Sisyphean Bills

I'm sure Linda Bogdan has heard of him. No newsflash, there. But, hey, it worked so well with Melvin Fowler. WTF, try it again!

In one-on-one drills, Mack was the only OL that could stalemate or beat Raji in practice at a reasonable rate. Those drills greatly favor the DL and are not terribly representative of real football -- in a real game, there are actual plays being run, interior lineman are not "on an island", and defenders have responsibilities. I think Mack is going to be a stud in the NFL for a long time. Too bad the Bills went the "Melvin Fowler Special, Part 2" route -- signing some other team's backup with a few snaps under his belt -- to try and address a glaring eye-sore that they suffered with at the C position the last couple of years. I'm sure the kid they signed is a boyscout and a smart guy, but ... welcome to the murder's row of the AFC East.

WTF is the knock on Jason Peters' work ethic? Peters worked his ass off to become one of the elite tackles in the game. Yes, he sat out last year and suffered in the early part of the season and had a down year, but to imply Peters has "poor work ethic" because of a contract dispute and in spite of his coming from an UDFA TE to be one of the best LTs in the NFL in 2007 is preposterous. Hating the guy for expressing his dissatisfaction with his grossly underpaid contract is one thing, but to imply that he's a no talent underachiever because of his contract situation is simply stupid. Smith is far more like Mike Williams in that regard. Williams had a questionable work ethic and was a total bust in the NFL when his sheer size wasn't enough. Unlike Williams, Smith apparently isn't a comedian wannabe, so he may not go in the top 5.

Funny that you mention Peyton Manning. He's only won 1 Super Bowl, so by the "Super Bowl tally" measure he isn't any better than Jeff Hostetler or Trent Dilfer. In fact, guys like Roger Staubach and Brett Favre are in the same "nearly good" camp. And QBs like Johnny Unitas, Dan Marino, and Jim Kelly have no Super Bowl rings so are clearly bad QBs that should be removed from Canton.

More pictures. http://tinyurl.com/2s4u

Trent already knows that anyone that's never played the position in the NFL is an idiot and whatever criticism they may have is invalid because of their history.

Precisely. Saying they were "about the same" because their QB ratings were very similar is absurd. Anybody could've just as easily listed only the stats were Edwards was ahead of Cutler. But, that isn't quite as dramatic. At any rate, the roles that these two QBs were asked to fill for their respect teams could not be more disparate. It's night and day. Cutler was the Broncos. They had no defense and their running game was obliterated by injury. Shanahan had to rely on his QB to compete in games. Meanwhile, the Bills passing game was under wraps and pathetic to watch most of the season. Yes, Edwards again kept the turnovers down (yay!?) with all the short check down dump offs for little to no gain. Yes, there were glimmers of hope when Edwards would make a couple of heaves in the 4th quarter or in the KC game where he made some plays against an awful team. But, there were many times when Edwards just didn't make the play and didn't make the right read. There was also long droughts of uninspired and anemic play in the Bills passing game, where the Bills relied on Marshawn Lynch, the defense, and a game changing play by the special teams to steal a game. Edwards is still not a money QB -- 27th in touchdowns and touchdown percentage is not getting it done and not getting it done better than his rookie season. To be a big time QB, Edwards has to make the money throws to get to the red zone and in the red zone and not just manage the game by always taking the safest, most wide open, dump off available.

Just behind? Beware the single number, the QB rating, specious arguments. In yards, Cutler was 3rd and Edwards 23rd. Completions, Cutler was 3rd and Edwards 22nd. Attempts, Cutler 2nd, Edwards 25th. TDs, Cutler 7th, Edwards 27th. 20+ yd plays, Cutler 2nd, Edwards 18th. Games started, Cutler 16, Edwards 14. http://www.nfl.com/stats/categorystats?tab...mp;d-447263-n=1 Cutler was the Denver Broncos last year. He carried that team. The Broncos leading rusher had 68 carries for 343 yards. The defense was a complete mess.

Welcome to our world. Makes perfect sense to start rebuilding an offense on a team that had pretty good offense and a truly horrible defense.

It's also interesting that some fans have their dander up and are attacking Peters for everything gone wrong, yet there was a guy at C making the line calls that couldn't remember the snap count or when the QB was in the shotgun. Just saying...

Trent Edwards carried off the field in a body bag.

You sort of have to laugh though. It's not like there was no chance some animosity would be built up off the hard ball that happened last year.

Convert some to OL like tinker toys?

Hopefully it is after they get their quota of season ticket sales.

Did I ever mention Duke Preston sucks?

Turk Schonert said that it wasn't Peters guy to block in the first place. Maybe you should flog Turk for not knowing the offense.

Hard ball, baby.

That's just DJ's polite way of saying, "No way, man. Not interested."

I think one could make the argument that Johnson was more productive than Gholston in college. Johnson played more in his college career and far surpasses Gholston in TT. Gholston was the typical "Mamula pick" last year. He had one good game against Jake Long and had a great combine. But, football wise he was a tweener in college; he played the Leo in OSU's defense and was recruited as a LB. He totally disappeared on film in many games. So, you have a guy that is LB sized, but who doesn't have the fluidity to play LB and they were hoping his speed and strength would make him a good (actually, great is more accurate since he was a top 10 pick) pass rusher, even though his ability to shed blocks was questioned. Unfortunately for him everybody is an athlete in the NFL.

The football gods are watching.

Michael Johnson just doesn't have the football skills at this point to come in and be a dominant player in the NFL. Heck, he wasn't a dominant player at Tech for the most part. He is a physical specimen, but he hasn't translated that raw athleticism into being a great football player -- yet. Who knows if he will ever. (And, I like the kid and really hope he does put it together, because he could be a great one.)

Dick did beat a Belichick team ... once. Of course both of their teams were 4-10 at the time. Ah, well. 1 winning season and 1 victory over Belichick, lifetime. Write home about it!

Ah, I love the sound of axes grinding in the morning ... sounds like ... Victory!

Wow. An agent that doesn't lay all of his cards out on the table in public for everyone to see. Amazing!

I did not listen to this on ESPN radio. What does "basically claiming" mean? Did he actually literally say everyone else in the organization was totally against the idea except for Ralph Wilson? Because, such a broad sweeping generalization of a claim would be unequivocally false. If on the other hand, he was trying to say that the Bills marketing department was gung ho on this move while the rest of the organization was somewhat less enthusiastic by the prospect, he's probably dead nuts on the money.