BarleyNY

I remember this (approximate) quote from an airlines executive. When chastised about why service on his airline was so poor he responded "The last time you booked a flight did you chose your carrier based on service or price? When people start booking based on service we'll start focusing on service."

That's interesting. I hope it works out that way.

That's awesome. You're right in the heart of this so you'd sure know what's happening. I remember the Cooper years (I was a freshman for Earl Bruce's last year). So many years of doing so poorly against scUM sucked beyond belief. Ditto hearing scUM fans with their condescending attitudes about the rivalry and longing for the days when it was more competitive. Yuck. I will never root for a competitive rivalry with scUM. I want us to roll them every single year. If that means MSU takes their place as our main rival, so be it. As for Harbaugh, I don't know what he'll do there. He's had success in college and the pros, but he's never lasted more than 4 years anywhere. Until I see otherwise my expectations are that he'll do the same there. He'll improve the team, maybe even turn them around - and then move on.

I agree, Yolo - except I do hate scUM. Jim Harbaugh comes off as insincere to me. Don't get me wrong, I think he's a very good coach and he's sure had some success. But he's never stayed anywhere for long. Some combination of his desire to move up/on and him wearing out his welcome seem to be the reasons. His schtick and antics do seem to wear thin after awhile.

Thanks.

In general the NFL doesn't really care about the players, their safety or their futures after football. They are largely just assets with expiration dates.

Taylor has to improve on the things Vick never did well. Plus it'd be a PR nightmare. Not really any upside and some definite downside.

Yeah. We will be having the same discussion about Wakins in 2018 as we are about Gilbert now. Gilbert's going to get paid North of $13M/yr, but South of $15M/yr. it'll be interesting to see where the final contract lands. That'll leave enough to pay (or tag) Taylor if he earns a big deal. It'll be a nice problem to have if he does.

Perhaps it was a coaching decision to leave Clay in to block - or at least chip - rather than any sort of coaching mistake. Maybe they just had to use him to help the RT because of the weakness there.

In order? This is not in any specific order, but I'll do that later if you want: 1- Sammy Watkins 2- Marcell Dareus 3- LeSean McCoy 4- Stephon Gilmore 5- Jerry Hughes 6- Cordy Glenn 7- Richie Incognito 8- Ronald Darby 9- Kyle Williams 10- Tyrod Taylor I struggled with the last spot. It could have gone a lot of ways, but I used positional importance as the tiebreaker.

Thanks for the recomendations. I do like Trattoria Aroma (fresh pasta!) a lot and R&J's is always good. Buffalo seems to like their red sauce very sweet and Chef's is the sweetest in town. Natives seem to love it, but transplants don't nearly as much. Just a regional thing I guess. You're not the first person to recommend Sinatra's. That's next on my list.

I love Paula's donuts and there's some very good stuff on the list, but Chef's is not. It was the biggest disappointment I had as far as recommendations I got after moving here. The sauce was so sweet I couldn't eat my meal.

Thanks for the incredibly detailed review. I saw it pretty much the same way. There was excellent variety, including some things you just don't see elsewhere (I really enjoyed the lavender g&t I had) and the tapas sharing is always fun, but some dishes weren't as good as others. Also I'm a value shopper and I felt the prices were a bit high for what we got in value. I'll go back again, but I'm not in a huge hurry.

Probably not. There are things a coach can do that warrant firing in 2 years - or even less. If a coach loses the lockerroom or shows himself to be incapable of doing the job, then that coach has to go. In those cases, the sooner the better. Rex probably won't do either so I expect him to be here in 2017. If he does lose the team or the team implodes and has a horrible season, then he has to go. I can even think of scenarios where he stays after a horrible season.

A player conducting himself as a professional is indeed worthy of praise. Taylor has done that and deserves kudos for it.

Living in Cleveland and Columbus for most of my life (I'm 47) there was never any animosity for Buffalo or the Bills. Clevelanders pretty much saw Buffalo as another town going through the same Rust Belt stuff they were dealing with. Buffalo was a little smaller of a city, got even more snow and had a bit worse weather in general, but was pretty much seen as a kindred spirit. That held true with sports teams. Buffalo was really the only city that suffered close to what Cleveland dealt with. No NBA in Buffalo, no NHL in Cleveland and the Bisons were the Indians AAA team for a long time. The Bills and Browns didn't really ever have a rivalry. I can't ever remember them crossing paths in big games. It always seemed like when one was good the other wasn't. The only exception is over the last few years when the two teams have had some tough games. I've seen the fans on both sides get chippy. The game where both Hoyer and Manuel were injured was a big part of that.

I'll bet the article mentioned that he is fast.

http://overthecap.com/fletcher-cox-contract-analytics/#more-12095 OTC's breakdown of the final deal.

Everything you've got is very weak, except for the Haslam bit. He is a scumbag and a crook. Just not sure how you throw the team, the fans and the whole city under the bus with him.

Hijacker!

Having lived in both, I can't see how you can think Cleveland is terrible but like Buffalo. B-lo is largely just a smaller version of C-town. The are differences, but they aren't that big. As for the Bills, of late they haven't exactly been a great team - or that much better than the Browns for that matter. Over the last 15 years the Bills have exactly 15 more wins than the Browns - and one less playoff appearance. Having an average of one more win a year is better to be sure, but it doesn't exactly separate the Bills from the Browns by a lot.

Wow. Using Peters as your example is like saying the Bills should just draft their HoF QB in the 6th round like the Pats did. And you actually said that "bad and mediocre teams" don't get value from paying top dollar to LTs. Do they get value from paying anyone any amount since they're bad/mediocre teams? What about good and great teams that pay top dollar to their CBs and LTs? Do they get value? And I don't even totally disagree about OTs. It's better to have two very solid OTs than one great one and one sub-mediocre one. Exceptional OTs are a luxury. But your reasoning and over-statements are terrible.

Why does that bother you? Thanks! Me, too!

I always wondered why they moved the ball back up to the 35 instead of something else. Why didn't they just keep the ball at the 30, but eliminate the run up by everyone but the kicker? They could have even written the rule as allowing only on player to be able to run up. On normal KOs that player would be the kicker, on onsides KOs it could be one of the coverage players. At this point, the time after a TD is becoming the worst part of the game. Review time (which is the absolute worst part of a game), XP (second worst unless teams are going for 2) and KO (third worst). It's getting brutal.

Gilmore is just looking for the best deal he can get and that means negotiating up to the last minute. That might be TC, the first preseason game or the first regular season game, depending upon what he's comfortable with. I highly doubt that there's more to it than that.