MattM

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".....

He put up Pro Bowl stats those first 8 games for us--too bad that didn't last, but remember, for a good bit it really looked like we were the ones who took them on that trade. Overall, I'd call that one a wash personally.

Without the salary cap nothing would prevent the Pats*, Jets, Giants, Cowboys and Redskins from dominating the League year-in, year-out, with teams like the Bills being the NFL's version of the old Montreal Expos at the best (i.e., drafting well, but never fielding a good team because all your FAs go on to big bucks deals you can't afford) or Pittsburgh Pirates (more likely). That would be a lot of fun, wouldn't it? MLB (and its almighty TV ratings) have been going down the crapper for about 20 years, ever since they let their spending imbalances creep up. I used to love baseball (old Rochester boy, so I'm an O's fan), but for about 10 plus years now, I could care less about it (and it gets none of my cash)--hate to see that happen to football, too......

I'm pretty sure their O-line was pretty much the same as during Brady's 2007 historic run--namely, Light, Mankins, Koppen, Neal and Kaczur. The best 3 of those gents (Mankins, Koppen and Light) started all 16 this year and of the other two, Kaczur missed two starts and Neal, their weak link, started 9 and played in 11. If you recall, under Brady, three of them made the Pro Bowl. Under Cassel, none of them got a sniff. Behind that same O-line, Cassel got sacked about three times a game as well. Not quite sure what you mean by their O-line not being what it used to be as this shows. Cassel just held the ball too long in some situations (sound familiar?) when Brady would have gotten it out more quickly and that's why Cassel took twice as many sacks. They didn't have him throw the long ball much, either, so in some ways it's even odder that he got hit so often.

I agree with you wholeheartedly on the positions of need. I suspect they may try to take care of two via FA (C and TE) and two via the draft (OLB and DE). I wouldn't mind if they could pick up Brown at C and then someone like Bo Scaife at TE to go with a DE in Rd 1 and OLB in Rd 2. In a perfect world we'd re-sign Crowell cheap as well and then be able to go BPA after Rd 1, but we'll see. I also expect them to pick up a back up QB and some depth in FA (including resigning some of our own, like Chambers and Preston, to go with tenders to Jackson, Ellison and Digi and possibly Wilson). All of this strikes me as pretty doable, even by our low spending standards. If this were to happen and (a) Trent, Poz, Marshawn, Hardy, S. Johnson and some of the other youngsters mature and (b) we draft well (i.e., pick up 2-3 guys who contribute as rookies, especially at DE) we could make some noise next season.

All I'm saying is that by the standards that this FO has set for itself they have plenty of money to spend (again, unless I'm missing something)--whether they will or not, who knows, but if history is any guide, we shouldn't count on it.....

Who's going to trade for him? KC? Detroit (remember, Matt Millen is gone now)? Signing the tender means Cassel can effectively block the trade by not agreeing to a long term deal. The Pats* have had the control of the situation taken from them by his signing the tender. Cassel may have been a "team first" player when he was in their plans, but by trading him it obviously means he's no longer in their plans so don't expect him to do them any favors in the trade dept. If he doesn't like the situation they're trying to send him into he can effectively block the deal. Who knows, there may be Matt Millen II out there somewhere dumb enough to trade for him, but I suspect that real NFL front office folks can actually watch film and see that this guy can't hit the long ball to save his life and that most of his stats came from short throws to some of the best receivers in the League behind one of the best 0-lines in the League, with lots of the yardage coming from YAC. Time will tell, but if the Pats* don't get something done soon, kiss their offseason shopping goodby.....

Yeah, nice move--it means they can do little or no FA shopping or contract extending this offseason (remember that literally about 30% of their team, including Wilfork, Mankins, Seymour and others are FA's after 2009). Folks who knob gobble New England need to remember that past performance is not indicative of future returns, especially when past performance may very well have been highly contributed to by guys like Dimitroff (the architect of the Falcons' one year turnaround) and Pioli, both of which are no longer there....

I don't get the KC talk at all--you hear a lot of that on Patsy* message boards just because of the Pioli connection. First off, Pioli isn't stupid so he knows Cassel is a system QB (heck, he helped set up the system) and more importantly, the Chiefs have Tyler Thigpen on the cheap and considering the talent he had around him compared to what Cassel had around him, I'd go as far as to say that Thigpen had a better year. I just don't see the Chiefs being in the Cassle hunt. Like Cassel, this mere second year player got better as the season progressed (at least pre-year end bad weather games): http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/...1/game_log.html Thigpen didn't play with two of the best WR in the League (although Bowe and Gonzalez are good players) behind one of the best O-lines in the League (and yet he still had about half the sacks Cassel took). This is also only Thigpen's second year in the League, compared to four for Matty C.