todd

Yes, because trading your best WR away is a good way to improve the team. Only for a first or two seconds. Otherwise it hurts the team too much and we don't get much in return.

He's been hanging around with his mentor, Jerry "The Bag of the D" Sullivan too much.

Yeah, like McKelvin, Wood, Kyle Williams, Aaron Williams, etc. We lose Byrd but sign four other players, and idiots think the sky is falling. Give me a break.

Hey guys - I would guess his contract is incentive-laden, with playing time escalators. That's the way they are structured.

Give me a break.

Because we can't until today at 4 for some reason. I think it was because he wasn't with us for a whole season and he's playing at the vet minimum.

Don't know. 29 is kinda old for a LB to get a ton of money.

I would have no problem trading a single first round pick for Graham as you mention below. I would not give up two, as would be required for the non-exclusive tag. Yes, that pick you mention is an unknown commodity, but it could also be the next Bruce Smith or Jerry Rice. Two firsts is WAY too much for a TE.

Jimbo is the epitome of Buffalo, WNY, and the Buffalo Bills. You keep getting kicked in the face, and you keep going. People mock you, and you keep trying. You have seemingly insurmountable failure, and you keep going. That's what it is all about, folks.

We've awarded them with plenty of dollars. We're owed wins and playoffs. After all the BS over the past 10 years, we've given them enough dollars without matching wins.

Two first round picks for a non-QB? Are you insane?

For all those snickering at this, you should but down your beer, get your fat butt off the couch and try yoga. It can be very, very difficult and is a great workout. Here's a test: try a hover (sometimes called a plank) on your elbows for 30 seconds. Just on your elbows. If you don't know what a hover (or plank) is, google it. You will be humbled.

So you do realize we'd need to franchise Byrd first, right? Then have our trading partner work out a contract with him before he's traded. Two small details to an otherwise worthwhile plan.

Out of all the players on the team that should be traded, you pick one of the more talented ones? Holy **** really?

Et to means "you too", so I'm not sure what you were referring to - that everyone, including his coach is stabbing him in the back? Besides that, no way. They are just filling out the offensive staff appropriately, which is a darn good thing. Madrone saw talent but inexperience and addressed it.

I guess we'll see how good Schwartz is at fitting the scheme to the players. I'd prefer to keep good players and utilize them properly rather than starting over all the time.

It isn't any one memory, but really cool for me was watching him block on running plays. He was a beast.

It is pretty clear that Toronto can't support an NFL team. Bills games at Rogers are a joke. With such crappy fan support, why would this be expanded?

Why do people keep talking about it? Because some people have no idea what they are talking about, and post for the sake of bitching and whining.

Huh? That makes no sense on any level.

Excellent post, KTD (as usual). Every post regarding supposedly switching schemes should reference this. Pettine said he would design the scheme around the personnel, and he did.

The most disastrous thing would be if the new guy decides he wants an entire new staff. That would set us back a year.

Agreed with your assessment of Frusciante. The interplay of his guitar and Flea's bass is essential to the chili sound. The only problem with Stadium was the total overcompression. Barely listenable on some stereos. Disagree on Foos, tho. Any album with a tune like White Limo on it is OK in my book. The whole Wasting Light album was recorded analog, so it has a fantastic warmth to it, although whoever mastered it could have done a better job. Since it was analog, and the instruments couldn't be tweaked and faked like you can on a digital recording, it couldn't be produced the same way. Retakes were punched in and out, not cut and pasted.

Suck it, Brady!

I know a little about analytics from an IT standpoint. You don't just hire somebody and then BOOM! you immediately have analytics. It doesn't work like that. Any analytics project is a multi-year effort. Here are the general steps for setting up a new analytics department, once the director of analytics has been hired: Create initial budget. (2 weeks) Create staffing strategy & hire analytics staff. This will be the first set of hires to stand up the system (2-3 months) Determine what software platform is best for what you are trying to do. There are a number of excellent platforms to choose from. (1 month) Purchase and install servers & software, or contract with 3rd party hosting/cloud facility for hardware/software install. (1.5 months) Determine measures. Determine what data you actually want to measure. (initial 2 -3 months, ongoing process) Create data collection routine & strategy. This would include ETL (extract, transform, load) processes from any existing data stores (HR systems containing salary, etc) (2-3 months) Create cube (BI data structure) (2 months?) Create reporting interface and mashup/display front end. (1-2 months) Refine, refine, refine. Develop more measures. Report on measures (forever) That's over a year of development just to start utilizing analytics. Sure, some data is useful before that, but my point is that this is a serious project that will take a while to show results.