Thurman#1

I assume he was talking about the OL when he was talking about bringing attitude. Particularly the first two years of his stay, he really did appear to provide some attitude when he was on the field. The line appeared to play tougher when he was out there. But he regressed in his level of play last year. Many think it's the weight he lost, and maybe they're right. But it was real and they couldn't put him out there.

Releases don't save as much as people think they will. There are often dead money costs, and the released player will be replaced on the top 51 by someone else, whose contract - though it will not be large - will need to be subtracted from the cap. Re-structuring works, but it is simply borrowing from future years. It's simply putting things on the credit card. And we are already well over the cap for next year, 2023. That's nonsense that it's just accounting work. It's active borrowing from the future, and if you're releasing guys who would otherwise make the team, doing so actively makes the roster weaker. There are real-life negatives to doing these things. It's not just accounting

It's not really true ... that they give every player a real grade on each play. They watch every play. But they are perfectly free to not grade performance on a play where it's not clear whether the job was done. "YOU DON’T KNOW THE PLAY CALL? "We are certainly not in the huddle, but we are grading what a player attempts to do on a given play. While football is extremely nuanced regarding the preparation and adjustments that go into each play call, once the ball is snapped, most players are clear in what they’re trying to accomplish on each play, and we evaluate accordingly. Of course, there are always some gray areas in football. Plays in which there is a clear question mark regarding assignment, we can defer to a “0” grade and not guess as to which player is right or wrong. These plays are few and far between and since we are grading every snap, missing out on a handful throughout the year should not affect player evaluations. Examples of potential gray areas include coverage busts, quarterback/wide receiver miscommunications and missed blocking assignments." https://www.pff.com/grades And I totally disagree that teams would only give pass/fail grades to players. There are plenty of times when player performance that goes beyond adequate can make huge differences in result for the team. When a run-blocking guard knocks his guy out of the play and then keeps going downfield to make another good block downfield, for instance. A team wouldn't say in that case, "Well, it's only a pass grade to us. His excellent performance there didn't really make any difference to us from the team's point of view."

Yes, so did Chip Kelly. Then PFF asked him to check their grades, he agreed to watch the tapes of one game and compare them to the PFF grades and he came backs surprised, saying they'd pretty much nailed it. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/dc-sports-bog/wp/2017/09/20/__trashed/ It's happened several times. Film isn't some kind of opaque thing that's wildly difficult to understand, it just isn't. If it were, teams wouldn't study opponent film. They wouldn't use it to diagnose what they might do in various situations because it would just be too difficult to understand. There's a reason that teams watch opponent film in incredibly large quantities ... even though they don't know what the coaches specifically said in the meeting rooms about the responsibilities of each player were on every play. Somehow they find extreme value in watching this tape, even without that crucial information. And I bet that if you looked back, you'd find that Eric Wood and Williams both did a ton of work watching opponent film and probably learned a ton. Even not knowing the opponent's calls.

That's questionable even if you're talking about 2nd year Tua. And there's no reason to think 3rd year Tua might not be quite a bit better than that old relic. Whatever your situation at DB, $10M for 1 year absolutely is a very big deal for a team that's got $5M in cap space this year and is already $10M under the cap for 2023. And our Super Bowl window will last probably 12 years from now.

Dude, the Red Sea doesn't have to part for the weather to be quite a bit better or worse year to year on a set of eight days per year. In fact, the probabilities will tell you that's quite likely to be true when your sample size is so small. Small sample sizes increase the impact of pure luck, chance and variance. Not to mention that the strength of schedule in a random segment of eight games per year will also vary quite a lot. So, while a data set this small might indeed show that he is playing better away than he is at home, it might easily also be greatly affected by factors like varying weather, harder or easier schedules, games where they are behind requiring more throws and more risks be taken and better or worse opponent pass defenses.

I suppose I could have better said something like "McDermott deserves an awful lot of the credit." That would have more precisely stated my point. Sorry I didn't say it well. And of course you're not going to debate a dumb point like that one you made there. They're both among the absolute best at what they do. Allen is likely a bit better. But McDermott is absolutely terrific. Both are top five at what they do.

I see. You were there. On the sidelines? You heard McDermott make a mistake? You've got the whole story? Nonsense. The only first-hand data we have on this is from the interview with Levi Wallace. He says that the coaches made the right call and there was bad communication on the field, specifically that he didn't look back and see where Hyde was playing, that he thought Hyde was playing closer in and that they left a big gap. And there's no reason whatsoever to think we won't have as good a chance as we did. It could easily happen. Did we blow a good chance? Yeah, we did. Might easily get another chance that's just as good or better. But that doesn't mean it wasn't a damn shame to miss that chance. Yeah, you're right. Your take here is really stunningly bad. And again, who drafted Allen? Who was the guy who developed the system in which Allen was developed so very well? Who brought in Daboll and Dorsey? Yup, McDermott.

McDermott gets most of the credit for Allen. He'd one about as well as a coach can do to bring in and develop him. He and Beane brought him in and have maximized him. Plenty of other coach/GM tandems would have chosen the other Josh or someone else. Allen of course also gets a ton of credit for hard work and for just being good. But they brought Allen in, they And you can be comfortable blaming the loss on the head coach if you want. But it's nuts. Does he get a share of the blame, as everyone does? Yes. But again, the reason Allen wears a Buffalo on his helmet when he does amazing things because he was picked by this front office. And the reason Allen was required to do Josh Allen things in that game is because Mahomes was on the other side doing Patrick Mahomes things. Any team later in the playoffs with a great QB is going to have that QB doing amazing things to be in games. And teams without great QBs tend to not make the playoffs or to go out early. This is an excellent roster, and if you put Josh Allen on a team with a poor roster and a poor system he might easily not have become the Josh Allen he is today and he simply doesn't win anywhere near the number of games he's won.

He didn't fail in the playoffs. The Buffalo Bills did. Anyone calling for his head is clinically nuts. Clinically. He and Beane are the reason for this team's ascendancy. Why? Because he and the GM he brought in traded far up and picked that quarterback despite a ton of concern around the league that Allen would never be accurate. Yes, he has the best QB in the league. He gets a ton of the credit for that, and for Allen's improvement because he put the systems around Allen that have helped and maximized his improvement.

Perhaps if he died. Also if he became a heroin addict.

I believe that was Eric Wood. Whose example was a play that was easy that was actually a mistake by a rookie which on film looked just like a mistake by a rookie. It was pretty funny, his best example was a play that he explained was actually just what it looked like. Every NFL team pays them for their data. If they sucked at their job, nobody would pay. Now, if Lewan is correct, it would be indefensible. But he didn't appear to have any proof.

Please. If it were really that tough, we'd have no idea whether any player was any good. It's just not that difficult to tell what most players were supposed to do on most plays, once you can look at the film. There are plays where you can't be sure occasionally, but in most cases it's pretty clear. When it's ambiguous, PFF doesn't try to guess.

Be interesting to see what PFF says. I doubt it, myself, as it would be a stupid business move, killing the goose for the golden egg. My guess is it's a rumor, but we'll see.

Interesting. I'll have to try to figure out at some point why things are converted to dead money. And yes, practice squad salaries go up every year. In 2030, it'll be $16,750 a week.

Yes, the practice squad counts to the cap. Last year, according to Spotrac, our practice squad totalled $1,289,600 against the cap, 0.68% of the cap. https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/buffalo-bills/cap/2021/ It's about 2/3rds of the way down the page. Weekly PS salary minimum last year was $9.2K and it goes up this year to $11.5K, so we will be spending about 22% more, roughly. More if they decide on a guy or two with more experience. And as of right now, for the 2023 season we are already about $12.5M OVER the cap. Things will change, and we certainly will get under the cap, but this is a big concern going forwards.

It takes time. If only they were ready when we needed them rather than when they reach their own individual tipping points. The rule is generally you can't call someone a bust for three years. There's good reason it's three years. Some get there earlier, but some don't. You can't cook an omelette and say, well, I can't wait as long as the recipe says, so I'll just cook it at three times the temperature for a third of the time. It won't work out well. Myself, I have faith we'll see real improvement from some of these guys and that this is a roster that looks legit ready for Super Bowl competitiveness.

I'd bet they're all but done. Very little cap is left to play with, this year or next, and that's a major concern. I'd expect small moves still but not a lot beyond that.

I'd argue that the FAs who have not signed with other teams, like Sanders and Zimmer shouldn't be listed as "left." You never know what will happen. They just haven't been re-signed yet. Good summary. I'd argue you're a bit overoptimistic on the receivers and LBs (IMO Klein will be missed and while I'm really hopeful on Bernard, he won't be as good this year as Klein was), but are basically very reasonable.

Where would she have plugged herself in?

Trent wasn't their type in one respect. They have at various times signed many people who for various reasons were not their type in one or more respects. Elam is an example, as the Bills have a strong tendency to pick only CBs who are excellent tacklers, and Elam has some issues there. They are willing to break tendencies when the overall package makes it worthwhile. So yeah, in terms of arm length, McDuffie was not their type. They may very well have been very interested in signing him regardless.

I'm with him on this. There's racism in the league, particularly in terms of coaches and GMs, but perhaps also among backup QBs. But Kaepernick is being blackballed not so much because he's black as because he's bad publicity and has been perceived (unfairly, but for many that is the perception) of being anti-anthem.

He does have a weak arm, but there was bad luck too. If I remember correctly, he had two plays where he hit the WR who then promptly volleyball-set the football up to be intercepted. It certainly wasn't good, but it also wasn't as bad as some wanted and continue to want to make it out to be.

Yeah, they coped pretty well, but with Tre in this is a much tougher team for offenses to deal with.

Oh, my God, that's funny. Too long, Marv, but I appreciate the time and effort.