BuffaloBob

They dominated the Jags, caused TO's and shut them down. Too many blown opportunties by the offense. If you let a team hang around until they are desparate and have nothing to lose but to go for it on fourth down and throw jump balls, occasionally they are going to make a play or two. Sure Clements was out-fought for that ball, but it was a great play by a wiley veteran receiver and it was a great throw to boot. And as for the TD pass, it was also a great throw and catch. The fact is, the defense should never have been in the position they were in in the first place. The most critical mistake made by the offense the entire game was the holding call on Villarial with McGahee having made the first down, It not only negated a first down, after which we would have surely forced the Jags to use their TO's and had a shot at a medium range field goal at the least. Instead, it forced us into a third and long which was not converted. That play in my mind was the turning point in the game, because that gave the Jags the ball back with two minutes, two TO's and nothing to lose but to keep throwing it up until something good could happen. Of course, the missed field goal, the poor Moorman punt prior to the last Jags drive, the Moulds fumble in the red zone and the failure to put the ball in the end zone after the Reese INT were also crucial mistakes, but clearly the holding penalty was the most eggregious and most ill-timed. I can only comfort myself with a few facts: 1) that this is an entirely new offense, new O coordinator etc, and that it will take some time for everyone to get comfortable (especially the O-line); 2) that Drew has really bought into the getting rid of the ball quickly philosophy which is critical to the Bills future success; 3) that we are truly blessed to have two good RBs so that when Travis gets hurt we still have a threat there; 4) that Lee Evans is going to be a playa (he made some nice heads-up plays); and 5) our defense is not only dominant at the LOS, but they will truly be creating TO's for us this season. Oh yeah, and Neufeld needs to sit his butt down, as he not only dropped passes that he should have caught but he missed several blocking asignments that led to losses on running plays in the backfield.

ditto!

I am sure that thre are restrictions with the TV networks regarding the showing of games on Sunday ticket. It amounts to the NFL bypassing the networks and so there have to be limitations. Otherwise, why would the networks pay so damn much money for the rights to show games. I have never seen the TV contract with the networks (it's probably the size of a small novel), but you can bet that the NFL has agreed to all kinds of things to make the networks happy about protecting their investment. And the NFL has evey incentive to do so. They like to see the cap limits and revenues going up every year and so do the players. This is not at all surprising. And BTW, if the networks and their affiliates thought they would get better ratings NOT showing the Phin/Titans game locally in Miiami and Tennessee, they wouldn't! It's totally their option.

I always liked Sammy Morris's game when he was actually playing, but he is like RJ. Always injured.

No Mularkey! Not much about the Bills in this article, but you have to like the title!

ROTFLMAO! I was at a sport's bar watching the game, so I had no control over the mute button, but I did turn around to some guy sitting next to me and asked him: "WTF did he just say?" Yeah John, it has taken away what football is really all about, which is apparently a bunch of incorrectable blown fumble calls!

Well, yes of course. If you can no longer B word because he didn't re-sign the guy, you need to B word because it was too expensive! I agree Schobel is no Kearse. He is undersized and is often blown out of running plays. BUT, I agree he has consistently improved his game every year, he is tough as nails and he is (dare I say it?) rarely injured (OK, I am furiously pounding on my wood desk LOL!). I think at the price for which we no have him locked up until he turns roughly 30, he is a good value. If he continues to improve his game as he has, he will be a bargain!

BTW, this is precisely why people with no patience also have no aptitude for being a GM. TD's patience and his negotiating tactics got us a damn good cap friendly deal here.

Actually, he was MUCH cheaper than Wistrom! Wistrom got 33 million over six years with a 14 million dollar signing bonus., which is an average of $5.5 Million per year. Schobel signed a five year extension which makes his deal 6 years for roughly $23 Million and a $6.75 Million signing bonus. That makes Schobel's deal an average of $3.8 Million per year! That is nearly 1/3 chepaer than Wistrom. Moreover, the differnce in the signing bonus is also huge in its impact. That signing bonus Wistrom got means he is an albatross on the Seahawks (oh wait a minute, is an albatross a seahawk or just a big sea bird? LOL!) at the rate of $2.33 Million per year. If he is cut even after three more years, his dead cap space is $7 Million and it might even increase the Seahawks cap hit to release him!! If for someone reason Schobel was released after three years, his dead cap space is less than half of that and we'd probably free up cap space, too! The Wistrom and Schobel deals are miles apart, not only in terms of total value but especially with regard to the nature of their impact on the cap. TD did good on this one.

Actually, this deal keeps sounding better every time I read an article on it because the amount of the deal keeps going down! The latest article on the subject states that the deal averages $3.8 Million per year over 6 years, which means that this is the total value of the deal, not just new money. Also, in my previous calculation, I only divided new money by the added years, but actually new and old money is actually spread out over 6 and not 5 years. $3.8 Million per year is extremely good value for the Bills and I think a very good value for Schobel.

I wouldn't be surprised if he was able to nail down one other guy early on either. Typically, the team does not continue to negotiate into the seaosn because it casues a distraction. Obviously, even though it was publicly stated that the deals to the the three were pulled off of the table, that at least Schobel's agent continued to quietly negotiate until a deal got done. If another reasonable deal could be done with either Pat or JJ, assuming he is not looking to jumpt to Atlanta, TD would probably take that opportunity.

I myself would have been extremely unhappy had TD paid THAT kind of money for Schobel! I think Aaron has done a nice job, but he is undersized and not particularly stout against the run. As for renegotiating his contract in 2-3 years, I doubt it. This contract seems quite reasonable on its face with average of $4.6 Million per year. Moreover, it appears with the roster bonus of $2 Million next year that the contract is hardly back-loaded as contracts have often been in the past. TD does not do backloaded deals just to squeeze a guy into the cap in the present. He typically spreads the money out fairly evenly over the entire length, which is evidenced by the fact that the average compensation for the first two years is almost $4.6 Million without consideration of the salary. The only kind of re-negotiation of this contract will come if Schobel is cut from the team in 2-3 years due to injury or poor play. With only a $6.75 Million bonus, his cap hit for this is only $1.35 Million per year. Even after just two years, he can be cut for virtually no negative cap hit! After three, the dead cap space for the following season would only be $2.7 Million! This is a VERY smart deal by TD, and very healthy for the Bills in terms of cap health for the future. I think that point is highly important to note!

So what are saying Nick? That we could have signed him for Grant Wistrom or even Jevon Kearse money and you would have been just as happy?

After the way the Red Sox demolished them this season, I would be very surprised to see Oakland make it.

Actually, this happening less now, as GMs are not back-loading contracts as they used. TD tends to deals that are fairly evenly split over the years of the contract, and he keeps the guranteed money to a minimum. Tis way, you are not trrying to re-work the deal at the end because the cap number is so much higher at the back than the front. Actually, this seems like a very reasonable deal in light of the new amount. This means that the new money averaged over 5 years is only $4.6 Million per year. Also notice that he will get just about the average comp over the first two years in the form of bonuses (i.e. $6.75 Million this year and $2 Million next year as roster bonus which averages out to about $4.35 Million per year). The rest will be minimum salaries over those two years probably. These numbers make a bit more sense to me. I was mildly surprised at the $28 Million number because I didn't think Schobel would command a real top-end price on the open market due to his size. I think this is a good deal for both sides.

You people are freakin' nuts! I can't believe you are even having this discussion it is so ridiculous! Mularkey stated that they would both play equally. Did you people not watch the preseason games? I saw only two, and in those two games I saw Denny twice play off of a block and make a tackle on a running play at or behind behind the LOS. He dropped back into coverage on a zone blitz and made a great interception, and he was in the face of Manning when Manning threw the INT to Wire. You people and your labeling of two-year players as busts belie your ignorance regarding personnel. Do you not realize that it is EXTREMELY rare that a player, even a first rounder but especially number 2's, come into the league and play with impact until they've had at least two years under their belts? You obviously were the same people declaring Bruce Smith, Marcellus Wiley, Eric Moulds, Phil Hansen (and the list could go on and on) busts also. God, this labeling of young draft choices as busts after 1 or 2 years of experience is just maddening. Jesus, why do you think Marv rarely played first and second year players? Of course, he had the luxury not to, but it gave them the time to develop physically and mentally, and to get the feel for the professional game. Denny has bulked up and has become a very solid run stuffer at LDE. But I suppose it will take two or three years of that before you people will give up this collective assessment of his supposed failure. Unbelieveable!

They were Dutch, no?

33 million over six years with a 14 million dollar signing bonus. So in view of that contract, Schobel's seems reasonable. Schobel gets $9 Million guaranteed over two years, and slightly under $6 Million per.

I think ole Jerry better play a few more years and pad those stats a bit more, or he may be borderline.........

You know (and I don't mean this personally to you LB) but why is that we cannot collectively get it through our heads that most rookies take at least two full seasons in the league to become quality starters? It is so rare that a second round pick comes in and dominates from his first game on. Why do we not remember that Bruce Smith was not even good until his third year, that we groomed Marcellus Wiley for three seasons before he made an impact. That Eric Moulds was considered a bust by many until his fourth year. The fact is Kelsay is only beginning his second year. Denney now has two years, one of which he maybe played in like 8 games. Give these guys a little time. Actually, Denney I thought had a a great preseason. In just the two games I got to watch, I saw him play solid run defense with some plays made at or behind the liine, he forced Manning into an interception (by Coy Wire) when he nearly sacked him and he even got an INT of his own dropping back into coverage on a zone blitz! Denney has come a long way, and Kelsay has a bit more to come. But they are both very solid DEs now for two guys with 3 seasons of expereince between them.

Actually, that is a great point and it does happen, as in Winfield's contract with the Vikes. They gave him what would have been his bonus as salary I believe, or at least in some form so that they could use a bunch of their cap space that they had for this year. Of course, they had a huge amount of space. Usually, the team is in the other position, where they are trying to add guys with little left in present cap space and thus the reason for making the present hit much greater in the first season. Actually, $5 million is not really all that much, especially given that TD insists on going into the season with at least $1 Million of cushion for in-season moves. And think about it, if JJ and Schobel are looking for top range conrtacts for their positions (not necessarily going to get it; JJ is oft-injured and Schobel is undersized and gets blown a lot on runs), they are looking at deals that average between $5 per year at least. So you would HAVE to back load any such contract to some extent even with $5 Million in current cap space, and this certainly NOT enough room to front-load either of them, or even Pat for that matter.

The problem is, you can't just consider the cap room available for THIS year when you are looking at deals. This is especially true if the deal is somewhat back-end loaded so that the cap hit starts out lighter and grows non-linearly. Put another way, just because the deal fits this year doesn't mean it wil so easily next year. The fact is, we are going to have some tightness in the cap next season already, so you have to be able to project the effect of deals done this year on next year's cap and beyond. There are many unknowns, such as will Drew still be with us. If not, that opens significant cap room. And then, some or all of these guys might have so-so years just as easily as spectacular years. Or they may be hurt, or the market for them may not be as string next season. While it is always nice to see if you can get some talent wrapped for the long-term early and at a discount, that discount has to be significant enough to offset the risk that for whatever reason, the market for these guys may actually be lower rather than higher next year (i.e. they get hurt, they have a so-so season, teams are just not inetersted in paying them mor than they are worth, etc.). TD tried to get one of these guys to bite early, and none of them would. They chose to roll the dice, and so is TD now.

I agree, I do not think PP will be cut now, unless the Bills really wanted the roster spot for someone else. That would be the only real motivating factor at this point that I see. In fact, I thought he was a goner until Milloy got hurt, but not because of the cap savings, but because of the roster spot. After all, what are you going to do with $1 Million (actually, it would have been more like $780,000 anyway after you count the guy who takes his place if he's a first year UDFA) in cap savings unless there is someone available at another position you would like to have instead. It is highly unlikely that $780,000 would be enough, even with what other space the Bills may currently have, to get one of our 3 free agents locked up for example, even if they were willing to negotiate during the season (which would be a distraction and which is why teams and players generally do not do it).

Well, that makes sense, because the only way you can be eligible for the PUP is if you were injured BEFORE traning camp begins AND you do not practice with the team during training camp. You can attend meetings and rehab, but that is it.

Gildon was cut because he couldn't fit into the Bills 4-3. He is too light to play DE consistently and made no difference in pass rushing situations during the preseason games. He was lost out there most of the preseason. Why is this so hard to understand? And he is too old and too expensive to keep around as a just-in-case back-up who hasn't played in a 4-3 scheme virtually his entire career. As TD rightly pointed out, he would have had a better chance to make the team had he not waited so long to sign. That would have given him and the Bills longer to find a spot for him and/or for him to figure out how to be successful in such a new role. McKenzie had also done nothing to distinguish himself this preseason. Sure he could have been a solid if not unspectacular back-up, but who do you cut instead? Smith got more touches because he was playing on the third team against third team defenses. He also was tried on returns. He fumbled repeatedly and dropped balls. He might have a future, but he is obviously raw and needs time to develop. Whom should we have cut to keep a guy on the active roster who can't hang onto the ball? ST's were great the first few games. Know why? Because the Bills played their starting ST's. Once satisfied, they began throwing lot's of other guys in for extra looks. Didn't mean squat and while Stevens was great on ST's, he was not going to be the enxt couple of linebackers in on defense. So that makes him a luxury that we didn't have, given that we had to keep three injured players on the team as it is. Perhaps had Milloy not been hurt, they might have kept him over Pierson Prioleau, but once Milloy was hurt, they had to keep him at least for now. Simonton and Shaud Williams were a toss-up. Anyway, one thing this post does not do is propose replacement cuts for these guys. Until you do that, you haven't considered the entire issue. It is a numbers game.