BuffalothruMyVeins

That's interesting... my impression of Lawson was formed in 2013, and it is of him being a teriffic edge-setter, and I can imagine many times when a run was bottled up inside, the RB tried to bounce it outside, or there was a quick flare pass to the flat to the RB, or a screen attempted to be run on a quick pass to a slot WR, and with the play in front of him, Lawson was able to skillfully disengage from his blocker and make a sound open field tackle. I think it was this skill alone that allowed him to see the field at all, last year, as a DE. He is about 245-250 I think, and if he weren't great at that, he would have been a major liability against the run.

I don't want to come across as holy or any of that crap, because I think there are certain character blips you could overlook to take a chance on, like Darius' possession charge, but at the end of the day, I want a team of players that I wouldn't feel filthy rooting for. Now, does that mean an extra 3 wins per year I'd be sacrificing by not wanting certain "bad guys" on our team, or can we find comparable players who can be decent people off the field? Fred has been a great ambassador of Buffalo AND the Bills, so I have really liked our locker room makeup the last 4 years or so. But when we start switching out these guys for Rice, Harvin, I've not gotten a good personality vibe from Shady... It starts to feel gross to root for your team. They will always be your team, but up you just become a little less proud to admit that. Like with the Yankees, they're my team, but lately it's been gross to root for them. Giambi, Clemens, A-Rod... They are not guys who I would want to root for, to varying degrees, and maybe even love to hate if they were on a different team. I don't want the Bills to become that way, too.

Uhm, I think it's about the same deal where night practices require tickets, except for the wrinkle this year where the Browns come in for that Monday the 17th and Tuesday the 18th, which would generate more interest than average, so they made that a ticket practice, too. It makes sense. The ticket-required practices, though, are frustrating, because I drive from CNY, near Cooperstown, which is about 3 hours from SJF, so to get a ticket to get in requires I make a seperate trip to the area in advance, days earlier. I tried to just luck it out last year and got to Rochester and all the locations there were "sold out", so I had to call around to all locations, and ended up having to drive all the way out to Dewitt to a Sunoco across from the Brew Pub (my favorite wings)... definitely a high mileage trip.

Ok. Thanks for stopping by.

Forget about OL, I want Fred as and edge rusher doing this to Brady haha... Poorly Tommy might miss a photo shoot from all the bruising. I know the day is coming, and soon, for when Fred is not around anymore, but DAMN have I enjoyed Fred on this team. He's hands down my favorite Bill. You can't give more of what you have to a team than he has to Buffalo.

Uhm... Maybe lower than that. I would probably make us a 25-1 or 30-1 chance to win the Super Bowl... But if we go with Taylor, who is far more of an unknown, I would say it is much more like a 150-1. Not impossible, especially with the vaugeities of the phrase "lead the Bills to the Super Bowl", and whether that would mean he would start only 2 games in the season and get the playoff starts due to injuries to the QBs ahead of him on the depth chart, or if that means he comes out of TC as the starter and starts all 16 games, leads us to a 12-4 record, and carries us through the playoffs... Now we're getting unlikelier. Depends. Did EJ make "the next step" and play at a pro bowl level, something around 30-12 TD-int, for 3,600 yards? Or did he game manage, and just not screw up, and we just won on dominating running game, and strong defense? Also, did Taylor come in and really light up playoff teams on his run, or game manage and fluke his way into wins? I say, if everything's the same, we keep EJ and trade Taylor for what we can. Would have to be a market for last year's super bowl winning QB, and we already have our QB of the future here.

Couldn't feel more fitting. So, they signed Chandler and now Davis to add with Gronk and Hoho...ah...manna.manooie...? Decent stable of TEs, I wonder if someone might kick available as a roster cut-down guy? Didnt like to see Chandler go, couldn't see him coming back if he waa cut, but I would like it.

Brady made his bed, now he must lie in it, and swallow whatever reprocussions he has warranted. Yes, I would love to was him 55-0 in week 2, but I will not apologize for beating a Brady-less Pats team. We play who is on the field in our way, and 1 win counts for 1 win. Who knows if he has been cheating during our games in the past (many of our teams from 2004-2012 were so weak, he wouldn't have even had to), but if he cheated and got away with it, we won't be getting any sort of benefit of the doubt or their previous wins won't be degraded by cheating. Therefore the losses that they face without Brady won't be though of as less, as that is justice balancing itself out, and Tommy Boy paying the piper. Aww, that's adorable... Tommy Boy wants a level playing field NOW to try to defend himself after benefitting from cheating several times. Get lost.

Actually, this method only works if you truly know who the most talented player is after the 1st round, and take him with hindsight-type accuracy. Because in your example, we would have gotten Brock Osweiler ahead of Wilson, as he was taken a half round before Wilson.

I wished we would have gotten Manion, as I like him and think he'll be effective at times in the league, but with him going late in the 3rd, that means we would have not drafted Darby or Miller. I said days before the draft that I thought we would, and should, go CB with our first pick (TOLD YA!) and we needed the guard pick, obviously, so it couldn't have been changed.

Not a stretch at all, he played some safety last year, and he is a 9th year CB, so it's COMMON for CBs to transition to Safety at that age. With the two CB positions likely already filled, and one of the safety spots experiencing weakness unless Donnie Henderson really coaches up Duke, Meeks, or Rambo, it would actually FORCE Graham to Safety. And look at the Bills' upcoming free agents, and the money we need to free up to keep (Cordy, Darius, Gilmore and Bradham), and players like McKelvin will find himself priced way off the Bills' roster, as Whaley said the middle class will suffer, at the pre draft PC. So, that thins out CB. I would rather bring in a guy from a strong CB class and give him a year under Henderson before he's needed next year. We can get fair production from a June 1st cut OLor 3rd rounder, but a guy who can be a top 2 perimeter CB, which we will need in 2016 to keep our pass rush effective and make the big money we just spent on Kyle and Hughes, and are about to spend on Darius, worth it.

We have Harvin who can stand in if Woods goes down, or, in a pinch, Hogan. I'm starting to feel like we should go CB with our 2nd rounder. McKelvin is a likely cap cut next offseason, Graham will be another year older and be a safety at that point, Gilmore would be PAID, which players have a possibility to regress afterwards, and beyond those two, we have underwhelming depth. I'm a fan of Robey, but not on the perimeter. Rex loves CBs, and I think our MAJOR needs, OL, can be addressed in the 3rd as it's a deep year, or by a June 1st veteran cut.

Ene?

It's so nice to not have Keith Ellison be our best linebacker, and undrafted guys start for us.

Ronnie Harmon was a little before my time, as I waa born in 84 and the first game I ever saw was the 3rd super bowl... when Beebee knocked that ball out of Leon Lett's showboating hand, I became a bills fan for life. So, in my "lifetime" Maybin is definately THE most hated Bills player, AND THEN OJ, I guess, for that naughty stuff he did. That's how hated Maybin is. Conversely, one of the main reasons I like Wood so much is for when he called out Maybin about owing the team money, after his ****ty first season.

That would be pretty awesome if it was Fitz the whole time.. quick, someone check his old posts and see if his sig mentioned something about going to Harvard! Dad he ever brag about posting while still wearing his wedding ring? One of my favorite good-guy Bills players ever.

I hope not, I want to play the Pats early, before they win their 8 in a row, that they always do, after the first quarter of the season. And that's not even factoring in us playing them without their starting RB Blount, because of the suspension.

Eh, I feel like here and there, in the recent past, we've done okay picking late rounds, as our roster was so easy to crack from a lack of talent perspective. Stevie, a 7th rounder, hung around on the roster for like 3 years before he even had his breakout season in 2010. There a few other examples... But yes, I do trust Whaley to make more Seantrel Henderson picks than Tank Carder picks.

I'll believe "sitting pretty" when I see it. I'll just settle for "playing league-average offense" to go with our top-3 defense. We have only been there once in the last 10 years. "Sitting pretty" implies above that, and don't get your hopes up.

No, not most. Yes, I like Watkins and Woods, and though I didn't like the money we gave Harvin, he is talented. But Harvin is not a #1 WR on all but probably 4 teams, and Woods is not a #1 on every team except for probably 7. We do not have 3- #1WRs, we have a #1 in Watkins, and 2- #2WRs.

Define "anything". If you mean "playing football", I'm pretty sure they haven't even done that much in the last 15 years.

I don't think that would really make sense, as the St. John fisher already accomplished their goals of being closer to the Syracuse market, doing some things in Cortland wouldn't outweigh the negatives, and Cortland, I don't think, is a big enough market to desire. Would they try to increase their draw in Binghamton by doing part of their time in Cortland? Wouldn't make sense, as their reward couldn't mean many more increased ticket sales from so far away.

Speaking of CBs, I'm a big fan of Robey (in a strictly nickel-slot CB role), and I hope it's on Whaley's mind to tie him up long-term. Something economical, nothing big money, but after this coming season he is a RFA. Surely, they will tender him, and he'll play for about 1.5 million in 2016, but if we could tender him and then offer him, say, a 3 year, $8-9 million deal, I think that would be a real sharp move. He was excellent in 2013 as a slot corner/ occasional edge rusher, pretty good last year in a very different system, and I'm sure will be very good again this coming year in Rex's system. I know he has his limitations (a real liability on the perimeter, doesn't seem to have very good hands), but if kept in his role, he is a real asset for us, going forward, and we never even spent a draft pick on him. Plus, we can afford to pay him, as either Cockrell or a draft pick in the next year or 2 will likely be the starting perimeter CB opposite the now well paid Gilmore, and Cockrell or that draft pick will be on their rookie deal through Robey's projected contract, so it's not like we're paying 3 CBs starter money (I see Corey Graham playing a lot more Safety in Searcy's place, and either at the end of this season, or the 2016 season, being a salary cap cut, which knocks another 4.5 million off the books... Not saying I want it, I just see that happening, if he plays anything at a lower level than he did last year).

I think we need to establish what exactly "panning out" means. It's not a 1 or a zero, he's not always a zero until he's suddenly a 1 and then he panned out. I'm optimistic/ hopeful about him, but he will never be a "franchise guy" in the terms that there are only 6 or 8 in the league... If by "panning out", we're talking about learning enough of an offense tailored to his strengths and minimizing his weaknesses, and being a supporting part of a winning team, than yes, I think we can get to that point. Especially with the offensive coaching staff. I would be more interested in Whaley saying he wishes a clean slate for EJ with the new coaching staff than with Bryce Brown. We have a stable of viable options at RB, with probably 4 other guys we could either sign in FA, or draft, to give comparable results as Brown if he were to be cut, but I think EJ is uniquely talented, and I wish would get a good hard look by the new coaches, and not treated like a 3rd year middling unsuccessful QB that if hou only looked at his stats, would imply, but amid mitigating circumstances.

Norway has always tended to kick a little to the right, haven't they?