Spiderweb

Bill, your position on the state of our offensive line is well known, and accurate. Yet, we do have two players, Levitre and Wood (coming off serious injury though) that appears to be very talented and will only get better and stronger. Their second year should be one in which they begin to blossom. Bell may turn out well, or may simply be what he showed last year, but the physical tools are there. Meredith, Calloway, and Wang could provide needed talent and at this time of the year, I prefer to be hopeful. I temper my enthusiasm, but have still some hope. At least we appear to finally have real football people making the decisions. This in and of itself, is a pleasant change. Spiller could just be the type of back one simply couldn't afford to pass on. The tools are there. Once the top two tackles were gone in the draft, I agree that Spiller was the pick. What has been a bit disappointing is that their are/were a couple of tackles out there that could have been very helpful, yet nothing yet has happened and doesn't appear to be forthcoming. This team will need yet another strong draft and possibly one or two key FA additions before I expect to see any real success.

Covington, if I recall correctly, was hurt in pratice during the season (knee) and was never able to come back from the injury.

....and the $39.99 was their discounted price, in which the $49.99 price returned after the promo was over. I thought about it last year but when I went back to sign up, the $39.99 price was gone. When you sya the pix was disappointing, how so? Did it play decently on your PC monitor, but not when fed to your HDTV? Clearly it's not The Ticket HD quality, but the preview was watchable. So the preview quality (Pitts SB) isn't representative of what one would get?

Whether it's a single extra day off, or the whole week, you're both guessing what his request was. At this point, it's clear that he wants to play, but under his terms or with a "local" team..... He also said that once the season began and if the Bills came calling, he'd have to think about it (meaning, he wants no part of the OTA's, and camp as well). I suspect he'd jump at the chance to play for the Texans, however. Now, as a Bills fan, if he would have simply requested a trade, instead of his feigning retirement, I would have tried to work something out, but since he destroyed his trade value himself, I would not give him an outright release. He's "retired", list him as such. Schobel did not play his hand well or intelligently.

Sal is kinda fun from time to time (sat in on a few of his post game wrap-ups last year). Yet, he has a penchant for getting on a rant and ruins whatever point he's trying to make by beating it into the ground. Sal is what he is, and that's a real Bills fan who sees himself as a legitimate show host. He's not quite there yet, but he could be someday and I give him credit for doing what he does now. Tune in on his post game shows, and his weeknight shows. Some are pretty good (meaning he's had some clunkers too)! Moran on the other hand can simply go away...............

Sure, if McGee or McKelvin are injured or maybe even just nicked up a bit, their speed may not be there. But wouldn't this be the same for any CB? McGee and McKelvin weren't the great Kickoff return men they were (and hopefully still are) because they ran 4.7 40's. Both have excellent speed. Ability to cover man for man may be of some concern, but speed isn't something I see them lacking.

I agree as well. Injuries are already a huge part of the game, not to mention what these guys lives are like after the game ends for them, and to lengthen the season is a horrible idea... It is purely for the Benjamins and will add nothing to the game, and the season. I would shorten the preseason to three games as well, for all teams. It does give coaches a sample of what the new guys can do with live bullets flying. Three games is enough though, as the vets can get in some work and be ready for the regular season as well.

The Jets are in a rare place. They could end up being awfully tough, or they and their sophomore QB, and disgruntled vets could implode. It seems they don't have much room for much in between. It could be quite a volatile scenario with them this year. Good coach or bad, Ryan has proven he can't keep his mouth shut and is likely to fuel a fire more than to put one out.

A bit thin in the skin? The post (to me anyway) from Doc was more so a response to what the NFL Channel experts said. We all know that the vast majority of the "experts" believe Buffalo will be a bad team this year. If anything, your post was redundant in that we've all read the poor reviews on the Bills by the 'experts" and frankly the news from them sounds something like this, "blah, blah Buffalo, blah, blah......"

Ah, finally a response that correctly ID's thew west coast offense Montana lead so well. It was a short, run after the catch type of offense. Short, quick passes designed to allow the receiver to pick up additional yardage, if hit accurately in stride. Montana was a perfect fit. Very accurate and great touch.

Well said Dean. If they don't win early, that team could ignite and Ryan has shone to be a flame thrower and not a fireman.

So much has been said about his "leadership" by those who wouldn't have a clue in the world s to what Aaron meant to his team mates. Not a single clue. Schobel was clearly our best player (by far) over the past nine years. Now with Gailey and the switch to a 3-4, Aaron's loss my be minimized, but it doesn't change the fact that over the years of his career he was a very talented player. With that said however, if he decides that he wants to play this year, it should be with Buffalo......no trade, ever...(unless someone foolishly is willing to give us a first or second for him).

While his play should have shown his teammates something over the years, he didn't seem to earn the leadership role on defense that one might say he should have. As it's been said before, he gleefully signed that 50 + Million contract a few years ago so it's hard, really hard for me to have any sympathy for Aaron. He plays here, or he doesn't play at all.

Not even as the third down back, he doesn't play unless the #1, & #2 backs need a breather or get hurt. Just let him ride the pine until his contract warrants letting him go. If Marshawn truly wants to be traded, he should have thought it might be prudent on his part to keep his trade value as high as possible. Since he continues to lower his value, let him sit, period. Let see what "value" he will have after sitting for a couple seasons.....

What do I know, but I do enjoy a Killian's Irish Red from time to time during a game, even if it is brewed here by Coors of which I can't stand period.

After the last decade's performance, the "unknown" may well be a welcome and exciting change of pace.

Actually I did try their All HD package (supposedly 39 channels or so I was told). It wasn't being openly offered, but because I knew about it, they allowed me to try it. Unfortunately I have children and the exclusion of the Nickelodeon channel(s) killed my chances of keeping it. The price was 34.95 or 39.95, if I recall correctly. Yet, I had to keep the Kids happy. Jeez. Would I like to have a ATSC modulator? You bet, but those that exist are extraordinarily expensive and not intended for the general consumer. What my two receivers give me is two HD Boxes, and two SD boxes essentially, allowing me to continue to use 6 perfectly good older CRT NTSC TV's. This allows for four different Sat programs to be independently watched (2 in HD, two in SD) yet only use 2 receivers to accomplish it. If and when Cable offers decent bandwidth, I may try out a PC option as Ceton is coming out with a cable card, 4 tuner PCI Express card. If I can figure out a cost effective way to give it a go, I might. For those interested, there is also HD Homerun, that in the right scenario, may fill the bill for many as well. Currently, the drawback is the signal on Cable, which when I tested it two years as go, was still crap. With TV's and blu-ray players now incorporating Internet video streaming, I may find a basic Sat package may suffice and supplement it with internet video instead of HBO, etc (premium channels). I can only hope and pray the technology is made available at a decent price point.

Actually I did try their All HD package (supposedly 39 channels). It wasn't being openly offered, but because I knew about it, they allowed me to try it. Unfortunately I have children and the exclusion of the Nickelodeon channel(s) killed my chances of keeping it.

You might wish to read a bit before this reply, I believe your "opinion" was sent to the Myth Busters and it has been busted. Practicing propaganda?

DTV Spinner, think the world of ya Fez, but DTV spinner just the same. Dish, bashed roundly in this thread, has provided me with very good service (although their ever changing pricing policies drive me nuts). The HD works well (at least here in the Louisville area). The advantage with Dish that led me their way (from DTV) was that they offered dual tuner, dual output receivers the the price of a standard single output receiver. Granted, the first output is HD, while the second is SD (which as you know I modulate around the house to feed 6 CRT type, non-HD TV's for the kids, garage, etc. Currently I run two of the dual tuner/dual output receivers, so in essence I have 4 receivers. They also have had UHF remotes for many years allowing me to use the SD output and remote in any room in the house. DTV had nothing like this and still doesn't although as you say, you can now watch a program recorded on one DVR, on another DVR receiver in your home, while paying for two DVR receivers as well. Not quite the flexibility I have with dish. As for SD signals, I prefer those of Dish to DTV. The NFL Sunday ticket HD on DTV, is superior to the HD I get on Dish. The only problem I now have is that (as mentioned above) Dish ha again changed it's pricing policies and has begun to charge extra for the second receivers second output. They want up to 14.00 a month now for it. I called them in a fit, and they agreed to give me 6 moths more at the old price, but that was three months ago. If DTV was both cost and flexible enough to meet my needs, I'd switch back, but alas they aren't.

Yet, cable controls our internet access so we're really not making any break from them anyway. In comparison to a number of other countries, we pay inflated fees for less bandwidth as well. OTA is only current way that gets around the increasingly expensive "pay for" TV. What irks me is paying for channels that jam commercial after commercial down my throat (SAT/Cable). At least when the OTA boys do that, they take the advertising fees for their revenue and keep their hands out of my pocket. Other than the few commercial free channels (normally just the premium movie channels), the sat or cable only channels should be free to us. We should pay a small, fair basic service charge, and the channels should be free to us. In fact the producer of a channel with a full slate of commercials, should pay cable or Sat to carry their crap, not the other way around. Somehow, the long standing, successful model used by the original OTA providers was perverted by cable and Sat, and like mindless drones, we shell it anyway.

Nice spin Fez, nice spin. You should be a political adviser. You obviously have chosen to ignore the never ending increases that have occurred since DTV got their grubby little paws on the ticket. It all began at $89.00 on the big dish (C-Band). I still hold that the NFL treated it's fans very poorly when they agreed to exclusive rights with DTV, discounting the majority who was on Cable, and may also have terrestrial limitations that prevent them from getting the DTV if they wanted to. Adding what should have always been part of the package, and that was frequently obtained by us for free by threatening DTV with subscription cancellation. For those who paid full tariff for the Ticket and Superfan, my sympathies to you.

Ouch.....hell of an analogy!

Sadly, this may well be more than a ding. The words that it could be a "lost for the season" type injury were spoken in the article. Hope is that it's not, but.............. The O-Line injury curse just can;t seem to be shaken. Here's to hoping for the best, for Wang, and the Bills.

It's not a matter of a single year's increase. It's the never ending annual increases...... Again, I began with the NFL Sunday ticket at it's inception ($89.00) on the old big dish. DirecTV got a hold of it and the price jumped and simply hasn't stopped. Bad economy and all, yet they keep on taking...... It's a business, and if there's one constant, it's that business will never do the right thing unless they are forced. Goodby ST, and likely DirecTV as well since that has been all I used them for for the past 3 years or so.