BADOLBILZ

It is obvious to me........but QB/WR1/LT/PassRush1/CB1............that's really just 5 to 8 players that change most games.........if you are even good/lucky enough to have that many. But good luck maintaining that many of those difference makers if you aren't using your early picks to do so. Also to be very clear about something you've seemingly misunderstood, RT is absolutely NOT a premium position. Like the centers and guards, RT can be covered up with a TE in the normal course of business.........because the right side is typically the strong side of the formation in the run game. I'm for drafting them if you find a talent there........but not in the first 2 rounds. You don't want to have to pay those guys.

First of all......you are conflating two concepts with your Jason Kelce point. My point is you should be able find a SB winning quality center all over the draft or cheap enough in UFA. If the need arises and you just can't find an answer outside of drafting one in the first two rounds.......then you might not be good at personnel. If you just voluntarily choose to go that route like, for instance, Philly(Kelce), Cinci(Price), Dallas(Frederick), Indy(Kelly) or KC(Humphrey)........then hey, that's just a choice. But once you take one in the first two rounds it should be assumed that they will be good because taking non-premium positions early is picking low hanging fruit. So for perspective on my opinion........I've been talking about the need to use early round picks on "premium" positions on TSW for over 20 years. Since back when a literal majority of NFL fans still thought drafting a RB in round 1 was one of the better uses of a first. To give a guide to that end......I used a positional grade scale that started with a QB at 10 and then the next number was pass rusher1/LT at 4. Spoiler alert in case I re-issue it: centers are very close to a dime-a-dozen on said scale. And while positions like WR and CB have moved around in the hierarchy.......centers have been gradually losing even more ground wrt positional value as the focus of the game has continued to move from the center of the field outward. Because ultimately, aside from QB, the plays that decide games are usually made by what I call "edge and island" players. WR/LT/PassRush/CB. For me, if there is going to be an exception to those positions drafted in the first 2 rounds then they have to be a guy who lines up on the LOS and catches passes. If you don't want to have a "process" and want to instead pick and choose when to select RB's, C's, MLB's, Nickel CB's or even safeties in the first 2 rounds........then have at it. I just think that's a slippery slope. I suspect that in the coming years.........after a few of these wannabe-Dave-Gettleman type GM's get fired for using early picks on non-premo positions because they don't realize that early round picks are also 8 figure value chips.........that personnel people will all be assigning a dollar value to those picks. IMO a 1st round pick should be used on a player who has a $20M-$30M ceiling that the drafting team should have zero hesitation about allocating that $ to if the player meets or exceeds said expected ceiling. 2nd rounder? $15M+ and rising. The strikes against Humphrey are that: A) He plays the position on offense which has the second most help afforded to it (behind RB). B) It has to be a tough decision for the Chiefs if Humphrey wants open market money or close to it. They've proven multiple times now how reticent they are to have top dollar invested in a center since Reid arrived there. And if you think I am picking on Humphrey.........one of the more compelling arguments in favor of what I am saying was the 2009 Bills drafting an pro bowl center in round 1(Eric Wood) and a "highest paid guard in the league"(Andy Levitre) and All Pro safety(Jairus Byrd) in round 2. When it came time for second contracts........the Bills weren't in any cap bind.........but they couldn't justify paying a guard or safety top money. I predicted it when they drafted them and I was dead on. It is what it is with those positions.

Yeah the Bills were a total mess at OL heading into 2019 free agency period and the reality is that in most offseasons the best OL players available in UFA are going to be interior OL. They needed 4 new OL and given that Beane had botched it so badly to that point I totally understood that decision. They were absolutely desperate. And the other thing about Morse at the time was that he was a potentially versatile piece as a center in a tackles body(with tackle experience). One of the knocks I have on Humphrey is that I don't think he would be as nearly as good of a guard as he is a center. And given that centers are pretty easy to find that's a quandary for me if I am paying him $15M-$20M. But in general: Draft tackles Pay guards in UFA find centers

I'd surely rather not pay a center big money but drafting centers or RB's in the first two rounds would just not be part of my process. The juice isn't worth the squeeze. Humphrey is an outstanding center but you don't need one of those to win. The other 4 OL positions are more impactful in the NFL today. And no I'm not contradicting myself saying you neither pay RB's or Centers top money nor draft them early. You do NEITHER. You can find good enough versions of players at those positions across the board or cheap in UFA. If you can't, you just aren't a good at evaluating personnel as an organization.

They also drafted Clyde Edwards Helaire in round 1 the very draft prior and have eschewed paying a RB since all the way back when they had Jamal Charles. There is no doubt Humphrey stood out on the board if you don't consider positional value at all. It's possible that they were buying into drafting ready-to-play but devalued positions early and using them up for 4-5 seasons and discarding them at the time that they made those draft decisions. Personally I think the early pick part is an idiotic approach to devalued positions..........but it's apparently a real mindset according to those who talk to GM's. Fwiw Mitch Morse hasn't been a liability for the Bills.........he's probably been their most consistent OL the past 2 seasons...........and I fully expect Bates to be able to step in and be the same quality for a few more years at a bargain price after Morse is done. Meanwhile, someone will be paying Humphrey $15M-$20M while the other 4 lineman around him are more important to the success of their offense. My hope would be that the Bills can focus on the 4 more important OL positions with top dollars and premium assets. But if you want to dream on early round centers.........do what makes you happy.

Centers are sorta' like RB's. Use em' up and move on. But don't draft them early. For all the talk about Humphrey from some Bills fans.........what they don't talk about is how KC moved on from their previous very good centers in Rodney Hudson and Mitch Morse because they didn't want to pay a center good money. Sure Hudson went on to be a a perennial pro bowler and even an All Pro one season after he left KC.........and Morse could have been a solid center for KC for many years and sured up that spot and they could have used that Humphrey pick elsewhere. But NOT PAYING a center is sound decision making. Centers aren't that hard to find and the position is a bit devalued with the league getting away from defense's that line up big run stuffing NT's directly over the center. Creed Humphrey is a fine player but the reality is that he spends half his time in pass pro blocking air and deciding which guard to help block. The Bills were a dumpster fire organization who needed 4 new OL when they got to UFA after 2018 and because Mitch Morse was just a center he was about the best OL they could overpay to get. I didn't like the Basham pick and said so here at the time........but I wouldn't have wanted the Bills to draft Humphrey either. Humphrey is likely to fall somewhere between $15M-$20M aav after this season or next........I'd want no part of that for the rest of the "Josh Allen era".

The discussion is elbow injuries which I expanded to concern about his throwing arm itself, in general. Rodgers has had his share of nagging injuries.........especially as he's aged..........and he's had injuries to both calves between OTA's and camp this year as well. But other than the two broken collarbones(which I've often referenced when pointing out injuries that Josh is susceptible to due to his style of play) that's the extent of shoulder/elbow injuries that Rodgers has had in 18 years in the NFL. His arm is pretty much the same as it's ever been. Elbow pain from repetitive injury can really end it for a QB. See Jim Kelly and his hematoma for an elbow late in his career........or more recently Ben Roethlisberger.

You haven't read any fan-boy level praise from me..........you got suckered by renowned fake-ass troll account @4merper4mer and now you are really leaning into your idiocy. The thread is full of warranted criticism of players and Hal and Cashman for what they've done to an organization that has no business not winning 95-100 games every year and winning WS on the regular.

Another one is that "google search" thing. Wtf is that and why would I type something into it?

I'm very aware that Rodgers fractured his collar bone in 2013 and 2017...........but by your logic those don't count........because Josh Allen's two collar bone breaks don't count because they happened in a similarly distant time frame between 2011 and 2015. As for the elbow.........Josh Allen has had two UCL tears in 5 years in the NFL and Rodgers has had none in 18 years(15 as starter). I know what the question was. I very clearly addressed that in the first sentence of my response to the OP so maybe go back, read that and get back in your bottle. My point stands.........he's had more arm/shoulder/collar bone injuries in over a decade less of football than Aaron Rodgers. He's also had more rushing attempts thru age 26 than Rodgers had until his age 35 season. It's common knowledge that Allen is putting a lot of hard miles on his body.

I've never called the Yankees "well run" anywhere on TSW ever. I mean, obviously. Man you are a gullible idiot.

Yes......."(we) did sign Aaron Judge to a $360,000,000 contract" is exactly what Hal wants fans to focus on. Forget the fact that they used to spend 2/3 of their revenue on talent every year and not bat an eye..........but now they spend 1/3 or less of their revenue on talent and are sure to remind us just how much they spend relative to the rest of the league(like that matters when most of those other teams have a fraction of their revenue). One of my favorites was the company line that no other MLB team lost as much revenue during covid as the Yankees. Well no *****........your revenue dwarfs that of teams like Pittsburgh or Cinci to start with. That's like a guy making $250K per year saying he lost more money by a work stoppage than a guy who was making $40K at the same company. And btw........what's lost in the Judge deal is that they were somehow not even the highest bidder! They got a hometown discount from Judge or they were even letting him walk.

You call yourself a degenerate or "degenerative" gambler and you don't know how to look this stuff up? That's idiot level online intelligence........I mean you have some limitations but I don't think you are THAT dumb. And why does it matter if serious injuries/surgeries happened in HS/college/pro's specifically? The slate doesn't get wiped clean........they can add up. Allen has had two UCL tears to his throwing elbow since 2018.........that isn't an every QB occurrence. You know that right?

In fairness, George did the same thing in the 80's. After basically buying two pitching staffs worth of hurlers and every good hitter he could get his hands on to keep his championship teams stocked in the mid-late 70's.......and proving that model wins.....George got down with the other owners and colluded against free agents in the 80's. George agreed not to bid on certain players.......most egregiously Jack Morris........which made it more than obvious from a civil perspective that the owners were working together to keep salaries down because the Yanks were pitching starved. Much like Hal in recent years that turned out to be George's Verlander/Harper/Freeman/Seager type WTF-why-didn't-they-get-that-perfect-fit-guy? moment. Comes down to this........greed expands. When George was pulling in south of $300M in revenues and had a $200M+ payroll in the early 2000's he was probably pretty pleased with himself about how much he was raking in relative to his expenses while not sacrificing the product on the field. Now Hal is pulling closer to $1B in annual revenues on a $290M payroll. The profits were once a fraction of the payroll........now it's the other way around. If you wonder why there is a "Yankees tax" when it comes to trades it's because a lot of owners resent very much that the Yanks aren't sharing more of that revenue. They set up these luxury tax thresholds in lieu of a hard cap to get access to Yankee money and Hal has since tried to juggle winning while not sharing their outrageous profits instead of doing what the league expected..........for them to pridefully keep spending to evade parity. But Hal has no shame at this point and pocketing billions of dollars organizationally over the last decade is why. Their profit expectations have changed. What's amazing is the lengths that they've gone at times to avoid paying just a few million in luxury tax. It has just made no sense from a competitive standpoint. It's almost spiteful. Axisa's column touches on that a bit but is even a bit understated, IMO.

Yes their current streak of 30 straight winning seasons in the second longest among the 4 major US sports(baseball, football, basketball, hockey)............second only to their own streak from the 1920's to 1960's. They really should just bring up some young players and put guys like Stanton and LeMahieu on the 60 day IL to open up at bats....... because 6.5 games out of the WC is a lot this late and with their starting pitching now in shambles they don't have a legitimate shot to make that up. But I suspect Hal will want them to try to keep up the streak of winning seasons at the expense of development. Because he and Cashman have been poo-pooing the criticism of their team building pretty consistently until recently and salvaging a 82-80 season would save them a ton of embarrassement. Them they could save some face and point at teams like the Mets, Padres and Cardinals and say AT LEAST they didn't finish like those high expectation/losing results sh!t shows.

Considering the history of sprained elbows he probably should wear a compression sleeve all the time anyway. I think fans should assume that his arm strength will diminish over time like most QB's not named Brady/Rodgers. Because he takes a ton of hits and has had more shoulder/collarbone/elbow injuries than you'd like to see. That stuff is likely to add up. Until he starts getting committed to self preservation/longevity at a level like Brady or even Rodgers I'm not going to be penciling him in as QB1 in 2033.

Yeah and it's a long list but it's actually among the best preseason draft primers too. Harbor will be fun to follow. I thought he was going to Miami back in January but South Carolina reeled him in.

I'd also say that throwing a WR screen to a big, slow-starting WR like Shavers makes no sense in the first place. They haven't really had the kind of guy you need to turn one of those into a huge play since John Brown in 2020 but hopefully Sharty at least brings something like that to the table(or at least more than Lil' Dummy did).

Nobody has a better grasp of the Yankees organization than Axisa, IMO. The 1 thing I will add to his piece is: 1. When you win for 30 straight years...........while the league is understandably continually changing rules trying to create more parity in the sport........there has become only one good way to stay ahead of it. Accepting that you need to spend more EVERY year. And while Axisa talks about the decisions to cut and conserve payroll at times during the period what he should be saying is that the cost of maintaining a winning program EVERY YEAR without any tank jobs is to be spending considerably more every year. This team should have gradually built itself up to a $400M+ payroll by now and they should never take an offseason off of shopping for star talent like they did with Harper/Machado because you don't know what the next class will bring or if the few stars in one class will be afraid of playing in NY. No excuse for them ever to not be #1. Highest revenues and most valuable team in their sport.

Yeah to put it in perspective........last year at this time Shakir was having an excellent preseason and was a virtual lock to make the team........Bernard had just picked up a fumble and taken it to the house so there was optimism there.......fans were delighted that Benford was looking like a real steal...........Elam and Cook were still on their honeymoon with fans. Torrence and Williams flashed in the preseason game but their camp reports have been less glowing. The Kincaid hype seems to be very warranted though. Overall this class has lacked the volume of prospects that the 2022 class had..........but I do think the top 3 picks have more long term impact potential than the top 3 picks last season did. Beane kinda' botched day 1 and day 2 of a pretty deep draft class in 2022, IMO. All you gotta' do is look at the potential of Dorian Williams versus Bernard. Coming away with Bernard at about the same spot in a better draft was not good.

https://theathletic.com/4768413/2023/08/15/bruce-feldman-college-football-freaks-list/ It's out.......if you have access to The Athletic: Top 3 1. Nyckoles Harbor WR South Carolina 2. Marvin Harrison WR Ohio State 3. Kingsley Suamataia OT BYU Harrison and Suamataia are draft eligible this year......Harbor is a 6'5" 240# freshman "athlete" recruit who has apparently chosen to focus on WR. Lot of DL and OL in the top 20 this year but the list goes to 101. For those unfamiliar it's players of unusual size and athleticism........hence, freaks.

Yeah it was LAST YEAR that Gabe Davis put all that muscle on to help take him to the next level..........this year he got rid of all that unnecessary weight to help get him back to his old level.......and presumably THEN take him to the next level? I think @ChronicAndKnuckles was really feeling whatever he was ingesting. What would make Gabe Davis more efficient is about 50% less targets. Best chance for that is maybe Kincaid becoming a focal point of defense's. No CB1 out there is the least bit worried about having to defend Gabe Davis while Diggs gets doubled on the other side.

It's not accurate. He had 3 drops on just 27 targets. The 3rd being a huge one in the WC game that literally flipped the momentum from 3 score blowout in progress to a tie game 2 minutes later. For reference Gabe Davis had 9 drops on 93 targets which was among the league's very worst. So basically the same level of reliability as that.

He already has no trade value right now, obviously. If he doesn't return to All Pro level quality this season his contract will continue to make him untrade-able. Top CB salaries have stagnated recently so even a 10M base+bonus cap hit would be a significant investment for a 29 year old zone CB. They could just sign Dane Jackson for less than half that, probably. And the Tre' White Bills contract has options that are due in March so teams will know that there will be pressure on the Bills to cut him, which further diminishes his value unless the contract can be seen as a bargain.

What market is going to be building a new NFL stadium without a dome? Unpleasant weather used to be the rationale. But once they put a dome in LA and then when they will subsequently put them in other largely temperate markets like Charlotte and Nashville..........I think it's pretty clear that the reason is not the type of weather it's that ANY weather is bad for the business model.