Pyrite Gal

Ditto!

Yhe better course of action for building a Bills team capable of getting more Ws may be to trade down from #8 and fet extra picks that can increase the competition at DT. It looks doubtful that any franchise players will be available for us at #8, but if a player who would set back our team building because they serve little value for us at their position (and thus would penalize us by not only skipping filling a need with a 1st round pick but also force us to waste cap dollars by sitting a player we are paying a bunch for) makes trading down an even better option. Players such as Vernon Davis, Vince Young, or AJ Hawk are great players who would really set back our team building if we took them. One of these players might slip down to #8. and folks with a mid-round pick might be so enticed to trade up to get one of these players that if we got extra resources like an early second, trading down may be the best option for us.

Like I said, you have to be good at making judgments doing this and not be an idiot. The Indy folks who judged Edgerrin to be a better pklayer than Rickey versus Mike Ditka trading away and entire draft for him are example 1 of the importance on not relying simply on film, Wonderlics and things we fans can see.

I know that this view will not be popular with all the fan draft fanatics who get wowed by numbers and their expert analysis made while sitting in front of the tube and drinking a beer. However, this mundane point is worth mentioning when the choices actually comes down to picking between two players like Ngota and Bunkley (one of whom under the Bills Parcells Planet Theory has a once in a lifetime body and the other of whom looked very good in the Combine). Neither is a sure thing at all and easily could be a reach at #8 if Ngota proves to be inconsistent or if Bunkley is more of a worjout warrior than a player. I know that many of us fans are addicted to the rumors and minutiae now available on the web and in many draft magazines. The advent of fantasy leagues as a major entertainment diversion has given a false sense of expertise to many fans. When the choices available all have major flaws, then it strikes me that the key is really to talk to the player and look him in the eye and make an assessment of whether the player has the interanal makings to commit himself to improving his deficits. From UDFAs like Peters who actually prove diligent enough to make the roster an start, to old fogies like Sam Adams who survived and prospered for years on having an occaisionally explosive first step, though he was little more than a fat tub of good for the 2/3 of games he went on vacation, players have shown the ability to suddenly get it or suddenly grow up and they actually produce. Likewise talented folks like Leaf or gregarious folks who have the Grammy who raised them die can also suddenly go completely south in terms of production as they react badly to outside situtations. Is Ngota a bad or great choice? Is Bunkley the man at DT? Who knows actually. The things we can see and measure as fans pale in significance to really being able to gauge the size of a players heart. Perhaps some legend in their own mind folks will make an accurate prediction of whether a player will work out or not. However, as best as I can tell if tbeir deadlock certain predictions are right it is probably coincidence. The real measure of making good choices on close calls is how good is the GM at looking into the eyes of the draftee, probably after asking them some seemingly trivial questiion and making a correct assessment of the man in front of them. The better assessment by TSW draftphiles is less whether they judge a player as worthy of a 1st or 2nd day pick. but actually whether they judge Marv as having a talent and the capacity to correctly assess players and to manage their development. To some degree it really is an unknown regarding Marv as this is his first time as GM. However, the thing which gives me confidence is that as Bills HC Marv showed real skill at delegating football responsibility and of managing the Bills as a team of divergent personalities to be a TEAM that proved resilient and capable of winning. He did well enough that I think this HOF Golden Boy gets the benefit of the doubt from me.

Actually, while I could disagree alot more than completely with this post, i dodisagree with it fundamentally enough that it would be difficult to state a more incorrect approach to winning football that the post this agrees with. IMHO: 1. Last year, Nate was toasted many times. Clements was in fact toasted a lot more than he set the standard for with his Pro Bowl nod gained the year before, the idea of cutting a player simply because he had one less than stellar year at CB while he was playing for a non-functional D against the run would be the height of irrational panic. While it was true that last year was a disappointing one for him, he has had a good career so far up until last year and deserved his Pro Bowl berth. It really strikes me as ciomplete panic to simply give up on a player in his prime years based on the one bad season. 2. The Bills are in the middle of a 3-4 year rebuilding. As pointed out above, worse to first is possible in the NFL like never before. You can tell folks who have gotten use to losing after 5 years of failing to make the playoffs because they think that it takes 3-4 years to rebuild in this league when that is simply no longer the case. 3. Rebuilding is best done through the draft. Again, this is a wrong assumption as the experience of the past few years shows that rebuilding is best done through a balanced approach that takes advantage of making good FA purchases. good UDFA acquisitions, a good trade here or there, and also a few good draft picks. A team that relies on one of these approaches as its sole or even a major focus to the point of ignoring these other tools is commiting itself to losing repeatedly. One could site specific examples like NE (FA pick-ups like Harrison, trades like Bledsoe, draft choices like Seymour, building their 1st SB winner with 15 players acquired after June 1st, but even the best examples here show the point rather than being something to imitate (folks constantly pick a quality outrider as though everyone can do it).. Everyone cannot do it and the difference is being very good at what you do. 4. The better the draft pick number, the better the players drafted (generally). Duh. This is an obvious truth. However, the real point is whether the draft is such a great thing that it is worthwhile to trade proven players merely to get the hope of draft picks. The draft is like the Lotto. Yes a few people get rich, but it is a lot easier to make poor draft choices than good ones. Sure if you don't play the Lotto you cannot win, but this does not mean that if you do play you will win. Thus it is with the draft. Good players have to come from somewhere and most of the best players in the NFL were drafted at some point. However, this does not mean at all that every sixth round draft choice you make is going to be Tom Brady. A winning strategy is to let some other team draft Brett Favre or Steve Young and then after TB endures the pain of losing with this draft choice while they learn, you pick them up in a trade or as a FA when they cut a two-time loser like Brad Johnson who later QBs his team to an SB win. 5. Therefore, trade Nate for more draft picks. For the reasons above, maybe there is some deal that makes sense, but fans really overvalue the draft as a team building tool. It is an important part of the mix, but simply is a part of the mix. What's the best case scenario if he stays? He has 3 good years during a rebuilding period. I say send him packing. The best scenario is that due to the reduced cap hit of a franchise SB as contracts like the big one the Vikes gave AW were one shot deals, NC can be afforadably tagged and kept. This is particularly true with the overall cap escalating under the CBA. The best case for us is if he stays and ties hard this year because it is a contract year for him. We can tag him again next year if we choose and either make a long-term cap friendly deal with him if he performs in 06, cut him if he sucks or do something in the middle. By far the better course for us was to tag him and then try to negotiate a long-term cap friendly deal with him if possible. If not, then we still can easily afford him this year and or flexibility is retained next year.

Actually my definition of loaded is defined by the total reality of relevant factors to drafting a player and does not mean simply an assessment of the quality of a player. I wish that it was all so easy that it merely were just a simple matter of having an oopinion about the quality of a player play. However, the reality is: 1. The NFL use to be a sport which also happened to be a business and now it is a big business which also happens to be a sport. A team operates under the reality of the CBA and a salary cap. Thus, there is a budget of spending for each position and when your por money into one position it simply means you are gonna go on the cheap somewhere else. The Bills are loaded at LB as they have a najor FA contract that they will pay TKO regardless of his injury. The have a significant FA contract which they gave to Fletcher andthough it is coming to an end, the acclerated bbonus makes him impossible to cut without huge cap ramifications. They also recently extended Crowel's contract and gave him a significant bonus prorated over several years. Anyway you cut it we are contractally loaded at LB and you propose to adda #8 slotted cap hit to this load. The kwy question to someone drafting Hawk is given the huge allocation we would have to the LB position which positions to you think we can allocate less too? 2. Hawk looks like he will be a great player, but the key to winning this gameis building a great TEAM. I have seen lots of people say he looked like a great player in college, at the Cobine and based on his resume, but I have seen no one say how they would set up our LB corps with Hawk in place. How would you do this? 3. Due to the uncertainties of injuries, a kay to a TEAM winning the SB is that they have back-ups who can step up. NE is a perfect example where bad injury luck O got them to draft D players who stepped it up. While no one would mistake Bills back-ups for starters (we proably should not mistakes some our starters for starters) back-ups are key to a good team. One of the few good situation on the Bills is that we are in fact loaded at LB in that we have some good back-ups who are experienced players who produce on ST. If Hawk forces TKO, Fletch or Crowell to the bench (as contractually unlikely as this is) or in the also unlikely case he is benched himself initially because ALL NFL rooks need to learn to become vets) then we have recently extened back-ups Haggan and Stamer and still have current starter Posey on the depth chart. Having 6 guys under contract for 3 spots, five of whom were either recently extended or signed as FAs we tracked down and attracted strikes me as loaded in reality.

You need two feet to walk, and it seems less than smart to shoot off one of our feet by either totally forgetting about our needs or totally forgetting about taing the best player available. It is by far the easier or more simplistic course of action to totally forget about one approach or the other, but I am a pretty consistent advocate of the Bills doing the smart thing and striking an appropriate balance between these two approaches. Its harder to do right and more complicated than being a fanatic about choosing one approach or the other, but by far strikes me as the intelligent thing to do. What does this mean in real life? It means that depending on who is on the board when the Bills pick a player may so clearly be the BAP overall or at his position that even though that position is not a need for this team, you take him. Alternately, an available player may clearly be the BAP of all the available choices or at his position, but the Bills should choose to pass on this player because every player except one good one is gone at a position of need, or a good player at this BAP's position is available later in the draft or as a UDFA. My thoughts on the BAP by positions are: QB- Leinart, Young or some sat Cutler but I think this is draft hype seem to be among the BPA at the position, but none of these players are so head and shoulders above the norm or the rest that any of them justify the added cost for picking one of them that will come from it forcing us to cut a QB under contract that we will owe accelerated bonus on for the cut. RB- Bush is the obvious BPA at this position, but he is not so good that he justifies a pick for us at a position where we need a back-up but are both contractually and player performance set for a starter. FB- No stud BPA here OT- D'Brick is the stud here, but gives no appearance of being the next Boselli or even Pace or Ogden. Recent pro-day performance by Justice places another reasonable top 10 pick OT possibility here. TE- Davis has produced combine workout numbers where there is a case to be made for him potentially becoming one of the best TE's ever. However, lack of best ever production on the field as a TE raises the potential that being a workout warrior is all he may be. He could be a stud, but it is a risk and given that we have acquired wanted starter for the Deadskins blocking specialist Royal and we are sitting with two 3rd round TEs on the roster both coming off injuries makes this BPA at the position and maybe even in the draft not worth the risk for us. WR- Chad Jackson appears to be the lead of weak WR draft crew at a position where our #2 is still uncertain but we are loaded with pedestriam talents behind Evans and someone needs to step up. DE- Mario Williams is a stud who will not drop to #8 anyway. DT- Either Bunkley or Ngota is a reasonble #8 choice, The Bills should pick the one they look in the eye and feel can do the job and these two are close enough that our fan opinions between the two without the input of looking them in the eye is pretty worthless. LB- Hawk is clearly the class pick here. The fact he looks so good makes it rational to want him at BPA, but the fact we are well over-loaded at LB with us likely having to cut a former credible Bills starter here and we still are loaded at LB even wiithout Hawk makes picking him a choice that sets back development of this team for a year. It does not matter because if he is really that good he will be long gone by the time #8 rolls around. If one also gives up resources to trade up for him then picking him gets us a great player but sets back development of this team by more than a year. SS- Huff looks like the quality pick here but it is rate safeties take down the level of money slotted at #8 and there are likely comparable talents at SS available later in this deep draft. FS- Huff is probably the best FS as well, but we are loaded at this spot. CB- A bunch of closely matched players means no consus BPA here.

From what I have seen in terms of positive comments from Tagliabue and less than negative comments from folks like the NFLPA (who Ralpg gas attacked with his tirades against the CBA) and also the few owners of bigger revenue market (who Ralph attacked both with his anti-CBA comments and also by saying their is a battle between small and bigger revenue teams) I think it looks like that they and Ralph may well have talked and the true target for the Bills to extort money from is NYS. It takes at least two parties to fight and perhaps the NFLPA and the bigger revenue owners are simply holding their fire because like you I think they can easily swat aside Ralph if the choose. In addition, perhaps they judge Ralph to be a senile old man and thus would hate to beat him up or when they do they do not want their fingerprints on this kill. However, I think that these two partners in the NFL actually recognize that the real target to get cash is NYS (probably in the form of state government being able to borrow the money to fund a stadium far more cheaply than a private business). Thus they are happy to ignore Ralph's attacks. It would be a pretty ornate strategy if this is what he is doing and by claiming he is not after making more money (a pretty sure sign that someone is after making a profit when they claim publicly they are not interested in making a profit) and by claiming he has no interest in a new stadium he insulates himself and the Bills pretty well from claims its all about the Benjamins on his part. I for one would love to see Ralph grudgingly accept having NYS set up a WNY stadium authority to issue tax free muni bonds to fund a stadium and to see them revitalize downown and/or the waterfront and get some temporaru hifh-paying construction jobs in Buffalo by using the bonds and the taxes on the entire state to pay the interest on this funding. I would not worry about Ralph if I were you. i think he and the NFL (and their partners in the NFLPA) are all running a game to get some corporate welfare out of NYS (a game which Eliot Spitzer or a GOP opponent would happily play in exchange for WNY votes) which if that is what they are doing would likely benefit me as a Bills fan and as a WNYer.

The ironic thing to me is that if Buffalo's population today were at its 1950s peak of 600,000+ today instead of the 275,000 then I think this would be a horrible place to live. The buy one get one free aspects of housing prices here, the perceived economic problems (if one thinks that WNY is poor then I invite you to move to virtually any other country on the planet and experience true poverty) which hold down prices for a careful shopper, and the rush 15 minutes of traffic we experience twice a day compared to the 1-1/2 hour average commutes experienced by most Americans cities, Buffalo ironically can be a pretty nice place to live. There certainly are large issues here such as the impacts of the legacy of pollutants left by those who took a bunch of profit out of the area in its go-go days. The high taxes do buy some amenities that sunbelt areas do not provide, but overall, home rule seems to make for a redundant bunch of local politicos to inefficiently run our system of government to benefit them and their own and really make local taxes too high here. Hpwever, in total, Buffalo is in many ways the smallest bigtown in America and as long as this small market can hang on to big City amenities like the Bills because of our historic ties and entities like the NFL throwing aside free-market approaches because they can make more money from collaboration and cooperation rather than competition, Buffalo ain't a bad deal for folks who find a way to take advantage of the middle than can be gained through living in this lower cost area but in the modern telecom world it is quite possible to command a national salary. Its not easy to do, but is actually quite doable.

It is theoretically possible for the Bills to trade NC just as it is theoretically possible for them to trade anyone. However, to force such a trade would be of such huge economic disadvantage to NC, why do you think he would do it? 1. He would enter FA negotiations with a new team after a disappointine season when he did not repeat his Pro Bowl berth and no one thinks he lived up to his claims of being the best CB in the league. 2. He would enter the negotiating market so late in the process most teams have already locked up the major salary cap money they are going to spend at CB. 3. In order to recreate the same situation where EM publicly said he would not play for the Bills under any circumstances he got his wish as he signed with the worse than the Bills (which is saying alot) lowly Texans for likely less money than the Bills even would have paid him. Do you g=have any indications that NC is so pissed off at the Bills that he shows any indication of being willing to screw himself out of his first big FA comtract. This is the big difference between him and Moulds who already has pocketed millions from being an BFL WR. NC really would screw himself financially big time in order to force a trade. I see no real signs he would do this/

By soft I assume you are referring to the injuries he had with AT (whether he has in fact recovered from these dings to be a reasonable #2 is what it is all about here. I assume by soft you do not mean a lack of effort because he showed no sign of that as a Bill when he was here. Price improved on his catches, yardage and TDs each year he was here. His main statistical problem was that he had a few too many fumbles, but even those tended to occur when he made a second or third effort and got set-up with a dedender hanging on his ankle and then coughed it up when he got hit by a second defender. If anything, he should be faulted for not folding up and falling with the first hit and the complaint should be he tried to be too tough and not soft when he was here. I certainly see him as being a replacement equal to Moulds declining capabilities at all. However, he is not paid to be as good as Moulds so the cap hit is far from unreasonable. Whether he can in fact become the #2 we need, he is not the possession receiver which would match Evans speed well, however, the Bills docs and not us fans really have the most credible call on whether he will come back or not.

No signs that this will happen while Ralph is still alive. He is old, but unless you have a contract out on him, I do not know any businessman who will lay aside $700 Mill (a business magazine of the Bills value) or even worse will secure a loan from some bank based on the theory of when some person of the health status of Ralph is going to kick the bucket. It probably has been said in the media, but truth is a sidelight of their job of publishing column inches so they can sell ads around them. Unless you have some deadlock certain showing of the imimnent death of Ralph and even then further insight into how he has configured his will, there is no financial deal similar to th one you theorize about.

Yep, that's called the free-market syystem. Economic entities compete with pther economic entities and the theory is that all the economic entities do the best they can and overall the eonomy does better. In a pure free-market system, economic entities which are not efficient enough to compete (or in this case the theory says that even if the entity is economically efficient but the revenue provided by the market is not large enough to make the economic entity viable on an absolute basis it goes out of business, or not viable on a relative basis to what could be done in other markets the team moves) simpy go out of business in their marketplace. Forunately for us football fans and for folks who live in the economically hard-presses area of Buffalo (yes we are economically hard-pressed compared to the Sunbelt, though we are rediculously economically well to do compared to the vast vast majority of areas in the world like Baghdad, most of China and India and at least on an economic basis better than much of Europe) the NFL and America really does not run on a pure free market system. Due to the collaborative rather than pure capitalistic approach taken by the NFL where there has always been revenue sharing regardless of the size of your marketplace and economic competence of teams, smaller markets like Buffalo have received a chunk of resources from economically more successful teams. Under the new CBA, this payoff by the those who make a really rediculous amount of profit to teams like the Bills that merely make only a rediculous amount of profit has increased. This payoff from the more well-to-do teams to the simply well-to-do teams like Buffalo is not sufficient based on Ralph's calculations. Personally, I think he and future owners can make up this amount from the still significant profits the Bills will make under the new CBA. However, as a Bills rooter and a Buffaloanian, I am quite happy to support him in instead getting an even larger payment from the high revenue teams to the Bills and even support the Bills private business with government payments or advantages (such as givernment can borrow money to build a new stadium at a far cheaper rate that could be secured in the private market and government as a business partner for the Bills will not need to make a profit like a business like a bank would). Payments by the government to the Bills strikes me as corporate welfare payments to a profitable entity like the Bills, but these welfare payments would benefit the sport I love and my City of Buffalo if a new stadium is funded and built downtown and the income is generated from the larger economic base of the state. Sp its certainly unfair, but I and Bills fans will benefit from ripping off NYS so I will support this even though it is not right. I guess I will just hide my morals behind the scant figleaf that actually the relatively poor economy of Buffalo could use the boost of the welfare payments to revitalize the waterfront economically and actually the costs of building a stadium which the Bills would really gain de facto ownership of are small compared to the other real costs on the state budget like the inefficient economic methods we use to provide health care amd the corporate ripoffs which benefit others in the state budget. I grew up in Chicago where Mike Royko once said the greek in the Chicago motto did not actually translate as City in a Garden, but really was Where's Mine!

Kelly et al- I just reviewed this great thread about the Bills finances after being away for the most part the last couple of days (part of it actually spent Curling for the first time, those Canadians have a pretty neat sport to use as an excuse for drinking). Overall, from my review of this thread, I think Kwlly F & B seems to have the correct cut on how this adds up fiscally. None of us on TSW has a completely correct cut on this as there is simply a lot of info about the individual team deals we cannot know and the amalgamation is so complicated that is why you need a phone book size CBA which is a moving target as both sides of this partnsership find out new things about it an adjust it, but overall I think the bottomline is that any concerns about any NFL team actually being a viable economic concern in absoulute economic concerns are really ill-founded. It is true that there is some potential for a team not being RELATIVELY economically viable compared to the income level of higher revenue teams IF the owner is perturbed about only making money and profits hand over fist while other teams in higher revenue cities are making money both hand over fist and whatever they can also scrape in with their feet and ankles too. However, the money printing press which is an NFL team comes as close as we see in our economic system to being a guaranatee of making huge profits whether you are a small market team or a large market team. What it appears to me Ralph is doing is using this disparity and the fact in out pseudo free market an owner can move where he is allowed by his colleagues to move to extort even more bucks for the Bills. I support this as my football team and likely my City will benefit by getting these dollars from the larger population base of NYS!

The direct answer to the question is NO. It does not appear to serve Clements interests finacially at all to even try to force a draft day trade as he has no financial leverage to do so once the Bills put the franchise tag on him. In theory he could only ATTEMPT to force a trade by throwing such a hissy-fit that the Bills decide to move him much as they moved Moulds. However, not only are the costs of keeping NC versus his production far more reasonable for keeping NC than keeping Moulds ($7 million+ for keeping our flawed but still #1 CB in the prime of his career vs. $10 million+ for a #2 WR on the backside of his career) but Clements would have to throw such a horrible fit as to bring into serious question whether he is a worthwhile teammate and get for a team. He would be doing this relatively late in the planning process for most team's 06 season and also doing this when coming off a year which easily did not meet his previous Pro Bowl season or the expectations he set for himself. The idea of NC forcing a trade would be so disastrous for him financially and so disastrous for the Bills as they would be incredibly reluctant to embrace the option to trade him when they are not forced contractually to do this, that it makes little sense on either side.

Oops. Sorry, but I actually made a more detailed response to your posr in my reply to your theories. I repost them below: I am reading post after post about Ralph being cheap, Ralph looking for a handout, Ralph wanting a new stadium, blah, blah, blah... Do you people understand English?? 1) Ralph is only looking for political pressure to force the NFL from installing the rule where a new owner of the Buffalo Bills would not get revenue sharing. That rule was written just make it impossible for the Bills to stay in Buffalo after Ralph passes on, and it's totally unfair! I think you are simply wrong to say that RWS is ONLY doing one thing here. In fact, he would be foolish not to choose a course which will serve him well in multiple scenarios. He cannot know how the parties which oppose his views (the other team owners who voted overwhelmingly for this deal, Tags and the NFL professional leadership which strongly advocated for this deal, the NFLPA which really played this situation beautifully for their interest though many loudly accused Upshaw of being clueless- they were wrong) will react and he would simply be dumb to pursue a strategy only geated toward one outcome when multiple players likely will make multiple outcomes and situations quite possible. I think you should flat out admit you are wrong to say RWS is ONLT doing one thing here. 2) While raising prices on tickets, parking, etc. helps a little, it doesn't solve the problem. I aggree that raising prices in these areas or selling stadium naming rights is chump change compared to 10+ million he would leverage from increasing revenue sharing through negotiation. however, even this increase is chump change compared to the Bills cut of the 40.1 % of the well over a billion dollars the Bills will get at their part of the enhanced revenues the CBA brings to the Bills due to the labor peace it brings. 3) Ralph does not want a new stadium. He says a new stadium would not incrase revenue. Besides RWS is fine. Those are his words. Ralph's words are that he did not ask Pataki for anything and I hope he did not because our soon to be ex-Gov. cannot deliver a stadium or anything to Ralph and the Bills. It simply appears he is setting up a bidding situation between Spitzer and the GOp nominee for governor. They will not be answering a call from Ralph or doing him a favor when the situation is set up for them that the cost of getting WNY votes is going to be bellying up and offering corporate welfare to the Bills to keep them in WNY. Getting this in the form of a stadium where taxpayers bear the costs but the Bills get in the income is actually similar to the current deal with the former Rich Stadium except that it will be even better. RWS will not turn down money when NTS moves the truck to his door. 4) Ralph has no interest in selling, or moving the Bills. This is great news. However, why should he move when the cash cow makes tons of bucks at little risk here and likely will do so while the CBA is in effect. 5) This is not about Ralph not making enough money. It's about keeping the Bills out of the red, in business, and competitive IN BUFFALO!!! Why do you think the Bills will be in the red in Buffalo under the CBA. Thet clearly will be at an ecnomic disadvantage to the larger revenue teams, but they will make money hand over fist anyway. The CBA is set-up for the Bills to get their 40.5 % cut of well over a billion dollars in revenue. Even better costs are capped essentially at 59.5 as worker costs are by far their highest. I can think if no other bsinesses which have these same advantages of virutally guaranteed income and virtually guaranteed control of costs. Again the even rich folks like the Bills will have less than the richer folks (welcome to the real world) of the larger revenue teams. However, the salary cap means that as far as field of play investments essentially each NFL team operates under the same cost/benefit set-up. Rven the cash flow advantage that larger revenue teams have reflected in the cash over cap numbers is actually only a marginal advantage compared to the much larger total cap number. In reality, when one looks at the sorry record of the high revenue Deadskins and the general sense that the Bills failures have not been from lack of cash to attract TKO, Fletcher, Milloy, Bledsoe, Adams, Triplett or whomever here, the marginal advantage of the large revenue teams has not converted into on field dominance. Do you disagree? Anyone who posts otherwise is misinformed, or simply has their head jammed up their colons. If you think the above is misinformed or colonmesque please enlighten us with your brilliance in similar detail beyond simpleaccpetance of what RWS sats. PTR

While everyone is guessing here, your guesses strike me as less likely than other guesses as to how this stuation stacks up.

Its not always bad to take an elite talent and build around him, its just a really bad idea in this case. Evem if you accept the supposition that Young is the elite talent of this draft AND that this elite talent will be available at #8 (both doubtful but you ask for comments given this fantasy land situation) its a bad idea in this case because taking VY badly leaves a hole on this team which may well be filled by another 1st round choice and because reversing field and taking yet another QB and forcing us to take a hit even further reducing our ability to build a winning team is simply counterproductive and contradictory as a strategy. Even beyond creating some really bad impacts on the field, since this is a business that happens to be a sport, also some thought has to be given as to the impact of this choice on the fan base. VY better be fleet a foot as opposing Ds are going to haul off an be after him big time after we fall behind because this team is not able to stop the run very well. Folks will quite legitimately look at 06 as us setting up the same disaster as last season where the braintrust rather than trying to build a team which at least can compete now, instead decided to use 05 like it was a pre-season learning experience for JP who by his own admission even before the season began acknowledged he had not earned the QB job on the field. A decision to once again hand the QB of the future job to someone who has done nothing to earn it on the field would be horrible. I'm not sure whether it would be worse to have VY's #8 slotted contract sit on the bench with Ralph paying him for no production on the field while he learned the game by watching (much as Michael Vick did his first year) or it might be worse to simply hand him the job to learn while playing (and likely screwing up like most rookies do). How do you see your fantasy pick of VY playing out in 06 and what do you think the effects would be on this team and its future?

I also am getting sick of the we're gonns have to move the franchise game. Yet, I'm not sure if I am sick and tired for the same reasons that you are sick and tired or that there is one party line which most Bills fans ascribe to as far as who the target of their anger would be (even though I do think we share the same goal of wanting the team to stay here in perpetuity). I view the "game" as being in the hand most directly of Ralph the owner. I think we all owe him a debt of gratitude for putting up his 10K to get a franchise here even though as far as I can tell his decision to place the franchise here in Buffalo was not done for the benefit of the community, but because his real desire to have a franchise close to home in Detroit was thwarted by the presence of a franchise already being in that territory. His decision to settle in Buffalo was not a choice he would have made all things being equal, but fortunately for us all things were not equal and Buffalo was where he went. Nevertheless, though he probably gets limited kudos for moving here, I think we all owe him real credit for recognizing the rabidness of WNY Bills gfans making this community his home for NFL purposes. He did us proud and honored us by reversing field on a pretty tight businesman hold on his wallet and laid out the big bucks to acquire Bruce and really contribute and take risks to build a winner here that paid off in the early 90s big time. He has continued that tradition, honors us and deserves big time praise from us for his commitment to keep the team here as long as he is alive. Long live Ralphie! Nevertheless, as much praise as I think he deserves for his cash commitment and stance from the mid 80s through now, I do recognize the reality and actually ma getting fairly tired of him also asserting his rights as an American to be a businessman. I think that if he means to give the impression that the Bills are not economically viable as an NFL franchise he really is as senile as some folks seem to think he is. This is a different question from the one of whether the Bills are at a fiscal disadvantage to the higher revenue teams like the Deadskins because these uber cash cows have far better cash flow than our beloved Bills. Lower revenue smaller market teams flat out are at a fiscal disadvantage to higher revenue larger market teams. This is also a different question than whether the Bills could bring in a lot more cash if they moved to a higher population more economically go-go population base than Buffalo. Flat out this has always been the case and always will be. However, Ralph's current and his interpretation of the impacts of the CBA simply do not seem to reflect the truth of the economic reality here. Yes the Bills are and always will be an economic disadvantage compared to teams in bigger more well to do markets. However, though the Bills are at an economic disadvantage to the Dan Snyder ilk in no way is the Bills franchise economically not viable now nor cannot its economic viability likely be defended by some fairly straight-forward steps on his part now designed to insulate a future owner from the vagaries of any higher costs they might have to bear because they will not have the same advantages the small market teams have gotten in his negotiations and whining about the larger revenue teams. Further, as best as I can tell, some of these steps which would insulate future owners or his family from large financial hits associated with his eventual death, can also be taken that in fact bind the Bills to WHY so a new owner cannot move them. He cannot be forced to take these steps and we have no right to see him take them beyond him actually deciding to do them because he wants to. Specifically, were he to enter into contractual obligations with Erie County, Buffalo, or NYS which contractually committed the Bills to remain in WNY for the forseeabl;e future, it would actually drastically lower the paper value of this frachise as it would remove a significant number of bidders who would want to move the team to LA or elsewhere out of the bidding. He has every right not to do this, but if he wanted to he could also do thiis. By lowerig the market value of this franchise by binding it to WNY, he would actually lower the cash hit from any estate tax transfer that his estate and family would have. By contractually aggreeing to keep the team here he can do this and no one could stop him. Alternately, he coul try to follow the community stock owership and professional management model used by the GB Packers. The NFL would not like it, but if they tried to stop an individual owner from doing this the result would be similar to their trying to stop Bob Irsay from moving in the middle of the night, Art Modell from moving in broad daylight, or their negotiations with the City of Cleveland over the prescence of a team there, the NFL would likely lose. Further, Ralph could sell a small minority ownership stake of the team to a local like Golisano or to the taxpayers and even give them a contractual veto over a decision to move the team. Or he could pursue a zillion other ideas, Ralph could easily bind this team to the region and do so in away that while it would lower the paper value of the team would still by orders of magnititude allow for massive profit over his original small investment. The CBA does certainly mean an assessment of several million dollars is costs that the Bills franchise is now on the docket as having receipts and these receipts balance and cause a marginally higher allocation of gross receipts to the NFLPA. However, make no mistakes about it, this marginally higher allocation is chump change compared to the massive appreciation RWS had for his orginal investment. Further, amy additional allocation is chump change compared to the amount of real revenue which the Bills and Ralph are guaranteed from the big cash cow which is the TV contract and receipts. An NFL team is such a low risj propostion and is close as a business can get to being a printing press which simply prints $ in the form of the payments from the networks to the NFLPA/NFL partnership and further from the substantial yet smaller amount of # the team receives from ticket sales, franchise logo sales , etc. If Ralph wants to be satisfied making money hand over fist rather than also hand over fist and whatever he can scrape in with is feet like Dan Snyder does then Ralph can easily be satisfied. If however, he wants to whine and bleat that this franchise is somehow not economically viable because it brings in less money than Dab=n Snyder and the Deadskins, well boo-hooI feel so sorry for him. I hope he cand his heirs can somehow find some way to struggle along with 10s of millions of dollars in profits rather than the 100s of millions Dan Snyder makes. Who knows for sure outside of Ralph and his people who really see the books, however though I may be wrong about this fiscal situation, there certainly is nothing from the substantial amount of public info available because this is how the NFL and NFLPA check up on each other that indicates that while the Deadskins or Ravens are more profitable that this franchise is right now and probably even will be when sold a very viable entity here. What I get tired of is his false interpretation of the CBA, We all saw the substantial amount of revenue NFL teams brought in prior to the CBA and we now can all the the even larger amount of revenue brought in with the labor peace of the CBA. Ralph's complaints about the CBA hurting small market teams worse than big market teams is probably true (well surprise surprise richer folk have more money than mere rich folk) but it fails to also state the reality that the CBA has brought the Bills and him far more money than he received in the past or likely would receive without the CBA. Sure the NFLPA receives a good majority of the total receipts, but I am sorry Ralph, as stupid as I think Terrll Owens is I would rather watch him catch passes than watch you can passes anyday (though seeing you get out of breath would be amusing but I fear you would have a heart attack and watching you die would not be fun though I am amused by the fake thought of you and Al Davis swinging your walkers and O2 tanks at each other). My hope is actually that rather than you sufferinf from some Alzheimer moment leading to you claiming confusion leading to your negative vote, you really are being crazy like a fox in stting up both NYS and Erie County to get fleeced by you and the Bills as they pony up some corporate welfare for the Bills during the 2006 electoral campaign. I hope to gosh you did not ask Pataki for a cent because you know that as our soon to be ex-governor he cannot deliver on any promises of cash he makes anyway. Instead, the game here is to force Eliot Spitzer and whomever is the likely sacrificial lamb GOP gubernatorial nominee to promise big state bucks in the form of support for a sports authority to build a new stadium in Buffalo. In exchange for the Bills contractually obligating itself to remain in WNy, you should be able to extort some pretty massive fiscal concessions form the entire NYS tax base. In addition, to NYS being able to borrow dollars at a far cheaper rate than any private business (likely in the form of issuing bonds), if the new stadium is built on the waterfront in Buffalo, the one time slug of construction money and the ongoing slug of cash to the new downtown entertainment complex could be substantial and transformative for the economic well being of the City. I know that your ringing the alarm bell is based on at best a likely false and gloomy view of economic uncertainties and actually is only part of the story and essemtially untrue, as a Bills fan and as a Buffaloanian I support you completely in what likely is a bid to steer a bunch of corporate welfare from NYS coffers to the benefit of Bills fans and of Buffalo. I really do support what I think you are doing, but man I do get a little sick and tired of the lies you seem to be spinning to create a sense of panic which will lead to you ripping folks off on my and our behalf.

I also found the addition of these two pre-TD drafts and odd choice to make if one ia assessing TDs work, Its odd even if you are trying to simply assess the Bills as a team since there is some feeling that Butler tanked the Erik Flowers draft either on purpose or simply the scouts the post purports to defend screwed up badly. If one is going to do a relevant comparison then TD's record of player's still on the roster needs to be compared to the NFL rate of players still on the team's that drafted them roster. I have not seen such a stat but would be surprised if isn't somewhere. In addition, the average length of service for an NFL player should be found and a comparison made for the Bills versus the MFL, though I would be surprised that given the 5 years of TD duty that we need more time to make a real assessment. I think the two extra years were likely added because without them, the TD draft record actually does not look that bad at all. This is not surprising to me as I think TD's actual real big errors that made him deserved to get canned were not player assessment, negotiation and acquisition mistakes, they were hiring GW as a horrible HC, not supplementing his offensive management deficits, and then mismanaging the development of the team under MM.

Well you are exactly right on one point. A lot of folks will completely disagree with you about picking Young. I do not disagree with you at all that the Rpse Bowl one of the best (if not the best) performance by one player I have seen in more years of carefully watching football than I want to admit to. However, from those years of watching, one thing I can also flat out guarantee is that this game (even more now than before in the salary cap era) is not a game of great individuals but is a TEAM game. Young can be as good as anyone wants him to be as an individual player, but the real difference will be determined and the Ws will flow our way IF he is a player that is notable not simply due to his individual talents but in fact due to his ability to help/demand that the rest of the team performs better. Can Young do this? Maybe and maybe not. It really depends on how his career develops, what happens to him and the team as they go along, and a bunch of things impossible to predict or even guess whether they will be the case until they happen. This is part of the reason the draft is such a crap shoot. Just because a player is great in college, there are a bunch of things which are totally different than his college play which will conspire to make him great as a pro, The one thing that is probably a certainty in all this is that by drafting yet another QB and suffering the twin penalty that a needed starter on this team at RDT, at SS and a stud on the OL (as none of these players exist on the current roster) will not be acquired in the 1st round, Young is quite likely to start his career with a losing non-competitive ethic as this team leaves a major hole unfilled. Further, by choosing Young, the Bills are forced to cut one of the three QBs we currently have committed a good chunk of cap room to so that by drafting Young the team will be even further constrained and damaged by the cap hit from cutting this player. Drafting Young would still have been a bad idea, but at least a tolerable one if you gave up on the 06 season earlier before further commiting to go in a different direction. However, having signed Nall for three years, drafting Young would not only be a bad way to build a team, but would actually be an intolerably poor choice by us.

Woulda. coulda, shoulda. If things had been done differently, guaranteed they would be different. One could certainly explore how things MIGHT have been different, but with so many future decisions to make its seems far more reasonable to spend time on hypotheticals about the future which may or may not be shown to have been accurate rather than invest in hypotheticals about what could have been that will not happen at all. There may be some utility to exploring what might have been done differently in the past as part of trying to assess blame (though even this hypothetical exercise is fairly meaningless unless one identifies past failures as part of learning lessons so we do not screw up the same way in the future. Hpwever, any hypothetical exploration of TDs mistakes should probably look at base problems like him making a fatal initial mistake in choosing to hire the not ready for primetime GW as HC rather than hiring Fox or sucking up to an convincing Marvin Lewis to come here as HC. Based on their records of achievement and GW's record of failure either of these two options would have been far better choices than GW and the whole sorry episodes of resigning and then cutting Bledsoe in favor of JP wouldn't have needed to be done the way they were.

I agree that Hawk is good enough to start right away, but that is exactly why he produces a lot of waste on a team that is so badly off and needs lots help at lots of positions that he would also waste resources if drafted. The Bills will pay multi-millions of dollars to TKO, and to Fletch and a tremendous chunk of money to the recently extended Crowell when they did not have to so these players can contribute rather than sit on the bench. Thw drafting of Hawk would not only make one of the first moves by new GM Marv of extending Crowell a wasted effort that will unecessarily cost his fellow Golden Boy money to have it sit not contributing to the team (and after seeing him push for RJ to start over DF and then foolishly push Wade to arbitration and lose we all know how he hates to sit his money sit. Ecen worse, by drafting Hawk and totally devoting ourselves to a BPA approach and ignoring immediate need in a year where after missing the playoffs 5 years in a row Ralph (who ain't getting any younger) desperately wants to at least make a serious run for the playoffs (though it is doubtful we will make it) and after consigning last season to a training exercise for JP, this team cannot have its customers perceive it at least is making a serious try for the playoffs. It seems to me to matter less to the team how good an individual player may be than to balance BPA with at least an acknowledgement of team need. Ecen if Hawk is as good as you and I suspect he is, by drafing an LB with our #8 rather than getting a player worthy of the #8 choice who can ALSO meet our needs for a DT, SS, or OL starter who currently are not on out roster. If Hawk drops to us at #8 (doubtful because I think that the NFL professionals agree with you and I that he should be a good one who starts immediately) then the way he helps build a Bills team the most is not by consigning a well paid LB to the bench and leaving us with a different hole unfilled by our roster, but by tradung the right to pick him to another team and giving us 2 or more additional day draft choices to fill our many needs.

I'm not sure where this conclusion came from. Parrish has not yet displayed the vet discipline needed to run precise routes needed for the inside game. While there are no indication of a case of the droppsies, he also has not shown the outstanding hands that are useful for a WR who braves the middle of the field. With the speed and explosiveness he has shown he seems to be a better fit for an ouside receiver who specializes in the fly pattern and the main reason this would not be my first thought for using him is that this also describes the best fit and use of Lee Evans. If you do not want to take this fans word as an indicator that Parrish is actually our lead candidate to inherit (I hope take) the #2 WR role then simply check the Bills depth chart which lists Parrish over Aiken as our current starting #2 WR.

Due to the CBA and the promise it brings for the continuation of labor peace ALL NFL teams are financially viable. They have a contractually guaranteed revenue stream, and capped major costs in terms of worker salaries. What Ralph may mean is that he worries the new owner of the team will pursue his right under the American system to move the team from WNY to a territory where the franchise can rake even more money. Could be, but there will be a lot of factors arrayed to prevent such a move from occuring ranging from an ownership pot becoming available from a locally based owner team led by Golisano to a political battle using the model that Cleveland used to save the Browns as a local franchise. While it is far from a done deal that the absoulute finacial viability of a buffalo Bills franchose would trump the relative higher viability of a moved franchise action can be taken ranging from a good fight when Ralph moves to a better world to if he wanted to Ralph could aggree to various contracts which would bind the Bulls here, but he does not likely want to do that as it would lower the value of the Bills as an asset. What seems to be most likely to me is that by sounding the alarm and through his negative vote against the CBA extension and plaintive whines against a CBA that clearly benefits the NFL and will deliver him even more wealth, is that Ralph is putting himself in great position to get the next governor and NYS to commit to delivering him huge corporate welfare payments to the Bills (most likely in the form of a new stadium). While i dod not think this would be fair at all, i certainly support him doing this ripoff of NYS taxpayers as it is my football team and also Buffalo if the new stadium is bult on the waterfront which benefit from getting this corporate welfare from NYS.