TPS

I'm a long time UCLA fan and watched him often too. He seems too inconsistent to me. Biggest game of the year against Oregon and he did not play well.

I think they will let Pears, Rivers, Lawson, and Spikes walk. That frees up another $10 mil., and they are projected to have $17 m available in cap space prior to those moves. They'll need to sign Searcy, Bryant, Wynn, Easely, Hogan, and Hairston. That'll probably cost them around $4mil above their current salaries. Hughes has a $4mil hit this year, so what will it take to sign him? Another $5mil? That leaves a lot of space to sign some other FAs. I assume Iupati would cost about $7-8 mil?

Does Dareus need to be signed this year? I think they have him for one more? Regardless, I think they have the space especially if they let Pears go.

They don't need another EJ

Actually, Nix and Whaley combined made this roster better than it's been in over 10 years. Thanks to both. You can whine about a QB, but half the teams in the league have been struggling to find their own franchise guy.

It's his own fault for not getting double digit sacks letting Jimmy G escape two easy ones.

From my brief look at things, it doesn't appear to be a deep draft. It's the kind of draft to pick up some OGs.

Schwartz is a good DC to play for.

Lawson, Pears, and Rivers

I think Nix's first draft was 2010, and his first #1 was CJ. He was named GM on 12/31/09. If you give him credit for Wood et al, then he'd also get the blame for Maybin--but that wasn't him. His 2010 draft was the worst. You can say he hit 5/9 in 2011 if you count trading Sheppard for Hughes. There are 4/9 left from 2012. It's hard to judge Whaley this early, and 2013 is a mix of the two, but there are 7/8 on the team. All 7 draft picks from 2014 are on the team, and 3 are starters. Based on that alone, I'd say Whaley is the better talent evaluator. In fact, if Kuoandjio pans out, 2014 could be their best draft since Butler left town. Whaley's made some good trades, but he hasn't done well with FAs. That said, it would be foolish to let him go. If it came down to coach v GM, Whaley has the better track record imho. Yes, the D carried this team. The O and Oline stunk. A good coach would,vd had this team in the playoffs.

Too bad they didn't try to get him his 1000 yards.

here's another example of the interesting things going on in the city. We took the kids downtown to skate at canal side, but it was closed due to warm weather, so we ended up at this place. Hopefully the beer will get flowing the next time I'm there..http://buffalorising.com/2014/11/riverworks-complex-set-to-open-january-1-2015/

Yes, in the tradition of the 100 year anniversary of the German-British Christmas truce, Merry Christmas all!

http://www.buffalonews.com/city-region/crews-unearth-remnants-of-riverbends-past-at-solarcity-site-20141222

This policy brief suggests that 40% of the decline in the labor force participation rate is due to the baby boomers' impact, and their impact will continue through 2020. http://crr.bc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/IB_14-4.pdf

Compared to where it was, it's doing much better. There are more positives going on than negatives. There are actually smart people making decisions now vs the old boy network of the past 25-30 years. GBiD only posts the negative things--I suppose it makes him feel better about leaving? Re the Buffalo Billion, it is being spent over several years, and is just getting started. The impact won't be felt in any meaningful way until 2016 most likely. The state is taking some risks for sure, but their biggest expenditures support private sector development. Here's a pretty even-handed article about Buffalo and the #1 BB project from Bloomberg: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-11-19/how-elon-musk-can-make-buffalo-known-for-more-than-wings.html

Over the years I've learned to take it less seriously. See the post by Rob's House in the thread "My sad farewell as a Bills fan" over in Off The Wall, as he expresses how my sentiments have changed over the years too. I do watch them and attend games, but I've learned to chuckle when things go wrong. After the loss, I actually felt a sense of relief. In the end, it's just a game, and it is mainly about an industry that wants our money. Buffalo is luckier than most, as we have an owner that wants to use the team to make money but also help rebuild the WNY economy. So I'll continue to give them some $ because the overall game experience is still fun, especially the tailgating with friends. I went to the Browns and Packers games, and I couldn't remember the last time I saw them win before those games. They must be getting better...

They ran the ball better last year with lesser talent. There's something wrong with the scheme/coaching.

I don't think Marrone is going to have a good Christmas week...

With friends like you, who needs enemies. Buffalo is doing just fine, thank you. Enjoy Texas.

I think the trade off is signing Hughes OR Spikes. Hughes has become a more complete player and adds significantly more value to this D than Spikes. Letting Spikes go and using his $3+ mil to cover most of what Hughes will need to stay is probably the best option. Find a young non-starting run-plugger in the draft if you need one.

true. It seems as if the play calling changes as soon as the Bills get inside the opposing 50 yard line.

That's a tough poll to choose from. I think the real question you're getting at is what high-priced FAs the Bills should get? Looking at their RFAs, they have the following coming up: Hughes $4m Pears $3.45 Spikes $3.25 Searcy $1.55 Hairston $0.75m Easely $0.73m Wynn $0.64m L. Smith $0.68 Among the bottom 4, they will probably sign 6-8 with minimal raises for 6 and 7. I think Hairston will probably receive an offer more than what the Bills would like to pay him. For the top 4, Searcy will be signed with a nice little raise. The key decision will most likely be not signing Spikes, then use that money to pay Hughes. They should also let Pears go and sign a real guard for his $3+mil. That strategy gives them a lot to work with because there's no dent in the projected cap space (I think $17 mil was projected?). Ditto with the swap of Pears for a FA guard. At this point, you've got your defense essentially intact, and your starting Oline. This leaves the Bills with a lot of money to fill any other holes--like a TE, or if they want to bring another QB in? Hmmm...Freudian slip leaving out Spiller?

Hmmm...conjures up this thought. The Packers were billed as being O-fer at the Ralph coming into last week's game. The win by the Bills gave them a sweep of the NFCN. A loss to the Raiders means the Bills will be swept by the AFCW. The fickle finger of fate seems to be pointing to a loss...

I suppose since, on the other side, the republican party and their media acolytes (Fox) were totally ignoring and playing down of the Paul campaign--that bias was more explicit.