Fake-Fat Sunny

I also did not find this startling because I think the draft is an important part of building a team, but unlike many posters I do not think is the most important part of building a team. The important thing I think is for a GM to be good at striking a balance and having a good mix which uses the tools of FA, UDFAs, trades and of course the draft to build a winning unit. The current Pats team defines success having won 3 of the last 4 SBs and I am very much influenced by BB building the 1st team acquiring 15 or so players after the June 1st cap cuts and building a winner with that strong core of players chosen in the BB mold. The draft was obviously an important part of this team but the handful of draftees acquired that year (most of whom we in development guys were not the key to building a winner. It supports your focus on the later part of the draft that hactual draft key was the unplanned reliance on 6th round pick Tom Brady. But still as best as I can tell ther are a few BB draftees who play prominent roles, but the real leadership that defines the team is provided by FAs such as Harrison. As far as your factoids, the interesting thing here is not only why TD has been so poor at finding starters in the end of the draft, but also that it contrasts with him finding a bunch of starters in the first two rounds. He has traded up so his 4 years brought additonal picks, but the baseline is 4 years means 8 picks from the first two rounds and he has 8 starters. Why do you feel that TD has been so successful in the 1st 2 rounds when he has been unsuccessful in the later rounds. The ego explanation does no go to far in explaining this phenomena in that most of these 8 are players who should start like WM and Evans and even Kelsay and Denney are contributors to one of the top statistical Ds in the league. Rather than simply pooh-poohing the theory that he has found better players though other mechanism which has forced his draftees to the bench this is actually true in regards to LBs. I doubt any draftees are going to move Spikes and Fletcher out of the starting line-up. Posey is the weakest link ofthree, but the D unit has generally performed well so indicting him for ego does not seem like a good explanation. As far as Crowell and Haggan, they were drafted for ST and depth and that os what they provide as I find it hard to complain about ST performance. In terms of spin, I think these are the issues and these are the explanations: 1. His first three years did not see a winning record and sucked, but ht bears the lead responsibility for this by hiring an HC who was not ready for prmetime, but I think he was hiring a guy he knew he could beat ifthe Ciwher situation happened to him again. 2. Last year, he made what appears to be a at least good if not very good hire in MM. Through striking a good balance and good leadership he deserves praise for being GM of a team with a winning record, but because of adjustment struggles with a new coach and the new crew panicking bit in the last game they missed the playoffs. Its hard for me to see anyone being logically anything other than hopefulafter last year's improvement in W/L and it being very early (pre-draft) in off-season acquisition and striking the all important balance.

Oh well.. point by point Like Willis, like Clements, like Mcgee. One coul go beyond these cases that few sane people would argue with and also there is even a case to be made that Schobel was a pick that deserved resigning. that Henry *though hated by many) was a pick chosen for the Pro Bowl who rushed for over 1300 2 years in a row and there are even those who say JJ was a good pick who the Bills should not have let go. Even if you want to ding him for Reed (good production his first year but a loder since), MW (actually folks are hopeful after he sucked last off-season, or Wire (not an awful choice in my book but actually horribly developed by GW/Gray as he never had played safety before) this does not add up to his draft record being consistently awful. Like most draftees some work out and some don;t. Huh? Is Soikes crappy? Has our leading tackler and D captain of a team in top 5 statistically for D two years running crappy. Has Sam Adams been crappy? Lawyer Milloy is overpaid because the market demanded it but I like his production for the team. FA acquisitions were a ke to the improvements made by the team last year. Not making the playoffs is not good enough, but putting up a winning record in the NFL may not be enough but it is not crappy. Huh? Do you mean Jennings? Either he is a bad draft pick if you want to stick with your first point (in tha case letting him go is a good idea) or he should have mortgaged the future and signed him which implies your first point of choosing crappy players is wrong. Legi point, but the prime reason for this error is unmentioned in that he screwed up his primary job which is hiring an HC when he hired GW. I assume you passed on this point because he seems to have hired a good one in MM. so what, even if Henry is an idiot you hang on to him until you have to let him go in the hopes some other idiot will take him off your hands (for example NO traded Wickey and Miami has paid the price. Why you would cut him makes no sense to me, particularly since TD didn't even waste time surveying the market he go TH to do the work. I don;t think it iis bad at all for him to try to sqeeze every nickel he can get out of him, why give up for no reason no matter how bad you judge TH to be. You must not be married and you don't havekids because then you would probably know that life is all about compromise. When raising kids consistency is all important (one friend summarized it by saying whther its a present or a panking give your kid everything you promise them). However, the best thing I have seen is that you have to pick your spots or you will spend all your time dealing wih the agenda of an adololescent. And unfortunately changing GMs every 3-5 years will likely not get you there either. Uuuhh last I checked there was a little thing called the draft, UDFA signings, camp and pre-season before the off-season is even over. This really is not the time to get your panties all in a wad and declare MISSION UNACCOMPLISHED we are doomed.

Like Gordan Gecko said in a movie iconic presentation Greed is Good. Greed always shows up because in a significant way, ots the American (western) way.

A smart businessperson (and even most stupid ones) make plans not based on one possible reality of the marketplace, but have various plan Bs in place for situations changing. The end ofthe CBa and the possibility of having an uncapped year is something that even a stupid owner would have in mind, and even if it does not happen (which I doubt it will) it was clear that in the normal course business the league and its team were going to flirt with the potential outcome as by design it is there to force everyone to make a deal and get focused. Thia possibility strikes me as one of the 5. 9. pr 15 projections of revenues that a Mcnair or Snyder had to make rather than a change from leftfield or midstream correction no one could see coming, The Haves are trying to get the best deal they can from their fellow owners. If they get the worst deal on their projections they will simply have to suck it up or sell the team (there should be plenty of takers and a nice profit to make as the value of sports franchises has continued to climb.

I don't thnk that trade valuehas a one-to-one correlation with a player's quality as a player at all. Its a business deal and obviously how good a player is judged is at the base of any deal, but supply and demand override this basio assessment. Thus, evem though a worse player may be traded for a better player by most reasonable objective judgments, the market is subjective with other factors involving selling the product which go beyond on field play influencing supply and demand. Further, the situation of supply in the marketplace and demand on a team impacts the ultimate trade in a way which makes assessment of player skill not a straightforward thing to do. What this odd statement means in Travis/Shelton case as best as I can tell: 1. The biggest drag on this trade value is that the market is pretty full of quality RBs right now as several good/great FAs are in play (even though Seattle tagged Alexander they will happily trade him) and at least 3 1st round RBs. 2. However, this drag is balanced by Henry having proved he can be productive in the NFL at RB (he gained the yards 2 years in a row, he made the Pro Bowl, he caught over 40 passes when well used as a receiver in 1 season. he had a fumble problem his second year but his fumble stats went way down his thrid year, TSW rants about blitz pick-up are simply overblown opinion rather than substanstiated with consistent objective data) and most of all bu him being under contract for next year at a cap hit well below the $85 million/51 players level. As king as he passes the new teams (if any) physical he is good to go. 3. The 4 to 5 teams that have expressed interest in Henry have multiple needs on their team which may make them look elsewhere than an RB in the first, leaving acquisition of TH as a good thing to do. By acquiring TH the trade partner can market the heck out of him to their customer putting the best and a great face in acquiring a former pro Bowl RB with a reasonable cap hit. Particularly in the case of Miami, they not only need an RB in the worst way since the departure of Wickey and the general failure of his back-ups, but they more than most other teams would love a former Pro Bowl RB as the marketing tonic to help them wash the bad Wickey experience off the team. 4. Demand for LTs is actually pretty low. it was my hope that the Bills could actually potentially afford to get JJ back at a cheap price because there are really only 4 or so teams with both the cap room and the LT need to even bid forJJ. The plush LT contracts of the past like ones to Petitgout and Clifton have actually dried up the demand for LTs, but it turned out that the 9ers were willing to overpay for JJ. This removes yet another team from the Shelton market so it does not surprise me that the Bills are the only potential trade partner for his services. The fact that the deal was dubbed dead and now it appears from Travis quoes and Clayton's reporting that the deal died because TD left the showroom, but said he might comeback, was a great sign and we will see what happens. By my count the Bills have 9 or 10 other options than Shelton at LT (most bad options but a couple workable) and armed with this ability to walk away, i think that the fact this deal has taken awhilesays more about the marketplace than it does about the Bills assessment of Shelton as a player.

Thanks fo sharing this. This view is a rosy interpretation for the Bills of this situation which stands in balance with the more stark assessments of trade prospects for Henry that they view as quite minimal. My sense is that the thinking Bills fan cannot really know for sure which is right and a reasonable guess is that neither extreme view that everything is under control and the Bills have AZ/Henry and the world right where we want them, or the view that this former Pro Bowler who gained over 1300 yards two years in a row is worthless crap as a player is actually true. The question for me is where in the middle of these two extremes is reality likely to occur. My observations are: 1. The market seems pretty glutted with supply with FAs who have out there or tagged and their teams working to trade them and several RBs likely to go in the first round. Trades may not get done however, and teams with RB needs will have other needs that make them look to a trade or FA for an RB nstead of drafting one. A deal for Travis is certainly possible, but it will be a risky business to hang onto him. 2, The Bills are actually set up to take this risk as essentially Travis has no leverage but to return to Buffalo and back-up WM and put as good a face on it as he can if he has any desire to be a pro football player. He can always pull a Wickey Williams if he wants, but if he wants the big payday he seems to want, if TD does not trade him, he will have little choice but to have whatever face saving meeting and announcement with TD and WM he cares to have and then to suck it up for a season and wait for his chance to prove he deserves a big contract when he hits the next FA market. 3. Who knows what is true, but it is good from a Bills standpoint to see Travis get antsy. The guy in the driver's seat can be calm (or shoul at least act calm). The fact TH is throwing a hissy-fit and particularly that he is labeling TD as the party who is holding out for a better deal is a good sign for the Bills IF TD is reading the market correctly. One thing TD has shown a mastery at in his four years (it sure ain't overall record) is that he has played the market on issues like WM, waiting til the 2nd for Kelsay, stealing Denny from Pitts while they were on the phone, reading first round draft choices as better for the team to trade a year early for free value rather than simply take the 50/50 risk with them, etc show that TD does read the market incredibly well The horrendous Bills W/L record and failure to make the playoffs the last four years stops me from being as much of a total praiser ofthe Bills organizationas Czaben, but overall I feel pretty good about the specifics of Henry's most recent rantings. Since I care far more about the entertainment value provided by Bills on the field and really care less than a rats ass about the off-the field stupidity or charitable works of stars, as long as Henry's pleading for sleeping with a juvenile involves no jailtime abd the DA judged him to be stupid because he believed a minor when she claimed she was 18 and he appears to be simply an idiot rather than a child-stalker. The personality issues are trivial to me. Some folks revere players as fantasy figures. For me they are mostly commodities. Commodities that I really like to have on my team in many cases, but the soap opera stuff is easily ignored by me.

This is a sign of a societal problem that for some reason folks allow discussions to get boiled down to debates about how bad the other guy is, and living on the implication that because they (like you) oppose the stupid things the other guy is for they must be perfect. I'm sorry, the enemy of my enemy is not necessarily my friend Nand just because the other guy is evil it doesn't mean you are good. Baseball and hockey are in fact pretty close to garbage in their economic systems (in fact the NHL model is garbage) however the events show that while the NFL system is much better than these two models, it has way to go before it becomes a Holy Grail oe perfect. The question is how do you roll up your sleeves and improve things instead of simply living in a world of slogans (like Mission Accomplished when it isn't). Its tough, but I think the NFL example shows the power of partnership over dueling if your goal is to improve the product. The key to the 10+ years of labor peace and unprecedented profit for the owners and players in the NFL was that the owners beat the players so badly in the "replacement player" fight of the mid 80s that Gene Upshaw and the players were left with no alternative (after Ed Garvey and his 52% of the revenues demand was demolished) but to threaten decertification and after a bit of struggling and twisting, a deal was cut by the owners for a partnership which now sees the players actually gettin 64% of the designated gross, but with the labor peace bringing stability that makes even the lower pool of designating the gross far exceed the gross when the sides fought yo the death. The problem here is that though the owners/players seem to get it that they must fight for the joint profit rather fight each other to the death, the ownets don't seem to get it themselves. The large revenus owners are simply in the best position to cave for the most part and though they will definitely beat more of a hit than their fellow owners, they will all make out like bandits in the end. The large revenue folks will need to do a very unbusiness like (and even Un-American thing)and look hard at themselves and with the other large revenue teams and figure out how much of a hit they can take and do it.

I agree totally that Buffalo city government is bad, but the major flaw in your proposal is that all current signs point to the County government that you would merge it with believe it or nor is even worse. It is quite amazing that the County government under Giambra inherited massive surpluses (spurred by the tax payments of NYC brokerage firms and residents who profitted massively during the financial boom of the 90) and have instead turned that into a pool of red ink as far as the eye can see with the help of a county government operated by having a voting majority in the legislature the last 3+ years and a comptroller from his own party who was asleep at the switch (or focusing on running an losing for higher office) who seemed to control very little in terms of the budget. Taxes are part of the issue certainly, but this government specialized in lowering taxes and that coincided with a massive economic downturn so the conventional wisdom that tax rates and economic prosperity are inversly proportional at least must be reasonably questioned. Actually, while I think you want to keep taxes as low as you can, the bigger issue here is that management is so poor and anti-tax forces focus so hard on keeping the number low they do not focus adequately on the bigger issue that the spending side needs to be based in statements of clear goals, evaluation of whether those goals are met and accountabilility for those in charge. County government seems to be making the same mistakes of our federal government in that: 1. The goals they espouse are politiclly palatable (I'm for good instead of evil, beat the terrorists, make government smarter, am I to take from this that the opponents of the current president and country exec are openly in favor of evil, are for the terrorists and want government to be stupid?) Perhaps these leaders simply mean that the opponents hearts do not aspire for stupid goals but a measure of their specific plans will get us there. However, as both are second termers one can measure the correctness of their specific plans and despite their re-election the budget mess which happened on Giambra's watch is unprecedented in its size and the moving taret of he Admins reasons for going to war have been because their rationals such as WMD have been completely wrong even if the outcome of getting rid of Saddam is laudable (Osana Bin Who?) 2. The application of actions to reach those goals has been miserable from the country deficit to Paul Wolfowitz being wrong on the number of troops needed to pacify Iraq coinciding with the unexpected deaths of 1500+ troops after the major fighting ended and then he gets promoted to the World Bank head and a bi-partisan commission is about to exonerate politics as the reason for a massive intelligence falure abnd instead blame department leaders like George Tenet for the snafus and he get held accountable by being honored with the highest civilian award. the Medal of Freedom we can give. 3, This last point goes to the fact that responsiblity and accountability is out in these regimes. A hand-picked commission recommended that Giambra get a 40% raise for his work. Gp figure.

anecdotes do not judtify changing the principle, but they do justify at least an explorattion of fine-tuning thins. Do you think that getting rid of the second amednment (which I would oppose) or fine-tuning how our society adheres to it (which I support) are exactly the same thing? I think the trap our society falls into on this issue and other alleged discussions which the media love to turn into debates (because controversy sales ads which is what the businesses of CNN and Fox are primarily about regardless of ideology) and politicians are all about (again because controversy turns out the base and keeps the moderates at home out of frustration) is adopting a slippery slope point of view where they can turn moderate point of view into the most insane and easy to argue against proposals. I mean seriously do you think that opposing people on the terrorist watch list having unfetter access to weapons is the same as totally scraping the second amendment (Wayne LaPierre and the NRA seem to)? Do you think that severly limiting third trimester abortions is the same thing as eliminating the right of a woman to any abortion (NOW and whoever runs it these days seem to. The media from CNN to Fox and politicians fro Tom Delay to Al Sharpton has played a game we have fallen for that has destroyed this country's ability to embrace or even to seek moderation.

I for one do not advocate making any change in the second amendment. America with its 200+ years of history has made a decision to go the way it is going vis 'a vis gun laws and I see no possibility or utility in a large scale change be it the liberal extreme of banning handguns or the NRA extreme of making the US a free fire zone. I think clearly U.S. society would benefit from some fine-tuning of things (the Wayne LaPierre comments I saw the other night which essentially opposed making gun ownership by folks on the terrorist watch list illegal and an enforcable crime struck me as simply bizarre and letting fear of the slippery slope force you into doing stupid things). The cat is out of the bag in the US and ain't gonna be put back. Amuone who chooses to ignore stupid events like the DEA agent, the shootings in MN, and a zillion other insane activities that are a part of the fun system we have chosen are ignoring reality. Likewise anyone who chooses to claim guns are not used to protect folks in scoiety are ignoring reality also. The anecdotes either way do not prove the principle. By minimize I did not mean eliminate. i merely meant that I hope we move toward a more clear application of the 2nd amendment that allows the fundamental right of gun ownership as part of having an orderly militis. Right now we're a lot stronger on the first part of the amendment than on the second part.

Just say thanks he did not hit one of the kids. If ever there was an argument for a society choosing to minimize the number of guns available as being a safer approach than allowing free access to guns and getting more police to lock up th criminals this is one of them. Unfortunately, America has chosen the guns don't kill people, people kill people approach and part of that choice is going to mean episodes like this one.

Add overpaying to keep Ruben Brown (for a couple of years he was the only guard in the top 10 OL salaries) and Jhn Fina (who had to be cut and really contributed to the cap problems with his accelerated bonus. TD gets the rap for the Holocek and HJ errors in addition to any blame you want to assign Butler as one of his initial acts was to extend their contracts (and cap hits) and then he cut them leaving us to absorb the cost a longer time. If he cut them in the first place we would have had more cap room the next year, instead we paid them for two years for nothin. I actually do not think that the Flutie extention was unnecessary given the mistake that Butler made signing RJ to a guranteed deal AFTER he had inked his deal with Flutie. Butler set things up for a fall by giving RJ a big bonus only to see he course indivated by his injuries in Jax become a theme as this talented player went down to injury time and again. Payinf Flutie and incentive laden contract was not a bad thing (though telling him when he signed he would have a fair shot at winning the starting job was simply made a lie with the RJ bonus and guarantee. The stupid thing which Butler did was to roll any incentives Flutie achieved into his base pay for the next year (a deal Flutie says he would have signed without having though who knows). Flutie played exactly like we wanted our back-up to play when RJ went down. Unfortunately, once the full amount of incentives was achieved and applied to the next year's cap AND these incentives were rolled into his base pay, AND you added on the $5 million RJ cap hit which came wether he played or not, we had to restructure the Flutie deal or have $11+ million allocated for the 1999 QB cap hit (an amount which even today in 2005 would trail only the enormous $15 Manning QB hit and wildly outstrips 2005 hits for Favre (no. 2), McNabb (no. 6), and a plethora of overpaid turkey at QB). The Bills did the only thing they could do which was to give Flutie a longer term deal and convert the base pay into bonus because the foolishly guranteed the RJ deal (my sense is that the Bills would have been better off dropping him or signing him to a much smaller deal if we had not resigned him and he suffered the injuries he suffered and Flutie took over. If in fact he had turned out to be a stud then fine as Flutie would not have played (and thus made his incetives and I think RJ would have signed at mid-season rather than take the risk of playing for FA if we sweetened the pot by giving him more money and if he was not injury prone I would have easily paid another $5 million to ink RJ). The Flutie deal was a necessity in 1999 as even with the cap relief the new deal provided we still had to have cheaper rookies play ST and these rookies did not have the habit yet of staying their lanes.

What's the story with NFL Network on Adelphia? Did they acquire rights to it for a short time as a filler since Empire folded up shop and there are no hockey games/ Will we lose it and have to pay for it as a premium deal when the season begins? Is it here to stay as long as it makes a dime for Adelphia and I should start watching it? What's the big picture?

Add to the non-information in the Team Profile (which I agree seems to be a pretty accurate assessment of his role in the team's future) is that i appears clear that he was drafted as a talented prospect who had never reached the potential he showed in college because of a series of injuries. From what I have seen and heard he has not suffered from a similar series of injuries as a Pro which is good, but has not used his reduction in injuries to force himself into the line-up. In fact, on the contrary because when it came down to final cuts last year he was not enough of a contributor to make the roster and was actually let go and did not sign with anyone else even though he was free to do so. However, potential is potential and he made it back to the Bills as a practice squad player, but once again despite the openings on the OL which alloed Smith to jump from the Ravens PS to actually start for the Bills Sobieski has not even been able to make the roster, Unless there is some extraordinary boost in his output this minicamp and pre-season, I think the project will be declared done and he will be let go.

The word I hear is that their were several reasons beyond assessment of Shelton's quality as a player that impacted the Cards decision not to keep him as their LT: 1. He apparently did not hit it off at all with new Coach Dennis Green who decided to rebuild the team in his image with his as the recognized Alpha-male regardless of the salary of the player (much like MM did with cut of Shaw- it did not make sense for the Bills financially as we had to pay him for a full season at that point regardless of if w cut him, an there was no word of him acting like a cancer or bein a negative to the team, but he did not develop a role as a contributor to this team as Aiken took the reserve role from him and MM cut hm rather than him show up, sit and draw a check. this sents a clear message to the team that everyone needed to contribute in MM's eyes or they were gone. 2. The Cards had Leonard Davis who gets a franchise level salary for his OL level play so losing your job to someone judged worthy of a top 10 salary does not necessarily mean you are bad. 3. Shelton was slowed by an injury last year and the Bills doc's examination will tell alot whether to count on this man as an athlete or not. On the good side, Shelton's nickname on the Cards was "The Last Man Standing" when a number of well paid player went down to injury and he was the only one who did not or simply was able to play through the nicks all NFL players get. If there is some tear which cannot be repaired he could be done (the docs will tell as they did with WM) but if his injury is simply a test of his character his rep bodes well. The Bills will get him for a cap hit of $3 million (chump change for a starting LT) and as this is merely his base salary for several years out, this base salary can be converted into a bonus whiich gives him the advantege of getting the money up front and the Bills the advantage of pro-rating this pay over the length of his contract which would reduce his cap hit to as little as $1.25 million annually (lower than chump change as the average NFL cap hit salary is the $85 million/cap divided over the top 51 salaries or $1.6 million a head). Ironically, i think the Bill might get a better deal assuming his old contract and just as NE subsidized the Bledsoe salary for the Bills AZ would be subsidizing Shelton's salary.

The keys here are probably what the plan Bs are for each acquistion if (actually when) age causes them to miss games as most OL players do (I think only1 Bills OL player, if that started all 16 last year). Add to that players simply failing to perform and dragging down the chemistry of the OL (Pucillo probably did as much to hurt MWs development as anything besides his grandma's death) and older players deciding like Cota and Battles did for us that it was just time despite their desires and OK level of play and deciding to retire. This can be down within the limitations of the salary cap because almost by definition younger players have lower salaries, particularly at the UDFA level where the Pack is going to have to troll for back-ups. The Bills experience last year actually provides them with some hope as Pucillo proved to be so bad that we had to look elsewhere and JMac found an inadequate but still better answer from the PS of the Ravens. The Smith jump from the PS of one squad to starting on another team was nothing short of extraordinary as merely making another roster is unusual and actually becoming even a back-up contributor is quite extraordinary. It does not surprise me that Smith was not the starter we needed at LG. However, I think many Bills fans make a mistake in declaring him a failed player: 1. He is a youngster who made an extraordinary leap up in one year and just because he failed to do the impossible does not mean he is done in terms of development or as a player. 2. He had specific problems with run blocking which must be solved if he is be adequate, but the run blocking is generally viewed as the easier skill to grasp rathering than usual problem of pass blocking where he showed the skills which got him noticed. He seems to need to be trained in changing his mental approach to be more aggressive attacking on the run block rather than the more difficult task of physically being a good enough player to show pass blocking skills. 3. JMac clearly has a plan in mind as Smith is actually listed on the roster as a T and filled in for JJ at the end of a game when he experienced one of JJ's numerous game ending nicks. Perhaps his skill at pass blocking will allow him to handle being out on an island against speed rushers at LT and will also elimate the need to be an effective pulling guard if this was the problem with his run game or in the red zone.

A roater is a small ham often used for light meals and religious events.

You hit the key point in assessing this situation which is that TH is under contract. Teams that have expressed an interest in him know for sure that he has had inury issue the last two years, but also know he has demonstrated in 2003 that he can play through pain productively. They know that like virtually all players he has had some high profile drops, but also that he caught over 40 passes when he was used that way in a productive O before Kevin Killfdrive got totally predictable. I suspect most teams also see the complaints last year of Henry's ability to do the blitz pick-up is overblown as he had real problems in this area like most rookies, got better at it like many 2nd or 3rd year players, but complaints on TSW are likely ignored by most except us frequest readers since this complaint seems far more to be a product of fans who have turned on a player who has said he wants to leave our team. This is shown in their overblown adulation of WM allegedly being a master of the blitz pick-up when he also struggled early on as a rookie wth this aspect of his game, though him gaining a little experience, presenting an outside running threat which forced blitzers to hesitate rather than sell out to the rush, and actually Bledsoe showing an unexpected ability to succeed with flea-flickers and even work the QB draw into our O are much bigger factors than WM being the nest TT in his first year. The Henry bliyz pick-up complaint is simply not supported by the facts. Teams are also well aware that Henry had some big fumble issues his second year, but his play (and dumb luck) improved greatly in this area. Finally he is a player who has produced as a rusher two years ago and regardless of how he got there he is a former Pro Bowler. A team that needs an RB would likely be overjoyed to get a former Pro Bowler at RB and though certainly a team may have been creating a false impression for the rest of the league by expressing interest, and there are teams that will value picking an RB with an early pick will take a rookie because they no they have no chance next year and can wait for the rookie to develop, but 4 or 5 teams creates a real possibility that the Bills will be able to move Henry and get some real value. Personally, I hope this is a vet rather than a draft pick because a draft pick is probably potential at best, may welll be worth squat for a year or two even if he become a good one (like Moulds) and is certainly worth nothing to the f005 team if they get a conditional or even high 2006 pick. Travis can be moved for good value to help the 2005 team and I'm glad TD is not freaking out and simply giving him away for nothing as some on this board would have him do.

Check what occured in real life. He took as you said a poor ass NYG lined who featured acqusitions we lost who we judged inadequate like Dusty Ziegler at C and Glenn Parker at T and this OL blocked well enough for two-time loser (at that point he is up to 3-time loser now) Kerry Collins and Tiki Barner in his worst fumbling days. They made it to the SB and not only can you not fault JMac for this work but he deserves a lot of credit. This was not merely his first SB, or even his second, but actually the third time he got to the Big Dance as he coached a CN to team to 2 SBs behind a productive running game, a productive passing game and Sam Wyche. Still, JMac is on record saying he is no miracle worker, but I think the improvement he got out of the Bills OL last year which began in disarray at best and thanks to working well with WM put up some nice running yards and actually even saw a huge reduction in Bledsoe sack totals. JMac correctly said he is no miracle worker as the play calls (improving over the predictability of Kevin Killdrive), WMs outside threat (a part missing from Henry's game) and Wyche/Clements using Bledsoe well which saw him pull off some nice play fakes leading to TD pitches to WM and catches on bombs to the WRs and even running a few QB draws which made the LBs hesitate before blitzing are all parts of the story. Nevertheless, JMac deserves great credit for: 1. Being an obvious upgrade over Vinky and Ruel who simply were not ready for primetime (do you disagree) 2. Leading the charge in playing good cop/bad cop on MW to revive his play after he let down his teammates and the team in the early season. 3. Doing a fine job in training Bannan and making the switch to employ defensive players in our non-productive redzone offense. 4. Playing whatever part he had in identifying a practice squad player off the Ravens who though an inadeqate choice to make the impossible jump from PS one team to starter on another, was identified as a better choice than NFL vet Pucillo and he plugged him in to play LG and replaced him with a working approach when his redzone play proved to be his bif weakness. Can JMac work miracles? No. However, the ten options I suggest at LT which range from the possible to the really unlikely should not be dismissed out of hand because rather than miracles they all involve things he has done before in some form or another over 25 years and for the most part for the Bills last year. We do not need miracles and faith we simply need adequate OL coaching and JMac has done this before.

I don't disagree with your assessment (in fact crediting kickoffs with being half the game is actually a lot better than most posters who simply ignore it). I just agree with BINYC that the Bills need a kicker who can hit from over 40 yards (and inspires the HC confidence that he can), However, due to: 1. the ST's outstanding performance in kick coverage (which like it or not Lindell following April's orders to a T and not fooling his tacklers who must assume the ball is going where they think it is and in a time amount they think it will get there was a key part of this accomplishment 2. Lindell doing incredibly well in one of our 3 onside kicks and kicking it to the right spot by Rashad Baker did not cover the ball on another one. 3. The 650K cap hit if we let Lindell go which is not an impossible amount but significant if we have other OL, TE expenditures we need to make. 4. You correctly pointing out Lindell has one good season to his credit in Seattle, but he improved a lot from his horrendous 2003 numbers to his inadequate numbers in 2004. BINYC is right that we need a kicker who can consistently hit FGs over 40 yards (though the numbers which show virtually no kicker did this in the Rich winds last year are interesting do not excuse Lindell but should not be totally ignored by the thinking fan). However, it appears to me that the Bills are quite likely to try to get to this outcome by having April work with Lindell. After the horrendous shank in Pittsburrgh by Lindell it is pretty reasonable to wonder if this is going to work out, but it seems far more reasonable to me than passing on using the high draft pick likely necessary for Nugent on getting OL or TE help which are also critical for us getting Ws. We need a kicker who can hit consistently beyond 40 yards and it appears that we all are going to have to root for Bobby April to coach Lindell to the same improvement level in 2005 from his shank in '04 that he got out of him from improving from horrendous in 03 up to merely inadequate in 04.

As best as I can tell the rebellion is the right thing to do as the targets are the right ones (elected officials who we can effect unlike the business leaders who bilked this community who are free to do what they want unless they are stupid like Rigas's and have to do jail time). However, the rebellion does seem to need a little work in its leaders and message. They are making the same mistake as Giambra and the legislature and focusing mostly in the dollar in side and putting a chainsaw to the dollar out side. If this rebellion can move beyond the simple ranting and raving of a Fox News or the stupid tugging at the heartstrings with human interest stories of a CNN, and instead doing the tougher complicated work of making sure that our tax dollars are well spent for services to WNY citizens and residents it will serve a great purpose/ We'll see.

See my post in respose to John from Hemet regarding rebuilding the OL. I state 10 options (plus an 11th that JMac knows more than we do about the OL) that potentially can pursue at OL. Most will not get us a starter in my view, but they are all based on a player having started at LT elsewhere and even excelled as the position. Most are already on our roater or are available. There really in no need to panic (yet).

I love this thread because the various possibilities for LT it presents as a response to J from H. Many of them are unlikely possibilities but there is a lot none of us has seen in terms of the work and practice of players on our roster. Add even other rosters- for example, I would not have guessed that someone off the Ravens PS was a better option than the lowly Pucillo at LG. I'm not saying Smith was an adequate LG starter since he wasn't last year but how did JMac know he was a better option than Pucillo? It suggests fans are panicking way to early because we were unwilling (unable) to overpay for Jennings or buy some expensive LT. Most of these options will not work out, but options at include: 1. Follow J of H suggestion and develop McFarland. 2. Follow Simon suggestion and develop Peters. 3. Follow a player etc's suggestion and flip MW to LT. 4. The trade for Shelton is still alive (if you believe Henry) so make the deal. 5. Cap caualties do suddenly appear on the market even at LT as Seattle just demonstrated. 6. Re-sign Marcus Price who filled in well for JJ last year and is still on the available FA list. 7. Try Gandy at LT as he started 14 games there in 2003 for the Bills. 8. Try David Pruce who is on the Bills roster there as he made the All-world team at LT playing for Frankfurt in NFLE. 9. Trade up (if we are really stupid and desperate) and use the draft. 10. Flip Teague to LT. 11. Something else since I have not done this for living and even despite my overly long posts there are ideas from the professionals I haven't even tought of yet. I'm not saying that any of these 11 ideas will work but one of even two of them might work and this is reason enough for us not to feel doomed at LT or to get our panties all up in a wad or feel panicked about this. Breathe and relax. Just to comment as I have a little time until an appointment at 9pm. 1. J of H's McFarland idea is interesting but seem unlikely to work to me (but hey would do I know as I would have felt it was unlikely for a player from the Ravens PS to even make our roster or at best be an awful back-up, but instead Smith made it all the way up to inadquate starter in his first year). Yet I do not share the seeming wholesale indictment of McFarland as a player of Simon and others, The Bills demonstrated with both Denney and Edward they are willing to sit draft picks (even more highly touted ones) who they judge to be not good enough to play even at need positions. McFarland not only made the roster bu was active and played so JMac clearly sees something there to work with. Perhaps just as Denney and Edwards improved their games enough to start (thank gosh we got better players to push them out of their starting roles) it is not impossible that McFarland can also improve his game as a second year player. In fact, if McF or any of the other prospects improves his game enough to be trusted at RT (with Villarial next to them to teach them) this would be the less difficult goal than trusting them to guard the QBs blindside as it allows JMac to flip MW to LT if he think his game is improved. 2. I doubt Peters is our answer at LT (or even RT) despite the rumblings coming out of OBD that he is a special athlete. He was drafted, was moved on to the roster to protect him from PS poacher, and even scored a TD on ST because of his speed, athletic abilities, nose for the ball and soft hands. If he is such a special athlete and gangbuster blocker, why not put him at TE (where inuries have created a need) instead of at tackle and take the ball out of his hands. I think the Peters at LT talk is all smoke and mirrors to confuse the enemy. 3. I think flipping MW sounds like a better possibility, but the problems he had last off-season must be gone with a far more professional attitude from MW that he is going to watch his teammate's backs and not let down this region. This is possible because his play improved tremendously last year (thanks to a combination or praise like giving him a gameball when he played well last season and threat when JMac got MWs attention by fooling him and ICE into thinking they would move him to LG. If JMac feels he can revive MW further to connect his play to the old days when he guarded a lefty's blindside at Texas, this one may work this year. 4. It appears to me that part of Shelton's downfall was not his play but not hitting it off with Denny Green. He was injured last year which provided and opening, but over his career has answered the bell 16 times in a season at LT a couple of times and got the nickname the "Last Man Standing" in AZ when he was the only major player there to bes the injury bug so I'm not bothered by an episode of injury (unlike JJ who had several different episodes of injury). If this deal can be done I think it is a great one for the Bills and the chances are still rough but higher today after Henry said TD is in the driver's seat for making this deal. 5. I don't think Terry is the answer but this shows that the cap casualty option (maybe even before June 1st) is an option. 6. It interest me that Price does not have a deal yet and perhaps he remains a fall back option for the Bills if the market does not knock down his door. I see him as less of an option as our LT starter, than as a reliable back-up who makes me much more comfortable taking a flyer on another starter. 7. Starting for the Bears does not strike me as making Gandy answer at starter. However, he has started at both tackle and guard and might actually fill the Price role if Price is a goner. 8. Pruce is an interesting propect but the emphais for me is prospect. Yet he could easily be a player who if his play improves can become a valuable back-up on this team. 9. I think the draft (particularly the 1st roun slots) are overrated by many fans who like me are involved in too many fantasy leagues and too stat conscious. The draft is an important tool, but it is not the key to building a winner as shown by the NE Patriots who signed roughly 25 players fortheir 50+ man roster after the cap cuts June 1st. Draftees were critical though it was actually late rounders like Brady rather than #1s like Seymour who proved to be quite repaceable by less regarded players last year. When one adds in UDFAs and trades to the FAs. the draft was merely a very important sideshow to NE building a winning squad. Its the mix that is the real deal here and FA signings like Rodney Harrison and the cast of back-ups who signed cheaply to replace high draftees like Seymour even wounded FAs like Colvin were the lead of this mix for NE. The only semi-reasonable way I see the Bills using this draft on the OL is to draft a player who can start at C so we can flip Teague to LT. 19. Flipping Teague to LT strikes me as the lead option for the Bills filling the LT gap, but even this best option is not a likely option given the combination of ALL the other LT options (both possible and bad) we have. Flipping Teague must involve getting a center and maybe JMac views, Tucker as the man, maybe this is the cap casualty or trade we see, or maybe there is some rookie we can get in the draft (I hope not), who knows for sure. 11. Some other unknown. At anyrate I think you can comfortably ignore post which claim we are doomed because we did not overpay DeMulling. As DeMulling's agent says if we wanted him we could have got him and as TD says if we want to create cap room we can get a player we want. Whew, I am thankful my 9:00 conference call to the left coast got postponed to 9:30.

If Travis is telling the truth (maybe/maybe not) I think this is good news for Bills fans as it would mean it is TD who controls this situation. In it he has made the judgment from his reading of the market (and from the Adams and Kelsay examples and other situation he read the market extremely well) he is holding off on moving Travis because he thinks there is a better doable deal out there. It COULD be a number of things like: 1. He feels by waiting he can back AZ off an alleged request for a draft pick and Henry for Shelton (maybe not/maybe on this one I guess). 2. He sees Shelton as an affordable answer to the LT hole (We can sign Shelton and pay him the $3 million base salary up front as a bonus and prorate it over the remainder of his contract giving us a $1.25 million cap hit at LT msking the $5+ million overpayment for a restructured MW a reasonable cap hit in our OL budget, but see the potential for some other LT to become available as a cap casualty, thus he waits to move (maybe/maybe not is my guess). 3. He thinks that there might be a better offer from another team like TB or Miami for Henry (maybe not/maybe on this one, but this one is possible if team view the primary Henry attraction as his cap hit rather than his personality and they have other fish to fry with their cap room than RB). At any rate if you believe Henry I think this is good news. If you do not believe, Henry what I think may be happening here is that Henry is holding out for a new contract with AZ before he makes them comfortable enough to trade for him. AZ would be smarter to make Henry prove himself before opening up the bank vault and if he says he is not going to be happy with AZ until they sign a new deal, I do not make the trade if I am AZ. My guess is that Henry knows he has no leverage because he signed away a year of his play for upfront chump change from the Bills to deal with his personal stupidity. He can not come to mini-camp if he wants, it doesn't hurt us because he is likely gone and even if he had to come crawling back to be #2 to WM, it isn't a killer for us since WM is the guy we practice at RB in "voluntary" camp. He can even threaten to sit out if he wants, it will not get him to FA any quicker. Just as it was fellow players who called TH and begged/told him to come to "voluntary" camp last year, TD can sit back and the players will do the work for TD just as Henry and his agent have. I think thid quote may be a sign of positive development because if YOU believe TH then TD is in the driver's seat. If YOU DO NOT believe TH then the pressure seems to be building on him and he may realize that his choices are to play for AZ on his current contract or pull a Wickey. I for one think that Henry wants the big bucks and wil cave to get a shot at them. Maybe you're enough of a believer in Henry that you think he answers to higher principle than money (though I doubt it) or maybe you can lay out some case for why you think that Henry (admittedly not the brightest bulb in the pack) is as uncommitted and weird as Wickey. Even his bad quotes are no equivalent to the hiring a rap star as his initial agent, his dreadlocks and unusual personal presentation, or his actually forcing/participating in the NO/Mia trade. His quotes are not great to hear but I am glad TD is not panicking or getting his panties all up in a wad over this.

I think most posters have ignored several issues due to the reasonable pissed off reaction most fans had to his shank of a makeable kick in the Pitts game: 1. Lindells's #s for making kicks actually improved a significant chunk in 2004 over 2003. TD pointed out some of the specifics on BB.com and this fig leaf actually exists if you choose to have faith in Lindell's ability. 2. Lindell did not get the job done at all as a FG goal kicker, but he was quite good and the ST was extremely productive with him kicking exactly where (depth pf kick. hangtome) April told him to kick it if the Bills good numbers in kick coverage mean that the kicks did not fool the tacklers at all about where the ball was going. Last week one poster provided an exhautive statistical analysis of the Bills getting great drive starts and holding opponents to short returns and it is hard to see how good work by Lindell was not a part of this. 3. We, like most teams tried few onside kicks, but Lindell did nothing short of a masterful job on the 1 recovery of our 3 onside attempts as he and the ST completely folled the opponents it was coming, he kicked it with great pace and distance and he recovered it himself. 4. The cap hit which we would get for cutting Lindell is not huge ($575K), but as we are running everything close to the edge cap wise, we would certainly need to make some significant moves to cover this hit and the real possibility exists that even this amount might cost us getting the OL, TE or back-up RB help we need which are even more crucial to our fate in the W/L column. In my book Lindell is a major disappointment and underscores one of TD major GM errors in a fairly stupid comment from him that good kickers are a dime-a-dozen in the NFL (yeah, tell that to Ariens (who was not good), Graham (who it turns out is good but we didn't hold on to him), Hollis (who also was good before his injury but we couldn't reach a deal with him either). or Christie (who despite our cut is still kicking effectively and actually still lives in the area). However, even if Nugent is a great kicker in terms of FG and a boomer as a college kicker, he likely would still have to learn kicking in the pro ST game and with the shorter tee and longer distance there is no gurantee he would be able to reproduce some good Lindell KO results. Lindell has clearly not been up to the level we need in terms of making MM comfortable with FG attempts over 40 yards (the posted statistical examiination actually indicates that virtually the entire rest of the league which player in the Ralph or against the Bills also sucked on FGs over 40 yards). However, his lack of success stems from him not being called upon to do this by the lack of MM confidence and dumb chance (most games were blow-outs either way (ex. Cle, NE)or the other team had the ball instead of the Bills for the money kick (NYJ) I for one would love to see Nugent here, but not at the cost of improving our OL which I see as a bigger need and Nugent would likely be gone by the time a pick rolled around we could spend on him. I think our best option is going to be trying to improve Lindell's FG game to the level he showed in Seattle which led TD to give him to big and long a contract for his level of production.