Thurman#1

Yeah? I don't think that's correct. Some Steelers did indeed say that, but I've never seen even one example of that referring to his early years. They were talking about his last couple of years in the black-and-gold. Many have said that he has changed a great deal.

That's a good point. One of the things I noticed from the research (it ain't like I made a career of it, I only spent half an hour. The word "research" here is probably overselling what I did, but it was actually really interesting.) was that several sites noted that the word can really sting in the South but that in the North it has no real effect or power. I would suspect most Buffalo fans (me too) are looking at the use of this word as an insult from the outside.

That's one guess about the origin, but there are others. There's one use of "cracker" from Shakespeare. "What cracker is this same that deafs our ears with this abundance of superfluous breath?" I found your post interesting and researched it, and it just isn't clear how it developed. Here's a quote from a CBS article on it's use in the Trayvon Martin case: "The origin of cracker is murky. Some sources suggest it came from overseers who commanded slaves. Others say it derives from a Scottish word for boasting. At The Center for the Study of the American South at the University of North Carolina, Bill Ferris says it emerged in the 1700s as a descriptive term for drovers who used small whips to move their livestock through the pine barrens along the Gulf of Mexico. 'They were basically poor people. White people. A class of people who were landless.' Initially, cracker was not a pejorative term, but Ferris says it has become one, the equivalent of redneck. Its meaning and intensity as an insult depends on who is saying it and who is listening. For example, a white who might not object to being called a cracker by another white might consider Martin's use of the phrase offensive and evidence of ill intent." Here's another, from NPR: "Cracker," the old standby of Anglo insults was first noted in the mid 18th century, making it older than the United States itself. It was used to refer to poor whites, particularly those inhabiting the frontier regions of Maryland, Virginia and Georgia. It is suspected that it was a shortened version of "whip-cracker," since the manual labor they did involved driving livestock with a whip (not to mention the other brutal arenas where those skills were employed.) Over the course of time it came to represent a person of lower caste or criminal disposition, (in some instances, was used in reference to bandits and other lawless folk.)" It's interesting that both say that if "whip-cracker" is indeed the basis of it, that it refers to cracking the whips referred to doing it when driving animals (a career for poor people), that it's not a slavery reference at all. Instead it's a reference to manual labor. And that's if whip-cracking is indeed the origin, which is not clear. As for Antonio Brown, the Steelers say that early in his career he was a terrific guy, very team-oriented and selfless. I'm sure I'm not alone in wondering if the way his behavior has become so very erratic is a result of too many blows to the head. Whether or not that is a factor, it's a sad sad story about a guy losing his way.

You can easily find each team's rolled over amount. Check Spotrac 2019 salary cap rankings. https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/cap/ Then tap on any team and scroll all the way down to "2019 cap totals" at the bottom. Colts rolled $49.1 mill Browns $56.5 mill Texans $18.8 mill Titans $25.6 mill Cowboys $11.7 mill Niners $35. mill That's six over $10 mill and five well above $10 mill. And I've checked each in order, meaning I've only looked at the top nine teams on the list. Don't know what to tell you, man. That article was wrong and 15 minutes of work on your part will absolutely confirm that for you.

Sorry, that doesn't feel right to me. I live in Japan and use it, it's great. Now I'm in America for a vaca and can't access the games. I'll be hitting Lodo's in Denver this weekend. Sorry, but as I say, it just doesn't feel right to me to do that. But my understanding was that I could cancel halfway through the season and get a pro-rated refund. I'm not sure of that, but you should check out if I'm remembering correctly. Good luck.

Over 16 games, about as much as they screw everyone else. Visiting teams get screwed at a slightly higher rate, so that might affect Week one.

Missed that the first time around. If you can find one team that rolled over less than they had, it'll be the first I've ever seen. https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/2019/01/31/browns-have-nfl-leading-565-million-in-carryover-cap-space/38986415/ Not sure how the Browns rolling over $56.5 mill fits in with your idea here, or Indy at $49.1 mill or SF at $35.1 mill .... Compare it to Spotrac's or OvertheCap's tabulations of leftover cap space from 2018. Everybody's rolling over what they had left over.

Not so much "already," as "so far." Darnold's the better passer, and that's what will make the difference in the long run. Maybe Allen's caught up ... who knows? ... but until he proves it, it's an extremely reasonable guess. Throw in Le'Veon and an OL that has 4 of 5 guys from last year and they are going to have a lot fewer concerns about gelling than our OL does. Very reasonable guess that the Bills offense won't be as good as theirs, especially so early.

Nope, no limit. Yeah, you have to spend a certain percentage of the cap - not each year but over the course of four years. And it's how much you spend in cash, not how much of the cap itself is used. It's complicated, but the bottom line is that it will be absolutely no problem for them, or anybody else with the slightest bit of smarts. And I don't even mean accountant smarts. I mean manage a checking account smarts. For instance, you have to spend 89% of the cap. Say you are way way behind on spending (and we're not, but pretend) and need to spend $80 million more but only have $40 million left on the cap, and it's the last of the four years. You have to spend $80 mill. You're screwed, right? Nope. You just give a couple of guys a re-negotiated contracts with major bonuses. Against the cap, those bonuses will be pro-rated over the next four years. But the minimum spend counts all the bonuses as part of your spend this year. So you can easily spend in one year far more than what the cap is that year. Happens all the time. Last year the cap was $177.2 mill. Know how much the Bengals spent in cash? $240 mill. 22 of the 32 teams spent more than the cap, including us ($180 mill). https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/cash/ It ain't a problem. They absolutely will be able to roll over all of their surplus this year and every year. The minimum cap rule is basically completely irrelevant. Another quick example of how little this rule constricts teams. The whole league has to spend 95%, right? Know how much the whole league spent last year? 101%. It just isn't a problem. All unspent cap space will be rolled over.

I think you already know this, Virgil, but for those who don't, when you have money left over on the cap at the end of the year, you can roll all of it over to the next year. And they will.

Last year the #10 WR put up 1270 yards. Or if you go by receptions, the #10 (a different guy) had 87 catches. I think your co-workers are going to end up thinking you were awfully overconfident. But I do think Brown will turn out to have been a very nice pickup if he stays healthy.

Yeah, things like participating in democracy and enjoying religious freedom. Shame on them.

Same way as this year. Maybe one high-salary guy ala Morse, fill in a lot of medium- to low-salary guys to fill holes and create depth ala Beasley, Brown and the OL guys ... and don't spend it all at once. Not as many guys or as much money next year, though. Keep a very firm hold on the purse string so they don't end up in cap jail again as they were at the beginning of their regime thanks to Whaley's poor cap management. The difference being that they're finally going to have to start re-signing their core players next year. Keep enough money available consistently that they'll be able to bring back many (not all, it doesn't work out that way) of their core players consistently.

Nah. It's all about an awful lot more than that. The sarcastic folks responding above are dead on target, but thought I'd do my best to muster a serious reply. There's never been a rebuild that lasted two years. Reloads, yes. Complete rebuilds, no. This is the third year, but historically very very few rebuilds have teams in their third year become one of the handful of Super Bowl likelies. People mention examples of teams that have been quicker, and they immediately turn out to be teams that were reloads (the Dolphins trading for Pennington and running the Wildcat against a spectacularly easy schedule and plunging back to mediocrity the next year) or teams that had rebuilt and suffered for two or more years before hitting it big in the later years of the rebuild, such as the 49ers in their McCloughan-Baalke era or the Browns this year (assuming they're as good as they seem to look) following two years with a total of one win and a ton of accumulating of draft picks that resulted in their terrifically upgraded roster in the 4th year of their rebuild begun under Sashi Brown. As for whether it's this year that we need to learn about Allen, nah. It may very easily take another year or two. Some QBs work out as fast as their second year. Many who become successful don't do it that early. So it's not so much this year for Allen as however long it takes (or doesn't). This year's all about Allen? Again, it's just not that simple. They also have to show that they know how to build a team. So far they've looked very good, but it's all on paper so far. They still have a lot to prove, in many areas. "Why," you ask, "do all of the major NFL polls predict the Bills will finish 23-25 out of 32 teams??? Is it because of Cole Beasley, John Brown, Ed Oliver, Tremaine Edwards, Mitch Morse or Tre White?" Basically yes, it's because of those guys and the rest of the roster. It's because the Bills won six games last year and have yet to show they can do better. Allen's certainly a major part of that, but so is the rest of this team. Does the development of Josh Allen matter? Oh, yeah, big time. Is it maybe the most important of the many many issues they face? Arguably, yeah. But everyone already knows this ... it's been a huge focus on these boards since Allen was picked. But is this season all about it? Nah. This year isn't some make-or-break deal, far from it. And the whole process of revamping this team is much more complex than you make it out.

Mountain wave is a subcategory of lee waves. Lee waves absolutely can happen at ground level. https://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/full/10.1175/JAMC-D-14-0270.1 And while wind shear is spoken of much more often at ground level, it's a phenomenon that happens at all altitudes, as are lee waves.

I disagree. The Jets aren't a great organization and so far I love Beane and McDermott, but they got out-planned and outmaneuvered by the Jets here. This is where they were at in January: "And thus, the Jets accomplish a goal. Based on the year-long focus on the position—Maccagnan had a scout live at just about every USC, UCLA, Oklahoma and Wyoming game—the feeling is they’re ahead of others in assessing the class. The hope is that readiness to pull the trigger before the market is fully developed could lead to a reasonable deal." https://www.si.com/nfl/2018/05/16/new-york-jets-sam-darnold-2018-draft The Jets consciously set out to be ahead of the other teams focused on getting a QB out of that class so that they could make an early trade. Smart, and it worked out just as they wanted. They put other teams, including us, in a terrible squeeze, knowing there were three QBs they would be happy with (Darnold, Mayfield and Rosen), so that if they got to 3rd, they'd be guaranteed one. But Darnold was their #1. Worked out OK for the Bills, and I'm sure the FO learned from it, but the Jets handled that just perfectly.

On the contrary, there are crashes that are associated. Here's a case of a DC-8 that lost an engine and 19 feet of a wing, though it was able to land. https://airfactsjournal.com/2017/01/mountain-wave-invisible-threat/ Most mountain wave events aren't more than scary, but at it's worst it can be very dangerous and even deadly.

People keep saying this and skipping one part of the trade, as leaving it out makes the return look better. They didn't just trade Teller, they traded Teller and a 7th for that 5th and 6th. So you could call it Teller for a 5th as well as the difference between a 6th and a 7th, which is damn little, but not nothing. IMO it comes down to their belief that they were going to cut him and weren't confident they could get him back for the practice squad. I think they'd have loved to get him back, but weren't sure it would be possible. It's an interesting trade. Reasonable for both sides.

Many more, IMO.

Agreed that McDermott didn't trust himself (or Whaley) to pick a QB and did the prudent thing to wait and bring in draft capital for the next year. Disagree that picking Tre had anything to do with how strong or weak the CB class was that year. I think they had him as their highest-ranked player when they picked and that's all there was to it. If Tre had been picked earlier, I think they'd have gone highest ranked regardless of position. Same with picking up Edmunds from a good LB class ... I don't think they were concerned about the class, they were just surprised to find Edmunds still available at that point. I just feel you're overthinking this. I think it's more about picking the best guy left when they pick. And yeah, need and positional value count as to how high you want to rate a guy on your board. It affects things a bit. Overall, though, (except for Josh Allen ... they obviously needed and were absolutely determined to get in on that QB class) it fits just as easily with the more obvious strategy that they've acknowledged of picking the best player. Don't get me wrong, I love Beane. I think he's really smart. But I do think the trend you're noticing is mostly coincidence. Guess we'll find out when he writes his autobiography.

Nah. Fans were jerks, he was injured. It ain't rocket science, or even single digit addition. And it's very rare to seek the money back. The Bills didn't seek repayment from freaking Vontae Davis.

Well, yeah, the Bears OC is irrelevant ... unless you're making the very very optimistic argument that you're making about the Bills OC. And it's nonsense that Nagy gets all the credit for turning around Trubisky. Some, sure, but Nagy isn't hanging out in only the QB meetings. He's the head coach. His OC will get a ton of the credit for the improvement of Trubisky and the offensive unit. The head coach gets the credit for the whole team. Below that level the credit or blame starts to fragment. Oh, and Nagy wasn't hired to run the offense. If he was, he'd be the OC. He was hired to run the team, that's why they hire guys for the head coaching job. Did he put more of his imprint on the offense? Sure. But the OC gets plenty of the credit there. The problem for Helfrich is that one season isn't enough. If Allen plays great, is McDermott getting the credit, you ask? Um, yeah, a very significant part of it. And Daboll will get a bunch and Ken Dorsey will get plenty, too. But with Daboll having had zero years of success as a pro OC till now, assuming he does have success in 2019, he'll be about as likely as Helfrich to get another OC job or particularly an HC job in 2020 as you're suggesting, after one pretty good year. He would almost certainly be expected to show consistency before he started appearing near the tops of coaching lists. I doubt either Bills coordinator will move on after this year, but if one did, it would probably be Frazier. 10% chance, roughly, IMO, unless we make the Super Bowl or something.

Yeah, but moving on from Watkins happened for two reasons, neither of which is true now with Zay. They were in major salary cap trouble and figured - correctly - that re-signing Watkins was going to cost huge money. Zay won't cost all that much unless he has a tremendous year this year. And the team isn't in the salary cap weeds anymore anyway. And Watkins brought in a 2nd round pick, which Zay wouldn't. And at the time we were desperate for trade capital to draft a franchise QB. At this point we've got Allen. The main reasons we traded Watkins aren't there anymore if we trade Zay. Not that we won't, but trading Watkins had two huge upsides that aren't there with trading Zay.

I read the whole story, and ... dude, Zay doesn't know he's in trouble. Does he need to continue to improve? Sure. But he has. And there aren't more than about 5 guys on this team who don't need to continue to improve. Zay more than many of them as he's still early in his career arc. But there's simply no way to know at this point whether he's going to be a cornerstone. It depends on what he becomes ... and like most guys this early, we just don't know that. We're talking about a guy who has been here two years and who missed most of the offseason both of those two years. We don't know what Zay will be. Not being a cornerstone is surely the way to bet, but it could happen. As for "fallen out of favor with this coaching staff," that also is far from clear. We should get a much better picture as the season progresses, assuming he's here, which seems by far the most likely alternative. This quote from Buscaglia, on the Athletic says it best: "The Bills need an answer on Jones following the season. They need to figure out if he’s going to be a part of their core offense or if they need to find a long-term replacement. They’ve liked everything Jones did in the offseason and how he’s improved as a route runner since entering the league. However, to think the Bills made that decision on Jones before the season even began is just a tad over the top. Like it or not, Jones will have a role on offense in 2019." https://theathletic.com/1159291/2019/08/24/seven-observations-from-the-bills-win-over-the-lions-josh-allen-leaves-the-fan-base-hanging-dawson-knox-surprises/

Very cool. Thanks for posting it.