Mark Long Beach

Thanks man!

How about a 2000 yard season to cap it off.

I'm still partial to the WMDs.

I think you meant week ONE!

I thought it was all about what car you drove.

It's early, but it's nice to see some of our new pickups doing well (Anderson & Tank). Regarding Tank, IIRC his instincts and quick/aggressive play were considered his strong suit. Isn't he considered a little undersized/strengthed? It'll be interesting to see how his play holds up when we get to full contact. Can he still show as well? I'm curious how he'll do in coverage. It could really limit his ability to be on the field. Don't get me wrong, I'm excited by the guy. I love intensity in my linebackers.

Who knows? We haven't had that problem that's for sure. Our D has been bottom of the barrel over that timeframe. So bad that IMO it has had a profoundly negative effect on the offense. Statistically we STILL managed a middle of the road offense. So with a defense that actually gives back to the offense instead of taking away from it??? Hope Springs eternal, but there are a lot of reasons for optimism.

I believe that he's about an "average" de that had an above average salary. But he was one of the better players on our team and far and away the best DE we've had for a couple years (sadly). Keeping & rewarding our better players is essential to building a better team and what Nix has us finally doing. Thank God.

That's pretty awesome, btw.

Pretty Sweet!

I liked Lee as one of our receivers. He was one of the few reasonably bright spots on a long sad decade of Bills teams. When we traded him, he was getting close to the end of his career, but likely still had the potential for 1-2 good seasons. MANY people here reasonably questioned why we would make that trade. It sure looked to make us worse in the short run. If you believe (as I do) that Nelson was talking about Lee as one of the position leaders who didn't buy what Gailey was selling, then the answer is clear as to why we traded him. It doesn't make him a bad person, a bad teammate or a bad player, just the _wrong_ player for this new team being constructed by Nix/Gailey. To me, this clears up all doubts as to why the trade went down. You want everyone in the boat rowing the same direction as hard as they can. I like Lee, I miss his great home-run strikes, but it looks clear that it was time to move on.

Jeebus, I'd claim to be too poor to pay for clothes too.

Not only that, he called out Troup & Carrington by names even though the questioner didn't directly use them. So it IS a little more of a calling out than was "necessary".

It's just real hard to give too much credit for people not liking a draft pick the instant they heard it. Especially for players with less name recognition or who play an out-of-favor-position-of-the-day. For a kick re-read the comments about the second round draft pick of Byrd who's arguably a top 10 safety in the NFL. http://forums.twobillsdrive.com/topic/87947-round-2-pick-42-jairus-byrd-cb-oregon/ Lots of people instantly hated that pick. I don't give them much credit at all.

yeah. And it matches up with the Coach's/GM's indirect words (and actions) as they shipped out Evans. As listed in a post above, there really wasn't any other receiver who could have been the head of the receiving corps.

What's even more amazing is that this is in the wake of several other DUI arrests and it STILL makes no difference. I really don't have a lot of sympathy for stupidity.

Is it wrong that made me laugh out loud?

from my reading of what that he's charged with. It basically means he pulled a gun on someone and threatened that person with it. The VALID defense is to say that it was in self-defense. No idea what the circumstances are in this case, but unless it's clearly self defense it's pretty stupid on his part.

I call it the Bobbitt rule.

a little overly harsh IMO. The stats aren't meaningless, we passed on all of them. But yes, the data should be separated a little more to differentiate 3 & 1-2 vs 3 & 3-5 which as you said are very different animals.

likely a high second to boot. Shrug, too much potential, not enough production for my taste.

I agree also Dork. I feel for the first time that it's not as big an influence as it appears to have been in the past. Eball, I think that by upside you mean longer term upside, not just the potential for one year upside. I think that the chance that a veteran may last an extra year over another, for example doesn't mean as much as play NOW. But similar performance by a youngster with upside and longer term play will carry more value over the expensive guy.

Crikey, what's with all the venom Boogs? Troup has been injured. Injured bad enough that he can't play at the NFL level. He may never be able to. You complain about missing out on Gronk (also a second round pick), but Gronk was off many teams draft boards because he was considered a huge injury risk (we/I don't know if he was off the Bills board). Troup has been injured while Gronk hasn't and has outplayed expectations in a perfect system for him. Maybe Troup could also outplay expectations, but we may never know if his back doesn't heal.

I think that everyone acknowledges that VY has an opportunity to win the backup job. Thigpen showed poorly in what little chances he was given and the coaching staff showed little confidence in him by not putting him in over an injured and struggling Fitz. As for the OP question is he a wacko? Short answer is yes. He's physically dominant and IMO very determined/motivated. One of the main problems is that he's a little on the slow side for learning new things and for processing difficult coverages. So I think it'll be a tall order for him to be a top-flight QB. He also appears to have some mental/personality problems. What we care about is if he can be a good backup or not. IMO he can be with the right support. He didn't get it with Fisher who didn't want him. Couldn't get it as a backup in an ill-fitting offense in Philly. He might be able to get it here. We run a spread, which opens up the field for him to run or gives him lots of targets when the play breaks down and he extends the play via physical abilities. We also have Gailey who can work with limited QB's and make them reasonably successful. For a short period, teams won't have any film on VY and can't gameplan him much which helps him as he does have physical skills that give him a boost over his mental ones. I think that Young COULD be an excellent backup and win us a couple games if need be. In the LONG run, If he successfully learns the offense I think he could replace Brad Smith as a Wildcat QB. But that's two years out IMO.

Wow. The last two years he's led our team in both forced fumbles and fumble recoveries. Plus one of his three years he led the team in Ints and another came in second. His tackling has gone from 15th to 4th to 3rd, for a free safety(!). Of course that's a bit of an indictment of our front seven, but still, he's there making 'em. That's good. That's DEFINITELY getting his hands on some balls. [joke continued]