JDG

I'd love to see if the Bills could sneak picking up Lance Moore as an RFA. He is buried on the New Orleans depth chart - but from what I've seen of him, I think he can really play.... JDG

I hear you, Dave - but I think that the logic of the numbers is overwhelming.... Even if a Los Angeles resident is twice as likely to not care about football as a Philadelphia resident - you still end up with more football fans in L.A. Compared with WNY its no contest - it comes close to being that even if an LA resident is 10 Times as likely to not care about football as a WNY resident, you still end up with more football fans in LA. JDG

The simple truth is that the Los Angeles urbanized area had nearly *12* million people as of the last sentence. And Riverside-San Bernadino had another 1.5 million on top of that. By comparison, the fourth-largest urbanized area in this country, Philadelphia - had fewer than HALF as many people - at only 5 million people. The simple truth is that you put in a team in LA in a new, modern stadium - and it would be almost like a license to print money. I predict that when a team does move to LA, and if they get decent financing/subsidy on a new, modern stadium that they will be very successful. You would almost have to try to not be successful there. JDG

If you combine Buffalo and Rochester, then you have to combine San Antonio and their-Rochester: Austin. Austin is nearly an identical distance from San Antonio as Buffalo is from Rochester. Based on 2000 Census Data for Urbanized Areas, you get: Buffalo (976k) + Rochester (694k) = 1.67 million vs. San Antonio (1.3 million) + Austin (900k) = 2.2 million. That's nearly 1/3rd larger - and that's as of nearly 10 years ago. Yes, San Antonio is a relatively poor market by, but Buffalo ain't bursting with wealthy season ticket holders either). And yes, Austin has the University of Texas - but San Antonio + Austin is more than twice as large as Jacksonville + Gainesville. And yes, Texas already has the Cowboys and Texans - but it is a 3-4 hour drive from either San Antonio or Austin to either Dallas or Houston. Plenty of space to put a third Texas team in the State. If central Texas keeps growing and WNY keeps shrinking, I think it will be harder and harder for the NFL to justify having franchises in places like WNY, Jacksonville, and southern Louisiana and not one in central Texas. JDG P.S. The Vegas urbanized area came in 1.3 million in the 200 Census - but with basically zero in the ways of secondary markets (its pretty much empty desert outside of the urbanized area there - and no secondary cities.) Combine that with the NFL's fear of gambling, and don't expect Vegas to be on any short-list for an NFL Team any time soon. Los Angeles and Central Texas are clearly the most-prominent untapped domestic markets from the NFL's perspective. If you wanted a longer-shot market, I'd think that Portland (1.6 million) or Virginia Beach (1.4 million) would both have a much better shot than Vegas - and actually, I don't see either as being very likely. (Although somebody in some League is going to put a team down in SW Virginia at some point, I have to believe, since Virginia Beach's "Rochester" - Richmond - has another 800k.)

I think you're right...

Indeed, Gailey was Cowher's choice as successor in Pittsburgh... and it was definitely an open secret that Cowher planned on Gailey being his OC. JDG

Grimm hasn't excited me either. But in any event, Bills fans just need to sit tight until the Vikings season ends - I feel pretty strongly that we're going to go with Leslie Frazier. Hate to say it, but I'm rooting for the Cowboys this weekend...

Exactly. A couple weeks from now, the Bills will hire Leslie Frazier as their Head Coach, who is very highly regarded League-wide, and it won't matter who interviewed when or how.... JDG

Anyone who really likes Trent Edwards at this point clearly hasn't been watching tape of Bills games. At best, you might like Trent as a project - but there's no way you can conclude at this point that he gives a team a great chance to win. JDG

Shanahan is easy - the Redskins will spend more on assistant coaches, support staff, and veteran free agents than the Bills will, so Shanahan judged that that extra support gives us a better chance to win. Gruden is a little more mysterious. As near as I can tell, Gruden was really burned by being fired in Tampa Bay. After all, Tampa traded first round draft choices to get him, and then all Gruden did was WIN A SUPER BOWL WITH THE TAMPA BAY BUCCANEERS!!!! And for all that he got fired after going 9-7 in a tough division. As they used to say about Washington - if you want a friend, get a dog. Gruden appears to genuinely be enjoying broadcasting, he's working a heck of a lot fewer hours, getting good money, and has tons more job security. Schottenheimer turning us down is borderline inexplicable. The closest example I can think of is when Gary Kubiak consistenty turned down suitors until the Texans job opened up. All I can do is take him at his word - he feels like he has a really good thing going in New York, he's only had one year to get things going, and he wants to both finish what he started, and also not to give up on a good thing just for something else down the road... I don't think its anything specific to Buffalo that caused him to turn us down. So, back to Cowher, I don't think either John Fox or Carolina (or even Tampa) have been as definitive about their 2010 plans as they could be. Obviously, the Jacksonville job very nearly opened up over the weekend. My suspicion is that Cowher is 99% certain he'd choose to go back to CBS over coaching Buffalo, but I think that he really would prefer to Coach next year at one of his favored teams (and lock in a contract before 2011 starts) rather than go back to CBS - and so he's choosing not to burn any bridges until he's been absolutely, positively, reduced to only two options for next season: either Buffalo or CBS. JDG

Well, its simply not in his interests to do that. For example, maybe next year he finds himself in a similar situation a few years down the road - and maybe he decides then that broadcasting isn't as interesting to him anymore, and he would rather coach for Buffalo than not coach at all. A definitive anti-Buffalo public statement like that now would certainly hurt him in that future situation. And right now, there simply is no benefit he gets from formally withdrawing his name from consideration. He's clearly put it out there through his contacts that he doesn't plan to take the Buffalo job....

My expectation is that until Carolina and John Fox both come out with definitive statements that John Fox will be coaching in Charlotte next season, then we won't hear anything from Cowher. We might need to hear something from Tampa too. But my understanding is that Carolina (and Tampa?) are the last barriers standing between a situation where Cowher will be forced to choose between coaching in Buffalo or sitting out for 2010. Once we reach that situation, then I think Cowher will have the courtest to confirm that he will be announcing for CBS next season. JDG

I think the simple fact is that there is simply no way that it benefits Cowher to formally tell us no. Sad, but true. JDG

The more I dig around this guy, the more it seems like that there are a lot of very intelligent people in this League who think that Frazier is really going to make it as a Head Coach in this League. Gregg Williams and Mike Mularkey have already done enough damage to this franchise. It will be a real shame if they cause us to miss the boat on the next John Fox as well...

By that logic, you'd be upset if Tony Dungy became our head coach....

There are at least ten States with a legal requirement to "aid in distress". I don't know if New York is one of them...

Wow, that's quite a list. How many people on that list should truly never get in the Hall? I don't see how Reed stands a snowball's chance in heck on that list. Makes you wonder if football shouldn't move to a baseball-style HOF format where you just vote people up or down. I'll be rooting for Coryell on this list - a true innovator of the game who truly belongs. JDG

Wow, Hogboy still comes around here? What's next? Miami Don Johnson and lenny in sloan?

If taking the *Cleveland Browns* franchise to a Super Bowl Championship is "overrated" in your book, then I'm all about hiring over-rated coaches for the Bills...

That explains why we signed T.O. this offseason, right? And paid big bucks to Derrick Dockery and Langston Walker, right? JDG

Yes. We actually do have a few pieces in place - I think the cupboard in Cleveland is much more bare...

You are kidding right? In 14 years in Denver, he had exactly *two* losing seasons. One year at 7-9 and another at 6-10. Oh yeah, and he won 2 Super Bowls and went to the Final Four one other time. Perry Fewell is admittedly an unknown - but to compare him to one of the very strongest track records out there is WAY premature! JDG

Fewell has shown that he's willing to shake up the lineup to get the players he feels give us the best chance to win games on the field. I suspect that a big part of the problem is that Hardy does not cover kicks and punts on special teams, and he isn't good enough to send Evans, Owens, or Reed to the bench. Particularly with Parrish gobbling up a 4th WR slot on gameday, your 5th WR almost absolutely has to be a guy who is covering kicks and punts. Presuming that T.O. goes elsewhere this offseason, Hardy might suddenly find himself much higher up the depth chart by default next year... JDG

Hi Everyone, I'm going to be in Flagstaff this Thursday, probably pulling into town right around 6:20 when the game starts. Does anyone know of a place I can count on to catch the game? Thanks in advance! JDG