Cash

+1. Although I'll be very surprised if Barwin last past the early part of the 3rd round. I'm guessing he'll go somewhere in the 2nd.

Yeah, none of these crazed critics can seem to take a break from foaming at the mouth and actually spell out what they think the downside is. "Disrupt the locker room" and "clubhouse cancer" don't actually mean anything. What track did they think the Bills were on? 7-9 again? That's too precious to risk messing with? Personally, I think the Bills were on about a 4-12 track, so I see absolutely zero downside. It's a sign that Ralph was not lying when he said the team wouldn't be complacent. Worst case, TO explodes during training camp, gets cut before the season opener, the team has an abysmal record, and Jauron gets fired. But even then, they've probably gotten enough season ticket renewals to make up the guaranteed money in TO's contract. And unless the Bills make the playoffs or at least come really close*, Jauron probably gets fired anyway. *And no, being mathematically in the hunt with 2 weeks remaining is not close to making the playoffs. Losing a tiebreaker is close to making the playoffs.

That they were extremely impressed by his jaw-dropping speed (4.48 in the 40) and phenomenal first step. That even though he was undersized at 266 lbs., he was still big enough to play DE in a 4-3. Check it: http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/draft08/colu...&id=3251338 Also, Freeney was much more productive in college, and for a longer time. Maybin is a one-year wonder who played at about 230 lbs. in college. Yeah, he weighed in at 249 at the combine, but he also ran a 4.78 in the 40. So he's still undersized, but now he's slow? Pass. To me, Maybin is exclusively an outside linebacker in a 3-4.

My favorite is that old chestnut, "Just wait for the draft." As though we're the only team acquiring players through the draft. Exactly what gives these people the impression that our draft will be SO much better than everyone else's? News flash: the Bills are about an average drafting team. Some high picks pan out, some bust, there's an occasional late-round gem, and the rest are pretty mediocre. But the draft only improves the team if you get more out of it than the teams you play against. Why should we expect that?

With 6 O-linemen now under contract, we can turn to more pressing issues, like 3rd-string running back. I'll be pretty disappointed if it turns out that the Bills' plan is to put Chambers at LG and fill out the depth chart with scrubs. It's pretty likely that your top backups both on the interior and at tackle will each get multiple starts every year, so it's worth your while to get someone who can play in those spots. I'll be happy if the Bills get Brian Waters (or at least Kendall Simmons) and also draft an interior lineman (or 2) in the first 4 rounds.

$3.3 million per year IS bad for a 4th or 5th cornerback. Really bad. If Florence is anything less than the first DB off the bench, this signing is full of fail. $3.3mil is probably about right for a nickel back, but I'd have preferred to fill that hole cheaper with Youboty and Corner.

Great signing for depth. Now just re-sign Youboty & we'll have some decent competition for the nickel corner. Then re-sign Greer & we'll have some decent competition for the starting job. Plus, Greer should be able to help groom the CB we draft at #11. Meanwhile, we have only 2 interior O-linemen under contract, no starting TE or SLB, and have done zero to upgrade the pass rush. And the next scheduled free agent visit? Kevin Jones, a potential 3rd-string running back. Good to see the front office has its priorities in the right order.

Difference between Barwin & our current ends is that Barwin is a premiere athlete (even though he happens to be white). Look up the combine numbers for Barwin, Denney, and Kelsay, and you'll see that Barwin blows each of them out of the water. I haven't compared Barwin's combine numbers to Schobel, but since Schobel was really good back in the day, I didn't feel like Barwin needed to out-athletic Schobel. In this year's combine, Barwin was first among all D-linemen in 40-yard dash, vertical jump, broad jump (tied), 3-cone drill, and 20-yard shuttle. The only workout he didn't place in the top 10 in was bench press, where he put up a more pedestrian 21 reps. His vertical jump and broad jump were both actually tied for 9th among all participants at the combine. (numbers from nfl.com) EDIT: Actually, Barwin was 2nd in the 40 among D-linemen, losing by 0.02 to Lawrence Sidbury, Jr. Other pluses with Barwin -- having spent only 1 year at DE, he has tons of room to grow as a player. He could also serve as a backup TE in a pinch, or be part of one of those tricky Belicheat-esque goal line packages. And, unlike a lot of players who blow up at the combine, he was very productive (granted in a weak conference): 15 TFL, 11 sacks, seven passes broken up and three blocked kicks in 14 games. (numbers from walterfootball.com) I'd be utterly thrilled with Raji & Barwin as our top 2 picks, but I doubt either one will happen. Especially Raji -- I think it's unlikely he gets past Green Bay at #9, and he could go earlier than that.

On one hand, Dockery's performance didn't live up to his contract, so cutting him was good. On the other hand, he was a pretty good player who will now probably be replaced by a pretty bad player. Explain again how we're ever going to get better?

Hey The Philster, nice to see you're still in full effect. Remember you from way back in the alt.sport.football.pro.buffalo-bills days. Good Times. In any case, the story I heard (and believe) is that Butler decided to leave with a year left on his contract, but played out the string rather than resign. He was (allegedly) sick of Ralph constantly looking over his shoulder, and wanted to run the show in a more unfettered fashion. I definitely agree that he overpaid his players. The only defense was that we had winning teams, and he mortgaged the future to keep them together. The Sam Rogers and Jerry Ostroski contracts were akin to the Chris Kelsay re-signing. (On the other hand, the Ted Washington and Bryce Paup signings were delectable.)

That, to me, is why he belongs in the Hall of Fame. I'm not super happy about the timing, though. Right after giving the finger to all Bills fans by saying that after three 7-9 seasons "continuity" is what we need, he gets into the Hall? If the Bills don't make a splash this offseason, Ralphie might get booed at his own induction. Which would actually be hilarious to watch on TV: First Bruce gets introduced, and the announcers make it a point to say, "They're not booing, they're saying 'Bruuuuuuce.'" Then Ralph gets introduced, and the announcers are like, "Uh, maybe the fans are still psyched about Bruce Smith."

Great post!

Just say no to LJ Smith. Imagine if Royal was a worse blocker, and you have LJ Smith.

The Steelers play a 3-4, and specifically one where the DEs are mostly there to tie up blockers. In that scheme, the pass rush comes from LBs, even when they don't blitz. We play a 4-3, where the non-blitz pass rush needs to come from DEs.

In fairness, Kelsay was slightly more productive than Osi this year.

I would be THRILLED to trade #11 for McNabb. McNabb >>>>> Bledsoe, particularly at the respective points in their careers. And as for the supporting cast, wha? How is a gimpy Brian Westbrook, Correll Buckhalter, DeSean Jackson, Kevin Curtis, and Hank Baskett any better than Lynch, Jackson, Evans, Reed, and the Hardy/Parrish/Johnson pu pu platter? And if you want to get into tight ends (pardon me!), LJ Smith is Robert Royal minus the blocking, and Celek is probably better than either of our backups, but it's not exactly a blowout. Now, if you want to argue that McNabb would fail here because our joke of a coaching staff would put him in a joke of an offense... you might be right.

Not quite. Cutting Kelsay would definitely save money from Ralph's perspective, b/c Kelsay's got a hefty salary that wouldn't get paid. The bonus is long gone, and unless Kelsay violates his contract, Ralph can't get that bonus money back. Yes, even though the entire bonus has been paid, not all of it has counted against the cap yet. And yes, whatever hasn't been counted against the cap yet will all be counted the year after Kelsay's cut. But the Bills will have so much cap room, Kelsay's dead money wouldn't be a problem.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/12...a_fact_gladwell Malcolm Gladwell suggests that this is a terrific approach. Edwards may become "the guy," but he's not there yet, and FAR from a lock to get there.

Not a colorless world, just one where everyone gets a fair shake. Given that most coaches are former players, and about 65% of players are black, it's not too far-fetched to think that someday, we might see an NFL where white candidates aren't given a fair shake. The rhetoric there would probably be things along the lines of, "How can a white coach possibly relate to black players?"

For all this talk of discounting Gruden's Super Bowl win because it was with "Dungy's team," does anyone remember who he faced in that Super Bowl? The Raiders, right? The team he left the year before, right? So in other words, that Super Bowl was between "Gruden's team" and "Dungy's team." Unfortunately for Gruden, the team he was coaching at the time won, so he doesn't get credit for a Super Bowl win. Still, just building a team that Bill Callahan could take to the Super Bowl is pretty impressive by itself. You do have some legitimate criticisms of Gruden, and I think most reasonable people agree that he's not a guaranteed savior by any means. But to try to equate his record as a head coach to Jauron's is simply laughable. Gruden has had success (winning seasons, playoff appearances, etc.) at both of his head coaching stops. Jauron has had ONE successful season in 8 tries at two head coaching stops (not counting the interim work in Detroit). And that one successful season was one of the flukiest in NFL history. In 11 years as a HC, Gruden has a regular season record of 95-81 (57-55 w/ Tampa) and a playoff record of 5-4 (3-2 w/ Tampa). Five division titles, five playoff spots, one Super Bowl win. Are those mind-bogglingly great? Hell no. Are they way, way better than Jauron's records of 57-76 (21-27 w/ Buffalo), 0-1 (0-0 w/ Buffalo), and 1 division title/1 playoff spot in 8+ years? Hell yes.

It occurs to me that we had so few downfield attempts because our quarterback elected to dump off the ball at an extremely high rate. Go back to the game threads - in just about all of them, there are accounts from people who were at the game that we had a man open deep a few times, but the throw was never made. Trent may become a very good quarterback, and I hope he does sooner than later. But he was a bad quarterback in 2007, he was a bad quarterback after Week 7 in 2008, and keeping him healthy looks like a very dicey proposition right now.

It's not that there's no cap hit -- there still is. It's that by spending cash-to-the-cap, it's very likely that you'll have enough cap room on the books to cover any dead money that hits when you cut a guy.

Excuse me, sir, but that's Captain Checkdown. Trent didn't spend 6 years in the checkdown military to be called mister, thank you very much. And this is just my personal point of view, but as a guy who likes and defended (note tenses) JP, and thought he was better than Trent in 2007, I think your argument is a strawman. Bottom line: JP sucks. Trent also sucks, just not as much, and he's also younger, so there's hope that he'll eventually not suck. Hopefully sooner rather than later. I was sold on Trent from the St. Louis game to the San Diego game, but the remaining 10 unsold me on him.

I wonder when the Chris Kelsay article will come out?

The issue, to me, isn't running vs. passing, it's going empty backfield vs. not. A pass is a fine call there, but at least come out in a formation that gives the D some threat of a run. This allows playaction (where Manning is always most effective), screens, swing passes, an outlet to Addai, or at least an extra blocker. With an immobile QB like Manning, coming out in an empty backfield set allows the D to tee off, which proved to be exactly the undoing of the play. If you watch the replay, you'll see that the TE on the right side of the formation wasn't able to get out of his stance in time to slow down the rusher from the edge, who came in and sacked Manning. This was probably a combination of the TE being slow off the snap count (possibly b/c he couldn't hear it due to crowd noise) and the rusher himself going all-out upfield after Manning. Going empty backfield on that play was certainly not putting the team in the best position to win the game. Though I think your point was mostly that passing instead of running was a better play, and I don't disagree there. San Diego's pass D is one of the worst in the league, while their run D is pretty good, and in this game specifically, both of those trends held up.