peterlaw

Nice one. Go for it Doug. Bring in Nanker on your advisory team.

Ever heard of the saying "What have you done for me lately" ? 2009 is ancient history. Get 9 interceptions every year and you can talk about being Elite and $9m+ pa contracts. The last 3 years seems to provide an accurate sample of what you get.

Not convinced that either will feature in our Base Line Up. CJ. Stevie. Woods. Chandler should be 4 of the 5. Then Freddie if 2 back set, sometimes 2 TEs either a blocker (Smith) or route runner (Gragg). How often 3 WRs? Depends how good our QBs are at throwing the longer ball. But agree that stretching the field may help our cause and tire the DBs. See Graham & Goodwin as situational players but feel sure that Hackett can provide a package for them. But it would be nice to see a 80 yard EJ to Goodwin bomb first up against the Pats ! Graham was hugely disappointing last year, but maybe a better scheme may help him.

The last 3 seasons Byrd averages THREE interceptions a year. That's approx 1 every 5 games. Byrd is good but lets not get carried away with thinking he is irreplaceable. For the Ravens even they can move on from Ed Reed. I'm thinking that whoever plays at Safety for the Bills this season will get close or even exceed a 3 INT number. I would prefer Byrd but do not want the Bills to concede one dollar more than they want to in contract negotiations with Parker. So who is irreplaceable on the team? No one is irreplaceable. There is no Tom Brady on the Bills team.

So who makes the first phone call on 15th July. Parker to Byrd ? (Hold out son, our tactics are working). Byrd to Parker ? (I want to play football in 2013 and I want to sign) or (get me a trade). Whaley to Parker ? (OK we give in, how much do you want). Parker to Whaley ? (Sorry for messing you around Doug, we will sign today).

Defense. No sign of Lawson or Branch or Hughes. So basically the same line up as last year with the addition of Alonzo. We can but hope that the Mike Pettine scheme is as good as advertised. You make a fair point. His position is all about consistency rather than making one standout play every once in a while. Limiting the RBs to minimal yardage every time is what it's all about for a DT / NT. Defense. No sign of Lawson or Branch or Hughes. So basically the same line up as last year with the addition of Alonzo. We can but hope that the Mike Pettine scheme is as good as advertised.

NoSaint. There are plenty of articles on the Internet that give bad press to Mr Parker. My view is shared by many others. He seems to be holding a gun to the head of the Bills Front Office and you want to pay the man. I am surprised and a little disappointed. You let someone take advantage of you once and they will come knocking again and again. Looks like we will have to agree to differ here.

So should we overlook the Peters case? How about Parker representing Michael Crabtree? I'm sure you have guessed by now that my bottom line is I don't like Parker or how he does his business. Looks like you don't like or share my views NoSaint. But hopefully come September we will both be supporting the same team.

The agent here is Eugene Parker. I would suggest he has a lot of influence and control on contract negotiations. I wouldn't be surprised if Jairus is totally compliant with how Parker is playing this out on the basis Parker has represented plenty of elite players.

What about Jason Peters in 2008 ?? He was under contract. No coincidence he was a client of the aforesaid Eugene Parker. He decided to miss all of training camp/pre season and then allowed 11.5 sacks that season. Quality.

If the Bills Front Office give into the demands of Eugene Parker AGAIN then we might have 40 hold outs next year. I'm with the Bills Front Office on this one. If Parker wants Byrd to sit the season out I'm fine with that. Byrd will not get paid and the Bills have the option to tag him next year. Parker will not care as he is already a very rich man. On basis Byrd has a non exclusive franchise tag Parker could already be talking to other teams but the Bills don't seem to be overwhelmed with offers. 8 Days to go and then we will see. Don't get me wrong I want to see Byrd playing great football for the Bills in 2013 but not at any price.

Looks like its one year for $6.91m then. I wonder whether Jairus is having doubts about hiring that scumbag Parker to represent him. Do yourself a favour Jairus and dump your agent before he ruins your life.

1988. The start of the run. Intrigued by a small market team from a place I never knew existed. Passionate fans. Ripping down the goal posts. Listening to games in the UK on the Armed Forces Radio Network. Supporting the underdog has always had an appeal for me. First game for me was the Tampa Superbowl. Proud to say that I have seen the Bills win on the road in Boston, Miami & Seattle. Great times. Alas I have also witnessed the disappointments in Tampa, Minneapolis, Pasadena & Atlanta. It's in the blood now. Hooked for life. Go Bills.

Wonder who he will be playing for in 2016 ? Unlikely we will be able to resign elite talent when his Rookie contract expires.

What about the 2 RBs that shredded our D at the Ralph last year. We need them locked up as well.

The problem remains that Brady will make Donald Jones look like an All Pro WR. But perhaps Brady was an accomplice at the Hernandez crime scene?

It depends on how many multiple Wide sets they intend to run. And the potential impact a junior WR may have on Special Teams. I wouldn't be surprised to end up with 6 WRs.

I like the sound of that line up. But maybe a bit too ambitious for the Bills against the Pats in week 1. Although Marrone/Hackett may want to throw down the challenge to Bellicheat first up.

Interesting recent interview with Nat Hackett (with Chris Brown on the official site). Emphasis on getting your best 5 players out in the formation. For me it is not yet clear what our preferred base offensive package will look like, other than it will featured a heavy dose of CJ. Our best 5 would seem to be CJ, Freddie, Stevie, Woods & Chandler. But this means a 2 back, 2 WR set with the implication that Freddie is better than TJ Graham or Goodwin. But would the Offense be better served with a one back formation and either TJ or Goodwin stretching the field and creating space underneath. Or would they look to put Freddie in motion in an attempt to confuse the D? Any thoughts on our best Offensive formation / personnel grouping to put points on the board?

So the question is how many do we send on the Blitz on Brady's first snap? Would 7 be too many or not enough? Or will Pettine double bluff and send just 3?

The overwhelming majority here, if not all, would agree that Byrd is a very very good player and in an ideal world he will be suited up for the Bills in Week One. There are some, me included, that want to see Byrd sign quickly for a reasonable price and for him to start thinking how can I help the team rather than thinking of his Bank Balance. For some people $6.91m pa would be enough and I'm sure Bills have offered a bit more on a Multi year basis. So for the 2 sides not to be talking they must be a significant distance apart. This smacks of personal greed, which a lot of people don't like to see. Are Byrd's numbers skewed by his 9 INTs in year 1 ? Only 9 INTs in the last 3 years.

I can't wait to see:- 1). the new Mike Pettine Defence against Brady. Multiple sacks and constant pressure. 2). how the Pats do without Wes Welker (or Gronkowski & Hernandez). 3). Brady complaining to the Refs about the nasty Bills D Line. 4). The new Bills run stuffing D Line (holding the Pats to less than 80 yards on the ground). 5). CJ Spiller with 30 touches and 200 all purpose yards. 6). A couple of TD bombs to Goodwin. 7. A McKelvin special teams return TD. 8). Aaron Williams with 2 INTs. 9). EJ entering the game with 10 mins left to run the clock down. 10). Bill Belicheat's press conference after the match.

1). CJ - potentially a gamechanger every time he touches the ball. (And he will touch it a lot in 2013). 2). Stevie - great moves to get open. Just hope we have a QB that gets him the ball. 3). Chandler - underrated TE. Makes great catches. Scores points. Hope he is fully fit. 4). McKelvin - gets his place as a Special Teams returner. Time to get excited when he touches the ball. 5). Mario - will have a better year. Will be in a force in 2013. Double digit "Sackman". Would desperately like to nominate an elite run stuffer in the top 5. This we need if we are to compete. Next year it would be great to nominate our top 5 as Dareus, Mario, Branch (and EJ & CJ) !

I wouldn't let him go for a second rounder. After all Byrd is an elite player. The rules are now that you can't franchise tag a player more than 2 years. If necessary let him sit out the season. My main motivations here are to do the right thing for the Bills (keep a good player for reasonable money) and to get a win against Parker. As Mario would say we want to kill 'em or hurt 'em (but not in a literal sense) !

I am assuming our D will improve with Branch, Lawson and Alonso + importantly new D scheme under Pettine. So less points conceded. We already have people that can score. CJ, Fred, Stevie & Chandler. McK scores on Special Teams or at least puts us in position to score. Plus we have some new fast talent but clealy we don't know how that will pan out. If CJ moves forward from last season he becomes the difference maker. Kolb should be no worse than Fitz. EJ could turn out to be better than both. Potentially we have a 55yd+ field goal kicker - so more points there and a lot of games are decided by just a few points. So I say we SHOULD be better than last year. 8 wins + and its about time we started to win against theoretically better teams. So lets add the Ravens to the Win column.