Sisyphean Bills

Yeah, he's immovable. He doesn't move. Guys that don't move are useless as pass rushers. Unless the QB runs straight into them for a sack, of course. I already posted in this thread that he's a good space eater. There is no contradiction.

Sort of puts the Bills attempt to build around Trent "Not Remotely Otherworldly" Edwards in the same way into crisp perspective. Epic fail.

I meant in the Senior Bowl practices. Not the blind squirrel happenstances.

He was a better choice than John Guy? The Bills were in pretty bad shape as far as having someone that could properly assess and stockpile football talent and build a team that could compete on the field. Even the hucksters in the marketing area had to face the music that it is easier to sell a winner. It seems Buddy is viewed pretty much exactly as Ralph introduced him: the guy to lead the football side of the business. (The unspoken part is whether he will be handcuffed by the non-football side of the business into compromises galore or whether he can implement some of the strategic differences he touched upon.)

Pretty much skill-less as a pass rusher. Can't get off the line.

Isn't it kind of obvious why Nix has been passed over several times for the "public face" position of an NFL franchise? Hint: most teams are highly anal about their public image. That doesn't mean that Nix can't learn that part of his job.

Bill Polian hired John Butler, AJ Smith, Dwight Adams, Buddy Nix, etc. Hopefully, Buddy Nix, who is older than Polian, is able to collect a stable of scouting talent like that.

Jake Long.

That's fine, and I respect your opinion. I just happen to disagree. "15 calls a day" didn't defuse media reports about anything because it was a meaningless number tossed out without explanation. It just seemed like amateur hour hokum. Especially when it was uttering in the same breath as a slam on the Raiders and his own organization. Additionally, there were other media reports that there were some higher profile coaches interested in the job (some confirmed and some waffling) that were never interviewed, "a thorough search was conducted" notwithstanding. For an organization with a severe image problem, trying to piss reporters off, rather than present verifiable evidence, seems rather short-sighted and, well, dumb. Edit: For an example, I could say that the company had multiple hundreds of emails a day about a job opening. What would that tell you if I didn't say that 50-75% of the email was pure spam, 10-25% was headhunters and agencies, 10-25% was people not qualified to tie their shoes, etc.? Nothing. On the other hand, I could focus the discussion constructively and say that I am committed to turning the organization around and to do so I have to hire the best and most qualified people I can find. I've interviewed various candidates with backgrounds in X, Y, and Z. The best candidate, for reasons A, B, and C is <insert name>.

Ralph Wilson was once a minority owner of the Detroit Lions. Coincidence? You be the judge.

It's called treading water. Constantly hoping to develop the next guy after the last guy is developed and thus gone. On the bright side, we should expect more wholesale changes with the regime change.

Well, having a space eater wouldn't hurt the run defense (which sucks). And, there is always Aaron Maybin for the pass rush.

I know what he said and I fully understand that he left himself gratuitous wiggle room and refused to answer any questions trying to pin him down on what he meant. He was clearly trying to convey that his phone was ringing off the hook, all day, every day as some counter to what the media had reported. He offered that comment in the hopes that some people would rush to the conclusion that hundreds of candidates were beating down the door for the job. Unfortunately, it was a transparent, feeble attempt on all counts and largely because of what he didn't say. He didn't say n qualified coaches called. He didn't clarify a thing about the "15 calls" (his phone rang 15 times a day -- big !@#$ing deal). He wouldn't name names. He let slip that Chan Gailey was the only coach he took to see Ralph Wilson.

On the other hand, if Nix wasn't exaggerating, then the majority of coaches in the NFL called begging for the job. Oh, never mind, he was clearly exaggerating or counting the 300 calls by Brian Billick as 300 different coaches...

Yes, they tried to match the offer. And, he decided that the complete lack of competition in Buffalo gave him a much better chance to play. Good assessment on his part.

Gotta like comments like, Chan is a better coach than I ever thought we could possibly get.

So, let me get this straight. The big defense of Whitner amounts to the hypothesis that he might look better if he were on a different defense playing with better players? Wow. Color me underwhelmed. A good solid player that needs to be surrounded by greatness to reach his potential, sounds an awful lot like a below average player that can be hidden better on a defense with more talent. Instead of conjecture about other defenses, we can point to the reality that he was a backup last year to Scott, Byrd, and Wilson. He's a better S than Wendling, though. Faint praise for a guy in the prime of his career.

Drew Brees actually beat out Doug Flutie for the starting job in SD and played in 59 NFL games before he ended up in NO. Brohm lost his backup job on the roster (which went to a guy drafted in the 7th round after him) and never played a game before coming to Buffalo. The similarities are clear.

I assume you are not being sarcastic. Obviously, if next year goes as it looks like it is going, it will be uncapped. So, teams can spend whatever they want on their players and not be in any violation. This may mean players with what would have been "untouchable" contracts will be dumped or traded. There are rules for the uncapped year such as an increase in the length of service needed to become unrestricted and the numbers of tags increases. So the number of players entering free agency would be reduced. There are other changes as well, like limits on playoff teams. http://www.nfl.com/news/story?id=09000d5d8...mp;confirm=true

The beauty of an uncapped year is that you can trade anybody, so long as both teams want to do the trade. With no cap the contract figure is meaningless.

Taylor Mays. Once more for old times.

The Bills offer was reported to be ~$20M for 5 yrs. The Saints signed Greer for $23M for 4 years. The Saints offer was 44% higher than the Bills. For comparison sake, guys like Dominique Foxworth got $28M for 4 years. Phillip Buchanon $8.5M for 2 years. The ancient Springs got an offer of $13M for 3 years. DeAngelo Hall got a contract of $70M for 7 years in 2008. So, claims that the Saints were desperate and frivolously threw around money are highly exaggerated.

Isn't that rather the point? You (no offense intended) could tell he was a good player, but the professional talent evaluators decided they needed someone else. Despite spending a couple seasons developing Greer, they were ready to go in a different direction. So instead of taking Ryan Clady, and putting pressure on Jason Peters, they take Mr. Fumbles and Peters forces his way out of Buffalo leaving the team playing practice squad players as starters.

Not sure I'd call it a "cap casualty" as the Bills were not close to exceeding the cap. Greer was clearly low-balled as to his market value and that largely because the Bills had spent their 1st round pick the year before on McKelvin, planning to kick Greer to the curb. And, they ended up playing most of the season with neither player, which is par for the course.

FOX broadcasts are noticeably inferior. The picture quality, the presentation, the commentating of many of their tandems are markedly inferior to CBS and NBC. And, then there is that brain chewing hum in the audio of many of their games. Bush league stuff. Thankfully they don't do AFC games. It would probably be a better approach for Buck to let the color guy do the analysis, aka his job, and not try to prissily pass off his own.