May Day 10

My issue is, he seems to have a lot of opinions, ideas, and goals outside football. I want a QB who wants to be the best and is willing to dedicate the majority of his life over the next 15 years or so to focus on being the best quarterback. Mentally and physically.

I think they are on the right path. They just need the athletes. There is no depth on this team. They were able to cobble together some game-planning and inspiration to get some victories out of the gate.... but the film is out. I think I still view Beane and McDermott favorably. McDermott, I feel is a very good balance between a 'players' coach' and a guy who demands professionalism. I also like the ripping off of the band-aid moves they have made. It stinks selling Dareus and Watkins for pennies on the dollar for what they cost... but there was little choice IMO. These are the type of moves the Bills would shy away from throughout the drought. The one thing that troubles me... and has been troubling me all season.... is how in the heck can they have Tolbert as RB#2? He shouldn't be in the NFL, at least as a ball carrier.

Im actually terrified of Rosen.

the circle of life that is a bills season

This seems incredibly fishy

The Bills are a team short on athletes that wins games (for now) by preparation and mental toughness. They have also been getting the bounces. Last night they couldn't get the preparation edge and the bounces certainly and almost unanimously went the other way. The Jets played a hell of a game. We are still very early in the 'process'. 5-3 is still very much an over achievement. They still have a lot of roster depth to fill in, as well as mold the starting 22. Patience is a dirty word around here, but I am looking at the forest through the trees

I dont mind thursday games so much... but they do provide a big advantage to the home team I would like to see them schedule these in conjunction with bye weeks

Unbelievable brutal and unforgiving sport

I do think that he will walk off when brady is done... might be a few years but really the window is closing

This deal makes me wonder if Belichick might be planning on retiring with Brady (when the time comes). With Garoppolo under center, it looked like the Pats were poised to enter the next 15 years without missing a beat. it makes all the sense. They have a developed, schooled QB ready to start.... and also a likely top 3 pick to trade for a treasure trove.

Itll happen quickly. I dont think he makes it to 45 at this level. I would bet sometime within the next 3 seasons he is going to hit a cliff (if he doesnt get hurt). I also wonder what would happen if he got a scary concussion at this stage. He would be smart to walk off with a lot of house money IMO. He always has been very cautious.... and an expert at getting just enough out of the pocket to throw it out of bounds, or donk it off at a checkdown's feet.

next week will just be a boring Morales backstory episode

I believe the Steelers would hold it over the Bills due to strength of schedule. Bills would beat out Pats and Chiefs.

It would suck and be frustrating. But the culture and team they are building is what is important. I'm not even sure they imagined this start themselves. The upcoming picks and cap space will allow them to build some legitimate depth.

This is silly. I said 4-12 / 5-11 after the trades..... but still liked McDermott/Beane and the direction they are going. It felt like a final end to the continuous era of Levy-Brandon-Nix-Whaley, which is what they have needed since the day they sent Donahoe packing. But its not like I put anything on the line, root for them to lose to reach my prediction (maybe if they did I could post an awesome thread like this one and brag and antagonize? That would be uh, awesome I guess, along with another waste of season ticket money. Take that!) Anyone besides the complete optimists thought this team had a good shot at getting to 5-2. I didnt realize that McDermott would resonate so deeply with players in year one. I liked his messaging and his vision of bringing in players who do the homework and hone a mental edge... Didn't think we had so much in-house.

Football

While Steinbrenner had great success. He was owner at the time when the Yankees had a huge monetary advantage over the rest of MLB with no cap or restrictions. He leveraged the largest TV market into a huge insurmountable advantage. There was some warts. Impatience.... a lot of misses. In a capped league, patience and discipline are very important. The reason the Yankees are where they are today is they stopped chasing the huge scores every year and emptying their cupboards. They took some steps back and built up. Now that there are 8-12 MLB teams in the same stratosphere, the Yankees cant just try to grab the top UFAs every year and top players via trade. There is more competition. Im not a Yankees guy, but I have to tip my hat to young Steinbrenner and Cashman

These claims seem strange. I immediately hated Bon Jovi as did most of us. It was pretty much common knowledge that he was in cahoots with Lieweke and MLSE.... and Kryk was reporting heavily on their relationship and speculating on their grand scheme. Bon Jovi didnt stand a chance of earning our trust. With or without a 'propaganda effort"

I would say no. The pitts game in 04 of course. The ne sunday night massacre There was a jets game a few years back in the same situation where they drubbed the bills

dont forget he also couldnt play nice with Marrone. Who knows what would have happened if Marrone didn't head for the hills and disrupt the defense. It looks like the Bills have granted McDermott what Marrone wanted. License to modernize all aspects of the football program and phase out some of the lifers from the kitchen. I don't know what side Whaley fell on, but I would assume it was not on Marrone's (the correct) side

I consider levy-brandon-nix-whaley as a continuous regime. A series of cordial stepping asides and "handing off the reins". They were never serious about altering the leadership of the football program.

Whaley was bad overall. He does seem to have some good attributes, and was probably somewhat of a victim of the organizational "group think" that took place.... although, him landing that position was a result of his willingness to work with the "group think" which makes him complicit. I also don't think he is wired to run an effective football program from the top, and his inability to get along with coaches was catastrophe, and media missteps bad. For years, decisions were made from murky places. Nobody could put their finger on it. Was it Wilson, Pegula, Brandon, Jauron, Overdorf, etc... nobody could really assign blame and people/fans/media would assign blame or absolve it based on their predetermined positions (such as giving Whaley credit for this draft, but absolving him from "Nix's last draft". Whenever the heat got too much for the Bills to handle, they would just throw another log on the fire and outsource all the blame, whether it was Donahoe, Levy, Nix, Marrone, Jauron, Gailey, Wilson himself, Brandon himself, etc... This management (I suspect has been driven from Brandon and Overdorf) has failed over and over again. Now, I it seems that ownership has truly handed over the reins of the franchise as well as accountability to McDermott and Beane. To me that is healthy, and it probably marginalizes the numerous voices from past management. They can craft their cohesive vision for a football team. I like how detail oriented and positive McDermott is. They are going to get the right personalities in, and McDermott is going to show them how to prepare. I still think this season will fall into the crapper eventually, mainly due to depth and not enough weapons on offense, but I am still very encouraged that these guys will get this team into the top third or so of the league on a perennial basis

I thought it was a very well behaved crowd in the game. While we have the goofy fun stuff.... in recent years, we have avoided a lot of the ugly situations that have been captured in other stadiums (such as that Carolina incident)

Its a bummer. Im not a huge year-round soccer guy, but love the World Cup Tournament. It wont be the same without the US participating

No, I do not believe so. I am encouraged for their prospects next season though with a lot of picks and some cap space that will fill in some much needed depth