Fake-Fat Sunny

However, look back at the NFL and the results of their use of replacement players. They certainly beat the crap out of the NFLPA and showed they had bigger cojones than the union, but the result was that NFLPA "surrendered" and moved to decertify itself. This move would have forced a free-market on the owners which would have had to negotiate with each individual player with the highest bidder winning. In the NFL owners like Jerry Jones or a Dan Snyder who are committed to spending whatever bucks it takes to win would buy the best players, those in smaller markets, with less bucks or less willing to spend their bucks would end up with lesser players. The NFL realized (after a little twisting and moaning and whining) that it needed the a CBA and the union in order to restrain trade and operate in a less free market in order to survive. Instead of battling each other over the original NFLPA proposal for 52% of the gross receipts, the NFL and NFLPA entered into a partnership which is still developing but the players won roughly 70% of the designated gross in bargaining a new CBA. The agreement provided the labor peace necessary to provide more certainty to the owners in terms of investments and also more certainty for the product in terms of sales to fans, marketers and most important for football to the networks. With the designated gross concept the players have access to a smaller portion of the owners bucks than the raw gross number which was part of the original 52% proposal, but the amount of money is so much bigger under the labor peace of the new partnership, the achievement of a higher % of the designated gross has given the players far more raw $ than before. My guess is that thr NHL does move to install its own CBA on the players after a year without the league, and at that point the NHLPA threatens or moves to decertify itself and rather than operating in a free market where teams like the Rangers are operating in a different financial world that teams like Buffalo or other teams which are less well off and the league has to reach some agreement with the NHLPA or things will fall apart. I think folks who view this simply as a battle between the owners and the players are missing the point. Its not a fight over which one will win over the other, but a fight over how they are going to co-operate with each other. My sense is that if forces do want to view this simply as a battle between the owners and the players the owners unlike the NFL are destined to lose this fight. Hockey is much more of an international sport that football and it is a sport originally created in another counry. There are simply too many other options for players who though they will never get the gravy train that the a US based NHL provided, they will still be able to get more money than they have ever gotten playing for the competitors of the NHL if it does not have the restraints on trade a union offers it. Even worse, it is just a far more multi-national economic world than it was 20 yeas ago. NHL owners provide capital but there are simply far too many sources of money in the world for the NHL to try to throw their weight around like the NFL owners used to. My hope is that the labor battle ends quickly, but I don't really care if that is because the NHL owners survive or because the players cut out the owners who are simply middlemen and find other sources of capital most likely from themselves.

Cliff notes: I'm a Bills fan so I am comfortable with keeping Bledsoe at a 2nd stringer's salary or letting him go and looking elsewhere for the cheap QB help for JP and the team we will be able to afford it we have to pay deadspace for Bledsoe AND buy another QB . Cliff notes end Judging from the 20 or so posts that popped up this afternoon on the latest deadhorse about the Bledsoe situation, I was tempted to post my cents and half yet again, but decided just to post this summary and if and when repeated Bledsoe threads appear, i will just post this reply because I think it applies as best as I can tell: I'm undyingly loyal to whomever the Bills designate as their (our) guy at QB. Perhaps the difference though for me is that undying loyalty does not mean mindless support when the player has failings or mindless condemnation when the player has failings. Some wise person defined patriotism as not promoting your country's action regardless of whether you feel they are correct, but being strong enough and loyal enough to want to correct your country when you think it is wrong. Obviously my feelings for the Bills are not of the same import as my feelings about my country, but I think there is a correct analogy in that one of the problems I see in today's world is that folks seem to base their judgments and actions on taking a stance which is to the extreme one way or to the extreme the other way when both extreme approaches are virtually guaranteed of being wrong. My feelings on Bledsoe is that I do not feel at all that he offers us the best chance or realistic possibilities for winning it all. However, I do not think that there is NO chance whatsoever that he can be the QB that delivers us to the promised land (Not being God, I'm not that omniscient, maybe you are and just post on the web for fun). It's a frighteningly small chance, but I think a rational person simply does a disservice to themselves when they falsely claim he has never been a winner anywhere: (uhh the "statue" earned his lofty draft position with some outstanding physical characteristics and career in HS and college, as a pro he has earned numerous pro bowl berths and put up some great numbers in a few specific seasons and been good enough and better than most to amass some longevity stats. Most important, he led the Pats under Parcells guidance to the SB, and played QB in the majority of a must-win games for the Pats directly leading to their SB win. Most important as a Bill I think he merited his Pro Bowl selection as a reserve QB in 2002 for his play on the fieldif you don't think so what player would you have chosen as a reserve Pro Bowl QB over him? ). However, recognizing these achievements on the field (he probably has an even stronger off-field case to make as a Bill with a rebirth of fan excitement that accompanied his Buffalo gig in 2002, in addition, he was a team-guy or NE in 2001 when many petulant athletes become cancers, this closely relates to on field because it impacts the business and the business drives on field performance, though it is different than on-field performance. Rational assessment needs to recognize it but not be driven by it) does not mean that Bledsoe should escape judgment. A rational measure of his on field performance shows him to be quite lacking from my view and he merits being sent packing by the Bills AS LONG AS WE HAVE A BETTER ALTERNATIVE. I think the too many posts rehashing the QB situation (like this one) often fall to the extremes which make for amusing argument (I guess that's what internet is for) but rarely seem to get at the truth (I guess that is not what the internet is for). In the end, we don't control the Bills so our opinions don't make any real difference so it does not matter how wrong we choose to be by declaring Bledsoe a god or a total stiff when neither is true. My Bledsoe assesment is this: 2001- Part of one of the pre-eminent teams in football and the fact they were a TEAM made all the difference in them winning the SB that season and building for a great run that continues. He played an essential role in this achievement by 1.) paradoxically by gettung hurt which allowed Brady to take the reins and for the Pats to employ a far less pass-happy and more effective O, 2. the best proactive thing he did was that he took a personal reaction of being a teamer rather than a pouting little boy and dealt gracefully with losing his job to a better performing player who thanks him for he help the vet gave to this youngster, 3. he did his job by playing QB in the majority of a must-win game they won in their SB run. 2002- His reaction and the actions of TD and Kraft set-up the trade which was unusual in the NFL because it was in the division. The trade paid big bonuses to the Bills on the field in 2002 as Bledsoe was a centerpiece in the achievement of an 8-8 record after a 3-13 finish under RJ/AVP the year before. He merited (in my view if not in your view who do you pick instead of him) his Pro Bowl berth with his on field achievements as the Bills achieved near record improvement in their W/L. He suffered a downturn in production later in the season and this downturn was probably real as team's got tape on him and a roadmap from BB of defensing him. However, the winter downturn in conditions were also probably a real part of this in addition to the strategic peice as good QBs like Farve suffered similar lack of production linked to bad weather in the same game and opposing QBs like Brees did even worse than Bledsoe in the same game. A sidelight is that NE proved correct in assessing it was fine to trade Bledsoe in the division because they knew him well enough to get two wins, but still trading him hurt NE badly in the short-term as the accelerated cap hit from correctly trading Bledsoe to go with the young Brady resulted in a cap hit which played a key role in costing NE even a playoff berth that year though this result is bookended by two SB wins for this high-quality team. Many posters have taken to summarizing the trade as NE raping the Bills but I think pretty clearly for the 2002 season it was the other way around. 2003- This was a disaster year for the Bills and Bledsoe. The O guided by Bledsoe simply did not produce that year particularly in mid-season when they went multiple games/quaters in a row without producing any points. In my mind, this outage was driven by decisions by Kevin Killdrive which played to Bledsoe's weaknesses (the O relied on the pass too much and a cocky athlete like Bledsoe too the opportunity to audible into even more passes) and did not rely on his strengths (his arm is a great threat, but we should have played off this threat rather than over-utilize it in order to be most effective). Also, the OL was not there yet and by knowing Bledsoe was not at his best running, we never ran with him when we needed to use him that way a little simply to stop the D from blitzing all the time, Still overall, the year made it more than reasonable to look elswhere for QB leadership and his contract made it essential that we do something different. 2004- Darn if TD didn't deal with the contract issue by extending Bledsoe and lowering his cap hit to a reasonable level for a starter, but the extension made him a very unfriendly cut prior to 2005 if he ended up with the likely possiblity of repeating in 2004 his poor play of 2003. Extending him was not the right move in my book, but at least he extended him in a way that was reasonable if MM/Clements/Wyche could improve his game. I really doubted they would but the deed was done. Well surprise surprise, Clements actually did produce some substantial improvement in Bledsoe's 2004 game. The improvement proved to be inadequate for my tastes, but quite frankly I expected his play to more like the 2003 version of Bledsoe and instead among other things they: 1. Once WM got in they really emphasized the run which allows for far more O production under Bledsoe as his arm becomes most useful as a threat rather than relying on it. 2. The reduced Bledsoe's ability to audible and this simplified D really helped him and the WRs to be on the same page and ended our tendency to pass even on 3rd and short, 3. They revived effective use of the QB draw and of play faking by Drew which led to numerous pitch-backs to Drew by WM leading to successful bombs to Moulds/Evans and stopped the blitz from pinning their ears back and making a beeline for Bledsoe because there might be a run that goes right by them. The effort fell short because to O still could not carry the team against Pitts with the ST missing chip shot FGs and the D getting run all over by Pitts scrubs, but this does not make it rational to simply ignore the improvements in Bledsoe's use. In the end, I am in the same place I was last year. I'm happy to see Bledsoe go if the cap room is used to get a better alternative. The market allowed for their too be fewer alternatives than I expected last year as folks like Feeley and Garcia got much bigger contracts than I think they merited. However, I think think the market looks even worse this year so if Bledsoe is willing to take a paycut (which I think will tangibly signal that he is willing to play a back-up role for Losman if JP wins the job on the field) then Isay by all means sign a chepaer Bledsoe and may the best QB win the competition which will occur between him and Losman. If he won't sign a deal it is going to be even tougher for us as cutting him will produce a lot of deadspace which will make it harder for us to sign another QB. Yet, I am intrigued by what Simon says in his pro Charlie Batch posts and also by the potential for obtaining Warner on the cheap if that happens so we may not be up the creek if JP turns into more of a Pennington (needs 2 years on the bench) rather than a Tom Brady (one year on the bench and he wins the SB). I think we're in as good a shape as we can be at QB (of course we'd be in better shape if we picked Brady in the 5th round in the 2000 draft but this was not a realistic alternative) and I feel comfortable if we let him go and even more comfortable if we keep him with him making the kind of money that you would spend to have him play the same role for JP by plan that he played for Brady by reality and injury in 2001.

This off-season I suspect the Bills have upgrading the OL as one of if not the top job. If Bledsoe agrees to a paycut and with Moulds commiting to restructure, if both happen it will be quite possible to team this with our substantial cap room to not only make a run at one of the top LTs who may well be available (Jones, Pace or Tra Thomas) but still have cap room to get one of the many LG candidates who apparently will be gettable in FA or the draft. I however, have been cautioning the folks I know who care about this issue to not be shocked if the Bills decide that the OL can be upgarded by JMac leading the way to a similar level of OL improvement in'05 that he achieved with the same personnel we had in '04. Yes, Virginia, the Bills may well decide that they can both upgrade the OL and do so with the personel we already have despite many fans screaming if Tucker is still the LG. I think a key point we will be able to see if whether the Bills in fact agree to resign Jennings after the 3/2 FA period begins. If, as I suspect the market is not going to produce a deal in the top 10 OL cap hits for Jennings it may well be the best deal he can get to resign with the Bills. Again, its impossible to tell for sure because the market will not be set until we find out whether Jones is franchised again and whether Pace and/or Thomas get tagged. However, at this point I thinl Seattle won't tag Jones because they need to deal with Alexander and Hasselback and Philly will look to tag Simon rather than Thomas so the Jennings will not be the first choice among the few teams that have cap room, When one looks at the many teams that have committed long-term big bucks to LTs (8 of the top 10 OL cap hits are LTs), look at the fairly pedestrian players like Clifton and Pettitgout who are LTs with long-term big contracts at LT, and look at the the teams who have LT needs but no cap room because of other big contracts (AT has devoted cap room to player like Vick and Peerless and will be cutting players to simply make the cap and not offering big contracts) it will not be shocking if the best deal Jennings can get is as little as $3 million annually. Whikle this "poor" contract does not compare to the money the market has given to previous LTs, it certainly will be a bigger paycheck than Jennings has ever gotten so perhaps it works. What seems more likely to me is that the Bills will (maybe already have) offer him around a $5 million cap hit. If he signs for this much, it actually begins to put a premium on the Bills maintaining continuity as well as constraining how much they can devote to the OL (MW's cap hit already goes up to a bit over $5 million next year. When you combine that with a $5 mil JJ hit, it hard for me to see the Bills wanting to oer being able to devoted more than 1/8 of their total cap to 3 players in the OL and I doubt we shop beyonfd existing salaries for an LG. If JJ resigns the question becomes whether JMac feels he can get additional improvement out of Tucker and the building of chemistry with JJ, or alternately whether he feels the huge jump Smith took in moving from the Ravens PS to being a starter for the Bills can be replicated for Smih in his second year with the Bills. Neither alternative is a definite, but actually either is a possibility. My guess right now is that we tesign JJ for less than top 10 OL money and when we do we will rely on JMac to upgrade the OL by working with Tucker or Smith. I'll be more excited if we get some new blood but can easily see how this may not happen.

Delet the last line of my post as it was simply a leftover if that confuses folks.

Comparing Bledsoe to Brady or any other enemy QBs may be fun for some (though I don't see why as Brady wins this comparison hands down in my view whether your criteria is record of achievement, simple production, relevant stats, age or whatever) but the only relevant comparison for the Bills this past year was to JP Losman or Shane Matthews, I see no question here as the vast majority of rookie QBs are not ready to play against vets in their first season and JP could not play due to injury for most of the beginning of the season. Further as JP demonstrated when he was thrown into the NE game and with his promising but mixed bag performances in mop-up duty in two games (promising as he led the team to TDs in each game, but he still has a rookie's command of the huddle getting a penalty for delay of game off the bat in the first and being forced to call a TO when his primary job was to burn clock in his second appearance seem to show the boy wonder was not ready to start yet. Bledsoe demonstrated in the Pittsburgh game that even with some fairly nifty and surprising to me improvements in his play this year under the QB redeeming guidance of Clements/MM, he is still quite unlikely to take a team to the playoffs much less the SB. The only thing which strikes me as sillier than the notion of thinking that Bledsoe could overcome the horrible ST play in the Pitts game (the Lindell shank was inexcusable and the Clements PR fumble was balanced out by his INT, but we and Bledsoe clearly need a positive point contribution for the ST to win comfortably if at all) and to overcome a D performance which was so uncharacteristically bad by the Bills as they got run over by Pitts scrubs, is the notion that this team should have almost certainly sacrificed a chance at the playoffs by giving JP a chance to make errors and develop this year. Development of the QB is best done from the stats I have seen from the bench, in the film room, practices against his own team where he will face NFL athletes and pre-season where he even gets to face oppoents. and in mop-up or garbage time of real games. A player needs to play to become a vet and I view PT as an essential part of a QB;s development. However, the thing I am most psyched about this past season was that JP got some PT and successfully led the Bills to two TDs because we were winning so comfortably we could give him some PT. However, though retrospect now shows we would have missed the playoffs just the same with JP going through a learning period, I simply disagree with those who are quite willing to sacrfice a shot at the playoffs now in exchange for potential development of a player of the future. I think the Bills are doing it just right at QB right now, If Bledsoe wants to stay he will have to take a cut which reduces his cap hit in a way which allows us to get more help now and makes it clearer that the job is JP's if he wins it on the field like he should and by agreeing to such a paycut Bledsoe will get a shot to show that his play improvement in '05 equals the improvement he showed from '03 to '04. If Bledsoe can maintain the rate of improvement he showed last year (which I doubt I have no problem with him starting as long as he takes a paycut which allows us to fortify the team and makes it clear that he is willing to be the team player he was when he helped out Brady when Brady took his job after Bledsoe was hurt. Cut Drew because he wants starter money or keep Drew because he is willing to play the back-up role IF JP steps up its fine with me, Starting would have been great for him, going through

He sounds like a big boy who can take a hit and still get up and throw the ball. Perfect camp fodder from what I see.

I think dumping Drew is actually TD's second choice from what I see and his first choice is having Bledsoe take a paycut to a back-up level salary and then he and JP fight it out in mini-camp and pre-season. If this is the case it is a question of whether YOU and other Bills fans trust in the judgment of MM/Clements/Wyche or not. If they judge Bledsoe to be out best shot at winning if your trust 'em then fine. If they judge JP as giving us our best shot then they will need to be sure that Bledsoe is going to continue to be the teamer he as in NE and not a cancer. For me, I am happy to let them make their personal judgment about this because I and all other fans cannot know what is in Drew's head. The default would have to be he was a teamer under the worst of circumstances for a competitive player after the AFC championship and outside of his pronouncement that this was his team I do not think there are any real world reasons to assume against this default. Those who claim that of course he will logically throw a hissy-fit if passed over probably say more about what is important to them and their own immaturity than they do about Bledsoe. As far as things I can see objectively in the real world the question is: Can Bledsoe deal with being passed over and play a positive nurturing role for the youngster who took his job and successfully perform the back-up role if called upon> Who knows for sure as this would all be by choice rather than Mo Lewis triggering these events so its a different case in many ways though Bledsoe was healthy and did the right things around the AFC championship that year. My first choice would be Bledsoe taking the back-up money and there being a fair battle between Bledsoe and JP on the field. I trust MM and company to make the right choice even if that chpice were B;edsoe rather than our QB of the future.

In the NFL model there is NOT a fixed percentage for the cap but a range which varies based on gross fixed revenues and what invididual teams do in terms of total team salaries within another range. The cap total started at roughly 65% of gross designated revenues but has escalated to around 70%, The owners don't mind at all because a key for them is relative cost certainty (which even a moving cap within specified ranges comes close enough to giving them) and the fact that overall income is increasing by significant amounts. Add to that the owners have shifted income out of the designated gross revenues and into income streams they need not share with the players (for example lowering the gate at the Ralph by 5K from the designated revenue stream of general ticket sales and building more luxury seats for which they don't have to share the income) and NFL owners are making out like bandits under the market controls of the NFL system than they would make from a free-market system. In the end, the perfect outcome to me of this strike would actually be if it resulted in cutting out the middle-man between the hockey players and the fans, namely the owners. The owners are fairly redundant and not worth the hassle of their stupid deals with players abd the NOGOAL insanity of the league. If the players (who have gotten enough capital to be owners in some cases as seen by the Lemieux example) can figure out a method for divving up themselves and distributing their talent through the league and create a system for hiring team managers who keep their jobs because of producing good records and selling seats to customers, i could easily do without the owners. If there is one thing North America has its capital and the owners as sources of capital are simply more trouble to the game than they are worth. They can be replaced.

I think it is an overstatement to claim TH only wants to be a starter. I think he wants to be a starter AND he wants a load of money. Both pieces are probably necesary for him and having only one of them will not be sufficient for him to sign a contract or be happy about doing it. The Bills actually hold many cards here because they are under no legal obligation to trade him if they so choose. Some posters have said that Trave will throw a hissy-fit and either refuse to play or will simply not try and play poorly unless the Bills trade him. Like any human being (and even Rickey Williams) TH does have the right and the ability to do whatever he wants to do as long as it ain't illegal. However, if he holds out formally he does not accrue time to being an FA and simply remains Bills propery and if he reports but only punches the clock and does not do his job of backing up WM to the best of his ability he runs the risk and most likely would tack on a second bad year in a row (thus lowering his ability to sign a big FA deal), develop a rep as a cancer to his employer and his teammates (thus lowering his ability to sign a big FA deal), and turn the Bills interest against his so rather than TD and our docs giving optimistic reports about his dealing with injury, negative reports about his health may begin to circulate or go unrefuted (thus lowering his ability to sign a big FA deal). I think he and the Bills will make every effort to move him and it sounds like a rich market which also will have a good number of FA and high draftee RBs to fill the demand. A lot of this will come down to the various parties deciding that they have a good enough bird in the hand to make a deal. If no deal happens, then clearly TH and the Bills will have it in their best financial interests to suck it up and make peace, but all parties are working to avoid this fate right now.

I certainly wasn't overjoyed with his performance as it was inadequate (as I said( and actually was quite bummed by this team needing only to beat Pitts scrubs to make the playoffs only to have Bledsoe and the offense lay a total egg, have the ST behind Lindell's miss of a chip sot and the PR fumble also lay an egg, and most surprising to me have the D get run over by a 4th string RB and a disaster QB. All this being true, what feelings should I have about the Bills posting a winning season, about the ST being among the best in the league and about the high statistical ranking of the D. Are my only choices to be totally elated or totally disgusted? Sorry, but life is too short for me to look at all glasses as half empty when I am thirsty. As far as the O and Bledsoe, I gad advocated he be cut after the '03 season and would not have been shocked if we went 6-10 again under his guidance (particularly after an 0-4 start). However, I was pleasantly surprised by the winning streak and the specific good use of Bledsoe that MM and the boys put him to? Do you disagree with this reaction or my analysis of these specifics. I'm fine labeling them adequate as you do (though as I said I think they were inadequate). I think TD made a mistake in extending his deal rather than cutting him last year, but also said that if he was going to do this at least he got the best deal he could get. To my mind he is now rectifying this as much as contracts allow by demanding Drew lower his cap hit even further if he wants to stay and essentially setting up an opportunity for JP to win the job on the field (which I far prefer to simply giving it to him based on college rep). I as wrong thinking that MM and the boys would be unable to get anything out of Bledsoe in '04 and say that I still do not believe he will lead this team to our ultimate goal in 05, but after being wrong in 04 I think I would be foolish not to admit that I may also be wrong about 05 if the braintrust makes a decision to go with Bledsoe. Do you disagree with that?

I directly and flat out said that I don't think Bledsoe is good enough to get us to the '05 SB which I think is out ultimate goal. However, my orginal post was basically a tip of the hat to what I thought some surprisingly good work by Clements/MM/Wyche who got far more out of Bledsoe than I expected they would. The ultimate result was disappointing because we didn't make the playoffs, but I think one has to be fairly ignorant of football or so dead set against Bledsoe not be pretty impressed with the work they did to pull off the winning streak and even have a smell of the playoffs after the horrendous start. Did you believe that they could get Bledsoe to throw fewer INTs? Well they did and I think that elements which the Bills O braintrust installed from the scheme to their use of the alarm clock to play the same role Parcells did when he got to the SB with Bledsoe was a part of this. or do you deny this happened? Did you believe they could actuallt run successful QB draws with Bledsoe or use him to run some pretty nice fakes like the QB sneak and pitch to WM for the TD and the hand-offs to WM and ptich back to Bledsoe for successful bombs. Well I didn't but they did it or do you deny this happened? I did not imply at all that Bledsoe is good enough to lead us to the '05 SB in fact I said the opposite but I did concede that just as I wrong about the good things they did with Bledsoe in '04 that perhaps I am wrong about my expectations for Bledsoe in 05. The accusations that this is a loser mentality strike me as odd. Is a winning mentality the converse of this and thus some certainty that JP will deliver us to the '05 SB. If so I guess I'd rather be a loser than totally deranged in my beliefs. I'd love it if JP led us to the SB and love it as well if Bledsoe led us to the SB. I simply do not believe either of them will be able to pull this off next year. But hey, I'm a Bills fan and will root for whomever is QB for my team.

My original post was actually meant as a tip of the hat to what I thought was some work by Clements/MM/Wyche which surprised me that a new coaching staff could do in turning around the Bills' season. If they are able to achieve the same level of improvement in this team which turned a 6-10 record into a 9-7 mark then the playoffs are certainly possible.

I don't think this is a loser mentality at all, its merely a recognition on my part that you may and the Prez on Iraq may be all-seeing and all-knowing on everything or simply on how Bledsoe will do, but I really underestimated MM/Clements/Wyche 's ability to win games with Bledsoe running the O. I thought the Bills were likely condemned to a losing record when an extension was reached with Bledsoe, but thankfully I was wrong. I'm willing to at least acknowledge that I may in fact be wrong that the Bills O braintrust can squeeze eveb more success out of the team with Bledsoe (if he were to aggree to the chopped down contract). If he is willing to take back-up money I think he would be one of the better back-ups we could get for Losman and I would be happy to give him a fair shot at keeping the starting job if he proves on the field he is up to it. Look at it this way. Do you think JP can win the '05 SB? I don't. Even though I think he is not going to lead us to an SB win I think he deserves a shot at the starting job. Is this a loser mentality? Perhaps you simply are sure JP will win the '05 SB and because of this you have a winning mentality in contrast to my loser mentality. If so, then I have some WMD fresh from Iraq to sell to you

Ijust read through this thread which was created over the last couple of days and its fairly humorous seeing both sides of an argument array true facts to try to prove a point which is not true in the whole. I think the key facts of that AFC Chanpionship game are that Brady certainly deserves true credit for getting his team to the point where he got hurt and my sense is they wouldn't have made it without him, AND Bledsoe deserves true credit for playing QB and throwing the winning TD pass in a must-win game that got them to the SB. It is not inconsistent at all for both Brady and Bledsoe to have played essential roles in NE getting to the SB that year. The thing which is flat-out wrong to me is that many posters have such little minds that these two facts can't seem to exist in their heads at the same time. Bledsoe clearly did not carry the team to victory in the must win game all on his lonesome, but Brady certainly didn't carry the team to victory over the course of the season all by himself either. It is the rare rare completely rare case when any individual through his actions or even though the force of his will carries a team to victory (I think Elway deserves some of this credit in a couple of his two minute drill jobs, but I wouldn't even say Joe Willie N, deserves credit along for the victory over the Colts because performances by members of the D and folks like Matt Snell were also essential) and quite frankly there is more than enough credit to go around for the Pats SB win that year. Brady certainly gets the lead and the lionshare of the QB credit that year. However, protests about Drew playing horribly in that game, insistence of him being prone to INTs and fumbles, etc. really sound like a bunch of woulds. coulds. shoulds, rather than having much to do with winning football. One can crowd any number of angels on the head of a pin and make claims that the victory happened in spite of Bledsoe. However, he played QB in the majority of a must-win game for them that he won. Arguments that this is for some reason horrible do more to diminish the arguer than they do to diminish Bledsoe.

I think this is somewhat the case because I have seen the truth in a statement Marv used to use all the time that if a team has two quarterbacks it has no quarterback. However, I think that in the right situation team's can and do operate with two QBs capable of startting. The big rate limiting factor which tends to make this undoable is the athletes in questions turning into juveniles (see the RJ/Flutie debacle) egged on by a media that loves a fight as tool to sell commercials and fans who root for one player or the other player when they should be rooting for the team. It is possible to have two QB's capable of being named the starter who act like adults and under strong coaching get the job done. The last working example of this was actually Bledsoe and Brady in 2001. The difference between the Bill's situation and their's is that it was for a relatively short period of time and was forced upon them by the injury to Bledsoe. The question for the Bill's which fortunately TD has put squarely to Bledsoe is can he deal with this type of situation if the move is voluntary. I don't know, but we will see how committed Bledsoe is to being a teamer because if he puts himself and his job on the line at a cost of millions to himself, i think he will have shown me that he seems capable of losing the job and being a true teamer and helping JP out. If he can't do this he should go.

I think a lot of whatwe're seeing here is how what is sometimes spouted forcefully or repetitively on bulletin boards like TSW can somehow come to be accepted as the coventional wisdom even if it is only based on occaisional occurences and single example. Yes, I believe that Willis can be better utilized as a pass catcher, but also I belive that the stats and broad experience indicates that Henry can be better utilized as a receiver than he has been. Willis caught 27 balls during his best year in college indicating that he can be used that way. He had a number of drops for the Bills last year of balls that appeared catchable and for the most part struck me as a combination of him moving to run before he made the reception and Bledsoe being trained to throw the ball the same way everytme regardless of the need for a little touch. Yet, it is simple see how folks might focus on these few drops and draw conclusions about his play which are not good football. Likewise, Henry actually made 40+ catches as a Bill when he was employed more as a receiver in a far more effective offense in 2002. Yet, people seem to disreagard these catches because he made a few awful drops as part of the horrid offensive showing in 2003 and this has translated into a few posts which falsely make the claim that Henry is a horrible receiver. Believe Josh Reed had a real dropsy issue and neither Henry's drops last year or McGahee's drops this year are anywhere near the production problem Reed has or some sign that neither WM or Henry cannot be effective receivers.

Exactly right in my view. The model for the Bills in this regard is the 2001 Pats team where instead of Bledsoe getting pushed aside by Mo Lewis and a collapsed lung he gets pushed aside by superior play and immediate winning prospects by JP. If he is willing to accept this happening voluntarily I think it is great cause one should not count upon the fact that even if JP plays like Brady in 2001 you may well need a vet to help you win a must-win game as Bledsoe did for the Pats in 2001.

In some ways, i think it is also fair to throw the Bledsoe deal into the simple restructure mix. Its a different thing in that he was working with a contract subsidized by the Pats taking the accelerated cap hit, but the balloon payment owed to Bledsoe in tihis deal forced a restructuring to a new deal which paid Bledsoe more and upfront money in the form of pro-rated bonus in exchange for giving him a lower cap hit than he would have had if we had simply paid him what we agreed to take on as an obligation when we took his Pats contract. The new deal struck me as too rich for my blood as it made it a tough pill to swallow if we cut Bledsoe and he produced like he produced in 2003 or evn to retain him unless he was clearly our starter. I think events have unfortunately shown this to be true as TD has essentially told him we can only afford to keep his play if his cap hit is greatly reduced.

Actually, as I watch things fall into the order TD is arranging, I will be disappointed by missing some opportunities but not besurprised at all to see the Bill's essentially make no changes in personnel on the OL in the 05 pre-season. The key thing to look for is wehther the Bills resign JJ. If they do, then I suspect it is because the market is saturated because most teams have already made huge long-term financial commitments at LT, those who have openings at LT cannot offer huge dollars to JJ because of their cap commitments (for example AT will be cutting players merely to make the cap) and worse for Jennings he is a lesser choice than likely FAs Jones, Thomas, or Pace for those few who have need and cap room. I still think that he will probably take a cap hit of $5 million annually to sign JJ (well below even the transition tag level of an LT contract) but in combination with the roughly $6 million cap hit due MW this will lock up an 1/8 of our cap room in two OL positions and I don't see us making big commitments elsewhere on the OL. My guess is that unless they make a big move like go after a Jones or Pace with dollars from restructuring Moulds they will depend on a second year of JMac guidance to improve the OL. LG is obviously the other big question mark, but again don't be surprised if JMac judges that he can get the same level of enormous improvement out of Smith in 05 he got from him in 04 as he progressed from the PS of the Ravens to starting for the Bills and that of Smith hits the wall then Tucker is his back-up plan.

I think it is more like recognizing reality that even though i would have cut Bledsoe last year, I'm not in charge and I refuse to give up on my team even if the GM does something I disagree with. My mentality was/is this. 1. The should've cut Bledsoe after 2003. 2. If they don't cut him for 04 at least they shoukld renegotiate a better deal with him and they did. 3. The 04 deal they renegotiated still struck me as too much and made it tough in terms of cap hit to cut him 05. 4. Obtaining a QB of the future in 04 was a smart thing to do. 5. Its unclear when JP will be ready and it will be the future sooner rather than later but giving JP a shot to take the QB job is the right thing to do, and getting Bledsoe to take a lower cap hit and agree to the role he played for Brady in 01 is a smart thing to do as well. This doesn't sound like a loser mentality to me. Sticking with Bledsoe come heck or high water strikes me as a loser mentality. Going with a QB who still needs to learn the game and being happy to lose a few while he may get his act togetber strikes me as loser mentality as well.

Actually your first line of interpretation is different from what I said but the Cliff notes are pretty good and thanks for the distillation. I said Bledsoe's play in 04 was better than his play in 03 but was INADEQUATE. Isus pect it will be inadequate again in 2005 so fine with me if we go elsewhere at QB, but i was wrong in not believing MM?Clements could improve his play last year aso petrhaps they can improve his play in 05 if they get a shot to do so.

Don't get me wrong, I still think his '04 play was inadequate as he and the O, the ST (the Lindell miss and Clements PR fumble), and the D (letting the Pitt scrubs run al over them- a 4th string RB? please) screwed up their chance to make the playoffs in the Pitts game in a big way. However, after the major disaster of his play in '03 where this team failed to rack up any points multiple quarters in a row and the O dragged down a pretty gritty and real D performance I rerally expected nothing at all (again) from Bledsoe in 2004. I was wrong in my estimation of how he would play in 2004. While it still may be true that you can't teach an old dog new tricks, I had allowed the tirades by many against Bledsoe on TSW to allow me to forget that he actually knew a few old tricks which under Clements/MM/Wyche he was able to bring to bear which allowed Bledsoe to play a good role in the winning streak before his and the team's power outage and untimely demise versus Pitts. DOES ANYONE OUT THERE DENY THAT BLEDSOE IMPROVED IN SIGNIFICANT WAYS (not significant enough to be part of a playoff team unfortunately) IN 2004? Specifically, I would point to: 1. Clements and the team did not over-rely on his arm like Kevin Killdrive- I think one of the things the Bills did which grealy increased the productivity of Bledsoe and the O was to limit his ability to audible. Bledsoe himself said this grealy simplified the O which I think made it easier for him and the WR's and for him and the blockers to be on the same page, Part of the problem I saw was that Killdrive himself called too many pass plays to have balance and that Bledsoe like most competitors would often try to do to much and relied too much on what he liked to do and would audible out of the too few rushes called by Killdrive to pass the ball even on third and short. I think the better game calling and the limiting of Bledsoe's ability to audible or call pass-happy audibles really helped his production. 2. The Statue can actually run the ball- I think folks fell into the trap of taking the fact that Bledsoe is far better as a thrower than as a runner as actually meaning he can't run the ball at all. A QB has to at least provide some threat that he may run the ball and pick up critical yards at least some of the time, or the D is going to sell itself out completely on the blitz and be more effective at rushing the QB. Bledsoe is a big boy in size and has bounced back up from punishment and tackles when he is sacked so there should be no fear that he is so fragile we should never run the ball. I really liked the several play calls we made where Bledsoe was able to pick up 5-7 yards running the QB draw on 2nd and 10 type plays. The key to being successful in getting the first down if you blow a first down pass or WM is held to a yard or two on a first down run is to know we have 2 plays to get 8-10 yards. If we misfire on a second down pass then fuggaboutit on 3rd down as the blitz will kill us on a must pass down, by having Bledsoe pick up positive yards on the draw on 2nd down by showing pass and then having him run this was simply good football. I think this use of him also reminded me that like any QB who plays this game for awhile, Bledsoe does have the ability to not only hang in the pocket and throw it at the last second but also make some nifty sidestep moves from time to time. Use of the alarm clock set for 4 seconds in practice and reinforcing the habit of Bledsoe delivering the ball rather than locking onto his favorite receiver and going into his familiar pat-pat-pat-sack, was a great replacement for Parcells constantly yelling at Bledsoe just throw the damn ball. 3. He really did a nice job with play fakes and running the play out- The cadillac example of this was when MM actually took points of the board when the Bills called TO on a 4th and 1 and Lindell actually put the kick through the uprights from outside the 40. We instead lined up and Bledsoe apparently was going to do a QB sneak to the right side but at the last minute he turned and pitched it to WM who scampered over 40 yards for the TD. Great call by the Bills and great fake and pitch by Bledsoe. He consistently showed good ability to keep moving even after hand-offs to WM, thus on the several plays where WM turned back to him and pitched him the ball, the D was fooled and he was able to throw some nice bombs to Evans and Moulds for big gains. Even better for the Bills who want the future to happen as quickly as possible, when you watch Losman play now he is doing the same thing when he plays and this development is good to see. Overall, I was a pretty vocal advocate of the Bills looking elsewhere for our 2004 QB after last year's Bledsoe debacle. I admit I was a bit disappointed by TD redoing his deal rather than cutting him and simply considering his acqusition a good move when he did it as we needed to replace RJ, but it was a wash at best since he played well in 2002 and sucked in 2003. Yet, what impressed me most was that I think last year showed that MM/Clements revival of the careers of Maddox and Kordellia were not flukes and they really squeezed far more out of Bledsoe than I thought they would last year. This brings us to 2005 and I think that TD/MM are doing just the right thing with handling the QB situation. I do not think Bledsoe is a good bet to deliver us to the promised land in '05. However, with the better production they got out of Bledsoe in 04 winning and making the playoffs with him as QB is still not likely but is not impossible in my judgment. By insisting that the QB job is one to be won on the field and setting the groundwork for a competition between Bledsoe and our QB of the future they bith put pressure on Bledsoe to perform even better because we need it and also on Losman to step up as quickly as he can. Even better, by attaching this call to the specifics of Bledsoe giving back (or simply extending his contract and lowering his immediate cap hit) on his contract so we have more cap room to make more deals, it will put us in a better situation to win. Ultimately I hope Bledsoe is strong enough to face reality that he is on the backside of his career and the best thing for the Bills (and I think also for his legacy and his finances) is to be the team player he has been in the past and accept that he will get a fair shot to win this job on the field if he pulls off the unlikely and improves his play in 05 over 04 just as he improved his play and production in 04 over 03. It is to be hoped that he trusts in MM/Clements/Wyche to be good at what they do and fair in assessing Losman's development and his play and let him play and lead the team if he stands a good chance of putting up playoff level Ws and bench him if Losman shows that his future is now. My sense is that it is not unlikely that even if Losman proves to be the real deal that a chance like the one Bledsoe had and performed well with in the 2001 AF championship will occur. I insist that Bledsoe fully deserves his SB ring for that season because though it was clearly Brady's team, they would not have the ring if Bledsoe has not done what he did and played QB for them in the majority of a must-win game against Oakland and even throw the winning TD. My sense is that the Bledsoe legacy will be a great one and he will even totally deserve entry into the HOF if his legacy is one of leading the Pats to the SB under Parcells, playing an essential role in the Pats winning the SB under Belichick and him being on an SB winning team as a back-up (and in the NFL it is simply the reality that back-up QBs are quite likely to be called upon to make a few critical plays and even start) for the Buffalo Bills with and behind JP Losman in 2005. I hope Losman proves worthy of starting in 2005, but if he isn't there yet (he doesn't have to be perfect in my mind, just good enough to win some while he is learning) I feel OK abou the Bills going with Bledsoe if he is man enough, athlete enough, team player enough and Buffalo Bill enough to take a paycut.

What's the scoop with Sobieski? he's on your cap page but a little to my surprise not on the Bills roster at their site even a few weeks back when they listed players on the PS. Did they reach an injury settlement with hime which counts against our 2005 cap that I missed amidst things?

My sense is that the key (if one must choose one key) is that they play and are a TEAM. You can see the import of this from their introduction of stars at the 2001 season SB when they introduced themselves as a team rather than as individuals within a unit to the current model which is descibed by Troy Brown playing both ways like an athlete rather than as an offensive or WR specialist. A key for this team was the injury to Bledsoe which brought them together as a TEAM sucking up for and backing up the young Brady. In terms of strategy, though BB was disappointed in and heading toward moving beyond Bledsoe, the injury made their O far less pass-happy and they began to perform more efficiently when they relied upon the whole O rather than on one extraordinary but flawed arm. I don't think they would have won any SBs with Drew and ironically might not have won the second if the team hadn't pulled together to get over BB's horrendous handling of the Milloy situation because a ton of bad injuries like Colvin's forced them to do a gut check and come together.

Player for player trades seem more possible to do than they have been for a longtime in the NFL. As the cap was being phased in and people were struggling to understand them trading bodies dropped down to nothing. Now however, as teams get better at understanding the cap, trading bodies that have similar cap situations is more possible. Overall I would chose choice C as long as we are into the theoretical which is to dispense with the crapshoot of the draft entirely and try to get a player who can contribute immediately to the Bills in more clear ways than the uncertainties of the draft. I would prefer to get a player of clear lower talent than Travis as long as it is clearer to me that a need will be filled by this player. Thus, i would happily trade this former pro bowler for a solid but unspectacular TE who will help us fill the gap likely to left until mid-season or next year as Campbell and Euhus recover from ACL tears. In fact, I would opt for giving away more of our limited speculative draft picks to pry McMichael away from the Fins. Both are FAs after next season so there is some cap convergence for the two and MxMichael is a more recently productive player than TH. I'd easily give up my thrid this year (reducing us to one first day draft pick and throw in TH to get McMichael.