MattM

From the discussion on the Pats' fan boards, it sounds serious (some of them are talking IR already). Too bad for Aiken. Sounds like Tank Williams, their back up safety, was also hurt.

http://www.esquire.com/features/the-game/t...dy-0908?src=rss Check out this quote: "We've seen you, Tom Brady. You have fun. You're a sandlot player. You win like no one else. You win big. Sticking the knife in the back of the reeling Redskins last season (52--7, remember), breaking off the blade? That's gotta be fun. Doesn't that make you happy? "Always," he says. "Always. It does." Tom Brady smiles, and it's a winning affect, an undeniable dominion over the space around him. When the guy looks happy, the room is happy. "The Redskins, they're not easing up on us. They're trying to hit us as hard as they can. So we're not just going to stand there and take their shots. We're trying to execute. I think for us, as a team, in that game, we were very precise and efficient. I mean, you practice really hard, and you always hope you get games that turn out like that. That one was like, sh-- . . . ," he says, trailing off, smirking, holding his palms up. "All of it worked. That doesn't happen often." It's fun. Just throwing the ball. "We were playing the Bills last year and I got a call in from the sidelines," Tom Brady says, regaling now. "And Josh, the coordinator, he says, 'Second and one, get the first down.' We're up 17? A lot, I don't remember. We're on the 48-yard line, and Moss was wide, so I just said, 'Randy, go deep.' And I just laid it up there. I just threw it. I ran off and Josh shouted, 'Just get the first down!' And I said, 'How was that?' They pulled me out of the game. That's exactly what I was trying to do."" I really hope we cram this down his throat this year (twice), G-Men style......

ER Fireman's Carnival is likely the reason. I'm heading up to Roch tonight myself just for such event (and to visit TC as well!).....

Wow--that's quite a feat from his computer.... Seriously, I like the guy a lot--he seems to have a deeper feel for the game than most other flash in the pan type journalists. He deserves kudos as well for being pretty much alone among major writers in going out on a limb and picking the G-men to beat the Pats in the SB. He took some heat for it, too, at the time I recall.....

Many thanks--just got 2!

For a good basic burger/fries-type fare, there's also a Bill Wahl's I believe down Fairport Rd. heading towards Fairport. If you cross the Canal Bridge into Fairport, you've gone too far. On the East Rochester part (orginally being a native myself), I think that Prince George's on Main Street (all the way to the end) still serves food on Fridays that's pretty good as well, and will give you a bit of local ER flavor. Northside Inn will require reservations on a Friday, but is great food.

Ask Mercury Morris or Nate Newton, both of whom were arrested for selling drugs. I really don't know about that--if you add up his habit (the initial articles said he bought about $4000 worth every few days) that comes to about $400k a year, which seems a bit high for personal use.

Actually, it was only 26 last year, 11th fewest in the League, and most of those were JP (14, I believe) in less playing time than TE....

Actually, dude, 1 (TE being a rookie and getting little to no first team work during TC) and 2 (2 of his starts being in hurricane or blizzard conditions in which he stat-wise equaled or bettered Pro Bowl QBs) are both facts, not excuses. Using semantics to twist what are facts shows nothing but the weakness of your argument....

Other things to consider in this comparison: 1. Trent was a rookie who was 2nd/3rd string all camp long last year and had little pre-season time working with the first team; 2. Trent also played two games in abominable elements (Cleveland and NYG games) and still had a nearly equivalent (Cleveland--Anderson) or better (NYG--Manning) QB rating in those games as the Pro Bowl-level QBs he faced (and who each got to face our depleted D, no less, versus in the NYG case at least, facing a much tougher D). 3. JP clearly took a big step backwards last season, stat-wise, confidence-wise, winning-wise. He just looks lost out there sometimes. Look, I rooted very hard for the guy and wanted him to succeed in the worst way, but he had his chance last year and didn't take it. That Jags game was, by his own admission, "do or die" and he just played putridly. He has no one but himself to blame for his situation. If TE's not the answer, I don't think JP is either, unfortunately. I wish him the best wherever he ends up, as I think he's generally handled himself well here on a personal level, but as my father has always said about him, he just doesn't seem to have "it."

I'm also not quite sure karzykat is correct about whether we scored more on average with JP or TE--I thought I saw somewhere recently where we averaged 19 ppg with TE and only 14 or so with JP. Can anyone confirm that either way?

I went to both of the last two away games there as well (my brother-in-law is a Raiders season tix holder)--it helped that we got our arses kicked both games--the home team's fans don't get too in your face when they've kicked your arse I've found.....

Looking into the KC game with my dad this year. Always wanted to see a game at Arrowhead, so this year's the year. Timing kind of sucks considering it's also the week before Thanksgiving, but what can you do? Also trying to head up for the opener and maybe the Browns game. Man, I can't wait for the season to arrive.....

Speaking just for me, welcome to the Board, Bill. Your post was well thought out and appreciated. I don't have a problem with Pats fans per se, but mainly the arrogant homer types who believe their team does no wrong and will be winning forever (most of those folks, as you point out, may not have lived through the lean years in Boston). You're welcome here to discuss the Bills and football in general, including the Pats.

Me, too, and I hate the Yankees....

I'm still a member there--as you'd expect, there are some real pieces of work there, but there are also some decent sorts. Let's just say I annoyed the h*ll out of them all on Spygate, which was worth the price of admission. They really are blind as to how the rest of the League views them and their team. Many of them just don't care--as long as they're winning it doesn't matter how they're doing it. Blind faith in Belicheat and Kraft are the order of the day. Anyone who sings even a slightly different tune is tarred and feathered (I was twice banned myself, but that doesn't stop one from just re-signing up). I've never seen such a fascistic jackbooted bunch of mods in that regard. It was pretty funny over there in the run up to the SB--my favorite was a thread titled "Who Else Smells a Blowout?". Talk about arrogance. Karma's a beatch, as they say, but even I left them alone after that game and only bring it up when they get a little out of hand or uppity. Like I said, there are some decent sorts there, even if you have to look hard to find them......

Actually, on HBO's Inside Sports interview with Matt Walsh HBO quoted "a former offensive star" on those Pats teams as saying that they knew what was coming most of the time due to the signal stealing and that yes indeed it was a very large advantage. To this day, I wonder why no major news outlet latched onto that quote--it really does make one wonder sometime.....

I agree to some extent with your post, but look at the quality of players they've picked the last two years and you'll see that they flat out stunk--only two from last year even made the team. While I understand that to some extent that is because the Pats are stacked talent-wise, more than two players out of a draft class should at least make the team don't you think?

That's really only been this past season--their team was a bit more balanced in prior years. Last season's O did an awful lot to mask the D's weaknesses--I do think that their D's high ranking statistically had more to do with things like time of possession being way in their favor and playing against teams made one-dimensional by playing from behind all the time. Take some of that away through other D's catching onto their O, subtract some key personnel they've lost this offseason (Samuel, Colvin and Gay come to mind) and add a year in age to some of their Sr. Citizens Brigade and this team ain't as unbeatable as some folks (chief among them, Pats fans) like to think, even this year.....

Found this information while looking up our FAs for these years, but if you follow the story below, it looks like the Pats really have about a two year window here with their current group. Between the hordes hitting FA (especially after 2009 below and combine that with Brady, Moss, Maroney and Light following after the 2010 season) and the age of some of their core (Bruschi, Seau, Harrison, new addition 31 year old CB Bryant and Vrabel come to mind, but so do Moss and even Brady and Adalius Thomas (both 31) to some extent), Pioli has his work cut out for him between now and then, especially since I understand that they're not exactly awash in cap money, some of which will probably become dead cap when guys like Harrison retire in the next year or two as well. Even better news is look at their 2006 and 2007 drafts and you'll see they've had one starter (Maroney) out of those two entire drafts--for ex., last year's draft netted Brandon "I'm Looking More and More Like a Bust Each Day" Merriweather and no one else who contributed at all (1 guy actually made the team--that's it, I believe). Our FO looks pretty smart to me, actually, in terms of extending our guys now--NE may do the same with some of these folks, but that's a long list, including a lot of their starters (especially lineman on both sides of the ball). The other lesson to me in all of this is that despite the lip service he pays it, no way in H-E-double hockey sticks does Kraft not want an uncapped league. That's what this says to me--that's the only way he'll keep this group together after 2009, IMHO is for 2010 to be uncapped, restrictions or no on that (and looking at this list makes me wonder if all of those new rules like "6 years experience before FA eligibility" were written with protecting his team in mind). If his drafts keep crapping out, he can always buy a chance at another ring..... Here's the list of players per KFFL who will be FAs after the 2009 season: Pos Player Name FA Status Previous Team Current Team RB Kevin Faulk UFA New England Patriots WR Sam Aiken UFA New England Patriots WR Chad Jackson UFA New England Patriots TE David Thomas UFA New England Patriots TE Benjamin Watson UFA New England Patriots PK Stephen Gostkowski UFA New England Patriots OG Logan Mankins UFA New England Patriots OG Stephen Neal UFA New England Patriots OG Billy Yates UFA New England Patriots OT Ryan O'Callaghan UFA New England Patriots OL Nick Kaczur UFA New England Patriots DL Jarvis Green UFA New England Patriots DL Richard Seymour UFA New England Patriots DL Le Kevin Smith UFA New England Patriots DL Vince Wilfork UFA New England Patriots LB Mike Vrabel UFA New England Patriots CB Ellis Hobbs UFA New England Patriots

My thoughts, exactly. NFW.....

Hope you're right about Wilson-that would be one less relatively important depth guy to worry about.....

I finally found a site that lists pending free agents after the coming season and here's our list: Pos Player Name FA Status Previous Team Current Team QB Gibran Hamdan UFA Buffalo Bills QB J.P. Losman UFA Buffalo Bills RB Fred Jackson RFA Buffalo Bills WR Justin Jenkins RFA Buffalo Bills WR Roscoe Parrish UFA Buffalo Bills [WRONG--EXTENDED LAST YEAR] TE Kevin Everett UFA Buffalo Bills OG Kirk Chambers UFA Buffalo Bills OT Patrick Estes UFA Buffalo Bills C Melvin Fowler UFA Buffalo Bills C Christian Gaddis ERFA Buffalo Bills OL Duke Preston UFA Buffalo Bills DL Copeland Bryan RFA Buffalo Bills DL Ryan Neill ERFA Buffalo Bills LB Angelo Crowell UFA Buffalo Bills LB John DiGiorgio RFA Buffalo Bills LB Keith Ellison RFA Buffalo Bills LB Kevin Harrison RFA Buffalo Bills CB Jabari Greer UFA Buffalo Bills CB Kiwaukee Thomas UFA Buffalo Bills FS George Wilson UFA Buffalo Bills http://www.kffl.com/static/nfl/features/fr...Team&y=2009 Out of this list, I've highlighted the UFA's that we may want to try to keep. If we get Evans (and possibly Peters) done this offseason as I expect, this really just leaves Crowell, Greer and Wilson as starters/key subs who we'll potentially be losing. I also see us keeping Ellison and DiGiorgio and Jackson out of the RFAs. Personally, I suspect that Greer will be gone after this season, as he'll be too expensive to keep, especially if he ends up being a decent nickel back/starter who wants a shot to be a clear starter somewhere. I also suspect his contract status explains at least part of why McKelvin was our top pick. Wilson is nice depth, but if he gets beaten out by Ko, then it's not too great a loss. With respect to Crowell, if he has a monster season we can still franchise him--if not, then he may be affordable to resign longer term if we want to. All in all, I think we're in very good shape. To me, the most likely scenario is lock up Evans and Peters (or should I say, make Peters happy) this summer and then next year let Greer and Wilson walk (along with Fowler), and re-sign Crowell or tag him. If the past is any indicator of the Bills approach in FA, they'll also sign one or possibly two starters next year from the FA's available. TE (Desmond Clark, anyone?) and/or C would be nice in that regard, as well as locking up 2-3 of our other younger players like they've done this year and last, which would leave our draft something like the following: 1. DE (to replace Schobel, who's getting up there in age); 2 and 3 C and TE if we don't go the FA route--if we do go that route, then we'd be in the enviable spot of BPA after round 1. Interesting to note that not many teams are in dire straits any more with respect to FA--the lesson seems to be to lock your players up before they get there.....

I don't know about that--I think they planned to extend Evans this offseason before the Peters stuff hit and that alone would put us in decent stead vis-a-vis the cap minimum I'd guess. Before JP fizzled last year, management had to plan for both he and Lee this offseason. Not having to do an extension for both JP and Lee hopefully is going to allow them to do what they need to do to keep both Evans and Peters happy this offseason....

Great job--must have taken a while to put together. Many thanks for taking the time to do it!