thurst44

Not according to Sportrac. The first link is about how retirement affects the salary cap, which would make it essentially the same as a cut. https://www.behindthesteelcurtain.com/pittsburgh-steelers-nfl-features-news-blog-long-form/2016/3/5/11158958/nfl-101-how-cuts-retirements-and-trades-affect-the-salary-cap http://www.spotrac.com/nfl/buffalo-bills/eric-wood-5637/ Not sure where you guys are getting the $10m number (actually curious -- i'm no expert and recognize i could very well be wrong), but according to what I've read, it's 5.5m. It would have been an 8.5m hit if he were still playing. Wish it were an 8.5 mil hit and he were still able to play next year, but these appear to be the facts.

Really people?! This is where we are?!?!?! You do realize we beat two then-winless teams at the beginning of the season with Tyrod at QB? If you listen to many of the fans here, we have a useless QB, a team full of holes, and terrible management that gets nearly every decision wrong ... yet, somehow we have a winning record since 2014. Is it magic? Voodoo? When we win, we're "lucky," but when we lose, all our flaws define us. That's not a healthy way to be a fan. I can get lack of trust in Tyrod to a degree and I like Peterman and would be zen about him being named QB after his gutsy, impressive performance in the snow, but this is getting absurd. This is reminding me of when we thought going with a QB who had played in 2 games, at least one meaningless, was a better bet for the playoffs than the veteran who had been 10-5 on the season and had been through 7 or 8 post-seasons. If we are playing important games, I want the QB with three years full-time experience and a winning record and one of the lowest turnover rates of all time over the fifth-round rookie who's never played a full game and one of his starts was arguably the WORST game a quarterback has ever had. Also, it's not like teams have ebbs and flows on the season. The Dolphins ALWAYS play New England tough in Miami (Brady is now an unfathomable 7-9 in Miami if the stat the announcers gave out yesterday is correct). They are not that great a team. Remember how great the Broncos were looking before we played them. Yes, they may sweep us and we may go 0-3, but I'd say we still have the upper hand, especially in this game. Also, this week's win may have sparked more than if we had won 38-3 on a sunny day. They truly appear to be a team that loves playing together. Only one way to find out. Right now, I'm just hoping we beat Miami this week at home, the Steelers pull off a win at home against the Pats, and then Christmas Eve is a whole lot of fun as all the narratives are the spiraling Pats and the fact that they still haven't clinched the division. Even I doubt we win that game, but the ramp up would be a lot of fun. And I plan to enjoy this week as well instead of getting pointlessly fatalistic (an instinct i understand and secretly inside i know there's a good chance this sunday will not go well, but if that happens, it happens). This^^

"is any good"? we're 4-2 having played mostly hard teams.

Have you been watching the same Kyle Williams? He's looked pretty solid to me. And their opponents' lack of rushing yards kinda hints that the DL might not exactly be in shambles...

They are on pace for 160 yards rushing

The point above is that you probably wouldn't have thought of Mike Gillislee the same way either before he started doing well for us (or Fred Jackson for that matter). It's amazing on this site, how even when we're 3-1 beating two otherwise undefeated teams in a row, there are more chicken little and negative threads than positive. Yes, it's fine to be concerned or start threads like this, and I apologize if I'm sounding like I think I'm an arbiter (with a whopping 500 posts or so, i'm certainly not). Another way of looking at this is we've gone 3-1 (and almost 4-0) with only one ostensibly easy game (and even they are above .500 playing other teams) even though what we thought was the strength of our game has been mostly silent.

It's hard to believe, but the facts bear it out. How else are they going to rank a team who just beat two otherwise unbeaten teams? Should they rank us lower because some of its fanbase is surprised. Perhaps Carolina is ranked too low, but the fact is the Bills have a 3-1 record against teams who have been playing well otherwise. 10-15 would put them as the lowest ranked 3-1 team, which would be silly based on what they have done on the field. There's really no other way to look at them in the power rankings unless the creators simply diss them for being the Buffalo Bills. If they aren't for real, they will prove it. But let's give them the chance to determine that instead of tearing them down pre-emptively. For now, we are what the record says we are. No, this is simply reflecting what they've done on the field. What exactly are we "doing" to ourselves? I think we all know the recent history of the Bills and anyone with a brain is prepared for a possible fall, but if we can't at least get some enjoyment when we win against powerful teams, then what's the point of being a fan? Besides, as Yolo said, these are meaningless. Heck, even I find it all a bit silly, but why drag down the team you root for because they get some meaningless praise.

Hardly insane. We beat two teams in a row who have lost to no other teams, one of whom were within an incredible choke of winning the Super Bowl last year. How else would you parse it? There are two sides to a football field and right now we've got the top defense in football and have a 3-1 record against teams who are 10-2 otherwise. Maybe they'll prove you right. I hope not. We'll see. But really, what's your point?

Great observations. Bills haven't turned the ball over since the first drive of the season (and were about to set a record for fewest turnovers in a season up til the EJM game).

That's one of the most hopeful things in this start. This defense has been practically lights out in the second half, which had us fingertips away from 3-0. They have allowed 5 ppg in the second half in their first three games. The Falcons in Atlanta will be one hell of a test for this defense.

For crying out loud, can't you just enjoy a win?!

Want to rethink this?

But Taylor's played an above average game in six of his last eight games (with two absolute clunkers in between), which is a pretty great rate for a starting QB...51 tds, 16 turnovers! (heck, team has only allowed a single turnover and that was on their first drive).

Ha! And many thanks to you for that. And hopefully the Bills surprise us. Prediction: Buffalo 28, Denver 20 (or am i going off-topic)

Not to shift the topic back from food (mmm, food), but I'm glad, and in many ways it can be a good quality to be able to ignore it, and sometimes wish I could avoid getting upset at some of his acts of buffoonery -- especially, considering that plays right into what he probably wants anyway. However, it's become harder for me lately as some of his actions would impact me specifically or people for whom I care about in a potentially catastrophic way, so I'm sorry if I get a bit strident sometimes (and am also not sorry in a sense).

No, it very much is not, but if it were, how is it any different from all the people here who are saying that the football players should not express their opinions> He is doing a job, and it is irresponsible of him, in that powerful position, to call for others to be fired for expressing their own opinions. But, hey, through 70 years plus, that's how he's run his life, and that's how he runs his presidency, so I guess it's par for the course...but speaking of par, at least he's not playing golf all the time...oh wait.

Ok, here's something on which we can heartily and totally agree! Oh my, when I think about moving back to the WNY area for the less stressful living, I worry that I'll balloon to 300 lbs. because of all the comfort food, particularly Paula and her donuts. I started going there when I worked at Worldwide Records on Main St. and I would stop at the Kenmore Ave location, apparently right about from when it opened. So glad to see how well they are doing, and have to get there every time I visit Buffalo. You can't get peanut donuts in NYC (well, artisan shops occasionally have something, but it's not the same and they are three dollars). We had them at our fantasy football draft this year and I had to stop myself at three (and i was supposed to be eating healthy while recovering from pneumonia, but Paula's, dam). Let's make this thread about doughnuts!!!!!

He's allowed to say it, but as the holder of that office, he SHOULDN'T say it. Calling for people who work for a private entity to be fired for protesting is the sort of action dictators take. It's using his power in order to try to quash dissent. There is a threat in the backing of the power of his office. I get your argument, and can understand why you're making it, but disagree in that I don't think most who are upset with him are saying he should not be allowed to say it, but that it is, at best, beneath the dignity of the office, and, at worst, a misuse of the power with which he has been bestowed by 25-26% of the populace.

Man, for the embodiment of a Jimi Hendrix song that is also a slang for reefer, you are really hitting it out of the park.

What is the protest disrupting? Also, Trump isn't 100% right and didn't say what you are implying. He CALLED for them to be fired. If Roger Goodell or Terry or Kim Pegula said a player will be fired if they protest, that's a different story...it would be unfortunate but not illegal. However, the most powerful person in the country calling for a private entity to fire a private citizen is different and to me it's disturbing. If Obama did something like this (and as someone pointed out in this thread, while calling me a profanity, Kaep has protested Obama too), I would have been reconsidering my vote. Also, all businesses are different. At my first real job, one employee wore a Dennis Kucinich shirt all day and politicked for him throughout the office, and he kept his job and no one thought he might do any different. Then again, at that same company, an entertainment company, the CFO sent out a letter in early 2001 to everyone to protest Bush's "illegitimate" presidency, so it might not be representative. I don't think I've worked a job yet where I would be fired if I stood on my desk and said something like "I am protesting this country and will be giving a speech at the beginning of every work week to convince the rest of you that we should do more to prevent police brutality, especially against one group of people."

Kanye West might be more likely (although if it's Diddy v. West for a leadership position, I'd vote Diddy -- or write in Talib Kweli). Why are you bringing Corey into this ? He once bought me and my partner popcorn at a midnight screening of the second Apes movie, so he's got my vote in my book. And if McCoy can get rebound to get 1500 yards and we get a playoff berth, I could get behind this ticket.

Well said!

Um, huh? Trump just said that they should fire players for taking a stand, and I've seen some say the Bills should drop McCoy for his tweet. The protest is not all about Trump, but he made a comment that is very dangerous for a democracy. Fair enough, the protest isn't just against him, but it is about the politics he (likely blindly) embodies and supports, and considering his m.o. he is surely so vain, he probably DOES think these protests are about him. Either way, it still is pretty crazy for the President to call for private entities to fire its employees for protesting to try to change the country. You're the one who is full of asterisks. Also, nyah nyah and some other childish retort.

I'm scared of what he could do now. I'm baffled that we've come to this and keep hoping I wake up to find out this was all a bad dream (and that it's Super Bowl 52 Sunday and the Bills are about to do something which will earn a visit to a president whose name is not Trump). I grew up in NYC (my family was from Lockport and i wound up going to UB during the SB years) and it was that ad that cemented him as, well to paraphrase the man himself, someone who was "not good." I wish this thread didn't exist and that McCoy would never have felt any need to respond to a man who made it very clear he has zero respect for people who do his job (seriously, who's against the NFL trying to figure out ways to make sure fewer players die young). Not sure how to end this...just saying I agree.

Yes, probably, certainly, even -- but he's still slightly less dangerous than Kim, b/c there are options in place to remove him relatively peacefully. I've felt Trump was the worst example of an American for decades, and really wish we weren't in the darkest timeline. Right now, he's ranting and raving about a healthcare bill he knows nothing about while I'm recovering from an illness that thankfully didn't kill me (yet) but could have bankrupted me (could still from the looks of it) and it's hassle enough trying to fight infections while sorting out billing, yet he would gleefully make sure people would be ruined and/or killed because they had the misfortune of losing a job and/or working constantly yet the employer being unable to provide health insurance. He's both ignorant and mean -- the worst combo. Plus he's trying to deport hard-working students at my job, so, yeah, this has even become personal. But Kim is still worse, not that that really matters, and we probably should be careful about co-opting his insults, especially since there's many other options to call our so-called leader since our vocabularies are much stronger than his.