DonInBuffalo

They'll take 4 QBs to camp. Woodrum probably gets released relatively soon. The question I find interesting is whether they wind up keeping 2 or 3. Peterman would have to really, really stink to not make the final 53, so that's unlikely. But OTOH if it turns out he actually looks better than the other backups, management might decide not to waste a roster spot on a 3rd QB who doesn't really have a future with the team.

New Era C®ap House has a nice ring to it

IIRC the magic date is March 1. On that date, they have to be able to fit everybody under contract within whatever the cap figure turns out to be for the new season.

http://ftw.usatoday.com/2015/09/bill-store-selling-pumps-inflating-new-england-patriots-game-tom-brady-bill-belichick-rex-ryan-deflategate (scroll down the page to view the article instead of the annoying ad) Inflating pumps for footballs. Got to laugh at that.

Frequently some of those 6 players couldn't play or would be limited due to injuries. Limiting each team to 47 prevents one team from having an obvious advantage in those situations.

perhaps they'll start calling him Wun Hun Lo

I don't believe that's how it works most of the time. Generally speaking, when someone hires an attorney to fight traffic-related charges, they're trying to get the criminal charges reduced to violations, so there's no permanent criminal record.

His attorney apparently wasn't willing to concede a criminal record without going to court. However IMO this case will be straightforward to prove in court. They have plenty of unbiased witnesses to the event. Being convicted of a crime will almost certainly result in a suspension, which is why the attorney isn't willing to concede that. The cost to take this to trial is probably substantially less than one of Marcell's game checks.

Generally speaking, coaches don't have a problem with players publicly stating they would like the opportunity to make more plays. That's pretty much all that AW did. Virtually every 4th down decision that a coach makes - ALL the players ALWAYS want to go for it. The specific situation that JS listed is one that I have a difficult time agreeing with. It was 4th and 6 from about midfield with about 9 minutes left in the game. Especially when you factor in who plays QB and who plays on defense for the Bills, I'd punt every single time given that scenario. The "bubble" for Marrone in that scenario is probably 3-4 yards. Anything longer is too low a % to justify going for it.

General advise: Get an early start. Figure out how long it would take you to drive to the stadium if there wasn't any traffic, and leave so you would get there at 10:30. That way, you'll probably get parked around 11:00 and have plenty of time to tailgate. If you leave later, you'll spend much more time dealing with traffic, and some of the lots might be full before you even get there. If you're going to the opener, leave 30 minutes earlier. For some reason, the traffic is always worse for the opener. Keep the food/beverages simple. For example, one small cooler with some hot dogs and your beverages, and one bag with rolls/chips. You want to be able to easily carry everything with you. If you don't want to bring a grill, that shouldn't be a problem, as long as you have something to share with the people you ask for grill space.

I had a short discussion about this general issue with a friend of mine who specializes in labor law. Apparently the tactic of trying to "bully" people into accepting independent contractor status is not uncommon in the business world. He gave me several anecdotal examples; here's one: A law firm hires an attorney under the condition he sign a form stating he's working for them as an independent contractor. He works for them for a year or so at a desk in their offices, using their stationary and clerical staff. When they laid him off, he filed for unemployment and they never made any effort to dispute the claim. I don't understand the "end of cheerleaders in pro sports" angle. When you add up all the money to pay all the Jills (not just these 5) what's being demanded, it adds up to something like $15-20K a year. That's about 0.5% of the Bills profit margin.

Apparently the key legal issue here is whether the Jills are considered employees or independent contractors. Companies, in general, would prefer contractors, since under that arrangement they aren't held to all the requirements of employment law, including but not limited to things like minimum wage and overtime. But the company can't just arbitrarily make that decision; the law doesn't work that way. https://labor.ny.gov/ui/dande/ic.shtm Just skimming through those two "relationship" lists it looks like the Jills have a slam dunk case.

The people doing the mocks are probably saying that as a way of rationalizing the Bills taking an OT that high. I agree that it's complete nonsense. Even on a bad day, (which isn't very often) Glenn is a very capable LT. I'm guessing as of now the Bills go LB or WR in round 1.

Bills management probably decided to make him unavailable so he wouldn't have to answer questions about you-know-what. Whenever I've seen him on TV without his helmet on, he reminded me of someone, but I couldn't place it. Finally figured it out. He reminds me of Butthead, as in Bevis and... Anyone else notice the resemblance?

Apparently, either the Bills aren't expecting many takers for this offer, or they have a substantial number of unused club seats, or both.

If the offense substitutes personnel, by rule they must allow the defense time to substitute as many players as they like. That's counter-productive to running a fast-paced no-huddle.

During my years as a season ticket holder, I lost count of the number of times the visiting team took the 2nd half kickoff and marched down the field and scored while the stands were still half empty. (people still finishing their smoke breaks, waiting in beer lines, ...) That alone may be justifiable reason to always defer.

Hypothetically speaking:- If the Bills place Byrd on IR AND - If Byrd feels he is healthy enough to play AND - Byrd finds a doctor that agrees with him, he could file a grievance via the NFLPA. If he won, he would become an UFA. That's essentially what Steve Christie did a few years back.

I concur with those who are saying people are making much too big a deal out of this. Marrone accomplished several things, including a not-so-subtle reminder that nobody has their starting job locked in stone. It is a little concerning that the coaching staff might think that Thomas Welch could be the 5th best healthy lineman on the roster.

A TV antenna will work as long as the TV is designed to receive digital signals. Here's one: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=&sku=827571&Q=&is=REG&A=details The key piece of information there is ATSC. That means the TV can receive OTA (over the air) digital signals. I live in North Buffalo and get channels 2, 4, and 7 most of the time with a very basic antenna. Those channels have their digital transmitters somewhere near East Aurora. Fox comes in pretty much all the time for me, it's transmitter is on Grand Island. From the stadium parking lot, with a basic antenna, you should be able to easily pick up 2, 4, and 7. Fox might be more problematic.

Here's an article on the Bills cap situation: http://buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130213/SPORTS/130219671/1003 According to the article, the Bills don't save much money by cutting Fitz. They would have to get him to renegotiate his contract to do that. But since they aren't really saving space by cutting him, I don't see how they have much leverage to get him to re-do his deal. Looks like Kelsay, McGee, and possibly Brad Smith could be cap casualties once the Bills determine how much money they need/want to sign other players.

The article I read that listed the most recent hires also mentioned that Hackett was going to double as the QB coach. So they'll have someone who has never been a position coach (much less coordinator) at the NFL level handling both jobs, which presumably includes grooming the QB of the future. Sounds like a recipe for disaster to me.

I'm very skeptical about the whole concept of applying metrics to evaluate players. While that clearly has some practical application for fantasy football purposes, it just doesn't seem to fit in the real world. Arbitrary stats such as tackles or sacks tell you only a small portion of what a player actually contributes. More complex stats (for example, how well somebody sheds blockers) would involve such a large subjective component in determining their values it really doesn't seem like the metric analysis would add much if anything. Metics in baseball makes much more sense. In that sport, the actions of the individual players are much more isolated and easier to evaluate independently of the other players.

IMO this is only a step foward if you happen to be looking in a mirror. Brandon's primary role all along has been money - make the team more profitable so when Ralph dies and the team has to be sold, it's a more viable product to be sold. Giving him more power just accentuates that role. I doubt they'll have much luck getting a big name coach to come here (assuming they're even willing to spend that $$) unless there's already some sort of backroom deal in place with new ownership who will assure that big name coach of a job through the owership transistion. Nix is "keeping his chair" through the draft because presumably that's been his focus for the last few months. Probably once the NFL trade deadline passes, pretty much every NFL GM turns his focus to the draft. Personnel decisions become relatively minor at that point, because all you have to decide is things like whether or not to cut/replace people like Kirk Morrison.

http://www.celebritynetworth.com/richest-athletes/nfl/jim-kelly-net-worth/ The numbers just don't add up for me. I don't see how Kelly + Thomas have anywhere close to enough money to buy the Bills.