Thurman#1

He actually is. https://awfulannouncing.com/orig/the-2020-nfl-announcer-rankings.html https://awfulannouncing.com/orig/the-2019-nfl-announcer-rankings.html www.sportingnews.com/us/other-sports/list/best-sports-broadcasters-analysts-nfl-nba-mlb-football-nhl-nascar/c3spcs4zn0iq1u34iszrjgbut/28 The guy has 16 Emmy awards, for Pete's sake. Nine for outstanding sports studio analyst and seven for outstanding event analyst. That doesn't mean he (or anybody) does a great job every week, but he absolutely is a very fine announcer.

'Fraid not. He didn't have a very good game, but he's one of the best out there. Well behind Romo, but he's solid. We've had threads on him earlier in the year. He's respected.

That may well be true in terms of shoe size. Beyond that, it's a bit nuts, friend. 🙂

You're kidding yourself. It was always like this. People don't want to hear about the best team. They want to hear the best story. The two are often the same but not always. The fall of the king is generally a better story than somebody new being good. Your memory is wrong if you think there wasn't more about the Cowboys around back in the '70s and '80s because they were America's team. Whether they sucked that year or not. In any case, there's a ton about the Bills all over the news right now.

No, not at all. Here's an article from before the 2017 season by Zierlein listing Allen as the #2 QB prospect for after that season after Darnold. https://www.nfl.com/news/sam-darnold-josh-allen-lead-top-cfb-qbs-to-watch-in-2017-0ap3000000819400 Here's an October 2017 article where Kiper and McShay both say he's a top 15 guy despite his step backwards that he was suffering at this point. https://draftwire.usatoday.com/2017/10/13/mel-kiper-todd-mcshay-still-think-josh-allen-is-a-top-15-prospect/ Here's one from August 25th, before the 2017 season, listing Allen as the 9th best CFB player: https://www.nfl.com/news/top-150-college-football-players-for-2017-nos-1-10-0ap3000000808316 Here's an article pointing out a Schefty quote: "Allen's anonymity ended almost immediately after the final selection of the 2017 NFL draft was made on April 29, when ESPN reporter Adam Schefter said: "There was one personnel director who told me this week that you can put in the books, Josh Allen will be the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft next year." The quote's near the top of the article. Also says he almost turned pro that year, he actually told his agent he would but that he decided it just didn't feel right after all. https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/20117075/wyoming-cowboys-josh-allen-goes-unknown-no-1-pick-nfl-draft-buzz "Wyoming quarterback Josh Allen, a rising junior, is on his way from OVERLOOKED FARM BOY TO THE TOP PICK of the 2018 NFL draft" (May 15th, 2017) "But everyone is taking notice of Allen now. On Jan. 9, agents beat a path past the rows of cotton and cantaloupes on the family's 2,000-acre farm to sit in the Allens' living room. When Clemson beat Alabama for the national title, Josh watched the game with six representatives from mega-agency CAA. Though college players aren't allowed to sign with agents, they are allowed to take informational meetings. LaVonne served them pizza as the CAA reps broke down everything their company might do for Allen should he decide to turn pro. That night he decided his lone season as the starter at Wyoming was preparation enough. After one year at Reedley he had transferred to Wyoming, where in 2016 he threw for 3,203 yards with 28 touchdowns and 15 interceptions, leading the Cowboys to the top of the Mountain Division in the Mountain West. He called some of his receivers and told them he'd break the news to Cowboys coach Craig Bohl in the morning. "As soon as I made that decision, anxiety started running through my body," Allen says. "I didn't sleep one ounce, one bit, one hour, one second that night." https://vault.si.com/vault/2017/05/15/no-one-no-1 He really did impress scouts at the Senior Bowl, though, I remember that. He'd cleaned up his mechanics a bit in his sessions with Jordan Palmer, and it showed. But people were absolutely already watching. His poorer year in 2017 may actually have made him a better player but a lower pick. No way to say that for sure, but it's certainly possible. I think it was Mayock who said he'd never seen a guy help himself more in the pre-draft process than Allen did. A lot of that was Josh's personality, smarts and determination, but a lot was also his work with Palmer. If he'd done that the year before, who knows?

They are, they've been really really productive. Excellent pass blockers both. The concern is fumbles for 26. I don't think they will bring anyone in, myself.

Yeah, such a good pick. Looks to be a Bills stalwart for a decade.

Yeah, I think he actually meant that after 2016 Josh was several times projected as the #1 pick, and then after 2017 he dropped a bit. I think there's a decent chance he might indeed have gone earlier than 7th if he'd left the year before. In 2016 he was surrounded by significantly better talent. After 2016 his completion percentage was 56.0 after previously throwing only 4 college passes. The next year that went up, but by less than one percent, from 56.0% to 56.3%. That can't have looked good to NFL scouts. His Y/A dropped precipitously, from an impressive 8.3 to a poor 6.7. His rating dropped a lot. His TD percentage dropped a lot. His supporting cast got worse, but it just didn't look like he got better, even if he actually did. His yards per rush also dropped quite a bit., from 3.7 YPA to 2.2. The one thing (and it's important but it's about the only thing that improved) was INT %. He threw a lot more safely that second year. IMO he had a good chance to go higher that year when he'd have been up against Mahomes and Trubisky among the top QBs, rather than Darnold, Mayfield and Rosen. At the time, the class he came out in was considered a much stronger class, even if you discounted Allen himself. Far from a sure thing, of course, but my guess is that he could easily have gone higher, with people worrying deeply about lack of experience but taking him on potential.

Yeah, I'm aware it was last week. That's why I wrote that the wife is now playfully pointing out that I owe her $100. She would have won, but I couldn't get the bet down. If it wasn't clear, I'll correct it to make it easier to understand. Sorry.

I really have never bet, but the wife, when I told her the Bills line was 17 points last week against the Texans, immediately said, "they'll beat them by more than that. Bet $100 for me." I spent two or three hours looking for a good site and it was annoying. Couldn't place a bet for her and she's playfully reminding me every day that I owe her $100. This week she wants me to put $25 on the over. Many U.S. sites don't allow international bettors. I live in Japan. The thing that pissed me off about a bunch of them is that they'll happily take your credit card, but then they can't give money back to the credit card, but they want to use that excuse to rip you off for service fees. I won't be a big bettor and the three or four I looked at all had fees of $55 or more for the arduous difficulty of writing a check to me. Some more than that. One site would do it for free as long as I signed up for a purse and took it in Bitcoin. I have zero interest in that. Anybody know a site that doesn't charge much for cashouts? Hopefully it should be a good site generally and take international bettors. Have any good ideas?

It's not an issue in International Game Pass. Same as last year. There's an icon at the bottom left that when clicked allows me to see the list of plays and play whichever one I want. And I get both views of every play automatically. Good luck to you folks.

You don't need to ask when, because it's happened all along. Consistently. That's why he's been twice a Pro Bowler, why he's consistently on lists of best LBs, why he's far more highly valued around the league than you and your small group are willing to understand. Could he be better? Sure, that's fair enough. But he's already been damn good for a long time. He makes a lot of plays, but they aren't the kind that you seem willing to accept as within your definition of big plays or impact plays, but that's on your definition, not on Edmunds' performance. If he was making no big plays they wouldn't have agreed to guarantee him above $13M next year. He's had sacks, he's had forced fumbles, QB hits, a safety, tackles for loss, a bunch of third down stops and a lot of passes defensed. Interceptions. Hurries. Pressures. He had that terrific goal line stuff last year. And those are just the countable obvious ones. In four playoff games he's managed 4 QB hits, a sack, a tackle for loss, a fumble recovery and three passes defensed. He's been making big plays all along. And that's not mention all the ones he made like the one Cover One pointed out last week where he covers well and forces QBs to pull it down and look elsewhere. Those aren't countable and they often aren't even clearly observable but they're one of the main things the Bills love about Tremaine. QBs take a look across the middle and see those big long arms and they pull it down more than they do for most LBs. You aren't seeing it. Thing is, the Bills are.

Most of Williams' snaps have been at tackle. Perhaps he's a better guard right now than tackle. Which is exactly what Joe suggested in the article. Williams is a hard guy to understand. He was really good at tackle last year, but this year not so much. You wonder if there's an injury he's dealing with or something. 29 seems early for his performance to start falling off.

That Basham's 24 now will have a major effect when he hits around 30 and starts to age. For the next few years experience will be a ton more important than chronological age for Boogie. It's his first game. That's his big limitation right now. He's probably closer to physical maturity than most rooks, but still limited in terms of experience, and we know McDermott takes his time with rookie DLs.

It was the Jets. Darnold looked terrible there too. Not that I expect Geno to be very good, but it could happen.

What's comical is what a terrible take this is. Zero games missed due to injury as a rookie. Three in his second year, from a broken fibula. One in his third year. Five last year. And if he misses the Chiefs he'll have played 80% of the games so far at an extremely high level. With a contract that clearly includes a serious home team discount. There certainly is a chance he might eventually start missing huge chunks of seasons, but even if he does his contract isn't punitive for the Bills. If he gets cut after the 2022 season, his dead cap will be $3.5M. The guy is the 28th highest paid LB in the league by average salary. If he misses two or three games a year he's still a bargain.

An amazing thing, but the guy who wrote the caption is a fricking idiot. That heart attack ended his career right then, and he died of heart problems at age 44. "Maybe play through your next injury, buttercup," is about as buttheaded a take as imaginable on an injury that when played through ended both his career and eventually his life. Not the lesson to be learned from this incident. Not talking about you here, Chandler, but about Super70sSports.

For a platoon guy, he's got a fair amount of experience in three uninjured years. 30% of the defensive snaps in 2018 in L.A. Injured in 2019. 44% of the D snaps last year with the Jets, and 67% this year. Wow, strip-sack of Brady in the 2018 Super Bowl. 13 QB hits in 15 games last year. Doesn't seem like a bad move, unfortunately.

Makes sense. I hate that people call this $30M guaranteed. They do, lately, but it's just another way to give agents a chance to puff up what the contract sounds like without actually having the contract live up to the puffery. If something isn't guaranteed unless you are on the roster a year from now, it isn't guaranteed now, and shouldn't be referred to that way. Not grumbling about you, Bill, just about how this is generally used in a misleading way.

Ah, interesting. Not desperate at all, then. I think the Jets are beginning to look up a bit, unfortunately. I like Salah.

Yup. I've been saying for the last two years that he was a great deal more likely to be here in 2022 than a lot of people here thought. I disagree. Out of all the players on our suddenly very effective DL, it's Oliver who's getting doubled constantly. Teams know how good he is. IMO we'll start to see teams trying to double Star more on pass plays and that will allow Oliver more chances.

His absence wasn't the reason we lost to Pittsburgh, but he's been really good. He's always been an excellent space eater / block absorber and hole clogger. Always. And that continues. He was also always weirdly good at running laterally when he got off blocks and chased guys outwards. He continues to do these both very well. But he's gotten a lot better at rushing the passer. It's great to see. He was greatly missed in 2020. The 2019 and 2021 defenses were absolutely excellent, and his presence is a real part of that. His presence makes the players around him significantly better. No, it really wasn't. The last half of the year they were very solid. Not as good as they are this year with Star, though.

Ah, not a lot of starts but almost a thousand snaps. I only remembered the name and nothing else, but he's played a bit. Agreed, hope he doesn't do well.

Yes, Staley is right. No, that was absolutely not our problem against KC last year. We absolutely got them to fight blocks and tackle. They were in fact very good at it in both games. They were damn good at stopping our run game by fighting blocks and tackling. You don't have to run in every game. We had a great game against Seattle last year practically without running till the last few drives to burn clock. We didn't run but we still passed extremely well. Our troubles in passing at KC weren't caused by run problems. We just weren't very good at either, in either game. Your team will absolutely have a hard time though, if teams all know you can't run and so you won't. That makes it a lot easier on defenses. But if game planning says it's better to run very little against some teams, that can be a very reasonable decision.

Yup. It actualy started before that, but that was the capper.