Ramius

So Tampa transplanted the turf from their old field when they built Raymond James Stadium?

College OT is gimmicky. I think OT should be like PTRs suggestion, with equal possessions. Whoever wins the toss can take the ball of the wind, knowing they will get equal possessions. If you hold the other team to a FG, then you can win it with a TD. I think both teams should get a shot with the ball in OT. If you kick a FG first and then the opposition fumbles the kickoff, game over. But, rules should stay NFL rules. If you score a FG, then you kickoff like normal. None of this "start at the 25/30/40" BS.

The 3-4 isn't necessarily "easier" to stock. Finding a monstrous NT thats actually good is a herculean task. Then you need to find 2 large DEs that can hold their line at the point of attack. If the line gets knocked back in a 3-4, those LBs don't stand much of a chance against the opposition OL. My overall point is that you can win with various defenses, and i dont think that 1 particular defense is "easier" to stock than any other. Most defenses rely on 2-3 outstanding players for that defense to be great. And i dont care too much about what type of base defense we run. I'm more concerned with the coaching staff fitting a scheme around the players you have rather than forcing their scheme on everyone else. The Bills problem wasn;t choosing to run the cover-2. the Bills problem was finding great talent to successfully run the cover-2.

I think this one just hit a little to close to home...

Players/coaches make the scheme successful. You can win with any defense in the NFL so long as you have talented players and coaching. Great coaching can put good players in a position to succeed. While people are lamenting that our defense causes us to not look at the "tweeners," and thus miss out on some great players, they need to remember that the typical defenses of the 90s decided to pass on players such as Derrick Brooks because he was "too small to succeed" and Ronde barber because "he didn't have the man coverage skills."

How soon people forget that Millen was a hell of an analyst prior to becoming the Lions GM. In fact, that was the joke around his hiring...he was a great TV guy, but why did that qualify him to run a team? Sure he was a garbage GM, but that has nothing to do with his ability to break down the game play as an analyst. Its too bad the world is populated with morons who just sit there and scream: "ZOMG Matt Millen is teh suxors! He was a terrible GM so that means he's never done anything else in his life well and never will succeed at anything in the future."

In a heartbeat. No questions asked. To everyone whining about the contract, when you trade for a franchised player, you negotiate the new, long-term contract prior to the trade. no one trades for a tagged player and lets them play out under the franchise tender.

In addition to the many listed Super Bowl XXV plays listed, i want to add: The Bills defense choking and allowing the giants to score a TD with 10 seconds left in the first half. We could have gone into the locker room up 12-6 or 12-3, but no, it was 12-10 and an entirely different ball game.

Ben roethlisberger is an **** egomaniac with a Napoleonic complex who is a garbage QB?

http://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/G/GannRi00.htm Please enlighten me on when Gannon "started putting it together before he got to oakland." You lose all objectivity because you are too busy marginalizing everything good gruden did and attributing everything bad about gruden's teams to him. I also find it highly amusing that Gruden worked with the same GM in Tampa that he worked with in Oakland (Bruce Allen), yet you claim the "GM" in oakland was responsible for the success, and it was Gruden responsible for Tampa's failures. Gruden isnt the best coach in the league. But, the guy has won 95 games in 11 years as a coach. Kinda funny how Gruden manages to win roughly 9 games per year despit him being so "horrible." The guy is a good coach, and a hell of a lot better than what we have on the bills. Dick Jauron barely averages over 6 wins per season. Untimately, with tampa, it comes down to gruden not preforming recently, and sometimes a coach gets a bit stale with a team after a long run. There comes a time to change faces and freshen up the organizaiton and bring in some new blood. Which is what Tampa did. But just because Gruden got fired doesn't mean he was never a good coach.

I love how you argue that Gruden isn't responsible for building the Raiders, its the GM who brought in all the players, but then give Dungy credit for bringing in Freeney, sanders, wayne, addai, etc. Last time i checked indy had a decent guy as their GM, no? The problem is that you are holding different coaches to different standards, and you are contradicting yourself with each post. You are biased against gruden and are doing nothing more than attacking him. (of course, logic isn't a strong suit of any jauron defender) As for gruden's finish, i've never stated that he shouldn't have been fired. I even said in my post that its easy to argue that gruden needed to be fired. His time in Tampa had about run out and that team needed some fresh blood. I know, i've followed Tampa closely down here. But that doesn't change the fact that he was a good coach and that it was a smart move for Tampa to get him. They won a super bowl, and Gruden played a big part in that. Hell, he knew oakland's offense inside and out, because he designed it, and thats a big reason why TB won. (Which brings another interesting note; if gruden did nothing to build the raiders, why did they keep his exact system in place after he left? couldn't be because it was a good one, could it?) As for Tampa, you can fault Gruden for not bringing in or developing enough WRs, but an interesting fact is that he was starting to develop a nice little offense for himself. Then Simms got his spleen ruptured and was never the same, and Cadillac Williams blew out his patellar tendon. That was 2 big pieces of a potential future offense in Tampa just gone. I'm not saying thwy would have been the next manning-addai, but you dont know. All i know is that they looked pretty good together in the 2005 season. And while we are on the topic of throwing seasons out (which is bogus), throw out the Colts super bowl run, and tony dungy is a career 5-10 in the playoffs. Thats awfully schottenheimer like. Finally, please elaborate on how rich gannon got so good on oakland, since gruden did nothing to help oakland.

277. If you learn how to curve the ball on the wii, you can rack up insanely high scores. Of course, i'd rather play the trainng mode where they keep adding a row of pins to the back and you end up with 92 pins the final frame.

Gregggo is a decent DC, thats about it. And how about you answer all the questions i posted above about Gruden and the Buccs/Raiders?

Sounds about right. I can easily think of 20 coaches around the NFL from last season that would have had the Bills at 9-7 or 10-6. In fact, its highly likely that Jauron was severely restricting the talent on that team from performing to its potential.

If Greggggo is so respected and highly thought of, why didn't he get the redskins coaching job? Why did he only last 1 season in jacksonville? And Gruden will be back as an NFL head coach within 2 years. Most likely, he'll be coaching again in 2010.

Alright, this is too much idiocy for me to deal with all at once, so we'll break it down. Just because you say something is a "FACT" doesn't actually make it a fact. No one here has claimed that Gruden was the only reason that TB went to the SB that year. But, Gruden played a large role in getting the team over the hump. For some reason, your myopic view on this is extremely black and white. Your OPINION that either gruden did everything or did nothing is incorrect. There are shades of gray in between, but you're having a difficult time grasping this simple concept. Yes, TB was a SB favorite that season, along with a few other teams in the NFC. Gruden took over a good team. However, Oakland was a SB favorite in the AFC, so what is your point? This in an unprovable fact. Its impossible to say who or what coach would have won/lost games with Tampa. Parcells had the handshake deal to coach the Buccs before he backed out of it, forcing Tampa into a corner. Any coach was going to take over a team with a load of talent, but that doesn;t mean any coach can win with a team. Example: Wade Phillips in Dallas. Yes, there is reason to believe that Dungy couldn't get it done. He hadn't gotten it done previously. His teams always struggled offensively, and Dungy just couldn't get the Buccs over the hump in the playoffs. And what does Dungy winning the SB have anything to do with his time in Tampa? As good of a coach as Dungy is, Indy was loaded with talent and had the best QB in the game. Why do you trash gruden for "winning with someone else's players" and then praise Dungy for doing the exact same thing in Indy? Yes, we've been over this. They also had offensive troubles, and that was the main reason Dungy got canned. He just couldn't get the offense up to par with the defense. How can you say that he didn't build the oakland team? Prior to Gruden, oakland was 8-8, 7-9, and 4-12. With Gruden, the Raiders went 8-8, 8-8, 12-4, and 10-6. They made 2 playoff appearances, advancing to the AFC championship in 2000, and technically advancing to the AFC championship in 2001 (i say technically, because they had the pats* game won until the bull sh-- tuck rule). Also, Rich Gannon exploded under Gruden's guidance. Gannon had thrown for more than 12 TDs once in his 12 year career. Then all of a sudden he explodes to become a top 3 QB under Gruden. Whats the explanation for that? Overnight, Gannon just got that good randomly overnight, 12 years into a career where he had been a back the entire time? vor he got hooked up with a good coach who knew how to build and run an offense? So how does Gruden get no credit for building the Raiders? And if he doesnt, they who does? As for Tampa, you fully blame Gruden for running the team inot the ground, as if its gruden's fault the Buccs gave up 2 1st rounders and 2 seconds to get him. That's a horrible situation to put any coach in, and they are going to have a tough time overcoming it. All in all, with an aging defense, Gruden had 4 winning seasons, made the playoffs 3 times, and won the division 3 times. Not too shabby for 7 years work. Gruden probably rubbed a lot of players the wrong way; his style tends to do that. When you're winning, no one cares, but when you lose your last 4 to miss the playoffs, heads are gonna roll. Similar situation to coughlin. And theres a good argument to be made that firing Gruden was the right move. However, claiming that gruden did nothing tampa except run the team into the ground is nothing but a complete fabrication.

Looks like a bad photo combined with those ugly ass jeans.

He means that the Bills haven't made the playoffs in 100 years.

Well a light year is 6 trillion miles, so perhaps we need a unit of money called the light-dollar? The government is not spending 4 trillion dollars. They are spending 2/3rds of a light dollar.

I reasonably expect Kelsay to be in the 5-7 sack range every season. He isn't. He looked like he might be headed in that direction when he was re-signed in before 2007, but since the signing he's been garbage. Kelsay at 2-3 million per year? fine., Kelsay at 6 million per year? Cut him.

it is funny, because last year's 2 super bowl coaches are the only SB winning coaches still in the league. belicheat* in the AFC Coughlin in the NFC Dungy, Gruden, and Shanahan are Super Bowl winning HCs that were let go/retired this offseason.

Tampa won the super bowl, over Oakland, in case you forgot. Since that super bowl, Oakland hasn't won more than 5 games in any season. And what they did with the picks is relevant. If they turned them into a consistent contender, it would be a fleecing. but oakland did nothing with those picks. And i guarantee you anyone here on the board would gladly trade our '09 and 2010 1st round picks for a Super Bowl title. So who got fleeced?

Sure, theres barely any difference between the pats* and the falcons. Cassel carries basically the same risk as a 1st round QB because he's proven nothing other than he can win a couple of games against bad defenses on a team where Ryan Leaf could do the same. The NFLPA will certainly be concerned is said team is going to pay cassel less than the franchise tender. Theres no way the NFLPA allows Cassel to sign for less than the franchise tender. They'll pressure the agent prior to any negotiations. And no one is paying Cassel 14 million per season.

I'm sure Al Davis was laughing all the way to the bank after Gruden spanked his ass in the super bowl. How did those extra 1st rounders turn out for oakland? they use them to build a really strong team?

Thank You. There's no way the NFLPA lets Cassel sign a 14 million dollar franchise tag and then lets him sign for less money elsewhere. Forget what Cassel wants, the NFLPA will come down hard on the agent, and any agent that pisses off the NFLPA would be committing professional suicide. This is really an unprecedented situation. IIRC, in most situations where a player is tagged and then signs a long term deal or they do a tag and trade, the player usually signs for something about the value of the tag. Take last year; the pack tagged DT Corey Williams which carried a tender of 6.3 million. Williams deal with cleveland averages about 6.5 million per year.