timstep

Your homerism is getting the better of you. I live in Ohio, get to (unfortunately) watch every Browns game while I listen to every Bills game on Sirius. Both of these guys are afraid to throw deep. Both guys dump the ball to the running back if the first read isn't there. Roethlisberger, who was sacked 50 times in '09, had a horrible line this year, yet he's still able to escape the pocket and throw deep to Holmes and Wallace. Neither Brady or Edwards are mobile, they're stiff pocket passers. Regarding Anderson, he loves to throw deep. He just pays no attention if the defensive backs are triple-teaming a WR. He's basically made his entire career on one game, the shootout against the Bengals. But when he has to throw a quick 5 or 10 yard pass to a RB or TE, his throws are terrible. All of these are capable of playing in the NFL, but none are quality starters. For each one, you have to compensate for very big flaws. They'll make fine 2nd stringers for years to come. I'm not sure why anyone feels the need to defend Edwards so vocally. He didn't cost the organization much since he wasn't a high round pick. If he was Ryan Leaf or JaMarcus Russell, it would make sense to continue to try make something worthwhile out of the guy since the teams have invested so much.

I like, as long as none of them make it out of the cage. Seriously, between those four, you've got enough spare parts to make one good QB. Edwards and Quinn are mirror images of each other (both Captain Checkdowns afraid to throw deep), except Brady is built like David Boston and Edwards built like a Jenga tower. Fitzpatrick and Anderson are both big-armed deep throwers but lack consistency, though Fitzy seems to be a little more mobile whereas Anderson is slower than a sober Bernie Kosar.

I don't dislike him for anything other than I think he's a capable college quarterback who is not NFL caliber. Problem is, when you suggest that to anyone who worships at his feet, they cry foul. When Urban Meyer did his whole "i don't know what league he can't succeed in" after the bowl game, I wanted to punch the guy. And I'm a BGSU alum, the guy was coached my school, I like the guy. But the NFL game and the college game are as different as the college game and high school, but people don't want to hear that. I will say this, Tebow is in the media because he makes himself available, he wants that attention for his own reasons. If he didn't want the attention, he could, to a certain degree, deflect and avoid it.

A lot of the criticisms of Tebow in the Senior Bowl practices and overall in college is his throwing motion. When his line gives him time and space, he's fine. But when the pocket collapses, he's unable to make a good throw because he motion is so labored. Some people on the Tebow bandwagon mistake the criticism of how his college skills translate to his pro potential as a personal attack. They're not. Maybe he'll overcome the concerns about his throwing motion the way Drew Brees overcame concerns about his height, I dunno. I do know that for every Drew Brees, there have been dozens of guys who had the same issue and didn't make it. Maybe Tebow's the next Bernie Kosar, and maybe he's the next Akili Smith, who knows.

Won't argue that they should have taken Revis or Harris based on hindsight, but I very clearly remember my disappointment with them taking McCargo over Mangold. I live in Columbus and, though not a Buckeyes fan per se, got to watch every game Mangold played at OSU. I knew the kid would be a solid player, if not a starter for years. I clearly remember listening to the draft on Sirius outside a BBQ joint waiting for my friend (a Browns fan) to pick up our order, and the trade with the Bears was announced for the #26 pick. He gets back in the car, I tell him about the trade and I said "this is where they're gonna take Mangold, they have to get a center." Of course, they didn't. They took McCargo and had Fowler play center. My friend laughed at me for a solid five minutes, and the Jets took Mangold three picks later, which was an extra kick in the nuts. It's not fun to be laughed at by a Browns fan.

I'm not sure how much Cleveland Browns football you got to watch this year outside of that horrific game against the Bills (living in Ohio, I get to watch about every game), but Josh Cribbs is 10x the player Roscoe Parrish is. He's much closer in skill level to Ronnie Brown of the Dolphins: QB's the wildcat, can run the ball, can catch the ball, etc. Yes, he's known for returning kicks, but Parrish has shown to be a one-trick pony. Put Cribbs in the right system, he could be league MVP.

In the immortal words of Jody Watley, I would say to Lynch: "What have you done for me lately?" Fact is, Lynch has proven not be worth the pick. This year he was thoroughly outplayed by an undrafted free agent. His time in Buffalo has been marred with immaturity and inconsistent play. Citing the Pro Bowl is weak. Cleveland & Buffalo both have players going to the Pro Bowl, and Cincinnati has none. It's rewards popularity and name recognition. Right now, I'd rather be Cincinnati, playing for something that matter. Best scenario: Nix pulls a trade and sends Lynch to San Diego for a day one draft pick. LT will be gone/retire, and Darren Sproles isn't durable enough to play every down. Bills will be fine next year with Freddie as the #1 and can easily pick-up a mid-range (re: less costly) back-up in free agency or 2nd day of the draft. Hell, bring back XO for all I care.

We need a straight shooter with upper management written all over him. Mike Holmgrem, Bruce Allen, somebody like that in the Bill Parcells "guru" position. While I'm happy Jauron is out the door, fact remains this team has problems in it's college scouting and free agent evaluation departments, namely John Guy and Tom Modrak. COO Russ Brandon should be stripped of whatever personnel decision-making responsibilities he currently has, or out the door completely. Oh, and remember: next Friday... is Hawaiian shirt day. So, you know, if you want to, go ahead and wear a Hawaiian shirt and jeans.

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2009/...ills-were-no-1/ Seriously, did the Bills pull a Joey Porter and talk smack this week I am unaware of? Wonder if he throat punched a handicapped kid on the way out and ran over some kittens in his limo. I mean, I expect this from juiced up, over stimulated players, not 86-year old geriatrics.

Yes. And they need to stop lying about him. He's listed as 250 on the roster. B.S. He's 240 wet. And 240 ain't gonna get it done at DE in a 4-3 in the NFL unless you've got mad speed ala Dwight Freeney in his prime. Shawn Nelson is 240. Anyone want Nelson rushing the passer?

I don't care if Moss, Brady and every skill position starter for the Pats is sitting, no way the Bills come close. Bills just lost to the Titans 41-17, who lost to the Pats 59-0. By my calculation, that means the Bills will lose 100-0.

Currently 3-6, the rest of the year is... at Jacksonville L - Jags are starting to play better, great run game. Miami L - Bills already played badly once, have they improved since this game? NY Jets (in Toronto) Possible W - Jets are not playing well, Bills already beat them once. at Kansas City Possible W - KC is bad, but are they really any worse than the Bills at this point? New England L - Seriously. Wipe that first game from your mind, ain't gonna happen again. Indianapolis L - Bills aren't even in the same league. Unless the Colts have clinched are are playing Sorgi. Mmmm, maybe not even then. at Atlanta L - Because, really, this game smells like last game of the year blowout. So, best case 5-11, middle of the road, 4-12. But 3-13 is definitely a possibility. 7-9 seems like a pipe dream at this point. TOP FIVE PICK in 2010, HERE WE COME! Ugh. I need another beer.

I heard it with my own ears. After doing a spot on Vick's return to the NFL and where he sees his career going, Dan Patrick asked Tony Dungy where he could envision Vick ending up. Dungy's response? Buffalo. Er, thoughts?

http://espn.go.com/blog/afceast/post/_/id/...-was-to-buffalo A snippet: Bills fans despised the USFL for harboring Kelly and luring away star running back Joe Cribbs, yet no other team benefited more from the USFL than the Bills did. The man who built their Super Bowl teams (Bill Polian), his eventual replacement (John Butler) and the man who coached them (Marv Levy) all came from the Chicago Blitz. Three-time Pro Bowl center Kent Hull was undrafted out of college, but proved himself with the New Jersey Generals. I'm trying to remember all players who spent time in the USFL and end up on the Bills. Besides Kelly and Hull, there was Trumaine Johnson, Mickey Sutton, Walter Broughton, Dwight Drane, Ray Bentley... Besides a few fill-in's during the '87 strike, I can't remember anyone else. Where there more?

WTF are you talking about? Who cares what the celebrity level of their guests is, I'm talking about medium and show format. They're all talking head opinion spouters.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure newspapers have seen declining revenue because of the advent of 24-hour cable news in the 90s, the internet and, whether you realize this or not, Craigslist and eBay. One of the largest sources of revenue for newspapers is not advertising, it's classifieds. When you can sell your stuff on eBay for a tiny fee, or on Craigslist for free, why are you going to put it in a newspaper? Newspapers have always had slants. I live in central Ohio, and our only daily paper is owned and operated by a wealthy, ultra-conservative family that uses the editorial page to spout whatever they like. Sort of like the Wall Street Journal, The NY Post, even the NY Times and Wash. Post, supposed liberal-leaning papers, have numerous right-wing columnists on staff. If they didn't, Fox News, right wing talk radio and the think tank noise machine would whine about it until they hired some hack to fit the bill, regardless of actual ability or credentials. Why do you think so many of the current right wing opinion makers (Bill Kristol, Andrew Schafly, John Podhoretz) are the children of respected intellectuals (Irving Kristol, Phyllis Shafly, Norman Podhoretz)? It's the right wing version of affirmative action. Oh, and many farmers receive massive amounts of federal dollars in the form of agricultural subsidies. Also, talking about farmers as some sort of representative block of America is outdated. Maybe if it was the 1930s and 1 of out every 4 citizens resided on a farm, it would matter, but today it's less than 2%. The majority of farming is done by giant multinational agribusinesses.

I love when people draw comparisons between Limbaugh and Olbermann even though they are in different mediums. Try O'Reilly or Beck and Olbermann. Also love it that Olbermann (and Franken, and Moore) are attacked for being extremists, when two of Olbermann's highest rated shows have been attacking Hillary Clinton (during the campaign) and Obama (recently), Franken is a humorist who's biggest sin is that he's written books about rightwing talkshow hosts, and Moore has made two recent films (Sicko and Capitalism) that attack the both sides of the aisle equally in Congress, but had the gaul to question the logic of W invading Iraq on faulty intelligence before it came out that the invasion of Iraq was... based on faulty intelligence.

The rumor that George Soros was also involved in the ownership group has turned out to be false. The new report is that Marshall Faulk is stepping in to take Limbaugh's place. Other than the fact that Limbaugh has lots of dough, I can't really understand his interest in co-owning an NFL franchise. First of all, the NFL has a salary cap (pay limits!) and revenue sharing (wealth redistribution!), which both fly in the face of his support of unregulated capitalism. Also, he'd be a co-owner, and a minority owner at that to Checketts, which means he would either need a consensus (groupthink!) or give primary control to Checketts. Also, Limbaugh would have to deal with the Players Union.. a UNION! Actually, I find that last bit kind of funny. I'm willing to be that the majority of NFL players consider themselves to be "Republicans" because of the tax bracket they fall in, not based on any well thought-out ideological stance, yet don't connect the fact that unions are enemy #3 on the GOP hit list (after "illegals" and "ACORN"). Unions are fine if you're a millionaire, it's just the blue-collar folks that are socialist scum for belonging.

Not to mention, you can then compare federal tax dollars in/out of states, and you realize that "blue" states pay more and get less back in federal dollars than "red" states, which pay in less but get out more. For example, a 2005 study found for every dollar NJ citizens pay in federal taxes, they received .61 back. In comparison, for every dollar Alaska paid in, they got back $1.84. Red states suckle at teat of the federal dollar to the detriment of Blue states. They also have higher rates of divorce and teen pregnancy, but that's for another topic. When people talk about conservative vs. liberal, there are two different aspects - economic vs. social. I am sure that almost every professional sports team owner would consider him/herself an economic conservative, but not necessarily a social conservative. The thing that angers people like Colts owner Jim Irsay or a variety of NFL players is not Limbaugh's economic views, which they most likely share, but his social conservatism. Limbaugh's racism and sexism are well documented, and to debate whether he's simply being provocative or firmly believes everything he says is parsing. Whether or not Limbaugh's social views are embraced by the majority of self-identified conservatives who happen to own teams is ultimately irrelevant. The NFL abhors controversy. The last thing they want is an owner to become the story.

Adding Quinn would be akin to adding Trent's doppleganger. He can't/won't throw down field and has poor pocket awareness. Neither are very crafty with the ball or project any presence. Fact is, there are guys like Matt Stafford and Mark Sanchez who were drafted THIS YEAR that already look better than Quinn and Edwards, and guys like Flacco and Matt Ryan that have just over one year under their belt that are light years ahead of Q and E. Some guys get it, some don't. Whether it's their fault, or their circumstance, lots of guys are just not going pan out. The only difference is, over the last 10 years the Bills and Browns have been making the wrong decisions way more often than the teams that are winning, and that's with coaching changes, management changes and lots of roster turnover. The only thing left to blame is ownership.

And the minute Fox gets fired, you can bet Cowher will be the next Carolina HC. He lives in NC, and all indications are he doesn't want to return to the NFL until either his kids are grown, or the perfect opportunity arise, that being the Panthers job.

Someone should tell the 2000 Ravens they'll never win the Super Bowl with that failed first-round pick and lowly game manager Trent Dilfer at quarterback. Please. Teams win one of two ways: Either a great QB (Manning, Brady, Kurt Warner, John Elway, etc.) with an average running game and average to good (and opportunistic) defense (2006 Colts), OR with very average QBs (Dilfer, Brad Johnson, Jim McMahon) with a great running game and excellent defense ('00 Ravens, '85 Bears, etc.). The Broncos have Mike Nolan, who was awful as a head coach but is a proven d-coordinator, running things there and the difference is obvious. I would trade every player, every coach, every member of management currently employed by the Bills to get the Broncos, and I would be elated if Josh McDaniels, after an inspired win against a division foe in OT, saluted the hometown crowd the way he did in Denver today. Hell, I'd take Rex Ryan and his mouth over the crypt keeper currently patrolling our sidelines.

I live in Ohio and was watching the game with a buddy of mine who is a Browns fan at a local bar. After Mitchell and Buggs were both carted off the field, I made a comment about the number of Bills out with injuries not just this year, but what seem like the last 3-4 years. He said the Browns used to be that way under Butch Davis and Romeo Crennel (whose camps were called "Camp Cupcake" in Cleveland), who both ran "soft" camps with not a lot of hitting. However, Mangini ran a very physical camp, lots of hitting. Some players were actually complaining. However, they haven't had many injuries that have taken starters out for long periods/the entire season. Question is: what kind of camp does/has Jauron run? I haven't been out to a camp since the Fredonia days of Mike Mularky. My guess would be that Jauron runs training camp closer to the style of Davis and Crennel rather than Mangini.

Darryl Talley on Twitter a few minutes ago: "I could multitask. I was a player and a fan."

It easy to get one wrong because their are so many factors in how or why they fail to live up to expectations, but it's hard to get them right. They guys who get them right hit when they take chances. It's not just the number one's that actually live up to the billing, but the 2nd and one guys who they manage to pluck out of the draft. For example, Polian has Thurman Thomas, Ted Donahue has Willis McGahee. Polian traded out of the #3 pick in 1987 to grab Shane Conlan at #8, and with his acquired extra pick took Nate Odoms at #36. Need I bring up the McCargo deal? Polian drafted HOFers. Same thing with Newsome. For every Kyle Boller, he's got Jonathan Ogden (future HOF) and Ray Lewis (future HOF) back-to-back in the same draft, plus Ed Reed (future HOF), Jamal Lewis, Todd Heap, etc. Point is, while the list of players that are not playing for the Bills isn't impressive, neither is the one that still are on the roster. At least guys like Polian, Newsome, Belichick, etc. have either drafted and developed their first round talent, or found legitimate stars in the later rounds. That hasn't happened in Buffalo in over a decade.