Ed_Formerly_of_Roch

The franchise tag only works if the player is worth that type of money. In Greer's case, he's not so you don't tag him. Otherwise you're in a situation like NE is when Cassell signed the tag. If Greer had been tagged, I'm sure he'd have take nall of 4 minutes to sign the offer sheet. Clements, Winfield, yeah maybe, however in Clements case, the Bills i.e. Levy agreed after tagging him the year prior not to do it again. You could argue that a real GM would have said ole well too bad, we're gonna tag you anyway. Tagging Clements after agreeing not to, really shows a strong ethical front office. That's the way to get players lining up at the door to sign here. You can certainly argue it's just busniess and the Bills's could have done that. But it doesn't impress soon to be free agents or others. You want to argue that the Bill's front office are poor talent evaluators, fine. But for their part, the people they let walk got contracts paying them much more than they were worth, so I'd say they did a pretty good job there. As was pointed out, every team loses players who go on to sign inflated contracts with other teams. The Bills are no better or worse. The question is when these players leave, who do you replace them with? That's an area you can argue the Bill's have been weak. Even there, is it the players or the coaching?

No it makes no sense, thankfully the "braintrust" does have more brain than you! He's not worht $10 mil. If the Bills were to franchise him, if I'm Greer, I'd sign the tender in about 10 minutes as I know I'd never get than on the open market. Totally stupid to franchise him!

How's that any different than anything else reported? Already back in December we all heardd about the Ill governor. Should not a word been said until he was impeached? Even then he wasn't convicted in court, so should nothing still been said. Should perspective cabinet nomminees not be named until they are voted in? Should there be no mention of the election until after Election day?? Alot of talk on Mike and Mike this morning about not believing A-Rod's latest disclosures. Granted, many people could argue that should be the way things are handled (wait until after the fact), but they're not. While I'm not necessarily agreeing or disagreeing with Sully and Hamilton, they are just doing their job. You make decisions based on what you know at the time. As you learn more, you can change your opinion, but at any given point in time you go with what you know. In this case, I think their conclusions aren't too far off, if at all.

The exception being if the player is kind of "winding down" his career. The guy Minn had, can't recall his name, "Mr Headbutt goalpost" He was old enough that I think a guy tlike that would be more agreeable to come to Buffalo with the understanding he will likely be the backup, barring injury. Maybe Garcia falls into that group too, though he may feel he still has something left as a starter. However he needs a team to agree to that too. The other arguement you could make for a guy to come here to backup Edwards is, he's not an entrenched starter. No matter how bad a Manning or Rivers, etc were to play, they won't get benched. While I like TE and think he can be a good starter, he certainly has shorter leash than some others may have

The other thing to also consider is how much it would take to sign a guard in 2009 dollars. Yes the Bills likely overpaid for him, but if you cut him, you likely will pay as much for a replacement as you're paying him. I alos don't think he's as bad as some make him out. In 2007 our line hardly gave up any sacks. This past season, not so good, however there were many leaks on the line. If anything it seems our lines biggest problem is run blocking, but again he isn't the only problem there either. Seems none of them can run block very well. One positive I wil lsay for him is he has been very healthy. While it would be great to have an all pro at every position, you can't afford that, so you need to pick and choose and only give up on someone who is terrible. I don't think Dockery is that bad.

Note to people who say we should franchise Greer. This is why you don't do that. If the player knows he really isn't going to get top five salary on the open market, you sign the tender. This year an added twist might be that salaries tend to be down a bit becasue of economy. Teams may not be willing to spend as much. However tender offers are based on past year, so by accepting again good way to get top $$

Yeah, but what if team A has a decent offense and a weak defense. Team B has a great offense but a weak defense. Team B all around is stronger. However Team A wins the toss goes and scores a field goal against Team B's weakest part of team. If team B had the chance to get their offense on the field they would have very likely scored a TD. But they never were given the change. I agree all three parts are requally important, but each team should be given a chance to uitlize all three parts of their game. I did think Roger Godell had an interesting rebuttal though somewhat of a cop out to Costas comments about changing OT. His defense was the present system makes teams try harder to score in regulation rather than risk outcome of game on a coin toss.

Has there been any comments about their presenters? I heard Smith state awhile back he'd have either Marv or Ted Cotrell present him. For RW, I would think Marv could be the person, or wouldn't shock me to see him reach to the past and he were to ask Al Davis. Seems like he and Bill Pollian have patched things up so he's a possibility though remote. Maybe Bud Adams the owner of Tenn, though RW doesn't like owners who move teams, so that might knock him out?? Lamar Hunt's son, another long shot. Don't think it will be TD or AJ Smith! Any other rumered names??

Well certainly the recent picks have a better offensive line. It's really not fair though for the TD regime to get all the credit for guys like Shobel, Evans etc. Those guys are still playing very well so there was no reason for current rigime to replace them. They should get some credit for keeping them. Conversely they should be faulted for letting any players go who went on to become stars elsewhere after current rigime cut them. You vould put Clements in that group, however I think it was wise move to let hime go for what he wanted. Also need to give the TD regime props or boo's for letting players go or keeping them from the JB years if they were bad or good respectively. Bottom line I really don't think any fair way to make an assessment like this as you do need to consider if they kept the good ones or cut the bad ones, then it becomes very muddied.

Fine for me, I'm watching on HD station. I had problems in the early game in first half where video kept pausing while audio would continue.

It switches each year who gets the late game. Both networks want the late one. Next year the NFC will have the late game regardless of where it's played. Just like the past two weekends, each networks gets a late game one day, and the early one the next. Years ago was based on time zone, weather, dome vs outside; now it just switches back and forth each seasonr.

It likely would have been if he hadn't started 5-1 and got the extention. No doubt in my mind or most others, the way the second half of the season went, without the extension he would hvae been fired.

I live in Wilmington NC and there's a place here that sells Beef on Weck and Haddock fish fries. Not sure how popular the Haddock is considering there's plenty of seafood around here. With regards to the water, I've heard it's hard to find a good Italian restaurant in Florida for same reason, the water you're boiling for pasta is as I just call it "Florida water" That taste ends up in all the food. Some places worse than others. We drove down to Florida over the holidays, first night stayed in hotel near St Augustine. As soon as I tasted the water, said, yup, we're back in Flrida!

Speaking of governement bailouts, did anyone here the story on the news today, the porn industy is requesting a bailout. Larry Flint is spearheading the request, claiming many gorgeous women will be out of work. All things considered it is kind of a funny stunt.

Whne I last had DTV, had 2 TIVO DVRS. My wife said it was the best thing I ever bought her. Right now have a new subscriber agreement with TWC that expires in March, so then they will likely try to raise my rates to full price. I will threaten them with going to DTV, if they give me same rate which historically they have, would likely stay with them until locals are available done here. Once that happens, which by then likely TIVO DVRS will be back then may very well go back to DTV. (Hell the Bills may win a supoer bowl before that happens too!!) Anyone have any ideas what DTV plans are beyond Q1 2009 regarding getting locals up in more cities?? As I said their website lists notheing beyond that date. For SD packages I think DTV is much cheaper than cable. When adding the $10 fee for HD, plus $5 per receiver fee, starts to get closer in cost. Will see what happens.

Did DTV eliminate the $5 mirroring fee per outlet? Last time I had DTV you needed to pay that??

Hmmm.... guess I need to update my profile. I don't live in Rochester anymore. Now am in Wilmington NC, so no locals here in HD and not even on the "coming soon" list.. Yes I know you can get one HD DVR fro fre, however I want a second. Will likely cost me $200 for that one. As far as OTA, then can't record locals through DVR. I know DTV does make some DVR that does allow that, but sounds like hard to come by that model, plus I believe it is lacking some other features. Sorry I want everything!! Interestingly Wilmington was a pilot city for the digital conversion, so we were changed over to all digital already in September. Interesting stat, no one committed suicide or shot anyone at TWC the day after it went into effect either.

Three Reasons, I have currently have cable Where I live, DTV dosen't have the locals in HD. Why buy a 52 in ch HDTV then have to phook up rabbit ears to watch local channels. Cable provides ability to hook up extra TV's to service that I only use on an occasional basis. I have a TV in my garage, which use on occasion, really not worth paying an extra $5 fee as DTV charges, but do like to use it once in while DTV charges pretty high mount for HD DVR's It takes many months (years) of service to get to a beak even point. I had DTV in the past with SD service, I had two DVR's got the first one free, second was $100. A the time I calculated it wod take about ten months of service to break even compared to cable and was getting 100% digital where as cable was analog at the time. Their DVR's have come down quite a bit, see you can get the first one free now, 2nd one maybe around $200. If they get the locals in HD, likely would go back. But where I live, we're not even on the list of coming cities yet. In March my new subscriber package with TWC expires. I likely will be calling them and threatening to go to DTV if they attempt to charge me the full price for package. If they won't give me a break I likely will go back to DTV and use an antenna as not going to pay like $30 more per month for service. Will see what happens? And no FIOS either

I think the problem MM had was TD pulling his strings behind the scene. MM's first year was TD's 4th. At that part TD's parinoia started getting bad, but by TD's last year (MM's #2) TD was out of control. Remember him throwing people out for signs. People accused MM of being wishy washy, looking confused in press conference, etc by the end of year #2. I think that was because he had to think carefully about anything he said as what will TD want him to say. I think ulitimately that was what brought TD down, was his trying to control everything. Funny to for a guy who when he first came to town, was extremely open with the press. I recall he had many of these "off the reocrd" lunches with the media. But by around the 3rd and 4th year, people being critical of the McGhee and the Mike Williams picks to name a few, sent him over the edge There are a number of coaches who learned from first failure and improved, look at Belicheck. so he too could do much better the second time around.

I don't think the O-line is really quite that bad. Yes definitely need a center. However I think Walker and Dockery played decent. If you want to upgrade one of them, OK, but I don't think you can afford to do both and the odds of you actually getting a better player are low. I'd be fine with getting a FA center, drafting maybe 2nd round guard, bring him along slowly and maybe the following year, replace dockery if not big improvement. Id also be fine with bringing in an assistant line coach who has experience particually in the area of improving run blocking. That was the one area I was disapointed in. I would also BE OK with trading Peters IF we can get two #1's for him. Less than that, keep him and sign him.

It's almost impossible to know. Look at htis seasons schedule back in August. Who wasn't worried about starting off with Seattle, Jax, Chargers, going to Az, even St Louis scared people some. So from year to year much does change. Some teams who are expected to do well won't and other's will surprise. (see this years Atlanta)

Repeat after me; ENDZZONE ANIMAL GET OUT!

I can't figure out if you're really this stupid or just rying to get other's riled. Yes you are correct, you can leave Ralph behind and move. Go follow another team, not a problem. As far as your comment of "Ralph get out" I'll speak for Ralph on that one. "No you get out, and don't let the door hit you on the way out. If you feel your abused and don't like what I do, too bad, go follow another team. I'm the owner of the team, I'll do what I want, and you're just pond scum. If that makes you abused, so be it! Buffalo struggles to support a team in todays NFL I charge less for tickets than all the other teams, much less for luxury boxes cause that's all Bufflao can afford. I'm giving you the privalage of watching NFL football; you don't like it, the alternative is no team! "

30 years ago would have been a good idea, now there's nothing left in rest of state to even support itself. Don't know if this is true, but it does make sense, I heard back in the 90's when stock market was going crazy in a positive direction, all that money changing hands in the NY Stock exchange was subject to some types of "corp taxes" since it was made within NY state, hence NYC added a whole bunch of money into the state which everyone benefited from in rest of state

Speaking of which, did I hear that Lane is following his son to Tenn? I know it's be rumored, but thought I heard something to the effect it had been announced?