San Jose Bills Fan

The irony is that Tannehill's OC in Miami is his former college coach, Mike Sherman… and that they're supposedly running the same offense he ran at A&M.

Well the first time, Lee was traded wasn't he? Maybe symbolically we can do something with Josh Reed seeing as he's in the dog house right now.

I'm sure Lombardi also did some substantial housecleaning when he took over that team. "… they all ran after the farmer's wife… "

The video of Morrison wrecking Matt Cassel was excellent but I can't believe they didn't show a replay on the TV coverage. Very lame work by the network's director.

Very nice write up and I agree with pretty much all of your takes…except there's no way Batten beats out Sanborn. Sanborn is a franchise long snapper. Seriously though, I think Batten is gone although others have certainly expressed differing opinions in other threads. I don't think the Bills would have drafted Potter only to cut him… I think he makes it if he kicks like he did in college. I agree Jasper is gone because he's not multi-positional and therefore he has to be very outstanding at one position. As a project player, I'm doubtful Jasper will reach either a level of excellence or a level of versatility. I've read where Moats is learning every linebacker position and we all know he flip-flopped between the inside and the outside in the 3-4. Apparently he is a very smart football player and like you, I think his fairly unique skill set will find him a home on this roster. Good special teamer, very tough and has a flair for getting to the QB. As far as the 70% (Nix's projected picks on the 2012 roster) goes, I don't think that number is meaningful. It's only the 3rd year of the program and the program sucked before Chixley took over. My gut is that any program 3 years in would have a similar roster profile… even if the draft picks sucked, the regime would still hold them to justify the picks.

Florio, in his conversation with Tim Graham indicated that the Bills had an interest in Gordon and reiterates that belief in a later blog post: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/07/12/supplemental-draft-lottery-may-have-forced-clevelands-han/ "The Bills, despite holding the ninth pick in the April draft, secured the first pick in each round of the supplemental draft. The Browns finished at No. 2 on the pecking order. And so, if the Bills were planning to use a third-round pick on Gordon, the Browns necessarily had to use a second-round pick in order to get to Gordon first. It’s unknown whether any of the 30 teams having priority after the Browns were willing to devote a second-round pick to grabbing Gordon. From the Browns’ perspective, all that mattered is whether the Bills would have claimed Gordon at the top of round three. The Bills were interested in Gordon, and the Bills tried to sign former Saints receiver Robert Meachem in free agency. So it likely was prudent for the Browns to fear that the Bills would snatch Gordon, once the process made it to a third round."

I watched/listened to all 20:42 of it and I didn't think it was all that negative. It was a long interview and covered a lot of territory. The most negative thing to me was Graham's prediction that the Bills would go 8-8 or 9-7. He also said it was not a "playoff or bust" season which I'm not sure is an accurate characterization considering the team and fan expectations. He did express doubt that David Lee would have much of an effect on Fitz but also did mention that Stevie Johnson said that there had been an improvement on Fitz' throws downfield to the left. Graham seemed pretty excited about Shawne Merriman and in general I thought was just trying to play the part of the sober, dispassionate observer.

I'm interested to watch/listen the interview.Thanks for the alternate take… not gonna take sides for now… but welcome to the board.

I moved to Buffalo when I was 6, from Montreal, Canada (I love Canada and Candians… I think as a whole they are a good people and are great neighbors and if you're the patriotic type, great allies). I lived in Buffalo until I was 41 at which point my wife and I moved to San Jose, CA. My wife's also a longtime WNYer… a beautiful Tonawanda girl. We moved for three reasons: We thought it would be good to live in another city and truth be told, were intrigued to live in the Silicon Valley because of its status as the epicenter of the world's high tech industry, its multiculturalism and because of its legendary climate… 300 sunny days each year, low humidity. On top of that, I was offered employment here in my chosen field that was twice denied to me when I lived in Buffalo. The Buffalo people didn't want me… maybe I wasn't their type. The people out here went out of their way to recruit me after seeing my test scores and interviewing me. I was actually their number one choice among hundreds of candidates. However the biggest factor in our moving to San Jose was that my elderly parents had moved out here in the 80s and after having witnessed a succession of friend's parents passing away through the 1990s and early 2000s, I knew it was time for me to reconcile with my family and find some peace. That mission has gone quite well. It was tough leaving Buffalo. After living there for 35 years, it's become dyed-in-wool. I lived in the Elmwood Village in a very nice Arts and Crafts home. My downstairs tenants rental income was more than my mortgage payment. Even on my modest income I lived very comfortably (and complacently). I had great neighbors and most of my best friends are still in Buffalo. I try to visit once a year for our league's fantasy football draft. I am a true and true Buffalonian who loves Beef on Weck, Wings, Jim's Steakout, Mighty Taco, etc. etc. etc. I know all of WNY like the back of my hand and love rural WNY… the animals, plants, the climate, everything. I miss the Bills and the Sabres but luckily we live in the best of times for following sports teams from afar. Buffalo has some problems and I think they stem from the poor political and economic conditions. I believe these problems have affected the populace profoundly. The state, region, and locale have been dragged down by corruption, nepotism, patronage, etc. While this "climate" exists in places like Detroit, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and even in large cities who have large, downtrodden working class and/or poor populations like NYC, Boston, and Philly, those larger cities also have more wealth and more diversions and proportionately less focus on their sports team. As others have pointed out, the poverty and poorness of our area continues to have a very negative effect on the people… so it's up to Buffalonians to try and rise above that. It's a handicap that has to be overcome. This climate manifests itself in something I've brought up many times on this board… the way we Buffalonians have crapped on so many of our pro athletes. Dominik Hasek, Michael Peca, Lynch, McGahee, the list goes on and on. It's this small-minded, petty, and vindictive attitude which blemishes our fair city and gives critics the leeway to accuse us of being provincial, narrow-minded, and worse. It seems that there's some misery and unhappiness latent in the community which affects the way we treat our athletes. It's amplified in Buffalo because we care so much about our sports teams… probably too much. If you do well as an athlete in Buffalo you're a god. If you don't do well… good luck. Good or bad we invest too heavily and intensely in our sports teams/athletes and somewhere along the way something has poisoned our attitudes. I'm a Buffalonian, I love Buffalo, but our attitudes and actions towards others (pro athletes, Canadians) says more about us than it does about them. And what it says is not good.

AND you can see what excellent football instincts and athleticism he has when he gets the ball in his hands. There's no doubt that if Byrd were to be used as a return man on special teams that he would be excellent at it.

And kudos to you for your role in creating TSW.

Hmmmm…

No wonder your cousin and you don't get along. I never see him doing retrospectives on Bills subjects… and you, Captain Hindsight still insist on making predictions. C'mon man! Chris Kelsey (Kelsay) and Torrell Troup (Troupe) are currently preparing a reply to your question… stand by…

Pretty surprised by the seemingly prevalent negativity surrounding Vince Young. People do change, especially younger people. He's a Buffalo Bill now and I'm rooting big time for him to make a positive impact. And yes, Caracara came here with full disclosure right from the beginning.

If the Polar Bear Club can go into the waters off Olcott during the winter, why not world-class athletes? Granted most of those people are hammered…

Not so sure about Moorman…

Like the salmon swimming upstream to spawn.

This is an awesome place and I have to give many thanks to Scott and the team… and to millbank for starting this thread. Like most of you, this place is part of the daily ritual and an important one at that. The standards here are pretty high for a sports forum and there are some exceptionally smart, funny, and good people here… more than most places I think. Personally it's really a joy to be able to read and post here and be a part of this community.

House and Mike speak for me.

The inevitable market adjustment. The funny thing is that the Bills will be a much improved team this season and it's possible that by the week 15 game in Toronto that the ticket prices announced today might be too low compared to the market for Bills tickets in a late season playoff chase.

Yep. Not yet mentioned in this thread is something I read in an article on the event… that the home run contest did not use the regular outfield fence but rather they erected a temporary fence somewhere about mid-outfield… FWIW.

Who said this?

Thanks for the glimpse into that other world. Interesting to read the comments by Jets fans. Maybin had bulked up before at least twice (including for the combine). In both cases he was unable to sustain that weight. Maybe his metabolism will eventually slow down and he'll be able to keep it on. He's still narrow in the hips and not really big boned but he's definitely been spending time "in the gym."

Okay, I'll say it. He's been McKilling it.

BTW, the Bills are the first team to open their doors to voluntary rookie workouts and I'm surprised no one started a topic about it… especially considering how many people regularly complain when the Bills are not the first team to start training camp. Attention: The Bills are the first of the 32 teams to open their doors to voluntary rookie workouts. Rice used to work out with partners and many of those partners quit or spent short amounts of time working out with him. Rice's hill running regimen was legendary and few players had the pain threshold and commitment to endure what Rice did. From PFT: "Whether Fitzgerald was seriously upset with Floyd for missing workouts or just playfully giving him a hard time, Floyd is lucky to have a veteran like Fitzgerald to show him the ropes. And he’d be wise not to miss many opportunities to work with Fitzgerald." We don't know the exact motive behind Fitzgerald's tweet but I'm guessing it would fall under the category of playful but serious prodding. Put differently, if Fitzgerald was joking, he was only half-joking.