silvermike

Yeah, and they've been opening big holes for Freddie, and getting downfield to give him the kind of blocks he's needed to get to the second level. Bravo, men.

Freddie plays the game a lot like Thurman did. Neither is sheerly faster or stronger, or bigger than the guys on the other side. But they both work hard to block, get open, and catch passes, and they both seem to have some 6th sense for finding holes and following blockers.

I think it's pretty funny.

The Buffalo Bills are in the business of making money and Fred Jackson is in the business of making money. The team uses and has used its leverage in the situation to pay him the least they can; Fred is interested in building his leverage to force the team to pay him the most they can. I don't really see either side's financial interest as morally superior - it's a business, I expect both sides to pursue their financial goals.

Owens was always a Fitz supporter during his time here, but I don't see it happening. He's not coming back to be the 4th or 5th option, here, and I don't think the Bills are eager to bench Donald Jones for him.

I'd guess that under his $3M/year contract, he's likely to be beating out his wall street friends, for the most part. But until signing with the Bills, his NFL rookie/veteran minimum contracts in the $400,000 range could have been topped. When he signs his next deal with the Bills, you can bet the first phone call he'll get is from the President of Harvard regarding his obligations to support the endowment.

I mean, clearly, we have a fallback option of the franchise tag. So there's no reasonable way that Fitz ends up in a non-Bills uniform in 2012. Who would really make a play for him? Miami, Indianapolis (Manning-dependent), Denver, Washington, and Seattle seem like the primary movers for a QB next year, and Luck will go to one of them (likely Seattle.) So there's enough competition to keep a price high, but it's not a high-desperation time for QBs, so I think we can hold under $10M/season, though not by much. I think a 5 year, $48M contract is reasonable for Fitz, with something like $20M guaranteed and a fair amount of cash backloaded. Starting QBs really get paid in this league right now, even if they're not Peyton Manning. Fitz will easily be able to point to the Romos and Kolbs of the world.

Fairly remarkable in all this is that the Bills had a great day on the ground in a game in which they never actually held the ball with the lead. They committed to the run despite a deficit, and the line made it work. And Freddie never stops.

Best case scenario, I think, is that Aaron Williams breaks out by the end of the year, and we can comfortably start Florence and Williams next year. McKelvin could hang on or another year as a nickelback, and that'd be enough to keep CB from being a critical need. SS is still a bit of a question mark, too, unfortunately, even though I like George Wilson and Brian Scott. I'd love to have the flexibility to wait until the 2nd round to address that need (we could dive into the UFA pool next year too, especially for the safety), but it's plausible the best choice for us is a DB in the first round. It's a relief, at least, that it won't feel like we're blowing off another huge need with improving play from the QB and the lines.

Whaley showed up within weeks of Buddy being hired. All of those players (besides Fitz) were acquired during his tenure.

I think we need to go very aggressively against Tom Brady, just because we're not going to win in anything other than a high-risk set. Base defense, we're goign to give up touchdowns. The way to win is to blitz, jump balls for interceptions, and hope you get lucky.

Send Kelsay on a suicide mission. We've gotta be paying him for something.

How long is it worth saving a roster spot for Parrish? I'm not sure I'd go past 4 weeks.

I'm not pissed about 4th and inches. It was early, and we were in a hole - sometimes, you just need to come away with points and get that goose egg off the scoreboard. With so much time left in the game, and an offense that could be relied on to get in position again, I think it was a defensible choice. And obviously, it worked. I think I would have probably gone for it if I was our coach, but ultimately, it's a reasonable call.

It wasn't the Super Bowl. When you make mistakes in Week 2, it's okay to talk about them as you start looking out for next week.

I'm having an occasional pause, , but not for more than a second and really nothing to worry about. That's just how the internet works, I suppose, so I'll live with it.

If it's smack talk, the victim is the Chiefs, not us. They're the team that's being told they suck.

I'm going to guess that Fitz ends up in the 5 year/$35M range. Some of it will be backloaded, but he could end up with a $15M guaranatee out of the gate.

The passing record still dates from 1951. There have been other passing eras in the NFL.

I was going to say something like "the true test of a run defense is how it does on third and short" except, well, we never let the Chiefs get into third and short. They had a 3rd and 4 and nothing easier, and passed on every single third down. A truly excellent show.

Yeah, the 4:00 games were fine. Hopefully, they actually fixed it, and it wasn't just the result of having fewer games on and most fans having given up. They were still prone to occasionally cut randomly to a different part of the clip, but they were brief interruptions, unlike the disaster of the early games. What really surprised me is that they couldn't put this together by mid-August and use the preseason as a trial run.

If you want national kudos, the Bills will have a chance to prove it this year: ESPN loves the entire NFC East, and we've got all four on our schedule. Sweep those games, and suddenly we'll be a Super Bowl contender.

If the offense was something other than Johnny Left and Johnny Right, they might have. I'm always surprised that the playcalling drops off like that - it seems worth it to get the backup QB live reps. Not any kind of aggressive, wide open attack, but some generic passing plays.

I'll step up and eat crow. I thought we would be terrible this year. Just, horrifyingly bad. That's obviously not the case. Go Chan, go Buddy!

THis is fairly bizarre, now. IT shows one play, then jumps freely from moment to moment from the game.