silvermike

I'm amazed Spiller was benched today. I guess we're so hopeless, it's actually worth game-planning week 2 with the goal of trading an RB for a mid-round pick.

All three QBs are so bad, I don't really see any rush. They'll get hurt because of the low-quality line, and we can see the other guys then.

Yeah, cost is also huge. Getting four people to one game, given the costs of parking, snacks, etc, will basically get you to a year's Sunday Ticket price.

V. Jax isn't worth nearly the money he's demanding. He's a good wide receiver in a great situation, and he still has never really had a dominant season. He's not a true #1 WR, and while he would obviously improve the Bills, he wouldn't be worth nearly the $10M/season and 2nd round draft pick it would take to get him here.

I think the bottom line for the NFL is that it's too much fun to watch a game at home compared to at the stadium. That's not true for other sports, but the NFL is just a natural TV sport, and it owes its late-20th century growth to that. And it will still grow on TV, but the owners will realize soon that they've peaked as a live event.

You want to know how the Bills could have been better? Look at every first round draft pick they've made in the past decade, then scroll down to the Ravens' pick from that year, that round. The Ravens almost always were drafting after us, and they beat us pretty much every year. Observe: 2009: Aaron Maybin vs. Michael Oher 2008: Leodis McKelvin vs. Joe Flacco 2007: Marshawn Lynch vs. Ben Grubbs 2006: Donte Whitner vs. Haloti Ngata And they're not even the best drafters in the league. They just make the moves that are hanging out there for us. Don't touch anything else, and our starting offensive line is Oher-Grubbs-Wood-Levitre-Bell; Ngata spearheads a 3-4 between Stroud and Edwards, and Flacco is calling the plays for Spiller and Evans. That might be a playoff team.

we need Torbor back.

I would say the odds are still good that Edwards is the best QB on the roster. Fitzpatrick and Brohm are basically also zeroes. Maybe Brohm will develop down the line, but he's shown nothing going into his third year. We've got three very hard games, plus Jacksonville, before the bye. I don't think there's any really compelling run here that gets us to 3-2, so I think this stretch is Edwards' last chance. If we're 0-5, and he looks as god-awful as he did today, I think it's time to end the experiment, and rotate the deck chairs once again on this sinking ship.

Trent Edwards is out of chances in my mind. He can't play NFL football, and shouldn't play for us. I'd support Fitzpatrick at this point.

Did any of our cuts get picked up?

Eh, I'd guess we wanted to cut him all along, but couldn't because he was injured. The meantime was just scouting replacements.

Yeah, but you have to admit we desperate needed a new Roll Pleayer.

Obviously the right move, but I was looking forward to watching him play. Oh well - at least the game's not in Buffalo and no home fans will have paid for the privilege.

Has an NFL player ever been convicted of rape? Given the series of violent crimes against women that they're regularly busted for, I'm fairly certain the rapes have happened. The incidence rate of rape is high enough that the 1600+ active NFL players at any given time is just randomly likely to produce a few. But I can't think of any convictions. In any case, I would guess that a conviction would be career-ending for an NFL player, even if somehow the prison sentence didn't take care of that for Goodell. Beyond that, I don't think it's unfair for the NFL to use a looser standard than the criminal justice system for determining player suspensions. Goodell's the boss, as agreed to by all parties in the last CBA and probably again whenever they work the next one out. He can make his own calls on the evidence - and his cost/benefit analysis is different than a DA in pursuing charges. Until he seems to abusing that, I don't have a problem with it. He's certainly empowered to punish league employees for non-illegal activity anyway - spygate wasn't a crime, as far as I know.

It's interesting, but I'll pass. He had some killer seasons, but I think they were mostly just an artifact of playing with a young, strong Chad [Johnson] and a balls-out Carson Palmer. As those aspects faded, his numbers dropped into the middle range. At 32, he's not a long-term fix at the position, either. We could have just as well retained Terrell Owens.

Maybe the Bills can trade for Leinart, and use him and Brohm in a scared straight program for future rookies. Or they could go on tour convincing juniors to come out early and not go back for a senior year in which their stock will only decline.

I'm glad he's looking good against scrubs, rather than looking scrubby against scrubs. Babysteps.

Wins and losses don't matter in the preseason. We all know that it doesn't matter if your 3rd string QB gives up four interceptions and blows your starters' 17-3 lead. But they're running real plays, against players who are trying to make plays. If Trent Edwards can thread the needle in a preseason game, it means he's got the skill. CJ Spiller really is that fast. Etc, etc. I'm not saying we could beat the Bengals 35-20 in real life, but it does mean that we're at least a little better than a team that couldn't score a TD against them.

Todd and Kerry COllins are this generation's Morten and Gary Anders(o)en. Same position, same last name, same rookie year, both playing long past their peers. And just when you think they're finally done, someone calls and drags them back to the league.

In general, if you're in the US, you can find a radio station covering MNF and SNF during the season. Although I'm guessing you're further away.

8th from the bottom is pretty reasonably in the middle of the league for a team that hasn't drafted any super stars in decades. Especially since Schobel's off the books; add in the remaining ~$30M on his contract and that number will start rising much closer to the league median.

That might be the best kind of 12th man. Kids aren't going to be drunk and booing, they're going to be going bonkers at their first NFL game (at least for a lot of them.) That's probably the friendliest crowd you could hope for.

I think Chan deserves at least two years to see if he's even minimally competent, barring a 0-16/1-15 Cam Cameron style disaster. If they look absolutely clueless and uncoached, maybe the year could do him in, but if they just look like inferior talents who can't get the job done because they don't have the raw talent, that's not on a first year staff. Honestly, I have reasonably decent expectations for Chan. I think he's got decent, above-average potential, if not a likely star. I still haven't been convinced by Nix, whose moves and non-moves have left me scratching my head. He's got a chance to show off Spiller now, and possibly as a starter into week one. I'm not giving a verdict for now, but I'm looking forward to seeing the evidence.

When the Bills make the playoffs again, nobody on this board will be pissy with each other any more. If we had a good QB, there'd be no controversy.

-2 and 18, to keep up a 16 game schedule.