BuffaloRebound

Agree with this. Anyone who watched the 2009 season knew Fitzpatrick was the better QB than Edwards and Freddie was a better RB than Lynch. Instead we pissed away the beginning of the season on the higher drafted players. Putting Moats back at Inside LB where he was horrible just because he doesn't have prototypical size is along those same lines. Moats can get after the QB and the Bills' roster isn't exactly over-flowing with pass rushers.

Hard to come up with any reasonable explanation other than Ralph banking some of his $700m+ capital gain.

Would love to see the Bills on Hard Knocks, but I highly doubt Ralph would agree to this unless he has major veto power on what makes the cutting room floor. Can't imagine he wants everyone to see behind the curtains of his losing organization.

He could target any team and do that. Would have to be pretty sadistic to target his hometown team, specifically mention his affinity for the Bills, and also say it wouldn't be a great investment.

Why would a person with Buffalo ties buy the Bills and move them? Interesting that this is coming out now. Maybe Ralph doesn't think he has much time left and is getting the word out.

Pretty indefensible move by Ralph and not sure how anyone can defend him on this. I could understand if the lockout was in month 9 and games were lost, but month 2? What revenues have the Bills lost?

I agree with what you are saying, but one more factoid to consider is that the long term capital gains rate was set to go up to 20% from 15% in 2011 until Obama extended the lower rate in December 2010 until 2012.

It certainly beats knowing that you were drafted higher than you should have been and holding out for every last penny because you know you won't be getting that chance again.

Rock on Ralph! Keep selling home games to Toronto, putting a garbage product on the field, and by no means don't do anything to re-assure fans the team will stay in Buffalo after you are gone. You've only made over a billion dollars on your $25k investment by keeping the team in lowly Buffalo. You rock and you clearly don't care about the money.

Forbes' numbers are nothing but 'guess-timations'. Individual NFL teams guard their numbers very closely as evidenced by the players insistence that they see audited financials for each team. Spending under the cap is a positive cash flow if you assume every team has $143m as an expense. What other expenses does Ralph have besides payroll? Tv money covers player salaries, plus bonus money is increasingly being paid out in multiple years across the League. On top of that, giving big money to free agents is almost always a losing strategy. If cash flow was a problem for Ralph, he'd be crying poor a heck of a lot more than he already does.

Don't really understand the Cash Flow argument. If anything, teams like the Bills who spend under the cap have more cash flows than operating income and teams like the Cowboys who invest in billion dollar stadiums have more operating income than cash flows.

The only advantage is that Jones and Snyder can line their pockets more. There are plenty of guys like a Kyle Williams that would rather play in a low-key, blue-collar city instead of NYC, DC and Dallas. Hard to argue that Ralph's main focus the last 10+ years hasn't been increasing the bottom line instead of putting a winner on the field... putting a marketing guy in charge, selling a home game to Toronto.

Heirs' tax basis becomes the market value at time of Ralph's death, instead of Ralph's tax basis of $25k. Ralph's heirs would avoid paying 15% capital gains on the sale price less $25k, saving approximately $150m.

If the Bills moving to Toronto means more money for Jones, Snyder and the rest of the corporate d-bag owners, there's probably not much that could stop it. Who would've thought there'd be a lockout when the League is doing better than it ever has?

Not sure I'd be too excited handing a $6-7m per year contract to someone who's dumb/immature enough to argue with fans on a social media site.

Think it is more a statement on the lack of NFL scouting/personnel connections Ralph, Marv, and Brandon had. After Donahoe, Ralph rightly or wrongly became paranoid and wasn't going to hire someone he didn't know. Ralph also knew Nix, but Nix seems to know a lot of people in the football world and have good connections unlike Brandon and Marv.

Seems like this is similar to all the Tebow talk last year. If the Bills truly wanted Tebow last year and want Ponder this year, they'd have to be the dumbest front office in existence for letting that info become common knowledge.

Didn't realize Taibbi knew football that well. Absolutely hilarious. Best part was comment about the crappy teams wasting picks on medical/character risks and 3rd round QB's and then the good teams picking at the bottom of the first getting all the solid guys who will play for 10 years. So true.

Pretty sure that is consistent with what everyone is saying. Newton, Dareus, or Miller, probably in that order. Don't think Gabbert is relevant to your story.

Worked out pretty well for Jimbo, who by the way I loved as our QB. Most of the guys in NFL locker-rooms are basically paid mercenaries. As long as he is driven to be the best, personality faults can be over-come.

Unlike most here, I'd be pretty pumped about getting Newton. Thought he came across as phony on the Gruden special, but the best players aren't usually the best guys. There's enough people doubting him out there and if he falls to #3 at this point, I think he'd have a nice chip on his shoulder.

Brady isn't getting any younger. If they don't win another title, people will look back and say the Pats were stupid for constantly stock-piling future picks and not giving Brady more help. It totally goes against the Pats nature, but if they did offer #17, #28, and #33 for #3, I'd definitely take it. Bills have tons of needs and this could speed up the rebuilding process by at least a year.

This guy says production is the most important thing and that you shouldn't make excuses for lack of production, and then turns around and does exactly that with Locker.

Newton came across as a phony. Seemed like he tried to BS and smile his way through the interview. In the end though it doesn't really matter if he tears it up on the field. Probably a good kid at heart, but I wouldn't want Mallett as the face of my franchise. Seems like a fragile dude. Locker and Mallett seemed like stand-up guys who took criticism well. Locker didn't come across as the sharpest knife. Hard to get a read on Gabbert.

Gailey and Nix don't seem like guys who do much bluffing. Bills haven't been linked to Mallett and Gailey always talks about the game changing towards mobile QB's. Problem is that everyone knows the Bills like Ponder and similar to Tebow last year, it will probably cause someone who also likes him to panic and take him higher than he would've gone. If not Ponder, then I think the other QB the Bills might make a move for is Locker.