Heitz

Then, please, for the sake of the rest of our sanity, STOP BEING ONE.

Great article - loved this line: “We all spend a lot of time studying people and trying to figure out what can get ’em. There are blitzes where you think nine people are coming and only three are,” said Ravens defensive line coach Clarence Thomas, who worked with Pettine and Ryan. “The timing has a lot to do with it. You have to change things up. You can’t do the same thing all the time." That seemed to be a HUGE issue last year! It'll be interesting to see what Pettine shows in the preseason - perhaps we'll get more than vanilla... Also, still amazed that some people *cough*8and8*cough* just KNOW that things are going to be awful. I mean without camp even being open they've written the Bills off. Hell, why not at least hope for the best, rather than fretting disaster...

^ no mention of SOD, lets hope though!

Just a programming alert that Sirius will be at Bills camp on 7/30 from 3 - 7pm. Tim Ryan, Pat Kirwan and Steve Tasker will be the hosts on-site. Can't wait for this, I love Tim and Pat and having Tasker in the mix can't hurt either... Set your VCR's, er, throw it in your calendar.

No dude, Ralph is Cheap and Russ / Buddy are idiots. Even though he was gone before we picked. Also, I'm blaming hip-hop for the current love of Molly / MDMA (and Moscato too). Hopefully Chance The Rapper's "Acidrap" album will get the kids back to mind expansion rather than straight up brain cell destruction. x 2

I think it's been re-branded Molly by the kids these days. Pretty dumb if true...

It's a 10 Deep shirt - streetwear brands are always a little edgy! Also, that shirt is cool! Seems silly to get upset over this one...

Only relevant because I know how many people here would loved to have taken him (even though he was drafted before we picked): http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/broncos/2013/07/22/von-miller-facing-four-game-suspension/2574781/ No word (per Sirius) on whether it's performance enhancing or substance abuse. Big blow for the Broncos though!

I'm amazed by the number of fans that already KNOW the Bills are going to be bad. Can't we at least see training camp, or maybe even the pre-season before we write the year off? Live a little, enjoy the fact that we're currently 0 - 0 with no real clue as to what the season is going to bring...

People really get riled up over nothing... Networking on a messageboard, while maybe not the *best* technique, does sometimes lead to things. I ended up where I am, in a way, because of a messageboard contact (10 years ago!) - you never know who's out there. Rockee the Bills are also on LinkedIn (and you can connect with people within the organization there). The Bills and several NFL teams run jobs through teamworkonline http://footballjobs.teamworkonline.com/teamwork/jobs/default.cfm Best bet is probably to go to Buffalo meet some people and find someone to get a meeting with! As for the analytics department who knows what's going on? Is there a link with more info it's not happening? With Whaley just taking over and Russ still fresh into his job, it may take a while to get things up and running. There could be planning going on, etc. Or not. Who knows?

Chris Brown is going to be on tonight - call the conspiracy theorists! Ralph is cheap AND controls the media.

RALPH IS CHEAP A CATASTROPHE!

I'm not going to say his INTs are padded, because he picked-off the balls he did IMO - whether the QB was good or bad. Were some "easier" to pick than some others? Probably, but what do I know I don't play professional football... I did find this stat from the Trapasso article I posted in the other Byrd thread interesting: "Byrd played 1,047 snaps in 2012. Of those snaps, he was "thrown at" 21 times, according to ProFootballFocus. On those 21 "targets," he actually allowed 16 receptions, which equated to a catch percentage of 76.2, the sixth-highest catch percentage of all safeties who played at least 25 percent of their respective team's snaps. Byrd's QB rating allowed of 56.9 was one of the lowest in the league among safeties-thanks to those interceptions-yet his catch percentage was far from elite." http://sports.yahoo.com/news/enduring-buffalo-bills-jairus-byrd-franchise-tag-saga-140300480.html So while he picked off a lot of balls, looks like he also allowed quite a few receptions. Perhaps that's the point you can use for argument that he doesn't deserve the huge deal (which is what I'm interpreting as the point of the original post), though again, that's just one measure...

Anytime you can get "both sides did things right, both sides did things wrong" in an article, I tend to like it (or at least believe it a little more). This thread is so funny with the "I would never give him the deal he wants" or "The Bills are idiots for not giving him what he deserves" black or white opinions. Both of which ignore the big fact NO ONE KNOWS WHAT WAS ASKED FOR OR OFFERED! I negotiate sponsorship deals with athletes and its not always the overall dollars that are the hang up - terms, bonuses, and a million other little details all play a part in coming to an agreement. Who knows why this one didn't work out, but I'm sure it's on BOTH sides, not just just greedy 'ol Parker, or cheap 'ol Ralph...

Trapasso has a good take on how we got to where we are and where we go from here: http://sports.yahoo.com/news/enduring-buffalo-bills-jairus-byrd-franchise-tag-saga-140300480.html

Albert Breer said on NFLN that Byrd still may report to camp ("he hasn't made up his mind"), so there's that. Also said that Byrd wanted to be the highest paid safety and that he wanted Weddle money and Bills weren't willing to go that far. Then they thew to Sapp who rolled his eyes and said Byrd is crazy if he thinks he should be the highest paid safety in the league. He said that Byrd should sign his tender, get in and go to work. And added that when the team that drafted you, that has seen you play all your career, doesn't think you;re the best safety in the league, you need to look at yourself... Bummer it all worked out this way, but in the end no one knows the true money, deal points and counters in this negotiation. Hopefully Byrd comes to camp and shines as the Bills D kills it next year!

Ha - that would drive me crazy with the Shoutbox, they were just a bit ahead...

Was the PS3 non-availability announced somewhere? That's what I've run the past two years and it's been awesome. Last year I got the "Digital Only" subscription (Which was $50 less than the PS subscription) and I could use the u/n p/w on my iPhone, iPad and PS3! I'll be seriously bumming if it's not coming back to PS3, that was my favorite device to watch from (my iPad 1 would not AirPlay to the TV).

Little known fact - Brees is actually shooting puppies in this photo... I'd agree that the Grand Theft image was in poor taste, but getting mad because Mario owns guns (and uses, gasp, protection) is just silly. We all knew the guy wanted to come here for the deers! Did they thing he was going to hunt them with his pass rush?

Link: http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/27/us/nfl-hernandez/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

Or Nickname: Kenny "The Snake" Stabler or Don "Magic Man" Majkowski

^ ha ha ha - it's even a white SUV! Let's hope he freaks out and decides to run from the cops making this a true OJ Chase 2.0!

Greg Bedard of SI is on Sirius talking about Hernandez and some red flags when he was coming out of college. There were some concerns that he was involved with and has friends in gangs - crazy story all-around, it'll be interesting to see where this all goes...

Definitely worth the listen - can't help but being excited about what EJ brings to the table. The kid has some maturity which is going to serve him well as he transitions to the starting QB job with the Bills... http://www.buffalobills.com/media-center/audio/QB-Coach-Ken-Mastrole-on-EJ-Manuels-Development/914b4461-b230-4152-b1f2-1d5e15ae4318

That's my understanding too - his contract was up and he chose not to renew with the Jets to explore other opps. Also, I thought the reason Jets fans hated Pettine is because he was the "locker room leaker" that told the media that teammates or staff thought that Sanchez was terrible (can't say dude was wrong...) From a December '12 thread on a Jets messageboard: http://www.jetsinsider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=252431