dpberr

For sure. In part: Movies are no longer primarily made for American audiences. Studios don't have the stomach for the independent film. Production is watered down by the 50,000 companies and their executives that are cobbled together to fund a movie. Nearly every film has a battalion of writers that waters down ideas with group think. Can't offend the Chinese, and that's largely why comedy, romance comedy, war movies and any sort of movie like Basic Instinct - are no longer "big" movies.

Slightly worse. Injuries already. I think the 2024 special teams is especially fragile. Athleticism at Safety is improved, but you can't ignore the corporate knowledge that's departed. I find WR talent-wise a wash, and more dangerous from a playbook perspective, but it'll take time for the QB/WR timing to gel. Just a general impression this team - from coaches down - looks disinterested already.

Steelers have lost their way. A franchise that's become complacent with mediocrity. Russell Wilson isn't going to be the savior. No playoff wins since 2016, and they keep trying to band-aid to stay competitive every year to keep their vets happy and fans in the seats instead of a strategic down year or two.

I think one of the positives in the players the Bills bring to camp is that the majority of them are legitimate football players who understand the game of football, and who can understand and absorb a football playbook. You don't see a lot of track stars or phenomenal athletes "moonlighting" as football players on this team annually. Those are the guys who run the wrong routes, blow the coverages, miss assignments and have no instinct for the game because in college, they didn't learn football. Some wonder why a guy like Denzel Mims can't stick on a roster. Sure he's fast. Gifted athlete. However, he's always been a sloppy route runner, with poor concentration, has never improved his route running, and he's rarely where he's supposed to be on the field.

Not only does Rodgers have to stay healthy, already a big if, he also has to stay interested and engaged, and I just don't think he is. I think his enjoyment of the game retired two seasons ago, when the Packers lost 5 in a row in 2022. That was it.

bull#### "I have to write something" article. I don't see the big deal about getting exactly one pass thrown your way and not catching it. I think every WR is going to struggle in Denver. Nix will struggle once the games count and the soft serve vanilla defenses disappear.

Negativity and anger is generally the result of an unmet expectation, and for most of us, there' a legitimate pain felt when expectations we have aren't met. To be fair, the Bills sometimes exceed our expectations, like beating the Chiefs in the regular season, or the no-punt game, or getting to the AFC Championship game. Or you see Josh Allen be cool in the playoffs, and then first game back the next season, he's super erratic. (Jets last year.) Or they go get Von Miller, and then he gets injured. I think a lot of older fans who experienced the Super Bowl era have a lot of stress from the highs of those championship runs and the lows of the actual Super Bowl game. The Four Falls of Buffalo is cathartic to some, painful for others. Those types of games and events create significant emotional highs, and it often lures us into reframing an expectation.

The Bills need to look at Eric Ciano's approach to strength and conditioning this coming off-season, especially in his injury reduction strategy and program. If he has one, it's not great. I don't know why he continues to get a free pass - he's in charge of the conditioning and keeping these players on the field. I don't know if players are going too hard in the off-season, or not enough, or doing a wrong program, or not enough stretching, or wrong equipment. It's not just bad luck. They should have done this this past off season as the Bills OL looked gassed by halftime every game last year, and the injuries took hold in every unit. It got absurd last year when the Bills trotted out both an injured punter *and* kicker.

I'm pretty sure ESPN is given a budget for the on-air personalities, and RG3 and Sam Ponder had to go for Jason Kelce. "He's so zany!" they will say. Remember, ESPN is now all about filling the airtime as cheaply as possible, and you'll probably see Jason Kelce everywhere, much to your growing displeasure. RG3 probably declined hosting the Scripps Annual Spelling Bee. Jason probably has a lot of "other duties as assigned."

IMO, it's the coaching, but it's not just the head coaches, it's also the lieutenants. McDermott is more or less Andy Reid pre-Steve Spagnuolo, who joins KC in 2019. Reid's coaching record:

He wants the big money and a long term deal at 29, and no NFL team is going to do that. To me, he's essentially like a Yannick Ngakoue. He's really good at rushing the passer, but doesn't like tackling or setting the edge, and lousy against the run and the pass, so if he doesn't generate a pressure or sack a QB, you're out there playing with 10 guys.

More or less a classic case of having the physical and athletic bonafides with an above average football intelligence, but "at the end of the day" he isn't a coachable athlete. When under pressure in games, against great talent, he defaults to what he knows, and you get an ok quarterback. There's no evolution in his game. Probably if you compare high school tape to his Steelers work last year, you'd see a lot of similarities. Same player. Josh Allen is the opposite - he's an extremely coachable athlete, and that's been the catalyst for his NFL career. He's applied coaching to the way he plays football and uses it.

Safety will be rough in September, but will gel with game time. I am concerned about special teams. Matt Smiley underwhelms as a teacher. Last year's unit was poor. Lots of new faces, could be communication issues. Not confident punter and kicker are going to be reliably good. There's too much "faith" that Bass and Martin will perform well.

Can't be too pleased with the lack of energy and focus, especially by anyone who's not guaranteed a roster spot. However, I get that there is a significant Catch-22 to the first preseason game for the guys who are on the fringe of the roster or practice squad. You can play hard, but get hurt, and get cut Monday morning.

My issue with the Ken Dorsey era was that his game plans seemed to pay no attention to 1) weather or 2) what the defense was giving, and that made his strategy predictable as defenses had more "tape" to watch, especially against the more astute DCs like Lou Anarumo.

Surprise cut: Mike Edwards (S): Availability is the best skill to have in any profession, and he missed all of minicamp, most of OTAs, and is now out for a week with a hamstring injury.

Case in point - the near hero that day for the Dolphins - Skylar Thompson - grew up in Jackson County, Missouri, played for Kansas State. Plenty of cold and snow.

Love it from a Bills perspective. That's a lot of money for Mr. Just September All-Pro. Stupid from a Dolphins perspective. They need a quarterback that can perform in cold weather. Hell, they need a whole team that doesn't curl up in the fetal position once it hits 32 degrees.

Josh Shapiro is too moderate, hetero and Jewish to be the Harris VP. He's doing a good job here in PA. A pleasant surprise, and he speaks well. He can run his own campaign in 2028.

Irrational as it is, my biggest pet peeve (and fear) about commercial flight is the *super* young flight crews. I was on a Delta flight recently and both Captain and FO looked barely drinking age and it made me uneasy. The weirder thing was the flight attendants were both older women who could be their mothers. I think all airline pilots should look like 70s Efrem Zimbalist Jr. or Sally Ride.

Although the owner doesn't deserve the praise, I'm happy to see the Pirates at 52-50 this year, and although I'm a Twins fan, the Royals also competitive at 56-47. Pirates haven't had a winning season since 2018, Royals since 2015.

I suspect another quiet NFL story is Jackson has chronic health issues, and staying healthy is a more difficult task for him. I think that's why Baltimore was reluctant to throw a $$$$ contract at him.

6-7 wins. Solid defense, skilled position players, solid head coach. Even if McCarthy is less than stellar, they will be competitive. I don't think anybody is out-tanking the Patriots this year. The 2024/2025 Patriots season is all about seeing what they've got and the 2025 draft.

Journalism is so lazy today. 90% of it is just shotgunned freelance content for content's sake or journalists who'd rather be columnists so all their energy goes into their opinion pieces. That unnamed executive could be working for the Dolphins or could be out of the league for 20 years. That NFL executive also could be the assistant HR director. Or simply fiction.

The defensive lineman who shows up in the 4th quarter to make the game changing play. Throwing fresh bodies at the problem doesn't get it done. I don't' care if this lineman does absolutely nothing for three quarters, or hell, doesn't even play in the first half. The talent, the skill, how the money is made is in making *the* plays in the 4th.