billsfan89

I am pegging the Browns to be between 4-6 wins, I am also pegging the Bills to be between 5-7 wins. The Bills regression is more so due to the massive dead cap they have had to eat and the trade ups for Allen and Edumonds eating away a lot of draft capital leaving other areas of the roster compromised. That's not to say that the moves made weren't the right ones long term, but rather just that playing for the long term was the better move than trying to win in 2018 at all costs. As for the Browns they added a lot of talent to both sides of the ball and they finally settled down their QB situation both in the short term with Tyrod and longer term with Baker. But they still seem like they are a mess off the field. The coaching isn't where it needs to be and the organization isn't where it needs to be overall. I think that if the Browns could find a good coach they could be in a good place longer term as they have a ton of cap space and a foundation of good young talent plus all of their future draft picks. But the trust in the Browns ability to improve as an organization remains questionable at best.

Darnold looked OK, he looked like a rookie, some good some bad. Clearly a player still learning the pro-game. I suspect that the Jets are probably going to try and trade Bridgewater to a QB thirsty team for a solid draft pick. While they start McCown until the bye week where Darnold starts the last 7 games of the season. Unless Darnold lights up week 3 of the pre-season I think the Jets air on the side of caution with Darnold.

Although I am anticipating a bit of regression in 2018 (I think this is a 6-10 team) I think the long term process is very much in place and the team is setting themselves up for massive success in 2019 and beyond. 2019 will bring a windfall of capspace to a team that has a good defense in place, a long term plan at QB, a young quality LT and some other pieces along the offense. The Bills will have 59 million in cap space but they should be able to roll over 10 million in cap space from 2018 bumping up that number to 69 million. But the Bills should also have plenty of big salaries that they can dump if the players are under performing. Jerry Hughes, Shady, Charles Clay, Trent Murphy, Chris Ivory, Vlad, Andre Holmes, Bodine and DiMarco could all be released to free up an additional 32 million in cap space while only eating 12 million in dead cap. Now obviously not all of those players will be released but simply releasing Ivory, Holmes, Vlad, DiMarco and Bodine would free up 10 million in cap and I do suspect one or two out of Hughes, Shady, Clay and Murphy will either be released or have a contract restructured. So the Bills should have between 70-95 million in cap space headed into 2019 with a full complement of draft picks. Although cap space isn't a panacea and the Bills will have to resign some of their own talent but the Bills should have enough space even after taking care of their own (Benjamin is the only player in 2019 they have to immediately resign.) So the Bills could easily use their cap space to sign 2-3 starters and retain Benjamin if he has a strong season while still keeping longer term roster flexibility. Plus they have the draft. to supplement the roster. TLDR Although 2018 might see some regression the Bills have a good plan and philsophy in place.

I am not sold on Ivory but unless there was an injury at RB I think the team is comfortable with Ivory and Murphy behind Shady.

I that is where the speed and first step comes in. Shaq can't out power NFL players and be consistently effective. My hope is the speed off the edge makes it easier for him to make that adjustment to his play.

I thought Shaq played the run well last season before he got hurt. But he never really got any sort of pressure. Hopefully, that quick first step combined with his power results in a better pass rush. Shaq has been pretty banged up his first two seasons so it isn't surprising to me that in his third season he is still looking like he has work to do, but he also looks like he is getting there. Hopefully he stays healthy and can focus on progressing his game with more pass rush moves and the finer points.

If Shaq has a breakout season and ends up being the fixture to the pass rush that the team drafted him to be that's a gigantic plus for the defense going forward. Having Shaq emerge as a prime pass rusher turns the defenses oldest and most questionable unit into a very respectable one and one that has a good young piece anchoring it. Really rooting for Shaq.

I think Zay can turn it around. Zay was known for his hands in college and his struggles last year seemed to be mental. I think his off-season incident might have been a blessing in disguise. It might have allowed him the "Bottoming out" moment that he needed to properly reassess his mental state. I think Zay can in 2018 hold down the slot receiver position over Kerley. I am especially optimistic for Zay with KB looking good and the acquisition of Coleman, those two will hopefully will allow Zay to play out of the slot more where I think he can thrive. He should at least play limited snaps. I can't see why he wouldn't at least take 20-30 offensive snaps. If he is good to go in practice he should at least get some playing time.

1 good pre-season game and jumping a bust on the depth chart is a nice way to start a season but there is a long way to go before Chad becomes a starter, let alone before he is the next Tom Brady. I do agree though that the Bills should have drafted him, I would much rather have had Chad than Peterman on the roster.

4 is perfect, keep in mind if they only have 2 that doesn't mean you will be getting 2 more regular season games. In games 1 and 4 of the pre-season the starters either barely play (game 1) or they simply don't play (game 4.) To me the pre-season is paced perfectly. Game 1 - Is a warm up in the truest sense. The starters play 2-3 drives to shake the rust off while the rest of the game goes to the depth players who get their chance to establish the depth chart for the rest of the pre-season. Game 2 - The first big rehearsal for the regular season. The starters play all or most of the first half and get it into gear for the regular season. The depth players get the second half to shine and the coaches get to get a look at who makes the roster. Game 3- The big gear up for the regular season. The starters play 2-3 drives into the second half and the rest of the game goes to the bench. This get the starters in gear for the season. Game 4- The starters don't do anything, but the depth players get the last chance to shine. This basically serves the purpose of giving the coaches one last chance to set their practice squads and the back end of the depth charts. While games 1 and 4 seem like filler they seem necessary for the coaching staff. I don't see anything wrong with the current structure of the pre-season.

I think the team will miss him somewhat. Edumonds will have some growing pains, Brown wasn't anything special but he was steady and a leader on the defense.

I always look forward to the 2nd and 3rd preseason games. The middle two pre-season games are the "dress rehearsals" for the regular season. Coaches play the starters for almost the entire 1st half in game 2 and about half way into the 3rd quarter in game 3. The 1st pre-season game is usually just 2 or 3 drives of starters than 2nd and 3rd and 4th stringers the rest of the way. The starters don't even play the 4th game the 4th game is mostly for 2nd, 3rd and a few 4th string players to get their last chance to cement roster spots and depth chart spots.

The worst part about that clip is that the runner put his head down. They changed the rule stating that a runner leading with his head would get a penalty but they don't seem to be calling it a lot and now this new rule is just putting even more burden on the defense to be safe while runners are almost being rewarded for lowering their heads (increasing the possibility of drawing a penalty.)

I would eliminate the kick off and replace it with the "Schiano Rule" awhile back Schiano proposed that instead of a kickoff the ball be placed on the the 35 yardline and the team that just scored be given the ball on a 4th and 15. The team can elect to punt (which is a safer play than a kickoff and still preserves special teams or instead of an onsides kick (which is an ugly random play) the team can go for it on that 4th down. My only modification to the rule would be make it a 4th and 20 since the odds of converting a 4th and 15 is roughly 20% while recovering an expected onsides kick is 5.9%. I think adding 5 more yards puts the conversion rate well below 10%, still above an onsides kick a much closer margin. It makes too much sense to replace the kickoff with a 4th and 20 in my opinion. It makes the onsides kick process much closer to a real play while replacing kickoffs with punts which are safer and more dynamic.

Peterman had a good game but I think people going nuts over it are silly. For one its the first pre-season game, although not as meaningless as the 4th it is one that carries less weight. I also caution that Peterman looked like a world beater in last years pre-season and we all know he wasn't ready. There are just some players that shine much better in pre-season than they do in the real games. I think that Peterman is one of those types of players.

You have to be a massive degenerate gambler to bet on NFL pre-season games where the outcomes are likely to be decided by 2nd, 3rd and 4th string players. Also, the lines factor in the backup players, so the line is absolutely meaningless. Don't get too caught up about pre-season scores and such, to me in the 2nd and 3rd pre-season games (I find the 1st to not be meaningful and the 4th to be a complete waste) you are looking at how certain players perform and getting a feel for who is setting themselves apart.

Allen looked like the raw but tantalizing potential prospect he was coming out of college. It's week one of pre-season so I can't get too hyped either way about it. Allen did his thing, some good and some bad. But I think it is clear from what I watched that it is in Allen's best interest to sit for most of this season. If there is 4-5 games left and the season is lost then start Allen with a low-pressure low expectation situation benefiting him. If Allen is rushed in too early it might derail his development.

1st pre-season game. Who cares, as long as no one got hurt the Bills come up ontop.

Jamis Winston has finished 11, 12 and 13 in pass yards the past 3 seasons. In 3 seasons he has thrown for 69 TD's vs 44 INT's. He also has two 4,000 yard seasons under his belt. Tampa's offenses under Jamis have finished 5th, 18th, and 9th respectively. Now there is a lot of context in those numbers as Tampa's record with Jamis as QB isn't that great (6-10. 9-7 and 5-11 respectively) and their defense has been pretty awful which certainly inflates stats esp passing offense stats. But Jamis to me is without a doubt a top 20 QB at this moment and has potential to be a top 10 QB in the league. The off the field issues are certainly concerning but to say on the field he is a bottom third of the league QB is dishonest. I can name 12 QB's Jamis is better than. AJ McCaron, Joe Flacco, Bradford/Rosen, Keenum, Josh McCown/Darnold, Maholmes, Tannehill, Tyrod, Dalton, Trubinsky, Dak and Bortles are all QB's that are in my opinion worse than Jamis I will grant that you could argue Flacco and Dalton but I also think you could argue putting Jamis over Alex Smith, Mariota, Goff, Jimmy G and DeSean Watson all for various reasons. So I think the issue stems from him not being worth it off the field to risk a large QB contract and faith in a player that might give you headaches off the field.

I want to be clear I never said that it was all Trump supporters, I said a minority but a significant minority. Trump has a rabid core fanbase and his reaction to any criticism legitimate or exaggerated is to proclaim it "Fake News" I think within his most diehard supporters Trump has created a sort of us vs. them attitude towards the media that can lead to a view that is authoritarian. I am not going to pretend that CNN or any other news outlet is beyond reproach or criticism but there is a lot of legitimate hard news that comes out of any news agency whose commentary you might view as biased. It's not as though Trump is just going after one outlet either.

The issue to me is that Trump has gone after any sort of reporting that is negative about him as "Fake News." It's not as though Trump has taken this aggressive stance with nuance. He has generated a very hostile and conspiratorial attitude towards the media in general one that I think his rabid base has taken to.

I don't know if that assertion is true. Only because Trump has gone after the media much harder than any president has in modern history. Trump has repeatedly told his base of rabid followers the media is the enemy and constantly lying about him. Conservatives also have a natural instinct to believe that most of the media has a liberal bias so the narrative is tapping into a long-standing belief. Are there Dems who would want a Dem to have that power? Yes, there are a chunk of Dems that are Authoritarian cunts. But I don't think that it is as high as the current Trump base whose leader is actively telling them how much the media is the enemy.

It wouldn't shock me to think that a significant minority of Republicans would want Trump to have that sort of power. Is it 43%? I don't know, that poll was just one piece of data. You need to do much more polling with more conclusive methods to come to an honest answer or at least one that is more accurate. But Trump does have a weird cult of personality that unlike other past pols who have had similarly devoted fanbases are very conspiratorially minded. That aspect of conspiracy and isolation (Everyone but Trump is a part of the Deep State) makes me very concerned. There are some Trump supporters who genuinely believe the entire government, media, world governments and basically anyone who isn't supporting him is part of a global conspiracy against him. I understand fully that it isn't a large legion of Trump supporters but it isn't that small of a group either.

That is a very odd piece of data, because if you are part of the 43% that think Trump should have the power to censor the press than you are effectively believing in ending freedom of the press in a very major capacity. So it just doesn't make sense to me that 43% of people would want a person in the highest level of government office to be able to censor the press an institution which you believe is essential for American democracy. It just seems like the two ideas are very much at odds with each other.

I think people are thinking that the dude cheerleaders will be dressed exactly the same as the female ones. The college look will probably resemble what this looks like in the pros.