Ennjay

So . . . no punters?

I'd forgotten. You're absolutely right.

Me too. He probably pissed somebody (maybe a lot of people) off back in the day. I find the Football HOF voting too biased that way -- guys who are in the club get in and the outliers don't make the cut. Guys on national broadcasts like Cowher and Johnson are in the club. I don't know if anyone actually dislikes Tasker but neither can I see who his in-the-club buddies are. BTW, my favorite Karras line from when he was on MNF: Cosell was going on too long about what a great blocker some RB or WR was, so Karras says, "if he's such a good blocker why don't they stick a 63 on his back and. make him a guard?"

Mac Speedie was HC of the Broncos in the 60's when I started following pro football. Obviously that's not what got him into the HOF.

Neither one of us knows what's in Lawrence's head, but this is extremely unlikely if he projects as the #1 pick in the draft. Guys like Mark Sanchez and Johnny Manziel left early and cleaned up. Guys like Matt Leinart and our own Matt Barkley stuck around one more year and sank a little (Leinert from top pick to borderline top 10) and a lot (from first round to fourth). It's hard to imagine anyone participating in Power 5 football at his level sticking around longer than he has to. 'Course there's Andrew Luck too. Stayed the one more year and was still the #1 pick. But he hears a different drummer from a lot of NFL players.

Why?

He moved out of a house in Brookline . . . and into a house in Greenwich. Unless he plans to sign with the Giants or Jets (yeah right) he hasn't gone anywhere.

That's embarrassing. My bad: his name is Trevor, not Taylor. (So Miami will tank forever for Trevor?) But I notice no one on this board called me on it. So either (1) thanks everyone for your restraint or (2) what's wrong with all you people?

He'll be living and working here in New Jersey . . . where he'll have much the same problem. So it was about Taylor Lawrence all along? Failure for Taylure?

This is all moot. He isn't going anywhere. He doesn't fit with any other team -- the Bears? the Chargers? Please. Nobody else has a quick slant offense that takes advantage of his (eroding) skills (making quick decisions and getting rid of the ball quickly) and nobody else will give him $35M just to look good in their uniform. So he'll posture for a while and maybe even make some well-publicized team recruiting visits but then he'll sign with NE. It will be a multiyear deal with front-loaded money so they can spread the salary cap hit but he won't play the full contract. As for preferences, we're not replaying any games from the last 20+ years. I want every Bills opponent to be weaker than the Bills but at this stage of his career I don't care what Brady does or who he does it for.

Please please please extend Tre White while you can still afford him Look at the history of Bills #1 draft choice DB's who cut and run for more $ somewhere else -- Winfield, Clement, Gilmore, even Li'l Donte. Please PLEASE extend Tre White while you can still afford him.

Or "Gregg." (Unless it was Forrest.)

Maybe but Denver's had three coaches in the last 5 years (4 in 6) and Fangio replaced the disaster that was Vance Joseph. Throw in there's an ownership vacuum and Elway, who's getting by on his playing rep and not what he's done as an executive, hand-picked Fangio and of course he's good for a second year. I'm expecting a major house-cleaning in Denver next year if the Broncos have a losing record. Assuming someone in ownership steps up and Elway isn't running the show.

I was all set to post the name of our new punter but I looked at the FA list on Spotrac.com and ... damn. So it looks like our '20 punter just finished his last college season, or will be cut by someone else before we pick him up. All things considered I'm hoping for the former.

Is this the year that cutting players after June 1 does no good because the CBA ends after 2020? And that means all dead money hits for '20 regardless of when the cut is made?

This is a serious question. Tell me about Waddle. All I know is that he was out all season. What do you like about him? Tackle depth or is there more?

You're right of course but I don't think Jerrah thinks that way. A legit football exec would.

I don't see Dallas (Prescott) or Cleveland (Mayfield) moving on from their current designated golden boys even though they may be the two most overrated QB's in the league. Carolina has room for him (Cam is done and Kyle Allen -- really?) but it's not a winning situation and I don't see Brady interested in any 2- or 3-year rebuilds.

The way he played most of this year -- and complained about his teammates -- I'm not sure Brady coming back is all that bad for there Bills.

Atwater was a beast and I think is more than deserving. But there's a lot of old-boy-network nonsense in NFL HOF voting that favors visible people. For example, Howie Long was a good DE but to go in as quickly and early as he did? What if he's not on Fox every week? For this reason I expect Lynch to go in and for that other committee to vote for Jimmy Johnson (notwithstanding his crap job in Miami). I'm not saying -- yet -- that Long, Lynch and Johnson may not belong in the HOF. I'm saying they get breaks that other people don't.

Am I the only one here who was just not that impressed with Reggie Wayne? Yeah he was good with Peyton throwing to him but ... HOF good????? Really????????? And while I'm at it: Steve Atwater should've been in years ago.

You got me.

I give credit to the Pegulas for figuring this out. Between the Bills and the Sabres, they realized (eventually) that buying a pro sports franchise doesn't mean you know how to own (meaning operate) one. It took the Rooneys maybe 40 years to figure that out. After previous fiascos (Rex, Brandon, TMurray ....) the Pegulas eventually realized they didn't know what they were doing and got out of the way. I know the Sabres aren't there yet but they're in better shape than they were in two and three years ago.

I'd heard at the time drafting Tebow was his idea. But you never know what to believe -- when something doesn't work out, there's no shortage of leaks from people who want you to know it wasn't their fault. BTW you're absolutely right about everything else you said.

Thanks for your reporting on this. It's one of those crazy things you see in football: it makes perfect sense (that Dorsey thinks he can't do his job under these conditions) while at the same time it makes no sense (that Dorsey thinks this is what his job is).