MattM

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.....

While he does things we don't like from time to time (keeping Jauron and not opening his wallet at times comes to mind), you have to give him credit for keeping the team in Buffalo when he could have moved it for a lot more money in many other places. Congratulations, Mr. Wilson--I, for one, am very happy for you. Now we just have to find a way to get you your SB Ring....

Uhh, conveniently forgetting that under Brady three of their OL went to the Pro Bowl in 2007, yet with that same line it seemed like Matty C. spent half his time running for his life or on his back (especially earlier in the year). The line didn't change, but the QB play did, and hence those gentlemen on the line were at home this offseason and ain't making a return trip to Honolulu. Did you watch any of Cassel's games this year? When I did (which was a good bit thanks to the NFL Sunday Ticket) it seemed to me that he dinked and dunked his way down the field and much of his yardage was YAC gained by his receivers. When he threw more than 15 yards downfield he seemed to not be able to hit the broad side of a barn. This guy's got Scott Mitchell written all over him, IMHO. As for why Reese was talking up his value, anyone consider that the Reese hire didn't completely come out of nowhere perhaps and Floyd was simply talking up his own future book, as traders say?

When I went to the KC game this year by coincidence we were staying at the hotel the Chiefs also stayed at the night before the game and sho' nuff, there was a Bentley with driver waiting outside the hotel that morning. I suspect it was either Gonzalez's or LJ's, as I couldn't think of anyone else on that team who could really afford one (okay, maybe Glenn Dorsey as well). I work in midtown Manhattan and we see a fair number of them there. I've also started to see a lot of Maybachs and Maseratis (sp?) lately, not quite sure why, but I guess rich folks' tastes are changing perhaps.....

The thing that interested me most about the list is that we are actually in pretty good shape in terms of having guys under reasonable contracts the next two-three years (i.e., we have most of our starters locked up through 2010). Exceptions exist, of course--Kelsay will be given one more year (at $3m) to prove his worth I suspect and show 2008 was an aberration, the corner situation with Greer and McGee both coming up in the next two years and I think that it will hurt losing Josh Reed after 2009 if he's not extended, but other than that we have just about everyone else you might possibly want (at least for depth if you can upgrade) locked up. Call me crazy (and you will), but I still do think that with good upgrades in just a few spots (DE, C, TE, WR and OLB) combined with the natural progression of younger players like Trent, Poz, Lynch and (leap of faith) Johnson and Hardy we may be competitive next year for the playoffs. For ex., if we could sign Matt Birk or Jason Brown at C, re-sign a healthy Crowell or equivalent, hit on a good DE at #11, sign someone like Amani Toomer at WR and draft a good TE in Rd 2 we'd plug most of our main holes. All of that looks to me to be well within the realm of possibility--signing one solid starter FA, one hometown discount for a FA coming off an injury year and one FA past his prime, but with something in the tank and chip on his shoulder is something even Ralph has the wallet for based on the last few years of "cash to cap". At DE, we get Schobel back (hopefully healthy) and Ellis should be better after a year in the program. Combine that with a good DE at #11 (Orakpo or more likely Brown or Maybin) and adding Crowell or his equivalent (Vilma, for ex.) at LB and our front 7 will be much improved. A few bounces our way and that team could go 10-6 next year. Now go ahead and call me crazy.....

This would make me happy (as would swapping out Mack for Caldwell at C).....

Would love to see some of this happen at least, but remember, even though we have cap room, Ralph won't spend it. On your FA list, Daniels is restricted, I believe, and Suggs said yesterday he's willing to take a home town discount to stay in B'more. A more realistic offseason would be something like: 1. Bills re-sign Crowell or someone similar (Vilma or Bart Scott, for ex.) at LB; 2. Bills sign someone like Amani Toomer at WR and/or LJ Smith at TE or go after a C like the Ravens' C who's name escapes me, but that will be about it in FA; 3. Bills reup Fast Freddy, Preston and Chambers (last two for depth) but let Jabari and possibly Ellison walk--if they're smart they'll also pay Peters (I give that a 50/50); and 4. Bills then draft a DE in Rd 1 and possibly move up to take someone like Mack or Unger in late Rd 1 or Rd 2 if they haven't gotten a C in FA--if they have done that in place of getting a TE in FA, they do the same and go for a TE in Rd 2. Rest of draft becomes BPA. Cheaply trying to plug the holes they have and hope that, plus Edwards and Lynch's improvement, along with a happy Peters and Schobel's return, is enough to carry them to the playoffs.

Let's see, they've got Brady, who has to have a cap number of at least $10 million (more than any Bill), then they seem to add guys like Adalius Thomas (forget his contract numbers, but they were huge) and Randy Moss ($9m per year or so for last year's 3 year, $27m deal) every year or two, along with high second tier (contract wise) guys like Welker, Colvin, Seau, LaMont Jordan, etc. every year. I'd be curious as well how their accounting gets them so close to us cap-wise. I thought I'd read on their board that they're much closer to being like $10-15 million under the cap (with a number of FAs to sign)--that sounds closer to right to me.

I really suspect you're his agent.....

Who are you--his agent?

It is pretty funny, isn't it--they're really used to doing the screwing....