Albany,n.y.

When the schedule comes out, well know if the NFL is "giving us the business" or not. The two easiest games to sellout will be Dallas & the Giants. There are tons of fans of those teams all over NYS. If we get one of them on opening day, another one in October & get Cincinnati & Denver in December, the NFL is screwing us as badly as they did with 4 post Thanksgiving games this year. If they schedule the 2 big draws in November & December, then you know they've gotten the message that we need to schedule the harder teams to market earlier in the year. Personally, I'd like to see the Bengals on opening day & Denver as game 2.

I expect Everett to get cut before camp starts. He's a total bust. At the end of the season, Matt Murphy was getting more playing time than him. We should definitely be in the market for a #1 TE. Royal is a good 2 & Cieslak is a good 3.

Then in the 7 rounds of the draft, lets draft 3 or 4 RBs & we'll probably get a good starter out of one of them, while our D will get a lot worse than this year after losing Clements & London F-B.

If it was that simple to draft a RB in the second round & plug him in with enough confidence in him before you even get him in camp to dump Willis, then you must think that there are no busts or mediocre RBs that high in the draft. The bottom line is, you don't really know what you have in a draft choice until you get him into camp & the exhibition games and see how he plays against NFL caliber players. Not every 2nd rounder turns into Thurman Thomas. Last year Tennessee picked LenDale White at pick 45 in the 2nd (ahead of Maurice Jones-Drew) and I haven't seen anything to indicate he could have been their #1 back. Even Drew succeeded as a #2 RB. In 2005 at pick 44 Arizona got a dud in JJ Arrington. For 2004, the 3 backs taken Tatum Bell, Julius Jones and Greg Jones are a big dropoff in talent from Willis. In 2003 (after 1st rounders Willis & Larry Johnson), no RBs were taken in the 2nd and the 3rd rounders were Musa Smith, B.J. Askew, Chris Brown & Justin Fargas. By now you should be seeing the picture: you just don't give up a proven starter & dial up his replacement in the 2nd round. There are a lot of busts & below average RBs that get taken in the 2nd (and 3rd) round . Choosing a RB at pick 12 to trade Willis for a 2 or 3 is even more insane. Edit: I type slowly & wrote this before the 1st round busts were listed. That post shows even more that you just don't dial up a RB and get a starter.

Bills: They can't trade their starting RB without a replacement. Earth to those who feel "offended" by Willis-they are not trading him just to replace him with an unknown quantity. The likely scenario is they draft a RB with the HOPE he can eventually replace Willis and if he isn't then they'll deal with the RB situation in 2008. Those of you "offendees" who think we're going to go after RESTRICTED free agents like Michael Turner, wake up-we're not giving SD our 1st round pick & SD won't take anything less from us & will match any offer even if it means trading him to a team that you think will trade for Willis. Willis: It makes no sense for him to force a trade coming off a subpar season. Nobody will trade for him without a new contract & any new contract will be well under the value he thinks he can command with a good season. He & his agent know better than to sign a new contract at the lowest point of his salary potential. Another NFL team: No team will give us a 2 or 3 to rent Willis for a year & he's not signing a new deal until AFTER 2007-See Willis above. So, if it's not a good deal for the current team, the player or another team, why would the Bills trade Willis McGahee? Because he offended you?

We're not trading McGahee for a 2nd round pick-now go in the corner & join Jerry Sullivan with the dunce cap on.

Lofton will have to have coordinator experience before a team looks seriously at him for a head coaching job.

Thanks, this is the best writeup on the situation: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story...mp;lid=tab1pos1 And I ask anyone to explain where the San Diego coaching staff was with the Bolts leading 21-13 and New England facing fourth-and-5 with 6:25 remaining. Marlon McCree of San Diego intercepted the ball, then committed the aforementioned fumble. On fourth down you knock down the pass! Had McCree simply slapped the ball to the ground, the Bolts would have taken possession on their 41 with the clock winding down, the league's best running back and an eight-point lead. On fourth down it is the responsibility of the coaching staff to remind defenders not to intercept! Before a key fourth down in our middle-school flag league this fall, I screamed to my players: "Knock it down! Do not intercept!" My 11-year-old, Spenser, had a perfect bead on a pick and instead slapped the ball to the ground. After the game he said, "Dad, I really wanted the interception, but I knew you knock it down on fourth down." Why didn't San Diego's professionals know this? Why didn't the highly paid San Diego coaches remind them? Before a fourth-down snap by the opponent, coaches are supposed to scream, "FOURTH DOWN! KNOCK IT DOWN!" Knocking the ball down on fourth down not only gives your team possession at the original line of scrimmage, which is usually a better spot than an interception spot, but prevents the intercept-then-fumble scenario. McCree said after the game that he made the pick because he thought he would score a touchdown -- another reason why defenders must be coached to knock it down on fourth down! Defenders always fantasize about touchdowns. McCree would have been lucky to get back to the original line of scrimmage. All San Diego had to do on this season-killer snap was exhibit a standard well-coached response to a favorable situation, and the Chargers might now be preparing to host the conference championship. Instead, San Diego screwed up something several of my 11-year-olds got right on several occasions this fall. And note that neither CBS announcer so much as noticed that slapping the ball down would have saved San Diego's day. Endlessly it amazes me that television football pundits who are well-paid to do nothing all year but yak about sports seem unaware of the basics of what's happening on the field.

I don't buy the instinct excuse. These guys are professionals. This guy in particular was singled out by Nantz & Simms as being smarter than the average Bear. He has a brain, he should use it. True students of the game understand the circumstances involved in every down and every situation. Teams that allow player to rely strictly on instincts are poorly coached. Part of coaching at that level is to have your players prepared for different situations. They have playbooks, meetings and film review because they are supposed to be able to use their minds & not rely on instincts. I bet if you asked any member of the Patriots or any above average coached team, they wouldn't defend their choice, even if they had made the mistake of catching it. Well coached teams are told when circumstances preclude playing on instinct alone. An example of using your mind over instincts is that playing strictly on instincts, a QB tries to make a play every time. The QB who uses his mind knows there are times to ditch the instincts & throw the ball away rather than throw it somewhere where the coverage gives the D a better chance of making the play than his receiver.

Name one thing Willis has done on the field or in the locker room to consider him a cancer? The quotes about Buffalo & the 3 kids do not make a player a cancer. A player becomes a cancer when his action bother his coaches & teammates and affect the players around him. I don't think having a few kids with different mothers bothers anyone on the Bills, if anything some of them wish they were getting as much action as Willis. As far as having nothing to do in Buffalo, his teammates have either found things to do or agree with him & flee as soon as the season ends. Either way, they are not affected by Willis' comments. By definition, Willis is not a cancer.

All I could think of when I saw Marty with his players before the game started was lambs being led to slaughter. Marty is the Gene Mauch of football.

I found the quotes within this story. Reading it makes the CBS boys who called him coaching material sound like total idiots. This guy doesn't even understand the game he plays. Ahead by 8, chance to get the ball around the 40-take the sure thing. I sure wouldn't want to be this guy's financial advisor if he ever went to Vegas. “I was trying to make a play,” he said, “and anytime I get the ball I am going to try and score. I saw there was an (offensive) lineman in front of me, and I knew if I could make him miss I was off and running. “Before I had a chance to do that, Troy Brown stripped it. He made a great play, and I was trying to make a big play. (In) hindsight I don't regret it because I would never try and just go down on the (ground). I want to score.” Asked why he just didn't knock the ball down, since it was fourth down and an incomplete pass would have given the Chargers possession, McCree scoffed. “Why would I knock the ball down?” he said. “He threw it right to me.” Later, McCree added: “I would do the same thing if I had the same opportunity. This time I would just secure the ball more securely.” http://www.signonsandiego.com/sports/charg...s15chside1.html

I can't believe the pass Marlon McCree has gotten on talk shows & in the media today. Is it the result of the CBS announcers not ripping him, after they called him a future head coach, or was there so much stupidity exhibited by San Diego yesterday that it just blended in? More than once today I've heard or read he should have went to the ground upon intercepting the ball-WRONG! He had no business intercepting the ball in the 1st place. Anyone who says he should have went down upon intercepting doesn't understand the concept of lost field position that that would have caused. Maybe this play angers me so much because of Nate Clements failure to bat a ball down on 4th & long on opening day 2004 where the receiver caught the ball & Jacksonville got a 1st down, continued the drive & later won the game. I sure hope I never see a Bill intercept a pass on 4th down, or try to intercept a pass when batting it down is the better option.

Guys like Jim Kelly & Kent Hull retire. Guys like Villarial get cut & guys like Shelton don't get re-signed.

and the announcers were talking up McCree as a future coach-NOT!

The 1st day of camp, don't they tell these guys not to intercept on 4th down? I went balistic watching it & I wasn't even rooting for either team. On top of that the dumbass announcers never brought it up.

Early in the game, the Saints made a good play on D. They showed a young blond beauty cheering in the stands. I'd swear that her shirt said "F**k Da Eagles", uncensored.

No way in Washington. They have Jason Campbell, who showed as much if not more than JP showed this season. The way he played against the Giants in the last game solidified his stranglehold on the job. Bledsoe refuses to be on a team where he doesn't enter camp #1 on the depth chart. He's could try to sign with the Vikings or Browns since he knows he's better than what they've got and would probably end up starting, but in the end his pride won't allow him to enter a fair competition & he'll unofficially retire after Dallas releases him. Then he'll look to come back with a team that loses their QB during the 2007 season.

I will not be surprised when it is said "Buffalo selects linebacker Paul Posluszny, Penn State" Marv loves Penn State linebackers.

In the back yard with his kids, and when Maura puts one of the kids at QB and asks him to move to a different position, he'll run inside the house & refuse to play.

Finally, some sanity over blind (& dumb) emotion.

Years in the league: less than 3-exclusive free agent, can't leave unless team wants to dump you; less than 4-restricted free agent, team has right of 1st refusal & gets draft choice compensation based on where drafted & $ tendered; 4 or more years-unrestricted free agent, but can be franchised or transitioned.

This isn't baseball-you go into the HOF as a football player, no hat, no uniform. Willis is going in the same way I did-with an admission ticket.

It's going to be against either us or the Giants. http://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/817615/detail.html

No, the travel after the game is very important to those of us coming in from out of town. I'll give you some examples: When they moved the Miami game to 4, the 1st thing I did was sign off from work on Monday. It meant a total rethinking of my routine, since I wasn't sure whether I'd be driving all the way home after the game-it's a 5 hour drive. When they moved it back, I recinded my Monday day off & went with my normal travel routine-leaving immediately after the game, no lingering-that means I was gone by 4:15-4:30, not 7:00. Now lets shift to the game that directly affected my plans. I bought a ticket, flight & motel room in Baltimore back in July. 6 days before the game, it gets changed. Now I've got the last flight out of Baltimore at 8:55pm & I had to make a decision-leave the game early, stay another day in Baltimore to the tune of around $200 more, or cancel the trip entirely. I eventually chose to leave the game early & I decided that I will NEVER buyt a ticket to a flex schedule game unless I'm driving to the game & I can control my schedule-something you can't do when you book in advance to get discount rates or book the last flight out & the game gets moved too close to get to the airport in time. Try traveling to games hundreds of miles from where you live & you might understand the problems that flex scheduling presents. Go on the Thruway after the game & you'll see that a lot more people drive in from out of town than you are imagining.