Fake-Fat Sunny

Whoops screwed up the formating. You get the point and someone more intelligent feel free to post a poll.

Overall, I found him to be average in GB. In addition to the Pact annnouncers being confused about what is a mental misake or what is a physical mistake, I found JP also to look a bit confused out there as he made both more easily forgivable physicial errors of underthrowing some passes and the less forgivable errors of throwing when he should have run (he looked like he could have walked in for a TD on one incomplete pass) and of waiting to long behind some good protection and a nifty dodge by him and threw the ball to a sideline receiver where a waiting Packer DB jumped his late pitch and would have scored an easy TD except fortunately he had alligator hands. I think it would be foolish to pull him after these young QB errors and any impressive work by Holcomb (not to mention Matthews) should be attributed in no small part to the Pack lacking depth). However, though I remain hopeful because of the good things JP showed, I was not all that impressed with his actual output in yesterday's scrimmage. Mark this fan down as giving him an average rating.

This poll is prompted by a question below regarding JP and whether his performance is more important to this team's fate than WM's. I really am torn on this question and plan to hold off before answering this poll to read the thoughts of others. I tend to be a run/stop the run kind of fan so from the options above my first thought were about WM being the MOST important thing among a host of important things because while I am very confident in his abilities (the stiff arm last night was massive) I still worry about his knees. The drop-off from WM to Lee/Williams is so huge that it does not even compare to the drop-off (if any) from JP to Holcomb. Yet, the other half of run/stop the run is the D and maybe our best chance for the playoffs (and dare I say it at this time where we are undefeated an SB win) is to get Simon and add that piece to a unit which impressed last night with 10 of 11 starters back. Add to this the fact that ST is obviously a pivotal part of the game and not only did it add so much to the Bills putting up a winning record with Pro Bowler McGee, 2 PR TD's, and shouldabeen Pro Bowler Moorman but the failure of ST player Lindell was a definite key to us not making the playoffs last year when he missed a chipshot FG (there were other factors to blame like the D giving up 100+ to a Pitts scrub rusher, Clements giving and taking away with his TD/fumble returns, and Bledsoe failing to step it up and produce in the face of these disasters) and I added the ST choice because that is important and essential also. Yet the poll question is which is MOST important among a number of things which are essential to happen and an important part of the mix. I look forward to and thank you for any observations.

I agree pretty completely. I take what you are saying is NOT an argument that JP's performance is trivial and unimportant, but that while important it is not the key thing, not our point of greatest exposure and potential weakness, and simply the wrong thing to rely upon in order to rack up the Ws. Specifically: 1. The actual keys to the game are run and stop the run. A team which has its QB throw and need to throw 20 times or less per game almost certainly is winning. A team whose QB throws for over 300 yards is just as likerly to have done this playing catch-up and lose the game as likely a they are to win it. The key to the game is going to be good management of the game (a difficult feat in and of itself) and if JP put up Trent Dilferesque numbers and a performance rather than a John Elwayesque performance I'd be a very happy camper. 2. In addition, I feel very good about Holcomb and while I will be bummed if JP werre to go down again for an extended number of games, I do not think our chances of winning will be diminished much by having Holcomb step up (in fact they may in fact be better given some young QB issues JP showed last night and Holcomb beating up the second team Pack guys). I think the drop-off from WM to Rashard Lee or Williams is far greater than any drop-off from JP to Holcomb. 3. Overall, if you want to look at past SB winning QB performances and you asked me whether it is more likely that JP can be Trent Dilfer or John Elway, I think there is no question which is more likely. The tough thing for us is that while is incredibly non-existent for folks to expect JP to be a John Elway, it still is possible but really tough to expect that JP will even be as good a QB as Trent Dilfer was for Balt. Hope does spring eternal though.

No one and I mean no one would name Pat a franchise player as Philly did with Simon. There is simply no comparison between the value the market has placed on Simon and what the market has placed on Williams. One can easily list a lot of upsides that Simon brings (balanced of course with the downsides of any human being) and the equation comes out better than listing the upsides for Phat Pat (a very good player and I'm sorry we couldn't resign him but he simply is not worth the bucks he asked us for to keep him) with an even longer list of PW shortcomings. Comparing the two is simply the Bills get a player who almost certainly is excellent and potentially one of the best DTs in Simon or going for Williams who is certainly a good player and potentially very good. If we get Simon there is a likelihood he is the best DT on this team due to Adams age. If PW stayed he certainly would not be the best DT on this team and if Edwards developed at the same rate a last year and Anderson like we wanthim PW may have been the 4th best DT on this team.

I assume that JMac and the Bills have some master plan regarding the LT situation. I just can't see what that is. It seems like the plan is to make it work with Ganday at LT. OK However, though this may work (JMac has forgotten more than I will ever know about the OL, given his real-life background and how the OL improved last year I am happy to give him the benefit of the doubt) it seems dubious to me. All along I have been figuring that the Bills LT starter was not yet on the roster but opportunity after opportunity was passed on (Shelton, Verba, resign JJ) and probably correctly so looking at each player, the deal he demands and the reports on his past in injuries and play. However, i was actually quite intrigued by a post from Mickey yesterday which raised the notion of MW making the move to LT this year. While this notion seems unlikely to me because while i think this will happen next year, MW strikes me as needing to experience some success at RT for a solid year before he is ready to make this flip. Yet as unlikely as this is to work out, quite frankly it really should be compared to the likelihood of Gandy being the answer and looking at that reality maybe the farfetched idea of flipping MW to LT is about as or I think less outlandish than expecting Gandy to be great. I'm curious what other outlandish ideas which may be the best we can do folks have for LT. My initial list in order of increasing unlikeliness. 1. Gandy works out- Possible but pretty douubtful to me as his past talent and performance at LT has been adequate at best for a bad team. JMac clearly knows a lot I don't know about OL development (which is obvious) if this first choice for the Bills works out. 2. Flip MW to LT- I doubt this because I think MW can do this eventually (despite his large size he showed great agility in Combine workouts, his problem as a player has been coordinating mentally with the RG and not with speed rushers or outside blitzers generally, he reported this year being relative buff for him and may well continue to show the talent which finally saw him pancake a few opponents late last year, he has guarded the blindside of a lefty QB in college and the technical issues of switching can be done. This will be a tough challenge but possible 3. Teague moves to LT- I think this can work as Teague was adequate though not good enough to get the big LT contract at Denver. However, I think he is an improved player as he is even further removed from the ACL injury which he performed OK but not great with at LT in Denver, he knows even more about blocking and technique now due to his center duty wih the Bills, and his play has improved each year he has been here and he would need to keep this progression going. However, this is unlikely to me because not only may it not work but the tremors created as we need to move Preston or Tucker into the C role are large. 4. McFarland steps up- Really doubtful but who knows. 5. Smith makes the transition to T from LG- He is back to G on the depth chart so the experiment with moving him to T which saw him play at tackle at the end of last season appears to be done. A weird bird as pass pro seemed to be something he did better than run blocking. 5. Peters is the answer- This one is a favorite among many because of the great things we hear about his athleticism. However, I just don't see entrusting JPs blindside to a player who has not played the position in a game before. if he is that athletic given our needs for receiving talent at TE with the likely season ending injury to Everett why take the ball out of his hands to do something important he has never done before. The fact that many seem to want to hitch their wagon to him being out LT strikes me most as a indicator of how desperate folks are for something/anything at LT. What are other outside the box LT ideas currently on our roster (this is your chance to call for JP at LT or someother bizarre idea if you wish).

I think folks need to break out of thinking that the result is either one extreme or the other. A "possible" deal is either completely the stupidest thing they ever heard or it is a great idea that gurantees us an SB. This potential Simon deal has plusses and minuses (+= 10 of 11 D starters returning and this is a likely upgrade over the 1 who left, it strengthens us as we still have Edwards/Anderson and really only endangers Sape/Bannan, disgruntled players should be looked at with caution but pre-existing relationship with Modrak and language from Simon that he will show up for his teammates in regular season strikes me as caution enough- -= cap balancing issue of downstream impact on signing NC, actually creates logjam of DT talent with Pro Bowler Adams, young Edwards/Anderson (this is a problem?). Actually foget my usual call for moderation, if this deal works out it is all to our benefit. I understand the desire of some folks to focus on LT hole as a bigger issue, but the reality at LT is that we make it work with what we got or we don't (It simply is not a choice whether we pursue a franchised DT like Simon or a franchised LT instead. There is no either or choice for the Bills here for an LT. If we can get a franchise player to strengthen the position even though Edwards/Anderson are likely satisfactory I saw go for it.

Sorry I chopped this off hitting the wrong key. The basic points are: 1. I think the best shot to contribute Wire had was on ST because he never struck me as a good safety. I think we agree on this so I'm not sure where we agree to disagree. 2. we do seem to disagree on the value of ST to the team. I can't see how anyone can have witnessed the career of Steve Tasker and used the phrase "just" am ST player. Clearly no one has ever been as good as the best ST player, but I think a player if he made half the contribution to a team Tasker made to the Bills I would be pleased to have him. If one looks at the positive contribution that McGee made to this team last year or the negative impacts of the ST failures of Lindell and I do simply disagree with you if you feel good ST play and players are not flat out essential to a team. As one of the biggest proponents on TSW that Wire was improperly managed to try to put him into a position he could not play well and not that he was great at ST but he had a better shot there than at safety I'm not sure where we disagree. Perhaps you want to say and argue that Wire was a completely flawed choice in round 3 or at all. I certainly am no defender of GW and would not defend him on this point though I do not remember you or others stridently making this point at the time or using anything more than 20/20 hindsight. As far as the punt. Wire screwed up big time i do not argue he did not, However we dod disagree if you feel that Wire screwing up also absolves the ST coordinator from making an unnecesary call asking Wire to block a punt when we had a seven point lead. The penalty gave the Bengals the ball in Bills territory and they scored to put it in OT. It was an unecesary call and GW should have overuled the coordinator when he asked if we should go for it. I don;t see why you want to let the coaching staff completely off the hook on this one for the call even if you want to blame Wire for not doing something you feel he should have learned in HS. The coaches blew the call and like it or not they need to make calls their players can perform and teach them how to do it of they can't. Is Wire an ST stud? No Would he have been a better player with April teaching him instead of GWs buddy? Yes. Would Wire have become an ST stud with better teaching? Maybe I do not know.

First many of your points are well taken as i agree with them. I am not arguing that Wire was a deadlock certainty to become even an adequate player. Before we agree to disagree lets at least agree about what we are disagreeing about. I never argued Wire waI sm merely arguing that right from the start (and even a bit before as I think I advocated that an ST focus was the most likely avenue toward him being a contributor) I thought an ST focus was the best bet for a player with his skill set. He was certainly no stone cold certainty to be an ST great. In fact, i felt that for Wire to become even remotely as valuable as Tasker, he needed to develop some value to the return team which Tasker provided with the ball skills he developed as a WR. I auggested something like developing his skills to try to become some blocker extraordinaire. He never was remotely used in this manner. I don't think anyone could argue he had any ST achivements or demonstrated ability because he did not, Merely that this was his best shot at being a contributor was if he has an ST focus, Anyone who argued that safety play was the best course for him was obviously wrong. I don't remember anyone declaring him a bust right from the start or even much of a reach as a 3rd round choicewhen he was drafted. Did you? I'm not arguing that he was a good pick to become a safety

Mickey, i think you are right on target with this question and though I still think MW is now 1 year off schedule (TD would have been financially nuts when drafting MW not to think that when JJ hit FA this would create a nice opening for MW to move his fat contract to the LT slot and allow the Bills to shop at the Stoker McDougle rate for an FA RT rather than pay the Jonas Jennings rate to resign him). However, it looks like the JMac answer to this puzzle is to try to have a reasonable OL budget with a cheap LT (Gandy) to offset overpaying the market rate for an RT. However, MW clearly improved as last season went on and even better was diligent this off-season. Could he actually make the flip to LT this year? I think this is doubtful because though I think the flip is well within MWs capabilities as he already has done well in college with blindside duty and he has shown a level of agility with his shuttle run times at the combine that he should be able to play the game at LT. However, making this switch will take some work and effort an MW would be building off of an uncertain base due to last year's meltdown. If he had continued his progress from his rookie year without the hiccup of muddled play in 2003 under Killdrive and with Pacillo beside him blocking for a less than mobile QB and the meltdown of the off-season after 2003 then a move this year would make sense. Yhough he did walk last season after crawling through OTA, he needs to jog a little bit before running to the left ide instead of bursting straight into a run. I think challenging Gandy is a good move and if he falters I am sure there is a plan B. Playing Teague at LT is a reasonable plan B in terms of player quality at LT. but it does create tremors in the rest of the OL as Preston must step up or Tucker must recover. If MW plays well initially and Gandy falters it will not shock me at all to find that JMac had this as his real contingency plan all along. He fooled everyone (particularly ICE) last year with the threat to move MW to guard. The idea of Peters being ready to guard the young QBs blindside and taking the ball out of this athlete's hands (particularly with a TE need due to Everett injury makes less sense than even a sudden flip of MW to LT.

My 1 and half cents on factors in MW improvement: 1. He melted down so badly during the OTAs last year that I think any rebirth has to start with his attitude being adjusted, The key to change is the teaching, better scheme and hard work which were involved, but MW got so bad in terms of putting on extra tonnage and showing little work ethic in off-season 04 that the change started in his head/heart. I think the overall situation was not good as our OL after 03 was in disarray as the offense under Kevin Killdrive was idiocy and GW never forced him to divesify. Ruben Brown stood up to this idiocy but paid the price as when you prove you can stand up to your bosses for your teammates your new bosses may not want you around without good reason and a Ruben in decline with a neutral cap hit for cutting or keeping him was gone, Without any coaching leadership and little vet direction from fellow OL players MW proved not able to keep his eye on the prize amidst the trauma of a death in the family. 2. The hiring of an offensive minded HC with an OC who preached an identity consistent with the HC and then the hiring of JMac suddenly their was direction and quality guidance for the O. I think this made a big difference fror MW as suddenly there was a threre there. 3. JMac took a personal interest in MW which he had to do because of the MW cap hit. He nicely applied sticks (threatening publicly to move MW to guard) and carrots awarding MW a game ball for his play in a sack free game toward the middle of the season. 4. Having the steady Villarial there had to help a lot. MW played next to Sullivan his first year who at least had more experience than the rookie MW though Sullivan also lacked ability (he eventually was cut). 03 was a disaster as MW found himself in his second season actually expected to carry and school Pacillo who not only had less skills but non-NFL level talent at RG. Its too bad that Villarial or someone of similar experience was not there for MW from the start or he would likely be much further along. The good news for Bills fans is apparently MW showed up clearly having worked out in the offseason and this sleeker modle still has a ton of weight but is here to play ball.

I think you are wrong in your assessment of "Fat" Mike. 1. He is fat but so are most OL players so forgive me if i simply refer to him as MW, calling him Fat Mike is fine with me if it makes you feel good. 2. MW has had a variety of struggles as a player but handling speed rushes or outside rushes has not been his biggest issue. Coordinating with the RG next to him has been his biggest issue an area which improved vastly when steady Villarial teamed up with and steadied MW rather than the horrid adventures watching him try to coordinate with Sullivan and the Pacillo. 3. As a rookie, MW attracted attention and drew the 4th pick exactly because he showed good agility and great athleticism for an OL player and particularly one of his size. My recollection is that at the combine it was in particular it was the results he put up in the shuttle run which called for him to get into a stance and then move up and down as well as back and forth pickling up cones that impressed folks where he was evaluated as ahead of McKinnie by most draft gurus. 4. As far as muscle and power, these were the areas where few had doubts about him that they had on the agility question. He is a big boy and his muscle and power have never been questioned it is whether he had the agility to use his muscle properly. 5. I'm not sure what planet you were on the last few years but the Bills clearly had a dominant run game in 2002 as TH put up over 1400 yards and made the Pro Bowl and even Larry Centers went over 5 yards a carry as a change up. The Bills had a good running attack with TH going over 1300 in 2003 and an even better one with a better RB in WM last year. One of the hallmarks of the Bills running attack among pundits was that they ran both to the left side and the right side and did not have a bias either way as many teams actually do tend toward the lesser traffic on the left side and it is actually somewhat surprising the Bills did not have a clear tendency away from MW and behind using Ruben as a pulling guard. 6. One should not discount the prospects of Peters because he clearly is a good athlete and JMac is publicly behind him as the future at LT. However, there is simply no good football reason beyond faith in JMac to think that a player who has never played a full season as a lineman (much less as an LT) should be assumed ready to take blindside responsibility for the young QB. Particularly with the injury to Everett, do not be surprised if rather than taking the ball out of his hands we see a bit of Peters at TE. If he is as great an athlete as you and others say just throw him the damn ball, MW faltered big time last year when the Grammy who raised him died. However, i think the first choice is Gabdy, the second option is Teague though this move becomes dependent on others like Preston stepping up and after that moving MW which should not even be talked about by the brtaintrust until they are sure MW is over last year' melltdown is the best third option.

I don't think Teflon Tom or anyone has ever ever ever in any public case said they planned to move MW LT. Big deal because what they say and what the market says are two different things. The LT market is in transition right now because demand for LTs has dropped a lot because demand was so high a few years back that even pedestrian LT talents like Petitgout or Clifton got huge multi-year contracts to play the position which far outpaced what even RTs and most other OL players could command. A couple of years ago only 1 of the top 10 OL cap hits was a G (Ruben Brown ironically) and other those 9 tackles at lesst 7 or 8 of them were LTs. Conceivably the Bills OL budget would be the Bills OL budget and they would have the same total OL cap alliocation paying MW the contract they gave him to play RT. However, to do this they would have to play exactly the game we are playing now of finding a Gandy who will man the position on the cheap because Jennings demanded (and got from SF who I think overpaid badly for him) a big contract. it is pretty clear to anyone who chooses to pay any attention to the market for players that the Bills were planning to move MW to LT as soon as they had to and could. Unfortunately, he had a meltdown last year and the move was delayed, but since it is simply cheaper to buy and RT than an LT the Bills will either move MW or cut him as his abilities and the contract demands.

Thanks also for your comments and perspectives on this and on other broader issues regarding our Bills. I don't think there is much of a need to troll through the details because I actually think we agree in our assessment of Wire's failings as a player. He flat out has been a disappointment in terms of his Bills production and the results of his play. I think to some extent where we may disagree in terms of the context we place around the events we agree on and our shared judgment that these events are one of failure. Its not that the failings of GW and others in developing Wire lets Wire off the hook. In fact, for me the game is ultimately played on the field and it is the players rather than the coaches or GM who win or lose the game. I has always been my sense that 89% or more of HCs are the same in that they work out in some scenarios and situations (Marv Levy with the Bills) or they are complete dogs in other situations (Marv Levy with KC. In essence it was the same Marv Levy (a lil more experienced with the Bills so he would not try to run the single wing). The same is true for most (even Bill Belichick as it was the same guy who simply sucked as HC of Cleveland, was duplicitous or at best stupid when he took and ran from the NYJ, and is clearly the best HC far and away in the game with NE right now) HCs. It is really the 20% or less of HCs that can either win or lose wherever they go because they bring something special to the job. The sorry thing is that most of these 20% are Rich Kotites who can lose anywhere rather than Bill Parcells who can win anywhere. At any rate, I agree that Wire is ultimately responsible for playing well or playiing poorly. I'm not sure if blame is the word we want to use to describe this since the penalty for playing poorly in the NL is that you only get to make a lot of money instead of a whole lot of money. Yet, my sense of the failings of GW does not let Wire off the hook, nor also does Wire's limitations let GW off the hook. While as TD has been reminded by his missteps while good kickers are not necessarily a dime a dozen in the NFL, butchered and failed player careers are not rare. I think the Wire case is of interest to Bills fans and football watchers because this case seems to represent a pretty clear set of development errors and decisions associated with his play. 1. The Bills signed foomer Houston Oiler Jenkins with the idea that he would be our starting SS and this clearly and demonstrably was wrong. They drafted Wire in the 3rd and no one though this was a killer reach best as I can remember. However, if he had been drafted with the idea that he was going to be our starting SS, this would have been and turned out to be a huge reach because GW really blew the assessment of Jenkins. 2. Wire brought a number of positives to the game which got him drafted on the first day: (intelligence as seen in his Stanford routes, a hitter by rep, speed by his combine numbers which was very good for an LB). However a decision was made to employ these demographics as a safety which at least ested if not neutralized these as outstanding aspects (he was smart enough to be adequate to poor at a new position, he remained a hitter by temperament but ended up looking Kurt Schulz like in making ineffectual hits though he never seemed to be the menace to his teammates Schulz seemed to be as several of our guys got nicked with Schulz belatedly flying into the pile and what is good speed for an LB is adequate at best for a DB. 3. His mistakes in his first year of primary ST duty were horrid and seemed pretty linkable to a lack of training and him trying to hard rather than playing on the edge of control which Tasker seemed to do. An example of this was his roughing the kicker penalty against CIN. Steve Taker himself analyzed this on the late lamented Howard Simon Show. Wire had a clear technique problem which Tasker pointed out. It was essentially impossible for Wire to make the block from the angle and position he launched himself unless he was 12 feet tall or jump out of the stadium. Even worse by committing to this impossible broad jump he gave himself no chance to avoid hitting the kicker. Tasker said this was all a technique failure and when it comes to ST I tend to listen to Tasker. Is Wire such a simpleton that this Stanford grad can't be taught? Maybe. Is it that the Bills did not devote enough time, effort and focus to having him learn the ST game because they were focusing on getting him biurned less as he struggled with SS? I think so. Does Wire being a youngster exempt from blame for not being smart enough to massage his coaches into using him correctly? No, he's a big boy and making hundreds of K. Does Wire not doing this absolve GW/Gray and whoever his buddy was who ST from blame? No to that also in a big way. In addition to this ST problem I also retain a clear memory of a Santana Moss runback for big yardage against the Bills. Wire (and Stevenson ironically) missed the tackles on this one big time. Moss is good and makes people miss, but the only thing which saved a TD on this play was Prioleau being a good enough ST player to stay in his lane at first and then come all the way back across the field to bring down Moss who fortunately was delayed a little in making Wire/Stevenson look like fools. I'm not arguing Wire is the greatest thing since sliced bread. He isn't. I a, arguing that right from the start before his first pre-season game I was posting my hopes that he would be trained to focus on ST. This in part was because he seemed to me to have the fundamentals to make a name for himself there, but also in part because I felt he would not be good enough to play safety in the NFL. Unfortunately I was certainly right about the latter and he was never trained to be the former and I think that is at least a significant part of why he has disappointed. This year will be his last year in my book to remedially learn the part of the game which I would allow him to contribute the most. Unfortunately, i think that since vets make mpre and he has whatever bad habits and non-teaching in his past to deal with there is not a lot of hope. You or others can fault him for not being Steve Tasker, i don't think anyone would disagree with you. However. even Tasker will say he was not created in a day and burst into the game able to do all he eventually could do on his first day of play.

I guess I am part of the Coy crowd based on the post above which seems to find fault with those from the Wire relatives view that he should be starting over Milloy to the folks who see some ST potential in him. Count me in the potential group as I have seen some positive aspects to his game, but I certainly do not count myself as part of the Coy crowd since I agree that he has not paid off for the Bills as a player and in fact he has been a negative for this team (for those who demand specifics: 1. His first season was that of a player starting at safety who had never played safety at any level of organized ball in his career. The best that could be said about his play at SS IMHO is the backhanded compliment that I would have expected the performance to be much worse from a player who went from college LB to starting SS as a rookie. The fact that he was slotted in as the starting SS and was "mere;y" picked on a lot rather than all the time was actually testimony that he had some good football instincts and good demographics as a player. His rookie play defined the cliche that potential simply means you haven't done anything yet. 2. His second season saw these failings reflected not only in the attempts to find an answer in Cota and Battles but that the deficit left by their requirements got even tight-fisted TD to pay through the nose for Milloy because the market required you do that to get him. Wire demonstrated that pass pro was still an adventure for him as we only maintained the shutout 31-0 which started the season on his hopes against NE when he had to take a pass interference in the endzone rather than give up the long TD pass in that game. Intelligently GW realized the errors of his ways when his misreading of how much Jenkins had left forced him to go with Wire, but he stupidly took his ST guys advice and sent Wire in to block a punt against CIN and the resulting rushing the kicker penalty forced us into an OT win we pulled out as a Wire unschooled in ST duty took an impossible angle in an attempt to block the kick. 3. Wire's third season acually showed some improvement in ST work from what I could see, but i wish he had gotten this training as a rookie instead of wasting his and the Bills time trying to mold him into a safety role he was not trained for and might not ever be ready for. At any rate, I think you declare Wire a done deal as a failed player a bit too early. He may easily end up as a failed player though I still attribute much of this to him being poorly employed and used by GW/Gray than necessarily to a lack of talent. My observations are: 1. Usage last year- In my mind Wire was surpassed by both Rashad Baker and Pierson Prioleau as the Bills answers at safety if Milloy and Vincent were not ready to go. However, the cut of prioleau due to cap issues gives Wire a shot at being our fourth best safety (the Bills have used the two positions somewhat interchangeably under Gray). ST play kicks in strongly here in setting the roster, but given that the Bills have at times been willing to keep 5 safties Wire will likely be one of them. 2. ST play- The Bills seem more likely to rely on back-up LBs like Haggan and Crowell and a WR like Aiken playing a pivotal gunner role or a Londong Fletcher or Reed as a short return guy than Wire. However, Wire did register well over double digit numbers in tackles last year and will get a shot to prove himself this year. Our predictions of what happens will be easily surpassed by the reality of what happens on the field. While he has never produced as a Bill the way we wanted or he should have, the horrible usage and development he received under GW is clear and his failure to start against Pitts could be an idicator of a judgementbyy MM/Gray of his quality or be an indicator of some nagging injury which made another player a better choice in this final game of the season. 3. Overall- Wire is a smart boy as seen by him getting into and graduating from Stanford. he is a high character guy as seen by his charity involvement and by his being named one of the captains of the ST at one point in his career. Finally he uis a good athlete as shown by it being even a thought he could step up and play safety as a pro after never playing there. He was not good enough to really be a starter at safety, but this failing is not proof at all that he is no athlete. In fact it indicates that he does have some "potential". Whether he can turn that into actually doing something remains to be seen but we will see it or not on the field this year.

The list also looks pretty good to me. It does raise a couple of marginal questions though: 1. The Bills off-season interest in Anthony Thomas at back-up RB (a battle we lost to Dallas) is an indicator to me of the correct import we put in having a plan B if WM goes down. It is interesting to me you feel Rashard Lee (the booby prize when Dallas signing Thomas made him available) is going to get cut. He certainly will get a chance to stick and the pre-pre talk about him has been good. I'm curious to hear any camp observations on his play and will be watching RB for fallout when the exhibitions happen. Since you cut Burns as well (unlikely as the braintrust seems to like his ST work and they made a proactive decision to resign him when he was gone as a Bill briefly this off-season. I'd be surprised if it played out this way unless Shaud Williams showed an awful lot this pre-season. 2. It would be unusual for the Bills to cut draft choice Geisinger completely this early. He clearly would represent a big mistake by the braintrust unless he at least makes the PS this year. 3. Agreed Bannan likely to be gone but this mostly says good things about Edwards and Anderson stepping up. 4. Agreed that I think we may go with Schobel alone on the depth chart at RDE, but again this speaks highly for the most part of the work that Denney is and has done rather than a belief that Schobel is the new Bruce. 5. It does not look good for Smith's hopes of making the team if he is back to G on the depth chart. The switch to having him as a T (where he ended up on the depth chart and playing toward the scuttlebutt that he was strangely better at pass pro than run blocking and this switch occured in the real world also as he lined up at T in the last game or two. In general though I think your guesstimate is a correct one.

Agreed that while it would be fantastic if Peters was able for LT responsibility next year, while this is possible I still have my doubts and would need to hear a lot of good things about his LT work in camp this year to even put much hope in it being a real possibility for him to deserve the job next year. Instead some are even talking about him as an option this year which I woould simply laugh at except that it is JMac doing a lot of the talking. I just do not see Peters as a important part of the LT equation this year. Agreed also on the Teague at LG notion as being a pipedream based on his demgraphics and past performance. One of his big initial problems at C was simply getting put on his butt by bullrushes. I think some of this came from him being unable to handle the bullrush, the linecalls, and make a good snap (particularly on shotguns where thank gosh Bledsoe had great hands) all at the same time. However, switching him to LG does not seem to play to his strengths. The 2 Teague strengths I have seen are that he showed good football smarts in doing the linecalls from C for an OL which was productive with the run and gave up sacks as one might expect with a QB who lacked mobility and hang onto the ball too long sometimes and athleticism as he was at least adequate in space at LT for Denver (though no one should mistake him for being more than adequate at this job several years back. However, with the added experience he has gained as a Bill at Cand better athleticism now than back when he was with Denver (he seemed to recover nicely from past injuries, I have no problem with him as a plan B at LT EXCEPT.. this is where your final point about Preston kicks in. The worse thing about him as plan B at LT is that it creates a need for a Plan A at C. Tucker is bright enough to do it and with past starts for the Bills and others at both T and G and a nice job at C last year in place of a nicked Teague he can do, but he starts camp with injuries. If Gandy cannot do the job it may be important for Preston to pull off the impressive feat of being good enough to start at C as a rookie. 2 or 3 playerswere good enough to do this last year, but it will be rough if we have to do this to compete.

And some folks say the TD shorter extension is outrageous. Welcome to the NFL where the standard of W/L success is clearly not the only or even primary standard which owners use in real life to make hiring decisions regarding the GM.

I'm surprised that no one has suggested taking the service called SuperShuttle if you aere willing to take public transport. I guess SuperShuttle is called formally a limo service though actually it is a van that you are sharing with up to 2 other destinations, The service is available at a desk and waiting area in the midst of the BWI baggage claim area between the two areas they have conveyor belts for baggage. One can call their 800# and arrange ahead of time to meet your van or you can simply walk up and when they have three destinations your van leaves. The advantages are that it is a airport to doorway service so that rather than you having to travel from the terminal to the MARC train and then from Union Station to your meeting site by Netro or cab you are taken straight to your mwwting site. The disadvantage is that you share the ride with two other destinations and if you happen to be the third one it lengthens the trip time. However, my experience has been that this time is minimal as they put together the trips based on the 3 destinations being relatively common or at least right on the same route (for example, I have found it quite useful for going to unusal DC are locations such as Alexandria and all my trip sharers have a VA destination and for locales such as Annapolis. The cost are much cheaper than a car rental if cost is an issue or a cab ride between BWI and DC. I first used the SuperShuttle service at the SF airport and found it to be a great way to get from NWI to exactly the location in DC where I am heading. They will also give you the 800# to arrange a pick-up at your meeting and take you back to BWI for a cost I have not done in awhile since I have had groups subsidize my travel and simply flown into National, but I often took SuperShuttle from BWI when I was traveling to DC on my own dime or airline anti-terror gymnatics made National an even bigger pain than normal.

I'm pretty certain that one of the our levels of preparedness and alert here in the US involves something about heavy use of duct tape. Truly it has 1002 uses.

I think you are correct that the Bills can create a lot of cap room which will allow them to have serious talks with Clements about extending. However, if I am Nate Clements there is simply no way that I do not play the market unless I am really afraid of getting hurt. The Bills would actually have to create even more cap room that the very large reasonable amounts that you have provided the nuts and bolts to show the Bills can make room. Again, I see no reason why Clements would possibly want to resign and avoid the free market unless the Bills were willing to offer me an unreasonably wondeful deal. Clements has an unprecedented chance to score and score big by playing the free market. Unless someone has some tangible evidence that he is a wheeny so afraid that he will get hurt (no sign at all of this from a player who actually brings the advantage of arrogant confidence) and lose it all or that TD is in fact going to make him an unreasonable offer (no sign of that either) , i see no reason why he will sign a deal.

Though if the whole story is that my salary has increased from the hundreds of thousand annual average to $1.8 milliom in the last ten years and now I have had to roll it back 24% in exchange for 6 years of living off a salary still far higher than when I first began playing hardball with my bosses I might hooe that you crush me ;ike this again. It doesn't look like the players are hurting much at all on this one.

Actually upon thinking about this as a legal case" 1. Grandma may be stopid in the view of many for buying her grandson a GTA video or for buying him one recommended for above his age group, however, there is no case against her not even for child abuse for buying him a game rated fpr 17 when is 14 as all of these ratings are reccomendations rather than rules for the buyer. If Granny thought her grandson had the emotional or mental capabilities of an adult as long as his parents did not object she can buy him the game. Perhaps if this move were part of a series of actions on her part demonstrating that she gave him stuff recommended for adults and thre was some evidence that this exposure was related to some overt inappropriate acts by the kid, Grammy is a free as a bird on this one. 2. Even if Grammy was guilty of bad judgment or even a crime in buying her grandson a video not reccomended for his age, this would be no defense for Rockstar. They are being sued for false advertising by putting adult material in a video rated mature. It does not matter in terms of whether they intentionally advertised the video falsely if a below age person got it. They still advertised falsely. Maybe wants to only fine Rockstar a dollar because the kid is already damaged and beyoond repair since his Grammy is irresponsible, but ti seems they are definitely guilty of false advertising (hence tjis probably why they are promising co-operation rather than fighting this tooth and gigabite).

Generally, I think like the replacement situation where the NFL destroyed the NFLPA, but did it so thoroughly the NFLPA threatened to dissolve and the owners were forced into a partneship with the players, the answer is more complex than who wins and who loses the labor fight. I think the lesson to be learned from the NFL is that by losoing the battle with the owners in the mid-80s strike, both the owners and the players ended up making more money than ever before because the owners and workers needed to co-operate or the workers union would die and when they co-operated rather than fighting then they really made the big bucks.

Its hard for me to see Peters being an option at LT at all this year. If he is in fact such a great athlete and has his head screwed on straight enough that switched OL linecalling will not be a problem, then he also a phenominal enough athlete and has the mental ablity to succeed at TE. Peters apparently brings incredibly soft hands and a big body to his potential at TE, but had incredibly low Wonderlic scores and his penalty last year in his first pro appearance for not alerting the refs that he was a TE with an OL number are signs that even the marginal mental ability needed to play pro football are not there. I just do not see if he is in fact to stupid to play a position he brings grerat benefit to and has done before, how the heck is he going to master a new position with the huge blindside responsibilities of an LT. If we insist on making Peters an LT I expect a year before he can be trusted with this task and any contribution we get from him this year is goint to be on ST where you simply wind him up and say go get the ball.