Ray

What if Clements decided to hold out the whole year last year if the Bills said they would not promise to tag him again for this year? Would that have been a mistake or good negotiating? You can't have it both ways! Remember Nate was coming off of a very average year and I don't recall ANYONE saying to sign him to C Bailey money! It was a good move at the time to get him in to camp, playing with his teammates and learning the new coaches' system. If you want to say it was a bad move you should have said it at the time, not a year later. Give me a year and I'll make you a millionaire by telling you what stocks you should have bought last year at this time---sorry, but life does not work that way. And as far as Willis goes, see ya' later! An average back--that's it. Probably around number 16-20 in the league and a dumb player as well.

Willis didn't know the playbook? Gee, by watching him play this year you would never have guessed?

If Marv can convince the Giants to give up a 1st round pick for Willis then he is the best GM in the league, hands down! A fourth round pick is more likely what they'd be offering. I'd take a 3rd round pick for him quite honestly. You can get the same production from a 3-4th round guy that you got this year. If Willis does stay I bet he does have a better year b/c it is a contract year for him.

he wanted to bring in his own guy--which he did. And that guy is gone now--or at least was demoted! Good move removing a guy who is great at his job for over a decade and bringing a powerlifter.

Yet another reason meathead was so awful. Fred Smerlas was talking about that on WEEI right after meathead and Donahoe did that! Maybe Marv actually does recognize good people! Polian, Butler, Smith, Wade, Cottrell, etc..... He tends to identify and surround himself with good people which is the MAJOR reason he was beought in----but back to the topic, good for R Jones. A guy who was here for a very long time and did great work for the organization.

Obie is right and it is smart. Remember the Bills will have to pay JP and Evans big money next year as well--I think if they both cont to improve then those are two types of players you love and have to pay big money for! The major point is that you pay big money to a handful of great players and obviously QB is the big one. See what a QB can do to make a difference on a team just look at New Orleans this year. Then you need a host of good players that have reasonable cap numbers and then guys on their first contracts you hope make a difference. And you don't pay big for older guys---yes, sign them if you can get them for a good cap figure but don't pay a L Fletcher (as good of a guy and teammate he has been) a 10M bonus and an additional 3-4 M/year. The Pats, Colts and Steelers are hardly big spenders and are not doling out huge sums of cash to free agents. They allocate it to a handful of players they see fit and there is enough money around to pay the rest. The Redskins can pay huge money to every "top" free agent out there but it has not worked so far now has it---they can also pay top dollar for G Williams and his lousy defense that blitzes 90 of every 100 plays!

Just who do people think we should spend millions on now? Yeah, you have the cap room but you just don't spend it on people you don't think are worth it! Remember you have a QB and a WR next year you are going to have to spend a lot of cash on (30M upfront combined) to keep. So do you want to lay out huge money for average players or players who are about equivalent to your roster? I do agree that this makes the Bills look very bad if they at least don't make a big offer to Nate. If they offer a SB over 15M and he gets an offer from the skins for like 20M--you cannot say the Bills didn't try. The Redskins are closer to the cap so will have to pay a lot of guaranteed money over a lot of yrs to lower the figure.

No he doesn't---Ralph is moving the team and does not care anymore. Don't you listen to the radio?

You mean you liked something a Bills' official had to say? In Buffalo the sky is falling, the Bills and Ralph have already decided to leave town--at least theat is what Schopp and B'dog are insinuating---all from a 5-10 minute Q/A session from Marv. He also referred to the Bills as "they" a couple of times..ooooohhhhhh. That definitely is code for Ralph is selling the team and doesn't care. The sports radio around here is sooooooo pathetic. But more to your point Bill---you are right. Marv is talking about the OL and that is great. I think a splash with FA and a high round pick and fill in the other two spots helps a lot. Peters-Steinbach-Fowler-Preston-Draft/Pennington..... Hey a line like that is not bad at all. I love Peters as the LT--he's athletic, strong and from all accounts very willing to learn and work hard.

Don't worry about the marketing department--I sent in my check today. They are essentially all sold out of the luxury seats--again. The marketing needs to be done to get people to buy average seats.

Pipe-- I got very much the same impressions! Spikes could be out. Crowell maybe to MLB with a free agent aquistion at OLB. Clements sounds like he will get a very good offer but it likely won't be good enough. And very importantly---the OL will be targeted for improvement and Steinbach will get an offer from the Bills. Contrary to the WGR nuts on the radio---there was a lot to be taken from that conference. They are just too dense to see anything but the superficial. Oh Marv doesn't know the cap or he doesn't know what Willis said. Also from the press conference---Willis look out for your competition!

They are thinking of it in terms of real dollars--do they want to dole out almost 30M in cash this year? That probably puts them financially in the red. However, as long as the money is guaranteed do the players really care? If you guarantee Clements 18M as opposed to an 18M signing bonus it is essentially the same thing. They could pay it out over 3 yrs (in addition to his usual salary) so he gets 6M extra each yr in bonus money--as long as it is guaranteed cash they probably don't care. That way if he is injured or cut he still gets a big pile of cash. Fletcher is good and I don't think you pay a 32 yo MLB huge money--just not a lot of value in that. Maybe for 3-4M a yr but not with a 10M SB.

Wow--Marv spoke in generalities! Can you believe it! He has established a good philosophy for the team and a good coaching staff and good team chemistry around OBD. The players like the coaches, atmosphere, and all say what a better place it is than when he came in from the Donahoe/Mularkey/Williams fiasco. Marv was boring---so what? Bill Belichick is extremely boring. Donahoe knew a lot about the cap, business side of the NFL and the team but got 5 years and did nothing with it. Not one playoff birth! Williams gave a pumped up press conference predicted SB and everything else. Just give it time and watch what happens on the field. As long as these guys meet regularly, talk and discuss all aspects of a deal that is fine with me. Do you want only one guy making all decisions about free agents etc.... Marv was brought in to bring stability. NOT to negotiate contracts, NOT to master the cap, and NOT to tip his hand to the press. What did everyone expect from a press conference 2 weeks after the Super Bowl?

And then they'll lose 500-1000 seats to the area where there is already luxury seating. The Choice One club area may be the new press box. So it's a wash.

Just adds more to the idea this place is a dying area--nobody supports the Bills, we are all poor etc..... There are actually many things going on here--there is great proximity to Southern Ont (a huge market really untapped). It does make us just look pathetic always asking for handouts and crying to the league. How about this---lose 5k seats, increase the cost of the remainder to make up those seats (which are the cheapest anyways), market the team heavily in Southern Ont (have players go up there do promotional work NF, Hamilton, Toronto etc...) and get a buzz in the wealthiest place in all of Canada. Add that to Buffalo and Rochester and the Southern Tier and the place will be filled every week........ that is if the Bills don't go 4-12.

I bet Snyder does it also just to p--- off Ralph. Then he gets to hear Ralph say again how unfair it is for the small market teams. Ralph is great, but he and all of this whining makes the team and area look bad. It is bad for the area and morale of team/city/fans to keep saying that the team just can't make it anymore. I know there is very little pricing power here but they do have a HUGE advantage--they don't pay for a stadium, the county does and they have NO debt service on the team at all. Granted, with that they likely pull in a profit of maybe $10M, but they are not as poor as he constantly makes it seem. The Redskins can pay 70M for Clements and we'll see how he does as an average CB once he gets paid big bucks. Not as much incentive after a big pay day--especially with a 20M signing bonus.

I love his dig at the former staff-- they brought people in who thought they invented football. Remember how arrogant they were when they came in. Man am I glad that chapter is over. TD proved wrong again. PW and RB still had a lot of football left and it wasn't going to break the bank to sign them.

Classy, classy press conference. Was gracious and flattering towards the Bills' fans, the city. He has always been a big booster of Buffalo--I'm sure that stems from the fact he comes back to visit his wife's family and all. But it is nice to see such a high profile athlete talk well of Buffalo and the Bills. It gives a sense of pride. Wow, how lucky we were to have him for so many years. Once he and Kelly were gone it makes you realize how lucky this city was to have them. No RB has even come close to sniffing how good he was.

it is probably natural variation and a little man made as well. What was the excuse when all the glaciers melted? The cave men were burning too many fires---sorry Geico man.

"Feels like an Arby's night!"

This is SB week afer all and there is very little football talk. Some people say they do, but I may turn it on at 4-5 different times a day and all they talk about is hockey. So I change it. Talk about it in March/April/May when nothing else is going on around here sports wise. But this is what SB week--is it or isn't it? You would not know around Buffalo. WBEN 930 has more football/Bills talk.

Hockey will never be more than a regional sport. People are just not interested in it---if Buffalo wins the Cup nobody outside the area will #1 know and #2 nobody would care even if they did know. It is a sport beaten out by both bowling and poker for ratings. When your all star game gets about 400k viewers total in the country, you know nobody cares.

God forbid the Bills and the county do anything to update the stadium. $5M updrade a yr is a lot less costly than building a 750M stadium. How much is the state putting into the $1B, yes 1 Billion dollar stadium in NYC? WGR has gotten terrible in the afternoon. I never thought I'd say this, but bring back Chuck Dickerson. I listen to Sirius radio and tune into WEEI in Boston for sports radio over the internet rather than listen to WGR. I can listen to hockey talk for about 1 minute and then I change the channel. I was listening to WEEI and they had more Bills talk last week then Schoop and the Bull Dog as Smerlas was talking about Clements and they were talking about options if A. Samuel leaves. It is SB week and they barely talk football--it's crazy. And when they do talk Bills' football the only thing they do is criticize the organization. How dare they raise prices--that was last week. Gee they still have the least expensive tix in the league.

Great pick Donahoe!!! Shows you how much the rest of the league thinks of him as a head coach. Hey, nice guy, a bit of a meathead and should be an OC (at best) and that's it.