Thurman#1

Makes total sense to me. The run defense and run offense are the third and fourth most important phases of the game, and have been for many years. Doesn't mean they're entirely unimportant. They're not. But passing is what the game is about these days. Having the other two phases also be strong makes your team more bulletproof, but the key is the passing game. It's not a mistake that there are so very few Brandon Spikes types out there these days.

I don't even agree with this. He's got areas where he's stronger than Smoke, such as health so far, and high-pointing the ball, but a healthy Smoke to a second-year Davis isn't an upgrade, IMO. Well, we'll see. Obviously there's no way to prove you're wrong, short of watching the season play out, but I sure think you'll be shown wrong there.

This year on this team? I don't even see him challenging for #3 unless one of the top three get cut or injured. Ever on the Buffalo Bills in his career? I don't see it happening in the next eight or nine years as long as Diggs is here. My guess is no. Ever on any team? There I'd say it's possible. Maybe he'll improve greatly over the next few years. But he looks to me like a solid guy who's really good at the scramble drill.

No, you say I'm sorry you feel that way, but you've done something wonderful, something that will have positive effects not just for you but for the people around you, for your friends, and for your society and even for your world. You've done something great here, I'd like to shake your hand. If I met McKenzie, I'd congratulate, support and compliment him.

No, because there's nothing to hate him for. The vaccinated player has done his best to see that he doesn't get it, and thus that he doesn't pass it on. The measure he took is not perfect. He still might catch it and thus risk passing it on. But he's at least done his best to prevent that. Whereas the unvaccinated player has refused to do something very easily done with very little downside. He's refused to take the best most efficient step towards protecting others.

"Attempting" is a bit overstating it. What they did was propose it, apparently at the beginning of talks involving back and forth proposals.

While that's certainly one outcome, it's far from the only one. And if they were smart, the folks above Nagy would rein him in on that logic and tell him to value the long-term over the short-term here. From how it looks, they may already have started that. You're very right that there may well be pressure on Nagy. There's nearly always pressure on people to make stupid decisions based on short-term logic. Many decisions are made based on that kind of awful process. But the fact that there was a lot of pressure doesn't make the bad decisions any better. Yup. Good point about their OL. I still think David Carr could have been a really good QB if he hadn't been systematically mishandled and forced into a case of PTSD.

On 9/12, in week 2 and week 3, there's something at stake to gain by taking the risk.

Trying to slow down the video, I don't think Oliver got a hand on it. He got his hand up so maybe the QB had to throw over him. He was around a foot low to touch the ball, though. The way it's written, I almost wonder whether Oliver's play that they refer to was on an earlier down or something.

You may well be right. History points that way. I hope for his sake that he sits for most of the year, if not all of it.

The long term future of that guy, which for the next four to six years will probably correspond well with the long term success of the whole franchise, is way way more important than winning (very likely losing, actually) one game in a season in which the team will not compete for a championship. Sit him, work on his mechanics and his understanding of the game, and do it for the whole year if you think that's what will work best for him long-term. Follow the Mahomes plan.

Yeah, I agree with this strongly. Start him, don't start him, whatever. But limit his playing time so he's not too worn down late. Winter is coming.

Erased it. Don't want to spread misinformation. Thank you. And yes, I'm hoping they see the five days at home as a wakeup call.

In the lowest four teams of the league is absolutely low. If I were vaccinated on that team I would be angry.

Heh heh. Didn't want him in the first. But I hope he recovers as soon as possible. Hate to see things like that.

That is some stunningly bad logic. Because a thing has not happened yet is not even close to proof it won't happen soon.

Anecdotal evidence is not scientific. How many total vaccinated people went to that conference? How many tested positive. You're misunderstanding how statistics work. Statistics work in the long view, in the large numbers. And that's the important thing. Sure there will be groups of people who have higher and lower infection rates. Again, that's how statistics work. It is utterly unsurprising.

Yes. That's what the guy above was talking about when he said it was about 80% effective. Supposed to be around 90% effective at preventing infection from the old strains and about 80% effective from the Delta variant last I saw. Even if it's only 10 - 20% of people exposed getting infected, if millions are being exposed, that's still tons of cases.

My friend, that is NOT the worst case scenario. Not even slightly close. I do worry that this seems pretty likely to happen again during the season, and that even if they don't test positive that we miss games. Could happen again and again to the same guy or guys. The rules allow the vaxxed to play through close contact. Not the unvaxxed.

Training staff. No, it doesn't "just" reduce the chances of life threatening symptoms. It also lowers the possibility of catching COVID if exposed. Does not eliminate it, though, that's quite correct.

Took a quick look at both drives and he did his job each time. He was pushing the pocket on pass plays to prevent Dalton from stepping up, and on run plays he was never pushed back, pushing his guy laterally and ending up right at the point of attack. He did well. DTs can be doing a great job even when their name isn't called.

Yeah, it's a mistake to judge anyone this early. Equally, though, some struggle to find that right weight to speed ratio, I'd argue most come out in the right neighborhood. Epenesa was certainly an exception to that. But plenty also come out about right in that ratio.¥ Doesn't mean they're finished products, as an NFL weight and nutrition program will nearly always help them, but most guys who aren't at the right ratio won't be able to show what the Bills want to see on the field in college, and thus won't get picked. Epenesa was a bit of an exception as his Dad is an absolute weight lifting and fitness nut, so Epenesa actually put on too much muscle weight in college. That's not a common problem down there.

Greg Tompsett: "My final thoughts were I'm super-glad we saw another dominating game from the young defensive line all the way through, but most especially AJ Epenesa. I thought he had his consistently best game. I was glad to see another game from Rousseau. Ed Oliver collapsed the pocket on one of the early sacks...." It's at around 24:00.

Just went and watched it on NFL Game Pass, it was Neal.

I agree with you totally on Epenesa. Not worried about him at all, and it's not reasonable to say he played a lot. Hope you and Sal are right on Basham. He had a few plays I liked but also a bunch where I didn't see much. But yeah, it's really early, particularly on this roster, where we've got a lot of guys ahead of him on the depth chart at this point.