BarleyNY

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.

Thanks for keeping things classy and civil.

It seems as though the week the Bills have just had, with the Shaq Lawson shoulder surgery and revelation of Watkins' foot surgery, led to a highly emotional few days. We all read what followed. Thankfully things are starting to die down.

Thanks. I was wondering if it was a labrum. I tore mine almost 20 years ago (bench press), but waited about 8 years to get it fixed. I can understand why people thought he could get away with waiting for surgery. I was fine except when I made that specific motion. But that exact motion was excruciating. It felt like my shoulder was popping out of place (which, I was later told, was exactly what was happening). The good news is that Lawson is going to get the best care. I was very lucky in that regard, too. I went to the Cleveland Clinic and got an Ortho who was known for being a go-to guy for MLB pitchers. But he is going to have a long road back. His arm will be immobilized for a couple months. The atrophy in my chest and arm was unreal after that. He's a lot younger and in better shape than I was - which is great - but he's playing in the NFL now. Lawson not only has to heal, he has to get strong enough to make sure he doesn't re-injure himself. The prudent course of action is to err on the side of caution and make sure he gets healthy and back in shape. The Bills need to prepare as if he will not play in 2016 and consider anything he gives the team this season a bonus.

Lmao. That's outstanding!

It's not even that far of a drive from Pittsburgh to Buffalo.

I get all that. One of my major points was that those with unbridled optimism tend to throw the reasonable people in the middle in with those who have unbridled negativity (of which there are very few in number, if not posts).

Nothing new going on yet, but Jest OTAs start Tuesday. He speculates that it might prompt something to get done since all parties would like him there. If I were in Fitzy's shoes I'd want to miss the OTAs so everyone would get a good look at Geno as starter. Maybe that would be a good reminder to the FO of what that was like. Then maybe they'd loosen the ole purse strings.

Crap. Sorry.

I've seen this same kind of stupid bull**t post repeatedly. It's absolute garbage. Post something positive and it goes ignored by the Kool Aid Krew. Then post something negative and s**t like the above gets spewed by them. Every single time. It doesn't matter how positive you've been in other posts or how correct you've been in your negative ones, The Kool Aid Krew will be there to bash you. Believe it or not, there's some realists out here just trying to see things as they are. If we see something good, we say it's good. If we see something bad, we say it's bad. Then we change our views based on new information - and here's the tricky part - without contorting the facts into what we want to believe or fear. I look at it as Living In The Real World. You should try it sometime.

Yeah, me too.

Yeah. Except that it's not at all a fallacy. This is how he acted toward his team after Dallas gave him a contract with a domestic violence suspension keeping him out for part of the season. You want this guy on the team?: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nfl-shutdown-corner/why-is-greg-hardy-unemployed--hint--it-s-not-for-domestic-violence-133920118.html

There is no way I could bring myself to root for Hardy. His talent is undeniable, but I still don't think he can be counted on in any way - not to stay out of trouble, not in the locker room and not on the field.

I saw it once. That was enough, thanks. Speaking of 2015, it's a great example of posters ripping those with a more realistic view of the team. Either you're a Pollyanna or ridiculed. Take a couple of my predictions for 2015: - My Bills season projection was that they'd make the playoffs, but lose in the WC round. I got ripped by some for saying that they wouldn't win a playoff game and for saying that they weren't good enough to compete for a title. My projection was actually better than what they achieved, but I was considered to be negative. - I thought the Rex hire was excellent and that he'd have the defense playing great. I expected a top defense by the end of the season, giving some early leeway for players learning a new system. I way overestimated him and his ability to tailor his defense to the talent. So now think I was wrong based on his performance and that of the defense. But I guess I'm not supposed to take what I see into consideration. If I don't see how super-awesome Rex is, I shouldn't post on here. Or I should just wait until he's on his way out and then we can all bash him together! Sorry, rose colored glasses shouldn't be required to post here and some people should really take theirs off before ripping people who are correct a whole lot more than they are.