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The Pats are a good example of folks getting a little confused about what is a cause and what is an effect. Do the Pats perform wel because their players are top 5 talents (as this thread seems to suggest) or alternately, do their players perform at a top 5 level because their system and coaches are so good. I think it is unclear which comes first and in fact this actually occurs because a team happens upon the right combination of talented players, good coaching and in some cases dumb luck to make it all work. Great examples of this are fellows like Tom Brady and Wes Welker. Are they at the top 5 at their positions. Yep, no doubt. However, were theses players judged by the entire league as worth passing by as likely not good enough players to be worthy of much investment? Yepper! Welker, the most productive WR in the league today by many measures was actually rejected by the team which had him and was available to the entire league in a trade for not a huge cost. Brady, arguably the best performer in the NFL was passed over 5 and for many teams six times for a mere draft pick. It quite easily might be the case that players you (and likely many of us would agree) are clearly not top 5 talents at their positions MIGHT well become top 5 performers in the right system with the right coaching. Did you have Fred Jackson as a top 5 talent when we got him as a UDFA out of Coe? Personally, I do not have Fitzy as a top 5 QB in the NFL, but I actually think he might well perform like one in a Gailey system which emphasizes the smarts this Harvard guy seems to have and a degree of athleticism which is good but not great. One of the things which makes the NFL a fun league to watch ia that under the right exotic and unpredictable situation an OK player can become a top 5 performer at his position. For example, Brady is an excellent performer who I think easily could have spent the better part of his career either on the bench or never even seen the light of day if were not for an extraordinary collapsed lung which hit Bledsoe. If Bledsoe had not been knocked out (for the most part of the season, I really doubt that Bellicheat would have benched Bledsoe for Brady and history would simply be different. Sure Brady might have proved to be as good a performer as he has been and eventually he would have forced his way into the line-up and proved to be the top 5 performer he is. However, my GUESS is that by the time he would have done this Bellicheat would have produced a record as a not winning HC to rival his one playoff win in 5 years at Cleveland with Bledsoe at QB and likely would have been gone from the NFL as an HC. The Bills do need top 5 talents at various positions, but my sense is that the current optimism about the team might be justified under the Gailey system which sees either Jax or Spiller, Stevie Johnson (if he finally becomes mature), perhaps even Fitzy, Mario, Byrd, or one of a couple of other youngsters become top 5 performers in a productive system.

Levy did reserve the ability to call all redzone offensive plays. The team was great and suceeded in the facet of the game during the TD by Butch Rolle days but was a disaster giving Christie a ton of short FGs in the later Levy years.

The interesting implication of the quotes in the article such as when an agent says Watson said. "The players and the agents don't have all the leverage in this situation." is that this implies the players and theit agents actually did have a lot of leverage umder the pld deal. I think the more direct proof of this is that it was the owners who chose to opt-out early and renrgotiate the pact. In general one does not reopem a deal you judge to be good. I think this shows that when Upshaw and the NFLPA renegotiated the CBA early in the millenia with the help of Paul Tagliabue the NFLPA simply ate the owners lunch. Upshaw publicly dictated that the final deal of the new CBA had to be based on total gross revenue rather than a designated gross and that the NFLPA share needed to start with a 6. The final deal not only gave the players 60.5% of the total gross but arguably made the NFLPA the majority partner in this new deal. Overall, I think the NFLPA did give up a chunk of change in the current CBA. Guys drafted after the 3rd are at higher risk for not getting the maximum allowed amount. However, in exchange for subjecting 2nd day+ picks to a chance at lower payment, the current players got the bigger deal for current members of slotting the draftee contracts at a lower level than before but basically leaves the total designated player cut the same. More money for current players out of the rookies hides. Pro Football is now remade to see the NFLPA under Upshaw and now Smitth really running the league far more than in the past. The NFL really is to me one of he clear examples of workers asserting their right to fair treatment and gaining control over the league which they now receive well over half of the gross receipts even under the new deal.

My question is why would anyone say yes without it being said who we are trading away. Fitzy for Brees straight up? Almost certainly yes assuming we make the impact of all the cap hitting work for us since we just signed Fitzy long term. However, if the price for this trade was something which would wreck this team like the Saints get our likely best defensive player and they demand am offensive threat like Stevie Johnson then there is no way I make this trade. I suspect (and hope) that the thread ended up making t his point but I don't think I want to wade through five pages to find out.

There was an article available through yahoo in another thread (the moderators might want to combine this thread into that one although I am asking a different question so I did not do this myself, but I have learned to trust the mods judgment generally in keepin TSW orderly and efficient so whatever you decide) which struck me as far superior reporting than the norm. It provided quotes from various league insiders (always a dangerous thing to trust since some of them were unnamed) which pointed to how both teams and agents responded to a marketplace standard being developed for drafted player contracts. I found this quote > "If you have a seventh-round pick and you don't think the team is going to budge because that's their history, there's a point at which it's not wise to sit around and wait," Watson said. "The players and the agents don't have all the leverage in this situation." < which I found significant. I wonder what type of rep the Bills have among the marketplace of players. In general, I think it has been fairly good with second teir and mid-level talents but not the elite players as we have been able to sign folks like Takeo Spikes, London Fletcher (and even Troy Vincent) who seem to understand the marketplce and worked out deals with the Bills. However, the rep seemed to go down just after that as the Bills seemed to reward some players (Kelsay, Dockery and Schobel for example) at a level which did not match their level of performance. Meanwhile the team took a hard line with some players that did not equate to their past cave-ins to the players like those listed above. My sense is that the rep has improved as we moved from the Littman led model to the Hix led model and we have seen increased high level FA signings with this change. Any thoughts (or even better at least somewhat objective fact based notions) on how the market of players and agents react to coming here? I would also say in general that the small market arguments are not the issue. The actual market most players worry about is their own individual marketplace of inidividual appearance compensation for card shows and stuff and quite frankly the size of the individual municipal marketplace does not matter except at the highest level. Wherever they are every player will be overpaid, never have to pay for a meal or drink, and have all the women they can eat whereever they are.

I find thos article very interesting (and different than most of the relatively superficial media analysis of the ecomics of the NFL) because this one shows great reporting by the writer who got quotes from folks which seem to reflect their true attitudes about the fiscal process going on here. From what I see, this article points to there not only being a often measurable to be seen difference in the quality of players (very good ones get the maximum contract and not the best players get lesser contracts) but this shows a measurable difference between agents. Some agents are going to be able to demonstrate that they obtained the maximum allowed contract for more of their players than other agents. The ones which can demonstrate this will use this market their services to more players and suceed over the agents who cannot demonstrate this. It really is a great example of the marketplace being self-adjusting. Over time what I suspect will happen as agents begin to market themselves by showing how successful they have been in acheiving the maximum allowed payout in the rookie scale for their clients you will begin to see agents urging their players to hold out to achieve the maximum allowed. It does not seem surprisiong to me that it takes a little time for the market to settle out as last year was simply an aborted year for the marketplace to develop because of the newness of the CBA and the short period of time to negotiate. This year we are seeing the "dead hand" develop in the marketplace. Next year we should begin to see tangible evidence of agents urging their players to hold out for the maximum they are allowed and we will see what happens.

I am curious if we know what Tom House's workout for improving arm strength is but my guess from what I am seen in the game is that it probably has little to do with improving the raw amount of weight which can be picked up or moved by increasing # or more intense workout repetitions to increase raw arm strength. From what I have seen and experienced over the years, there are two areas of repititious work which should be focused on to improve the the ability to deliver the bsll accurately over long distances. 1. The brain- The importance of raw arm strength to throw the ball a country mile is simply drastically overated for college players who are potential draft picks and young pros as well. Whether throws got repeatedly short and in the turf or a great arm routinely overthrows his intended target, they are both incomplete passes which do nothing but burn a down (n fact arguably missing short is better than missing up in the air as some of this too long errant passes are gonna be picked off- give me RJs worm burners over some of Thigpen's floaters any day). A good QB is gonna produce more TDs from deliering the ball on relatively short throws on a good playcall and execution which pruces great RAC than he will in throwing beautiful rainbows. The threat is important as it forces the DBs to hang back (thus allowing more short catches and RAC). Given a choice between John Elways powerful arm which helped make him a #1 choice and Tom Brady's brain and relatively weak arm which made his a 6th round pick I would rather have the good decision-making. I think Fitzy probably has more to work with to achieve great results than the tons of better atletes out thre, The second are where I think most players should work to increase their ability to throw the deep ball is the legs. It is the really rare athlete who can throw the ball with accuracy and depth using mostly their arm strength (Brett Favre for example has been a master of the off-balance against the body arm strength virtually alone for years (the downside of this approach is that one gets some really awful interceptions from time to time because arm strength alone simply cannot be relied upon). In terms of delivering the ball long distances with accuracy the relative importance of arm strength versus leg strenght is a no brainer as the ability to step into a throw makes a huge difference in the success of the throw. Not only is the athlete likely to profit more from increased leg strength in order to throw deep, but it actually is the ability to keep balanced that makes the big difference. It would not surprise me to see measurable increases in arm strength of a player actually results in him not being able to throw as far (or throw with accuracy) because even though his arm strength is measurably amped up he is now out of balance.

I also am curious whether Anderson might have squeezed into Pro Bowl reserve recognition in one of his better years. If so, then I assume MW earmed his way in, Kyle Williams also injury replaced his way in season before last. While Pro Bowl recognition is in no way the be all and end all of judments on a player. Actually. it is pretty football silly to totally ignore this attainment as being named to the squad actually is a pretty clear affirmation of a player being perhaps not the best but well into the upper reaches of performers at his position. Particularly once they linked this recognition to the split up of decision making to players peer, fans, and opposing coaches, I at least feel good about Bills who get this recognition (actually as I think about it when they made SB teams ineligible this did get stupider). However, if the big IFs on Amderson getting this plaudit and Merrimen comes back to at least be a threat, the Bills D is going to be wild to watch this year. I see Mario clearly deserving a double-team on most plays. I Have seem Kyle Williams actually defeat triple teams to record a sack a couple of times. Anderson seems to merit a dt on obvious passing downs. Dareus had a fairly productive rookie year despite being on a D where the DC was so not up to it he got canned, If Merrimen comes back (and maybe even if he does not) the opposing OC almost always needs to go into max protect on every passing down holding in his TE out of the pattern to block and dedicating an RB to blitz pick-up )and thus also taking him out of the pattern. If this works out this allows the DBs and 2 LBs to play 6 on 3 to their advantage on pass coverage. Heck we might even see Byrd back in the Pro Bowl again as he plays centerfield on a passer under duress.

The neat thing for the Bills here is that last year we needed Merrimen to not only demonstrate in pre-season he could play in spurts, but also that he could last. What our accumulation of talent on the DL does is that as long as Merrimen even presents a threat in pre-season that the old Merrimen is back then Wannstedt and the boys only have to use his judiciously to force opposing OCs to account for 3 players deserving a double team (at least) in base cases (I have seen a player deemed Pro Bowl worthy, Williams defest triple-teams, and Mario was generally regarded as the best D player in FA). Dareus is a highly regarded player meritng a high draft pick and did not disappont on a bad team last year and arguably needs a dt (at least someone to chip block him in addition to single blocking from a good OL player). Anderson is not a threat that needs a full game dt, but he has produced as a pass rusher at a huge level in obvious passing plays and merits a t on 2nd and long and third and passing distance (3 yds and above. The Bills standard D DL pretty nuch forces an O into max protect mode on passing downs (the TE stays in to help the RT and the other 4 OL players block 3 rushers who really demand the attention of 6 blockers). The numbers simply do not work for the O but it is crowded enough inside for the 4 OL players to play the role of 6 blockers and the max protect simply calls for an RB to pick up any rusher that gets throught the frontline. The addition of the Merriman rush threat however, is simply bad news for the O. Not only is the bliz pick-up RB confronted with the choice of deciding whether to pick-up the unblocked Merriman coming from the outside or which Bills DL player bests his dt, but the opposing QB is trying to throw a pass with his TE and his RB not even in the pattern. I love the threat offered by the Bills DL with four legit rushers who virtually force a max protect on passing down and distance. The result of this with even a threat of the old Merrimen bascically means Merrimen will not get pounded a lot by traffic as he rushes the QB.

The key to this situation is that with the Titans VY was living in a situation where TN had chosen to invest a huge draft pick (and pay him a salary commesurate with his pick) and all signs point to VY not being able to deal well with this pressure. In his situation with the Bills, not only does he not bear the weight of having the franchises' future resting on his narrow shoulders, but heck he ain't even the starter. To make matters double cool for the Bills, if VY fails to perform (no history of that) or performs on the field but is a cancer off of it then the Bills can easilt cut him. VY not only is not being subjected to the same outside pressure, but all the internal pressure demands he fly right first of all. Many folks (the mainstream media primary amongst them) paniced when TO was signed predicting immediate doom. They forget that part of being a cancer is that first you have to perform well to be loved by half the team and fans. All ibjective signs point to this being a smooth year for VY. If folks are right that he will be an immediate cancer or meltdown it simply makes it easier to cut him. If VY is a problem it will not happen til next offseason.

The modern NFL is all a bout predictability and match-ups. My sense is that Merriman shows any potential of returning to his outstaning play of the past, that the Bills pursue an approach of not naming any specific position or role for Merrimen, but instead profit from the uncertainty for an O created by the lack of certainty about where he is going to line up an how he is going to play (2 hands on the ground in the traditional DE rush or upright like an LB. This lack of predictability will force all opposing OCs and opponents to let the Bills D dictate the play call and force opposing OBs to be Tom Brady like in reading the keys on each play and making and implementing decisions on each play with his receivers as though they are on the same page. It would provide an advantage to the Bills operation if they have Merrimen play the same way every time. Yet, my guess is that if he shows any clear hint of being the performer he used to be that the Bills will profit more from using him differengtly all the time and forcing opponents to account for him based on what he is doing rather than have him do the same thing every time (and thus allow the O to dictate the play completely).

Many thanks for providing me with some insight and information in response to my specific question! its great for this Bills fan that TSWprovides such wonderful access to folks who share the same affection for the Bills but have a different set of experiences and focus on other football points which can be drawn upon! It does simply come with the territory that in order to access these nuggets of wisdom and different experiences than I had, one also prompts a bit of off topic conversation about who was to blame in regard to the psychodrama played out in TN between Fisher and VY. The good news for Bills fans is not only is the situation for VY with the Bills totally different than his situation with the Titans but even better by agreeing to a one year deal this not only simplifies but makes all the inputs for VY point to flying right and not being a team irritant in his "last" chance FA deal, but also if he proves to be a miscreant, the Bills can cut him without any bad cap hit, The Bills will likely have choice between showing him the money if he performs or aimply cutting him if he does not or is a cancer. But the relatively small one yeat contract simply make it as easy as possible to cut Young if he does not perform well or if he performs well but is a cancer. I actually have little worries that VY is going to a good scout because if the Bills cut him for being an idiot his market value goes way down. We are in the drivers seat on this one.

Myu recollection of the Peters path is: 1. Definitely showed great potential as a TE in college with great hands, a desired for the endzone, and great speed and athleticism for a TE, BUT he also showed questionable commitment to the team concept rather than to the team concept such that he was left undrafted. 2. The Bills identified him as one of the prime UDFA potential signees anu in the face of competition from a bunch of teams which reached the same conclusion signed him as a UDFA. I GUESS that this winning sells pitch to him had to have been the Bills made a case that it would pay off well for him as an individual to hitch his wagon to the Bills. 3. It also seems pretty widely reported that part of this sells pitch by the Bills was convincing him that 1. the Bills were committed to trying him at the TE position he was comfortable with, but also had designs on him and a likely opening at the OLT slot where the big bucks were and Mike Williams was our current highly vulnerable incumbent. This of course is mostly theory as none of us was in the room, but there are some objective signs this happened as the Bills and Peters quickly agreed to him being assigned an OL # rather than a TE #. Mouse MacNally the Bills well respected OL coach went publicly in record early saying Peters was the best OL prospect he had ever seen. Further, early in his career due to injuries, Peters actually played TE for the Bills late in a game, unfortunately he made the mental error of not reporting to the refs that he was playing TE with an OL # and the Bills got flagged (thus neatly sidetracking any demand from Peters that he be made a TE as the Bills did give him a shot there and through his own mental midgetry he sucked). 4. However, it did become clear in practice that Peters in fact was committed to making a big effort. Public reports were that he in essence was unblockable as an ST pass rusher in practice. This was apparently not lost upon the rest of the league and apparently as a player on our Pracitice Squad he was getting some sniffs (if not flat out offers) from other teams (who by rule could sign a player off of the PS of another team IF the player was signed to a permanent roster contract). 5. Peters was signed by the Bills to a permanent roster contract and made this payoff quickly as on one play he not only proved unblockable and blocked a punt but then showed the soft hands and end zone skills to collect the fumble and score a TD. 6. Yet, Peters showed so much potential as an OL player that the Bills actually decided to pass on his clear productivity as an ST ace and installed him as or starting RT. His ship quickly came in as this UDFA former TE signed a contract which was at starter RT level and longer term. However, it relatively quickly happened that Mike Williams became a clear bust after a brief resurgence which saw him earn a game ball for one outstanding performance. However, he slipped back into the same funk which began when the grammy that raised him died and he got fat and hurt. MW was switched to guard on his way out the door and Peters was switched to LT. 7. Peters not only stepped up to the plate and was a commanding OLT but even got the plaudits from his fellow players, opposing coaches and he fans to be voted to the Pro Bowl. This is where the wheels fell off. Peters and his agent took a stance that they were performing at the level of a Pro Bowl LT but that he was being paid at a market rate for a starting RT. This fact particularly galled on Peters as though he clearly was the marguee player on our our OL as an LT whom the Bills could comfortably allow to guard the QBs blindside, he in fact was paid less than folks such as Dockery and whathisname who was a stiff from the Raiders. The Bills fiscal braintrust insisted that it was not their practice to extend a player under contract to a raise based mostly on a salary equity argument (even though this was exactly what they did giving a raise and contract extension to Schobel when they made a stupid signing of Kelsay to a contract far beyond his performance and prospects). They suggested that Peters simply be satisfied with being paid less than two lesser performing OL players and wait another season or so. 8. Peters and his agent instead under the rules sat out the off season non mandatory OTAs and even more stridently skipped training camp in a manner which would have made even Bruce Smith blush with pride. Even better for Peters, he showed up when he wanted, played without being fined game checks and was still voted to the Pro Bowl team. 9. The Bills braintrust then added self-induced injury to the insults being hurled now by both sides by simply giving in the Paters by trading him to Philly where he cased in for a huge contract 9an even larger on than he likely would have signed with the Bills for if we had giving him something like the market rate for a starting LT when Mr. Ralph was enjoying getting LT production at RT cap rates. These are the details as I rembember them from the Peters saga. Was Peters a money grubbing self centered performer? You bet! Were the Bills beancounters led by Littman for Mr. Ralph even worse? You double down bet this also is true!

The neat thing about the Bills signing of VY to a one year deal to me seems to be that it does not require Chan to play psychologist at all. He 1. gets to use VY's presence to force other teams to prepare for the potential they might see him (and thus take away planning, teaching and practice rep time from the opponent preparing for the Bils base O)and 2. gets to let VY sink or swim on his own with the role this previously immature player chooses to play on the team. I am of the mind that it is pretty impossible to change a person who does not want to be changed. VY has several million $ worth of reasons to fly right and true in what is flat-out a try-out season for him to establish his market value for next year. If VY is the idiot many of his detractors expect him to be it simply makes things way wasy for Gailey as he merely enjoys the possibility other teams must prepare for until it becomes clear VY is never going to play because he is an idiot (even better if VY goes off in some sort of public way, Gailey gets a free shot at simply cutting this idiot for the good of his team. The big difference here is not the psychoanalysis you seem to be doing in what type of immature idiot TO is versus what type of immature idiot Vince Young is. The big difference is that Bud Adams and the Titans were into Young for a huge cap hit (whether they played him or cut him) and a major draft choice. The Bills however, not only are not invested in VY with a valuable draft pick but simply have a minimal cap hit invested in him. Either Young pays on field benefits for the Bills by being a beard which hinders other teams from prepping for our base O, or he pays benefits by performing on the field. The other basic alternative is that he is a demonstrable fool and Gailey gets to curry favor with the fans and the team by cutting him. The only bad case for the Bills is that he is not the bad case some folks insist he is and he plays well enough to entice a lot of his teammates and fans that he is a winner and then the Bills have a difficult decision NEXT year. If VY is as big of an idiot as some folks seem to claim then this will not be a problem as we will get a lot of profit from tossing him out there as a threat and then cutting his silly butt to make a point. Its hard for me to see logically how anyone has a problem with this signing unless they are Thigpen's Mom.

But why would this predictability be a bad thing? My sense is that one of the things I feel better about our Bills now than I have since the glory days of the past with the K-Gun is that for once we actually seem to have the potential of having a relatively small number of sets, which in fact offers multiple (though still not a huge # of plays)options. There appear to me to be several problems confronting Gailey: 1. One of the strengths of the K-Gun was that you basically had a relatively standard set of players but they were capable of performing at an extraordinary level doing many things. No one knew whether the Kelly/Thomas/Reed crew was going to be smashmouth or deep threat because they could do either incredibly well. The OL was always solid and the add-ons like Lofton or even Metzalaars did their one thing extraordinarily well and if the D overemphasized stopping Thurman or Reed this left an add-on one on one to do his thang. The '12 Bills squad has soe talented guys but does not necessarily offer the diversity of talent at all aspects of the game the K-Gun crew offered. If Smith is in they might pass but probably will not. If VY is in then focus on him and pressure him because it is doubtful he is going to routinely make the right decision to get the ball to someone else. Will our personnel selection pretty clearly tip off what we are likely to do? 2. Is the depth there? The K-Gun crew was extraoerdinary in part because even though there was no way to replace and HOF caliber talent like Thurman consistently, I had no problem with going with Plan B Kenneth Davis not only to give Thurman a chance to recover after a long run, but if TT went out for 3 games or so I had no problem counting on Davis. Likewise, plugging in Beebe for Lofton on a short-term basis and most wild even counting on Reich for three games or less. As exciting as our individual talents are, I do not think we will see the depth assembled which allowed the Bills to get to 4 SBs in a row ever again. 3. Well someone step up or will this actually become a TEAM? The thing which really set the K-Gun Bills apart in my mind was actually the fact that there was no one leader. The simple fact is that in real life no one person can do it all on their own. We like to pretend being simple minded folk that Peyton Manning is Indy or Tom Brady is NE, but actual fact is that football is really a great TEAM game because no single player is even on the field for the majority of plays. Even if a Brady is necessary he is simply way far away from sufficient (and even at that a Brady can make an unforced error in delivering a safety which was the margin of victory to his opponents in the last SB. The real challenge for Chan is whether he can pull off the same trick that Marv led the Bills to (with the necessary role of Polian, Butler, Kelly, etc) in making this team a TEAM. I want my Bills to be pretty predictable in what they MIGHT do (be it sometimes using Fitzy as a receiver, playing smashmouth behind Fred Jackson, or going vertical to a difficult even for a Revis to cover Stevie Johnson or getting the ball in space to Spiller). The important thing is not whether the opponents can expect the Bills to run a particular play but for us to prove we can run anyone of a dozen plays at any time but the scheme we are set up in or the personnel we have selected does not tip off the opponents on what to expect that specific play.

My GUESS is that Gailey will dial up 2 TD attempts to Fitzy early this year. One will come from Smith lined up in the Wildcat and the other will be from Vince Young who surprisingly will be on the field at the same time as Fitzy. My guess is that this will suceed once when an opponent gets confused and simply fails to cover Fitzy in the pattern. Even though the other attempt may likely fail, simply by showing the look the opposing DCs will be forced to gameplan for the scheme and run a couple of reps for his team taking away valuable practice time looking at the Bills base O and it tendencies. The over/under for the season will be 2 and the actual number of successful Fitzy pass receptions for TDs will be 1, (the gimmick stops being a gimmick if we use it to much so 3 is pretty doubtful) but Fitzy is a pretty mobile athlete and this season should be fun watching Gsiley use a pretty rediculous amount of threats now that VY is in the fold with a couple of dynamic talents like Spiller and the new speedy WR.

My GUESS on this is that we will see relatively early in the pre-season one of the big reasons that the Chan led Bills acquired Young which is that to the extent there is even the threat that he may be in on some critical plays, then opposing DCs will be forced to gameplan for this talented unorthodox (though unfortunately not a team player in the past- but this year is a one year tryout for him to hit the market and like TO was for us was relatively trouble free in his tryout year). Time they spend game planning for the use of VY (and gameplanning for the Wildcat run by Smith) is time they will not spend gsmeplanning for the bsdr offense run by Fitzy. Even worse, opposing teams will need to probably drop a half day of reps where they implement again and again against the probabilities of the Bills base O, but instead learn new D approaches and formations to be used when Smith lines up in the Wildcat or Young enters the game. We MIGHT get an early tell in pre-season if we see the Bills employing unusual sets which utilize VY and Smith on the field. Normally the pre-sewason sees teams running fairly vanilla versions of their plays in order to maintain the element of surprise when the regular season starts. However, one of the primary things VY brings to the Bills (particularly after we saw how Gailey used the Wildcat last year) is that our O might get the best benefit of showing opponents what we might do in terms of unusual packages and plays from these packages in order to force opposing DCs tow spend time on scheming and implementing for a variety of attacks. The NFL has become more an more a league of recognition and reaction being the keys for teams. The Bills might best be able to employ the offensivewizardry of Gailey by showing multiple looks. Rather than being vanilla in pre-season, by employing diverse packages (even if we do not use them in the regular season a lot) we force meaningless prep by opponents and give our team some practice doing these unusual things.

Gailey has demonstrated in the past that he was able to take a tremendous athletically gifted but raw unconventional QB Kordell Stewart and alter his play style and massage his offense to get unprecedented solid production out of Kordell (actually less production from this slash player in terms of his individual stats but better production from him in terms of his teams W/L which actually is the most meaningful stat). What did Gailey do to achieve this result? There is an obvious though in the end fairly meaningless racial similarity between the two, but I am curious if there are more relevant issues which deal with the game. Overall, I am pretty unconcerned about the VY as an idiot cancer, since quite frankly this 1 year deal puts the cards in the Bills hands as the general possibilities are that if he is an idiot he is easy to cut and a positive for the Bills management as they get a chance to discipline a player who is more interested in himself than the team. On the other hand, if VY were to reverse his past personality (doubtful though possible in this sport) then the Bills can make a judgement whether he is worth the huge amount that the market demands for a successful starting QB. If there is ever a VY issue it will be next year and not this one as all the dynamics push VY toward the same situation TO had in his one season as a Bill, despite the immediate whining of some that he was poisonm back here in reality TO realized that he needed to be productive on the field and generally fly right his first year. There are simply few ways for VY to become a cancer as this strongly implies winning the hearts of some teammates and fans so the team becomes divided. VY has to both productive on the field and a good guy in the locker room before he could actually divide the team. Those who whine the loudest about him are merely providing proof if they are right that he is such an idiot he will never earn enough respect from any fans or teammates to divide us. What I am interested in is a football question of whether there is anything to be learned from Gailey's handling of Kordell (which I never studied so please correcr me with some numbers if his work was not successful) for handling a player like VY.

Your view is on target. This strikes me as a pretty no lose situation for the Bills. This is the same as the Terrell Owens situation. He signs a deal which is actually pretty low for a player with his record of on field production, but it is a true representation of his market value because the player has been such an idiot that he is seen as a cancer. If VY turns out to be a cancer then cut his butt. No harm no foul for the Bills (in fact they look manly and high character for cutting him IF he acts a fool. On the other hand, let's say that Young realizing he is about out of options if he gets cut again for being a cancer actually flys right and stays true for a season. The Bills would then have a tough decision about whether his on field production is worth the likely many competitive offers VY feels. Any risk from Young is not from this current contract but from what the market will bear IF he has a good season or Fitz is hurt and VY is passable as our #2. In virtually all situations VY has huge incentives to perform on the field in '12 and huge fiscal disincentives to be a cancer. In fact, the bigger a jerk he is the easier the Bills decision would be to cut him. The same folks who whined when the Bills signed TO for $6 mill are the same idiots whining about the VY signing today. TO was never going to be a cancer for the Bills because 1. He had every market incentive not to be and 2. The TO clwar MO in every stop he nade was to ingratiate himself to his teammates and fans by being great for 1 year and then in his second year divide the team abd the fans by being an idiot in his out years. If VY is the idiot many expect him to be he is an easy cut. If Fitzy flubs and VY not only plays well but is a stamd-up guy then sign him to a market driven big contract. The only bad deal for the Bills is IF Fitzy falters AND VY is moderately good but not great. Yet, this is a problem for nrxt year IF it occurs, but it is a no-brainer right now. Opposing OCs will now have to consider going max protect against a Bills DL with 4 players who all demand DTs on passing downsand who force OCs to consider only putting three hot receivers out per play is Merriman or any Bills LBs show rush ability. Now the DCs have to gameplan for the potential they will see a VY offense (and even that Brad Smith might come in for wildcat or line up under center. This simply means fewer reps for the opposing D getting ready for the standard Bills O. This move simply makes the Bills standard O more effwxrive even if VY only plays a few times the first few weeks. If he is an idiot then cut his butt.

I am not sure what planet you live on but the issues you point out probably do not get covered much because the situation is understood by just about anyone with even half a brain. Even the Bills official brass talks about these issues but uses buzzphrases like small market town and really seem to be most interested in the phenomena as a mechanism for prying an extra dollar out of the large market teams. Actually, I look at the reality of the line you are laying out merely as a cover story covering up the real thing which dooms the Bills which is that they repeatedly make lousy football decisions. They tend not to attract hiqh quality FAs not because they would rather go to happening towns like statisticslly even more empoverished cities like Cleveland or Detroit but because our team owner and beancounters like Littman repeatedly make bad football judgments. Here in the real world the problem is not that Mr. Ralph is always cheap as some like to pretend, its that the choose to open up the vault to get players like Dockery and Walker. The choose to use the bucdks to overpay a player like Kelsay rather than instead use the bucks to try to keep whose market value was set due to him repeatedly being named a Pro Bowler by a combo of peers, fans and coaches. Here in the real world there is a clear recogniton that even an undesirable burg like Buffalo can attract a legen in his own mind like Terrell Owens and even win a competition for a Pro Bowl talent like TKO. These signings of players still active is totally counter to the theory you lay out. Your theory actually ignores the reason why we are doomed which is that the guys in charge from owner on down are businessmen rather than sportsmen. Happening towns like Green Bay and even Indy until they ran out of gas have proven that the key to winning is not your town being desirable it is being football smart. My guess is that if the Rooneys had ended up with the Buffalo franchise instead of Mr. Ralph we would have the record of the Steelers. This town stuff even if true is merely an excuse to hide the real issue which is poor ownership.

It strikes me that what we have here is a division of opinion based on a chicken amd egg situation ofr what came first the Bills giving up on Peters or Peter giving up on the Bills. PTR chooses a view that given the Bills had given Peters a chance to prove what he could do by signing him as UDFA the Billd had given Peters a ior playchance to suceed and he had then earned a series of compensatory contracts which came because of his superrior play and attitude (unlike other UDFAs, Peter proved to be unblockable as an ST player. If the Bills had actually put themselves on the line first by giving Peters by dedicating a precious draft spot then I would say that Peters owed the Bills loyakty. However, Petera was a UDFA in demand due to his talent but going undrafted. He chose apparenntly between several offers from Bills to make his run. The Bills did GIVE hin sew contracts based on his play level and the Bills receiving longer amd longer term commitments based upon the rules of the CBA. For examaple as a PS player initially, Peters Peters great prospects in practice forced the Bills to activate sign him as a full year NFL player or risk loaing him to another team which risk loaing him to another team which would be sign him to a fulltime player. Peters quickly established this as a good move by demonstrated this was a good move by showing the desire and discipline to by blocking a punt and recovering the ball for a TD. He also proved to be a quick study and not only made the switch to the OL but did this so well he earned a starting job as an RT. The Bills raiseed his compensation to that of a starter RT and got the compensation of his extending longterm at the market rate for a starting RT. However, he then showd extraordinary skill and also discipline to his craft and team by winning the LT job by winning the LT job, In fact he proved to be so valued he earned Pro Bowl status (whether one feels he deserved it or not the facy hr drserved it or not with his play he earned the ability to negotiate with the Bills for a lifetime contract at huge LT dollars. However, he already choaen to ohosen to committ to the Bills longterm with a starting RT level contract with the Bills. Sure the Bills had already signed him longterm and were under no contractual obligation to pay him market rate him more. However, the Bills already set the precedent of extending Schobel's conytact by giving him a raise in mid contract to pay him as much as they were paying to a much more market rate contract to match what thet gave a less productive D player Kelsay. Given that the team was rewarding two less productive OL players Dockery and Walker. In my view it was the Bills who quit on Peters first when they when they made bad compensation judgments for Walker and Dockery while Peters was easily the best player on OL. Sure, Peters had no contractual right to more money, but the Bills were forced by their bad contractual decisions to quit on Peters and not pay him the market rate for his LT services. The Billa held to their contractual obligations by not renegotiating first and then Peters held to his contractual obligations by refusing to show up at camp and the Bills fined him to the max the CBA allowed. The Billa then allowed Peters to dell his services on the free market and the Eagles then proved that he was vslued at the contract he demanded. Peters then proved (again whether you think he deserved it or not is another thing) that he won All-Pro status as an Eagle. The Bills quit on Peters first by making a bad decision to pay two OL players at above market rate. They made this football mistake an insult to Peters by setting a precedent with Schobel that they would give raises to some players to exceed contracts they stupidly chose to pay less productive players like Kelsay. it seems hard for me to demand that Peters not demand that he receive payment at a level the market would give him and we could not because of our poor football judgments!

Any given Sunday my friends!

Agreed we should simply let a person be a person. However, when he cut an ad for the SB which was designed to influnece politics (even though he clearly has a right to be a politician if he wants) then he opened the door to such commentary. For me, while there is a clear difference between Plaxico Burress shooting himself and Tebow advocating his political views, they are the same for me in that I wish neither were a part of the football game which entertains me so.

Back here in reality the lead post does make the great point that the best thing is that the Bills likely will not have to decide between the two contractually. I feel sorry for Jackson that he had the bad luck to get injured at IR levels in a contract year. His leverage is drastically reduced from the near league leading season he was having. However,the unfortunate other lead fact is that even though he was a 31 year old he had little wear and tear but now he is torn. A team definitely needs two RBs these days to compete and it well may be the best deal Jax can get to be resigned by the Bills (IF) his knee injury leads to a judgment by the docs who know the situation best that he can rehab. The Bills need on;y publicly exoress a lack of interest to raise fears that they know something about Fred's medical situation to even further worsen his market. My sense is that as long as the Bills feel he can come back they will be in the drivers seat to offer Jax a good but not great multi-year deal to get him. Spiller has shown in his brief starting stint with a dysfunctional O around him with a QB showing clear decision-making problems that he still can be productive. However, the Bills have him with a multi-year 1st rounder deal and can still manipulate and bring him along slowly and Spiller has little leverage until he actually puts up a thousand yard pace for several games to even make a stink about deserving to start. The question which prompted this thread merely reveals with a little thought that it is a stupid way to consider these players.

Agreed. If a prime QB falls into your laps one would be silly not to take him. However, this is a very different thing from trading up to rest an even larger amount of your future on the knees and shoulders of one player. Given the mediocre record of performance of many highly drafted QBs and given the record of achievement of many late (or even non-drafted) QB it seems pretty insane to trade away even more value on a team that desperately needs value from multiple positions. Yes, pick a franchise QB IF you identify one and he is available but given the Bills track record at identifying must have talentover the past decade picking decade, making such a high risk move at trading away additional resources seems pretty foolish.