Whites Bay

I know. Gotta find SOMETHING to worry about. If we're picking nits over the #3 WR or punt returner, things are pretty good. Think Trey Teague, Bennie Anderson, Zay Jones, Brian Brohm, Torrel Troupe, John McCargo, Kelvin Benjamin... Feel better now?

My gut call as well (speaking, of course, as just another knucklehead on a fan board). Imagine this thought experiment: 1) Araiza loses the punt battle and the team tries to stash him on the practice squad. 2) Araiza lasts about 34 minutes on the practice squad before he's signed elsewhere. 3) Haack shanks a punt in the first game. 4) This board collectively goes to the closet to get out the pitchforks and torches.

I was just saying this in another thread. Most of us watch these guys blabbering into the microphone and think "I could do that". Not as easy as it looks if you're trying to stay interesting. Because he wasn't.

Wait. I thought the Bills got two Thanksgiving games. I heard it around here someplace. Honest.

I remember when NBC snagged Joe Montana to be their top analyst following his retirement. That was a BIG deal for them (they handled the AFC games back then). LOTS of hype and pre-selling. I don't know if he lacked the talent, or his heart wasn't in it, but that gig was over in a heartbeat. I'd have to Google it, but it seemed to be done in a single season; maybe it was two. The point is that there's no guarantee that stardom on the field translates into the broadcast booth. For what it's worth, I remember Jim Kelly being brought aboard ESPN (?) as an in-studio analyst. That's another one that lasted a season, maybe two. Not to go too far off-topic, but I'm not sold on Drew Brees at this point. I know he's trying really hard, but at this point he seems to just spew out "athlete-isms". There's nothing incisive there yet. Not saying it can't happen, but right now it seems like "fake-it-until-you-make-it". Long story short - let's see how Brady actually does behind the microphone. He might not last as long as Fox thinks. Because he might suck at it. Others have.

I'd been buying into this line of reasoning for awhile, because it's...well, a line of "reasoning", as opposed to "I've had another Labatt's, so let me tell you what's going to happen." But here's my admittedly stupid counterargument: I don't think the NFL could give a rat's hairy @$$ about ANY of that. Why do I say that? Because I've watched the NFL stake out Thanksgiving, and then warily watch the NBA stake out Christmas Day as "NBA Day". All's fair in love and ratings, right? And they let 20 (?) years go by, and they watched the ratings, and they watched the ratings, and PRESTO. We started getting NFL games on Christmas. Simply by "the luck of the draw; you know...it's just the way the calendar worked out, Christmas was on a Saturday....". And now nobody or their great aunt watches the NBA on Christmas unless they have ZERO life. Certainly not when paired off against the NFL. Hell, the Jets at Jaguars would CRUSH pretty much NBA game. So would Northern Ohio at East Midwestern Arkansas State. So the NFL really doesn't give two good g@ddamns about what NBA games are rolling in the same time slot. That's big. Think about it - this is the NFL versus the NBA. Lots of munny munny munny at stake. Someone's going to win, someone's going to lose. The ratings are the the blood splotches on the floor. So what makes us think they're going to give two limp ***** about the viewership of any MLB game happens to be going on when they come to town?

Pretty sure that was the description attributed to Kyle Williams, actually. I'm still kind of in PTSD with those teams.

Spags! Good to see you again! We need the entertainment. Suggestion - you might want to get upwind of the tire fire. The smoke is getting in your eyes.

This exactly. Save a 5th and get a punter, bundle everything else and move up. The Bills have finally built a roster that affords a little bit of "luxury". Lower-round picks stashed on the Practice Squad are just going to get poached - AGAIN.

This. It's already happened. Didn't the Browns play on Christmas? Speaking merely for my extended family's viewing household, but there is ZERO interest in the NBA on Christmas Day if there's an NFL game on TV. Come to think of it, I don't think there's much interest in an NBA game REGARDLESS if there's an NFL game on TV. Just..."yeesh".

Yeah, I could see the Chargers moving again. Weird to think so, because they're one of the up-and-coming franchises. It's usually the sucktastic clubs that get moved. St. Louis will never sniff another franchise.

Holy Crap. That's a CB? Done.

When the Bills chose Whitner over Ngata, I very nearly had a stroke. It set the franchise back 10 years. Okay, there were a LOT of things that set the franchise back 10 years when that happened, but you have to admit that missing Ngata on that draft was one of them.

Just a quick side note to the youngsters (<45 years old) on this board. You know what? One needs to give a bit of grudging respect to people that can keep reinventing themselves. Don't be so quick to spit or scorn. It might be you someday. And kudos to you.

The Bills also did a good job on Joe Gibbs, too. "Can I call a time out?"

Thanks, gents. I'm just wondering if there's a "diamond-in-the-rough" quality about him that allows the front office to underprioritize the WRs in the next draft. I echo the sentiments shared that Beasley and Sanders are too far past the wrong side of 30, and something needs to be done to address it.

Yeah, this is it. I'd love to see the Bills host the AFC Championship Game, but the new meds have helped me deal with reality a lot better.

Bill, can I get your $0.02 on Isaiah Hodgins? The guy had enough promise coming out of Oregon State a few years ago in a decent WR class to go in the 6th round. Davis outperformed the sh!t out of him in camp, and then injuries, and then rehab, and then...(and so on). Good size on the kid, but is this another Duke Williams?

FINAL final? You'll have to wait for the highly-anticipated "Post-Game Weather Thread", provided by those poor souls trying to get the f*#k out of the stadium at midnight.

I believe the same thing, and that's my point. I've gone through reorgs like this in my career. They didn't just hire a GM, they hired a package deal. Amazing how blindingly fast it all came together. Almost like it was on the drawing board.

I'll go with an organizational move. Although technically Pegula pulled the plug, I credit Beane with (a) blowing up the old scouting staff and (b) bringing in a new one. Like within 5 minutes of walking in the building. Because I'd had enough of head-scratching drafts year-in and year-out. The front office suddenly felt like the grown ups with a plan had grabbed the helm.

Oh, my God! Who wants that woman as a neighbor? She shows up and someone's dead. Week in, week out in the same small town. F that. Keep away from MY family reunion.

I'm not sure about that, to be honest. I took a picture of yesterday's map to send it to my family (a diaspora of Bills fans spread around the country). I'm comparing it with the one on the 506 Sports NFL page for Week 18 (9 Jan 22) and it doesn't look any different than it did 24 hours ago. Better make sure of that. Quick update of my own. I just checked the map again, and the following bullet points are present: UPDATES: many cities nationwide: NYJ-BUF to NE-MIA (Fri) Fresno CA: CAR-TB to NYJ-BUF (Fri) Cape Girardeau MO; Mason City IA: NYJ-BUF to CAR-TB (Fri) The photo I took yesterday doesn't include these comments, so I can't tell you whether they were there yesterday or not.

I'm going to head down a tangential path. I recognize it, but I'll throw it out there anyway. I know we're talking about the in-booth broadcasters, but the in-studio hosts can drive me out of my brain. And the one who stands out (in my mind) as the one who HAS to head to pasture is Terry Bradshaw. I am SO done with his hee-yuk shtick, his "analysis" is three decades out of date, and - for the life of me - I can't see how Fox or the NFL thinks he's going to be relevant to anyone under 60 years old (that's me, by the way - and I can't stand him). Those of you with children coming into the NFL viewing experience can flame me if you wish. It escapes me why he's drawing a paycheck, but maybe Fox just wants a clown around as an eyeball magnet. Personally, I wish they'd just go back to the experiment they had a few years back with the ultra-hot weather chick. A much better use of 5 minutes of my life.

That's what happened with Mile High and Meadowlands, right?