Casey D

And it reports the price at $1.1 billion

Oops, my bad...

According to Forbes-- highest price ever for an NFL franchise.

No explanation from refs at the time. Marrone said they told him that after further reflection, they did not think the hold (or whatever you call it) warranted a penalty.

Exactly. There is this great dysfunction. It would be the end of the world if we lose the Bills, but the Bills will always lose and beside football kills people. I am not saying you can't be critical, or that injury issues should not discussed. But it's opening day. Seriously, if football is so dangerous that it creates suicidal drug addicts, perhaps the sport should be banned like rooster fighting. I mean the fact that people choose to play despite the risks I guess is beside the point, everyone is a victim. I mean if opening day has to be depressing and focused on the negative, what's the effing point of watching NFL football at all. We would all be served if the Bills left and the NFL was banned.

Lol. Like you avatar

It's great getting in the mode for opening day. Bucky's got a long article on NFL players and drug addiction and life expectancy being 54 years for NFL players. Sullivan has Marrone getting fired early in the season because the Bills are imploding. Stories are OK I guess, but I question the timing. It is all so depressing perhaps we should ban football, at least in Buffalo. I think I need to go take my medication... :-)

He's a television personality, not an investigative journalist. He's an entertainer. It appears all he did was after the fact repackage abunch of old reports and added some questionable facts-- like about monos. Do you think he left Baltimore to investigate this? He entertains, if he's wrong so what. He's not shooting for a Puilitzer

Stature??? We're not talking about Woodward and Bernstein here.

No, watching at home on the Ticket.

I live in Bethesda. I totally agree with your views on the Redskins and their fans. I love it when they lose. Baltimore is OK by me. But the only team that matters is the Bills. They are like a bad addiction that consumes you and is not good for your health-- but you are addicted so short of rehab there is nothing you can do.

I did exactly what you did and had the same reaction. If the line cannot block on a running play-- which happened almost every time-- then how is that the QB's fault? As a young QB, EJ needs the team around him to be good and productive. Russell Wilson is exactly in that situation. He's not great at all, but with a killer defense and great running game, he does not have to do too much and can play within himself. No young QB can carry a team on his back, look at RG III. The rest of the team has to be better so EJ does not have to do so much. Without that, he will suck and fail.

Absolutely

Training Camp. He played Dallas to release him by faking retirement. By signing w/ Bills, he skipped TC and gets to keep his Dallas bonus too. If he retired, he'd have to give some of bonus back. He signed a 3 year $10.5 M deal in 2012... smart guy. He kind of Byrded the Cowboys

Under recent rule changes, an NFL owner can own another sports team if the sports team is in the same market or is in a market without an NFL team. Thus Paul Allen can own the Seahawks and the Trailblazers. So Pegula can own both the Bills and the Sabres because they are in the same market. Can own the Leafs and Bills too.

There is nothing wrong about how you feel about things, but markets are made objectively not subjectively. Taking your position to an extreme, we could forfeit all our picks for the next 3 years in return for 5 first round picks in 2017. That might get us closer to a Super bowl someday, but the team will suck for several years, with no guarantee of anything down the line. I mean what is 1st round pick in 2025 worth? Objectively, nothing, even though in 2025 it will be worth something I suppose, and you might value it as a long term benefit as it might one day get the Bills to win a SB. Money that is owed to you beyond 7 years from now has basically no present value, but in 10 years I guess it will be worth something. Deferring things is fine, but too far and it's essentially worthless. No one knows whether Watkins will prove more valuable in terms of winning a Super Bowl, as opposed to having say Ebron and two guys from next year. If you knew not taking Watkins will get you to the promised land sooner as you opine, you would not take Watkins-- it's a no-brainer. But no one knows that. I generally share your view that getting as many picks as possible is a better long term strategy, but for every rule there is an exception. If you think Watkins really will get you over the hump, you do it. That's a judgment call, no right or wrong to it... CD Watkins was the highest rated player on the Bills'-- and apparently several other team's-- board. Getting the best player in the draft is bold-- they were not going to trade up to get anyone other than Watkins and Clowney. Makes perfect sense.

So would you give up the 2nd round pick today for say Detroit's 1st round pick in 2017? Why not? Because you get the player this year for 3 years before you even get the 2017 pick? There is plainly a time value here. Why did Buffalo say no to throwing in the 4th round pick this year, and Cleveland reject the Bills' 4th round pick in 2016 to make this deal? They settle on 2015. Again, there is a time value here, which does not apply only to money. Not really hard to understand.

It really depends on how good Whaley and company are at player evaluation. Without breaking the bank on one guy--and even then it usually does not work well-- free agency is not the process to get elite, team-changing players. That only comes through the draft. Plainly what Buffalo is trying to do, however, is find solid players who will be an upgrade at reasonable prices at positions of need. I think that is the only intelligent way to approach free agency as it typically is a waste of money to try and get elite talent in FA. So the approach here seems solid and intelligent, which is all you can ask. If I knew--as many here seem to-- that Williams and Rivers suck, then I guess this is a failure. But if these guys can be solid contributors in little ways for reasonable money, this will all be very good. So I like the intelligence in Whaley's approach, and if he and Marrone know what they are doing-- and I think they do-- things will get better soon.

Nice post.

He's no John Skelton, that's for sure.

Actually if you look at the internal numbers from Innovative Stats where these rankings come from, the Bills were actually better in terms of kickoff coverage than in 2012-- of course that includes touchbacks which Carpenter likely improved upon over Lindell. As to punting, we were bad both years, but just slightly worse in 2013 than in 2012. Where the big changes occurred were in punt and kickoff returns. The Bills were number 1 for both in 2012 and just about last for 2013. McKelvin dropping lots of punts did not help, and we had an inordinate amount of touchbacks. But the drop from 9 to 30 is almost exclusively caused by the difference in return yardage between 2012 and 2013. Outside of last year, the Bills ST were decidedly mediocre, ranging from 17 to 24 over the past few years. Again the improvement last year was due to return yardage exclusively.

There you have it. I think we largely agree. I should have gone back and reread what you wrote earlier-- my bad.

Lots of things. Many of your facts are incorrect IMO. First Marrone's players seem to like and respect him, never the case with GW. The press largely likes him and his candor-- he generally gets very good press. He admits mistakes all the time vis challenges and using timeouts and the formation when TL did the QB sneak in NE. He seems to have a philosophy and vision where he wants to go with the team. His success at Syracuse. He is an emotional and candid guy. All sorts of differences. I'll agree he is not the most articulate guy like GW, but he is not full of false bravado in my judgment like GW. I think they are very different people Time will tell, you could be right, but I think superficial stuff is clouding your view IMO.

You cherry picked that one statement after a longer exchange. I'm not going to repeat everything I wrote earlier, but if Marrone is either too stupid or too loyal not to see Crossman totally sucks--which you suggest is obvious-- then we have a much bigger problem here than Danny Crossman-- we have an utterly incompetent head coach who does not know where his own economic interests lie. I can't reach that conclusion about Marrone, at least not yet. Apparently you already have, so that explains our different views. It has little to do with Crossman, and everything to do with Marrone and his judgment.

Pretty fatal flaw if you are correct. I think Marrone is quite different from Gregg Williams, but only time will tell.