Rubes

Getting an early start on the weekend binge drinking, I see.

This is the rare example of a situation where I'm actually glad I opened a particular thread.

This is going to be an interesting one, I think. The touchback issue is, I sense, important to the staff -- I think it had a large role in letting go of Lindell. The question is, even with the bigger leg, can Hopkins be counted on to get touchbacks consistently enough to warrant letting go of Carpenter? It's tough when you know the incumbent is remarkably accurate and consistent at getting points, probably the most important part of kicking.

So much for the Pettine discussion...

I think he'd be very unlikely to accept that offer, knowing that there will probably be several other teams willing to pay him at least as much with more guarantee.

I'll wait to panic, but—HELL NO I WON'T WAIT !@&^#&^%$!!

Probably a tougher call at this point than I was thinking. Originally, I thought it would be a simple choice: pay the man. He came in at the last minute right before the season started, and proceeded to have one of the best seasons by a Bills kicker in their history. He was extremely reliable, especially from long distance, which is just about the best you can ask from your kicker. He scored the third most points in a season by a Bills player in franchise history. But such reliability comes at a price. As reported in the BN, the average salary of the 10 highest paid kickers in 2013 was $3.153 million. Bear in mind that Rian Lindell, one of the best kickers in Bills history, had a salary of $2.1 million when he was released. One area that Carpenter struggled a bit was kickoffs. As reported in the BN, he had just 34 total touchbacks, which ranked 23rd in the NFL. Only 41 percent of his kickoffs were touchbacks, which ranked 28th in the NFL. And of course, waiting in the wings for his second chance is Dustin Hopkins, he of the strong leg and rookie salary. So...what would you do?

I thought the Old Spice commercial was pretty damn funny. My wife, not so much.

There you go. I'm with you now.

That's nothing compared to the Hot Cinnabun eruption that occurred last time I ate there.

I believe you mean 1989.

So if Carpenter is lined up wide as a receiver, no doubt some defender will be assigned to him. Do you expect after the snap the defender will just let him go and go after the QB on the far side of the play, or would he more likely suspect "trick play!" and stick close to Carpenter? When he sees the ball coming back to the OL for the hold, he just has to touch the holder to end the play, since the ball is beyond the line of scrimmage and, presumably, also touching the ground for the FG attempt.

Thanks for the perspective. I think it's very reasonable. I still wonder about his performance over the last 10 years and how he maintains a job with that performance, but I appreciate the explanation.

To be completely fair, my question for my friend was, what did he think the main differences were between Manuel and Winston, and did he think Winston was truly that much better than Manuel. His response was that he felt they were pretty equivalent, but perhaps Winston was slightly better at some things. He felt the main thing was that Winston had a significantly improved team around him, with some better players and others that had an additional year under their belts. But in terms of quarterbacking and talent, he felt they were pretty close. His one comment about Manuel is that he had more of a tendency to make the occasional poor decision, the kind that made him go, "WTF?" I did not see Winston play at all this year, until the title game. So while I don't have much of a database to go on, my impression coming away from that game is that Winston has a bit more talent running with the ball, but I didn't see much difference in arm strength or accuracy. At the same time, however, the one thing that stood out to me is that it *appeared* as though he and Manuel have a very similar running style -- that is, Winston runs "too high" and doesn't do a lot to protect his body, especially his legs. He's a big boy, but the main takeaway for me is that Winston may very well have the same experience as Manuel when he gets to the NFL -- if he doesn't learn to slide or get out of bounds, he's going to get crunched and his knees may become a problem.

I never want other teams to win. I only want certain other teams to lose. The rest are just meh.

A good friend of mine who is a diehard FS fan said the same thing when I asked him about Winston vs. Manuel and what was different this year.

To be fair, this is (at least) the third Robey appreciation thread in the past couple of weeks. To be completely fair, all three of those threads don't add up to 50 pages, but still. Three threads. I would say strictly nickel/dime. He doesn't have the height to match up on the outside as a starter, as much as I think he has the talent.

Dude's a ball player. Great instincts, good tackler. Hopefully he just gets better with experience.

Do they show a list of free agent core special teamers we can grab?

Some might argue the loss of White was one of the reasons our special teams coverage was so lousy. But yeah, I think that was a good trade.

This is one of those things that makes me wish I had some insider information to understand. What makes top NFL personnel continue to think that Danny Crossman is a good choice for ST coach? I mean, seriously, finishing 29th or 30th, in the bottom 10%, for half of the ten years he's been a coach has to say something. Doesn't it? What's also interesting is looking at what happened to those teams' units once he left. Carolina in 2010 improved to 22nd. Detroit in 2013 improved to 20th. Not great, but improved once he left. Maybe nobody wants to coach special teams or something. I can't explain it.

I'm in the camp against drafting a QB int he first round again, but this is not my reasoning. My reasoning is that the Bills have too many holes to fill to spend another #1 pick on a QB. While it's true that you need a good QB to succeed in the NFL, we still don't know what we have with Manuel. It's also true that you need to hit on your #1 picks. And since only one QB can be on the field at a time, it makes more sense to me to spend the #1 pick on another position of need until we have a better sense of what we have with Manuel. I'd be okay with a #3 pick on a QB, but not a #1 or #2, at least not with all the needs this team still has.

That's actually not a bad idea, BB. Half the money for the Bills, but the NFL would probably like the idea.

Not in these parts. Let the rampant speculation and assumption drawing begin!

That's what I thought... I thought for sure the game against New Orleans in 1989 would be on that list. After looking it up, it was only 26 degrees, but the 13 mph winds made the wind chill 15. I was at that one, and it was frigging cold and snowy. And yet, somehow the southern team from the domed stadium came in and won, 22-19. The Saints rushed for 150 yards and passed for more than 300. That was just a couple of weeks before the Ronnie Harmon playoff game in Cleveland...