San Jose Bills Fan

From the exterior, the style they were going for is the Federal or Adam style. More generically you'd call it a "center entrance colonial" although Georgian Revivals also share that design. The thing that ruins the exterior is that hideous attached garage with the siding. The rooms are done very traditionally. Even the kitchen has earlier period cabinets, drawer pulls, mouldings, etc. The thing that really doesn't go with the house (besides the garage) is the pool. Colonial architecture with modern swimming pools are a clash in styles which are very, very difficult to make work. And yeah, the property taxes in New York State are ridiculous. It really offsets much of the advantage of the low house prices.

The scenario is that he signs his franchise tender and plays under it with the Bills this season. At some point during the season he becomes very enthused with the direction of the team overall under Marrone, his role in Pettine's defense, and the team's prospects for the playoffs. Thus he and the Bills agree to a five-year deal for a bit less than what Goldson got from Tampa Bay and everyone's happy.

Imagine a scenario where he does re-sign. What is that scenario?

Good call. For some reason I thought they went back farther than that.

I'm guessing B, he received coaching but the new coaching is different. EJ's been coached by Ken Mastrole of the Mastrole Passing Academy. As far as the footwork/accuracy issue, I would think that initially his accuracy might suffer until he commits the new techniques to his latent muscle memory. JMO.

Are you…. Conrad Dobler?????

Yeah I hear they're wonderful. I think BB is probably reacting from the standpoint of one who's accustomed to swimming in fresh water (The Great Lakes?) as opposed to salt water in the oceans. In a natural context and having grown up in Buffalo, I prefer freshwater but it probably depends on what you grew up with.

Or where that information came from. Thanks Farmer.

Understanding of course that these are 7 on 7 passing drills but has anyone watched this? It's worth watching. Thanks BC.

Nevertheless, I'd be curious to know who offered him a half mil more than the Cardinals did.

Dude, that's way too hard. Give us a hint. Is it odd or even?

DO NOT PANIC!!! EVERYONE JUST STAY CALM!!! Well done! Well I'm sure there's a lot of people who give a **** (including actual stakeholders) but I'm not one of them.

I agree. Strong point that it was another sports team in the same city that instead of being obstinate, just simply did the right thing. Too many stubborn, divisive people taking up for the wrong causes in this country. Let's agree on the little stuff and then try to hash out the REAL DIFFERENCES. This country has always been about compromise. The polarization of America is sad and detrimental. Idiots on both sides being stubborn for no good reason. Sorry. I missed the satire. It all makes perfect sense now.

And by turning down an extra half a mil to go to a place he doesn;t want to be--that's all about the money too? WEO, where does it say that he turned down an extra half mil?

I think he means that there will not be a future where fans are buying billboard space saying that "EJ Must Go!!!" Great post and I've been saying for awhile now that Nix can change his legacy as Bills GM. Absolutely it was a blessing that Chan hired Wanny because now both are gone and we can actually try to build a real contender instead of a middling contender. What you say doesn't refute what Keister said. Keister said that no one wanted to come here. This is true whether he had carte blanche or not.

Meanwhile six of his rookie teammates are wearing numbers below 20. Goodwin wore #84 at Texas. Scott Chandler wears that number for the Bills. Assuming (I know) that Stevie gets a lot more support from the other wideouts than he has in the past, hopefully he'll be more healthy than he's been and maybe even run faster than we've seen.

We don't, you're correct. This regime wants to win as many games out of the gates as possible I believe. Therefore I think they will make decisions based on who gives them the best chance to win. I think the only scenario where salary will come into play (personnel wise) is if two players are equal and one costs multiple times as much as the other.

You saved me a lot of typing. Agreed. I CANNOT wait.

I agree that TJ Graham is definitely not a lock. Working against him is that he is new to the current coaching staff. Working for him is that he was a 3rd rounder drafted by the current GM. The finer discussion is what are the odds of each player to make the final 53? I give TJ a 55% chance of making the final roster, about .8 to 1 odds. And here's another topic idea: Which current Bills are locks to make the team?

I had a handwriting analysis done based on your notebook page. The findings are pretty disturbing. I've pm'd you so you know where to send the money…. unless of course you want me to publicly disclose the results. Bryan Scott is an interesting case. Like Tashard Choice, the new regime saw fit to offer him a contract when they didn't have to. They've cut a few veterans and shoo'd another one into retirement and they've retained Brad Smith in spite of a hefty price tag so it's all a guessing game as to the fates of these guys. On the plus side, Scott is a versatile player who can play LB and DB and this certainly has value to Pettine. On the other hand I don't think there are any guarantees for Scott. I think that they think that he has just enough value to bring in and compete for a job. I think they carry 6 wideouts and 2 QBs and try to carry Tuel on the practice squad. To the bolded above, I like the way you characterized that thought. I've been trying to make the argument that the wild cat is obsolete due to the huge influx of athletic QBs. Certainly the repertoire of plays is similar to what it is when you simply have an athletic QB. The Wildcat is going out of vogue because it makes it too easy for the defense…. you know it's most likely a run play. With EJ Manuel, the Wildcat is pointless which (as has been pointed out) now allows Brad Smith to focus all his efforts on one position. I happen to think he has great potential at wide receiver. I think Easley will be the odd man out unless he shows us something way beyond what he's shown us so far.

Thanks for the correction.

They also chose to retain Brad Smith in spite of his hefty price tag. I'll throw this in here seeing as I haven't propped up Brad Smith in awhile but the guy has elite measurables… all of them including size are Adrian Peterson measurements except he's a bit slower in the 40. The guy hasn't developed as a wideout because no team has committed to making him a wideout. He's always had to divvy his time up. The guy is an amazing athlete and I think if he commits to one position that he can be excellent and clearly the new regime feels the same way or else he'd be gone. I still vividly recall the great leaping TD reception Smith had against the Jets…. one of the best TD catches in recent Bills memory. I'm not writing off Brad Smith and I could easily see the Bills retaining 6 wideouts and keeping only two QBs with Tuel on the practice squad. Easley on the other hand is an extreme longshot to make the team in my book.

As Oscar Wilde supposedly said, "We're all in the gutter but some of us are looking at the stars." For me it would never be any other way.

Well your handwriting is excellent and that's an interesting piece of notebook paper! Seriously, I'm not gonna go looking for it but I could swear that Marrone recently said that the team viewed Mark Anderson was a defensive end. I was pretty surprised by this as we had all been assuming he would be a linebacker. It might not make much difference because he'll likely play a bit of both. Also would anyone be surprised if Bryan Scott doesn't make the final 53? I'm wondering what if any chance the team gives Chris White to show his wares. One thing in White's favor is that he's an excellent special teamer but the Bills were also very high on him coming out of Mississippi State.

For the record, in Nix's time here, he made a strong attempt to retain Poz and failed, and failed to retain Whitner even though he ultimately offered Whitner more than Whitner ended up signing for with the Niners. This year he let Levitre walk. Those are the three situations you would judge Nix on in terms of player retention. edit: And every team has players whom they couldn't retain so it becomes a question of judging each specific situation. Is Nix 3-0 in these situations? 2-1? 1-2? 0-3?