macaroni

What would be interesting to see ....... and I'm too lazy to look for the info myself ... is a comparison of the 10 highest salaries for the Bills, and the 10 higest salaries for the Colts ......... I pick the Colts because THEY had cap room to sign Simon, when we didn't. I still don't believe that MWs contract is as crippling as we are making it out to be............ too high for sure ........ but not as high as the people drafted ahead of him ....... nor as high as the top 5 or six draftees every year since he was drafted ....... nor as high as some of the "stupid money" paid to "marquee" free agents since MW became a Bill.

If we aren't in cap hell ..... why didn't we sign Cory Simon??? Why do we think we can't resign Clements???? why can't we pick up an offesive lineman worth a crap???

either way would have been just fine ....... the point I am trying to make is we need a team of players playing to their talents and complimenting each other .... it doesn't really matter what their name is (other than we pay good damn money for their jerseys) as long as we fit the gameplan to the players ...... NOT try to fit a player to our gameplan.

No .... No .... No ...... It's not that the Bills are garbage without Sam ...... however they ARE garbage without Sam and a DT that compliments him. The D-line is also garbage WITH Sam, if you ask him to play a "style" he does not or can not play. It's kind of like the "old days" with Smith and Henson ........ Bruce was the out of control, hair on fire, go for broke sack machine ...... however .... he was a bit "soft" some may even say weak against the run. Phil on the other hand was great at sealing off the edge and closing down the running lane (allowing the LBs to "cheat" to cover up Bruce's "weakness". The tandom of Bruce and Phil played well together ........ one without the other (or at least another DE with the same "talent") wouldn't work nearly as well. Just picture if you will for a moment that back in the 90's we lost Phil, and didn't have someone strong enough to let the LBs "cheat" and Marve goes to Bruce and says .......... "Bruce, we don't want you to rush the passer anymore, the team needs you to establish your territory and stop the run." ............. Bad things man ..... there would be baaaad things happening at that meeting.

Higher than Manning????? Higher than Brees????? Higher than T.O.?????

But a point I've tried to make in another post is ...... Ted Washington was a great "plug the middle guy" ...... which allowed Pat Williams to collapse the center of the O-line ..... therefore we had a great DT tandem, Ted left .... and all of a sudden we had to ask Phat Pat to be a run stuffer ... he was OK, but not great at stuffing the run, and nobody was collapsing the pocket. We bring Sam-I-am in, and all of a sudden Sam collapses the pocket, while Pat stays at home, then Pat collapses the pocket while Sam stays at home, once again a great DT tandem. THEN we get rid of Pat, and ask Sam to stay at home to stuff the run .... that's not what he does, he's a pocket collapser ...... our DTs stink again. Soooooooo .... in my humble opinion MM wasn't "handed a steaming pile for DTs" we created this pile ....... we could have avoided it twice but we didn't

I know it's commonly stated that TD saved us from cap hell .... but it's also widely said we can't afford free agent (fill in the blank) ...... or we can't afford to resign (fill in the blank). Looking at our roster it doesn't seem that we have a cadre of high paid players .... I mean we're not paying for a Brees, Rivers, LT ..... or a Manning, Harrison, James ........ What I'm saying is if we add up our entire QB corps plus our recieving corps, AND running back corps ...... do they even equal a Manning ...... or a Farve ....... or a Brees + Rivers ...... or a T.O. + Westbrook + McNabb. It's been said the highest paid player on the team is Mike Williams (keeping away from the very valid argument of weather he deserves it or not) is his salary actually THAT HIGH that it's crippling our cap that bad?????

maybe ........ just MAYBE ...... the team would be better served if we let Sam be Sam, and built a defense around him, instead of pulling him and playing a scrub that is willing to play within the "defensive gameplan" even though it can't stop a run OR a pass. I want to like this coaching staff ..... I really really do ..... but until they learn to play to the rosters strength, rather than try and fit a bunch of square pegs into round holes, I have no faith in them.

IMHO ......... I DO think we may have an NFL caliber TE on the active roster ....... unfortunatly he is filling in at RT because we only have 1 NFL caliber tackle on the active roster ....... we might have had two, but one of them is trying (none too sucsessfully I may add) to fill in as a Guard because we only have one NFL quality guard on our active roster (and he is getting pretty old and banged up).

I was I was sorry to see him leave without a replacement plan ..... before that I was sorry to see Washington leave without a replacement plan (but we got lucky picking up Adams) ...... I was sorry to see Price leave without a suitable replacement (Josh Reed ....... ya right). I was sorry to see Henry leave without a good replacement (Willis can tout his abilities all he wants .... he still hasn't done as well as Travis behind an equally bad line). I'm also sorry to see Bledsoe gone without a viable replacement. Since we're talking specifically about DTs ...... Washington+Williams=good ....... Williams+scrub=bad ........ Williams+Adams=good ....... Adams+scrub=bad .... and to top this fieasco off .... the coaching staff is alienating Adams to the point he will most likely leave next year and we will be left with a DT tandem of Scrub+Scrub .... and I don't think I need to add that up for you. I guess quite a few of the aforementioned moves HAD to be made for one reason or another, so I'm not really bitching about the players leaving ..... what I AM upset about is the braintrust at One Bills drive have replaced the loses with the dregs of the NFL, or inexperianced rookies who up to this point can't play their way out of a paper bag ...... and it doesn't look like we have the coaching staff to help them.

The mere fact that Peters can even remotely considered as one of our five best linemen on the team just bothers me to no end.

My guess is the current talent level on the D-line ........ IMHO the defensive line has sucked no worse than the offensive line ...... and nobody questions the ability of McNally either. Again IMHO ....... Schobel is good, Adams is good as one of a tandem of DTs(however the second lineman needed to fill the other DT spot is missing) and that's pretty much all we have on the D-Line. As for the O-line ....... we have Gandy who is good, Villy who is OK to good (but starting to get long in the tooth), and that's pretty much it for talent. No great or exellent players on either line, just a couple of good players who are outnumbered by stiffs, underachievers, or inexperianced players.

Well ..................... at 3 - 7 so far exactly what does the Dolphins have to play for??? Far be it for me to defend a dolphin ...... but in this particular case his attitude may be warrented. The reason Wade was roasted for similar comments at the end of his tenure is that he said the team was out of the playoff picture when in fact it wasn't. If I remember correctly it was during a pregame interview when we were playing the Colts, who had either an equal or worse record than we had at that point ........ we tanked the game ...... the Colts won, and went on to win a spot in the playoffs.

I've been wondering the same thing ..... to the point that I've been searching web site injury reports ........ Mikes name is never mentioned ....... could it be purly his level of suckatude that has gotten him benched??? I do believe the NFL has rules about hiding injuries doesn't it???? If not the leaguge surely the players union would ensure the injury status of a player is made available.

1. Center 2. Left Guard 3. Right Tackle 4. Defensive Tackle (to play beside Sam Adams) 5. Defensive co-ordinator who can gameplan somesting other than a blitz package

THAT is what I don't understand .......... why couldn't we replace our injured/underachieving RT with a backup lineman who at least has been "in the system" for a while ......... even entertaining the thought that Peters could do well just being thrown into the position is stupid beyond words ........ not to even say a pretty telling comment on our O-line depth (or lack of it) ........ as well as a major disservice to Peters.

What bothers me most about our line situation (the O-line specifically) is that the brain trust at One Bills drive doesn't seem to have a clue as to what to do with the players we DO have. By all accounts McNally is one of the best line coaches in the business ..... but we are shuffling players in and out of position. What the heck would we have done if we were suffering injuries along the line to the scope of New England??? Sure we are a little "dinged up" (Williams and Villy) ...... but give me a break ........ we have an undrafted TE playing RT for us ..... we try to put our RT, who is supposidly too dinged up to play RT, into the LG spot because our LG has attained such a high level of suckatude. What this situation is telling me is that our starters aren't really that good ..... and we have absolutly no depth ...... we may as well cut our backups right now and save Ralph a few bucks because we sure are not going to use them. We have teams throughout the league loosing linemen .... plugging in backups .... and hardly missing a beat ........ have any other team had to resort to starting an undrafted TE????? We're so bad talent wise we can't even field a consistant starting lineup on the line even without any players suffering an injury bad enough to take him out of the game.

Like you said ........ the chargers stunk in 2003, but got better. The problem is the Bills also stunk in 2003 (and even well before that), and we are not only NOT getting better we seem to be getting worse. IMHO .... the average (sensible) Bills fan wouldn't mind a year or two or three of piss poor play as long as the team is recovering from "cap hell", rebuilding, changing directions, etc ....... what wears on us is a decade of piss poor play with no end in sight. Between the time the Bills were viable playoff contenders and now there have been quite a number of teams that have fallen from grace AND rebuilt themselves ...... some are even going around that merry-go-round for the second time, but we are still spinning our wheels.

How much relevance would having Cookie Gilchrist walking up and down our sideline have for todays Bills? I don't mean to say that todays players don't respect a teams history ...... but with todays free agency player movement you may be able to make a case that a teams history is pretty irrevelent to todays players. But IMHO ....... there would be a big BIG difference between honoring a reciently retired player that the current players may have seen play during their lifetime, and an "old fogey" they've never seen play ...... no matter how damn good he was. On a side note ........... wouldn't it be cool if a Bills linebacker comes flying out of the crowd when Allworth is accepting his honor and gives him a crushing mid field tackle breaking his ribs ........................ ahhhhhhhhhhh the memories.

Gee ............. I don't know ....... I think I side with the kid ..... was LT, Brees, Gates, et al even born when the powder blue unis were worn???? Why would the color of the uniform matter one way or another? As for Lance Allworth ........ the fact that Lincoln, Lowe, and Allworth were in town would strike fear in the hearts of us Bills fans 35 years ago, and they were a matter of pride for Chargers fans 35 years ago ....... but do the current players even know who he was ...... or care. While I do agree the unis, and tribute to Lance may fire up the fans a notch or two higher ....... but the task the Bills face in any "away game" does not change ..... move the ball and score early to take the fans out of the game.

104 ..................... but every carry will be called back due to the wide reciever holding on the other side of the field every time Willis touches the ball

I don't understand the issue ............... bottom line is, the team will start who ever they think will give them the best shot at a victory on any given week. I don't for a second believe that they have any doubts as to who will be our starter Sunday ..... they're just not telling ..... and why should they have to? I've never hidden the fact that I thought benching JP was the right move for the team to make when they did (as a matter of fact if I were the king of the world I would have done it a game sooner). However it is also my opinion that JP showed last week that he has finally gotten his head screwed on properly and is ready to restart his "learning process". As much as I would like to think that Kelly shouldn't lose his starting job due to injury ........ this situation is a bit different ...... JP was given what amounted to a "time out" to sit and ponder his future in the NFL or whatever ..... it looks like he used his time wisely, and is now ready to start playing. IMHO the reason we got Kelly was to take over if JP got hurt or started to falter ......... JP started to falter, Kelly came in and kept us within strinking distance of making the playoffs .... now JP seems to have demonstrated he can resume stronger than he started. As far as I'm concerned ..... end of story. With all that being said ........ it's just the opinion of a dunderheaded fan ..... my job does NOT hinge on the Bills won - loss record .......... the coaching staffs does ... they will play to win each and every game, and make their playing assignments accordingly ....... and they don't have to have their decisions apporved by us fans ..... they don't even have to inform us what those decisions are until Sunday.

DING ..... DING ..... DING ..... DING While I hope we win this game ...... and would be estatic to win the division (even at 7-9). The real thing we need to look for this game is for JP to either sustaine (or improve) on the accuracy of his passes from last week. For JP to start "stretching the field" instead of throwing the 1 and 2 yard passes we've been seeing all season. I think JP showed quite a bit of improvement last week, now he needs to show a little bit each and every week .... he needs to get comfortable with ALL of his recievers ..... he needs to gain increased confidence in his own abilities. While I was in favor of JP's benching ..... ih can become (or atleast SHOULD be able to become) a quality QB, he has had his rude awakening to the quality of the play in the NFL .... he just needs to step up his learning curve. Bottom line I guess ............ we very well may ...... hell we'll most likely lose the GAME pretty damn bad ........ but we very well may win the war by developing JP.

With Troy Vincent hurt ................. I'd like to be the first to propose plugging Mike Williams in at Safety for a "look see" ...... ya never know ....... could work

Any word on what's up with these two? Will we be starting the game with these guys on the bench, inactive or whatever???? Is Peters really so good at RT (and Williams so bad at LG) that he's "bumped" Williams to the bench. Was there ever any difinitive word on why Adams was inactive ...... injury ...... pissing contest with the coaches ..... winded?