Fake-Fat Sunny

I doubt it. matthews did better than expected but he is no #2. The waiver wire beckons. Tim Couch anyone?

No, of course we aren't safe. We had Losman pegged as out disaster QB with potential aspirations for #2 and Brown pegged as our #2 and both were knocked out by injury. Not bad planning simply bad luck. Matthews gave us the flexibility with his performance to give up on Brown, but we are looking heavily at the waiver wire to answer a clear need. Are you comfortable with Shane Matthews being a heartbeat away from starting. i think not!

This is easy. We signed hom to check him out to see if he had enough left at the end of a great career to strap it on in a reduced role as a designated pass rusher. He didn't, we cut him and it only cost us 100K on the cap to do this. The real mistake would have been doing something like GW (and thus TD) did with Robinson where even though he didn't have enough gas in the tank after his dlory days with GW and Gray we not only kept him but made him a starter. I do not see bringing him for 100K as a problem at all. Keeping him and relying upon him when it looked me in a couple of plays like he didn't have enough left would have been a big problem.

I also doubt Baker survives being signed by the rest of the league to make it on the PS and Williams as well. I like Prioleau, but he costs a lot of salary to be as low as he is on the depth chart so I probably keep the cheaper Baker at CB and plan/hope for non-injury at safety this year because I know Vincentis headed to this position next year. I also like Shaud Williams upside more than Simonton (and even Burns). I'm very upset if I have to go 3 deep at RB, but given the injury history of Henry and McGahee, I don't think I will but will not be shocked if I do. I like what I have seen from Williams as a potential threat to be a difference-maker. Burns is more than serviceable but i do not see a lot of potential in him to be a difference-maker. I see Bannan as a potential surprise cut, because I think the braintrust have used Edwards more like they want him to suceed and he has in a back-up role though he is still not starter material in my book. Bannan showed well initially but he is not starter material either. Either way I see a big drop-off in talent from our starters Adams and Williams to the second string. Thanks for your and Thailog's lists.

Many thanks! Do you have links to sites for short pithy answers (which you graciously provide and thank for that)? I have the full text of the CBA but really dread taking the time to look through all the amendments to find the correct answers to questions. Thanks again.

I think it is more than fair to measure TD based on 17-31 record because like it or not, the fact is it happened on his watch. That being said, it is also intelligent to take into account everything that happened to create this record in making the different decision of whether you keep him or not. I think the 3-13 his first year in total was actually a necessary thing and ultimately a good thing because it happened in conjunction with TD doing some necessary housecleaning of left-overs from the Butler day. The Bill might have upped their 3-13 record to 6-10 if TD had gone a bit more slowly in cutting the Butler drive losses and held on to a few aging former pro Bowlers Butler signed to cadillac contracts. However, TD didn't do this and cut talent to get out of cap hell. As it turned out we got out of cap hell much sooner than expected. The team's performance turned around with a .500 record his second year thanks to some additional innovative work to get better players. The 3-13 record should not be forgotten and heavily taken into account because it was part of a positive story for TD as long as he turned the rcord around. Likewise the 6-10 record last year should be heavily taken into account because his thrid year was when one reasonably should see the turnaround really payoff (as it did in Carolina). Here I think the Cowher events came back to haunt us big time as in my mind TDs HC hiring decision of GW was driven by the very human and understandable drive of TD saying 'never again' in terms of getting vanned by a guy he hired. GW was simply a bad hire by TD. I see this as true not because GW was a bad guy (he was and is a D genius and he exited the Buffalo scene with as much grace as a failure at HC can muster- he was rewarded for this with getting more $ to DC for the Skins). This was true in my mind because TD did not hire someone who was probably good that he might not be able to control (Marvin Lewis and probably Fox in terms of how he and TD hit it off). Instead he hired GW who might be good but TD could definitely control. As it turned out GW was not up to taking on the full duties of the HC wel enough ti succeed. Even worse, TD seemed to deal with this not by helping GW do a better job by forcefully over-ridding GW when he disagreed with his choices, but instead giving GW room to fail with his choices and then blaming GW for those failures by firing him. It is legit for TD to hold GW accountable for hiring his staff as a rookie HC and this staff proved not to have enough exeperience. It is legit for TD to hold GW accountable and ultimately to fire him for never really getting the O to be productive. However, as a Bills fan I wish that TD had been a little bit more heavy-handed in pushing for his choice Clements as the replacement OC for the not-ready for primetime GW choice Sheppard. Gilbride was a good political chice by GW as how could TD say no to guy he hired before. However, it is now obvious (and it was actually obvious after the 2002 season when DCs began to catch-up to the KG game once they got a little game tape to watch) that KG was a bad choice and TD wanted someone different. Rather than allowing GW to make his own bed and then correctly fire him if he did not produce good results, I would have rather seen TD be a GM and get theguys hired he though could do the best job (Clements rather than KG, maube Clements will suck as an OC as well, but KG certainly did). I fault TD for hiring GW who was more of a good administrative assistant with his lists, flowcharts and contacts than a good HC. Both Fox and Lewis who were both available with no competition as we had the last HC opening that season proved to be far more successful HCs in terms of their records (the situations were different, but the records of achievement over their HC careers are obviously different as well). This might have been OK if TD hadn't made a second error I think he can be reasonably faulted upon by this outside observer. if you arew going to hire a great potential AA rather than a great potential HC then treat him like an AA rather than as an HC. If the TEAM was going to succeed, TD did not need to allow GW to make his own bed to be judged, but insted he needed to exert his own strong hand and make sure the bed was made well. I think TD can be faulted for: 1. Not forcing the hiring of Clements over KG as he apparently wanted to do. 2. Not forcing the use of former OC Stessel as OC and firing KG when he was obviously pass-happy and ran a poor O. 3. Actually stevetojan-canning GWs second choice as OC would have undercut him anyway, but you ended up firing GW anyway so what. The smart thing to do would have been to can GW after two seasons when even I could see he was not up to the job. 4. Identifying up front that GW was making a bad move hiring his buddy Vinklarek to be OL coach when he had no experience at the position. The hiring of JMac shows you know how important the position is and why a not-ready-for-primetime guy such as Ruel was allowed to be hired to replace Vinky simply seems bizarre. 5. Really going in a different direction with ST under GW than using his buddy whathisname who was the best of the co-ordinators hired by GW but did not produce satisfactory results. This is a particularly weird area because TD clearly realized GW's weakness in hiring lieutenants as he forced/oversaw the firing of Sheppard. He participated strongly in the supplementing of Gray with LeBeau. he provided ready recourse for KG by bringing on Stessel though the trigger was never pulled onthis replacement. As it turned out, Gray proved to be a good lieutenant who mastered the LeBeau D by doing great playcalling with it last season. Further, i think he has shown good ability to adjust not only on the fly in games but in making longer-term adjustments during the bye week and over the season. He has gained the permission of the D players to discipline them which is crucial in this age of partnership between the NFL and NFLPA. However, in the end, this is TD's team and he really needed to put/cajole/force his mark on it rather than hiring an HC who was not up to the job and then letting him make his own bed so that he could fire him if he failed and the HC could not successfully fire him if he succeded. I think TD can certainly be faulted but mostly not for putting his neck on the line to succeed or not succeed. As it stands, he gets one mulligan and GW was it. So far so-good with MM, but if he fails then TDs neck is clearly on the line with this hire in my book.

My understanding of the rules is that an injury settlement for TB means that we cannot pick him sign him and activiate him again until game 10. This doesn't bother me because I had no faith in TB being the answer to out back-up QB issues this year anyway unless he showed me more (which actually he was beginning to do). However, if he is unavailable until game 10, to me this means wait 'til next year as part of the Bills plans (barring another huge round of Bills QB injuries) and as far as next year there should be some other option like a Vlek or Kordell who works out by next year if we are searching for a back-up. The inury settlement route with TB strikes me as writing him off and saying goodbye and it does not appear the braintrust is ready to do that and actually seems to hope TB recovery will allow him back soon after the bye. Matthews showed well, but unfortunately I do not see him as the answer at #2 either. One game maybe, but the 3 games providing a reasonable chance to win I think we want from out #2 (playing the Frank Reich role) I doubt it. he almost spent the season at home on his couch for a reason.

This occurence strikes me as less of a conspiracy to hide Evans and more of a plan to work on more needed areas first. The emphasis of the Bills O (in no particular order since I'm sure there is sharp debate among fans as to what;s most important) are things like: 1. Get Bledsoe and the QBs to throw quick 2. Deal with the unplanned injuries to Losman and Brown. 3. Get WM taking some hits 4. Deal with the injury to TH 5. Build chemistry with the OL 6. Deal with the massive disruptions to the OL from injuries and idiocy. 7. Get Moulds up to snuff. 8. Test Reed. All these things mitigate concentrating on developing Evans in games and there are enough issues that it is not surprising to me that the game situation never called for going to Evans deep. As far as Glidon, his usage does strike me as odd since he has not shown enough to the outside observer in terms oclosing speed when he is in there to make me comfortable with sitting on his performance because I know what he can do. I hope I am wrong, but Glidon looks like age has caught up with him in my book and if his play at Lb is areplay of GW's Robinson foray, I'm sorry but he should be cut.

My understanding is that a team cannot outbid another team in terms of salary for a practice squad player. The amount of payment is set on a per game basis at a few thousand K per game (as opposed to the annual minimum which is a few hundred thousand K per season) and is part of the salary cap total. If teams were allowed to outbid each other for practice squad players, competition for prospects would slowly but surely move these salaries through the roof. Teams can "outbid" each other in terms of the amount they suck up to players and demonstate that deveopment on their squad represents the better chance a player has to eventually make it. I could see how Peters (dumb as dirt as he apparently is) would actually have a better chance of eventually making it on some other squad than the Bills. In Buffalo he will have to beat out Campbell (NFL vet and starter), Neufeld (NFL vet and proven H-back and potential long-snapper) and Euhus (Moderate draft pick) to merely make the squad and even after that MM has said good things about Trafford being an NFL quality player. Peters offers some definite upside in terms of his size and hands but his contribution does not appear immediate and their maybe weaker competition to deal with with NYG rather than here. It is also my understanding (correct me please if I am wrong about the voluminous and often changing CBA rules) that a player cannot qualify for the PS after making the roster and that a PS player can only be stolen from the team that signed him if his new team gives him a roster spot right away.

One might claim that Willis looked faster in his previous runs in pro games, but he has never played a pro game. One might say he looked faster running against college players at MI, but we all know the difference between running against college talent and running against pro talent and he last ran the ball in a college game which counted over a year and a half ago. Reality simply say let's see him run in a real game before certainly before we make any conclusions and even before we declare any solid trends beyind he strapped it on, took a hit and played. Just about anything else is irrationally premature.

Leaving out the results of his first year draft which by most regards has been very good and trying to judge him based on results from the second two years when most credible observers feel credible judgments cannot be made until after 3 years of play (Moulds for example would have been judged a bust after his first twi years results) is simply flat out wrong.

I like Wire as an athlete and as a player, but i would go so far as to not only NOT want to call his first pro year at SS "very solid" but would not even want to refer to it as commendable. I do think that Wire was spirited and plucky to take a good run a playing a position he had never played at any level of organize ball before. However, i find nothing commendable about the Bills in essence being forced to start him at SS because GW apparently totally miscaluclated how much Jenkins (his former player initially slated to start at SS) had left as a player. When he proved unable to be even a credible starter, the Bills were forced out of what been a tough but commendable idea of bringing Wire along slowly as a back-up SS to the foolish idea of starting him. he is a tough guy and a plucky hitter and tackler, but he simply did not have good enough command of the position and was a rookie in the NFL so his pass coverage decisions were a complete adventure his rookie year. Bill Belicheck saved our bacon by miscalculating the Milloy situation after our 2003 plan A (Cota) and Plan B both agreed to play and then retired. I think Wire's development has been really mismanged by the Bills who had slotted him to play his third position in three years. He actually has lucked out with the Milloy injury in that it at least looks like he will get to continue his SS education.

Exactly

I also really doubt the anti-Bills conspiracy angle. I just don't think we are that important to the powers that be that they would run the huge risks to their making money hand over fist to actively get a bunch of people (someone would talk because there would be profit for them in doing that) to hose the Bills. What is more likely is not that the refs are out to get the Bills, but that the refs routinely and without conspiring give the showboats and glory guys in the league a break. Nothing succeeds like success and I think that refs are unlikely to make every marginal call against a Parcells or Belicheck led team because they are so good. Michael Jordan received the benefit of this effect in the NBA from refs for years as a call that would be traveling against a rookie or less accomplished player was deemed common place on his part. I do think the Bills get more than their share of calls against them, but this can be reversed by us being a success. In the glory days of the K-Gun, I think there were lots of marginal calls for not being set long enough which we got away with because the it was typical of the K-Gun to run things close to the edge in this hurry-up offense, everyone was struggling to catch up and it produced so darn well. Human beings love conspiracy theories because they at least give the feel of someone being in control and keeps the focus of activity on ME, but life i think is a lot more random than that and we're really not that important that it takes a conspiracy to hold us down.

There seem to be three points of view here: 1. TD is a god and the 2 TDs and heavy work in place of a nicked TH shows this choice to be a good one. 2. Wait and see because there is a history shown by James of a stud needing 2 years after the injury to reach 1000 yard/annually form, and 3. WM is a bust TD should have picked someone else (Steinbach seems to be the only relevant alternative as the consensus other choice kelsay was actually obtained by the Bills). As usual, the middle ground seems to be the far more reasonable way to go. 1. WM has shown durability and recovery from his horrendous injury, but has not run like a first round picj and the calls to trade TH this year were just stupid, 2. It really is pretty amazing to see the level of recovery WM has shown in terms of his use and production at this point. I think even without injury few saw him as a workhorse feature back, but he has been productive in this short-yardage role. The burst which brought him fame has not emerged so far and may never come back if we're unlucky, but it is way to early to expect this give the history of other recoveries. 3. Declaring him a bust seems pretty outlandish also. Comparing Williams performance against 2nd and 3rd stringers to WM's performance against starters is simply a ludicrous comparison. Some claim that the standard WM has to achieve is what do you expect from a 1st rounder. Reasonable, but my expectations from a #21 are not my expectations from a #5. WM needed a year before he contributed at all, but if he never recovers the burst and merely remains developing into a workhorse capable of starting at the 4 yards and a cloud of astroturf level this is what a #21 can produce. TD gets big points actually because if he picked Kelsay as our #1 given our DL needs he probably would have been given credit for not trading up knowing that a reasonable pick would fall to #21 at a position of need. Instead he read the tea-leaves and saw that the run on DL would allow him to fall into the 2nd round. The other factor to consider in evaluating TD's use of the 1st rounder that year was that he actually used it to get Bledsoe (great his first year, stinky his second year) and actually made another non-conventional move when he transition tagged PP and turned the nothing which we were owed by rule for an FA into the #21 (or was it #23 I can't remember exactly) pick. TD has made a couple of very good non-conventional moves picking a #5 or better case in the 20s and using the #1 to get Bledsoe and then turning the nothing for losing PP into something. The jury is still out on a lot of this this season. If Bledsoe career is revived the way Clements/MM revived Kordella and Maddox, AND WM recovers his burst on an Edggering like schedule his moves were genius. If Bledsoe is done and WM never recovers, he made a high stakes bet and lost. However, I think a rational judgment of all of this is not yet, but so far so good. Trading the Bills first rounder in in 2003 for Bledsoe added an excitement to football in this area that even with Bledsoe's stinky play last year still appears like it will result in us selling out 7 or potentially 8 of the home games this year. WM is producing at a level after a year's recovery which is not there yet, but still on track with the history and even at this level without the burst is what a late first round pick at RB can do for a team. I wouldn't panic about this one yet.

Your're right, Kelly seems to have rejected being a sniveling little weenie Democrat to be a sniveling little weenie Republican. Speaking as the raging moderate that I think I am, the level of leadership of both parties really jas me worried. It seems a shame that what our country has to choose from is John Kerry who really does seem to alter his pronouncements based on his too clever by half assessments of the politically smart place to be at the time and President Bush who presented himself in 2000 as a uniter rather than a divider, proceeded to win the election in electoral college while losing the popular vote and then proceeded to govern in a divisive manner. It's great that he is decisive and consistent. i just wish he would make correct decisions consistently. His Dad did a much better job forming a coalition to do a shared battle in the Mideast and then made a good choice to not send US troops to conquer Baghdad when he easily could have because he recognized that even the great coalition he created would have to sacrifice to much to win the peace after Saddam was crushed. I really have to shake my head and hope for the best when George Bush the lesser relied on our troops to win an impressive battle booting Saddam out, but then let our troops down by joining the world in completely misjudging the threat Saddam provided to the US and losing 1000+ US troops in post-war iraq as he failed to create near the coalition his Dad did. I agree that John Kerry probably doesn't have the answers, I just don't make the mistake of assuming because Kerry is an idiot then Bush is smart. Jim Kelly, boy he was great football player.

Kelly obviously brings the same intellect to his political choices that he brought to his storied career as a small businessman running his restaurant in downtown Buffalo and his plane flying skills on one of his hunting trips. Given my choice, I'm glad he was a great QB.

Campbell is a keeper and Neufeld won himself a TE job, also has H-back potential and may even been the long snapper. Euhus is a moderately high draft pick who has generally caught what is throw at him so he will almost certainly stay. However, in addition to these 3 likelies, MM has waxed poetic about Trafford belonging in the NFL and he did nothing to hurt himself with a couple of catches and a nice run tonight. These are the 4 potential TEs. Myself, I also think Trafford is good but I'd risk cutting him and resigning him, to the expanded PS. My guess is this is the plan and MM was simply sucjing up to him with his words so he won't leave for greemer pastures when we cut him. Since most teams do not use the TE much in their Os, I doubt there will be great call for him to be a roster player somewhere else. Pf so, i'd just wish him good luck with his NFL career elsewhere.

Glidon actually reminded me tonight of GW's LB Robinson. A bright vet who understands a lot of the plays and what's going on, but at his advanced age for a player simply does not have the wheels and agility anymore to make plays he sees need to be made. We may need a back-up LB and if so we keep him, but I have been impressed with effort and production McKenzie has shown as a designated [ass rusher. In the end what they showed the coaches in practice will and should make the difference.

Bryant's selfishness in my mind wouldn't stem from a decision by him not to pay, but from a decision by him to extend the episode he is putting his wife and family through by sicking to his guns and maintaing his innocence of rape. I don't think from what I've heard that he is a criminal either. However, because of his selfishness leading him not to be able to keep his pants zipped, he is an admitted adulterer and that is how he punished his wife and family trying to satisfy his own childish needs. Certainly bryant should hold out against extraordinary extortion attempts, particularly if he is innocent of the crime. However, he certainly seems guilty of abuse of the trust of his wife and his family. I think this transgression actually balances any moral claim he would make to not pay out more dollars. He already will bear the costs of the lawyers necessary to fight this woman's claims even if they are false regarding the abuse. However, he created this problem by steping out on his wife which he admitted doing. In my mind, moral claims on his part went out the window and we're only arguing about the price of his transgression. I think he should payoff to make this go away to the extent that the cost of paying his lawyers. If his lawyers are going to charge him half a million to defend his honor (if any?) the nhe should regretfully but definitely pay out up to a half a million to stop the torture of his wife and family now.

I think there is a clear distinction between the questions of rooting for the "Dream" Team or their opponent and rooting for the Taliban or the US. One of the sad effects of the war against terrorism was that it reminded us all that when we refer to athletes as "warriors" or use military terms for sports, or when we even talk about the "sacrifices" than a pro athlete makes that we are actually devaluing these words because US troops are real warriors making real sacrifices and protecting us through serving in the military. In the end, sports are entertainment and not about our way of life. Certainly, the US dominance in sports is driven by the fact that our way of life has produced so much money for us. Our well-fed athletes and the resources we can devote to the leisure activities of training, medical surgery and unfortunately performance enhancing drugs is why we are often #1 in sports. However, achievement in sports is no sacrifice at all compared to the sacrifices which are made for you and me on the battlefield. I think this is the message of Pat Tillman. Sports are entertainment rather than a showing of our way of life. Even the highest level of sports was not enough for him and he chose another course and unfortunately paid the highest price for it. I am grateful to him because of what he chose to do whether he died for it or not. I do not view the contributions of an athlete representing my country as anywhere near the contribution he made as a soldier. In the end, sports are simply entertainment to me.

I think you are right on target. Given the inury problems we have had, I think we carry 10 linemen. I'd throw McFarland who has mostly showed how much he has to learn into the mix with Pucillo and Sullivan to keep 2 of these 3. My guess is that actually both Pucillo and Sullivan stay because mcFarland can make the PS. If we judge Espositio as better PS material we will have to see.

If I were Kobe, I'd say my desires were to live life with my kid and wife and my Mom and Dad, and to win championships playing basketball as this game brings me lots of dollars so i can enjoy life with my family. If I have to make a financial payoff to end my relationship and time spent on folks in Colorado and their legal system I'd easily do this. In fact, I would view "sticking to my guns" as you put it as another act of selfishness and satisfying my needs over the needs of my family when doing this was what got me in trouble in the first place. I think one of the problems with our society is that people take actions to satisfy their own needs first whether they views their needs as a sexual romp in CO or "sticking to their guns". ESPN said this morning that Kobe's lawyers will probably charge him $8-10 million (including salary for them and fees for expert witnesses and stuff). Add in a couple of million for the ring he used to apologize to his wife (personally I'd be more interested in seeing him crawl across glass to apologize and show he learned his lesson rather than buying me a bauble). Even if you ad in several hundred thousand to even single figure milliions to pay a civil claim to make this go away, i would agree with him that this is the best money he ever spent, because he made the initial mistake of cheating on his marriage to satisfy HIS needs.

Teams win championships, individual players seek the rewards the feel they deserve (and they do deserve their fair share of the pie though there ends up often being disputes about what fair means in terms of $) and the Team feels the cap ramifications and has to make painful decisions. This all seems typical. The Bills profitted greatly last year because regardless of how judges the level of Milloy's play. he was a definite upgrade at SS over the play of Wire at SS. The Bills D results indicate that the outcomes were positive for our squad. TD seems to have salted away a bit of cap room for these types of cap cuts and we sure have needs due to injuries and the desire to upgrade. Let's hope we get opportunities to improve the team again.

I disagree. In the past two years Teague has actually shown quite a bit. Unfortunately some of what he has shown has been just plain bas as his lower body weight has allowed him to get bowled over into Drew when he fails to get good leverage on an oncoming big rusher. However, though we fans tend to really notice and focus on these bad moments, the are the exception rather than the rule (if they were the rule, Teague would gave been gone and we would have tried Jennings there, tried to advance the development of Sobieskit or tried to go outside and pick up a vet. We did not because even a couple of not-ready-for-primetime position coaches like Vinklarek and Ruel could see be had the right stuff for the job. Him sticking around with JMac is only further confirmation of this. In mt mind the center has several jobs: 1. Be second only to the QB in seeing the Ds response to the play called. 2. Make the line calls for blocking for the play as the two linemen and TE to his wings can hear him best of all. He needs to help 4 to 6 players (the TE and QB) be better players and all they can be on each play, helping them be in the best position to do what they can do. 3. Deliver the ball to the QB consistently with speed, pace and accuracy which is difficult in all conditions but really really difficult in the shotgun. All along Teague has shown himself to have the right stuff to do each of these indvidual thing so it is no surprise to me that folks would notice him doing them well. However, he has struggled to do them all at the same time and has not had total command of the multi-tasking which kent Hull did so well. Further, he has had real challenges with shotgun snaps and when he loses his leverage blocking because he was focusing on some other task as a new center in a young line, he would get bowled over. I think however he is getting it and improving. 4. Do multi-tasking of these three functions AND still be able to handle his own blocking duties and get proper advantage and leverage over the oncoming DT.