dpberr

I agree with only one thing to add: The guys you mentioned played the majority of their careers before free agency. Arguably your players mentioned are "team first" types of guys. Green Bay is very successful. How many marquee free agents do you see giving discounts or officially acknowledging they'd like to play there? Or traded there?

Winning doesn't cure everything. I thought it did, but it can't be relied upon as THE magnet to attract players anymore. I follow the San Antonio Spurs in basketball. Four recent NBA titles. Future HOFs on the roster. Under Gregg Popovich, they've never missed the playoffs. He's a coaching legend. Yet year after year, free agents go to anywhere but San Antonio. All the team does is win. In the NFL, teams like the Patriots and Packers should have players knocking on their door willing to play for them. However, more often than not, the big names always go elsewhere. I remember the world was literally stunned when Reggie White picked Green Bay in the dawn of free agency. Green Bay? No NY? No California? I wish it was just about winning. That'd be a straightforward problem to solve. Now, I'm sure players look at NY state taxes, laws, media market, etc before even getting to football-related topics. And that's if you don't have your agent in your ear telling you which places are lousy and which ones are great based on his or her bias.

Good news. On another note, +1 to the OP. I love the hilarious simplicity of your thread title. The "per him". Very funny touch.

The Bills would be crazy to go after Peyton Manning. Health, age and money issues aside, that would not only paralyze but kill team morale, irritate virtually every player agent outside of Manning's agent and piss off the players union. You don't throw your starting quarterback under the bus, especially ones you just signed last season. You'd never see a player or free agent trust the Buffalo front office ever again. You'd see draft picks being advised to not accommodate the team. A move like this is chemotherapy to Bills/player relationships. You want proof? Watch where Manning lands. Outside of not wanting to steal his brother's thunder, I guarantee you Peyton will be in 1) an NFL city that does not have a quarterback represented by Manning's agent and 2) a less than stable quarterback situation with no established starter with money tied up extensively to the starter. That means no NFC East. No San Francisco. No New York, and probably no Houston.

Per PFT, Manning prefers the AFC to the NFC. Makes sense. My bets on where he lands in order: Tennessee Kansas City Arizona Miami All four teams could throw their starting QBs under the bus with an upgrade (which is questionable in my mind given his health) at the position.

Irsay not only got a ridiculously accommodating and lucrative lease with Indiana but also got the taxpayers to buy out $48 million from his lease with the Hoosier/RCA Dome. On top of that, it was discovered after that deal had been executed, the taxpayers were on the hook for $70 more million in unpaid construction costs of the Dome going back to it's construction in 1984. With no lease payments coming from Irsay, taxpayers ate the entirety of that found cost. New crew in charge in Indiana and they want some changes. Those changes would impact Irsay's already tenuous ability to pay.

The Colts will be spending the next couple years getting their financial house in order. They are in cap hell with big contracts and lots of future dead money. The bigger deal though will be Irsay successfully defeating the state's pressure to redo the LOS lease. The state wants better terms and is willing to put the screws to Irsay to get it done. Irsay is the poster boy for soaking the taxpayer for sports venues.

I'd hate to be a GM that's getting major pressure from ownership to sign this guy. The medical risk just is not worth it. It took Mike Vick two years to get in real game shape with a year being away from the game and that was just rust from rotting in prison. Manning is coming back from an injury that prevented him from throwing a football for over a year in one of the most sensitive parts of the body. Any team buying Peyton Manning is really buying his services for 2013, not 2012. Unfortunately, with the amount of money you'll be spending, you, along with your ownership and fanbase will be expecting results in 2012, but it's not going to happen. You certainly aren't going to get the well oiled, practice all year round Manning Machine of the mid 2000s with his consistent cast of characters. In some ways, Manning could be considered a "system" quarterbacks of sorts. Dome quarterback, with a team offense that did not experience a lot of overhaul from one year to the next. He had the same center and linemen in guys like Jeff Saturday and Rien Diem, wide receivers in Harrison and Wayne, tight end in Dallas Clark and only two running backs with James and Addai for years. Consistency alone is a considerable advantage for a team offense.

I understand why the Rams want to trade the pick. If I were them, I'd ask for a package of conditional draft picks spread over the course of three to four years, (if you can do it) to minimize the upfront cost to bidding teams to get more competition and spread out the potential windfall. It keeps my team salaries from busting at the seams with two years of high draft picks and I have a chance of picking up some high draft picks in successive drafts. You infuse talent over a time period. Gives the Rams a lot of flexibility in meeting whatever team needs they've got year to year. Why force yourself to take extra players in the draft this year if you don't want to? If RGIII excels two-three years from now, those conditional draft picks you have in your cupboard becomes very valuable.

I think there is a good shot he could be in a Bills uniform. The Bills play the 4-3 in which he excels, and have either the most or close to the most money available to offer him in a contract. As a player he'd have to like that the Bills have Dareus and Williams on the line already. Those are all positives in our team's favor.

I can't read between the lines with Nix because I believe 97% of what he says to the media is nothing at all...or nothing we all haven't already figured out. What I do believe is that during negotiations, Nix told SJ about his plans for the team. I don't think his agent or SJ would have signed a five year deal if they felt that the front office wasn't going to make a significant investment in upgrading the team. SJ is now the fourth Bill (Fitz, Pears, Lindell) that's decided to stay with the Bills. I don't think that's coincidence.

I'm not a fan of resigning Bell this year. I think given the lack of comparable talent and youth in the free agent market, teams will throw lots of money at him simply because of the weak class. Don't pay Mercedes prices for the Cadillacs. I'd like for the Bills to resign Chandler. It'd be some consistency and production at a spot that's been a desert wasteland for so many years and a position Nix doesn't appear keen on drafting players. And yes, the Bills have the money. It's a question of will or won't, not can or can't.

That feels pretty good. A good Monday for Bills fans worldwide.

I feel it's a criminal act as well. You're played to play a game, not willfully injure people. The Saints are going to pay dearly for this. The NFL will make an example. It explains why the Greggo left New Orleans. That's a man filled with integrity isn't it?

I agree that taking the 3rd best LT prospect at 10 seems like a really big reach. I don't believe a word Nix says to the media. I don't think he's telling us anything of value, and that's alright. I wouldn't either. You lose your leverage to negotiate and flexibility to change your mind.

We all know managing money is difficult. The difficulty grows exponentially with kids and stuff like mortgage payments. Now imagine trying to manage millions of dollars with little in the way of advanced education, with four kids, four different mothers. Couple that with an uncontrollable impulse and a wanderlust of spending money because you spent your formative youth in poverty and that's the perfect recipe of how you go broke. Impulse is the sword of Damocles over every person's head in life. Can't control it and this happens.

Exactly. It's Nixinese and that's all it is. Nix isn't going to tell the media or fans anything of value or anything you don't know already.

The folks who want to do some Oceans 11 complicated trade to get RGIII didn't watch a game last year. It was the defense and a lack of depth that led to many of those losses. RGIII won't fix either of those problems and makes both current problems...worse by giving away draft picks. Now, if RGIII were the second coming of Bruce Smith, I might be interested.

My vote would be for Marcus Lattimore.

I'm against trading down from #10. Give me a top ten talent.

Teams talk to a lot of players to... ...not only find out about the player, but more importantly, find out about their teammates they have genuine interest in. When I see the Bills talk to a player they have no shot at getting like RGIII, it tells me they have some unique interest in perhaps a Baylor offensive lineman or wide receiver.

Carl Weathers.

I have been fascinated by the Bills injury bug the last couple seasons and trying to figure out the why and how. Conditioning coaches have changed, so it's not the same program. Could it be the practice and game day turf? There's a variety of studies that state that there are more ligament and joint injuries on turf versus grass. It appears that the majority of Bills player injuries are lower extremity ligament and joint injuries. When you consider that some players play on artificial turf from high school to the pros, that's a lot of wear and tear on ligaments. I've wondered if NFL injuries would go down if every NFL field was grass, and turf wasn't permitted. In the absence of that happening, you'd think the NFL or teams would spend time figuring out devices to minimize the rip/tear movements of the legs and feet on turf like a lightweight booted shoe that extends up past the ankle, mandatory knee braces for linemen, etc.

You guys that are high on Mercilus and Coples don't pay attention to what Nix has already told you what he's going to do with that first round pick based on the Spiller and Dareus picks. Draftniks are drowning in data and stats and not paying attention to the tendencies of the man doing the drafting. Nix doesn't draft one year wonders or guys out of creampuff conferences. He's going to pick a player from a southern conference with a demonstrated track record of productive years with no off the field issues. He wants a player that's played against competition that best mirrors NFL competition. He wants a player that's produced for more than a year. He wants one that works hard and stays out of trouble. Both Mercilus and Coples fail that basic litmus test in one way or another.

Going to be real tough to be a fast, quick safety all bulked up like that. Maybe professional wrestler. Or future Planet Fitness commercial acting career.