Ed_Formerly_of_Roch

Cleveland let him go, not surprisinf as MH wanted to bring in his own guy. http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/Cleveland-Browns-fire-head-coach-Eric-Mangini-010311

totally agree!! If they don't want Luck there will be plenty of others wishing to trade with them. The problem is it's hard for a team picking much lower than 5 or 6 to be able to offer enough in return. But likely thye'd get some team offering a bunch of picks and they are like the Bill's in that they need many players. So would make sense for them to trade dow na few spots coule likely still get a number of good players. For us to move up to that spot would likely cost us our 1st three picks, maybe even more.

So likely if the Bills were to trade down from their #2 overall a team drafting: Postion Give up 6th overall Their 1st, 2nd, & 4th 7th or 8th Their 1st, 2nd, & 3rd 9th Their 1st thru 4th 10th or lower Their 1st rthru 3rd and likely next years #1 I'd make an of these trades in a sescond if someone wanted to.

No It's $350 a year, which is the same as the full Sunday Ticket, though it sounds like with full Sundayt Ticket you can threaten to cancel and get a better price. This is availablwe for people who can't get DTV mostly becaseu of where they live, tall buildings, etc. To qualify, you need to answer three questiosn: Do you currently have DTV? If you do then get regular Sunday Ticket (which likey woud be a cheaper option anyway) Can you receive DTV at your current address? If you can then you need to get DTV and then regualar Sunday Ticket Have you ever had DTV at your current address? If you did, then obviously the asnwer two the second question would be yes which again means go buy DTV So if you answer: "No, No, No" You qualify. I think it's a case of "Don't ask, don't tell" As long as you answer no, they don't really look into it very much particually the second question.

Hey look at my options. Without Sunday Ticket I could have watched the Panthers every week. Actually that would be a pretty good marketing tool for DTV to use in many locations, including western NY. "What choice do you have?"

So one year of Sunday Ticket To Go online under the belt. How’d it work? Was it reliable? Worth the money? I live in North Carolina, far enough away from the Panthers not to be affected by any blackout rules, but close enough that local Fox station show’s all their games home and away. This past season there was not one Bills game on shown on local CBS station so without Sunday Ticket wouldn’t have seen any Bills games this year. I watched every game except two weeks where I was out of town on Sunday. While I purchased it mostly to watch Bill’s games, I did also watch some other games not shown on local TV. Today for example was watching Washington–Giant game and also Jax so could watch TE. I also didn’t want to have to deal with online feeds that either had very poor quality, or would disappear after an hour or so. I recall last year as season wore on, the feeds became harder to find. Only one time do I recall watching on a pretty good quality feed. From reading some of the posts, sounds like this year was no better, maybe worse? First 6 to 8 weeks had some issues with buffering, stream not available. If I had more time I may have called up and canceled the entire thing, but didn’t want to waste time being put on hold. Last half of season it worked pretty well, little if any buffering, Bills games were always available to watch. There were a couple times I wanted to watch the end of some other game and wasn’t able to view it, “got “Stream Not Available” error. I’m assuming that meant too many people were trying to watch that specific game but was pleased overall A couple features that didn’t appear to work that I wish did (and am hoping by next season they will make these features available: You can watch in standard (approx. 4” high X 8 “ wide picture) or full screen mode picture size. You also have the option of selecting picture-in-picture or game mix which allows you to watch four feeds at once. However neither of these works in full screen mode only, so if you select the game mix, you’re looking at each screen size being approx. 2” X 4”. No way to expand size so makes it rather frustrating to use this feature Would be much nicer if game mix worked in full screen size. The first couple weeks of the season in the upper corner, there were a couple of “DVR” buttons to select recording of game. Cool!! Except the buttons didn’t work at all. After first couple of weeks, buttons disappeared completely. Would be nice if this feature worked next year, even just a re-wind or pause button so can watch a play again if you wish. All things considered would I purchase next year? More than likely yes I would. Quality wasn’t as good as watching on my HD TV, but was pretty good and would give it high reliability after first few weeks where it seemed bugs were being worked out. Would hope by next year they improve bandwidth and maybe add these features as described above or other things but overall was pleased. I wish there was a cheaper reliable alternative, until that happens, will buy Sunday Ticket to Go.

I'd think with a year under his belt, Levi would be just as good a backup as BB. Best case would be to pick up a backup for Fitz and leave Brown #3 or draft someone else and cut LB and B

Our O-line has looked pretty bad the last couple of weeks since injuries too a couple of started down. For the first ten weeks of the year, we had pretty much the same line every week, one exception being RT, we hade one change. Last month or so have gone through what six different starters??

Speculation is they'd do like the NHL did and have a wieghted draft. We wouldnt necessarily be picking #4 again, but good change we'd have a pretty high selection. However I have a some doubts about them using a system like this as the draft is ushc a bigger part of team turn around in football as compared to hockey. The league may feel it would just be too much of a benefit to weak teams. Maybe they do an "S" curve to a team like Buffalo would again have the 4th pcik, but then in round #2 their pick would be the 4th last, round #3 4th from the top..... and so on..... PS How's I-40 look on your end??

Yeah but it's not really Nix's call. He can suggest to Chan that maybe we need a better DC. But unless Chan agrees and wishes to dump him it won't happen. The only option Nix would have would be to then fire Chan over the issue. Kind of what RW did to Wade when he claimed Wade wouldn't fire the ST coach when RW asked him to. So RW then tried to claim Wade quit, so he didn't have to pay him. That worked well!! The defense had no players so are you going to bame that on Edwards? People also like to talk about how players won't want to come to Buffalo. Well firing the DC after one year while fielding a terrible team won't do much to help attract coaches either. I agree with many other posters, he likely will get a pass, unless it'sreally felt he was over his head and Cahn wants to make a change. Will be interesting to see what happens, but based on what as fans we see, he does NOT deserve to be fired. If he is fired it's likely for what goes on behind the scenes.

Actually I thought the really dumb play by Cinny was on 2nd down. 1st and 10 on the 12, completion in bounds to the 4, 2nd and 2. Cinncy clocks the ball, now 3rd and 2. Next two plays imcomplete, with 10 seconds left Balt gets the ball game over, Balt wins. I can understand clocking the ball and giving up a down if on like 50 yard line with 50 secs or so to go. You need a number of long yardage gain plays to score anyway, so one more or less play won't likely make that much a difference. But on the two yard line, you have a better chance of scoring with three tries as opposed to two downs. Totally stupid. But that's the NFL today! QBs won't whipe their own nose without thaving their coach whispering in their headset on how and when to do it. Whatever happened to calling two plays in the huddle like the old days? Seems every QB has to play "Peyton Manning" and spend five or ten seconds pointing at the defense, tapping the side of his helmet, then again point at the defense touching his thigh, then he can only snap the ball. Granted you may be running a more limited options play, but the defense also doesn't have time to get set, no sub packages, etc. Seems to me a fast play would give the offense the edge in that situation. BTW, I absolutely don't however believe Cinncy was in any way trying to lose with any of the plays mentioned. It's just coaching in the 21st century and poor play by Palmer. If they wanted to lose on purpose, they would have ran the ball when they first got posession and never passed the ball and be anywhere near the end zone.

I think the other thing that's happened the past couple of weeks is the injuries on the O-line have caught up with the team. Today there are two guys starting with a total of one game experience between them. Even Wood (while looking pretty good at it) is playing a new position. The past couple weeks even Fitz didn't look at good as he was earlier, maybe due to weaker line play of late. I think they were OK with Ulbik, but once he went down and the revolving door at RT made one more turn, things just went down the drain. If Ulbik can come back healthy next year and draft a good RT (or sigh a FA) plus give Bell a year of working on getting stronger, I'd go with that line, plus with maybe GH, Wang, Reinhart, and Wrotto as subs. Or maybe pick up a better backup FA lineman.

I think the only thing that changes is they may pick a def lineman/end instead of a LB. Or may make trading down more likely You want to pick the best player available, (or within a couple of what you rate as the best) but if its' in a position you don't need, then maybe you trade down. Persoanlly I'd like to see them trade down. With a loss today and win by Denver which could havppen the Bills are picking #3. If they traded down to say around # 7 thru 10, likely they could pick up an extra #2 and #3 or a second #1 next year.

I watched two bowl games yesterday, both ended with some rather strange rulings by officals. In both cases the teams I was rooting for Syracuse and North Carolina won so was glad to see that, but kind of felt bad for losing team. In SU game, SU was up by 8, Kansas St scored a TD with like 30 seconds to go to cut the lead to 2. A 2 point conversion would have tied it. But on the TD, they assessed a 15 yard pnealty on Kansa for excessive celabration. All the guy did was give a salute towards the stands. Seemed way over the top penalty. I don't watch alot of college, but don't believe the NFL would have called something that little. So now Kansas has to go for a 2 pt conversion from the 18 which they didn't make and SU won by two. In the NFL that penalty is usually assessed on following kick off. Maybe team had a choice, normally they'd take it on kickoff, but if a team were to go for two could take the penalty on conversion instead?? Then in NC -Tenn game throughout he game everytime the Tenn QB threw a TD, he'd go through some little routine as as the announcer kept pointing out was no less than what the Kansas St player got a penalty for. The only difference was it didn't happen in the endzone, but was shown on TV repeatedly. So with 16 seconds left NC is down by three. They try a running play, get stopped, clock is ticking down, the QB is trying to spike the ball to then have time for a field goal, but half the field goal team has run onto the field. So with one second to go, the QB gets a play off for a spike, BUT with like 15 guys on the field. Initially the ruling is game over, the ref an even announced "game over", Tenn wins, coaches/players are on field shaking hands, then ref announces play is under review. So after review, they give him a 5 yard penalty for too many men on field, but allow them to then try a field goal with no time left. In NFL any penalty by team with no time outs left would have resulted in 10 second run-off which would have ended game. Seemed to me NC took advantage of what I'd call a loop hole to get a play off totally illegally, but it served the purpose of stopping the clock. NC then kicked the field goal to tie and won n OT. BTW the Tenn freshman QB looked pretty good.

I've also read that the whole 18 game thing is just a point for the league to use to talks with the league. They will gladly give up the 18 game request in exchange for a reduction in revenue % to the players.

So if Fitz is a 7, then what's Eli Manning a 7.5?? Trent Dilfer? I watched last Sundays Giants game and some of Eli's passes didn't look any worse than Fitz. I can recall many of a Jim Kelly five turnover day. I wouldn't want to see the Bills use a high draft pick on a QB at this point with all the other holes to fill. Use a 4th rounder, I'm fine with that and groom him. There also may be some mechanics issues that Fitz could work on in the off season to improve the accuracy issues. To me right now that's his biggest problem that's preventing him from becoming maybe an 8 which there aren't many teams better than an 8. I'd give Rothsberger maybe an 8 to 8.5. As far as LT goes, yeah I'd go around 6 to 7. But remember Bell had no time last off season to work at strengthing. Before you're ready to find a replacment, give it another year oto see if he can improve more. I think he made a big jump this year in his play. With another offseaosn, not a stretch to see him become an 8. While I agree that a Manning or a Brady may be able to live with a 6.5 LT, I think a more likely situation is any team can live with a 6.5 at any position IF they are surrounded by 8's Getting a better RT, maybe move Woods to center and fill his spot with either Reinhart or Ulrck or a FA signing, I think would produce a solid line. Bell would quickly look like an 8! The biggest way to continue to fail as a team is to continually look for replacements to your existing players. You need to give them time to develop unless you're certain a guy is never going to further improve. I'd use the draft picks on other positions, if there's no improvement by next ear with Bell, thn look for another solution. Does that potentially set the team back a year? Yes but if you pick a LT this year, then you're leaving a hole someplace else for another year. So fill that one first and give Bell a year.

No one really called Spiller a reach at #9. either. Prior years you could make the arguement that both the Maybin and Whitner was reaches at where they were picked. Really couldn't say that this year. Did he work out as well as a typical #9 pick should? No, but lets see how he looks next year. He did show spots where he looked like a #9 pick, just not enough of them.

Well actually #2 would likely solve the MAJORITY of the problems. Would you still have ONE BIG problem left? Likely yes, but many issues like stopping the run, rushing the passer which would make secondary much better, better run blocking which could lead to less pressure on Fitz, and better pass blocking could be solved by using all 7 draft picks on front seven defensively and maybe drafting a RT Agree you can do much better with a great QB. Finding one is the tough part. Or more likely the lucky part. Over the past ten years which team has done better, Balt or Indy? Balt had a great defense, good position players, but a weak QB. Now they have a pretty good QB thought wouldn't call him elite. so lets see how they do. Indy has had a great elite QB, but at the end of ten years, both have one SB win to show for it. Balt has still done pretty well for itself over the years without the QB. I guess my point is having a good solid team, OK QB you can compete every year, maybe win it once, maybe not. Or you can have the elite QB, and still have done no better overall. Both team have been to the playoff or in contention most years. Or you can be NE and win more than anyone, but that I credit to BB. I may not like him, but he does do better than anyone else it seems. Eli Manning won a SB. At this point, is he much better than Fitz? Basically all of those elite QB, boil down to a handful of teams, Peyton, TB, Warner, and Rothesburger

I doubt that will even happen. BB is making to much money for a backup. I'll be surprised if he's even with Buffalo next year. Likely will be realeased, maybe Buffalo resigns him at a lower number, but I'm sure if he can find a better deal he'd take it.

I looked at the list, don't see where it actually listed their draft round selection, but do recall many of the names were high draft picks. Not sure that list actually supports your argument or mine as there are many of the same names on repeatedly. That's my point, there aren't enough good QB's to go around and the odds of getting one aren't very high. When you look at the lists of busts you'll also see a number of teams had multiple selections, Detroit, Cinncy, San Diego, and Seattle. That's why they were terrible for so many years, they keep taking a shot only to fail repeatedly. Can you fail with any other position player, sure, but it's not as likely to set you back years a a QB does. You almost have to give a QB four or five years to figure out if he gets it or not. Some may get it sorted out a little sooner (see Trent Edwards) I'd also take everything from before the mid 80's and throw it out because it was a different game back then. I recall when I was a kid, almost every team had a decent QB, and if you didn't you could draft one. If it took five years for him to develop, not a problem, you'd just build the team around him. Your other postion players weren't going any where, there was no free agency. Now you need sucess within a couple of years, or the cycle keeps repeating. Why is it so hard for QB's to do well? Here's my take on it. The game has got too fast, players too big, there are too many coaches on a team that spend hours planning how to stop the other team. While it's a team game, whe nthe offesne comes to the line it's all on te QB to figfure out what to do in a split second. The QB doesn't have a chance, the deck is stacked against him. Once is a great while and getting less frequent, the guy comes along who can look across the line and figure things out fast enough, and also has the physical skills to get it done. Fitz has the mental part down, it's the physical part that is slowing him up. You want to improve the level of QB play in the NFL, limit the number of coaches teams can have, limit the hours of practice and meetings, eliminate all off season work other the fitness and strengthening. Don't all any off season studying of play books, require all players to turn them in after the last game and they don't get them back until June 1st. Will that improve the overall game? Not sure, but would give the QB a fighting chance. So I'm all for drafting the QB 1st round if you can promise me he'll be the next great QB. Unfortunately odds are in his favor of joining the list of busts.

Seems evidence supports the opposite. As the OP mentioned Ryan Leaf, I'll add some other names that were top ten or so selections: Akili Smith, David Klingler, Tim Couch, David Carr, Jeff George, JaMarkus Russell, Vince Young, Joey Harrington, (many were upset that he got selected 3rd overall right befoe the Bills picked Mike Williams) Rick Mirer, Cade McNown, Heath Shuler (hey at least he's got elected to congress), Andre Ware, Dan McGwire, (at least he can say he has a famious brother) Todd Marinovich (admittedl not a top five/ten pic) Were the GM's or all the above teams terrible to pick these guys? Mostly any team if they were draftign in the position would have made that same pick. If the Patriots were small smart they would hvae selected Brady earlier rather than take the chance he'd go elsewhere. They were just lucky. Here's some names of lower level picks I found online that have easily out preformed everyone I listed above. One name missing fom this list some may have heard of was sixth round pick Joe Montana Tom Brady (sixth round, 2000) Kurt Warner (undrafted, 1994) Tony Romo (undrafted, 2003) Marc Bulger (sixth round, 2000) Matt Hasselbeck (sixth round, 1998) Jake Delhomme (undrafted, 1997) Matt Cassel (seventh round, 2005) Derek Anderson (sixth round, 2005) Shaun Hill (undrafted, 2002) I watched the Giants game yesterday and some of Eli's passes looked just as bad as Fitz. Eli is considered a star, though it may be tarnishing fast. Do the Bill's need better play from the QB position, certainly, but so do about 20 to 25 other teams. I'm sure Miami, Oakland,, Tenn, Washington, Carolina, Minn, Seattle, Arizona, SanFran would all swap even up for Fitz in a second. Some other teams; Cleveland, Cinn, Denver, have big question marks. They problably will keep going in the same direction they currently are, but odds are not in the favor of the current guy being the long term answer and being much better than Fitz I'm sure if you went to the mssage boards of the following teams you'd find many posts implying that the biggest problem the team has and what is preventing them from being an elite team is QB play. They'd be some big ones like Giants, Jet's, Washington, & Dallas. I'd also throw Jax in that group. Detroit and St Louis have two young guys, will they make it to the next level?? Already Detroit is questioning if he can stay healthy. That leaves five to ten teams with good stable QB situations. Someone has to win it every year, there aren't enough good QB's to go around, so I'd rather see the Bills improve elsewhere, draft a mid round QB who may be good or may not. If not and good, not much invested. All draft picks are gambles, but the jump from college to NFL for QB's just seems much tougher than other positions.

Seems from what you hear about Spiller, there were alot of unusual things going on down in Clemson, Sounds like their whole game plan was heres the ball, you figure out where to go, and at a college superior talant can get away with that. In the NFL it doesn't work. Heard things how he's not use to having pays called in huddles, etc. Did the Bills know that's what they were getting, I'm certain Clemson as any school would go out of their way to hide those types of things so not to damage recruiting. Either way the Bill's should have known that, maybe they did, maybe they didn't?? Or they at least didn't appear to realize the level is seems to be at with him and ho it's slowed down his progress.

Tht's worked real well for Washington, Oakland, Dallas to name a few. What the Bills need to do is draft top notch picks with their first three picks, then sign a couple FA picks to fill some holes. Maybe one top level FA for LB. The rest, you draft or sign young FA. Foorball players careers are ofte ntoo short. By the time a guy is good enough t obecome a top FA, his career is often about over.

I hear NBC will be showing Heidi in it's place! (ask someone older than 55 for an explanation!) I'm really amazed. I can't believe the NFL didn't basically say, the hell with the fans, think of the TV revenue. Likely many more people would have watched the game because of the expected bad weather. I was really disapointed to see there were no east coast games today, the only one would have been tonight, now nothing. Was looking forward to see them sliding all over the field, and not being able to see the lines.

Of course they will because now they look back at which games they won and lost and say, yeah we were lucky. But losing the sixth game of the year and then proclaiming how lucky they were to lose a non conference game cause they know they still have X number of games they are going to win and now that increases the odds they wins will be within the conferecne is retarded. A preseason "8-8" team can just as easily lose another game they were supposed to win along the way and end up 7-9 or even 6-10. Can I ask you one question, are you just bring this point up to try and tweak people to get into an argument with you, or are you really this stupid? If you can't figure out the difference between those two scenerios, maybe you should stop using the computer, and god forbid, stay away from power tools. Maybe I should throw that questions out to others who know you better, is he really this dumb?? Can anyone be that dumb??