d_wag

i prefer jumping - i actually like berman and think he's a good host, but NFL Network has better analysis dude broke it down in the following: http://walterfootball.com/nflnespn.php

this time last year there were columns being written trumping this class as the draft of the decade.........it really isn't that bad........the lack of a clear cut #1 has taken the shine off it a bit, but it's a very deep draft

they're going to take a WR with one of those firsts - they want a compliment to TO and with glenn getting old and crayton sucking it up down the stretch they need one.....

mandel = overrated Overrated: Dwayne Bowe, LSU (SI VideoFILM ROOM) People have been drooling over this guy since the day he stepped foot on LSU's campus, and rightfully so, seeing as he's a strong, massive receiver who can get up and grab a jump ball. There's only one problem: He drops passes. Lots of them. Much was made of his offseason LASIK surgery a year ago, and Bowe did cut down on his drops last year, but there were still some pretty big ones, most notably a wide-open touchdown against Florida that might have changed the course of what was then a 7-7 game (LSU wound up losing 23-10). He's a good receiver, one who had nearly 1,000 yards last season, but he was never quite as good as his lofty billing in college. Now he's being overhyped headed into the pros. Overrated: Marcus Trufant, Washington State If the scouts were looking for a glimpse of how Trufant might fare against NFL-caliber receivers, perhaps they should have watched tape of the past two Apple Cup games, where Washington State's Trufant was primarily matched up against Washington stud Reggie Williams. Williams caught a combined 23 passes for 372 yards. Overrated: Kevin Williams, Oklahoma State A classic one-year wonder. His huge senior year was a major reason Oklahoma State was able to put an end to its five-year bowl drought, but it required an explosion between his junior and senior years and doesn't guarantee he's going to be able to dominate at the next level the way a mid-first round pick should. Kind of reminds me of the aforementioned Gerard Warren. Overrated: Carson Palmer, USC No one was more deserving of the Heisman last season than Palmer, but what about the four seasons before it? Unlike Cal's Kyle Boller, whose struggles as an underclassman could be largely attributed to poor coaching and a sorry surrounding cast, Palmer played under two ex-NFL coaches, and USC is never lacking for talent. It took him four full years to fully grasp the nuances of being a college quarterback, during which time he threw as many touchdowns (39) as interceptions. He could very well become a reliable NFL starter, but it may take him a while -- certainly longer than usually afforded the No. 1 pick http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/.../23/over_under/ http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writ...ated/index.html

WALSH GETS ONGOING ACCESS TO HIS MATERIALS Posted by Mike Florio on April 23, 2008, 1:27 p.m. One of the first things we noticed (and, after reading the language seven times, began to understand) regarding the Matt Walsh agreement is that, after Walsh surrenders to the league whatever tangible evidence that he has in his possession, he’ll still have access to it. Under paragraph 1(b) of the agreement, Walsh’s lawyer may keep one copy of each “document” that is given to the league. Also, Walsh and his lawyer have the ability to inpect on request any “tangible property” that is surrendered to the NFL. In other words, the suspicion held by some that the league will harvest Walsh’s documents and/or videotapes and/or any other hard evidence only to destroy the materials is erroneous. Walsh will be able to keep a copy of certain things, and he will be able to retrieve and inspect certain other things that he turns over. That’s all for this entry. I’ve already got a headache from trying to figure out the agreement. And I’m only in paragraph 1.

great timing for the pats - of course..........guess their 2008 picks are safe http://www.profootballtalk.com/category/rumor-mill/ http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3363455 Former New England Patriots video assistant Matt Walsh, who has told ESPN.com he has potentially damaging information about the team's taping practices, reached an agreement Wednesday to meet with league officials and turn over any video tapes he might have to support his allegations. Walsh, employed by the Patriots from 1996 through the 2002 Super Bowl and now an assistant golf pro in Hawaii, is expected to travel to New York and interview with Commissioner Roger Goodell and other NFL officials on Tuesday, May 13. Before the long-anticipated meeting, the agreement calls for Walsh to provide the league any tapes or materials he possesses from his years with the Patriots.

i fully expect albert to be a patriot next year

guess he shouldn't have signed that extension a couple years ago.....but that's right, he wanted his big signing bonus!

if they had traded him they would taken the cap hit entirely in 2008.......i bet they designated him a "post june 1" cut, thus splitting the hit over 08 and 09.........can't split with a trade

i agree - i don't see alexander going anywhere that wouldn't require him to compete for snaps

just another reason why you don't give big money to a RB on their second contact - sorry marshawn!

geez, you could have saved yourself a lot of time typing out all that - "in conclusion, i am smarter then the bills and would not have screwed this up like they did.......as well, the patriots are completely inept for letting samuel walk" i criticize the bills aplenty around here and was certainly well ahead of the curve when it came to railing on TD........but the fact of the matter remains the bills could not tag clements and still be as active as they were in free agency because of their C2C strategy.........and the rest of the NFL knew it........you obviously have your feet firmly planted and choose to ignore the facts in your blind, misguided lashings....i'm not going to resort to immature name calling so let's just leave it at that

someone always falls.......let's just hope it's a good fit for the bills

sounds good to me - just means an unexpected player slides his way down to the bills

you keep coming back to salary cap but it's not about that - it's about the C2C.......the bills publicly stated how much they were going to spend in 2007 free agency - approx. 30 mil...............other teams had that information prior to free agency.........they then committed the following dollars to be paid in 2007: dockery - 12.5M kelsey - 12M walker - 7M total - 31.5M that's it - they didn't have time to wait on a clements trade because they needed those dollars to sign free agents.......if they got stuck holding the bag with clements they would have been at close to 40M, which is 10M more then their self-imposed limit.......other teams knew that and thus would have called their bluff........they couldn't have "continued trying" to find a deal while signing free agents as you claim because they wouldn't put themselves in position to be that far over their limit........it wasn't worth the risk clements motivation for signing the tag could have been the trotter situation - you know, when the eagles got cute just like you suggest and put the tag on him only to take it back when they couldn't find anyone who wanted to trade for him! i know you don't believe it but not every tagged player is easily tradeable! you still haven't answered how long they should have waited before lifting the tag if no trade could be found

as mentioned, a team would have had to have been "intentionally dense" to agree to a trade when it was obvious that the bills didn't have the cash to both pay clements AND address the OL in free agency with major acquisitions like dockery and walker.........it's good to see that you've backed down from your previous incorrect stance that the bills could have afforded to both franchise clements and do all the moves they did do in free agency - appears we're making some progress! now, if you'd care to answer a few of my questions you seemed to have glossed over: but you say he would have been traded the minute the clock struck midnight for the free agency period, thus giving the bills a pick and still giving them the dollars to sign dockery and walker? what if they couldn't trade him right away? what do you do then? how long do you wait until you lift the tag? how many marquee free agents do you watch sign elsewhere? but wait, what happens if clements signs the f-tag and it becomes guaranteed? oops, your now over the C2C permanently and have really screwed things up does this seem like a risk that the bills should have taken just to ATTEMPT to get a draft pick?

i ignored the "3 week period" because once again your facts are wrong - a team cannot trade a player before free agency opens

cincy should defiantly be applauded for their stance........i'm so sick of players signing contracts and then refusing to honor the deal (and before anyone makes the argument that "teams do it all the time" remember that their is no refund on signing bonuses for bad performance - the players get their money up front in exchange for years on a deal)

bengals are denying an offer has been made http://www.bengals.com/news/news.asp?story_id=6737

LONG GETS $30 MILLION GUARANTEED Posted by Mike Florio on April 22, 2008, 1:16 p.m. Adam Schefter of NFL Network reports that tackle Jake Long will receive $30 million guaranteed as part of his five-year, $57.5 million deal with the Miami Dolphins. Long will get $2 million less in guaranteed money and $3.5 million less in total money than Raiders quarterback JaMarcus Russell received a year ago, but Long is tied up for one less season. And since different people interpret the term “guaranteed” differently, the only way to compare Long’s deal to Russell’s is to line ‘em up and parse the language. For Parcells, it’s a win because he paid less money. For Long (and his agent), it’s a win because the deal covers one less season. We’d still love to know whether Vernon Gholston had a meaningful chance to take less money than that. http://www.profootballtalk.com/2008/04/22/...ion-guaranteed/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- that is a damn good job by parcells.........nice to see the tide turning and rookie guarantees being pulled back in.........this will obviously trickle down the draft

let's play this out as you suggest: the bills tag clements the bills sign dockery and walker the bills are now over on C2C (temporarily) but under the salary cap this is what your proposing the bills should have done, correct? do you not think other teams would have realized they were over the C2C once they signed those two players? why wouldn't they just wait for the bills to lift the tag, knowing full well that they didn't have the room to carry him going forward? but you say he would have been traded the minute the clock struck midnight for the free agency period, thus giving the bills a pick and still giving them the dollars to sign dockery and walker? what if they couldn't trade him right away? what do you do then? how long do you wait until you lift the tag? how many marquee free agents do you watch sign elsewhere? but wait, what happens if clements signs the f-tag and it becomes guaranteed? oops, your now over the C2C permanently and have really screwed things up does this seem like a risk that the bills should have taken just to ATTEMPT to get a draft pick? it came down to either tagging clements and trying to get something out of him or being active in free agency.........it was never a realistic option to do both......it really isn't that hard to understand

you said they could have done all of that and still franchised clements.......i've proven that isn't the case i proved that the bills couldn't have resigned kelsey, signed dockery, and signed walker while also franchising clements, which is completely contrary to your claims

because the bills publicly stated in that link i provided how much they were going to spend in the '07 off-season.........if they tagged him and then went out and signed dockery/walker they would have been over that number......seems pretty obvious to me and i'm sure an NFL GM could figure that out as well you obviously have no understanding of C2C

and your entire point rests on an flawed assumption that other teams would be dumb enough to think that bills were going to keep clements and thus would pay them a high draft pick just for the right to throw tons and tons of money at him! why does SF (or any team for that matter) work out a trade when it's obvious the bills aren't going to keep the tag on him?? all they have to do is wait them out, no?? seems pretty ridiculous that any team would take the bills seriously and it's extremely likely they would just make them squirm and address the need elsewhere or hope that the bills lifted the tag as for your link, here ya go: http://www.buffalobills.com/news/news.jsp?news_id=4621 so with what the bills had to spend it would have been impossible to re-sign kelsey and sign dockery/walker while also tagging clements........it was an either/or proposition, and i'm glad they chose dockery over clements because if they tried to get cute with clements the situation could have dragged out for a month (like the hall situation did) and the end result would have been the bills missing out on a guy the caliber of dockery

this is going to be the story of the draft......countdown to CJ sounding off and ripping the bengals yet again in 5, 4, 3, 2........