MattM

Those first 8 games he was Hall of Fame material....

I agree wholeheartedly. There's not much to lose here, since if we have another 7-9 season Ralph is going to blow the joint up anyways. I may regret this later, but I support this move and just hope that TO has matured a little bit over the last few years and especially through this process of being cut--time will tell. I also hope he brings a TO-sized chip on his shoulder with him, as that could come in handy next season I suspect. From what I've read, his work ethic is solid (anyone who watched him come back from a severe injury in that Eagles SB can't doubt that) and he hasn't had off the field issues (other than his "accidental overdose") like some NFL players. My only fear is that he'll hinder Trent's development somehow by getting in his face, but hopefully Trent can put on his big boy pants through this process and keep Owens in line even when he's not getting 10 touches a game. I must admit, the thought of Lee and TO out there at the same time makes my mouth water--who are defenses going to double? Mix in Lynch (please make that suspension two games!) and Reed, Hardy and Johnson and new tight end, combined with Trent's extra year of experience and a happy Peters and I think we may have a top offense on our hands.....

While I certainly don't advocate violence in any form and think that the folks who beat on this guy should probably go to jail, even if, as I suspect it's at least a 50% chance here that he may very well have been rubbing in a Pats* victory on the locals on his way to the can, anyone else find the whole thing odd in terms of the picture? I mean, what is it, like two years later, and he's still got bandaged hands and a righteous look in his eyes, in front of a church no less? Me smells a plaintiff's lawyer here (and boy do they smell).....

I've renewed, but am not happy either with the team's direction lately and just told the guy at OBD I was talking to in the ticket office that. No way they're anywhere near 54,000 this year. The bright side is I that I suspect that after 3 years of getting shut out on my request for better seats is that I might actually get them this year.

I completely agree--best of luck in the Big Easy, Jabari!

Supposedly visiting Cinci, as per the Bengals article on Coles on Bengals.com last night....

That link also said that JP is visiting the Bungles--looks like we may be swapping backups with them this offseason.....

Just read on FinHeaven that John Clayton is reporting that Coles will now decide tomorrow among Buffalo, Miami and Cinci. Someone else on that same thread, however, said that Adam Shefter recently reported that Coles had an offer from the Bills, but not the Fins, so who knows what's going on.....

If we get Coles and consider moving Parrish what is your definition of "REAL value"--a 3rd? a 4th? Personally, I doubt we'd get a 3rd, but suspect we could get a 4th, although I'm not sure I'd do it for a 4th.

And when we did, the big man came up small almost every time. I hope it's correctable, but he just never seemed to fight for balls.....

The only difference is the perception of each team's fanbase--here, it's "of course we screwed up, we always screw up, it absolutely must have been our fault (even before anyone knows any of the facts)" whereas there it's always "no way the Pats* made a mistake--Belicheat* is God and God never makes mistakes, etc." which is a big part of why, of all the teams in the League, I hate the Pats* fans more than any others--the absolute arrogance (in the face of not winning a SB in going on 5 years now) is astounding. Call me a hater, but one of my all time favorite NFL moments is and will always be that Giants SB loss--".....but....but....we're a dynasty--waaah!!"

Fine looked mighty fine to me in at least a couple of games last year--I think he's got potential, but we still need to add another TE either via the draft or FA, as he and Schouman (who's a bit light to play at TE) alone won't cut it.

Like their Chad Jackson pick at about number 40 two years ago. Despite all the ball washing that goes on over the Pats* in the media they haven't had a good draft in several years now, and that was with Pioli and Dimitroff. Last year's pick of Mayo (at number 10, no less) was about the only really good young player they've added--Maroney's looking like a bust, Meriweather's pretty pedestrian and I can't even really think of anyone else from recent drafts there who contributes at all to their success. Will be interesting to see how they do in future without 2/3rds of their old braintrust.....

Beat me to it, Malta. What's worse is that it's done at a time to allow New England to also reload via FA, since this will free up about $20 million in cap space as well. Look to see them make way more moves than our moronic FO over the next few days.....

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writ...el/?eref=sircrc Sounds like it's both Vrabes and Cassel for KC's second rounder this year (No. 34). I hate to say it, but that strikes me as a at least in the reasonable ball park--lots of Pats* fans are going to be shocked that that's all they got, but I still think they're likely on the winning end of that trade, as Vrabel has at best one mediocre year left and Cassel will crash and burn in KC....

No, but next year's No. 1 might be (and that could turn out to be No. 1 overall if Cassel plays the way I strongly suspect he will in KC, combined with that team's overall lack of talent.......

I'd be happy if it played out that way, but from the little I've seen so far from OBD, I think there's little chance of almost any of that coming to pass. Get ready for more mediocre, "other people's trash" signings that OBD will try to pass off as "steps up" instead of at best sideways.....

You'll be called a "negative nancy", but I agree, unfortunately. Instead of plugging a few holes (C, TE and OLB) and trying to upgrade at some key spots they've just blown a few more holes in the team this week without any seeming plan to get better anywhere. The FA's left are not exactly inspiring and we can only count on so much help from the draft. What's frustrating is watching everyone else in our division get better--the Jets sign Scott, re-sign Moore and are bringing in a bunch of other decent FA's, while the Fins re-sign all their decent FA's and go out and pick up Gibril Wilson and will probably pick up Coles and the Pats* pick up a TE and Fred Taylor and will probably fleece some rube (Buffalo anyone?) for at least a 2 this year for one-year wonder Cassel (this year's Scott Mitchell, IMHO).

And the cheating--don't forget the cheating.... I actually recall an interesting piece from TMQ on how the Pats' cheating led to SB titles the result of which was that FAs are willing to play there below market rates. I think we've seen a bunch of that with them over the years, Randy Moss being the biggest ex.

Problem with Mack is that it will take a first round pick (for us) to get him, as he doesn't last until 42. What do we do at DE then? We'd need to at least slide back to the end of the first round to get Mack and maybe pick up a 2 or 3 for doing so, but I don't expect any impact DE's that far back, personally.

I mean look at the Jets and Skins--two teams supposed to be near the cap limit this offseason, yet those are the two teams that go out of the gate and land marquee FA's right off the bat. Especially the Skins--how the heck can they afford Sir Albert and Hall and then add Dockery shortly thereafter? Even New England, supposedly up against the cap due to Cassel comes out and signs Taylor and Baker and are rumored to be going after Peppers. The cap seems like it has no effect at all on big market teams wanting to just go out and spend what they want to, leaving us and other small market teams in the dust. What a joke. Parity is what makes the NFL great and when that goes, the NFL will go the way of MLB and that will really suck....

Me, too. I'll always love this team and am a Bills fan for life, but it's getting really hard to get excited about this franchise and all of the bone-headed moves they're making right now. It's making "Major League"'s plot line look like it could become reality here unless they start making some good moves to improve here. I mean it's fine to cut Dockery and Royal if you have a plan to get better at those two spots, but it looks like their plan is to replace a decent, but contract underperforming, player at G with someone else's marginal starter/backup (didn't the Tutan Reyes, Marvin Fowler experiments teach us ANYTHING!) and do Lord knows what at TE. Two steps back? The only thing this team had going for it in the offseason this year was that we were losing few starters from last year--Greer and Fowler/Preston--so we could presumably use this offseason to upgrade. Well that went out the window in day one it looks like, considering we now have at least 4-5 positions to fill (C, G, TE, OLB and I'd add WR--I'm giving them credit for Leodis, Youboty and Corner manning the CB spots adequately) and can only count on at most 2 of those to be filled via the draft, leaving 2-3 to be upgraded in FA, yet they've done jack squat so far and that looks like their plan--jack squat.

I had not wanted to believe that, but after seeing our actions this week (blowing two big holes in our offense with the release of Dockery and Royal, with no real chance or effort of replacing them with even comparable players), you may be right.

You took the words right out of my mouth. If Bell comes along as expected, we should have very capable backup O-lineman this year. Now let's hope they can get us the two starters we need as well.....

This makes sense to me, too. If we re-sign Greer, look for McGee to be moved before the draft, which makes sense in that someone else who could also use him in the return game would find him more valuable than we do (i.e, the most efficient use of McGee's talents) thus paving the way for a "win-win" kind of trade. If we got Daniels straight up for him or if we got a 2nd round pick for him I'd say do it, much as I like McGee.....