Thurman#1

The dead cap would sure hurt, but it's not prohibitive if they decide it'd be in the team's best interests. The signing bonus was only $27M, and a fifth of that has already been amortized. A ton more was guaranteed, but that's all salary and whoever he's traded to would be responsible for paying it. That's a lot, yes, fair enough. But if Watson worked hard to make himself unpleasant, or quietly threatened to do so, he might get his way. It's a real possibility.

Yes, it would be in their interest for him to stay. And yes I'm sure they'd like him to stay. But they won't expect him to make decisions based on the self-interest of other people. If they were the ones with leverage (if Watson has enough - which I think he absolutely does if he's willing to do the minimum and whip up firestorms there for the new regime) they'd leave too. Players understand that it's a business and that each guy at bottom will do what's best for him and his family. I'm old school and back then there was a lot more wind about how much you owed to your team, but even back then plenty of guys forced their way elsewhere and did just fine in new locations ... Elway and Eli, but also guys like Jerome Bettis, Marshall Faulk, Randy Moss in Oakland, Carson Palmer, etc. For every Le'Veon Bell there is a Yannick Ngakoue. And that's ignoring basketball and the other sports where it's an every day deal for young audiences. His teammates will be disappointed but they'll understand. If it happens.

So that trade would make sense if LA's only concern was next year. Whereas they would actually be concerned about the whole career in terms of both salary structure, talent and team fit. As good as Watson is, Houston would still have to give more than Watson to be considered equal value. IMO the Chargers making that trade is unimaginable in any real world trade scenario.

They're saying it's more of having his breathing stopped than a concussion. Makes sense to me, honestly. I kept looking at all the replays and never saw a hard impact to the head. I wouldn't mind if his ankle's still cranky, though.

Nah, Lamar didn't have a chance after Taron slowed down just a touch and let Tre pass in front of him and inside. He was flying when he had a chance. But after that it was over.

If anyone should get an award there it was Madabuike, "Oh, oops, just got him with the fingernail." No, Allen was not hit hard, but he got him with a hand punch there, and he caught him with his weight on the back foot, so he had no way to catch himself. I don't see it as a flop. Though it also certainly wasn't a vicious play or anything by Madabuike. But agreed with TailgateChef, the stars get that call. People who worry about this kind of thing have been complaining about it forever with Brady.

You're referring to the ESPN stat, QBR? Yeah, it has some kind of unexplainable foibles, and since it's opaque, nobody can explain why.

Yup. I'm sure he's right. And while I didn't see the quote in context, I seriously doubt he blaming the loss on the wind. Saying it had an impact is reasonable.

He doesn't own it, he owns a large piece of it. And what that should tell anyone interested is that he recognized a good investment when he saw it. Since every NFL team subscribes for their info, he clearly knows a good thing when he sees it.

Jeez, you guys are sensitive. I thought it was pretty clear he meant this level of the playoffs, or till this regime. Did I miss Josh winning MVP at some point? Again, you folks are so oversensitive. He said good things about Allen all night.

Two minorities and you get three picks. But bearded bald guys, I'd guess, don't quite sneak over the bar to count as minorities.

Fair enough. But put me very far out of your group there. My guess is it'll happen, soon though I'd guess not this year. But we'll see.

Nah. Guess it's a possibility? Fair enough, though early. Count them in? Yeah, um, no. We'll count 'em in after the press conference.

The Rams D was not playing that well early in the year. We played them in week 3, and they allowed more than 350 yards each of the first three weeks, a team that allowed 300 yards only three more times all season. And except for us those were some poor offenses, the Cowboys and Eagles. We certainly did play well against them, though. More yards than anyone else all year, but they did get two turnovers against us.

I'd say they fall right between good and great, at just about very good. The problem isn't so much talent, though, as matchups. They match up with us very well. Very good CBs, and a lot of pressure. They can stop the run without loading the box. They tend towards man-to-man, which is good and bad for us. We've torn up man-to-man Ds in the air (partly because so few have such good CBs) but it's generally a good matchup for our air attack, but will likely mean Allen will be able to do some running if he wants, assuming he can break the pocket.

That's what you want a guy to say. You want him saying "We weren't ready, it's our fault." Realistically, though, their roster isn't what it used to be, particularly at QB and LB (though a lot of that was injuries) and OL. No, I don't think it's damning and I don't think it's Tomlin.

You're right, not all extra info is good. But there's plenty that's absolutely crucial, and if you're not on the teams, you don't have access to it. They've got P.I.'s asking the local bartenders about these guys, the high picks anyway. We don't have access to the medicals, which are extremely important. We don't see whether the players don't get along with the coaches in the interviews, we don't see how well they respond to the chalk talk questions. And while education and in particular experience don't guarantee good decisions, everything equal you want the experienced guy making the decision. Do I want an NFL scout of twenty years experience making the call on one particular guy and whether he will better succeed than myself? Yup. In a second. Would I beat that scout a certain percentage of the time? Sure. Would he beat me a larger percentage of the time, all things equal? Yeah, he would. Would he beat me a larger percentage of the time with P.I. reports and interviews with the kid's teammates and college coaches at an even higher rate and having seen him do a chalk talk quiz with a coordinator? Likely yes. As you noted, though, in your first paragraph, mock draters and GMs are doing different things.

Well, that's one view, I guess. But it contravenes virtually all of the evidence about the Nix era. We were told again and again that Russ no longer had any control over football operations and people present the fact that he was in the room as proof of power. It's not. Or the fact that the decision-makers on Rexy reported that Brandon had the same opinion that they had. Again, agreeing loudly with the powerful, that's not evidence of any power. Just the opposite, generally. For some reason, though, people want to believe it. But Yungmack is right about why they couldn't get any serious candidates for coach or GM when Ralph's health was going downhill. Nobody wanted to be in a position virtually guaranteed to be blown up underneath them when the new owners came in. Why would they? Ralph was going to give $10M a year, the highest ever offered to a coach, to one candidate if I remember correctly ... Cowher, maybe? ... and nobody would take it. Why would they? It's why they had to go so far down the list before they finally found a guy, Gailey, willing to at least run with the egg for a while.

There really are. Fair enough that this year there are no '91 Eagles or '85 Bears or '00 Ravens, but there are still a bunch of teams that play defense quite a bit better than the other teams do, the Steelers, Washington, the Rams and New Orleans for four. I'm more worried about our defense than our offense. They've slowed some of the better run teams later in this season after they started playing better, but they really had to sell out against the run to do so. I think we'll see them spend most of their energy scheming the run and if Baltimore can hit a few plays to Hollywood, or the TEs or RBs to counter that, things could get bad, IMO. I could also see the Bills run away with this game, but I'm really nervous. They match up well with us.

50/50. This is going to be a tough game. We're the better team but they match up extremely well against us. I'm very nervous.

It's not that they're smarter drafters. They're better because they get a ton more info that the journos do. A ton. The journos and mock drafters don't have scouting staffs reporting back to them, they don't get to take the top guys to steakhouses for dinner, they don't get to bring in the 30 players for two-day visits. And White Linen above is dead on, as were others, they do two completely different things, and the thing the mockers do is actually harder, since they have to predict every pick, whereas the GMs only have to predict how well certain guys will fit their own team's environment, schemes, locker room, etc. Beane doesn't get criticized based on whether the Pats pick somebody and how well he does. The mock drafters do ... "You said that guy was going to fall to the 2nd, and you said he stood a good chance to be good and he sucks during his rookie year so he's a bust, so you're lousy at this." If GMs were hired, fired and criticized based on the same metrics, they'd come out looking just as useless. What mock drafters do is mathematically impossible to do extremely well.

That's Arthur Brown. Great song.

Absolutely everyone gives us a chance. They might not be predicting that we win, but they all give us a chance.

I disagree to some extent. He's a good passer. He's just not any better than that. As Chris Simms always says about him, "If a guy is open, Lamar will hit him." That's right. But he doesn't throw guys open or do well in tight windows. You're right, you have to force him to be a QB. But he's good. He's just not very good.

I wouldn't doubt it at all. Agreed on all you say about Josh's positives, even at that early age, but the Fins players say Tua is a hard worker too. The difference is that in Josh's rookie year there was no Fitz here. We might have had the same problems if we'd kept - wow, I couldn't even remember his name, just had to look it up, honestly - Tyrod and played Josh before he surpassed him. Although I doubt we'd have heard about it. This Bills team pulls together. I don't think we'd have seen publicly aired doubts like this even if players were privately doubtful. It's a wonderful thing Josh has developed the way he did. We are so lucky to have him. This seems reasonable to me.