Thurman#1

Schultz: Hooooooooooooooo-gan!!!!!!

Read in ... I think Albert Breer's column that they will be piping in enough noise that the defense won't be able to easily hear what the offense says. The D, or at least the front seven, has always been able to hear the audibles, and that won't change, of course. There will be an effect, but my personal guess is that it will be minimal.

Fair enough that you think so. You're probably just about the only one, even among Bills fans. I personally think you're well off the mark.

I'd take Brown over Watkins. I still don't see it with Sammy. He has a big game every once in a great while but he doesn't stay healthy and he's not consistent. Other than that, the Chiefs have it all over us, IMO.

If anything politicians wanted to intertwine themselves in is political in your view ... there's nothing that isn't. Politiicians will get involved with anything that serves their temporary interests. From favorite songs to sports teams ... there is nothing they won't involve themselves in if they think it'll work for them. This issue shouldn't be looked at as a political one. But it will be, because some think it'll help them get re-elected or forward their agendas. Nah, if they're young and healthy and catch it, there or anywhere, they're probably only endangering the lives of others they will pass it on to. So, yes, seriously.

The usual. I expect to see them on the field. I expect them to give maximum effort. I expect them to put up some yards. I expect players to be filling the positions of right guard and right tackle. The rest isn't expectations, it's guesses. And pretty uninformed guesses at this point. I have some serious hopes, but I don't suppose they're all that different from most here.

Elite, no, but Star was very good at doing the unglamorous space eating, block absorbing duties McD needs in the middle of a run defense. Jordan Phillips less so. I was really hoping that Vincent Taylor would prove to be the block eater this scheme seems to require, but it wasn't to be. I don't see a massive hole there, but I think "concern" is fair enough. I'm not worried about the run stuffing abilities of our DEs at all. That does not appear to be a problem. DTs? We'll have to see how that goes.

Yes, fair enough, that's very much worth remembering. But if he gets one this year (again, if it's true that we're now down to $5 mill this year this will be pretty much completely out of the question) it could be finessed. Or finessed elsewise next year, such as with a largish signing bonus, a miniscule first year salary and a guaranteed second year salary in 2022 when teams that tightened belts the year before will now have some spare cash available. I'm not saying they will definitely re-sign him. They have enough good players that some of them will become financial decisions. Milano may be one of those. What I'm saying is that this defense needs a guy like Milano. McD defenses have generally had two, not one highly paid non-rushing LBs, with one of them being a guy like Milano with speed and cover ability attached to toughness and ability to stop the run. Thomas Davis was paid well inside the top ten for LBs when Carolina signed him for a second contract and again when they extended him if I remember correctly. The Bills' future Milano-like guy might not turn out to be Milano, but players with those physical characteristics aren't that easy to find. I believe they'll try very hard to sign him, though it's certainly possible they won't manage it. And I loved Bobby Chandler back in the day.

Higher? Fair enough. Maybe you're right. But again, when he was out last year the defense was visibly worse and they got noticeably better the minute he returned. The guy is very good in coverage and also in run defense. There aren't that many guys like that around.

Yeah, OLBs are easy to replace ... as long as you don't mind replacing him with an OLB JAG, a replacement level guy. Thing is ... in McDermott's defense he hasn't had a JAG there. Not in Carolina and not here. There's a reason Carolina paid two LBs a lot of money. And neither Kuechly nor Thomas Davis could rush the passer, so that wasn't it. His system needs an OLB who can defend the pass as well as play the run. There aren't that many guys that fast and agile around who are still tough enough to play the run well and stay healthy. My guess is somewhere between maybe $11.5 and $14 per year. I'm not sure they'll be able to keep him but I'm sure they will try hard. If I were them I'd try to do it this year with the same argument they used with Tre, that if you sign this year [EDIT: if they're down to $5 mill this year that may be impossible] you won't get quite as much as you'd get if you waited a couple of years but what happens if you get injured? Safety is worth a lot. Might even be as high as $15 or $16 mill a year if they're going to use the skewed math that seems to be the norm now. Average salary means total salary divided by total years. And by that reckoning, Tre isn't getting the highest CB average by any means. Average salary is NOT taking only some of the money you will receive and dividing it by only some of the years you have contracted to play. Tre's average salary actually is going to be $81 mill over 6 years, which is actually around $13.5 mill a year. If you're going to calculate Milano's salary the same way, I wouldn't be surprised if it's closer to $15 or $16 mill ... if you just use extension dollars and extension years.

Yes, but the guys signing new contracts making them the 12th highest paid LB in the league are NEVER the 12th best. Probably more like 20th to 25th, which probably is about where Milano fits. That's how new contracts work. The first year they seem high, the 2nd and 3rd year new people have gotten new contracts and the guy who was 12th is now closer to where he should be. And in the 3rd to 5th year he's lower. That's how it works. When Milano went out last year the whole defense was noticeably worse, and when he came back they were suddenly and obviously better again.

Yup. But again, I was told literally dozens of times here that this was not possible this year. Every single time I would say in response to someone urging us to grab some high-priced FA that we had to stop worrying about that, that the FO had made it clear that their priority would be re-signing guys, and we'd be working on trying to get contracts for Tre, Milano, Dawkins and Edmunds, first response was always, "No way we sign Tre this year." Every time. I'd bring up safety in case of injury and be assured that meant nothing. Sorry to unload this on you, Yolo. I don't recall you saying this. But all those geniuses who were completely sure of this being a fact seem to have forgotten. Sigh. I clearly must have had too much coffee this morning. Must go somewhere quiet and do some yoga and deep breathing.

Nah. Allen doesn't need to be excellent this year. He needs to show significant improvement. If he does that, there'll be no red flags. In that it affects fan response, amount of pressure, expectations, play calls, game plans and almost certainly self-confidence and the confidence of the coaches - who are playing for their jobs - of course it is. Not that it's one of the bigger factors, clearly it's not. But is it a factor? Of course. Most things about the team are, really.

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.