BarleyNY

Maybe we could all just watch people play Madden and then we'd just have to worry about the occasional player with carpel tunnel or "gamer's thumb". Seriously, if you have an issue with the physical toll the game takes on players and don't think enough is being done for their safety or that the physical toll they take is not worth what they make in money and benefits, then don't watch the games and don't support the advertisers.

Just means less tax on signing bonuses executed this offseason before making the move official. After that all will be under CA rules and regulations.

I think you might have missed Doug Marrone's tenure.

Terrible ideas that'll never happen. Just do what I usually do: DVR it and start watching a 1pm game at 2:30 or so. No hurry to be there in front of the screen at kick off (or even right at 2:30) if you are involved with family, hobby or whatever. If you are called away from the game you don't miss anything either. Spoilers are highly unlikely since you'll be starting the recording at halftime. Even if you do see a spoiler it won't be for the end of the game since you'll probably be catching up just as the game ends due to skipping commercials and other filler. Oh, and that's the other huge bonus - no commercials. God, I hate seeing the same commercials over and over again during a game broadcast. If the kids watch with you, skipping the Cialis commercials is especially nice. It's the way to go. Flexibility, more family time, no crap commercials or hackneyed analysis. It's a great way to go.Edited to add: Just extend the recording for at least an hour to make sure you don't miss the end!

Lotta speculation that seems to fit a lot of preconceived notions. It'll be interesting to hear the story of it comes out. I don't think Rex has done a good job overall, but this could have been anything. Weird timing, yes, but that could be for a lot of reasons.

Thanks! I try!

I hear the champagne there will knock you out.

Nice!

Truer words were never spoken. The truly batshitcrazy women generally have some sort of spectacular sex superpower. I'm not sure why, but I'm guessing that all women are batshitcrazy but most have to tone it down if they aren't phenomenal in the sack. At any rate, there's definitely a correlation. Some men learn their lesson and some men don't. Or maybe some just take the package deal.

Ah yes, the cheesesteaks that they put Cheez Wiz on.

Thanks for sharing the link.

Also it's funny for him to brag about "growing up on the ocean" even though Philly is on the Delaware river, not the ocean. And he brags about the casinos in Atlantic City, which is in New Jersey. He literally mentions zero attractions that are in Philadelphia.

Dogging another city is simply cheap, classless writing. He could have written a decent article about why the players came to Philly to play in Schwartz's defense, the succes they've had together and why. But, no, he plays the Philly-is-way-cooler-than-crappy-Buffalo card. Stellar job. That he thinks Lake Erie is 35 minutes from Buffalo shows you exactly how informed he is. And that he thinks Anchor Bar has "tremendous" wings shows you his level of taste.

A big change in how the defense is schemed is really the only chance for a big improvement on that side of the ball. I'm not optimistic of it happening, especially with the hiring of Rob Ryan, but I'm still hoping it does.

There was certainly reason to think the Bills would be above average and make the playoffs, but there was a lot of over the top exuberance as well. A lot of that was fueled by Rex and his nature. But some of us were more realistic even if not totally correct about the situation. I thought the defense would be a lot better than they were and I thought Rex would be a better coach than he was. I didn't think Tyrod would be as good as he was. Overall I thought the Bills would get 9 or 10 wins and potentially get a wildcard, but I didn't think they'd have any realistic chance to do much once in the playoffs. I didn't get too excited because I only see two reasons for that - a team with a shot at a championship or a team executing a plan to develop into a contender (which I wanted to see some proof of happening before jumping on the bandwagon). I'm not excited now because they currently aren't the former and I am going to need to see a dramatic chance in Rex's performance before I think the latter might be the case.

That's what the Browns have offered - and what SF would accept. The hold up is on reworking Kaep's contract. He's not budging much and the Browns are wary of guaranteeing that kind of money to a guy who not only has been having some down seasons, but also is coming off 3 surgeries. He can't even pass a physical currently. I think the Browns should pass.

Quality coaches match their scheme to the talent they have. Remember, a coach's main job is to get the most out of their players individually and collectively. I despise the strategy of retooling an offense or defense to fit scheme - and Rex and the Bills defense is a pretty extreme case. It would be one thing to see Rex retool a poor defensive unit, but that isn't the case here at all. The Bills had a defense that was truly excelling until he forced his scheme on them last season. It was a poor fit to personnel, but instead of changing the scheme he has decided to change personnel. Watching that defense get dismantled is a travesty and it wouldn't be necessary if Rex was a better coach.

Great post. Hogan may indeed do very well in NE's offense and he may be worth $4M/yr to them. His production in the Bills' offense can easily be replaced with a better fit to the scheme though. A lesser version of the Mario situation - if you can't or won't take advantage of what a player does best then he's not worth much to your team.

That's just economics. Differencemakers will always get the discretionary dollars. The only ways to spread out money is to raise minimum salaries/benefits and/or cap the top salaries. Vets who make more than incoming players generally get squeezed out, but the NFL does discount the cap hits from vet minimum salaries to help this situation. Free agency definitely helps the market's process, but it'd be happening anyway. It is difficult to argue the impact of the elimination of free agency unless you know the system that would replace it. If you simply say that players can't change teams without a trade (or release) but teams are still bound by minimum spending then you might actually see more money flow to the highest performers and less to midlevel players. I'd argue that free agency actually causes money to be spread out to a greater degree simply because some moderate talents get much bigger deals than the market would indicate they should. We've seen a lot of that this week.

Free agency sure helps teams fill in holes on their rosters, so yes, it definitely helps balance the league. But it is more of a way of making sure all teams can at least be decent by getting competent players at positions of need rather than a path for teams to reach greatness by acquiring differencemakers. The former happens every year with virtually every team while the latter happens very, very rarely.

Oh, good. A thread about the Bills' cap situation.

Nice work. Those deals are nicely thought out and they'll be about what it'll probably take to get them done. I am still hoping for a bit of a discount though. (Not to nitpick, but the dead money in the final years of those two deals looks off. Should be 6.5 and 7. Guessing it was a spreadsheet error.)

Yeah, he is.

Wow. Huge brain fart on my part. Previous post is deleted.

Yeah, Bills gave him an original round tender.