Luxy312

Agree 100%, but that's not what most people here are even talking about. That's what's sometimes sad about these threads. You get the completely incorrect response to the issue at hand. If this is an expected starter not showing up, I would be waiving my arms yelling. I'll leave it to the front office to deal with the money aspect of things. So question back at you. When has even a healthy Chris Williams been "solid depth". I haven't seen a shred of evidence that he can play that part even if he does show up.

I think it did account for something. I think personally, that that's why he only got a game. Dareus has to be smart about however he approaches his appeal. He still has to deal with the drag racing issue and if he decides to fight hard on this one, could get the hammer dropped on him for the next. If I were an agent to any NFL player, I would tell them emphatically to PUT DOWN THE WEED. You're just being a moron and jeopardizing a multi-million dollar career to do so. Stop being stupid.

I'm not sure why I care about Chris Williams and why this would even be news. He didn't play at a starting caliber last year and got hurt. John Miller and Richie Incognito appear most likely to be starters at Guard and at least thus far DO appear to be starting caliber players. If he doesn't want to show up, then he can pretty much guarantee he's not going to start. He'll be lucky to be a backup, but do we care so much about backups?

I have a couple of observations. First, Geno improved dramatically last year from his first year. QB rating up, sacks taken down and TD/INT ratio got better. Sure they drafted Bryce Petty in the 4th round, but why on Earth would anyone think there needs to be an open competition to see who starts? Fitzpatrick is a known commodity and nothing better than a backup. Chan will be great for Petty and Geno's development, but Geno should be the starter. I've said this before and about Manuel as well. You don't draft a guy in the first round, start him out of the box and then bench him. It is beyond stupid and only slows the growth of the quarterback. I think it's a great move for the Jets to give all the first team reps to Geno and see what he can do. If he turns in another year like last (which was far from great mind you) or doesn't really improve a lot, they can move on with Petty next year.

This is playing out pretty much exactly how anyone with two brain cells to rub together would expect. Year 1 he gets hurt. Shows some signs when he does play that he might be able to be the guy. Year 2, he doesn't really progress and maybe even regresses a little bit and gets benched. Year 3, his butt is on the line, and as it should be. I'll even add that that should be the case especially if he can't even get his stuff together in camp/practice. That's what we're talking about here. Sorry to say it, but first round draft pick quarterbacks should not be sitting on the bench holding a clip board in their third season. I wanted Manuel to succeed. I thought it was a mistake to bench him last season. However, if he just doesn't get it at this point, I want the team to move on. In terms of Tyrod Taylor, he's been in the NFL for 4 years. If he was really going to break out and be a starter or show starter potential, he would have. When you start talking Cassel, McCown, Orton or any other journeyman cast off, you've lost me. I would prefer they just draft another guy next year.

Absolutely not. For me it comes down to the message that you are sending to younger folks. Are you going to tell your son or daughter that as long as you win, it's OK to skirt the rules. Where do you draw the line? Is it OK for a pass rusher to purposely go at the knees of the quarterback to get them out of the game? Is it OK to head hunt a receiver that's tearing your team up? Was it OK for Tonya Harding to hire someone to hit Nancy Kerrigan in the knee so she had a better chance at winning the gold? I personally think that's a slippery slope, and a morally unacceptable one at that.

He waived representation, but that's not a waiver of his rights and protections afforded by the agreement. I think it was AP that got his reduced first, and then later Rice was reinstated. Different issue though when you start talking about potential criminal behavior off the field versus cheating in the game.

“I didn’t know who Jim McNally was so I find it hard to believe I could bring that up.” http://deadspin.com/tom-brady-threw-those-poor-ball-deflating-jamokes-under-1702608069

In a nutshell, this. I don't understand why the NFL is essentially awarding a player for being non-compliant with an investigation. They offered him 100% assurance that any non-football related emails or texts would not be shared with the public. I tend to agree with you. Suspend him indefinitely until he complies. The exception here of course is that if that's in violation of the NFLPA. The commissioner has broad powers to enforce a lot of rules, but doesn't have such complete power as to violate that.

I don't get the fervent support for the Patriots and Brady either. At the end of the day, they were caught cheating AFTER winning 3 Superbowls in the past. Evidence wasn't shared with anyone and was simply destroyed. That made no sense. Now you got more cheating and lying about it going into last years Superbowl win. Fans can say that it didn't give them a competitive advantage. Fans can say that it doesn't affect the outcome of the game. All of that IMO is irrelevant and simply conjecture. The Patriots knowingly cheated with the intent of gaining a competitive advantage, whether one actually existed or not. Tom Brady in all likelihood LIED about his knowledge of it. The only defense for the Patriots is that the report is factually incorrect, and that the Patriots didn't take their game balls and deflate them, while leaving their opponents alone. The only defense for Brady is that he not once, not ever told McNally that the balls he was using were over inflated or that he wanted them to be softer. Of course, both of these defenses are utterly ridiculous. This team has broken or bent the rules over and over again with the explicit intent of gaining an edge. Any attempted defense or excuse just makes someone appear to be a homer with rose colored glasses.

Once a cheater, always a cheater!

No. Proration of bonus is only for cap purposes. He's already been paid his bonus up front. The only way the team could possibly recoup some of that is a situation like Hernandez. Even then it's difficult.

I'm not sure exactly how to answer that. The only reason that I can think of for Brady to NOT provide his texts/emails is if there's correspondence with someone outside of the NFL about this issue. If I'm in Brady's shoes, the only way I say "no" to the request for text/email is if I think there's something in there to make the situation even worse than it already is. What if, for example, he texts Giselle that he's coming home late because he needs to sign balls for McNally because he did him a favor? What if that type of message just happens to coincide with what they already have McNally texting to Yestremski about? We could speculate all day on what the content is that Brady doesn't want the NFL to see, but we'll never know unless he puts it out there. This is no different than Spygate and the NFL destroying the tapes. To boot, he could have his attorney redact it. If either the content of the email/text or the recipient of the email/text is NFL related, it gets produced. If not, it doesn't. I work in litigation consulting for a living and can tell you in 25 years that I've never seen a flat "no" to production of correspondence. Redacted for relevance? Sure. All the time.

I completely forgot about Payton. Plausible deniability had no bearing in that situation. Excellent reminder!

At least 2 and no more than 4, so I voted for two answers.

Well let's see. McNally referred to himself in a text as "the deflater" and said he's "not going to ESPN....yet" to Yastremski. He further tells him to "put a couple extra pig skins for Tom to sign". There's a whole bunch of messages that refer to a deal being made where Brady gets deflated balls in exchange for signed footballs and shoes. I haven't seen the whole report yet to read it, but there's pretty damning evidence.

Excellent article and Goodell hits the proverbial nail on the head. It doesn't matter whether it gave the Patriots a competitive advantage or not. The NFL has rules and those rules were broken. I would not be terribly shocked if hoodie is gone for 8 games in additional to Brady being gone for 2 or possibly 4.

My analogy would be a breathalyzer. You refuse to take the test (in this case Brady's refusal to provide text/email) and you're guilty. Let his attorneys redact it. Anything not directly related to the NFL is out. At the end of the day, the NFL already has access to the text/email of coaching staff, other front office personnel, and other players. Sounds like there's a smoking gun here that lady quarterback doesn't want people to see.

OK, So I went ahead and did a second one. Walter Football seems way way off. 50: R2P18 DT CARL DAVIS IOWA Carl Davis visited with the team. Given that 12 of the last 12 first picks in the draft visited the team, I went with the highest rated player still on the board that visited with the Bills. 81: R3P17 OG ALI MARPET HOBART I would have loved for them to take Laken Tomlinson first as he's the #1 rated guard on most boards and at a position of serious need. Marpet is still top 2-3, so for me would be a logical choice with their next pick. 155: R5P19 RB KARLOS WILLIAMS FLORIDA STATE Another guy that visited with them is Karlos Williams. I am not sure why given the pickup of McCoy and the fact that we still have 3 other backs that can run the ball and now Shelton. I have to assume that he visited with them for a reason none the less. 188: R6P12 FS GEROD HOLLIMAN LOUISVILLE What's not to like here with a ball hawking safety? He's not a huge hitter, but if the Bills are looking to generate turnovers, he would be a solid selection at #188. 194: R6P18 OT SEAN HICKEY SYRACUSE 234: R7P17 CB QUANDRE DIGGS TEXAS Depth and depth at 194 and 234.

The OP could be onto something here. Let's not forget that out of the Bills 12 visits (very low for the 30 they COULD have had), 2 were guys projected to go mid to late in the first round. Byron Jones (CB/S) and Nelson Agholor (WR). They met with Agholor before the Harvin acquisition, so that would leave me believing in a potential move back for Jones. None the less, I don't see that as being a priority need. Will be interesting.

50: R2P18 CB BYRON JONES CONNECTICUT 81: R3P17 QB BRYCE PETTY BAYLOR 155: R5P19 G MARK GLOWINSKI WEST VIRGINIA 188: R6P12 DT COREY CRAWFORD CLEMSON 194: R6P18 OT AUSTIN SHEPHERD ALABAMA 234: R7P17 ILB TREY DEPRIEST ALABAMA For what it's worth here, I don't think this is how the draft should be but how I think it will be. The first pick was pretty easy really. Out of their 12 visits, 2 were cornerbacks, including Byron Jones. Given that he's top-20 value on some boards, I don't know how they pass on him at the 50th pick. I hate the Bryce Petty pick. Don't think he'll amount to anything in the NFL, but they also visited 2 QB's. Can't see them passing on another guy on their board. At 155, I recognized the need for another guard. Glowinski can probably play some tackle as well, so there's flexibility there to shift some things around. Shepherd and Depriest were simply depth picks.

If it comes down to losing Dareus or Gilmore, I would prefer to lose Gilmore. Dareus may be the top player at his position in the NFL. We've seen what a huge impact it has when he's not on the field (ala the Oakland game last year). Gilmore is replaceable.

I don't disagree with you at all. What concerns me here is that arguably only 3-4 out of the 12 they talked to would even be 50th pick value. Maybe when you get to that point, there's just so many guys at each position that kind of look the same that you don't even bother? It's a little baffling.

I posted this in another thread because I thought it was interesting. For 12 years straight, the Bills have visited and/or worked out the player they selected with their first pick in the draft. Most years, they visited and/or worked out around the limit of 30 players. This year, they've only had 12. The top-6 along with CBS Sportsline's ranking of them include: Byron Jones (CB/S) - 20 Nelson Agholor (WR) - 34 Carl Davis (DT/DE) - 53 Nate Orchard (LB/DE) - 69 Bryce Petty (QB) - 73 Garrett Grayson (QB) - 95 I'm not saying they will take one of those 6 guys, but think that it's interesting to look back and see how these things play out. Most of their "first picks" are obviously first rounders too, so this year is a bit different.

If I were the Bills picking #6, I would sit tight based on their needs right now. In order to speculate on any package deal that would theoretically involve moving up for Mariota, you would first have to assume that they didn't go out and get Matt Cassel and that they didn't also go out and get Tyrod Taylor. Given those facts, I sit at #6. Heck, even if you assume that they didn't get those guys I would sit. Here's my logic and you can agree or disagree. First, you assume that both Winston and Mariota are gone before your pick. They're consensus top-3 picks in the draft and there's no reason that they shouldn't be gone. With all the speculation going on right now, someone could even trade up to get them. Leonard Williams (DT) is the #1 value on many boards and would fill needs for multiple teams picking 1-5. No question that he should be gone as well. Amari Cooper and Kevin White have been indicated to be the most NFL ready receivers in the draft. One or both of them should be picked before #6. That would leave the Bills with the choice of either Dante Fowler or Vic Beasley (OLBs) where the Bills lack depth. Easy to pick either of those guys IMO.