Luxy312

Looking back on the year last year, I think Mario will be more successful this year. Let's not forget that he played injured for the first half of the season and still managed to put up 11.5 sacks. Bruce Smith in his wonder years was a 13-14 sack a season guy and only hit 19 one year. In hindsight, I think he may have put up one of the most quiet 11.5 sack seasons that we've ever seen. Many labeled him a bust, but I think that stems from how bad the run defense was. At the end of the day, there's not 4 guys that you can put on a defensive line that will be great at stopping the run without the support of good linebacker play. The Bills definitely lacked on that front. I'm looking forward to what Mario can do this year.

When you show up to a courtroom with the intent of making a plea bargain, you don't act "playful". It's disrespectful to the judge and just shows that CJ thought he was above it all. Let's be fair here too. There was no deal accepted and then somehow taken away. His attorney was requesting the plea deal from the judge that would have kept him out of jail. He got 30 days, but could have gotten as many as a YEAR. I would say if anything, that he was lucky she didn't throw the book at him. Her anger and comments may have been an overreaction, but her sentence clearly was not.

100% on board. Too many times people jump on these threads about "try this guy" or "sign that guy". Do we really need someone taking up a roster spot that will barely see the field? There's plenty of guys out there that might be great in another system, but wouldn't fit for what this team is trying to do.

OK, so your opinion trumps comments that came directly from Marrone that said that would be the case? That's quite laughable at best.

While I don't dislike Vona Leach, I don't see the Bills going in this direction. Right now, they're talking about having Freddy and CJ on the field much of the time and at the same time. In that type of setup, there's very little use for a blocking fullback, regardless of how good of a blocker he is. Besides that point, Leach would probably come with a decent price tag. If they're not going with more of a single back system and a fullback blocker, it really wouldn't seem to make sense.

This in a nutshell. Think about it from this perspective. If the Bills had any notion in their minds that someone would have picked E.J. ahead of them AND had no intention of drafting any other quarterback in the first round, then what they did with Jackson makes complete sense. In terms of Marrone, we'll never know how much of a hand he had in making picks in the draft. But, there's ZERO doubt that he would have been asked for his opinion and been intimately involved with determining what the draft board would have looked like. There's not a GM in the NFL that just tells the HC that they're going to draft whoever they want and that they're just going to have to work with what they get. This is particularly true when you're talking about a new HC and new offensive and defensive systems that require certain types of players to be successful. We have the benefit of judging the intelligence of moves with hindsight. I'm pretty sure that most GM's in the NFL are bright guys that take in a boatload of information before making decisions.

The title of this thread makes this issue into something that it is not. Byrd is a restricted free agent, and not under contract. He's not skipping anything. In fact the NFL rules would prohibit him from participating in OTA's even if he wanted to. Let's see where we are on July 28th when training camp is scheduled to open, before we blow a gasket in early June. Until he either signs his tender or signs a new contract with the team, he CANNOT attend any of the mini-camps or anything else. He's not skipping anything, so much as he's prohibited.

For any of those that are fans of Tarvaris Jackson, I'm sorry to say that this is great for the Bills. What did we have on the roster before? Fitzpatrick, Jackson, Thigpen. Now we have a complete overhaul in Kolb, Manuel and Tuel. The position has been completely overhauled and Maronne and the offense has no excuses going into this season. I'm a huge fan of being out with the old and in with the new.

I've always thought of the Patriots as a smart organization, despite the fact that I've hated seeing Buffalo lose to them over and over again over the years. That said, this move makes very little sense to me. Mallett isn't suddenly going to be relegated to third string, which means that at best, that's where Tebow will be. BB is not a "gadget" coach, which is all that Tebow represents. Unless BB convinces him that he could have a role playing other positions, I don't see it.

Money isn't relative and not even part of the question. This isn't about who's valuable relative to their contract. That said, Spiller on offense. He's such a dynamic runner and a threat to go house on every touch. On defense, I'll go against conventional wisdom and say Gilmore. He asked and was allowed to guard the #1 receiver on every play last year and did an excellent job. He's only going to continue to get better with experience. I think Mario can be that guy, but took plays off last year. Dareus is in the discussion if he can get his head straight.

While it's interesting to compare players of different era's, it's impossible to really say who's better when you're talking about the best of the best. You might be able to have constructive conversation if there were even a remote crossover of when they played. Here, we're talking about guys so far apart with rules changes that materially affected how one could play the game that it's virtually impossible to say. As far as the comment about Tyson being like Frazier, that is so far off that it's not even funny. Same size guys? Sure. The comparison stops there. Tyson was blindingly fast (pre-prison Tyson that is) and powerful. Frazier was powerful, but plodding at best.

I'm not sure I would call him a bust yet. In his rookie season with little help (Kyle Williams injured), he led the team with 5.5 sacks from the DT position in a 4-3 defense. That was a team that only had 28 sacks for the entire season. Last year, I didn't see what I wanted or expected from him, but losing his brother had to be a big deal. I think we're going to see something special this season.

So glad this guy isn't a Bill any more. Some really wanted him to stay when he was holding out, but I had a feeling he was just playing for his contract. One good year and that's it. Good riddance.

Seriously? Well, maybe you didn't live in WNY back in the 1990's, but him and a number of other Bills favorites back in the day could be found out boozing most Friday nights at some of the local haunts. They were pretty big drinkers.

It's an interesting article no doubt. If I had to cast a vote however, I would have to go with the Browns. Here's why. There's not a division winning team that has won their division outright more than the Patriots over the last 10 seasons. Unless the Bills smoke the Patriots right out of the gate in week 1, there's little chance that anyone would convince me that they're not going to win it again. Denver had the best record in the AFC East and should have been playing in the Superbowl, but for a botched play. I don't see the Chiefs over taking them any time soon. Jacksonville is probably a close second for me behind the Browns, but they still have to get by a team with a mean defense and the best running back in the NFL in Arian Foster. Choosing the Browns was simple for me. The Ravens only won their division by a tiebreaker with Cincinnati. Cleveland beat them a game last year and nearly upset the Ravens on the road. In order, I would go Cleveland, Jacksonville, Kansas City, Buffalo.

Most NFL coaches would disagree with you. I'm going with them over an armchair quarterback.

Definitely need to stop the run, but I would add that they also need to shut down third and long plays. I remember countless plays last year where they got a team to 3rd and 6 or 3rd and 7, and low and behold, the other team picks up the first down and moves the chains. These two things will determine whether they have a chance in ballgames this season. I'm really not worried about the offense. Fitzpatrick took too many chances and caused too many turnovers. That is the #1 statistic you can pull out of a game and predict the outcome. -2 in turnovers and historically teams only win 5% of the time. -3 and it drops to just over 1%. It's ridiculously predictive when you get to 2 or more for or against you.

If that's Sanchez "at his best", that's not very good at all. I give the kudos to the performance of the Jets DST in many of those games as well as the running game. That's what carried the team and not the "Sanchize". We'll see how well the team does without Revis and some of the other pieces they've lost this last year.

Hold on regarding Graham though. Of all of the rookie WR's last year, he had more dropped passes than anyone. He's a track star,but has hands of stone. If he can't get that under control, then he's not going to amount to anything. I'm pretty sure that's why we took two WR's in the first 4 picks in the draft and then picked up two more in free agency. Vote of no-confidence by the front office.

As much as I like Chuck Norris, he's a football idiot. Go back and look at the "games that Tebow won" in Denver, and you'll see an inspired Broncos defense keeping the team in the hunt until the offense could finally score. You will see futile 3 and outs over and over again, with Tebow missing wildly on passing plays less than 10 yards. Chuck Norris may like Tim Tebow and he probably wrote what he did because he wants him to have a chance. None the less, Tebow is just too horrible as an NFL quarterback to work out for anyone. That doesn't take away from his college career at all or his success at that level.

Nope. Teams covet players from teams that have demonstrated success at given positions. The Bills have a lot of TBD's right now. Hopeful? Sure, but hopeful doesn't have other teams licking their chops waiting for roster cuts.

Going after Alpha-dunce a little? LOL.

It's not feelings but facts. He's only been on the field for a few plays each game. He's not a regular starter and never has been. He hasn't made a lot of plays, in fact significantly less than the other regular starters. There's nothing that supports the point that he's one of the best players. If you have any facts to offer, feel free to present them. You watching the game is not a fact any more than me watching the game is a fact. Your facts don't exist. Good luck with that.

From local Chicago media, that's about right. It wasn't just the Bears either. Every time a mic was put in front of Brian, he was talking about the front office and how they're not being fair, etc.

Excellent point.