Buffalo needed an athletic receiver to complement Lee Evans. I actually figured they'd be going for Coles or Holt, but TO it is. At least they got him on the cheap, but you know he's going to fuck up their season.
People really do easily miss how important team dynamics are on top of pure talent. Nobody will ever win a Superbowl with someone like TO on their team, no way. Though the whole short dosage thing helps the Bills.
Other lines from the off-season I liked:
Haynesworth 100 million, 41 guaranteed, can make 31 million in his first 13 months on the job. Nice, dude, nice. Not necessarily good for the 'Skins, tho'. Both Haynesworth and the resigned Hall have history for major personality problems and being locker room issues. Don't be surprised if one of 'em blows up during the season.
Jason Taylor walking because of a workout dispute. As
Cooley points out, Jason was being asked to do exercises at nearly 130,000 USD a day of exercising...I mean what?
Housh to Seahawks. Housh isn't great, and with a first-year coach one shouldn't put too much pressure on the 'Hawks, but I already figured that in avoiding injuries the Hawks would improve, now they'll just improve further.
Also, leaving the Bengals with just Ocho Stanko is hilarious after his jibing last off-season. Though with picking up Coles, they might actually have got the better end of the deal.
Ray Lewis goes back to Baltimore, paws drooping. Bwahahaah. Expect the Ravens to regress somewhat sans Scott and Leonhard.
Speaking of which, I'm pretty impressed by the Jets. I don't like the franchise much, but rebuilding after their failed Favre-gamble through the defense with Scott, Leonhard and Sheppard is most likely the best thing they can do. Don't expect them to recover overnight, but nice moves.
And of course, the Patriots are making those small moves that seem insignificant but will end up being brilliant. I'm not sure anyone will ever get Cassel + Vrabel for a 2nd-rounder (though it does give the Pats something like 5 first-day picks, which is awesome), though one should remember Cassel has been a non-started for most of his career and threw against inferior Ds most of last year, so he doesn't have the value some casual fans would ascribe to him.
Signing Fred Taylor is typically the kind of subtle move that is undervalued by most. The Pats have a serious deficit at their running game which a rotation with Taylor in the mix will really shore up. They should just drop the bust Laurence Maroney, Faulk, Morris and Taylor combine for a real good running game, good enough that if they draft efficiently for D players this year, they'll be in the mix for the super bowl again, easy.
Choooo-ker
That's the most bizzare thing I've seen in a long time. To quote a poster on my favorite fantasy football site, "What could go wrong?"
