finknottle

My mistake - I thought you meant the 3-13 2001 team, which truely stunk. By comparison, the 6-10 2003 team was great! Have we had any moments since like the opening win over NE??? Even many of the losses were nail-biters. And we had lots of reason for optimism after the season. We had successfully beefed up a truely pathetic defense with Spikes (a high-profile acquisition that worked out better than we had hoped) and were finally buying into Gray as a DC. We hadn't seen WM yet, so it like we would be getting an extra first rounder in 2004. The offensive woes seemed fixable with nothing more than a new OC and an intern with a stopwatch. We really didn't seem to have many holes, and other than the obligatory qb-grumbling the future looked great!

In fact, it's even funnier than that: at the time, the Bengals choice of Levi Jones was widely panned as the biggest first-round reach

I do too, for the same reasons. I only hope the injury doesn't diminish him. I think we need a better veteran just in case.

Yeah, but there was reason to be optimistic about the future back then. I don't remember why, but I'm sure there was something. I think we understood that after we cleared the cap for a year we'd be back in the black and making aggressive moves in free agency (true), and that we were convinced that a year of losing was a worthwhile and necessary price to pay to develop our quarterback of the future.

I assume our coaches knew what you know and decided they would be good enough. Hurting or not hurting, what-ifs about how they might be had they never been injured does not change the fact that they are not getting it done. Based on their performance, this year they stink.

Oddly enough I've never been this disappointed either, but for different reasons. The losses don't bother me - I expected as much, and was a fan during some pretty dismal seasons. What bothers me is that I have less optimism going into the off-season than at any time during the modern free-agent era. There are too many departures to replace. Of the ones that remain, this season has exposed too many of them as not being legitimate NFL starters. Throw in the aging secondary, and I can count on two hands with some fingers left over the number of players I feel good about.

Yeah, but I think only an idiot would invite the Palestinians to a party and expect them to sign off on something which - by the Europeans refusal to accomodate them on the wording - invalidates their central national tenet: that Isreal's past refusals to adhere to UN declarations to withdraw justified their armed resistence. How could agree to something which says their historical struggle was unjustified terrorism? Draw the line the way they wanted, and the morality of national resistence is seperated. (I'm not saying they are right or wrong, just painting it through their eyes.) So the reason I think the Europeans look incompetant here is not because they are being wishy-washy about terrorism, but because they are political fools. You can do one of two things: have a feel-good affirmation of intent, or have an agreement with clearly drawn lines. If you want a line as you suggest and expect unaminous agreement, then you had better not start off by declaring some of the participants to be on the bad side of it. And a blanket declaration does just that. By analogy, what are the odds that the Sein Fein would sign off on such a joint declaration between themselves, the Protestants, Ireland, and the UK? There's no way they would delegitimize the Irish struggle.

Ralph may very well be dead within 5 years. He doesn't have time to fire TD and start fresh with somebody who could be just as bad. He knows that it's this belching rattling clunker or nothing for him, so he's gritting his teeth, gassing her up, and praying that it makes it to where he wants to go. From his point of view, dramatic rebuilding begins after he's gone.

Why does this surprise or indiginate anyone? The dispute is clearly not about the war on terrorism, but rather the political point of whether the wording paints the Arab countries into a corner of condemning Palestinian resistance as the same sort of terrorism. Just curious - is this passage so objectional?

Of course, with this team I'd settle for average tackles and an average interior line

I'm not sure about it making more cap sense. Here's why: Salaries are fairly consistent except when you have the very best, at which point you may be paying ~4 times (?) the average salary for the position. Since the tackles make much more money on average than guards, the premiums for dominant players are higher. I would expect that having 3 all-pros in the interior and average starters at the tackles would probably cost less than having an average interior with 2 all-pro tackles.

In general, I'm much more worried about this off-season than I was last year. There are far more out-right holes, and question marks where we hope the player will play up to the promotion. Here's an abbreviated list of the starters: QB- JP Losman RB- Willis Mcgahee FB- Daimon Shelton WR- Lee Evans, Parrish TE- Kevin Everett LT- ??? LG- Mike Gandy C- Duke Preston RG- Chris Villareal RT- Jason Peters LE- Chris Kelsay RE- Aaron Schobel DT- ???, Justin Bannan ROLB- Takeo Spikes MLB- London Fletcher LOLB- Angelo Crowell CB- ???, Terrance Mcgee SS- Lawyer Milloy FS- Troy Vincent Of the non-italicized, I think there are fair questions about whether Gandy, Kelsey, Crowell and Bannan are the solutions, and serious age risks with Fletcher, Milloy, and Vincent. So out of 22, we have 3 holes, 4 step-ups, 4 iffy's, and 3 old guys. That makes 2/3 of the starters where I'm holding my breath - and I'm not even talking about JP!

Looks interesting. I agree with the cuts, but two points: 1. I don't see getting a first round pick for Clements. A mid-quality player maybe, but if I were a GM I'd rather have a 1st round CB and pay a rookie's salary. 2. Your OL changes (which I agree with) point out the pressure we'll be under next year: we'll have question marks at both tackles, with only Peters and a prayer to fill them. That means grabbing a free agent LT (most likely journeyman grade) or hoping we can get a quality rookie at our draft position. That all too often results in a reach.

Stop making sense.

I'm guessing that it is terrible considering that they went 1-5. Many coaches would encourage a bit more passing in losing situations. (2-5 if you count KC, in which combined they didn't go over 200.) I'll have to see on average how long it takes a rookie qb to break 200.

Ralph Wilson many not be around in 5 years and may not have felt he could afford to start over after a few years. He may have felt it was all or nothing with TD and MM so he might as well remove any distractions.

I don't know about 'high.' Didn't we learn anything from the Travis Henry debacle? I'd say he's worth a second round pick at most - earlier serious injury, good but not great numbers, 26 y.o. player in a position that likes fresh legs, belief he is the greatest and having Drew R as an agent... I think I've talked my way down to a third.

More importantly (IMO), there has never been that feeling that we can come from behind when we are down. During the Kelly era and even the Flutie era, you always knew there was a chance of pulling it out. The TD teams are like a dull predictable brick. When we are winning, we have to hold our breath untill the fourth quarter. When we are playing close, you know it's Russian Roulette where we shoot 3's and they shoot 7's. When we fall behind you know its over. It's not very exciting, particularly the offense which only a fool expects big plays from. Special teams were about the only unit that you sat on the edge of your seat half-expecting something truely extraordinary (in the good way recently; in the bad way not too long ago).

A career high

He is no Joe Cribbs or Thurman Thomas yet, that's for sure.

I think his fear is that he has the following choice: 1. Fire TD, start over, and not expect to live long enough to see how the new GM does, let alone win a Superbowl, or 2. Cross your fingers, double up, and ride the TD train to the end of the line. Neither prospect must be pleasant to him.

IMO that's the sweetspot - best value for the cap hit if you're going for a skill player, maybe less so for the lines. Would be nice if somebody did a study...

Thought provoking - always like to see actual number crunching...

Yeah, right. The man is wealthy, has been wealthy for a long time, and now has five years to live, tops. I'm sure he really wants to spend it obsessing about selling luxury seats and eeking out every last nickel out of Buffalo so that his heirs will have an extra million to squabble over. This team means a hell of a lot more to him then you, I suspect. If they continue to stink for a few more years you'll B word and moan but your life will go on. For him, these years will form the final memories of what has been one of the central parts of his life.

The tides do turn, don't they?