1billsfan

I think that Schobel is an above average defensive end. Nothing more, nothing less. But the fact that they did re-do his deal so early last year makes the Lee Evans heel dragging situation that much more puzzling to me. It's rare that player negotiations continue on during an NFL season. I'm looking forward to watching Lee Evans score touchdowns in a Bills uniform for a long period of time just like Andre Reed did.

These NFL teams get players coming and going. They get them on the cheap with their rookie deals (not count top five draft picks of course), and they get them on the back end of their careers when they tell older players to take a pay cut or get released. I'm not the bleeding heart for ownership that some here clearly are. These players have a VERY small window to "cash in" and I'm very concerned that the Bills have jumped off the "big contract" train till Ralph dies and a new owner takes his place. We're all trying to read the tea leaves here and I frankly just don't understand the Bills dealings with their best players. When you play above and beyond what was expected, you SHOULD be rewarded with something more than an atta-boy and a pat on the back. These guys are exceptional and should be dealt with as exceptions. I didn't want to get into the same debate, I just wanted to see if others have a weird sense that the Bills will never pay a bigtime contract again until Ralph is gone.

I've heard many here say not to worry, that Evans will be signed to a long term extension of his current contract which is in its last year. Well the season starts this Sunday and he's still not signed. This after the Bills spent money like drunken sailors on above average to below average players in '07. What gives here? The Bills supposedly made themselves a sweetheart deal with Toronto, moved home games out of Wilson Stadium and fans like me feel like they are not 100% committed to winning. Allow me to also bring Peters into the conversation. This is another player that I would call a "star" player. I think he's on the level of an offensive version of a young Bruce Smith. Yet the Bills can't seem to get the ball rolling and are holding firm in their beliefs that all players on their roster should be dealt with as equals. I know that the agent and Peters have also been at fault, but I still think the Bills are not sending a very good message with their lack of reaching out. The fact is that Peters has outplayed his current contract by a whole lot. The Bills have a boatload of newly found money and are acting as if they would rather save money by letting a player leave via free agency or sit on the sidelines, than pay a top dollar contract for any player regardless of how good they are or what they've done for this team. Ralph isn't poor. He has the money, his team is supposedly on the cusp of of the next great era of Bills football, yet he's acting like a small minded skinflint with their best players on the team. I just don't get it. I'm disheartened by the lack of any movement on either front. I should be filled with hope for the long term future success of the Buffalo Bills, but this is not the case heading into this season. I know that we're all excited about the new season, I just wanted to share my concerns about this organization here and see if anyone else felt the same way.

Thanks Steely Dan, I fixed my flub. My heads a little cloudy from a week long cold.

That's all part of their getting their act together. I saw a VERY well called game last week that gave me some hope that Jauron has indeed had a change of heart in regards to the overly conservative approach. My negativity was well founded from what I witnessed in '07. If he does go back to the same ol' Dick Jauron I will no doubt be back to slam him. I like the talent on this team and think there's a chance for something special in '08. If he let's them play a much more open game and they fail then that will be on the players abilities, not the coaching. I get the feeling that this won't be a normal season with the usual suspects. Hopefully the Bills will be step up and make things crazy again like they were a long time ago.

Looks like Tom Brady has begun to show the wear and tear of eight seasons in the NFL, so has Payton Manning. Shawn Merriman has a fork nearly stuck in him. Pittsburgh and Cleveland have looked horrible. The Pats defense is older than the hills and have in fact lost their best corner, the Colt's Marvin Harrison is over the hill and may indeed be worn out. I think that this might be one of those crazy years where you can just about toss out all of the predictions which are based on the last few years. I can see teams like our Bills, the Jets and the Texans as being ready to roll over the so-called elite teams of this conference. I know it won't be easy and our own starting QB has injury issues so early in his career, but if they could get it all together and "catch lightning in the bottle" I even think that winning this division is within their grasp in '08. It's just too bad that Peters isn't here (regardless of which side you've chosen) and Edwards can't seem to stay healthy. Get it together guys, there's a real and tangible opportunity this year.

If the Bills aren't happy with someone's play they can cut him. You do know that players sign contracts that are not guaranteed, right? You should also know that this is the reason that there are holdouts league wide from disgruntled players who are clearly being underpaid. Players who's careers can be cut short on one play. The smart teams are the ones who realize that rewarding the truly great players on their team will give their other players incentive to be great. Rewarding subpar play (see Chris Kelsay) only a creates situation of unfairness which is where Peters is coming from. Peters is far from a jackass, he knows how much his value is. It's just too bad the Bills don't and will sit and wait till their promising, but injury prone, QB is on IR the rest of the season to realize this.

This situation has disaster written all over it. Peters knows, as do all Bills fans, that it's only a matter of WHEN, not IF, Edwards gets crushed and spends an extended period of time on IR if in fact Walker is his blind side protector. The Bills will be roundly criticized, and rightly so, for being pennywise and pound foolish. Especially when there will be that invisible man Kelsay still cashing in his 5.7 million worth of checks for '08. Don't worry Bills fans, his high motor will be able to overcome any effect of the loss of Edwards. This team absolutely loves to shoot itself in the foot. Keep sticking to your guns Brandon, just be warned that the light at the end of the tunnel you see in an oncoming train.

So the Bills could cut their entire current roster and replace them with arena football league players and you'd see nothing wrong with that? The Buffalo Bills organization does have a responsibility to their fans to put forth an honest and fair effort of putting the best team out on the field. IMO, they haven't been fair when one considers the reworked Schobel deal, the overpayment of Chris Kelsay and contrasting those with their non-interest in rewarding their first potentially HOF player since the Superbowl days. I would cut Kelsay's overpaid @ss to find the indispensable Peters' extra cash to make him happy.

My impressions have been that the Bills let it be known that they were very much willing to renegotiate Schobel's contract, where as with Peters they let it be known that they are expecting him to play this season under the current contract terms regardless of his participation. They may have said that they'll talk with him and his agent however these talks would not be resulting in any renegotiation of his current contract for this season. If my impressions are wrong then Peters is doing himself a MAJOR disservice, if they are right then he has a MAJOR beef as far as double standards are concerned. If the Bills are worried about money then they should perhaps cut Chris Kelsay and his over-inflated salary and let the rookie DE take over his spot. Since Schobel got his money, Peters (if fully healthy of course) deserves a renegotiated contract. If the Bills are worried about the injury factor then put in some "games started" incentives into the new contract. The Bills are being stubborn to the point that they now appear willing to jeopardize Edwards' health and Jauron's feeble head coaching record to prove a point over OTA participation. The term "cutting one's nose to spite their face" comes to mind. To me, they lost all bargaining power when they redid Schobel's contract last year. I've always been of the opinion that there ARE different rules for players depending on their importance to the organization and their goal of winning a championship. Some players are merely replaceable cogs in the wheel, while others are the irreplaceable frame of the car. The best of the best in this league do NOT apply the same rules to the bottom 50 guys that they would to the the top three superstars on the team. It would be very interesting to see what fans here would think if Edwards had an off the charts year and then decided to hold out for a renegotiated contract. My thinking is that everyone would eventually want the Bills to pay up and let the good times roll. Not take a hard stance because the bottom players have to play out their contracts. There are generally only a few superstar players (if any at all) on a team and there's always a way to cut the fat which in this case would be cutting someone like Kelsay. I'm all for keeping him, but if they were to go that route I wouldn't give it a second thought.

You mean like how they handled contract negotiations with Aaron Schobel last year? The Bills practically fell over themselves handing over the cash to a much overrated player in Schobel. But you don't seem to want to take that into account regarding this current situation. Maybe this is about Schobel's deal and how he was handled and why there appears to be a double standard all of a sudden with Jason Peters. You're a year late in your concern about future negotiations of Bills players. They not only showed Schobel his renegotiated money, they ran it over to him with flowers and candy. It's only fair that they would do the same with a player that is so much better and much more important to the future of this team.

I'll respond. Dick Jauron is a big dumb idiot if he doesn't believe in beating people with calls. In fact you need BOTH to be a successful head coach. Which explains to me why Jauron has been a failure as a head coach for such a long time. It's amazing he actually said that. I think he's talking from the other end of the horse. I wish I could ask him a couple follow up questions... "Hey coach, did you not know that Marshawn Lynch was an excellent pass catcher? It was clear to me that it's one of the things he does best, yet he only had a measly 18 receptions last year. This was the main guy in our offense and you did not follow your creed of finding out what your guys do best and then do it and do it consistently. Explain yourself."

Preseason or no preseason, I breathed a HUGE sigh of relief watching our starting offense. As for the Young comment, I think he did look a lot like Young on those (yes only two preseason) drives. I'm obviously not predicting anything regarding what he'll end up accomplishing in his career and I could care less if I was on the wrong side of the QB debate. Can't hide from it, so I might as well embrace it. At least my feelings and convictions about our players being able to handle, and excel in, a "modern" NFL offense do appear to be the case. I now have some real live hope going into this season.

A fair weather fan is one who only shows up or supports the team when they are winning, not a fan who's being critical in their judgments of them. I think you and me have different definitions here. In yours, you give up all rights to ever be critical of them or you do in fact become a "fair weathered fan". That's every single person on this board. In mine, you're a fair weathered fan when you only care about or show interest in a team that is winning. I care so much I'm willing to go on a message board and rip into them on why they "suck" and what I think they need to do to "not suck". I watched every snap last season of the worst offense ever by a Buffalo Bills team. I think I might care too much. I was and still am excited to see that Dick Jauron let them play for once. I can not stand the guy as our coach, but that last game made me see that he might truly be embracing a more open and much less suffocating offense. I'd even be willing to forgive and forget last year which made me the most angry as a fervent and loyal Bills fan.

Must not have noticed mine and others beating of this dead horse issue around here. I've been talking about this very subject when it was clear the Bills coaches were to afraid to trust in their offensive players from the get go in 2007. I held Jauron equally responsible when the game plan, that netted a whopping 20 touchdowns, never ever changed. He needed to get over his "code of non-interference" of coordinators and tell Mr. Fairchild to change the damn playcalling. I saw a dramatic change in the Toronto game plan and hope that it will be what we'll be seeing from the Bills in '08. I'll give Jauron credit in going with Edwards, but he did him and JP a disservice last season with that putrid conservative play-not-to-lose offense. Let's see if they truly stick with it when the games count.

I couldn't believe how many here were dismissing the Jets acquisition of Favre. Making that one move put them in what will no doubt be a very crowded playoff chase at the end of the season. I felt that they had no shot before getting Favre, but with him and that easy schedule which all of the AFC East gets to play, the Jets are going to be a tough team to deal with this season.

There's nothing wrong or fair weathered about calling out a coach for a flawed philosophy which doesn't give his players a fighting chance to make the playoffs. I was just giving my brutally honest opinion and assessment. They were clearly calling a different game in Toronto, and one that I was hoping for all along. Marshawn only netting 18 catches last season was just plain ridiculous. Now that Trent rewarded Jauron's trust in letting him pass on early downs and using the RBs in the passing game, it would only seem logical that this WILL be a preview of what we can expect this season. I've always said that this team has the capacity for 11 wins if they just trusted in their skilled players. If Jauron goes back to the dreadful run-run-pass on third and long formula, I will no doubt be voicing my displeasure.

He did look like Young right on down to that long scramble. I was very pleased and admitted I'm wrong on the QBs. There's a difference between looking like a HoF QB and becoming one. My hope is that Edwards will bring a championship here, HoF stuff doesn't much matter in the grand scheme of being a Bills fan. We already have a few of those guys, but none of them wear a Superbowl ring. My beef with Jauron has always been his close-to-the-vest, play-not-to-lose style. There's no disputing that he's always coached this way. I saw nothing of the sort in that game and hope that Jauron will in fact stay with this change of philosophy. That was what I was waiting for and bitching since early last season. Jauron's a nice guy, but in my eyes he wasn't doing his job very well. I saw something special and hope he has bought into this more player friendly, go after it game plan.

They looked like winners to me. I hope Jauron has seriously bought into using the pass to set up the run with a heavy dose of using Lynch and Jackson in the passing game as well. THAT was what I have been waiting for! I've been as tough as nails on Jauron, but if he truly does trust in his QB and the skilled players on offense to use their exceptional God-given abilities then he has a VERY good shot at becoming a successful and winning head coach for the Buffalo Bills. I beg you, please do NOT go back into your run-run-pass shell. Starting defense looked very solid also. As for Edwards, he looked like the second coming of Steve Young directing the 49ers out there. It was everything I was looking for and MORE and I was flat out WRONG in thinking Losman was better than him. I know it's preseason but I think that preseason game will have a huge effect going forward for this team and it's coaches. They took it to one of the AFC bullies and made it look easy. They obviously need to translate this into the real games and then have the consistency in performance that all playoff bound teams must have. Remember how consistent Kelly's Bills were? Bring it every game and this team WILL get 11 or 12 wins and make the playoffs. This was a big one. It proved to them that they really do have the makings for a good team, where the skies the limit in '08 including beating New England.

I'm a Losman supporter who's very happy that Trent stepped it up in a big way tonight. For those who say it doesn't matter how well your starters play in preseason, it would have been a very bad situation if Edwards played badly again tonight. I'm listening on Sirius and can't wait to see the game at midnight on NFL network! It's about time we get something tangible to smile and be happy about!

Not only was he mad about JP's phantom interception and sack (which was clearly the offensive line's fault), he obviously liked what he saw from Trent since he didn't call him out in his "not hot" list. WTF???? Saying that this will be an interesting season is a major understatement.

Wow, did you just hit the nail on the head. Get's down to the nitty-gritty of the reason why I can not stand Jauron's coaching style. It goes against everything I LOVE about football. Excitement, players pushed to their limits, no fear, letting it all hang out is what I want to see from our team on Sundays. This bland "cover 2" playing on your heels defense and conservative 1940's offense is not only painful to watch, but always gets ripped apart by the good teams of the league. It's like we have absolutely no shot of winning when we are facing the contenders. Marv Levy trusted his players to make "game-winning" plays, he let both the offense and defense get after it and attack the opposition. What I see now is the opposite approach, of which the sole purpose is to maximize the Bills chances for a minimal number of losses. To me, Dick Jauron 's head coaching style is the anti-Marv Levy style.

Not a chance... http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/dneagle...eturn_Soon.html I think the Bills need to stop being cheap with the best player.

I takes some real guts to post something like this on a board that accepts only positive viewpoints for the most part, I applaud your courage sir. History is not kind to coaches with that long of a record in the league and you couldn't have been more detailed in your analysis. If Dick Jauron suddenly becomes a very successful winning head coach it will be the most incredible shocking turn of events to me. It's strange to me why Losman got the boot to the curb so quickly around here, yet this board loves Dick Jauron (a guy with such a long losing track record) so much.

Yes, it's because I got tired of reading and hearing how "great" the Bills are going to be from the fans, local media and players. I'm tired of the hype machine. It's my only way to fight the over confidence tide. Last year made me an angry fan. I can't stand the coach, I can't stand players guaranteeing playoffs, I can't stand them laying down at the beginning and the end of every season. Ever since the "Music City Miracle" hey have NEVER lived up to the hype. Last week I got hammered at my negative comments about the Bills. Well they not only looked bad, but downright pathetic a few nights ago. But you and others felt the need to hit me hard whenever I would have anything negative to say about the Bills. I think you need to toughen up, just like your Fighting Irish, we might be in for a long season.