granitestatebillsbackers

Ok, here goes. Are you sitting down? After 40 years of watching pro ball (the Bills, of course) and immersing myself in every conceivable facet of the game, it's time to scale Everest. That's right: the Salary Cap. I need someone to reply with Salary Cap 101. Just the basics--tell me what the hell the cap is, how players count against the cap, etc. etc. etc. You know, all the crap that they talk about on Sirius NFL radio while I sit there and nod thoughtfully so the guy in the next car thinks that I am part the NFL "brain trust." It would be greatly appreciated--and they'll be able to inscribe the following on my gravestone: Here lies Mike. He was full of crap. But the dude could talk Salary Cap. Oh yeah. Thank you.

Phillip Rivers. SD keeps Brees--even with the repaired shoulder--and deals Rivers.

Holcomb = excellent backup?! Fire up another bowl, dude, and hang with Ricky W.

Kind of what Reeves is doing in Houston. Although he probably will snag one of the open coaching slots. Hey! Maybe we can get Dan Reeves! Wooooooooooooo!

Thank you for that post. Just thinking about the possibility of Levy coming back made my 2005 season (not that it would take much).

Parcells is on the bubble in Dallas. How about Bill? Love him or hate him, he is a winner. Defense-minded, players respect him. Might have some control issues, so he might have to have a chunk of the decision-making.

I've got huge respect for both those guys as legendary players, but there's not always a smooth transition from Hall of Famer to head coach. Kind of cool to think about though. Talk about filling seats.

Nicely done. A ray of light in the sarcastic, cut-and-run murk. In my opinion, nothing before or since was as bad as watching Norwood's kick sail wide right--at that point, the dreams of a 5-year old crashed into the memories of a 30-year-old and both slid by that post. Over and over again, in slow motion. Since then, through all the questionable personnel decisions and monumental collapses, the image of that kick keeps me going. It can only get better. Elation and despair go with the being-a-Bills-fan package, but there's no reason to climb out on a ledge. Those of us who have been with this team through thick and thin are going to really enjoy the moment when the Bills do become the world champs.

All the analysts were expressing concern this week about the "distractions" that would affect the Bills today. We saw the result of that this afternoon. I am going to stop short of suggesting that the Bills let their actions speak loudly and clearly about their attitude toward MM and TD intentionally. They are professionals, after all. But when you consider how admired Moulds is by his teammates (evidenced by their comments earlier in the week), it makes you think, doesn't it? They may be professionals, but they are human--and friends of Moulds.

Pretty dumb considering MM is a regular Wednesday afternoon guest. Should be fun this week.

Conservatively, we could be looking at 3-4 seasons to the next playoff win. A wildcard spot would look damned good right now, wouldn't it?

Point well taken--I forgot about Chuck's compensation. It supports my point that any one aspect--personnel, GM, coaching, luck--can't carry a team on its own.

My point was that the NFL is cyclical; teams rise and fall all the time. Some take longer than others, e.g. the Bengals. You can't I'm not sure you can analyze the length of the good/bad spans and try to anticipate what might happen. Too much change in the league re: salary cap, free agency, etc., and 99% depends on the personnel decisions made during the "down" cycles. The problems in 2005 are serious: we don't have the core of much of anything on the two lines, so it may take a little longer than we'd like to crawl back. Players such as Losman, Spikes, McGahee, Evans and a few others--given the right leadership, game planning and front office to fill in key positions around them--will shine. Losman to Evans may become as common and exciting as Kelly to Reed. The next time we have the dominant defensive backfield in the league it will be for real--not a result of a weak late-2004 schedule and a lot of hype.

I think it is going to take a new general manager with a different personnel philosophy. Wilson has never opened the wallet to hire marquee coaching talent (Levy was not a Hall of Fame-bound coach when he got to Buffalo), so it is going to take a pretty sharp football guy to be able to find a coaching diamond in the rough. I like Mularkey, but we're not getting there with him at the helm. He's here because of a connection, and a GM who (apparently) is able to spin like crazy and get us all to take the bait.

This is the NFL. Some players enter the league, rise to their peak performance, and then fade away. Others have great promise and turn out to be flops, e.g. Ryan Leaf. GMs and coaching staffs make boneheaded decisions that can keep teams out of the post-season for years. And in the midst of it all, seemingly random events occur that NOBODY--not even the "experts" on TBD--can predict. For example, if I told you a sixth-round (seventh?) backup could take the pathetic Pats to three Super Bowls when he was drafted, you would have laughed me out of here. Or if I told you a head coach who was a moron in Cleveland would become a bonafide Hall of Famer, you'd ban me from posting again. Fact: it takes a rare combination of personnel, coaching, front office and luck to get to the playoffs in the National Parity League. We are missing a couple pieces this year--and we all got a little carried away from listening to the pre-season hype. The way I see it, I have two choices: I can cry and whine and B word and moan about the Bills, the ownership, TD, MM, WMcG, Losman, etc. etc. etc. etc. OR I can commiserate with my fellow fans, see the glass as half-full because of the great core of young players, and look forward to the rest of 2005, next season and beyond. I'm going with the latter. Most of the fun of watching this team get to the playoffs and Super Bowls last time was the anticipation, e.g. "No, they can't win this one, can they?" And watching my Bills sink to these depths, while disturbing, is going to make those future seasons (when we return to crushing the AFC East--esp. the Patsies--routinely) even sweeter. I've been a Bills fan since I was five, and have watched some pretty miserable seasons. NOTHING will ever be as bad as watching Norwood's kick sail wide right, in my opinion.\ Not even the play call on 3rd and 1 yesterday.

You don't have to take a poll to figure out what some of the Bills' "fans" are going to do. Just read this bulletin board.

Um, yeah. That's what this team needs--a West Coast coach that runs practices without pads. Mm hmm. Mooch is a good coach, but he's absolutely WRONG for the Bills.

Sullivan and the Buffalo News have accomplished their mission. There are many, many posts in this thread and others complaining about Sullivan sounding like a nagging mother-in-law; no sources; he's so meeeeean; wah wah wah. Truth is, more people than not can't wait to see what he'll write next. He's not a columnist because he can't/won't/doesn't want to/ cultivate sources or because he's a basketball writer in a town without a b-ball team He's a columnist because in the Buffalo market, he has broad readership--that's what sells papers. He's just pushing buttons. Sells papers, keeps the buzz going. I have seen posts on OBD from supposed fans that are far worse than anything JS produces--and they're poorly conceived and written to boot. If you want in-depth analysis, hit the NFL Network or Sirius NFL Radio (well, except for Randy Cross, who is a knucklehead). But Sullivan and his editors know that in a football-crazy town like Buffalo, thousands of outraged fans are going to be talking about HIS column the next day. Do I like his columns? Generally, no. He's a master of overstatement, and I prefer more objective analysis. But he's still employed--and that means that he's getting readers and reactions.

The defining JP moment for me in the Carolina game: He took a five-step drop, then moved quickly and smoothly into the pocket and fired a completion while all hell was breaking loose around him. At that moment, he looked like an NFL QB. No happy feet, no hesitation. There's going to be good and bad for a while, but he's going to be a good one.

Check this out. Out here in New Hampshire, Pats are on at 4:15. Two games up on the Bills and Miami. Who happen to be playing each other. In an AFC East battle that would have a lot of interest in the Boston metro and NH market. So, what does Boston CBS 4 choose to air? Yep, Steelers-Bengals. Morons.

Great posts all around. Out here in PatsLand, the Granite State Bills Backers group has fallen all but silent, and attendance at our bar for games is lackluster--and we're up to 48 members just since the beginning of the season. You can feel the desperation starting to take hold . Members who are pro-Holcomb were sniping at the members wanting the Bills to start building for the future. Wanting Losman to develop into the QB we hope he will be was equivalent to giving up on the season somehow, according to those members. There are a lot of opinions on this board--many of which propose one specific solution or another ("fire him!" or "move him around" or "bad personnel department"). None of that matters, because what happens on One Bills Drive is the only reality here. So we all have two choices: hope that over the next N years all the pieces come together, or vote with our feet...by NOT making that walk from the lot to the gate. Holding forth on one's football expertise may make the poster feel important, but changes NOTHING on Sunday. Bills fans know that you take the good, the bad, and the ugly with this team. We're the best in the NFL (ok, maybe second after the Steelers fans) at sticking with our team. There is a ray of sunlight around here, though. After weeks of looking at local listings and seeing no game or some pointless game televised after the Pats, this Sunday Fox is broadcasting the Bills-Panthers game! I am planning on donning my McGahee jersey, putting Sean the 11-month-old in his Bills gear, and watching Bills play like there is no tomorrow. GO BILLS!!!!! Keep the faith.

Norwood missed because Kelly couldn't read a defense? Please.

If we take those shots down the field, it'll open things up for Willis. That equals controlling the clock. Most analysts are writing off the game as a sure thing for SD. I'm not willing to concede the game. Maybe Gray and the brain trust can figure out a way to neutralize LT. Nailing his hotel door shut might work.

He'll spend the whole game describing exactly what the Chiefs need to do to win. He's on Sirius every Thursday, and he's a jack-xxx there, too. What a moron.