BarleyNY

I'm sorry, did I miss that something that is worth discussing happened?

Oops. The picks were numbered correctly, but I put down the wrong rounds. Fixed now.

Completely ridiculous. The Bills gave up almost nothing in the way of draft compensation for Cassel. For the team's, you know, expected starting QB. If the front office preferred Cassel and wavered and went after a lesser QB due to a late round draft pick they need fired. Today. Edited to add trade details: The Bills gave up a 5th round pick (137) and a 2016 seventh round pick for Cassel and a 6th (188). That's not much for any player - particularly not a QB.

This is correct. There isn't much else to be done at the moment, is there? But still, every time someone goes off about how great the Bills will be this season I say "I'd be on board if they had a QB. The Bills' best QB right now is Matt Cassel and they preferred McCown over him." That's blunt. It's "peeing in the punch bowl," but it is completely accurate as a gauge of where the Bills are at the position.

Thanks to a brutal kids baseball game I attended when the issue in Miami came out (first year of kid pitch, about 4,000 walks) I had some time to read through the entire public text message exchange between Martin and Incognito. I was surprised to find that Incognito really didn't come off as hazing Martin at all. He came off like a slime ball meathead who spent all of his free time and money whoring, going to strip joints and crusing pick up joints. He gave Martin the kind of crap a lot of extremely crass friends give their buddies. I saw nothing more. That's not to say things like that couldn't have happened in person, but those texts sure didn't prove hazing. If anything he really did seem to think of Martin as a friend. But that doesn't mean that after so much time off Incognito is going to return to form. He might. He might even be better because he's well rested, but there are no guarantees. I know that he is aware that this is his last shot in the NFL so I expect him to stay out of trouble unless he is a bigger idiot than I think or he doesn't come back to form on the field and just snaps. My money would be on average to above average play and zero additional negative off the field stuff.

I wouldn't be surprised to see the Bills make the playoffs this season, but I'd be very surprised to see them win a playoff game.

Yup.

Yes, it certainly looks like teams were taking that seam route away. Gore ran well with over 1100 yards so I suspect the WRs - particularly Crabtree - had a lot to do with that. Boldin is (was) a great WR and had over 1k yards last season, but he's not really a big deep threat anymore and that wasn't ever really his game. Crabtree is the guy they've depended on to be that and he looks about done due to injuries. Without teams worrying about getting beat over the top it is a lot easier for them to regularly cover a TE seam route. I'm not sure what an OC does about that situation, other than ask for such a player to be added to the roster.

That would be against the rules of the league. It is very clearly spelled out that a coach or team can't penalize a player for missing any voluntary practice. The NFLPA would have gone ballistic.

http://www.sportingcharts.com/nfl/stats/drops/2014/ Some interesting stats. Davis was only targeted 50 times (about 3/game) with 31 catchable balls last season (about 2/game). That actually supports what he's saying about safety coverage. He had 5 drops over the season, or about 1 drop every 3 games. That he only caught 26 balls is shocking. While his drop rate of 10% on targeted balls isn't great, him dropping 1 out of every 6 catchable balls is bad. It's a small sample size so one or two drops that were out of his control (getting hit by a safety for example) would skew it considerably. And what's with Kaep missing him on almost 40% of the targets to him? Maybe that's why Roman changed the scheme to take away throws down the seam to Davis - Kaep wasn't completing them. This situation is definitely not an indictment of Roman, though. Without knowing the reasons why he deemphasized Davis' role we can't do that. There obviously are legitimate reasons he could have done so. Also it's no surprise that a guy like Davis who is coming up on his next contract wouldn't like his role being deemphasized.

Wow.

It would be very tough for the Bills to pull off snagging a tagged QB. The cap impact would probably mean not re-signing Dareus and parting ways with at least one other player. Notably the Bills would have to create the necessary cap space in order to sign the QB and run the risk of the offer being matched anyway. It's just not going to happen next offseason. If they go all out to get a QB it'll be in the draft. That is something I do expect.

Realistically the Dolphins don't have the money to sign Mathis. They have a little more than the Bills this season, but are lined up to be in the worst shape of any team next offseason. Every team mentioned as a suitor is not really interested. Rosenhaus, who happens to live in Miami, is just trying to drive up the price of his client by publicly adding names to the suitors list.

If he's scared of anything I'm thinking it'd be of walking with a limp for rest of his life. He's had a difficult recovery already. As for what he can offer - the Falcons let him go. There are few teams more in need of OL help than them and they didn't want him.

Why would a guy who just pocketed $18.25M over the last two years sign a one year deal for for $870k?

Yup. He apparently hasn't healed well from the patellar injury in 2013. The Falcons were going to try him at guard, hoping that he'd be in good enough shape for that. I guess he isn't. Expect a retirement or a lengthy layoff for him. If he really wants a ring maybe he gets his body right and signs on later in the season after some tackle for a playoff team gets injured, but I doubt it. He's almost certainly done. He just made a lot of money so why would he further put his health on the line to make close to vet minimum somewhere? True, but Baker only played 4 games in 2013 before he tore his patellar and then he sat out all of 2014. They paid over $4.5M per GAME for him.

Wow! The Falcons took it In the shorts big time with Baker. The release means they paid him $18.25M to be their LT for two seasons. Only $4.5M in salary for 2015 so apparently he's worth less than half of what they were paying him. Damn!

Was trying not to be a downer, but the lowest hanging fruit seems to be:Harvin won't end the season playing for the Bills. He'll be cut, traded or injured by then.

Dude, quit beer bonging the Kool Aid. The Bills are trying to win the only way possible without a quality QB. It's exactly the way other teams without quality at QB try to win - running the ball and defense. There's nothing new here. Nothing. They aren't breaking any new ground. They aren't outsmarting the league. They are going the only route they can. And don't for a minute think the Bills have stopped looking for an upgrade at QB.

When a Bon Jovi song comes on the radio I turn the station. That was true before, during and after last year.

Roman has been talked about as a HC candidate for many years, but has been repeatedly passed over. At this point I have to think there's a valid reason he hasn't gotten that HC gig he seems to want pretty badly (judging by the interviews he has done). Or maybe it's just been bad luck and now owners are gun shy. That happens. And sometimes guys are just much better coordinators or position coaches than stepping up a level. I don't know what's up, but I'd love to.

A franchise QB would put the Bills into the hunt for a Super Bowl, but not having such a player, squeaking into the playoffs and getting crushed in the first round doesn't. Sure, you can go looking for one, but judging by the futility of the Bills' search for that very player I think it's safe to say that they're tough to come by. Good luck with that. I'll take a complete team that narrowly missed the playoffs and is poised to make a SB run over a likely perpetual also-ran any day. But that's just me.

Mirages bother me more. And F squeaking into the playoffs, then showing we don't belong there and then being positioned to not make it back. You know the Browns have a shorter playoff drought than the Bills, right? That's because they went to one playoff game since the Bills have been - and they lost it. If you think Browns fans wouldn't trade that one playoff loss for a bona file franchise QB going forward, then you're nuts. I can be true if they are nearly out of the playoff hunt before he gets to start. How about something like this? Cassel starts and doesn't play well then gets benched or injured after posting a 2-4 record. Manuel comes in, everything clicks for him and the Bills go 8-2 to finish 10-6 and just miss the playoffs on a tiebreaker. I'd take that in a heartbeat.

We won't know what Manuel can or can't do until the bullets start flying. That's been his issue, not looking good practicing in shorts. I hope he surprises me when the time comes and, even though I'm not optimistic, now is not the time to rip on the guy. I'd rather have a franchise QB than get to say I was right. I'm rooting for him.

I'm in. I'll go with under 11-5 and I want a four pack of DFH 90 minute IPA (available at your local Consumer's Beverage). I will give you that or an equivalent dollar amount of whatever beer you want should you win. If you're game, please respond.