Thurman#1

The reason people say he wasn't given a fair chance is that he wasn't. Now, it could also be true at the same time that maybe he stinks. Both could be true. But there are PLENTY of terrific QBs out there who if they'd been given only one year to win the job and then replaced after only a year by a rookie taken in the top two picks would have likely not nearly accomplished what they have. Brees couldn't beat out Doug Flutie his first year. And he stunk up the joint the next two years as well. Rosen really was in crappy situations. That said, maybe he stinks. Hard to be sure, though. Crappy situations can ruin QBs, or at the very least greatly (really? you can't use ###### as a verb? OK, I'll switch it out) slow their progress.

To repeat: That's like asking if I graduate summa ***** laude what next, and asking it before you enter college. Did you not get summa ***** laude because you dropped out of Harvard and started Microsoft instead? Because you contracted Hep C and missed two years and lost most of your energy? Were you diagnosed with severe dyslexia? Did you have to drop out to earn money for your family? Or were you just a lazy bag of phlegm who didn't study? Assuming we don't win the division, there's no way to know what the next step is. Did Josh Allen complete 48%? Did we go 13-3, but the Dolphins won 14 games? Were Allen, Tre White and Stefon Diggs injured? Was the offense sensational, but the defense fell apart? Did we get in as a wild card and then win the Super Bowl? Or were we just not as good a team as we'd thought? It's simply way too early to know what we should do in an imaginary future when we don't even have an imaginary reason why the imaginary future happened.

Hmm, well, I think he's seriously overestimating Miami there, but it's not impossible. And I don't have a problem with people predicting the future going a bit out in left field on a few teams. If there's one thing we know it's that two to four teams will be a lot better than most people think and two to four teams a lot worse. That's football. He has the Bills in the playoff competitors. If people don't throw something a bit different out there then everybody just parrots the common wisdom and says nearly the same thing. Maybe King will even be right about the Fins, though I doubt it. ... with a lot of crucial injuries at spots where their depth was poor. Atlanta could easily be very good, IMO. In fact, that's my guess.

They're critical. To different degrees, but they're all important. What if Allen is injured? Barkley's suddenly the most important guy on the team. More, you're oversimplifying the money. Cutting Barkley doesn't save $1.8 mill. His bonuses have already been paid. What would be saved is the $1.5 mill of his salary, but somebody else would have to replace him on the roster. Let's say it's someone being paid vet minimum, which is $610K. So you save about $890K by cutting Barkley, and that only if you replace him with somebody at vet minimum, which isn't probably all that likely. Cut Taiwan Jones and you only save his salary, which is $1.05 mill. Again, replace him with a vet min guy and you've saved $400K and downgraded us on STs. When we have a bit of cap money left over, get used to thinking, "Hmm, who can we re-sign this year or next with that money unspent right now."

That's like asking if I graduate summa ***** laude what next, and asking it before you enter college. Did you not get summa ***** laude because you dropped out of Harvard and started Microsoft instead? Because you contracted Hep C and missed two years and lost most of your energy? Were you diagnosed with severe dyslexia? Did you have to drop out to earn money for your family? Or were you just a lazy bag of phlegm who didn't study? Assuming we don't win the division, there's no way to know what the next step is. Did Josh Allen complete 48%? Did we go 13-3, but the Dolphins won 14 games? Were Allen, Tre White and Stefon Diggs injured? Was the offense sensational, but the defense fell apart? Did we get in as a wild card and then win the Super Bowl? Or were we just not as good a team as we'd thought? It's simply way too early to know what we should do in an imaginary future when we don't even have an imaginary reason why the imaginary future happened.

I think you're low here, myself. You're right that good teams have to say goodbye to some guys they'd rather keep. But the McDermott system needs a guy - and has historically shown willingness to pay very well indeed - who can play very well at Milano's position. My bet is that if they do re-sign him, and I'm betting the odds are pretty good, that he gets closer to $14 mill a year than to the $10 you suggest. We'll see.

Yup. Both sides do well here. Haven't yet seen the numbers on the signing bonus, but with that guarantee, Tre is going to feel that his family is in a very very safe place as of now. Waiting for two more years was an injury risk. This is a smart move for Tre, and equally smart for the team. You only do this deal with a guy you're really confident is a great citizen. Tre has showed every sign of being that kind of guy, responsible, a worker, a leader. Not to mention talented and a tremendous fit in the McDermott system.

Hunh. I was told here literally dozens of times over the last twelve months or so that this would not happen for most likely two more years, but one at the absolute minimum, that it happening this year was an impossibility. Someone must not have told Beane and Tre how impossible it was.

Why wouldn't they?

No, that's not Namath. That's the New York Jets that lost those games. And for a lot of the years Namath was there he was a very good QB on a genuinely bad team. I went to see Namath twice at the Rockpile, he was on an OK team and a bad team and you still thought the Jets had a chance because they had Namath and with him anything could happen. Namath inspired fear. Particularly before the knee injury. But even after it was inspiring watching him do the best he could while all but limping. Four AFL All-star games and one AFC-NFC Pro Bowl in his first eight years and one All-Pro.

Nah. "Likely" is overstating it. Anything's possible, especially if the salary cap really is as low as it's projected right now to be and they don't figure out a way to soften the blow. But he's worth what he's being paid. No telling what they'll do, but the WR room without him would be considerably less dangerous.

John Brown is a #1. He's not a "true #1," which seems to mean a top ten guy, but he's a #1.

It's an old argument, going way back before Parcel, but he said it best. You're as good as your record says you are. We weren't "essentially an 11 win team last year." We were a 10 win team. Against a very easy schedule. We will have to be a ton better than we were last year to win 12 against this much better schedule. It could happen. I don't think it will, myself, but if forced to guess, I'd guess that we win the division, and that's a very very good thing. Yeah, me too. Nicely observed. That's smart and observant.

I don't see anything here about putting money anywhere, much less where your mouth is. Are you betting? Or are you just putting your mouth where your mouth is? 'Cause with our schedule, that's very optimistic. Possible, but very optimistic.

This is a Beane specialty, getting extra picks from guys who were on the bubble anyway. Go, Beane, go.

Agree. Gilmore has absolutely performed better there than here. How much is the system and the surrounding cast? Dunno, but when in Buffalo he was NOT widely considered the single best CB in the league as he is there. Same with Hogan. He was more productive there, and the Pats system isn't built to pump up WR stats. Brady spreads it out. When I checked his stats, I was surprised to see he was still in the league last year, though. I hadn't noticed. He was in Carolina. As an ex-Panther, can it be long before Beane brings him in?

They really will not "need" to use most of that money. They're scheduled to have the third largest amount of cap space in the league next year. They'll need to use some. Every single team, without exception, does. But they're in terrific shape next year. And next year is going to be a year where the teams have all the advantage, because there are going to be the usual amount of FAs looking to get paid and far far less available cap space league-wide to pay them. Signing FAs to bargain deals next year is going to be much much easier than it usually is, and the Pats are in terrific shape to take advantage of that. Will they have to get a QB? Dunno. Nor does anyone, really. Will Newton turn out to be the guy? Will he be injured and Stidham turn out to be excellent? Will they turn out to have nobody. Will they draft one early? We don't know.

And even his draft record isn't bad, considering how low they've picked for 20 years now. Man, am I looking forward to seeing them lose the division. Very decent chance it finally finally happens this year. Next year. And right now next year looks like a terrific year to have options, damn it.

He is a genius. That doesn't imply that he's perfect, though.

Nah, more thanks to the NFL allowing competitive disadvantages to go forward. Our governor is making sense in this. No guarantee he or any other politician will continue to do so, but so far he's doing fine.

No. And it's not political BS. It appears to be a slow march towards more justice. It is more complicated than that, but overall things are moving in a good direction. The season will develop just fine as stories develop, assuming the season can continue completely. See ya.

Yup. IMO we're smart enough to understand why public gatherings of any kind aren't a good idea right now.

While it surely wasn't all about cap (they didn't get rid of him till he started missing buses), Dareus' average salary was around $15 mill a year, signed three years earlier when the cap was quite a bit lower. Star's salary compared to that was downright reasonable. There's no proof that we tried to trade for Antonio Brown. All that's known is that we kicked the tires. And while Diggs may be mercurial, in terms of attitude he's no Marcell Dareus. He could still turn out to be a mistake, but he's gotten less productive when he got paid. More, when they jettisoned Dareus they were setting the tone of the locker room. As of now, the tone is set, and it's very good. Part of the reason you build a good culture is because that culture will then affect everyone else you bring in. Process is real. And it's far from only a Bills thing. It's been around for decades in all walks of life and it works. If there's one thing that has appeared to be so about McDermott it's that what you see is what you get. He's straightforward. Not one guy has left saying, "Ah, that process stuff is all nonsense." It isn't. It's his core belief.

I disagree with most of this. 1) First, I guess you could say he was still productive at the time, but he wasn't worth half of what he was being paid. In his first four years he averaged seven sacks a season. Then the new contract was signed and lo and behold, a total of 5.5 sacks in the next two seasons combined. He was still stopping the run, but was wildly overpaid. 2) Spending more money doesn't get you out of cap hell. What firing him did was have him cost us more or less the same amount, but have it moved up a ton. And that's what they wanted, to move up the cap hits and blow them out in one season. It fit their plan really well, actually. 3) It's not the coaches job to work with tough athletes. It's the coach's job to produce success. There are plenty of good ways to do that, and what you're suggesting is only one of them. Where are all the tough athletes that this administration is working with right now? Another - probably much better - way is to kick the laziest asses off the bus and develop a terrific locker room. That's what they did, and kicking out Dareus was a terrific lesson for the locker room .... "they'll even get rid of hIm? With that much dead money? Dang, I'd better get to meetings on time and give everything I've got."

Seems like Dodson is playing up a storm. He stands a good chance of being a very good backup. Matakevich too. Not that we're a powerhouse here at LB, especially with depth, but you can't have starting caliber guys at depth positions all over the team. It's not sustainable. IMO not a major concern, but maybe you're right.