Thurman#1

He's played at a near-elite level several times during his career. Basically when the Giants had a really good lineup around him, particularly a running game. No, he's certainly not elite like a Brady or a Rodgers. But yeah, he consistently has played at a top ten to twelve level when he's had even a decent lineup around him. And top ten to twelve is what you need. Teams with a guy playing at that level stand a real chance at a Lombardi. Eli's good enough to be instrumental in your team winning a Super Bowl. Duh. If anything, he's underrated by many. You'll get guys like that eight or ten or even twelve hours a day, maybe. After that, everyone has other interests. Including Brady, Rodgers, Unitas, Montana, and all the rest. Peyton spends a ton of time on charity and family. Brady on his nutty business and his family. Rodgers on his GF and visiting Sundance as he's a film nut and he plays guitar, and apparently a golf nut also, as the story of his funny remark to Josh Allen showed. Eat ... sleep ... laser focus ... those are the current cliches, and it all sounds terrific, but if it were actual it would be evidence of severe OCD.

The other guy finished his plan and there's no evidence he spent more than 10 or 20 hours on it. Both ways are just fine. If Allen is there, that's great. Where you do the work doesn't really matter, but it sure isn't any kind of disadvantage to be working at OBD instead of at home.

He's good enough. He's not too awkward to play football. But yeah, he might not fit the role the new regime would like him to play. Like Ragland, he might fit another D scheme better. Hope he manages to fit here. It'd be a shame to let another high pick go.

Ah, McDermott? Still way too early to say that he isn't good at evaluating guys on the offense. As you point out, Dawkins so far at least seems like a great pickup, Peterman has been good so far for a fifth-rounder and Zay Jones hasn't done enough as a 2nd rounder, but it's way too early to count out a 2nd year WR. Just doesn't make any sense at all to say that he can't evaluate offensive talent. The worst you could say is that he has spent few resources on the offense and that he would get an incomplete because it's too early to count out anyone yet. And Dawkins looks like a great pick.

6. McDermott's an Aries. Done deal.

Yes, development is going to make or break them ... and pretty much everyone else, really. But yeah, some need a lot more than others. And Allen needs a lot. But no, Allen wasn't a mid-round guy. He was bumped up, but it happened during the season as people saw him play. Here's Jeremiah's pre-2017 look at him. "However, there's a quarterback in the Mountain West Conference who could emerge as the best of the bunch." http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000814722/article/first-look-scouting-wyoming-qb-josh-allen "Allen's anonymity ended almost immediately after the final selection of the 2017 NFL draft was made on April 29, when ESPN reporter Adam Schefter said: "There was one personnel director who told me this week that you can put in the books, Josh Allen will be the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft next year." " http://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/20117075/wyoming-cowboys-josh-allen-goes-unknown-no-1-pick-nfl-draft-buzz

They handled him poorly. No question about it. I still don't think he would have ever made it or will make it. But they handled the whole thing poorly. IMHO the problem wasn't that they benched him but that they started him in the first place. He wasn't ready. Should've developed him and worked (and worked and worked) on his mechanics and fundamentals. He was a smart guy and a hard worker. But with problems in his mechanics. Sit guys like that and keep them working on those issues till they're deep in muscle memory. Looks now like he's never going to be starter-caliber, but there's a small chance that with good development he might've.

The person with higher status at the company tends to get the the blame, and rightly so. Yeah, cold climates don't have beautiful women. That's why NYC doesn't have ... um, never mind. It ain't the weather, dude. Go visit Scandinavia if you don't believe me. It's a matter of population and whether young people go there for opportunity and especially for opportunity in fields like acting, modelling, etc. And the women I talk to say the same is true for guys, by the way.

I disagree strongly that Beane has been questionable on offensive player evals. He just hasn't addressed many resources towards the offense. Hasn't had a chance, really, since he became GM in May 2017 after the draft and after most of FA was over. But the guys he has picked up have been OK, particularly for the money he paid them. Kelvin Benjamin was a terrific pickup who looks to be a very good one over a lot of years for the Bills. Travaris Cadet was a good pickup for how little he was paid. Deonte Thompson was paid extremely little and gave them probably more than they paid for. The one decision approaching a major problem he had was trading for Jordan Matthews, and Matthews' ineffectiveness appears to have been as a result of an injury being more serious than the doctors had found, nor was he all that expensive, either. The Bills paid $1.04 mill for him last year against the cap. Where are Beane's massive misses on offense, the guys he paid big money for and got nothing? He's evaluated offensive players just fine as far as we know. He just didn't really address the offense last year in late FA and late trades, which were the only guys on offense he was able to bring in after May. Guys who we have seen play, anyway. We'll start to be able to judge him on offense probably during the 2019 season. That's what happens when you promise the owner that you're going to put the previously horrible cap situation to rights by 2018. You don't get to pick up all the guys you would have maybe liked to.

No. "It became clear the Steelers wanted to pay the position,not the player." - Bell's agent http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/24114399/leveon-bell-pittsburgh-steelers-fail-reach-long-term-deal-ahead-franchise-tag-deadline And that's what smart teams do for RBs. Great player but he will be too expensive. What about a WR making over 14 million per year and averagign 8.2 and 7.7 yards per reception over the last two years and 8.5 for his career. Bell is a very valuable RB. But he's an RB.

https://wgr550.radio.com/media/audio-channel/07-12-schopp-bulldog-hour-3 (around 25:00) Ah, no, you guys were right. It's a continuous bet, $200 every year. So yeah, the key quote is "in the life of the bet," and how long that lasted. Yes, having listened to the program just now, that's what he meant, Super Bowl or Stanley Cup.

I doubt he will get the same offer every year. "... if the football and hockey seasons both end ..." Right? "... the ... both ..." That means two seasons. Not four or six or eight or more. He means this year only, doesn't he? I wouldn't take that bet. Why throw away the $200?

Yes. Or no.

https://www.si.com/nfl/2018/07/12/lesean-mccoy-allegations-home-invasion-domestic-violence-what-we-know "Everything We Know About the Allegations Against LeSean McCoy," by Jenny Vrentas

Fair enough. Let me rephrase. I was amazed to find that he actually was on a roster last year.

I was fascinated to find just now, that he was still in the league. Wow.

Yup. And also totally consistent with a man struggling to put on a glove. I had never seen the video before and was interested enough to go back right now and watch the video. Not buying this argument, or the other argument above that you can see he held his fingers in a difficult position. I'm willing to listen to other arguments. But there's nothing to indicate he faked it. It really did look like the gloves were just too small, which is why the demonstration was so convincing to the jury and the country. Again, I tend to believe he was guilty, but there are a million reasonable arguments on both sides.

DNA didn't prove he was there. DNA proved his blood was there, but we have evidence that the cop brought his blood to the scene in a test tube. Very weird. The basics of the case is that none of the evidence made absolute proof. Either way. I still don't know, though I lean towards guilty. I was so happy to miss most of the trial, as I was already living in Japan at that time and this was no news at all here. I don't see a connection to the McCoy case here, a ridiculous connection of the OP.

Heh heh. Yeah, good point.

The entire background. Making decisions before you know much ... and being proud of it ... is solid evidence of problems in your decision-making methods. The legality of her being there, for one thing. What Shady originally promised her, for another. What she told and asked him for a third. What legal recourse Shady has been taking for yet another. And more. What else do we need to know? A lot.

Nah. It's just that the amount of coverage has multiplied by a factor of ... what? 100? 1000? And since 90% of pretty much absolutely everything is going to be crap and mediocrity, you get a ton more crap out there than ever before. You also get a lot of excellent journalism. But it's buried in the vast tsunamis of crap. Same with everything, really. Remember when you used to be able to go see a pretty good movie each week? Now? Crap crap crap. Still good stuff out there but you have to search and search through the gigantic piles of stuff that strives for adequacy and mostly comes close but fails to get there. It's what happens when everyone wants good coverage but not to pay for it. and everyone has access to platforms and dreams of fame.

Rosen should not be equated with those other guys. Nor Watkins (a salary cap and draft capital move if there ever was one). Probably Cutler besides, a guy whose career was ended by inconsistency rather than immaturity. Having said that, yeah, I like that they're building around character guys. Get enough of them and your locker room becomes a place where people work harder and get better.

Sometimes the story involves the writer. This one did. When it does, it's OK to report it. A war correspondent doesn't have to leave it out of the story if he gets shot in the leg, for instance. The Shady at the TV studio story is obviously a much less serious incident than my hypothetical there, but the point is the same. When the story overtakes the reporter and he becomes involved, there's nothing wrong with writing about that. I know, kinda funny. But in the OP this is presented as the conclusion, where in the story it's just somewhere in the middle as an interesting / funny note in paragraph 11 of 20.. Fair enough to think it's irrelevant. To me, though, it helps paint a picture.

The reporter was admitting that what he said ... tipping badly ... was frivolous. He wasn't accusing Shady of being frivolous by tipping badly.

Yeah, there were plenty of guys I didn't want playing for the Bills. Hobert was not a bad player, but was the only one I ever really despised. Too lazy to bother studying the playbook.