Pyrite Gal

I'm do not think there is a team in the league that can survive injuries to both a Pro Bowl player and to the leading tackler in the NFL the last 5 years. Do you or anyone else. If this happens then this team will be lucky of they are reduced to a Haggan level starter (good ST production but unproven position player production).

dave i am glad you and DeLuca are exchanging over a pretty direct disagreement on an assessment of Peerless Price's career. I think this is one of two issues that one's opinion on really determines whether he is a good risk to be what we need aty #2 or #3 WR, Firat, I am glad you support your view of his career with the Bills (the lionshare of his career) with a link to some stats because I think your view is pretty nuch totally correct about Price's work and DeLuca's view diverge from both the stats we have and my memory of his work as a Bill. You strke me as completely correcty in noting that even the few fumbles he had as a Bill actually came when he was fighting for extra yards and was caused by a second hit when someone had his ankles. I'm not sure where DeLuca draws the idea from of Peerless having a case of the droppsies and I am disappointed he does not support this claim with any objective facts. I think you are right. The second issue is one that is an assessment of his health. There is some word that PP's total failure to become a credible #1 with AT was linked to a visual issue for him. If this is true we were stupid to sign him. If on the other hand the Bills docs made a judgement he could play, it is almost certainly a good move. Given their good call with WM and a pretty good record of assessing injuries and managing rehab of the Bills I think that the docs get the benefit on my doubt on this over posters who rant against Price and actually fail to link to any objective facts to support their claims.

No. Clearly I was quite poor in expressing my logic because you fairly completely misunderstand it. My logic expresses the sense that there is not any completely extreme approach to building a winning team because building a winner involves balancing superficially contradictory approaches rather than embracing totally one approach (like doing EITHER a NEED approach to drafting OR a Best Available Player approach). Just as it would be dumb to fail to draft WM, when you your read of the market indicates you have a good chance at picking up the DE you are after in the 2nd, and further, you have an RB (Henry) you plan to trade because you think he is an idiot in a year and your docs tell you that a top 5 value in this draft can be had at #23 because he is hurt and needs a full year off to geal. TD did a great job balancing multiple factors in the '03 draft because: 1. He gauged that the early run on DL players gave him a good shot at Kelsay whom he credibly could have picked at #23 and we had a screaming need at DE as we were still recovering from the switch from a 3-4 to a 4-3. 2. He also looked ahead to see that Henry's stupid money management had bought us an extra year of owning his rights cheaply and this ownership gave us the ability to sit the BAP WM for a year because of his two well over 1000 yard years. This was a perfect example of TD pursuing and fortunately achieving a result which provided us with a choice that met this teams' needs in 2003 (another DE player good enough to contribute immediately) while also getting the best player available at the #23 pick (WM was judged a top 5 or higher pick prior to his injury). My apologies for failing to communicate my logic properly because clearly you presentation of what you believe to be my football logic is totally incorrect. In the AJ Hawk situation the Bills might have gotten the best player available if they took him, but this BAP pick would have left holes in this team which were essential to fill under the expressed desire and logic of Marv which was to win quickly if not immediately. In addition to a Hawk pick setting back building a winning team by leaving critical holes at SS (the 4th safety had been picked by the time the Bills second came around) and DT (the 3rd DT had been picked when our 2nd pick came around and none were even selected in the 2nd round), it would have resulted in millions in cap hit sitting on our bench and not contributing since we both ASSUME Hawk is good enough to start immediately. Good players are drafted and have to come from some where this is a fact. However, there is simply a difference between the above fact and a conclusion that the best way to get good players is through the draft. The draft is a crap shoot as even NFL professionals are far from flawless at choosing successful players. We fans might try to maintain that we are so much brighter than NFL professionals that we do a much better or flawless job at picking successful players even though we are missing critical pieces of information like having our docs examine them and also interview them directly, but this seems fairly hard to believe. Do you or anyone else claim that you can predict who will be successful flawlessly or even better than NFL professionals even without the two above pieces of info? There is actually a fairly low standard of NFL success from the draft crapshoot as I have yet to see anyone use more than fact-free opinion to contravert TDs claim that only 50% of even first round choices turn out to be NFL quality players of the level generally expected of an NFL 1st round choice. Unless you can give some credible indication that you can do better (again while missing a lot of critical medical info and having the ability to intensely interview college players), it is hard for me to see how you justify picking even a player you and I think will be as good as Hawk given the holes this leaves on a team which has expressed a need to win now and whose owner has shown a hatred of paying folks big bucks to sit.

I keep making the it would have been a mistake to draft Hawk (even if he dropped to 8 and it would have been rediculous to trade up for him) not because I do not think he will be a great player (I think he will be even though I see the draft as a crapshoot anyway). I keep making the point because some folks do not seem to understand that there is a difference between picking good players and building a good team. I think Hawk would kill the Bills who as RWS is aging and after 5 non playoff years want/need to go for the playoffs now and cannot wait to build toward the future as a goal. I think it was decided before the draft (and as a future is now fan I agree with it) that in the first two round where first year starters can reasonably be found (though even this is not a certainty) this team was gonna go NEED rather than BAP. The extension of Crowell, Stamer and Haggan to go with TKO (all signs point to recovery at this point and even an 80% TKO is better than 100% of most players at LB), Fletch and Posey under contract drafting Hawk would force this team and Ralph to sit millions in cap room on the bench not contributing. Even worse, by drafting Hawk with our first round choice we would have been forced to fill the holes at SS and DT with lesser players. These two items would have set back team building by at least a year if not two. We would have drafted a great player (likely) but we would have set back even the possibility of building a winning team this year (certainly) and even nect year (possibly likely). Second, I see no problem throwing around the possbility we got three first round level talents on fay one. First, though the draft remains a creapshoot, by defintion Whitner and McCargo were drafted in the 1st round. This does not mean they will succeed as the crapshoot of the draft simply means folks from reaches like Flowers to well regarded idiots like Leaf and Williams were drafted in the first rount. The question is Yobouty. Yet, he clearly is being talked about as a guy some expected to go in the 1st. Most important for talking about him as someone expected to go in the first is the analysis of why he slipped down. The consensus analysis I have seen is that he slipped because of inconsistency which some trace to his being an inexperienced youngster. In addition, as the most highly regarded CB in the draft slipped, this also pushed down the less well-regarded CBx like Yobouty. He is worth throwing around the reference as a player some folks had as a 1st round level talent because: 1. Seeing no likely first year starters at the need psition of OL in Rd 3, the Bills them switched to a BAP emphasis. If the Bills were picking Yobouty to start immediately I really doubt this would happen even if they had gotten him in the 1st as some expected. However, we are going to try to deal with his inexperience by instead having him practice covering Evans et al. and watching former Pro Bowlers NC and McGee play CB and even learn under the guidance of former CB ProBowler Troy Vincent. 2. He seems to have first round talent but third round age and experience so i have no problem hypothesizing he may be a first round talent. 3. He will get to compete for significant playing time as the increased use of thrrr WR set has made the nickel position more like a pseudo starter than a reserve. I expect Greer and/or King to beat him but he will get a shot. If he merited a 1st round choice we will see soon enough but given this chance it is worth throwing around this idea. I jave zero problems talking about him this way as I value team building far more than drafting. These are two related items but as seen in the paradox that a great player like Hawk actually likely hurts development of this team on a timline the Golden Boys are on they are different items.

I think the answer to your question (and some other posts in this thread are: 1. I think there is good hope and expectation of reloading the ST through the draft and other Bills actions: Eveb though a key to our winning ways in the early 90s was the work of out ST, some folks still do not seem to get it that this facet is proavly at least an important and critical 1/4 to maybe a full 1/3 of winning this game. Though it is tough to find stats which summarize it, I think the collection of stats (I think led by a Texas paper) which has declared the Bills the best overall ST in the league two years running is pretty accurate. Its tough to get a lot better than being first but maintaining this performance is critical to this team as the D and O are not likely to meet all our hopes/expectations of improvement. However: A. ST co-ordinator Bobby April is back and has been rewarded with the additional title of Asst. HC so this is the first step of mainetenance. B. A hallmark of Marv in his initial Bills run was actually his commitment to ST so there will be a focus in practice time and player acquisition on this front. C. The draft clearly showed selection of players noted for ST performance in college and heightened competition on this team which not only should improve starting play but the losers will be asked to and can improve their lot with strong ST play. T think this team will at least maintain its ST performance and may well get better. Either of these is key to improvement. 2. It is only pretty certain that the D will get better because they were so bad last year, but there is good reason to hope/expect it to get better. A. Jauron is known as a D HC, I think we can expect some good scheme stuff from this former NFL Coach of the Year and his DC Fenell while not showing outstanding results should work well with Jauron and has the potential to add to the Cover 2 with his experiences with a D which in essence was Cover 3. B. This D is actually only a year removed from fininishing #2 statistically in the NFL after being #5 the year before, There are personnel holes from the bunch that ran the zone blitz well but given the horrible performance last year, changes had to be made, There are legitimate questions as to whether the newbies (particularly McCargo) can fill these holes, but there is a possibility they can and a good chance that even with problems that having some past D success guys in charge they can compensate if players do not work out or are hurt. I expect the D to imporve from being statistically at the bottom of the league to at least the middle of the pack and maybe even better is not totally outlandish. 3. The O is my biggest worry for improvement, but: A. It is quite likely we improve for performance at QB where TD panicked and at least rushed JP before he was ready if not made a bad choice totally. Either way, I think that though JP will be first among equals for the chance at the starting job, Holcomb is a reliable back-up whom we will go to if JP falters and indicates he will never learn, In addition, we have the intriguing Nall who i doubt will be more than a back-up but this unproven player will get a chance to prove himself. Agan if only because it was so bad last year QB production is likely to get better. B. The OL is actually the big question mark, but I think that not only does moving beyong theMW era give us addition by subtaction, the starting crew IMHO is at least as talented as the NYG OL that JMac coached to an SB which was led by Glenn Parker at LT (he was not much better than the merely adequate Gandy) and Dusty Ziegler (Fowler actually produced better than the Duster as a C before landing their starting jobs. IMHO work still needs to be done, but it is work to sign better back-ups which I think are still out there in FA land ad it can be done. C. I think that even if Moulds had stayed he would have been #2 behind Evans. I do not think that PP is capable of being a #1 but he already has shown he can be a #2 WR and if the docs check off on his health they have earned the benefit of the doubt with a great call on WM. Parrish has potential to step up to #2, but even if he is not there yet, he can be a potent #3 with soeed guys Evans and PP. I like the competition between Aiken, Reed and Davis (with Fast Freddy thrown in) to be #4 ir 5. D. I think folks who are disappointed in WM ignore the simple fact he is the fastest to gain over 2000 yards of ANY Bills back including OJ amf TT. This fact does not count for everything and does not guarantee better production from him after his yardage outage in the second half of last year. However, it is a relevant fact which should not be totally ignored by those who fear he is not what they hoped for. While there is not guarantee that Thomas will return to the form which made him a 1000+ rusher with the Bears, we do not need him to be at #1 form simply #2, I write off Shaud as a #2 but think he was an effective change-up who can be a #3 and at least will be competition with Thomas. I think this area will be not only slightly improved by the personnel but actually with a more effective O than last year and better blocking this should be a better effort. I am acutally more concerned at FB where the braintrust seems to have more faith in Shelton than I do. E. Some folks were wetting their pants over Vernon Davis, but Royal is a proven NFL starter with good blocking ability who at least is comparable to what whathisname who was cut produced. Everett is still a well-regarded rookie. Euhus was impressive before his injury (though no Gonzales) it is not unreasonable to see a player need a full season after an ACL tear to get back to their old form and IMHO is not unreasonable to hope he will be a reasonable #2. I think the O should improve at least marginally this year. In the end, we are all tied 0-0 at this point and it is not unreasonable to both hope the Bills will improve significantly or even to expect that this will occur. 8-8 is a significant improvement over 5-11 and in this league where worst to first is possibe like never before it would be the height of panic to give up on the season before anyone even bests you and to hope even beyond logic for the playoffs. Thios objectively is why i think we will be better.

I agree with you acknowledging that I the poster who call himself I Forgot... made a couple of good points looking at the issue that the Bills are handling this based on operating with a trust relationship with a player. In addition, I think JDG made a great point that folks who are hyperventilating that NC now has no incentive to make a deal are ignoring the possibility of injury (which is the big incentive for NC to make any deal. It also is a great point that given the likelihood the cap # is gonna go up, that the Bills believe there is no way they are gonna undergo the franchise cap hit next year so if you are not going to use this option anyway, its useful to get something out of giving it away by getting NC into camp early this year and setting a positive tone for the relationship (which both the Bills and NC seem to be doing with their comments). Finally, there is also the factor that NC is definitely coming off a disappointing year which has lowered his leverage. He seems to have great confidence in himself that he will play well and reverse this next year, but he also needs to have confidence in the new defensive system which depends a lot on the there being a good pass rush to allow him not to get burned too much. All these factors mean to me: 1. Anyone who concludes that ALL the leverage is now NC's are simply ignoring reality. If only that no one can predict the future the prime leverage for making a deal is still there for NC and the Bills may well have given up one piece of leverage they had decided they would lose and many could predict they would lose anyway. 2. The major occurence here is the reality of both sides articulating that they are much happier with the current situation than they were before (NC says he has come to grips with him being forced to merely take the multi-million dollars of the tag and Jauron expressing great happiness with NC being in camp. I'm afraid all the distress may end up coinciding with a bad result later, but for right now it probably says more about the poster than about the situation. We have a lot of driving to do but the Bills are still in the driver's seat on this situation.

This is very interesting stuff. However, the really interesting thing about it strikes me how impossible it is at this point to make good predictions which if they turn out to be correct its mostly really gonna be attributable to coincidence and luck rather than football knowledge. At this point there are so many things which no one knows for sure like: 1. What will be the actual Cover 2 D scheme we use and how will players used to make this scheme work (if our Cover 2 is really the same as what Jauron employed historically and is not altered to embody Fennell;s experience, the talents of the players we have and most of all so opponents cannot predict it we will get killed). 2. ST play quality will have a huge impact on marginal decisions regarding who stays and who goes (all players will have to contribute to this team to stay and the primary contribution back-ups can make will be on ST and this will likely determine a lot who stays rather than how good of a position player they are). 3. Contracts and deadspace will make be a significant marginal factor in who gets cut or not (The Bills have actually extended a chunk of contracts and will have an indiidual doable amount of deadspace when some them are cut but collectively its gonna mean lesser players get kept. No one outside of the signers knows the exact dates and language of the contracts- though we know a lot thanks to Clumpy- or how we will put together the collective impact). 4. Marv is renowned for managing the braintrust as a team rather than having decisions made by one individual who style or decisions are easily predicted (Marv's main fight during his HC time seemed to be with Marchibroda whom clearly developed a system which worked, but it appears that one of marv's issues was that Teddy's system was Teddy's rather than a collaboration. Collaborative decision-making is far more difficult to predict). 5. Injuries will make a difference whether a player stays or goes or needs to be backed-up (there are some factors like injury proneness or recurring injury which show themselves to us outsiders, but a lot that teams are keeping secret or sending out disinformation about and this factor will be difficult to predict as well) 6. other stuff. The bottomline here IMHO is not that this is too difficult to predict to talk about, but simply that it is hard to take these predictions as more than a posters fact-free opinions that they like a player or do not like him for whatever reason they choose. The predictions themselves are interesting just pretty impossible to take seriously at this point and probably not until reports from the camps are circulated and a couple of pre-season games occur.

I'm surprised that all of this is so consistent with what how it looked like the players would be used when the regular season hits.

The Bills are loaded at LB, they simply are not locked and loaded yet while the TKO recovery from injury is uncertain. Crowell was not only drafted as an MLB but actually had the back-up RB slot behind Fletch in pre-season action until the injury to TKO brought him to the starting WLB spot which he did a good job in occupying last year (he was no TKO but few are). As an MLB he not only had pass coverage duty but did play calling when he was in and just as the move to the WKN position was doable for him so does a move to SLB seem doable to me should we choose to try this. Posey like much of the rest of the D sucked last year. However, even those who complained about Posey in 04 and 03 (TSW knowlegable guy Simon for example) never came up with specific plays or examples where their complaints about turning the wrong way or taking a bad angle of attack resulted in a player who Posey was covering getting a TD or breaking a long run. He only has excelled during his career in a 3-4 (he got 8 sacks to attract the Bills attention as an FA), but he strikes me as being at least adequate if not a little better than adequate in 03 and 04 as the starting SLB on the #5 and #2 ranked Ds in the NFL What Posey did these two years which was pivotal to the function of one of the best statistical Ds in the NFL was that he proved to be a player who could both run stop and pass cover and he was smart enough to make the correct read and play this freelance role in our working zone blitz those two years. Some folks got all bright-eyed and creamy over AJ Hawk, but this would have been a bad move for team building as he likely would have started immediately and even if one cut Posey, it still forces Crowell who recently signed a big extension deal to the bench. This not only would be a waste of resources but would have left us without Whitnet and a hole at SS and still needing to trade up to get McCargo or fill the DT hole with our 3ed round pick. When one adds to this we have also extended Haggan and Stamer, the Bills really are locked at LB. To answer the question directly. I think Crowell will start either beating out Posey at SLB or if TKO can't come back like we want he gets the call at Will and Posey stays and starts at Sam. If we need the cap room cut him, but if not he is fine by me as a back-up LB (though I hope we are active enough getting back-up OL guys from the FAs and any roster bonus forced cuts of LBs that we do decided to cut him for cap room.

I believe the rules are that the Bills had to offer NC the tender at the franchise tag level or not when the deadline came up prior to this years FA signing period. They did this and I do know anyone who felt that they should not have done this with the franchise tag number for FAs down and the total team cap # up. The decision made today to accept the Bills tender was all NC's and not the Bills so I'm not sure what problem you have with the Bills's decision here. NC's decision to sign the deal provides the advantage to the Bills that NC is definitely with the team and he came to the first day or rookie camp with TKO and other vets which is a great sign. Even better, this move by NC by rule does not preclude him signing a long term deal with the Bills or from doing this and the tag becoming free for the Bills to use on whomever. Even better than the technical application of the rules, both NC and the Bills spoke positively about this decision. Jauron saying he was pleased to have NC commited to the Bills for 06 and also reporting to camp at the earliest possible date to learn the new D. NC also said all the right things saying he was pissed initially at getting tagged but that he now looked at it from the Bills perspective and that it was the proper move for them to manage a player of his talent level (cough cough) and actually was a compliment. He hoped that his accepting the offer and the fear the Bills would in fact lose the tag if he played under it, would ratchet up negotiations to a good long term conclusion. In other words, the general expectation is that the Bills and NC should conclude a deal by July 15 (over two months from now) and certainly will have no real danger of losing the tag until then. This move is a good one for Nate, a goos one for the Bills and I do not see anything in reality that one would be upset about.

This win turns the next game into a must win for the Sens and gives the Sabres a chance to really stick a fork in them by outplaying them as a team or having Miller step up and steal one. Even if the Sabs win the next one it isn't over until its over so nothing should be taken for granted and the key is for them to focus on the next game and even simply the next play. However, the implications of the Sabres focusing on the next game and winning it are huge. I say stick a fork in them.

The key question though is how well this team does stopping the run with fast relatively light guys like Triplett, Anderson, and Mccargo at DT rather than an enormous run stuffer in the Big Ted mold or what Ngata was alleged to be. We deliberately are going with 300 pounders or less across the DL rather than having at least one rock who tips the scales at 340. It can work with the lighter faster athletes but it will be interesting to see. Our DBs look forbodeing but unless we stop the run our LBs will need to pinch up opening the middle of the field to exploitation and unless these quick DL guys pressure the QB (not necessarily sacks just pressure will work as opposing QBs will have no time to wait for his receivers to break free of our strong DBs) it will be a long day for even talented DBs. We'll see.

This is an intelligent post which also provides a clear showing that you are a secure enough and strong enough person to admit mistakes and failings (I wish we had more of this type of strength from the politicians in charge of those things who refuse to acknowledge their mistakes and to make sure that there is accountability but then thats another rant). I join this thread to also plead guilty to saying whhhaatt when I heard our draft choices, even though I did have the sense to wait abit before ramting about these choices and actually was changing my mind that day (the fact ESPN said it was bad was a clear sign that maybe it was good). Even though i did not get my panties all up in a wad and wail like some on TSW, my owned failed initial assessment is wortn noting as the more I find out about the players taken, the better i feel about this draft and have a sense that Marv may be a pretty smart football cookie despite his age, A players draft value and his ability to contribute to the team two different things. They are obiiously related, but I think that the better choices are made by those who recognize that these are two different things. AJ Hawk for example had a deservedly high draft value, but if we had picked him for some reason (heaven forbid we had traded up for him) his selection would have set this team back by at least a year and probably two. Draft value and contribution to a team are two different things. The Bills did lousy I amassing draft value (likely reach for Whitner an almost certainly for McCargo and Yobouty selection ended all chances of using this draft to improve OL) but made excellent selections for this team as we may have gotten 3 1st round level players on day one.

This draft really pointed out that draft value of a player and a player;s ability to help a particular thing are really too different things. In general, as no one knows which team a player will end up on for sure, so his draft value is a statement (often wrong for a particular team unfortunately as no one knows what the future holds) of how good of an athlete he is and all things being eqyual how good a player this athlete may become. However, all things are never equal in real life. It makes far more sense for a team to take a lesser athlete if he is the best player available at the time of their pick at a position of need if they judge filling that need is the one missing element for them going deep in the playoffs. The Bills were a variant on this approach because though we are clearly more than one player away from even making the playoffs, the team had a primary need to win now because Bills fans find 5 straight seasons of no playoffs to be unacceptable and because Ralph ain't getting any younger. The draft can be a useful tool for getting one or two players who may contribute immediately and a bunch of depth to develop. However, the Bills calculated that they could cut Adams and Milloy due to age and contract and actually get two first round level replacements for them from the draft. Even better, a first round level talent (Iobouty) slipped to the third due to inconsistency likely linked to lack of experience. As we are set at CB for 06 thanks to the franchise tag, we actually got three players deemed first round level talents by some pundits and obviously the Bills on the first day. Whitner was almost certainly a stretch in terms of draft value but our draft was more about filling position needs created by the cuts of players who can start immediately or at least quickly. McCargo is judged by most as a stretch in trading up to get him in the first (though apparently his stock was rising and as no DT was taken in the 2nd at all he appears to be the third best DT available. We could not risk the possibility of losing the only other safety we judged metited a 1st round pick after Huff was gone and folks like Balt were rumored to take him so we could not risk a trade down. Likewise with McCargo, rumor has it the Accorsi and NYG might have taken him in the first if we had not and we could not run that risk. Our third round pick was not based on position need (if it was we likely would have taken the best OL player available) but on contractual issues as this pick gives us even mor leverage over NC and gets us a talent who will at least compete for the nickel job with Greer and King and potemtially gives us two starter level talents under contract at CB next year even without NC or Greer or King stepping up. The Bills draft (with good ST contributor type players picked in th draft) strikes me as lousy for draft value but very good in terms of contributing to team development.

I thought is was a "Get Out of Hell Free" card that OJ needed. One thing which really make me hope there is after life is so that someone like OJ can get the punishment he deserves there since our system will not do it.

This view is certainly grounded in his desire to be the next Mel Kiper and opinionize rather than report, but everybody has an opinion and they all are aout worth the same thing and his view is not outlandish. McCargo is the big question mark and there are good reasons to think/hope he works out and also good reason to have serious doubts about this. The kwy seems to me whether he was the one who made the other DL players on his team better by drawing attention or whether he is overrated because he played with other good players. IF the Bills had their doubts about Ngata and Bunkley (both may be good but both also can be reasonably doubted as well, then trading up to assure they got the 3rd DT picked in the draft when no other NFL team (all of them, everyone) did not judge any of the other DTs worthy of a 2nd round pick) was likely a good move. Given that there is word that Accorsi would have plucked him with a late 1st and if this is true it was a very good move. Most of all if Mccargo proves it on the field and plays well enough to start immediately or at least in his first year this will be a great move. 2. He is right about the Youbouty pick because it really does give the Bills 3 players judged to be first round talents by reputable sources on the first day. I know folks are freaked about not using a 1st day pick on the OL, but quite frankly unless you do this then forget the draft as more than a long-term OL investment. With D'Brick chosen and Justice dropping like a rock and the Bills more than correctly made this BAP pick in the third. We already had leverage over NC and now it ain't even funny how much leverage we have in these negotiations.. I do not expect or even hope to get much more than future development talent from the draft and given we picked a bunxh of young trainable athletes who can make a contribution on ST, I liked out draft.

JP clearly did not perform except in flashes like the first quarter of the Miami game, that is clearly true, but I think it is panicking a bit for a decision to be made that he can never make it in the NFL. Preferably he would have his pre-season training in pre-season, and I say sit his butt down if he is the one stopping us from winning. However, last season it was actually the fact that we could not stop the run at all that was made sure we were not gonna win regardless of how JP or Holcomb played. The Bills IMHO opinion screwed up by sitting JP, not because he was any good (he was not) but because once it was clear we were not gonna stop the run (our run D sucked the first couple of games with TKO in there and we clearly were done with TKO out), but because last season was the equivalent of a pre-season where they could have let JP learn from making mistakes or demonstrate far more clearly that he will likely never learn. He started out as a pro playing horibbly in the mop-up for Bledsoe in NE, but he did show clear improvement each game he mop-upped in his first partial season. He definitely looked even worse in his 8 starts last year, but given the reality of his contract, a team would be dumb to Brett Favre/Steve Young him now. The folks who say no one should have a favorite right now if what they care most about is the Bills. I think the massive JP contract does make him first among equals in my book and it is his job to lose, but I can easily see sitting his butt unless he at least shows enough that he can be developed or if Nall or Holcomb simply play lights out and take the job by the neck.

Yhe comfusion on this particular with the blocking scheme on this particular play was probably contributed in part by this game film actually coming from a pre-season rather than a regular season game last year. This certainly does not excuse the Bills play and there were a ton of regular season games where similar meltdowns by the Bills can be found, though this particular game featured no gameplanning for the defense faced and in general the defenses of both teams were way ahead of the Os in terms of performance. My recollection is that even the Bills D which quickly proved to be a sieve against opposing offenses had a good outing (I think the Bears finally broke a big run late)this game. Still pre-season is a good thing for assessing individual performances which is why Briggs should get props for a great read and react on this play. As far as the Bills perhaps the problem hear with Teague was that he did not react anywhere near effectively when several different Bills (include a nice catch by you of WR faux pas) may have missed their assignments. Teague struck me as a good athletic players when everyone else did their job, but he never was a player capable of making an outstanding play when other players broke down.

Way too early to tell regarding specific players and if you want to assume some hypothetical dead lock certains John Elway level of play on Quinn's part the hypothetical gets fairly outlandish fairly quickly. The real answer is let see how a good chunk of 2006 goes before we devote much worry to 2007 decisions.

Some pundits actually had McCago as the second best DT in the draft because they either had no belief in Ngata because of questions about inconsistency or about Bunkley as a flash in the pan who showed great results late that raised his draft value but question his long term value to a team. Who knows for sure as the draft is a crap shoot in the big picture, but the one thing we do know with some degree of certainty was that there was no DT chosen in the 2nd round at all and even if one felt Bunkley and Ngata were the top two, there was gonna be a big drop-off to the third best DT according to everyone in the NFL. While first round choices are expected to start immediately and second round choices are expected to start at some point in the first year, it starts getting docey in the third round. The Bills clearly wanted a first year if not immediate starter at DT when they cut Adams and Edwards. If they had not judged Mccargo as being a player who could fulfill this mandate then they likely would have gone for either Ngata or Bunkley with the #8 or simply not cut both former starter DTs.

Getting McNair would make for the one of the most exciting and successful episodes in Bills history... for about 15 minutes until he got hurt as he is well into the backside of his career.

What about Ochs, doesn't he deserve a bone a well.

While Butler owes NO additional explanation because he has already been punished and apologized and has a clear record of past high character, the Bills would be well served I believe by being pro-active in explaining all these facts and how they coincide with their announced intent to focus on drafting high quality guys. You may know of Butler's past good history and I may know of Butler's past good history, but you and I and the most of the rest of us crazy TSW folks are not like normal folks. Normal folks love their Bills but do not share your and my psychotic allegiance to TSW. Butler as a person and the Bills as a business are two different things (do you disagree?). The bills set a standard for themselves and their business by announcing that the team was going to focus on getting players of the highest character. While we are learning the details of Butler's past life and actions that has made us comfortable that the pick of Butler was consistent with the Bills statement of character. Normal folks to the extent they care may well only hear that he was suspended for a past transgression where he went after the knees of a fellow player after a play was over or see the short videotape on the news of him doing this without any context provided. My point was not that Butler owes anybody anything since he has been punished and apologize, my point was that it is merely sound business practice for the Bills to state how their action of drafting Butler fits their previous commitment to high character. Do you disagree that the presentation of the videotape without context (the US media is big on the dramatic and often forgets context as this is how they make their nickels) or the presentation of only the simple fact that the ills drafted a player who was once suspended for a low character act without taking the time to present the fuller story is bad business and unfortunately happens all too often in this world of folks looking to make a splash rather than take the time to talk the facts?

Again as I said in my original post I do not thin Butler owes anyone an explanation because he already has apologized and been punished for the cheap shot. There is a great link provided above that has an article where any number of people talk about his generally high character and that these three seconds were an aberration in his life. The answer to your question as to why would anyone think qant an explanation is actually though Butler has dealt with this episode, the Bills would br smart IMHO to be aggressive in telling the story embodied in the article and about Butle's generally high character. It is the Bills who actually put the player character issue into great play when the Bills announced this would be a key for them. Unless they are proactive then basically to the extent any message gets to Bills potential customers and WNYers about Butler it will simply be the video snippet of him going after the knee of an opponent after the play was over. Butler owes no explanation it would be prudent for the Bills to do so though since they have put the character issue generally into play.

Thanks for the great link to a good summary of Butler's like prior to and just after the "incident." As I said in my original post. I think the case is closed for Butler the UVA player and he simply owes noexplanation. However, I think what the Bills "owe" or at the very least should want to make a proactive case and tell their customers is thaat when they announced that an empasis for this team is to draft high character guys that there are testimonials to Butler like the ones in this link that show it was a episodic error that he has been punished for and he owes no other explanation unless another episode occurs. If the Bills are not pro-active in getting out the word like the ones in your link, then those who know anything about Butler will simply remember the cheap shot. I hope the Bills are lining up the press hit whe camp starts that does a full jpb of introducing Butler as a Bill.