MattM

I went to both of the last two away games there as well (my brother-in-law is a Raiders season tix holder)--it helped that we got our arses kicked both games--the home team's fans don't get too in your face when they've kicked your arse I've found.....

Looking into the KC game with my dad this year. Always wanted to see a game at Arrowhead, so this year's the year. Timing kind of sucks considering it's also the week before Thanksgiving, but what can you do? Also trying to head up for the opener and maybe the Browns game. Man, I can't wait for the season to arrive.....

Speaking just for me, welcome to the Board, Bill. Your post was well thought out and appreciated. I don't have a problem with Pats fans per se, but mainly the arrogant homer types who believe their team does no wrong and will be winning forever (most of those folks, as you point out, may not have lived through the lean years in Boston). You're welcome here to discuss the Bills and football in general, including the Pats.

Me, too, and I hate the Yankees....

I'm still a member there--as you'd expect, there are some real pieces of work there, but there are also some decent sorts. Let's just say I annoyed the h*ll out of them all on Spygate, which was worth the price of admission. They really are blind as to how the rest of the League views them and their team. Many of them just don't care--as long as they're winning it doesn't matter how they're doing it. Blind faith in Belicheat and Kraft are the order of the day. Anyone who sings even a slightly different tune is tarred and feathered (I was twice banned myself, but that doesn't stop one from just re-signing up). I've never seen such a fascistic jackbooted bunch of mods in that regard. It was pretty funny over there in the run up to the SB--my favorite was a thread titled "Who Else Smells a Blowout?". Talk about arrogance. Karma's a beatch, as they say, but even I left them alone after that game and only bring it up when they get a little out of hand or uppity. Like I said, there are some decent sorts there, even if you have to look hard to find them......

Actually, on HBO's Inside Sports interview with Matt Walsh HBO quoted "a former offensive star" on those Pats teams as saying that they knew what was coming most of the time due to the signal stealing and that yes indeed it was a very large advantage. To this day, I wonder why no major news outlet latched onto that quote--it really does make one wonder sometime.....

I agree to some extent with your post, but look at the quality of players they've picked the last two years and you'll see that they flat out stunk--only two from last year even made the team. While I understand that to some extent that is because the Pats are stacked talent-wise, more than two players out of a draft class should at least make the team don't you think?

That's really only been this past season--their team was a bit more balanced in prior years. Last season's O did an awful lot to mask the D's weaknesses--I do think that their D's high ranking statistically had more to do with things like time of possession being way in their favor and playing against teams made one-dimensional by playing from behind all the time. Take some of that away through other D's catching onto their O, subtract some key personnel they've lost this offseason (Samuel, Colvin and Gay come to mind) and add a year in age to some of their Sr. Citizens Brigade and this team ain't as unbeatable as some folks (chief among them, Pats fans) like to think, even this year.....

Found this information while looking up our FAs for these years, but if you follow the story below, it looks like the Pats really have about a two year window here with their current group. Between the hordes hitting FA (especially after 2009 below and combine that with Brady, Moss, Maroney and Light following after the 2010 season) and the age of some of their core (Bruschi, Seau, Harrison, new addition 31 year old CB Bryant and Vrabel come to mind, but so do Moss and even Brady and Adalius Thomas (both 31) to some extent), Pioli has his work cut out for him between now and then, especially since I understand that they're not exactly awash in cap money, some of which will probably become dead cap when guys like Harrison retire in the next year or two as well. Even better news is look at their 2006 and 2007 drafts and you'll see they've had one starter (Maroney) out of those two entire drafts--for ex., last year's draft netted Brandon "I'm Looking More and More Like a Bust Each Day" Merriweather and no one else who contributed at all (1 guy actually made the team--that's it, I believe). Our FO looks pretty smart to me, actually, in terms of extending our guys now--NE may do the same with some of these folks, but that's a long list, including a lot of their starters (especially lineman on both sides of the ball). The other lesson to me in all of this is that despite the lip service he pays it, no way in H-E-double hockey sticks does Kraft not want an uncapped league. That's what this says to me--that's the only way he'll keep this group together after 2009, IMHO is for 2010 to be uncapped, restrictions or no on that (and looking at this list makes me wonder if all of those new rules like "6 years experience before FA eligibility" were written with protecting his team in mind). If his drafts keep crapping out, he can always buy a chance at another ring..... Here's the list of players per KFFL who will be FAs after the 2009 season: Pos Player Name FA Status Previous Team Current Team RB Kevin Faulk UFA New England Patriots WR Sam Aiken UFA New England Patriots WR Chad Jackson UFA New England Patriots TE David Thomas UFA New England Patriots TE Benjamin Watson UFA New England Patriots PK Stephen Gostkowski UFA New England Patriots OG Logan Mankins UFA New England Patriots OG Stephen Neal UFA New England Patriots OG Billy Yates UFA New England Patriots OT Ryan O'Callaghan UFA New England Patriots OL Nick Kaczur UFA New England Patriots DL Jarvis Green UFA New England Patriots DL Richard Seymour UFA New England Patriots DL Le Kevin Smith UFA New England Patriots DL Vince Wilfork UFA New England Patriots LB Mike Vrabel UFA New England Patriots CB Ellis Hobbs UFA New England Patriots

My thoughts, exactly. NFW.....

Hope you're right about Wilson-that would be one less relatively important depth guy to worry about.....

I finally found a site that lists pending free agents after the coming season and here's our list: Pos Player Name FA Status Previous Team Current Team QB Gibran Hamdan UFA Buffalo Bills QB J.P. Losman UFA Buffalo Bills RB Fred Jackson RFA Buffalo Bills WR Justin Jenkins RFA Buffalo Bills WR Roscoe Parrish UFA Buffalo Bills [WRONG--EXTENDED LAST YEAR] TE Kevin Everett UFA Buffalo Bills OG Kirk Chambers UFA Buffalo Bills OT Patrick Estes UFA Buffalo Bills C Melvin Fowler UFA Buffalo Bills C Christian Gaddis ERFA Buffalo Bills OL Duke Preston UFA Buffalo Bills DL Copeland Bryan RFA Buffalo Bills DL Ryan Neill ERFA Buffalo Bills LB Angelo Crowell UFA Buffalo Bills LB John DiGiorgio RFA Buffalo Bills LB Keith Ellison RFA Buffalo Bills LB Kevin Harrison RFA Buffalo Bills CB Jabari Greer UFA Buffalo Bills CB Kiwaukee Thomas UFA Buffalo Bills FS George Wilson UFA Buffalo Bills http://www.kffl.com/static/nfl/features/fr...Team&y=2009 Out of this list, I've highlighted the UFA's that we may want to try to keep. If we get Evans (and possibly Peters) done this offseason as I expect, this really just leaves Crowell, Greer and Wilson as starters/key subs who we'll potentially be losing. I also see us keeping Ellison and DiGiorgio and Jackson out of the RFAs. Personally, I suspect that Greer will be gone after this season, as he'll be too expensive to keep, especially if he ends up being a decent nickel back/starter who wants a shot to be a clear starter somewhere. I also suspect his contract status explains at least part of why McKelvin was our top pick. Wilson is nice depth, but if he gets beaten out by Ko, then it's not too great a loss. With respect to Crowell, if he has a monster season we can still franchise him--if not, then he may be affordable to resign longer term if we want to. All in all, I think we're in very good shape. To me, the most likely scenario is lock up Evans and Peters (or should I say, make Peters happy) this summer and then next year let Greer and Wilson walk (along with Fowler), and re-sign Crowell or tag him. If the past is any indicator of the Bills approach in FA, they'll also sign one or possibly two starters next year from the FA's available. TE (Desmond Clark, anyone?) and/or C would be nice in that regard, as well as locking up 2-3 of our other younger players like they've done this year and last, which would leave our draft something like the following: 1. DE (to replace Schobel, who's getting up there in age); 2 and 3 C and TE if we don't go the FA route--if we do go that route, then we'd be in the enviable spot of BPA after round 1. Interesting to note that not many teams are in dire straits any more with respect to FA--the lesson seems to be to lock your players up before they get there.....

I don't know about that--I think they planned to extend Evans this offseason before the Peters stuff hit and that alone would put us in decent stead vis-a-vis the cap minimum I'd guess. Before JP fizzled last year, management had to plan for both he and Lee this offseason. Not having to do an extension for both JP and Lee hopefully is going to allow them to do what they need to do to keep both Evans and Peters happy this offseason....

Great job--must have taken a while to put together. Many thanks for taking the time to do it!

Very good point--I think it very much plays into what they're doing in extending guys like Butler, Williams, Roscoe (last year) and hopefully Evans and Peters. They have to realize that the direction the League is headed is a distinct disadvantage to them so they need to smartly extend guys now before we get too close to 2010. Personally, I strongly suspect that big market owners like Kraft, Jones and Snyder knew exactly what they were doing the last CBA go around and got themselves and the League a deal they knew wouldn't work so that they could go uncapped. Lip service aside, these guys want the competitive advantage that going uncapped would give them over the other 2/3rd-3/4ths of the League, parity be damned. Killing the goose that laid the golden egg doesn't bother them at all. MLB here we come.....

I'd still also love a link to a site that shows how many years a player is signed for--I'd love to see who we have coming up as FAs after 2008 and 2009.....

Great read, even if a bit wordy--he took the words right out of my mouth on some of it. In addition to being a general undressing of the Pats* and their fans last season, it also gave me a bit more hope on our chances against the Evil Empire this year as well. If you look at their roster, they are O-L-D at a number of positions, notably LB, safety and, more interestingly, increasingly old at some other spots, like OL and QB and WR (i.e., Randy Moss). At those last three spots, they have about a 2 year window (maybe 3) for Brady, before they'll have to consider replacements. This team ain't so young anymore in general, and if they keep drafting like they did in 2007 (Meriweather a disappointment and I'm not sure if any of their other 7-8 picks even made the team), they will be passing the Jets and perhaps Fins (much less us) in the opposite direction in a few years time, which may be part of the reason that Big Bob is one of the owners who I strongly suspect wants to get rid of the cap, so that should that draft suckiness occur, they can always try to buy another ring.....

Have any of you watched Patriot games over the last few years? From the Tuck Rule to the Colts AFCCG to the Ravens game to several screw jobs they've delivered to us over that period, it's incredible the number of calls late in a game that seem to go that team's way. That's what I was referring to here, not the overall officiating in the NFL.

That's my suspicion as well--I'd also personally love to see somebody give Mike Pereira the once over that the NBA refs are about to get courtesy of Donaghy.....

I think what everyone'f forgetting here is that Marshawn is barely all of 22 years old and not at all versed in things like this. He doesn't have the experience or maturity at that age to tell his advisors to shut up and do the right thing here--he's been very poorly served by them, IMHO, but when you don't have experience in something it's much easier to just "rely on the experts" as I suspect he's doing here. Problem is, his lawyer seems to be a bush league hack (for ex., his firm doesn't even have its own website or even a listing in Martindale-Hubbell, which all decent sized firms have at a bare minimum). I'm a lawyer myself (albeit on the corporate side) and can tell you, the bar is made up of all kinds--from extremely competent to guys who you wonder how they ever graduated from college much less law school or pass the bar. I'm very curious as to who hooked Marshawn up with his attorneys (his agent, perhaps?), as whoever it was doesn't seem to know what he's doing either. This could have been handled with minimal mess when it broke and instead they've turned it into a 3-ring circus, much to their client's and the team's detriment.....

Seeing Lori's post up above re: the rumor that TBD was his browser home page (which seems very believable), who else has a suspicion that in addition to losing a great man, journalist and Bills fan, we may have also lost at least an occasional fellow TBD and/or !@#$ poster. If you think about it, for a celebrity, where else can you go for anonymity, but the internet....

In addition to (or as a sign of) all of the above, I wore a Bills golf shirt to work today (and took some flack for it, I might add)--'nuff said.....

Wow--I'm stunned. Absolutely stunned. A great Bills fan and a great journalist.....

That was indeed one of the games I was thinking of, along with the first meeting in 2006 when every call (and no call) late in the game seemed to go their way. If you've ever seen Mike Pereira (the head of NFL officiating) interviewed you'd probably agree with me that you wouldn't trust him with the Lord's supper, as my father used to say.

While you have to consider the source (a convicted felon) obviously, he's making some interesting allegations here--anyone else ever wonder if the NFL does the same thing? I've seen too many odd calls in Pats games over the years to completely dismiss that notion out of hand myself...... http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3436401