silvermike

Golly, look who's broken into the top 5: http://www.profootballfocus.com/blog/2012/02/23/ranking-the-2011-offensive-lines-part-2/

Sports radio in Buffalo has become a joke. And it's not even like it's a question of rudeness exactly: Art Wander would scream and shout with the best of them. The problem is that Schopp just comes off as an aloof douchebag on the air, a guy who barely cares about the teams and whose stuffiness becomes unbearable because of it.

I don't think the money will be a problem; the question is if Hines Ward is willing to take on a much-reduced role. He's not a replacement for Stevie by any stretch, but I think he could fit in as a 3rd/4th WR behind Stevie and Easley. Betting, of course, that Easley turns into the guy we all hope he is. He's still a guy who can run an 8 yard out on 3rd and 7, and probably do it cleaner than David Nelson. And he could be useful as a blocker in some situations.

I definitely thing Claiborne is one of the top 10 players on the Bills' board. If the other 9 are gone, we're surely taking him. The trick is who those other 9 guys are. Luck, Griffin, Blackmon, and Kalil are surely four. Five to go.

Levitre and Wood are great offensive linemen (health notwithstanding, of course). The other three are all passable, and Demetrius Bell might even be a little bit above average, but the injuries are killers. They look better because of Fitz's quick release, Freddie's instincts, and CJ Spiller's speed, but there are other QBs with lightning-quick instincts in the league, and they were sacked more often than Fitz (we were one of the best in QB sacks saved, so this shouldn't take anythign away from Fitz, either, see below). Freddie and CJ are a great pair of backs, but the Bills did better per-carry than 29 teams in this league, and the team average of 4.9 yards per carry topped MJD, Ray Rice, Michael Turner, LeSean McCoy, Arian Foster, Marshawn Lynch, Willis McGahee, Frank Gore, and Steven Jackson: the top 9 rushers in the league last year. They tied with #10 Ryan Matthews. I don't think you can rule out the line altogether here, injuries and all. And besides the league-best 23 sacks allowed, the Bills were 10th best with 69 QB hits allowed. Fitz's quick decisions can't escape post-release hits. While I'm looking at these numbers, let's use that QB hits minus sacks as a rule of thumb for "QB sacks saved". We've got 46 of them. Here's the rest: Denver: 26 San Diego: 27 New Orleans: 27 Minnesota: 27 Carolina: 30 NYJ: 30 Kansas City: 30 Tennessee: 31 Tampa Bay: 32 Green Bay: 32 Jacksonville: 32 Arizona: 32 Pittsburgh: 35 Cincinnati: 35 Houston: 35 San Francisco: 38 Chicago: 38 New England: 39 Philadelphia: 40 Oakland: 41 Detroit: 42 Dallas: 42 Cleveland: 44 NYG: 44 Miami: 44 Baltimore: 45 Indianapolis: 46 Buffalo: 46 Atlanta: 58 St. Louis: 59 Seattle: 64 Washington: 67

Merriman's 6 sacks in the next 80 team-games played really show how much he's overcome that hit.

Yeah, I think I see what you mean. Playing football hurts, and it's a hard physical game. Getting blocked hurts, getting tackled hurts, hell, delivering a block hurts. Of course the players should go at those things with gusto. But the line is drawn between making plays and playing hard, and deliberately attacking someone specifically in order to take them out of the game. Head, neck, knees: those are the injuries that can end your season. Or worse.

The bounties appear to be for "cart-offs" and "knockouts." That's not collisions so fierce your opponent feels it in his bones until training camp, that's going after season-enders.

You want to make the 3rd RB/FB the highest paid back on the team?

Four million. Yeah, he's gone. It's too bad, because he can be a solid roleplayer, but at the price, he's not going to fit in on the roster.

52 years old today. I bet he's still got a cannon.

And a Giants safety at that - a Pats safety is a loser on that bet. Very roughly speaking, let's say a team has one safety per season (1/16 safeties per game) and two TDs and two FGs per game. So 1/65 of your scores are safeties. Cut it in half because there are two teams, I get 1 in 130 odds for a bet that paid 50:1. Not a strong play.

I don't exactly understand how our cash-to-the-cap system works, but I assumed that it meant we'd cap our total cash expenditures at $120M (assuming that's the number) in 2012. By that chart, we're paying $65M in base salaries, and about $10M in bonuses due in 2012. That's $75M. The 'pro-rated bonus' part of things accounts for money paid in other years, counting to different seasons' cash-to-the-cap number. So that'd leave us with $45M to spend before any cuts, not $14.5M. I'm not sure where you got that number.

This thread is just stupid at this point. Mods, it's probably worth locking.

Those cops got a workout today.

Yeah, I'm not going to gloat over Jerry being wrong until there's absolutely any reason to think he's wrong.

How are the A's doing these days?

Wait I have a new sitcom idea.

The question is if you carry over cap room, are you still bound by a floor on the new amount?

I wish the NFL (or at least ESPN) kept an open, active list of all player salaries, cap numbers, and dead money.

Maybe they should just stick the Pro Bowl there. That way, in a game where all the best players find an excuse and the rest go at 80% can be played in beautiful London in February.

Given the extraordinary ability of teams to play off local and state governments for cash handouts, I think it's really an ideal place for federal legislation. I couldn't tell you what the shape of it should be, but it would do a lot of good and end these blackmail situations.

Look at the word before unacceptable.

El zilcho. But for what it's worth, the Pats have also not yet locked up their premier free agent, so perhaps the Bills' pace isn't unacceptable.

Nix's career in Buffalo did overlap with theirs, so we've got that anyway.