BarleyNY

Yup. A reserve punching a starting QB (even a crappy one like Smith) is ridiculous. The FO and coaches have all watched EJ's tape and seen him play live. EJ has an uphill battle due to his past and present play, not some undeserved bias. He either steps it up or he won't be long for the team or the NFL.

True on Felton. Always nice to have a FB like him on the roster.

This actually brings up an interesting question I hadn't thought of: Are the Bills actually going to be tougher/meaner on the field than they were last season or 2013? Incognito might help in that regard. Kiko is missing, but he wasn't around last season anyway. When healthy he sure brings an intensity and a nastiness I will miss, though. The defense was nasty with him in 2013. I guess I'll have to wait and see how it plays out, but I can't think of anyone besides Incognito who is going to help the team in that regard.

Lol. Like Bradford won't already be on IR by December.

Wow. That kind of question screams "inferiority complex" but I'll go with it. Obviously we can only judge by what we've seen so far. So what I'm saying is that OBJ has been better than Watkins so far. If/when I see something that makes me think otherwise I'll change my opinion. Until then, it is what it is.

Agree on Watt. Best defensive player in the league right now. OBJ is an excellent WR and he's better than Watkins, who is very good. Still, OBJ is better. Some people are just bitter about how that draft went down and the relative levels of exposure. OBJ is overexposed because he plays for the New York Giants. Watkins is underexposed because he plays for the Bills. That's the way it is with big market vs. small market teams. The only equalizer for a small market team is winning.

You could throw Dareus and Shady into the knucklehead/character issue group as well. I don't have issue with the low risk guys like IK and Incognito as they can be removed with no real cap issue if needed (although having Incognito in the locker room isn't great). Dareus has done some stupid stuff, but he's sure worth the risk as a player. I'd very much like to keep him around. Harvin wasn't worth it at all IMO. I know it's a one year, $6M deal, but I'd pass on an absolute turbodouche like that. He can blame everyone else for his problems, pout and refuse to play somewhere else. I'd have passed on Shady too. Too much to give up in contract and trade for a RB whose fit in the Bills offense is unknown. I don't give up what they did for any RB. Still, no need to flip out. It is what it is. The FO is taking some minor and some bigger risks. I hope they still have the cap space to retain Dareus. We will see how it goes.

Fair point.

lmao

There's been some rumblings about interest in Rice recently. My bet is that he got some legit interest from one team and now his agent is leaking "interest" from other teams in an attempt to get that team moving on a deal. I doubt the Bills have real interest as Rice would be the #2 RB here. Are they really going to dump Fred for Rice after Kromer, Incognito, Shady, IK, Dareus, etc.? I can't image that happens. Right now those are collectively being forgotten, but adding Rice would dredge many of them back up. It'd be a bad PR move that might not even help the team much. IMO the Bills don't call on Rice unless Shady snaps a leg.

Lots of presupposition regarding success in this thread.

My initial reaction to Hurley being hired was "I bet he's renting." Give me a break. Was the AD not supposed to hire an excellent coach like Hurley just because he knew he'd bail within a short time? How, exactly, is any MAC team supposed to keep a coach like that? Just GETTING a coach like Hurley was impressive. And what is an AD supposed to do about one player on one team stealing something? Other than make sure he's punished appropriately, that is? It's the AD's job to make sure appropriate policies for such incidents are in place and enforced. That's all an AD can do.

I keep coming back to this point about EJ. You can ask your WRs, TEs and RBs to deal with getting hung out to dry for a few games if, say, your back up QB has to come in for a few weeks while your starting QB recovers from injury. They should be expected to be able to deal with that, but you can't ask them to do it for 16 games (plus maybe playoffs). You just can't.

Funny that Cassel is held in so much higher regard than Fitzpatrick. They are both in their 11th season and have very similar stats: Cassel: http://espn.go.com/nfl/player/stats/_/id/8644/matt-cassel Fitzpatrick: http://espn.go.com/nfl/player/stats/_/id/8664/ryan-fitzpatrick Also, the Jests situation is hilarious.

If you can legitimately argue that Kylie Orton could make your QB corps better, then you're in real trouble.

Good to see him locked up for a little while longer, but I'm curious to see the contract.

The two bombs were developed in parallel, but used different technologies. One was a uranium bomb and the other plutonium and the detonation methods were different. The reason there were two was because scientists had two different theories of how to create a nuclear bomb, but no one knew if either would actually work. The U.S. took the approach of developing both in the hopes that one would.

It's money.

Just watched WWII from Space on Netflix. It gives background, aerial views of major engagements, strategies employed, etc. A good watch. Interestingly it was noted that if there was any decision to cross a moral barrier having to do with dropping the atomic bombs, that it had already been made when the firebombings were okayed. They went into other factors as well, including: - the Japanese utilization of suicide bombers on land as well as Kamakazi pilots - the Japanese fighting to the last soldier and civilians committing mass suicide instead of surrendering - the immense loss of life expected by both sides If an invasion occurred - political repercussions and outrage of US public if it was found out that huge US casualties could have been avoided by use of the A-bomb - to strike fear into Stalin I don't see how Truman could have decided otherwise. Some could argue that one would have been enough, but while their use killed so many it also saved many times more.

I assumed that was sarcasm.

He was in Jersey for about 2 months so I'm not giving him much credit for that. Let's see how he does this season. Hopefully he's learned his lesson, but I'll believe it when I see it.

Dunno, top 3 with a disclaimer that 3rd might be too low isn't exactly disrespectful in my book. No, he's not. He's the 18th best defensive player in hurries. He's 10th among DEs. 3 fewer hurries than Mario (just like sacks).

Put me in the "Woods is underrated" group. He is a very solid WR. I'd love to see what he could do with a good QB behind center.

I am still not a fan of Harvin or the Bills signing him. Trouble wherever he goes, but never his fault.

Wake had 11.5 sacks last season which is better than every individual Bill not named Mario Williams, who had 14.5. How do you consider Mario top 2, but Wake "never gets to the QB"?