Pyrite Gal

Definiitely. One of the amusing things for me is that I am a big time lover pf newspapers and magazines (The Economist is one of my favorities) and a few years back my lovely partner started complaining about too many Buffalo News and USA Today's stacking up around the house wirh an aspiration to recycle them (which always happened but sometimes I failed to read the articles that had me saving them). At any rate, i suggested as an alternative that we turn our Buff News subscription into Sundays only and I would read it online on a daily basis. She agreed as it meant less stuff from her perspective (her brother still laughs because he returned some Bills tapes to me and I said just keep them as his sis wanted us to have less stuff. He suggested I just hide them in my home office and she would never know, to which I replied, ho no she weighs the house every morning and can detect when even extra snall stuff appears). At any rate, i did this for about a week or two then I found that life intruded and I was not doing the reading of the News I aspired to do. The interesting thing to me was I found I did not miss it. Between resources like TBD that tells me about Bills stuff, my local work which tells me about local relevant stuff and resources I see in passing from CNN to the Daily Show, I actually get a feeding of news from several sources (I even watch my friends at Fox News religiously- it is definitiely not fair and balanced, but then no one is and the key is to not get your info from one single source) . WNED, etc. I see and hear a lot of stuff. I found i was not meeting my aspiration to read the Buff News daily but i found that outside of the comics I really was not missing anything by not reading the Buff News. The good news is my recycling piles dropped way down.

Actually, I don' think PP has changed much, I think you may be taling a fuller more realistic view of him. He performed extremely well for the Bills when he was here, producing reasonable numbers for catches, yards per catch and TDs as a rookie and then improving on them each year as a Bills, His final year here was one of the most productive for a #2 WR in history with 94 catches to Moulds 100. Yhr only negative production I saw from him was some bad fumbles one year but even these came when instead of going down with the first hit, he was struggling for extra yards and set for a hard hit by a second defender with the first clawing at his ankle he coughed it up. To me this showed Peerless being a real gamer fighting for every yard he could get even though I wished in those cases he was a bigger weiner and went sown with the first hit. His 94 catches that year was by far the class of the FA grup that year and he deserved the shot and the big bucks he got. Folks seem to dislike former Bills though and the party line was developed among some of the Bills faithful that he was a malcontent, a weenie or worse. I never saw that from him when he was here. He definitely sucked in AT. My sense is that this was because: 1. He never really developed a good chemistry with Vick whose thought is to run first an pass second. 2, He does have some linitations as a WR despite some real talents like his speed and fight for yardage attitufe. He seems to be more of a guy who will run a specific patterns as it is designed but he is not much of an improvisor. As Vick's styple is all about improvisation and opportunism, Price simply was lost out there. 3. Indiciations are also that you can't go home again. Though it seemed initially appealing to go back to AT, it also can mean extra pressure as every old buddy you ever met (and some you didn't) come around for tickets or big investments. You are not only on the stage every Sunday but there is no escape when it does not work out to your hotel room or into a foreign town. 4. Health issues. In particular an eyesight problem made it tough for him. However, many of these problems are solved by him moving to another team. Also as the health issues are something which can be gauged by th Billa' dpcs, I assume since we were comfrtable giving him a big signing bonus that the health issues are solved. The best thing for us is though he sucks as a #1 we merely want him to be a #2. If he has 2/3 the production he had as our #2 in 2002 it will be a good year for him and the Bills,

I think the way the Bills used McGahee last year was one of the big failings of our O braintrust. Everyone is well aware of the failure to use him on 3rd down and this seems likely to change with the installation of a ST. L type O which attempts to use McGahee in the Marshall Faulk role and looks to develop his play as a receiver and use him as a checkdown and safety valve. In addition, though I think that the amazing success WM had using his stiff arm running around the edges makes it really silly to concentrate on running him between the tackles. Given his successful use of the stiff arm and the powerful and feared tool it had become, this using him between the tackles seemed to be more of a choice than a need dictated by WM having trouble running the edge. The reason I think that TC and MM made this choice was that they were more devoted to running their scheme rather than running the best scheme for the player they had. They must have felt constrained by the demands of running an O which was effective for Bledsoe and part of this entailed sending WM out to the edge so folks would not sell out to blitz up the middle. TC seemed to feel without the need to run outside he could pound away inside. However, he proveed to be too clever by half and the Bills O became more predictable as he kept doing playcalling to make his approach work rather than diversify his approach as a defense of Bledsoe.

I think this post takes a specific phrase in the post and draws some difficult to support general conclusions from it and then attacks the unsupportable general conclusions. This is true and easy to do (professional arguers on Cable news do this all the time) but really does not add much information or good thinking about the issue. The originator of this thread might provide a more useful post if he asked the question how might one interpret the original notion to which makes the most sense and then respond to that. One could insist that there is no way to interpret the original assertion that would have it make sense. However, I think a failure to be able to do this probably says more about limited thinking and imagination of the reader than the limits of the assertion made. For example, I think the specific post you are refering to is not using the word talent in the way you find shortcomings with. You seem to be jidging whether the Bills individual players have some absolute level of talent now, when he is talking about the Bills acquiring talented youthful players who have not been fully trained or developed yet as pros. I think one can agree both with you that this team lacks players with the productivity to make the playoffs this season, but also agree with him if one judges the youngsters (from rookies drafted this year to developing players like JP) as having talent to make the playoffs soon. I think he is specifically arguing that JP needs to begin to turns the talents that got him drafted into production right now. Comments on that point would be consistent with the comment but I think your thread misses the point. This interests me actually not because I agree with the original poster but actually because I disagree with both him and you. I do not think that JP's or Holcombs ability is going to determine most directly whether the Bills get a bunch of Ws or Ls thi season. If Fairchild foes not come up with a good O scheme with the talents we have I do not think it will be a detereming factor how well the QB plays. Like Shepard in 2001 if the scheme sucks the team (and likely the QB will suck, but even if JP or KH were to play as well as they could this team would suck anyway. Likewise, I think the OL play will be a rate limiting factor which determines a lot about how well the QB plays. If the OL performs well, then McGahee will perform well and the QB will have a much easier tim passing than if opponents do not haveto worry about the run. If the pass protection breaks down a JP QB'ed O looks a lot like Tulane proably and KH simply gets killed. Likewise I think one can focus on WM where if he runs well I think even an adequate QB can pass and if he runs poorly it does not matter how good the QB is in front of Anthony Thomas, I think the poster is wrong to feel that the QB's play will determine alot for this team. Maybe if the QB was good enough to be an Elway or Favre he would drive this team, but our QB ain't gonna be no HOF guy this year/ I disagree with you because though there is not one on the O that I think is abovee-average compared to the rest of the NFL, I do think they have specific talents. If these talents are employed correctly with a good scheme and his teammates use their limited talents to support the whole this O can be productive. Specifically: 1. Our WRs have a tremendous talent in terms of speed. If Evans combines his tremendous speed with some athleticism so that he is a credible #1 WR, an if PP retains the ability to be a productive #2 with his speed, and If Parrish is able to use his speed and shiftiness to be a valuable addition in 3 receiver sets, then this group's talents do a lot. PP has already shown he does not have the overall talent to be a #1. However, if Fairchild produces plays which allow these WRs to get quick separation and his scheme has some nick crosses and pick plays that complicate coverage without getting penalized then their talents can be qquite productive and formidable even though they do not have the talent (besides Evans possibly) to be above average WRs. The same is true of Reed whose case of droppsies showed he lacked essential talent. However, he seems to have solved the droppsie issue and his time as a former RB makes it quite possible he can produce a lot of RAC for us. 2. Our OL is better than last year's starters. I don't know if anyone out there wants to argue that MW and Bennie Anderson were really pretty good or that Teague was athletic but not overmatched. They would be lauged off TSW if they did this. Instead they might argue not that the past starters were bad but instead that the new starters are bad. This claim I think latysto much on their former teams not paying to keep them and concludes they played badly last year. i think this conclusion would be wrong and the record shows it/ Reyes was let go because Carolina saw correctly that Mathis had more upside. Fowler was not pursued by the Vikes because their returning from IR center Burk is a better player. There is a reasonable question why the rest of the NFL did not pursue if they were so great. The answer is that they are not great, but that they are easily better than what we had and many reasons to think they will reproduce their good play for Carolina and for the Vikes for us. 3. In additrion to OL and WR we have talents but not all talents at RB. WM showed his limitations in the second half of last season bvt showed also that he can be a very prouctive player in the first half of last season. Does this team have talent? No not total talent, but some specific ones which if we plan and perform well could end up to some great prodiction by this team. It looks doubtful all of these things can work out since they are so interdepent buy understanding the talents and the limitations they have I<HP leads to understandingthis football team.

that it really serves as a reminder how important back-ups are in this game and how thin the Bills are even at positions where the starter is set and at least an adequate or very good player. Whitner not having signed simply leaves us with the starters at SS being either Bowen or (shudder) Coy Wire. His delay in being signed (shame on both Whitner and Marv for not getting this done one can assign blame for this wherever one wants since we do not really know enough details to say for sure but whomever is to blame both have failed in achieving their goal so far) pretty much gurantees that one of these two will be first on the depth chart at SS for awhile and maybe through the first game or so. However, a deal will almost certainly get done soon or sooner (both sides have too much riding on getting this done to not get 'er done soon or sooner) but the key for analytical Bill fan is that this really points out that a lot of things will have to all work out for this team to be competitive this year. One need only look back to the recent success of the NE teams and note that last year's SB winner had to play without their helmetless fool QB for several games (due to a none motosickle related ouchee) that in the modern NFL there are simply times where the key to success is going to be whether a team has good back-ups at critical positions or players step up as several NE players did when their secondary got rocked with injuries. IMHO, its too bad for me as a fan that Whitner is not long signed, but rather dwell on this money foolishness, what interests me is what this football team is gonna do at SS. Even if Whitner were signed any NFL player (as Clelveland has learned a number of times recently) no matter how highly regarded he is can fall victim to injury that costs him and the team a whole lot. I have seen Wire play and I really doubt he can do the job with pass coverage as his major duty which it will be in the SS. At least in the zone blitz his respomsibility was often to play more like an LB than an SS which at least played to the stronger (not saying much considering his coverage skils) part of his game. It will be interesting to see how he performs in the Cover 2 as part of his pass coverages issues before was tending to read run when it was a pass. Perhaps the Cover 2 will suit him better because he will be forced to read and play pass first. I doubt he can do it however (but I have been wrong a couple of times before and really hope I am wrong about this). Bowen comes with some good words being said about him, but from all I have seen of his stats and occaisionally noticing him in games is that his forte is ST and not position play. I am interested in whether we have the back-ups here or if the back-up can step up and play adequately (as Criwell did last year- he would not be mistaken for being a good as TKO last year, but he played well and deserves a start at Sam this year if he continues his performance). IMHO- WR- I like our depth here and am confident that the back-ups down the line can step up to perform as well as the guy in front of them. The question actually is whether this team has 3 guys only capable of playing at a #3 level and no #2 rather than having enough back-ups who can play at the same level as the starter at least for a short period of time. OL- Back-up quality here is a real issue. I am confident that this year's potential starters as individual players are better than last year's actual OL starters (which again is not saying much given MW and Bennie being unproductive players and Teague always trying hard but sometimes being overmatched at C). However, it's tough at bacl-up with only Preston being a likely quality player among the back-up OL players. We need at least two of them to step up. Gibson and the rookie Butler might but these are big MIGHTS. RB- This is probably the biggest drop-off on the team as WM is a potential Pro Bowl quality RB (if he plays like the 1st half of last year rather than the second), Thomas was good once, but I do not see him or the youngsters as being good for much more than giving WM a blow. FB- I was not satisfied with Sheltin;s play last year and Ricard has great accomplishments but I hope the Ravens let him go because they were going away from using a smashmouth FB and that his injuries will not haunt him. Overall, I see the FB as an occaisional use for us anyway so I am not worried. QB- Unlike many, I see who wins the QB battle and how well he plays as long as he is at least adequate (which is actually a question in terms of the quality of these 4 over a full season) as a fourth ranking factor in whether we get Ws or Ls, This team needs to: A. Have Fairchild effectively utilize some fast WRs to run somethin like tjhe St. L offense. B. The OL needs to block effectively to allow WM to run and to protect the passer, C. WM needs to be a little (but not awesoely) productive as a checkdown receiver playing the Marshall Faulk role in this O. If any of these things do not work it probably does not matter if JP or Holcomb play as well as they can play we lose. If these factors do work, then our QB will need to make good reads, but we can get Ws throwing 8 yard passes with a lot of run after the catch. I think Holcomb will be adequate and JP will be if he is not already so I.m not worried about QB as other factors will make a bigger diff IMHO. CB- I like our depth here as I hope Youbouty will prove to be a good #3 CB and even threaten for #2 by the end of the season. Greer and Hill are fine as nickles and all signs even point to Greer playing extremely well so far. Safties- FS is in great shape with our leading producer of turnovers last year coming bsck and even though he is long in the tooth, there is some throught that Simpson will threaten his PT by the end of the year, SS however, even when Whitner signs will be an issue. LB- A lot depends on how well TKO comes back. Given achilles tears costing some players their career, it may also be the case that once the surgeons got in there they found that his injury though quite different from WM's clearly warranted surgery but will allow for a more rapid comeback than many reasonably expect. I agree with those who say that it is not unreasonable to doubt that any player will recover much the first year after a torn achilles. However, what I do doubt is any assumption about TKO's medical condition other than it forced him onto IR last year. We'll see soon enough when the team straps em on against real opponents in real games. If TKO is back, a former starter Posey whio was a pivotal player in a productive D in 03 and 94 (does anyone disagree and feel he did not log a lot of PT or that those two Ds while not the best ever were producive) is one of your back-ups and Haggan, Stamer and Watson are good back-ups as well. DL- Big questions here because it is not clear how our undersized and newbie DTs will be utilized in the Cover 2. Conceivably with the defensive denius Jauron and Fewell who ran an effective Tampa 2 version of the cover 2 can do this, but it remains to be proven. Schobel should be fine at RDE but Denney/Kelsay may be a competition between two sorta OK players for the KDC slot and backing up looks pretty thnin. So while I hope no one gets their panties all in a wad over the Whitner holdout (I think we can call it that as Marv is treatening his chance to start and certainly we can call it that after a week goes by). The fact that he is unsigned really emphasizes important accomplishments which must be produced by and from the back-ups.

Does WM being the fastest RB in Bills history to rush for 2000 yards consititute hm producing some big time #s that you suggest he "START" producing? Rushing #s are far from the be all and end all of being a productive RB so I would not say he is the best Bill RB ever after a mere season and a half of starts. He needs to demonstrate that he can catch the ball as a pro as well as he caught it in brief attempts in college (an like all youngsters develop that ability even more). He also needs to show some improvement in his blitz pick-up ability particularly with the limitations our OL has shown. One of the great things about Bills fans that in general they expect excellence from their players (though one of our greatest moments was the forgiveness and sense of family shown by several thousand fans in Niagara Sq. after he missed the FG so in addition to great expectations there is also forgiveness too when a player tries hard and wants to win). However, one has to recognize first how short the WM career has been for the Bills, second remember the devastating injury he cane back from, and third recognize that he has produced well over 1000 yards in every (this means both) years he has started a majority of the games in a season for us. He really has accomplished a lot individually for us and the plan is that if the team accomplished as much (with him as a key part but clearly by personality not a leader in a Darryl Talley like way of this group) we will be in the playoffs.

There is an intense competition on the OL but the good news is that it for the back9up jobs. All I hear is that the consensus on the likely starters is: Gandy - LT- Surprisingly adequate last year and not unreasinable to expect this vet to be at least adequate again and we want him to become actually good. Reyes- LG- Solid starter at RG for a productive Carolina OL who was not resigned because the long term Heir at RG, Mathis was there and the braintrust apparently wanted to start him last year but Reyes was too good to bench. He has played LG before in the NFL and should be able to start her- A clear and probable significant upgrade over a really poor playing Bennie Anderson. Fowler- C- Another player who performed well on the field last year as he took the job to replace multi-time Pro Bowler Matt Birk away from longtime Vike Cory Withrow. Culpepper play is reported not only anecdotally to improved when Fowler got the job, but the Vikes pulled off a six game winning streak with Johnson and Fowler doing the snaps. Interestingly the Vikes and Johnson fell short of the playoffs when Fowler missed the last 3 games due to injury. Yhere was no way that the Vikes were going to pay Fowler starter money with Birk back, so again this is a player who was beaten out but not because he was a bad player. Villarial- RG- He was at least adequate as a player for the Bills last year, but what used to be nicks he would play through are now injuries which bench him. He should start adequately but it is probably a matter of time until he must be replaced, Peters- RT- JMac seems to believe he is the best athlete on the OL he has ever seen and JMac has seen a lot of players. He should be good and was recently extended so the Bills believe. I a pretty certain that this year's starting OL will be much better than last year's starting OL (mot hard when you have stiffs like MW and Bennie and Teague was trying hard but struggling at C- that is unless some one wants to argue for last year's OL. I fully expect that this year's OL will actually impress folks by performing quite well to start this season (Complaints that either Reyes or Fowler were merely rejects simply ignores their real world performance as starters last year and the facts that all were facing competition better than them (Mathis due to age and skill and Birk due to skill) which simply meant that though the market would give them starter money their team's last year would not and shouldn't have. There is a reasomable case to be made that if they were that good there would have been a bidding war. The answer is that they are not great players cause Reyes age and Fowler's injury ussues means they are not long term investments. However, all signs point to them being far better than last year\s Bills group and maybe even good players all season IF they last. Injuries or a different level of play from our five likely OL starters may change all of this, but the likelihood IMHO is that the real challenge facing the Bills is that when an OL starter goes down a third of the way or so into the regular season, will they have the back-ups to fill in for them. Right now, Preston who filled in well for Villarial last year and who is a natural center well regarded when he was drafted appear to be the only back-up we should depemd upon. It is fortunate that these two positions are likely where he could go because Villarial and Fowler strike me as our most likely candidates not to be able to start 16. This leaves Butler and Gibson as the two players who present even some remote likelihood they can start somewhere late in the season or give a starter a rest when he needs one. However, the rest pretty much look like a crapshoot to me. If our WRs show the speed they are capable of and the good hands they have demonstrated early in camo, then with the OL playing simply as they have performed in the past, I think out Offense will suprise many. One of the reasons that I do not think QB performance is going to be such a key to whether we do well initially or not is that my sense is that the OL will get a surprising start, the WRs realy have the speed and talent to allow Fairchild to develop a succesful St. L style O. The other wild card is that WM will need to be the first half of last season WM and not the last half of last season WM. By shedding a few pounds and it being the start of the campaign, I think he may well run out of gas as he did last year, but if things go well with the injury situation out QB's main job will be to make good reads and throw short passes and not to win games on his own. However, in the NFL, I do not see this OL lasting 16 or even 6 games without needing a significant contribution from an OL back-up or two. This is the real challenge I think JMac will face. The competition to start does not appear close but we need some help and players will need to step up at back-up OL.

The thimg I am salivating for is actually to see us go empty backfield with Reed also on the field. Evans, Price and Parrish have enough speed that I see the only way a team can cover them is to go with the zone. If the QB makes the read that one of these players is singled up then he simply lets it go on a fly pattern to them and they will need to run under the ball as they look to outrun the defender. If Reed is as smart as Tyke Tolbert is foaming at the mouth about him in saying, if its a zone Reed will then get to use the skills gained from being a 4 year vet with a good brain to find the seams in the short zone and make a catch on a quick throw and then run after the catch. If these three guys are all doing well (this is the second or third good Price remarks I've hear, Parrish got good marks once or twice in my reading and I saw Evabs shiw tremendous concentration and great hands making a catch of a tipped ball yeaterday, it will do a lot to help the OL and QB as the Bills game will be the quick pass to a WR who breaks off the route short or lets a single covered WR run under the pass. Brad Johnson did a lot for the play of Bryant McKinnie last year because a scrambler like Culpepper forced the OL to hold the blocks too long.

From what I hear at this too early stage to draw any conclusions anyone should take seriously (including mine which is simply a guesstimate) the final roster at WR is: Evans, Price, Parrish I think there will be a lof of 3WR sets), Reed, (I think there will be a significant number of empty backfield sets), Aiken (who mostly will contribute with ST play) snd Fast Freddy or Davis depending on the injury situation. I think Nance makes the team but as a PS player, The good news is that this squad will need to cut at least one (if not two former NFL vets to get down to the roster limit and this means competition will be good and intense. How this oddly shaped ball happens to bounce will determine quite a bit in terms of who get cut and who doesn't.

On the surface much of what you note looks like addition by subtraction. HC- Jauron was NFL Coach of the Year once but a losing record is a losing record. Nevertheless, even if he is middlin' this is an upgrade over having an HC that did not want to be here which is why he quit. Even if one goes back to happier days (its not harder to be happier than when house cleaning happened this off-season) by mod-season MM had clearly loss control of the situation as there were disputes with Ralph, RD, and TC that no one outside really knows how bad it was besides what is implied by the results. Hiring Jauron is almost certainly an upgrade even for a new HC. GM- Again TD oversaw building all this mess and even with a newbie GM it can easily seen that this may well be an upgrade. While Marv is making the ultimate decisions, one cannot forget that the major strength he showed as an HC was an ability to delegate. Having Modrak standing behind him means he actually has a professional that many thought would be off to be a GM elsewhere. Again does anyone here want to argue in favor TD so that though hiring a newbie GM is not adequate this may well be an upgrade over the gross inadequacy and failure to achieve results under TD. Moulds- I think this is a loss of hiseorically the most athletically gifted player on the team. However, Moulds meltdown which drew surprisingly little support from his peers came specifically when Evans became the go-top guy from JP against Miami and Moulds primary value was as a #2. I'm afraid as great as Moulds has been as a Bill he was on the backside of his career and would have been the #2 if he had come back. Losing Moulds is a downgrade, but this means that Price will need to somehow warp D with his speed to allow Evans to be better as the primary way Moulds was going to contribute to this team was to free up Evans by drawing attention based on his rep. Adams is a talented guy. but apparently he only wanted to play his game of shooting the gap with his incredibly quick first step when the Bills desperately needed him to do the heavy slogging work of staying at home with his big body to stuff the run. He would do this when necessary for his buddy Pat Williams next to him but once Pat left he was playing for himself and not his team and this was definitely addition by subtactio. Dongrade in talent but likely upgrade in productivity. Milloy is also a high character great guy to have on the team. However, it is clear what used to be nicks he could play through are now injuries which knock him out of the lineup or limit his productivity. Moving to the cover 2 and away from the zone blitz actually moves away from the strengths of his game. A downgrade if Wire is your alternative but likely an upgrader if Whitner ever signs. Big Mike- An upgrade to lose this bust. Teague- I like his athleticism which I think would make him and adequate tackle, but center was always a struggle for him and a switch here is a likely upgrade as well. Bennie- Please/ Its mot surprising to me that your individual overview was quite charitable to the Bills in the end, It is hard for me to qestion any of these moves.

You are right on target mentioning the ability to contribute on ST being a big part of who it makes more sense to keep. I would once again add that I hope the team is not so hidebound dedicated to either a 3 wide approach, a 2 TE approach (or both( that it is unable to have the personnel to go to a full house backfield when that approach is the best one to get the jod done. However, even with a diverse attack, this means the FB is not going to be a position player used all the time and if so the way this player is gonna contribute to the team is on ST or he is just sitting on the bench taking up a roster spot. I've heard great things about Ricard as a lead blocker with his proven experience leading the way for a 2000 yard rusher and being trained by Sam Gash and a little bit that he has rushed the ball but not with extraordinary results (not unexpected for someone from the Sam Gash school or a problem if he blocks effectively for a 2K faining RB). However, I have not heard any details yet about whether Ricard showed the same prowess as a check down receiver Gash showed or whether he has any ST experience. These facts would tell us alot if anyone has them.

It looks doubtful that Ricard is likely to be a pivotal acquisition for this franchise. In fact, there are some fairly serious questions about whether he will even has much to contribute as a pro due injuries which put him on the IR early last season and some twinges he felt in his injured calves recently. However, we do seem to have moved beyond TD trying to construct a franchise which will do the job perfectly (conceptualizing a successful team can be done by a good football mind and TD has one, however, putting a winning team together with the constraints of the salary cao, competition from 31 other teams, the need for leadership to make your team a TEAM, and in TDs case getting over the bruises of getting run out of town in his GM job in Pitts by a guy he hired is another thing entirely) to instead setting up competitions between players so a good TEAM may well emege. We have a haphazrd bunch of players. No marquee stars like and Elway, favre or even a Ray Lewis. A number of the players we are counting on to play critical roles have failed elswhere at higher level jobs (like PP or Andre Davis), are talented but unproven (like Evans or Parrish), or have had spotty careers even here (like Reed and Aiken). Yet. I used a number of WRs as examples of this key point because what this regime led by Marv has invested in is competition on the field rather than simply selecting the players which the genius mind of the GM is confident they can do the job. A look at WR finds: 1. Evans better step up actually because it is unlikely there is a #1 quality WR talent besides him. 2. PP is slotted as the #2 as long as he still has speed (a reporter says he does) and is healthy (the bonus he got from the Bills after their docs exame says he is fine) he has done the #2 job extraordinarily well before though he failed completely as a #1 with Vick in his hometown it is not unreasonable to tink he can do the #2 job for us. Even better, in camp Parrish is now getting some reps as the outside receiver which would fulfill his draft position and PP is doing time in the slot. Better yet, Reed is looking good in camp so far playing the #2 role we thought he would take after a good rookie year. There has even been talk of Davis being good enough to be the #2 though I hear little to indicate on the field this is realistic. 3. I do not think either Parrish or Reed will prove to be #2 quality, but I think they might well be #3 quality WRs (Parrish will create huge issues for the D if he, PP, and Evans put their speed ina 3WR set and though Reed was a failure as a #2 he dis the job for us as a #3 as a rookie. In fact, if we are successful in developing and installing a St. L like O, I have few doubts that Reed (whose good football mind has been praised by the coaches) can go to town in full house sets where he gets to analyze and pick apart zones. 4. Even though there are 4 candidates mentioned above for the top 4 slots, if Reed is going to lose out to those above to be #4 he would have to beat out pressure from below him on the depth chart as Aiken is having a good camp early on, there is still Davis and his aspirations to be our #2 ND even the college record and the height of Nance making him at least a PS keeper. Add to that 2 year vet Fast Freddy Smith also drawing some attention for his play early in camp and the WR situation which most pundits have sited as a Bills weakness actually being a spot where we will almost certainly cut one NFL vet and maybe two. The good thing about this regime is that rather than the pre-season being practice where they allegedly perfect and allegedly perfect scheme worked out by the front office and our coaches, the new order of the day is competition. Pre-season is intersting this year because some vets capable of MFL play are going to get cut. I was prompted to post this with the acquisition of Ricard today. He likely will not be a world beater, but he will provide some active competition for Shelton who was disappointint to me as a player. I love it that this team like TDs crew will be finally constructed by the Front Office and the coaching staff, but what is different is rather than being constructed based on who these boy genii chose, competition on the field will make a big difference. This is true at QB, at SLB. sooner rather than later it appears at FS, and to some extent and also due to injury in some cases at many other positions. Competition is great. It really is different this year as it will happen on the field rather than in the front office minds. It still is quite unlikely this team is even playoff ready at this point and it maybe that what we have here is a bunch of #2 quality players competing to be #1a. Even this may not portend doom though as competition and demanding players step up to start means that particularly the youngsters on this team may step up to #1 quality. In addition, it clearly is the case that a team which logically and based on past performance is composed of players passed on by their original teams (about 1/3 of the Pats team which won the SB in 2001 were signed after the June 1st cuts which were a bigger deal back then) can actually become a TEAM under the right circustances and with the help of dumb luck and the refs (the famous tuck rule call in the conference championship game) can actually accomplish amazing things. While some make think that the views of a we're doomed guy like Sullivan passes for realism, the only realistic prediction at this point is that until we see a bit of the competition in this pre-season, any prediction of exactly hoe this is gonna play out is rally unrealistic. The interesting thing about this Bills team are the questions that are raised as to how players stepping up and how the oddly shaped ball bounces will determine the results of this competition. Folks predictions on what will happen (particularly if they are not generally fact-free opinions like Sullys who dismisses Schobel's top 56 sack number finish as evidence he is above average, but even though one correctlly can make the case that the RDE game involves run stopping in addition to sacking, a good journalist would also see that Schobel's game in the zone blitz involved pass coverage responsibility in addition to sacks and run stopping) really miss the real story of this pre-season which is how are the competitions going.

I don't know they all might decide to start acting like adults rather than devolving into some game trying to show who had bigger cojones.

On the contrary. Perhaps I was bad at communicating what I think will likely happen to/with the Bills this season because I am thinking in print as I write and learning and writing and reading at the same time. I also think its pretty doubtful that the Bills will even have a winning record this year. The Super Bowl is pretty much out of the question unless their is a bizarre plane crash which involves 30 other teams. The playoffs are at least more likely than needing a series of plane crashes to get us there but is even far less likely to happen than the unlikely scenario of simply having a winning record. Please anyone who needs money to feed your kids like many NFL players, do not bet on the Bills having a winning record this year or your kids may well go hungry (though given the epidemic of obesity in this country this may not be a bad thing. The reason that I tend to post a lot and at great length about a more positive perspective on how the Bills might do is not because I am drop-dead certain I think they will. It is because I object to those legends in their own minds who seem so drop-dead certain that they will suck and we are DDDOOOMMMED. What I expect from any journalist and even an opinion meister like Sully is for them to have some grip on reality that they may well be wrong. Particulary with the timing of this piece, the conclusions which Sully seems to draw are so pre-mature it ain't even funny. Even worse he insults all of our intelligence by saying this is a time where one reasonably can be optimistic but then he paints merely one side of his "realistic" opinion. Sully has to fill column inches and that is his job. Yet there is such a great opportunity here to put out an article which has his opinions about what are some of the key questions which reality will provide an answer to quite soon, rather than trotting out his blather which is really little more than a fact-free guess how things will turn out. The annoying thing is that Sully has played the odds correctly in predicting DDOOMM, but he simply provides little good analysis for his prediction so when he turns out to be correct mostly by coinicidence he will claim or believe that he really has some insight into this game and this team. I think he made a mistake by actually using a fairly easy standard (a player arguably being better than average among 32 NFL teams with 22 field positions plus key ST performers( ti neet but then he tries to sell a very extreme view of how the players match up to this standard, The fact simply is when looking at RDE that given the cultural overemphasis on the importance of sacks, that numerically Schobel is easily among the top 12. Even though anyone who really even passingly knows the game sees that there is more than sacks (tthough that is a big part of the job) that determine the quality of an RDE, Yet, if Sully wants to rely on taking a broader view than simply sacks, a simply adequate journalist would also recognize that there is more to the RDE position as it was used in the zone blitz andthat Schobel actually proved to be quite sigular in the bg RDEs that he could also pass cover in the short and medium zone. My complaint about Sully is not that I disagree with him (I think life is at its most interesting when we interact positively with folks we disagree with) but that he is simply not very good at what he does. 1. His opinions are often mere fact-free opinions when he actually has the time because he is paid to follow this stuff. 2. He often takes the easy way out jumping on the clear failings of the Bills and repeating the obvious rather than doing good writing and describing how he thinks these problems might be solved (suggesting that someone get a clue is not a solution suggesting what clue they should get is more of a solution). 3. Writers are basically story tellers and Sully shows himself to be a legend in his own mind by devoting a column at this early date when it is not known by anyone what our O scheme is going to be besides a general susupicion that it will be some version of the Sty. L type O, and also all we know about our D is that it will not be the zone blitz but a cover 2 (though it is unclear whether it will be the Tampa 2 version or something else). Sully had a great opportunity to write interesting opinions about what the Bills may do and might be given the limitations of their personnel, but instead he proved to be a legend in his own mind predicting way too early what the outcome will be. I think reality is probably a better thing to look to here.

I actually agree, but a concentration on 3WR and 2 TE sets should not (and actually cannot for a good team) mean we totally exclude the ability to play full house sets with the backfield employing a smashmouth FB. Fine for me if this is Ricard and fine for me if this is Shelton. A bit depends on the contract details, but given that we are sitting on ample cap room this year Isee little to lose and potentially much to gain by having Ricard compete with Shelton on the field for this job.

Definitely some reasonable concern that he is damaged goods, but also given that he was invited to visit by some other teams and also there was even some trade talk about getting rights to him, but no one saw the need to give up trade value for a player who was going to be cut it did not happen. I like the Bills situation regarding Ricard, because these questions can be answered by how he plays performs and survives on the field rather than some genius like TD making a judgment in the front office. A key trying to figure this out what is most likely before reality happens (like good Americans we refuse to wait for reality) is to what extent was he not worth the Ravens nickel because of the past calf injuries and the pop in his calf he felt recently or to what extent was he let go because it is clear from the article in the Baltimore Sun they had a different O scheme they were pursuing. I think the ultimate answer to the question above as to whether they have given up on Shelton, I think the answer is no. They have not totally given up on him, they are merely requiring that he win the job by competing on the field. The best sign here is that decisions are being made on an assessment of how a player performs in competition rather than how he performs in TD, Modtrak, GW, MM or even Ralph's head. This difference is great.

I spoke to a buddy who is fairly jaded about local politicos about the potential for getting th City of Buffalo to way in on this as leverage they may have in using reopeners with contract selling Adelphia the cable rights for the City. The question would be whether this transfer provides the City with some ability to put pressure on TW to let Bills fans continue to get NFL Network. The word back I get is that this is complicated. It is unclear whether there are any re-openers, but the Adelphia contract is not permanent and TW wants to stay on the good side of all Adelphia custpmers right now so there should be some leverage if Buffalo government wants to exert it even if there are no re-openers. However, in his view the new Brown Administration has the same attitude toward Cable outlets as the old Brown Administration which is to say they are mostly focused on the Control Board and other issues which impact their ability to hire their political allies and only interested in what the public wants to the extent they see it impacting votes. There was a greater chance of getting the City to accomplish the goal of keeping the NFL Network on when it was on rather than restoring it now that it is gone. If you care about this issue, the leverage points within Buffalo City goverment to get them to see some political interest in this are: The Office of Telecommunications (716) 851-4297 Communciations Director Peter Cutler (716) 851-4841 Economic Development Director Rich Tobe (he is not directly responsible for these issues but knows the Bills economics better than anyone else in government as he was Denis Gorski, the former County Execs go-to guy who negotiated the lease deal which had kept the Bills here for the County (716) 851-4972 Cals to any of these people would be good since it would put the issue of TW and football and Bills coverage on their scope.

While the really huge big contract is the definitely irst FA contract, the first regular contract is merely huge big not really huge big. I do not think it is logical to be so dismissive about negotiations over 10s or 100s of thousands of dollars. Some could care less because they never had a dime so any contract is big $. Some could care less because they grew up wealthy and they know they will be taken vare of evem if they did not have football talent. Some are penny pinchers because growing up poor made them want every dime they can make. Some are penny pinchers because they had tons of money but learned the way you earn dollars is to keep track of the pennies. Some general rule applies but you can not know which one until you know the person. This contract any way you cut it is for more money than Whitner ever signed for in his life. For some players the game is more important than $100,000 this way or that way. However, I find it difficult to find fault with someone who judges a $100K. or $500K or whatever the difference is they are negotiating over to be a chunk of change worth doing the due diligence of being feisty about it.

They need lots of QBs to throw practice passes with speed and pace to the tons of receivers competing for a job. JP, KH and Nall are there to work on their own games. Kingsbury is there to help PP, Parrish and even Fast Freddy work on their games. They'd rather have somebody who will never make the roster because they are a couple of steps below pro level throw passes to the WRs who will make the roster than have some scrub ballboy throw passes to our WRs. Foe Kingsbiry it is a paycheck for playing a boys game, an opportunity to hang with a bunch of athletes as a peer briefly, at least dreams of making a pro roster, training that may help you get a good college coaching job, potentially a ride being a well-regarded pro in Europe (a friend who tried out for the Bills and MI and never made the roster played for a couple of years in Europe as one of the couple of Americans each team was allowed. In Europe he never paid for a meal for two years, got a nice wage and they even flew over a buddy to hang with him and keep him happy vause he did not soeak Italian. In addition, a member of a pro team even briefly you get all the girls you can eat at bars for a while. For some combo of these reasons Kingsbury is around.

Many thanks for your observations! In general, I find them very helpful because of the great level of detail you provide and you do a great job of pulling off the difficult task of stating your opinion without clearly having an agenda (beyond love for the TEAM) which cause a writer to see what they want to see. I like it alot that you clearly have a point of view about who looked good and who did not in terms of their actions, but your writing is not twisted by you also having an agenda or liking this player or hating that one. It really helps a writer make a good report which communicates good info to the reader. Thanks!

If what is going on here is that Whitner wants an amount of money that is anything different that being about equidistant from Huff taken just before him and Sims taken after him its Whitner's fault. If on the other hand the dispute is about the Bills wanting a contract for 6 years when Huff and Sims both signed for 5 years, the fault is on the Bills. If there is general agreement on the amount and on the time but debate between the two sides about the details (timing of bonuses etc, though the amounts are clear) then the fault is on both. Unless posters have some actual knowledge of what items are in dispute here their conclusions about who is at fault are pretty worthless.

I think if you want to root for more TE involvement then you better get used to rooting for him throwing good blocks. From what I hear of things at OBD, we are looking for Royal to be more of a 6th OL player than to be used as Tony Gonzales. Given some of the OL issues last year this makes some sense. Likely it will be the redzone where you see more use of the TE as a receiver as Royal had a very good year catching TDs in 04. He did set a personal record for total receptions last year, but this was for a paltry 18. If you want catches at TE root for Everett to win a job on 3rd downs or challenge Royal as starter (unlikely though IMHO).

I don't think he is being realistic in his assessment that Clements is the only Bill in the top 12 in the NFL his position. It is this specific judgment on his part which is easily debatable and on the face of it untrue that strikes me as taking a pessimistic approach which if he were honest he would acknowledge. I have no problem with him disagreeing on specific points, but he couches the article initially in say9ng this is a time for optimism but then he rejects it not for any defended reason, but because he wants to. One would expect better from a journalist. Specifically: 1. I think McGee us actually a better CB for us than NC. This clearly is the case if you assess their value to the team as MCGee's KR ability is Pro Bowl quality. However, it does not surprise me at all to here intial reports fron the first two days of camp when the D usually is ahead of the O in production that it is McGee who is standing out in coverage. If I was NC I would sign a new deal quick because opposing QBs are likely going to be picking on him to avoid the potential that they will have to face a return threat from the man who tied for the lead in Bills INTs last year. I think one can and should give props to NC as one of the 12 best CBs in the league (and certainly one of the 12 best RCBs which is actually the position he plays) because the market says he is with his franchise tag. However, I do not even think he is the best CB on the team and I would count these two as representing 2 of the best 12 (or 24 if you want to count them as 2 positions). 2, The TKO caveat is legit due to his injury, but even if one chooses to ignore him then I think Flercher is one of the top 12 MLBS. This may even be true of the whole LB category as I have been surprised that this man who has more tackled top his credit over the last five years than any other player in the NFL deserves the above average nod for the criteria that Sully sets. This adds up to 4 or at least 3 of the players being arguably among the top 12 at their positions in the NFL. 3. His singling out of Schobel for not being in the top 12 at his RDE position is simply odd for someone who is paid to know football. Folks looking at the NFL are too addicted to sacks being the sole measure of a good DE. However, Schobel was 5th in the NFL in this stat so Sully has some splainin to do about his jiudgment of Schobel. He could make the claim that there is more to the DE game than sacks and claim he likes 7 other RDEs better because they are more stout against the run. However, if Sully takes a fuller view of the RDE, then take a full view of how Schobel was used in our zone blitz. One of the reasons it worked was that Schobel shed a few pounds and showed unique athleticism for a DE. The way that Gray employed gun could see Schobel doing short zone coverage and even single covering a TE in the midzone at times. Despite this unusal usage you still saw Schobel register a bunch of sacks an a good amount to tackles. I think he is easily argued as a top 12 RDE or DE. 4. We are already up to 4 or 5 and it gets a little thinner when one goes to the O, but again his dismissal of WM makes sense in the what have you done for me lately school as he had a production outage in the second half. However, it simply is the fact that he finished 10th in total rush yardage looking over the whole season and also that he is THE fastest Bill to 2000 yards on the ground in our history, Add to that a little analysis which one would expect a good journalist to do and there are credible reasons (he can even call them excuses if he wants but he unjournalistically simply does not seem to factor them in): A. WM gained all his yards playing in a piss-poor O with a horrible OL and troubled QB situation. B. WM put on a bit of weight which may well account for some of his second half downturn (he apparently has taken a bit of the weight off this year). C. Our playcalling simply sucked in the second half as TC ended up stripped of this job, This factor has changed There are all sorts of reasons why Sully could credibly argue WM is in the top 12. 5. Again a reasonable internet poster might restrict himself to the D and O for this assessment if they want, but a journalist should do better. If so, then add Moorman to his list of the top 12 at their position further expanding it from the 1 he gives credit for to about a half dozen Bills who are above average in their craft. Sully is a pessimist and Bills fans are entitled to be if they chose. However, journalists are not and even if pundits are then they should know and say this about themselves or its simply poor journalism.

The way you do it is for the Bills O to work according to the plan Jauron and Fairchild seem to be putting together AND for the D to be the bulwark of this team's improved record by having the Tampa 2 work so that we keep games close, AND Booby April gets the same production from the ST he has the last two years. It will be tough to make all of these ANDs work (and they ALL need to to have this team compete for a playoff slot) and even if they do all work this team will need the oddly shpaed ball to bounce the right way for us in order to really be competitive. The Plan appears to be: D- Jauron has shown that he is a genius given things working the way he wants them work when he got NFL Coach of the Year honors a few years back. It MIGHT happen as the Tampa 2 version of the Cover 2 goes toward some of our stengths with a strong secondary being reinforced with draft IF Whitner signs. NC and McGee should be great on the corners and TV despite his many years led the team in turnovers produced last year, As an older player he both has seen a lot of plays that should allow him to excel at the centerfielder duty he will be asked to do more of and with older players like TV what use to be nicks now become injuries but with the xonr blitz being abandoned he will be asked to tackle less so the game is coming toward his remaining skillset. LB is only a question due to TKO's injury, but the pick-up of Watson gives us increased depth if he cannot plat and k=like TV, the Tampa 2 responsiblities call upon the MLB to cover more rather run stiop all the time. Some folks concerns about his coverage abilities seem more imbedded in his lack of a couple of inches compared to the LB norm, but his lengthy experience (which again is causing some to write him off due to age though his abiluity to easily lead the Bill's in tackle #s numbers show no drop-off. In addition to superior football knowledge which will help his reads (indicated by him being team D captain). AND he has a demonstrated constant motor and mobility (demonstrated by his leading the NFL in tackles credited over the last 5 years), AND he tracks balls in flight well and also ball handles them as well (as demonstrated by him logging a good record as the Bills short kickoff KR guy) our LBs should be fine. The unclear link in us successfully using the Cover 2 is the DL, but the Bills picked up Triplett and McCargo to play a penetrating DT role and it may work on D. ST April led a group which has been ranked statistically the #1 ST in football two straight years. As Marv emphasizies ST heavily this unit has been strengthed with the Bills signing some vets with ST prowess and also drafting guys with ST in mind. Moorman is back and already looks good and Lindell really turned it around last season so it is not unreasonable to hope/expect this group to really help lead the team to some Ws.. O The O effort seems to revolve around not the quality of the QB, but whether the team can successfully introduce the St. Louis scheme to the players and whether Farichild can call and design plays which get some initialseparation. If the O works as it likely is planned KH will not be throwing it over 20 yards more than a few times a game and when he does it will be to a receiver on a straight fly patten who is isolated in one on one coverage. The plan should call for a bunch of 3 WR sets with Evans, Price and Parrish all showing their speed. If fairchild can in fact design plays that give the WRs quick separation through, fear of their speed backing coverage off or forcing opponents into zones and also crossing patterns and intricate picks we do not get called for Holcomb will have to merely read the D and throw it short looking for RAC. Like any NFL QB he will have to air the ball out from time to time just to maintain the threat that he might do this, but though he cannot be expected to throw the ball downfield a lot with any accuracy, if the Bills show they may go long a couple of times early, the DBs will need to play back just in case. In fact, if the scheme is run well, KH will not even have to hit the receiver deep just present the threat. More than how well the QB throws long, success will depend a lot on WM being used as a receiver which MM and TC did not do a lot last year at all. WM will not have to produce like Marshall Faulk, but if he is an adequate check down receiver, this will make like much easier for the WRs. In addition to the WRs showings good speed (likely), AND Fairchild designing good routes (quite possible as he got schooled by Martz but he has not done this yet so it cannot be declared likely), ABD WM showing some receiving ability (also possible as he he showed adequate though rarely utilized hands in college). AND also the big wildcard will be that this OL needs to be productive. I am confident that this year's likely OL starters (Gandy, Reyes, Fowler, Villarial and Peters) are gonna be better than last year's starters (Gandy, Anderson, Teague, Villarial and MW). Do you disagree? However, being better than last year's bunch is not saying much so the question is how good they will be. I think they actually will be pretty good initially (despite some folks calling them mere rejects because I do not think they saw them or even looked at their records from last year it is clear Reyes was a solid starter on a productive OL for Carolina who lost his job this year to the young highly regarded Mathis whom apparently Carolina wanted to start last year, but he could not unseat Reyes. Fowler also took the starting job away from Withrow at MN and his rise coincided with a big Vike win streak that almost got them into the playoffs- he was not signed for the starter money the market apparently would give him as the Vikes were committed to multi-time Pro Bowler Birk who was IR'ed last year but now is back. I suspect this crew will get off to a good start. However, the big OL question for the Bills is back-ups as players unfortunately getted nicked and have to sit. Outside of Preston behind the likely first to fall to injury Villarial, the Bills need to develop some credible back-up OL players or get very lucky. A lof things have to work at the same time for the Bills team and O to be productive, and I doubt it all will work perfectly. However, QB is really the4th biggest wildcard in the deck for the Bills and simply is not likely to be the rate limiting factor on whether this team is good or not.

I think that a decision to cancel or restrict activities flows from what someone mentioned in a post above but did not explain. If folks do not remember (it was only a few years ago, but we Americans have trouble remembering last week if new reality show has premiered), but Vikes OL player Korery Stringer died in pre-season when he collapse during workouts in hot conditions which were not extreme but were higher than nirmal. I have not seen any official autopsy results or seen the results of the lawsuit which Stringer's family filed against the Vikes,, but purely out of liability concerns, teams are easily more prone to cancel or take extreme measures to curtail summer practices than hold them even if practice temperatures may be less than are in Miami or some regular season game. I think in most folks view, the fact that many players (particularly OL guys) are severely overweight and that this is now a full-time jpb (with enormous compensation) as players should not expect to play themselves back into shape at camp and that players should come to camp aware of the heat, their conditioning and other factors. However, if an NFL team presents any signs of not doing their due diligence to be aware pf the heat playing in the summer during pre-season, then any assumption of risk taken by the player can get totally ignored and the team (or more likely their insurers who require cut backs in training in pre-season tied to hear) may paty through the nose. In the end, this certainly makes more than a lot of sense from a business perspective to suspend practice when it gets hot even if it is at what most fans consider weenie conditions. It also makes sense from a human standpoint as quite frankly, the game is risky enough without taking on even a small additional risk of potential heat stroke.