widerightradio

Here here. Wonderful posts and always worth the read. Thanks and I look forward to future editions.

We don't need anyone at center.

Why not ask for a draft pick? If O'Neil's not worth a 4th or 5th round pick to the Browns, then why should we give him up for free on the basis that there's some moral imperative to allow people to leave for promotions. He did sign a contract with us. If he wanted the right to leave after one year if offered a DC position, he should have negotiated for that in his contract. (Sorry Doc. Saw your post when I hit post. Great minds?)

Given that the list contains Chicago, New York, and Pittsburgh (among others), I think the probability that the Bills will be picked is close to zero. Few big names. No coach on the hot seat. Not a big market. I also like that the thread is tagged "koncks".

Eh. If you like huge tables, massive bars and lots of space then Kelly's is not your thing. But the communal vibe when folks are hanging out the windows and everyone's got a bucket of tall boys at their feet is a beautiful thing.

I prefer Kelly's. http://www.kellysnyc.com/

Didn't the NFL used to call spearing?

No. But if his sole job is to cover the Bills and Bills fans don't read him because he's too negative, that's not a good thing for a young reporter.

Rodak's been poor at predicting Bills games this year: Patriots 35, Bills 24 Panthers 21, Bills 17 Jets 17, Bills 14 Ravens 24, Bills 14 Bills 21, Browns 17 Bengals 24, Bills 9 Dolphins 24, Bills 21 He's 3-4 straight up, not to mention predicting a team that he's covering for the first time to go 1-7. I'm not arguing for naivete, but a bit of optimism for a team that's your sole beat is a good thing. No sense in making enemies out of fans in the first 8 weeks of the season. Maybe it's a good thing he's picking the Saints in this one. He's been wrong 4 times before.

I managed to get tickets to the Vikings/Steelers game, but they do go incredibly quickly. Selling out Wembley (90,000 capacity) is no small feat and it's a stunning place to see a game. Not a bad seat in the house. Crowd tends be about 25% American expats, 75% Brits/other. Overall the fans are pretty knowledgeable about the game. Anytime you play at a neutral site the game will lack a certain intensity that comes from a true home crowd. But that would be true whether you're playing in London or, say, Los Angeles. Games are played at 6 p.m. London time, so they just get slotted as 1 p.m. ET kickoffs. If you want to argue there should be no neutral site games, I get that argument. But if we want to test and expand the game, isn't this the way to do it? I guess I just don't get all the hate. London fans have been terrific. I understand that it's a haul (especially from the West Coast), but if the NFL can sell 90k tickets year after year then I don't see how this isn't a good thing for the game. They don't stop selling beer before the end of the game either.

You're absolutely right that this will (and I assume is) the cornerstone of preserving the NFL from a legal standpoint. Hold harmless clauses will not solve either the failure to disclose or make reasonable efforts to discover information that could have changed that person's mind or those who are not of the age of consent. The NFL has to continue to research injuries on a good faith basis. Even then, we may see the dissolution of football at the youth level.

Right. Joyner's basic theory is that defenses will attack the weakest point in the offensive line, no matter where it is. If you have an A+ LT, but a substandard RT, then the defense will run roughshod over your right side. What you want is a B+/A- line all the way across. This is why we didn't overpay (and shouldn't have) for Levitre. It's also why I think the Bills will bring in a free agent vet for the LG position. Someone unremarkable to ensure consistency across the line.

You say we shouldn't overpay for players, but then suggest that letting Levitre (a B+/A- guard not known for elite run-blocking) walk at $8.5m/year was a mistake. We shouldn't be spending 7% of our cap on a guard, much less a non-elite guard. When a team has been as bad as the Bills have been for as long, it's everything: front office, coaching, significant numbers of under-performing players. I think this ranking reflects a mediocre roster with a horrific QB situation. Whether we're in worse shape than the Rams or the Lions or the Chiefs or the Cardinals, well, that's what the season's for. I think it's highly unlikely that the worst five rosters in the NFL are all from one conference.

The "i" in idiot is silent.

Something on your mind or do you just really like Hartline?

If the goal is to make the playoffs (worthy, I'll admit), then draft an LB. If the goal is to win the Super Bowl, start drafting QBs with first round draft picks. The Bills should be using a first, second, or third round pick on a QB at least every other year until they find a guy who they think can win it all. I'm not a Fitz hater, but unless we have a Ravens/Bucs style defense circa 2000 he's not going to be enough.

Levitre is unlikely to be franchised. Guards are lumped into the same franchise category as all offensive linemen. So you're looking at paying top five left tackle money for a guard. It's not impossible. There was lots of talk about Carl Nicks getting the franchise tag in New Orleans before the Saints had to tag Brees. Tagging Byrd would also probably be about 30-40% cheaper than tagging Levitre. This is all to say, Bills shouldn't worry about Byrd and need to lock down Levitre.

I think Aiken is PS eligible. Roosevelt is definitely not. http://wgr550.com/two-bills-drive/14060400 You're probably right on the numbers. 5 to the active roster, plus Smith, Spiller, and Jackson as additional options. And they'll likely put an extra WR on the PS.

I was just thinking the same thing about the National Anthem. So stale...

Unlikely they keep 7 WRs. Smith, Spiller, and Jackson can all line up at WR. Bills only kept 5 WRs last year. Only 3 OTs on the roster. I think it's Sanders or Young on the 53 man. I know Levitre can move outside in a pinch, but O-linemen get dinged up. You need depth. I think Edwards makes it over Carrington. But the front office will flinch at the idea of cutting Carrington, Troupe, Sanders, Asper, Batten, Easley, J. White, C. White, and Bradham. That would be an admission of some horrible drafting in the past 3 years. I think Bradham makes the 53 man roster. Fourth round picks generally do.

That's just last night's chuck steak. It'll pass.

Home team gets the announcers on NFL Network, at least on the NFL Preseason Online package. I do wish they'd realize that their broadcasts are watched by a fairly large percentage of away team fans. "Ballcarrier" is not an acceptable replacement for Fred Jackson and "he" doesn't do for Stevie Johnson.

A large part of the problem is that people have changed the way they read. Gone are the days when someone would read The Buffalo News, a national paper, and perhaps a weekly news magazine. Now, we tend to read a little bit from the News, a little from the D&C, a little from blogs, perhaps covering 20-30 sources in a week. Newspapers charge fees that assume you are reading/are interesting in reading the entire paper, which is no longer the case. I would pay $13/month if it covered half of my news reading. But it doesn't. I think it will take a few years for papers to realign themselves in such a way that a subscription covers the type of broad base reading that most people currently engage in on the internet. For example, Google might own a couple dozen newspapers and you would buy a subscription to Google News. Or newspapers would create a sports-only subscription that would allow you to access the sports section from 40-50 newspapers in US professional sports markets. It's all going to take awhile though.

There's also the value that comes with the player receiving the new (and higher) salary during what would have been the last year of his contract. For example, Levitre is set to make roughly $600k this year. He signs and he gets his bonus a year early (time value of money) and he gets however millions he signs for this year. That's value the Bills can provide that other teams cannot. So the agent does have some interest in getting the contract done earlier, rather than later. We know that the Bills and Levitre have been chatting (at least as of two months ago). I can't believe that something won't get done. Byrd, on the other hand, I think may want to play a season behind that revamped defensive line.

I don't think players intend to injure. For example, coming out of the hockey lockout the NHL called interference and so players stopped interferring. When the NHL stopped calling interference, the players started again. If the NFL routinely calls roughing the passer calls, players will go at QBs a little less hard. If the NFL calls more horsecollars, players will be reluctant to grab around the shoulder pads. I think this is true with all penalties. If the refs continue to call pass interference the way they called it in the Bills' first preseason game, then I expect it will be more difficult for receivers to get open.