hondo in seattle

I haven't heard - or read - anyone saying that Mario's lack of effort was the single most important reason the defense struggled last year. But it certainly didn't help and his lack of effort was disturbing. Whatever disagreement he had with Rex, he owed it to the fans and - especially - to his teammates to play harder. I'm glad he was cut.

I think he fits best on a 3-4 team because that's apparently the only alignment he'll commit any effort to. Whatever his skill set is doesn't much matter if he only applies effort in schemes he likes. He was horrible in Rex's scheme, regardless of the alignment, because he chose to be.

Yep. I could rarely understand him but I appreciated his play the last couple years - when he was healthy. Worth $4 million? Probably not - at least not in our cap-restrained universe. But I worry that we don't have enough good corners any more in a passing league.

Barry Speck, another member of Simpson's dream team, did a masterful job of casting doubt on the forensic evidence. Since there were no eyewitnesses, this was a very big deal. Cochran and Speck created enough doubt about the evidence as collected by LAPD to win acquittal. Incidentally, about 60% of blacks at the time thought OJ was innocent. http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2014/06/09/majority-of-african-americans-now-say-simpson-was-guilty/ 88% of blacks thought the jury reached the right decision. http://www.cnn.com/US/OJ/daily/9510/10-06/poll_race/oj_poll_txt.html Mark Fuhrman was one of the LAPD investigators on the case. While the jury didn't know this, Fuhrman admitted to using the word, "n*gg*r" multiple times and pleaded the 5th when asked if he ever fabricated evidence to arrest and convict black suspects. Fuhrman's obvious racism and admission that he'd fabricated evidence in the past made people wonder if he tampered with the evidence at this murder scene.

Most law enforcement officers are good, competent, honorable people. But this guy? Wow.

Good observation. And it puts TT in the 12+ category. It will be a nice pay raise for him, whatever that number turns out to be. If Bradford commands 16m, it will be hard to pay TT less.

http://nypost.com/2016/03/04/blood-stained-knife-found-buried-on-oj-simpsons-estate/ A knife was discovered at OJ's old home in Brentwood. The murder weapon? It appears to have blood on it.

Curious how QB pay falls off a cliff after #21.

RIP Bill/Dick. Btw, noticed the Elbert Dubenion card. 42 receptions, 1139 yards... 27.1 yards per catch!

Can someone start a thread, "Dick Jauron - Still not a Head Coach"?

So everyone from UT is automatically a liar? A number of diverse sources have unflattering things to say about Naughright in the MMQB article: http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2016/03/01/peyton-manning-jamie-naughright-1996-incident-greg-johnson-voicemail. I wasn't there when it happened but - of the four who were - only one has said Peyton made physical contact and that's Jamie herself. I don't think any sport hero is a saint. But - in this case - I'm not sure how much I believe Naughright.

Doesn't reflect well on Naughtright: "People call me bumper because I have such big....." (she would say while shaking them).

Ha. That's true!

This is the best explanation. Even I can understand it.

I'd love to keep all our players. And I'd love the Bills to have a higher salary cap than the rest of the NFL with an allowable roster of 70 guys. But given the reality of the situation, this was a relatively painless way to save several million dollars. We lost a prima donna DE who didn't like or fit the system. We lost a good backup guard who's not starter quality. And we lost a RB who was solid on special teams but let's not start comparing him to Steve Tasker. We had to free up some cap space. Who would you have cut instead? Btw, I think John from Hemet's response is spot on.

Effectively, we played without Mario last year. How will his departure hurt us? Just having a guy in his position this season that actually cares will help team morale and esprit de corps. And the extra $12 million will allow us to sign someone better than the 2015 edition of MW. I'm bugged Rex couldn't convince Mario to care. But he couldn't, so releasing Mario is the right move.

Rex doesn't try to be a "Player's Coach." He tries to be an effective coach who brings out the best in his players. For him, loyalty and caring are elements of effective coaching. He's been called a "Player's Coach" because he listens and cares more than some other NFL coaches. Is that a bad thing? Many of his former players have stated that he succeeded in bringing out their very best. Then again, there have been some rumblings that he's been a little lax with discipline issues. Player's Coaches have won in the NFL (e.g. Pete Carroll) and disciplinarians have won in the NFL. Neither approach is necessarily bad. I'm not sure 'kicking butt' is a proven leadership technique, though I do worry sometimes if Rex is a little too understanding of performance issues sometimes. It's really hard to say because we're not in the locker room. We're not privy to the one-on-one conversations Rex (or his coordinators and position coaches) have with players.

Joe B. says we've already cleared up $23.3 million in cap space: "With Williams, Dixon, Urbik, and the restructure of Charles Clay, the Bills will have cleared $23.325 million in cap space for the 2016 season." http://www.wkbw.com/sports/bills/bills-release-mario-williams-save-129m-in-16 In either case, we've opened up a lot of money without hurting the team very much (if we assume Mario would have played this year like he did last year).

I had no emotional response when I saw the headline. This was a foregone conclusion. I thank him for the good years. Whether he could have excelled in Rex's system - and whether or not Rex misused him - I guess will remain subjects of debate. Whatever the reason, he sucked last season and needed to go.

The players (outside MW) aren't getting a lot of criticism for the simple reason that most of the performed well under Schwartz. Did they suddenly get old and stupid? Or did the coaching change have something to do with the drop in performance? When you try to analyze what went wrong last season, coaching is the obvious place to start.

I voted for TT as starter. Not in free agency, nor in the draft, is there a guy I'd rather have run this offense. TT did well for his first year as a starter and I want to see how far he can take his game in '16. And - with respect to all those who don't think EJ deserves to wear a Bills uni - I voted for EJ as backup. Despite his 10 minutes of infamy in London, I think in his career so far he's played like a competent 2nd stringer. I would, though, like to see the Bills acquire another QB to compete with EJ.

As mentioned in the NFL Network video, Rex needs better buy-in from the players. Does bringing in Cro - if the price was right -make sense from that point of view? Cro clearly believes in - and understands - Rex's D. Does Rex need a few players like that to get the D on track?

I don't disagree with hardly any of this. I'm just arguing against the point that a HC's future success is necessarily defined by his past W-L record. Belichick, despite all the qualities you see in him, failed with the Brownies. Levy did good things with the Bills despite failing in KC. If you look at yards/game, Rex has a great track record running defenses. If you look at pts/game, the record is mixed though I think his Ds were twice #1. He is kind of like both Belichick and Levy - both did some good things in their first HC opportunities but not enough to leave with a winning record. Like Belichick (who has Brady), Levy, and most other coaches, Rex wins when he has the right players, and loses when he doesn't. Could the second time be a charm for Rex, like it was for Levy and Belichick? I'm not confident, but I am curious.

Ruth Smeeth, one of the two MPs, used to be the director of an anti-racist organization called HOPE not hate ("For a modern, inclusive Britain"). Speaking out against a racist name is consistent with her established values - which I see it as a good thing.

Good post. Can you imagine a modern sports team picking a skin color as a moniker? San Francisco Yellowskins Atlanta Blackskins Boston Whiteskins These names wouldn't be accepted. Can't see why we should accept 'Redskin' either. And I'm not sure why the sins the British Empire committed in the past should prevent two MPs from taking a moral stand in the present. I think they make a valid point: "exportation of this racial slur ... directly contravenes the values that many in Britain have worked so hard to instill." Don't we want lawmakers to stand up for higher principles - to move civilization forward?