JoeF

Do they have gas stations in Arizona? Arizona is getting a good deal even if the swap of seconds is involved. Travis will put up a lot of yards in the 6 in division games....Seattle, SF, St. Louis...

Sound--how much do you think the city will actually pay for a new stadium--actual dollars from the city or county budget....how much tax income will flow for to the city from payroll taxes and other revenue streams that a major project will create. There are people in the Federal Government that actually want to see Buffalo do well and revitalize--and the money we are talking about is equiviliant to a windshield wiper on a Stealth Bomber...There is also bonding authority...the county still has an A bond rating from Fitch--you don't need more schools, roads are always and issue but what else do you use good bond ratings for... I won't go further than this on this thread--but I have seen first hand how this stuff comes together because of various Olympic organizing jobs the last twenty years..Buffalo can do this...hell the area mistakingly poured about $100 million into facilities for the 93 World University games--which was huge mistake--they can find money to do this.. I am out on this one---but I would ask you all that live in Buffalo not to write this off so quickly but look at the numbers and the potential. I realize economic hope is in short supply in WNY--but you don't revitalize without a major kickstart.. Sorry to post so much on this thread...sorry to drone on...

The Olympics is 16 days the last I checked. Not even two football seasons. The city had a group of leaders with vision and they implemented a plan. They invested over $4 Billion dollars in infrastructure with their own, state and federal resources. Buffalo can scale to a new football stadium. The ingress and egress to most downtown sites is already quite good...Atlanta had to rebuild all that... Downtown vacancies were at an all time high in the early 90's in ATL, the downtown was losing long term tenants, underground atlanta was failing--all reversed because of a bold vision. The Olympics to Atlanta is the Bills to Buffalo. A football team is sustainable economic impact over time.....I am not trying to debate..but the alternative is to probably sink further into the abyss...it takes some bold action like this to bring economic investment and the City has missed so many opportunties it probably can't afford not to do something like this.

gmac--I lived in Atlanta before the Olympic development took place. I have to disagree. The area that is now Centennial Olympic park was a death zone of downtown--it has totally changed that area into an economic engine. The area around turner field/Olympic stadium was basically crack house row--its totally different. Maybe R Rich or SDS could comment about Baltimore but my understanding is that the football and baseball stadiums were put in areas that were dead zones...

Didn't know much about the governing structure Labatt thanks...When I think about how places like Baltimore, Atlanta, Jacksonville have centered downtown revitalization around sports facilities--I get excited about what it could mean for Buffalo. The City has the world class aquatics facility, AAA baseball and the arena all in a tight area..a stadium would be the crown jewel. Lets just say Cablevision's bid for Adelphia today is accepted and the Bass Pro stuff comes through---Downtown Buffalo could actually have some hope with the right incentives and tax abbatements...I know its a pipe dream but I have seen it work other places. For me, it sure would be nice to have a realistic option of moving back there some day...not that I don't love it here (Raleigh, NC)--but there is always something special about where you grew up...

Downtown Buffalo Stadium As much as I love the Ralph, this would be great. It would take the 7 years remaining on the current lease to get this done--but the state of NY needs to balance their contribution to NYC and this is the perfect project.

I still believe Shelton is involved unless he flunked the physical--which I think TD would have made public by now. If Shelton is not involved, the Cardinals have another Tackle they have to purge--8 year veteran Anthony Clement who has been a starter for them but would be a back-up competing with McFarland, Gandy and others for a depth spot to replace Marcus Price. I could see the trade being Henry and our second for their second, Clement and their 5th or 6th.... Clement has two years left on his deal and is a $2.4 million dollar cap hit..he would have to play for a lot lower figure (half) for this trade to happen...

No problem Orangeman-I guess I looked at it the opposite way--I knew Mort's kid was a frosh hog and figured Mort had seen Matt Jones play more, therefore had a more developed opinion than on other prospects. You say tomato and I say toematoe

I think Mularkey and Clements probably are pretty much in love with Matt Jones...he just fits what they like to do so well....if we have Shelton, I wouldn't discount this happening. Mort said in his chat last week that Jones would be the #1 QB on the board this year if it wasn't for a bad shoulder. He implied that the shoulder was rehabable..he could be our #3 QB plus a downfield weapon at the same time.

lol....Hey Denny !@#$ you

I am offended by this assault on purple...it should not be the color used to tell children they are wrong. JoeF President Barney the Dinosaur Fan Club (Purple Power)

It was a great win for Roy. Matt D. definitely deserves credit, but if he is still there coaching this team is minus May, Felton and McCants. They all would have left. There was that much internal strife on this team when Matt was there. Roy was the perfect tonic at the perfect time--he benefitted greatly from the talent that was there--but he also put that talent to great use and jeez--doesn't look like he left Kansas at the right time.....Bucknell???

Bill, I should have clarified. I did a similar poll probably 45 days or so ago when names like James, Alexander were not on the market. Most folks said the equivilant of a second rounder was what they wanted as a minimum. I want to see if that sentiment has changed given the highly regarded crop of rookies and these other wild cards in the market.

Mark--this is definitely sound reasoning for doing the trade straight up. There is value in not getting in a bidding war for a mid - tier left tackle. We saw what Jonas got and most pundits say Shelton is at Jonas' level when playing well.

Okay folks. We now know a little bit more about the market for Travis. I have a feeling that there are a couple more teams than just the Cardinals interested. Bucs, Bears, Browns, 49ers come to mind. Their coaches may say no or the media may say that for example Henry isn't Gruden's type of back, but the fact remains that he is a former all pro who improved his fumbling issues over the last two years, is a tough runner, serviceable out of the backfield...there is a market. So what is the minimum you would accept? I think Shelton is cut after June 1st. The Cardinals have no room for Shelton with the signing of Oliver Ross. I want more for Travis than just Shelton or I want another top 100 draft pick from another team.

Both types in fact...the band and the being...

He can beat Drew Bledsoe in a 40 yard dash...

Thanks GG. I guess that's why we paid Bennie 5 MILLION dollars (in my best Dr. Evil voice). Very good report. I like Bennie's attitude--in his press conference he said "The offseason has been too long already. I will be here on Monday (meaning today) ready to get to work." I think this is a guy who wants to prove all those naysayers in Baltimore wrong. We may just have gotten him at the time in his career that he is ready to kick ass. With he and Villy at gaurd--there aren't too many DT that are looking forward to playing the Bills.

To do: 1) Suggest to ND prof brother that he flunk NDIrish1978 2) Suggest to SDS and mods that threads on series television have its own home, preferably somewhere on a yahoo message board 3) Suggest that rookie graduation requirements be at the sole discretion of AD and Mark and be judged on a case by case basis 4) Suggest to Coach Weis that all spring tackling dummies be recruited from Wallers who are also ND Students... Hit the books guys. Bart, senior year, 2nd semester is no excuse. Protect what I am sure is a stellar GPA....NDIrish1978--start a blog--don't post about Joey here.... Take care guys...

Prayers from all of the F's ..hope everything went okay 89

For example he hit Bobby Shaw in the back twice on hot reads before Shaw was cut....playmaking is a team thing--several elements working together or not working together... Drew has obvious limitations...ones that probably would have never let the team progress very much beyond the 9-7 we finished last year. He was easy to defend. You didn't have to play the edges or hold back at all on a pass rush cause he was no threat..you hug the line,play press and blitz...we have an unproven QB with different skills now--JP is going to be under the gun until he proves he can handle it--once he proves he can beat the blitz with his arm and his feet then he has to learn how to recognize and read coverages and be a smart QB...we'll see how long it takes..

Another valid and good anaylsis crows. This provides a couple of things to look at to judge if the Bills improve under JP...record against winning teams, record against the 3-4 base teams. Drew did break the awful road string -- and the road wins included Seattle and Cincy -- so I give some credit there. Didn't mean for this to become another anti versus pro Drew thread. Guess I was stupid to think it wouldn't end up there. Just thought the stat was interesting.

Some Stats...Drew vs. the 3-4 2 wins 8 losses the last three years against teams playing primarily the 3-4 including 0 and 5 in 2004. This includes the Pats in 03 and 04 when the 3 - 4 was the primary scheme. In 2004, the five games against the 3-4 he threw 2 TDs and 10 interceptions. In the 10 games against the 3-4 the last 3 years Bledsoe was sacked an average of almost 4 times per game. In the other 38 starts he was sacked an average of 2.7 times per game... So record vs. 3-4 2 wins 8 losses Record vs. conventional 21 wins 17 losses Found this pretty interesting.....It was a good column by Brown titled Why the Bills Fell Short with Bledsoe.

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God bless you PJP II....