Pyrite Gal

I think what Aiken has that Davis in no way equals is two ywars of experience working as a leader under April of the #1 performing ST unit in the league/ In essence, in terms of how he seems to be viewed by decision-makers such as Marv and April (and likely by Jauron as well since he was hired by Marv after they developed a good relationship), Aiken is correctly viewed as contributing as much to the Bills getting Ws as virtually any starter on the team except for a few Pro Bowl level performers, I think it would be a big deal to see Jauron cut Aiken as is as likely to happen as if he were to cut a player like Kelsay or Crowell. In other words, I am prettu suire this will not happen. I think that the viewer is not looking at this the same way the Bills braintrust does if one simply views ST play and ability as simply a mechanistic function where a newbie like Davis or a developing player like Wilson can achieve being of the same ST value as Aiken because he tackles well or has a faster 40 time. Aiken presents a real world advantage to April in that he knows after two years fairly well what Aiken can do and cannot do and as he works to develop ST plays and approaches which are successful he can do a better job at doing this working to build around the strengths and weaknesses of Aiken rather than trying to build around the potential strengths and weaknesses of a Davis even if they appear relatively equal to (or even exceed slightly) those of Aiken. I hope Wilson has not used up his PS eligibility because I suspect this is going to be the only way he makes this team.

starting ST play is more important than back-up play to Levy and it appears Jairon as well. I tjink that most fans are addicted to the idea that position play is the thing and thus they overemphasize the value of back-up position play as a factor in determining the relative value of a player. Thus there are now posts which present the problem of the choice of final cuts of WRs being a choice between keeping Aiken or keeping Davis and they now give the nod to Davis because of his outstanding TD tonight. I think Tasker was right insaying tonight that there was no way they cut Aiken, as to do would send a clear message that ST is not a priority for this team or even very important if they cut a player who is regarded as being one of the lead ST contributors on this team even though he has never shown great production as a position player during his career. The braintrust realizes that the O and the D on this team are works in progress at best and if this team is gonna post Ws (a critical priority for this team given they have not made the playoffs in 6 seasons and given the Golden Boys having no gurantee how long they will be on this planer) it is gonna be because as in 2004 an outstanding ST performance allowed this team to post a winning record though the D, O and ST suffered a production outage in the last game against Pitts. Even more strangely a post listed Wilson as definitiely making this team which he might if he was also productive on ST in addition to catching every thring thrown his way. Yet, despite some great postion performance by Wilson, at best he is 7th or 8th of the WRs on the depth chart and even if he somehow sticks because the Bills keep 7 WRs he will see little time on the field except in garbage time as a position player. I don't see why some folk do not get it yet that if you want to use the word just with any player it should be referring to a player being "just" a good back-up position player rather than just an ST player.

I saw on the ESPN crawl the other day that JP DuMont had signed elsewhere. DuMont struck me as not a heart and soul Sabre as LaFontaine or Peca were before their demise but a solid player I was happy to have. My understanding is that there were a couple of other similar types the Sabres let walk this year as Regeir continued to be a prudent GM. I understand they are even dicking around a bout Briere remaining a Sabre who as team captain has been on his way to becoming a heart and soul guy. Regeir from his early days of trying to avoid the press with a low speed chase from the Buffalo airport with Larry Quinn has not really inspired a lot of loyalty and love from me and other sports fans that has been achieved by folks like Jimbo, Marv and Talley and Ted Nolan while he was here. I must admit I am waiting for the dust to settle on this off-season for the Sabres to see if the great teamwork the Sabres pulled off last year was a sign that they really are a TEAM that deserves fan adulation (above the adulation that the Sabres and Bills get for being Buffalo franchises) or were the great results last year simply an aberration caused by older players being slower to return to winning form after the lockout. If the Sabres management loses too many mid-level players like Dumont or someone like Briere then I think that folks will lose their regained respect pretty fast.

I know the habit here is to hate most former Bills when they leave and declare them total idiots. However, MM is like most folks in that he has both strengths and weaknesses which he showed here: 1. Strengths- A. Developed a good framework for building the team and stuck with it through bad times- The thing MM did which impressed me most during his time here was that he had a plan to rebuild this squad from the horrible 2003 season and did this despite an anwful start to 2004 while the team got used to the approach, embraced it and eventually went on the winning streak which fell short of the playoffs. The news media and many fans wanted him to panic and make radical changes but they stuck to the plan and it worked a lot better than the GW model. B. Very good gameplanning and management in 2004- The streak was great to watch as MM developed some good gameplans for the games and managed them well making good adjustments at half time and also making some good play calls at critical times to stick a fork in opponents. I particularly liked the decision to do an onside kick against Miami ti begin the half which deflated their comeback and some of his use of trick plays like the fake Bledsoe QB sneak and pitch to WM for the TD. C. Continued the good offensive performance he produced in Pitts as OC with hiring and oversight of TC in 04- In particular the showed with their use and redevelopment of Bledsoe a real ability to find a winning way with a failed QB. There unexpected use of Bledsoe as a runner to keep Ds staying home a bit to guard the center of the field and not sell out to blitz was a great move and a key to the streak. 2. Weaknesses= A. Really imploded as a team manager- He and MM apparently did not see eye-to-eye on the QB situation as TD was willing to cashier the present for an uncertain future developing JP while MM and many on the team seem to have prefered having a better chance at winning now (even if it was a small or bad chance) with Bledsoe or Holcomb at QB. The failure of the leadership to agree on an approach or aggree to disagree more smoothly really tore this team apart. It takes two to tango so both MM and TD deserve blame for this. B. Seem to use fear to get results in 2004 but this has limited effectiveness and was not replaced- I think one of the big motivators in 2004 was oddly a small move in terms of team impact of the Bills cutting Bobby Shaw just before the win streak. The move did not save any $ as Shaw was entitled to a full season contract by that point and an important player was activated (Peters I think), but the key was the Bills decided to cut a well-liked player who was NOT a cancer he simply did not fit into the positional scheme. I think this motivated the players to know that they needed to contribute if they were gonna stick around. Though I think that most players thought this was harsh but fair, it was not the "we are family" approach that many teams take to become TEAMS. Instead, I think that it made it harder and ultimately a failure for this group to deal with hard times when they came (the difference in goal between MM and TD). If the Bills had cultivated more of a TEAM approach (which folks like the Pats had and even when Belicheck screweed up negotiations with Milloy totally and some bad injuries occured, the players sucked it up and played together) they might have done better in the hard times. Because MM had used fear of losing their job as a motivator in 04, he squeezed Ws from the players. However, ultimately the players did not prove good enough to get to the playoffs in 04. Success tends to heal all wounds and if they had been good enough to make it they probably could have gone on. Hopwever, they were not, and when a tough time came and the GM used his Ralph given muscle to fire Bledsoe and take a less than less chance of success in 05 the Bills fell from even being a team to being a group of individual players. I think this is where they lost their edge and a small chunk of extra effort which would have allowed them to stop the run rather than be overrun against TB and AT. I think this everyone for themselves attitude ended up with the Bills responding more poorly to the lose of TKO than the Pats responded to the loss of Colvin. Finally, the reliance on fear as a motivator (an effective tool but only for a short time so you better win fast if you rely on it) led to a total meltdown as alleged team leader had a hissy-fit when Evans surpassed him as the go-to guy and he took on Tyke Tolbert during a game. None of the Bills (even NFLPA Pres Vincent) came to Moulds defense when he was suspended (I mean even some of the Eagles were willing to defend TO when he acted like a baby) and these individuals could not even be a team when times got tough. I am glad that TD and MM are gone as they pushed a failed approach. TD semed mostly motivated by being sure the guy he hired could be beaten so he didn't get fired by the HC as he had in Pitts. Though TD was correctly fired for us to build a winner, I think MM had been used up and had too much bad karma to stick around. i am glad he left but I do not allow this to get me to overlook some real strengths that are part of his make-up and approach to the game. I think Miami has a number of other issues which should cause them to meltdown and allow us to squish the Fish this year (residue of a horrible situation with the demise of Wickey Williams, Chambers being a prima donna, a need to replace an aging LB crew with Seau gone and Thomas having a lot of mileage, the oddity and unexplored impacts of Jason Taylor and Thomas' sister divorcing, and whatever else. However, i think that MM being an idiot is not one of their problems. In fact, he is the perfect guy to analyze and build an offensive approach which can rehab the career of a recently failed QB in Culppeper as he oversaw the redevelopment of Kordell, Maddox and Bledsoe on his watch.

Sorry, and I will try to be more conscientious about doin THIS when I post a question.

The big thing I draw from seeing these two is that if WM is ever hurt we are screwed as I do not see either performing well enough to be anywhere near an adequate starter. Gates clearly has shown a nose for the endzone somehow landing on his feet and backing in for the TD after getting helicoptered by a low hit and struggling into he endzone. However, he has not racked up a ypc high enough to indicate that he has much break away speed or ability to consistently be a rush threat beyond getting tough yards inside. The word was that A-Ytain was gonna see more reps this game and we would have been able to see what he could do not playing in the garbage time he has gotten so far. However, he was not used much in this game which may have been because Jauron was pissed when he started off the game getting a facemask penalty while blocking for the return team. I think Shaud may in fact be a goner as he has been given a chance to show he has additional worth as a return guy but has had little impact in this role. Gates has been impressive with the TDs but has not shown anything beyond the glitzy stuff which impresses the casual watcher while the coaches will probably make their judgments based om stiff difficult to see in the game feed or impossible to see except up close in practice or on tapes such as: 1. Blitz pick-up 2. Route running as a dump off receiver. 3. ST play 4, Blocking and faking ability on end arounds or scrambles. Gates has not separated himself enough from Thomas with his better running to beat out Thomas if he shows better than Gates on this other stuff.

I thought this was a separate question than the main point of the thread itself which I was curious to receive feedback on this specific point that those who already had responded to the original question in the thread might not see amidst the back and forth. Therefore I posted a new thread.

In another thread someone proposes a fantasy trade of WM for a 1st from Houston. While the general reaction to this trade seems to be that folks would not do it because either: 1. They think it would amount to flushing this season down the toilet with a variety of negative effects siince it leaves a team already weaker than we want with having to use Gates or Thomas as our #1 RB or pick up somebody a team has given up on,or 2. They want more value than a 1st round rookie with no pro credentials (even a first in the draft pick) in exchange for an NFL vet starter at RB. Yet, one poster at least seems so devoted to the crapshoot called the NFL draft that he calls such an offer a no-brainer to take for WM. I think this move amounts to near business insanity as the lame season we would be volunteering for would cause a devastating hit on this business looking to put butts in the seat right now and build a positive feeling about this team for the immediate and forseeable future. It also amounts to substantial risk that the Bills will suck for what is a limited amount of time that the Golden Boys will be on this planet. However, if one chooses to simply ignore the likely realities of business and the unfortunate reality that we are only on the planet for a short time, I think this question even raises an odd view of football. Basically in a little under two seasons of play WM has easily led the Bills in rushing and in fact amassed over 2000 yards rushing quicker than any Bill. He certainly had a real production downturn in the 2nd part of last season though he still put up substantial rushing yards for the season. He also has not demonstrated the pass catching ability that would make him a full RB yet that the great ones like Thurman showed. My question is what specific level of production should WM have produced to make him a good RB in their minds? And whatever level of production they demand is it realistic to expect that from an RB after two years of play or who came with a #23 pick. The statement has been offered also that WM is merely bidding his time here so he can go elsewhere. Are there any quotes from him that support this? I would suspect that if he signed for the only 5 years many first rounders sign for AND the contract allows his first injured year to be one of the 5 we still have him for 2 seasons and if he turns out to be that good, we even have the franchose tag which could force him to stay for two additional yeaes or at least apply leverage on him to resign. The thought that his is likely to be gone seems to assume that he is gonna mount some Terrell Owensesque fit that will force the Bills to get rid of him. Is there any objective reason why anyone draws this conclusion. What is the thought here?

I think that the surprise cut to most fans (and to those who posted above) is gonna be Shelton at FB. Perhaps the coaches see something in his blocking that will make him a keeper, but I suspect the major use of the FB is going to be as a dump-off pass catcher in our version of the Sr. L O and as a blocker for McGahee. Shelton has been unable to catch passes this pre-season or the end of last season where one bounced off his hands to be run back for a TD on an INT. Ricard's specialty was as a blocker for a 2000 yard rusher and if he shows any signs of being able to replicate this performance I think Shelton is a goner.

I think the GM who makes that trade is actually soon looking for a job himself. Its difficult for me to see how Ralph and Marv have any other priority than to win as soon as they can which means they go for the snowball's chance in heck of winning this year with the best team they can put on the field and then attempt to build that team into a winner using the significant cap room we should have next year. The idea of flushing this season down the toilet by having to choose between Gates and Thomas as your starting RB would not just simply nip ticket sales for the reat of the season in the bud, but subject this team almost by plan to a horrendous losing season. Quite frankly this move would be simply horrendous because the trauma of us voluntarily undergoing such a horrid season likely would set adoration for the Bills back by a few years as we would be virtually guaranteed our 7th year in a row with no playoff appearances and likely an 8th year next year as the team led by its two top 10 choices would be lucky to get its legs underneath it by mid-season as they learned how to be pros (even with a stud like Peyton Manning Indy finished with the same 3-13 record and we would be lucky if the addition of a second talented rookie allowed us to even get to 8-8). Add tp that the likely massive funk if not open rebellion among guys like Fletcher-Baker who have a limited # of years left and this team simply gives up on one of the those seasons. This does not even take into account how well JP develops without much of a running game to count on. Since we are in some fantasy world of being a GM, it is not irrational at all to wonder whether the results of us volumtarily sacrificing this season might not be a clear step in the Bills so disgusting people that the team ends up leaving WNY. The threat is real that the act of trading WM for assets in that crapshoot known as the NFL draft may simply be a recipe for moving this team to CA. The draft is such a craoshoot that it seems rediculous to toss away an RB that is the fastest Bill to gain 2000 yards on the ground for a chance at a player who may well prove to be as successful as Harrington, Mike Williams, or Ryan Leaf. Is WM worth a 1st rounder? More than that to this team.

Your post actually reslly makes me question how well I think the Bills will do this year. It raises questions for me not because of the superior football logic and analysis, but because it strikes me as an example of how a fan can analyze his team through the prism of rose colored glasses. As I said in my orginal post, I clearly do not declare the Pats to be dead or imploding, I simply raise the possibility that they might be. My conclusion is that the Pats are the division champ until somebody proves to be better on the field and nobody has done that yet so they are in the upper half of opponents we face. However, 12 Ws for them would appear to be in the upper range of possible outcomes that they have this year. Folks who use the same rose colored glasses for the Bills have us making the playoffs this year. Every team is undefested right now so I guess if folks are going to be delusional this is the time. I guess I am happy to consider the possibility they may get 12 Ws as long as I also recognize the possibility that they may not even make the playoffs this year. Both outcomes are pretty unlikely but are in the realm of the possible.

My understanding from Bills' Daily is that he is expected to resume practice this week and was out the last game due to a death in the family.

No claims from me to being objective regarding the Bills, but yes I am serious regarding my sense of NE. I judge them to be in the upper half of teams we face (do you agree?) however, I think that though I had written our first game off as a definite loss when the schedule came out I am not so certain as I was before. The reasons for this are: 1. I have been reminded that our last game in NE was much closer than I immediately remembered. NE did not so much beat the Bills in their house as historically and completely they had done in recent years. It really was a game (in which the media amusingly tried to present as primarily a chapter in the Tedy Brueschi story but the reality of the game showed it to be a nice job by him storybook from a medical perspective but only so-so in terms of game output by him). The key factor in this game was KH failing to do the job rather than NE standing on the Bills throat. 2. I specifically said that the WR situation and the Branch controversy were not the only issues. In fact, Bills fans are probably made most hopeful by the LB issues as evidenced by the Brueschi situation and the retrieval of Seau rom he retirement pile. As I said in the post, NE is likely in the upper half of our opponents, but the Seau signing and the FA departure of McGinest means that you well may be whistling in the dark if your assumption is that this is the same NE team who will reach the same lofty levels as they have the past two years. 3. I did not mention the impacts of the loss of Weis an Crennel until the second game post but likewise this is another reason to wonder what type of rejiggering is going on in beantown. 4. As far as Branch goes, rather than historic weakness at WR being s trait of the Pats as you observe I felt like it was the other way around with the passing game where the DBs needed the help of a player like Branch to reinforce them. The Branch issues are significant not simply because of his not getting the practice or being there for the initial game, but the team is already going to be without 2005 #2 WR Givens. I think this is a question, don't you. In the end, the Pats are the class of the division until another team takes it away from them, all i am saying is that the chances appear that what more likely will be the case is that this will ultimately occur this year not because the rest of the division takes it away but IF it does occur this year it will be because the Pats give it away. Such breakdowns appear to be the norm among SB winners (the Pats themselves failed to even make the playoffs in 2002 after their first SB win. if they fail to make the playoffs again that to me would be an implosion. Even though I think it is likely do you think it is a dead lock certainty they will make it this year? Recent events say it is likely but not certain in this league.

My guess is that the choice has been pretty obvious for a longtime (even before camp started) that JP was gonna start the first game. This default could have been changed by on field performance by KH or Nall doing well or JP imploding. However, given the injury to Nall essentially meaning that he needed a lights out performance in his first practice reps (difficult to do when the decision had already been made to give a bunch of snaps to JP) or against the Browns second team (possible given their quality but even this would likely have been too late) and KH falling apart, JP merely needed to show some good and some bad to get the job. The decision of when to announce the obvious was really a minor one which neither makes nor breaks the team or even his development or acceptance as a QB. I hope that the braintrust was not motivated by some sense of the timing of this announcement having some majoe or even significant impact on the fortunes of this team or an individual because I simply do not see how this factor is not overwhelmed by other items like real world performance. There is a reason why I mentioned such trivia as hygiene habits being a more likely determinant of the announcement timin. I'm not saying that Ralph's shower schedule is important, my judgement is simply that the timing of this announcement is trivial.

I think of myself more as Andre the Giant

The key to every game is not simply a question of how good are we (I think hopeful bit with real doubts is about the best we can do based on general views on TSW) but how good or troubled are our opponents going to be. One way to think about this is to divide our opponents into thrids. Like it or not, our opponents can be divided up into those we consider the toughest third, the middle third and the weakest third. There will clearly be disgreement over how strong that upper group is and how weak the lower third is, but we might be able to see some consensus on how these teams rank in relation to each other. This is my cut: Sept. 10 @ New England - I had figured that after a lengthy run at being the best this team would be going down, but now with huge WR issues and LB issues, this team may be imploding. Sept. 17 @ Miami - Perhaps the greatest uncertainty I see about how good/bad they will be. Coming off of a major winning streak at the end of last season and with a new (but failed in his last gig) QB this team may be an up and comer (Mike and Mike have them going to the SB. However, this was the same team we obliterated in the 1st quarter of a game we should have won last year and they do not scare me at all. Sept. 24 NY Jets - There seems to be a growing consensus that this may be the worst team we face and given their RB troubles, lukewarm endorsement of Pennington, young OL at least a year if not two away and huge RB issues such doubts are not uinreasonable. Oct. 1 Minnesota - Seemed to have moved beyond their party boat days with a change in leadership but unclear. Oct. 8 @ Chicago - These guys were major winners in terms of Ws last year and remain so until proven otherwise. Yet, they may be the same great D and zero O team this year so they may prove otherwise. Oct. 15 @ Detroit Those who complain about the Bills drafting badly should thank the stars they do not live in Detroit where Matt millen's team seems to be on the verge of giving up on both of the WRs they drafted in the 1st round and add to that they have already declared the player they took just before we erred on MW a bust. Oct. 22 New England - This time we get this team we almost beat in NE in our house. Nov. 5 Green Bay -Folks are credibly wondering not only whether Favre made a mistake in judging this a good enough team to come back forbut whether Favre may have hung on a year too long. Nov. 12 @ Indianapolis - Given their team make-up and playing them in their place I think this is likely the game we will lose. Yet, given the problems of their back-up QB and an O built around the singular talents of their starting QB injuries may tell the tale for this team. Nov. 19 @ Houston The worse team in the NFL last year and like Chicago they will remain such until they prove otherwise. Nov. 26 Jacksonville - a team which continually fallen just short of the playoffs the last few years who may well punch through this year but fortunately the game will be in our house. Dec. 3 San Diego Likewise playing in our house may be key as SD wil be comimg cross country for this December game. A near playoff team last year, but we will see whether Rivers is more like RoboQB or like JP. What will likely determine this is whether SD is more like Pitts or Buff were for these young QBs. Dec. 10 @ NY Jets See above Dec. 17 Miami See above, but the tradition of the Miami late season swoon (except for last year so we will see) and having them come to our house means I think we not only hope but expect to squish the Fish. Dec. 24 Tennessee The signing of Kerry Collins and appearance that he will be their likely starter now indicates this team is not a likely juggernaut. Dec. 31 @ Baltimore - It now appears they will be one of our tougher opponents. So in the big picture, I actually found it difficult to divide our opponents into thirds of upper opponents, middle tier of our opponents, and a final group a lower tier. Most of them have some serious question marks even if one assumes they are relatively healthy. I would say a division of our opponent into upper and lower would be: Upper: Indy Chicago Jax SD Balt NE NE MIN Lower: NYJ NYJ MI MI Det TN Hou GB I'm curious is folks would make this same cut weighing their relative strengths against each other (again, this is not making an assumption of how bad we are gonna suck or rebuilding and only assesses how tough the games will be based on whether we are home or not and a little of the weather factor. In fact, I think the good news for us here is regardless of where one feels we are few of our opponents are dead lock or even fairly certain to post a winning record when the season is over. Among the lower level opponents we will face, MI is the only one who I think stands even a remote chance of being an adequate team this year. Among the upper level of teams we face, I am wondering wether MI turning out to be a problem may not be balanced by the lose of Weis and Crennel along with the typical demolition of an SB winner may not be more than even Boy Genius BB, young star Brady and the hopes of Mulroney to reverse. I know folks are fearful about our potential, but looking at our opponents I think has to give someone a bit of hope or why are folks so certain that teams I think our in our lower level of opponents gonna be good?

I think this tells us how much the NFL really is a the future is now league and with the salary cap having gone up under the new CBA we are seeing teams invest the extra cap room in getting a player they can market and sale tickets now on the hope an dream that some washed QB is gonna be the new savior when folks would have a hard time accepting the illusion that a player with no winning record or hype to fall back on or who is a failed member of the old team is somehow gonna be a savior. The most interesting thing about other teams cutting bait on their past failures and teams buying new hopes is that when one looks at the Titans. the Raiders and also Detroit (ESPN was saying today thay are likely to cut two recent 1st round WR picks which adds to their having picked bust Harringtion earlier than we picked bust MW) is that as bad as folks feel about the Bills prospects, I think the situation of these 3 teams is worse than ours. Given that we play two of these three teams this year and the Jets twice, even if you feel we are a bad team these are four possible victories and we probably are the favorite at this point in at least 2 if not three of these games.

No I am not arguing that Ralph's hygiene habits determine who will be a starter on this team, what I am arguing is that if one is looking for an explanation of the TIMIING of the announcement of the starting QB that the timing of Ralph's senior or hygiene moments is proabably a more likely explanation than the dimestore psychology explanation being offered. As I said, both strike me as quite unlikely, but the shower explanation strikes me as more likely than the theories folks seem to be offering to explain the timing. While it is fun to try to dope out the rationale it really strikes me as folks being too clever by half in trying to figure out the rationale.

The rules may have been changed under the most recent CBA or when the size of the PS was expanded, but my understanding of the rule is that: 1. Players on the PS are free to sign with other teams and there is no formal right of first refusal or waiting period to see if the old team opts to invoke their right of first refusal (if there were, then when the Bills signed a player such as when they signed Lawrence Smith from the Ravens PS, the media breathlessly would have covered the countdown until he officially became a Bill), 2. However, if a player is signed from another team's PS he must be signed to the active roster of his new team (this stops teams from raiding each other's PS and stops players from having their agents seek the best PS opportunity for their player). I also think that if you sign a player from another team's PS he is at least immediately guaranteed an salary at a prorate annual ammount (and may well even be guaranteed a roster spot) to stop teams from signing a player from the PS of a team they are about to play in order to get information about the opponents playbook or game plan and then they simply cut the player after the get valuable intelligence data. 3. Even though there is no right of guaranteed right of first refusal, teams often seem to here that other teams are interested in signing a player off their PS. Generally, this makes sense as another team sniffing around or expressing interest in a player would give that player great leverage with his team. As in the case with Jason Peters, it was actually other teams expressing interest in signing him off the Bills PS that proceeded a decision to sign him to the Bills roster. The decision to sign him preceeded the decision to make him an RT as initially he was used as a on the ST where he blocked a punt and scored a TD. He was given a OL players number but did not assume use exclusively as an OL player until after he made a less than successful intial TE appearance when he refused to notify officials he was an eligible receiver at TE even though he wore an OL # and wa penalized on the play.

I think that folks seem to be making conclusions about Jaurom (or any of the Bills braintrust) making or announcing their decisions based on one or two factors or toward one specific goal to the exclusion of all other factors or goals. I do not think so. The HC is managing am emtire team which is the centerpiece of a multi-million dollar business. The idea that he is making or announcing decisions based on one )or even a few) major effects does not strike me as sensible. If anything, one might find a discernable final element which kicked into place before a final decision is announced (for example the OK of Ralph or simply informing Ralph so he hears it first from Jauron rather than reading about it in the newspaper). However, even if there was one final activity which one could find out about, it would be a mistake to comclude that this was the ONLY or main reason why the decision was made. The almost equating to conspiracy theories which folks seem to propose to explain the actions seem like this mistake being made big time. In fact, if one is looking for a credible potential explanation for the timing of the announcement of JP starting, it sounds a lot more believable to me that any dealy happened because they waited until Ralph and Jauron or Levy talked directly and the owner was informed that his employees were going to make a public announcement than concluding that there was some psychological motivation. Both ideas could be totally wrong, but a one day delay in the timing of the announcement strikes me as more likely being caused because Ralph was in the shower win Jauron called late at night and then they decided to talk the next morning because Ralph was going to bed than any grand psychological team building motivation for this delay.

I was just looking at my wrust and checked my sundial and realized I messed up the #s, whoops. i think there are enough typos in my overly lengthy posts that it wasn't so much folks missing it but figuring it was par for the course.

I think the thing which really made it a puff piece was that the theory that the an OL move shows that the new regime is so different than the old regime is that since JMac has strong influence or is for the most part actially in control of our OL decisions, the old regime and the new regime are substantially the same, If fact, if JMac does not actually have strong influence, that is the story media should be covering rather than an alleged difference between the new regime and the old regime regarding OL.

I think Bledsoe was capable of at least leading a team to the SB as he proved to be under the guidance of Parcells in the early 90s. He also proved capable of playing an essential role for the NE Pats in the 2001 season in their successful SB run (though Tom Brady proved to be the player capable of playing QB successfully for this team for the most part, DB did throw the winning TD pass in a must win game for them and they got the ring because of his actions so though Brady clearly deserves the lionshare of the QB credit Bledsoe did play an essential role when called upon), However, that being said, the great skills that Bledsoe borught (and still can bring successfully IMHO with the specific right situation and the right guidance of the team which he never had in Buffalo and thus he could not be successful here) to the table were his rocket arm, good ball handling skills, and a tremendous amount of experience. However, the mental challenge which Bledsoe has IMHO is that though his large amount of experience allows him to read specific match-ups well (as seen in him hitting some nice bombs to Evans and Moulds on trick plays which buffaloed the coverage) and pull off designed plays like the fake QB sneak where he pitched it out to WM, he seems to have trouble when the play calls for him to think quickly or figure things out at the LOS. His difficulty figuring things out and making the right move in a game is seen in examples like the play in the a Bills game on 4th down as we drove downfield in the final seconds of the game where he was under duress and simply through the ball out of bounds. Yeah we did not risk the loss, but we turned the ball over on downs and the game was lost. You could almost hear Bledsoe emit a Homer Simpson like DD,OOHHH when he realized what the had down bv dumping the ball OB and slapped his head. One could also see his difficulty figuring things out on the fly when BB ripped him a new one first time we played the Pats with Bledsoe at QB by having his D come to the OL standing up and failing to get in a stance or show a scheme. I consider it a mental challenge to Bledsoe that without a defensive scheme to react to, he simply got confused and the Bills got hit with delay penalties and Bledsoe could not run the offense. Ironically, I think Bledsoe would be a great QB coach because he has the ability to understand what happened on a play and the experience to diagnosis the appropriate response given time. Tom Brady has spoken a couple of time about how valuable it was to him to have Bledsoe as a sounding board to talk to and take apart and improve his play. However, Bledsoe has shown no ability to do this design and reaction on the spot as the play unfolds. One of TC's good moves when he took over the O from Kevin Killdrive as to "simplify" the audible scheme by essentially taking away some of Bledsoe's options to call plays. Bledsoe had (s) such supreme confidence in his rocket arm that the Bills ended up running on some incredible number of 3rd and 2 or less plays in 2003 as pass-happy Killdrive called too many passes and apparently when he would occaisionally call a run Bledsoe would audible to a pass he was sure he could make. I would not classify him as brain dead, but I would say his great confidence in his arm and his slow thinking was a mental challenge for him. The funny part about footbll is I think there is a fair chance that he made lead a team to the playoffs this year even with his mental challenges because Parcells is ultimately in charge and its a TEAM game.

I think the interesting thing is that a brain dead QB that you name RJ has an SB ring. I think he is more injury prone than brain dead and that though he deserves the ring he got as a reserve in good standing on the team that won it he did nothing beyond being a practice guy to help get them there. However, when you also factor in that Wright is generally considered not starting talent at all, but a reasonsonable back-up for a likely playoff team and that the cleaely brain challenged Bledsoe was an essential part of an SB winner it may be that under the specific right but not rare circumstances being a brain dead QB is OK for a back-up on an SB winner. Well, the Bills and any potential trade partner hope so.

I think the a lot will be determined as to whether Evans/Price = Holt/Bruce by how close WM comes to moving toward what Faulk accomplished as a receiver for St. L. If WM is a credible receiving threat (I doubt he will provide near the level of a balanced threat Faulk provided) then this will do at least two things: 1. Allow the WRs to be used only when they reads show them isolated because JP will be able to check down and dump off to WM when they are dt'ed or there is a deep cover guy, when the DBs cheat up to stop RAC by WM then our WRs will be isolated with single comverage and we will see bombs like the one last game to PP and the game before to Evans. 2. WM will be a much more effective rusher as DCs work to stop our pass-happy O. I also think that this O under Fairchild will look significantly different that the Rams O, but this likely will not be because of fewer passes but because I think we will make more use of the TE as receivers than the Rams. I think the most experienced Ram TE on their roster this year is a 3nd year guy with little production and the rest are rooks. I suspect Fairchild will make more use of theTE in the checkdown role as WM will not be at Faulk level for at least a couple of years as a receiver. I think that we will also see the Bills look to replicate the success which TE Butch Rolle had here in the redzone and we will see greater use there. I think folks make a mistake in assuming that the winter weather and winds of the Ralph will stop us from replicating S. L as I understand their offense was predicated more on short passes and RAC than long bombs. The Bills demonstrated that a pass-happy O which relies on short passes can work even the winter here.