BarleyNY
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Posts posted by BarleyNY
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Kevin Williams is 35, but he can still help a team and the Bills could sure use help at NT. He has $54M in career earnings and is coming off two 1 year deals worth $2M and $1.5M, respectively - the last of which was with the Saints. He would be a good fit as a rotational NT and looks like he'd sign a relatively modest contract with a team that isn't looked at as a playoff lock. I'd be happy to have him.
http://www.spotrac.com/nfl/new-orleans-saints/kevin-williams/cash-earnings/
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Louis Vasquez is interesting. Still only 29, productive in his career and not that expensive. Coming off a 3 year, $18M contract with $21M in career earnings he'd be affordable. He'd certainly fit better in Roman's power scheme than he did in Denver's ZBS. The big question is whether or not the Bills want to invest in a guard.
http://www.spotrac.com/nfl/denver-broncos/louis-vasquez/cash-earnings/
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So much depends on what the FA vets are looking for. Who's chasing a ring, who's looking for a last chunk of cash and who's looking to prove something for another contract.
WRT Freeney I think he's in the first category. $96.6M in career earnings and coming off a cheap, incentivized, one year deal with the Cards. He earned $1.2M total last season. He might come to Buffalo for something like his previous 2 year, $9.3M contract with SD, but do we want him for $4M-$5M for a season?
http://www.spotrac.com/nfl/arizona-cardinals/dwight-freeney/cash-earnings/
I'll add some similar info on other players as I find it.
Boldin is coming off a 3 year stint with SF where he was making $6M per season. He's made $62M in his career. I'm not sure if he's looking for a payday or a ring. This is probably his last contract though.
http://www.spotrac.com/nfl/san-francisco-49ers/anquan-boldin/cash-earnings/
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Lawson will be able to walk and do some things to prevent atrophy to his legs, but his injured shoulder will be immobilized for about 2 months. I had a brace, not a cast. I was not allowed to lift anything heavier than a gallon of milk with my other arm. After he is allowed to move his injured shoulder he will be in physical therapy to regain range of motion. I could not believe how difficult that was. Strength comes along slowly because of danger of reinjury. I had one anchor put into my shoulder and I'd guess he had the same, although in a different spot on the labrum. The one bit of good news is that the damaged part of his labrum seems (based on the swim move injury) to be the part that is used with a lifting motion rather than pushing out (like mine was). He is a lot more likely to require strong, violent pushing motions when engaging OLmen than lifting up so it seems that he dodged that bullet. He should be fine as long as he doesn't rush back and gets healthy and strong. He just can't rip that anchor out or tear the labrum again. It'll be a lot worse next time if he does. My doc was very clear about that.Is it possible that Lawson may have some techniques available to him that might prevent some of the atrophy? I know for lower body injuries, equipment such as gravity-neutral treadmills and pool walking/running makes a difference. But I agree that it makes most sense to prepare as if he won't play and if he does recover to the point where he's felt to be 100% go, Bonus.
At one point I had my thumb immobilized with a pin for 6 weeks and it took about a month just to retrain my muscles to get the full range of motion back and about 6 weeks to rebuild any degree of strength.
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The logo of Chief Wahoo is offensive for the Cleveland Indians . The Bill/Bills comment is just plain stupid so we'll just ignore that one.
They still use the logo, but when they built their current ballpark in 1994 they were careful to not put it on any permanent fixture anywhere in the park. Seems like they didn't think the logo and/or name were certain to outlive the park.
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Here we go. Did a moderator really start this one? Over/under on this one lasting two pages at even money.
Wow. Kinda like the firemen in Fahrenheit 451.
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Update: Ms. Vecchio has since been contacted by 2,648 of the area's other gyms which notified her that she could work out there for free if she would agree to wear the same tank top.
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I just thought that just maybe it was just about time to just bump this one ...
This should be a good time. The thing about good information that often gets overlooked is the importance of the timeliness of that information.
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(Teams can designate a player as a "Post-June 1 cut," meaning the dead money can be spread over the next two years. We've marked the cuts where it's logical for them to use this designation.)
June 1st designations are only useful to teams that need space to sign draft picks so the list could have been parsed down to those teams. It is from March 7th so some of their suggestions have already been cut.
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Every team in the league knew he had a shoulder issue. And every team knew that that health issue had to be addressed at some later point. Some teams decided to pass and not take him with a high pick, so he fell down to us. Even with the shoulder problems at Clemson he played at a high level in a top tier program. So we know his high rankings were not a fluke.
I'm not dismissing the issue that this year he will not get on the field until the second half of the season, and I am also aware that he might not even get on the field this year. But as I have repeatedly stated if you are going to take a risk on a player take it on a highly rated player who has the potential to make an impact some where down the line.
The bottom line for me is that if the 19th pick in the draft turns out to be a good player in the not too distant future then it is a good selection no matter if he is idled for a good portion of the season. The mistake that many of the harsh critics of the pick are making is that they are portraying his absence as a devastating loss that will sink an already sunk defense. The reality of the situation is that regardless who was selected at that spot (on the defensive side of the ball) the impact was not going to be as great as they are making it out to be. It's more about the unit than about the raw rookie who still needs time to develop.
Whatever developmental timeframe Lawson was going to be on, it is now pushed back. How long that'll be we don't know, but it wont be insignificant. My point was that 19 was way too early for a player of his talent level with that injury. The loss of a season (or big part of one) is huge. When I see people write that "the important thing is how he plays in the long run" I see it as diminishing the issue at hand. The reality is that every season is important. Lawson is about to lose either all of or a big part of his first. That's one less cheap rookie contract season for a talented first round pick to develop, perform and prove his worth for his next contract. This was a mistake by the front office, but I hope it works out well in the long run. Just imagine this happened to the Dolphins or Jets. What would you think about the situation then?
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Did the Bills use a first round pick on a player with a medical question mark? They certainly did. So what? The issue that plagued him was an issue that was correctable by surgery. I'm sure Whaley felt that Lawson could get through the season and then the shoulder issue could be addressed. It didn't work out that way. He had the surgery and he will miss a good portion of the season.
When you make a high draft selection, or any selection for that matter, the priority issue shouldn't be how good is he going to be in his rookie year. The more important issue is what is the player's potential and how good is he going to be for you in the long run. Most draft analysts had Lawson pegged in the top ten range. If he turns out to be a good player a little later rather than sooner then it was not only a good selection but it was also smart selection in that we selected a player ranked higher than where he was selected.
I've seen this line of thought and I've seen it lauded, but it's got a big problem. Injury and significant risk of a prospect missing time affect that prospect's value. That's the reason Jack and Smith, both more highly rated prospects than Lawson, fell to the second round. I used the words "delighted" and "ecstatic" when the Bills got Lawson at 19, but I would have wanted them to pass on him at that spot had I known about his injury. Lawson will miss all of training camp (except meetings and film), all of preseason and some of the regular season with this injury. What, exactly, should be expected of him when he gets back to practice sometime in October or November? He's going to need time to work himself into playing shape and learn. At this point I expect very little from him this season and, quite frankly, I'd be happy to see the Bills err on the side of caution and bring him along too slowly rather than too quickly.
In time he may very well be the player I expected him to be for the Bills - and I really, really hope that happens. But that doesn't mean the Bills should have used pick 19 on him. This season will not be productive for him due to this injury. One season is 25% of his relatively low wage rookie contract. For the Bills to take that risk is unacceptable. That's not on Lawson, it's on whomever made the decision to draft him at 19. And, believe it or not, I can root for Lawson to be a great player for the Bills and be happy if he becomes that, yet be critical of the team drafting an injured player 19th overall.
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#MIDOL
Thanks for keeping things classy and civil.
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I've noticed that the chasm between the extremes is growing by the day.
Maybe 5% of this board can be characterized with your above statement.
Another 5% can be characterized by saying that because they haven't made the playoffs in 16 years, everything about the team is horrible.
The other 90% think that the constant efforts by the 10% mentioned above to jab the other extremists drags the quality of the discussion on this board down.
It seems as though the week the Bills have just had, with the Shaq Lawson shoulder surgery and revelation of Watkins' foot surgery, led to a highly emotional few days. We all read what followed. Thankfully things are starting to die down.
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I've hear it reported as a slight labrum tear according to NFLN's Ian Rappaport. I tend to believe this vs. anything more serious given the sheer length of time he was able to play with it.
GO BILLS!!!
Thanks. I was wondering if it was a labrum. I tore mine almost 20 years ago (bench press), but waited about 8 years to get it fixed. I can understand why people thought he could get away with waiting for surgery. I was fine except when I made that specific motion. But that exact motion was excruciating. It felt like my shoulder was popping out of place (which, I was later told, was exactly what was happening).
The good news is that Lawson is going to get the best care. I was very lucky in that regard, too. I went to the Cleveland Clinic and got an Ortho who was known for being a go-to guy for MLB pitchers. But he is going to have a long road back. His arm will be immobilized for a couple months. The atrophy in my chest and arm was unreal after that. He's a lot younger and in better shape than I was - which is great - but he's playing in the NFL now. Lawson not only has to heal, he has to get strong enough to make sure he doesn't re-injure himself. The prudent course of action is to err on the side of caution and make sure he gets healthy and back in shape. The Bills need to prepare as if he will not play in 2016 and consider anything he gives the team this season a bonus.
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Failure porn.
Lmao. That's outstanding!
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It's not even that far of a drive from Pittsburgh to Buffalo.
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While both sides have extremes (it is the internet after all) the unbridled optimism about the team is more accepted because that's what fans do. Root for their team. Of course unbridled negativity will get railed on by other fans of the team who are hoping the team they are rooting for does well. There are also people in the middle who are just trying to make reasonable points (either way) that get caught up in it.
But anyways, that is why optimism is more widely accepted than negativity, and I wouldn't want it any other way. Other wise we might as well name ourselves Jets West where negativity about their team is a pillar of their community.
I get all that. One of my major points was that those with unbridled optimism tend to throw the reasonable people in the middle in with those who have unbridled negativity (of which there are very few in number, if not posts).
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Can you give us the Cliff Notes? I hate videos.
Nothing new going on yet, but Jest OTAs start Tuesday. He speculates that it might prompt something to get done since all parties would like him there.
If I were in Fitzy's shoes I'd want to miss the OTAs so everyone would get a good look at Geno as starter. Maybe that would be a good reminder to the FO of what that was like. Then maybe they'd loosen the ole purse strings.
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I'm talking about Mario not Hardy.
Crap. Sorry.
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It really is simple...
If you are negative and trash the team and all of its decisions one of two things happen. You are right and can proclaim how smart you are when the team does poorly or you are wrong and your team does well and you can celebrate the success. It is a win win for them.
I've seen this same kind of stupid bull**t post repeatedly. It's absolute garbage. Post something positive and it goes ignored by the Kool Aid Krew. Then post something negative and s**t like the above gets spewed by them. Every single time. It doesn't matter how positive you've been in other posts or how correct you've been in your negative ones, The Kool Aid Krew will be there to bash you. Believe it or not, there's some realists out here just trying to see things as they are. If we see something good, we say it's good. If we see something bad, we say it's bad. Then we change our views based on new information - and here's the tricky part - without contorting the facts into what we want to believe or fear. I look at it as Living In The Real World. You should try it sometime.
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I miss Schwartz.
Yeah, me too.
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Hardy would be worse for the locker room than Mario.
Yeah. Except that it's not at all a fallacy. This is how he acted toward his team after Dallas gave him a contract with a domestic violence suspension keeping him out for part of the season. You want this guy on the team?:Such a fallacy.
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There is no way I could bring myself to root for Hardy. His talent is undeniable, but I still don't think he can be counted on in any way - not to stay out of trouble, not in the locker room and not on the field.
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Then you should go back and look at the 2015 season to see for yourself. Carry on.
I saw it once. That was enough, thanks. Speaking of 2015, it's a great example of posters ripping those with a more realistic view of the team. Either you're a Pollyanna or ridiculed. Take a couple of my predictions for 2015:
- My Bills season projection was that they'd make the playoffs, but lose in the WC round. I got ripped by some for saying that they wouldn't win a playoff game and for saying that they weren't good enough to compete for a title. My projection was actually better than what they achieved, but I was considered to be negative.
- I thought the Rex hire was excellent and that he'd have the defense playing great. I expected a top defense by the end of the season, giving some early leeway for players learning a new system. I way overestimated him and his ability to tailor his defense to the talent. So now think I was wrong based on his performance and that of the defense. But I guess I'm not supposed to take what I see into consideration. If I don't see how super-awesome Rex is, I shouldn't post on here. Or I should just wait until he's on his way out and then we can all bash him together!
Sorry, rose colored glasses shouldn't be required to post here and some people should really take theirs off before ripping people who are correct a whole lot more than they are.
SI: Don Banks Says Rex & Whaley Not Sweating a Bad Week
in The Stadium Wall Archives
Posted
How can anyone say it wasn't a bad week or rip anyone who says it was? By any objective measure it was a very bad week. It wasn't catastrophic. It wasn't season ruining. It wasn't the worst possible week the Bills could have had. But, Good Lord, it was bad.