Bob in STL
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Posts posted by Bob in STL
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Welcome to TSW Bob. You bring up a lot of goint points, good to see some more St. Louis Bills fans. Your assesment of the Pickett situation is dead on. Got any interest in starting a St. Louis Bills Backers? There are a few of us on here from St. Louis (myself, T.C. in St. Louis, Jukester); it would be cool if we could get a Bills Backers club going in St. Louis, any interest?
Yes! I was part of the Bills Backers in St. Louis back in the 90's. We had almost 100 members with about 50 to 60 actively showing up. We used to watch the games at Ozzie Smith's, and then Damons set us up with a good deal. Once the Super Bowl years ended the gang stopped coming to the games. The Club President moved and just a few of us survived. I have been an army of one, watching the Bills at Hot Shots in St. Charles for the past several years.
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Apologies if already posted
Look For Levy To Put End To QB Circus
Buffalo Bills quarterback Kelly Holcomb scrambles against the Oakland Raiders, October 23, 2005. (AP Photo)
By Pat Moran
Date: Mar 15, 2006
If Levy could end up with Cutler he'd be idiotic to pass because we already have two. Cutler has a cannon arm every bit as strong as Losman. He also appears mentally sound and didn't have to endure what Losman went through last season, something I cast doubt on Losman mentally recovering from. Cutler has an attitude and swagger to him the Bills haven’t seen since the days of Kelly, and I'm not talking about Holcomb.
One thing is certain. Kelly Holcomb will not be the guy to take this team anywhere, unless six to eight wins is measured as a fine season.
Trust me, Marv Levy knows this. He’s not going to play the quarterback shuffle.
The three-ring circus ends on April 29 when either Cutler or Young become the ringmaster.
I agree with most of the article. If any of the big 3 are there I would not complain if we took them.
We will not win 6-8 games with any QB this year, including Tom Brady. There are just two many holes on this team to fill in one off-season. Drafting a QB at #1 robs us of an opportunity to fill a hole somewhere else.
So we play the season with a rookie and win maybe 4-6 games. This will not be good for Jauron but I think he will handle it better than Mularkey did. The QB circus has to end if we are going to ever be a contender.
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Losing out on Pickett is a tough blow, he would have stepped in and started and given us more options on draft day. However, from living here in Rams country I can tell you that Pickett has been inconsistent. Last year he finally made strides toward being a dominant player. Make no mistake, I wanted him to be a Bill ... but not at any cost. It would not surprise me to see him get content with his big contract. I am not against signing a stop-gap guy like Grady rather than more "2nd tier" people. Grady is proven and could be effective in a DT rotation.
I really would like to see some action on the OL. I am not a fan of bringing in aged veterans like Fabini or Runyon because I want to start developing a cohesive unit that will not change for several years. I wonder why the Bills are not interested in guys like tackle Tom Ashworth and guard Stephen Neal. Both are young and just starting to enter prime. They have plenty of starts under their belt on a championship team. Everything I have read and heard about these guys has been positive. On top of that they know something about all those NE stunts.
Any thoughts on affordable, realistic help for the OL?
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Check back with me at week 12. I am a Big Ted fan but he is 39 and hasn't done much in years. I'm skeptical.
Shaffer could be an average tackle.
Jurevicious is feared by no one. Not an impact player.
Bently is a stud ... and how many impact centers have lead their team to the super bowl?
The Browns are unfortunate to be way under the cap and I think they are overpaying for every one of these guys. Wait two years when Ted and Willie go belly up and the Brownies start purging to deal with the dead cap money.
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The problem is, if you want studs on the O-Line, you have to pay them. Everyone keeps thinking we are going to rebuild the fuggin line without paying anyone. Take the money given to Royal and Davis, and pony up and get a Shaffer, Shelton, or even overwhelm Bentley to the point where his decision would have been tough.
There WERE some out there at the beginning. They were gone right away. My question is............why didn't we have them targeted? But hey, we wrapped up guys that, by all accounts, could have been had later in free agency.
And yes, it isn't hard to see what the front office is doing. They are making the same mistakes that we've been making for the last 10 years. They are also going after restricted guys in a time period where almost EVERY team has cap room. So, any offer we make most likely will easily be matched, unless we blow a guy away with large sums of money. And if that becomes the case, I would have much rather overpaid early a little bit for a PROVEN young player.
It's downright moronic so far.
LV-Bills, I will agree that Shaffer would have been an upgrade and he fit the profile that the front office appears to be following. I don't know why they didn't go after him. None of us know, maybe McNally said that Gandy is better? Bentley was way to pricey. Signing him takes dollars away from 2 or 3 other needs, and we have many needs. Shelton is talented and lazy and unreliable ... we had that, it was called Mike Williams. I'll pass on him, just like Dennis Green and Crennel did.
Your right, Royal and Davis are not impact players but they could and should improve the team in their roles. We need a TE that is a proven blocker, we don't have one and our short yardage offense sucks because of it. That missing role cost us games last year. We need depth at WR. Josh Reed is gone and Parrish showed very little. Davis has more upside than either of them.
Triplett is a good signing. Add Pickett and we are better at DT than last season.
I do not want to pay big dollars for old offensive lineman like Fabini and Runyon. There is little in the tank here but maybe we sign one of them if the price is right? I understand that signing Wells is unlikely, but that doesn't make the interview a bad idea. He is another player with upsied, that has starting experience ... he is worth 6th rounder with ease.
The front office is NOT making the same mistakes as 10 years ago. They are not making the same mistakes as 5 years ago. The approach is dfferent. The Donahoe "big show" is gone. Levy will be methodical, deliberate, and will work to a plan. The Bills will probably not improve enough to make the playoffs, it will take two years to turn this roster into a playoff contender.
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The paper in St Louis implies that Pickett is still in Buffalo, but that may be incorrect. They also say that the Rams have a 5 year, $16M offer on the table. The Rams are running out of cap room and they still have more needs to fill. There is an opportunity for the Bills to beat his offer, the question is will they.
If the Bills sign Picket then they open up their draft board to more possibilities, including trading down for more picks.
Trading our 8 for Denvers 21 and 29 is possible, but then you have to pay salaries for 2 first rounders so you better not miss on either of them Players in this range, especially lineman, typically are not reliable starters as rookies. A trade for Minnesota's first and second picks could be possible if they covet a QB.
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I agree totally. Why do we want to sign players to long term contracts just because they're available and others are signing them. Let's get value. And maybe splurge if Marv & company see someone special - maybe the Seattle tackle, I don't know. But Pickett is considered mediocre by his own team and a semi-bust for a 1st round pick. Why is it assumed he will be a star now?
By the way, in the NFL can you trade some one (like Moulds) and kick in some money to defray his salary? If you could you might make him a valuable commodity for a trade since he wouldn't break the other team's bank. We are going to take a hit with him anyway.
I live in St. Louis. The Rams have a new offer on the table which coulsd explain his hurry to get back. He developed slow and didn't do much for a few years, which happens to a lot of linemen. He salvaged himself last season. There were plenty of times last year when he showed he could be a dominant player. I don't see the Bills coughing up the dough for him.
If the Bills trade Moulds the new team gets his salary but we get a big cap hit from his deferred bonus (dead money). Other on the board know this stuff better than I do.
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I have been reading this forum for years and I always get a kick out of it. I am a newbie and I don't know how to use most of the fancy features here. I just want to make a few points, many of you will not like it, but here goes.
1. Marv will mostly likely rebuild this team the old fashioned way (meaning slow and steady by adding talented character palyers). Let's face it, we have a weak team (especially the OL and DL) and some of the best players are either aging or getting expensive cap-wise. I expect that Marv will sign as many FA's as he can to fill the many holes, but no blockbuster signings on the order of Bledsoe, Spikes, or Milloy. He is going for younger, serviceable players. Remember what NE did when they built their team? They signed lots of FA character players that were considered mid-grade or bargain bin, and they drafted smarter than most teams.
2. Why does everybody think that Royal was a bad signing? I don't know if he will be productive or not but I do know we were very weak in short yardage situations and lousy in the Red Zone. Better perfromance in just these aspects of the game could have meant 2 or 3 wins last year. He could help immensely in those roles.
3. Just because we signed Royal does not mean we will pass on Davis. If he is the impact player that many think he is then why not take him? Who really knows about ANY of these rookies?
4. Marv does not like to count on rookies in their first year, no matter what he says about todays game. That is why he is looking at a guy like Reggie Wells. If he can play and he is an upgrade over Bennie Anderson (our current starter) then why not sign him and give up a 6th rounder? The people that are complaining about Wells are the same ones that want Bennie cut anyway!
5. What will Marv do with the 8th pick overall? A lot will depend on what other FAs he can sign. With NO and Miami signing QBs the mock drafts will be changing fast. It will be interesting to see. Trading down and stockpiling picks is usually a good technique for helping weak teams to rebuild.
6. I also think that Jauron may be a diamond in the rough. He is very respected around the league. I think we should give him a few years rather than call him a loser and bash him before he has a chance. It is absurd to consider him a failure after one tenure. There is this coach in New England that comes to mind ...
Take care.
Offensive Line
in The Stadium Wall Archives
Posted
Fabini has been starting at LT for what, 9 years? He started as a rookie under Parcells and ever since then the only way they could sit him down was due to two serious injuries last year. I can't beleive that people are saying he sucks! Lets be reasonable ... he does not suck.
Yesterday half of the board was screaming to get veterans like Fabini and Runyon in town! Today half the board considers him "someone elses garbage" and doesn't want him.
The way I see it is if we are going to build a strong line, one that will peak in the next few years, then we need 3 starters on this years line to be quality players that are going to be here for 4-5 years. That means replace Bennie, find a center, and try to replace either Gandy or Villarial. Gandy may be decent at LG, or he may be our only alternative at LT this year? I expect Peters to return and get better. One of our draft picks needs to be plugged in as a starter. Our current depth is crap, but maybe Preston is ready to start? So it would sure help if we can find a quality starter from free agency.
I am not in favor of Fabini or Runyon because we are not close enough talent wise to bother with recycling old vets to fill a hole. We need to develop people with some upside, not 2 year stop gaps. I just wonder why we are not talking to Ashworth, Neal, or some of the younger lineman?