BADOLBILZ

Yep we thought it was all a bunch of BS..........it didn't look like a bad injury and the details about how bad it was came out long after the season............maybe not until spring training with the Royals.

I really hadn't even considered tagging Jordan Phillips until now............IMO he really stinks against the run. He has that NT weight and that's what people see....... but he's really tall and long legged so the kind of pad level that might work for DJ Reader doesn't work for him and I'm not sure if he will ever be willing or able to play with better leverage against the run. But if teams go crazy tagging more prospective UFA's than expected............it might be a good idea to tag him late in the process and then take your chances that he might sign it while you negotiate with alternatives like Covington or Gerald McCoy or Vernon Butler etc..

The Patriots offense has finished 12th, 20th and 25th in ypa the last 3 seasons..........its not some production inflating RB offense like Roman/Lynn or maybe Dallas with their great OL were in that 2015-2016 time. 1st round stud Sony Michel averaged 3.7 ypa for them last year. Nothing extraordinary happened to Eric Wood..........he had a troubling physical going into the offseason for what would have been his age 32 season and was advised to call it quits.............it was totally unnecessary for them to extend him in the summer of 2017..........it wasn't near the top of anyone's to-do list. They did that and added $2M in incentives to McCoy's contract in an attempt to buy their support for "the process". That ended up being $12.5M in wasted cap space. But like guaranteeing Star his 2020 contract it all seems okeedokee if you make strong assumptions about health and production that you shouldn't with an old and/or declining player.

When you look at the great stats that's the only conclusion one can make.............but there is something missing there, IMO. He has a good track record for 4th quarter comebacks too......... but I wasn't surprised at all when the Lions came into Buffalo with a great defensive gameplan for Josh Allen and still lost. I'd be surprised if a team lead by Brady, Brees, Roethlisberger........even Rivers........had come in and lost a game like that to a rookie QB..........it would be memorable..........but with Stafford it's just another W against a losing team.

The thing I am talking about is called a "winter crane fly". It's a dead ringer for a mosquito and is cool with 35-45 degree weather. But you might have just had a dormant mosquito wake up. Maybe he flew in your freezer in the summer and fell out and thawed when you were getting out some freezer burned waffles?

Yeah I think the fact that he's working in broadcasting right now and I think is getting good reviews for his work(he's been good, IMO) is likely to lean him more toward retirement. If he didn't have a job yet it might be a different story.

I know there is a spindly mosquito like fly........a little smaller than those big male mosquitoes............that will fly around in 35-45 degree buildings where the air is still. They are harmless. I assume they need some kind of produce to hatch out of so maybe if you have them you have food in your garage? Sometimes you will see 4-5 of them buzzing around together. Never seen massive amounts of them so they seem to be not big reproducers. I remember looking them up online and seeing what they were but can't remember what they were called.

Is there a more enigmatic player in the NFL? I could be wrong about him but I've just gradually developed the impression that he isn't a great competitor. I was really high on him early in his career and then I remember reading a story about him that kinda' painted him as both not a big details guy about football but a real details guy about the design aspects of his oppulent home. I'm not saying he's not tough or that he isn't pretty good in 4th quarters...........but I think that you can be those things and still be a "want to win" guy rather than a "committed to win" guy. Maybe a change of scenery and going to a place where he knows effort will equal results.......like NE.........would change him. I hope to not find out.

Oh I am glad they got 3 players out of that draft. But when you get a late pick in trade and you hit on it........while missing on prior picks.......it's not a sign of calculated drafting genius.........the Bills literally had their greatest draft blunder ever in that draft(Mahomes) and they whiffed on Zay Jones when Curtis Samuel, Juju and Cooper Kupp were the next 3 WR selected. As for how Gillislee did.........he was bad but so were the Bills RB's(in a Shanahan style offense geared to inflate RB production.......uh....well......previously). Both MG and McCoy inished under 4 ypc.......less than league average.........after McCoy had 5.4 and Gillislee a league leading 5.6 in 2016. Gillislee in NE had 5 TD's and 25 first downs as a short yardage back. One of the TD's was a dagger against Buffalo in McDermott-loss-to-Belichick version 2.0. Mike Tolbert had 1 TD and 9 first downs and 2 fumbles in just 66 carries........and drew the ire of Bills fans for his ineffectiveness despite such limited use.......so yeah Gillislee was still better than the alternative. Ultimately McDermott came in and took an offense that had been highly productive..........the 2015-2016 Bills offense was their best 2 year stretch of production since 1990-1991...........and turned it into garbage with a terrible OC hire and some bad decisions at WR and a wafer thin RB corps. They still haven't recovered offensively 3 years later. The Gillislee decision didn't massively explode in their face like.......say....... Robert Woods turning into a 1200 yard WR or Stephon Gilmore becoming All-Pro. But trying to parse it off amidst a litany of other more glaring mistakes is just weird............it wasn't a smart decision to not tender the guy a $2.5M offer when he had just lead the league in ypc and short yardage conversion. For perspective they signed reserve OL Ryan Groy $2.5M for that season and then two months later unnecessarily extended Eric Wood's contract which lead to a whopping $10.4M dead cap hit in 2018. Just brutal decision making. Gillislee was just one of many bizarre choices that offseason.

I had one of those Daniel Boone hats when I was a kid but mine had a raccoon tail in the back.

Yeah don't find that article..........it's not going to make the "not like those Rams" narrators happy if the Rams starting lineup was younger than the Bills(which seems likely as they were one of the younger rosters in the league and swapped out numerous 30+ year old starters for rookies and Jalen Ramsey etc.).

More like hacked in the act........2 shots. That 1974-1975 season where he averaged over 34 points and 14 rebounds was probably the second greatest individual season ever by a Buffalo pro athlete. The year before he averaged 31 and 15. Shaquille O'Neal never averaged as many points OR rebounds in any season as McAdoo had in those two years. He was unbelievable for a few years.

You initiated a complaint with me over something that didn't happen. I was not adamant about the Bills signing David Harris. You did the same thing before over MIKE GILLISLEE..........who I wanted the Bills to put a higher tender on..........BIG DEAL......they didn't do it and the Bills RB's ypc dropped over a yard and a half!.......not doing something and then performing poorly is NOT a sign that a good decision was made. These complaints you have are incredibly small, just petty..........the subject matter is insignificant even in the context of it being a pastime. You should be embarrassed to have brought up something that you recalled incorrectly to start with............it makes you look senile.

So how about that take on Reggie Ragland? Was I right in mocking your notion that he was the next Ray Lewis? Did you find the post where you swear I was "banging the table loudly for David Harris to be signed" as you claimed? In hindsight it doesn't really sound like I was that adamant........does it? Funny how you mis-remember things ol' timer.

Jacksonville also tanked for 5 years.......and then had a 4th quarter lead in the AFC Championship game in New England. But then there were the next 2 seasons. Like I said.......since Indy in 1998 nobody has tanked and gone from there to SUSTAINED success. Patriots, Steelers, Seahawks, Packers, Ravens........these teams have been the most consistent contenders of the first two decades of this century and have won 12 of the first 20 Super Bowls.........and they never tanked.

@Thurman#1 is making massive excuses here......there is a CHASM between Star Lotulelei and the best space eaters........he is not even good at the job. Snax is a NT playing head up on the OL in front of him and still routinely makes 70+ tackles per season.............he literally keeps his LB's clean...........and not every team thinks even a guy like Snax is worth the money he gets. Ideally the DT1T in McDefense can make plays in the backfield as well............like Star did as a rookie. It's not a NT position where the guy just has to hold up blocks for the big MLB to come in and get clean shots on RB's...........a DT1T should be able to tackle a RB. Harrison Phillips tackles RB's so the Bills at least have that when he returns.

When the schedule got tough the Bills played like a "wildcard contender". They had their chance to be more than that but they rode the easiest schedule the team has seen in 40 years to a 5th seed. And were once again SWEPT by the division champion Patriots. McDermott is 0-6 versus Belichick...........and some of those losses over that time were when the Pats were playing their worst football of the season...........so until you start winning some games against the division leader you aren't really a division contender...........and once you get there you gotta' start winning some meaningful games against other division winners and top seeds or you aren't a SB contender. As Bill Parcells said after turning the 1-15 Dolphins into a division winner the next season.........the climb from bad to decent is a lot easier than the next level up.

In the past 20 years the Peyton Manning Colts are the ONLY organization that has rose to any sustained success from bottoming out............the easiest way to greatness is from a start at .500 type level. Bills fans have often lamented mediocrity as a reason for not being able to take the next step but that's always been BS. The Bills are in a perfect position to take the next step...........but contrary to the retro-active narrative they actually were there under Marrone and Ryan as well...................you gotta' make the right moves to take the next step but it's there for the taking.

The highlighted is a total fabrication. I hadn't mentioned Harris since he re-signed with the Jets.........the Bills didn't have the option of signing him........he signed BEFORE UFA Gerry........he was NOT available. I'll help you out..........the transaction I think you are talking about was the Bills not trading for Brandon Marshall. I was all in on trading for him and hated the Percy Harvin signing. Marshall went on to have a 1500 yard 14 TD season with the Jets...........he fell off after that..........probably wasn't worth the long term contract but sure as hell beat paying Percy Harvin anything. And yes the Star signing was an admission of a mistake and they threw good money at bad to fix it. He didn't re-store the run defense to what it was prior to Dareus trade. In fact when teams want to run on the Bills the Bills still struggle to defense it. The WC game in Houston even turned on the Texans deciding to run the ball up the middle. It's still the achilles heel of an otherwise excellent defense.

Saying they are .500 and that certain pretty indicative metrics........like a huge negative point differential and a 30th ranked offense over 3 years.........suggest they are lucky to be .500............may disappoint you but it's there. Yes as you said we'd be disappointed to know that the new regime took over a team and proceeded to be .500 over the next 3 seasons coming off two regimes that played nearly the same .500 level football. No I would not have been surprised by a 9-7 and 10-6 season over the next 3 years because the team they inherited was talented enough to have been in the playoffs in any of the prior 5 seasons going back to the last year of Chan Gailey. I mean if you are upset by the thought of .500 you are then surprised to be 9-7, 6-10 and 10-6? That's a very short bridge to cross from where they were coming from. These "we never expected to make the playoffs anytime soon" retro-active takes come from a place that surely was not TBD. What it comes down to is that we want to PERCEIVE that something special is happening..........in reality it's been a very slow 7 year climb from Marrone's .500 teams to McD's "wildcard contention" level.

Jones had been mocked to the Bills and certainly made a lot more sense than Shaq. How Shaq was perceived as an OLB I still don't understand. That draft was close to the worst case scenario of "drafting for need". And most people on here LOVED it. Shaq, Ragnuts and Adolphus...........all needs that should have been addressed in free agency or trade...........but they had been exceptionally wasteful with those cap dollars the year prior. People who take the "we need one of those but we can get one later" approach to drafting look at the difference between Chris Jones and Adolphus Washington. Had to strike while the iron was HOT with Shaq.

I'm aware that Harris signed before free agency.......never did I say otherwise...........Ryan lamented him choosing to re-up with NY.........they wanted Harris BADLY it was not a secret and only a fool would think that Harris wasn't made aware of that. If McDermott were bringing in a signal caller type to run his defense or a significant difference maker that is a different story. Hyde and Poyer were his scheme fit signings that offseason. Now had Thomas Davis hit UFA I would have been all over that.......and the Panthers actually made sure to extend Davis in summer of 2017 in a move that seemed like it was done specifically to prevent McDermott from signing him in the 2018 offseason(McD was obviously not pleased with his LB situation either). Lotulelei is just a generic DT1T with simple responsibilities........he's not calling the defense and he's so far been guaranteed $30M of his deal and has only played 2 seasons(of middling to poor football).

Yes. And btw when you are trying to point out what you consider "bad takes" by me from the past...........try to use takes where what I suggested wasn't done but still resulted in some kind of success. You pointed out my wanting the Bills to pay David Harris back in 2015 to take over Rex defense..........he chose to stay with the Jets despite the Bills great interest in signing him.........it wasn't just a wild idea..............and the Bills defense fell to 26th in DVOA in 2015 because of assignment mistakes which Preston Brown was specifically scapegoated for. So then they used a #2 and two #4's to draft Reggie Ragnuts in 2016! More chaos on defense. Double fail. Their struggles at signal caller on D likely cost them a couple playoff trips and the defensive struggles caused a regime change. So yeah that team would have been better off with Harris at $7.5M per for a couple seasons. He was in decline and playing in a Todd Bowles defense where his experience was less important than his lack of foot speed. but he didn't fall off a cliff.

He's 31 and has been in decline for many years...........don't see NT types(read: DT1T who doesn't make tackles) playing into their mid 30's anymore.........it's not like pass rushers........this is the end of the road for him in the NFL.........his next contract will be coaching at a HS in Utah.

Over 17 games Murphy produced 7 sacks 1 INT 2 FF and 2 FR..........he's a long defender who has a knack for getting his hands on the football and he just turned 29 in December in a league where pass rushers are getting paid well into their 30's so he's probably very motivated to have a great season and get another contract. The money they saved guaranteeing Star his pay for 2020 is a pittance but it will offset any roster bonuses Murphy will earn this offseason. And then if they get to August and Murphy is looking like the 6th best DE they can cut him(or possibly trade him) and save $6.5M in cap space. Makes zero sense to cut him now.