Lori

Actually, it's a word he DOES use, quite often. So, good call on that. I disagree with you, though. What are hard counts, Wildcat formations, and double moves by WRs if not "nuances"? None relies on brute strength to succeed. Sure, some of it's still about lining up and punching the other team in the mouth ... but not all of it.

'Grats, marauder! And not to threadjack, but you can add one more to Bills Nation, as scribo and his wife welcomed a son into the world yesterday.

Coming from the guy (?) who wanted to call out Jairus Byrd for missing minicamp when he was prohibited by NFL rules from being there, I take your disapproval as a compliment. Thanks, and have a nice day.

D'oh. Nice typo, Lori ... Thanks for answering what I meant to ask.

Agreed ... but not necessarily for 2008, with Jauron on the hotseat and TO here on a one-year contract?

Mere typo, or Freudian slip?

Thanks for the correction. And this ... ... should end the thread. The "cohesion" lauded by Brandon and Jauron can only take you so far, if the guys across the line of scrimmage have more talent.

You wouldn't think he's still in college, would you? ('Cuse J-school.) The kid's got talent. And courtesy of OTH Webmeister Dan LeBlanc, the full text is now online: DUNNE: Bills new DB has genes on his side Thanks, Dan.

Keep in mind that the "largest contract in Bills history" still might not have equaled "the money he commanded," though.

I'm still having trouble wrapping my mind around the Coy Wire comparison. And I liked Wire. (Just not in the starting lineup at safety.)

Oh, wow. I'd forgotten all about that one. (In fact, now I'm wondering if there was one in '02, or if my memory has failed me yet again.)

Wait. You mean they don't get points for yardage, bandit? Crap, I've been doing the fantasy-football thing for too long.

Um. The second half of that piece is missing -- I'll have to check, but I'm guessing it cuts off where the story jumps in the print edition ... Yup, it does. I'll drop their Web editor a line; hopefully, he can find Dunne's original in the system and fix it online. The second half talks about Byrd challenging Ko Simpson at FS; I think he's wrong about Simpson even being in the mix, but we'll see. The money quote: "'Coming in,' Byrd said, 'they just want me to be a ball-hawk and do what I do.'" FWIW, I've also seen Tyler's name in the sports pages of the Buffalo News this summer. Assuming he's one of their interns, congrats to him.

I was at that miserable game. The Bills made it inside the 20-yard line ONCE, during the two-minute drill that flamed out when Duke Preston decided to brawl rather than get ready for the next play, and they never got past the Pats' 34 in the second half. Jackson had 103 of his yards before halftime -- 32 on one play -- but once NE went up 10-0, the running game went out the window. So, no. I think it would have been a Christmas miracle if they managed to score more than three points in that game, much less win it. JMO.

Yup. STATS, Inc. is the one with the deal with ESPN. And as Tim noted in the story I linked a couple of pages back, "sacks allowed" is NOT an official stat. To revisit VOR's assertion that "... when a guy says that Peters was beaten one-on-one for 5.5 sacks, there's little room to start claiming bias or faulty methodology," it seemed like there was a LOT of room to disagree on whether or not Peters should have gotten out to block Abram Elam on the infamous Losman fumble at the Meadowswamp.

42? Holy crap. Only place I ever shot 42 for nine holes was on a par-3 course. But then again, she's always been a great athlete (all those tennis titles), so it stands to reason. Good to hear that Ralph is doing well, and it sounds like he gave you plenty of stories to write.

Kinda what I was thinking.

FWIW, Channel 7 ran a piece about this in their news segment tonight, then led sports with it. Good pub for The AP -- and they even left your name on the story on their Web site. By "good mood" and "upbeat," I gather that he's recovered from the shoulder injury and feeling reasonably well for a man 90 years young? And I'm glad that things worked out for today; I was worried you wouldn't be able to reschedule it.

Bingo. To be honest, I'm a little surprised Simpson is still here, and I'd be absolutely stunned if he makes the final roster.

There's the rub. Remember what Brandon said: "... we offered Jason an enormous contract – the largest contract in Bills history – and he had no interest in it. None." "We felt very strongly that Jason was not going to come back to camp, was not going to participate, and we were going to be in the same situation (as last year)." I think most of us agree that there was very little chance of a deal getting done.

Why can't it be both? Walker on the right side and a mediocre (compared to his 2007 standard) Peters on the left might still turn out to be better than sliding Butler outside and putting Walker up against those elite passrushers. Guess we'll find that out one way or the other in September ...

Thankee. Ralph knew that unshared revenue would be the bane of small-market teams like the Bills, but nobody wanted to listen when they voted on the 2006 CBA. So how was your trip, if I may ask?

Without reading back through the entire thread, I'm not sure if anyone went back and dug up this earlier piece from Graham: How many sacks did Peters really surrender?

Thanks, JW. Can't wait for the rest of the story.