silvermike

I really like the turf background/standing buffalo helmet design.

I mean, to some extent, it's hard to put too fine a point on it. You need to run, pass, stop the run, and stop the pass. We can run. This year, we decided to get a little better at running. 1/4 will never cut it.

Don't forget run defense - we were near the bottom in that too, any everyone agrees you have to stop the run.

When was the last time the Bills drafted a QB with their top pick? Even Kelly and Losman were taken after Hunter and Evans.

Lots of 34-year-old career backups get traded and lead a team to the playoffs.

We seem to be good at running the ball, punting, kicking field goals, and returning kicks. We struggle at passing, stopping the run, defending the pass, returning punts, defending punts, defending kickoffs, and showing promise.

I think it's an inappropriate team name and really should be changed, since most Native Americans seem to be opposed to it. As a general rule with these things, I'm generally willing to defer to the group in the team name. I don't know any Irish people who are opposed to Notre Dame's team name (or to the Celtics, for that matter), but my sense is that the consensus among American Indians is that "Redskins" is a mean-spirited team name. If that's not true, I'd think differently about it. I don't think there are legal ways to force things to change, but if Dan Snyder decided to give me a billion dollar birthday present, that's how I would decide whether or not to keep the name.

If we wanted Torry Holt, we would have tried to keep Terrell Owens. Or if we just wanted an old hand around the room, we should have just kept Josh Reed. I think we're going to pass.

It doesn't mean much, I'm sure of that. But missed blocks, missed tackles, missed reads - those are things that still count.

Honestly, with very rare exceptions, I don't care which side wins in an extended holdout. It's not my money and it's not my problem. When it's a Bills player, I generally want him to make less money, so we can spend it on other guys, and with Jets/Dolphins/Patriots, I want him to make more for the same reasons. But I'm not sympathetic to players' demands that they need to put food on their table and I'm not sympathetic to owners' insistence that they're going broke. I don't feel any kind of moral outrage that a player holds out having signed a contract. It's a contract that sets up a specific, league-established system for holdouts. Team should negotiate contracts with players that establish stiffer penalties for missing time, and if they don't, then it's not my problem. But bottom line, I want to see every NFL-caliber player playing NFL football. I don't care which side picks the fight, player, agent, or team. I just want the problems solved. And given that every side in these debates tends to be unwilling to resolve the situation, I don't really care what happens.

Generally, I think that the Bills - and all other teams - should never kick field goals or extra points in preseason. Punting, I guess, is a specific unit that can use the live practice, but the kicking team really could do what it always does every game in practice, whereas the chance to practice two point conversions and other short-yardage plays seems really valuable.

The Bills might have a different leader in rushing yards, yards from scrimmage, and all-purpose yards.

Hmm - I'd say we're tied for 30th based on those rankings.

Yeah, I think returning is pretty safe, at least, compared to any other part of football. Blocking for returns is what's really dangerous, as we learned with Kevin Everett. But return tackles aren't harder hits than RB tackles usually.

We have top-5 RB depth, I think it remains to be seen if we can translate that into one of the league's best ground games. But we have the skilll-position talent, and I think we have the coaching oomph. The question is if the big dudes up front can seal the deal. But they've always been better runblockers than passblockers, and I think some holes might start opening up. And that said, it's amazing how much better an offense starts looking when it gets used to 2nd and 4 instead of 2nd and 9.

Well, shut my mouth.

Best case scenario: Ellis makes Kelsay expendable.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias

My guess is that Fitzpatrick's gone. Brohm's advanced enough to be a respectable backup, and Brown's the prospect. Fitzpatrick may not last through the first round of cuts.

That's cool, but I wish that the Bills did more local interviews.

Injuries are caused by playing football. It happens. Also, bear in mind that missing time in training camp isn't the same as missing it during the season. Everybody's extra cautious, and players will take a few days off in situations that wouldn't cause you to miss more than a quarter of live ball.

On "carted off": http://footballoutsiders.com/walkthrough/2...h-o-little-town

I wonder what the most any team should pay a cornerback is. Assuming that Revis really is RoboCorner: he eliminates the WR he covers from the play, be he Steve Johnson or Larry Fitzgerald. Obviously, that's a superstar talent, but if he wants $16M a year - is it really better to have him and some $4M starter than two $10M guys on the edges?

I'm not a Christian, but I don't object to Jim telling the story of how he overcame self-destructive behavior and a very painful tragedy. It doesn't seem crass, or a money grab, or anything like that.

I wonder what "a week away" means in terms of something like this. Imminent seems to mean that they both realize that there are no significant issues, and they just need to write it all out and double check everything. Far apart could mean anything. Is there just a really complicated document in production that's going to take days of work, or are they guessing how long the bluffs will last?