silvermike

5-technique is outside the tackle, right?

Agree on Russ Grimm and Leslie Frazier. They're the two standout coordinators right now, and unlike Shanahan, they'd stick to coaching while Ralph could bring in a real GM.

Nate Clements has fewer interceptions as a 49er than Jairus Byrd has as a Bill, with two full seasons of a head start. I don't miss him just because the front office decided to replace Jabari Greer with a 1st round pick. But that's the exception on our talent hemorrage: Pat Williams is old news. Antoine Winfield has been one of the best CBs in the league for years now. Jason Peters is flawed, but better than any offensive linemen to suit up at OBD since Reuben Brown at least. We needed those guys.

Head-to-head doesn't count. It's about strength of schedule at that point.

Note this line: The NFL is removing 100 million dollars from a 6500 million dollar fund. Nobody would freak out if you heard the NFL was reducing revenue sharing from 6.5B to 6.4B. It still hurts us (we could qualify for up to about $8M in funding through this thing), but it's not going to wreck us altogether. Look for the league to try to shrink the players' portion of revenues with this in tow.

Note: this draft gives us Dan LeFevour in the 3rd.

Anybody have concrete opinions on Russel Okung vs. Trent Williams?

Who the hell recovered that fumble?

The fact that the NFL gets a special anti-trust exemption and millions of taxpayer dollars in the form of stadium subsidies moves it out of the 'pure business decision' mode.

The contest is kind of cool, I think. Canadians seem to like their anthem more than most Americans like ours.

Do they stay at a hotel at all? Especially for a night game, it seems like it'd be easiest to drive up in the morning rather than play it like a road game.

Drew Brees, Brett Favre, and Peyton Manning may have something to say about that. The three top defenses - Green Bay, the Jets, and Pittsburgh - all play 3-4s. However, by points, the Bengals and Colts join the 3-4 Cowboys in the top 3, so it's less clear.

Yeah, well, as correct as you are, there's a segment of fans who will always botch clock management.

As above, I'm a big Jackson supporter over Lynch. But I don't think we should cut Marshawn/trade him for low round picks. He's unlikely to have much in the way of trade value and he's not going to save us money if we cut him. At least, not much. He is a better-than-replacement guy. We'd lose something if we ditched him and gave more carries to Omon or something. But he's not the starting-caliber back on this team, and we should play him accordingly. Fewell seems to be going in that direction.

Fred Jackson gained more yards per carry than Lynch in each of the three seasons they've been on the team. Lynch isn't terrible. He's not some kind of warmed-over Jonathan Linton who deserves to be cut and forgotten about. But he's one more high draft pick that didn't live up to potential, and eventually lost his job to an undrafted backup.

The game will be covered locally on Channel 7.

Under 2:00 with no time outs Under 1:20 with one time out Under 0:40 with two time outs. In any of those situations, you have a ~100% chance of victory if you kneel down. Does anyone know if there has ever been a turnover on a kneeldown play? The Bills were in that situation, and so running the ball - even when scoring a TD - gives Miami a better chance to win. So if your only goal is to win the game, you take a knee. However, if you're an interim coach hoping for another chance at the head job, you'd better believe 31-14 looks better on your resume than 24-14. If you're a backup RB just breaking out and looking for another contract, you'd like to have one more TD on your resume, etc. There's probably more benefit to Fewell and Jackson towards calling the play that taking the knee. I'm glad we went for it.

Miami is only a game ahead of the Bills now. Sparano coaches a 5-6 team that could end up a 6-10 team.

Lynch looked better than McGahee, but he never looked like a great back. He had three 100 yard games in 2008, and three more as a rookie. He's not a scrub, but he's nothing special. He doesn't fumble much, he doesn't get hurt much, and he can get a few yards when you need a few yards, but he doesn't break many big gains, he doesn't take over a game, and he's not a threat in the passing game. At best, he's a 1B back, most of the time, he's well suited to his current role: spelling Fred Jackson.

I'm not saying cut Lynch. I'm just saying that at this point, Fred Jackson is the starting RB, and Lynch is the change-of-pace guy.

I didn't notice if he got hurt - but it's been all Freddie today. Fewell seems to have a better eye for the talent on the roster.

The general read right now is that an uncapped 2010 will not be a Yankeesque spending spree, but a limited year for UFAs. Most teams have quite a bit of slack under the cap, so that's not being used as it is. There are further limits on playoff teams, and a few other things. Also bear in mind that the league wants to plead poverty in labor negotiations, so they'd be undermined by a spendthrift season. Of course, they can't all agree to keep costs do legally, but don't be shocked if it happens. I'm not worried about the overspending rich teams, I'm more worried that with labor unrest looming, the Bills decide to dial down below the cap floor - which will no longer be in force.

Yeah, I won't write off Hardy yet. Nothing to think he'll be a star, but it's too early to say anything. Ellis, though, man. He's had chance to show something, and hasn't gotten on the field. Even Hardy managed a few TDs in his short time active.

The UFA pool is going to be considerably thinned this year, since players with up to six years of seniority will only be RFAs in the offseason.

If the Titans fall apart again and Fisher gets fired, I'd think long and hard about hiring him. He's a solid coach who's having a bad year for reasons that aren't entirely clear to me. That said, sticking with a QB until you're 0-6 and then going 4-0 with the new guy isn't too convincing as far as decision making goes.