HardyBoy

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.

How much of this applies to position scarcity and quality of available replacements. Anyone honestly arguing you wouldn't want prime Adrian Peterson on your team or Antonio Gates? To me, it's that there are very few of those players available and a very wide middle where the difference between the 25th best player and the 75th best player at the position is negligible. Of course I also understand position importance, like you don't pay your kicker qb money, but I watched the Cowherd clip when it was first on YouTube and you pay Dawson Knox. Also, people are wrong on Edmunds...same people who were wrong on Allen, Knox and Oliver. You're like polar bears on ever shrinking ice caps...

I am not a fan of the red trim on those on the sleeves.

Uh, there are reasons for playing weight limits beyond speed. You can't strengthen tendons or ligaments.

Unwilling, I'm pretty sure I remember him saying that.

Over officious jerks

Vick had tens of thousands of hours of habits at that point. Allen was so raw coming into his rookie season. He basically played tiny school high school, juco, and lost a bunch of one of his Wyoming seasons with a busted collar bone. I think if Vick had been torn down as much as he was late in his career before his comeback early in his career, he would have had more hunger to keep growing instead of hanging on his transcendent skill. Allen really never had a transcendent skill, until he worked on his many good skills and got them to be elite in combination with his entire athletic skill set.

Only got through the first page and a half before I couldn't resist chiming in, so maybe someone else comped this guy, but doubt it. The qb that I think most comps to JA is Donovan McNabb...flame away, I don't care. He was around 240, but "just" 6'2". To be clear, I am not saying McNabb was in the same stratosphere, he was excellent, but JA is transcendent. That said, I do think McNabb is the mold which Josh Allen is evolving. I have a feeling the arc of their careers, in terms of being big runners early and then really settling into a savy pocket passer is going to play out. Scary because of how good JA has been already as a pocket passed, but he has so much room for improvement it's terrifying what his ceiling could be.

She's the greatest ever. Look at LeBron James in ten year splits. As much as basketball is a team sport, there is a huge mental aspect. Guessing when you get to that level of sheer physical ability, learning how to overcome the mental blocks that stopped you in the past is huge. Basically, even if physically they lost 5%, they are still so incredibly more athletic the huge gain in the mental aspect makes them goats. For even elite players, who are non generational talents, they lose 5% and suddenly they're in the middle of the pack and the mental aspect isn't getting them back to the elite level.

It did (or at least you made sense) and I agree with that perspective as well to a point. I'm not sure what my real deep down thoughts are; it's a nuanced tricky subject. I'm not saying people in general or on here are treating people as being more worthy of empathy based on their monetary worth, but there is a lot of hurting in the world. Actually, maybe that is why people fixate on specific well known people, it allows them to pour all that empathy into a single place and allow them to use that person as a stand it for everyone. I don't know, human psychology is fascinating for sure. Dan Le Batard always says he has the absolute worst level of celebrity. Famous enough to be raked over the coals for any stupid thing he does, but not famous enough for any of the real perks. They have also talked about boundaries on his show, and how people feel like they have this profound relationship with the people on the show, but it isn't real. Like it's this weird psychological thing for people to feel deep connections or friendships with people, but it's so weird for them because people have this huge emotional connection with them based on a character they are on the show, but they have no idea who the heck you are and neither do you have any idea who they are. Like they're a best friend to someone they meet on the street and that person treats them that way, but to them you're just some random person on the street who is coming up acting like you've known each other for years. That's really the celebrity culture I'm talking about, you don't want to get me started on the super celebrity culture (like the Kardashians...that's all so fake and formulaic). Lol, I'm OK having unpopular opinions, I'd be happy touring around with live music bands and working with people to use technology to improve the world for individuals if I could (and watch the Bills of course!).

Isn't that Survivor Bias, just flipped...you only hear about the ones that got caught and make mistakes? Like saying we need more armor on the wings of planes that came back in WWII with holes. Actually, no, that is exactly where you don't need more armor...the places you need more armor can be found on the planes that got shot down.

I really don't like celebrity culture, it's weird, gross and makes people feel like they need to be something that they can never achieve because only the good or bad stuff is ever talked about (we're all shades of grey). Basically what social media has become in terms of people feeling they need to reach of unachievable standard that they see others reaching, but they themselves always fall short. Additionally, I personally feel empathy for anyone I hear as being in the hospital and their family. I don't know if it is the case here, think it's weird that people would value one person as more worthy of empathy than another, based on their bank account. I don't think that's true either, the people who were shot in Tops didnt have a bunch of money, but recevived a lot of empathy because a lot of people heard about it. Basically, I think people feel empathy when they hear about someone in an awful situation (excluding those that knowingly send a pitchfork and torch weilding crowd to go after "windmills and monsters" which shows that they are in fact the real monsters...like what happens in Frankenstein or Beauty and the Beast). So I don't know...because of her platform a lot of people heard about it, so a lot are feeling empathy. I personally feel more angst for the people that had the same thing happen to them, but did not have access to health care and died as a result (assuming that was on the table here). Equally random people to me, their lives have equal value to me, I'd feel equally empathetic if I heard of either passing away or being injured. So knowing the news is causing an empathetic reaction in a lot of people a reason to give updates? Nah, not if it is a matter of someone who is directly involved feeling better or more in control vs someone experiencing adjacent unrequested empathy, especially if that empathy is a result of toxic celebrity culturem Also, lol at the people saying we have an expectation of privacy...pretty sure we just recently found out that is very much not the case sadly.