AKC

Defensive linemen don't concede or abandon gaps or run stunts in the interior of goal line formations, under any circumstances, in any defense, in any era. I recognize that's way over your head to grasp, so instead of waiting for your Gump-like response, I'll save you the trouble- "Yeah, but where did you buy your Bill's playbook?!" I swear the collective level of intelligence on this board has fallen more in the past year than during the balance of the period since TSW was initially published.

Actually, if you get a chance to go back and watch it you'lll see he abandonded his gap and just happened to be lucky enough to make the play. It was virtually a total lack of discipline- it's difficult to give him high marks for breaking the defense. More often than not, the result of losing your discipline like that ends up in 6 points. I am hoping that he lives up to his draft position this year, but at this point in time his inability to break into the starting rotation at DT hardly supports any great confidence in that happening. There is the counter argument that we want a strong A and B interior rotation, but if you have a game-changer, you want him to be on the A team. So far there is no indication that our staff sees JM being a game-changer this season.

Maybe in that vacuum you call your mind, but in the real world there are many bar owners who promote their bartenders liberal use of comps for customers deemed beneficial to their business.

We wouldn't feel the same way about these guys if they'd left the scene of an accident where they hit a pedestrian- regardless of any flimsy excuses anyone might make for that specific action- and then in an act of total cowardice they didn't come out the next day and apologize to the victim. An argument may be made for the error in judgement of leaving the scene, or if you prefer the "didn't realize he had hit her" wink-wink- but in either circumstance it was a coward's move to not say anything the next day, regardless of any excuses or scenarios. I'd bet you'd have demanded that your son call and apologize right away if he were in similar circumstances, no matter whether the family lawyer told him to hide or not. I hope you never face anything remotely like that as a father, but I have no doubt you'd demand more of your family. Not being just as tough on a 23 year old multi-millionaire doesn't make sense to me. The players you mentioned before as well as I recall never showed cowardice in the face of adversity- but Lynch did exactly that. And the other information that has since been revealed paints a picture of a scofflaw with little respect for the same rules you and I not only follow every day, but in many cases embrace.

I agree. And I also don't think they should be cut any slack due to their celebrity, as Lynch is by way too many Bill's fans IMO. I use the same measure- since I've become an adult, I've judged every adult who I was aware was bringing their own alcohol into a bar against the rules of the bar (or like in Lynch's case, in violation of the law), as nothing more than scumbags. I can't imagine why I would establish a different measure for Lynch than those who did the same before him, some of whom I know could have made some (specious) argument about finances that Lynch can't possibly make. Bottom line- if for any reason you don't intend to be a customer of a bar, then you have no business being in it. It's not a library or public park, it's a business. Someone has gone to the trouble to obtain the license and establish and ambience they thyink will be attractive to convince people to come into their business and help pay the bills and salaries associated with it by purchasing the products they offer, and anyone cheating that business owner is a scumbag, not to mention a cheat and a thief. But that's just my opinion.

Interesting how you've just judged the hundreds of thousands of bartenders in this country as cheats and thieves. Apparently hypocrisy is best served from a flask. Drink up.

You're drifting far, far away from stealing directly out of the bar owners cash register. I'd say the one thing we've firmly established is that if you were a bartender, there's not a chance you would report all your tips. Don't mistake your own choices for those made by other people. And all your excuses for Lynch's embarrasing disregard of honorable and decent lifestyle decisions doesn't change that he's half the human being of anyone I consider a good friend. And that's too bad, because I'll bet that the vast majority of the players on our roster are good guys.

I agree with you that 12 year olds sneaking a bottle of Cutty Sark into the movies is hardly the same as an adult going into a place of business and cheating that business, not to mention cheating every other paying customer. When that adult happens to be a hi-profile multi-millionaire who has ALREADY been exposed for the same crime, it's almost incomprehensible that an average citizen would defend them. Pop culture surely has a dark side. But when VOR opens his bar, we'll all make sure to stop by and grab a coke or two.

I'm hoping we've learned our lesson and we stop using that top draft equity at a position like RB that may be addressed a different way. The shift towards defensive talent at the top among the best teams is convincing enough that we should be looking for FA or talent down the board at RB while creating the type of defense the best teams put on the field on Sundays. We've seen below average offenses win recent Lombardis playing opposite top tier defenses, but the opposite has not happened. The wildly incorrect assumption that the Rams won with a bad defense holds no weight- they were a very, very good defensive football team. Even an underperforming Indy D came alive in the playoffs the year they won. Contrary to the false hype, the *s won because of the league's most reliable D. Tampa, Baltimore- I think the record is way too clear. We're at least a draft and FA period away from being competitive on defense. That means we have absolutely no chance this coming season of being an overall competitive team against the top tier of the league. Playing a Schedule Lite might give us some fun days during the season, but we're really playing this year for 2009. If we draft a RB with our top pick in 2009, we'll then move that marker to playing for 2010. On the other hand, if we are able to build the type of defense for 2009 that pressures opposing offenses in the middle (a-la the NY Giants) while not conceding the run, our offense will all of a sudden become a fan darling. And like always the offense will get an inordinate amount of the press and fan attention. But the big games- and any Buffalo Bill's turn-around, will be won on the other side of the ball.

Turns out it's just a pledge requirement for Gamma Theta Wilfork*.

You and I both strongly support the good guys who wear our uniform, and we will always have that in common. Lynch's problems with the local Police Department establish a pretty clear picture of the disdain he and his family have for "rules". I know one thing I hate about going back home is that ticky tack enforcement of the vehicle code when compared to California, but nonetheless those are the rules and if you're located there you damn sure had better find a way to live with them. Multiple local bars have asked him to leave because he's making drinks from his flask. Some of my best friends have been/are bartenders. I like bars and spend lots of time in them. Over the years I've been given a head's up by different bartenders about people they knew who bought sodas and were known to carry flasks and make their own drinks. I know what I thought of every one of them- I thought they were scumbags. I treated every one of them from the point I learned about their bad judgement accordingly. Now just because a guy is a decent football player for my favorite sports team, do I throw away the position I've always taken with people who cheat that way? It doesn't make any sense. I can't see why I would hold the rest of the world to one standard and then allow Lynch to get away with a smarmy Oakland attitude and somehow try to justify it. I despise that as a team we've taken to bringing in people with attitudes like Lynch's, and I think it might very well be why we're seeing this one contract and fleeing going on. There are good guys who play the position. The last three we've drafted are not "good guys". I will guess that this incident, brought on fully and solely by Lynch himself, will be used by Lynch and his agent to "explain" why they are looking outside of Buffalo once he's a FA. And that will be an ironic event from my seat- he made his bed and will soon be asking how anyone could possibly want to sleep in it. On the other hand, if he's got some desire and any brains at all, he'll recognize that he needs to put up some big numbers to make his departure from Buffalo more lucrative. So we'll both hope that adds up to some good seasons out of him before he gives us the finger officially.

I must say it has been quite a burden- the miracles, and then the beatification- but then again, in the instance in my life when I hit a pedestrian with my car I did stop to assist. Make no mistake- I have close lawyer friends who would have advised me to run off like a coward and there would be those in our culture who would find that quite fine "within the confines of our legal system", but do forgive me for reaching an alternative conclusion. Now say three Hail Marys and two Our Fathers before cleansing yourself by consuming a fistfull of the natural product that exits your rectum. A sprig of parsley as a chaser will be acceptable.

I feel that way about the talent we've seen move on at the Cornerback position. I feel a lot less that way about watching the low-character or narcisist dregs we've drafted at RB go on. The garbage that's come to light about Lynch's very public low-life activities makes me believe our biggest problem at retaining RBs may simply be the things we're ignoring on draft day. There're enough Terrell Davis types to not start thinking about using our high picks for good guys at other positions while finding a RB who is considered a good citizen by the people he's spent the past 22 years around. Maybe the trick is simply verifying that those people he's been around for those 22 years are also considered good citizens ;-)

The trend favors the "believers"- there just are no longer the "career" running backs you see opening and closing 11 or 12 year careers with the same team. It may have been common for the first 70 years of the league, but even before Emmit Smith pulled on an Arizona Cardinals helmet the team back was almost extinct. Too much advantage methinks to the young bodies in this league that has become more punishing over time, and moreso on Running Backs than on any other position. Feature running backs, once the provenance of the top of the draft board in round one, now seem just as likely to be there at the end of the 2nd round or later.

I'm onboard for the history lesson- And if I've paid enough attention in class, Lynch will be a one contract Bill who will have a not so favorable exit and ultimately be derided by a huge majority of our fan base for his lack of gratitude. I guess one might be considered "ahead of the curve" if they saw Lynch as a punk-a$$ scofflaw right now---

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!