Lothar

to me this is an indictment of management ... you know the cap is going to jump big in a year - why not sign your top players with guaranteed contracts (most of the money deferred to this year and later) and not have to deal with paying the Langston Walkers of the world outrageous money. Wouldn't a little foresight have come in handy? And I'm not talking just about the Bills ... though we left 20 million on the table by the end of the year. Arrgggh - I'm no financial whiz but isn't this just basic money management 101?

I'm with you. If we are so cash strapped, why spend such a chunk of money on a part-time DE who was 2nd best at his position on the Bills mediocre D. I'll give this admin the benefit of the doubt but jeez - this is kinda like the Price signing last year. I can think of about 40 DEs better than Kelsay and 2 play on our team. The most troubling thing to me is we knew the cap was going up by 25+ mil after the new TV contract - why the hell didn't we take advantage of that fact and sign our best young players to long term deals then - I'm glad we got Peters done but we left a stack of money on the table that should've been used to lock up Evans and others before all the inflated salaries kicked in starting this year

whaaa? Ellison would be the smallest middle linebacker in the pros + practically all Division 1A schools + some women's pro leagues and even a couple jacked-up mighty mite teams. I think rather that Spikes or Crowell would be moved into the middle if we didn't get an adequate replacement in free agency.

Most of the tiebreaker scenarios say we need KC to win

that's a Bears fan talking

Unlike last week when the talk was about how good we were after beating Miami, I like our chances this week. I wanted to post before the Jets game but I really thought we were getting set up for a letdown. I was worried about Pennington's short passing game, the ludicrous accolades the team got for beating an overrated Miami and the general over-optimism, not just from the fans but the players. And while I think Minny is a better team than the Jets, I just think the Bills will be better prepared for what's coming. To be honest, I was pleasantly surprised at how well the team played overall, but I didn't like our defense against the short passing game. I'm guessing Fewell will be more aggressive against a similar Minnesota offensive scheme. I can't see a scenario where the game won't be within 10 points either way and while Johnson has an edge in end-of-game heroics, JP may as well start this week in winning late. And I agree with several people on this board - that we'll know JP has "arrived" when he leads a 4th quarter drive to tie or win the game. Why not JP? Why not now?

if that title isn't the ultimate "LAMP" post ...

I think that call is an audible that every team has - if the QB sees something with the middle wide open he can just take the snap and run. I even remember Bledslow doing that once or twice with the Bills. I think the idea is that you can get more than just a couple yards on the play but it doesn't always work that way.

The Hill people live just 3 miles from Jax - have to admit I haven't been there since I got Sunday ticket. On a side note, I was walking into my workplace with my Bills sweatshirt on and someone stopped me and mentioned he lived out of state but was a member of PUBS - now that's commitment.

You said - and I quote - "but my father said that WGR 550 Howard Simon show was saying that they believe Willis McGahee was only joking about teh 4th down play being 3rd down " I just linked you a 2-day old article with direct quotes from Spikes' interview - and it's something discussed ad nauseum around here the last 2 days. I'm not trying to be an a$$ - I was simply teasing that you missed the half dozen threads talking about it. If the issue was Howard Simon's opinion - my apologies, I misunderstood - not that I give a damn what Howard thinks.

I was somewhat surprised at training camp a year ago that Haggan and Stamer survived the cuts - primarily due to their special teams prowess. I've always felt - and heard Marv quote something similar - that your backups better be pushing your starters or else be great special teamers. I think Stamer and Haggan are good special teamers - the only backup Bill I would consider close to great would be Sam Aiken - I've seen him make game changing tackles and he is also a good blocker on returns. My point is that assuming the guys behind Takeo and Fletcher rarely got to see the field in the regular season, having special team talents at the expense of linebacking ability was a luxury we lived with at those positions. Given our current starters' age and (at least in Spikes' case) injuries, however, it's rather sad that a 6th round rookie is markedly better than our veteran options. In fact, I'm a little surprised that Ezekial - who had at least shown glimpses of talent the last 2 preseasons - was let go in favor of the incumbents. Whether or not Fletcher stays here beyond next season, I'm pretty sure we'll spend draft picks or sign free agents to be more secure at that position. Now that we're fast(er) and speed(ier) on the lines, I imagine a top notch backer - along with the obligatory OL and DL prospects - moves near the top of our "need" list.

welcome back - the internets are lovely this time of year 2 days ago ... Buffalo News article

Just checked out the Patsie site - showed video of both Moroney and Ty Warren at practice today - both look healthy so I'd expect we'd see at least 10 carries from the former and a healthy dose of the latter on the D-line. patsie website with video links Interesting quotes from Rodney Harrison -"even if we come out and play well on Sunday, we'll have to be right back out the next week playing the Jets and then Denver". Interesting in that their players HAVE to be looking just a little ahead - especially when their first 2 games are against ... urr ... "patsies". I don't imagine many Bills' players knowing who their week 3 opponent is. I think the natural inclination is for a good team to take our team lightly till we prove otherwise. And color me a homer but I think we'll be a competitive team all year. Not sure if that'll translate into more than 7-8 wins, but if we get to midseason at 4-4 (something not completely unreasonable), it should be a fun ride down the stretch. Gawd, we're long overdue some fun watching our team ...

jeez - our OL and DL backups truly suck.

Actually he's a west coast Pac-10 USC fan who tries to avoid looking like a west coaster by pimping his team du jour. I don't care who he picks - he's more entertaining than anyone else on ESPN. Now if you were comparing him to Dave Chapelle or sumthin', then talk to me - but Mike and Mike / Jim Rome and the other lineup of cleetuses - puhleeeze.

I wish we had a chance to see Ricard healthy - he definitely has better hands than Shelton. His injury surely made the "competition" a moot process. I also wonder if something happened to Shelton over the last year or maybe it's just age catching up to a physical position - I thought he was very capable his first year on the team but his performance this preseason has been atrocious.

yah they showed that promo on "Total Access" a couple weeks ago ... if he could do that, he'd be from another planet. Methinks it's some fine video editing.

He actually said he "couldn't make the bears" who he implied had bad quarterbacking. He, like most talk show hosts, wouldn't know who played 2nd string on just about any team. Take him with a grain of salt ... Personally, I've liked Cowherd since he did his local show here in Portland - always thought he was talented enough to go national. He at least talks football year-round - and call me crazy but his non-football "rants" are pretty funny when taken in small doses. Is there any national figure on sports radio that doesn't piss off half the listeners? I doubt it or he wouldn't last long.

Sven - I think you're missing the point here. The NFL and its network wants to charge a giant premium to TWC and all the other cable companies to carry it. Some of these companies are balking at paying a hefty fee to a network that doesn't have that many viewers. Instead, and to offset costs, they are suggesting that the network be in a premium package. Since NFLN will carry 8 games this year, they know they need national coverage to get decent ratings. Why not compromise and say we'll include it free the first year, see what kind of ratings we get and then determine the fee structure. In football terms, it's like a UDFA demanding a large signing bonus when he hasn't proved it on the field. And of course, you can compare this to other channels. Personally, I just want PBS, National Geographic, Comedy Central and the sports stations but I'm guessing I'm in the minority so I have to pay for the other 600 craptastic channels. I doubt any of 'em are asking for numbers like the NFL is though. “Cable subscribers should root for Time Warner and fear the NFL Network like a blitzing linebacker. If the NFL Network becomes as powerful as ESPN some day, you know who eventually will be thrown for a loss with constant rate increases to offset new programming costs? You, the subscriber.” — Alan Pergament. August 4, 2006. “Subscribers Have Much at Stake in NFL Spat.” Buffalo News

Also, you left out Leonard - I think he sqeaks in - has good instincts and can help on special teams.

Besides at least 2 drops that could have kept drives alive, he blatantly missed 2 blocks early in the game that kept McGahee from getting to the second level. In one instance - I think the 2nd or 3rd drive, he charged at the outside backer who deked to the outside and came around to trip up McGahee by the laces just as he was hitting the hole. As great a blocker as I've seen him be in past games, that may have been the single worst game I've seen out of him as a Bill. Good thing it was the preseason ...

If I'm not mistaken, I think DeLuca is the same guy who extolled the virtues of Zhitnik and Satan on the Sabres board and called out their GM for making bad trades and having crappy personnel. Methinks he's switching over to this board for negativity (since he's having a hard time with his "realism" posts over there) - this is probably a good sign for our football team. And while I think Tasker sucks as an announcer, he's no worse than the other local yokels who trumpet their teams.

Great job Lori. To add a few notes: - Big Ted has been a monster in the first 2 preseason games - maybe since his game never relied on speed or quickness - he's still thriving at the age of 38. Eagles averaged about 2 ypc and the Jets didn't do much better. Since there will actually be gameplanning for this, the third preseason game, expect to see the Bills use pulls and sweeps instead of ploughing up the middle to take advantage of our new OL's athleticism. - I like the way Romeo Crennel is building the Browns - they look to have a solid defense and some young studs on offense. I think Ross Tucker will be a boon to them this year and trading for him may save their season from collapse - I would love to have him as the swing center /guard on our team (gotta figure the BB/RC coaching connection played a part in that deal.) - Bills backups played well against Carolina but rather poorly for much of the 2nd half against Cincy. As far as what I'm hoping to see (besides the usual good game management from JP): -- no injuries -- a plus in turnovers (preferably no ints or fumbles from JP) -- more good run defense (I feel good that the pass D will come around, not completely sold on our run D just yet.) -- Powell or Neal stake a claim to the open backup DE position -- linebacker situation become clearer - will Hunter / Ellison / Ezekial / Odom supplant Stamer or Hagan? I believe Mario may not survive this cut with Hunter and Ezekial/Odom making the team and Ellison headed to the PS -- Peerless make a couple catches (just to relieve the tension about our #2) -- our #5 and #6 receivers come to the forefront - I'm guessing Evans/Price/Parrish/Aiken/Reed/Davis - Nance and Wilson stashed on the PS... if we didn't have all that bonus money tied up in Peerless and Josh, 1 of them would not make this cut.

I think the players' union has been getting gripes from the veterans about it - it'll be interesting to see if anything can be done about it in the near future. However, and given the 40-50% increase in revenue anticipated with this new TV contract, it may all be swept under the rug as vets get more money.

Wow Simon Great post! With the onset of excellent analysis from you, AKC and Lori, the season must be just around the corner. I thought I'd throw in a couple general observations from my view of the game. Offense: I agree with many of your observations but I wasn't quite as sold on the OL's collective performance as you. I watched a Tivo'd replay last night to do a few 1-mississippi 2-mississippi counts to see how much time our QBs actually had. Pretty much on all 6 of the sacks, a Panther got a hand on our QB inside of 3 seconds. I also did the same watching a lot of practice videos the last few weeks. Most of the releases on 5 and 7 step drops for our QBs occur between 3-4 seconds in training camp. Obviously, as blitzes come in the real games, you'd like your QB to make that read and find the hot receiver - something I've seen Losman do better in practice than in the 1st preseason game. I blame much of this on JP's footwork which he himself said caused mechanical breakdowns in his throws. When he had time and could set himself, he usually threw well - with the exception of the bomb to Aiken. I didn't see the holes you did in the running game - I still worry about our interior OL's ability to create creases for McGahee. In fact, as bad as the backups were in pass pro, I thought they did an ok job against the Carolina 2nd stringers in the running game. Defense: I was pleasantly surprised at the unit's performance after the first drive - mostly because of Kyle Anderson and Crowell's performances. I still worry we'll get gashed by a power running team. Carolina really isn't that without Stephen Davis - Cincy without Carson Palmer will give us a better feel for how our DL may hold up against a physical front. I'm not going to be shocked if this remains our achilles heel over the course of this year until we get a couple more bodies on that line. Also- and this was tough against a Carolina team that throws short outs as much as the Pats do -we really didn't get anything resembling a pass rush. In fact, just as Brady uses this short throw to slow down the rush and set up the deep stuff, we really will need to play a lot tighter (which according to McGee in his Bills Diary WILL happen against Cincy). We need that practice because we're going to see a style similar to Carolina come week one. Special teams: Not sure who did the ole' impression on the punt block but I'm assuming it wasn't one of our regulars. I think April's just trying to find who, among the special team candidates, would do well in blocking. I didn't see much positive since would-be tacklers bore down pretty easily on whoever was returning but given it was a first game, I'm not surprised. As someone who didn't think Aiken would survive this preseason, I've come to the realization that he may very well be our best special teams player and his contribution as a wideout when some size is required pretty much locks him in as a 4 or 5 on the depth chart. I'm assuming that Parrish and McGee will boost this unit's performance when real bullets fly.