Before I get down in the weeds, I want to say that this is a great signing. It's great that we're bringing in some serious talent via free Agency. It's great that the Bills are willing to spend money. It's great that they brought in someone who will make current and prospective players believe in the Bills. But remember: We very likely paid Mario Williams more than any other team was willing to pay him. That's true with pretty much every free agent any team acquires. With that, some thoughts on Mario:

• Don't expect Mario to turns the Bills into a 12-4 team. One player rarely makes more than a one-win difference. The Bills need a very good LT out of the draft, a healthy Kyle Williams, superb seasons out of Aaron Williams and Drayton Florence, and a showing from their 2011 and 2012 draft classes. I also think the Bills probably need another 1-2 free agent signings to will in depth at WR and along the offensive line. KC Joyner made the point that defenses will attack your weakest link. There's no point in having an incredible left-half of the line if the right-half is porous.
• Mario is unlikely to be a locker-room leader. And that's okay. He was known for being quiet in Houston and he'll be quiet here too. Kyle Williams, Marcell Dareus, Nick Barnett, Drayton Florence, and George Wilson are all bona fide defensive leaders.
• He'll be lining up at left defensive end. Or so said Nix on WGR and apparently this was one of Mario's requests. I'd imagine he'll get moved around a lot: LDE, RDE, DT, OLB. Still, I'm not a fan of the quarterback being able to see what's coming.
• Kelsay will be a lot better. I've never been a Kelsay hater, especially not when he's got his hand on the ground. You have to love Kelsay with double-teams going everywhere but his way and the guy gets to line up on the right side. I think a lot of folks will be clamoring for Carrington, but I'd bet Kelsay has the inside track on the starting job.
• This means the Bills are running a traditional 4-3. The good news is that our defensive line is perfectly configured to run this. The bad news is that our linebackers are not. Merriman's a poor fit for the scheme. (Great article on systems here and here.)Sheppard has a lot more responsibility in the middle. And Barnett moves into the Will LB position. I suppose Merriman gets plugged in at the Sam LB. If all this is true, you wonder how guys like Moats, Eddins, and Morrison fit in. My gut says Morrison looks damn good in this system, Eddins is too young for us to care, and Moats is on the outside looking in. I'd love to see Bryan Scott resigned for depth.
• Teams will look for other ways to victimize us. We're still a little light up the middle. Kyle Williams always did play bigger than his size, but he's not a prototypical over-center DT and neither is Dareus. Our inability to stop quick slant passes remains and teams will look increasingly to the quick plays.

Kinda awesome. Cowboys and Redskins lose $10m and $36m in cap space over the next two years for improperly front-loading contracts in an uncapped year. That space is distributed to the other teams: Bills get another $1.6m in cap space. It is unclear whether this cap space is contingent upon when the Cowboys and Redskins take the cap hit.

With the Bills in one of the best cap positions in the league, the front office is facing even greater pressure to fill clear needs at LT, WR, and DE/LB.

1) The brothers are back doling out nuts and straps. Fred "The Head" Jahttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifckson is on their list. No surprise there; the guy's nick-name is THE HEAD!

2) Are the Bills destined for the playoffs or just destined to go 8-8 after a hot start? Playoffs? PLAYOFFS???

3) The Bills D has been somewhere between bad and mediocre. So which is it? The brothers debate.

4) Buffalo boy Ron Gronkowski had his photo with some taken with some B-list porn star. Riley feels strongly that Gronko should have realized he's a role model and skipped the photo op. Bennett's just glad Porno Ron has gotten some little kids started early on the whole masturbating thing.

5) Riley cut off half his thumb in a horrific radish-chopping accident. Will he survive? Please, no donations.

6) The Bills head to Toronto to play the Skins in front of a listless, Canadian crowd. Will they bring it enough to bring down the Skins?

With the Brothers once again unavailable, here's our predictions for the game.

Bennett: Eagles 31, Bills 27.

Riley: Bills 31, Eagles 27. I admit, I saw Bennett's prediction, so I'm tweaking him a bit. I think that he's right that it'll be a high scoring game. Neither defense has proven any ability to stop an opposing offense. The speed on the Eagles offense gives me pause, as does every single passer's ability to exploit the Bills' lack of a pass rush and inept secondary. But Vick's status as a running QB may benefit the Bills since the Bills have already shown they can't defend against prototypical pocket passers. The Eagles will bring a big pass rush, much like Cincinnati. The Bills must find a way to be effective in the face of the rush. Short passes. Get Nelson open. Use Chandler. I think the Bills have learned from last weeks' loss. They won't let it happen again.

With the Brothers yet again slacking, here are our predictions.

Riley: Bills 24, Bengals 17. Here's what scares me about this match-up, and it's not this whole "trap game" idea. This team has been through too much to take Cincinnati lightly. The Bengals have a very strong offensive line. The Bills line has been playing out of its mind, by some metrics the best in the league. That's not going to last and the Bengals can bring pressure from all over the place. Fitzpatrick has always been known as a streaky QB and, if like last year, he throws a bunch of picks, the Bills could find themselves down very quickly. But here's what I like: Cincinnati's stadium provides almost no home-field advantage, beyond Hall the secondary is not much to write home about compared with the Bills' depth at WR, Cincinnati's WRs have not yet shown the ability to victimize a weak secondary such as ours, and a rookie QB combined with a mediocre rushing attack give the Bills pass rush the year's first opportunity to tee off. Compared to the first three games of the season, I expect this to be a defensive battle that the Bills win.

I'll post Bennett's prediction when he wakes up. Lazy bum. Edit: Bennett's prediction: Bills 24, Bengals 21. Riley's Comment: And this is why we're related.

In the name of transparency, here are the Brothers' predictions for today's game. Bennett predicts the Pats 31-Bills 17. Riley says Bills 35-Pats 31.

Here's what I'm thinking, other than a blatant desire to be a contrarian. Are the Bills likely to win this game? No. The Pats have a decade of success in their coach and quarterback, who at the outset of the 2011 season seem to be at the top of their game. The Bills have 2 games of this success. Moreover, the Bills victories have come against unremarkable opponents. Kansas City was promptly victimized by Detroit. Oakland won the week before against Denver, who then went on to beat Cincinnati (who is only 1-1 because they mauled the Cleveland Browns who themselves at .500 because they beat up on a hapless Colts team). Those are some objectively bad teams. Here's what I like about today's game: the Bills offense can move the football against bad defenses and New England has a bad defense. When New England loses, they tend to lose away from home. This New England team is not invincible and someone will beat this team by pressuring Brady using their front three to five linemen. I think with a good game from our OLBs and D-line, the Bills can win this one in a shootout.

1) The Bills went to KC and trounced the reigning AFC West division chamhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifps. Oh man was it beautiful to watch.

2) The brothers hand out the not-so-coveted "Mike Gandy Award," doled out to the Bills player most likely to suck this season.

3) Bennett has been doing a lot of traveling, and wants to know what's up with all the porn in the airport? And is there such a thing as the solo mile high club???

4) If you were heading to The Ralph, which Bills jersey would you don? Riley goes big, while Bennett goes big trouble.

5) The battery chucking Raiders come to Buffalo on Sunday. Will the upstart Bills be able to stop the Oakland running game and move to 2-0? The brothers debate.