Fake-Fat Sunny

I think they are thinking like business men rather than sportsmen. They can market the heck out of Peyton Manning as they sale luxury boxes they not split with the players under the CBA, and Peytin markets the hell out of himself with comericial and NFL player money he need not split with them. The prescence of Dungy, the best defensive HC in the league gives them a dumb luck chance of advancing in the sport to the SB, but unfortunately the limits of the Polian ability to find an off CBA HC to allow them to go cheap on the D and negotiate with players to go cheap on ST has been ruined by the refs last year (allowing the NE DBs to nullify Manning) and the weather this year as they are not good enough to get homefield advantage so they can have Manning throw in a dome. Still leaving Baltimore at midnight in the Mayflower moving vans have shown the Irsays are primarily in this for the Benjamins and Polian has done a good job to come up just short the last two years. My guess for what they are doing is laughing all the way to the bank.

Actually the Bills do need cap space at this time. TD did a very good job getting us out of cap hell quickly with some draconian but necssary cut his first year (unfortunately coupled with some dumb extensions of giving raises to, then cutting, abnd then needing Henry Jones and Holocek through bad assessment of Raion Hill and bad luck with Cowart), through negotiating some great deals with Pro Bowlers Spikes and Adams, taking advatage of the financial miscues of Henry, and recognizing that the draft is at best a tool and not the centerpiece of building a winner as shown by his nifty trading of future 1st round picks for immediate needs (the payoff of Bledsoe at the gate after a 3-13 season and getting Losman when he needed training anyway and spending a future draft pick in a draft weak at QB). However, his work has been good for dealing with the cap debacle created by Butler going for it all (probably the correct thing for him to do at the time, but he did it badly mishandling the initial Flutie and RJ contracts) and we are roughly 15th in the league in cap dollars with the Titans already starting the charge of announcing some very good players will be cap casualties. The NFL is a league which apes success and for now the Pats have shown the way to build a TEAM by loading up on cap casualties who were key to the 2001 SB and FA choices like Rodney Harrison who have set the tone for this team on the field. The draft has been important to them, but it was 6th round picks like Brady rather than 1st round picks like Seymour who sat out the end of his season who were their big draft acqusitions. Our cap situation is tough becuase the cut of Bledsoe likely made it worse. He may go down in history of having his accelerated bonuss when traded or cut having diminished two teams. His trade to the Bills probably played a critical role in the Pats missing the playoffs completely in 2002 as the accelerated Bledsoe cap hit made it impossible for them to shop the cap casualty market with any aggrssion and the cut was bookended by tow SB wins. The deadspace from the Bill cu of Bledsoe does leave us with $2.2 million more cap room than if we would have honored his contract, but that limits us to this amount to sign 1 and probably two QBs as Matthews has said 2004 was probably his last year as a player. We are going to likely have to see the Bledsoe cut reduce our cap room if we sign a QB with some achievement or instead will have to go the Batch/MaMachon/Kordelia route for our #2 unless we get more cap room. Even this may not be enough if we pay MW what we agreed to pay him (he needs to be restrutured regardless of whether you count his cap hit as $6.3 million (roughly Bills' Daily) or $9.3 million (Clumpy's Billszone site) he has not produced at the level of a tiop 10 OL player (average $6 million cap hit) or if you sign JJ at the going rate (a salary of at least $5 million for pedestrian LT talent. The Bills need all the cap room we can get. d ag is wrong in the post you cited that restructing Shelton gives us long-term cap issues. A simple restructuring which converts one year of his base salary minus the NFL minimum for a 6 year player would give him an immediate check for $2.6 ish million and give us a prorate increas of $500K for four years. Even if he were so bad you cut him after this season deadspace is always bad but $2 million is less than half the deadspace we are absorbing due to the Bledsoe cut and if you wait until 6/1 2006 you can make it a negligible 500K in deadspace and manage the $1.5 million deadspace in 2006. Signing an extending Shelton is quite doable as his cap hit can easily be reduced to the same level Henry counts against the 2005 cap.

How do you make this idea work capwise. the current MW cap hit is either $6.3 or $9.3 in 05 depending on who you believe. For this decision is does not matter at even $6.3 is above the OL average cap hit for the top 10 OL salaries and a couple of million above what the so overpaid Ruben got at guard that the Bills cut him with no cap advantage to the whatsoever. By moving MW to guard the Bills necessitate a double hit on JP by needing to reduce his cap hit in line with what a guard receives (probably impossible as a good guard like CV has a cap hit of $2.99 million) and such a move not only necessitates a draconian cap hit for MW (virtually assured by the going rate for a pedestruian LT like a Clifton or a Petitgout being a $5 million annual salary though I suspect the market will allow us to hardball JJ down) but destroys his LT salary ability for the future. If I am MW coming off a much improved season from his minicamp debacles, I force the Bills to either honor their contract or cut me and come into the market which has few LT takers but as a talent probably more highly regarded than JJ due to my lofty draft position, my improvement in the last 1/2 to 3/4 of last season and a rap that explains any poor early development with my grandma who raised me death last spring (which taught me how to be a professional as evidenced by my play toward the end of last season), having Vinky and Ruel as my initial coaches, and actually being more experienced until CV came in than my partner Pacillo who was next to me. I don't think you move MW to guard at all as his play on the field does not suggest this is a good spot for him. He gave up oo many sacks (particularly in his second year) but this was not to the edge rushers you are moving him away from but actually mentally he and Pacillo were totally confused by stunts with edge rushers coming inside and DTs looping outside and Pacillo and MW standing over a prone Bledsoe with looks that said I thought you had him. Folks seem caught up with MW's size to comclude he has a problem with edge rushers when I simply did not see this as the case. MW actually got his lofty draft position because he demonstrated great footwork and agility for a man his size in college where he guarded the blind side of a left-handed QB and Combine workouts such as the shuttle run. Themove of MW inside can't be totally disregarded as JMac himself made this threat to MW as part of the carrots and sticks attitude adjustment they made on him last year which seemed to work quite well. After the JMac threat MW turned his RT game around, and actually was given a gameball by the coaches in one of the couple sackless Bledsoe games. I think the main folks fooled by the LG threat were thankfully MW who responded like a teammate and unfortunately ICE and a few other TSW posters who bought these words even though field of play results make no sense to make this move. The best on the field move for the Bills would be to leave him at RT where another year of JMac adult leadership and CV to his side might well heklp his advance to the level dictated by his draft spot. However, the cap situation, his draft spot and slotted salary and the opening we have at LT makes it most likely as far as I see that MW wil get a good long look at LT this minicamp. I hope he is up to it because his non-play at the last minicamp does not dictate this, but the cap does.

Maybe true that Wyche is he source but probably false ranging from someone else is the source to King's version of Chinese telephone with a story Wyche told. This is way to theoretical to me much of an issue for a Bills fan regarding a player who ain't here no more.

Stewart was with the Ravens last year and Brian Bilick talked about him as recognizing his role on the team as a back-up (unclear how much of this is true and how much of this was management). “Everybody in the league recognizes you have to have a veteran presence, a guy that knows how to operate in the mode this team is right now. That is, great defense, good solid running game. There’s a certain experience to playing that type of football and he certainly has it. He understands his role, but it’s going to be vital the first part of the season that he’s ready to step in, should something happen to Kyle.” - Brian Billick, Ravens' Head Coach, on Kordell Stewart Oddly enough he wracked up no passing stats last year and also no receiving stats. and I think only -1 yards as a rusher. He appeared in two games byt actually was used as a punter (averaged 30 something yards after a series of disastrous injuries. He's been in the league 10 years and has to know he is on the backside of his career. He has been to the SB before aas a rookie and led the team to an unsuccessul AFC champion ship game. He was considered by the Bills last year and was passed over for Travis Brown and JP and was signed by the times injury hit us. A lot of this depends upon his mindset and the personal relationship with MM. He strikes me as filling the best role for us as a slash, but he balked at this role in his early career whn he saw himself vocally as a QB. His lack of use last year as a QB may set him up well to come in as a disaster QB with a promise of gametime because of the competition we will have over the 3rd WR slot, his familarity with MM, our lack of a reserve RB once Henry gets traded(I like Shaud Williams as a change-up and if he can catch a 3rd down RB, but do not see the little guy as a guy who can take the pounding of starting at RB if for 2 or more games if called on to do so by the injury bug (however neither is Kordelia). If he was simply frustrated by the Ravens situation and needs to play QB (particularly if he is vocal about it,) we should pass. However, if Bilick's words are true and he took to being used even as a disaster punter with grit then bringing him in as a QB behind JP, and someone like Batch may fit well for us.

Again: 1. Shelton failed to produce under Denny Green but it remains unclear wether he his failure to produce was why Green deep sixed him or he was deep sixed because he and Green did not get along. Both Shelton and Shelton's former line coach (who Green deep sixed also so there may be a bias either way) say his play is good so it merits an assessment by the Bills of the tape and thus discussion here. 2. Both Shelton and Henry were given permission by their teams to shop for offers and Henry has expressed a desire to go to warm weather and Shelton's agent says he will go anywhere as long as it is away from Green. Thus moves the unlikely prospect in this league for a trade out of the fantasy realm as both teams and both players have said the things or taken actions which can make even the farfetched idea of a trade happen if it works for both teams. It is quite legitimate for folks to discuss what needs to happen to make this work. 3. Thw Bills have expended the customary money for a plane ticket and Shelton has expended the time for a visit making this even more real. It is important to me that the docs look at the strength and range of motion and cat scans of his leg because generally they do not lie. Before his injury he had a reputation as an iron man (an important thing which is actually JJ's big weakness since he has never played a full 16 in his career). If the docs judge his last downturn as probably related to an injury he is now recovered from I am real interested. Even if we are not interested by bringing him out we increase leverage om JJ, om potential trade partners for TH (maybe Miami jumps out of fear we might trade TH) and even leverages Shelton who comes with a cap hit which makes a trade (maybe you move him to RT, flip MW to LT is JMac judges him ready and do a simple restructure with Sheton converting is future base salaries to bonus which put money in his pocket today, gives us no greater payout to him each year he plays as his base salary is reduced to become bonus and we get the same cap hit savings in '04 we would get for trading or cutting Henry. This potential deal is easily worth consideration by folks who care about the Bills even if it does not happen.

Well, I disagree with your conditions as I think the record show that Posey did more than the nothind, zero, nada, squat you accuse him or producing and the facts of the recprd show this: 1. He started 16 games for the #2 ranked D in the league, The D produced good stats this season and he played a critical role in it. This does not sound like nothing, zero, diddly or whatever your rant said. Even if you want to make the case that the D failed to lead this team to playoffs with giving up 100 yards rushing to Pitts scrubs there is a long way from falling a game short of the playoffs to doing nothings, nada etc. Even if you want to join Simon in stating he turned the wrong way often, had pass coverage issues, and weak application of strength it should not be hard to also site specific plays where the bad plays you saw Posey make resulted in big gains consistently or lost us games that ruined the season. I look forward to seeing how his play caused Nate Clements to allow Jimmy Smith to beat Clements or made the refs fail to give TH a TD they later admitted they made a mistake on against Oakland. You simply overclaim in your argument against Posey looking at the record on this point. 2. He has started 32 consecutive games in a row, this is an important contribution to a team and adds up to far more than nothing, zip, nada, when it is still arguable whether any of the back-up LBs are ready to start in 2005. Clearly, they were not ready in 2003, probably were not ready in 2004 and arguably are not ready in 2004. 3. He did produce in 2004 registering 9 tackles in one game, 8 in another and 6 on several occaisions. He finished 6th in tackles 5 behind 5th place Clements on this statistically productive unit (again a bit more than the nothing you claim even if you want to fault him for not matching Pro Bowler Spikes or D captain and leading tackler Fletcher). 4. Mention of the other two LBs raises a crtical off the field point about Posey his cap hit pales in comparison to Spikes or Posey. Gid he produce as well as them? No. Is he paid at a level that demands this type of production. No as well. 5. He was signed as a potential sack master with the 8 he produced for Texas in their 3-4. He failed to produce as a sackmaster for thr Bills producing a good but not great 5.5 sacks in his first year for the Bills. This number dropped to a mere 1 last year. However, focusing on this individual point should not be allowed to obscure the fact that he D improved to lead the league in sacks in a D which utilized Posey in the method Gray used him. Again it is hard to give him credit for nada when he consistenly played a key and productive role in a D which produced. All that being sai does this mean Posey should simply be handed the job with no competition. On the contrary, Stamer and any other OLB ahould be given a shot to beat him out. Even though Pesey's production far exceeds the nada, nothing, zilch you him credit for he should compete every year and the dood showing on ST merits Stamer a shot, However, it is simply incorrect to assume that ST production easily translates into position production. It is also false to claim Posey was a zero when he was a big part of a productive D last year and racked up a lot of tackles, tackled very well in a couple of games and produced a couple of turnovers, and using Stamer as a position player raises at least mentioning who his replacement may be on ST (who knows suddenly you may become a Posey advocate or believe in Stamer so much that you see double-duty as no problem for him. Stamer should be given a shot wrest the job from Posey on the field (perhaps the best arguments for this are the tackles made a back-up against Pitt and his INT last year), but overall assuming he cap make what it is a prettu big jump from ST to starting (it sounds like the Coy Wire usage mistake to me all over again) , assumimg that Posey cannot return to the sack level he produced his first year, or assummg that the D was not productive with him playing a consistent role in it last year was not important all seem like mistakes to me.

Unfortunately, I also have to say none of the above. If the Bills spend more than a $2.2 million cap hit on a #2 QB then the cut of Bledsoe actually reduces or cap room rather than helping our cap room. I thnik all the QBs in your list are either coming off of contracts far in excess of this level cap hit and will probably command more than this from the market. Garcia for example last year was signed to an average salary of $6 million a year and even with a paycut cut for him to half this amount costs us cap room we desperately need to deal with the JJ/LT situation, Phat Pat/DT situation and filling other needs we have identified we have an eye on (K, back-up LB or RB, etc), If Fiedler is your guy his back-up Feeley cost around $2 mill last year. I'm not advocating any of your choice but stating that the first part of choosing Warner, Johnson (at least they have beem there before) or any of these guys has to be a statement of why the Bills are willing to take them for a bigger hit than Bledsoe (who also at least has been there before) for them or they will agree to take an NFL chump change contract. I think a realistic list actually looks at choice between folks like Charlie Batch (who Simon likes), Mike MacMahon (who I'm not sure why anyone like given that he has a lower than 50% completion rate in his two high?) if you want to call 4-6 starts high use seasons) and Kordelia (who at least has been there before). Some folks say that Matthews is the guy and though his average at best record as a player for Chicago and other is not a disqualifier for being a #2 (just as I think while Bledsoe's record disqualifies him as a starter he fulfilled the #2 job well in 2001) the fact he has publicly announced he may well retire after last year, I agree with Marv that when you talk about retiring you in essence are retired and it would be foolish to count on him stepping in and playing the Frank Reich role if he were called upon to do so. So i think the reality is that you have to add some cheaper guys to this list if you want it to be realistic and given the constraints I fear we are under make my choice Kordelia as I am attacted to this inadequate choice because MM/Clements revived him once before or even better if the cap allows sign Batch and try to get Kordelia as a slash as a potential #3 WR abd player who allows us to go 2 deep on the roster for QBs (heck, in his old age he even was willing to punt for the Ravens last year).

If you want to carry the Bledso/Brady analogy even you can see why TD offered Bledsoe an option to stick with this team IF he accepted the role of back-up to Losman if he lost a fair fight with JP for the job. The key to understanding the Bledsoe role in 2001 was: 1. He reacted to losing his job to a second year QB by helping that youngster understand NFL offenses and play as much like a vet as he could and Brady himself and ther members of the Pats confirm this was the role he played. 2. He stepped into a must win championship game and though folks correctly note he did not run an offense designed for Brady well, he ran it well enough to throw the winning TD and to do all that one can reasonably hope for a back-up o do which is win the game (we as fan irrationally hope for more and sometimes have gotten it as Reich was the QB in the greatest game ever played exactly because he did the irrational). 3. Bledsoe was a team player rather than a cancer and stepped back to sit on the bench rather than cry like he is today that he would never be a back-up (hey bud, you have an SB ring because you were a back-up QB and did it well) and he gracefully accepted a trade to the Bills. I think TD really hoped he would accept the reality that his is on the downhill part of his career and try to produce the same results with the second year QB Losman that he produced with the second year QB Brady. This move would not only have helped the Bills on the field if Bledsoe produced the same results in 2005 by choice he produced by force of Mo Lewis in 2001, but a retructured deal would have helped us alot in terms of our cap needs. I'm just sorry Bledsoe proved to be a weenie and will make a run I think is doomed to fail in Dallas and was not more of a teamer and a man and proved tough enough to recognize reality and remain a Bill and fight it out with JP to start and helped JP be the best Bill he could be when/if he lost the competition (I say of because though I believe JP is the real deal, it appears 50/50 st best that even a first round choice will prove good enough to win the SB and if recent experience is he guide it is forboding that the last team to pick a QB in the first to have that choice guide them to an SB was Dallas picking Ailman way back in 1989). I hope your analogy doesn't apply in 2005 because just as the accelerated cap hit from cutting Bledsoe in 2002 played a significant role in NE completely failed to even make the playoffs that season (a bad year bookended by two SB championships for NE), I do fear that the $4.3 million in deadspace for the Bledsoe cost plus what it will take to buy a credible #2 QB in this market (or maybe two since the word from Matthews was this was his last season and even if the Bills convince him to stick he is not a credible #2 due to his record of play for the Bears et al, prior to this and a sentiment of Marv's I agree with that once a player starts talking retirement in effect he is already gone), the analogy may prove to be the case that a cut of Bledsoe kills two teams because of the stupid "lifetime" contract Kraft signed him to and the dumb extension TD signed Bledsoe to after his disastrous 2003 season. I give MM/Clements alot of credit because in 2004 they really improved Bledsoe's onfield production, but the improvement from horrendous to simply inadequate was not good enough for him to start for us in 2005. I'm just bummed he didn't not stast for us by accepting a role as a probable #2 for JP which would have allowed him to reenact what he already did in real life in 2001 )I think if JP had played as well as we think he will and Bledsoe was his number 2 he may have locked up a spot for him in the HOF as well as given him a slot anywhere as a QB coach or even an O co-ordinator if he chose to stay in football because he does not need the money.

My understanding (and like many things regarding the cap what a layman and even a professional understands one day can turn out not to apply the next day because either the understanding was incorrect or the NFL and NFLPA simply agreed to change the rules but i think there is recent confirmation of what I'm about to say so if you can take it to the bank but you better cash the check quick) is that the transition tags were a temporary measure and once used they are gone. This appears to be the case with the Bills who used a franchise tag on Peerless because they did not have a transition tag because we had used it. In the case of JJ, I virtually certain the transition tag is gone and that they only have a franchise tag to use on him and I doubt they will as there are still several choices out there at LT at or or near the JJ level at LT (attempting to switch the among many the morely highly evaluated Kareem MacKenzie or slightly lower rate Stocker MacGougle to LT or use them at LT and move your own RT to LT (for example, the Bills could sign either RT to a good RT contract with a cap hit of $3 million and attempt to restructure MW to $5 million and move him to LT if JMac thinks he is up to it, alternately teams may choose to wait on JJ as several highly paid or thought of LTs may become available as cap casualties, an in addition only about 3 or maybe 4 teams like Jax, Chicago, and the 9ers have both the need and the cap room to bid on Jennings and he may simply might not be their priority to fill their need with their cap room). The key for the PP tag was that Arthur Blank shot off his big mouth and essentially guranteed the Bills a market for PP who wanted to go there. Not only is AT (where JJ wants to go) unable to bid for him as they will have to struggle to merely cut players to make the cap much less bid for new cap hits, but there is simply no guranteed market and tagging JJ might simply be a punitive which lowers the level of the contract he can sigh as the Bills send him out into a market by retracting the franchise offer after the few teams that have both ability and the desire sign someone else. I really doubt they tag him and as cheaper and at least as good if not better alternatives emerge on the market I doubt they will resigns him. As TD demonstrated he could do when he read the market perfectly for picking Kelsay, for reading the market and the med reports well for picking McGahee, for trading picks expertly in terms of timing to grab Denny from Pitts while they had him on the phone (even if you think Denny was a bad pick you gotta recognize that TD read the market perfectly to nail his former team to pull this off), and most recently for using the 2005 1st to pick JP when this draft offers little QB help and JP needed the seasoning anyway and now he is our starter, YD appears to have read the LT market pretty well when he lowballed JJ and I would not be surprised if JJ is wondering whether a lowball offer from the Bills is the best he will get from this market.

Someone posted the Insider assessment the other day and in regard to the rationale stated for some of the Bills on the list and who were not on the list they seemed to really be missing the boat so their cut on other players is questionable at best. For example they labeled Teague as a cap casualty which is fine as obviously we all want better C play. However, his cap hit is one of lowest on the OL and little from making him a casualty. If not good enough play is your main measure along with cap implications, I was surprised to not see MW on their potential casualty list. Whether you judge his cap hit to be the $6.3 million which are the low confirmed statements of his cap hit or certainly the $9.3 million which is the higher declaration of his cap hit from the crediible source Clumpy, then the Bills may have to make him a casualty if he will not restructure because his play even at RT even though greatly improved by the carrots/sticks of Bill's coaches is no wher near the top 10 OL cap hit he will have. Clearly Teague was not adequate at LT for Denver, but certainly it is reasonable to judge him an improved OL player since he has grasped the mental part of the C game quite well. He had initial problems multi-tasking in 2002 as he seemed to have trouble doing the line call, doing snaps (particularly shotgun) and blocking DETs all at the same time. However, most feel that he is better at these tasks and it has been shown as his embarssing failures to deal with bull rushing DTs has decreased. As far as runblocking he has been the C on OLs that have provided the blocking for 1000 yard rushers three years in a row and bad mouth this all you want but it ain't chopped liver. Injury issues provide a lead reason why you may want to look elsewhere at C as he missed significant starts last year. Yet, the injury issue also must be taken into account when assessing his play in his last year at Denver and the Bills were probably correct in judging him to be a smart player who could be signed cheaply rather than a failed player as his last year at Denver showed him recovered well enough to play (but not to star after he missed a year). As best as I can tell cutting Teague at this point while our LT situation is up in the air would be quite silly as it saves you little money and LT is up in the air. I am actually intrigued to give Teague a fair shot at playing C, because I expect his play to improve with Losman as the QB rather than Bledsoe. The Bills should be able to employ more of a movin pocket with Losman and offer even more of a QB draw running threat both of which will make the C job easier because DTs will need to wait and see what the QB is doing instead of commiting totally to the bullrush as they did with Bledsoe and the static pocket he liked best. As best as I can tell Insider has the typical limitation of any national piec that it is a good tool because it is a mile wide, but it is really on;y an inch deep when you get into a specfic team.

My guess is we definitely want a TE because the ACL injuries will leave us lucky if one recovers to be a contributor by mid-season this year and even if the normal occurs and like others who have recovered to their former selves for ACL surgery we are actually talking about a season and a half to see them return to their previous form. However, I think this timeline has us looking for stopgap solutions to fill the TE void this year and the long-term interest and probable commitment is not to sign a good long term prospect like Franks and pay the cap hit and draft choice freight necessary to make him a Bill. I know little about the current play of folks like Becht or Cleeland who did well before but I doubt will get tagged will might be more the tipe we go after. I think we will want a TE who we judge has something left in the tank for one season but is not a good enough prospect for long-term play that a one year deal works. The TE version of Larry Centers when he came here is probably what we are after.

I think the issue here is one of partnership versus conflict. The reasin why the TV nets are willing to pay huge sums to the NFL is that through the growing partnership between the NFL and NFLPA, the NFL can guaranttee that they will provide a national product to a targetted demographic of beer drinkers, car buyers, nacho eaters which is stable and will be there. The NHL will never equal the NFL in eyeballs, but it should be able to outpace. Streetball, the Arena League, and certainly the WNBA which have secured deals with the networks which produce an amout of money from selling commercials that can outpace hefty salaries. The NHL needs to get a clue that financial nirvana for them is to found not from outpacing the NFL (which it will never do) but from beatin reruns pf Law and Order. They can't even do that when Goodenow and Bettman are fighting with each other. The NFL finally GOT IT, when the owners beat the players so badly with the replacement players of the mid '80s and sound defeat of the NFLPA demand for 52% of the gross receipts that the union fired Ed Garvey and moved to disband and the owners faced with the reality of actually competing in a good ol American free-market formed a growing partnership with the union. Today the NFL and te NFLPA work together to restrain trade by beating up the Maurice Claretts of the world and operating under a CPA whose foundation is a salary cap where players get roughly 70% of the designated gross receipts and even with cash streams like luxury boxes being off the designated receipts the players are making tons more money than they ever have. I had hoped that Godenow and Bettman would get a clue but they have not. As a fan I hope the result of this failed season is not simply replacement players but actually replacement owners since sources of capital are quite findable in our culture. Fire Goodenow, fire Bettmann and work toward a new deal which removes the middleman (the owners as sources of capital) from between the game and the fans. Some may want to simply trash those idiots the NHLPA, but being one step closer to watching Tom Golisano and Gary Bettman shuffle papers over the body of John Rigas is not a desirable outcome in my book.

With Posey playing a central role it is simply a fact that our D was statistically one of the most productive in the league. He's not Fletcher or Spikes, but given that the D seems quite effective with him and he is not paid like Posey or Spikes I am more than happy to have him be pushed on the field by Stamer, Crowell, Haggan and a late round LB draft pick this year. However, I have no problem with him keeping his position if none of these players prove good on the field enough to take it away. The question is whether Stamer is good enough. I agree the answer is probably not. He's been great on ST but I see nothing from him in his brief stints as a position player that makes me think he pushes Posey for the job and he has contributed enough to a great ST unit that having him focus on this as his contribution to the Bills seems pretty reasonable.

Hey the President used mind-altering substances in his youth so I should get a free pass for doing this myself. Kids don't go down this road. I can testify it leads to long-winded (typed) posts and our Commander in Chief will tell you it also can lead to miscalculations about WMD and hiding behind the troops who are sacrificing and dying for you and me.

I doubt it because Edwards was not an adquate contributor for his first 3 years as a Bill: 2001- Inactive most of season as he proved to be only player selected through 5th round clice Brandon Spoon who proved incapable of playing that year. 2002- made a nice jump to get into the starting line-up but proved to be inadequate in that role. 2003- replaced by FA Sam Adams and this accompanied a world of difference in our ability to stop the run and a better D overall. The difference this substitution made was seen in the NYJ game where they ran all over us with Adams out and Edwards also failed to answer the call due to injuries to step up. 2004 saw Edwards actually step up and contribute in a big way as Adams was benched in one game and Edwards then stepped up to log a couple of sacks as a reserve. Edwards continued to be a good reserves logging a couple of nice hits but Adams proved to be a Pro Bowl performer. At best Edwards is unproven. Though he finally showed why he was worth having this year, I still think he is more of a Sean Moran who is a great player to come in as a sub and let loose for a few plays a game. Hpwever, there is simply mo good reason based on his past play to think he can perform like he did in spots last year for a full game unless he dials it back to pace himself. It would be a tremendous risk to go with Edwards as a starter and I would not do it unless Anderson (or perhaps Bannan) showed me they can step in and give him the blow he needs or even start if he plays like he did in his first three years rather than like he did in spots last year.

I tppk a philosophy class in college which was the most interesting class I took in school for about 3 weeks. It was called The Philosophy of Indentity and basically asked the question where the identuty is housed in a body. Are you you because of what's in your brain and thus are you not you if you go into a coma or less of a person if you are mentally challenged. Are poets right when thet talk about listening to your heart instead of your head. Does the body have nothing to do with this at all and identity is found in your soul and if so what is necessary to have a soul? In the third week we started an exploration of what if there was a hypothetcal transporter device and it could recreate your DNA and entire body at another point on this planet or some distant planet but had to destroy your current body to do this. Even if your new body had every single memory up to the transition and you felt like you was it the same person (with all the rights to property, inheritance, etc. the the original body had)? Even more strange what if the first body was not destroyed at all. Which one is you? Needless to say this mental trip was quite interesting and stimulating but got pretty tedious after about a month even with mind-altering substances. The "parasite" sounds a lot like what I could see of Terry Schivo. She seemed to smile and respond but its pretty clear that medical science and her husband do not judge her to be alive at all. This head could smile and respond or interact somewhat with outside stimuli. Did they murder this head by chopping it off? I think a post above is correct, good thing they did not give ths head a name or Larry King and the Fox Network would have a field day.

The new info for me was that Chase was originally hired as a writer by Lorne Micheals and that he got to be a performer because he was Michaels right hand man and essentially his partner in developing the orginal show (which makes sense as Chevy had no trouble getting screen time in the orginal show). I took it from the special that Chase did not so much abandon the show as run to Hollywood and all the money they were willing to throw his way and that Michaels agreed with this choice because it kept SNL an ensemble product around the NRPT players rather than making the show merely a vehicle for Chevy and them other folks. He foundered post SNL in producing a vehicle that kept him a featured star (a trick Belushi pulled off when he has the #1 movie with Animal House, the #1 album on Billboard with the Blues Brothers and SNL at the same time (with the slight inconvenience that the lifestyle killed him), but he seemed to catch a ton of money Hollywood threw his way to do his ill-fated TV show, to do the Fletch movies, to do a series of Vacation movies, to do the stupid Three Amigos movie and even to do a guest host stint on SNL that indicates that his relationship with the old was fine despite his leaving. My sense is that he laughed all the way to the bank with his post SNL "failure".

Ask Michael Vick and his $100+ million contract.

Exactly, the exact amount of his hit matters a lot once we have a since that there is an answer to the question of whether he is restructuring. However, in the absence of any clear idea whether he is restructuring or not arguomg about the level of his cap hit is like debating between whether it is better to wear the green evening dress or the blue evening dress to the Titanic sinking. The question of whether his hit is 6 or 9 is secondary its too much and he needs to restructure in a big way. Same with JJ. If his new contract is new contract is 7 million or 5 million it makes it very hard to buy a better LG.

It doesn't look like it as there still is a slight ($9 million from HS vs. 7.9 for CP) between what they say. Much of this difference (as well as the differences between thos who seem to swear by the Bills' Daily figure of 12-14 million and thus bad mouth the CP figure) here seems to me to be a tempest in a teapot. The differences are important once we get down the line abit and TD attempts to make the plans reality. However: 1. All figures have the same general lesson as whether you subscribe to Howard's $9 million, CP's $ roughly 8 million, or Saslow's $14 million the general conclusion is the same that TD has done a great job with the cap part of his work (though a lousy job with the team W/L). When you compare where we were before, the fact that many teams will actually have to cut a lot of vets to even make the cap, or the fairly mininiscule numbers for teams like NE that at last have a little surplus we are in good shape. The key TD number is actually that we have so many players under contract and only two starters we have to worry about as other teams like Seattle may have a lot of cap room but have been choosing whether to franchise Jones, OR, Hasselback, OR Alexander. This is the key assessment here and though the differences merit discussion they do not change the general assessment. 2. The differences in estimates make no difference what we need to do with particular players. MW will have to be resructured significantly whether you subscribe to $8, 14, or $9. He needs to be restructured in a big way because his play has not been up to what a top OL player should get regardless of the amount you choose and we have not hear much about him doing this. Again, it will makea difference how difficult or really difficult this is to do depending on whether his hit is $9.17 or $6.17 million. however, we are not even at that point yet because there is no public discussion of the fact that we will have a hard time justifing a salary of even $5 million (or much less given RT pay rates around the league) for him. The same is true for JJ as the market for him is uncertain and paying him an amount very far above the $3 million cap hit of Shelton if we were to pick him up is going to make it hard for us to get new LG talent. So inessence, folks disagree but as Rodney King asked, why can't we all just get along. The disputes here are about important numbers that may determine how hard it will be do to do things, but not over what we should do regardless of which number you pick.

Add to the many things said above that the Shelton situation is set apart from the usual fanatasy league trade bamter of TSW by: 1. Both Shelton and Henry were given permission by their teams to seek a trade. 2. Henry has expressed desire to play in warm weather (AZ warm enough for you) and Shelton is publicly in recprd saying he will play anywhere (the usual fear that folks will not come here is gone). 3. Both have cap friendly contracts and usually it is the cap which stops trades from happening. 4. Both players fill needs for us as Emmitt Smith's retirement leaves an RB opening in AZ and JJ being an FA creates a tackle need for us. 5. His cousin is on our team and unless they hate each other this gives us a valuable channel for talking with and potentially managing him. Even without Shelton visiting us there are more than enough reasons to discuss this and you add the visit and this is the real deal. Even if it doesn't happen. Shelton's visit really emhances our leverage: 1. With Henry in pushing up the bid from Miami or any other candidate. 2, With JJ for pushing him to accept a deal. 3. Or with MW since we likely have to negotiate a restructure with him. Those who do not want to take someone who lost a job elsewhere, take into account that Bills from Lawyer Milloy who lost his job in NE, to Jim Jeffcoat who lost his job in Dallas but accepted a back-up ro;e here. to Bryce Paup who could not break into the starting line-up in GB despite getting a few chances there are rejected players we have taken who were big contributors here. Shelton is great to talk about (as best as I can tell he lost his job to an LT judged to be a good enough player to get a top 10 OL salary and a failure to get along with Denny Green rather than simply not being a good enough player) and certainlu increases our leverage even if we never sign him and if JMac feels he can work with him I/m glad to have him.

Thanks also (the lovefest continues). The thing I apprecite most beyond the tremendous amount of work you provide for us too lazy folk is that I think it all comes with appropriate disclaimers (if anyone knew the cap for a stone lock certainty they would be the first ones because MFL teams oay real money for cap management and as we have seen first hand with Butler even the oris can mismanage the cap), Its just simply untrue (though the net is rife with it) to any one on the outside to claim stone cold certain knowledge of the team's cap situation or even for folks on the inside to claim they know exactly how to handle it because all decisions are predicated on the unpredictable actions of others in negotiation. Those who pose this as one source is right sll the time or even that another source is wrong is wrong themselves (even a broken clock is right twice a day so be careful ragging on an assertion just because the asserter is generally wrong). I respect your and Bills' Daily work (another source of the correct disclaimers and by using both these and other sources we get closer to the truth. That being said the other reason arguing over MWs cap hit misses the point is that regardless of whether you accept the lowest credible number (prorated bonus + NFLPA .com profile which lists MW 2005 base salary as $4 mill) or the $9.17 mill cap you assert (with enough documentation for me to believe this #), the result is the same: MW must be restructured because both cap hits far exceed MW's output as a Bill, Bith cap hits are higher than what the market makes you pay for even better output at LT and both numbers are too large to combine with almost every resigning of JJ and maintain a reasonable budget of expenditure for out two tackles. All moves are on hold until the Bills provide some clarity on what they are gonna do with the LT situation and restructuring MW.

As far as the MW cap number I think there are three parts of it an two are definite: 1. NFLPA.com > http://www.nflpa.org/media/playerProfile.asp?ID=32980 < reports MW's base salary cap hit at $4 million. This number is a real number as the NFLPA.com site reflects numbers that the NFL and NFLPA agree upon and if they were in error there would be even bigger problems to deal with lile a breakdown of the the trust which underlies the CBA which is the foundation of the working agreement. The number here is simply his base salary as relflected in the other annual salary numbers for MW on this page. It is definite until MW and the Bills BOTH agree to change it by restructuring his deal. 2. MW is reported in the press to have been awarded with his #4 draftee sklot a bonus of $12+ dollars which is prorated over a contract which runs through the 2007 season resulting in an annual cap hit of roughly $2.1 million. This number has been widely reported, makes sense based on reports of what picks #3 and #5 got and are definite also. 3. Clumpy reports that there is an additional $3 million bonus MW is to be paid and I'm not sure where he got this figure from (but given CP's past diligence and thoroughness I have seen nothing tangible to doubt this number and the Bills Daily site is also a good source for numbers but as Steve is upfront about siting that his number comes from press reports and archived material a disacrpancy with CP's number is far from enough to declare CP's number wrong. At any rate, the 3rd item makes a significant difference in how much work th Nills and MW will have to do but does not make any difference in what they have to do. Whether MW's 2005 cap # is the $6.1 million I'm sure about or the $9.17 million CP is sure about MW needs to restructure the deal because he has not played near the level of a top 10 OL cap hit (anything above $6 million), most of those cap hits go to LTs or a couple of multiple Pro Bowl guards, and either figure combines with what is the likely JJ asking price (5+ million a year) to make resigning JJ and MWs cap hits and getting new talent at LG impossible to do all three. One can argue all you want about where the $3 million number comes from but it does not matter in terms of what we choose to in general. The specifics will determine the specific outcome but there are some other decisions which will proceed these details whether you choose to belive the larger possible or smaller possible number for MW.

My sense is that MW was overweight last voluntary camp and going into last season because of the "episode" of his grandma who apparently raised him dying. Though a death of someone close to you is understandable that it might rock your world and produce some bad reactions, he lethis teaamates and the region down with this reaction. I underatnd it but I do not condone it. I think we can see from his improved play as the season went on that his attitude and actions were successfully adjusted by the sticks (JMac threatened publicly to cost him big bucks by moving him to guard) and carrots (a gameball for his performance in one mid-season game) the Bills used on him. I think labeling him a bust or a big butt fails to understand the reality of his improved play. There is not guarantee that his attitude adjustment will stick. but we will find out soon enough when "voluntary" camp begins and if he shows up overweight (or doesn't show up like last years camp) or unwilling to work ship him out we will have to do the best we can.