HardyBoy

Oh *****, I read this after I voted...I thought I could throw a tiny toss to a running back right next to me or something! Wonder if I can change my vote! Lol, every cb taking away the short stuff and even though I can throw a football decently far, I'll get destroyed by a blitz or just the rush and not get up... it would be awful

To be fair I do think it was injuries largely with Watkins... which is a huge risk in the nfl obviously. He also turned out to have some pretty let's just say interesting ideas on things iirc... kinda wonder if he brought any of that into his injury rehab?

You can find a bit better than average qb play in free agency and through trades...Baker Mayfield for example...using a top five pick on a mid first or lower rated qb is bad use of draft value...especially when those players are going to likely bad teams and situations and their flaws will be magnified, which gunner points out in several of his ratings as a concern. If you want to argue trading out of the very top of a weak qb draft to get more picks to help you get up the next chance you have where there are a number of elite qb prospects, assuming you can find people to give you value for the pick without there being an elite qb prospect, sure...reaching for any position, especially qb to get a slightly better than average prospect...and then saying there's no argument... I'm not with you on that one, but you're welcome to your opinion obviously. The worst thing to have is a mid-tier rookie qb that you don't know if you should re-sign or let walk...look at Tannehil with the Dolphins, shoot, look at Tua now who has had trouble in the cold and wind late in the season. Look at Dak Prescott and his contract...some of those guys are well above slightly above average...I just don't think you ever reach for a player and seeing elite ceiling due to athleticism and coachability isn't reaching, that's factored into the ratings...some people might have a higher risk tolerance than others...EJ Manuel was a bad pick...JP Losman was a very good pick who went to a very bad situation sadly...we've seen examples of two of those situations play out in Buffalo...don't reach for a qb or any player based on need

There's a reason that a general manager on a short leash and/or feeling pressure to make immediate impact is the most dangerous thing in sports. Also curious if we'll see any trades out of the top of the draft.

That would free up space for 2026 and 2027 then because the guarenteed money would accelerate into 2025 if they cut him at the end of 2024...there is a path to making a big contract work. Like I guess the question is really this...how many big contracts do you expect the bills to have going forward? Diggs is off the books next year and I expect Von to be off the books fully in 2026...I understand getting younger and all that, but it's hard finding elite value players in FA...and I mean hopefully they hit on one in the draft, but even that is a crap shoot and having more picks than less picks is the way to go there, but maybe it's not about finding stars in the draft other than obviously that's the hope, but pieces that fit your roster development player/contract type category needs and can be better than the slot you drafted them in.

What's Von Miller's salary vs dead cap if cut after this season? That was always going to be a three year deal basically right? I'm assuming most of the incentives they built into his reworked deal were the not likely to be achieved since he had such a down year... so that will eat into the 2025 cap a bit if he does hopefully hit all of them, but still I think any cap numbers for 2025 should be probably talked about as if Miller is cut before the new league year starts...Knox too maybe, but my hope is he had a down year because of the wrist

They have cap space next year and will get more after June 1st for this year, I would imagine they could make something work with a back loaded deal in terms of salary and void years and then restructure next year so it's not so back loaded... maybe, I'm not sure how it works

I didn't see the national anthem, but small pox blankets

Why is it relevant that it's owned by the NYT?

I'm not sure it's appropriate to have gambling conversations here. I was for the legalization of gambling, but the daily fantasy apps are highly predatory and designed to create dopamine addiction. The apps are exploitative and targeting young men specifically.

Absolutely given that context, woof. Is it possible that the Whitner pick was similar to the Preston Brown pick, where the game changed and had he been picked 5-10 years earlier he would have been much better (I think Preston Brown is the brusing MLB that was on the Bills while Kuechly and others were changing the position)

That's cool they're letting the 3rd qb be on the practice squad, thought it was silly to require them to be elevated last year

Wasn't a big reason for that that you could only bring up two players per game from the practice squad and they had injuries at other positions? I'd argue your punter playing against a top three defense in the cold is extremely important, but I also trust they understood the give and take with that decision and made it properly based on their calculations... that said, Martin, like Davis in the AFC champ game a bit back, was a huge liability.

They could account for the bonus this year though or a lot of it, no?

ESPN+ has basically all the sabres games for like $12 a month...living in North Carolina, it's an amazing deal...I've watched at least 80% of the games (talk about a confusing team, I think they're so young and are figuring out how to manage their bodies and energy over the course of a season)

Haha, this is such a ridiculous post and I freaking love it, well done (I'm being serious)!

I think it's analogous enough honestly

And putting film out there of him sandbagging it and making an awful decision? Say someone works on high tension electrical wires. They have a supervisor who is responsible for the safety of the worker in terms of ensuring the proper systems and protocols are in place and followed to make that very dangerous job as safe as possible. Now let's say that supervisor has time and time again made it obvious to the technician they cannot be trusted to do that...if the technician refuses to go up, are they being a petulant child?

I don't know, I mean yeah it is, but at the same time would you do what is arguably the riskiest thing in the sport for someone you don't trust? Also, I know they get paid millions of dollars, but at the same time, their contracts aren't guarenteed and even if they were, these are still independent contractors arguably getting exploited by corporations (yes the players make millions, the owners make billions). I see it as him looking out for himself. Like, I think Beane, McD and the Pegullas are quite possibly at the top of the entire league, or close to it, in terms of being honest and genuinely caring about their players. Look at what is likely about to happen to Tre White, and remember he definitely signed what at the time seemed like a team friendly deal...now, you could say it was a super smart move for Tre, because he ended up getting a good chunk of guarenteed money as early as he could, but he could have made a lot more if he had waited a bit to sign. I'm not sure he took a team friendly deal as much as he looked to get generational money guarenteed as early as possible, even if the total amount wasn't as high as he could have gotten had he played an extra season...regardless if it was a wise choice or not, he is probably about to get released in a few months. I don't know if that makes Hardman have a bad attitude, I'm sure the vast majority of players in the league feel the same way...he probably has an honesty problem...but in a lot of ways, that makes him a great teammate and asset to an organization...Diggs is similar...yes men and women and group think is very bad in business and sports, even if it bothers management...management in a lot of cases are over promoted idea thieves...it's why everyone hating on McD is so annoying...he's actually building something by brining together ideas and synergizing them...he's not a Saleh or the dude in Atlanta just doing things you're supposed to do without actually understanding the purpose...he should get slack while he figures it out imo, but my Adderall has worn out and that's how we got this lovely gem of a post!

There are still some floating around on places like the athletic and the ringer, but I would agree that that is largely gone in the mid form (the sites I referenced are typically long form)...King wrote some longer stuff, but most of that was medium length stuff combined with other medium length sections to build out a large form like article.

He played hurt for a few games too... also, I'm sure the injury limited this ability to do certain things after he came back

He was hurt for most of last year and he was productive before he got hurt.

May I ask how old you are (I'm not really seriously asking) that you are willing to trade 50 years of what I am envisioning that you are envisioning as 50 years of drought era football, lol I'm wondering if you asked a 35-40 year old 49ers fan how they've enjoyed those early championships and they might feel a certain way about whoever wag back said they would mortgage the next 50 years if they could just win a few right now!

I'd argue this year with throwing into tight windows was a top 3 defense at the top of its game vs AJ Klein, a severely hampered Douglass and a bunch of other injuries. What AJ Klein level mismatch did the Chiefs have on their defense that the Bills could have exploited to get those wide open windows?