Hapless Bills Fan
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This link is quoting Rapaport, who seems to be the source for a lot of the Bush talk out there. How reliable is he?
It really doesn't make any sense to me, with the Bills cutting Fredex essentially for being old and wanting to go with the young future, why bring in a 31 yr old guy who ran for a mighty 28 yds in 8 carries last year?
Of course, the Bills don't have to make sense to me
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Not sure that is true. Check the date on the USAToday piece then look at the one I linked from 2015.
I believe the current CBA/drug testing policy and consequences date from 2014. But I think the source I linked had some details wrong.
If it's Mary Jane, looks like this may have been his 3rd strike - the first got him into Stage 1, the second got him a fine, the third is 4 games..
Blockhead and dufus.
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Karlos , J. Williams, Watkin's injury , Shaq , what a start this season.
Indeed. If this is what "winning the offseason" (per Rex) looks like, I'd hate to see what losing looks like.
When I become involved is when I feel that those discussions have taken a nasty turn. I believe if you go back a few pages and objectively read what's been written you'll see my point.
BE NICE TO EACH OTHER DAMMIT!
"I know that there are people, who do not LOVE THEIR FELLOW MAN, and I HATE PEOPLE LIKE THAT" -Tom Lehrer
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@thadbrown7
For Karlos to get 4 gm suspension, this must be SECOND violation. #Bills
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/2014/09/13/nfl-new-drug-policy-three-things/15571205/
Not only 2nd violation, but apparently it has to be something other than weed?
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Stevie Johnson: 10 games, 45 Rec, 497 Yds, 3 TDs, 1 Fum
Robert Woods: 14 games, 47 Rec, 552 Yds, 3 TDs, 2 Fum
I'm not sure how anyone can say that the first guy listed above sucks and wasn't worth keeping, but the second one deserves to be our #2 WR.
What was Johnson being paid?
What was (and is) Woods being paid?
Stevie was a one season wonder, he wasn't that good
That would be why he had 3 consecutive >1000 seasons with Fitz hurling the spheroid in his general direction?
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This was Whaley's least talked about moves in recent years, but it keeps coming back to me while thinking about the Bills' struggle to find a solid #2 WR who is consistent.
Was the trio of Watkins, SJ, and Woods not going to work in 2014? Was there something to the idea that it was "Sammy's team" after the 14 draft and SJ had to go? Was a conditional 4th rounder really worth a receiver who just finished the year as the #1?
Would you feel better in the 2016 offseason with SJ on this team?
This is not difficult to understand. Stevie thrived in Gailey's Erhardt-Perkins offense which taught "beat your man, get to the spot". He had some chemistry with Fitz, along with some drops and some miscues that became INTs.
Marrone wanted to run a WCO with precise timing and routes. In that offense, Stevie was notably less successful in 2013 (about half the receptions and yardage), and had a poor catch percentage (receptions/targets). Woods had about the same, while Scott Chandler (!!!) led the team in receiving yards.
So they traded Stevie off while he still had trade value. He didn't do much in SF and more tellingly, not much more while in Sandy Ego with a real QB throwing to him even after that team set hardline goals for him of losing weight and shaping up (though his catch % did improve markedly).
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Keep complimenting him like that and he'll be your dixie chicken.
But will simpleman be his tennesee lamb?
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Paying average QB's stupid money is a good way to screw up your franchise.
It's actually the epitome of the salary cap conundrum. Very few QB are elite or average in a vacuum. The quality of the line play, the WR, and the running game all play into the quality of the QB's play. But in demanding and receiving an elite salary, the QB of necessity compromises the quality of the players around him. I do think part of it is coaching and scheme - somehow Belichek********* keeps Brady and his offense productive with a bunch of rookies and no-name OL, WRs, and RB.
Of course, the fact that the Patriots are somehow paying relative peanuts to two of the best players ever to play the game in Brady and Gronk has something to do with that.
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I've never watched that show, but one of my buddies who I workout with loves it. Sounds like those lean small guys do the best. How did he do last night?
Not just small lean guys, but contestants with backgrounds in climbing, gymnastics - sports that require the ability to use their body's momentum precisely and develop tremendous grip strength.
Man, that stuff is hard
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I know. I overreacted
.I suppose you could have stuck with facts more but don't be hard on yourself. There are jails and jails ('country club' vs hell-hole)
I expect JM's dad is thinking more along the lines of the jail described here: http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/15472532/how-reche-caldwell-googled-way-patriots-prison
than some of the jails I know of where guys mysteriously die er "commit suicide" and they're overcrowded and every kind of drug still gets in.
Or maybe just not thinking.
It's been pretty clear all along that JM's immediate family has been part of his problem. When the kid can't relax with his fam because every trip home his dad has a trunkload of crap for him to autograph, the dad has no idea how to help the kid control his anger and responds to drunk-driving issues by getting the kid a fancy BMW, and the daughter is the one who has to talk the parents out of getting "JFF Mom" and "JFF Dad" vanity plates, that kind of tells you what you need to know.
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Rex is in his second year & there has been talk of him being on the hot seat if he doesn't take the team to the play offs, but is 2 seasons enough time ? I don't think so !!
Up front, I've got to say "playoffs or OUT!" would be a dumb ultimatum, if there was an ultimatum. There's an unavoidable element of luck in whether a team achieves playoffs, including injuries to key players, strength of schedule (predicted strength /= actual strength), difference-making penalty calls (almost every team suffers from this on occasion), and the strength of the division the team plays in.
Rex in his second year, keep or can?
What I want to see is a well-prepared, disciplined, hard-playing team that goes full-out whistle to whistle on every play every game. IMO, this was very uneven last year.
Let me break it down:
1) An even high level of preparation week-to week. Some weeks, the team seemed to come out with a good game plan. Some weeks, they seemed poorly prepared for the opponent
2) Discipline. Some penalties are beyond a players control what the ref will call, but we had too many dumb hot-head personal foul penalties and other penalties indicating lack of focus.
3) Reactive D with players hurrying on and off the field and not having time to get set before the snap on D. I don't want to hear stuff about late play calls. I don't want to see teams that normally take their time, hurrying on O because they know they can take advantage of the Bills D if they do.
4) Hustle. No question from time to time we had players "phoning it in". Don't quit on your teammates. Don't quit on your coach. Win or lose, if a player isn't hustling, the coaches need to take action: sit his ass down.
If we see more of the same this year, *especially* with Rex apparently given a free hand to bring in whatever assistants he likes this year and a D-heavy draft, I think 2 years is enough and I don't think it would have a negative effect on future coaching searches for the Pegulas to say "enough is enough" and pull the plug on the Ryan Circus.
If we don't make the playoffs, but we see a well-planned game every week and a well-prepared team that doesn't quit, then Rex deserves more time especially if there are mitigating factors (injuries, players we were counting on to come back who don't eg A and K Williams).
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Who is your favorite all-time Bills player and why?
Darryl Talley. Never quit. Really worked to improve his game, and succeeded.
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Eh. He's got three months to get in football shape.
He's got 6 weeks-ish until training camp. Easy to get hurt if you're lugging extra poundage. Might be able to take off 12-15 lbs in that 6 weeks.
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It is a team sport and the NFLPA, their representatives, signed agreement with NFL to allow tagging. IMO players should sign tag and play but I understand others think players should welsh out of agreements and have their agent give advice like Eugene Parker: "Refuse to show up, sign either right before season starts or after 10 weeks to get your year in and pretend to be injured by something hard to diagnose like Plantar Fasciitis to minimize risk; if they tag you again repeat."
I'm not sure what "welching out of agreements" means in this context? If the player hasn't signed his tag, what is the agreement? He has no agreement.
The other side of the fence is that if a player is tagged and shows up to OTAs/minicamp/training camp and gets injured, good-bye to their chances of a good contract. So I think it's very understandable that the players don't want (or their agents advise them not to) play until they have to.
In all seriousness, what changes if they never sign it?
They can't play football that year
It is a team sport and the NFLPA, their representatives, signed agreement with NFL to allow tagging. IMO players should sign tag and play but I understand others think players should welsh out of agreements and have their agent give advice like Eugene Parker: "Refuse to show up, sign either right before season starts or after 10 weeks to get your year in and pretend to be injured by something hard to diagnose like Plantar Fasciitis to minimize risk; if they tag you again repeat."
Von Miller:
http://www.foxsports.com/nfl/story/denver-broncos-von-miller-will-not-sit-out-over-contract-061516
When asked if a holdout was a possibility during an interview with Chelsea Handler, Miller flatly said, "No."Miller is still holding out hope that the two sides can come to an agreement before the July 15 deadline."We still have a month," he said. "I just can't see myself with any other team. My boys -- T.J. Ward, Aqib Talib, Kayvon Webster, DeMarcus Ware. All those guys, I built very, very close relationships with those guys, and I would like to continue to build that for the rest of my career."They're not so different. Today, Von Miller posted "I love my Teammates, Coaches, and My Fans" but there is "No Chance" I play the 2016 season under the Franchise tag." on Instagram. Guess we will see what happens.
Guess his agent had a chat with him
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make sure u dont say that on the "other" bills board
I got scolded by a mod for saying our female owner was pretty cuz apparently El Pegula checks out the board
So? You think he married her 'cuz he thought she wasn't?
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That's what I gathered from this excellent piece by Tim Graham. Brandon bloviates vaguely about a 'holistic' approach, but one definitely gets the sense from this piece that the current coach and GM don't put much stock in analytics and that Brandon's analytics guy focuses mostly on the business of selling the Bills to fans. http://bills.buffalonews.com/2016/06/12/a-dark-matter-secrecy-abounds-as-nfl-teams-tackle-analytics-challenge/
Very interesting piece, thanks for linking it Dave.
Favorite quote from the piece: “Analytics is, at its heart, just applied mathematics,” Baltimore Ravens offensive lineman and Canisius High grad John Urschel said in March at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference. Urschel is working on a mathematics doctorate at MIT. Gotta love a football lineman who is using the off-season to work on a doctorate at MIT.
I too, read through that piece and wondered, when he talked about throwing the Rosetta stone into lake Erie or using what served him well in 1990, was he talking about Rex? or when he quoted "a lot of owners are very comfortable making money and staying in the cycle of waiting for that franchise quarterback to come to them." was he talking about the late Ralph Wilson?
The fundamental contradiction that Graham fails to address is the tenet that teams are preserving secrecy around analytics that work, vs. the idea that the Bills are violating "universally accepted analytic truths" in some of the things they do.
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This is sad news. I learned so much about the review system from him. Whatever he said, I banked on the opposite.
A review of his review showed that he was actually correct 90% of the time. So by banking on the opposite, you would learn incorrectly.
Besides, he had to be the single most boring guy on TV on Sunday's.
That's the real reason he's gone. Can't coach charisma.
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I'm not trying to be stubborn and resistant to your point of view but I don't understand what you are getting at. My basic point in this thread centers around Fitz's talent. When the discussion veered toward how Nix dealt with Fitz I have no problem with him letting Fitz go because he wouldn't take a cut despite taking a cap hit. The criticism that I have against Nix and the organization has little to do with the marginally talented Fitz but with the organization's lack of aggressiveness in pursuing a legitimate franchise qb. That applies before Fitz arrived on the scene, while he was on the scene and after he left the scene.
My focus centers on the issue of talent for the most important position on the field and the historical lack of urgency in addressing that position. That's where I am coming from. If you are driving on a different road then that's okay. Taking different routes doesn't necessarily mean that you still can't get to the same destination, intentionally or unintentionally.
We didn't veer towards "how Nix dealt with Fitz". You introduced what in your view is Nix's correct low valuation (and release) of Fitz as justification for what you view as the Jet's correct low valuation of Fitz. I object.
The point is simple: you can't use Nix's valuation to justify the Jets valuation unless you believe that Nix, overall, showed good talent evaluation and cap management at the QB position. That would be cherry-picking one data spot to make your point, not appropriate unless you accept the whole bowl of cherries as good fruit.
Evaluation of Nix's management of the QB position includes his draft choices (or lack of choices) towards the position, the QB talent he brought in, and his cap management at the position. The cap hit is only one part - who he brought in to replace Fitz and their impact on the cap vs impact on the field is another part. I've pointed this out repeatedly yet you keep reiterating "cap hit" as though that's the sum total of the picture or at least the most important part. It isn't either.
It seems to me that overall you don't like Nix's management of the QB position. Therefore, my point is you can't use Nix publically-stated low valuation of Fitz as justification for the Jets stance and its implied valuation.
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Are you suggesting that this is the Alamo thread? I'm running out of ammo and I am feeling besieged.
But you'll be remembered
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I like Clay and have confidence in him but when a stupid coach says stuff like this it is simply going to lead to articles and comments like the one you quoted. It erodes a team and there is no useful purpose for it beyond getting his own mug in the press.
The reporter said that, not Rex.
Fluff piece, based off Rex pining after LeBron. Nothing to see here, move along.
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I still don't understand that basis for this argument. Do you have evidence that he was overlooked? His "drop" seemed to be from Bears @ 11 (who moved up to get Floyd) to Bills @ 19. In between a multiple tackles were selected by teams that didn't have an OLB or DE need. Yes we scooped him up at 19 so its hard to say how far he would've dropped, but I am not convinced he dropped far.
Aren't you making the implicit assumption that the teams drafting above 19 were all drafting for "need" and passed over Lawson because he didn't fit their need, not because he occupied a slot on their draft board that was influenced by his shoulder? I thought the consensus these days was that teams drafted BPA.
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The highlighted area is the issue. If the team doesn't come close to the owner's expectations then Rex's job will be in jeopardy. For the owner the bigger issue isn't necessarily the record this season, it pertains more to whether the team is moving in the right direction, a la Sabres. If the owner sees a defense that is again confused and too many lapses in discipline then why wait for a third year expecting something different?
I agree with you that changing staff because of impatience can be self-defeating. But if the team is not demonstrating progress then what is the rational for acting later rather than sooner. What's the saying?: When you are digging yourself in a hole the first corrective action is to stop digging. If Rex is holding the shovel when the hole continues to get deeper it won't be surprising that Pegula takes the shovel away from him.
Or as Demotivators put it: "Consistency: It's only a Virtue if you're Not a Screwup" http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0535/6917/products/consistencydemotivator.jpeg?v=1414004030
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All of his posts have been laughable. He's trying to take BillsVet spot as king of the NNN's
NNN's"?
I haven't seen much discussion of this in the media or elsewhere, but Ryan is on record now as stating that last season instead of running his own defense he attempted to blend his defense and Schwartz's and run a hybrid of the two. That may not be exactly how he stated it, but the gist is the same.
We know that Schwartz didn't routinely drop DEs and DTs into coverage, so that part of the "hybrid D" that Ryan ran last season must be his. I don't know whether he was known for this in NY or not, I haven't looked.
Either way, sounds idiotic and a very inefficient use of players. What's next, Darby rushing the passer by sneaking up into the NT slot. It's also hardly optimizing the talent on the D, which given the hybrid, is clearly why his D underacheived Schwartz's by a country mile.
Is it safe to assume that the D would have been even worse had Ryan run entirely his own, perhaps equaling his last four 20th, 20th, 19th, and 24th ranked scoring Ds in NY, instead of our 15th ranked scoring D last season? Entirely rhetorical but that's the logic of it.
In short, it would seem that we can continue to see the things that the defensive linemen complained about the most, aka dropping into coverage, because if those weren't Ryan's ideas then he's lying through his teeth, which is also a distinct possiblity on this team full of people that cannot seem to come clean with anyone.
I guess I'm just curious why no one is challenging that outright. Again, maybe they have and I just haven't seen it, although I've been looking since Ryan made those statements and haven't seen it, definitely not in the media.
Seems to me that if that happens again we're in for another long season with challenges upon the challenges that we already have rendering it an uphill battle out of the gates.
I think you're conflating a number of different questions.
1) dropping DLmen into coverage. That's part of a number of stout, proven D at times. Nothing intrinsically wrong with it
2) whether we had the right players last year to execute Rex's scheme and/or whether all the players fully bought in. I think the answer is "no" and "no".
3) whether we will have the right players this year and whether they have fully bought in. The answer is "maybe" and "depends upon results" as buy-in inevitably becomes check-out in the face of losing. I am concerned about the lack of stout NT and mensah-level ILB that seem part of every successful Rex D.
4) meta question: whether Rex's schemes are still effective in todays NFL. Some will say "no" and have reasons, some will say "yes" and have reasons. The concern I have is that everything says Rex runs a D that is reactive to what the other team shows and in terminology/options per play are very complex. In general complexity works against reaction speed.
The players have said Rex gave them more input and simplified the game plan towards the end of last season and it helped. Will he learn from that or start a t the beginning? TBD.
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I think Terry is way too smart to give an ultimatum. In his shoes I'd expect him to simply set expectations that with all the draft investment in defense and the firepower on offense, his expectations are high.
Smart businessmen don't back themselves in a corner or declare a stance/ultimatum when they don't need to.
This. Smart bosses have no reason to paint themselves into a corner with any form of "or else". They just state what they expect. Nothing stops them from acting if their expectations aren't met.
i'm not convinced he's going to be fired. in fact, i'm far more confident in believing Rex will be back next season barring a 6-10 or worse collapse.
1) there was no ultimatum given, trust me.
2) the Pegulas do not act rashly when it comes to making changes.
the people they've fired fall into two categories:
-- They backed the GM's advice in axing them: Lindy Ruff/Ted Nolan.
-- They felt somewhat betrayed (not going to go into detail on this): Darcy, LaFontaine
3) the Pegulas are fully on board with the framework of a plan that was presented them once Rex came in. Address the offense in 2015. Address the defense in 2016. to change course in 2017 was essentially bring them back to Square 1 yet again.
gut feeling is that Whaley's job security is more on the line than Rex's. the Pegulas do like Doug, and so does Russ. but Whaley might wind up being a sacrificial lamb if things go south again. but i also still lean toward him having one more year beyond this.
jw
John, wondering if you can say a little more - I know you say "gut feeling" but I believe in general, your gut feelings have observation and fact behind them.
I believe you that there was no ultimatum - too many stories from Pegula insiders saying that's just not their style, plus smart managers recognize it serves no purpose. But I also believe there was serious ownership discontent after the Washington game last season when the Bills looked unprepared and uninspired. IMHO making Whaley a "sacrificial lamb" would be inconsistent with smart management.
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Only if the QB rushes for 500-600 yards...
Several posters have pointed out that if QB rushing yards are subtracted from all the top rushing teams, the Bills are still near the top - in some cases with the actual statistics attached.
It would be kind of nice to have this point "heard and understood"
Browns RB has something brown and smelly on face
in The Stadium Wall Archives
Posted
When I heard about it, I was wondering where the NFL personal conduct policy is on this one?
I would think advocating murder, of anyone, in pictures or in words, "tarnishes the image of the NFL".