billsfan89

One thing that has me as a McD defender (for lack of a better word) is that I am seeing a coach attempting to try different things. What frustrated me very early on in McD's tenure from 2019-2022 was the inability to try and change his approach. He was far too loyal to coordinators, not really drafting a lot on offense, and not being aggressive in play-calling and in game decisions. He also never seemed to stray away from being "tight" in close games and playing conservatively. In the last few years a lot has changed. He's gone off coordinators somewhat quickly (fired Frazer, fired Dorsey in season, moved on from a ST coordinator after a couple of years), he's become a very aggressive in game decision maker (a top 5-7 ranked coach in terms of aggressive calls the past two seasons), his defense has blitzed more esp in 2023 when he was the play caller (although I would still at times like to see it be more aggressive), and he's not been afraid to be more emotional and looser esp after that 2023 article came out. Is McD the right coach to get this team to the Super Bowl? I don't know, but I think he deserves a couple of more seasons at it. If by the end of next season we are looking at more playoff losses in disappointing fashion then I think you might just need a new voice in the locker room. But I think given that this isn't Marty Ball where Marty just did the same things over and over again and expecting different results I think there's been a lot of different attempts to adapt both by McD in how he coaches the team and Beane in how he has built the team.

It's a torn triceps, tough break for the Jets, they are just a very snakebitten franchise similar to the drought era Bills. They actually will be nearing the Bills in terms of playoff drought futility as if they don't make the playoffs by 2027 they will have tied the Bills mark for playoff futility and if they don't make it by 2028 they will have exceeded it. What's even more embarrassing is that the last 5 years the Jets have had a expanded playoff format with an extra 7th seed in the AFC. It's hard to project that much farther out that the Jets won't make it but I think it's a good bet to think they likely won't make it this year and if they go with a rookie QB for 2026 that might push them to a 16 year drought heading into 2027...

Do you own stock in an NFL team or work for YouTube TV? You are on this crusade to prove that all these people illegally streaming an NFL product that the NFL chooses to make cost a lot and fragmented across many services are morally inferior to you and that people streaming NFL games illegally are a symptom of moral decline in society. It really isn't that deep nor symptomatic of anything larger other than this popular product has become much more inaccessible due to the fragmentation of media rights and the NFL's own choosing, so people use technology to pirate games. The argument that the cost of piracy gets passed down to those who pay for the service legally is very much disproven in this case. So you can't also say that this is something that gets passed down to regular consumers much like other instances of shoplifting. For many piracy is simply not because of an unwillingness to pay but rather convenience and simplicity. LeBron James whose own league gives him their version of League Pass for Free (and a man who is a billionaire) was seen during one of his sons high school games using Stream East to watch the end of a game during half time of his son's high school game. So there's clearly an issue with accessibility not only people just wanting a "free ride". It is not a societal issue that people don't really take any sort of moral issue with bootlegging NFL games despite the fact that it is technically stealing. In this case most people feel that it is a victimless crime (not in a literal sense) and that if the NFL cared about the issue enough they would probably have taken more money from ESPN to offer the product cheaper. If the NFL wants to try to take down streamers fine I don't have an issue with the NFL doing so. But don't make it out to be a bigger issue than it is because you are projecting something onto it that isn't there.

I think there's always going to be a percentage of fans that bootleg games. But ESPN supposedly wanted to sell it for $70. I would wager that you probably also had to subscribe to ESPN+ and pay $70. But even at a cost of $12 per month for ESPN+ for 5 months (Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec, Jan) at $12 a month that comes out to $60. So at worst it would have been under that model 70-130 dollars. Which would probably get the majority of people streaming illegally to just pay for a higher end stream and call it a day. I think around 150-200 you would still convert a lot of those people. Piracy is a response that the market has to inaccessibility and unaffordability. That doesn't make it right but when companies choose to make their product more expensive and less accessible I don't blame the backlash on that on consumers.

You are being very much purposefully dense. The term victimless crime is often used to describe a crime where a victim either non-existent literally or the victim is a non-sympathetic figure. The NFL in this case is the victim but they aren't really a sympathetic victim of piracy for game streaming. If you want to say wrong is wrong, fine, but I think that argument is going to fall on deaf ears because the crime's victim isn't a sympathetic victim given that those who legally buy the product aren't paying more for it as a result of piracy. If you want to make someone feel bad because they watch a regional Bills game illegally because the poor owners should get more money then go ahead and make that argument...

The whole fiduciary responsibility thing is also not a mandate to do ***** business practices to make a little more money in the short term at the possible expense of business health longer term. Often times companies use that justification for ***** business practices that juice profits short term but damage the business longer term because the executives at the top are just raiding the business for a few years trying to squeeze out their excessive salaries. But in reality the mandate to make as much money as possible while true also has no time frame. You are perfectly justifiable in giving up a little bit of short term gains in order to secure longer term health for your brand/business. So the idea that companies having to make as much money as possible justifies every short sighted thing they do is just factually wrong and often times poor business.

The argument was being made the piracy was a victimless crime (that the only victim is the NFL) and others were saying that the victims are the paying customers who have to pay more because people steal (linking it to shoplifting). My counter was that the NFL turning down more money to keep the price higher disproves that. The cost of piracy is not passed onto the consumer is just a fact in this instance. Thus the only person you are really stealing from is the NFL and the argument that it is a victimless crime is valid. Overall, I link piracy of the NFL's events to telling a kid a lie about something to spare their feelings. Is lying wrong? Yeah technically, but is it a big deal in every instance? No. If you want to say that stealing under no circumstances is right even if there is no actual victim then go ahead. I just don't think this is really one of those instances.

I never said it was OK, if you read back at what I said the idea that piracy drives up the price of Sunday Ticket is not really valid because the NFL turned down more money to keep the price higher. That if piracy were made magically impossible that it would result in lower prices is simply not accurate. Piracy is stealing but the victim is the NFL not the paying customer.

Kraft makes Jerry Jones look likable...

It's the aspect of football that I enjoy the least yes. I get that it is a part of the sport and that there's just only so much the league could do and the players know the risks now more than ever. But yeah I hate seeing players get hurt.

The Premium is for NFL Sunday Ticket, the owners particularly Kraft want that to be something that costs a lot of money. Everything else they didn't give a ***** about. Spread it around nickel and dime consumers to make as many TV packages as possible. The NFL has made their product into 10 different consumer products (11 if you count NFL+ but that is truly an add on) 1- AFC Games Sunday Afternoons in market (CBS) 2- NFC Games Sunday Afternoons in market (FOX) 3- Sunday Night Football National Games (NBC) 4- Monday Night Football National Games (ABC/ESPN) 5- Thursday Night Football National Games (Amazon) 6- NFL Sunday Ticket for out of market (YouTube TV) 7- NFL Network Exclusive Games (NFLN) 8- Netflix Christmas Day Games (Netflix) 9- NFL Redzone (Various) 10- Peacock Exclusive game (Peacock) That's insane just how fragmented this is.

The Jets games away are always funky "knuckleball" type games in recent years. The Bills gave away the 2023 season opener with all those insane turnovers by Josh and the Special Teams TD in OT, they barely escaped in 2024 on a tight game where missed kicks helped the Bills a lot, and a close loss in a 3 point game again in 2022. Jets physical defense and decent talent elsewhere make those games harder. It is coaching and at QB where the Bills make up the margins and even then Josh has had some of his worst regular season efforts against the Jets away...

I hate seeing injuries. And while I am not fan of the Jets I never root for injuries. And I actually really loved Vera Tucker out of the draft. I thought that was such a good pick for the Jets at the time. And he's been good when he plays he has just had really poor luck with injuries.

It's actually harder to do with live sports. HBO has an easier time taking Game of Thrones Episodes off piracy sites because they can have algorithms and AI that looks for the footage from the episode. The footage stays the same for the most part as it can detect slight changes some people try to do to throw off the tech. Whereas with a live feed that you don't know how it looks until it is broadcasted it is harder to root out streams. It also comes with a lot higher demand because the market now is so fragmented. I think there was a video of LeBron at one of his sons college games using an I-Pad to look at Stream East watching NBA games. LeBron could not only afford the NBA Package but gets it from the League/Team for free. But with all the local blackouts it is just easier to use StreamEast and know you can watch the games.

The NFL Turned down more money from ESPN for the NFL Sunday Ticket Package because ESPN wanted to charge less for it and offer single team offers. I'm not gonna say that piracy is the moral thing to do but I am also not going to say that piracy leads to consumers paying more because the NFL actively took less money to make sure the price stays higher.

The deadline to be fully cap compliant as opposed to top 51 cap compliant was yesterday at 4pm. Prior to Tuesday at 4pm prior to the opening kickoff you only have to be under the cap accounting for the top 51 roster spots cap hits and the dead cap/void years. But yesterday at 4pm you have to account for the PS, injured reserve, and the last two roster spots. I Would imagine that the Bills probably needed this move to absorb the PS and last two roster spots plus have an emergency in season fund.

I do doubt that if Piracy didn't exist that these corporations would charge less. They actively turned down an offer from ESPN for more money for NFL Sunday Ticket to be much cheaper and actually have al a carte pricing because they wanted to protect the price point.

The NFL turned down more money from ESPN to make Sunday Ticket Cheaper and al a carte because they wanted it to remain a "luxury" product. I'm not gonna say piracy is a victimless crime but I'm also not gonna care too much about it either given that the NFL actively chooses to make it's product more expensive and less accessible.

They basically just have to try to make it a pain in the ass to pirate games. But the problem is that the more you segment games across so many different platforms the more demand you create for piracy because fans just want to watch the games and they find it easier to pirate than to have cable and 5 different streaming services...

StreamEast was a real one onto the next because live event piracy is insanely hard to stop...

Hollins got overpaid by the Pats while Gabe is on the Practice Squad...

RB's have evolved to help more in the passing game so that they can have so much more added value. I think Lev Bell and Matt Forte were good examples of what a great pass catching RB who can stay on the field during run situations can do for a offense. I think RB play is very much accelerated or decelerated by the play around them. Offensive line as well as the QB/general passing game can lift up or drag down a passing attack so much in the NFL. I think RB's are valued fairly now. I think there was a time when no RB's were getting paid and it was just a complete over correction of the market. Now teams properly value their RB's and are willing to pay them if they can be dynamic in the passing game (unless you are Derrick Henry).

I wouldn’t hate it but it just seems like it’s not a good organizational fit. Going to be one of those things where the coaching staff and GM know the team well enough to make the call.

For me this isn't a major loss for this season as Carter was more of a marginal player as the 5th DT and with Larry O coming back from suspension in 6 weeks it wasn't gonna be easy for him to make an impact this season. What I am concerned for him is how this impacts his longer term prospects? It is somewhat fortunate this is a early season injury that will lead him to have many added months of recovery having close to 11 months to recover before the start of next years camp but if this sets him back next year then he's probably gonna get cut.

Every team has injuries…