silvermike

I think Houston will be his final destination, although I generally do like Kubiak. Miami's reboot this offseason is going to be at quarterback; Sparano's had some good times there. Houston needs a coach.

I've gotta ask - to players read internet coverage of themselves and the team? Either here, or Buffalo Rumblings, Bills Daily, etc?

I don't think this proves he's a bust - far from it. But I don't think it's crazy to be concerned about his performance so far this season, and we should all be a little anxious for him to break out soon.

Swedish Chef?

I'm not really certain that Richie Incognito was any better than Chad Rinehart. He just has a funny name so everyone remembers him.

Bell was inactive his entire rookie season, and Peters mostly only saw work on special teams - he blocked a punt as a rookie. Wang's developing behind journeymen veterans. Give him a full healthy offseason, and we'll see if he can make the roster.

Just because Whitner's not good enough to be paid $6M per season doesn't mean he's not worth negotiating with to see if he'll come down to $3M. Or whatever numbers they're actually talking about. And if Whitner can't do his job because he gets distracted by his agent's job, then he needs to find a different career.

Don't forget Vernon Gholston.

Can I get a whoa bundy!

I found this fun tool at Pro Football Reference: http://www.pro-football-reference.com/play-index/psl_finder.cgi You can do some pretty impressive research with it. In any case, to see which other RBs had Spilleresque beginnings to their careers, I set this up with a few parameters: 1st or 2nd round draft pick; Under 500 total yards from scrimmage in their rookie year; Active for at least 14 games (which Spiller should hit if he stays healthy in the stretch). And I limited the search from 1990-present, just to keep it manageable and current. There are thirty matches, and you can see them all here: http://www.pro-football-reference.com/play-index/tiny/A2cyC It's not...the most optimistic thing in the world, but it's certainly not cause for despair yet. Notable stars on the list include Shaun Alexander, Thomas Jones, and Deuce McAllister. It's also worth noting that Darren McFadden just barely tops out of this list, and would be another possible hope for CJ. Still, there are a lot of low cards in that hand, and I think it's worth being at least a little concerned about CJ's future. But certainly not time to panic. As to our other questionable young player, there's Aaron Maybin: The search here is for all LBs and DEs who had fewer than 2 sacks in their first two seasons, and fewer than 50 tackles.. You get this list: http://www.pro-football-reference.com/play-index/tiny/P8Sgw I like Jerome McDougal, but here, it's harder to argue that there's anything more than slim pickings out there. Ugh.

I have read before that in general, African-Americans are more genetically diverse than white Americans - Africa is itself a genetically diverse continent, and African-Americans are likely to have some percentage of European DNA, given how commonly masters raped their slaves (the offspring of such unions would be brought up as slaves, so the DNA migration didn't go both ways.) So if that's accurate, it would explain why blacks are more commonly represented then whites when we're talking Olympic sprinters or NFL athletes - whites are less genetically diverse and cluster towards the middle; blacks have more variance and are more represented at the extremes. This would also imply that the worst RBs in America are also black - but there's really no way to know. I can't vouch for the scientific accuracy of that hypothesis, but it at least intuitively makes sense to me.

If you want to get a sense of negotiations, note that the top UFA safety last year was probably OJ Atogwe, who signed for about $6M per year. A more midrange guy like Will Allen signed for between $1M and $2M per year. I'd say Whitner is better than Allen, but not by a lot. I'd guess Donte wants at least $5M, the Bills are offering in the $3 M range. But that's a totally wild guess.

I would be much happier with the Bills if they had made the decisions that the Ravens have made over the past 12 years or so.

So as head coach, he was responsible for building maintenance? The NFL really had a folksy feel back then.

By being purely sarcastic, of course.

If you didn't already hate Cox as the biggest buttmunch ever to wear the teal and orange, remember that unlike Dan Marino, he's got a Super Bowl ring: with the 2001 New England Patriots, where he landed after a few years with the Jets. All three division rivals, gave the finger to Rich Stadium fans, and won the Super Bowl with Brady and Belichick. That's a resume. On the plus side, we did just get a little bit of revenge not four days ago: Fred Jackson gashed the Browns for over 100 yards in a Bills win, as hte Bills contained the Browns' defensive line, coached by Mr. Cox himself.

So when we have Fitz backing up Andrew Luck next year, we should really be sure to draft another QB in 2012, just in case the team bus crashes when bringing the veterans to camp.

I haven't seen him play. I wasn't talking about his play. I was talking about his scouting report, that included, as an asset "superb blocker" and as a flaw that he can't "counter the pass-rush" or "create openings for runners". Doesn't that seem contradictory to you?

This is true - you can get a 1000 yard guy in the middle of the draft, but the top ten rushers in league history are all first round picks except for Curtis Martin, and he was acquired by the Jets from the Pats for a first round pick (and a third).

Yeah, if we could get a player like Polamalu, I wouldn't object to drafting a safety with a top-5 pick. The problem with the Whitner choice is that NOBODY thought he had anything like Polamalu skill.

I think you can still get a pretty good value for a top-shelf free agent LB. They're generally paid less than DLs or CBs, so it might be our best shot to go after a big-money free agent. What do you think he'll get? DeMeco Ryans landed a $8M/season deal, but I think Ryans is a more talented player. I'd guess 6 years, $45M might do it. That's less than we paid Derrick Dockery.

Bell had a fun preseason, but he's been cut three times this year; I think he's firmly in longshot category. But I like the guy, and I hope he shows up at St. John Fisher in July ready to make the team.

There are a fair number of RBs who had similarly bad first years to CJ Spiller, and went on to be very productive: Shaun Alexander, Thomas Jones, Deuce McAllister. But there's a fair number of busts in that group too - Napoleon Kaufman, Tyrone Wheatley, Trung Canidate. So I would safely say that it's too soon to tell. Going back a decade or so, it looks like a sub-500 yard healthy rookie year does give a 50% success rate. http://www.pro-football-reference.com/play-index/tiny/755XF That's the list of players I was comparing him to - first round RBs since 1995.

I'm not convinced the Bills have traded down, in any draft in any round, since 2001. Can't prove it though - anybody remember otherwise? No first-round trades down is one thing, but apparently, we've never fielded offers later in the weekend, either.

That's one of those scouting reports that seems to boil down like this: Pros: Terrific lineman Cons: Terrible lineman.