MattM

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.....

I've never had FIOS, but I can guarantee you one thing before you switch--they will have infinitely better customer service than DirecTV. Heck, you could have customer service run by chimps and you'd have infinitely better customer service than DirecTV, so it's not really saying much. DTV is truly, incredibly awful in that department. Not once, but twice did they have me schedule repair visits (making sure I was home for each during workdays, as is their requirement) and then not only be late, but simply fail to show up that day. If they didn't have NFL Sunday ticket they'd be out of business in 6 months or less. It's a a disgrace, really, that the League has done an exclusive deal with them, effectively subjecting all of us to this shoddy company.....

I mean, only two of their players have been caught with 'roids, HGH in the last couple of years, and only due to one of them being dumb enought to have used his own address and name to order them and the other being caught up in a much bigger scandal. Funny how old, washed up vets' careers seem to pick up when they go to NE, isn't it? I mean, these guys end up with melons the size of the moon (another sign of HGH use, BTW--called "the bloat" as per a power lifting dude I know)--take a look at Vrabel, Seau and Bruschi's noggins sometime and you'll see what I mean. Obviously, they're big guys, but those noggins look like they're size 16 noggins on size 10 bodies.....

Tim, the market for him is certainly more than the Bills are offering, but what do you think his likely real value is this offseason? BTW, who do you also think the Bills are really likely to target, if you don't mind my asking?

That's about what I expect as well (and which seems fair).

Huh, nice try, but the Republicans also controlled Congress from 2000 to 2006 and with a sitting President of the opposition in power the Democrats couldn't really do anything from 2006-8 over his veto. I just love revisionist history from conservatives who've been proven to have done the worst job EVER at governing this country the last 8 years and are now seeking to play politics for their own benefit (and not America's--Rush's idiotic statement about rooting against Obama spoke volumes about their true goals) with someone who's trying to clean up the mess they made. I'll grant that you're entitled to your own opinion, but you certainly are not entitled to your own facts....

As opposed to the minority party, which ran the govt into the ground in the 8 years it was effectively in power. Give us all a break--in November the "tribe has spoken".....

No, thanks. Personally, I suspect their cheating went far beyond what they were caught doing. From the very top down, they seem to be willing to do whatever it takes (and I mean "whatever") to win, right or wrong. For ex., I'd love to see Larry Izzo asked this week in Bonds' trial whether any other Pats* were doing up 'roids with him. We all know that at least one other Pats* player was popped for this (Rodney H., only caught by being dumb enough to use his own name and address to order HGH) and isn't it a miracle that older, washed up players seem to go there and thrive? I'm still very surprised at the media's lack of coverage of this. I suspect that if he played for anyone else they'd be all over it. Since Spygate, the media seemed cowed to cover anything negative on the Pats* (like this or Kaczur's 200 Oxy's last year--enough to be doing more than using himself).

Actually, no, it didn't. If you look closely, you'll see that most of their starters played and started all 16 games this year. The only guy who missed "significant" playing time was Neal, who missed 7 games, but still played 9 IIRC. I think one other starter missed 2-3 games (Kaczur, Ithink). The other three played and started all 16.

I met him at my HS near Roch in the late '70s--seemed like a nice guy. He was there doing a PR appearance with another Bill who's name escapes me (he was a DB is all I can remember).

All those "maybe's"--but let's be clear that another "maybe" is that it was nothing more than 3 gentlemen who happen to be black driving an expensive car. Doesn't it seem suspicious to you that the police haven't identified what it was that got them interested in the car--seems to me that if there was a legit reason that it would be out there front and center from the get go. Just good PR work there and what we're all used to seeing from the beginning of a story like this. I'll wait and see what comes out on all of this before passing judgment myself--maybe the police just forgot to mention why he was stopped and will do so now or maybe they won't (which to me personally will be quite telling). I wonder if you realize that your comment about waiting to actually see what happened before spewing off at the mouth could apply equally to your post in which you seem to be implying that Lynch in fact did do something wrong to warrant the police attention (despite the lack of the cops stating this anywhere)?

I agree with the other poster--while we'll have to see what the facts are, it could be worse than 4 games. Personally, I expect him to get a 4 game sit down at a minimum considering his prior issue last year. IIRC, Goodell pretty much promised as much when he spoke to Marshawn last summer--anyone else remember that and more precisely what Goodell may have said then? That said, I still wonder what the cops pulled them over for and how they ended up searching the trunk. The silence on all of that does seem a bit fishy to me. I also looked at the California penal code last night and while I couldn't get through all of it, it did look like there were some exceptions for transporting weapons in a trunk, but it looked like the weapon also needed to be unloaded and in a safe container.

What if he had the permits for the gun, but just not on him at the time? I suspect (hope) that this is the case, especially after the Burress incident. Anyone know how the situation would likely play out in such a case, or is this unlikely to be the case, as the CA police would have access to a database showing whether or not he had the relevant permits to begin with?

I agree completely other than the first round pick--the order should be reversed, as we need more DE help than DT help at the moment....

Any idea when they're supposed to send us the renewals? I seem to recall them being this time last year, in particular them being due right before FA started, but haven't gotten anything from the team yet. This year might be a good year to relocate, as I suspect they're going to lose a number of season ticket holders after the Jauron debacle.

Has anyone received information from OBD on this?

That said, if you cut Kelsay and Royal, you get about $40 million free. Roster bonuses and workout bonuses can't be much more than $5-8 million, tops, IMHO. that still leaves $30 million or more to spend on FA's under "Cash to Cap" accounting. Good point above re: signing bonuses--I'd forgotten how huge Dockery's was, but I suspect that many good FA's can be had for bonuses of $10 million or so, again allowing us to pick up 2 quality starters in FA, plus 2-3 other tier 2 players (like a backup QB). Doesn't mean they will do that, but it looks to me like they can.....

Remember, the Lions also have the #20 pick from Dallas for Roy Williams I believe as well as the overall first. That's what the Pats* will ask for from them for Cassel. I just hope they're smart enough to "just say no".....