HalftimeAdjustment

You mean, offer him a contract worth $5M base with options to get to 7.5, then watch him leave as another team offers him at least 6.5 per? Just clarifying.

Agreed about the 49 but it might have helped us answer. Fitz has chemistry with SJ. Might have seen fewer INTs. Would not gave resulted in a win most likely but we will never know.

Yes... 1 TD. Then it went in the toilet.

I think he is a malcontent because he knows they were not ready to pay him so he did not care anymore. He forced the issue and avoids injury.

If they were not signing a deal at 7.5 per year then you have to think Nix and Bills upper management had no intent of bringing SJ back. Chan is on solid ground here.

No, I think he is clearly the best receiver and the offense is suffering without him. But he is a selfish player who cannot be relied on to be part of a winning culture. He will need to be replaced so we shpuld sign someone else with his money. Having said that, if he did not say anything else I would have put him back on the 2nd half. He is under contract now and enough message has been sent to other players. No need to worry about the message to SJ he will never hear it. He will get the message from his agent at 430 today when they discuss whether he helped his market value.

He is headed to Washington, Tampa Bay, Jacksonville, or Minnesota after this. Some other teams will not touch him.

We also do nt know what was said on the sideline. That could be an aggravating factor.

They can put Johnson back after the half and act like he got a stern talking to at halftime.

Let's hope the next kicker is named Lindell.

Even the announcers made fun of it. I think one asked "what did he give him a boo-boo?" At least that's whatI thought.

If he had previously been told by Belichek NOT to do that... he wouldn't have. Patriots do not allow insubordination. See Wes Welker and feet.

Every player needs to follow the rules set down by the team and coach. If Chan had told him to lay off the celebrations then he is not a team player. Green Bay and New Orleans score a lot of TDs. How often do you see thier players getting fined for repeated celebration?

I have been an advocate for re-signing Stevie but that might have changed my mind.

I generally agree that "age is the most important factor", but you don't think the impact forces are less per tackle in the indoor and arena leagues, based on the fact that the players hitting you are slower, smaller, and possibly not as strong? NFL Europe was probably very similar to the NFL, but seasons were 10 games long. Also, a factor more important than age is specific injury history. For example, Shawne Merriman has had a serious knee injury and Achilles injury among many others. Despite his relatively "middling" age he is considered to be almost done. By contrast, Fred Jackson has had injuries such as a broken hand or fractured fibula which are generally not as difficult to recover from as a torn Achilles, multiple ligament tear, or niggling soft tissue injuries (groin, shoulder). End result: Fred Jackson is a viable RB for the 2012 season because he did not incur a major soft-tissue/career-threatening injury in 2011 and was near the top of the league in his first 9 games. No one can say for sure after that, but at some point in the next few years age will catch up with him. That's why he (personally) needs guaranteed money more than total contract value. In my opinion teams will not give up a high draft pick for any player who is not going to have a 5-year (or more) career. Even a team that "needs a RB" will not want to cash in a high draft pick for fewer years of production. Given a 2nd rd draft pick, the team is better off picking a college RB or BPA and getting a lesser RB who is younger. That's because if (for example) the college RB breaks his leg in year 1, he will have a very good chance of being productive in years 2-5. Whereas, if FJ breaks his leg again next year, his career is just about over. The value proposition is just not there for a 1st-3rd round pick, I think we cannot get more than a 4th for him. Sign FJ to a reasonable RB contract with a 3-4 year length and a high % guarantee in exchange for lesser total value. I think he will go for it based on the fact that this will put money in the bank for his post-football career. He cannot afford to risk the 2012 season on his current contract as the likelihood of getting a big payoff afterwards is not much higher than the likelihood of a career-ending or diminishing injury.

Since he will probably not get "premier" RB $ ($8M+) from any other team, this is not a very relevant scenario. Can you identify a team who is likely to be willing to sign a 30yr old RB to a 3yr $20-25M contract, when he has only had 1 season near the top of the league and is not known for elite speed? On the other hand, another team is highly likely to give him a 3yr $15M contract with a guarantee in the $9M range. I also think you are wrong about his trade value (again, name a team), and I do not agree that we do not need the 2 backs. It is unlikely for a team with 1 premier back to have that RB make it through the entire NFL season. If we go with Spiller and Choice, we'll have to accept Choice as our starting RB for 2-3 games a season on average.

How about the organization discusses the prospects of Merriman and Easley based on the informed opinions of their medical staff, instead of whatever is in the press, and then makes a decision on whether to cut them? Which could be made any time during camp. There is no public basis for deciding that Easley will get re-injured or have heart problems again. Merriman on the other hand has a fairly clear history of significant injury, but he is under contract. I think you have to trust that the team will judge this based on being closer to the situation than we are. As for Parrish, the team can make an offer that appears suitable for a player that has a relatively high injury risk, and if he does not sign it, move on. If they decline to offer him anything, that means they believe he will not contribute enough to warrant a minimum salary and/or roster spot.

He might want that, but not only is he still under contract for much less, on top of that the market will not give him 8-10M/year due to his age. What he should (and probably will) want the most, is substantial guaranteed money so that he can take care of his family after football. With the right amount of guaranteed money and a 3 year contract he can be signed for much less than $8M/year I would suspect. Anything non-guaranteed, he will probably never see beyond 2012 or 2013... so the guarantee is probably the determining factor. Having said that if the Bills are offered an attractive trade I expect they will take it. I hope they do not, but they probably would. If they are not offered a good trade I think they will get the deal done if for no other reason than they have a lot of leverage.

I think that people who are in favor of not re-signing Stevie Johnson, should explain who they would like to sign to play receiver, what they will pay them, and what (if anything) they would spend any money saved on. As for "signing" SJ for $5-6 million a year, you can offer him that but you cannot sign him for that unless no other team offers him more. That's the reality.

So what happens in 2013 when the deal sets a minimum personnel budget, effectively? Or do you think the people running the team have assumed they are done before then?

But he wasn't picked up by the current regime, Pears was.

Excellent suggestion.

I think that 6-3 loss to Cleveland, which would seriously make the top 10 worst list of games every played, has to be on the list. We got beat by a team that completed 2 of 17 passes. Really. The entire game was both teams failing to execute any football plays on almost every possession. It was not the most painful loss, but unfortunately our coach did not have the decency to quit at halftime. The entire staff should have been fired and most of the players replaced with street free agents, really.

I will root for the Bills in each remaining game. Otherwise, I think I am going to root for Denver in their non-Bills games; because I enjoy the talking heads being flustered by Tebow winning in spite of all their predictions. I want to see a GB-Denver Super Bowl, but my 2nd choice would probably be GB-NE with NE getting beat again. However, I will not root for NE in any game except against the Jets. I will root for the Jets to fail dismally in any way possible, although I will not wish anyone injuries.

35-32, seems like a moderately high scoring game...