silvermike

Well, it definitely hurts DirectTV's profits, and I guess if you watch a Buffalo feed in Charlotte, you're steering yourself away from one set of advertisers (who paid) vs. another (who didn't, and might not care about you if you're not going to buy a car from West Herr).

Homeland Security got a lot of jurisdiction outside of terrorism - this one somehow came under their customs and immigration department, which has a lot of room to maneuver on internet crimes, thus, they're the ones who do the bust.

There was at least a legitimate case to be made that the NFL did not act in good faith when it didn't try to maximize revenue in the last TV deal, as opposed to covering itself for a lockout. When they promised the players 59% or 60% or whatever, there's an implicit assumption that they will make the pie as big as possible. They have to at least act reasonably towards that goal, and they surely gave a discount to NBC/CBS/ESPN/FOX in order to get it. Thus, they were at least arguably shortchanging the players. I don't know enough about it to say authoritatively that it was a great case, but it was a legit lawsuit, and had they won it (or if they win on appeal) they'll be in much, much stronger shape.

I think the Steelers outcoach the Packers and shut down their offense just enough to get a bit of an edge on the ground. Steelers 19-13.

Also, I don't think there's any particular reason why we'd do better than average in recruiting scabs. I guess we do well with UDFAs, but I think open tryouts aren't going to yield a dominant Bills team any more than the NFL draft has.

The pass went forward, but if Wycheck fielded the ball 6 inches upfield and it was a clean backward pass, it's not like we would have made the play. You definitely can't put anything from that game on the defense. They gave up 13 points and held Steve McNair under 100 yards. And the Bills did a good job running the ball, with Antowain going over 5 yards/carry. Rob had one good drive in a messy day for the passing game. Yeah, the offensive line was demolished. It's why you start the guy with 15 games' experience behind that crummy-ass line, not the young QB who never did well under pressure.

In the same city, yes. Not in two different markets. I guess they don't want you competing against another owner?

If you don't care about money brought in, maybe you shouldn't be getting cheerleader rankings from CNBC.

Gino Toretta was the first heisman winner I was really aware of. I think I was like, 8 or something. I couldn't figure out why nobody drafted him in the first round, and I was sure he was going to be a pro star. That's how I learned my lesson.

When you've got three billion dollars in anything, it's remarkable who you can find to loan you $800,000,000 to buy a football team.

Yeah, Kyle is great at a 1-tech or a 3-tech position - either way, a single-gap, disruptive role. Our best d-line next year, if all goes well, would feature KW playing the 3-tech outside, with Marcel Dareus on the other end playing a 5-tech, and Torrel Troup developing into reliable, 0-technique NT. It would also be plausible to give Carrington the Dareus role if we go somewhere else in the first round.

My sense that the Bills are relatively strong at 1-gap guys, but very short on 2-gap defenders. Troup and Carrington are developing in that mode, at least, but they're not quite ready yet. Adding a 1-gap guy like Harris is spinning our wheels. At this point, it's probably unfair to expect any more out of him than out of Dwan Edwards.

Our problems lately in the draft have been twofold: We draft guys who would have been available ten picks later, who play like they should have been drafted three rounds later. If we grab a guy at #3 who plays like he should have been drafted at #10, I'll be disappointed, but the team will improve. If we draft a guy at #3 who plays like a 5th rounder, then we've wasted the pick.

Ben won, but it would be very hard to give him too much credit for this game. His offense scored 17 points in the game. Beyond that, in the second half, he completed three passes, was sacked twice, fumbled twice, gave up a safety, and was intercepted. It's great that he won the game, but I'm not convinced Ryan Fitzpatrick would have done any worse.

I'm pretty convinced that Dareus is going to be the best option. Not necessarily the most exciting: he's not going to be the kind of player who gets 18 sacks per season - Arthur Moats and Shawne Merriman are going to get the credit. But they'll be getting penetration because Dareus occupies the linemen. He also frees up Kyle Williams to be an even bigger force.

Wow. I give a lot of respect to that site - the dude works hard and doesn't put out a new mock every two days just to drive up traffic. But I haven't seen Von Miller as a top-5 prospect before.

Whitner's an idiot. I have no idea why his agent hasn't demanded that he sign off of twitter, at least until he gets a new contract. He's only damaging his leverage the more he builds up ill will with the fans.

http://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/buf/2005_roster.htm Who do you wish was still starting from that roster? Jason Peters, London Fletcher, and Nate Clements are the only names that jump out at me.

What's really understated about the Bills Super Bowl run is that to get there, they went through Marino, Montana, and Elway for three of the four AFCC games. And the fourth, they won 51-3 after having knocked off the Dolphins a week earlier. You could have made a case in 1993 that Marino, Montana, and Elway were the three best QBs in NFL history. And they all were matched and defeated in Orchard Park.

Well, it all depends on the CBA, but under the old rules, he'd have four years of experience in 2011, and be unrestricted (08-09-10-11). Under the special rules last year, he'd still be restricted, since he would have needed six. I'd be surprised if the deal keeps the extended RFA period, so I think we have to go forward assuming that Stevie will be on the market in 2011 without an extension. That said, if he was unrestricted this year, what do you think would be fair pay for him? $5M per season?

Yeah, I was working quickly. You're right - Stewart has probably been more successful than McKelvin up to this point. And probably will be if he's ever a feature back. I was more trying to lay out the method than apply it flawlessly. That's the subjective part. Also, I guess this only really tests your scouts - how good are the players on the board? It doesn't do the other key part of drafting: evaluating your own talent. Even if Whitner scored a four, he still might have been a bad pick because of our decision to abandon Lawyer Milloy, etc. But I think it's at least a start.

I think an effective way to evaluate draft picks is to compare the player your team got with the next two players drafted overall, and the next two drafted at his position. This won't fault you for grabbing Erik Flowers instead of Tom Brady, but will catch your choice to pick Aaron Maybin instead of Brian Orakpo. Sound reasonable? I'll grade each pick on a scale from 1 to 4 (one point for each player you "beat." Who's better is obviously subjective, so please correct me. Also, I'm going to award ties against the team: your pick SHOULD be better than the next guy off the board. C.J Spiller vs. Tyson Alualu, Anthony Davis, Ryan Matthews, and Javid Best Score: 0. After one year, the system's tough to use, but I think - narrowly - that I'd like any of those four players. Aaron Maybin vs. Knowshon Moreno, Brian Orakpo, Brian Orakpo, Larry English Score: 0Well, we all knew Maybin was going to get a goose egg. I'm not sure whether it's fair or not to count Orakpo twice; he shows up in both categories. Ultimately, I think that double-counting him is the right thing because it's a top-level job for a scouting staff to identify the right choice between two very similarly-rated prospects. Eric Wood vs. Hakeem Nicks, Kenny Britt, Max Unger, Antoine Caldwell Score: 3. Nicks is a great player, and Britt is emerging, but so is Wood. Unger and Caldwell, I think, have falled short of Wood at Center. If you want to refigure this for guards, go ahead - position can be a fudgy area. Leodis McKelvin vs. Ryan Clady, Jonathan Stewart, Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, Aqib Talib Score: 1. Stewart has been pretty disappointing. Marshawn Lynch vs. Adam Carriker, Darrell Revis, Kenny Irons, Chris Henry Score: 3. Revis is dynamite, but this pick worked out all right. Donte Whitner vs. Ernie Sims, Matt Leinart, Jason Allen, Daniel Bullocks; Score: 2. This is a very hard call to make. Leinart and Bullocks both washed out; Allen became a cornerback with some success, and Ernie Sims strikes me as a basically similar player, though I've barely seen him play. I think you could make a case for at least a 3 here. Here, the system fails to catch some things - if the next two teams drafting do poorly, you can really get too much credit (Ngata was drafted several picks later). John McCargo vs. Marcedes Lewis, DeAngelo Williams, Claude Wroten, Dusty Dvoracek Score: 2. The system is struggling here - Wroten and Dvoracek were worse that McCargo by a long shot. And he's terrible! In any case, the total score here is 1.57 in the post-Donahoe era. That's not...great. But let's compare it to the Patriots Devin McCourty vs. Jared Odrick, Kyle Wilson, Kyle Wilson, Chris Cook Score: 4. Good start. Jerod Mayo vs. Leodis McKelvin, Ryan Clady, Curtis Lofton, Jordan Lizon Score: 3. Clady holds this one off Brandon Merriweather vs. Jon Beason, Anthony Spencer, Eric Weddle, Gerald Alexander Score: 3. Slight edge to Beason, I think Laurence Maroney vs. Manny Lawson, Davin Joseph, DeAngelo Williams, Joseph Addai Score: 0. Sometimes, even Billy gets one wrong. So that's an average of 2.5 - considerably better than us. Sound fair?

I'd say opposing passer rating is a pretty good shorthand way of ranking a pass defense. It's obviously flawed, but when you're talking about a 30 point spread, it's obviously measuring something very important.

http://drafthistory.com/teams/bills.html Any individual pick can be easily challenged either way, but when was the last time the Bills really made a great pick before the 5th round? We've had some success very late (Moats, Johnson, Bell, Williams), but 1-2-3-4: the Bills have almost never had a guy who really stood out beyond his draft position.

You can always do 20-20 hindsight, of course. But what's remarkable is how many of those alternate picks where player the fans wanted ahead of time. I've been here a while: People wanted Bryant McKinnie, not Mike Williams. I remember a ton of talk about Vince Wilfork. Ngata was a slam dunk - perhaps the single most universally-agreed on draft option ever. And absolutely nobody wanted Maybin. This was an Orakpo joint. There are some moves you can't fault the team for - but when the fans are picking better than you, and especially when Mel Freaking Kiper has a better read on the talent than you do, there's a problem. Also, just once, in ten years, wouldn't it have been nice to remember a pick as a total steal? The only one even borderline is Nate Clements.