BillnutinHouston

Wouldn't have said it quite that way myself, but........... YEA!

OK, you lost me there.

An interesting attempt, but I have a BIG problem with awarding points for a starter. This methodology fails as a fair relative measure among all teams. To put my objection as clearly as possible: if the Packers draft a player that becomes a starter on their team, do they deserve (only) the same amount of points as the Bills, if the Bills draft a starter? Weaker teams with weaker pre-draft rosters have an easier time earning those points, while teams with strong rosters have an inherently harder time earning those same points. Example - the Bills could draft Colin Kaepernick and he could plausibly start right away for the Bills, but there's no chance he starts over Aaron Rodgers on the Packers roster. Thus, two teams could select the EXACT SAME PLAYER but the stronger team earns no points while the weaker team earns 3 points. I've always hated the "but, he's a starter so he must have been a good draft pick" analysis. At the end of the day, all that a player's starting status measures is the quality of the roster the guy landed on.

Awesome. I could hear the classic trumpet music playing in my head when I looked at these.

Are you sure that's not Moe Howard?

For every one of us, laying out that kind of money is a personal decision and it is true that the financial equation is different for everyone. But that being said, I will say that a) 2011 will be my second year in a row with seasons after a long absence (after I moved south), and b) with all due respect brother, man up and support the team! You'll have a ball. Remember, "fan" is short for "fanatic". "Fanatics" don't sit on the sidelines waiting for their team to be good before they support them (or so I tell my wife). Nor do fanatics let a few miles get in between them and their favorite team.

Was browsing Youtube last night to see if I could find video that everyone's raving about (Joe D'Alessandris coaching up the OLs pretty hard). I located a few videos of NFL Network footage, but Mayock seemed to be talking all over it. If anyone knows where to find better video, let me know. I'd love to see it.

To me, another piece of BIG news from the article is that Ralph definitively, and for the first time I'm aware of, removed the cloak of secrecy around who makes the final call - at least for the 2011 draft. Ralph was quoted as saying, "I feel good about the fact that Buddy Nix is making the final call." We know from this that Buddy's officially and unequivocally been put out on the limb. This franchise is on Buddy's back right now.

If it's not too much trouble, can I get sources and/or links to substantiate the following statements in bold? I may be wrong but I'm not aware of the Bills (or any team for that matter) releasing information of this sort to the public.

Awesome - Pro Bowl of Twitter! That's the only Pro Bowl squad Donte will make. All kidding aside - anyone else view the way Donte's acquitted himself as revealing a lack of mental toughness? This is exactly how I see it.

^^ THIS! ^^ Signed, Aaron Maybin's agent

Man, it's clear that following this Bills team has flat-out mentally whipped some of you guys. The Bills FO just landed a big fish (pardon the pun) - a well-established, playoff proven, SB-winning defensive mind, and ya'll go on obsessing (with no inside info, mind you) over how George Edwards is going to remain the boss of the defense. Can we not just take a breath and be happy that we landed an established coach to shore up the defense?

All speculation, but you sure sound pretty confident - I'll give you that much.

I could SWEAR I remember a cover from the 1990s teams that featured Conlan and others tackling someone, with the phrase "These Bills Stack Up" underneath. But I was unable to find it on the SI site. Anyone else remember this?

Outstanding move and a sign that the Bills are putting in place a solid foundation to build on. Another rung climbed in the battle to attract defensive free agents. We can all speculate about DW's role, but the bottom line is we have a solid guy who knows defenses and was thought of highly enough to be handed the reigns of 2 NFL teams and a major college program. Let's not lose sight of the fact that there'd be almost NO chance of landing DW without Chan. And there'd be no Chan without Buddy. Maybe we're actually building something here...

I like that Chan agreed to sit down for this discussion with Don Banks. It reinforces the image that he's very confident about his ability to analyze QB play. This can only help a franchise struggling to demonstrate its competence to the league generally, and to free agents specifically.

Some of this bothers me as well, but obviously before Chan or Buddy picked up the phone to call Wannstedt (and before Russ got on the plane to meet with Shanahan and Cowher), they must have, at a minimum, received some sort of OK from Ralph. In other words, before you initiate these high-dollar personnel actions, you have to have some indication that the big boss will sign the big check you intend to offer. And for those of you who think these fishing expeditions are just window dressing to placate the fan base, explain to me again how failed fishing expeditions sell tickets? I suspect that in a lot of these cases, the prospective coach is offered a nice salary, but the target remains unconvinced that a similar commitment exists to aggressively improve the roster within the term of their contract. After all, for a franchise, the pricetag for the roster is much larger than the pricetag for the coaching. Bottom line, I'm not sure that the Bills are able to convincingly sell a prospective coach on the idea that signing with the Bills will allow him to walk away with a bigger name and better reputation than he came in with.

Um, it's apparent that Jets fans NEED every bit of those spelling lessons.

Your point is valid, but I haven't seen any evidence yet that this regime (especially Nix) acts out of concern for what people around the league think. If I'm Gailey, I see in Wannstedt a guy I know and believe in, who's available and willing to consider Buffalo, and my one best chance to attract a "big fish" to make the team demonstrably better before my tenure as a HC in the NFL comes to an end. I do what I have to do, jettison who I have to jettison, to get this guy. Assistants get sold out all the time, every season, all over the league. Gailey has said that everyone, including coaches, is evaluated constantly. If he moves on Wannstedt, he's simply acting consistent with his words.

I'd like to agree with your assessment of what his coming to Buffalo first means, but alas I do not. In my view, coming to Buffalo first drives up Wanny's price tag for San Diego. I do agree with many that if he stays in Buffalo, it will be as AHC.

^^ Correct ^^

Always enjoy The Onion. My favorite was "K.C. probably won't lose more than one game this postseason".

I'm too lazy to check stats on this one but if there's a corner in the league who had more penalties this year than Florence, I'd be surprised.

^^ CORRECT ANSWER ^^ Unless you manage Ralph's finances for a living, why do you care what he pays for player X or Y? All we as fans need to care about is the quality of the roster. Get over the salary envy thing. To those of you who complain about Kelsay's contract - would you really be satisfied if Kelsay's roster spot was taken up by a cheaper, vet minimum street free agent?

As I recall, several weeks ago it was our owner, not Modrak, who pronounced that we were taking a QB. In how many franchises (besides the Bills) does this phenomenon take place? Ralph treats this team as his own personal toy, which it is. The rest of us are just bystanders. Who really thinks Modrak or even Nix has full decisionmaking power over personnel decisions?