DonInBuffalo

I might have missed one game here or there, but this is as damning a "Dick-stat" as you'll find: Record vs. teams that finished the season with 10 wins: 4-9 11 wins: 1-13 12+: wins: 0-17

They're dead last in run yardage allowed per game. That might have something to do with their pass D statistics.

"quality football" implies they don't want an expansion team. If Davis claims some sort of territorial rights, I would expect that to get laughed out of court. LA is almost 400 miles from Oakland, and nobody put a gun to his head and made him move the team back to Oakland when it was in LA.

The Bills sell out most games because they adjusted their ticket prices to what the market will bear. Over the past several seasons prior to this one, they tinkered with the prices. They raised the prices on some good selling seats, such as the lower-middle portion of the upper deck. They lowered the prices of tickets they were having problems selling, such as the upper corners of the upper deck. If they raised the prices by $20 across the board, that would raise the price per seat for season ticket holders either $160 or $180, depending on the Toronto schedule for that season. They would definitely sell fewer season tickets, and there's no way they would sell out all their games.

Of course the Bills traded their 3rd round pick to move up to take Levitre.

It's almost beyond foolish to try to judge a QB's potential based on one specific statistic in a single game.

Maybin is undersized and very young. It was pretty much a given when he was drafted that he would need an entire offseason of conditioning (as in after this season) before he would be ready to compete for regular playing time. This is not uncommon for linemen on either side of the ball. Denney and Bell went through the same process.

I just noticed AVP sitting on the bench going through pictures with Trent. I think that's a good idea. I never liked the idea of the QB not having a coach on the sidelines to talk to.

The OP is total nonsense, essentially claiming that if the NFL refused the highest bidder then the whole thing could get tied up in court with some other 3rd party being able to somehow acquire the team. Just using basic common sense, if the NFL refused the bid of a prospective owner, and that got taken to court, either that prospective owner would win, in which case the highest bidder would acquire the team, OR they would lose, in which case the NFL would award the team to the remaining highest bidder. There's no plausible legal scenario where the team would somehow become available to anyone other than the highest bidding team that the NFL approves, or somehow prevails in court if the NFL refuses them.

If the Bills were to run a Wildcat, this seems like a good combination: Jackson at QB Evans and TO at WR Nelson TE Lynch and Reed at some sort of slot/backfield/motion

He probably never considered it because it's total nonsense. Most teams use a "cash to cap" financial model. It doesn't matter where you draft. Everybody spends the same amount of money.

I was just re-watching the game. On the pass that Royal dropped early in the 3rd quarter, he apparently noticed at the last minute that Byrd had him lined up. I wouldn't be surprised if for all practical purposes Byrd will continue to start when everyone is healthy. He's just playing too well to keep off the field.

There's a time and a place for everything. Generally speaking, it's always wrong for players to publicly criticize their coaches. If there are problems, they should be addressed behind closed doors.

I've been thinking along the same lines. Of course, all the rumors about Gruden coming to Buffalo to take over during this season were total nonsense, because he's under contract to ESPN. However, that's obviously not a full time job. He might be a candidate for some sort of consulting role.

The Bills don't run a "hurry up" any more than the Colts do. They just run a no-huddle to limit the defense's ability to substitute. If you look at their time of possession in relation to how many plays they run, they really aren't going noticeably faster than the opposition. In most of the losses, they've run substantially fewer plays than the opposition, because the offense didn't do a good enough job of staying on the field, and the defense didn't do a good enough job of getting off the field. To follow up on your "what coach" point, what coach in his right mind would come to a team that doesn't even have a GM? It's arguably a worse situation than Oakland. At least Al Davis knows something about football.

Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying. They were running a defense very similar to the dime setup that Wade Phillips used for so many years here. 4 "linemen", where some of them might be LBs, one "dime LB", your nickel CB and SS up near the line on a WR/TE, and 2 safeties deep. They didn't have 9 in the box, more like 6 and a half. The 4 down linemen, at least one of which was a LB, plus one LB lined up more/less in the middle, and a SS across from Nelson, along with another DB across from Reed. The Bills have a blocker for every defender, and all of our blockers are bigger than the people they're blocking. I would certainly hope they have audibles for slants, but that wouldn't have been a good call on the play in question. Shortly before the snap, the 5 underneath cover defenders dropped about 5 yards off the line of scrimmage, with the ones in the middle dropping a little deeper to form an umbrella. That's an ideal setup to cover slant routes. Slants are good "hot routes" when a LB is blitzing, because you know there isn't a LB on that side to be in zone coverage helping out the CB on the inside.

I went back and looked at the play, and you are mistaken. The play you are describing was 2nd and 14 from the Bills 4 yard line with 9:46 left in the game. I froze my picture right before the snap. There's only 9 Dolphins in the picture, which means there are 2 safeties deep. They were lined up in a 4 man front, with a DB opposite each of the 3 WR. The SS and one LB were also in the box. So they were playing dime cover-2. Edwards made the right call.

I disagree. You need both. You need good talent evaluators to bring in quality personnel, and good coaches to take advantage of that talent. On top of that, the talent evaluators and coaches have to be on the same page.

I think what he was trying to say was: When the team plays that poorly, everyone should be concerned about their job status.

In case you had forgotten, the players all belong to the NFLPA. They have a contract which stipulates what time teams are required to give players off. In a normal work week during the season, all the players get Tuesday off, period. Nobody "puts in time" on Tuesdays; it's against union rules. (except coaches, because they don't belong to the union)

The Bills are making plenty of money. Last time I saw solid numbers, their annual profit is in the neighborhood of $30 million. The TV contract pretty much covers the amount you need to pay the player salaries. It's almost impossible for a team that sells out most/all of their games to not make money.

The point is the Bills encouraged him to be lazy. He asked to discuss an extension after his first pro bowl season, and the reply from Bills management was essentially "No, we won't even discuss it." Peters is easily the most talented LT to ever wear a Bills uniform. It's not even close. Brandon handled the situation like a cheap businessman who doesn't know jack about football.

Yet ANOTHER screw up on a ST play. It seemed like that was happening a lot last week too, with somebody often having to run on the field at the last minute.

Well apparently it's something pretty serious, since presumably he was already in Miami. On a personal level, I hope everything is OK. As far as the game, with McCargo out and Williams not 100%, I'm sure they would have liked to dress Ellis. Denney and/or Kelsay may have to take some reps at DT.

IMO it's extremely unlikely, given his volume of experience, and overall level of play during those years.