msw2112

I'm not firmly in the Whaley camp (and I'm not firmly against him either). I do think that the Blanton signing was an attempt to mitigate the AW situation. He is a veteran safety with starting experience who was able to fit in under the cap. A solid signing. We also signed the other backup safety from Indy (although I think he was more for special teams and he is now out injured). Blanton has not worked out so far, but let's hope that with full starter's reps that he will improve. Duke and Meeks have been around for several years now and just don't seem to be taking that next step. That said, D'Norris Searcy wasn't very good in his early years and developed into a solid player. We'll see. Other posts have said that you can't sign an All-Pro to start at every position and you can't sign a quality starter to back up every position. I agree. There's a salary cap, injuries happen and teams get thin at certain positions. Look at the Vikings - they lost their starting QB, their starting (All-Pro) RB and both starting tackles, yet they are still at the top of the league. Our defense was down Dareus, Ragland and Lawson and has performed well in 5 out of 7 games. Injuries and lack of depth are a part of the game. Teams have to adjust and some do better than others. I'm not sure I am making a single point here other than to say that there's a lot of different things to consider when assessing a situation.

I'll be there with a crew of 4 - 6 guys. All 6 of us will be sitting together at the game, but 4 of us are staying together and the other 2 are on a separate itinerary. We'll be in the lower bowl on the 10 yard line about 50 rows up. Ironically, a friend of mine who is a Rams fan bought the 6 tickets and the other 5 guys will all be Buffalo guys. 3 of us are driving in from Arizona and meeting a 4th driving up from San Diego. The other two are flying in and staying separately. The 4 of us are staying at (I kid you not) The Hotel California in Santa Monica and will likely head over to Busby's West on Saturday. We are considering the Shrine tailgate on Sunday, but I suspect it will be voted down in favor of a more "Buffalo style" tailgate in the parking lot. If you multiply $45 by 4 or 6, you can buy a whole lot of food and beer. I suspect that the lines at the Shrine for beer will be long and the food will be limited. The beer lines to our coolers in the parking lot will be much shorter. I'm open to any ideas and suggestions of where Buffalo fans will be beyond the Busby's thing on Saturday and the Shrine on Sunday. My last Bills road game was Denver in 2014 and it was a blast. I can't wait!

Just a thought I had earlier today - any chance they bring Manny Lawson back at a lower cost? Has his 2-game suspension been served? Can you serve a suspension when you are not on an NFL roster? The open roster spot made me think of this again.

I agree with a lot of what is said above. I have been an enormous fan of NFL football for many years, but this season, I see my interest waning a bit. Reasons for me: 1. The Bills are a dumpster fire. It's hard to be too interested when my own team is so bad. 2. My fantasy team this year is also a dumpster fire. 3. Officiating. It seems like every game involves phantom pass interference or personal foul penalties on third and fourth downs that keep drives alive and hand games over to teams that don't deserve it. It is beyond frustrating and takes a lot of the enjoyment and satisfaction out of the game for me. For example, the phantom Pass Interference call against the Bills in London against JAX last year that extended the JAX drive and cost the Bills the game. A post above made me think of this one. 4. Concussions and injuries. I used to cheer the big hits, but now I think about the impact it has on these guys brains. Same for knees, ankles, ribs, etc. Guys are too big, strong and fast. I find myself cringing at times watching these guys go down every game or playing with obvious injuries. I want Sammy Watkins on the field, but I cringe when I see him limping around the field. I played football back in the day and loved every minute of it, but would not let my kids play. 5. Suspensions and criminal activity. I hate suspensions, because talented players I want to see are not on the field. On the flip side, I find it difficult to watch guys who have committed domestic violence play. How can you cheer for Adrian Peterson, who beat a young child? or Greg Hardy? The drug infractions don't bother me that much, other than the fact that these guys are stupid enough to be repeat offenders when they know they are being tested. 6. Greed. I am getting sick and tired of the league holding cities hostage for taxpayers to fund new stadiums while revenues soar for the owners. Plus, these new stadiums are over the top with amenities that are totally unnecessary and only increase the cost of the game for the fans. 7. Saturation. Sunday afternoon, Sunday night, Monday night, Thursday night, etc. It's getting to be too much. 8. Statistics. Every year there are new stats tracked for everything. We used to track sacks. Now we track QB hits. Do those include sacks or are those simply hits that did not result in a sack? This is much worse in baseball, but the concept is the same. At some point, I simply want to watch and enjoy the game and not see and hear about every statistic that could possibly be considered. 9. Announcers. There are no more than 16 games in a week. You would think that they would be able to find 32 competent individuals to call a game (one announcer and one color guy per game). Beyond the top couple of pairs at each network, these guys are horrible. When I turn on a Bills game and here Spero Dedes' voice, I want to throw up. They overstate the obvious but also make several ridiculous comments every telecast. The miss things that most casual fans catch. Just awful. 10. Commercials. There is no continuity to a game with constant commercial breaks. I really hate it when they cut to commercial after a score, then show the kickoff, then take another commercial break immediately after. It is ridiculous. I could go on, but 10 is more than enough to make the point!

One of the earlier posts hit the nail on the head - we don't run enough plays for our guys to get touches. When you go three and out on 80% of your drives and your scoring drives consist of long bombs to the WR (not a bad thing, mind you), there are not enough opportunities to get the ball into anyone's hands, let alone your 2nd string RB. I like Gillislee and think he has talent and potential, but we need some sustained drives in order to get him some touches. And yes, while I love the phrase "We've got Bush!" Reggie seems like a complete waste of money. Gillislee is the superior RB and Tate is returning kicks (and Powell can too). Why do we need to take up $3M of cap space for a player who has no value?

I watched parts of the broadcast and I heard Tasker's comment. My first reaction to it was "is he out of his mind?" but after further thought and after reading this thread, it is clear to me that he was just making an offhand hypothetical comment to bolster his point that the Bills are not likely to trade their backup QB, but that any player can be had for a price if the buyer is willing to overpay. Taking Tasker's comments to mean that he (or anyone) believes that EJ Manuel is worth 2 first round picks is a huge overreaction. EJ is clearly not worth 2 first round picks, 1 first round pick, 1 second round pick, etc. For a team desperate for veteran QB help with some starting experience and some ability, EJ might be worth a middle-round pick. I had a funny feeling at the time that someone on this board would start a thread about the comment. With the roster cuts happening and Week 1 looming, isn't there something better to discuss today?

@Baltimore - W Jets - W Arizona - L @New England - W @Los Angeles - W San Francisco - W @Miami - W New England - L @Seattle - L @Cincinnati - L Jacksonville - W @Oakland - L Pittsburgh - L Cleveland - W Miami - W @Jets - L 9-7, miss out on Wild Card by 1 game. Picks are based on quality of opponent, home vs. away, weather factors (Miami in BUF in December), etc. Obviously, teams vary greatly from year to year, so I really have no idea how good our opponents will be this year vs. the past (nor how good the Bills will be this year). JAX and OAK seem to be on the rise, but we have JAX at home and play @OAK, so that's why I picked those games as I did.

It took multiple calls this year. One yielded 50% off the regular package, but nothing off of the Max upgrade. I declined, holding out for a better offer. I was told that better offers may be available "at the end July or closer to the start of the season." A second call yielded $5 off per month on my main TV package for a year, but no Sunday Ticket discount. I should note that their system went down mid-call, so I didn't even go into the Sunday Ticket pitch. A third call made earlier this week got me to what I felt was an acceptable result. I paid full price for Sunday Ticket Max, $360, but then received customer service credits totaling $180. Effectively, I got Sunday Ticket Max for half price, plus an additional $60 discount from another call. Perhaps not my best work, and not as good as some others on this board have done, but better than most this year, it seems. I should also note that I already get $20 off per month in other credits, so they may not have as much flexibility with my account as they do with others. None of my calls this year were contentious and the whole process was a little less stressful than in the past. Given that it went fairly smoothly, I decided to take what I felt was a pretty fair offer and accept it. Good luck to everyone else! As a side note, I live out West and got lower bowl seats for the Bills-Rams game in LA in October. I hope to participate in some of the pre-game activities over the weekend. The last road game I caught was the December game in Denver in 2014 and it was a fantastic time.

I lived in Chicago for almost 20 years and never became a Bears fan. Their fans are so obnoxious and arrogant that I simply could not root for the team and I actively rooted against them. The Bears local radio broadcast team is awful - referring to the team as "we" and "us" during the broadcast and actively rooting for the team, screaming "yes, yes" when the Bears make a big play. Total bush league and a shock to me coming from a smaller market like Buffalo where I grew up with the late Van Miller - a consummate pro. His voice inflection was obviously more positive when the Bills did well, but he called the game fairly and professionally. Now I live in Phoenix and the fans here are not nearly as bad as the Chicago fans. I am somewhat indifferent about the Cardinals. That said, when the team is doing well, friends, neighbors, co-workers and the community as a whole is more interested in football, so I get free passes from the wife to watch more football, which is great for me! As a side note, my wife grew up in Illinois and was a Bears fan, but she despises Jay Cutler so much that she abandoned the team. We take annual trips to New Orleans to attend a Saints game and party with friends who are Saints season ticket holders, so she has adopted the Saints as her new favorite team. She loves the scene in New Orleans as well as the atmosphere and crowd in the Dome, and the Saints have been pretty successful in the years we have been going. She tries to pretend that she doesn't care about the Bills, but she always has a great time attending games at the Ralph and they have never lost a game that she has attended in Buffalo! She also will occasionally join in when I am watching the Bills on TV and she does get excited when the Bills make a big play. She says that the Bills will always disappoint in the end, and she has a valid point. She's not from the area and didn't know anyone from Buffalo until about 10 years ago, so she has never seen success from the Bills (and she was young and didn't watch much football during the Super Bowl Era). Perhaps a nice extended run of playoff trips and or a Super Bowl victory will change her perception. I bought her a Bills t-shirt in Buffalo and she wears it on Sundays during the season, so I'm making progress. Also, when Marv Levy's first book came out a few years ago, we were living in Chicago and Marv lived in our neighborhood. We would see him here and there. He held a book signing at a neighborhood sports bar, but I was out of town on a business trip. She secretly took my book there and got it signed and surprised me with it later.

I finally broke down and made the call yesterday. Started with the online chat as many recommended here. Was offered $10 off for 6 months. Declined and got the code and was told to call regular customer service and they would see the code on my account and transfer me to special unit who finds the "great deals on Sunday Ticket." Called and rep said that unit did not exist, jerked around for the better part of a half hour, offered me the same $10 for 6 months. Asked to be transferred to Retention and she said that her offer was best available, so Retention unnecessary. I told her to please transfer me anyway and she did. Talked with Retention guy for a while and got FREE basic ticket with $102 to upgrade to Max in exchange for 1 year commitment. Also decided to upgrade to Genie for free with 2 year commitment. DTV has an 8 year contract with the NFL, so I know I will be with them anyway. Surprisingly, no other discounts or credits, but he said to call back in October when the last of my existing ones expire. He did offer free MLB Package, but I declined, as I only watch MLB during playoffs and wanted to save my "credits" for other discounts. I tried for NHL instead, but no offers available. Overall, I was very pleased. I spent the better part of 90 minutes on it, and had I not been on vacation, I definitely would not have had this kind of time. My best advice to the board, based on my experience: don't waste your time with the online chat and customer service, go straight to Retention. It would have cut my time investment in half. Side note, I'll be in Buf the first week of November and I recently picked up lower bowl seats on StubHub for the Miami game. Can't wait! Sabres have a home game the day before too!

Yeah, you're right. Lewis in the Bengals game 2 years ago (right?) and Tuel in the early part of the KC game 2 years ago. I was going to mention that as a side note, but trying to keep my post short.

I just realized that my new laptop doesn't have a F5 key!

While I'm a relatively new poster on the board, I have been a reader for years. I suspect that we'll be seeing references to the Charles Clay fiasco (and the related multiple long threads) for years to come. While he seems like a versatile player who could help our roster, the amount of time spent on TBD discussing his status, and the lost productivity to employers of Bills fans, has been a bit ridiculous. (That said, I keep checking back for more news too).

He did look good, but I'd use Harvin for returns and keep Goodwin for his deep speed at WR. That said, there are only so many roster spots to go around, so I wouldn't be surprised if the Harvin signing leads to both Thigpen and Goodwin being released. Goodwin has world class speed and decent hands, if he can only stay healthy. Even when he was healthy, Marrone didn't use him much. Could have been conservative play calling, or it could be that we didn't have a QB that could get him the ball down the field.

Is Thigpen (the KR, not the QB) still taking up a roster spot? While he had some nice returns for us last season, the Harvin signing makes him expendable. I love Goodwin's speed and I think he could be utilized more and better than he was in the past 2 years (and I like him as a person much more than I like Harvin), but can he stay healthy enough to warrant a roster spot? Easley re-signing, while primarily for Special Teams purposes, does provide WR depth.

I disagree with the premise of the initial post. Based on what I have seen of Manuel's play and Carr's play, I believe that Carr is the better QB at this point. I believe (and have stated in other posts) that EJ's stats are misleading and artificially inflated. He has a higher completion percentage due to the number of short passes and dump offs to RBs and many of his yards were YAC by guys like Freddie. He also was able to accumulate stats in garbage time/against prevent defenses (such as the SD game this year where all of his stats came when the Bills were WAY behind in the game). His interceptions were lower because he didn't throw a whole lot of downfield passes (and the majority of his sideline throws were out of bounds). His ability to read a defense and his accuracy are very poor at this point in his career. I have not seen a whole lot of Carr's games, so my sample size is small, but from what I have seen, he is more in command of the huddle and more of a "gamer" who isn't afraid to throw the ball downfield. And, for what it's worth, if you take away their actual draft position, Carr was higher rated coming out of college. Carr was rated by most to be a late 1st rounder/early 2nd rounder (which he was) and Manuel was rated to be a 3rd or 4th rounder by most of the draft prognosticators. Given EJ's obvious physical gifts (which I believe are superior to Carr's), there must have been something else in his game that led to him being rated lower. My guess is that "something" is accuracy and ability to read defenses. That said, all QB's develop at a different pace and EJ has all the physical tools to be a good NFL QB. He's also had (arguably) poor coaching and conservative game plans. So I am keeping an open mind on EJ and very much hope that he develops into the solid starting NFL QB that the Bills need. I was at the Miami game this year and EJ played pretty well. He even put a sideline pass right in Sammy's hands at the goal line that Sammy dropped. If he could play at that level for 16 games, we'll be OK. Heck, if he could play at that level for 10-12 games, we're probably OK, given the current defense. If I had the option to trade EJ for Carr straight up, I'd take Carr, but I don't have that option, so I am firmly behind EJ. Let's see what Rex, Roman and Lee can do with him.

When I first saw this thread, I thought it was kind of ridiculous. As I read through some of the suggestions, I actually found that there were a number of good ideas. Some of the ones I really liked were 1) changes to the Defensive Holding/Pass Interference rules and 2) changes to the Practice Squad rules for QB's. I like the concept of the spring development league, and it would certainly fare better in smaller US markets than it did in Europe, but it would be extremely expensive and probably not generate enough revenue to make it worthwhile. Allowing contact with WR's up to 10 years instead of the current 5 is a reasonable proposal that was mentioned above. How about having two kinds of pass interference, just like we have "roughing the kicker" and "running into the kicker?" It brings subjectivity back into the game, but blatant PI could be a spot foul and minor contact that breaks the rule but doesn't likely prevent a catch (perhaps away from the play) would be a 5 or 15 yard penalty. How many times do the top QB's "throw one up" on 3rd down, with the intention of drawing a call just as much as attempting to make a play? It's like star players in the NBA intentionally doing something to draw a foul rather than genuinely attempting to score a basket. It seems like the Rogers', Manning's and Brady's of this world get a couple of key 1st downs this way every game. I believe Manning got 2 of those in the 1st half of the Bills-Broncos game, which kept drives alive and allowed them to mount a huge lead without really outplaying the Bills. I'm not in favor of changing the draft rules to favor QB's, going to 5 downs, 9 or 12 yards for a 1st down, etc., as I see those types of things to be too radical and changing the core of the game (the draft from a personnel standpoint and the other as far as the how the game is played).

msw2112, on 12 Jan 2015 - 1:18 PM, said: In response: 1) Your comment is valid, as all QB's get yards that pad their stats. That said, QB's who play from behind more (prevent D's) and who throw more short passes to RB's, etc. are more likely to have their stats padded (completion % and RAC) than those who throw the ball down the field in contested game situations. In my opinion, for these reasons, Manuel's stats seem to reflect better than his actual play. I was at the Denver game, and Orton's stats were also HIGHLY inflated for these same reasons. 2) I'm not sure why this is relevant to my comments. If you are saying that Orton's stats are also inflated for these same reasons, I totally agree with you. That said, this thread was about EJ Manuel, so that's who my comments pertained to. In addition: 3) Let me restate that I would be overjoyed if Manuel were to take to new coaches and develop into a successful QB. I'm not an EJ basher. I'm just commenting on what I have seen to date from his play (and commenting on how his stats don't paint an accurate picture of his poor play). For some young QB's the light eventually comes on (see Alex Smith under Greg Roman's tutelage - maybe there's hope) and for many more, it does not (see JP Losman, Brady Quinn, Jimmy Clausen, Tim Couch, Akili Smith, Joey Harrington, Health Shuler, Ryan Leaf, and so on). As Bills fans, I hope we can all agree that we hope that EJ will be more the exception than the rule.

The Bills had a great defense last year and they failed to make the playoffs. I agree that a strong defense is vital and you have to start somewhere, but it appears to be a QB-driven league and that's what we lack. Seattle has an amazing defense. If Tavaris Jackson (who I believe is back on their roster), EJ Manuel or Kyle Orton was their starting QB, would they have won the SB last year? Would they be the 1st seed in the NFC this year? Where would the Patriots be without Brady, the Colts without Luck and the Packers without Rodgers? That's why I'm not particularly fond of the Ryan hiring. With Schwartz and the D we have already in place, we needed an offensive minded HC. Marrone was supposed to be that, but obviously, that did not prove to be the case. If Roman can do that as OC, we'll be fine, but that remains to be seen. Our team is similar to many that Ryan has coached and he had some early success, but ultimately was not good enough to get to the Super Bowl, and the Jests have been between average and horrible the last few seasons. Idzik was a terrible GM, no doubt, but Ryan certainly was not able to make it work.

While QB is probably the highest priority, I'm not sure there is any available talent out there. Thus, I think that signing a guard (such as Iupati) would be the highest priority.

Murray has been fantastic this year, and despite his injury history, I'd love to have him on the roster, but the Bills need to spend their money on offensive linemen, particularly guards. Mike Iupati, for example, would be (in my opinion) a better investment. While T-Pegs' willingness to spend is great, there is still a salary cap to be concerned about. We can't sign everybody.

I'm not here to bash EJ, and nobody would be happier than me to see him turn his career around and be successful for the Bills. That said, I have watched every game he has played and when I see his stats after the game, I almost always say to myself (or to whoever else is in the room) that his statistics do not tell the true story about how he played. Invariably, his statistics look much better than his actual play was. How does one explain this? Some of it is garbage time - many of his stats are inflated in garbage time and/or against prevent defenses. Others may be a screen pass or a 2 yard dump off to a guy like Fred Jackson who turns it into a 20 yard gain. Looks great for the QB's stats, but wasn't really the result of the QB having done anything spectacular. Also, as one poster mentioned above, his completion percentage tends to be high due to the high number of dump offs (bringing back bad memories of Trentative Edwards). Finally, not all incompletions are created equal. If he misses a wide open received on 3rd and 8, it simply goes in the books as an incompletion, statistically the same as if he threw the ball out of bounds on 2nd and 3 because he was looking downfield and everyone was covered. While both are statistically an incomplete pass, one has a much greater impact on the game. Statistics can be very misleading and comparing two or three players based on statistics alone doesn't mean much.

I just don't see how anyone can see a signing like this as an indication of who our head coach will be next year or what our blocking scheme will be. This guy is purely a depth signing and he's probably just a body for training camp. Hey, I hope he works out and is a player for us, but c'mon, folks, let's be realistic.

I have said this before - a poor performing team in an open-air stadium in a cold climate with a poor economy led to a lot of empty seats in November and December games in recent years. That combined with some of the league's lowest ticket prices and fewest amount of luxury boxes created a team that was among the lowest on the revenue scale and was ripe to be moved to another market after Ralph's passing. Each year we missed the playoffs, I worried more and more that the downward spiral would contine and ultimately result the team leaving WNY. Thank you Ralph for the lease deal and thank you Terry Pegula for stepping up to the plate and saving the Bills! I can live with (yet) another poor season with no playoffs knowing that the team will remain in Buffalo and have hope for the future. Happy Holidays to the Wilson and Pegula families!

I agree with the negative posters that CJ has not had a good couple of years in Marrone's system and was piss poor this year, other than the one 50+ yard play on which he was injured. That said, the line has been run blocking a little bit better of late and it seems to me that, in recent weeks, they are calling some plays that are a little bit more creative and varied - screen passes, quick slants and other ways to get Bryce Brown into space. Spiller is a more talented version of Brown and could bring something to the offense if they run some of those types of plays for him. I am not a huge Hackett fan by any means, but he has called a much more diverse set of plays in the last few weeks and Orton is basically just stinking up the joint. The run (up the middle), run (up the middle), pass, punt offense of earlier this year has been updated. Now it is more like pass (incomplete) first down, run for small gain second down, pass short of the sticks on third down, punt. But at least they vary it a bit. Sometimes it is run for 6 yards on first down, pass (incomplete) on 2nd down, 3 yard pass short of the sticks on third down, punt. I guess my point is that they are TRYING to be more creative and varied, and if they can somehow get the ball into Spiller's hands in space, he has the potential to be dangerous.