Pyrite Gal

Now that's just sexist (except that I used the same words before myself).

1, I think this team is vulnerable when the other team is going no huddle or running to start the play before our D us set. Last week, the fact that it was raining and Seattle's frontline WRs were out helped us alot. The pass plays were there for the opponent but they could not hold onto the ball when they pushed the plays. Jax also had some success against us when they went to their two minute drill and I suspect future opponents will notice this on film and we will face this more. The Bills can combat this with: A. Fewell and the D braintrust need to be even quicker putting the players they want. They should also not be afraid to waste a TO if necessary if they do not feel they have the right players out there or the correct D called. Its tough to give up a TO when we play a game which often comes down to the last drive, but when one plays it close to the vest its tough to make up for losing a TD or FG also. I think we got lucky last week with the weather and this weak with injuries to their interior OL which caused Garrard to give up at least 3 points with an INT. B. Better communication among the players. Its gonna be tough because our team D leaders like Whitner and Pos are pretty young, Kawika Mitchell will need to be very vocal and all things point to Stroud taking this moment as a jumping off point for team leadership rather than feeling like he has achieved his goals by registering early sacks and beating Jax 2. Sometimes you get the bear and sometimes the bear gets you. In retrospect, the onside kick to keep the D on the field after their halftime adjustment was a smart but actually forseeable ST play. During the week their our coaches assigned to watch the Bills for vulnerabilities and to figure out what opponents might do to deal with us. I am not sure there is such a "red" team (as they are sometimes called in the military where someone plays the othersides generals to dope out their strategic options) for gameday, but having someone whose job it is is to look out for an warn the HC/OCs of possibilities might be good.

I feel good that I never ragged on him like some who have loudly claimed that he brings nothing to the HC job or they have claimed his Coach of the Year honor was an aberration. However, though I have been supportive of Jauron, I must admit I had my doubts. However, though is still to early to bow down and yell we are not worthy (he has to lead the team to the playoffs and actually deep into the playoffs before he deserves that) I think that the way the game played out to day and after two seasons I think any reasonable person who claims to know football needs to be impressed with what he has led the team to at this point. Again, it ain't over til its over and the proof still needs to be in the pudding of making the playoffs before a full throated hosanna is justified. However, I think those who have taken the time publicly to decry Jauron or to offer up his previous achievements as being meaningless should be willing to publicly state that their past rants appear to be wrong. To date, I think Jauron honestly deserves a lot of credit and a smart person should be willing to acknowledge: 1. The simple fact is he took over a 5-11 teams and produced a 7-9 record with them. It is not an undoable thing to oversee improved individual performances on an unproductive team, but the simple fact is they only were inadequate in terms of results his first year but they improved from horrendous to inadequate and a person with any football knowledge should see that. In fact, the improvement in record coincided with a clear change in attitude from the hubub of the end of the TD reign of error and Marv also deserves plaudits for overseeing a draft which not only produced starters from second day picks but these starters produced an improved record under Jauron. The record improvement coincided with other measurables of better game control and decision making like beginning to build a quality record of winning ref challenges. 2. One could easily become so focused on the stats that the production of yet another inadequate 7-9 record could be judged as the team not improving from a level of inadequacy. Yet, the simple fact again is that this team led the NFL in players on the IR and they STILL managed to produce the same record. The team is clearly working with and off of what the TD reign of error left them, but the Bills again showed clear signs of taking the best and leaving the rest as the team not only made big moves getting rid of highly promoted team leaders like Fletch, former Pro Bowler TKO and the deserving of praise for coming back from a devastating collegiate injury but still clearly an idiot McGahee. The actual events gave every sign of making recitations of Jauron's past spotty record with the troubled Bears and bad record with the bad Lions look more suspect than a sense of Jauron being an honestly indictable failure. 3. Its way too early to declare victory with the impressive 2-0 record and eminently winnable next 3 games we face. However, it is not too early for those who were so bold as to declare Jauron a clear bad choice and a failure to begin to retract those remarks. Today's game was a nail-biter always and downright bad as a Bills fan to watch as we got manhandled and outfoxed in the 3rd quarter. However, the final result showed the correctness in terms of producing results of the unflashy and often boring Jauron style of encouraging competition and hanging around and hanging around and then pouncing at the right moment. Jauron still has a lot to prove. He also clearly had some things he did not do well in his first two years. However, the biggest of those was he had never hired an OC who could make it work (we got so lucky Fairchild got promoted out of his OC job because my sense is that loyalty for his less than but close to adequate performance would have kept him here). However, though it is too early to draw final conclusions, I like the game Schonert calls and has designed (a big difference between Fairchild and Schonert is that the pass routes are designed in a manner which gets quick separation and takes advantage of the Evans/Parrish speed). One hopes that the Schonert O will continue to grow and be productive and that Jauron will finally have found his offensive genii. When one can still play the conservative ball which Jauron does well and the offense is good enough to hang around and finally win on the road and to dust teams at home it will be very good. Many of us hoped Jauron had it in him and the sign are clearly there that in fact he does have it in him. I hope that those who declared us DDOOOMMEEDDD will take this opportunity to not only hope that he does pass the test finally in the future and that they will apologize for publicly calling him out in the past. While he has not proven yet that he is a football king he has certainly given satisfactory proof that he did not deserve the negative conclusions some made about him.

This is a thread where anyone who saw fit to post over the past year or so advocating the Bills ditch Youbouty or that he was a waste can show they are person enough to step up and admit that it looks pretty clear they were wrong! There are those of us who sang his praises, but even in my case it was not so much evidence of me being smart, but was prompted by it being so stupid for some folks to say that conclusively we were done with him prior to the third year of play one needs to intelligently draw any conclusions about an NFL player. Youbouty's first disappointing year included a real reason that his Mom died for his balky start (sometimes things are merely excuses but in other cases they are legitimate reasons). Even with the death of his Mom (which happens and person simply needs to suck it up if they plan to play with the big boys, but this death became a legit reason as she was a single parent and he was the oldest and then by default alpha mail for his brothers and sisters) the real complications were the pressures this put on him to support his family. The impressive news is that despite these negatives he did make a start and played a good game in the Bills win that year against NYJ. Last year, Youbouty also disappointed many but the reason (which is often simply an excuse) was that he was fighting through injuries. Evidence that it most reasonably should have been considered a reason was that he actually showed the great open field tackling ability he showed today working as a gunner and making a couple of nice shots on return guys. Where to from here for Youbouty? For this Bills fan competition will make the difference as McGee has been very productive as the #1CB this year (despite folks wanting to prematurely run him off the team after he struggled (as many player do) in his first season playing the Cover 2. Jauron did the right thing by sitting him down for a game and McGee provided clear evidence that it is possible to become a better player through other methods than playing. If one's problem is a lack of athleticism or of experience then playing may be the thing, however, if you feel a player is athletic enough and he will gain from the experience of watching the game (as JP should have done when TD rushed him into a starters role and as Pos did last year when though he led the team in tackles in his brief play last year he was missing some rookie reads and taking a bad step forward on some pass plays and backward on some runs- he showed he has real closing speed as he still got the tackles but he looked like a poor man's London Fletcher out there last year). Greer has been productive as the #2 CB though it is clear he is the one that teams challenge more as now McGee has taken in an INT each game when he is challenged. If we are winning, then why change? Youbouty has been great working as a nickel and also has demonstrated today and in pre-season that he is a real threat on the corner blitz. The great thing for us is that McKelvin demonstrated the background where he may easily not only pass Youbouty but may be McGee as the #1 given time and that even Corner is impressive. it all starts though on TSW with folks who may have ragged on Youbouty publicly to apologize to him now. Otherwise folks are free not do so but remember that folks will rightly categorize your next rant on some player as a mere rant.

Tanx

I think most fans make a distinction between rooting for an opposing player to be hurt and feeling happy about having an opportunity to take advantage of the injuries which simply come with the game. The two are not the same thing. I think most fans do not root for any player or person to be hurt. However, I have no problem with fans being quite happy with the better chance that the loss of Brady gives the Bills. Further, there is the additional issue of being happy about dancing over the carcass of a physically wounded Pats team. In general, I do not think this behavior is justified. However, given that Wilfork was fined as the NFL at least did not judge him as exercising proper control over the weapon that an NFL body can be (and that even this is charitable as Wilfork hit JP with his arm which clearly was directed while Brady got hit with a helmet top which MIGHT have been intentional but might not have been), I also see Bills fans reasonably taking a bit of pleasure out of the unbidden fate which karma has brought to Brady. I hope folks do not root for any injury, however, I simply see it being a related though different case how they react to an injury. Particularly in this case, the unfortunate outcome does have some fairness attached to it. I begrudge no one for having smug satisfaction about how the scales of justice operated in this case.

To me the funniest thing about the Pats/Jets match-up is that IMHO its a pretty sure thing that the winner of this game will be anointed by ESPN and the national media as THE story of 2008 and a virtual lock to be one of the great stories ever in the NFL. If the Jets win the narrative will be about how Brett Favre (virtually alone) has turned a perennial sure loser into a definite winner and favorite to take the AFC East and perhaps the SB. If the Pats win the narrative will be about the redemption of Bill Bellicheat and that it was not Brady, it was the system. The narrative will likely be determined by the game outcome and the actual events regardless of whether NYJ's offense featured a couple of Favrian highlights but overall was ineffective looks the same as last week against the stumbling Fins. Likewise the narrative coughed up by a Pats victory would likely be about the football genius of Bellicheat which the Brady injury given a victory will easily provide an excuse if the Pats wheeze to victory as they did against a not very good KC team. Even if the Bills roll over Jax, the best we will likely be in the media is being put forth as the next victim to show the dominance of Favre or Belicheat. ESPN coverage seems merely to be an example of the ignoring of the Bills rolling over a recent consistent NFC winner and Woodson declaring Jax the team that must win this weekend but making no mention of its opponent when he staked out this storyline.

The JP/Smith connection is that TD traded the Bills first round pick in 2005 in order to take Losman in 2004 because he judged the Bills as having such a clear need for a QB of the future (even though TD made a huge error in extending Bledsoe's contract after a horrendous 2003 campaign he had to know DB would not last forever even if he foolishly believed DB would mount a comeback similar to the one which saw him reach the Pro Bowl after the 2002 season after he was gotten rid of by NE). TD seemed to make the judgment that JP drafted in 04 with a year on the bench behind Bledsoe was a better option that likely the first QB taken in 05 (Smith). Say what you want about JP but I think it is pretty clear that given the sad performance of Smith. the TD strategy was the correct one as far as the draft. I think the problem was that rapid promotion to starter status after TD realized the extension of Bledsoe was stupid was undeserved (even JP said this himself). The poor player development approach taken by the Bills with JP which saw his first OC Clements get demoted midseason, his first HC MM get the kibosh, his third OC Fairchild fail to produce a consistent O as he tried to force JP who is a run for your life improvise QB into the NFL straitjacket was simply bad. It certainly cam be argued that JP has inherent flaws which make him DDOOOMMEEDD to fail at QB, but any person who watches football and understands it also has to admit that the Smith failures make the JP draft strategy at least look like a better idea than depending on any consensus early 1st round QB pick at the time or depending on us finding some Tom Brady later in the draft.

I think a key for you to meet an October deadline is to wait as long as you can to see what type of offense the Turk decides to run It looks to me like he is sorely tempted to actually want to have the spread offense with 3 WRs be our base and as this would get Parrish on the field more this is a logical thing to do. In addition, I think Lynch is actually a more productive rusher from the 1 back spread than in a smash mouth FB lead running game. You can get the extra WR through a method of dropping the FB or even through not making use of the TE as receiver. However, this would be quite different than what the Bills have historically done and the team seems to have hard time committing to either approach. They are flirting with it as we really have one functional TE on the roster and no functional FBs as passing or short yardage threats. I would watch how the team settles into a particular O style over the next month. My sense is that Royal is actually a good enough receiver that the team is going to be forced to use the TE as a pass option and this will heighten the need to get some depth at this position as really Schouman has not been a consistent enough producer to replace Royal as a starter if we need a back-up.

I think the correct thing in Carucci's article is that he Bills won a staredown with Peters but the reality is that it takes two sides to have a stare down and I think folks are being naive if they try to absolve the Bills of any part or blame in what was really two sides acting juvenile in what will need to be a partnership if the Bills plan to go deep in the playoffs. Perhaps it will all workout that the Bills get lucky and can in fact staredown Peters and force him to live up to his agreement. If so great. However, one only has to look at reality to see how close the Bills came to actually losing the services of Walker if he has been more badly injured in the Colts game. Fortunately, the wounding was only temporary and in addition, Chambers seemed to have stepped up nicely and only gave up one sack to a very good opponent Kenny. However, it is easy to see how it could have been a lot worse. I think most Bills fans hope it all works out (and also hope that the silliness involving the lack of communication with Crowell had nothing to do with the lack intelligent conversation with Peters. I think the facts of the case are certainly that it would be a risk to show Peters more money in exchange for an even longer commitment to the Bills, but from this fans view the Bills certainly have the contractual right to have Peters absorb all the risk by playing out his agreement, but exerting one's contractual "rights" and doing the right thing (both in terms of the reality of Peters market value IF in fact this we truly operated in a free market instead of the NFL and NFLPA agreeing to restrain free trade in the CBA. Sure, I agree Peters is being juvenile, but folks should also see that there is nothing in that which means the Bills are acting like adults. The adult thing to do would be for the two sides to intelligently share the risk by the Bills showing him a nice chunk of change up front and in exchange getting more years committed. Since the Bills do have a legal right to Peters services, the deal would not be for what Peters would get if in fact there was a free market. However, there are lots of mechanisms which can be used by the two parties to formulate a deal which gives Peters more chunks of change than he imagined up front but either stalls the money laid out to him by giving a guarantee but stalling payment or gives no guarantee but signs a base contract for huge amounts which forces another settlement at a later date that the Bills can walk away from if they choose. In addition there are options which can be negotiated to share the risk. Perhaps one may choose to heap all the blame on Peters and believe he demanded all the money and refused to talk when the Bills said no. Maybe you want to heap all the blame on the Bills for refusing to give him any money until he proved himself for another year, THIS DOES NOT MATTER IN TERMS OF ASSIGNING BLAME as both parties really only win when they make a deal and regardless of who started it both parties failed to make a deal. Both the Bills and Peters come off as juveniles in my book.

We seem to have pratfalled to a correct conclusion (its a pain that he missed a start but as we won with such a great performance Sunday no harm no foul from this fan's perspective). Like every NFL player, I tend to judge on how you did last week and what it means for this week so certainly until we Sunday I do not care and hope I am even more justified in ignoring the holdout after Sunday) on this holdout. For TSW purposes, I think that a couple of things are worth observing: 1. I for one am very happy with given the fact that Peters/Parker made the decision I hated to hold out that they also chose to do it the way they did by not talking. This likely would have been very bad if this holdout was conducted with a constant barrage of charges and counter charges in The Buff Snooze and on WGR. In fact, even if Peters/Parker and the Bills started out talking in a civil manner about this disupute, it likely would only have been a matter of time until someone from the media took some Bills or P/P comment out of context and started some pissing match. It is clear now that there was nothing useful to be said to the public by either side and by announcing they were in the cone of silence, P/P not only cut the story off from any oxygen but also even made suspect anything a teammate said that Peters said that blah blah blah. This is one fan who hopes that every single Bills who decides (usually stupidly IMHO) to mount a holdout and even to some degree folks like Evans who are in CBA sanctioned negotiation just simply go into a zone of silence rather than making remarks which are stupid (so is taking food out of my kids mouths) or we be interpreted (either correctly or falsely) as being something stupid. IMHO the ruling thing is that even when there are thoughts that a player may be a total idiot the worse thing a player can do is open his mouth and confirm this. This Bills fan is pleased P/P simply shut up. 2. The conspiracy theories some on TSW were prominent in hatching that it is likely or there is even a reasonable fear that Peters groin tear was worse than reported give all appearances of being simply stupid. The conspiracy theories seemed to me to make zero sense when they were spouted as by rule and practice all players before signing a new contract are subject to a due diligence medical evaluation. There was simply no advantage for Peters in going into his zone of silence since even if the Bills caved and gave him everything the contract would have been subject to him passing a medical. In fact, even if he passed a physical examination but it turned out he could not perform at all on the field for mental or undetectable physical reasons, Peters would still be subject to lawsuit voiding the contract if he knew about some issue and fraudulently hid it. The conspiracy theories made zero sense on their own before and appear even stupider with Jauron publicly saying his weight is less than last year and his bodyfar is smaller. 3. Perhaps the vilest most stupid rants on TSW were those which claimed Peters was a Mike Williams like fat tub of good sitting at home eating brownies. It can happen certainly, but there was no evidence either subjective or objective to make this case. Folks who trotted this out can say or not say whatever they want, but unless they are willing to at least man-up and admit they were WRONG WRONG WRONG they deserve any wisecrack anyone wants to make about their future posts. 4. Ironically, I think the Bills are better off having gone through this stupid exercise. We will know more for sure when Peters takes the field and it is to be hoped that we see him resume the Pro Bowl qualifying level of play against Jax that he delivered in 15 games last year. However, as the pre-season started, the biggest question I had (far bigger than what amounts to a far better QB situation than that faced by other opponents in reality-see NE if you want an example) was the question of OL depth. I liked a starting 5 which had played together 15 games with 4 of 5 positions having an unprecedented 16 starts. As far as quality, this crew consisted of the correctly well-respected (though still overpaid but what NFL starter isn't) Dockery, 2. the much maligned but much improved IMHO Fowler (I was rooting for us to draft him way back when and the big question I had when we got him was injuries and 16 starts two seasons in a row answers this question for me- he is far from perfect as he has not led the team to being able to impose push in short yardage, but he is a true athlete giving us a center capable of pulling and he is still young so I am pleased 3. the impressive Brad Butler who was actually a first day talent draft choice whom we stole on the second day because he lost his head once in college. 4. Walker simply sucked as an LT in Oak but in his time here has proven to be a solid RT 5. Our best OL player is in fact the UDFA TE Peters who simply is a franchise talent IMHO. However, the depth behind this starting 5 was more than questionable with Whittle's age and Preston's failed attempts to start at RG being the best we had to offer. However, the holdout has demonstrated with proof on the field that: A. Walker has much improved as a player and actually gives us a credible LT if Peters were to go down as he did in game 16 last year. B. Chambers is not ready for LT (yet?) However, his RT performance Sunday was against a quality rusher Kenny and he often took him on his own without having to shift the blocking his way. Giving up one sack to Kenny is not bad and actually he is reported by folks who know this game a bit better than us mere fans to have taken away his patented spin move that produced a bit over a sack a game for him last year and made their run D a bit imposing. I feel far better about our plan B OL situation with Chambers being credibly able to allow for manning a loss on either side and having Whittle available at LG (or RG if pressed) and having Preston available at RG (or his natural position of C if need be). Overall, I fault both Peters and the Bills for not getting a deal done, but given the reality that they did not I feel so much more confident about our OL depth situation having lived through the holdout. Full speed ahead!

BINYC's summary of their injuries was definitely helpful for visualizing this. Another way is to equate it to how the Bills would deal with this situation. We would be starting Whittle instead of Dockery, Preston instead of Fowler, and actually it would be so bad that our depth chart would require cloning Preston as he would be asked to replace Butler as well. Waiver wire it is and it is not surprising that Garrard saw 7 sacks and the OL led them to 33 yards rushing despite having two talented RBs.

You ask legit questions for us fans to dream about. However, the real key is that the players simply strap 'em on and take it one game at a time. I like the Jax game the more I think about it. Its somewhat scary as Jax after the usual pre-season SB talks finds themselves facing he prospect of an 0-2 start with losses to two AFC teams. The season is far from over if they should happen but such a loss would be a very deep hole for them to climb out of. Jax early in the season will be playing with urgency. However, though the Bills will be facing the extra penalty of playing on the road, the way the games went down yesterday will be an extra challenge for Jax. They will have to focus not on how to exploit the Bills but first on altering their own game play as a team to deal with a total failure of the OL. There will be an additional challenge to individual players as injury issues already are bedeviling the team. Add to this that after they deal with their own problems, that SEA provided them with little clue on how to exploit the Bills. In fact, rather than exploiting the Bills weaknesses, they instead with have to focus their gameplanning in stopping an aggressive and sack successful Bills team as we attempt to replicate the Titans 7 sack game, how to stop a Bills O which was workmanlike but presented threats running, at TE, and even depth at WR. Add to that they must gameplan for Parrish and also prepare themselves from Bobby April having an ability and willingness to pull rabbits out of his ST hat it will not be a fun week for Jax.

It will be interesting this weekend. I think overall the toughest thing for us is that this Jax team was talked about as a potential SB squad and they face the possibility of their season being essentially done if the go 0-2 (a recovery from such a bad start is possible but a tough row to hoe) and particularly being on their home turf they likely will be extra motivated win while the Bills will have to motivate themselves (which is certainly doable as this is what the good teams do) but the simple fact is a loss though undesirable but a loss to Jax on the road will not be fatal to the season at all. The test will be whether this team is really good or one which needs to get lucky. The set-up does look good however based on the production yesterday of these two teams. My guess is that the week will go for Jax something like: Monday- if Jax is like the Bills and much of the league Monday is a day off for the players but their coaches better be hard at work taking the Sunday game apart and analyzing the Bills Sunday game. Tuesday- Their players spend much of the day absorbing a lot of this study. They need to focus primarily on installation of different packages which address their bad play on the O side of the ball and not good enough D and ST play. Wednesday- a lot of work on the field to install these improvements and it is to be hoped by Jax installation of packages built for the Bills (though they will have so much work to do reversing Sunday's problems even this will be tough to devote much quality time to. Thursday- a full tilt workout, but the problem shows itself that preparing for the Bills means not only preparing for their D strengths shown Sunday, offensive threats demonstrated though not fully realized Sunday (Lynch was good but can be better, the OL will likely have their Pro Bowl LT back and individual prep to exploit Chambers may not even be useful, the Bills did not show TD production at WR, but Evans 4 catches were for big yardage, the TE amazingly led the team in receptions though this was not Royal's rep, and they showed depth at WR with Reed having a big catch and Hardy though not used is still as tall as he was last week) and of greatest problem the ST production requires a special focus on Parrish who must be gameplanned for, McGee who did not get much work from a lackluster SEA O, and trick plays need to be thought about and shown to the team at least once. Friday- often a day of review and walkthroughs for many NFL teams but likely will require some serious work because the week is full. Saturday- thank gosh the team does not have to travel, but given that their major OL problems seems to be injuries and the need for a lot of work this week a day of rest is virtually essential. Its gonna be a tough week for Jax and high stakes next week and it is gonna be important for the Bills to get out of these guys fast and potentially have them panic.

As a fan in the Bills nation I am disappointed with Peters for not showing up and playing (I think he could have sent the same message by showing up for pre-season game 3). However, it takes two to tango and I am disappointed with the FO (and really Ralph) and I think that while the Bills stance may have good business (itself a debatable proposition) but it was not putting the best team possible on the field and was not a profile in good sports management even if one buys the notion that it was good business practice. What use to be a sport that also happened to be a business and now has become a business that also happens to be a sport is a small semantic difference but a big change in the sport I love. The folks who do not see that the business and the sport are both legitimate things but two different things are shortsighted IMHO.

I think he demonstrated when he walked a way from the deal he had agreed to (with NYJ I think) to instead take the lucrative mega offer from the Vikes that Winfield. Clearly he had every legal "right" to walk away from a deal he had only agreed to in principle (not a problem when you have limited principles). Like other human being age seems to have lessened Winfield's game. This is not surprising as when he played great ball for us, his game was based on his being a punishing hitter despite his small body and over time those great hits almost certainly took a toll on his production. However, like Nate Clements he signed a deal worth far more than his production and stretching well beyond his best playing days. For us Bills fans who now are sitting on what appears to be a plethora of CB talent (McGee looked like the shutdown CB yesterday his youth hinted at, Greer appears somewhat overmatched as a starter, but ALL CBs get burned from time to time and it is not unreasonable to look for adequate #2 CB play from him, Youbouty is now showing the productivity which made him a 1st day choice, McKelvin clearly shows KR chops that are those of a player who can contribute, but like CB where his college play earned him an elite (top 10 choices IMHO) on both ST and CB the folks ahead of him may reasonably restrict his PT. Add to that the mutant talents shown by Corner and not resigning CBs is looking like a pretty good strategy.

IMHO, the FO as a good leader and manager of a team needed to perform the oft difficult task of avoiding this situation in the first place. Its a tough thing to do but it is success at these tough things which oft separates the winners from the losers. The Bills braintrust in this case screwed up by creating a situation where they did not: 1. Have good communication with Crowell as they thought they had. 2. Made choices of making cuts which chopped potential back-up LBs so thus they were dependent on Crowell being able to answer the bell. If they had any doubts about Crowell's status either because in their monitoring of his play they thought there might be a knee problem or in their relationship with Crowell they did not trust that he would play through the malady they should have kept another LB over an extra DB who played ST well. The Bills flat out misread the quality of their communication with Crowell and did not have good plan Bs for the misread. Stuff like this happens, but the bigger fear for this Bills fan is that the failure to manage the Crowell situation to a good conclusion joins up with the failure to manage the Peters situation to a good conclusion and failure to manage the Evans situation to a good conclusion. This simply leaves us in a situation where regardless of if you blame Crowell for screwing his teammates, Peters agent for not talking or Evans for not agreeing to a deal, the Bills FO (and I think the buck stops at Ralph's door for all of this) has not been good enough to produce good outcomes with 3 players central to the Bills putting a good product on the field.

I do not think anyone is arguing that the Bills should endorse the fact that Crowell screwed everyone, I think folks are pointing out that the Bills have pursued a strategy with failing to close deals with Evans and Peters where we are now hurt even worse because Crowell screwed us. The Bills seem to have miscalculated badly in chopping our LB situation to the bear bones where we only have 5 players at LB we can put on the field because now that Crowell has apparently made a selfish decision we are in bad shape at LB. To make matters worse, we are now confronted with a situation a great uncertainty at LB while the Bills have managed a situation where there is great uncertainty at LT and some uncertain at starting WR. I think some folks are simply stating that if one is going to put yourself in a situation where you are depending upon an LB to have good communication with you, it does not look like good management to do this when you do not haver communication to allow you to reach a permanent deal with one of your offensive captains and you do not even talk with your pro Bowl LT. Recognizing that our management style has totally failed to get the job done with a fairly wide range of players we are depending on is not the same as arguing to coddle Crowell. Don't you see the difference between these two things?

What strikes me as blindness beyond reason is to conclude that because Peters is acting like a petulant child (and IMHO he is simply being a juvenile) this means that the Bills FO is acting like a responsible adult. From what I have seen from the Peters situation BOTH the player and the team seem to be simply holding their breath and turning blue and waiting for the other side to pass out. Peters AND the team pulling these shenanigans is to the detriment of us Bills fans. Is the FO totally at fault here? NO (in fact I blame Ralph for most FO shortcomings)! However, is the FO blameless in the sad outcome we are facing. You bet in my view. Ultimately if a chunk of NFL players are petulant egotistical idiots then the measure of a good FO is that they manage idiots well. The Bills FO shows signs of not managing its players well at all. They should not escape folks observing this situation merely because Peters is a child. In fact, while one miscommunication may simply be an episode with no relevance to broader conclusions, and even two occurrences may merely be a coincidence, three or more examples of miscommunication may well be a trend that indicates broader issues. The clearly stated Crowell miscommunication and the simple facts of no deal and seemingly not even any discussion of a deal in the Peters case is troubling. When one also takes into account the reality of the team failing to have a deal with Evans, who knows for sure but the signs are there of there being a systemic problem and the team's management of its players.

I certainly have my criticisms of the Bills FO performance so maybe I'm a troll (though I guess I have been trolling here for over a decade since I first found my way to TSW when the D&C bulletin board melted down while I was in St. Louis for 7 months doing caregiver duty and TSW was a lifeline to normal life back in Buffalo. I actually don't think that the FO is the lead problem since actually fish rots from the head down and the FO has actually seemed to me to do the team owners bidding and its actually Ralph's decision making that is the lead problem as he seems to be throwing nickels around as though they were manhole covers. Part of the reason you are probably seeing more silly whining posts is because there are various legends in their own minds out there who for some reason feel they get some validity for expressing getting their panties all up in a wad about the Bills. However, part of the reason is that I think part of this is a result of Ralph's sometimes odd and often anti-Bills fan fiscal management policy. My sense is that there is a systemic problem with him that he manages what used to be a sport that happens to also be a business as though it is a business that also happens to be a sport. This is the same thing but a difference in emphasis that seems to often cost this team in game performance. The unfortunate thing is that I look at situations like Crowell apparently failing to communicate about his perception of the severity of his knee and the coaches making incorrect assumptions about how he would manage this to the extent we ended up making final cuts which emphasized ST performance over back-up LB performance and we are gonna have to hit the waiver wire before the season even starts. One miscue is a a bad episode. Even two may be a co-incidence. However, a third episode of a failure to communicate may well be a trend. Whatever you feel about whose fault it is it is clear the Bills do not have a good communication regime with Jason Peters. The Bills and Evans are still talking and saying good things on both sides. However, the fact is that they have failed to make a deal and perhaps this is a third miscommunication that may add up to an FO habit of not communicating effectively with their players.

The NFL teams (and thus the Bills) have already made their choice regarding what their relative relationship is to the players (NFLPA) when the players guided by a bunch of smart NYC lawyers responded to getting their head handed to them in the mid-80s replacement player fight. The team owners completely beat the NFLP to a pulp in that dispute but the response from the NFLPA was to threaten to decertify itself and force NFL owners to have free-market negotiations with individual players (rather than restraining trade with the draft and other non-free market un-American rules). Rather than compete in a free-market (which likely would have destroyed the NFL as an entertainment product), the team owners (NFL) agreed to the CBA which provided a form of free agency and made the NFLPA partners with the NFL rather than simply employees. The most recent CBA arguably set the NFLPA as majority partners with Upshaw declaring the final deal needed to have players get a portion of the total revenues which started at 60%. The NFL over the minimal objections of Ralph and the Packers agreed to this deal because 40.5% of an NFL which got huge amounts of cash from the TV networks was gonna be a ton more $ than the team owners got from the old pre-replacement player deal and even from the old CBA with its designated gross. My sense is that if there is some way to entirely cut out the middle man of team owners as these dinosaurs really are redundant these days that is probably the most economically efficient way of operating. The bad thing for this as a Bills fan is that even though Ralph has been a meddling idiot who has mismanaged team building since the great early 90s teams, he has kept the franchise here. However, the best solution if one were god (or the football economics equivalent) would be an NFL which kept the Bills here and had a team owner that did not stoop to Jason Peters level when it came to negotiating with Jason Peters (or producing the same bad results with his management of John Butler, hiring of TD, handshake agreement with Jimbo or other Ralph fiscal debacles). The Packers model would seem to be a potential good one for small market control of a team. We will see.

You and what army! (a simplistic idiotic response is not my usual overly verbose repetitive response but it seemed to be the appropriate next line in the chain you describe).

I think the mistake by some here (and it is to be hoped the Bills staff and Parker but neither side has shown much intelligence on this so far as Parker refuses to talk and the Bills as best as I can tell want him to play another year before they do a deal) is that football intelligent folks should see there are more than two choices here. The whole thing comes off as the same bizarre electoral campaign which has the GOP and the Dems both doing us a disservice by pretending there are only two choices here (there maybe in that case where you have to cast one vote but that vote needs to be based on candidates who admit the reality that there are at lot more than two choices for any problem). A football intelligent outcome is actually beyond my expertise a bit as I do not know all the details of the situation or have command of all the factors involving the game. However, it seems manifestly clear to me that the "right" choice for both the Bills and for Peters would be to: 1. Agree to a new contract which gives Peters a ton more money than he likely ever dreamed of and outpaces the potential size of all past Bill contracts. 2. The Bills and Peters operate as the partners that teams and the modern NFL players are today and together have the Bills certainly lay out a lot of cash in upfront or guaranteed money, but the back-end of the deal gives Peters the kings ransom in exchange for actual performance or simply staying on the roster. This type of deal has a ton of details which will be the devil. No player would want to sign a deal which allows an NFL team to do what they currently have the full right to do which is cut a player at any time and walk away from any money they agreed to pay. The Bills/Peters will need to find a happy medium which gives Peters enough cash upfront so that the Bills also join him in the risk that he will be able to perform at the growing rate he has consistently shown in his first years as a Bill. The team can manage the cap hit of this guaranteed payout by giving him a chunk of change up front and not paying yet but guaranteeing future bonuses (boni?). In addition, some of this huge contract can be unguaranteed base salary which Peters gets if he plays well enough to make the roster but the Bills can walk away from if he sucks (or has some non-insured injury. Peters needs to be adult enough to realize that Bills have already given him more money than a UDFA can reasonably expect with the extension which binds him to the Bills for three more seasons and that though he can reasonably be paid tons more because in the past three years he has not only produced at an amazing level becoming an NFL starter at LT after a UDFA pick-up as a TE. However, the Bills need to be adult enough to realize that "merely" by making the Pro Bowl as an LT after he was a UDFA at TE that Peters has pulled off achievements while they certainly do not guarantee his a HOFer at LT really is quite phenomenal and easily (IMHO) justifies signing him to an even longer extension for largely but not completely guaranteed cash. IMHO the problem here is not simply that Peters is a greedy doughnut eating slob who has shown only one season of phenomenal achievement (Would you agree that being passed over in the draft by everyone's judgment but then proving quickly good enough to force your way onto an active roster, switch positions, make a starting role and then be voted in as Pro Bowl starter is not phenomenal or did you predict that all along?). The problem here is that both sides are simply holding their breath til they turn blue and are acting quite juvenile. Together they need to reach a deal which shows Peters a lot but not all the money.

The question of whether he is a top blocker is clearly one of the various opinions that makes the NFL fun because everyone is entitled to their opinion. However, the arguments that he is "one of those top blockers" is not only buttressed by the fact his peers, coaches, and fans voted him the Pro Bowl starter, but: 1. His rapid rise from TE to ST to starting RT to starting LT is a statement of more than one season wonder status but marks three seasons of rapid and consistent progress. I would be more worried about him being a flash in the pan if he did suddenly showed talent at a position he never showed talent playing before, but his "sudden" talent is a natural progression in the path of achievement he has shown. 2. The basis for this talent is embodied in JMac declaring him the most athletically talented OL player he had ever coached. Again his production in 07 is consistent with this assessment rather than coming out of the blue. 3. The word on him in previous seasons has not been of him as a prima donna but as a player with good attitude who has routinely taken whatever role was assigned to him even if it was not the TE role which first attracted NFL interest to get him signed as a UDFA. He took an offensive lineman number right from the start, proved unblockable to earn a contributing role on the team and eventually proved himself to be an OL talent. Is he proven to be an eventual HOF OL player? Nope, not by a long shot and the Bills should show due diligence before rolling up the vault for him. However, due diligence is not being juvenile to Peters being juvenile. Rather than holding their breath til the turn blue while Peters also holds his own breath, i think the Bills would be better sportsmen (and actually I think smarter businessmen as well) if they cut a deal with Peters which is more in line with the market reality (the NFL ain't a free market at all as the NFLPA and the NFL have made an agreement embodied in the CBA to restrain trade in an un-American way. IMHO the Bills should deal with Peters as the partner which the players have become under the new CBA and enter into a deal which of course has an out if Peters cannot oass a physical and which shares the risk of peters getting hurt so that everyone feels felt held harmless if Peters really has a health problem.

Part of the reason that the conversation amped up a bit in 93 was because the economics of the game changed a lot when the NFL and NFLPA settled several lawsuits and established the foundations of the salary cap under the comprehensive bargaining agreement. This agreement brought increased focus and agreement to the LT's importance to the OL not only because people said so but because they put their money where the mouths were and routinely would pay more for the LT than the other OL positions (in the first decade or so of the CBA ironically, the one exception to the LT getting all the top 10 OL salaries was what the Bills paid to Reuben Brown). The LT position also gained in prominence as relative to the franchise tag value of other positions, the LT salaries surpassed what it took to buy most other positions. The Wolford 97 deal was not a cause of folks placing importance on the LT it seems mostly to have been a demonstration of an effect. One can easily try to paint this as a fad rather than as some statement about the importance of the LT on the football field, but to do this one has to also make the assumption that virtually all teams have bought into this fad to the extent they are willing to put real money on the line in terms of the salary cap allocation to this position. While possible this view does not seem probable at all and the factors folks have mentioned such as focus on guarding the blindside, the usual placement of the Ds best rusher to exploit the blindside and a factor I do not think has drawn as much attention as it should in this thread that the RT has the advantage of having both a Guard on one shoulder and the TE on the other while the LT simply needs to be both big enough to block at the point of attack for the run but also agile enough to block a rusher coming around the outside where he has no protection. The LT is unique in that no other OL player has to play with his outside uncovered and thus he is worth more than a C, a G or an RT.