Fake-Fat Sunny

From what I read and hear, the problems with piracy is just the tip of the iceberg because there are simply big problems make our pseudo-free market economic model (we call our model free-market, but it needs some significant restrictions on trading and commerce regulation in order to have the order our society wants- the US model of capitalism and free markets goes far beyond the caveat emptor model of a truly free market) match with a dictator controlled economy. The fact that this dictator controlled economy is in fact the largest group of potential consumers in the world makes for contradictions which will not allow us to claim that we are a pure free market. For example, China is not only the fastest growing economy in the world (and thus fastest froing consumer base) but it is the fastest growing consumer of oil products in what is essentially a two-stroke engine economy when you get out into the Chinese countryside where all these consumers are. Oil prices have spiked at over $50 a barrel and the uncertainty in supplies which has come along with President Bush leading the US away from looking primarily for terrorists like OBL and into beating the heck out of Iraq. Once you invade a country (particularly if you disbamd ots army which kept security in the ham-handed totalitarian way that Saddam ran this country into the ground, you own it. US occupation has made their oil supplies a targetin the ongoing war and not only resulted in it not reaching the market expected by an Administration which planned to be welcomed by dancing in the streets (unfortunately most of the dancers were killed when Bush-41 failed to support the Operation Desert Storm inspired rebellion against Saddam) but has destabilized access to much of the MidEast supply. However, the price rise due to destabilization of the MidEast actually pales in significance to the price rise caused by supply and demand. Yhe ultimate cause of higer oil prices (and the reason it is doubtful they will ever go down) is that we are now consuming every bit of oil produced. it is the economic growth surrounding 1.25 billion Chinamen which is really driving upo oil prices as demand goes up and up while the supply of proven reserves goes down. No one has figured out yet how to turn 1.25 billion victims of totalitarianism into 1.25 billion consumers. It looks like the whole exonomic system seems quite likely to change drastically as we know it and MicroSoft (like everyone else) has not figured out yet what the new form will be and how best to exploit it.

I think it is the case of neither of them raising their play to a level where he forced the team to play him a lot and rely on him, but I wouldn't say it was a case of both of them being failures so we are in big touble because neither took the job. In essence alot of this is driven by the decision by us (and much of the rest of the league) to play multiple DL players in waves rather than rely on a Bruce Smith like star who is in for almost all snaps. I think one outside sign of Krumrie/Gray feeling that he feels both Kelsay and Denny are satisfactory though neither is great is the fact that the Bills cut both Glidon and McKenzie. If we were down to grasping at straws. these two are the first straws and both were cut. In fact, the confidence in Kelsay and Denny seems high enough that we went without a #2 at RDE behind Schobel and the three of them are expected to rotate in these two slots. Our braintrist may be wrong, but they seem to view Kelsay and Denny's play in a positive light.

Haggan made the team because of his ST play makes sense because he sure didn't look great with his position play on Thrusday night in Detroit. The personnel that lines up as the ST starters will tell us alot as to why folks got cut and this endorsement of Haggan's ST play may us with some of the reason why the team was comvortable letting Dom Stevenson go.

The Bills are pretty much just looking to win and whether a guy is blue collar, white collar or no collar at all because he doesn't wear a shirt winning overshadows all problems except for ones involving the law and it overshadows some of them as well. The business prospers when the team wins so winning is a key there. Ralph is on the backside of his days on the planet so winning is the key for the sportsman as well. Certainly, the team has a better chance at winning with high character versus low character guys, but this is an added element to the baseline of being a good player which is where it all starts.

Generally the word seems to be that NFL players view TD and the Bills as pretty sqare shooters. The Brown case would seem to counter this thought, however, it does take more than one or two data points to create a trend. Weighing against shabby treatment or dishonesty with Brown is that in a number of fairly high-profile cases such as the Spikes contract, the Bledsoe renegotiation, the signing of NFLPA President Troy Vincent TD and the Bills are having positive words spoken about them by prominent players. The situation with Lawton definitely puts this issue on the watch list, but when teamed with positive talk backed up with some big $ to the aforementioned folks, it is way to ealy and to scant of info to draw any negative conclusions avout the Bills appeal to high-profile FAs. The key points here is that NFL players probably correctly view all teams as businesses who are out for their own interests rather than family or charitable insititutions so the Bills will need to burn a lot of people to suffer in comparison. In addition, the human nature of good athletes is that they also tend not to view how scrubs like Lawton or oft-injured players like Brown as setting a precedent for how they (by definition in the athlete's mind, god's gift to humanity) will be treated.

My understanding (which may be wrong in this fast changing CBA world so please correct me with a link to the actual rule if useful) is that in the case you mentioned, the B'gals were signing FA players who were not on anyone's roster rather than signing them off of the 'Skins PS. In order to sign a player off of another team's PS you must place them on your active roster. In this case, the B'gals were dealing with an unsigned player who was cut and the parties could agree to place them whereever they agreed to place them.

I don't know, how did Lawton grade out in the pre-season in the all important to football beating someone's ass stat.

I'd add a key question as to wether the Bills ST that showed up the first two games or the Bills ST which played in the last two games is going to show up? If the ST plays as poorly as it did againt Indy, both the O and the D can play well and it will not matter in terms of the game outcome.

I have seen a few posts from folks licking their salary cap chops and counting Prioleau's million dollar a year salary toward the cap and having him be cut as soon as Milloy is ready to return to action, Perhaps this may happen, but I would take into account a couple of factors before I start assuming it will turn out this way. 1. I believe (once again please correct me if I'm wrong but the CBA is too voluminous and is subject to constant amendment as the two parties fine tune it) that under the CBA after the second week of the season full season salaries are guaranteed even for players who are cut after two weeks. This makes sense because as teams sell their later game tickets and get their money in hand, but begin to fall out of the race, they could begin to save chunks of change by cutting expensive players unless they were on the hook for the money. Unless Milloy is ready to come back relatively quickly there will be no savings from cutting Prioleau's hefty salary. 2. Prioleau actually earned some dollars last year as one of our better performers on ST. It was PP who blocked the punt in the KC game one of the few difference maker plays we got from this unit. One of my favorite plays last season was on a punt return by Santana Moss in which Wire and Stevenson both took bad angles to tackle this great returner. Prioleau not only had the intelligence to stay in his lane on the punt (the lamented HomrRun Thriw-up) but the speed to come all the way across and down the field to save the TD. 3. We're even more worried about ST after the performance the last two games and the fact they cut their leading ST tackler Stevenson Sunday. I'd wait to see what role he plays on ST before I declare him a goner and start counting his salary toward the cap. We'll see.

My understanding is that after two weeks on the roster all the contracts are guaranteed for the full season. Thus, the thought that some have expressed that there will be big savings when Milloy comes back and Prioleau is cut may not materialize if Milloy is not available until the 3rd week of the season. Don't count on Prioleau being gone, particularly sense he was one of the players who really excelled on ST last year such as his blocked punt against KC and how he was smart enough to stay in his lane on a Jets return but quick enough to come all the way across the field with a TD saving tackle on Santana Moss.

Part of this is that rating Denny against the pass consists of two pieces of hia game. I like him when we the opponent calls a pass and Gray is in the run-blitz mode. In this case Denny is dropping back into pass coverage and merely by sticking is arms out wide there is a bunch of coverage by him on the left side which defends against quick passes, In addition, Denny has actually shown some good agility when he is in open space and some good hands as seen in his INT in the pre-season. He does not have the usual DE problem in the run[blitz of not being able to cover medium passes. The key for us making this work better is the LBs disguising their blitzes in this package. Unfortunately, I do shudder when the opponent calls a pass and we are in a mode where Denney is performing as a down lineman because he just does not get the rush that we need from a DE. In many ways Denny has a split personality in terms of his weakness/strength on pass plays. The second part of this problem os that many commentators are confused by this dual performance issue and view all passing situations and a players performance as the same. Its simply more complex than the conventional commentary on this issue.

I don't like it either, but it is testimony to the level of confidence that the Bills D braintrust has in McGee or Thomas to step up from being #3 and #4 at CB in unfortunately it proves necessary. Add in Jabari Greer who showed aganst Detroit that he can be burned deep like any corner, but I like him against another team's #4 or #5 WR if it comes to that in opposing empty-backfield sets and we suffer some injuries. After years of continually drafting VBs with our $1 like Thomas Smith and Winfield, its nice to feel some depth for us at CB where we can even consider the foolhardy route of using our #1 CB as a punt returner.

Gildon looked to me in the games like you could see the wear and tear of age which saw him drop to 6 sacks last year and got him cut so he was available to the Bills in the first place. There was one play against Detroit where Glidon was in pursuit of MacMahon (or maybe an RB) and he simply could not catch-up to the offensive guy he did a nice job in flushing. Hr reminded me alot of Robinson who the Bills had starting at LB for GW and folks like Pennington put the moves on him in a one-on-one for a TD. I had hopes that he had enough left to play the same role for the Bills of designated pass-rusher that Jim Jeffcoat (another guy in the twilight of his career) played for us but it didn't look like he was up to it to this outsider. This is a problem for the Bills as our pass rush has been so weak that the team needs answers. Right now in terms of scheme it seems to be the second year of using the run blitz and in terms of personnel looking for improvement from Kelsay and/or Denney which seem to be the best hopes. McKenzie actually impressed me more than Hlidon, but it seems that Ritzman impressed the braintrust more than McKenzie. Given that McKenzie at best is likely a third string talent this was not surprising to me. The same what if questions arise regarding the pass rush and neither McKenzie or Ritzman appear to be the answers. I think the ey thing here in this sport which unfortunately is a business is that the rookie was a cheaper comparable talent with potential (only potential which in my mind means he hasn't done anything) for development and he does not suffer under the same uncetainty that McKenzie's injury raised. Having not seen how much of a limp games caused him or knowing how much cortisone he needed to play even as well as he did, I can't see getting exercised about this cut. Simonton as said above showed well but not as well as Shaud Williams. Fast Greddy is back with the Bills on our PS abd this is a great place for him and his fumbles to be. Stevenson's cut was the big surprise for Bills fans particularly given some weak plays by our ST in the last two games after some good plays by the ST in the first two games. it would not surprise me if a review of the tape actually shows some the problems we had to have happened while Stevenson or Simonton were on the field or even worse may be directly traceable to bad plays by them/ I don't know because I have not gone back to review whatever the TV cameras gave us, but I do remember a couple of boners by Stevenson last year amidst some good work also by him leading the team in ST tackles.

Sammy is a class guy and I liked him as a player (I for one always advocated him as a better choice than Bryson for the Bills at RB), There are two problems here for the 'Phins however, 1. At 20-25 carries per game it is actually doubtful that Sammy would get over 1000 yards because it is doubtful that he will last much more than half the season with this level of use and abuse. 2, Ricky or Sammy, Sammy or Ricky? Hmmm? Is there really a choice here between whom you would be more afraid to face.

Devil Rays are marooned in FLA due ti the hurricane and word was the game was likely to be canceled.

I think this post is right on target, hits the nail on the head and other cliches of praise beyond you mentioning my new name! I think you are right on target that only 1 of TDs seasons can be honestly judged a failure on his part, Unfortunately for him in this what have you done for me lately league and world, it was the last one. I think the irony here though is that this failure as you point out was the failure of the coaches and GW and KG (along with Ruel) lost their jobs due to this failure, However, I think that their failure has to be a big part of assessment of TDs work, because to me his biggest mistake occured right after he arrived on the Bills scene because for 'never again' or whatever reasons he hired an HC who was not ready for primetime. I think this first should have become clear to fans in GW's first season when he took a marketing and motivational tack of declaring that the Bills goal his first year was to make the playoffs. I pointed out this was stupid in a louder and louder virtual voice as the 3-13 record stacked up. I was dosappointed (though I guess not surprised) that some folks defended him saying that there was nothing else he could say since admitting that 2001 was a rebui8lding year was unacceotable. I heartily agree that admitting the obvious of 2001 being a rebuilding year was not possible, but i also reject the notion that he only had two choices, either stupidly give-up or stupidly claim we were going to make the playoffs. If only he and TD had taken the Sabre-like stance of declaring the 2001 Bills the "hardest" working team in fiitbakk and they could have both motivated the TEAM by holding them to a high standard and disentangle claims of success from producing a good record they could not produce. I blame GW for this, but I blame TD for not picking a better HC. 2002 also saw a critical mistake that TG should be held accountable for in that it was pretty obvious to me (even a simpleton outsider) that HW was not up to winningthe game. I held out some hope once it became clear that TD was not going to pull the plug on his employment that he was setting things up so KG could be disciplined with the threat of moving former OC Les Steckel in to replace him. Alas and alack it never happened and we went 6-10.

Stevenson was active too many games last year to be eligible for the practice squad so today was a non-issue for him in terms of being a Bill. He got a lot of playing time and tackles last year (though I remember him missing a couple of important one such as in the Jets game where he and and Wire both took lousy angles tackling Sanatana Moss and he got a great return with Prioleau staying his lane initially but coming across the field to save the TD) but he certainly proved to be more of a favorite of the old ST regime than with Bobby April.

The more certain and authoritative sounding that fan's comments are about the quality of an individual OL guys play are, the less they should be believed. I love the fan insight provided on TSW so don;t get me wrong. However, I'm pretty clear about what my judgments on line play as one who fortunately/unfortunately devotes too much time to watching the NFL. I know enough about line play to say authoritatively that I know i don't know enough to draw intelligent conclusions. Unfortunately, I think it is also true of most comments on TSW that so and so lineman sucked and so and so lineman is great that most of these comments merely show how false the conclusions we often draw about lineplay appear to be all wrong. The key missing elements for me (and other fans) are: 1. I have no idea what blocking scheme is being called on given plays. A player may get pancaked by an opponent, but even this usually seeable piece of evidence may be heavily influenced or flat out cauesed by a failure of a different player than the one we saw pancaked. Was the olayer given the wrog blocking assignment by the center? Was our pancaked player actually responsible for another player and seeing someone was unblocked took him on from a bad position? Was the player who was pancaked beaten because he is a bad player and nothing can fix the problem, or is the problem fixable by some relatively small adjustment in how he applies leverage, adjusts to linecalls or whatever so that this overwhelmed player is suddenly playing like an All-Pro. We can see a lot and can potentially draw correct conclusions, but we can miss alot also because we have no idea what the OL as a group or the indidivual player was trying to do. 2. How is communication going in the trenches- The NFL has become so over-systematized (in my view) that it is now more critical in terms of production on the field that players are trying to do the same thing rather than how good an individual is. The key to good OL production on the field strikes me as good communication so that the whole is doing the same thing, rather than the individual parts doing their thing very well but they are all doing different things. An example of this was Kent Hull. No one mistook him for th biggest OL player going who could lift more weight or run faster than anyone else. However, he had the great ability to communicate effectively to everyone what they were supposed to be doing and also had shown great off-field leadership so that his linemates trusted him explicitly and woud not freelance even if they were good enough players to do it. It's easy for me to see how the Bills braintrust is a true believer in Teague if they make a judgment that he understands what is going on better than anyone else on the OL and he can communicate this into effectively to both sides of the OL. This can be true even if I saw him getting run over on occaision. 3. How well does a player multi-task- In the current NFL, i think this factor is what separate the good centers from the great ones. On a particular play, a center may be called upon to diagnose the D, communicate by voice and feel with the QB, communicate the linecall to the OL, do a fast accurate shotgun snap, and be ready to fight off the getting bigger DTs. I think Teague for example does these individual things well. His understanding of what is going on exceeds most players from the consistent testimony of thrid parties over multiple years, Drew is comfortable with the rapport he and Teague have built by what he says and more important by how he acts, his peers on the OL voice no complaints or dissatisfaction with what they are told to do, but seem to kick themselves (or look at each other quizzically as MW and Pucillo did on a couple of sacks last year) for not doing what they were told to do, and Teague's shotgun snaps were an adventure early in his career at center but seem to me have improved in their accuracy over time (allowing DB to get quicker reads because he isn't concentrating on catching a wayward snap. The last item is the Teague problem in that he does seem to get flattened by on rushing DTs or even pushed back into his QB too often. This does not happen all the time or on every play. Teague has been part of an OL that has ledthe way for some good TH production over the past two years so claims by posters that he is always outmanned on every play are simply false. However, my sense is that Teague is a player who has not mastered the good multi-tasking that a good center does and it shows from time to time. These are all things that I can have little clue about what is really happening on the OL and actually seem to be only the more timportant tips of the iceberg of what I don't know and I think the vast majority of posters and all outsiders do not know. Does this means we can draw no conclusions at all? No! We;re fans and we can draw any conclusions we want, offer them and defend them because that is what we do and this is how the system works. As far as the NFL and the Bills as a business it matters less what we say as long as we are saying something about the Bills around the water cooler. However, it is simply rediculous for any of us to expect that these conclusions are correct given the naby key things no outsider can know about a particular play. I think there are things we outsiders can see or know, or be told. MW had big time problems, missed OTAs, was overweight, was demoted on the depthc chart and missed practices with an injury which put him on the bicycle. There was still alot we didn't know which was crucial to drawing correct conclusions (how did the coaches feel about his problems? how did his peers feel about his problems? how did he feel about his problems?) but we all could see we were in trouble. We can ask questions, draw conclusions and say whatever. Just don't expect it to be correct. This all relates to the Sobieski cut as we do not really know what the heck happened here. We'll get a good nugget of info at 5pm today when the PS squad can be done. It may be true that Sobieski (who never really gave anyone any evidence on the field that he was the Bills center of the future) simply did not get over the many injuries he had. It may be that he is top notch at numerous individual skills but simply cannot multitask. TD may have made a judgement that if he cut McFarland he would be snapped right up, but if he cut Sobieski there would be enough confusion in our opponents that they would not risk signing him to their PS right away and after 5 we could do what we had to do to nail them both down. Who knows? We'll know more soon. All I do know is that Teague has been the unquestioned candidate in the real world for being the Bills center for head into 3 years now and across numerous different OL coaches. I know that there have been possible alternatives like Jennings, Koons, Sobieski and the FA wire and Teague has beaten them all back and in fact got an extension from the Bills (not a certain endorsement as Sulky's case shows. I have learned from my own wrong conclusions about how bad Dusty Ziegler was as a center that i really don't know enough to be certain about my conclusions. An examination of his resume made for the obvious conclusion that he was not good enough, but he ended up in an SB at center and that is what count.

The interesting stat to me here is Joe Burns rushing numbers. He sure earned his spot as the #3 back. He must be an ST demon.

On the contrary. It was my understanding that Centers took his cue from public comments by GW that Centers would remain a Bill as long as he wanted to rather than anything TD said to him. I'd be interested if you have a link to this quote or some site as to who quoted him as saying he got the word from TD he was staying around. My sense has been (perhaps mistakenly) that the whole sordid episode of Centers being cut was actually TD viewing GW as overstepping his bounds as HC and making a pronouncement of what the GM would do. At least part of this was TD slapping GW's hand for overstepping his authority.

Denney seemed much better than Kelsay on zone blitz plays where Denney huge wingspan comes into play when the DE drops back t cover short quick pass plays and he showed greater agility than I expected getting into medium pass coverage and pulling off plays like his INT in pre-season. Kelsay however looks a bit stronger to me holding his ground on running plays. Ithink this Genney better in pass pro and Kelsay better on run plays is why these two seem to grade out from what I here as being neck and neck. Pass rush however is really the bread and butter for LDEs and though both are definitely high motor guys, neither has really made a name for himself as someone an opposing OC needs to account for much less dounle team as a pass rush threat. Denny has come far since his rookie year where in his inability to bend down and get good leverage against more experienced blockers earned him a number of trips to the inactive list for the first 2/3 of the season. He has improved but still is not an imposing threat. I agree with the apparent decision of Krumrie and gray to make Kelsy number 1 DE on our deoth chart and what he needs to do when the real games start is to simply produce in terms of pressures and sacks. Overall, the D scheme this year seems to be one of playing the DL in waves so who starts is really much less of a question for the Bills after a couple of series, Kelsay will probably play more against teams that run a lot and Denney will probably play more against teams which pass a lot. The key here strikes me as Krumrie and Gray doing a good job of mixing of the play calls and the personnel so opposing teams cannot know everytime Denny is in here comes an LB on the blitz and every time Kelsay is in we;re goin with the standard 4-3. The question of who starts Denny or Kelsat us somewhat illusory to the bigger question of how do we run the D for maximum effectiveness.

There wpu;dn't seem to be much question in terms of these players and according to the latest post-cut depth chart put out by the Bills. LG: Smith, Tucker, or Pucillo? Smith is the guy here big time. WR: Reed or Evans? Reed is also the guy here big time and seems to be a favorite of the coaches as he gets KR responsibility as well. DE: Kelsay or Denney? Though there is some question in fans minds about wether either player is good enough Kelsay has won this battle in the coaches minds. Given the wave approach the Bills are taking and their decision to contiue using the zone-blitz a lot even post LeBeau we will see a lot of Denney given his wing span and some facilit he has shown in coverage FS & SS: Milloy is the starting SS, but he's hurt. Who's the starting FS and who covers for LM? Wire is the guy here, but the decision to keep rookie Baker as the FS back-up is made less risky by us having the more experienced Prioleau to go to if either guy is incapable of stepping in. Depending upon Wire who has played this position before (though his rookie decision making at SS was really bad) has some risk but we have an injury which forces this and their is a vet backing him up so its OK by me. Baker as a back-up is the usual rookie risk but again there is the vet back-up so it looks fine to me. KR/PR: McGee, Smith, Clements, who? This seems most questionable to me. Reed apparently has won the KR job but showed little here in terms of being a true threat opponents must gameplan for. McGee showed some potential to be a threat but he's been hurt and didn't win the job either. Clements is the appaent winner at PRm but one has to hold your breath everytime he makes a return due to fear of injury and a fumble in the last game. Smith who?

Reed is listed as the starting WR opposite Moulds on our depth chart. In three receiver sets because of Evans speed and the preference of Reed for the slot, i think he gets that duty when we go 3 WR.

I have also heard it said that on the good side he had incredibly soft hands and great speed for a behemoth his size, it was actually picking up the TE blocking duties which was part of his problems. On a team which plans to run alot and with a crowded TE position with TE Trafford making the team as an H-back, Peters was a goner for making the team. If he is not signed or does not defect to NYG or some team with fewer TEs he still may be a development guy on the expanded PS.

Do you have the figures comparing keepers from TD's draft to the stats for the rest of the NFL. nonnarb said (I think he was theorizing rather than stating this as a flat-ot stat that Buffalo under TD is in the top 10 in the NFL as far as draftees still being on the roster. From my sense this may well be true as I think the Bills generally under TD have a rep for being loyal to their own that other teams which treat players as replaceable commodities do not have. Teams can also hype this keeper figure by refusing to cut guys who should go, but the Bills have not demonstrated this as a commonality as folks like Brandon Spoon who easily could have been kept because he was a former starter popular with fans was let go. If one isgoing to make the claim that TD is a bad drafter, this may be true but it will need to be supporter with some #s not to be taken as mere opinion potentially driven by TD dislike.