MattM

Actually, no, it didn't. If you look closely, you'll see that most of their starters played and started all 16 games this year. The only guy who missed "significant" playing time was Neal, who missed 7 games, but still played 9 IIRC. I think one other starter missed 2-3 games (Kaczur, Ithink). The other three played and started all 16.

I met him at my HS near Roch in the late '70s--seemed like a nice guy. He was there doing a PR appearance with another Bill who's name escapes me (he was a DB is all I can remember).

All those "maybe's"--but let's be clear that another "maybe" is that it was nothing more than 3 gentlemen who happen to be black driving an expensive car. Doesn't it seem suspicious to you that the police haven't identified what it was that got them interested in the car--seems to me that if there was a legit reason that it would be out there front and center from the get go. Just good PR work there and what we're all used to seeing from the beginning of a story like this. I'll wait and see what comes out on all of this before passing judgment myself--maybe the police just forgot to mention why he was stopped and will do so now or maybe they won't (which to me personally will be quite telling). I wonder if you realize that your comment about waiting to actually see what happened before spewing off at the mouth could apply equally to your post in which you seem to be implying that Lynch in fact did do something wrong to warrant the police attention (despite the lack of the cops stating this anywhere)?

I agree with the other poster--while we'll have to see what the facts are, it could be worse than 4 games. Personally, I expect him to get a 4 game sit down at a minimum considering his prior issue last year. IIRC, Goodell pretty much promised as much when he spoke to Marshawn last summer--anyone else remember that and more precisely what Goodell may have said then? That said, I still wonder what the cops pulled them over for and how they ended up searching the trunk. The silence on all of that does seem a bit fishy to me. I also looked at the California penal code last night and while I couldn't get through all of it, it did look like there were some exceptions for transporting weapons in a trunk, but it looked like the weapon also needed to be unloaded and in a safe container.

What if he had the permits for the gun, but just not on him at the time? I suspect (hope) that this is the case, especially after the Burress incident. Anyone know how the situation would likely play out in such a case, or is this unlikely to be the case, as the CA police would have access to a database showing whether or not he had the relevant permits to begin with?

I agree completely other than the first round pick--the order should be reversed, as we need more DE help than DT help at the moment....

Any idea when they're supposed to send us the renewals? I seem to recall them being this time last year, in particular them being due right before FA started, but haven't gotten anything from the team yet. This year might be a good year to relocate, as I suspect they're going to lose a number of season ticket holders after the Jauron debacle.

Has anyone received information from OBD on this?

That said, if you cut Kelsay and Royal, you get about $40 million free. Roster bonuses and workout bonuses can't be much more than $5-8 million, tops, IMHO. that still leaves $30 million or more to spend on FA's under "Cash to Cap" accounting. Good point above re: signing bonuses--I'd forgotten how huge Dockery's was, but I suspect that many good FA's can be had for bonuses of $10 million or so, again allowing us to pick up 2 quality starters in FA, plus 2-3 other tier 2 players (like a backup QB). Doesn't mean they will do that, but it looks to me like they can.....

Remember, the Lions also have the #20 pick from Dallas for Roy Williams I believe as well as the overall first. That's what the Pats* will ask for from them for Cassel. I just hope they're smart enough to "just say no".....

He put up Pro Bowl stats those first 8 games for us--too bad that didn't last, but remember, for a good bit it really looked like we were the ones who took them on that trade. Overall, I'd call that one a wash personally.

Without the salary cap nothing would prevent the Pats*, Jets, Giants, Cowboys and Redskins from dominating the League year-in, year-out, with teams like the Bills being the NFL's version of the old Montreal Expos at the best (i.e., drafting well, but never fielding a good team because all your FAs go on to big bucks deals you can't afford) or Pittsburgh Pirates (more likely). That would be a lot of fun, wouldn't it? MLB (and its almighty TV ratings) have been going down the crapper for about 20 years, ever since they let their spending imbalances creep up. I used to love baseball (old Rochester boy, so I'm an O's fan), but for about 10 plus years now, I could care less about it (and it gets none of my cash)--hate to see that happen to football, too......

I'm pretty sure their O-line was pretty much the same as during Brady's 2007 historic run--namely, Light, Mankins, Koppen, Neal and Kaczur. The best 3 of those gents (Mankins, Koppen and Light) started all 16 this year and of the other two, Kaczur missed two starts and Neal, their weak link, started 9 and played in 11. If you recall, under Brady, three of them made the Pro Bowl. Under Cassel, none of them got a sniff. Behind that same O-line, Cassel got sacked about three times a game as well. Not quite sure what you mean by their O-line not being what it used to be as this shows. Cassel just held the ball too long in some situations (sound familiar?) when Brady would have gotten it out more quickly and that's why Cassel took twice as many sacks. They didn't have him throw the long ball much, either, so in some ways it's even odder that he got hit so often.

I agree with you wholeheartedly on the positions of need. I suspect they may try to take care of two via FA (C and TE) and two via the draft (OLB and DE). I wouldn't mind if they could pick up Brown at C and then someone like Bo Scaife at TE to go with a DE in Rd 1 and OLB in Rd 2. In a perfect world we'd re-sign Crowell cheap as well and then be able to go BPA after Rd 1, but we'll see. I also expect them to pick up a back up QB and some depth in FA (including resigning some of our own, like Chambers and Preston, to go with tenders to Jackson, Ellison and Digi and possibly Wilson). All of this strikes me as pretty doable, even by our low spending standards. If this were to happen and (a) Trent, Poz, Marshawn, Hardy, S. Johnson and some of the other youngsters mature and (b) we draft well (i.e., pick up 2-3 guys who contribute as rookies, especially at DE) we could make some noise next season.

All I'm saying is that by the standards that this FO has set for itself they have plenty of money to spend (again, unless I'm missing something)--whether they will or not, who knows, but if history is any guide, we shouldn't count on it.....

Who's going to trade for him? KC? Detroit (remember, Matt Millen is gone now)? Signing the tender means Cassel can effectively block the trade by not agreeing to a long term deal. The Pats* have had the control of the situation taken from them by his signing the tender. Cassel may have been a "team first" player when he was in their plans, but by trading him it obviously means he's no longer in their plans so don't expect him to do them any favors in the trade dept. If he doesn't like the situation they're trying to send him into he can effectively block the deal. Who knows, there may be Matt Millen II out there somewhere dumb enough to trade for him, but I suspect that real NFL front office folks can actually watch film and see that this guy can't hit the long ball to save his life and that most of his stats came from short throws to some of the best receivers in the League behind one of the best 0-lines in the League, with lots of the yardage coming from YAC. Time will tell, but if the Pats* don't get something done soon, kiss their offseason shopping goodby.....

Yeah, nice move--it means they can do little or no FA shopping or contract extending this offseason (remember that literally about 30% of their team, including Wilfork, Mankins, Seymour and others are FA's after 2009). Folks who knob gobble New England need to remember that past performance is not indicative of future returns, especially when past performance may very well have been highly contributed to by guys like Dimitroff (the architect of the Falcons' one year turnaround) and Pioli, both of which are no longer there....

I don't get the KC talk at all--you hear a lot of that on Patsy* message boards just because of the Pioli connection. First off, Pioli isn't stupid so he knows Cassel is a system QB (heck, he helped set up the system) and more importantly, the Chiefs have Tyler Thigpen on the cheap and considering the talent he had around him compared to what Cassel had around him, I'd go as far as to say that Thigpen had a better year. I just don't see the Chiefs being in the Cassle hunt. Like Cassel, this mere second year player got better as the season progressed (at least pre-year end bad weather games): http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/...1/game_log.html Thigpen didn't play with two of the best WR in the League (although Bowe and Gonzalez are good players) behind one of the best O-lines in the League (and yet he still had about half the sacks Cassel took). This is also only Thigpen's second year in the League, compared to four for Matty C.

If you do the math above (and assuming our 7 draft choices make the team), we'd have a handful of spots to fill to get to 53 and $35-40 million to spend on them. And in response to the other poster, for coaches (if that is indeed the case) you'd add at most $4 million more, so that doesn't explain it either. The point of my question is that holding Ralph at his word on all of this "cash to cap" it looks to me like we have a ton of money to FA shop this offseason. Using the $35 million number, let's assume we spend $5 million to land 3-5 lower to mid-tier FA's (older guys, special teams aces, quality vet backups, etc.) That leaves $30 million to spend on decent FAs. I'd wager that should land us at least 4 starter quality players (avg. 2009 pay of about $7.5 million). Personally, I suspect it would be $3-5 million on a backup QB and then $8-9 million on three other decent players. For that kind of money I suspect we could land Jason Brown ©, Bo Scaife or LJ Shelton (TE) and certainly at least re-sign Crowell or a better player at OLB, leaving only DE and potentially WR (and I bet under all this money we could squeak in a vet like Amani Toomer for about $3-5 million in 2009 cash) as potentially glaring needs and at WR you'd have Johnson and hopefully Hardy getting better.

Methinks he called their bluff, i.e., he knows he's a system QB who's not worth anything near this amount--not quite sure what they do now, but can't say that it bothers me. Have fun, Patsies*......

You may be right, but (a) I figured in extending Peters and Reed and (b) escalators are probably still a small portion of the total. If these numbers are anywhere near right, the Bills have a ton of money to spend, even under "cash to cap".....

According to this link (muchas gracias, senor Steely Dan): http://www.rotoworld.com/content/clubhouse...amp;majteam=BUF the Bills have 37 players under contract for a total 2009 compensation of $57 million, give or take. Add in 5-6 E/RFA (I'd guess Ellison, Digi, Freddie, Schoman perhaps and Wilson) for a total of $3 million or so and we have 42 under contract for $60 million. Let's take another $12 million for our rookie class (the number 11 pick will garner the bulk of that in bonus). That leaves us a whopping $51 million based on this year's cap of $123 million. Even if we use $15m or so to do extensions (Reed and Peters, for ex. and perhaps McGee) that still leaves us $35 million under Ralph's own cash to cap. If they're serious about this, that's some serious coin to be throwing around in FA, certainly enough for 2-3 major (by major, I mean just about anybody) acquisitions and 3-4 journeyman-type deals (like bringing back Preston and Chambers as backups). Worth noting is that we could also save an additional $4.5 million on top of all this by jettisoning Royal and Kelsay. What am I missing here?

Yes--I went to my first game in 1972 actually. I doubt that Ralph was paying less (or much less, at least, since the USFL sometimes did try to compete on $) than the Gamblers personally, but have no link to prove that (too lazy). Kelly just didn't want to come to what he perceived as an NFL loser in a city he also didn't think too highly of before he got there.

No, he initially hated it so much that he played in the USFL for several years first--get your facts straight please.....

You took the words right out of my mouth. Can anyone say "system QB"? What's funny is watching the media pump up the market for the guy. While his numbers were very good, he was playing in the NFL's number one offense of all time (stat-wise from 2008) and he basically just dinked and dunked his way downfield. A lot of his yardage seemed to be YAC--I remember one play that went for 80 where he threw the ball 10 yards, tops, and Moss did the rest, for ex. Anything over 15 yards downfield and he couldn't hit the broad side of a barn. Hopefully personnel men, League-wide don't fall for this and the Pats* get stuck with him, but somehow, with those bastiges, I doubt it.....