Ed_Formerly_of_Roch

So in your opinion, Pete Kendall would have been a better option. I haven't heard latety TD mentioning that he wished he had signed Kendall. Unless I'm missing something, that doesn't mean that TD didn't have a plan. All it means is you didn't like it. In all seriousness, do you think you know even half as much about football as TD and have access to even half as much of the resources needed to make these decisions? I highly doubt it. Assuming that is so, then all this means is that you didn't like TD's plan. It has nothing to do whether he had one or not.

I don't think you can totally blame TD for the O-line. Thsi goes back to ast few years of JB regime. Who did he draft in first couple of rounds for O-line? Infact who did he draft last couple of years anywhere that has worked out any better than how TD has done? With the exception of Williams and Jenningsed to use higher picks on other positions. Without many of those picks, doubt we would have had the #2 defense in league. Has Williams worked out as well as had hoped? No but wouldn't call him a bust either. I don't hink you can blame TDfor picking MW or his contract status, cause the $$ go along with where he was picked. The only better option he would have had was to have traded down, which seem to recall he tried, but didn't have much luck getting good value. Jennings worked out well enough that he got a huge and probably un-warrented contract offer. If/when you draft good players you tend to lose some as FA. The Bills lost two starters this year plus DB Three or four of last years O-lineman are back, so not sure I'd call this rebuilding. It wouldn't surprise me if we still sign someone to play tackle. Guard who knows, but if Ross Tucker is the worst O-lineman we have this year, I'd say we're in pretty good shape.

I don't see how a guy who got hurt the prior year and didn't play much, who's been hurt in most other years, who is not known for being a rocket scientist, who has a history of fumbling; can afford to sit out a year AND expect to get big $$ as a free agent. He needs to play to prove he's worth the bib bucks!

Cause when he brought in Belichick, he still was a relative unknown, so was easy to keep him. Then BB gets a head coaching job in Cleveland, fails and is availabe again. There usually isn't a huge market for a guy who just failed. Paresells was a good coach in the early years. But then his ego got bigger than his stomach and he wanted to play GM too. Ever since he started evaluating and signing players, he's done nothing. Yes he's had a couple good years here and there, but no consistency. It's not surprising that he's good friends with Bobbie Knight as they are two peas in a pod! It wouldn't surprise me to in the latter years that he resented BB as he started getting to much press, but that's pure speculation.

Yes, that was his plan. Based on priorities in free agency, resigning other players, etc. that was the only viable plan based on the amount of $$ he had to work with. Did it work out as well as he had hoped? Probably not, but in the end as you yourself admitted Tucker did a decent job. And I wouldn't be devestated if his plan is to go into next season with Tucker at guard again. Would I like someone better? Sure, then could use Tucker as depth, but if not, we're still OK. Do I think we need someone better at tackle, again yes, and I trust something will be done. But TD isn't going to overpay.

Clements though is the type of player, it would be worth franchising. He is young enough to play out a six year contract and still be effective at the end.

One of the other complaints you often here about him (as was made here) is that he piles up stats against poor teams or he had 3 sacks each in two games and rest of year he hardly did anything. Well if you compare him to players with comparable stats, such as the ones listed above, I'd say there's a good chance that many other players have done similar things. A couple of good games and others were average. Again I agree AS is a top 10 to top 15 DE and is being paid accordingly.

We don't get anything if they leave. The are both UNRESTICTED free agents. You only get compensation for RESTRICTED free agents. Anyone with 4 or more years in the league is unrestricted.

Actually the problem the bills have is alot better than where Indy is. You can pay top players at the non-"glamour" positions alot less money, therefore more left to spread around. It cost also more $$ to sign the top QB and recievers than it does to sign the top LB and safety. So I don't think that's a bad thing. Nate Clements is a 3.4$ mil hit. He's be an ideal guy to give a big signing bonus to and extend out a few years since he's a FA after this year anyway. I agree too, you don't want to extend MW until you know he's got his head on straight.

TD's stratagy of "low balling" has worked pretty well in the past. He makes a guy an offer, they turn it down and he waits him out. On the other hand, he's made offers to others and signed quickly when a large offer was needed. He signed Posey one hour into FA period and despite what many will say, he's worked out decent. We potentially could lose 3 starters out of 22 and have $8 mil in cap space . I wonder how many teams out there will lose less started and have more cap space? I'll be very few! PW probalby makes himself look better too playing on the #2 ranked defense. Anyone plugged into that spot won't likely look too bad. On the other hand JJ has been surrounded by less than average talent and has likely made the other players around him look better. Not that I agree with paying him what he want's considering how much he's been hurt, but I do think we might miss him more than Pw unless we get a good replacement.

Think of it the other way. When all those guys become free agents, that will open up alot of cap space. They either resign, or you can bring in many new faces. It's also likely alot of these deals will have un-friendly terms for last year of contract. So it's likely some of these guys will re-sign contracts with extensions before their contract ever runs out.

When Drew came to Buffalo, almost everyone would agree the first half year he was here, he played great. Then NE came to town and BB exposed all his weaknesses. After that seemed every team copied what NE did and with the exception of a few weeks, he looked terrible ever since. Granted, many teams weren't as talented as NE so some weeks Drew would look OK, but then a good team comes to town and he reverts back to terrible again. At the time of the trade, the one other team who had some interest was the Bengel's. What if instead Drew had gone to Cinncy. The way the schedule was, Drew would not have played NE until this past season. Would teams not have figured him out then, or at least not made him look as bad as BB did? Would he have had three somewhat successful seasons, maybe not pro-bowl, but at least decent? I've always wondered about that idea and if i would have turned out differently. Seemed like after that first NE game the first year, he fell apart and hasn't been the same since.

Wow, you should be a general manager with that much insight. With regards to have cut him last year; Considering all the people who felt a big part of our problems were related to Killdrive, it probably was best to take one more chance on him. I don't recall to many better options out there either at the time. He did play better this past year, just not good enough. Plus last March we didn't have JP waiting in the wings either. I thought it was a good trade, however that was based on my perception that Bledsoe was a great QB. I hadn't really scouting him or done any research. I don't know. Who else was available?

There is no cap hit. If he's cut, the bill's are free to sign him towhat deal is agreed upon. Likely less than his current deal. If somehow you were to obtain him in a trade, the Bill's would be responsible for his salary, but none of his signing bonus.

It would be tough though to get a draft pick as he was a owed a signing bonus on MARCH 2nd. So that meant the Bills had to trade him before that. Since other teams also know that, why trade with him as opposed to wait till after the 2nd when you know the Bills are going to cut him. Travis Henry is a bit different. If the Bill's don't get a good offer they can keep him, or atleast till some one makes a better offer. In the meantime, it's not costing the Bill's anything additional to wait.

The most amazing thing about it was back then it wasn't even on live TV. I recall watching the tape delay arounf 10:00 at night or so.

Part of his problem I think is the Bill's jerked him around somewhat. He was great as a rookie playing the #3 WR spot. After his rookie year, the Bill's made this mistake of moving him outside once PP was gone. Reed is a good slot guy, but was terrible in 03 when they moved him outside. This past year, he again started the year outside, went through mini-camp, training camp as outside guy. Season started he was still outside. 5 or 6 weeks into season, they switched to Lee Evens and finally moved him dow nth the 3rd WR. Then he got hurt and missed a month or so. Once he came back he was #3 guy, but thne was too late. I'd like to see the Bills give him one year where he plays entire year, including offseason penciled in as slot guy. Then lets see how he does before I'd totally give up on him.

So Denney has averaged 3 sacks a year for past two seasons?? I wonder what the average number of sacks is for all players? (including backups) I'd be surprised if it were much higher that that.

No that's not what you said. Your entire second paragraph was: "TD has some sort of public image disorder where he or his mistakes can never be portrayed in a bad way. In fact, surfing among us is someone in the Bills organization that reports directly to Tom letting him know what is being said on TBD and other internet websites. A little crazy if you ask me." Your whole post seemed to be aimed at this ego thing of TD which you or no one around has absolutley no facts to back up with other than pure speculation. Oh and of course Sullivan and Felser will agree with you. If TD's ego is as big as you say it is, why doesn't he have a couple of full pages on his accomplishments in the media guide? Why didn't he keep Bledsoe for another year as many here thought he would have? I realize boards like this are mainly for people to post things and argue back and forth. But at least post on "semi-tangable" things like who should start at QB or how much trade value Henry has. They instead start posts based on the fact that they must be mind readers as they know exactly what he's thinking and what goes into all of his decisions. PS: Based on the last two posts I just wrote on this thread, I must be that guy you're referring too!

No surprise, many in the media don't like TD mainly cause he doesn’t kiss the media's ass. He's given them some shots particularly last year, so many like Sullivan take every chance they can to dump on him, which just will cause TD to further treat Sullivan like he has the plague. It's funny too how many in the media who espouse this ego/paranoia theory aren't any of the regular beat writers. They instead are columnists who can write an article on the Bills once a week, then go hide and not have to really deal with the Bill’s on an every day basis.

I think once DB is officially released sometime next week, JP will have a press conference. I think they just wanted to let the dust settle first.

Considering the shortage of good QB's in the NFL, I think some team will sign him as their starter. I'd like to see him go to Baltimore only cause they have a good running back and a good OL. It would be a good test to see if some (or alot ) of his problem were related to the line he had in Buffalo as many people felt. If he can't succeed there, then he better give up.

Typically teams use a draft pick value chart when figuring trade value. If you go to the draft pick value chart, each pick is worth so many points. Typically they tell you that a pick in the following years draft is worth the same as the current years pick minus one round. Therefore the Bills gave up a first rounder in 05 one year ago. which turns out to be the 20th pick Since they gave it up a year in advance ,you'd use the value of the 20th pick in round 2 or 380 points. They also gave up the 14th pick in the 2nd and 5th round, each worth 440 and 35 points respectively. That totals 855 points. In turn they got Dallas 22nd pick in the first rount which was worth 780 points. So they lost 75 draft points. Considering the Bills were asking for the trade, the only way the other team is going to agree is is they get something positive in return, therefore 75 draft points isn't too bad for either team. Infact 75 points is about equal to ironically the 14th pick in the 4th round. So if you look at what the Bills gave up to make the trade, they lost the value of one mid fourth round pick. I'd be willing to bet that Dallas thought Buffalo's pick was going to be alot higher than it turned out. In fact if The Bills had won the last game and made the playoffs, I know at least St Louis and Seattle would have picked higher and I think one other team. Hence the Bills would have had the 25th pick which was worth 50 points less. All in all I think the trade was pretty even for both teams, considering the Bill's were the team pushing for the trade.

10-6, you're in the playoffs. Yes I think he'd be the starter next year. But again Drew proved when playing a good team, he stunk up the joint and that did him in. I was hoping he'd work out, but I agree, time to move on.

I agree with the guys you'd likely let go. I'd also let Reece go, but don't know off hand if that saves much $$ or not? No way would I give up a draft pick for Witherspoon. People seem to think Posey is terrible cause he doesn't get the stats that Spikes and Fletcher get. If Posey is our weak link defensively that we need to improve on, we're in great shape! If you want to bring a guy in as a backup LB fine, but no way I'd give up a draft pick to improve there. I agree we likely will need a replacement for Jennings if he leaves which I think he will. I also think you're way understating Teague's abilities. Another option too would be to move Teague back out to tackle and instead pick up a FA center which likely would come cheaper anyway. Then maybe also pick up a FA guard with the extra money Tight end improvement would help, though I thought Wiggens had a history of being injured alot??