Maybe Someday

4/26/2008, Raleigh, NC outdoor Amphitheatre, front row center for one of my personal favorite bands, Widespread Panic. It is quite a sight turning around and seeing almost 20,000 people behind you. Special guest Ann Marie Calhoun came out and played the violin with them. Didn’t know who she was at the time but she’s gorgeous!!! Even all the ladies in the crowd were saying as much. I’ve gotten up front to see many bands but never actually had tickets telling me I should be in the 1st row, dead center in a venue that big. By the end of the show, about 20 of our friends made it up into the 1st few rows. Shortly after the show, the band put a video out that’s still on YouTube and most of us are in it although you can only see the top of my head. Google WSP with Ann Marie if interested but FYI, I have no idea who shakin’ my head guy is.

I’m not disagreeing with your overall point but I’m bored so I did look it up. In 2005 Fred carried the ball a whopping 334 times for 1790 yards. He also caught 38 passes and returned 75 kickoffs. He had well over 700 touches in the 2 years he played arena ball. But, 700 arena league touches is equivalent to what…250 NFL touches? I would have to imagine that he took WAY fewer hits in those 2 years as compared to LdT.

Proofreading is done electronically now. You just hit that little spell check button and it fixes everything!!

I’d rather the players start getting used to all the media attention now so that once we’re half way through the season and are as good as we all hope/expect, it’s still just business as usual for them. Also, as an out of towner, I like the attention we’re getting. I can finally see some news on the Bills without having to go find it myself.

Just call me Homer!!! Go Bills! I don't know that Shaub will ever stay healthy enough to lead the Texans to a championship.

This doesn’t apply as you stated until next season. There are some different rules in place for 2011 & 2012 but technically there is no salary floor this year. Here’s a link detailing the salary cap. http://www.askthecommish.com/salarycap/FAQ.aspx I do completely agree with your first point and do not mind if the team chooses to carry some of these higher salaries in anticipation for the new rules next year. My thoughts are why cut talent if you’re under the cap and don’t need to? If we cut Kelsay and then Mario goes down for the year, they’ll be a new thread on TSW calling Ralph cheap for not keeping veteran depth.

There’s an article on NFL.com today discussing this. Seems that many scouts have the same opinion of Ocho as many of us do. Probably can still play physically, can’t handle it mentally. The value of an aging player to a young team is typically the mental aspect he brings. We would not get that from him, he would only take reps away from younger players. http://www.nfl.com/news/story/09000d5d829baaf3/article/chad-ochocincos-current-value-league-executives-weigh-in?module=HP11_cp

This confirms it, per Wikipedia, Fitz is now the prototypical NFL QB!!!

It’s still only 53. The rule that changed now allows teams to carry a 3rd QB on the active, game day roster. So teams get 1 additional active player on game day, not an extra roster spot. The 3rd QB used to be able to dress but was still considered inactive and if he played, the other 2 QBs weren’t allowed to go back into the game. You don’t have to have a QB take that extra spot either. Tricky Dick used to have Roscoe fill it and only had 2 QBs dress. One of the few moves by Dick that I actually liked.

Pass on Ocho; we don’t need the added media circus that comes with him. If we could sign Chad Johnson, I’d think about it for a minute but probably still pass. Our coaches seem to like the upside of our young receivers and if we bring him in, he’d take reps away from them and I think they need all the work they can get. We also seem to have a great bunch of team first guys and Ocho is the antithesis of a team first guy…at least he was in Cincy. I do think that physically he can still play at a decent level but not mentally. I don’t think he can read a defense very well, which is why he couldn’t make it in NE*. He admitted in an interview last year that he was always thinking instead of just playing. Their offense is a ton of read and react…which is why Welker is ALWAYS open. This would be a different scenario than Lofton. When we got him, we’d already made the playoffs and he truly was one of the missing pieces to get us over the hump into the SB. We’re not there yet. I see Ocho ending up in Miami or Jacksonville. They both need the attention and some receiving help too.

JMO but I don’t think this will matter much...LA will pick up most of that tab. That is a good fix.

Anyone with no connections to WNY that is potentially trying to buy the Bills worries me. Especially the comments in this article about the stadium and that he is not opposed to moving the team to LA. My gut says if he were to buy the team, he would try to leverage the county for a new stadium and when the people aren’t willing to pay for it from tax dollars, he moves the team to LA or another city that is willing to build one for him.

I agree with you. I think Chandler showed some good things last year and still has some room to grow. I also think that having David Nelson is part of the reason the front office didn’t feel the pressing need to bring in a recognizable name or draft a TE. I know he is a WR and not a TE but he has a lot of the same qualities that make the receiving TE so valuable. He’s a big body so he can out muscle and out position smaller CBs and has too much speed for most safeties or a LB. He made a couple of really nice blocks last season too. He was a little thin last year, which is expected for a rookie so I hope he added some muscle in the offseason. Watch out for #86 this season!!!

Agreed.

While I agree with this, if my memory serves me, both of those throws against the Giants were down the left sideline. Coach Lee has already identified the flaw in Fitz’s mechanics when throwing to the left. Now the million dollar question that none of us can answer is whether or not Fitz can consistently follow the revised mechanics or get that muscle memory to alleviate those bad throws. If he can, I can see him being on par with some of what many consider the top 10 QBs in the league. The toughness, short memory and ability to be a leader of men are some of the intangibles he has that you just can’t teach. We haven’t seen that combo since Kelly. Compared to Trentative Edwards and JP “help me I’m” Lostman, he’s a breath of fresh air but I guess compared to those guys, a fart would be too!! I also cut him just a little bit of slack (and I mean a little) on how many INTs he threw last year. I know that a bunch of them were bad throws but in some of those cases, we were so far behind he was just chucking it around trying to make something happen and they had no bearing on the outcome of the game, maybe just made the score more lopsided. If Chan calls a more balanced game and runs the ball just as much or more than we throw it, I believe that Fitz can take us where we want to go.

My 1st memory of going to a Bills game with my Dad was from I think 1986 or 87, I was about 8 or 9. For the life of me, I cannot remember who we played or if we won. A bunch of my family got a big block of tickets; there were about 15 of us. Before heading into the game, my Dad and uncles started to tuck a couple of beers in their pockets. I guess I wanted to be one of the guys so I offered to put some in my pockets too. My Dad and uncles started thinking, what are the chances they check an 8 year old so they started loading me up. When it was all said and done. I had 16 cans in my pockets and another 12 in the bag I was carrying. Security never touched me. I got to sip my first beer that day. The only block of tickets that my Dad could get for that many of us together were in the 2nd to last row of the upper deck. I remember being in absolute awe when they did the flyover after the national anthem. We were so high up I swear you could count the rivets on the planes. Funny, I remember those 2 things but not who we played. I don’t think that’s the kind of story BB.com really wants to advertise so I didn’t bother entering it. While that was my 1st memory, my fondest memories are from the 3 years that my Dad and I worked security together in the mid 90’s. He was one of the head’s of security and since he wore plain clothes, I was basically his personal security guard. He worked with the owner or the company that did security at the time so we got hooked up. We’d drive to the games together and basically got to walk around together all day. Before the game, we had to walk around to make sure everyone was in position. We’d make sure we were checking the guys on the field, right at the 35 yard line, when it was time for the opening kickoff. We would typically work our way down one sideline with the team that had the opening drive and then back down the other side once the other team took over. So we almost always saw both teams opening drives. The job also called for us to be back down on the field for the end of the game so we got to see many great finishes together. What tough times those were. The hardest part of the job was not cheering too much when we were on the field since we were "working". Getting to see the action from that close with my Dad are some memories that I will never forget. Happy father’s day to all you Dad’s out there!!

Aaron Williams starts over Gilmore. Give the rook some time to get his feet wet. Graham will not be the #2 WR this year. Hopefully he’s ready to do that in a year or 2. I think he’s more of a situational guy this year. This is year #3 for D. Jones. Seems to be the year many WRs really break out. I have high hopes that he can do the same. I also would not be surprised if Nelson is the other WR in 2 receiver sets and then moves into the slot in the 3+ receiver sets. Roosevelt is a long shot at best but I do hope the kid makes it. You gotta pull for the local guy. Hagen & Martin are his main competition for that last roster spot, assuming we keep 6 WRs so it’s probably going to come down to if he can contribute on ST. Personally, I think Martin has no business being in that race because he can’t catch. He wasn’t that good at ST. TSW wonder boy K. Aiken has to play out of his mind to make it but he should still be PS eligible. Being an out of towner, I didn’t see enough of him to truly form my own opinion.

Maybe unproven players might be a better name for the thread. There are very few players that are unknown to the folks on this board. I’ll go with Aaron Williams. I liked what I saw from this kid last year. If he can stay healthy, I see him being a solid contributor.

FYI BillyBuc, the Chiefs signed Alex Tanney today. http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/06/05/chiefs-sign-trick-shot-quarterback-alex-tanney/

That's right, how did I forget about the blocked kicks?!?!? Maybe in the future I need to wait until halftime to crack that first one.

Take it out of the coach’s hands altogether. Have a member of the officiating crew up in the box and any call that he deems questionable gets reviewed. When he buzzes the ref for the review, it also buzzes a video crew who start working up the best camera angles, still shots or whatever is needed to make the correct call. By the time the ref gets to the hood, those images are ready to be viewed. It may even be as simple as the guy upstairs just saying, look at this freeze frame, he’s in bounds, overturn the call. While this is going on, the guy upstairs also tells the ref, the ball goes here and this much time is left. Ever notice that seems to take a long time to figure out where the ball goes after a call is over turned? I think it would streamline that process and not slow down the game quite as much. I don’t want the game slowed down to review tons of calls either but there is too much riding on every game to not use the technology available and get it right.

If Edwards has been lining up with the 1st team in Kyle’s absence, can you tell me who the 2nd team DTs have been? I’m curious to see what’s going on with Carrington. He was a high draft pick a few years ago that we’ve moved all over the place and I don’t recall him really making many plays so far in his brief career. This is a make or break year for him and Troup and it sounds like they are competing against each other for one of the last D-Line spots.

Out of these 3, I’d say Edwards is the odd man out. I believe he is better suited to be a 3-4 DE than a 4-3 DT. I’d like to see him get traded so we could get something for him but I don’t think that’s very likely. Like it or not, I believe Kelsay is here for at least one more year and Johnson can play both DT and DE.

I’m with you on this. I didn’t even know that we traded him to the Eagles. I guess I just figured he lost his job to Hansen and faded into oblivion. I’m curious…what’s the deal with Brad Lamb? What did he ever do beside fumble to opening kickoff in one of the Super Bowls?

I can't go into too much detail on this but he treated my Mom and everyone she worked with like crap whenever he came into their office. They had to deal with him a couple of times a year for 10+ years so it wasn’t like he just happened to be having a bad day one time. They were really happy when he left. Who knows, maybe that was just the way he treated women because their male boss apparently had no issues and never turned away his business.