Thurman#1

Edmunds did deserve the Pro Bowl for how he played after he was healthy again, I believe. But you're right that if you consider also the time when he was playing with one shoulder, over the whole season he didn't deserve it. But people seem to allow guys who are having issues make the Pro Bowl if they go back to Pro Bowl standard for most of the season. The classic Bills example is Jason Peters the year he missed camp. The first four to six weeks he was in great shape - he'd been working out hard, as the Bills noted - but not football shape, and it showed. He wasn't good. But by week 7 or so he was kicking butt and taking names again and people noticed and everyone voted him on. And Peters haters here in Buffalo pissed and moaned about that selection for a decade, long after it was wildly obvious that the Eagles had valued him right and we hadn't.

We don't "know" he "thinks he's in the running to land a playaer who might be at the very least a bit more impactful than Jones." That's a supposition. Certainly one that's very possible, but not something we know. Could be he gave one of the coaches some lip or didn't show up to a Zoom call or in some way didn't live up to their expectations. He is indeed likely to grab somebody to fill the spot. Could as easily be that they fill the spot because they let Jones go as what most here are assuming, which is that because they need a spot they let Jones go. Remember when everyone was convinced that we'd given Diggs a re-fi on his deal because we needed the money right then and there? Sometimes they make moves because they're good moves, because it's what they need to do next. Maybe they're doing this to make room. But since cutting him moves it from 89 to 88, and the limit is 90, they could have brought someone in without cutting him. Maybe they just wanted to cut him. We'll see.

Jeez.

Slightly disagree. He appears to be below average blocking and slightly above average receiving. That, to me, is not average, it's particular. So far, the Bills haven't given major opportunities to that kind of particular guy. Allen was anything but typical. There were certainly questions about whether he would succeed, but not because he was average.

Good point. Didn't even think of that till you said it, but that makes total sense. Generally I like joint practices, but don't think it's a very big issue either way.

"Unranked" just means outside the top ten. If you had him as the 11th best LB in the league, you wouldn't rank him. So "completely" IMO greatly overstates how negative the act of not ranking him is. On the other hand, I can't understand anyone ranking him #1. He certainly was not better than everyone else in the league, even in the latter half of the year when healthy. IMO, top five is pushing it. I guess the ESPN thing is asking people to predict where these guys will be ranked next year rather than where they are now, so being a bit high or low on anybody is reasonable as you're guessing, you're predicting. Nah, it's just that for some reason some Bills fans love to underrate him.

I liked it well enough. Thanks for posting it. Worth pointing out that drops aren't all on the receivers, though they deserve the blame on plenty of those plays. Allen got better at using touch this year, quite a bit, but he still occasionally puts too much on it even in shorter throws. He's getting better, no question, but some of that is on him. Also worth noting that drops are really subjective. While some might have them as 9th worst, some others are quite different. Stats Inc. has them at 18 drops, 15th best in the league, ever so slightly better than average. https://scores.nbcsports.com/fb/tmleaders.asp?type=Receiving&range=NFL&rank=232

Ouch!! Point made. It worked out that our two RBs were both solidly efficient despite one of the lowest and worst Yards before contact figures in the league last year. Not that speed might not have helped, but we did pretty decently on offense even without it, and they brought in Breida this year.

You wouldn't be surprised? And your lack of surprise is supposed to work as evidence against Edmunds? Seriously? Good lord, no wonder you're so deep in belief in this, your bar is wildly low. Of course you wouldn't be surprised. That's good evidence you're suffering from confirmation bias, not that Edwards isn't an excellent player. You say that when Edmunds has been out that his journeyman replacements have duplicated his play. Where's your evidence on that? The last game he missed completely was game two last year against the Fins and Dodson and Klein looked awful. Edmunds hasn't missed much time, that's the fact, he just took several for the team and played injured. When he did have to go out, nobody filled the position at replacement level. And Preston Brown had a lot of tackles, yes, but wasn't anywhere near as good at defending the pass as Edmunds has been. Nor was he - and feel free to prove me wrong with stats on this - second in the league in his time here in stops at the LOS or for loss.

Gotta say, I disagree with your evaluation of OBD's style. Allen indeed seemed high risk high reward. But with nearly all of them, that's what you get when you pick a QB in the 1st round. But Edmunds always appeared to have a medium to high floor. Never seemed high risk. My guess on Rousseau is that if he'd been taken earlier than he was he could have been seen as high risk, but at #30, he was solid value, medium risk, medium to high reward. I don't see Beane as a guy who takes big risks early. If anything he's more of a value guy, trying to minimize risk and get guys who are good fits for scheme and for Bills types. He appears to try to get high ceilings as part of the package if he can.

Nice try, but saying it's "20, max" isn't saying that you think it's arguable. If it's arguable, then it's not the max, is it?

Enough with the clickbait argument. Not everything we disagree with is clickbait. Simms doesn't operate that way. He wants to be a GM some day, that's what he's working towards. Clickbait will not help him. He does disagree with the common wisdom a pretty fair amount. But he never denies it later or says he's sure of it. He simply says what he feels. Plenty of room to disagree with him. He's been on target pretty well with QBs, even when he's not taking a popular stance. A bit less so with non-QBs, but he's still pretty smart. I'm hopeful but not convinced on both guys. He could easily be right. Or the folks, yourself included, who disagree could just as easily be right. My problem personally is that I can see it either way. Drives me crazy. Beane and the Bills are smart and good drafters. But not perfect, nobody is. I just don't know, myself. He absolutely was very strongly a Josh believer far before last season. Even back to his rookie year.

Right, nobody acknowledges us as the the biggest competitor to the Chiefs. Except basically everybody. This ain't the truth, it's an opinion, and probably an undervaluation. But yeah, no disrespect.

Love those helmets. IMO, no, '73 was better, but watching OJ again is a treat. Thanks for giving me the excuse. What I notice is how he'd make little set-up moves 5 - 7 yards before he reached the guy, to get him just where he wanted him. He was so precise, but also violent when he wanted to be. Love how he just tosses the ball to the ref.

Anytime you see someone talking about an umpteen-million dollar EXTENSION, understand that the figure is NOT based on what the guy will be receiving per year, but instead on how much positive spin can be applied to make a contract look better on the player's side. He was due to count $11M this year, but along with the extension, that $11M has been reduced, but we don't know how much. Say for example he ends up getting $5M this year. That'd make the whole deal 6 years and on the order of $95M, which is still a lot, on the order of $16M, but not as much as the headline would make you think. Now, how much money at the end of the contract is back-loaded and unguaranteed? The devil's in the details.

OH, jeez. Back to sleep, then.

Switch "Knox isn't" to "Knox wasn't" and I'm in agreement. The guy is so green the fact he wasn't particularly good last year doesn't tell you whether or not he'll be good this year.

I'm willing to believe that, but not until I see it from another source than "The Daily Snark." As of this instance, a google search for "Gase high school" produces only that one source, so I'm not buying yet. I believe I've seen it before. Todd Haley for one, and I think I vaguely remember another one or two but the names elude me. ... Ah, Wyche was the guy I was trying to think of. Went from our QBs coach one year straight to HS. It can actually be a good gig for some of these guys sick of the grind.

Headline: Poster creates clueless headline on economics!! And make no mistake, it is clueless indeed. Things are never this simple in wildly complex systems, except if the point isn't to understand what's happening, but instead to create an attack headline utterly regardless of its connection to reality.

Oh, man, misleading headline! Those aren't trade buzzards circling. Those are some people with no connection to any team saying it's their opinion that trade buzzards should be circling.

On the contrary. When you say "within a yard" you're missing the point. You could say they're all within a yard if some got 0.0001 yard and others got 0.9999 yards. Still a huge variance, though. Same with the figure here. Within a yard is a very significant difference when the percentage of difference is so large. If everyone was within a yard between, say 12 and 13 yards, yeah, it's insignificant. Now, that would be minisiscule variation, where the figures only vary around 8%. If on the other hand you're looking at a list (as you are here) where the variation is between 2.0 and 3.0 yards, that's a 50% variation in productivity in that area. That's very significant difference indeed.

YBC isn't really about speed, it's about blocking. When you look at the top ten at the YBC stat link in the OP, it's clear that there are a mix of RB styles there. Derrick Henry is #1, and while he's got really good top speed, he's anything but a fast starter. Zeke is #5. There are breakaway guys and mashers, big and small, all styles. YBC is about how big and how good the hole is. Oh, and saying "Devin's very low yards before contact/attempt" is conflating two completely different things. You're right that Singletary's YBC is not good. But again, that's primarily an OL stat, and the fact that Moss's is similarly bad makes the same point. Singletary's Yards Per Attempt, though, are excellent over the course of his career and very solid indeed last year. If on the other hand you're not talking about Yards Per Attempt and are instead talking about the other figure shown on this chart, YAC/Att (Yards AFTER Contact per Attempt), um, you need to take another look at the chart. Singletary managed 2.9 YAC/Att. How many guys can you find who managed higher than that with 50 or more attempts? I only see two. Two others who tied him. That puts him in the top five, in a three-way tie for 3rd. That's pretty good any way you look at it. The top two RBs on this team have been effective after the hit, and effective overall, at 4.4 YPC last year. Singletary was terrific in 2019. All this without going over round three. Their ability to draft RBs hasn't shown great yet or anything but it certainly looks good so far.

Then you could also say to your boss, "Gotcha. I've arranged a new contract with a competitor who pays more. See ya." So, no, that shouldn't work in football. People who try to draw parallels between NFL contracts and most contracts in our society keep missing this point. Again, I'm no fan of bowing to Gilmore on this. But there's not a good analogy to be made there.

He was damn good in Buffalo, which is the reason that the Pats, who are nothing if not cheap, gave him that contract. He was never a fan fave, but still an absolutely excellent player here. He is a great player, and he is in the Pats system, but there's no major benefit for CB play of being in the Pats system, beyond the Pats generally having in the past put together very good front sevens to play behind. The guy is excellent. Having said that, if I were the Pats I wouldn't pay him any extra at this point. He signed a contract that paid a lot up front. That was to his benefit. Now is the time where that pays off for the Pats and they have every right to tell him to play under the contract or sit out.

He didn't say Mario >> Rousseau/Epenesa/Basham He said 2013 Mario >> 2021 Rousseau/Epenesa/Basham And 2013 Mario was an ass-kicking man among men. He was 2nd team All-Pro that year behind only JJ Watt. And while I personally think this year's combination of those three guys playing Mario's position has a very real shot at combining into a very good DE, the likelihood that they play - this year - like Mario did in 2013 isn't far at all from zero.