Ozymandius

negative rushes wreck scoring drives... that's why Barry was overrated despite being an amazing natural runner... he had a high YPC, but usually it was the result of two scoring drives where he broke off two huge runs to make up for the 8 negative rushes he had on all the other Detroit drives that stalled. So despite having a huge rushing day, he might have only helped his team on two or three drives.

He might be the backup but considering JP's inexperience, the front office's thirst for a playoff berth, and JP's reckless (to his own health) style of play... there's probably a 95% chance Holcomb will start several games for us this season.

Yes, he's a better QB than Drew... more accurate, quicker decision maker... okay, not as strong an arm... bfd... I was tired of seeing Drew as a Buffalo Bill and I'm glad he's somewhere else

in all honesty, i trust clumpy's numbers more than espn's

wow, a great signing, and a great attitude by Holcomb... he has no problem being the backup

If you haven't yet, you should check out some info posted by VaBills about our new guard in the main Gandy thread... there's pretty good reason to believe that this guy has talent and has been and will be a solid starter. Dude was drafted in the third round and is young.

Thanks, Gavin... for those of you that don't have Insider, I can duplicate that post for other free agents we sign so you won't be left out

One last thing about Gandy... from what we've read, he appears to be a very good run blocker... that means his value to us, a power running team, is greater than what it would be for, say, the Rams.

Look, I'm not going to bull sh-- and pretend I know anything about this guy... so I'm going to rely on what other people tell me. The same scouting service from where VaBills posted the analysis of Gandy also has a master list ranking all of the NFL's guards. http://insider.espn.go.com/nfl/features/scouting?position=47 Pretty sure most of you can't access this page (could be wrong)... but basically the service has Gandy ranked as the 34th best guard in the league, in other words, a solid starter. For context, ranked a few slots above Gandy at 28 is Larry Allen.... ranked a few slots below Gandy at 39 is Bennie Anderson, who is supposedly one of the top free agent guards. I bet whatever TD payed Gandy is much cheaper than whatever other guys ranked similarly is getting paid or will be getting paid.

Oh, and versatile, as others have mentioned... will be a G that has started at freaking LT

It seems to me Gandy is the favorite for the starting LG job. Tucker will compete with him there and may be the starting C if Teague bounces outside. Good pickup. Young and is talented enough to have been picked in the 3rd round of a draft.

he might not take a paycut, but players love to restructure b/c that means they get their money right away and in one huge lump sum in the form of the signing bonus

what is minnesota gaining there?

out of all the RTs available in free agency, Kareem McKenzie is the most ready to move to LT... in fact, Herm Edwards has on occasions thought about switching Fabini and McKenzie on the line.

I can believe it (not that I'm saying I think the rumor is true, but I can certainly believe it). Look, defense wins championships. We all know that because we're football fans and have seen that teams with great defenses win Super Bowls. Any time we can improve on defense, it's worth looking into... for the right price... I don't think TD is going to be ponying up $5 mil a year for Law.

If the Patriots have taught us nothing else during their reign, it's that roster depth and versatility are important. I mean, how can you lose your best corner and your best defensive lineman and still win the Super Bowl? It's because you have solid guys like Jarvis Green and Asante Samuel waiting in the wings. Now look at our Bills. We don't have a single unit on the team that could be described as having quality depth. Not a single unit on an entire football team - how unbelievable is that? QB, OL, or WR? Heck no. RB? not after Henry gets traded. DL or LB? Nope. The closest we come to having good depth is in the secondary, but we're still one good corner away from achieving that. If the Bills want to win consistently and survive injuries in a sport that continues to have bigger and faster collisions, they better build up their depth and versatility on their roster. And you don't do that by spending a bunch of money on one or two players. You do it by spending a little bit of money each on 10 players. Keep that in mind throughout the free agency period.

Just because the news sites only report activity on the major free agents doesn't mean TD hasn't had a lot of contact with a bunch of mid-level free agents by now. For all anyone knows, TD has talked to 2 dozen cheap, solid vets by now. Like a Marcus Bell from Detroit, who is a solid run-stuffing 2-gapper type that can be plugged into our DT rotation to help replace Pat. I'm not at all convinced of TD's "lack of movement" just b/c we don't hear him mentioned with the Wahles of the free agent market.

Disagree. These agents and GM's are pros who have played this game of seduction for years. It's very possible for them to hammer out a deal in a few hours. No agent or GM worth his salt was asleep at midnight.

what's amazing is these guys have a chance to get an at large bid

not to be a party pooper, but if I were to have two coaches praise JP so I could feel more confident in him, my choices would definitely NOT be the two Mikes, Martz and Sherman. In fact, they might be my two last choices because frankly, I don't respect their coaching acumen at all, and their opinions are therefore garbage to me. If, say, Belichick or Bill Walsh had praised him, or heck, even John Fox, it'd be another story.

are you morally outraged or jealous?

Simon is right that the dialogue from eps 1 and 2 were gawdawful. Another thing that sucks is Hayden Christiansen. He plays Annakin Skywalker like such a little fag that he basically ruins that character for everyone.

sigh... and Mike Williams ISN'T a downgrade at LT?

Your accusations of Donahoe don't make sense to me because there's basically no room for obfuscation of truth in this story... bottomline, did Drew disobey the coaches on the coin flip, yes or no? Did Pitt get the ball AND the wind, yes or no? Pretty cut and dry issues, don't you think? If Drew's insubordination on the coinflip were a Donahoe lie, as you suggest, it would have to be a lie that's endorsed by the coaching staff as well since they are obviously major players in the incident described. Somehow I just don't believe our entire team's management is out to slander Drew. I'm taking things at face value in this case. Drew is a cocky POS who has committed insubordination and worn out his welcome with two coaching staffs and two cities. And he's a sh------- player, to boot.

Thanks eball, very classy. Another great game and probably an "instant classic" for the rivalry. Anyone who bet the under scored big time. Most folks probably expected a high-scoring game, but there was no way Duke would've survived under that type of contest. UNC finally found out something towards the end of the game to attack Duke's D. Spread the floor and let Felton go 1 on 1 and good things happen. That's how they came back. On the last play, Felton should have done the same thing, but he instead strictly adhered to the set play that Roy called, which was to get the ball to McCants on the left wing after a downscreen by May. That's what Felton was looking for but Redick had McCants perfectly covered, and the hesitation allowed Ewing to recover after he opened up the middle by going for the steal and Felton had to pass to Noel on the right instead, who fumbled it out of bounds. Ballgame.