Thurman#1

No, that's not the issue at all. Getting fired or forced to resign because you said some things your employer doesn't like is S.O.P. You do have the right to free speech, and Gruden's have not been even slightly inhibited. Has he been thrown in jail? He's got the right to free speech. He does not have a right to hold onto his job regardless of whether his employer likes what he's doing with his right to free speech, or any other aspect of his job performance for that matter.

I'd argue Goodell's been spectacular. Continuously growing popularity and revenue. He's been a terrific commish. He has also served as an excellent lightning rod, sheltering the owners. But while this lawsuit is over-written, it's a legit gripe that they targeted Gruden and withheld all the rest. He's got a chance at a very sizeable settlement, IMO, and may eventually even force them to reveal the rest, though they'll fight that tooth and nail. That's not all they want. Their #1 desire is the financial success and growth of the league, which has skyrocketed under Goodell.

Why is there so much rampant exaggeration here. It's not necessary, and it distorts. They're not "terribly slow," they just aren't. Moss and Singletary will never be mistaken for breakaway threats, but they have plenty enough speed to be effective in the NFL, in both running and passing. Most of the problems with our dumpoff passes is that Josh doesn't like doing that and so throws few of them. When he does use them, they've been effective.

Behind the same OL, with the same number of carries, it really really could. Improvement had better come more from the OL.

Probably not, but it's not impossible. Both articles are good stuff, though. It's hard to know if any of them would help soon, Osemele looks fast but like he's lost some weight. DeCastro might be the best bet depending where he is in his rehab. No sure things here, obviously, but I wouldn't be surprised if the the Bills have looked or are looking at some or all of them, with varying degrees of seriousness. With our top five guys healthy and playing together we're a solid group at pass pro despite all the girlish Chicken Little screaming out there, but probably below average in the interior at run blocking. But we're not healthy right now and our backups have been shown up as lacking. Can they look better with experience together? If we can get some improvement - at reasonable cost - it might be worth doing.

It's just some little company with like 20 likes on Facebook.

Yeah, this. But he certainly has under-performed relative to draft spot. Jeez.

Every QB is better with a functional run game? Maybe. But there have been plenty of great teams and great QBs who have gotten by without very good run games. I mean, the Bucs were 27th last year in YPC, and 28th in total run yards. The 2019 Chiefs were 20th in YPC and 23rd in run yards. The 2014 Pats were 24th in YPC (3.9 YPC) and 18th in run yards. Hell, the 2011 Giants were dead last, 32nd in YPC (3.5 YPC) and dead last in run yards 1427 total. Super Bowl winners, all. I'm not saying that a better run game wouldn't help, as I think it would. But I don't think it's necessary. And this year's Bills are 15th in YPC and 16th in run yards. That doesn't tell the story perfectly, of course, they've been pretty awful in a few games, certainly including last week, but again, last week we had two of our OL starters out and one more playing out of position. I imagine they're working on it, as they should. Being dangerous in many ways should help, as should getting Beasley healthy and Knox back, which should help the short pass game a lot. Our RBs are OK, the problem is mostly the line.

We do utilize play action a fair amount. Not enough? That's a fair argument. But sometimes. On Oct. 21, Gaughan wrote: "So far this season, the Bills are using play action on 32% of pass plays, according to Buffalo News charts, still a high percentage." https://buffalonews.com/playaction-newsletter-oct-21-2021-bills-offense-works-to-sell-the-run/article_74d9e88e-3265-11ec-9f03-837cacc31f21.html

Getting across his face means the guy started on one side of the OL and ends up on the other. That's not what happens. #95 was lined up far inside Dawkins. His helmet isn't across even from Dawkins' shoulder pads, hell, no part of either of their bodies is across from any part of the other guy's body. The DL, #95, is way inside. There are only two ways Dawkins could make that play. One is if Boettger hits #95 before he rubs past to get to the LB, and the other is if #95 for some reason comes straight forward, allowing Dawkins to catch him, but instead #95 was going away from Dawkins from instant one and Boettger didn't hit him, delay him and rub.

I'm hardly a guru, but you don't have to be to see what's happening there. Whoever you're arguing with doesn't quite get it. Yeah, #95 for the Jags has scootched past his block and is headed right towards that hole. If Singletary cuts there he just loses a few more yards than he did. The Colts hole has nobody unblocked.

Looked to me and to one other group (Cover one?) that his rib pain was preventing him from doing his usual good job getting YAC.

Yeah, from McD, and he could very well also call in Johnson. Maybe Daboll too. Maybe more. Getting as much info as possible to help him make decisions is only sensible. Yes. You're just making sense here. Saying it far better than I was able to.

"Clueless"? Absolute nonsense, he's highly respected. And it's ridiculous to blame Johnson for decisions he's not responsible for. And for the Teller thing. You constantly heard that Teller had potential but wasn't there yet. And at that point, you simply don't know what will happen, nobody does. He hadn't broken through yet. Fairly soon after, he did. But some guys do and some guys don't and if it were possible to tell which were which, football overall would make much much better decisions. It's ridiculous also to blame Johnson for the Williams problem. Williams played brilliantly under Johnson at tackle last year. Under Johnson this year he played much less well. How do you blame Johnson for 2021 but not 2020's excellence. Doesn't make any sense. And yes he got moved back to tackle, but only because of injury. This sort of thing happens in the NFL. And you're trying to use Spencer Brown as an indictment for the Bills and the coaches? It's the opposite. They (and Brown himself, of course) deserve huge plaudits. The staff for drafting him, for developing and coaching him, and Brown for improving, listening and being developed, which again is not a sure thing. As many have pointed out, Spain played pretty well here and then seemed to have had some kind of disagreement/problem. We don't know what the problem was, but just blaming Johnson and the staff makes no sense. It could have been them, it could have been Spain, we have no idea. Your argument seems to be that we're having some problems at OL and therefore it's Johnson's fault. Doesn't make sense. These problems are much more complicated than that. Bringing in guys (with salary cap strictures in mind) absolutely does seem to be part of the problem. As do player problems. And yeah, coach problems may also be part of the problem. No reason whatsoever to think it's the main part, though.

Twisting a leg as part of a tackle is totally reasonable. Happens all the time when the only grip is on the foot or ankle. This isn't a tackle, the whole thing is illegal, but I'm not convinced he was trying to injure him. Just trying to make an illegal play to get him down. Still, he you can't tackle in that situation. He should be fined. Doesn't look like there's any reasonable way to think that Jones thought Burns had the ball.

Yeah, they're smart too. But if they are only breaking down several of the plays, they could be right and PFF could also be right. I do intend to do that. But I haven't yet, and thus don't really consider myself capable of commenting at this point. I'm not rebuking your opinion, I'm criticizing the ad hominem stuff that we see here constantly ... it's PFF so it must be wrong, it's Cody Ford so he must suck, I don't have to look. Now that I see PFF and Gaughan disagree after examining the film, it makes me want to take a look.

Because NFL teams pay for their info. That's why some amount of trust is reasonable. They wouldn't do that if the PFF folks were incompetent. Not that that means you have to agree with any of their specific conclusions. Disagreement backed by other data is totally reasonable.

So, you've watched the film yourself and compared their performance, right? Because if you haven't you're only revealing a cognitive bias and that you're perfectly happy operating that way. If you've watched the film and disagree, fair enough, that leaves plenty of room to disagree and make a ton of sense. If not ...

Good question in this context. An attempt? Or a contusion?

It's his responsibility, but it's not solely in his power. More, there's never in history been a coach who didn't have their team come out flat sometimes. It happens. Even to Lombardi. Even to Belichick. What separates the great coaches in this area is that it happens less often for greats than most others. And McDermott teams have had bad games sometimes, but flat games very rarely.

I disagree the line is average. With the current injuries and guys playing out of position, it's far below that. With everyone healthy and in position they're a good line at pass pro and average to below average at run blocking, possibly because they spend so little time on it. As for 20 - 25 yard run plays being missing, they're not. Singletary has a 46 yarder (MIA) and a 25 yarder (PIT). Could there be more if they were better backs? Yeah, sure. I'm not arguing that they are constant breakaway threats or great backs. But they're solid. And I disagree about your "holes" diagnosis. When there are holes these guys get yards. Too often there aren't holes. It's been said ad infinitum, but for good reason, they have fewer yards before contact than just about anyone around and that's mostly bad blocking. They're not slow. They're just not real fast. And plenty of guys without breakaway speed are NFL starters and good players for years. Would it be good to get an upgrade? Sure! Is that position the highest priority to upgrade, or even in the top three? I sure don't think so. Give me a guard or two, a CB or two, a second TE and maybe another interior DL, or a top-class pass rushing DE.

I'm sure you have seen good RBs get yards behind average to below average lines. That's what you're seeing in Buffalo right now. Singletary's averaging 4.9 YPC, and while Moss is lower, he's still making yards. Yes, they're not breakaway threats. But both are solid guys. And Beane certainly did upgrade the roster since losing to the Chiefs. Rousseau, Emanuel Sanders and Brown, for three, say hello. He didn't upgrade them in every area, which in our cap situation was just simply the way it had to be.

No, you're not sure. What you have there is a guess or an opinion, and one without any degree of substantiation or reasonable evidence. And by the way, the Steelers played flat and badly most of the first month of the season. Tomlin's damn good, but not perfect. Same with McDermott. And your evidence that he hasn't done that is non-existent. Entirely imaginary, as a matter of fact.

Absolutely not. This year Williams has been really good at G and pretty bad at T. When Brown is healthy at RT, our two best players are at the positions that are most important, with the best player at the most important spot. Boettger? Maybe. I just don't think he's been better than a healthy Feliciano. When healthy, this line has mostly (certainly not entirely, but mostly) been OK once they got Williams inside and Brown playing. When unhealthy like yesterday, considerably worse. Dawkins hasn't been the same after COVID, but still better than putting someone else there.

Thought it was worth repeating what was said on the the Bears - Steelers broadcast with 13:34 on the clock in the 3rd quarter. Announcer: "Harris has taken a lot of punishment this season. Doesn't seem to mind the contact. He actually told us he likes to get hit." Color Man: "And he's taken some big hits, Jamal Adams for the Seahawks got him, Edmunds for the Bills got him one time, he said that was the hardest one he took."