Mickey

You can't fill every hole on a team full of holes in one off season and I don't know many teams who have enough depth in the secondary to handle losing both starting CBs, the starting nickel CB and their best safety.

Dropping like flies

A corner, a corner, my kingdom for a corner!

Blue Pants? That must mean Frank Lewis and Joe Cribbs are starting.

How would that lower his value if he passes a team's physical? Seems to me he would have made a ton of money, not risked injury while playing without a long term contract and also not risked playing poorly. He would be negotiating with teams as a healthy safety with top notch stats and a year's worth of rest. People around here might not think much of Byrd right now but GM's from other teams are not a bunch of Buffalo homers like we are.

ick

Give credit to Carolina's special team for knowing the rules. These situations are why you need a guy who can get it through the back of the end zone. I heard Stevie was on the field playing as a DB for that last play. I wonder if that is because we don't have enough DB's due to all the injuries or just because Stevie is good at tracking and high-pointing balls in the air.

And I thought we lost because we couldn't get a first down and because we couldn't stop them on that last drive. Turns out, all we had to do was "send a message" by going for it on 4th down because hey, making the decision to go for it on 4th down is the same thing as converting a 4th down, isn't it? Stupid coaches.

I don't think this analysis is correct. The Pats took a knee twice before kicking that FG. We got the ball with 5:51 left, nearly 6 minutes and the Pats had three time outs plus the two-minute warning. How would our running the ball three straight plays and punting have resulted in them having to kick from the 46? Exactly, only the situation was actually even worse, our drive started with 5:51 to go. Thats nearly 6 minutes. 21 points was not going to win that game.

If your view is correct, that a hurry up offense doesn't help an offense (outside of situations when you have to score quickly), then we shouldn't be running it ever, at all.

The Patriots had just scored a FG to make it 21-20. We drove to midfield, our 49 and punted on 4th and 1. How did we take back momentum by giving up a FG? Ummm....what 4th and 1 "in Patriots territory" are you talking about? We had a 4th and 3 on our 40 and a 4th and 1 on our 49 in the second half. I could see if it was the Patriot 38 or the 40 but on our own 49? I see no problem with punting then.

It was lost because we didn't get a first down, not because we ran the hurry up. There was almost 6 minutes left in the game (5:51), the Pats had all three time outs plus the 2 minute warning, were only down one and ended the game with over 400 yards of offense. They finished the last drive with 2 time outs still left and with Brady taking a knee twice. Do you seriously think that running clock on a three and out possession would have made any difference at all? They needed more points and they definitely needed a first down. The didn't get either. They were then unable to stop the Patriots on that last drive. And that is why they lost. They were simply outplayed with the game on the line.

Wow! Talk about accuracy!

Only rushing three...that's not working so well

And this report says that the Bills offer was just a little bit more than the tender, about 7M/yr. Don't know who to believe at this point. If the Bills' goal here is to keep this guy on the roster and for him to continue being a productive player, I think their strategy has failed. I am beginning to think that they just are not all that terribly interested in keeping him around. Regardless of whether the Bills made him a fair offer and he is just greedy or if they made him a crap offer he had no choice but to reject, the bottom line is that we are out one pro bowl safety. This is not a successful outcome. I don't think anyone in the front office is cackling, "bwahahaaha, just the way we planned it!"

Bleacher Report cites only spotrac.com which doesn't include any info about his signing bonus: Polamalu $9.125M http://www.spotrac.com/top-salaries/nfl/average/safety/limit-25/ … “@AdamBenigni: Source: Byrd demanding to be highest paid safety in NFL. Bills offering Top 5 ($7.4M).The Yeah but they also saved money by releasing others, most notably Rian Lindell. The Buffalo News reported our cap space as 19M despite signing Woods. Buffalo News

We are 19.1 M under the cap as it is.

How exactly would they "flip him the byrd"? By trading him? By tagging him next year and paying him 20% more as well as not having a tag available to use for Dareus? Put him on IR and pay him 6.9 million $ to hang around the house (where he wouldn't risk injury and leaving us in the same position next year as we are now?

I am sure he would like nothing better than to ride the pine. That way he wouldn't have to worry about an injury damaging his market value next year when the Bills would have to either pay him what he wants, trade him to a team that will or tag him again and pay him 20% more than the 6.9 he made this year, as you would have it, riding on the pine. That's a win-win-win situation for Byrd and a lose-lose-lose situation for Buffalo.

At this point I think it makes sense for us to pack all the players in bubble wrap until opening day.

It probably is a desperate move but as desperation moves go, its not the worst one I have seen. Not as bad as say, bringing in Matt Leinart for a look see.

Yep, that is exactly what I was doing. Nothing gets by you.

Because all health problems have identical outcomes? One guy gets lung cancer and dies in two months and another is still here 10 years later. A QB has to drop back 5 steps and throw, a safety has to cover the deep half of the field and be able to get to the sidelines on go routes against WR's running 4.3 40's. A safety depends on his wheels a lot more than a classic drop back QB.

Having zero proof that this is the case, no, I don't think he is being a baby.

He ran a 4.4 at Wisconsin and once won a dunking contest, at 5'8" against a guy a foot taller. He is a baby faced assassin. He has had injuries though and at 30 years old, he might have lost some of that speed.