hondo in seattle

I hate to flaunt my ignorance but I didn't know RBs worked with RB gurus in the offseason. I thought RBs just did gym work on strength, speedy, agility, explosiveness, etc. Motor's guru seems to work on that - and more - in a very customized way. I hope it all pays off. As a cautionary tale, let me tell a story albeit from a different type level of football. When I was in college, my friends and I decided to put together the most 'high level' sandlot game we could. Most of the guys we recruited we're former high school starters. One or two were D1 backups. Two or three were ex high school conference all-stars. My team's offense could move the ball, even with me as QB. But our defense couldn't stop the other team's running attack spearheaded by a kid nicknamed Little Herschel. Little Herschel had led his high school team to a city championship and was now brutally running all over us. He might have been the most violent football player I've ever encountered. If you got in close to tackle him, you'd get clubbed, kneed, and otherwise abused. If you tried to arm tackle him from a safe distance, he'd easily run through your pathetically outstretched arms. We did our best to gang-tackle him but he'd carry the pile for a few yards before going down. Herschel was a beast. But what we noticed after a while is that Herschel liked to try to juke the first would-be tackler he approached. With a level of respect that sometimes bordered on fear, the tackler would go flatfooted when Herschel danced. And then Herschel would accelerate like an Olympic sprinter to the right or left of you and run through your outstretched arms. His juke became our aiming point. We knew he'd be there for a second - and vulnerable. So if you were in the vicinity and you saw him juking, you'd go full speed to that spot and ignore his fancy footwork. As strong as Little Herschel was, we put him on his ass more than once. His own teammates started yelling at him to stop the dancing and just run. But he couldn't help himself. Nearly every time he got the ball, he'd stop running forward at some point to dance. And that's what I worry about with Motor. Is his dancing so ingrained that he just won't be able to help himself in a game?

True, the army taught me many skills that have no value in the civilian world while NFL players !earn most of their skills prior to the NFL. Still, why do players learn those skills? I'll hazard a guess: because they dream of playing in the NFL. And that means going into the draft. If they didn't accept the obligations that come with the biggest employer (the NFL), they should have prepared themselves for a different career.

I'm torn on this. Our offense was one dimensional last year and that hurt us against KC. And yet I'm not convinced RB is our biggest need.

The free market economy is the best economic system humans have developed thus far. But it's flawed and some day we'll devise something better. As it is, IMHO, certain occupations (e.g. pro athletes, reality tv stars) are overvalued while other occupations (e.g. educators) are undervalued. I don't use the word "fair" much in normal conversation. There's no cosmic principle of fairness in life. Kind of like a massage: I appreciate it when my wife gives me one but I don't expect it and don't whine when I don't get it.

I was an armor officer. My expertise was to tactically employ M1 tanks to destroy enemy tanks. Like many in uniform, my skill set was very specific to the military. When I left the service, there were no "viable alternatives" for me. Even mercs didn't want me because they don't use tanks. I had to learn a brand new trade. I'm an empathetic guy but I can't find a lot of sympathy in my heart for ballers who may have to play a game in a city they don't love.

Is it "fair" that people who play games for a living earn more than teachers, fire fighters, law enforcement officers, soldiers, etc?

I did not choose Iraq specifically. But I did choose to go where ever the army wanted to send me. No regrets. And no sympathy for football players who don't get to choose when drafted.

Not folks in the army, navy, marines, air force, coast guard, space force, public health services commissioned corps, and NOAA commissioned officer corps. And these guys don't make millions

When I joined the army, I didn't choose to be sent to Iraq.

The school I went to was called “Purdue.” No chickens.

As a former Boilermaker, I’d love to see the Bills take him in the 3rd if he’s still there. He’s fun to watch once he gets the ball - always trying to find a path to the end zone.

The analytics guys say punting is rarely the right decision on 4th down.

When a QB accounts for 4000 yards while a good RB contributes 1000, it’s easy to understand why RBs have been devalued. But if the next Jim Brown or Walter Payton is available in the first, you still take him. How much more effective would our passing game be if our RBs were a legit threat?

I gotta admit that watching all our opponents make big moves had me nervous. But this is a pretty remarkable data point.

The passing attack is certainly elite. While I'd love to pick up a great TE, it doesn't help the area that most needs improvement.

I don't dislike him for that. But it was impossible for me to ever like him again.

Flutie. Struck me as an arrogant, self-obsessed man. And I didn’t like watching him suck for three quarters while our defense played lights out then basking in glory when he did something spectacular in the 4th to ‘win the game.’

I get that Sanders and Bease aren't youngsters anymore. But QB and WR are - by far I think - the two most talented position groups on the team right now. If Moore is as good as you think he is, drafting him at #30 still makes sense. But the Bills have a number of needs. It would be interesting - to say the least - if Beane decided not to address one of them in the first round.

He might not ultimately fit in but I think he's more than the typical camp body. I think Beane gets guys who can legitimately compete - if not for a starting spot than at least a backup role. With a few exceptions, it used to be fairly easy to predict the final 53 before camp even began. It's harder now with Beane.

I'll say this about Beane: I think the Bills have the best backups we've had in decades.

I can’t see any Pats player calling BB with a prank or joke! (Except maybe Gronk a couple years ago).

You're right. I love the Bills as a pass-first team. They have the right people at the skill positions for it. But I don't like the Bills as a pass-only team. If you look at the offensive linemen Beane has brought in, most of them are better at pass pro than run blocking. That makes sense given the nature of our offense. But if we completely neglect the running game, defenses will be able to hyper-focus on our passing attack like KC did. Imagine if the Bills had Kent Hull and Billy Shaw on the offensive line. And Thurman in the backfield with Cookie as the fullback. What would KC do then? They couldn't sell out to stop the pass. I'm exaggerating to make a point of course but ideally you want your offense to be capable at running inside and outside and throwing both short and long so the defense is forced to defend everything.

Shaw, as I said, you may be right. I do, in fact, believe that the culture McD has created in Buffalo is one of the best in the league and probably accounts for a couple wins each season. One thing I'll mention about the Growth Mindset is that emphasizes process over result. It's no surprise that McD likes to say, "Trust the process." After a big win, an old school coach may want to celebrate the result. But a Growth Mindset coach like McD will celebrate the processes that led to the result. He might say something like, "We won because we trusted each other. We won because we worked hard. We won because we played together as a team..." The Growth Mindset coach will remind his players of the behaviors and attitudes that produced the right result - thus reinforcing them. It's great stuff. But I think back on the KC game and feel like we need more talent on the OL, more talent at RB, and maybe better running schemes (I love Daboll but he's no Greg Roman when it comes to designing a rushing attack). A Growth Mindset only gets you so far. X's and O's still matter. And athletes have genetic ceilings to their performance. Sometimes you just need more talented guys.

I really hope you're right, Shaw66, and maybe you are. But remember that when Carol Dweck coined the term "Growth Mindset," she wasn't inventing a new concept that only McD has since taken advantage of in the NFL. She was merely describing something that top performers were already doing. To say it another way, I don't think McD promoting a Growth Mindset gives us a huge competitive advantage because it exists on other teams as well. To gain a competitive advantage in the run game, we need better scheme, better play-calling, and better players.

I doubt if any team drafts purely according to BPA. My guess is that they all blend BPA with need.