Cynical

While it is long way to go to April and anything can happen, Cody has already been publicly stating he intends on returning to Bama to play out his senior year.

How do you get the money out? Is there some kind of exit in the back?

Got to love those injury lists: ESPN list Official NFL list Now if there was just someway to get all three to agree ...

Sorry to piss in your Cheerios, but: If the Bills did leave, you can pretty much kiss pro football goodbye from the WNY landscape. Buffalo is a small market city with a declining population and economic base. Until that situation gets turned around, no team would be willing to relocate to Buffalo.

It is quite possible to be smart and to be a smartass at the same time. My wife keeps reminding of that. I would be surprised if anybody has a problem with the way you put a thought together. What people are disagreeing with you is over what you put into your thoughts. The above paragraph is an example. If you majored in Marketing, that's a great paragraph. It is full of fluff that is meaningless, and designed to "polish" the image of your subject. DJ graduated from Yale, so what? DJ achieved 1st team Ivy League 3 times, so what? DJ made the pro bowl as rookie in the NFL, so what? We are not evaluating DJ the player, we are evaluating DJ the coach. The only piece of relevant info for your case is DJ's 23 years of coaching experience. More fluff. There is nothing in there that is relevant to Jaurons coaching credentials or ability. See, here's your problem. All of that above, from the very start to this point: nicely written. Your put thoughts together quite nicely. Substance: Other than DJ has coached in the NFL for 23 years, nothing. Zip. I understand the point you are TRYING to make (DJ is being unintentionally "undermined" by young, inexperienced players), but your argument contains very little to prove that connection. Then there is this thing called reality. Your "analysis" completely ignores his days in Chicago. This so wrong on so many levels, it's shocking. When I hear this phrase, the first thing that pops into my head is the Britney Spears interview back 2003-2004 where she says we should just trust the president. (Side note: said president graduated from Harvard and Princeton. If that is not proof enough that an Ivy League education does not guarantee success in a chosen profession, nothing will.)

Believe it or not, most apologists will imply that. They will not come out and say it, they will just makes excuses why people should not pay any attention to it. BS excuses like the "GM was out to get him".

Jesus Christ, a gaffe? How stupid is he that he had no clue his starting QB was under contract? That's not a gaffe, that's not paying attention. If those type of plays are happening more than they should, yes, that is an issue. We are three years into a rebuild, the team should NOT be showing signs of blundering basic fundamentals like "who should be on the field?"

Jauron apologists do not want to hear rationalization. They are too busy looking for excuses when he fails, and trying to find ways to hype his "successes". They even make up BS like how DJ is respected around the league. Never mind the reality that only the Bills came knocking on his door after his release from the Lions. If it wasn't for the Bills, there was a good chance Douche Bag Dick would have been out of coaching. We are now working on eight years as a HC, and DJ has till been unable to post a winning record against teams over .500. Hell, even the announcers pointed that out during the game.

Yes, please do. And when you do, please make sure you note that in his rookie year, DJ got rid of the previous starting QB days before TC, and named the rookie QB as his starter when the rookie QB WAS NOT UNDER CONTRACT! The reason they were not called is the Bills were BURNING TIME OUTS so they would NOT be flagged for them.

We can only hope and pray this is the case. That would be something positive from this waste of a season.

That's interesting. Everything I read and poked around about clearly shows it was not. The salary cap purge started after the 99 season, while Butler was still the GM. Andre Reed, Thurman Thomas, and Bruce Smith were all cut after 99. Smith was let go because he refused to restructure his contract. By the end of 2000, it was real ugly. Donohoe had to choose between extending Moulds or retaining DE Wiley. He had no cap room to do both. IIRC, when it was all said and done, the Bills had something like 30% of the salary cap for 2001 tied up in dead cap space. That's money being paid to players that were longer on the team. Ouch. Think of all the free agents the Bills signed after the 99, 00, and 01 seasons. And if still think it was nothing but hype, you need to go back and research what happened in SD the two years Butler was alive. He paid Tim Dwight, a return man, starting WR money. He paid Stephen Alexander, a blocking TE, a salary so outrageous that the offer shocked the player, the players agent, and the rest of the NFL.

I agree with this, and that's why I do not agree with the concussion theory. It does not pass the smell test. I can see the concept of: concussion => lingering effects => poor play. But, how does/would the concussion cause "growing pains" which then results in poor play? I just think defenses have done a better job of disguising their coverages and formations, and that gets him somewhat rattled during a game. If his initial read of a defense says coverage "x", and by the time he sets to pass, he's no longer reading "x", that can cause some confusion. That confusion leads to indecisiveness, which in turn leads to no longer anticipating where the WR is going to be. We see that on the field as lacking confidence, double clutching, and waiting for the WR to be actually open before throwing the ball.

Yeah, you got firm grasp of the discussion. In case you missed it, the poster I responded to named players like Art Still, James Lofton, and Joe Horn. Older players that were past their prime, and released, but still could be productive in the short term. They were brought in for depth, as a complement, or as a short term solution while the new team developed a younger player. They are valued for their experience, and possible leadership. Last time I checked, Dwight Freeney was not past his prime, and was not purged from the Colts.

In fact, that should occupy the first spot.

WTF is it with "The Hit" that convinces everybody that's the cause of Trent's problems? Here's a novel concept: The guy is in his second year. Go back and look at NFL history. It is quite common for 2nd year QB's to "regress". By this time, most defenses have figured out a young QB's tendencies. Defenses start to game plan around those, and use them to their advantage. Throw in the pressure of being the "guy", and I am not overly surprised he is playing poorly. In fact, I expected it to happen at some point during the year. He's playing poorly because he has lost confidence in himself, and is playing scared. The result is usually for the player to go back to what his comfort zone was. In this, TE became Checkdown Charlie like he was last year. Unfortunately, this is something he needs to work through, and it will take time.

Depends. Which season are you planning for? 2008 is not looking good, and neither is 2009. If DJ is still here for 2010, you can probably cross that season out also. 2011, depends on who the coach is. If it is still DJ, just go ahead and reserve a golfing trip somewhere. 2012 is about your best bet.

About time. I'll bring the pitchforks, who's bringing the torches, and who's bringing the rope? Since this is a "witch hunt", are we allowed to waterboard?

Besides RWS, how many other stadiums have you been to? Regardless of the "franchise", every team has those fans that have a tendency to grow "beer muscles" and show their ass.

"Cash to cap" is an accounting concept, nothing more. Essentially, all it means is the Bills will no longer use "future" cap space to pay for players now. As we saw under the "old" system, that kind of accounting carries its own pros and cons, and can financially hinder a team in the long run. IIRC, the Bills were not the only team switching to that type of accounting. Older veteran players are still being cast off other teams. The Bills had those types of players, but the FO got rid of them. Fletcher-Baker ring a bell? And Jauron is responsible. It was his decision to get rid of them. You want different DEs. Go ask Jauron why we still have these guys. After 3 years, he must like them. Heck, they gave Kelsay a new contract. We are year 3 into a rebuild. For all intents and purposes, these guys are here because Jauron wanted/is satisfied with them being here. This is "Jauron's" team. Look it, like it, love it.

Who decided to go with that 2nd year QB as his starter? That's nice. Crowell is on IR, and has not played a regular season game this year. If you are referring to Ellison, yes, he is a back up. As for your complaint the Bills lack depth, why don't you ask yourself who is responsible for that? I'll give you a hint. His initials are DJ. DJ is not a cheerleader, but he is certainly a HC. His job description does include player motivation, which this team lacks. See above. Player motivation is the responsibility of the coaching staff. If the players do not feel compelled to go out on the field and play to their potential, it is the coaches job to figure out away to convince the players to do so.

One thing missing from that stat: the distances attempted. But if the argument is "he sucks under pressure", regardless of distance, 11 of 13 is damn good. That puts his average around 85%. Apparently, the Jauron apologists think 85% is "bad". Then again, they do think mediocrity is "good".

I am not under the impression the players decided to blitz. But I am also not under the impression the players refused to blitz in 3-4 previous games. The coaching staff did create a better game plan for this ONE game. That does release them from the responsibility of the poor game plans from the previous games, the same games you tried to pin the blame of loss on the players. This is a BS argument, and you are grasping at straws. Jauron is ONE person. He is not a modular "robot" where you can remove and replace certain parts. There is no such thng as "Jauron the GM" or "Jauron the HC" or "Jauron the game planner" or "Jauron the player prep" or "Jauron the delegator" or etc ... Those are his responsibilities. And when he is such epic failure at one of those aspects that it interferes with the rest of his responsibilities, then Dick Jauron is a failure. Any attempt to separate one aspect of him from another is nothing more than a weak attempt to "cloud" the issue. So when you note he does not have the personnel to run his system, he is at fault for that. That is one of his responsibilities. And he has had 3 off-seasons to do that. And to push the discussion further, if he does not have the personnel to run it the way he wants, he needs to flexible enough to adapt his schemes to work with what he has.

Yeah, the douche bag that hired them.

I got admit, you are consistent. For the past few weeks, people have been complaining about the lack of a pass rush, no blitzing, and crappy o-line play. And you blamed the players for the losses. Now, when the team does generate a pass rush, the team does blitz, and the -o-line did play better, you still blame the players for the loss. It's not Jauron's / coaching staff's fault the play calling was wretched at the end. It's not Jauron's / coaching staff's fault the team wasted 4 time outs because the coaching staff could not figure out what to do in time. Good luck in your fantasy world where Jauron the GM is an idiot, but Jauron the coach is the greatest coach alive.

One game != improvement, especially when that game came against an alleged inferior opponent.