FLFan

Good move. I suspect the Bills were willing to give Byrd what they offered plus make this deal. If so, then they are likely at the max they can offer for Byrd so will fall out once he starts fielding offers. I suppose it is possible no one will offer Byrd what he wants, but I think it is unlikley. If it was either or (Byrd or Williams) then I am happy with this outcome for lots of reasons.

Byrd has always been of the mind to test free agency. They tried to sign him before the tag last year and probably talked with him the year before, although I do not remember the specifics. This has nothing to do with applying the tag last year.

Whaley just said on GR that they believe Lewis, with a full training camp under his belt, will be a very good backup, and that Dixon and Tuel provide some good competition, so they are very satisfied with the current QB situation. They will evaluate other options out there, including Kevin Kolb's health, but they are satisfied to stand pat. I would not count on Vick being of any interest to the Bills whatever.

Completely agree. Graham is doing what Graham does - stir up crap based on no inside knowledge, just his own uninformed opinions, because that gets him noticed. He is a clown and carries no credibility. In the meantime, the Bills have made every effort to keep Byrd, who obviously, simply does not want to be here. He is totally focussed on free agency and grabbing the maximum deal. Time to let go and move on from that jerk too.

I do not agree. Every indication is that Bills made reasonable offers to Byrd last year and this year. If his negotiating position is simply "take it to leave it", I think you have to believe that he simply wants to be a free agent before agreeing to anything. You can not negotiate with yourself, and any organization that simply pays a take it or leave it demand without negotiation would be foolish. Byrd and Parker have shown no desire to negotiate and no desire for Byrd to remain with Buffalo. It is what t is. Time to move on.

And it does. Don't kid yourself.

So, Tim Graham wants to stir up some controversy? Shocking. This guy has no credibility so I will believe this when a credible source reports it.

That statement by Florio simply proves his ignorance of the situation. The announced committee is part of the negotiated agreement on the new lease and will include representatives of the Bills. Had he bothered to do any homework, he could have easily found that out. Pretty typical for Florio.

So are the Bills. If EJ plays to expectations, the Bills are a very good team, despite all the self loathing around here. I would not trade places with Cleveland.

Exactly. I was very happy that the Bills did not recruit him last year. Adequate, not great, and to my mind underachieved in Chicago. It was time for something new here, not a middling retread.

I am surprised they did not hire Kevin Costner.

Could not agree more. The Ryan/Pettine defenses can be fun to watch and generate some big plays through pressure, but are very susceptible to braking off big runs, which we saw time and again, especially as the year wore on and teams adjusted to it. Heck, we saw the Bills do the same thing to the Jets on more than one occasion over the years. The problem was not personnel, although we could certainly use upgrades to Moats and Bradham, and certainly not Kiko, as many are suggesting. (i.e. Lets take a rookie of the year finalist at Middle Linebacker and change his position because he is not "big" enough) The proper balance is tough to maintain, but hopefully Schwartz will take advantage of some of the unique talents he has to both consistently stop the run, and generate enough pressure to enable the secondary to perform at a high level.

Nobody ran TG off this board except TG. He threw a hissy fit over some fairly innocuous criticism. He simply does not like to be disagreed with. Ample evidence of this.

Seriously. There will be plenty more classes.

They can always decline to go.

This should be an automated response every time someone mentions the 4-3 vs. 3-4 thing.

Byrd can complain all he wants. This does not change a thing. It has always been highly unlikely Byrd would be satisfied with anything short of being allowed to go to free agency. The Bills are going to have to franchise him and that has always been the case. I could not care less what Byrd thinks.

I could watch that all day.

He will follow the cash, more so than potential for winning. Thats just how he rolls. As for TG, he is a turd. Agreed. What I heard Pettine say is that envisioned a similar situation with O"Neil as he had with Ryan, with Pettine calling the plays the first year, and O"Neil then taking over. I doubt he is ready for the DC role on his own, although continuity would certainly be good.

and contracts.

You clearly do not like Marrone. That's OK but I will point out that he did not luck into Pettine - he targeted him and convinced him to come here. That's was obviously a very good hire, although Pettine was not a " well regarded, well known NFL DC". In fact, many people thought he was just an extension of sexy Rexy. For my money, well regarded and well known is much less important than philosophy, adaptability, and defensive knowledge. The Bills do not need to blow up their system for a big name. They need to build on what they have without starting over. While you, and some others, have written off Marrone and assume all his choices are failures, (unless he is lucky) I am more focused on the big picture and do not share that opinion of Marrone or his staff.

There is no such thing as a pure 3-4 or 4-3 anymore. The Bills ran a hybrid with alignment depending on situation. It was primarily a 3-4 but with many variations. Wade ran the same scheme in Houston. It is all in the details.

Pettine leaving was inevitable although I was hoping for one more year. It is discouraging, but let's see what the plan is before swallowing the cyanide.

That would be your guess. I agree with that. This job will be in demand. What is so discouraging about the situation is the high probability that any new DC will want to bring in a new system and that could seriously damper the progress that has been made.

Chandler led the team in receptions, so I would guess Hackett would use an athletic, big TE pretty well if he had one.