass) he fell trying to come back for it or he could have made a play on it. I would look over the waiver wire for TEs they were so bad. Might as well give the kid from Canisius a try as we didn't se him. What surprised me was how short O'Leary's arms were and how stiff he seemed. I think his problem is the throw will have to be perfect for him to pull it in - and even then he dropped a perfect pass last night.

Every team in the NFL has to deal with these issues and many rosters have character issues worse than the Bills. It's not a justification, however, every circumstance is different. Rex at least is honest and practical. Like the one Bills coach said about IK "we'll corral him or let him go". Look at Darius - when we drafted him we had no idea he'd have some off the field issues. We are stuck with managing him as best we can while the talent outweighs the difficulty. Of course we want high character guys at every position but you try to develop character just like you develop the other skills. The 90's Bills that are so revered were no different. I have no problem with the Bills taking a chance on a guy who was provoked in a fight to see if he's learned from it. He has a lot of potential as a player.

Very helpful analysis. I still think the judge should easily see that the reason for the NFL's lack of evidence is that they did not have the power to force certain people to testify and provide information. The obstruction alone should be severely punished otherwise everyone's MO will just to be uncooperative and worse in the future. Since the union agreed to the CBA procedures and the Pats did not cooperate in the investigation the judge should support whatever decision has been made. If the Pats and Brady wanted a different outcome they should have cooperated fully.

Well, if you read the texts from the Pats employees and know anything about football I think there is certainly evidence of wrongdoing. Again, why are the Pats employees allowed to remain silent as they know who was directing them to do this? Why were they fired if they didn't do anything wrong? Where are they hiding and why isn't the judge interested in them if he's looking for evidence?

He's supposed to be a very good special teamer and physically able to play LB in the NFL. Great signing in my opinion.

The problem today is that judges routinely go beyond their role. The union agreed to a CBA and the process was followed. Just because you don't have proof because someone did not cooperate with an investigation and lied does not mean you can't deduce what likely happened. Anyone who looks objectively knows two low level Pats employees would never bother to discuss and take footballs aside and deflate them without the knowledge and approval of the QB and/or coach. If they did so they would be canned a long time ago. Obviously they were directed to do so and their texts indicate exactly where the instruction came from. Oh, by the way, that same guy just happened to start destroying his phones as soon as he knew the texts were an issue. There's as much a link here as there is with the PED users in baseball. Did anyone ever SEE them take the PEDs. Of course not but their names were all over it. Just like with Brady. I don't see where there is a lack of proof. No other scenario makes sense other than Brady knew the guys were deflating footballs with his blessing and likely under his direction. If this judge was really interested in what happened he'd be talking to the two fired employees. By the way, why aren't they required to be explaining what the heck happened and why? It's okay they are allowed to disappear and be silent? I wonder what they signed to buy their silence?

I don't mind the signing at all. Could become a very good player. Football is so strange - we want these guys to play a violent game where you have to pysch yourself into a type of reckless abandon to play it well and then we expect them to be boy scouts all the time. I have much more tolerance for an incident like this then the drugs or other stupidity that goes on that is premeditated. IK KO should not have punched him of course but Rex knows the guy and it sounds like he's not a bad teammate. Hopefully an isolated incident.

Best line of the day!

Brady is a scumbag. That alone and all the lies he's told should get him 4 games!

Aren't there any other players to talk about? This is practice! We are reading too much into everything. Let it play out.

I don't think micromanaging and tweeting about every snap is productive. This is practice! And what I can't understand about people wanting to write off Manuel is don't they consider young players can improve? Just because he didn't light the world on fire and because he is not yet consistent does not mean he cannot improve. The media constantly over analyzing everything isn't helping. Isn't there any other players to watch and write about? Also, Cassel will likely start until someone proves otherwise just because he has tons of experience. Week to week he should be able to game plan a bit better, recognize defenses better and be a better leader. He's not a terrible QB but, like a lot of QBs, he needs a really strong supporting cast. If the O-Line holds up and creates a running game he has that. If you've played sports you know some days things just click while other days they don't and the difference between an average player and a good player is that the good player has a good day 80% of the time vs 40% or 50%. All our QBs are average it appears. If I was Rex and the starter was off and maybe didn't match up well I wouldn't be afraid to pull him and see if the backup would have a better day. Doesn't mean any of our guys will be consistent so we might just have to be a little creative with who we put behind center like going to the bullpen early if the starting pitcher doesn't have it that day. If everyone knows the plan pulling the starter should not be a big deal. It doesn't mean you have to bench him permanently - he's just having an off day which is going to happen a lot with our average QBs.

This is the best way of looking at it. We gave up two picks (three minus one so stop saying three picks!) but picks are not equal. You can argue the value of the chart (because there are no certain picks I think the lower picks in the first round are undervalued) but you should not oversimplify the exchange of picks as if every first round pick is equal.

I don't think so. He is still learning the position and Cassel has tons of experience so it's not a run away. Plus my theory about EJ is that, in the same way some players are coach killers, some coaches are player killers. I think Marrone was a horrible coach for a young QB to play for. Could you imagine feeling any confidence working for that tool? Marrone was like the worst boss you remember ever working for. I don't think Manuel got good mentoring at the position which makes a huge difference. For example, I wonder how much of Montana's success was because he played for Walsh?

I made practice and Manuel surprised me. Yes, this illogical bashing of Manuel needs to stop. You can see that he has the best arm and talent of the group. He's the only QB not consistently underthrowing receivers - the best scenario is that he takes the next step and wins the job. Tyrod is no solution and Cassel is just another Orton...if we are lucky. We should be rooting for Manuel to win the job.

I was at practice and I have to say if Manuel doesn't win the competition and take a step forward we are in trouble. All the other QBs were underthrowing balls and not hitting receivers in stride. Manuel throws the best ball and has the best arm strength by far. Simms was horrible, Tyrod doesn't have a strong, accurate arm and Cassel wasn't impressive. It's only one day of practice of course. I was also thinking about how Marrone didn't do us any favors yanking Manuel and turning to Orton. Manuel played like a rookie with potential his first year before he got hurt and played inconsistent his second but was yanked after 4 games and Orton was average but Manuel didn't get to develop. Now Cassel is our Orton and not a long-term answer and Manuel got robbed of 12 games of valuable experience. Let's hope Ryan has more patience.

Brady is so entitled. He obviously isn't stupid but his ego is so massive and he is such an habitual liar. I don't know how anyone can defend him now. I always wondered why he didn't just say at the very beginning, Yeah, I like the balls inflated to the legal minimum and instructed the equipment people to do that. I can't help it if they screwed up. The only logical reason for not doing that is he was directing them to deflate balls under the minimum limit. And Belicheck didn't mind because he knew a side benefit was that turnovers would likely be reduced - they certainly wouldn't be higher. Then Brady destroys his phone claiming he always does that except there is an older phone they produce. The whole organization will do anything to win and they have no pride. It's not even the cheating that bothers me the most - it's the boldfaced lying!!!! I really hope this is the beginning of the end for this franchise. They deserves two decades like the Bills just went through.

Very interesting story. As an artist he is talented. But it bothers me when it is said he would do what any young, rich athlete would do and got two different women pregnant. He seems sensitive at least and these things bothered him but his lack of character led to many of his issues. Yet, it wasn't his fault the Bills picked him so early - everyone I knew thought he was a reach and a horrible pick being undersized and coming off just one good season. I understand what he means about people overrating the pros of being a professional athlete and not considering the negatives. Imagine what it was like 25 years ago! These guys get paid so much now it is hard to feel sorry for them. He choose the profession and it is one based largely on superficial judgment - no different than modeling or acting. I think he owes football quite a bit even though it didn't work out for him.

I think this is right on. By all accounts Marrone was no fun to work with and no one respected him. It was a calculated gamble. Too bad it is not working out but there is always a chance Pettine can win the power struggle. It would be nice to see what he could do if left alone. He's learning a lot of lessons on the offensive side of the ball. Can you imagine being given the head case that Manzell is to be your QB?

I consider this all a sign of the apocalypse. ESPN has sold out? And the definition of courage aint what it used to be.

Hilarious. Can't argue with that.

Or best hope is at both EJ and Tyrod are decent QBs capable of executing the same offense. Given their similar skill set this is possible. I say this because I am not sure either can stay healthy all year and I think the QB should do a lot of rolling out/running in this offense.

Some of the list I thought was good but some didn't make sense. I don't understand critiquing a 6th or 7th round pick because they are always reaches or developmental players. For that reason I don't agree with O'Leary on the list. Darby is a risk but a calculated one and at least he has potential at an important position. The best comments were the reaches for players with behaviors problems.

I didn't think it was a bad article. There were valid points made. It is highly unlikely Tyrod is better than Cassel or Manuel. We can hope but there is no significant evidence for that hope. Where I do take issue with the article is the assumptions are based on such a small statistical sample it is pretty meaningless (his comments about accuracy issues in college hold far more weight). It's like saying a baseball player will be a bust if he hits .100 after 5 games. By the same token I think too many assumptions are made about Manuel. He just hasn't played enough games to conclude he cannot become a good QB. With Cassel we know what we have which is pretty much another average QB. So it is quite enticing to hope we hit the lottery with Tyrod or Manuel.

They better not cave. It's so obvious they are guilty of doing more than any other team and on a premeditated, consistent basis! Can they give harsher penalties during an appeal? I'd tell the cheaters they are making the league look stupid and they either accept the penalty or Brady gets 8 games! No smoking gun?! The texts are obvious and then all of a sudden Brady is talking to these guys to try and get their story straight?