silvermike

'Course, Tony Romo was a holder when the season began, and he still made the Pro Bowl. Shoulda spent more time holding, though.

Matt Light and Marcus McNeill are top-quality left tackles playing for playoff teams. I don't think anyone besides you is shocked that they got in over Peters. McNeill has Tomlinson's glitz behind his nomination, and Light has years of dominance and name recognition.

With all the turnover, I wonder who's responsible for it. Chuck Lester?

How's that working for them?

I think a good general principle is to look for home runs in the draft, and role players in free agency. If you need a #2 WR, a guard, a rotation DT, maybe a nickelback - you can find one in free agency. You can definitely upgrade your depth. But when you're looking for someone to lead, draft those guys, and keep them around. Looking at the Bills from that perspective, you figure that, well, #2 WR, guard, rotation DT and nickelback should be our top free agent priorities. Nickelback would be if we decide to either keep Nate or figure that McGee/Youboty is starting caliber. If there's not a #1 CB on this team without Nate you've gotta draft one. If you're done with Willis, you gotta draft a new guy. If Fletcher is out, you gotta replace him in the draft.

There's also an important difference between big name free agents, and free agents who become big names. When the Panthers added Jake Delhomme, he was a scrub who couldn't earn a roster spot with the Saints. This is a rough measure, but you can say "big name, free agent successes" are guys who made the pro bowl with one team, signed somewhere else, and did it again. So, looking at the 2006 Pro Bowl Roster: AFC: QB:Brady (drafted), Palmer (drafted) Rivers (drafted) RB:Tomlinson (drafted), Johnson (drafted), Parker (UDFA), Neal (UFA) WR: A. Johnson (drafted), C. Johnson (drafted), Harrison (drafted), Wayne (drafted) TE: Gates (UDFA), Gonzalez (drafted) OT: Ogden (drafted), Glenn (drafted), McNeill (drafted) Anderson (drafted) OG: Fanacea, Shields, Waters (all drafted) C: Saturday (UDFA), Hardwick (drafted) One unit down, and it's looking pretty unlikely that you can nab anyone worthwhile in FA. Lorenzo Neal is the only one, and he's a fullback! DL: Taylor (drafted), Schobel (drafted) , Burgess (UFA, no pro bowls with any other team.) Seymour (drafted) Williams (drafted), Hampton (drafted) LB: A. Thomas (drafted), Merriman (drafted), Suggs (drafted), Z. Thomas (drafted), Lewis (drafted), Al Wilson (drafted) DB: Bailey (traded), McAllister (drafted), Mathis (drafted), Polamalu (drafted), Reed (drafted), Lynch (FA) Okay, we're up to two, John Lynch and Lorenzo Neal. And one's a fullback. You might be able to put the traded Bailey in there, I guess. I'll work on the NFC later on. Now, I'm not saying that there's no value in a player you get from FA who doesn't make it to the Pro Bowl, but your team's stars are more than likely going to be your draft picks, at least so far.

We're now worried about being outbid for our fourth best defensive end?

I saw a cap analysis for this and it's ludicrous. Everybody has to both take a big cap hit this year from the trade, and then follow it up with the inflated salaries of players who are underperforming their outrageous contracts. Moss and Vick have such outrageous cap numbers this year and in the future that they're more likely to be waived than traded.

Ah, the beauty of these things. Not to be confused with the beauty of sports, which is that you play to win the game. Or so I have heard.

Who's MaGahee? Some guy in NFL Europe?

I'm on board.

Well, at least it's better that the Islanders stole away Al Davis's top choice for GM, Garth Snow.

You're saying that Snyder has never been tempted to throw more money at a bigger name over a better player? Randle-El was a marginal wide receiver that never topped 50 catches and got a top-flight deal. Adam Archuleta is a relatively big name safety. The man hired Steve Spurrier and then fired him for Joe Gibbs. And, lest we forget his earlier days, Bruce Smith and Deion Sanders long after they were relevant. I'm not saying that he'll definitely sign Samuel over Clements, not with Greggo there anyway. But he's always prone to throwing money at a name instead of relying on football analysis.

I think it's not hard to make the case that Nate Clements is a better cornerback than Asante Samuel. On the other hand, there have been a heck of a lot more people watching Asante play while Nate toils on regional coverage. That means that Snyder knows he can sell a lot more Samuel jerseys than Clements jerseys next year, and that will drive up the price in a hurry.

This is probably giving them too much credit, but I imagine it went like this: PFW: Are you going to trade McGahee? Marv: No - we expect him to be back next season. PFW: But what if someone gave you a first round pick, and another one in 2008? Marv: Well, of course we'd do it then. We'd also be willing to trade McGahee for Peyton Manning, LaDanian Tomlinson, and the Bears Defense in an arrangement where he plays five games for each team. PFW: RUMOR ALERT!!

So, maybe three years, $12 million, including a $4M signing bonus for Fletch?

Madden ratings get more and more inflated every season. I'm guessing nobody on the Bills will be below 90 this year, but we'll still be ranked in the bottom third of the league.

You gotta figure that it's 50-50 Gilbride will be fired within 10 games. Then Alex could step up...

1.) New England 1a.) Miami . . . . . 7.) Dallas . . 10.) Washington - I HATE Dan Snyder, and he's ruining the league 11.) Tampa Bay, Arizona, New York (both), Tennessee

Seriously, though, I wonder why Madden doesn't do a better job of this. They release the game in late August, which is fine, you want to have a realistic 2007 season ready. But they should give you two options: Start in August, 2007, or start in February, 2007. Get a chance to have your own offseason. If they did it right, they could even let you start in (say) August, 2001 and go from there.

Sounds like fun to me

Now Ralph is too cheap to even re-sign Kiwaukee Thomas? Man, this is going to be a rough year.

I think I'll need some convincing that Furrey was anything but a fluke last year. Remember Michael Clayton '04? Or, for that matter, Peerless Price '02? If he comes ridiculously cheap, well, that's another story. I'm guessing he'll be back in Detroit. Curtis would be a good player if we didn't already have Price and Parrish. He might be marginally better, but his strenghths are being a small, quicker guy, not really what we're missing. I'd say Bennett is the ideal choice, if he's not asking for too much money - he's an ideal possession/#2 type to complement the speedsters. I'd look at Bobby Engram and Patrick Crayton as well, neither of whom have size but have shown reliable hands.

There's nothing inherently wrong with smoking pot, but bringing it on an airplane is just plain dumb. So that's strike one. Then, if you're a professional athlete, smoking ANYTHING is probably unwise - he's gotta be able to run. Strike two. Finally, it could result in his suspension from his team, and a huge distraction. Last thing that team needs, especially since he's already a distracting force. Strike Three, Mexico.

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