Buddo

In the UK, Suh is doing some studio work for Sky Sports, who are our ‘local’ broadcaster for the NFL. All I will say, is that he looks in prime health, and would be ready to strap ‘em on immediately. This isn’t necessarily advocating his signing, merely the observation that he looks fit and ready to go.

Spectacular. Talk about a possible momentum changer. We go out and put points up from the kick off, and we will be right back in the game, although now, even if we didn’t score, we are back in business.

The local broadcast is atrocious. Might ave to turn the sound off. Because the commentary is so dire.

He was crap. Marrone, also chucked EJ under a bus against the Texans, to get him in.

Simply excellent. Hoping the injuries aren’t too bad though. if. Josh keeps playing like this, we will be well in with a shout of the whole thing.

A possible alternative could be a National Express coach service into London Victoria. Cost to get that far into the City would be considerably less, and an Uber/black cab from there to wherever you are staying, would also be a lot cheaper. You will need to book in advance though (the coach), as they are bound to be extra busy due to the train/tube strikes.

Probably because the Cranberries were from the South, i.e. the Republic

Very enjoyable breakdown. That’s the Josh we want to see every week, ruthlessly efficient, with a few ‘wow’ moments. As Gunner says though, the Jest throws were simply unacceptably bad decisions, and unnecessary. Hero ball at its worst. Warner didn’t say it as such, but if either of the throws to Shakir or Gabe hadn’t ended it as TDs, that would have been ok, because the opportunity was there, whereas against the Jest, it wasn’t. That's where you take the ‘rough with he smooth’ with Josh, because both did end up as TDs due to his extraordinary ability.

The secondary does look a bit ‘sluggish’ atm, and age may have a bit to do with it, but I’m more inclined to the notion of getting back up to proper game speed, after injuries, tbh. I would also say that having the experience of both Hyde and Poyer back together, can make up for a small lack of pace. Being aligned correctly etc, will make way more difference than losing a half step somewhere. Very pleased with the amount of pressure the front 4 were getting even without Von,and the run D against Jacobs was exceptional.

Who needs to break tackles when you can just avoid them, which seemed o be very much the case with Cook last Sunday.

Nice post Shaw. I particularly like the ‘taking Josh behind he woodshed’ part, as it’s something that needs to be done to get the message across. Allen is all about ‘team’ in many respects, but I feel he needs reminding just how much his own performance can impact ‘team’, when he plays recklessly. The guys at he bottom end of the roster, need the extra bucks that wins give them, and Josh having a dumb game, costs them badly. Yet without them, you never get the win regardless. That’s ‘team’, and I also think it’s a message Josh will be open to.

The point about having owners with deep pockets, is important. Guarantees on players contracts, have to go into escrow, once the deal is signed. While the amount that guarantee is, is relevant to cap situations, he fact is that money has to be coughed up by ownership. Owners with deep pockets, can afford to throw several hundred million in guarantees into escrow. It isn't so simple as that for all owners. The Bengals would be a good example of this, as would the Raiders, neither of whose owners have large amounts of wealth outside of their franchises. The Bengals are going to have to pay out some substantial guarantees in the not too distant future, particularly to Burrow, and finding the liquidity to put those guarantees into escrow, isn't going to be easy for them.

McGovern is a good pass protector, and Harty is quick, but small, and is likely to be a McKenzie replacement.

I think more often than not, it's the player's agent, as they always seem to gain out of it. If the Cards don't want to eat any salary, the asking price is too high. It probably is anyway, even if they were prepared to eat all this year's salary. With a new GM and HC, and a contract with 3 years on it, I feel it's now or never for Hopkins to be traded. The new regime will either decide to let him see the deal out, or trade him this year. It's a relatively easy option to just trade him and get his numbers off the books, yet I don't see that that is as a necessity. Knowing where you are with him for the next three years, also gives certainty, of a different kind, but still lends itself to a long term plan.

Thing is, Campbell still is likely to be better than Epenesa or Basham, so even on a 1 year deal, represents another incremental upgrade.

With the extension for Milano, that saves them $6 million this year, I wonder if they are thinking about trying not to restructure as many of the contracts that they could.

Tua is simply too fragile as regards concussions. There's no way he makes it through a full NFL season without getting another one. All he did for the first one, was fall over backwards after a small push from Milano, and hit his head on the turf. To get him out of the game, all that has to be done, is to knock him on his arse a couple of times, going nowhere near his head. He really should be seriously considering his future, and it should be away from playing in the NFL. It's pretty sad really, but reality is often so.

Irrespective of anything else, I hope he and his are well and happy. Definitely hope to see him back soon.

People post links to articles from The Athletic all the time. You do need a subscription to read them though, and it's quite possible that whoever updates the articles on the page, doesn't have one. The Athletic also doesn't post stuff on a daily basis necessarily, either.

Not at all. Hodgkins couldn't stay healthy until his last year here, and even then we tried to keep him around. Iirc, we were struggling with injuries around the time he was released, and if nobody else had picked him up, he might well have been back on the practise squad, if not immediately, then within a short space of time. Hodgkins was lucky the Bills kept him around as long as they did - he could quite easily have been waived/injury settlement before his second year, and if he had been, would he even have still been on the Giants radar? Daboll deserved a shot, and has made the most of it. Having said that, it wasn't a bad spot for him to land. The Giants have some talent. Jones may not be top tier, but he does have the potential to be a genuine starting QB in the league, and with a healthy Saquon, he had enough to work with, at least on Offense, and getting Wink as his DC was a very good move.

I think we missed Hyde an awful lot more than we maybe give credit for. With both Poyer and Hyde in the backfiled, we get the secondary organised. Between them, they make sure that group knows exactly what they are supposed to be doing. The other aspect with both of them on the field, is that it gives more freedom for guys ahead of them to try and make a play, as they know they will be covered, if it goes wrong. I believe that that plays a lot into the soft coverage we saw too much of. Some of it is the players, and some of it the coaches. I say some of it is the players, as they don't want to give up the bigger plays, and are giving themselves a larger cushion because of it. I don't believe for one moment that they are told to play so far off at times. I think they were taking an extra yard or so for themselves when we were in 'prevent' from time to time. I think that that also is a result of not having confidence in the safety play behind them, with Hyde out, and Poyer playing banged up lot of the time. Tbh, the best player on the secondary, was comfortably Taron Johnson, who I thought was terrific throughout the year. The D-Line without Miller, wasn't impressive. His impact is twofold, in that not only does he make plays himself, but he frees others up to do so also. They obviously struggled without him, to generate any meaningful pass rush. Rousseau has talent, but simply isn't ready to be a focal point yet. As to Epenesa and Basham, I thought Lawson was far more use than either of them. Jones was a great signing, and was badly missed against the Bengals. He was definitely 'as advertised'. Settle wasn't as good as hoped for, and Phillips was simply too often injured. Oliver blows hot and cold, and I don't know quite what to make of him. He does have more good games than indifferent ones, by a decent margin, but you want him to be good consistently, and he still isn't. A starting front four of Miller, Oliver, Jones and Rousseau, is pretty decent, and when they were together, they performed well. The supporting cast, honestly, wasn't anywhere near as good, and it should have been, considering the resources used on it. For all of that, I feel they can 'run it back again' with the D, providing they re-sign Edmunds and Poyer, and look for improvements in health (White) and performance, with some promising talent in the secondary, that has gained valuable experience. On offense, we need better from the O-Line, and an obvious #2 receiver. 'Bombs away' as an offensive tactic, isn't going to ever work without both of those. We also need to pursue a better running game, but that can hopefully come with a better O-Line. Allen also needs to still work on taking what he's being given more. The end of the season had way too many big throw efforts, and I'm not convinced that they were necessarily the plays called. Schematically, I think there's a lot of room for growth on Offense, but much depends on getting the O-Line right. The last game was incredibly frustrating, and disappointing, but to me, it looked like (partly in retrospect) the Bills hit the emotional equivalent of the rookie wall, and were flat because of it. When all is said and done, this isn't a bad team. On its day it can still beat anyone, as it did to one of the SB finalists earlier in the season. There are obviously still areas where we can improve, and when you are a team that finished at 13-3 as your record, that to me is a 'glass half-full' situation.

I suppose we could do. At least that would give a good excuse to use up most of our picks on Defense again. We won the Division and made the playoffs with an awful lot of disruption. Maybe it's time to remember that we are still a good team, and changing the way our D operates, isn't the wisest course. We probably need another guy who can be disruptive on the D-Line, but much of the problems have stemmed from not having all of our best guys available when we needed them to be.

The best idea is to have the QB salary account for no more than a given percentage of the cap. I don’t think it can happen though. The NFLPA wouldn’t stand for it, for one thing, and for another, it makes there be little differentiation between franchise QBs. So Allen, Burrow, Mahomes etc. would all end up on the same money eventually. While many Owners and Front Offices could be in favour of it, as it would make their lives easier, I don’t believe the NFL as an entity would want it, as the constant speculation regarding QBs and their contracts, is part of the media grist for the mill, that keeps the game in the spotlight all the year round.

This might get ugly fast now.

Eagles got away with one there on the Smith 'catch'. For all the 49ers did a lot of good things on that drive, two things stood out, and that was the amount of time Hurts had just before the TD run, although he threw it away. The other thing was the fact that Sanders went in untouched, pretty much literally.