Thurman#1

We haven't heard when he'll return. His ankle was actually broken (October 3rd reported) and that's killer for a guy who has to cut. Wouldn't be surprised if it's another 2 - 3 weeks at least. Depends on how serious the break is, of course. https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2022/10/03/jamison-crowder-broke-his-ankle-sunday/

He is strong. But his speed is the killer. The OL had to get ahead of him and to do so he had to really commit and Von didn't let him get his legs under him. Great play. Baldy has it right that the whole D is playing really well right now, and it's everybody playing together. Even the rookie DBs are doing their jobs really well.

Um, because there are situations where trying to maximize your income will have unintended consequences that will actually end up costing you money overall. You do "give away your best *****" (do you really feel that team logos are the NFL's "best *****"? Seriously?) for free, if not giving your best ***** for free is going to cost you much more in the long run in bad publicity and aggravation, yes. McAfee might be a bull they don't want to poke. Too early to be sure, but it's quite possible. He's done a great job bringing the NFL a ton of good positive publicity. Could he end up costing them money and tremendous irritation in the long run? Maybe.

Reading the tea leaves is a good analogy. It's a way some people think they can look into the future but those people are deceiving themselves. We might not. Equally we might.

Fair enough that the money situation this offseason will be complex. I think there's a solid chance we get Singletary back. But I'm not sure if he'll give us a team-friendly deal. RBs, more than any other position have to maximize their second contract. I'm hopeful but not sure. They won't want to re-structure with everyone they can. That's not how Beane operates. He feels pressure to retain some of those "coupons," as Greg Tompsett calls 'em. It's just that we didn't use all the coupons we had available last year that is the reason we've got some of those this year. And this year, he'll save some for next year. Which is the smart play.

Yeah, we're not a perfect roster. Of course, there's never, in the history of football and in fact in the history of all team sports ever been a perfect roster. Nor will there be. Arguing that because the roster's not perfect we should make a move is like arguing that because it's a day ending in the letter "Y" we should make a move. We're an incredible roster. Best in the league. We don't have any needs or holes. Plenty of areas where we could make small improvements, but no real needs or holes. Anyone we pick up at this time would be a luxury. I could see a smaller move, definitely, but it's very far from a necessity.

Because there's not that much evidence yet that he did. The same people who generally see him doing badly see it this time too. That's more about confirmation bias than anything else. When and if more neutral folks come in with the same opinion, particualarly after a deep dive after the All-22 comes out, I'll start to believe it. As for not making plays in the second half, I just quick watched the third quarter and one play beyond. Edmunds had five tackles including one really nice one where he held the edge against an OL, forced the back inside, threw off the OL and made the tackle. One missed tackle on a swing pass that I didn't like, but he played just fine, it looked like to me. It was interesting, they seemed to be playing him a step or two deeper than usual. That would tie in with a deeper focus on defending the pass and not worrying if they ran.

Oh, please. Again, the Bills were averaging six-man boxes. That means the Pack averaged a man advantage on those plays. Blaming their run problems on Edmunds is nonsense. They were thrilled when the Pack ran, kept the clock moving and took the ball out of Rodgers' hands.

Still nonsense. Anyone judging TBD by whether they make a move within some particular three or four day period just flat out doesn't get it. We already made our move before the trade deadline. The fact that it was way before the trade deadline means absolutely nothing. Our move before the trade deadline is wearing #40, tearing OLs to shreds and putting QBs on the ground with regularity.

$14 to $10M not happening? Yeah, I think you're right about that. But if he comes down to probably $13M or $14M, somewhere in that area, the Bills would likely be thrilled and would do their best to grab him. If he insists on market value of probably $16 - $18M, he'll almost certainly be gone.

Yeah, his price may indeed have become too high. Hopefully he gives us a hometown discount the way Milano did. I'm guessing he does, but no way to be sure, of course.

Cover1 had a stat today. Know how many defenders we had in the box in the first half on average? 6.0. In the second half, 6.1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v_vxCQwqZk1fE It's at 0:0:30 When your D is running six man boxes, you're not going to have a lot of success stopping the run. But after the gain, the clock is still going tick-tick-tick-tick-tick. Frazier was saying, "Hey, go ahead, run it. G'ahead, keep it out of Rodgers' hands."

Both scenarios are unlikely. His scenario is much much more unlikely than yours. Even more so with a rookie. I think it's Madden that gets people thinking like this, switching guys like they're checkers that are all fungible. They're not. Suggesting we move guys like Tre and Taron, among the absolute best in the league at their positions, barring three or four injuries in one game forcing something unhinged, just doesn't make much sense. How often do these positions switches happen? Guys like Aaron Williams, Troy Vincent and George Wilson are out there, but it's pretty rare. How many of them were successful in their first position? The one exception there was Vincent and he was growing too old to play his first position and was a grizzled veteran with a ton of DB knowhow. Now how often does it happen in-season? Can't think of a one. There's a reason for that. Outside of crazy one-game responses to multiple injuries, this isn't a situation NFL coaches want to deal with. You're absolutely right it'll be heavy on their minds going into next season, though.

The ball landed on his hands but kept on going and the tip hit the ground before he squeezed it. I was hopeful for one replay but the others showed it really clearly. I was amazed the refs made the right call at game speed.

Oh, man. Sweet story. Really nice. Hope a ton of good karma goes to both of them.

Hadn't thought of Rodgers till you said this, but yeah. I don't like him at all. Other than that the guys who've been violent off the field and then it gets few and far between for me. Marshawn Lynch for forcing himself out of Buffalo. Really dirty players like Vontaze Burfict. When not taking guys heads off, a really good player, but just dirty. Suh, for stomping. Again, a good player but dirty. Hate's too strong, but I don't like Beasley. And for his first couple of years he was one of my two favorites. But he just wouldn't shut up, even during the season, or follow team rules. And Billy Joe Hobert, my #1 most hated guy.

Nonsense. Anyone who thinks the situations of those teams are very similar doesn't get it. The Chiefs have $18M available under the cap right now, most of which will roll over onto the $11.98M they have available in 2023. And those figures include Toney. The Eagles have $10.1M available this year, which will roll over onto the $11.987M they have available for 2023. That's after picking up Quinn, not before. Whereas the Bills have $1.6M under the cap right now, which will probably mostly roll over onto next year's figure of -$7.555, leaving us a total, post-maximum possible rollover, of about -$4.95M. That's a big difference, as is the fact that the Bills don't have any areas of weakness as obvious as those teams did. It was a good move for both of those teams, but a lot of that is because they had bigger needs and more resources. Quinn is older and while he appears solid he's not having an especially effective year, and Toney has been very injury-prone. Both of those moves could turn out to be good for those teams. Or not.

It won't lower next year's figures any. The available cap figures for next year on Spotrac ( - $7.555M ) and OverTheCap already include the fact that so far next year's dead cap is only $1.339M. This year's dead cap figures mean nothing to next year that hasn't already been calculated.

No, he was a real Bills fan. Yes, the way he became a Bills fan had to do with his Madden introduction, but he became a legit fan throughout his young life. "Thanks to his unstoppable virtual offense, Watkins started cheering for the Bills in real life." https://archive.naplesnews.com/news/nfl-draft-souths-sammy-watkins-goes-to-buffalo-bills-his-favorite-team-growing-up-ep-458949796-341274191.html/

I think he was referring specifically to people who were attacking him. "To all the people who have problems with me being injured ..." Not a big Sammy fan, but he wasn't speaking to all of Buffalo, rude as that statement was.

Yeah, they certainly value the other stuff, as it's a ton of very specific information. But your guesswork about whether teams value the individual subjective player grading is just that, pure guesswork. In several articles coaches have been quoted as saying that the PFF player grades tend to be pretty close, but that if there's a difference on a guy that's enough for the interviewed coaches to go back and take another look at that guy and see if they've maybe missed something. There's an element of subjectivity to any grading system based on film study of anything. And yet film study is part of the constant study and feedback done on nearly everything profitable or interesting and is industry standard nearly everywhere. For the simple reason that subjectivity can be minimized, not eliminated but minimized, with consistent standards and yes, consistent feedback on their output in much the same way the players are being studied. And yes they don't know what the coaches know, so their feedback isn't quite as accurate. But it can still be very accurate. If it weren't, nobody would study film. And yet they do.

Beane and McD aren't in it for the short term only. Even if they were, barring injury (and in case of injury we'll have needs anywhere it happens) a #3 WR is going to get how many more catches than Shakir, Crowder, Kumerow or whoever plays #3 this particular drive? It's not a big differential and the effect it would have would most likely just be taking catches away from Diggs, Knox, and Davis. The FO made it clear from their first press conferences that they want to be competitive every year. Which means they won't be trading away the long-term interests of this team. Which means they might trade for someone, again, most likely OG, I'd guess, but it won't be for someone who requires a ton of draft, cap or human capital to bring in or keep.

You can generally tell most of that stuff with thoughtful film study. Not with 100% accuracy of course, but with quite good accuracy. If you couldn't do that, teams wouldn't bother studying tape. It's hindsight and every single instant of the play is on tape. If a guy comes unblocked and an unengaged lineman lunges at him but misses and all the other linemen are engaged, it's not difficult to figure out what goes on, for instance. Most times looking at elimination, you can get a very good idea. Not always. The coaches of that team do certainly know better than anyone else. I wonder why guys were listening to anyone else in the first place, with access to the coaches?

He's saying that the players have access to better grading, in that they can find out from their coaches how well they think they're doing. Duh. Of course they should focus more on what the coaches think. Thing is, while those players have access to their coaches' grades, we don't. Nor do even the other teams. Again, every team in the NFL subscribes to PFF for their info. If you can't find out what a guy's coaches think, you have to rely on film study and those who do it. PFF does it pretty well, or the teams wouldn't subscribe. Does that mean you have to believe every single thing they put out? Hell, no. Some of their pundit commentary in particular is pretty weird stuff. But their grades are pretty good, basically.

Nah, very few good posts start with an insult. But some posts are so bad there's not really another reasonable way to start. Yours have been consistently awful. A two-year $19M extension? With $15M of the $19M guaranteed? For a safety? A 30 year-old safety? Duh! Of course this is a major commitment. "$7M in dead cap is not a lot," you say. Again, just stupid. $7m dead money for a safety ... in the LAST year of his contract ... is really big. Minkah Fitzpatrick's dead money in the last year of his contract is $3.5M. Derwin James, the highest-paid safety in the league by AAV has $7.1M dead money in the last year of his contract, and he'll be 31, younger than Hyde would be in the last year of his. Jamal Adams in his last year has $7.1M and he'll be 30. Harrison Smith is $3.9M. Justin Smith is $3.7M. And those are the five highest-paid safeties in the league. Again, just purely block-headed to argue $7M isn't an awful lot of dead money in the last year of a safety's contract. It absolutely is. And no, it's not called an "'out' clause," as you claim. It's not a clause, Einstein. Yes, it's called an out. And you seem to completely misunderstand it. Every team has an out on every player every year. The question is how punitive it would be for the team to exercise the out. And Hyde's out is really punitive. A player having a dead cap figure more than twice as high as the amount the team would save under the cap is painful. For the team. Yeah, this is an out. But some are more painful than others for the team to swallow. This would be very painful for the Bills. They'd essentially be paying $7M for the privilege of saving $3M. That's not something a team looks to do. Compare that to how painful it would be for those five players I noted above, arguably the best safeties in the league. It'd be much less painful for their teams to cut them before the last year of the contract. Last year of Derwin James' contract, age 30: Dead cap $7.1 M, but they'd save $17.5M. Paying $7.1M for the privilege of saving $17.5M. Last year of Minkah Pitzpatrick's contract, age 30: $3.5M dead cap, but they'd save $17.6M. Paying $3.5M dead cap for the privilege of saving $17.6M. Last year of Jamal Adams' contract, age 30: $7.1M dead cap, but they'd save $17.5M salary and a $3.1M option bonus. See how this works? They cut these guys before the last year of their contract and the team gets a massive benefit. Same for Harrison Smith. Justin Simmons' contract is slightly less so. His dead cap would be $3.7M and the team would only save $14.5M. Get it? These are the five highest-paid safeties, and it would be much less painful to cut them in their last year than it would be for the Bills to cut Hyde at age 32, older than any of these others. They love the guy. And yes they gave him a two-year deal for a reason, Einstein. The reason being he's getting older and they didn't want to get too far ahead of themselves for an older guy. As for the last but problably not quite the most pathetic of your paragraphs, you say, "I ignored it just like I “ignore” the fact that Hyde’s middle name is Richmond. It’s irrelevant to the discussion for all the reasons I listed above." Funny how you didn't include any of what I said or what you said, so nobody could judge it's irrelevance. So let me do so, so people can actually look at it and see. You said: I said this: That's not irrelevant. Just inconvenient for your dumb argument. What a maroon!