Chuck Wagon

If I'm the Chargers, his willingness to resign on a new team isn't really my problem. If he gives me a list of the Bills and Texans they are only offering a few 2nds while the Browns go ahead and Brown by tossing me their 2 1sts and change, I'm taking the best offer for my team. He is a type of player that doesn't normally hit the market. Some desperate team would be willing to give up something major for him. If I'm trading him, the team that gives the best offer is where he's going. His contract demands and potential to retire is something a team like the Browns would need to worry about. At the end of the day, I really think he just wants one last big $100 mil deal. Complaining about a potential move to LA, saying you lack faith in the team or threatening retirement are ancillary points, he's in contract negotiation time and he wants his final big cashout.

I've been saying for a while the Giants should be trading Eli, before he rebounded last year his numbers were in a steady decline and his contract is very movable now (his dead money is only $2.5 mil). His rebound last year could recoup a lot of his lost value from the last few years. It also seems that Giants fans wouldn't exactly be heartbroken to see him shipped off, despite his 2 SB wins. They could play Nassib to see if there's anything there and if he bombs they take the next guy. Brees is a tougher situation. They only save $12 mil (I know, "only" $12 mil) by moving him, they don't have a young guy even Nassib's caliber to plug in and he's meant soo much to that fanbase and city. He's a guy who should retire a Saint. The fanbase would be heartbroken if they shipped him out for some draft picks.

I think the Titans are at the top of his list. He's tight with Wisenhunt and Nashville is almost home for him. I find it hard to believe they'll just let him walk away, worst case they'll tag & trade him. And if I'm the Chargers I could really care less where he wants to be traded, I'm moving him for the best deal possible. The only way I'd move him right now is if I was getting the Titans #2 pick so I could just take Mariota or Winston, I'm not sure what we could give them to really interest them all that much. A future 1st? They have to know with Rivers they are looking at a pick in the 20s. Two future 1st? Do we really want to pay that price for a 33 year old who hasn't won much and wants a $100 mil deal? I'll gladly eat my words if it happens, but I don't think Rivers in a Bills uniform is any more than a pipe dream.

Welcome to the internet in 2015. Someone says something you agree with and they are a genius. Someone says something you disagree with and they should kill themselves to rid the world of their stupidity.

I'll generally agree with the premise in the sense that last year's record isn't the best judge of SoS. However, I do think SoS is a huge factor in team success. Would the Browns have won 7 games if they played the AFC East and NFC West or NFC North last year instead of the AFC & NFC South (they were 4-4 against those garbage divisions)? Would the Colts have won 11 games last year if they didn't get fat off the Titans and Jags (they were 2-4 against playoff teams)? It's the NFL, you have to bring it every week and for the most part anyone can beat anyone else, but it's tough to argue there wasn't an advantage in getting the NFC South vs one of the other cross conference matchups.

I used to be a big fan of Barnwell's but he lost me this past year with his smarmy take on the Watkins trade and the Bills in general. He's little more than a Simmons mouthpiece anymore, just another Grantland parrot extolling the virtues of the Patriots.

We already aren't favored against Indy. By the time the game comes around the sharps might have moved the line closer to us, but the public is going to put their money on Luck and think it's an easy bet. The public still doesn't believe in us and apparently ESPN doesn't believe in us. The local radio guys here in Columbus ran through the Bengals schedule yesterday and laughed at the idea we could beat them, they spent the least time analyzing that game and basically called it an easy Bengals win.

Disarming a woman attacking you with a weapon is one thing. Throwing her around your apartment like the Undertaker delivering choke slams is something completely different. It doesn't matter the situation, there's simply no excuse for that.

You sumed up my thoughts exactly. Frankly I'm a bit shocked so many people are on his side, nothing about this kid seems remotely likeable. Best case, the media randomly chose him as a target and is ignoring when people like Luck or Maroita do similar things. Given I find that extremely unlikely, the realistic best case is he's either an idiot or entitled and thinks the rules don't apply. Had FSU shut him down until they completed a full investigation into the alleged assault, I'd feel a bit better that perhaps he learned something. Instead they did a sham investigation that was tossed together once it became a national headline. He missed one game for the table incident, his only real punishment he faced, and he still went on the field in full uniform to warm up and had to get chewed out by Jimbo. Guys like Paul Finebaum have said several times about how Jimbo basically stressed every day about Jameis costing him his job before he left for the NFL. I'm not saying the kid doesn't deserve a chance in the NFL. But if I'm Tampa and Mariota is close to him in my assessment, I'll take Marcus and focus on making him a pro QB over a guy who could use a professional babysitter.

Your second point is where I am with him. I honestly don't know if he's soo dumb that he simply believes he did nothing wrong or if he knows exactly what he's doing and either thinks the rules don't apply to him or knows his talent will allow him more leeway than most others. Any way you slice it, it's really tough for me to feel comfortable with him. He reminds me a lot of Roethlisberger, having friends who were at Miami the same time as Big Ben gave me a bit of insight that he was (is) a guy who thought he was bigger than everyone around him and untouchable, so he did what he wanted. Jameis gives that same vibe. It may be completely irrelevant and he may be a great NFL QB (it didn't derail Ben), all I know is if I were the team to take him #1 overall I would be frequently waking up in the middle of the night to check his twitter or do google news searches on him.

I'm really interested to see how Kiko does in Philly, although if he plays poorly I imagine his injury will be blamed well before people will mention the line he was playing behind here.

When I was in college there were posters plastered all over campus that clearly stated an intoxicated girl could not legally consent. That was 10 years ago, but I clearly remember that being mentioned/posted several times. We can argue the merit of that stance, but the truth of the matter is guys can be in a very vulnerable position when it comes to hooking up with random girls, especially if "evidence" is on her clothing. That's magnified exponentially when alcohol is involved. To me the issue isn't even between what happened between Jameis and the girl behind a closed door, it's if the authorities/university handled the case the same they would have if it didn't involve "Star QB Prospect Jameis Winston" and instead involved some random freshman guy. From my understanding of the situation, it's really difficult to claim it was given due process.

Does Jameis remind anyone else of Bo Callahan from "Draft Day"? The whole "I didn't steal any crab legs, they were given to me by an employee" reeks of cluelessness. I'm sure the owner's of Publix never ok'd a "Free Crablegs and birthday cakes for Jameis" promotion. Someone could steal the Hope Diamond and give it to you, you are still getting in trouble for having it in your possession.

I don't know how it's put together, but I am envisioning a giant conference call with all team's reps present and discussion regarding how things play out. If that's actually the case, I would imagine Rodak is by far one of the weakest representatives in the room. That's how things like losses to Jacksonville are allowed to fly, we don't have anyone on our side pounding the table claiming it's BS.

SNF is tough. On one hand, people are going to watch the NFL regardless of who is playing. On the other hand, (assuming I'm not busy) by the time Sunday night rolls around I've watched the Thursday game, about 12 hours of college football on Saturday and 7 hours of Redzone/the Bills on Sunday. Unless it's a compelling matchup, I don't watch SNF and reserve that time for making sure my wife doesn't divorce me. So no, I'm a huge football fan, but I wouldn't watch the Browns / Jags / Titans get their brains beat in by the Pats or worse watch a garbagefest involving two of those teams at once. As I mentioned earlier, Thursday is a disadvantage and every team should have it once (and only once). Monday night should be a special treat and every fanbase should get that once. But SNF should stritctly be reserved for the biggest game of the week, not the biggest markets.

Major construction or the pope I get, but Taylor Swift concerts or baseball games are garbage. Would the Bills get more favorable scheduling and more primetime exposure if they scheduled a bunch of teeny bopper concerts and had a MLB team? It really bothers me how the NFL has to manipulate their schedule around baseball but it doesn't work the other way around. Stop scheduling Phillies and Orioles games on multiple home weekends in September. Looking at the schedule results of teams like us or Jacksonville (both having long stretches of road games) and hearing about how the Eagles basically made their own schedule through having conflicting events or hearing execs say they needed to do better for TV really makes me angry. It's tough not to feel like the league really only cares about teams in big markets or with marketable QBs and everyone else is just filler.

The NFC East getting forced down our throats in primetime every year is the biggest thing that gets me. I get those teams are in major markets, but outside of the Giants winning the Super Bowl a few years ago, those teams have collectively done very little to deserve the attention they get relative to other divisions. Personally I believe every single team should have to play 1 Thursday night game during the year and get 1 MNF game every year. SNF should only be scheduled through Sept and should get flexed for the best matchup every week after that.

I think a Shaq Thompson (ie Kam Chancellor) type guy is what we need. We'll likely be in nickle most of the time, with Williams-Williams-Dareus-Hughes up front (call Mario & Hughes OLB if you want, they'll be primarily rushers/edge contain) with Bradham / Brown in the linebackers spot and Gilmore / Graham / Leodis / Williams in the secondary. That leaves 1 spot, a guy like Thompson, who is a hybrid LB/SS type, would be nice to allow us to basically play nickle and a base 43 (or 34) with the same personnel.

I have a vision of the Browns and Titans ESPN writers banging the table claiming their respective teams should be given the projected win while Rodak sits in the corner allowing everyone to slot the Bills in as a loss.

You hit the nail pretty well here. It's the "Browns fan" principle. This morning every single Browns fan is looking at their schedule and thinking "@ Jets, Titans, Raiders....we'll be 3-0" meanwhile Jets, Titans or Raiders fans are looking at it saying "we've got the Browns in week 1/2/3, that's a game we can win". Every homer writer of every other team sees Bills on the schedule and thinks "that's a game we can win". I'm also sure Rodak isn't fighting any of his coworkers picking the Bills losses. I don't have access to ESPN right now so I don't know how much their staff worked together on this, but I do know last year they combined the individual teams projections and they had the league going something like 276-236, which is an embarassingly bad mathmatical impossibility.

For the Bills this year, likely no, almost every single guy has a chip on his shoulder for some reason or another. I think players are truly motivated for 2 games in the regular season - to get the first win (no one wants to go 0-16) and to clinch the playoffs. If you are on a garbage team headed for 3-13 or 4-12 season usually the only thing motivating guys is continuing their careers or hitting contract incentives.

The Colts game reminds me a lot of the Bears game. If Doug was able to motivate that, imagine what Rex will be able to do with 4 months of telling guys no one believes they've got a shot in their home opener.

I'm not drinking the 11 or 12 win kool aide but what a bunch of hacks. So we win the Rex's Return game in NY but lose to them at home? If we are 5-4 we aren't finishing 5-11 with our schedule.

If that's true (and the Browns are sold on Mariota) they should say yes to that so fast it'll make heads spin. Who can say what is true at this point, but I am getting the feeling the Browns are going with Johnny/McCown and want to create the public preception they "tried" to get Mariota but the price was just too steep. I was under the impression the reason McCown signed with them over us was he was all but guaranteed the starters job with his buddy as the OC (at least I believe that was the speculation at the time). I don't think the Browns want to pay the price to get Mariota but if he turns out good they want to be able to say they tried. I think Pettine/Farmer would prefer to roll with a vet QB, especially with that early schedule of theirs, in hopes to win enough games to keep their jobs. Lots of rumors right now about the Browns trying hard to get Mariota and really liking him, if it's really true it makes no sense whatsoever to leak their interest and given Haslam's relationship to the Titans it wouldn't shock me one bit if the Browns were trying to help the Titans build the market for the pick.

I think things could get pretty ugly in San Diego this year, especially by that time of the year if the news of a move has come out. Indy and NE might both have nothing to play for in those games.