BarleyNY

Mario had 14.5 sacks in 2014 and 13 in 2013. He had 5 last season. Hughes dropped from 10 to 5 for reference. The production from Mario's spot might not see much of a drop, but the potential for production from his position sure will. Added production last season? Not really much, if any overall. It sure didn't show up in the Bills' record.

That's a lot of expectations for a lot of improvement. Maybe it happens, but I'm not putting money on all of that. Besides, that doesn't account for any players whose play falls off. Freed up money doesn't directly equate to talent acquired. In fact, the likeliest destinations for Mario's salary cap savings are retention of current players. That is a net loss.

New Orleans is in cap hell, the Bills are in cap heck. It's manageable, but the current situation will make it difficult to stay even or improve in terms of overall talent.

On the Mario or Rex issue, they certainly don't coexist well. I understand Mario has to go - for a variety of reasons. But if he had still been in a defense where rushing the passer was his primary responsibility we'd probably be talking about the possibility of a contract extension for him to lower his cap hit, not the inevitability of his exit. I hate seeing coaches waste talent like with Mario. It points to inflexibility on their part. The best coaches make the most of what they have to work with. The problem I have on the personnel side is that Glenn and Incognito or Mario wasn't the only choice here. It might be now, but there were other places money for Mario (especially if his deal was reworked) could have come from. It doesn't make sense to do that based on his responsibilities in the current scheme, but if he was still primarily rushing the passer it sure might have been. The Bills have spent poorly/questionably recently: a tremendous overpayment for Clay, Shady's huge deal and $6M thrown away on Harvin last season leap to mind. Then there are the Dareus and Hughes deals that looked very reasonable when they were signed, but now I find somewhat questionable due to scheme. Paying big money to players that excelled in an attacking one-gap scheme, then making them change to a more passive two-gap scheme has trouble written all over it. I just do not see how the defense improves much next season. It's not about the players becoming familiar with the scheme, it's that most of the front seven talent doesn't fit the scheme.

Yup. Tailor the offense to fit your franchise QB if you have the good fortune to find one.

Why is Peyton Manning's affiliation with a Republican presidential candidate surprising to anyone? He's originally from a very red state and he's incredibly tight with Papa John's founder, John Schnatter, who has been an enormous GOP supporter over the years. That came to light when he made some incredibly idiotic comments sometime around the last presidential election.

Yes, at the very end of the 2015 season after rumors of the team planning to cut him in the offseason surfaced Mario did seem to give up - and he was criticized by one anonymous teammate for quitting. Did that ever happen before in his career? I have a difficult time believing that suddenly, at the end of his 10th season he became a malcontent. The Bills didn't get a lot out of Mario this past season and what they did get is replaceable at a fraction of his cost. Plus he's getting toward the end of his career and it was never reasonable to think he'd see the end of his deal. I agree with you on all of that. But the coaching staff utilized him specifically - and the other defensive players generally - very poorly. Many of them were frustrated about the scheme and the results. Fans were too. Cutting Mario is not going to help any of those underlying problems. I'm not as upset about losing Mario as I am with the general direction of the team. I don't like seeing people cheer this move because the underlying reasons are troubling. The way the Bills have spent and their consequent cap situation is going to mean that they'll likely have less talent on the team in 2016 than they did in 2015. Furrmore, the coaches have not allowed their defensive talent to perform through a scheme I'll-suited to most of them. So what will happen next offseason? I fear more purging of talented players that don't fit Rex's scheme. Players that have been effective for the Bills in the past and still could be if the scheme was better suited to them. I was a supporter of hiring Rex, but what happened this past season with the defense has made me reconsider. I will need to see a much better defense next year to bring me back over to his side.

So if Mario can't tell his coaches he's being used incorrectly, then how do you feel about Wakins running to his agent and the media telling them he's not being thrown to enough? The "he quit" narrative doesn't have much backing it up. Mario sure seemed frustrated at times, but saying he quit is just hyperbole. You know who quit? Harvin. That's quitting. And you're ignoring my point about the team losing a good bit of talent when Mario is released. He had good years up until this past one and I suspect he'll have another good one in 2016 somewhere else. How does that help the Bills?

I hate the "his production doesn't match his pay" line of "reasoning" in this case. Mario performed at a very high level when utilized properly. It could be argued (and I have) that he was a little overcompensated, but his lack of production this past year was utilization related. The best coaches mold their schemes to fit talent/personnel and we sure didn't see that with Mario or the defense in general last season. His release (when it inevitably happens) is going to be spun as an indictment of Mario, but it really should be seen as a coaching failure. The front office made their choices last offseason. They signed Clay, Shady and Hughes to huge deals and there's only so much money to go around. In fact, it's certainly possible that the coaches didn't tailor their scheme to fit Mario because they'd already decided he was gone after 2015. Regardless of his (mis)utilization last season, the Bills will be losing a lot of talent when he exits.

Thanks for posting. Gotta love Alton Brown!

So you think you'll be closer in an NFL venue?

Just days ago I was thinking how sad it was that the Manziel thread was the longest on the front page. I retract that.

That's great that you and Promo support UB, but neither of you are refuting my points. And quite frankly, if UB playing in a small, generic venue that commands very low ticket prices keeps you away, then what would happen if they played in a brand new NFL stadium and their prices were as high as Bills tickets are now? (Bills ticket prices will undoubtedly increase in a new stadium.)

Judging by UB's stadium on game day you're the only one.

I was about to laugh off the thought of UB siphoning off interest from the Bills, but that's actually pretty spot on. For a shared stadium to even be considered, UB would need to beef up their program substantially. That means they might be more relevant in college than the Bills are in the NFL at some point down the road. That ends the discussion right there. No way would the Bills invite that possibility. I'll jump ahead now to the "there's plenty of room for both" argument. No, there's not. Not in Buffalo. Not currently. It doesn't have close to population, like Atlanta, where the sheer number of people makes it feasible. The culture isn't there to provide strong support for bother either. In other words, Buffalo isn't a "football town". Yes, Buffalo loves it's Bills, but it is a hockey town. Football isn't ingrained in the culture like it is in Ohio, Texas and Florida. Growing up in Cleveland, fall weekends were high school football on Fridays, Buckeyes on Saturdays and Browns on Sundays. Who here bothers with UB football, much less high school? They can't even get students to go with free tickets.

Think he was talking about the comments in linked article.

Winner!

How much room do we have on our IR roster?

Good memory!

I don't think any fans are worse than Philly fans. Some are more annoying at times, but not worse people. I remember this one story an Iggles fan posted about taking his non-Iggles fan wife to a game. They had been together for years, but he had always avoided it due to the behavior of fellow fans. He finally took her and the fan behavior was horrific, per usual. She was shocked and mortified that he would repeatedly, and for years, go somewhere where things were that messed up. He said she never looked at him the same way again and cited it as likely one of the reasons she left him. I wish I could find it. It was hilarious (divorce aside).

The technique is "sabrage" but it's also called "sabering champagne". Napoleon and his cavalry were known for doing it. Coincidentally, Madame Clicquot is often in stories about Napoleon's soldiers sabering champagne and I swear the bottle in the video is Veuve Clicquot.

Dunno. Maybe the third cop was in the restroom or off talking up some chick. Who knows? Nothing to indicate he even knew something happened. The two cops involved both got treatment so I don't know who drove whom where other that one drove himself to the hospital. Maybe the second rode with the first one? Or had his own car? Dunno. I doubt it matters unless his BAC got tested at the hospital. You don't want to have "driven yourself to the hospital" if you were over the limit. Could play into the case as well if it happened.

Not if you're on the ground getting stomped. How does someone make a 911 call during something like that? You'd hope someone would make the call, but I'm not sure how you would. And it's not like the other guys aren't going to scatter immediately. There were three cops, one of whom did not seem to be around the incident. One got stomped and one was trying to pull him out of the melee. Then they all got tossed. There's no time for a call up until then and even if one was made at that point, what good would it do? The other guys are gone.

Right. Okay, so the incident happened at 2:45AM Sunday and was a thread here late Monday morning. About 32 hours. In that time, the officers had to be treated, file a report about the incident with unknown people, those people had to be identified and it had to hit the news wire. Let's face it, we'd never know about this incident if McCoy - or another NFL player - hadn't been identified at some point. It doesn't seem like there was any delay. It just want newsworthy until McCoy was identified, which took less than 32 hours.

Didn't seem like there would be much time to call 911 while a guy was swinging a champagne bottle at you or you were getting chucked out of a club. This happened at 2:45 AM and was in the news that morning so it seems like the police report was filed pretty damn quick. As for identifying themselves as police, who knows? There will be testimony to that effect, but in a noisy club could anyone hear them anyway? should it matter? The club cameras are only there to protect the club. Whether or not they were "working" probably only depends on whether or not their footage would help or hinder a lawsuit against the club. Don't kid yourself, they aren't there for the public good.