Fake-Fat Sunny

What substantive facts do you cite that indicate that Henry is a cancer? He certainly has not been productive as a player this year, but not being good enough as a player and being a cancer are two different things. On the contrary, in the past Henry drew lots of praise from teammates, fans and even was the lead pictuire on TBD prior to the resurgence of WM. Because he demonstrated the ability to play productively through injuries such as a fractured bone while in the process of gaining over 1300 yards for the season TH proved himself to be as far from being a cancer as a player could be. This year in conjunction with the downturn in his play, he has drawn praise from his teammates for keeping his mouth shut and being a good soldier when a better player took his job. I don't think he is a cancer at all. Perhaps you are using the word in a different fashion than the way it is normally used by most fans and you mean that someone is a cancer simply through not being as good as another player or just being unproductive. If the latter is what you are referring to it is correct for Henry's play this year but differs in terms of how folks use the phrase cancer. By that definition Bledsoe would be considered a "cancer" when Brady took his job abd he ran the Brady offense well enough to win, though not well in the AFC championship game. In tat case, Bledsoe won virtually universal praise for the manner in which he dealt with Brady rolling over him and in my view Henry deserves nothing but praise for the way he has dealt with WM's play far outstripping his production.

I don't. Don't get me wrong, he is part of an O which for three games in a row has turned the corner with pass pro and run blocking for a productive WM. If he is affordable I am glad to have him (particularly after a game ending injury to MW). However, some poster used the words outstanding to describe Jennings, and some folks are pointing to him only (only?) missing 6 games in his 3+ years as evidence that he has gotten a bad rap on the injury issue. I'm sorry, if Arthur Blank and AT offer him a top 10 OL cap hit and we have to match it to sign him I say adios Jonas. Its too bad, but thems the rules of the economy in this league of ours. Jennings is not worth the 6+ million dollars average annual cap hit of the top 10 OL players (8 of whom were LTs like Jonas) and certainly not the 7+ million average hit of the top 5. Instead, I think the Bills are better off seeing if one of these options workout for LT: 1. Switch Teague to the LT position he played for Denver which first attracted us to him and we judge Tucker to be ready to be our center. 2. Trey Tucker who originally came to this league as a tackle and has started some MFL games at tackle there if it is too diruptive for Teague to go. 3. Try Price who has been pretty good as a back-up tackle (though he had some struggles today) as a potential starter. 4. Keep working with the very longshot Peters who made the pros as a tackle rather than a TE though I think the team did this to emphasize to him that though he is a great receiver, blocking is going to keep him here. 5. If it turns out that the loads of money folks have thrown at LTs like Clifton, Wade and Petitgout) snd saturation of the market which will include talents like Orlando Pace will mean that there is not the demand to balloon Jennnings wage. In the end, the Bills only had to pay $2 million for available LT Teague and recent LT signings have been at the $5 million annual cap hit mark. There should be no need to pay Jenning top teir LT money to get him and if he requires that we should let him go. How many penalties did he have today around him again sufferering an injury problem which forced us to play Smith at LT but will not show up on the stats sheet as another injury problem with Jennings.

I credit both the coaches and the QB as that is how this team sport works from all I have seen. I agree with your comments about MM/Clements finally getting their act together and that making a big difference because it is consistent with what I have thought and said all along. Is it possible to win with Bledsoe at QB? You bet! Despite what many Bledsoe haters have irrationally argued, Parcells too a team QB'ed by Bledsoe to the SB and Belichick HC'ed a team in which Bledsoe played the majority of the QB duty in a must win game during their 2001 season SB run. The questions were whether Bledsoe had enough left on the backend of his career win football games (I am pleased to say that my doubts triggered by his awful performance last year and the NE debacle have been proven wrong in the last three games) and whether a rookie HC could win with Bledsoe at the helm. I think this latter point has turned out to be correct as our rookie HC clearly went through some growing pains in the beginning of the season that made it impossible to win with Bledsoe's strengths and weaknesses because the experience has been that Bledsoe can only make the SB with the highest rank of coaching leadership.

From what TD has said and I agree with him the draft (particularly 1st round choices) are ovverated. A significant number of 1st rounders (50% by TD estimates) are disappointments or flat out busts (like past 2nd pick Ryan Leaf. Even worse these players due to slotting still abdorb signficant cap room. The draft is not a bad deal as players have to ccme from somewhere and along with the Leaf's there are the Mannings who is the best skilled QB in the game today (but even that being said Manning finally moved ahead of Leaf last year in terms of the amount of playoff wins he delivered to the team which drafted him. He looks good for Indy right now if NE co-operates but his cap hjit probably ends their ability to win it all next year if he fails this year). All that being said, I can easily see how TD had the balls to trade a future 1st ronder for Bledsoe whose play certainly sucked last year, but did coincide with a huge improvement in Ws his first year and was a big part of exciting customers (for bad reasons it turned out) when Bledsoe came to town. He knew that trading such a he did with Price could get the resource back, which he promptly used to draft WM whom he was able to sign to a sweetheart contingency deal. This year saw him once again trade a future first like the penny-candy they are for Losman and this is looking like a good move because Losman clearly needs work before he is ready to play and the QB draft pool this year is pretty thin. I doubt Parcells is too POed draft wise because he planned this year to have an early 1st rounder and a late 1st rounder. Though it appears he will be completely wrong in terms of which team will provide which pick, this is what he will have as the Bills have a weak schedule in front of them and Dallas has sucked worst than he planned or pundits thought.

I flatout disagree that you will be justified in saying you called it if JP is a bust. You will be justified in calling yourself correct if JP is a great player whose development is delayed by him not taking the field. However, if he is a bust you also would likely be wrong in having called for him to play when he turns out not to be muxh of a player. If you want to be specific about the criteria for you to have bragging rights. JP being a bust only gives them if you hold that he has to be developed om some tight timeline where playing him now or this season is just right and holding him on the bench means we wait until it is too late. I doubt you would be taking that position because that would be too dumb a position even for someone who takes multiple positions or is wrong about key positions to take.

Soft against the pass all season? Yeah, there is no question that with better play this D could have come into today's game with a higher ranking than #3 or $ statsitically in the league. Have a little perspective here. Are there many Ds in the league that Brady or Manning has not made look stupid. It is clear that the Bills need to improve their pass rush and that the safety play has not been at adequate levels, but it also is clear this team starts from a point that even despite today's lousy performance by the D in many aspects of the game, our D play is a strength for this team. Have a little perspective here.

ICE, even if you choose to stick to your views that is fine, but will you at least acknowledge that the level of certainty you express is unwarranted given reality?

The theorizing is a good thing for us fans to do, however, we saw today the danger that any given Sunday in the NFL. I hope the team takes it one game at a time or our theorizing will soon be over. They should be able to best Cleveland at the Ralph, but little else should be on their minds regardless of what we think about.

The two remaing big Bill 2005 off-season signings are Jonas Jennins and Pat Williams. TD had gone on record that we had the money and cap room in hand to sign 1 of three big 2005 FAs and that turned out to be Schobel who signed an extension judged by most as favorable to the Bills (though fans are disappointed that Schobel does not appear to be on track to increase his sack total over last year and needs to improve his pace simply to hit double digits.). The truth is TD was right but he was not saying that we will only keep 2 of these players but that we only had the cap room to extend one of them this year. This is true as our cap room is down to about a million dollars which is the amount useful if something short-term needed to be done in case of injury. However, when one looks at the 2005 cap number, particular in the 2004 budget allocated to the offensive line we will see some significant dead space for players cut removed and our cap number will increase. Specifically, the highest paid OL player by the Bills is none other than Ruben Brown who counts against the Bills 2004 cap for over $4 million even though he is not playing for the team this year. Those who fear that with us at about a million left in cap space right now how will we sign anyone, they can breath a bit easier knowing that for 2005 there is already dollars allocated to the line in the form of Rubens contract and the amount being paid Jennings now and whatever savings we get if/when we cut some other hefty contracts (the play of Baker at safety is probably bad news for the Bills Prioleau to keep getting a million bucks for the team( means that I rhink we will without a horrble sweat be able to pay ampunts equalling the spending for recent LT signings like Eade, Petitgout or Clifton if we have to. Trey Teague who had started at LT for Denver and was cut lose was acquired by the Bills at acap hit of less than $2 million dollars for an LT starter we chose to move to center (over his initial objections. The cap figures for outstanding OL players is reflected in the current top 5 average for framchise players ($7 million) and the top 10 average for transistion players ($6 million). The three FA LTs listed above came in below the top 10 salaries and I think Jennings has played well for us (barring the 1 or 2 games he misses each season due to injury and the games he has left early because he is hurt) but he is simply not worth outstanding FA OL player money and the Bills should have ample opportunities to pay a player less than a big FA LT contract for the same output.

Believe it or not the four contracts you site are not the big money when it comes to LTs anf OL players. Actually the cap hits of all of these 4 players is below the cap hits of the top 10 offensive linemen (almost all of who are LTs with the notable exception of guard Ruben Brown who has the the #5 cap hit among OL players at $5.8 million most of it paid off the Bills cap because he is still are highest paid OL player in 2004 by far). One would be hard pressed to call a cap hit of $5 million chump change but the transistion number which the average of the top 10 salaries whch is what I took the orgininal poster as talking about when he dubbed Jennings an outstanding OL player (and thus deserving of outstanding OL money) I am thinking about an average salary a million bucks a year in excess of the 4 players you mention. Its actually good for us to see the allocations to these players because at some point competition for Jennings goes down because with the 4 players you mention plus 8 or 9 of the top 10 (I son't think Larry Allen is an LT) being LTs, a third of the league is not in the market for an LT. Add to that the top 10 list of cap hits does not include players like Orlando Pace who does not have a salary in the top 10 and will either mean St. L is not in the market or another LT will be if Pace moves. Again the market is not clear cut for Jennings. I would resign him if the contract is not for an outstanding OL player and produces one of the top 10 OL cap hits in the league. Would you sign him at this level, or is your limit the cheaper contracts that an Adams, Wade, Clifton. or Petigout got. I have not analyzed the full market or the need out there, it depends upon a lot of factors, but the main reason why a Jennings may sign cheaply is because the market for him may be more like the $3 million a year cap hit which allowed us to sign LT Trey Teague than the $8.3 million a year cap hit that Johnathan Ogeden commanded.

I also don't think we will ever get there with Bledsoe but for different reasons than you do, I think Drew is well into the backside of his career because he has taken a bunch of hits and thrown a lot of passes. However, from past experience it is possible to make it to the SB with Drew as shown by Parcells when he did a fantstic coaching job with him in NE. It is also possible to even win an SB with Bledsoe playing an essential role for the team as he did when he played QB and threw for the winning TD in a must win game for the 2001 Pats SB winning team. He successfully played QB running a Pats O powered down and (and thus made more effective) for Tom Brady by Charlie Weis and HC genius Bill Belichick. However, though Bledsoe played a crtical role for an SB winner and made the SB earlier in his career, the NFL is a harsh mistress for players and the slide downhill can be very fast when a player passes his prime. My sense is that Bledsoe's dismal production last year was a strong indicator he is done. However, I think in order for Bledsoe to succeed he needs one of the better HCs in the game motivating Bledsoe (and constantly reminding him to throw the damn ball) and motivating the team and building it to become a TEAM. I think it was simply too much to expect that given Bledsoe's limitations and horrendous year last year that a team with a rookie HC would be able to compensate for his failings and make the playoffs and win it all this year. MM proved that in the beginning of the year as the team failed to close the deal across the board for different reasons in each game and MM had an 0-4 start not usual but not atypical for a rookie HC. Still I am very impressed with how MM has pulled it together and some of things he has done: 1. He really has hired and gotten great production from his assistant co-ordinators: After some initial hiccups as he got to a working combination with Clements, JMac reviving the OL, getting WM fully recuperated and using him authoritatively, working with Bledsoe's strengths and weaknesses (like employing an alarm clock set for 4 seconds to play the throw the damn ball Parcells role) has employed him well enough to win a game going away even if Bledsoe throws 3 pics, they have solved the redzone production with some good use of defensive players as part time blockers. The hiring of Bobby April and by employing a few (and it just a few) starters in skill positions the ST game is one of if not the best in the league Holding on to Jerry Gray has allowed the D to continue to be productive and even improve on their past performance. We knew tactically he could call a good game using LeBeau's run blitz, but strategically Gray has been nothing short of phenomenal in his ability to diagnose what an oppenent is doing well to make his offense work in the first half, make a change to meet and get his players to implement that change in 15 minutes of halftime. This is simply the biggest difference from life under GW who had to fire his first OC and then moved "up" to Kevin Killdrive, had his buddy do know better than average with the ST, and actually ran a horrid D with Gray the first two years, but saw it immediately revive with a talent infusion and moving from the GW scheme to the LeBeau scheme proved a revival for Gray. 2. I am really impressed with how the team came back from a horrid performance in NE to still believe in themselves and in their HC to win the next two games in blowouts. I can understand the fixation on Bledsoe, but the real story here is how well is the HC doing (the buck ultimately stops with him) with the talent he has, Bledsoe and others. I think Bledsoe is far enough along in his career that a great HC can win with him as long as you use him as a change-up rather than depend on him like you would the best of QBs. However, though I think MM is much improved from the rookie he was when he came in, he is not yet one of the greats and I doubt he can win with Bledsoe. An older Bledsoe almost certainly cannot win, however, I think he can be an adequate placeholder for our QB of th future as long as the future comes fairly quickly. If anything Bledsoe is a team player who as long as he is managed properly so that his competitive desires do not get the best of him can play the same role for JP which Tom Brady speaks so highly of Bledsoe for playing to help him develop.

I think the key thing to remember here is that is essentailly s false distiction to separate Bledsoe from the running game or to give him all the credit for the passing game. This is ovviously the case since clearly a receiver deserves some if not most in some cases for a reception or if the RAC leads to a TD. Statw which folks may want to point to to "prove" this case by looking at TD passes by Drew obviously give no justice to this reality. Another good example is WMs TD run for a TD on a 4th and 1 call. WM received great credit that he deserved for a rushing TD when he took the lateral for a thiriy yard run and dove for the TD for a TD that I doubt Travis as good as he is with two 1000+ yard seasons would hve pulled off. Nevertheless, as central as WM was to this play, does anyone seriously deny that Bledsoe contributed a lot to this rushing TD with the fake he sold of going for the QB sneak and delivering a backward pass accurately on on pace to WM. There are two of the more obvious examples, but it is the threat of the WM run which makes a defender hesitate a fraction of a second before he covers a receiver and it is the threat of Bledsoe's arm which to some extent makes the CB have to correctly read the play and hang back a second on filling the hole if he has any doubts whether he is going to face a run from WM or a deep pass for Bledsoe. The stats sited simply are used falsely if they attempt to support the false notion that all passing plays are all Drew efforts and all run as all WM efforts. Even on a play which us all stiff arms and giddyup by WM to break it and Bledsoe did nothing but hand-off if the play call was for a pass and DB read them as being in a zone and audibled to the run, then I think it is false to divide things up regadless of how the stats look.

I was actually trying to work on some Clay Aiken joke since American Idol and the NFL seem to have a lot in common these days. CBS does have those stupid sports polls you can call in on, but I guess it is still short of using fan votes to decide ref reviews based on out viewing of replays at home. Hey wait a minute, talk about generating fan interest.. maybe they should do that. The results may be different than reality, but I doubt the fans at home will blow the coin flip with the proper slo-motion replays.

His condition has improved as just last week they were talking like he would likely practice this week but definitely would not play. The possibility he will play has apparently been raised by his practice performance (unless the Bills are just blowing smoke about this because of the fan impatience you are showing about his impact of the cap versus his non contribution on the field). My guess is that there is still enough uncertainty about his microfractures and confidence that Feeley/Fiedler can not exploit McGee has he is still learning the CB job that he will play Sunday unless he has made an extraordinary recovery. I think McGee is bad but learning at CB and Baker has shown good stuff at S that we sit Vincent yet another week.

Not taking a game seriously and having the desperation that you might lose because you are playing against pro players is one of the key elements in many surprising losses. As a fan face people down and go crazy (just be prepared to leave town or stay in town and eat crow if this happens to be the given Sunday) that the Bills will trash the Fins. Just hope that the players are taking us fans for what we are worth and minding their Ps and Qs about this one. MM really passed a great test in motivating his team after an 0-4 start (not atypical in this game with an oddly shaped ball for any rookie HC) with some nice change-ups in the redzone offense, got a good response from the team after the NE debacle which simply could have killed the team's spirit, and on the road last weekend which reversed a long record of road futility. However, the nature of the NFL and the way it seems to me to win games is to constantly ask what did you do this week. The team needs to not live in the past or in the future like us fans in order to truly become a TEAM.

Record is a better stat than QB rating, TD/INT ratio or what have you, but one should not hang your hat on it. The two game trend is undeniably that this team wins laughing with Bledsoe at the helm. It also appears quite likely that the team record with Bledsoe at the helm will show great improvement in 2004 over 2003 (6-10 to at least 8-8, probably 9-7, and maybe 10-6). However, virtually regardless of this stat, the Bills future will lie in developing JP as fast as we can. The Bills shoul start JP when he is ready and not a moment sooner or a moment later. It still seems strange to me that you would disagree with that.

You can't mean that being a proven winner at Tulane means you will are a proven winner as a pro (though from some of your "football logic" its hard to tell what you mean). What do you mean here?

Any given Sunday the NFL easily gives the Fins hoping chance and our poor record and desperate straits gives them a fighting chance. I've decided not to take this game lightly until Sunday morning when all bets are off for me and partisanship rules. I think that is fine for me as a fan, I hope the Bills team doesn't take this one lightly until after the final gun and on the plane ride home.

I think that Tim is ICE's real name. Some posters have taken this rubric as their short form for pointing out ICE's bombast when he falls into it. ICE seems to be responding to this now much like the gay community when they took the word "queer" which was hurled at them as an insult and appropriated it for their own purposes as humorous declaration of their unity. I may be wrong, but since a couple of people have asked and not been answered, this is what i think is happening.

I think the thing which isn't accepted by me and by at least some (if not many) is not the idea that Bledsoe is good (or even adequate cause there are few indicators he is besides ironically record, the Bills are clearly on a hot streak which coincides with Bledsoe being QB the last two games, does this mean that if Bledsoe finishes 10-2 over the last 12 games you are going to worship this one true stat and call for him to be our starter?) but the question over whether JP is ready to start. I think a growing number of Bills fans are making the judgment that a player MUST play to develop, but that JP can quite likely hurt his development if he starts before he is ready. This strikes me as quite logical given: 1. the strengths and limitations he has shown as a college player. 2. the injury he suffered in pre-season which may have actually been helpful to him if he used the time to focus on the OTHER things he needs to develop IN ADDITION to the fact he must play and could not with the fracture. 3. even though he could still work (or even do better work) on things he needs to work on and develop with his injury, it not only cost him game time which would be useful but also practice time which is necessary for his development because of some mechanical issues he has shown. 4. The problems showing themselves in his lack of game command and control evidenced by the delay of game and some poor ball handling by JP in the unfair (hey life isn't fair in case you hadn't noticed) NE jaunt where he was thrown to the wolves. Bledsoe sucks but JP should not start until JP is ready to start. Not a moment sooner and not a moment later.

I'd go further than calling them meaningless lumps of clay as even the color of that lump makes a difference in what you can form it into if you are trying to create something lifelike at the end. If your lumps are mostly orange you are not going to form them into some work of art that looks like a body, spleen, potted plant (you prrobably need at least some brown or green clay) that is a believable or workable replica. What folks seem to forget is that while the right clay formed in the right way may be a good indicator of the truth it is rarely if ever conclusive of the truth. Further, even the best clay (to further torture your analogy) is not the truth but at best is a replica of it. A variety of clays in the hands of a good artist can form a work of art which helps enlighten folks to see the truth. Yet, it can just as easily be applied to form some prosthesis which is either a lie or only useful because the real thing isn't available.

A lot depends on whether Losman is ready to start or not which he isn't right now (from what i can see in games he lacks command and control of the team as seen by the delay of game right off the bat in Seattle and some shoddy ball handling leading to a fumble and INT when he was thrown to the wolves in NE. These faults are typical of a rookie and by no means raise concerns with me that he is in trouble or a bust or whatever, just that he has now shown me he can start and help rather than hurt his development). My guess is that if the team goes 9-7 Bledsoe will be started next year based on the team having registered a winning record which improves on their dismal record last year. While he will not be able to claim the 10-2 record in the last 12 games he will have if we run the table, being able to cite the fact the team was 9-3 under his guidance should be enough to justify MM giving him the starting job unless JP has a lights out pre-season. The bad news for folks who do not want to see #11 running the huddle again, my guess is that even with the Bills record only improving to 8-8 and Bledsoe being able to claim an 8-4 record he probably goes into next season at worse as a co-starter with JP assuming JP shows the production to start and Bledsoe is willing to deal once again with becoming a back-up if JP is good. I think while the Bills would not be pleased to pay a back-up starter money, the thing to realize is that if JP beats out Bledsoe we will be paying our starter back-up money which is how JPs rookie contract was set-up by the Bills. I think given the Bills performance in the last two games (particularly having it come with a marginal Bledsoe performance) the answer regarding Bledsoe starting next season is get used to the idea. Unless we implode against the weak part of our schedule or JP is lights out in garbage time, Bledsoe is gonna start next year.

I think Jennings is a good player, but I wouldn't stick the tag outstanding on him. He definitely is not a liability for us in significant ways the way Fina could be, but he raises these issues for me: 1. I don't think he deserves the rep of injury prone as RJ did since he seemed to go out for multiple games with some frequency (6 games in 3+ years means almost 1+ games per year). The fact that guaranteed he is not going to be someone you can hope for to start 16 does not mean he is injury prone but does reasonably label him an injury risk. 2. It would be interesting to see his record for finishing games. It may be that folks feel leery about him with injuries because of situations like this which has occured at least once this year where he suffered a game ending injury and was at risk for not starting the next game but proved to be a quick healer. 3. He's not a Ruben Brown in terms of drawing penalties with a noticeable frequency, but he does get pernalized enough that I am no longer surprised wheh it is he who gets the call against him. With an upper tier OT, penalties do happen but I am usually surprised to see a player I consider to be at a higher level of play (such as Villarial's holding call which cost us a key first down earlier this season. Even the lambasted MW is less penalized than Jennings. Does all this mean I think Jennings is a loser who should be cut? No, not at all. Despite the you better be perfect or you should be trashed perspectives of some posters on TSW, I realize all players make mistakes (even a stud OL like Ogden got flat out beat by Schobel in the Balt game). I think Jennings is a good player. However, I do not think you play good players top tier money when there are cheaper options available that can provide the same god but less than perfect service. I see the Bills having five options at LT that do not involve paying Jennings top-tier money: 1. Move Teague back to LT where he originally planned to be. I think he held down this job well but not perfectly for Denver. However, given that he was coming off an injury, and will probably be better at the position after several years xperience running the OL at center, if we have to go this route I am more worried about being sure we have a suitable replacement at center than I am of his ability at LT. 2. See if Price can make the jump to consistent starter. He has shown he has the ability to play LT, and I think the question on him is whether he also can do a whole season. Again, I am more worried about replacing him as a back-up for two tackle positions than his ability to adequately replace Jennings. He already replaces him with no apparent downgrade. 3. See if there is a reasonable player availabel in the FA market. This is a doubtful option as FA LTs tend to be expensive. Yet, a player of the Teague circumstance was available and could be had and if forced to we should try though we may fail. 4. I am interested in giving Tucker a shot as he actually was oringinally drafted as a tackle and has played tackle as a pro. More likely it will be him that steps into the center job if we move Teague over. 5. Resign Jennings but don't break the bank for him. It will not surprise me if there really isn't a big market for Jennings as an FA and we can get him at a reasonable price. I think the injury issues are real and though others would want him he may not command the ranch and the dog. AT seems like they want him, but I am not familiar with their cap condition given whatever investment they have in Vick and having already made a large investment which has not paid off in a former Bill. Particularly since they have every good reason to assume Jennings is going to miss a game or two next year, they have to ask themselves whether he is worth further worsening their cap situation. At any rate, I see a lot of things happening before I pay through the nose for Jennings.

On this play, I just wish we had followed the advice of more intelligent football people than our coaches and switched MW to left guard, Just think, if we had someone out there with the agility to play tackle it would not merely have engulfed him as MW did, but he would have put the defender over hs knee while pulling down his pants (probably revealing panties and given the defender a spanking on national TV. Boy, I would have loved to seen that. To think we have this to big non-agile guy playing tackle for us.

I see no reason whataoever to think that this is your average teacher. Do you have any reason to believe this the norm or in fact anything but a rare case? I just see few examples of teachers boffing their 14 year old students though judging by reactions I have heard and from this board many guys wish this was the average.