Dibs

Yes, watch Deadwood. It is in the extremely good category.

Kiko. Injured for the season, and then traded. Never got to wear it.

I think that this is a very good point, that the 4th/5th WR(Hogan or Goodwin) will get even less plays on this roster due to the excess of talent we have.....and it has helped me form a preference now for Goodwin. My logic is as follows. Assuming that Hogan is the more consistent receiver(though I'm not fully convinced that this is the case), he would be the obvious selection over Goodwin when determining the #3 WR as the role would likely involve the need for the best hands to achieve 3rd downs, and the benefits of having blazing speed would be somewhat reduced. The 4th/5th WR however is often a different situation. As you pointed out, they are only used sparingly on the field. Having a guy whose sheer presence on the field can effect the D(minimally forcing safety to factor him in on decision making), and who can theoretically take a chunk of yards on the rare occasions where he does get the ball is far more advantageous than having the better hands/route runner. Adding a small(or even decent) percent chance of ball completion on a small percent of a very small number of plays adds very little compared to being able to effect all of those very small number of plays and have a theoretically bigger result when ball is actually caught. I think the ST aspect is a wash as both Hogan and Goodwin contribute. Goodwin likely gets the nod here as keeping Goodwin allows the cutting of Thigpen. I am still hoping we keep both, but for this season(only this season as Harvin is only on a 1 year deal) I now think Goodwin will get the roster spot over Hogan.

If that were the situation.....where Cassel looked like a solid vet backup and both EJ and Taylor looked better(with better upside), with Taylor looking the best.....surely one would run with 3 QBs for the start of the season just to make sure that how the guys looked in camp and preseason was reflected in the real games.

Link?

I think it pertinent to note that prior to Whaley joining the Bills as Assistant General Manager in 2010 the only "star" the Bills had in the previous decade (give or take) was a punter.

What if Garappolo pulls a Brady? Just another day in the Patriots locker room isn't it?

What's up with all of these silly "what if" threads? What if Garappolo is good? Bummer. What if we win the SB with Tyrod? Yippee. What if Brady plays at a high level for another decade? Bummer. What if EJ becomes a legit GOAT candidate? Yippee. What if EJ gets cut? Oh well. What if the NFL cancel Brady and the Pats penalties on appeal? Grrrr. What if Cassel makes the probowl again? Yippee. What if the Bills don't make the playoffs? Grrrr. What if Clay gets injured? Bummer. Do any of these sort of questions even need to be posed....or answered? What if the sky is blue when there are no clouds?

Hell no! Take the easier game every time. We can prove to the world that we are good during the following 14 games and by making the playoffs.

Ta-mah-toe, to-may-toe. Same thing. http://www.thesaurus.com/browse/adequate

I am of very similar mind to you, though I think 2 games for coaching and another 2(easily) for the player additions. I know probowls are not a great talent indicator but... We lost a probowler in Spiller, upgrading to an all-pro in McCoy.....and added 4 other probowlers and Clay. My minimum will be 12 games.

In fairness to the writer, they have Hughes as 9.5 sacks in their stats section.

In regards to Goodwin, the thing that caught my eye was the game in 2013 where we didn't have SJ or Woods and had to rely on Goodwin to do more than just sprint down the field. His stats were 6-81 and a TD that day.....and he looked very sure handed. If he could only stay healthy.

Pettine is not Rex. Rex's last 10 years as HC/DC: Defensive Rush YPG rankings: 9, 2, 2, 3, 8, 3, 13, 26, 3, 5 Defensive Rush YPA rankings: 8, 2, 1, 5, 4, 3, 7, 21, 1, 6 His rankings last year with the Jets of 5 & 6 were better than the Bills' 11 & 14 Pettine may have learned all he knows from Rex....but I doubt that Rex has taught him everything that Rex knows. Pettine rankings with Bills was 28 & 23....and was 32 & 28 with Cleveland last season. Also, Rex's only non-top 10s were with Pettine as his DC. Rex has a fantastic track record of stopping the run.

I used to be a big collector. Comics, cards, books, magazines, games. Though I still have a lot of my old collections(15,000 comics, 1,500 books etc) I only collect in a very limited fashion now.

I knew I'd regret not adding "unless somebody can correct me". Thanks for the info. It seems Papazoid is right on two fronts....it isn't talked about much.

They never cheated with the salary cap, everything was within the rules.....and nothing they did caused a change of rule. They mortgaged their future salary caps for the sake of that SB year, and suffered greatly in subsequent years as a consequence. Teams can still legally do what the 9ers did. I think they choose not to as failing to win the SB leaves no reward and a great deal of future problems.

From what I understood, the reason that he took the balls away was due to the extra people being around due to it being a conference final, and that normally there wouldn't have been anybody in the room. So what you are saying is that the balls are provided to the officials by both teams....the officials take them away....then they give them back(unsure how home team is somewhat responsible)? When they give them back, are they collected by their respective ballboys?....taken directly to the field?....taken back to their team rooms? I ask this as I don't know the answer, not to attack you.

I am a bit perplexed as to why the 31st ranking for slot production lies solely on Hogan. Surely system, coaching, playcall, play design, OL production and QB performance contributed to that stat in some meaningful way. For the record I like both Hogan and Goodwin. I also like the concept that we have too many good/decent players for the first time in 2 decades.

Except the deflation happened inside.....before the balls were brought onto the field. Do the refs now collect both teams balls and then test them in one area? Or do they test in each teams respective areas? If the later, the post rule away teams would have a new found opportunity to tamper.....where as pre rule, all balls were with the home team prior to being brought onto the field.

I don't know what proceedures were changed when that rule came in. Perhaps prior to the rule the away team was given their balls on the field. That would leave little wiggle room to be able to tamper with them. After the change, the Pats might have had the new ability to tamper with their away balls.....and who knows, perhaps the proceedures changed at that time which then enabled the home team to more easily tamper with the balls. What we do know is.... Soft balls are easier to hold on to. The Pats fumble rate is statistically miraculous since the rule change (apparently more so in wet weather). Brady pushed for the rule change. Brady was caught organizing the excessive deflation of balls. Perhaps the rule change had nothing to do with it. Perhaps Brady only grew the balls to orchestrate ball tampering in 2007. That coincidence is far easier to accept than accepting the low fumble rate was not connected to BBD (Brady Ball Deflation).

There are many coincidences in life. It seems that many are willing to accept the correlation of Brady petitioning for the rule change regarding game balls....Brady being caught orchestrating systematic deflation of game balls.....and the anomolously low fumble rate statistics for the Pats since the rule change as being coincidence. I for one don't see it as coincidental.

Do we know that the Pats can't cheat that way anymore? Has there been new protocols put in place yet to help stop it happening in the future? I wouldn't be surprised if they go straight out and do it again.

I've bent or found loopholes around rules many times myself....but I can honestly say that I have never broken the rules in any game/sport that I have played, and I imagine that there are many people similar. It is a sad indictment on society that so many people feel that breaking rules is acceptable.

Then don't. Perhaps shift your thinking to that where it is reasonable to expect people to get some sort of punishment for cheating and lying. For everyone who thinks that 4 games is reasonable......imagine if you caught somebody cheating in a home poker game. A 15 minute suspension from play would be appropriate for that wouldn't it? So you're saying Patriots fans are like Nazis?