Buffalo Wing

Bears | Shelton Interested in Joining Team - from www.KFFL.com Sat, 19 Feb 2005 08:21:41 -0800 David Haugh, of the Chicago Tribune, reports the Chicago Bears have conducted trade talks with Vance Larimer, agent for Arizona Cardinals OT L.J. Shelton, who has been granted permission to seek a trade this offseason. "L.J. has said he would love to play in Chicago," Larimer said. "He and (tackle) John Tait got to know each other before the '99 draft. He is excited about the possibility of playing on the same offensive line as him." The Cardinals are reportedly seeking as high as a second-round draft choice in exchange for the veteran left tackle and there are said to be several potential suitors for Shelton's services thus far. Not good news for those of us drooling about the possibility of LJ coming to Buffalo. Dangit!

My thinking on drafting a DT lies in the fact that even if PW resigns with the team (which I believe will happen), both PW and SA are getting up there in age. And let's face it, although Edwards showed signs of life last year, do we believe that he could become a full time starter at some point in the not-so-distant future? I'm not so sure that's a possibility. And let's face it, neither Bannan or Sape will be household names, even for true blue Bills fans.

Some random thoughts over a Saturday morning cup of coffee...stream of consciousness writing here, so be patient... (1) If the Bills and Cardinals do dance, I think it's a player for player swap. No additional draft picks on either side to consumate the deal. I don't think TD bites on the deal if Arizona wants an additional draft pick thrown in. It appears to be a fair deal for both sides. Although TD (or Arizona for that matter) may covet another draft pick, if you can snag a known NFL commodity, you strike while the iron is hot. (2) If Shelton is brought in, we can safely assume that JJ walks. I think if this scenario plays out, the Bills strike early in free agency and sign a solid left guard. We would then have a very nice offensive line for Jimmy Mac to work his magic on. (3) Marcus Price will be locked up in the red, blue, and white. He is too valuable to the team. He has come in and played both left tackle and right tackle at critical moments...and held down the fort admirably. Price strikes me as a player who is content to do whatever the organization asks of him - those are the type of players that you want on your team. I think this would give them some nice depth at the offensive line too - Price, Tucker, Smith, et al. (4) Pat Williams will resign with the Bills. It will be a fair deal for both sides. Pat has too many close friends on the team and is a huge impact in the Buffalo community. He is a man that places a high priority on principles! (4) The Bills will also push hard for a solid TE in free agency. Regardless of the health of Campbell and Euhus (who both MAY be back in time for the start of training camp - note: MAY be back), this is a position that needs an upgrade. Ryan Neufeld is not the answer guys. An upgrade at this position will hopefully add further strength to the offensive line, as well as providing JP with another offensive weapon. Can you imagine a solid TE for Tom Clements to game plan with? Hmmm....do I give the ball to Willis, throw a quick out to Moulds, a streak to Jet Lee, a pass in the flat to the TE, a bootleg by JP, etc....as a defense, who do you game plan for??? (5) Jim Miller will be brought in for a look-see at backup QB, but in the end, the former Pittsburgh Steeler, Chicago Bear, etc will be passed over for Charlie Batch. Batch has shown that he can come in game situations and manage the offense adequately. Shane Matthews will end up retiring. It appears that he has thought about retiring, and you know what they say, once you start thinking about it, you are already there. Regardless, Batch would be better suited to learn an offensive that will be primarily designed to play to the strengths of JP. (6) Day 1 selections in the draft will include a defensive back and a defensive tackle. Sorry to all those Nuge fans out there (including myself). Other thoughts: There has been some speculation that the Bills will entertain Correll Buckhalter as a back-up to WM. That would be a significant upgrade over Travis Henry as well as Shaud Williams. If TD pulls that off, wow!

How dare you even bring up Coy Wire as a whipping boy! How dare you! He's the second coming of Ronnie Lott! <sarcasm button off> Seriously, the last time I made one negative comment about Coy Wire's ability to read a play (or should I say, inability to read a play), I got absolutely flamed on this board!

Ok, the topics of today's sports shows are the following (in no particular order): (1) The steroid issue in baseball and whether or not Jose Canseco is telling the truth. (2) The NHL strike. (3) NBA highlights. For the love of all that is decent and good, will someone please put me out of my misery! Sports coverage sucks right now! How many days until the NFL Draft? At least then we will have a few days of excitement in the world of sports!

The last time major league baseball had their strike, I vowed I would never attend another game. To this day, I have held true to my word. The same can be said for this NHL strike. I vow I will never attend another NHL game. Good luck jerks!

I would love to see Cosey Coleman in a Bills uniform. I am a Tennessee Vol fan, so I had the opportunity to watch him in college (same with Travis Henry, Peerless Price, et al). I was hoping the Bills were going to draft Coleman coming out of college, but TB snatched him up. If we could get Coleman and a draft pick for Henry, that would be HUGE! Coleman would give our o-line a significant boost. We could then use the draft pick on any of a variety of areas - safety, back-up running back, kicker (NUGE!)

Excellent analysis Fake-Fat Sunny. Finally someone actually posts an opinion with some data to back it up. Much better than the usual posts of "Drew sucks, therefore let's cut him". My opinion on the issue: Given this year's market, I firmly believe that JJ will end up in Buffalo. Teams that appear to have the greatest need for a LT have so many other pressing needs (e.g., Chicago desperately needs some WR help to stay alive in the NFC Norris, San Fran needs MAJOR defensive help to even compete in the NFC West, etc.). TD will give Jonas a fair contract but definitely not the big $$$ he was hoping for.

I could not agree more John! I would love to see a quality FA brought in to strengthen the left guard position!

Eagles | Simon Franchised - from www.KFFL.com Thu, 10 Feb 2005 14:30:55 -0800 The Philadelphia Eagles have announced they have placed their franchise tag on DT Corey Simon, who is scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent March 2. Sorry to all those who were hoping that TD was looking Corey Simon's way.

Ok, can everyone please change their shorts already...let me make a few points that seem to have been lost in the sauce... (1) This is the same Eric Moulds who at one point in the season did NOT want to be a part of the organization anymore. We seem to have forgot that. Most of this board was telling him to get the heck out of town a few months back. (2) If the team were to simply allow the current contract to run out, Moulds would be 33/34 at the end of the current contract. Bottom line is that he would not be getting huge $$$ in the open market at that stage in his career. It makes sense for him to extend the current contract now and squeeze a few more dollars out of Ralph's wallet before his skills will not match his salary. It is a good move by Moulds as much as it is a good move by the organization. I don't want these two issues to appear that I am anti-Moulds. I have said it for years that I believe he is the strongest WR in the game. If you watch him in one-on-one matchups with DBs, he will toss some of them aside with ease. He is in the top dozen in the league as a WR and the team is lucky to have him. I am as excited about this move as most of you are as I think it represents TD's first critical move of the offseason...but before we go nominating Moulds to be a saint, let's just look at some of the other issues involved! Ok, now feel free to go ahead and flame me.

Nugent will go in the 2nd round this year for the following reasons: (1) The kid is downright good! (2) Overall, this is a weak draft meaning that the level of talent is not as deep as in previous drafts. Therefore, the cream of the crop will rise to the top, regardless of position. I think we will see more teams taking the approach of "draft the best available player" than ever before. (3) Several teams, as many as 4 teams as reported by Mel Kiper, are really high on Nugent. When you get that kind of supply and demand relationship, stock rises and so will Nugent's! (4) Did I mention that the kid is downright good?

Count me as one who would take Jay Fiedler as a back-up!!! For those of you who have actually watched him play, he is in the mold of a Trent Dilfer. By that I mean that he will not outright win you games nor will he outright lose you games. He does what needs to be done...no more, no less. He does not commit the critical mistakes that cost you games.

As I seem to recall from a recent post, the Bills currently do not have a tag (franchise or transition) that they can use. Can anyone verify this so that we can put this talk of tagging to bed?

As I recall, we took Flowers because he had a strong combine. Boy, I can't stand it when the combine overshadows your efforts on the playing field! BTW, Deon Grant has not been the stud that everyone thought he would be. As a big Nebraska fan, I was hoping that Mike Brown was going to slide to us in the 2nd round. In college, the kid just had a knack for being in the right place at the right time...which has continued in his pro career. When the Bears selected him, I called up my friend who is a huge Bears fan and told him that the Bears landed one heck of a player!

"Sara" by Fleetwood Mac. Possibly the most beautiful love song ever written. "When you build your house, then call me home..."

Couple points: (1) "This team, frankly, doesn't need more Bruce Smiths, it needs more Phil Hansens." I could not agree more. I have said it before on this board...and I will say it again, next to Jim Kelly, Phil Hansen was the greatest Bill ever. Period. End of story. I never, and I repeat never, saw Phil take one play off in his entire career. That's what a farm boy from North Dakota brought to the NFL - a tireless work ethic. And not once did I EVER hear him complain about coaching, ownership, referees, etc. (2) Who is going to trade for Eric Moulds? Short of the Bills restructuring his contract, I am not sure that any team is going to pull the trigger on a trade where they will have to pick up a 9 million dollar salary/year for the next couple years. Someone set me straight on how this would play out. (3) I have asked myself many times this year how this team would be different if Billy Volek had signed with us. Would he have been inserted into the lineup as the starter? Would Drew already be on the bench? Note that if Volek had signed, we probably would not have pulled the trade with Dallas...as such, we would have had an extra pick in last year's draft as well as a potential high pick in this year's draft. Comments?

3- Carlton Baily recoving Elway's fumble in the end zone to seal a 10-7 AFC title game win in 1992. I believe Jeff Wright actually tipped an Elway pass at the line of scrimmage and Bailey ran the interception into the endzone for the only Bills TD of the game...rather than recovering a fumble in the endzone.

When I posted my (negative) thoughts about Coy Wire in the safety position in the pre-season, I got absolutely flamed! Where are the all Coy Wire supporters now? I have no issues with Wire on a special teams...but as a starting safety, he does not have "it"...the "it" being the instincts to play the position...sorry guys, but you cannot teach instincts.

Bellicheck always seems to have a new wrinkle for each of the Patriots' opponents. For once, can the other team go on the offensive and give the Pats something that they haven't seen on tape? Can the Bills open the game on offense with a 5 WR set? Can they open up in the no-huddle? Heck, put Takeo in the backfield for all I care to open the game! Something, anything, please Mike! Make Bellicheck have to adjust rather than us having to adjust! Note: I was so excited when we transitioned to the no-huddle in Week 1. It had the Jags on their heels until we were called for a false start (Campbell as I seem to recall)! That was a turning point in that game that no one has really talked about. Let's go Buffalo! The season can be turned around today with a BIG FREAKIN' W! We put Jerry Rice's catch streak to an end in Week 2...now let's put this New England win streak to an end!

I had the same comments about Coy Wire during the pre-season on this board...and got absolutely flamed!!! In fact, there were several posters that guaranteed 3 - 4 interceptions from him this year. I have said it before and I am sure that I will have to say it again...Coy is a very good special teams player - no more, no less. He does NOT have the natural instincts to be a good safety in this league.

I believe that at my point in the 2nd round, the following RBs will probably still be on the board: Barlow (SF), Johnson (CINCY), Henry (BUF), and Davis (HOUSTON). How would you rank them and why? I have been struggling with the rankings of these four for weeks! Barlow is now on a rebuilding team (i.e., Garcia and Owens are gone), yet he was given the ball all the time last year. Johnson will be working with a rookie QB...yet defenses will have to respect Chad Johnson...plus the Cincy o-line is a pretty solid blocking unit. Henry may lose some time to McGahee and the o-line is average, but the kid runs like a workhorse! Davis has some nice compliments with Carr at QB and Johnson at WR, but could he loose goal line opportunities to Hollings? Personally, I rank them Barlow, Johnson, Henry, and Davis...everyone else please chime in with their opinions and some solid facts to back them up!