Former Steelers coach Bill Cowher, quarterback Drew Bledsoe and running back Tiki Barber are among the first-year candidates eligible for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. In addition to those three, Bill Parcells, Marty Schottenheimer, Keyshawn Johnson, Stephen Davis, Rod Smith, Will Shields, Troy Vincent and Mike Vanderjagt are also eligible. Parcells and Schottenheimer previously were eligible under different requirements. In 2008, the Hall of Fame made it mandatory for coaches, like players, to be retired five consecutive seasons. Before that, coaches were eligible immediately upon retirement, allowing Parcells to be a nominee in 2001, 2002, and 2003, and Schottenheimer in 2000.

The AFC The Buddy Nix Brian Galliford of Buffalo Rumblings: "I'm a firm believer in perspective, however -- and before fans start dreaming of the playoffs, it's important to note that the Bills have had a lot of help in these first three games." The Jeff Ireland Steve Svekis of The South Florida Sun-Sentinel: "Daniel Thomas has piled up 239 yards (202 rushing and 37 receiving), better than Karim Abdul Jabbar's 158 in 1996. He is averaging an excellent 4.9 yards per carry." The Jonathan Kraft Ian Rapoport of The Boston Herald: "Losing is not an accepted reality in the Patriots locker room. They suffered just two regular-season defeats last year, and neither one included washing away a 21-point lead." The Mike Tannenbaum Christian Red of The New York Daily News: "After getting whacked in the face by Oakland linebacker Kamerion Wimbley during the third quarter of Sunday's loss, Mark Sanchez suffered a "minor break" of his nose and will wear a facemask for protection." The Ozzie Newsome Bruce Raffel of Baltimore Beatdown: “When the Baltimore Ravens brought in veteran WR Lee Evans, a lot of fans felt the team had the perfect complement to possession receiver Anquan Boldin. One of the main reasons the Ravens traded for Evans during Training Camp was that they were not comfortable going with rookie WR Torrey Smith opposite Boldin as starters at wide receiver.” The Mike Brown Anthony Cosenza of Cincy Jungle: “He's notorious for it. How many times in the Marvin Lewis era have the Bengals received the ball right before the half and decided to do nothing but take a knee with it?” The Tom Heckert Chris Pokorny of Dawgs By Nature: “As we all know, the illness to [Peyton] Hillis paved the way for backup Montario Hardesty to make his first career start. [Pat] Shurmur praised Hardesty's effort, but also admits that went over the anticipated number of carries they had for him. "We wanted to play him more, but not 61 snaps," Shurmur said.” The Kevin Colbert Michael Bean of Behind The Steel Curtain: “Don't get me wrong, the Steelers will have a hard time repeating the success they enjoyed in 2008 and 2010 if they can't force more turnovers on defense. And it goes without saying that the offense has to eliminate some of the costly mistakes if they hope to not negate otherwise respectable performances offensively.” The Rick Smith Battle Red Blog: “They have to find a way to beat the good teams in a close game. I know we have been giving the Texans props for hanging with a championship caliber team, but the bottom line is, hanging with a good team, but not overcoming them, is starting to become too common.” The Chris Polian Nick Pease of 18 to 88: “The key criteria for the Indianapolis Colts should have been someone who could be acquired relatively cheaply (in both a trade and salary), someone who could fill the void for one year, and preferably, someone with at least some NFL starting experience. These factors eliminate names like Kyle Orton, Rex Grossman, Bruce Gradkowski, or Matt Leinart.” The Gene Smith Alfie Crow of Big Cat Country: “The Jacksonville Jaguars offensive game plan on Sunday was way too conservative, I think that much most of us can agree. Sunday after the game, offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter talked about the conditions of the game being a big factor.” The Mike Reinfeldt August West of Music City Miracles: “If you've been following this team since it arrived in Nashvile, you really shouldn't be surprised. This is kind of what happens to Titans WRs. Whether it's Tyrone Calico's knees, Kevin Dyson's hamstrings, David Givens' knee, Yancey Thigpen's everything... for some reason the football gods have decreed that we can't have nice things in the passing game.” The Brian Xanders Tim Lynch of Mile High Report: “With the absence of organized team activities and offseason workouts, John Fox is still going through a feeling-out process with the Broncos.” The Scott Pioli Joel Thorman of Arrowhead Pride: “It's always difficult to tell who is calling the plays for the Kansas City Chiefs offense (from the TV or the press box) because there are multiple people involved in the operation and they're all talking over a headset, one of which goes into QB Matt Cassel's ear.” The Al Davis Marcus Allen Krause of Silver and Black Pride: “I am not normally a pessimist but it sure felt like same old Raiders watching Ro decide to lolly gag to the sidelines instead of cover the middle of the field for the game losing touchdown against the Bills. However, the old Raiders would have come out and gotten demolished by this NY team. Anything but us getting demolished is what happened. This was the bully team we have heard so much about! We won this game because we dominated the line of scrimmage.” The Dean Spanos Tim Sullivan of The San Diego Union-Tribune: “The National Football League must have a post-lockout hangover, because quarterbacks have been toying with it as if it were tipsy. The forward pass has never been more brazenly forward or met with so little resistance. Three weeks into the season, six teams are averaging 300 yards passing.” The NFC The Stephen Jones Jon Machota of The Dallas Morning News: “Cowboys center Phil Costa was having trouble with the snap count, which resulted in quarterback Tony Romo having to scramble to recover a wild snap on first-and-10 with just under three minutes to play. It was the third time Monday that Romo was forced to retrieve a snap that he wasn't expecting.” The Jerry Reese Ralph Vacchiano of The New York Daily News: “Antrel Rolle doesn’t think he lost his cool or his head at the end of the first half on Sunday. In fact, he knew exactly what he was doing. And never mind that all his chirping and eventually his scuffle with Eagles TE Brent Celek resulted in a 15-yard penalty that lead to an Eagles’ touchdown. One day later, the brash safety believes he absolutely did the right thing.” The Howie Roseman Bleeding Green Nation: “Brian Rolle, a rookie sixth-round pick, saw an increase in snaps in the base defense and looked impressive in camp as a coverage linebacker. At 5-9, Rolle could be a liability against the run but the team can’t do any worse right now.” The Bruce Allen Mike Jones of The Washington Post: “Washington Redskins tight end Chris Cooley pulled down a 17-yard reception on the opening drive of the game to record his 423rd career catch. With that reception, Cooley moved into 19th on the NFL’s all-time list for catches by a tight end. Cooley entered the game tied with former Cowboy Jay Novacek for 19th.” The Jerry Angelo Brad Briggs of The Chicago Tribune: “There are plenty of Bears ties in this game, and they start with [Ron] Rivera, who was a second-round pick by the Bears in 1984 and served as Lovie Smith's defensive coordinator from 2004 to 2006 before he was abruptly run off after Super Bowl XLI.” The Martin Mayhew Sean Yuille of Pride of Detroit: “Detroit Lions defensive tackle Nick Fairley practiced last Friday for the first time since breaking his foot way back at the start of August. While it was a good sign that he was able to hit the field, the thinking was he wouldn't be able to make his game debut for the Lions for at least another couple of weeks.” The Mark Murphy Kareem Copeland of The Green Bay Press-Gazette: “The Green Bay Packers lead the NFL in rush defense, having allowed just 55 yards per game through the first three weeks.” The Mark Wilf Christopher Gates of Daily Norseman: “So, the Minnesota Vikings haven't been very good in the second halves of ball games this year. We know this. From what I can see, there are two big reasons as to why this is, and they're both pretty closely connected.” The Thomas Dimitroff Caleb Rutherford of The Falcoholic: “I sincerely hope every single member of that football team from Arthur Blank down to the person that spit shines Matt Ryan's shoes is embarrassed to call themselves a Falcon. For months since April, all we have heard is explosive this, explosive that, yet our offense could be more akin to an M-80 than a stick of dynamite.” The Marty Hurney James Dator of Cat Scratch Reader: “If you're like me and ever seen the NFL series of action figures at department stores you've probably wondered "Why in the world did they make an Adrian Peterson action figure?". To me it just never made sense, but now McFarlane toys have announced they are releasing a Cam Newton figure all of it makes sense... ludicrous, ridiculous sense.” The Mickey Loomis Jeff Duncan of The Times-Picayune: “The Saints presented former player Steve Gleason with a ring from their Super Bowl XLIV championship on Monday night in an emotional ceremony at a private party in New Orleans.” The Mark Dominik Bucs Nation: “The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have spent three years building a new defense, and they may just have seen what it is capable of on Sunday. They've seen glimpses before - against the San Francisco 49ers last year, for instance. But this is the first time it has beaten a good offense. Dominated, even.” The Rod Graves Seth Pollack of SB Arizona: “The Arizona Cardinals are convinced they beat themselves in Seattle more than the Seahawks won the game. They point to any number of mistakes from offensive players not lining up in the right spot, to blown tackles and gap assignments to missed field goals. It was a game they felt they could have won and if you believe the talk, that they will win later in the season.” The Billy Devaney Turf Show Times: “The St. Louis Rams look horrible on the field. There isn't a way around this fact. Going into the season, it was known that the Rams had a hard schedule. It was known that the Rams didn't have a long time to work on their new offense. It was also known that the vets would take some time to adjust.” The Trent Baalke David Fucillo of Niners Nation: “One of the more "controversial" plays of the 49ers-Bengals game came with 6:40 left in the third quarter. The 49ers faced a second and goal at the ten yard line. The 49ers ran a fake toss to the right, Alex Smith rolled to his left, and after looking for an open man, Smith fired a pass high into the back of the end zone.” The John Schneider Danny Kelly of Field Gulls: “The Seahawks' starting safeties are both in their second NFL season. Kam Chancellor is 23 years old. Earl Thomas is 13 months younger. So much for growing pains, at least on Sunday when Thomas and Chancellor turned in some of the more notable plays in the Seahawks' 13-10 win over the Cardinals.”

The Bills are the highest-scoring team in the NFL, averaging 37.7 points per game through three weeks. Buffalo is averaging 431 yards per game, which is third in the league. "We've gotten off to a great start, no doubt," Bills running back Fred Jackson said. "We have a lot of work that we can still look at and see where we can improve as an offense even with the stats we're putting up now. There are a lot of plays that we look at on film that can still be made by us." "There's still a lot of games to be played and a lot of work," quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick said. "There's a lot of stuff we can correct from this last game. The goal is to get better every week and we need to continue to do that." Buffalo hasn't finished in the top 10 in yards per game in the last 10 seasons. In eight of those 10 years, the team has finished 25th or worse.

Bills rookie cornerback Aaron Williams left Sunday's game against the Patriots on a stretcher after trying to make a tackle in the third quarter. The team said Williams suffered a chest injury and would not return. Williams, Buffalo's second-round pick, raised his right arm as he was being wheeled off the field.

Bills wide receiver Stevie Johnson is expecting a shootout with the Patriots on Sunday afternoon. Both teams are 2-0. "I'm expecting a shootout," Johnson said. "I can't really speak for our defense. I'm just saying we have to put up numbers. If it is going to be a shootout, we have to be ready for it on the offensive side. We gotta bring it." Buffalo has scored 79 points in two games, the most in the NFL and Ryan Fitzpatrick is the first Bills quarterback since Jim Kelly to throw seven touchdown passes in the first two weeks of a season.

Patriots safety Patrick Chung will not play Sunday against the Bills after undergoing thumb surgery this week, according to reports. He missed practices Wednesday and Thursday. Chung broke his right thumb in Sunday's win over the Chargers but returned in the fourth quarter wearing a cast. He had surgery to stabilize the thumb.

Bills running back Fred Jackson has produced like one of the NFL's top rushers and he wants to be paid like one. Two games into the season, the only place the NFL's current leading rusher is not making headway is with the Bills front office. He has two years left on his contract, including this season, during which he's set to make a base salary of $1.75 million. "We've approached them, and it's not gone the way we would've liked it to," Jackson said. "I'm annoyed by it. I've been playing at a high level for three straight years now. I would like something to be done about it this year. I want something done that's fair for myself and the team." Unhappy as he might be, Jackson stresses he's not letting off-the-field issues distract him from what he needs to do come game time. "Not at all. I'm going to play football," he said. "I come to help this team and get wins. And that's what I'm going to continue to do."

Bills running back C.J. Spiller is expected to see some more time as a receiver with Roscoe Parrish out for the season, according to a source. Spiller is expected to become Buffalo's primary kick returner.

The Bills will be without wide receiver and kick returner Roscoe Parrish for the remainder of the season. Parrish suffered a left ankle injury on Sunday against the Raiders. He was carted off from the sideline after getting hurt in the second quarter while blocking on teammate Steve Johnson's 19-yard catch. Parrish missed the second half of the 2010 season with a wrist injury.

Bills receiver Steve Johnson returned to practice on Friday, and is expected to play on Sunday against the Raiders, according to an ESPN.com report. Coach Chan Gailey said Johnson is officially listed as probable after getting the day off Thursday to rest a sore groin that has been bothering him the past month.