RuntheDamnBall

4) Stevie is hurting the team. 6) I think one can't expect more of a rookie EJ than we are getting. He is promising as delivered (raw tools, physical specimen, lots to learn) - while also providing what the team needs when it counts. It is a crying shame that our "#1" receiver and TE cannot help him out. 9) interesting to me, and I'll look out for it. 14) Gosh, I think about throwing in the towel sometimes, and it's perspectives like yours - though we don't always agree - that keep me coming back.

2 intermediate routes for big gains and fumbles. Just sayin'.

Anyone who thinks that Chandler is good enough, after today, is absolutely delusional. The guy gets by on having better speed and hands than Lee Smith, which is kind of like setting the bar about knee-high.

If there's a one-loss team in the national championship game, why shouldn't it be Auburn? Their 1 loss was to a top 6 team earlier in the season, on the road. And they beat 'Bama.

Hey c'mon, the five yard line is just sticking out there like that. Could happen to anybody.

I prefer Small Business Saturday. BTW, retail prices tend to be lowest in the second week of December, but don't let that get in the way of your "family time" shopping together for sh-- from China. I had dinner, played with my daughter, watched football. There are plenty of other days in the year for working your ass off and spending your money.

OH THE HUMANITY. And... scene

I think the likelihood that you have 5 terrible O-Linemen is pretty low in the NFL. You'd have to have a complete failure of talent evaluation to have no capable performers on the line. The greater likelihood, if they are all playing poorly as a unit, is that they are being poorly coached as a unit. So, to answer your question - you take the QB every time, and then you start to figure out which pieces need to go and which ones need to stay, right away. This includes evaluating the OL coach, and certainly making some in-season roster moves. One thing I am happy about with this Bills' regime is that they are not content with decent performance and will certainly not let bums ride out the season. They keep kicking the tires on other guys, PS guys, and swapping different depth players in and out to see where they can improve. Luckily health has meant that LG has been the only position that one could consistently characterize as "upgradable." If I had to run down the positions in order of "instability," I'd say it's 1) LG / LeGursky (yes, I meant to do that) 2) RT / Pears (Hairston should have been able to challenge him) 3) RG / Urbik (capable, not All Pro caliber, would be awesome if he could become depth at the position) 4) (tie) Glenn/Wood -- I think these are the two lynchpins of the line. If a clear upgrade came at LT, you'd take it, but they are solid at the position. I don't think we've seen Wood's ceiling yet, but this is (knock on...) the first full healthy season we've seen from the guy. It would be nice if he and Manuel as a battery can really begin to dictate what happens on offense as they gain more experience together. PS - a killer TE would make everyone look better. He who cannot be covered can often save the day.

Hence the point: it's gonna be a lot harder to find the premier guys in the mid rounds.

How could I not forget him?

Can we all just agree that Bon Jovi is a no-talent ass-clown as far as music goes? He is good at making money, though.

I think the point is that everyone is seeing what these kinds of players do for their offenses, thus they'll be "overdrafted" the way QBs are. I don't think that's far off-base. It's not like good TEs won't be found in R3/4, just that it will be more difficult. Again, you trot out Cameron and Hernandez, I'll bring up Derek Fine and Tim Euhus among many, many other failed prospects from the mid-rounds.

I don't take issue with that. I just think that it's highly unlikely in this environment, where TEs have become so integral to good offenses, that we're going to find a guy in the 3rd or 4th. For every Cameron or Thomas there are a dozen Tim Euhus or Derek Fines. Unless there are some concerns, of course. Now, is there a guy whose concerns can be dealt with (he can be coached up, his inexperience is outweighed by his talent, etc etc). Not to be lost on anyone: Cameron is an interesting case -- but Thomas, Gronk, Graham all have elite QBs throwing to them. If we want an elite TE, I wouldn't expect him to last to the third, even though it's a possibility. With TEs, talent deployed well becomes hard to stop. The question, when they aren't performing, becomes - is it the talent, or is it the scheme? I would like to see the TEs used more in our passing game, but I don't think we've had the kind of talented TE that I'm looking for. As for the other notes, when I say they "come on early," I look at a season like Graham's first, where he can be depended on for 11+ YPC, and 5 TDs. Witten still had 30+ receptions in his first year. So did Pettigrew. Gragg hasn't come anywhere close, and it doesn't look like the team has trusted him enough - yet. I'd love to see more from him, don't get me wrong.

Fair enough, but generally the TEs who are going to be stars come out pretty strong - because they get open and catch the ball, and function as that safety valve for the QB. Gragg hasn't really shown much capacity for any of this during crunch time - yet. The other side of the coin says that there is a reason Gragg was a 7th rounder, and you can only expect so much from those picks. That we have one that could be characterized at LEAST as a very good #2 in SJ13 is good fortune enough.

Agreed. It was basically a market inefficiency that teams were able to exploit for awhile. Other teams found gold in rolling the dice on injury concerns (Gronk) or character (Hernandez). Graham only played a year of college football after playing basketball and went in the third. I guess there is your other gamble that you might still be able to make -- draft a guy light on experience and long on talent, who might have been excelling at another sport or in JuCo/another division. But now everyone is on notice to find these guys that are hard to cover and easy to throw to.

Chandler is a bit too slow and his hands aren't nearly as good. Too many easy drops and too rarely does he get much YAC. He is a top-20 TE, but really but a guy you'd love to have being your 2nd TE.

I think the thing that the people who are really enthusiastic about a Toronto NFL franchise don't realize is how hard it is to build a successful team that isn't an NHL property in Toronto. People will support the Leafs even when they are terrible (in a way, like we do with the Bills). The Blue Jays have had competitive teams and still have trouble filling 54,000 seats (which, granted, is a lot for baseball and its 81 home games). This is with a long history in the city including two championships. Guaranteeing sellouts at the prices they have been charging would be supremely difficult. Toronto is a super-cosmopolitan city with lots to do with your dollar/ loonie -- sort of a similar problem to that of LA. Planting a new franchise down in the city, even one with a regional history, is not the surefire success or moneymaker that it seems on the surface. Fans will only support a team there if it is a winner, and that's going to require a bunch of money on top of the investment made to purchase and relocate the team.

This is debatable.

I think finishing this year out at 8-8 would tell me that they just had some bad luck with injuries and should be in the conversation for the playoffs next year. Doing worse would be cause for concern, especially if EJ doesn't perform solidly. Doing better... seems like a pipe dream at this point, because it would involve running the table.

That's right, Rogers invested in MLSE last year, right? The NFL viewing this as the same "region" would be key, as owners who run other franchises in Toronto couldn't by rule own the Bills unless the league considered it the same "region." This doesn't assuage any fans' worries that they were drawing up the blueprint for a move to Toronto all along.

Maybe the original members of Styx can put together a bid and exceed JBJ's offer. Kip Winger and Michael Bolton can be minority partners.

AJ, have you ever thought about starting smoking?

I'm going to bet with their 18 billion in assets that Rogers has deeper pockets. Now, they are a company with a lot of divisions and sports is a very small part of that, but they have the deepest pockets. MLSE is not so diverse and is worth considerably less... a couple billion. I am not sure about the people behind them, though.

That or... you have more of a life.

Well, I said I imagine. But I had completely forgotten about Rocawear and a few of the endorsements. The man does know how to make bank. I stand corrected. I was thinking purely based on music industry numbers.