AKC

If I were to accept the opinion of some around here, that would already be the case ;-)

I love the Sierras near there- we've been going to a small State Park for the last 20 years called Mountain Home State Park- the campsite we like is called Hidden Falls. I've run into a lot of "Visalians" in there over the years- you ever spend time in that area between Three Rivers and Springville?

Which I'll take to mean that if Stroud somehow returns to play at the level he played at most recently in the 2004 season. If that (possible tending towards unlikely) medical miracle takes place with MStroud, the balance of the talent in our interior makes your prediction reasonable. Why are you making so much sense? Another perfectly reasonable assumption based upon the fact that there is no other place on the contemporary NFL field that has more influence on a team's W/L record than the DLine Interior. You should stop with all your far too logical conjecture- it only tends to confuse all those who believe QB is the most important position in football and that the 2008 Bill's campaign will hinge on whether our new WR corps is potent.

I missed it outside of the print media- but as a visitor to Fresno not long ago, I was stunned by how awful the downtown area was- most of California is healthy economically but Fresno looked like real bad news. I don't know how they could ever recruit a kid to play there from anywhere, even Gary Indiana, if the kid toured the campus and town. Seeing a school with those type of handicaps versus the competition win out is something very special, and something worth keeping others from overlooking. I don't know how long it's been for you- it's so run down now I can't imagine it was a lot better a decade ago.

Between high-level cheating* and the boorish and criminal actions of overprivileged professional athletes in the news these days, the Fresno State story is a welcome distraction. The campus and surrounding area in Fresno make most Hellholes seem downright homey. This story of the underdog is worth a read by every sports fan- Fresno State NCAA Champs

The choice isn't quite so stark as to either "lose with pride" or "win with shame*", but I for one am no fan of the direction we're taking. I can still remember when we had questions about whether Eric Moulds was a fit in Orchard Park because he'd ordered a pizza delivered to a college practice. Lynch's record as a scofflaw is utterly convincing, and the Hardy "experiment" might turn out to be a bigger problem than that. Granted we're not talking about PacMan Jones here, but I don't think Rae Carruth was considered PacMan-like prior to his , uh, "untoward decision". Let's hope this season goes on without any further incidents leading to any story that has Lynch or Hardy and arrest as their theme. And our 7th round draft pick had better find out RIGHT NOW what "squeaky clean" means if he has any intention of playing a down of regular season football in this league.

Great point. It's just a shame the police can't come up with any charges against her for so clearly damaging poor Marshawn's car. I think jail time might be the only way to teach someone whose compass is that far out of calibration. On top of that, her failure to come forward and apologize to Marshawn's automobile leaves the stench of her cowardice hovering over the whole thing. I think it's all tied in to abandoning the guillotine as a form of preventative punishment- or are they still using that in Canada?

Applying Newton's Second Law in this case, and where we would assume her mass to be substantially less than that of the 7,000 pound vehicle with two NFL players in it, she would have been moving at a pretty good clip to do the damage to his vehicle I saw in a photo unless he actually hit her pretty convincingly. I don't know anything about her- is she athletic and do we have a reason to believe she may have been sprinting through downtown at the time of the incident?

I see he's still throwing around his Chicken Little fabrication that the "ONLY KEY TO SUCCESS IS DRAFTING DTs"- funny thing is that the only person who's ever said that on this board is WRamius!. Now back to the real world, where the Bill's razor thin roster of DTs is the #1 reason we are on the edge of another sub .500 season- the WR addicts don't recognize that a guy like Stroud is only allowed to move by his old team because it's been 4 years since he had a great season. Add him to the unknown and undisciplined play of John McCargo, a reserve FA and the game but physically limited Kyle Williams and we will still be fielding a DT rotation that has far, far less talent than the best teams in the NFL. For the offensive obsessed around here, they simply don't get it- that to win in our division requires a big time roster of DT talent, and unfortunately we're an ankle injury from being possibly WORSE at the position than we were when we ended up 31st in Total D in 2007. I'm thoroughly convinced that those obsessed with ball handlers will never understand the game of football. They're stuck with their old fables (franchise QB yada yada yada) no matter how much evidence proves that they couldn't tell a good QB from one who simply happens to be in a great situation. They're celebrating the newest "great hope" they have in Eli Manning as some example of "franchise QBs", when the guy's actual play on the field last year suggests he's as likely to be star in the next episode of "what happened to the great Franchise QB" as he is the next Super Bowl. I wish they'd give the fans just one franchise- and let them vote on the personnel. You can bet there'd be a whole lot more offensive players than defensive players on the roster. And pity the poor guy who has to coach them- what do you do with a dozen QBs and only 2 DTs?

It's humorous to look at the original post- A few days before the draft I offer a study that clearly highlights, among other things, a cautiousness on the part of the best NFL franchises in using top pick equity for WRs versus other positions. Study of Positional Drafting Trends among Super Bowl Teams vs. the Bills at the Top of the Draft I guess it should have been no surprise that the little clutch of posters here who were screaming for us to waste the #11 pick on a WR tried to do everything to discredit the perfectly logical approach used to establish the positional drafting table- It was clear they were struggling with the quality issues of the draft board earlier- 2008 Draft Poll I figured sitting through the 1st round without a single WR being taken might complete some circuit in their brains, but it appears they just don't have the ability or desire to expand their understanding of the better teams' approach to their roster fulfillment. For God's sake, they're still in here defending their insistence on taking a WR at 11!

Yawn. So we've established you know absolutely nothing about the draft. Check. Then you attack solid methodology for the exact topic I studied. Check. Proof of the diminished mental capacity in the WRamius household And unlike the absurd lie you throw out here "a dozen guys"- the fact is the only shill you brought in with a math background looked at it said "Of course your math is good as far as what you were studying, but you could learn more by" blah blah blah. You and whatever cast of psuedo intellectuals you like to rub groins with should actually begin considering what other people are saying on this board versus the pompous d-baggery you instead insist on collectively foisting on the rest of us- I think BillsVet may have said it best in the same string- So a guy goes and studies the top 2 rounds of the last seven drafts for SB teams, declares his findings, and it's disputed? Arguing with Raimus is like yelling at what Raimus rhymes with...you'll never get anywhere. It's like trying to tell a blind man what Niagara Falls looks like.

WRamius' problem is that many of us pointed out over and over that only a bad football team would take a WR in this draft early, and as a result he came up with gems like: Apr 24th, 2008 Just because there is no clear cut #1 does NOT mean that the draft is WR weak. There are quite a handful of WRs that will go in the 1st Apr. 24, 2008 You're too hung up on the concept of "draft value." By trading down and picking up an extra 3rd, we should still be able to get the WR of choice (Sweed i hope) Apr 23 The Bills may have WRs rated higher than the "experts" do, and there might not be much to choose from when our 2nd round pick comes around. Picking someone at #11 when the dumbass "experts" say they shouldnt go until 17-18 isnt a "reach" Apr 22 Whats really amusing is how you insist that no WRs in this draft will be good. If we draft a WR at #11, we are NOT doomed to go 4-12, and it isnt the end of the world. It will be an upgrade to the offense. WRamius found it "amusing" that someone might posit that "no WRs in the draft" will be top talent, and now that every team in the NFL confirmed that, he doesn't appear quite as "amused". Instead, he's back to his regular d-baggery games. Guess some things will never change around here ;-)

You can lie and misrepresent to whatever extent your pompous douchebaggery requires, but it won't change the truth. My pre-draft posts highlighted mathematically how the best teams use high picks more often in their Defensive Interior than do the Bills. You can stay hung up on how good a manager you believe Rick Smith of Houston is and ignore what mistakes he might make in the draft, but it won't change the fact that the good teams know something you'll clearly never understand- the NFL today is won with talent inside on the Defensive Line, and we are not competitive with the best teams in that area. The evidence is laid out for the objective to consider. Stick to the d-baggery you are so enamored with, and leave the football for those of us who want to expand our understanding.

Your lack of comprehension might be admirable in the circles you run in, but it's boring in a football forum. You have somehow adopted the idiot's argument that all NFL team management is infallible. You continue whistling that out your backside, but anyone who has studied the top of the draft and wants to learn from it will recognize that the best teams put higher value on DTs and TEs than the Bills do, and the worst franchises take lots of WRs. See the part about taking lots of WRs high? You know, the way you insisted the Bills should approach the WR poor 2008 Draft- You are tenacious in your desire to learn absolutely nothing about football. And you've earned a bright shiny A for achievement in the field!

Sound more like you and OC Philly have been doing things in the woodshed that just became recognized by the state of California this week. And that activity hasn't helped either one of you understand math weighting. I've been waiting for that list of all the WRs who you insisted would be taken in the 1st round of the Draft this year- if you don't mind, go ahead and post that up here for everyone to see ;-)

Damn, I didn't think the Loyal Order of the Bonehead would have already found the time to present Lynch their Bert Lahr Award for his actions since knocking a pedestrian to the ground and fleeing the scene.

Of course you'd have to also ignore the multiple reports of his "hip flasking", plus the bars he's already reportedly been asked to leave because of his flippant attitude over the practice. This guy is sounding- and providing credible evidence of it by his actions- more like a poor gamble on the part of our management.

And until Allen Iverson has a seat on the league board, the judgment of players actions will be made by based on their rules, not yours or mine. And the kid's judgement simply allowing himself to be filmed in this situation shows he doesn't have a grasp on the type of judgement the sharp and disciplined kids entering the league exercise. BTW, I've smoked more weed than his buddies, but the fact is I work for myself. If my "boss" had rules against it, I'd have to decide whether I wanted to play by the bosses rules if I wanted to feel secure in my job. The kid is a dumbass for being in that video. A total dumbass. Doesn't make him a bad kid, doesn't necessarily exclude him from having an NFL career, but it does clearly show that he's a dimwit. In the climate of the NFL today, not being very smart can go a long way in making life miserable for you. See "Marshawn Lynch". There could be more to learn from Wonderlic results than most fans assume.

The incredibly misguided judgement to be hanging with a group of stoners WHILE A CAMERA IS ON- and even having one of the boneheads stick a bud in front of the lens- suggests that our draft pick is at the very least a COMPLETE knucklehead. Don't think this clip won't get a showing at the league offices, putting invited extra scrutiny on a guy who by virtue of his draft slot was already unlikely to go on to stick an NFL roster. Bye bye Stevie, we hardly knew ya!

If I'm a common citizen living in the Buffalo area and an automobile registered to me hits someone in the wee hours at Delaware and Chippewa before fleeing the scene, the law needs nothing else to show up at my home or place of work to conduct their investigation and seek my story. It's only at that point at which 5th amendment rights become pertinent.

His mother may have diminished influence on him these days- or maybe I got hoodwinked by her seeming genuineness. I never felt one way or another about his character, but hers seemed pretty bulletproof a year ago.

There are two different levels of judgment that Lynch should be held accountable for: A) His short term judgment- following the incident, where there seems to be no question that he is in the vehicle that leaves the scene. B) His long term judgment- in the hours after fleeing, and when there was no doubt under any excuse regarding details of the incident that the police wanted to talk with him about the situation and more importantly that someone had been hurt by his actions. While it might not be unreasonable- if you assume the occupants didn't think anyone was injured- to take the position to "let he who is without sin cast the first stone" on A), there's simply no excuse for his failure to man up in the hours following the event. If that was any one of us John Q Public types, the Buffalo PD would have been dragging us out of our home, with or without our cooperation. And short of the girl having thrown herself against his car in some poorly devised suicide attempt, Lynch's actions in these days following the incident are absolutely inexcusable. I thought I got a read on this guy from his mother's statements after he was drafted, but the guy who right now is following some seriously dishonorable advice is not the person I was pitched by his mother.

The only way to miss the fact that the play of our Defensive interior will be the single most important factor in our overall team success or failure is to ignore the fact that defensive interiors over the past decade have become the signle most important area on almost every succesful football team in the NFL, and an overlooked area on the league bottom-dwellers like the Bills. We're still razor-thin at DT and the hopes that Stroud will somehow shake off the four years it's been since he had a great year inside require an awful lot of optimism. McCargo hasn't even broken into the starting rotation as of yet, and whether it's because of his lack of discipline on the field or a rotational strategy, the book on him isn't a wise one to bet much on. He's got the wheels, but he hasn't shown yet he's got the head to play team football along the line. I like Kyle Williams in the second wave, but we still lack what the good Tampa-2 Ds have had- one interior guy who demands a double on passing downs. It'll be great if Stroud returns to his form of the 2003 season, but that's also not a very good bet. We're entering the 2008 campaign with the DT equivalent of having brought Keenan McCardell to add to our WR roster and the fan excitement about the pickup is nice, but that same excitement seems awfully misguided given the facts of age and the past years. We remain, unlike the best teams, thin at DT. What do the 2008 Bills look like if Stroud only starts 8 games? I'll guess an awful lot like that 2007 Buffalo defense that every opposing running back salivated to get to on the schedule.

The 1999 Rams were #1 against the run and the #4 overall defense in the NFL. The offensive fantasists will claim the "effect" their offensive numbers had on their defensive effectiveness, but they will never acknolwedge that the '99 Rams played very good defense. The stat that dispells the false notion that the team was a heavily offense over defense team is the fact that the Rams were the #4 least scored upon defense in the league that year, while their offense was putting up fast scores. They faced more offensive plays from their opponents than any of the three defenses in front of them.

You got that right! I'm lucky enough to live in the United States, where the health insurance I picked out and pay for myself allows me to get into an imaging center the same day any doctor prescribes a test for me. Nothing even close to that happens in any of the government Health Care systems referenced in the link you offered. Bottom line for me is that I don't want the government to run anything important- they've destroyed our public education system and I don't want the fastest and most innovative Health Care delivery system in the history to be their next victim. You might like the idea of people at the Post Office administering your health care- I have thousands of times more faith in Federal Express and UPS ;-)