BarleyNY

I agree with all of what you said above. Any "win now" pressure at this point is strictly "hot seat" pressure for the Whaley, Rex and other coaches and FO personnel. I don't see their seats as hot at the moment, but they're probably a little warm. As for the team, it isn't changing much in the coming seasons except via draft and small contract FAs. OTC summed it up when discussing Glenn's deal: "This contract moves the Bills into 3rd place in the Commitment Index hierarchy, which means that the team has the third least amount of future salary cap spending capacity. Similarly, the team ranks 5th in 2017 True Cap Space commitments. An extension for Stephon Gilmore or Tyrod Taylor would likely push the Bills to the top position in Commitment Index. None of this means that the Bills will necessarily be in a bad salary cap position over the next few years, but due to the true cap commitments made to the contractual core of Dareus, Glenn, Clay, McCoy, and Hughes, the team will have limited flexibility to add to or change the roster without moving sideways by losing talent currently on the roster." http://overthecap.com/cordy-glenn-contract-analytics/

Yeah, it's not an either/or situation. Signing Marlon Brown certainly wouldn't preclude bringing in a vet WR. Have you seen him play? Is there something that impressed you about him? All I see is his stat sheet and that the WR needy Ravens released him after 3 seasons.

Wow. A golden ratio reference. I'm floored.

Perhaps that's a function of Rex's defense putting a lot of pressure on the CBs? It's good at stuffing plays, but leaves the defense susceptible to giving up big plays. That would make sense.

He'd be the Bills #3 WR instantly. He's not a special player, but he'd be dependable. I don't know if he'd be better than Hogan or not, but that's kind of a moot point at this juncture.

Still only a 16 game regular season. I actually would love this kind of season. Healthier teams, more opportunity to see more teams play and a longer season. This schedule would have another big advantage - travel by international teams and US teams to international venues would be much more viable. International players would have longer seasons in other countries though. But they'd presumably get some more downtime at home during the season.

Here's an article from 2012 about agents who represent NFL players. It's interesting and there's a lot of misconceptions about the industry: http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/8681968/nfl-agent-life-all-glamour

It's a run oriented offense, but is that due to necessity or preference? It sure seemed a necessity last season, but I don't know if it was also what was preferred. What OC wouldn't want an offense that could do well both running and passing the ball though? At some points in every season a team will need to be able to pass the ball well to win. I see a problem with the team right now with packages that don't include a FB. Watkins, Woods and Clay are the top 3 targets, but what other WR or TE gets brought out with them? I understand that there's only so many picks and so much money to go around, but that's a glaring weakness as it stands. An injury to one of those three and things are looking pretty dire.

I feel bad for the gym owner and/or management that has to deal with crap like this. Crybabies are a not insignificant percentage of customers in any business that deals with the general public and I'd have to think they gym business has more than its fair share.

That's funny. Because when I say "it was a bad week" you seem to think it equates to "losing my schitt" or saying "all is lost". Maybe try a little perspective yourselves. Or even just a little reading comprehension.

I noticed that too! EVP! Some start up CEO is obviously a big 9ers fan.

I think Whaley and Rex are under pressure to improve immediately (this season). They saw improving the defense as the best way to do that and focused the offseason on retaining important players and adding players on defense that fit Rex's scheme. In short, keep the offense as in tact as possible and expect that they stay above average while improving the defense to above average so they make it to the playoffs. It's not a bad plan, but it seems like they forced it. They took a big risk on selecting an injured Lawson looking for an impact player at a position of dire need on the defense. It just looks like they forced the pick on hope that he'd be able to make it through the season. It was like they talked themselves into it because they needed it to work out. 19 was just way too early for a player with his injury even when talent level is considered. There were certainly better healthy prospects on the board, but they didn't fill as dire of defensive needs. They also traded up for Ragland to fill another huge need. It wasn't a big trade up and they didn't give up that much (2 fourths), but they obviously want to be sure they got him. I have to believe that filling that defensive hole was huge. Then they added Adolphus to aid the pass rush. I sure don't see him as close to starting this season, but he should fill another vital defensive hole - situational pass rusher. Whaley may have been exaggerating when he said he thought he got 3 immediate starters from the draft, but I don think the sentiment was unfounded. GMs don't usually make those kinds of statements so I have to believe that Rex was expecting that to be the case. I don't know what the reality is Whaley and Rex's situations are. I do think that if the Bills take a big step back they are in trouble. If they make the playoffs, then they are safe. But those shouldn't be surprises. The question is what happens if they're in the 7-9 win range without making the playoffs. I don't know that they'd get fired, but often owners put pressure on their top people and I'm sure the expectations are playoffs. Falling short of that would lead to uncertainty regarding their continued employment. If they fall a little short I expect that they would be retained, but on a short leash for the following season.

Sorry to work you up there, Kool Aid. I usually think of "good" things as ones that I want to happen and "bad" things as those I don't want to happen. Now, sure, some bad things are inevitable and some are within expected norms, but even those expected "bad" things are still bad. Whether or not we disagree on whether or not this week was within expected norms or how much of it the Bills brought upon themselves the Bills still had a very bad week. If you want to scream "ALL IS WELL!!!" you certainly can, but don't be surprised if people call you out on it or refuse to take you seriously.

How can anyone say it wasn't a bad week or rip anyone who says it was? By any objective measure it was a very bad week. It wasn't catastrophic. It wasn't season ruining. It wasn't the worst possible week the Bills could have had. But, Good Lord, it was bad.

Kevin Williams is 35, but he can still help a team and the Bills could sure use help at NT. He has $54M in career earnings and is coming off two 1 year deals worth $2M and $1.5M, respectively - the last of which was with the Saints. He would be a good fit as a rotational NT and looks like he'd sign a relatively modest contract with a team that isn't looked at as a playoff lock. I'd be happy to have him. http://www.spotrac.com/nfl/new-orleans-saints/kevin-williams/cash-earnings/

Louis Vasquez is interesting. Still only 29, productive in his career and not that expensive. Coming off a 3 year, $18M contract with $21M in career earnings he'd be affordable. He'd certainly fit better in Roman's power scheme than he did in Denver's ZBS. The big question is whether or not the Bills want to invest in a guard. http://www.spotrac.com/nfl/denver-broncos/louis-vasquez/cash-earnings/

So much depends on what the FA vets are looking for. Who's chasing a ring, who's looking for a last chunk of cash and who's looking to prove something for another contract. WRT Freeney I think he's in the first category. $96.6M in career earnings and coming off a cheap, incentivized, one year deal with the Cards. He earned $1.2M total last season. He might come to Buffalo for something like his previous 2 year, $9.3M contract with SD, but do we want him for $4M-$5M for a season? http://www.spotrac.com/nfl/arizona-cardinals/dwight-freeney/cash-earnings/ I'll add some similar info on other players as I find it. Boldin is coming off a 3 year stint with SF where he was making $6M per season. He's made $62M in his career. I'm not sure if he's looking for a payday or a ring. This is probably his last contract though. http://www.spotrac.com/nfl/san-francisco-49ers/anquan-boldin/cash-earnings/

Lawson will be able to walk and do some things to prevent atrophy to his legs, but his injured shoulder will be immobilized for about 2 months. I had a brace, not a cast. I was not allowed to lift anything heavier than a gallon of milk with my other arm. After he is allowed to move his injured shoulder he will be in physical therapy to regain range of motion. I could not believe how difficult that was. Strength comes along slowly because of danger of reinjury. I had one anchor put into my shoulder and I'd guess he had the same, although in a different spot on the labrum. The one bit of good news is that the damaged part of his labrum seems (based on the swim move injury) to be the part that is used with a lifting motion rather than pushing out (like mine was). He is a lot more likely to require strong, violent pushing motions when engaging OLmen than lifting up so it seems that he dodged that bullet. He should be fine as long as he doesn't rush back and gets healthy and strong. He just can't rip that anchor out or tear the labrum again. It'll be a lot worse next time if he does. My doc was very clear about that.

They still use the logo, but when they built their current ballpark in 1994 they were careful to not put it on any permanent fixture anywhere in the park. Seems like they didn't think the logo and/or name were certain to outlive the park.

Wow. Kinda like the firemen in Fahrenheit 451.

Update: Ms. Vecchio has since been contacted by 2,648 of the area's other gyms which notified her that she could work out there for free if she would agree to wear the same tank top.

This should be a good time. The thing about good information that often gets overlooked is the importance of the timeliness of that information.

June 1st designations are only useful to teams that need space to sign draft picks so the list could have been parsed down to those teams. It is from March 7th so some of their suggestions have already been cut.

Whatever developmental timeframe Lawson was going to be on, it is now pushed back. How long that'll be we don't know, but it wont be insignificant. My point was that 19 was way too early for a player of his talent level with that injury. The loss of a season (or big part of one) is huge. When I see people write that "the important thing is how he plays in the long run" I see it as diminishing the issue at hand. The reality is that every season is important. Lawson is about to lose either all of or a big part of his first. That's one less cheap rookie contract season for a talented first round pick to develop, perform and prove his worth for his next contract. This was a mistake by the front office, but I hope it works out well in the long run. Just imagine this happened to the Dolphins or Jets. What would you think about the situation then?

I've seen this line of thought and I've seen it lauded, but it's got a big problem. Injury and significant risk of a prospect missing time affect that prospect's value. That's the reason Jack and Smith, both more highly rated prospects than Lawson, fell to the second round. I used the words "delighted" and "ecstatic" when the Bills got Lawson at 19, but I would have wanted them to pass on him at that spot had I known about his injury. Lawson will miss all of training camp (except meetings and film), all of preseason and some of the regular season with this injury. What, exactly, should be expected of him when he gets back to practice sometime in October or November? He's going to need time to work himself into playing shape and learn. At this point I expect very little from him this season and, quite frankly, I'd be happy to see the Bills err on the side of caution and bring him along too slowly rather than too quickly. In time he may very well be the player I expected him to be for the Bills - and I really, really hope that happens. But that doesn't mean the Bills should have used pick 19 on him. This season will not be productive for him due to this injury. One season is 25% of his relatively low wage rookie contract. For the Bills to take that risk is unacceptable. That's not on Lawson, it's on whomever made the decision to draft him at 19. And, believe it or not, I can root for Lawson to be a great player for the Bills and be happy if he becomes that, yet be critical of the team drafting an injured player 19th overall.