Dibs

Though I agree with your assessment of Urbik.....his cap hit over the next 3 seasons will be over 11M, certainly not a negligible amount.

Just curious, how much do ST cost?

I totally agree. My comment was in response to kdiggz who stated......if he isn't immediately the best WR on this team and the difference maker we need then we shouldn't have traded up and then dumped Stevie.......which totally discounts the concept that he might need some time to acclimate to the NFL, or that he might be simply good in his rookie year and be all-pro from his 2nd.

Actually, they've been saying a lot more than just that, with many comments about the overall combination of moves made this off-season.....and regularly talking about building the roster for the future. Focusing purely on 2014 with Watkins is rather short sighted and quite curmudgeonly when it comes to assessing the situation.

Who said that the whole argument for trading up is to win now? Sure, SW should be an instant positive impact for the team, but if things go according to plan he will be far more important down the road(2015-18) for making a championship calibre team.

I have three movies in my "Top 5 movies" list. In no particular order.... Stand by Me Pulp Fiction The Court Jester On a side note, many of the movies listed above are in my "Top 100 movies" list.

This part was not the case. He ran out of the shotgun less than half the time.....with his average being similar for both shotgun and non-shotgun. For those interested, here are links to Spiller's splits for 2012 & 2013 (scroll to near the bottom of the page). 2012: http://espn.go.com/n...2012/cj-spiller 2013: http://espn.go.com/n...3203/cj-spiller To earlier questions about getting Spiller in space......the links show a marked drop in his production with 2 or more TEs on the field(for both years).

If Trump buys the team we will have a whole new way to be embarrassed about the Bills.

No.....there are more than one of you who seemingly find it important to argue the correct wording of how to say what occurred.....even though everybody knows exactly what was given up, spent, traded and used. Truth be told, you are all wrong. We spent 1 first round pick on Sammy Watkins. We traded 2 first round picks and a 4th round pick to move up to the #4 spot.

I can't say that I have anywhere near enough knowledge to agree or disagree here, but the base concept is one that I have noticed for decades with many players(particularly CBs & WRs) where they are lauded as great players after a couple of good years play(sometimes only one year), given massive contracts, and then fail to perform at an elite level for the rest of their careers. Oddly enough it seems that it isn't just the media that hypes the players, it seems that the NFL teams are often incapable of telling if a player is productive due to the system/support cast or if it is due to the players themselves.

You are right. It is ridiculous to say one cannot judge a draft for 3 years. Of course one can judge a draft before that. It's just that one can usually make a better judgement of a draft after a few years have passed when one can actually see if the players drafted have learned to become solid NFL players or not.

.....and his 2014 cap hit is $2.4M......which is 34th in the league. He was brought in to start. Let's hope the FO saw something that the talking heads in the media didn't.

So if we end up with a 9-7(or 10-6) record.....hell even an 8-8.....where by seasons end EJ, Watkins,the D, the OL(new rookies), running game, the 2nd year players(Woods, Kiko, Goodwin).....all look to be legitimate that the new regime is gone? Why does this regime get only 2 years? Sure, if it all looks crap they might geg the chop but c'mon, 2nd year on the improve generally keeps people their jobs for year 3.

3 years would mean that success in 2015 would keep them their jobs. I guess the iminent sale has everyone assuming that this regime only gets 2 years to fix things.....with 2014 being a win, or lose your job year. Personally I think that regardless of who buys the team, this FO & coaches with get the 2015 season.

Though I agree(begrudgingly) that Brady is one of the best of all time, there is I think a legitimate question as to whether he has already started his decline.......or if his apparent decline is purely based upon the lesser talent surrounding him. Here are his last 3 seasons in major statistical categories. 2011, 2012, 2013 Completion percentage: 65.6, 63.0, 60.5 YPG: 327, 302, 271 YPA: 8.6, 7.6, 6.9 TD percent: 6.4, 5.3, 4.0 QBR: 105.6, 98.7, 87.3 As one can easily see, there has been a regular and quite dramatic decline in all major categories. Support cast......or Brady declining? I'm thinking we will find out for sure this year.

Why do you feel the need to somewhat spoil things for others. Please delete your post.

Oh yes.....I got that. It feels off to me too. That's why I figure there are often factors that we don't know.....thus it occuring regularly in the NFL. It follows with one of my many sayings in life.... "If something doesn't make sense, there is usually something you don't know."

I figure you are being facetious but the GOT novels are extremely well written. IMO they are the best(by far) fantasy novels of all time(and I've read an aweful lot of them). If you are a reader, give them a shot. You won't be disappointed.

Since you put it like that......I think we might be doomed.

I always figure that there are many aspects that us fans just simply aren't aware of. It's understandable to look at the Byrd situation and wonder why we didn't try for some sort of recompense, but it is not an uncommon situation in the NFL. When we signed Mario we gave no compensation for a premiere talent. Swings and roundabouts.

Though it appears clear that the trade was pretty much by the numbers(of the chart.....yes, next years picks are traditionally counted one round lower), the chart tends to get thrown away when dealing with extraordinary talent.....the Skins' RG3 deal for example. If Watkins is assumed to be of #1 overall talent level then he would likely be worthy of more than the chart suggests(which didn't happen, but the Bills were likely willing to do so to trade to the #1 spot). Of course this is all in order to try and figure if the GM overpaid.....which is sort of irrelevant. He possibly could have paid less.....and certainly could have paid more. In the end, it will be judged on how successful Watkins becomes as a pro. Legit #1 WR(or better) will mean the trade will be looked back on as a good one......anything lesser would mean a bad trade.

Signing A.Williams up early to a whopping salary increase(5M?) goes against that theory somewhat though.

I figure that there is a good chance he's gone too....but....I base that upon his individual situation, not making a base assumption that because Byrd was let go that all future Bills players with talent will walk.

Strange that you expect Spiller, Dareus, Glenn & Kiko to go the way of Byrd and not that of Wood or A.Williams.....and the Mario signing didn't do anything to somewhat tamper your views. Time will tell.

Ready to win now is perhaps a bit misleading. Think 1988 Bills.....rather than 1990 Bills. Winning season, playoffs, 1st in division doesn't mean the team is ready yet to make the SB. Tagging Byrd just to keep him for this season would be counter productive to the perceived improvement of the team. We have several young players who when their rookie contracts expire are likely to command large contracts......and several more young players who hopefully will be in similar situations. The new rollover cap rules mean that the extra money we would have paid Byrd for his one year tag year would reduce our cap room in following years. We could use the monies to help sign the team of the future rather than a player who isn't going to be a part of that future.