Luxy312

All these "trade Spiller for a fish taco and a bus pass" arguments are lame. LaConfora is lame. The Bills front office isn't stupid. Last year is NOT the sample size to draw from when determining what Spiller may be able to do. Oh, and may be able to do in a CONTRACT year. This is the perfect season to hold onto him and see what happens. A breakout year and you can safely keep him for the future OR trade him for serious value. Could he be traded and I be proven wrong? Sure. No one is right at predicting the future, or we wouldn't have to have jobs. I just don't think that a front office would honestly believe that they can replace a guy that represents about 50% of the #2 ground game in the NFL with one guy that's been buried on another team's depth chart and a third that has done virtually nothing in their career. Essentially, it would be taking a step backward when you say you want to take a step forward.

If he gets 25/game, I'll be happy.

I wouldn't dispute that Byrd is a good player. He may have been the best in our secondary last season, given the injury to Gilmore. None the less, I'm as happy as the OP that he's gone. This team does not need more drama. All he and Stevie did was add a dramatic element to a losing team. I would rather have guys that to a degree are pissed off that they're losing and come together to turn that around. Byrd, quite frankly, was a "me first" guy.

Yup. How do we sign up?

This place is walking distance from my house. Definitely going to try to make it.

It's a nice comparison, but let's not forget that Ben was completing 66.4% of his passes that first year. His QB rating was 98.1. While not being asked to throw the ball a lot, he was very efficient when he did. EJ's numbers last year were just OK. His completion percentage was 58.8% and his QB rating was 77.7. His production was comparable to what Fitzpatrick was delivering to us year in and year out. If Manuel gets it, if he truly improves, he will be the best quarterback this team has had in 12 years, maybe more. The only thing that is Ben Roethlisberger like so far is his size.

You really needed another option for your poll. If the Toronto group buys them, so what? If the team remains in WNY, then I'll remain a loyal fan of the team. If the team is moved to Toronto, I'm done. Will cancel my Sunday Ticket. I'll probably still watch football games, but would almost instantly identify with my local Chicago Bears. The Bills moving would truly be the death of the franchise for me.

I disagree with this statement 100%. There have been plenty of teams that have had simply average quarterbacks, that have been able to get to and win the Superbowl. The talent around the quarterback on both sides of the ball can matter quite a bit. Russell Wilson wasn't all that last season. The Seahawks won it all because of their wicked defense. At the end of the day, I just want to see consistency from him. If he has less turnovers than touchdowns, the Bills have a chance to compete if the defense comes to play and has learned how to stop the run. I wouldn't mind seeing the "boom" none the less. LOL.

You are missing the point. The fans for the most part don't have any power. I DON'T have access to contract terms. No one does, because one doesn't exist. The idea (and it's simply an idea) is that the Wilson family has the power to make it painful to move the team. Adding a poison pill to the eventual sales contract that doesn't even benefit them makes it all that more powerful. We've seen plenty of "kid like" suggestions. Running on the field, throwing drinks, throwing a tantrum, etc. This is much more business like and would be a lot more effective.

I think these guys are smarter than some of the older guys. They're not blowing huge chunks of money on ridiculous rides. The most expensive of them (Fred Jackson's) actually has a lot more utility to it than most would see. Kudos to these young guys.

Personally, all these "ideas", if you even want to call them that, are just juvenile behavior that isn't likely going to do anything other than get people put in jail and banned from future games. If you really want the constructive solution, it lies within the contract to sell the team. Put a poison pill in the contract, pretty much like the one that's in the lease right now. Move the team more than 30 miles from Orchard Park without the approval of the Wilson family, and you pay a $1 billion penalty payable to the WNY taxpayers. That penalty must be paid prior to a single game being played elsewhere. Who in their right mind will pay $1 billion for this team (or in that vacinity) and then pay another $1 billion to move them? It is absurd and that's what it should be. Holding signs, chanting foul language, and wearing black is great and all, but really is just playing checkers when here we really want to be playing chess.

They released Caussen to make room for Stevenson Sylvester (LB). Just FYI.

Right now, no. The NFL is perfectly fine the way it is. Down the road, possibly. It would have to be in such a way though that doesn't create an imbalance in terms of schedule. The soccer model? I don't know. We're certainly not going to an "A" and "B" tier system where you suddenly take half of the NFL and start calling them B-tier. I might get on board though for a farm league type system that mirrors the NFL on a team by team basis. In this way, each NFL team would have much greater opportunity in moving players between systems. Sort of like the current "practice squad" thing that teams do, but on an expanded basis with full schedule of games, etc.

I don't think Ja-normous could push a lawnmower, much less push EJ. LOL.

Civil versus criminal gents. HUGE difference in threshold and requirements for judgment under the law...

Pretty silly conceptually. It would turn the NFL into an offense first league. Right now it's at least balanced.

To that same point, I do remember plenty of games where he's had the case of the drops at a very inopportune time.

As with the last dozen years, the AFC East comes down to the Patriots and then everyone else. I'm fairly confident none the less that the Bills grade out as the next best team. Who do the Dolphins really have as offensive weapons after Mike Wallace? After the departure of Reggie Bush, their running game is a disaster. Their defense really doesn't scare me either. In terms of the Jets, I tend to laugh out loud. Geno Smith is a train wreck and now they add Michael Vick? Chris Johnson is a talent for sure, but if you're a Jets opponent, don't you just put 9 in the box and make them beat you through the air? I believe that the Bills will miss Kiko Alonso a lot this year. I don't think that you can understate the value of a guy that played EVERY defensive snap last year. That is not an exaggeration either. I do think that the addition of Spikes and Rivers will help the run defense a lot. Losing Byrd is a big TBD. Regardless of the changes, I think the Bills defense is the best of the 4 teams on paper. Offensively, it all comes down to what E.J. does or doesn't do this year; how much he's learned; and how he runs the offense.

Was Stevie Johnson a good player? Sure he was. He was a productive receiver for the Bills, and of that there can be no doubt. However, it always seemed to me that he was more focused on the next celebration than he was winning. We need a culture of winning before we worry about celebration. I won't miss Stevie. I don't wish him ill will none the less.

The no huddle is a catch 22. If the offense is working and moving the ball down the field, it's not just a good thing, but a great thing. The defense doesn't have time for substitutions or for as many adjustments to what the offense wants to do. The problem is that when it is NOT working, that it puts tremendous pressure on your defense. We saw this last year late in games when the defense was tired. The Bills lost the battle of the clock and eventually, it cost them a win. At the end of the day, it's not the no huddle or nothing. It can be a mix.

My input: Defensively, they could be playoff caliber. While the defense was great at getting after the quarterback last season and also pretty good in pass defense, they suffered serious shortfalls in terms of the running game. They ranked 30th in rushing yards allowed and 23rd in YPC. I watched too many third and 4/5 turned into first downs off a run. Did they improve in that position? Certainly. They added Spikes and Rivers, who will both be starters and then turned around and drafted two more. So I'll just leave it that they will have a playoff caliber defense IF they do a much better job against the run. Offensively, I think the questions are greater in number. I've warmed up considerably on the move to get Sammy Watkins. Facing facts, Stevie was never a true #1. He put up solid #2 numbers like Peerless Price did when he was here, but was never that go-to guy. The receiving corps is young and they have a lot of potential. The offensive line got bigger and deeper with the addition of Chris Williams and Cyrus Kouandjio. I'm concerned about Chandler's ongoing knee issues and the TE position. Lots of guys that seem to get hurt a lot. We can't forget that after Stevie Johnson that Chandler has been the next biggest contributor as a receiving option. That actually dovetails right into EJ. Has he improved? Was his play last year impacted by poor offensive line play and/or injuries to much of his receiving corps? Hackett says that EJ is far ahead of where he was last preseason. If the defense isn't much better against the run, we'll need him to be. Perhaps moderate improvement on both sides of the ball means that there's possibility of playoffs.

I like Spikes attitude, but his message is a little messed up. Here we are in the preseason and he comes out and guarantees a win against the Patriots. Why say something that's just going to be on their message boards pre-game? Motivate within the locker room and not via the media. Who's helping Dareus get his head straight from a player perspective? Offensively, it has to be EJ . He absolutely must be the leader on that side of the ball. Defensively, I think it can be pretty much anyone. The real question right now is who it will be.

I don't need to know you. I see your posts on EJ and you LOVE to troll.

Excellent articles Yolo. As I posted in another string, I'm concerned right now with the TE position. Lots of guys on our roster appear to be injury prone there and they could be left very thin, very early. There's certainly more depth than in the past, but just how much more is the question.

In any given year, you can find 20+ games where the backup QB doesn't see the field in any meaningful game situation. That's EXACTLY what I hope happens here with Buffalo. Lewis is a glorified back up and nothing more. C.Bisquit is right. When you trash one and pimp out another, you can't be more transparent. You're wrong, but at least you're transparent.