silvermike

I think that most Bills fans seem to have stopped using reason and resorted to finding plans to fix the team that are based on magic. Things like "never hire a Tennessee DC!" or "Never sign a QB from Jacksonville" or "the only way to win is the 3-4/46/Cover-2/zone blitz" or "hire only experienced coaches" or "hire no retreads" or ANYTHING besides a commitment to bringing in the best players, building a scheme around them, and other seemingly pedestrian goals.

Who do you think would win this matchup. In italics are replacement players for anyone picked up after Donahoe's 3rd season to make this fair, if you want. Team Donahoe: QB: Drew Bledsoe RB: Travis Henry FB: Larry Centers WR: Lee Evans (Bobby Shaw), Josh Reed OT: Jonas Jennings, Marcus Price OG: Chris Villarreal (Ross Tucker), Marques Sullivan C: Trey Teague DE: Schobel, Ahanotou (Denney) DT: Adams, Bannan LB: Spikes, Fletcher, Crowell CB: Clements, McGee S: Milloy, Vincent (Prioleau) HC: Gregg Williams OC: Kevin Gilbride DC: Dick LeBeau ------------ Team Recently: QB: Trent Edwards RB: Marshawn Lynch FB: Corey McIntyre WR: Peerless Price, Steve Johnson TE: Robert Royal OT: Jason Peters*, Langston Walker OG: Derrick Dockery, Brad Butler C: Melvin Fowler DE: Anthony Hargrove, Copeland Bryan DT: Marcus Stroud, Kyle Williams LB: Paul Posluzny, Kawika Mitchell, John DiGorgio CB: Leodis McKelvin, Ashton Youboty S: Donte Whitner, Jim Leonhard. HC: Dick Jauron OC: Turk Schonert DC: Perry Fewell *Peters was picke up under Donahoe, but moved to LT with the new regime. Any thoughts on a winner?

Look at this thread! Apparently the solution really is MORE safeties. So much for the theory that any fan in the stadium could draft better.

Whitner is a pretty good, but expensive safety. Leonhard is a free (essentially) average safety. We'll see what happens in 2010. That's a contract year for #20.

I can almost remember 18 Late January in the early 90s? I don't think he's talking about being born.

Scaife is definitely an upgrade - he's a real, NFL-level starter, the likes of which we haven't seen since Jay Riemersma. But probably not worth a whole lot more than that. He finished 13th among TEs in yards last year, and 7th in receptions. Definitely respectable numbers. I'd say he ends up getting around 4 years, $13M.

Wow...that's the worst trade idea I've seen yet.

For veterans too experienced to be RFAs, there are three options: exclusive franchise tag, which means nobody can even negotiate with the player besides the team, the regular franchise tag, which means that any team can sign him to an offer sheet, but the original team can match or else would receive two 1st round picks as compensation, and the transition tag, which only gives them the right to match. RFAs can be tendered at four levels - the lowest gives the team the draft pick from the round the player was picked in (nothing for UDFAs), the next is a 2nd round pick, the next up is a 1st round pick and the highest is a 1st and a 3rd. What I was saying is that there should be a veteran tag that gives moderate compensation, instead of the huge or none situation now.

If they can hold Gross, Peppers will definitely get tagged, regardless of what he says. The Panthers should have no trouble finding a trading partner, and if they don't, Peppers can hold out all season or play for the tender; in either situation, the Panthers would be better off than if they let him go.

Well, unless the Skins called their bluff and then the Rams would have to double down and spend their first round pick on a QB or just let it go. They had Kurt Warner and Marc Bulger, so Ramsey would have been a third stringer and a total waste of a pick. They could threaten all they wanted, but I'm guessing the Redskins would never have believed them.

I wonder what the exact wording is on that trade. If the Saints talk to the Bills, say, and offer us a 7th round pick for signing Vilma and trading him back to them, why wouldn't they do that? Structure the contract so there's no dead money, assuming that as a UFA, the Saints won a bidding war for his services, etc. Is it specifically forbidden as collusion?

The transition tag is worthless. It just gives you the chance to match another team's offer, and since they'd almost certainly put in a poision pill, that's not worth anything to you. In any case, I wouldn't be surprised if Greer's agent would take any offer he got back to the Bills anyway, asking them to match it, if Greer really was interested in staying around. The league needs something more like the RFA tender; just with 2nd round compensation instead of 2 firsts or something.

It takes two to tango: who would be on the board at #11 that would entice someone to give up their picks and move up?

Greer would get around $10M under the franchise tag. It ain't gonna happen.

Why would Arizona trade us Boldin for Peters, when they could sign Gross for the same money and trade Boldin for something else?

I don't know how we got to the point where people decided it would be easier to find a new franchise LT than to fix the problems with Peters.

You know that other teams have pro personnel guys who also watch him every week, right? We're not trading with the Vikingsfans.com here.

No, but his rejecting them is.

PEters didn't deserve his pro bowl bid this year, but he did last year and he's got the talent to be our best LT since the Super Bowl run. Don't blast a giant hole in our offensive line unless we're talking multiple first round picks.

I used to laugh off comparisons between the Bills-Pats and the Bills-Dolphins rivialries. But unless Jauron puts one over on Belichick next year, we're going to be 2-18 in the 2000s. It's not quite 0-20, but it's awfully close.

That's what I'm saying. If he's as good as people say, he won't be available at #11. If he's there, it means that the scouts discovered something wrong with him, keeping him out of the straightaway to the Hall of Fame.

If the front office really believes that Crabtree is going to be a superstar, Larry Fitzgerald level WR, I think it would be irresponsible of them not to draft him. But I don't think that's likely, especially if he's on the board at #11.

I still imagine a 12 year old when I hear the name "AJ Smith". How many adult me go by "A.J." professionally?

A lot of free agents to consider? Jabari Greer should come back, and Crowell is a decision. They have TWO UFAs who are even worth talking about. Whittle and Chambers are unsuccessful as backups, and Duke Preston might be the worst center in the league.

Bates doesn't have any experience running a Tampa 2 that I know of. Either Morris will run it himself, or it'll just be us and the Vikings next year.