silvermike

Starting camp early goofs us up a bit - few first round picks want to sign before the guy behind them signs, so they don't get 'ripped off' if the next guy gets a better deal. And only the Stafford and Sanchez have signed among all first rounders so far, so the market isn't really set yet at all. But on the other hand, if Maybin signs around the same time picks #10 and #12 sign, then it's really all a wash, right? He misses a week of Bills camp, but has just as many practices between his first and opening day as the guys whose camps start later?

Who has he hired with his other teams? Dom Capers with the Panthers, Jim Mora and Tony Dungy with Indy?

Okay, so the NFL as the only company providing pro football entertainment isn't a monopoly because it's not the only company providing entertainment - is that correct? In the sense that Marvel Comics doesn't have an illegal monopoly on Spiderman-based entertainment? This is distinct from if, say, General Motors made every car on the road?

So just to try to parse all this: If the NFL is a single entity, it can't be busted on any collusion grounds, since well, you can't collude with yourself. So anything owners want to do to keep salaries down is legit, including simply a league directive saying "the salary cap is now $50M" that doesn't even necessarily have to be published. It's just an edict from corporate HQ. If the NFL is a collection of 32 businesses, then they need to act as though they're competing with each other, so the players can sue for damages on all kinds of things about salaries and endorsements. Is that right? But what protects the NFL from a suit saying that it's a monopoly?

It's really crummy to only win one Super Bowl. Seriously, look at all the players we've acquired - draft or UFA or trade - since 1993 when Polian left. Who's the best QB? Best tackle? Center? Defensive End? Tight End?

The '07 Patriots couldn't beat the '07 Giants.

The first article is from *two* weeks ago, and its reasonable to think that maybe, that's not up to date.

Thanks Owens - you may note that the google search doesn't really turn up anything useful.

Anyone know who the Bills have and haven't signed out of their rookie collection? With camp opening in three days, I'm gearing for the usual last-second blitz.

Until Training Camp opens, the Bills would be better off this season if they fired Jauron. It's a bit fuzzy after that but by the start of the season, it would only probably help for the future.

It's also notable I think that ESPN runs a website, and therefore isn't limited by time on TV. It's a lot easier to say "We didn't think this was as important as training camps, so we gave over SportsCenter to coverage of players arriving for camp" There's no excuse other than blatant favoritism to Roethlisberger. That being said, it wouldn't be disappointing if ESPN really decided not to cover civil cases, and even went a step further and didn't cover anything besides convictions. At least minimize the impact of all this crap on the news cycle.

The bottom line here is that it's news, it's regarding an athlete, and ESPN cited a policy that they've clearly ignored before. Something's wrong. There really needs to be a rival to ESPN on a national scale, better than half-assed networks like Versus.

For a league with some promise, it's amazing how much they're botching the process. They had a draft of active players and then didn't tell anybody until it got leaked. They haven't named any of their teams yet. They start playign in mid-fall when there's plenty of NFL, rather than now, when people are football-starved. Etc, etc. They actually may have a decent product (for a minor league) but apparently they hired the same marketing firm as downtown Buffalo.

There's this link from the story the OP links to: http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/playoffs/200...tory?id=4219580 ESPN apparently does comment and report on civil cases. And there's no doubt that this particular civil case is news. And on top of that, their excuse that Roethlisberger ahsn't commented on it isn't true, at least, his lawyer his making public statements. I think the simple explanation is correct here - ESPN would rather keep Roethlisberger friendly than cover his troubles.

Florio gets paid to write that stuff because he owns the site. And millions of people read it because it's interesting and a good source of rumors and gossip, as has been said above. He did a quick-and-dirty read on 32 NFL QB situations to see where Vick would be better or worse. What exactly are you getting that's better in 99% of the sports media?

http://subscribers.footballguys.com/2009/0...el_idpguide.php

They can only sign someone else's UFA for each on that they lose, I think, but if it's just staff retention, that doesn't matter. The system only works in your favor if you're good and rich, so the Cowboys might not benefit.

Well, I'll say this: it's going to be clear cut. It happened, or it didn't. There's no grey area regarding conflicting opinions about interpretations of what happened, it seems anyway. Florio's now saying ESPN has banned its reporters from covering the story. Why would Roethlisberger deserve special treatment from them? PFT speculates that they want to keep him friendly.

Looking at that site, our spring notables will be: Terrell Owens Josh Reed Terrence McGee. There's a few other miscellaneous guys (Keith Ellison, Pat Thomas, Ryan Denney, Ashton Youboty) but by and large, our work will be pretty straightforward. TO's the big issue. He's probably mutually exclusive with Reed, if he stays, we should have Hardy or Johnson ready to go at #3, otherwise, we'd better hope one of those guys is a starter. McGee is valuable but replaceable, depending on how much you like Reggie Corner. As long as it doesn't prompt another CB pick in 2010.

Note: potential uncapped year in 2010. It won't be the huge bonanza for players that it's been made out to be, but it's surely not going to hurt the team with deep pockets needing to re-sign Wilfork, Kaczur, Watson, Seymour, etc.

Are you basing that on anything in particular? It seems like a pretty open case at the moment, without any evidence besides an accusation and a denial.

Ellison is underrated. I'm not saying he's anything better than a poor starter/average backup, but he's not the worst linebacker in the NFL by any stretch - he's a decent cover guy who struggles against the run. Pretty much a typical JAG player. But good lord, you read this site and you'd think we'd be better off starting 10 guys, or at least, getting Perry Fewell to suit up and take his spot.

I would say that Aaron Maybin would need to complete at least one practice in full pads as a member of the Buffalo Bills before I start speculating about whether or not he was a bust.

Yeah, I was agreeing with him.

Who are our trade-up targets in the past decade? Posluszny, Losman, McCargo, Denney - anyone else?