HardyBoy

I don't think it's about being right, the decision was made already. I do personally hope that Hodgins crushes it on another team as well as long as he's not playing against the Bills (if he is not able to get on the Bills practice squad). I'll definitely continue rooting for him though, I don't think it's wrong to root for players on different teams you like. My guess is there is a contract aspect to this. Maybe Hodgins feels like they did him dirty last year when they put him on IR during camp, which iirc was not a full season injury and they don't think he'll re-sign.

Interesting, so you're not saying you don't like dark theme, just not pure white text on a black ground? What are your feelings on stark black with slightly gray text, slightly lighter black with stark white text or slightly lighter black with slightly gray text? Contrast is such a cool piece of perception. I build dashboards and find this stuff super interesting, so forgive me interviewing you on your preferences!

So you should post this on the etiquette sub section of this board. It totally exists, go find it and don't post again till you do... 🤣 People clicking into threads, complaining they exist, then everyone else who's actually interested in the topic (how is Phillips doing, I'm rooting for him) get all excited thinking there is a lot of conversation about it... instead, get off my lawn!

Not just his vision, his explosiveness out of his cuts looked different than anyone else on the field (I was there). Like his acceleration and decisiveness (which I guess is a part of vision) kind of shocked me on one or two of his runs. Duke Johnson honestly looked amazing against the Panthers, though maybe that's because there wasn't much to look at, but I thought overall the Bills ran the ball nicely, outside of some key short yardage plays where you've got not even practice squad lineman going up against panthers backups, so what would you expect.

The game still stinks and these are sponsored by EA. Funny though

Kind of looks like lower back even?

I'm just wondering why didn't he pay a settlement and have her sign an NDA to make it go away? Why did he take the phone call from her after the fact? If he was guilty, wouldn't he pay to get her under NDA and not take a phone call from her? Anyone wonder if the Bills legal dept was pushing for an NDA and he said I'm not guilty and not paying for something I didn't do?

Can you imagine this place with a similar situation to the Lawyer Milloy trade (think he was similar age and contact status too right?) and losing in a blow out week 1?!

A couple questions, but will start with ticket strategy (sorry if addressed earlier in the thread): Any suggestions on best strategy for getting tickets (we're driving from Raleigh and spending the night)? Hoping to get two seats for me and my 5 y/o near the Bills bench (or somewhere where we could get down there near the end of the game as it empties out) and my wife and 2 y/o will sit wherever. The wherever tickets are cheap, but down by the bench, not so much ($175ish over the weekendon stubhub)...think wait till day of? I'm looking to get in there for warm-ups, so waiting until the game starts isn't an option. You guys have no idea how obsessed my 5 y/o is with the Bills and the nfl in general, so I'm willing to pay what the seats are worth for a lifelong memory for him, but figured I'd see if people had advice. My second question that I'm going to post separately in a bit will be more about how into the Bills he is. He has high functioning autism, and it's crazy how much he knows about football for a 5 y/o (he basically hasnt stopped watching highlights since the offseason and is getting into film breakdowns now). He knows different formations, strategy, calls out penalties before flags come out, how many scores a team would need to catch up, knows when a field goal will make it say a three score game, and the importance of that. He has to deal with so much in terms of how his brain works that so many of us take for granted, and he's trying so hard, but progress isn't always linear and he has his tough moments (not talking tough for me, but where he has a meltdown and after he calms down, you can hear in his words and his facial expressions how he's thinking "it happened again, why can't I just control it like other kids."). I just want to do something super special for him and am OK spending money on pre-season tickets near the bench if that means he might get to see some of his heros up close.

yeah, I rewatched it, agree I don’t think he had time to do anything other than just run.

You might be right, but I disagree. I think he kept the db where he could continue to feel him with his off arm and maintain enough contact to prevent the db from getting a step inside and having a chance to make a play on the ball. Kind of like a box out in basketball. Only chance the defender had to make a play on the ball would have been by going through Hodgins and committing PI. Think of it this way, he ended up having to dive to make the catch, but he waited for the last second to get that separation. That was a lofted arcing pass, and even with slowing down he only had to dive a little bit. If he doesn't slow down to ultimately get the separation at the end, the db, and especially a starting db meets the ball at the high point and likely knocks it out of his hands. In my mind, the only way he could have prevented that from happening was to slow down, and use his off hand to get a bit of separation and then dive. . Allen throws him into the endzone on more of a line and allows him to run full speed away from the db.

We have literally no clue how he is being graded. He's throwing timing routes to spots on the field. They had backup receivers against the colts starting dbs. Really good chance the bills receivers couldn't get off press and hit their spots in time and Keenum was making anticipation throws to the right spot, at the right time based on his reads. Or he was forced to hold it longer because guys were not hitting their markers and the pocket would collapse or the window would be gone. He is not Josh Allen who can excel in that situation playing outside of the system, but does not mean he cannot be highly effective within the system. Basing his value with a third string OL and basically a ST only receiver playing in the #2 spot. He looked pretty good throwing to Shakir, who I would think was the only starting WR getting consistent separation early in the game and hitting his routes, though will wait for people to analyze the all-22. Really want to see what Hodgins looks like against #1 cbs...his release off the line on that deep catch was twitchy as heck!

I keep calling him Hank and then correcting it to Matt Araiza. I know his name, I just start saying Hank Azaria as slip unintentionally every time and catch myself and have to start again!

You're drawing a pretty clear line at safety stuff though from what it sounds like. Getting protective of players where a coach is intentionally coaching their team to dangerously slash in lax cause they're not going to call everyone, is very different from losing it because a ref in a bang band play saying a player had just scooped a ground ball an instant before being pushed in the back leading to a 30 second man down vs getting possession (random lax deep dive there). Overall though, even calling out another coach for safety reasons, isn't that sort of like saying, sometimes I just need to road rage on a car that cut me off. That said, I would never get it to the level where someone is shot on the side of the road in a road rage situation. Except you can't necessarily control if the other person suddenly pulls over and starts walking towards your car. I think that you might be attributing your lack of something bad happening with your ability to be in control, when in fact there was a loss of control and fortunately you were not in a situation where the ingredients were present for that to turn sideways. Also, there's gamesmanship where you're pointing out things to get a call later, which is cool and part of the game and everyone gets it when done in a controlled, positive and non toxic way. Then there's yelling at 16-17 year olds reffing 12 year old club soccer. I speak from experience as a soccer player and ref in high school. You have any idea how socially intense that situation is already, and then add in parents and coaches thinking it matters in the slightest (outside of player safety stuff). A random game, or screw it, a random call in a game when your kid is 12 isn't going to change the trajectory of their life in any way. Seeing that a game can make a parent that angry... Like listen, I know people feel like these things are important, but important for who? These are the kids' hobbies, that I'm assuming parents and other adults involved are hoping become life long hobbies and character lessons. Why are adults making it about themselves instead? Also, 20 years from now, the kids involved aren't going to remember the wins or losses. They're not going to remember the missed calls or the missed opportunities in some random summer tournament from when they were 12. They will remember the examples set though, and they'll likely only remember it as shades of feelings when they think back. Again, this is not at all talking about player safety stuff. If a player is out of control, it is the responsibility of the adults to knock that crap out, and agree that can lead to confrontational conversations. Like I said, you might not remember who won a game, but will definitely remember the time your friend had their ankle stepped on dirty af the first game of the season and had to miss just about his entire senior year season, or when a friend of yours got pushed in the back full force with two hands while she was blocking out someone in the corner during indoor soccer and smashed her teeth into the boards and lost teeth (was a separate girls and boys tournement at the same place and my team was set to go on next, so yeah saw that happen).

Completely agree, I'm super excited to watch that! He was getting wide open against 3rd and 4th stringers from what I saw. He was clearly better than the people he was playing against. With how long the Colts played their started, Hodgins had to have gone against their 2s at least a bit right? Is that true and if so anyone know how he did in those reps yet?

Keenum was playing with twos and threes against the ones of a very good defense. He's hitting spots on his throws and I wouldn't be shocked if his receivers simply couldn't hit those spots in time. We have no idea how he will be graded individually for that performance. Granted it didn't look good at all, but he would have looked much better with the threes. I was really impressed by hodgins, and am on the record saying he will be a surprise break out player this year. He probably has the best hands on the team, based on his college catch rate (even with that drop, his hands were in the perfect place and turned his body real nice while maintaining his run, he just missed like steph curry misses freethrows with great form cause no one is prefect. If Hodgins can show he can get separation against starters and second string CBs and sit into a zone when bracketed, he really should be on the team. He had a chance to be the steal of the draft at wr over Davis, before he started getting hurt.

That's like your opinion man, and not related to football.

We're planning on driving over from Raleigh.

Willis McGahee?

I know, I'm so pumped that week 1 is a non-conference game, and against a team nobody else in the division has to play so not an impact on common opponents, which is somewhere down the list of tie breakers. I wish they would always have the one out of conference game they added for 17 games be the first game of the season. Divisional week 1 games... way too much impact on what is such an unrepresentative game.

Ok, before I get into my hyper specific thoughts about the Harp. She needs to learn about Sturrow Drive and Brooks drive (I think it's Brooks, it runs parallel to the Mass Pike and a really amazing cut through between Sturrow and backway into Watertown and Alston/Brighton. Regardless on where she lives in the Boston area (where is she living btw), unless it's like Southie or Quincy, she needs to get real familiar with Brooks and all those roads back by Harvard...if she can figure those out, she will save a crap ton of time with traffic. Alright, so he Harp is fun for sure, but can be a bit of a pain to get to depending on where you live. Also, for what it's worth I lived in Boston from 2006-2012 and seemed like just about every time I went out there the Bills would get blown out. Definitely a bit annoying from Oak Square in Brighton where I lived for like 4 of those years. You definitely have to get there early unless you have someone saving you a spot. Parking can be a bit tricky in that part of town, and if you dont want to drive the public transport is a bit less than ideal from Oak Square specifically, but public transport coming from other parts of the city is way more accessible to TD Garden. Oak Square is a hidden gem though. During the week there is an express bus that runs through there every 10-15 minutes that takes you on the Mass Pike to South Station in like 20 minutes if there's no traffic (always traffic) and you can get a bus pass for $90 tax free through work (at least that's what it cost at the time). There's also busses that take you up to Kenmore through Brighton and then Alston (fenway stop) in like 40 minutes or over to Harvard Square (red line) in like 20 minutes. I used to live like a three minute walk from the Joshua Tree bar in Alston when I lived in Alston on Kelton St and there were a few Bills fans that would go there. That's were I watched pretty much the entire 2007 season, and can still remember doing a few 720s when McGee would break his returns. My wife (gf at the time) worked all day Sundays, so I would show up at the bar planning on just watching the 1pm game (a lot of the time drinking coffee for the first half trying to recouperate from the night before), then often deciding to watch the 4pm game and suddenly it was 8pm and I was watching the late game as the place turned into more of a dance club. Awesome wings and food in general, good beer, really cool bartenders and a ton of tvs. Then I'd stumble into Our House and play foosball (I didnt have to work Mondays that season). The Avenue (another bar) across the street had dollar drafts and super cheap fairly decent wings too. Both of those last two places for sure closed from my understanding...anyway, Boston is a lot of fun, your daughter will hopefully love it!

They should let him play the whole season this year and have him serve his suspension next year... The way they structured his contract is pretty wild.

Is this a pro or anti Edmunds response?

Would you judge an elite cb just in terms of pass break ups and interceptions though? What if he's so good the other team avoids him as much as possible? What if instead, he plays zone a ton and because of his range and length, he is able to prevent people from taking deep shots and instead forces teams to take dump offs to the front part of that defenders zone. When the qb is forced to check down because of the player's ability to eliminate the chunk play they are trying to hit, they then tackle the check down for very little YAC at the same rate, or better as other players considered elite at their position?

Um, I'm not sure that has the effect you think/hope it does...those other departments remember, other people in your team, across all levels remember. Praising someone publicly in such a foundational way as how McD praised Edmund's core personality and the value/leadership they bring, and then firing them for their general performance (not talking fraud or anything) a month later...oof that would give me pause in the future and my antenata would go up anytime I heard praise from that person in the future as a potential red flag. Kind of like free agents and current players remember. I'm not saying McD is talking about an extension at all, and you can think a player or person is a perfect fit for an organization, but the budget doesn't work, but you can't be disingenuous and succeed in the nfl as a coach or leader. Saying someone is a great leader and then firing someone a month later for not being a great leader, and not extending a contract of a great leader when that person's value has gone up significantly because of that skill are not the same thing, you can't compare those.